POV - Tobias

When I arrived back at the base camp carrying Sidney, I was met with a surprise.

The scene was a battlefield of hundreds of dead monsters. The dead were a mix of various beast type monsters. Even a casual glance revealed wolf, bear, bat, and bird monsters. A massive variety of monsters had been killed.

The only place completely clear of monster corpses was a large circle around the campfire. Rin stood beside it, clearly fine. While Bai Xiaobao sat on the floor quietly behind her sending fearful glances toward Rin.

Bai Xiaobao… This is almost certainly his fault.

In normal circumstances, it makes no sense for such a variety of monsters to gather together. Monsters are the epitome of survival of the fittest. In the never-ending cycle of monster creation and death, none of them can survive with any kind of weakness.

Any kind of weakness will result in being surrounded and killed by countless other monsters.

In such an environment, especially for the more intelligent monsters, cooperation is considered a sign of weakness. Any type of cooperation would have to permanent, otherwise once the cooperation ended both would be attacked by other monsters.

Only the weaker monsters with less intelligence and lower mana pool can achieve a level of cooperation with other monsters. This is because the powerful monsters wouldn’t pay them any heed, nor bother to attack them even if they cooperated.

If a powerful monster cooperated with another powerful monster though, unless they were vastly more powerful than the surrounding monsters, they would almost certainly be surrounded and killed.

However, if they were vastly more powerful than the surrounding monster would they even have a reason to cooperate with other monsters?

Of course, I’m talking in relative strength. The so called ‘powerful monsters’ from this zone, unless they were special and similar to that Terrabus from earlier, wouldn’t even be able to damage us.

…But, this principle of eliminating the weak is engraved in their genes and exists throughout all strength levels of monsters. Resulting in one rule that permeates their culture, the powerful cannot cooperate.

The intelligent races were extremely weak and powerless compared to the strong monsters, if monsters didn’t have this restriction the intelligent races would have been wiped out long ago.

At least, that was the situation until the system came along.

Even assuming they weren’t cooperating, under normal circumstances, monsters this weak should actively avoid heading toward us. Although the pressure Rin is releasing isn’t enough to harm people, it is still a large enough amount to scare these low level monsters away.

Thus, without Bai Xiaobao causing some problems, it’s extremely unlikely this situation would happen.

Stepping over puddles of blood and corpses of various monsters, I entered the clean circle surrounding the campfire.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting Rin to bother saving Bai Xiaobao if he got himself into trouble. Although it’s possible she was just defending this location rather than particularly caring for Bai Xiaobao’s wellbeing.

“So… Bai Xiaobao, is this considered no trouble?” , I pointedly asked, addressing the issue at hand.

He cried out in injustice, “They just went crazy and started attacking me together after heading out! I didn’t do anything!”

I merely stared at him quietly.

He never takes responsibility for anything. Do I look like an idiot? He obviously did something, otherwise there wouldn’t be a battlefield when I came back here.

Even with his halo projecting around him, I wouldn’t believe that crap.

Actually… “Did you suppress that halo?”

Bai Xiaobao had a rather speechless expression on his face before finally replying with a soft, “No.”

Having understood what happened, I postulated, “Let me guess, when you headed out, after around twenty minutes a monster charged right toward you? You defeated it, but then immediately afterward were surrounded by a giant horde of monsters.”

Bai Xiaobao nervously glanced toward Rin before slowly nodding.

If he cannot shut it off, that aura is going to end up being a problem.

Even monsters have rules to live by. The initial beast Bai Xiaobao fought was the one that initially found him, thus Bai Xiaobao was declared as its prey.

Bai Xiaobao was probably surrounded long before that, they only waited until he was far enough away from Rin to attack. Once he defeated the beast with claim to him, he became free game which anyone could attack and it became an open competition.

It is impressive in its own way that he managed to survive long enough to retreat back toward Rin. The monsters seemed to be unwilling to give up easily after being incited, thus they followed him until he led them to Rin’s doorstep where she slaughtered them all.

Still, this is problematic. No matter how he managed to survive the encounter, it means that, unless he solves the problem of that halo, he cannot enter the Hell Difficulty tutorial. Otherwise it would basically be throwing him to the wolves. Except far worse.

Even now I wouldn’t be able to kill that basilisk monstrosity in the tutorial zone. I might be able to run and survive encountering it, but kill it? Nearly impossible.

Throwing someone who attracts groups of monsters into such an environment? He’d end up dead before the day is out. Even with his protagonist aura, I wouldn’t be assured that he would be able to live through that.

Rather than a blessing, that Angel’s Fruit is essentially a curse of death. It might be fine for rulers who hide in their castle all day, but for regular people? That fruit is essentially a death-trap.

“You need to figure out a way to suppress that aura, at minimum limit the halo so it doesn’t spread too far. Preferably you would suppress it completely.” I explained carefully, but without much hope of success.

Bai Xiaobao might seem saintly at the moment, but his capacity to create trouble is unmatched. That special fruit he found ended up being a force that draws even more trouble to himself, despite my hope that it would allow him to deal with his own troubles.

Turning back toward Rin, I found her too close for comfort and still approaching rapidly. She had a displeased expression to boot.

With my mind working rapidly, I quickly realized what the problem was. I was carrying the still unconscious Sidney. Unfortunately, I figured this out slightly too late.

Rin punched my chest, although she didn’t use enough strength to cause any significant harm or pain, it still knocked me to the floor.

Still, the amount of strength used was irrelevant. The punch was merely to show her intention and anger and it was the intention behind the punch is what mattered.

She was frustrated and displeased with my thoughtlessness of being intimate with other girls in front of her. Which, honestly, I cannot really fault her for considering we are supposed to be getting married…

Although I wasn’t thinking of Sidney in that way and that wasn’t my intention for carrying her, I can understand where her anger comes from.

Thinking carefully. I put Sidney down in her sleeping bag. Then proceeded to create a small scale defensive ward to protect her (and prevent her from escaping again if she wakes up).

Refocusing on the problem at hand, I need to calm down Rin. It’s simultaneously fortunate and unfortunate that Rin has already wandered off.

I need to talk with her alone, thus in a way, it is fortunate that she has already head away from Bai Xiaobao and Sidney.

Unfortunately this implies that she is displeased with me and doesn’t want to deal with me at the moment.

Damn it… This is not the problem I wanted to be solving. I wanted to deal with the potential danger of this wristband, at the moment though, that’s impossible.

Readying myself to leave, I realized that if I left Bai Xiaobao alone he would almost certainly be attacked again by beast monsters. Hastily making a triggerable barrier in a stone, I tossed it toward Bai Xiaobao.

“Keep an eye on Sidney.” I swiftly mentioned before heading off toward Rin.

This probably won’t go well… but I don’t exactly have a choice.

Catching up with Rin, I had already traveled a fair distance, the campsite was no longer visible. I confirmed that we were alone before I began talking. “Sorry, I did not mean to…” However, my words trailed off as I realized she was crying.

Rin had turned toward me with tears slowly dripping down her face. Rin must have walked away from the camp to avoid crying in front of others.

She is avoiding crying aloud, but that only shows that the situation is particularly perilous. When people cry verbally and loudly it is a subconscious desire for attention. People begin to tear up and cry without such a verbal component because they cannot stop themselves.

Crap… Uhhh… I hadn’t realized the situation was so serious. What should I say?

Drawing a complete blank, I didn’t have a clue what to say. Speechless and regretful, I knew I had completely messed up somewhere. The problem is I don’t know where.

Sure, I was thoughtless and acted inappropriately close with Sidney… but that shouldn’t have been cause of this. For her to breakdown, that situation must have been merely the trigger of a collection of mistakes.

At this point, random promises and comforts would merely cause more problems. I needed to figure out the root cause.

It’s possible that I haven’t done something and it was future me… but considering that it’s unlikely Rin would reload without providing important information about this wristband, that is an unlikely possibility.

The scenario with the highest probability is that I messed up somewhere.

Discovering the root of the problem can be left for later, though. Right now the urgent problem is to figure out a way to comfort her.

Opting for the simplest method, I brought Rin into a hug. Continuously comforting her and apologizing in the progress.

The process was long and guilt inducing, especially because I didn’t have a clue where I messed up.

Things were relatively normal until the crying had stopped.

Rin ended up sitting sideways on my lap while pressing her tear-stained face into my chest.

She seemed to have calmed down significantly, but then Rin twitched her ears and made a strange request, “Sing to me.”

Baffled by the request, I subconsciously replied, “Sing? I can’t sing?”

Why would she ask me to sing? I don’t sing. I have never sung for others before.

Rin brought her face within inches of mine, stared into my eyes and stated. “You can.”

Left speechless by her demand and determination. Why was Rin insistent on this?

Backing up my face to a more comfortable distance, I employed delaying tactics. “Give me a moment to remember a song.”

Satisfied with my reply, Rin returned to resting her head against my chest. Except her wolf-ears were perked and carefully listening now.

It’s been around two-three years since I’ve heard a song myself. I barely remember any. I’m definitely going to embarrass myself…

Attempting to recall various songs, I eventually remembered the lyrics to one and began singing.

Thus, we ended up in a peaceful scene where Rin rested against my chest while songs were sung. Honestly, despite the embarrassment when I began it was tranquil and nice. Although I ended up failing to recall most songs, I simply gave up on remembering the exact lyrics and simply singing random lyrics to the tunes.

Rin wouldn’t know the difference anyway.

I continued singing until I noticed that Rin had fallen asleep while resting against my chest.

Stroking her head, I letting her rest. I’ll have to deal with the wristband in the morning. For now though… I don’t want to disturb her rest. Let her sleep off whatever is troubling her.

Dreams are magical in that way.

Everyone feels better after a good night sleep.

Adjusting myself to a more comfortable position, I stared up at the night sky.

It had already gotten dark. I hadn’t noticed. It was barely approaching evening when we left the camp.

I wonder what I’ll dream about.

Creating a defensive warding around the area to prevent potential disruptions to our sleep. (Despite how unlikely that would be with Rin’s mana pressure scaring away monsters.)

Although I’m slightly worried that Bai Xiaobao and Sidney might end up causing or getting into more trouble, at the moment it’s irrelevant. Rin is more important than any potential trouble they could cause.

If Bai Xiaobao gets in trouble, as a protagonist, he’ll be able to survive. Meanwhile, The barrier around Sidney should be able to protect her from any trouble.