Time Limit

The world turned black and white.

I stood over the mangled remains of my body. It was still a little strange realizing that I was looking at my own dead body.

I opened my status window to check my SP…and the number displayed there was 1033. I felt the last shred of hope I had leaving my body.

…I expected as much. I had 1023 before I died and fought the boss Garum before my death, so that would account for the extra 10 SP. It’s not like I was expecting to have more and lost some SP due to a death penalty or anything like that. I just don’t have enough to learn Resurrection.

I still need 967 SP to be able to learn that skill.

And the time right now is 2:16. I can resurrect Claudia within 24 hours of her death and she died around 20:06.

In other words, I have around 17 hours and 44 minutes left until I can no longer revive her.

And I revived myself not long before Claudia died.

When I checked the corner of my log window I was able to see a message that said:

‘Time left until able to resurrect: 17:34’

I will be able to resurrect before the time limit on Claudia ends but it will only be about ten minutes before then. I would need to earn 967 SP in about ten minutes. No matter how I look at it, that’s impossible.

No, there’s a boss and many enemies right where I’ll be reviving. If I were able to defeat those guys…considering how the SP has been increasing for each floor I might be able to get 400 SP for defeating the boss. Even if it were to be twice that amount I’d still be short.

Before that, I’m still not even sure I’m capable of defeating that boss.

I can’t think of any way that I’ll be able to resurrect Claudia…I’m finally feeling that desperation that Gray wanted me to experience.

— Don’t be ridiculous! I’d never give up that easily!

There has to be some other way. I opened my status window and desperately read through my skills trying to find something that could help.

The first thing I looked at was the item box.

There seems to be an added feature for the item box that stops the flow of time for anything within the box. For S rank, the flow of time is halved and at SSS time is completely stopped.

Since it would cost 200 SP just to get it to rank F, it would cost 10,000 SP just for rank S. If I had enough SP to learn that I’d just learn Resurrection.

I continued looking through the rest of my skills, hoping to find something useful.

This…isn’t good. I don’t have enough SP for anything.

There’s absolutely nothing. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t do anything to save Claudia!

…is there really nothing? I really won’t be able to save Claudia…d.a.m.n it. I finally thought I found someone that I could truly trust and become friends with, but in the end, like everything else, she was taken away by a Yandere.

Something…there has to be something else I can do. I looked around at my surroundings and found the small Medea-nee.

That’s it, Medea-nee can help. The G.o.ddess that created this world. The person that gave me the ability to learn any skill I want, to manipulate other’s status windows, and gave me SP before I was reborn in her world. If it’s her, she has to be able to help in some way.

— Medea-nee, are you watching me?

— Can you please do something to save Claudia!?

I screamed out in my mind in the hopes that she’d be listening.

The chibi Medea-nee turned over the sign she was holding in her hands.

I love watching Yuzuki-kun trying so hard.

So, please do your best on your own.

— No, I’m asking you for help because I can’t do it on my own!

I screamed out in my mind but I didn’t respond to the chibi one.

…Medea-nee is being so cheap. Maybe I should just stop calling her Medea-nee.

— I can’t believe my onee-chan wouldn’t help me…maybe I should just stop calling you that and go back to calling you G.o.ddess.

— Aaaahh~, I’m sorry! I was just kidding. Medea onee-sama, please forgive me!

I don’t want her to take away my ability to manipulate my status window so I apologized to her right away and…that’s when I realized something.

If I don’t have the SP needed to save Claudia, it won’t really matter if I can use my status window. Saying this to myself made me think about it seriously…

— There really is a way for me to save Claudia?

…Medea-nee said so herself, right?

…she said she likes to watch me work hard.

It’s similar to what Rose said.

I was desperate to save Claudia and Rose enjoyed seeing me in that way.

If Medea-nee is saying she likes to see me try hard, then she must mean that there is something I can still do to save Claudia.

If that’s the case, there must be some skill I can use to save her.

Thinking this, I desperately looked through my status window once more. This time I looked at something I avoided last time…Bad Status. I’m still able to raise the rank of Feminist.

Since the reference value of Feminist is – 200 SP I should be able to earn 4000 SP if I increase its rank to SS. In other words, if I increase my Feminist rank, I’ll have enough SP to resurrect Claudia.

But…I decided to look through the details of Feminist once more.

[Feminist] – Reference Value: -200 SP

Those with this skill will be less likely to harm women.

At Rank F this only applies to close friends, Rank E is acquaintances, Rank A affects all women, at Rank S you can no longer harm women at all, and at Rank SSS the idea of ever harming a woman will never even come to your mind.

At first glance, it seems that Rank SS has no added effects.

…but SS is just one rank below SSS. I won’t even be able to think about harming women. I’m not even sure how that would affect my thoughts when a Yandere tries to imprison me. On top of that, I’m immortal. That means I’ll have this ability forever.

If the only way to increase a skill’s rank was by using SP I’d be fine with it, but…that’s not how it works. It’s possible to increase a skill’s rank naturally.

In other words, if I increase it to rank SS now, I’ll eventually increase it to SSS even if I don’t want to.

Of course, that’s true if I leave it rank S as well…though there is a difference between it suddenly increasing to SS rather than SSS.

So, by raising it to SS now, I’m risking my life down the line.

It’s a dangerous move on my part…but I just let out a bitter smile. I wanted to save Claudia even if it cost me my own life.

…well, there’s no point worrying about it now.

If there was another way I’d choose that option, but… looking through the Bad Status section there’s nothing else I could choose.

I don’t even have the Bad Status that made Claudia unable to resist people.

Is it something like a hereditary skill? You’re only capable of learning it when you’re first born. Or is it just Medea-nee being malicious.

I don’t think that’s the case. Medea-nee seems more than content to just watch.

…or at least that’s what I think.

Anyway, skills like that seem only possible to learn when you’re born. So, there’s no way I could learn a skill like that. I didn’t really have any other choice so I ranked up Feminist.

…and I was given 4000 SP. In total, I now have 5033 SP.

First, I’ll need to learn Resurrection…let me look at its description.

Property by © Fantasy-Books.live; outside of it, it is stolen.

[Resurrection] – Reference Value: 2000 SP

Resurrect a dead human within 24 hours. Casting time is two minutes and there is a cooldown of 24 hours after use. For every rank you increase this skill, the casting time is shortened. At ranks E, S, and SSS the cooldown time is shortened by 4 hours respectively.

After reaching Rank A, you will be able to use this skill twice. Each use will have its own respective cooldown timer.

…okay. All I need right now is for it to be rank F. Even if I needed to, I wouldn’t be able to rank it up to E.

Anyway, I obtained Resurrection: F and still had 3033 SP remaining.

I should be able to revive Claudia once the cooldown period on my Immortality resets…I turned to look at my surroundings.

There doesn’t appear to be any sound in this monochrome world so it’s completely silent…but I could see my mangled body, the boss Garum, and the Garums the boss summoned.

…I didn’t see Gray’s body. Was he still alive?

…I’m not sure. Even if Gray is no longer here, the boss Garum and his summoned Garum still remain.

…I’ll revive about ten minutes before Claudia can no longer be revived. The casting time for Resurrection is two minutes. That means I will have 8 minutes to defeat those enemies or escape from them.

No, I can’t be sure about the time I’ll have left to revive Claudia after I’m resurrected. To be sure I don’t wait too long, I’d say I have about 5 minutes to begin casting Resurrection.

If I decide to fight or escape, either choice is dangerous.

I’m unsure of what to do, but…i still have a while before I’ll be revived. The boss may disappear or someone else may come along and defeat it before I revive.

I’ll just have to wait and see. I’ll kill some time by looking through my skills.

— And so, fifteen hours pa.s.sed. I didn’t have much time left until I resurrect and the Boss and his minions are still here.

Now that I think about it, this dungeon allows people to pa.s.s from floor to floor once they’ve defeated the boss of that floor. Only new people to this dungeon would even need to kill the fifth-floor boss.

Unless I’m incredibly lucky, n.o.body will come through here anytime soon.

If it stays like this, I’ll have no choice but to defeat it myself….

It would be best if it were possible for me to run away without it chasing after me, but if it did chase me it would catch up quickly and I may die again.

I’ll only run away if I see no other option.

As I am now, it will be hard for me to defeat it. I wanted to save my remaining SP for later use, but I don’t think I have much choice.

If I were to use all of my remaining 3033 SP I should be able to strengthen myself a good amount.

I considered what to learn while I waited — and I decided on my new skills.

This is what my status looks like now.

[Name]: Minase Yuzuki [Overall Ability Score]: 109,400

[Base Skills]

Strength: D / Stamina: C / Intelligence: E / Dexterity: D / Magical Power: F / Willpower: AAA / Luck: A

[Resistances]

Slas.h.i.+ng: D / Sleep: C / Poison: D / Curse: F / Fear: A / Confusion: E / Pleasure: E

[Combat Skills]: *NEW* Long Sword: E (0 SP) / *NEW* Close Quarters Combat (CQC): E (900 SP)

[Magic Skills]

Firebolt: F / Healing: F>E (200 SP) / Cure Poison: F / Cure Disease: F / *NEW* Resurrection: F (2000 SP) / *NEW* Thunderburst: E (900 SP) / *NEW* Attack Magic Mastery: E (900 SP)

[Technical Skills]

Sewing: E / Pattern Paper: F / Design: E / Weaving: F / Woodworking: F

[Hereditary Skills]

Martial Arts / Offensive Magic / Recovery Magic / Support Magic / Tailoring / Riding / Negotiation / Manufacturing / Acting

[Special Skills]

Appraisal: F / Item Box: F / Perception: F / No Chant: F

[Rare Skills]

Immortality: F

To Be Loved to Death by Yanderes: SSS

*NEW* G.o.ddess Medea’s Blessing: F (300 SP)

[Bad Status]

Feminist: S>SS

[t.i.tle]

G.o.ddess Medea’s First Love

Received G.o.ddess Medea’s Love

A Traveler From a Different World

Loved to Death By Yanderes

[SP]: 138 SP