9 A Familiar beginning

Frederick woke up in a familiar place. He stood up, although he still felt a bit weak; he knew that it was probably only in his mind. Frederick's gaze swept across the room filled with countless clocks of different shapes and sizes. He then walked to one of those clocks to try to touch it, only for his hand to go through the clock. Seeing this, he couldn't help but sigh and tried to explore a bit.

The last time Frederick found himself in this room, he hadn't paid much attention to his surroundings for personal reasons. However, this time, as he looked around more carefully, he noticed some intriguing details. The room had a subtle, foggy atmosphere, bathed in a gentle, mysterious yellow light that appeared to emanate from nowhere in particular. What struck him even more was the sense that the room had expanded somehow. The pure white walls appeared larger than during his previous visit, and the entire space seemed more vast. To add to the mystery, there were even more clocks in the room now, ticking away in a synchronized rhythm.

Frederick wanted to explore a bit more, but it seemed that his time here was limited as the system panel reappeared:

<Upon your demise, authority "Forgotten Times" (Unique) has been invoked. You will be transported back to the initial day within Chronicles.>

Seeing this, Frederick couldn't help but let out a painful smile. He had always wondered about the limits of his own authority, and he half-expected to be sent back into the hellish realm of Ascendia.

Frederick contemplated his situation in the time room, his thoughts a mix of resignation and determination. He muttered to himself, "This is a strange blend of heaven and hell. Heaven because I'll eventually win no matter what... And hell if I ever surrender. This endless loop will become my eternal damnation." At this thought, Frederick couldn't help but laugh loudly. "Give up? Me? When I've finally found a way to reach true happiness?" said Frederick with a confident smile.

Finally, everything went black.

<Welcome to the Main Hub World !>

Once again, Frederick found himself in the lush embrace of the forest, surrounded by towering trees and vibrant grass. He couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope that he had retained his hard-earned experience points. With a sense of anticipation, he opened his stats, only to be greeted by the disheartening sight of all his experience points being reset to zero. He sighed, 'I should start by trying to regain the experience points and the authorities. Although I don't know how the heck do I even use these orbs. Knowing the Chronicles, they wouldn't be obtainable if we couldn't use them somehow.'

Frederick considered the idea of leveling up before entering another side story but swiftly dismissed it. He realized that attempting to enhance his level would only result in being sent to even more challenging worlds. His curse seemed to ensure that the story difficulty would always be set to the highest possible for him.

He pushed aside these thoughts and hastened toward Alexei's location. Upon reaching their campsite, Frederick noticed that both Amely and Ethan were nowhere to be found.

'Hmm, the last time I took a few more hours to get here, so Amely and Ethan are probably not here yet. For now, my priority is to saturate to the maximum my experience points and then level up when I am inside the side quest,' he mused to himself.

Frederick contemplated ways to hunt down potential candidates but realized that he would deplete his resources if he followed the same strategy as before. Frederick then thought of a plan, but he wasn't so sure to succeed at all, and there was even a chance to lose Blood Dominion. However, he still decided to give it a shot.

Summoning his courage, Frederick approached Alexei and Hiro, who were engrossed in a discussion about the Chronicles. When he revealed himself, both of them breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing a seemingly friendly face.

"Hello, Alexei and you must be Hiro," Frederick greeted with a warm smile, using their names to their surprise.

"Did you spy on us?" asked Hiro with an almost aggressive tone.

"Ah… I am sorry if you thought so, but no. My authority increases my senses and even allows me to see others' status," responded Frederick with a bright smile.

"Ah, I almost forgot that we had those… So you saw our status panel using your power?" asked Alexei with a bit of admiration. Indeed, only idiots would not know the significance and importance of such an authority.

"That is correct," responded Frederick simply.

"You could also just have a high stat in perception," retorted Hiro. Hearing this, Alexei was also surprised. He didn't know yet that if you have a high perception stat, the user could forcibly see another candidate's status. After Hiro rapidly explained perception stats to Alexei, everyone fell into silence.

Frederick wanted to say something, but Alexei interrupted him.

"I don't think he has a reason to lie to us."

"But what if he's a madman who wants to murder us to get experience points?" Retorted Hiro. This even surprised Frederick. Had he already become so cautious? It is true that last time, he was the only one who kept looking at Frederick with a weird glare.

Hiro's newfound caution puzzled him. Frederick knew that it couldn't be his authority that made him suddenly so cautious, so it only left... 'He must have high perception stats,' Frederick thought to himself. 'Around 13-14, I'd guess. If it were any higher, he would not have believed me at all because he could've seen my status... It must be this, as last time, I didn't lie to them, so he wasn't this cautious with me. I really need to increase my Mind stat to protect myself.'

Hiro asked, "If that's the case, why did you tell us about your power?"

"To show that I am not hostile," Frederick replied. "My authority doesn't grant me any combat capabilities."

"Relax, Hiro, he seems a nice guy. Also, your power is so cool!" Alexei defended Frederick before asking with a gentle smile as he placed his right arm around Frederick's shoulders. Neither Frederick nor Alexei seemed the least disturbed by the absence of clothes.

The silence once again fell. "I need Hiro to make us a sturdy bag to carry food and water. I've hidden some food," informed Frederick.

"…So you know about our authority too? Also, you said food; how did you get them?" asked Hiro with a bitter tone. Frederick ignored most of the questions and shared the location of the supply crate with them. Hiro was a bit suspicious at first but started to believe that Frederick could perhaps have an authority related to enhanced senses after they found a hidden crate filled with bread and some glass bottles of water nearby. Frederick then told him that they needed a bag to transport all of the resources and that it would be very useful in the future.

Hiro couldn't really refute Frederick's point, and after Alexei supported Frederick's idea, he quickly started working on it. Although he was still reluctant and wanted to get more information about the Chronicles before working on it, Frederick insisted and told him that it was more urgent to make the bag. Alexei seemed to be pretty interested in Hiro's authority as he watched with interest some blades of grass starting to rearrange themselves like magic.

While Hiro was working, Frederick retrieved a bottle of water from the crate and quenched his own thirst with a few hearty sips. He then offered the bottle to Alexei, who accepted it with gratitude. Alexei, in turn, extended the bottle to Hiro, who politely declined with a nod.

Frederick quickly took the almost empty bottle from Alexei's hands and said, "I'll go search for any water source. You guys must finish the bag in a few hours." Before they could even say a word, he was already gone.

Once Frederick had distanced himself from the group, Hiro turned to Alexei and inquired about his thoughts on Frederick. Alexei simply replied, "He seems like a nice person," without dwelling further on the matter. Hiro, however, remained suspicious of Frederick for reasons he couldn't quite pinpoint.

Meanwhile, Frederick, after putting some distance between himself and the others, shattered the glass bottle against a nearby rock. He carefully selected the largest shard from the broken bottle to serve as a makeshift weapon. With his improvised tool in hand, Frederick actively scoured the area.

In another part of the forest:

"I … I can't walk anymore," said an overweight man as he panted heavily. He was a portly man with lengthy and lustrous brown hair, presenting a stark contrast between his weight and his cascading locks. His round countenance featured a neatly groomed beard, and his eyes held a somewhat pessimistic air. It was, of course, Ethan.

"We can take a break for now, but I told you that you should've lost some weight," said a red-haired woman with lively green eyes and a scar marking her left eyebrow.

"Yeah… I've never regretted something so much in my life. But do you think that our little Evelyn is alright? I'm worried about her…" said Ethan in a somber tone.

"She's strong for her age, so she can only be fine… But just in case, we need to hurry up and find her quickly," said Amely with determination. In fact, she was even more worried about Evelyn than her husband, Ethan. However, she kept it to herself.

While they were walking, Amely spotted an individual in the distance who appeared to have noticed them too but hadn't reacted yet. She mentioned this to her husband, and they decided to approach the person to seek information. Amely examined the stranger closely after they had approached him.

The man had short, neatly groomed black hair that framed his face. His facial features were quite average, with no striking characteristics. However, what caught Amely's attention were the man's strikingly vibrant green eyes, which held a certain charm. There was a prominent scar running across his left eye, giving him a rugged appearance. His complexion was fair and unblemished.

The stranger presented himself as Frederick Field. He seemed really happy to finally meet someone. After some basic introductions, Amely seemed to suddenly remember that she didn't have any clothes on, and she quickly hid everything she could with some tall grass before averting her gaze from Frederick.

Ethan, on the other hand, felt a bit embarrassed but tried to act as if it didn't bother him much. He just avoided looking at Frederick's lower parts. However, what they didn't realize was that this nonchalant attitude was a critical mistake. Unbeknownst to them, Frederick was concealing a sharp shard behind his back. If they had paid closer attention, they might have noticed that something was amiss.

Just as Ethan was about to ask for information, Frederick abruptly interjected, "Ah, I have a camp just over there," while pointing in a random direction.

Out of reflex, both Amely and Ethan turned their heads to look in the indicated direction. "I don't see anythi—"

Before Amely could finish her sentence, Frederick lunged at her with lightning speed. In one swift, brutal motion, he slashed her throat open with the shard he had concealed. The shock left Amely's eyes wide, her voice silenced. She desperately tried to stop the flow of blood with her hands, but it was already too late to do anything.

As Amely crumpled to the ground, Ethan remained frozen in shock. Everything had happened so quickly. Just moments ago, they had been talking about his weight and offering each other comfort. And then this happened… Ethan precipitated himself at Amely to see if he could do anything to save her but Frederick took this opportunity to attack Ethan. However, layers of fat prevented Ethan from being truly hurt. Seeing this, surprised even Frederick, but he quickly regained his composure and continued to attack.

Ethan, unable to even see his lover one last time, was truly outraged. As he tried to defend himself, he kept yelling at the top of his lungs, "WHY?! SHE WAS INNOCENT!" However, Frederick didn't waste his time answering at all and continued to attack.

Suddenly, Ethan recklessly charged at Frederick while yelling,

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

Surprisingly, Frederick stopped his attack and started running away. Seeing that Frederick was running, Ethan was even madder and pursued him.

After an hour of relentless pursuit, Ethan finally collapsed on the ground, his breathing heavy and labored, his body battered and bloody. Frederick had employed a relentless harassment tactic to slowly exhaust Ethan and had struck when the opportunity arose. Though the situation hadn't unfolded exactly as Frederick had planned, given that he hadn't expected both Ethan and Amely to be together, the end result was the same, and he felt a grim satisfaction in his success.

Approaching Ethan, who was now mumbling apologetic words like "I'm sorry..." and such, Frederick swiftly acquired their authority orbs.

When Frederick had left Alexei and Hiro earlier, his true intention had not been to search for water, but rather to hunt down Ethan and Amely before they could rejoin the others. With eager anticipation, he quickly opened his status panel, but upon seeing his experience points, Frederick's expression twisted from the satisfaction of eliminating his targets to an ugly grimace of disappointment.

—————————————

<Welcome back, candidate>

Name: Frederick Field

Race: Human

Age: 26 years old

Level: 1

<Authority >: Forgotten Times (Unique)

<Curse >: One Against the World (Unique)

-One Against the World (Unique):

Effect: The world will try to kill you by every means possible and the experience points you earn will be divided by ten times.

Remark: How did you even survive until now?

<Statistics >

-Constitution: 10

-Mind: 10

-Perception: 10

-Dexterity: 10

Experience points: 25/1000

————————————

'...What? Only 25? For both of them? Is that all?' Frederick had learned a harsh lesson – the quality of a kill overwhelmingly outweighed its quantity by an absurd amount. The old lady he had encountered last time had granted a total of 427 experience points, which was nearly 18 times more than what he had gained from Ethan and Amely combined. The only notable difference between them was a few levels and, most importantly, the quality of their authority.

'So, the quality of an authority does matter when it comes to the quantity of experience gained,' Frederick realized. He truly doubted that two levels could give 35 times more experience points, so authority was his only conclusion.

Taking a last look at the mess on his body, Frederick quickly headed back.