Quietly, I swept through the various guilds of the Hard Difficulty section. I would enter them, spend a period of time trying to figure out which guild it is, and disappear without interacting with anyone.

Some of them had wards and other protections, but they weren’t that hard to bypass.

Judging by the state of things though, the guilds seem to have advance knowledge of how to utilize wards despite the corrupted mana in the atmosphere. They had illusionary traps, hidden killing methods, and other interesting wards.

Whenever I found an interesting ward, I spent a short while just studying it. Though, I can't recreate them and likely won’t ever be able to without learning the principles behind each ward. Simply put, trying to directly copy them would be too difficult and could potentially have disastrous side effects.

However… while I might not know the calculations required to recreate the wards, it’s always far easier to destroy something than it is to create it. I can easily completely break apart or bypass wards on this level. Especially considering my extremely focused knowledge on the activation mechanisms of wards.

Also, I don’t know if it is arrogance or ignorance, all the activation methods of these wards are too simple.

The guilds seem to have focused solely on the effect of the ward, disregarding the importance of the activation mechanism. They haven’t even taken basic protections on the wards to prevent people from messing around with the activation condition and completely changing it to something else.

The situation is similar to someone creating a supercomputer, then leaving the administrator password as 12345.

I cannot help but question whether their brains are working okay? Like, technically, it has a password and protections, but can that really count? Seriously, if you can create such powerful wards, why can’t you spend some time creating a protected activation condition?

Anyway, after looking over the wards for a couple hours (and being dumbfounded in some regards while impressed in others), I returned to the apartment.

Entering the apartment, I quickly discovered everything was exactly the way I’d left it. Relieved, I moved toward the kitchen and began the process of creating dinner.

Of course, I don’t know anything about how to cook a fancy meal. Thus the only thing I could do was put some meat I stole in a pan and set fire to the stove beneath it.

What can I say? I’m not a cook and have no idea what spices or anything else to use.

It’s fortunately that I managed to return before Rin, I stayed a bit too long studying those wards and was beginning to worry that she might return before me.

The next period of time was rather boring, I ate the dinner I made and went to bed.

By the time I awoke the next day, Rin still hadn’t shown up.

Taking out the wanted poster of Rin, I frowned as I looked at it.

Did something happen to her?

No… This is Rin we’re talking about. It’s probably nothing.

*Sigh*

Damn it. I need to look for her.

Where could she be?

Hmm… First, let’s make a list of what she could’ve been doing.

Taking out a paper and pen, I began thinking up a list of what she could’ve been doing.

I was injured, so Rin could’ve been looking for medicine?

She probably would’ve just made medicine herself instead of bothering to look for it, honestly. So, let’s put that as a maybe…

Did… did she go after the maniac who stabbed me?

…

Why does that feel extremely likely? That might also explain the wanted poster. I cannot imagine going after someone in the Residential Zone would be acceptable in the guilds' perspective, and it would be extremely difficult considering they’re a shapeshifter.

So, if Rin needed to find the shapeshifter, where would she go?

The Clairvoyant.

Yes, that should be it. The shapeshifter would be too difficult to find otherwise.

I should probably explain. There’s a man in the Phoenix guild who has the ability to find people who meet when given a description of them or their actions.

I’d basically forgotten about him as he wasn’t particularly important to the story, but basically he manages the Phoenix guild and also has influence over many other guilds.

Actually, I should go and see him regardless of whether Rin went to him. With the wanted poster, I think I should be able to express my intentions to have him find Rin.

Turning over the paper, I quickly wrote my current plan on the back. With that, Rin will know what’s happening even if returns before me.

…Thinking about it, as I have absolutely no clue where the Phoenix guild is, I’d basically be going back to do the exact thing I did yesterday. Randomly searching about. Just, now I’d be searching for the Phoenix guild instead of Illuminati’s Eye.

Damn it.

No, that isn’t acceptable. What if Rin's actually in danger?

Pacing back and forth in the room. I bit my lip in anger.

Any ideas, God-hunter?

What about asking Stanley? He can speak English and might know where Rin is.

I mean, that works… but how do I find him? Wasting time searching for him would be no different than searching for the Phoenix guild.

He’s got universe defying luck, right? So make it worth finding you, and he’ll just show up.

Closing my eyes, a plan began piecing itself together in my mind.

God-hunter's right. I only need to make it worth it for him to find me and his luck should do the rest. So, what exactly do I have that can make it worth it to show up.

Searching through my bag for things I could give up, my eyes quickly landed on the homemade mask Rin made before I was injured to help against airborne poisons.

It should be valuable enough to get Stanley to show up, but the mask is also replaceable and only needs Rin to make another.

Good, as soon as Stanley shows up, I’ll give him this mask.

*Knock, knock!*

The moment I’d finished thinking that, someone banged on the front door.

It… it can’t be.

“Stanley?” I called out, testing whether my theory was correct.

Stanley immediately responded, “You’re awake, Tobias? How are you feeling?”

Opening the door, I confirmed for myself that Stanley was standing outside. For a brief moment, I simply stood there in stunned silence.

“I’m doing fine. I think… I’m supposed to give this to you.” I said stopping myself from staring at him for a long period of time. Holding out the mask for him to take, I quietly shook my head in disbelief at the absolute absurdity of his luck.

Stanley looked confused at my statement, but took the mask anyway. “Thanks?”

Moving to the side and inviting him in, I quickly got to the point of calling him, “Can I ask if you’ve seen Rin? She didn’t come home last night.”

“No. Actually I was partly coming over to talk with her. She isn’t here?” Stanley asked to confirm.

I shook my head, “I’m actually getting worried. Do you think you can help me find her?”

“That-” Stanley expressed hesitation and briefly turned to his thoughts before agreeing, “Alright, I have to speak with her as well. Do you have any idea where to start looking?”

“No, but I do know who can find her.” I said before briefly explaining the Clairvoyant to him. "There's someone in the Phoenix guild with the ability to find people."

“You realize that means we have to search for two people, right?”

“It'll still be faster than search for Rin on our own. She nearly impossible to find, especially when she doesn't want to be found.”

Stanley asked, “Why haven’t you gone to speak with this person yourself?”

“I planned to… I’ve just been having a little bit of trouble with the translation function.” I explained, sitting down on the couch in the front room.

“Did you accidentally turn it off or something?” Stanley asked.

“No, it just broke somehow after I got injured. I’ll fix it somehow.” I summarized and watched Stanley standing across from me.

A strong pleasant flowery scent entered my nose and I couldn’t help but reexamine Stanley.

Staring at him with a quizzical look, I asked while dubious and not at all confident in my assertion, “Are… are you wearing perfume?”

Judging by the smell, it's definitely perfume. Since when did Stanley wear perfume?

“No. Don’t ask. Long story.” Stanley sighed at the question.

“It smells like perfume.”

“It's not. Do you want my help or not?” Stanley threatened, clearly implying he would abandon me if I didn’t give up this topic.

Knowing him, Stanley wouldn’t actually abandon someone needing help... but I deciding against pushing him further.

After all, why would I care about whether he has chosen to wear perfume? I was only slightly curious as to the reason he was wearing it.

Lightly coughing to change the topic, “Right, I need you to ask people where the Phoenix guild is located. Specific, we need to find the clairvoyant before going further.”

“How do I always get dragged into this stuff?” Stanley whispered barely loud enough for me to hear his complaint. “Fine, yes. Let’s get this over and done with.”

With that, we set off.

We strolled over to the Hard Difficulty district and began asking people if they had any idea where the Phoenix guild was located or where the Clairvoyant was.

It didn’t take long for Stanley to catch a clue. We found a man called Jonathan who promised to lead us to there. According to Stanley, Jonathan had some type of grudge with the Clairvoyant. The idea of bringing him more trouble was more than enough for him to directly let us come along.

Entering some type of hidden base, we moved through various wards and past guards before we found ourselves face to face with the Clairvoyant. Who honestly didn't look like much.

The person who brought us here verbally argued with him for a period of time, (although, I have no idea what they were arguing about).

Stanley interrupted them to ask our questions.

“He’s asking if you have anything of Rin’s to help him find her.” Stanley translated for me upon receiving a reply.

“The mask I gave you was made by her. Does that work?” I inquired, hoping it would. While the bounty poster is useful, it might give the clairvoyant the wrong idea about why we want to find her. I don’t know if Stanley’s seen the posters, yet. (Although I don’t know how he could have missed them considering they’re every five feet in populated zones.)

Apparently, the mask did work. Briefly after handing it over, we got a location which the Clairvoyant pointed to on a map and briefly spoke with Stanley.

“He said that Rin is scary... and seems to be doing fine on her own.” Stanley added, as he took back the mask whilst casually rolling up their map on the table and pocketing it. “Also, he wants us to never bother him again.”

Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Having access to someone with tracking and searching capabilities is too useful. There’s no way I’m giving it up.

…But I'll keep that fact to myself.

Although I had no intention of leaving him alone permanently, there’s a time and place for everything.

Judging by where he marked on the map, it seems like Rin is in the far north of the city. Somewhere in the Hard Difficult section. On top of a building to be exact…Unless he was just generally pointing to the building (which sounds more likely now that I think about it).

“Presumably we’re still going after her, even if Rin’s doing just fine on her own?” I asked in confirmation.

Stanley signed, “Might as well. Finding her location was the hard part.”

As we left, we heard loud arguing from behind us. Apparently the Clairvoyant and the person who led us here don't get along very well.

Although, judging by Stanley’s exasperated expression upon hearing it, the topic their arguing about was probably something stupid.

Thus, Stanley and I resumed our journey to find Rin. This time with an actual destination in mind.