Chapter 4

With the wardrobe doors open to either side, Thor felt his heart pounding dangerously.

In the back of his throat, a scream seemed ready to burst forth.

Keeping his eyes fixed on the girl’s face, Thor slowly inhaled through his nose, then paused.

Next, he exhaled through his mouth at the same interval, and paused again.

He repeated this several times.

Thor’s breathing and heartbeat quickly regained their calm.

This was a self-control technique he had learned from experience, not from anyone’s instruction.

“...Right. I should try raising the level first.”

Murmuring to himself, Thor moved away from the wardrobe and sat back down on the bed.

He closed his eyes and focused his consciousness inward.

A vague image of a black tree-like shadow appeared in his mind.

He poured the contents of a similarly floating water bottle into it.

The dripping water was silently absorbed into the roots of the tree.

At the moment all the points were spent, a bud at the end of a branch of the great tree slowly opened.

A force overflowed from the depths of the large petals, filling Thor’s insides.

When he opened his eyes, the <Restoration> level had reached 10.

As soon as he thought about it, the description of the skill appeared in his mind.

<Restoration>—Restore a target involved in combat to a past state.

Level: 10 / Uses per hour: 10 / Activation: Instant / Effect: Arbitrary / Range: Contact

Confused by the new phenomenon, Thor was amazed by the content.

The number of uses had increased dramatically, and the time limit on the effect had disappeared.

Moreover, the target had changed from an object to a person.

Thor clenched his right fist tightly at the results.

The old man’s words had indeed been correct.

“Alright, let’s check them one by one.”

Unconsciously speaking, Thor touched the wound on his left wrist.

The moment he touched it, a strange sensation ran through his entire arm.

It was as if his hand existed in multiple layers at the same place.

“Is this... can I see past records...?”

Like the pages of a book flipping, the past of Thor’s left arm began to appear.

It seemed that this record could trace back to when he first encountered a monster at the age of fifteen.

As he continued to focus, the sensation spread throughout his body.

His entire body seemed to divide into layers and open outward, like a blooming flower.

Feeling the changes that had occurred in his body over the past twenty-five years, Thor slowly released his right hand from his wrist.

The moment he broke his concentration, the pages closed with a flip.

Thor stood up and picked up the leather gloves hanging on the wall.

When he touched his left wrist with the gloves on, the first change occurred in the gloves.

The records from the first time he wore them and faced a monster were quickly retrieved.

Next, the past of his left arm began to flip again.

It seemed that as long as he recognized the touch, he could select the target without direct contact.

Before the state spread throughout his body, he focused his consciousness only on his fingertips.

The past of his entire arm closed, and only the part above his wrist remained.

“Hmm, it can still be made smaller.”

If he wanted to, he could <Restore> from a single strand of hair.

Thor, who had just thought of this, concentrated on himself while letting his arm hang loosely.

As expected, the pages of the history of his pants and entire body opened one after another.

It seemed that he could target his body or items he was wearing without touching them with his hands.

However, there was no reaction to the bed or the floor.

This was probably because he had never interacted with monsters in these places.

“Next is practice. First—”

He picked up the wooden sword hanging at the edge of the bed.

Made from oak found in the Goblin Forest, it was a very sturdy and well-balanced weapon.

However, in Thor’s case, it took dozens of swings to defeat even a single mole, and it would not last a year.

Holding it, he immediately tried <Restoration>.

The fine scratches on the wooden sword disappeared, and it changed to a brand new state.

Since a brand new sword would not be well-worn, he adjusted the time to a slightly used period, and it worked as intended.

Since the object had worked well, the next target was a person.

He tried to restore his entire left arm to ten years ago.

He slowly opened his fingers and then quietly closed them into a fist.

—His grip strength had returned.

Calmly suppressing his emotions in his throat, Thor moved on to the next check.

He flipped his boots upside down and opened the history of his entire body.

He chose the point when he had just finished dinner and was lying on the bed.

The moment he focused, the <Restoration> of his entire body was complete.

When he visualized the skill tree, <Restoration> remained at level 10 without any changes.

He remembered the reason for the boots being upside down, but unfortunately, his left grip strength had also returned to its original state.

However, the number of uses had decreased as expected.

What he had learned so far was that <Restoration> could target both people and objects.

The time that could be restored could be freely chosen up to the moment he first encountered a monster.

The skill could not be activated without touching the target, but direct contact was not necessary.

For his own body and items he was wearing, he could target them just by focusing his consciousness.

However, touching the target made it easier to focus, saving time.

An important point was that there were no changes to the skill tree when his entire body was restored.

This suggested that the soul and the body were separate, and that <Restoration> could maintain its level 10 even if the entire body was restored to the past.

Another point was that there was no rollback of memory.

This suggested that the body and memory were treated separately.

However, if the existence of the skill was accidentally revealed, it would be difficult to cover it up.

And the magic power.

<Restoration> should consume a considerable amount of magic power, but he felt no loss after using it three times in a row.

Probably, when the entire body was restored, the physical strength and magic power also returned to the state at that time.

If magic power was overused, it would lead to severe anxiety from the loss, and if all of it was used up, it would result in a panic state.

Although it would recover slowly over time, the absence of such inconvenience and worry was a significant advantage.

There was one more very interesting discovery.

When he tried to check the state of the skill tree, a clear image suddenly appeared in his mind.

A black, twisted trunk with a single branch jutting out.

When he focused on the branch, the description of <Restoration> he had seen earlier appeared in his mind again.

<Chrono Perception>—Detailed grasp of the target's timeline.

Activation: Automatic / Effect: Large / Range: Contact

“So, this characteristic was also included.”

"Characteristic" referred to special abilities granted by nurturing the skill tree.

There were two types: branch fruit characteristics, which were obtained by fully developing a skill, and trunk fruit characteristics, which were granted by defeating special monsters.

Additionally, there were people who possessed root characteristics, which were innate and grew at the base of the skill tree, and they were called privileged individuals.

It seemed that Thor’s sudden ability to see the true form of the skill tree and the detailed confirmation of the <Restoration> target’s past were due to this newly acquired characteristic.

After completing the initial checks, Thor restored the grip strength of his left arm and approached the wardrobe.

There was still one very important check to be made.

Reaching into the open wardrobe, Thor ignored the girl’s statue and lifted a small pot from her feet.

He returned to the bed and opened the lid.

Inside was white ash.

The old man’s remains.

In this town, which bordered the miasma, the dead were cremated, not buried.

If the body remained, it would rise again as a soulless corpse, carrying the miasma.

With a prayerful heart, Thor touched the ash.

He remained still for a while, then exhaled and silently dropped his shoulders.

“...Grandpa, I’m sorry.”

He had known it, but it seemed that even the blessing of the creator god could not restore a lost soul.

After returning the urn to its original position, Thor faced his childhood friend again.

The girl, who had been frozen in time, was as ethereal and beautiful as ever.

Her large, slightly downturned black eyes.

Her prominent nose and soft, healthy pink lips.

Her wavy black hair still shone with its lustrous beauty.

If she walked down the street, most men would turn to look at her.

However, in her current state, all men would undoubtedly turn away.

Her slender neck was cruelly slashed, and it seemed as if a large amount of blood was about to flow out.

Thor extended his arm and gently touched the girl’s blood-soaked neck.

Like the pages of an open book, her history began to appear.

There was no change in the girl’s appearance in the pages.

Thor quickly fast-forwarded to the page just before she was severely injured.

—<Restoration>.

Suddenly, a breath escaped from the girl’s mouth.

The tragic wound on her throat had completely disappeared.

The girl’s skin, now white and clean, blinked quietly.

Her eyes slowly focused on the person in front of her.

It was a reunion after about twenty-five years.