Sidney’s boyfriend awoke around thirty minutes ago. Since then, they have been whispering among themselves.

I took advantage of the opportunity to run various tests regarding my ability, the unnoticed.

While it’s still inconclusive as to what’s going on regarding it, neither of them seemed to notice me, even when I moved within several feet of them.

Interestingly, I believe my ability seems to be deactivating and reactivating based on intent. When I intended to get their attention, they both suddenly noticed me standing beside them.

Why then, did I call the tests inconclusive? Because that literally makes no sense whatsoever.

If you remember when I initially met Rin, I waved toward her with the intent to get her attention.

At that time, I was intending to get her attention. However, despite that, the unnoticed kept me hidden until I spoke up.

Clearly there’s something else going on than pure intention.

While I was lost in thought, our newest prisoner took the opportunity to insult me. “So much for never wanting to see my face again. Lying bastard.”

Sending a glance toward him with surprise. I thought he would be more intelligent than this. Did he really think I was just going to put up with being insulted?

Releasing the restrains on my mana, I moved mere inches away from him and pointed my finger into his face. “Let’s be clear here, this is entirely your fault. I wanted to leave you be. However, Rin can see the future to a limited degree and, apparently, you did something that pissed her off… and trust me that’s a impressive feat.”

His face turned blue, however he stayed quiet. Either from the inability to speak from the massive mana pressure weighing on him or simple speechlessness.

“Rin wanted to simply kill you and be done with it. Out of respect for what I said earlier, I asked her to bring you alive.” I clarified before scornfully stated, “…So, let me be one hundred percent clear. If you plot anything else or bother her, I won’t stop her from killing you.”

He collapsed on the floor, gasping for air and his face seemed to be getting a darker shade of blue.

Deciding that I’d threatened him enough for the time being, I restrained my mana pressure and confirmed. “You understand clearly enough?”

He coughed several times, taking in a large gulp of air before nodding repeatedly.

“Good, I like intelligent people.” Patting his shoulder, I glanced toward Sidney.

Sidney was in a far better position than Ivan. Standing tall and taking regular breathes, she didn’t seem bothered by the pressure I’d released moments earlier. Although it affected her to a degree and stopped her from interfering with my reeducation.

Once I’d returned to Rin, she asked in a whisper, “Was it necessary to reveal information regarding my power?”

“It will cow them into submission.” I replied instantly, before stating, “Sometimes, the best course of action is to selectively reveal information. Your sister is already known as a prophet and there are many benefits that come with that title.”

Rin nodded, “I understand…”

“Besides, you plan on building a guild right?” I asked to confirm my guess. “Having a reputation as a prophet would be helpful toward building a guild.”

“Reasoning?” Rin inquired, tilting her head seemingly curious to my thought process.

“Ivan is far too weak to physically harm us, but he could harm our reputation through rumors. Considering neither of us care about having a good reputation, the plan must have required a good reputation.” I explained why I though she planned on building a guild while feeling awkward as Rin watched me intently.

It wasn’t particularly complicated to reach that conclusion.

If Rin wanted to kill Ivan because of his ability, she wouldn’t have accepted kidnapping him as a solution to the problem. Under the assumption that it had nothing to do with his ability, I swiftly arrived at the conclusion that Rin planned on building a guild.

It is the only activity I can think of to gain power from reputation and if I helped construct the plan, I would have planned to increase our power as much as possible.

Rin shook her head and clarified her question, “Benefits of being known a prophet?”

Ah… that’s what she meant. “People are often willing to befriend prophets and not many are willing to offend them. Nobody knows when information about the future could come in handy.”

“Okay.” Rin acknowledged my reasoning, before quieting down.

We walked for another couple minutes before I realized that Rin never actually confirmed my guess about creating a guild, I stared at her wondering whether that was a purposeful misdirection.

Shaking my head, it doesn’t matter… If Rin doesn’t want to tell me, I’m not going to force it.

[Year 2, Day 196… Approximately three months later]

Not much happened over the last three months. I’d go as far as to call the journey pleasantly boring.

We should be reaching the teleportation beacon tonight before it gets dark.

Sidney began training harder than before after Ivan joined us, while simultaneously teaching Ivan about warding and sparring with him. She’s grown a ridiculous degree in terms of fighting techniques. Although Sidney’s physical strength is far below mine and Rin, she should be able to easily survive the Hell Difficulty tutorial.

Speaking of Sidney’s boyfriend, Ivan has mostly kept his distance from us. It’s to be expected and probably is an intelligent choice, I’m not the most patient person when someone who annoys me and he is constantly testing my patience with his unfriendly attitude.

When we haven’t been traveling, Rin has been obsessively practicing her archery. Strange now that I think about it considering she never focused on her archery until she had returned from the future.

We also created an anti-petrification potion for when Sidney enters the Tutorial Zone. Although creating it was so needlessly complicated and took almost a month to gather the required ingredients, along with having to pause for awhile to let Rin create it.

I’m not entirely sure it deserves to be called a potion… it’s more of a herbal remedy. We didn’t exactly use professional apothecary tools to create it, professional tools would’ve made the entire process easier.

As for myself, I’ve mainly spent my time theorizing about warding and helping Rin collect various plants and herbs as we traveled. When I wasn’t utilizing my time on those tasks, I’ve been attempting to finish up any projects or lingering questions I had left, such as running tests with the <Umbrella of Lies> and the unnoticed.

Honestly, I haven’t made much progress on those fronts.

The Umbrella of Lies can be placed on the ground and it will stay there fine. If I’m holding it, items will pass through it. Yet, sometimes arbitrarily the umbrella won't let items pass through it.

Basically, if someone threw a rock at the umbrella, the rock will definitely fly through it. If I actively tried to intercept a flying rock, the umbrella will sometimes block it and other times not.

In other news, the unnoticed seems to be activating at inconvenient times, while silently deactivating at other times when it would’ve been convenient for it to be active.

Overall, I’m more confused than worried.

If I actively focus on stealth, the unnoticed takes effect so I’m not particularly worried. However, I’m very confused regarding its activation and deactivation conditions when I’m not actively thinking about it.

As for my time in the Dream Realm... Well, I would love to tell you about it, but I can’t. After the second night in the Dream Realm, I stopped being able to remember what happened each night.

Periodically I’ll wake up with a soul injury or in a cold sweat, but I never remember what specifically happened. Only vague clues, the largest being when the items in the wristband’s inventory change (The inventory apparently has a maximum number of five items, so it rarely changes at this point).

<Inventory:>

<Levitating Stone Plate>

<Metal Tipped Spear>

<Spear Training Manual>

<Tough Shield>

<Bone Dagger>

<Only one item may be summoned into the real world at a time.>

I’d tried summoning the various weapons and they were decent, but far weaker than God-Hunter so I didn’t really bother with them.

The spear training manual was the best of the bunch, it had various tips and techniques on how to utilize a spear. Along with teaching how to utilize a supernatural power to create unnaturally powerful piercing attacks with a spear.

The only problem? I don’t use spears. I’ve tried multiple times, but compared to God-Hunter the spears always feel too weak.

If I had to fight someone in a fair fight, I would definitely utilize a spear over a dagger.

A dagger doesn’t have the required range to fight someone effectively in a fair fight, when you compare the length of a dagger to a spear it’s not particularly surprising. You would need to get far closer to the opponent and put yourself in far more vulnerable a position to properly utilize a dagger.

It’s too dangerous to utilize in a fair fight.

The vast majority of time though, I don’t get involved in a fair fights. I tend to ambush monsters with a sudden attack to their brain. If that fails, I risk taking injuries to finish them as quickly as possible before they reorient themselves.

I learned to utilize that method for good reason.

Leaving monsters alive for any period of time longer than necessary is risky business and a fair fight only increases that risk by multiple folds. Simply put, a fair fight is my worst option, I’d rather run away than fight fairly against a monster with multiple overpowered abilities.

“Tobias, pay attention to your surroundings.” Rin called out interrupting my internal monologue.

Refocusing on my surroundings, I stopped in my tracks. Had Rin not called out, I would’ve walked straight into a stone pillar.

Looking around, we had arrived atop a hill with a small stone circular gazebo displayed in the center. The gazebo had teleportation runes lined up in the center of the gazebo that swirled and flashed with light and the map confirmed this was the teleportation beacon location.

We weren’t alone, either. There appeared to be other travelers wait in line with uniformed guards collecting a toll at the exit.

“A toll?” I blankly questioned, glancing toward Rin who didn’t seem surprised at this development.

“They’re not bandits, it is collected by a nearby town to improve their prosperity.” Rin answered, preemptively replying to my next question as well.

How are they different from bandits though? They didn’t create the teleportation beacon, nor would they be able to destroy it. Why should they collect a toll from people passing through it?

Rin seemed to know what I planned on doing next and stopped me. “Enough Tobias, I already prepared the toll. You don’t need to ruin the guards’ livelihood just because you don’t like taxes, they’re only following orders.”

I frowned at her words, but didn’t continue with my plan to bother the guards.

I’m not going to argue semantics with her. I don’t mind paying tolls.

If they built a road, I wouldn’t mind paying a toll to use it. They didn’t build the teleportation beacon, they simply took advantage of the situation to set up a toll here because people were going to go through here anyway.

I kept an eye on Sidney and her boyfriend. I didn’t want them causing any trouble or running off after we teleported. When reached the front of the line, Rin paid the toll using preserved animal skins she’d collect awhile ago.

Stepping into the center of the gazebo together as a group, I prepared to be teleported.

Once we’re teleported to the Residential Zone, we’ll need to find a place to stay before our plan can begin.

Thinking about the Residential Zone made me gnaw my teeth. Every time I think about the Residential Zone, I remember the merchant who cheated me with those fake artifacts.

Don’t worry merchant, I haven’t forgotten you. You’ll get you’re just reward in time.