Chapter 3

Tall's hometown is a tiny farming village in a corner of the Central Kingdom.

It is somewhat close to the miasma-infested land affected by the "Gloomy Great Pit," but it is a simple village in the mountains with beautiful scenery.

It no longer exists.

When Tall was fourteen, the village was destroyed by a large group of monsters.

Tall, who could run faster than the others, fled to the mountain shrine and escaped the danger.

However, one monster persistently chased after him, and Tall, along with the old priest and his granddaughter, escaped into the hidden passage of the shrine.

The girl was severely injured while protecting Tall from the monster that caught up to them.

The girl, whose neck was nearly severed and was on the verge of death, was saved by the old man's skill <Stasis>.

It is a formidable magic technique that stops time.

However, stopping time alone would not save her; if it were released, the girl would surely die.

The old man and Tall fled to a nearby town and showed the girl to a healer, but he shook his head.

From there, the two wandered from town to town, desperately searching for a healer who could cure the girl.

After being repeatedly turned down, the old man and Tall finally arrived at the city of Dadan, where adventurers gather.

Rushing to the Temple of Healing, which is governed by the water deity Aluria, the two entrusted the girl to a priest with healing magic, hoping for a miracle.

But the response was the same.

Grasping Tall's shoulder, the old man spoke calmly amidst the despair.

"There is still one way to save her."

"Tell me! Old man!"

"It's your skill <Restoration>. If you use it—"

"It only goes back ten seconds! And it doesn't work on living things!"

"True, but if you level it up, things will change."

Surprised by the unexpected words, Tall listened as the old man continued.

"The true power of the Time Deity is only unleashed at the tenth level. My <Stasis> was the same."

"Then there's a chance she can be saved!"

"......Yes, but the path ahead is fraught with hardship."

"I don't care! If she can be brought back to life, I'll do anything... anything at all."

As the old man had said, the days ahead were filled with hardship.

Skill points can only be obtained by defeating monsters.

Tall, who had registered as an adventurer that day, stepped out of the outer gate and faced his first monster alone.

He was overwhelmed by the harsh reality.

The monster, unaffected by his sword, attacked relentlessly, and Tall, terrified and panicked, fled for his life.

The same thing happened the next day and the day after that.

On the fourth day, a sympathetic gate guard taught Tall how to fight for a while.

Tall, who had grown up in the mountains, had good stamina and agility. After learning how to grip a sword, he finally managed to face the monsters.

However, as a boy without combat skills or magic, it was difficult for him to break through the monsters' tough defenses.

As a result, the battles dragged on.

Through battles that sometimes lasted for hours, Tall gradually learned how to win by dodging and fleeing.

He silently watched as his peers, around the same age, quickly leveled up and graduated from the Goblin Forest.

Tall realized that advancing to areas with tougher monsters would mean certain death for him.

By the time he was in his early twenties, Tall had become accustomed to a fighting style that involved dodging and counterattacking.

On good days, he could defeat over ten Horned Moles or Sharp-Billed Beasts in a day.

His <Restoration> skill had reached level 5, allowing him to revert time by thirty seconds and use it three times per hour.

However, as he entered his mid-twenties, the number of monsters he could defeat gradually decreased.

He was often turned down from parties, even though he had been frequently invited in the past.

Most adventurers break through the G and F rank trials in less than two years.

By Tall's age, they would typically have acquired mid-level skills and ventured into intermediate areas like the Blood Flowing River or the Broken Wind Wasteland.

Tall, still wearing a green plate, wandered around beginner-friendly hunting grounds, which was unusual and often avoided.

Struggling, Tall decided to take on the role of a guide, also serving as a protector for beginners.

It was a difficult path he had once walked.

Surprisingly, this approach was well-received, and the safety and number of monsters defeated returned to almost the same level as before.

Most of his party members at the time advanced quickly, but most returned without dying.

The initial caution they were taught might have helped.

Currently, most of the officials and guards who understand Tall are former students or related to them.

However, good times don't last forever.

Around the time Tall turned thirty, the adventurer's bureau issued a directive banning the guide system.

The newly appointed deputy director's reasoning was as follows:

"An adventurer must survive on their own strength to be a true adventurer. Being led by the hand is unacceptable behavior."

While it was a reasonable statement, in reality, the increase in adventurers was putting a strain on the finances due to the bounty system.

To restore balance, they likely planned to thin out the ranks, and it made sense to curb the popular beginner guidance system as part of this plan.

Banned from guiding parties, Tall returned to solo action, and the number of monsters he could defeat dropped again.

Misfortune often comes in waves.

That year, the old priest died of old age.

A great user of magic, he could not use any other skills while maintaining <Stasis> on his granddaughter.

<Stasis> itself, once activated, would continue even after the caster's death.

Thus, the girl's time remained stopped even after the old man died.

Living with a frail old body and a meager income was extremely difficult.

The old man had taught Tall reading, writing, and many other things as a priest.

He had also found the current boarding house when they were kicked out of their fifth lodging due to the girl, who appeared to be a corpse.

The old man had encouraged and supported Tall many times when he was about to give up.

After living together for nearly fifteen years and becoming like family, Tall quietly cried after using his last bit of money to hold a funeral.

From then on, Tall endured many hardships.

His dodging and counterattacking skills had reached a level worthy of a master.

However, his body's agility was deteriorating.

His prime years were long gone, and there was a growing gap between his thoughts and movements.

Then, a critical incident occurred.

Tall, caught in the chaos, suffered a severe injury to his left hand.

Normally, such injuries could be healed without a trace by a water mage.

But for Tall, with his meager income, treatment meant tightly binding a broken bone with a splint and applying a blood-stopping ointment to a laceration.

As a result, his left hand lost half its grip strength, though he could still barely hold a sword. However, he could no longer achieve his former sword speed.

Enduring increasingly prolonged battles, Tall managed to push <Restoration> to level 9 by the time he was thirty-five.

It took a long time because the required points increased with each level.

The time he could revert increased to one minute, and he could use it five times per hour.

After nearly twenty years of effort, the result was disappointing, and Tall laughed weakly.

When he calculated the points needed to reach the coveted level 10, even his laughter faded.

The points required to reach level 2 were two thousand.

For level 3, it was three thousand.

For level 9, it was nine thousand.

So, for level 10, it would be ten thousand, equivalent to ten thousand Horned Moles.

At the time, Tall could defeat three to four monsters a day.

Roughly calculated, it would take about seven years of non-stop hunting to reach ten thousand points.

By the time he turned forty, he would be forced to retire, and he would not be allowed to leave the outer gate without permission.

There was a way to escape, but it required a higher rank, which was impossible for Tall at the time.

Tall's left hand had already become difficult to make a proper fist.

The solution he came up with was to hunt Forest Slimes.

Each Forest Slime only gave one skill point, but they could be easily defeated with one hand, and using <Restoration> meant no damage to his equipment.

He could defeat more than five a day, making it possible to accumulate ten thousand points within five years.

The only problem was that the number of Forest Slimes was not very high.

Time was of the essence, so Tall searched from early morning until sunset, every day.

His income remained the same, but his life became more difficult.

Reducing his baths, he was met with obvious grimaces when walking through the city.

He cut back on food expenses, and his cheeks became hollow.

The landlord, noticing this, began to make bento boxes for him.

However, the impression he had already made was hard to shake.

Moreover, Tall's skill <Restoration> had a negative effect.

Since he could make damaged weapons and armor disappear, there was almost no trace of combat.

To those who didn't know, it seemed as if he was avoiding dangerous tasks.

"Slime Scavenger," "Bounty Thief."

These were the nicknames given to Tall by new and inexperienced adventurers who didn't know the truth.

Despite the cold looks from those around him, Tall dedicated himself to hunting.

The gratitude he felt for being saved had long since faded.

Yet, the reason he didn't give up was because of the days he had spent living with the old man.

He had often shared memories with the old man by the side of the girl whose time was stopped.

The resolve to fulfill the wish of his important family.

That was one reason.

The other reason was that Tall wanted to see what lay beyond mastering <Restoration>.

He had poured more than just points into this skill.

He had poured his pride and hope into it.

And today.

Tall has finally achieved it.