'Mm. This is a good reaction...' Nate inwardly nodded in satisfaction. A woman he recognized, Miyu, just made a loud noise, but when he looked at her, she didn't seem to hate or disagree with him. All was well. 'I expected more people wouldn't believe me, but I guess I was a bit pessimistic.'

Nate had changed parts of the story to paint him in a better light. He didn't find anything wrong with it, since he was innocent. Nate had never killed someone who didn't deserve it, on earth or in this strange place.

He added certain parts to the story to justify his keeping of the slingshot. The man who previously owned it likely had friends here, or at least people he grouped with, and they might have made a fuss for him to give it back if he didn't give a good reason to keep it. They wouldn't have had a claim over it anyways, but Nate didn't want any trouble. He wanted to focus on getting to the Altar in the center, so he didn't have time to play around with those guys.

"Excuse me." Nate clapped his hands once to regather everyone's attention. "I plan to rest and clean myself first, seeing as I've been traveling for so long. Please think about whether you would like to come with me in the meantime. I'll return here after an hour or so."

With that, Nate put his hand on the stone slab again, exchanged points for two bottles of water, then walked off to find an empty house with his extra weapons in hand.

*****

"Phew." Nate sighed in relief. He put down the piece of damp cloth he used to wipe his body off, then used an entire bottle of water to wash his face. After he wiped his face with a particularly clean part of his old clothes that he had ripped apart to procure rags, he put on the new clothes he got from the stone slab a while ago.

'Even if I never get tired so I don't sweat much, there's just something about bathing that feels oh so satisfying.' Nate reveled in the feeling of being clean. Even if a wipe-down was leagues below taking a shower, it was still a lot better than going around with dried blood and dust sticking to his body. As he started re-equipping the various weapons and armor he had, Nate thought of his plan of action. 'I saw a few people who looked like they were really thinking about joining... hopefully a couple of them actually go through with it. Just enough to cover blind spots with.'

Just as he finished putting on his bracers, he heard someone knock on the door. He walked across the dilapidated house's floor and reached out to open the door to find a black-haired woman with a Katana on her hip waiting outside. Nate recognized her as the helpful woman he asked for directions after first arriving in the village and also the person who shouted something incomprehensible a while ago, Miyu Segawa.

"How can I help you?" Nate asked amiably. He already had an idea what she was there for but asked anyway.

"I-I'd like to join the expedition to the Altar." Miyu said, despite stuttering a little. Nate noticed that her ears were a bit red, but he just wrote it off as pre-battle nerves or something.

"I see!" Nate exclaimed happily. Even if it was just one additional person, he was still happy that someone came. "A journey of a thousand steps starts with a single step" as they say. If he was able to gather enough, the people who were sitting on the fence would likely join up too. "Uh, please come inside so we can talk more on this."

Miyu acquiesced and made her way in. The two sat on two chairs that creaked with the slightest movement from the person sitting on them, with a moldy wooden table between them.

"So, can I ask why you want to join the expedition?" Nate inquired. It didn't really matter to him why she joined, but he still needed to keep up appearances. He would also take this chance to get to know his new teammate better.

"Ah..." Miyu opened her mouth but shut it closed soon after. She hesitated. 'Should I tell him that I can see the future sometimes...? I mean, if we eventually get together... He can't be an evil person right? At the very least, he seemed nice in the visions.'

After thinking about it for a bit more, resolve appeared in Miyu's eyes. "Before that... Can I ask something...?"

"Hm?" Nate was a little confused about why his simple question was dodged, but he didn't really take it to heart. He signaled for her to go ahead.

"... Um. You might think I'm crazy but..." Miyu gathered her courage and asked. "Do you believe in superpowers...?"

"Superpowers, huh?" Nate said blankly. He looked calm on the outside, but he was inwardly shocked. He looked Miyu in the eye as he asked, "Well, they would be really helpful if we had them."

"I have one," Miyu stated.

"..." Nate's eyes widened. He smiled wryly at the woman who had just announced that she had superpowers. "Um. Are you serious...?"

"Yes." Miyu nodded, resolve in her eyes and blood rushing to her cheeks as she unconsciously rubbed her fingers. "I can see visions of the future from time to time. And I know you have superpowers. If you won't admit it, I won't tell you what I saw either."

"Oh..." Nate frowned. He didn't think Miyu was entirely lying. He could see that she was sweating anxiously and fidgety, clear signs that someone was lying about something. However, he sighed in acceptance. "Fine. I have one too. Happy?"

He admitted it readily. His power was going to be vital to the expedition to the Altar, so there wasn't much of a point to hide it anymore. Especially to someone who was coming with him.

"Oh..." Miyu didn't expect to get an answer so quickly, so she was lost on what to do for a moment. She asked without thinking. "Can you tell me what it does...?"

"I call it Restoration. Because it pretty much restores anything important or beneficial that I lost. Nutrients, stamina, mental health, blood, and flesh... you name it. I also instinctively know that once I hit a certain age, it'll start restoring that too, so I'll basically be immortal." He explained nonchalantly.

"Wha..." Miyu's mouth gaped in amazement. "Isn't your power too strong...? How are you even here if you have that? As far as I know, only people who died in some way got sent here."

"It's not as if my power is broken or anything." Nate smiled wryly. "If I die instantly, the power can't revive me. Like, if my head gets cut off or smashed, it won't heal me. Same for my heart it seems, even though people don't instantly die when their heart is pierced, I do. This is also something I instinctively know."

"Oh... but still, it's an amazing power." Miyu marveled. Being immortal, how could that not be amazing? He would be young forever and wouldn't have to worry about diseases.

"Well, I could say the same for you. Seeing the future sounds really useful." Nate said sincerely. He didn't know exactly how her visions worked, but in any case, seeing the future would always be useful. If he had that ability, maybe he would've seen that falling steel beam coming and dodged earlier. He might've also seen his mom's memory loss coming then prevented or prepared for it if he could.

The grass was always greener on the other side. The two people with superpowers that only a select few had, envied the other's power.

"So, I answered. Now, can you tell me what you saw?" Nate asked.

"Ah..." Miyu blushed furiously again, making Nate genuinely think that she might be sick or something. But after clearing her throat, Miyu answered. "I-In the vision, I went with you, and we successfully arrived at the center of the forest."

"Oh!" Nate exclaimed happily. Although he didn't fully believe Miyu's visions yet, he was still happy about the good news she brought. "Can you tell me more?"

"Mm. There were only six of us by the time we got there. Aside from you and me, there was a girl with a bow named Ari, a tall dark-skinned man with a shield and plate armor named Hugo, a thin young man named Brent, and the person who asked you a question first a while ago. His name is Ming Wang." Miyu recited. Her eyes flashed momentarily as if she just remembered something, then she added. "Oh, and it took us roughly two months to reach the place."

"Two months..." Nate frowned. He wanted to get out of here in a month, but even he thought that was a bit of a longshot from the start. His hands trembled in frustration underneath the table. 'Mother...'

Miyu didn't understand why Nate got silent all of a sudden, but she chose to continue on with her explanation. "The problem is, three of them aren't here at the moment. So they can't come with us right now..."

"..." Nate still felt vexed by the whole thing, but he had to move on. In the future Miyu saw, they'd arrived in two months, but perhaps he could change that? And if he bummed around because he was frustrated over not completing this trial fast enough, then he might just take longer to get back to his mother. So he had to clear his head and focus on what was in front of him. He cleared his throat, then said. "Thank you for telling me all this, but did you not think that by telling me all of this, you just changed the future, and we might actually fail now?"

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Oh..." she gasped in realization. "I-I'm sorry..."

"No, no. I wasn't chastising you." heshook his head and smiled wryly. "Anyways, even with the information you gave me, I don't plan to change how I plan to do things. That way, the changes to the future you saw will be minimal. I will keep your information in mind, though. Thank you for trusting me."

"Yes... It was nothing." Miyu said, revealing a smile. She was relieved that everything went well. Even though she had lied a bit to confirm some of her suspicions...

"So. Why did you choose to trust me?" Nate suddenly inquired. He jokingly asked, "Haha, did we get along in your vision?"

"Huh!?" Miyu exclaimed like a cat that just got its tail stepped on.

"Hm?" he tilted his head in confusion. He hesitantly asked, "Wait... am I actually right...?"

"O-Of course not!" Miyu retorted in embarrassment. "It's just that, you didn't seem like a bad person in the vision, so I chose to trust you..."

"Not a bad person, huh?" Nate mumbled in rumination. Nate didn't think himself a bad person, but he definitely wasn't a good one either. He felt no remorse for the lives of the junkies that were being continuously ruined by the drugs he sold them. They were the ones who decided to take them in the first place, and he had a mother to take care of and feed. From his point of view, those people would've bought drugs from some other dealer even if he didn't exist, so since they were going to fuck themselves over anyways, they might as well help him take care of his mother, who was without a doubt a good person. But he still felt complicated when he was told by people that he was a good person or not a bad person. "Anyways, It should just be about an hour by now. Let's go back to the slab and see how many volunteers we have."

"Huh? You're still taking volunteers? Even though I said that only six of us are needed?" Miyu asked in confusion.

"That's not what your vision meant, Miyu-- no, should I call you Segawa-san or something...? I heard you only use first names to people you're close to in Japan."

"Oh... that's okay. Just call me Miyu." Miyu said, although she still seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Hm. Well, Miyu. In your vision, did it specifically tell you that the six of us made it to the center alone?"

"Oh... no." Miyu shook her head, realizing her mistakes. She explained, "The only scene I saw was the six of us standing before this extremely tall white stone, which we assumed was the Altar."

"Right." Nate nodded, as if he'd expected it. "That doesn't necessarily mean that the six of us reached the center on our own. Maybe they helped us out along the way. Maybe some joined for a bit then left after a while."

'Maybe some of them died, too.' Nate thought. He chose to keep the last one to himself to avoid any complications.

"True..." Miyu nodded in understanding. Maybe it was because of that vision, but she wasn't thinking straighter than she usually would. 'Yeah! It's all of the future me and the future Nate's fault!!'

She glared a bit hatefully at Nate's back as they left the house. They walked through the dirt path in between the houses that were just as dilapidated as the one that they had just left. All of the houses were eerily similar, with even the furniture inside being exactly the same.

"By the way, can you use a bow?" Nate asked while walking.

"Hm... I've dabbled. My best friend was in the archery club and actually won some competitions. She let me try it and I was pretty decent. Why?" Miyu tilted her head in wonder. She looked cuter than she intended.

'Hm. I only noticed it now but... She's insanely pretty, isn't she?' Nate remarked inwardly. He then pushed the bow and quiver to her. "Here. You use this."

"Oh... I thought you didn't want to give it away?"

"I didn't want it to go into the wrong hands. Specifically, someone who would use it against me." Nate said matter-of-factly. Perhaps because he had begun to believe that she could see the future, Nate started to think that it might be okay to show a little of his true colors to her. "I feel like I can trust you a little, for some reason. If you do end up using it against me, then I'll just lament how horrible I am at judging people in the afterlife."

"..." Miyu looked at the bow and arrow for a bit then smiled as she meekly said, "Thanks. I'll take care of it."

"Mm. You better. I'm only loaning it to you." Nate jokingly said as he smirked.

"Yeah, yeah." Miyu rolled her eyes.

As they neared their destination, they saw a group of people crowding around the stone slab. A handsome young man with brown hair waved at Nate as he arrived. He was precisely the man who asked the first question earlier, who Miyu had told him was named Ming Wang.

"Hey." Ming casually waved as he held a spear in the other hand. "A decent turnout, huh?"

"Depends." Nate smiled as he nonchalantly replied. "It's not like all of these people are coming right?"

Ming shrugged as Nate turned to look around him. He then said in a slightly loud voice. "Can everybody who plans to come with me raise a hand and come forward?"

After a moment, about ten people raised their hands. Including Miyu, Ming, and himself, that meant that fourteen people were coming.

'A decent turnout indeed.' Nate nodded in satisfaction. He briefly observed that all of them were male, and most were spear users. With Ming and him included, there were nine spear users. Nate thought about how best to handle this group, which was far larger than he expected. After using his various Web Novel knowledge, he worked out a basic plan of action.

"Alright. Were going to go on a short expedition. We naturally won't try to go for the center today. Our goal is to get a feel for what the path there is like, since we have absolutely no idea what's in there." Nate announced. "By the way, I know it's a bit presumptuous, but I assume you all have no problems with going along with my decisions, right?"

"I don't particularly mind. As long as your decisions are sound." Ming offered but Nate didn't miss the glint in his eye and the implication of what he said. Everybody else seemed to roughly agree with him.

"Great." Nate nodded, then explained his plan. "Aside from me and Miyu, we're going to split into groups of three. There're twelve of you, so that means there's going to be four groups. There's no way a bunch of people who're going to be fighting for the first time can fight effectively, so instead, we're going to form smaller groups. I want two people with spears and one with a sword in each group. One group will be up front, with another behind them, and the other two will be flanking the back group. It's like a reversed letter T."

"Question." Ming raised his hand. After getting a nod from Nate, he asked. "Why aren't you or Miyu grouping with anyone?"

"Because I plan to always stay in the front," Nate said. "The group at the front will change from time to time, But I will always be part of the front group. Miyu, as the only person with a bow, will always be in the middle of the four groups, so she can help out anyone in trouble."

"Oh." Ming's eyes widened in shock, then he nodded in admiration. "A leader who leads the charge, huh? I like that."

The others also voiced their approval, but one of them asked worriedly, "But won't that mean you'll always be fighting?"

"That's true, but don't worry." Nate smiled in an attempt to assure the man. He jokingly patted his crotch. "I'm very confident in my stamina."

The men started chuckling in amusement, while the women who were listening in from afar either turned away and blushed in embarrassment or scoffed in exasperation.

"Well, then. The squads should try to keep the people in their own squads alive. Let me worry about the others. I'll be running around and helping any squads that are fighting something, with the front as the main priority. The back is second since we don't want our retreat path cut off, with the sides being my last priority." Nate announced. He then led the group to where the valley was supposed to be while under the watchful gaze of everybody in there.

'If the first time goes badly, I'll probably lose any and all credibility I have. Nobody will trust me to lead ever again.' Nate mused. That was why he didn't want to go too deep for now. He needed to build up a few successes first so that even if he failed once, he could still retain some trust. 'Shit. I've been able to get this far by bluffing, but will everything really be okay?'

Being able to bluff well was one of the skills he'd learned in his years as a drug dealer. Sometimes, you just had to appear calm and look like you had everything under control, and you could avoid a lot of fights. Nate used his bitchy resting face to his advantage to effortlessly appear composed all the time, even though he was just playing most things by the ear. He just depended on his superpower to get him through the trouble that he couldn't handle peacefully.

For Nate, his ability was real-life plot armor. And even when he was pissed off when he read novels that used plot armor so blatantly, he wasn't about to refuse to use it. His life wasn't meant to entertain others, so he was going to take the easy route every chance he could get!

This time though, he wasn't quite sure his ability alone could get him through. Even with Miyu's guarantee that they would succeed, he was still worried. This forest was just way too weird. Only wolves and vipers have popped up, but he didn't know what could show up when they move deeper in.

He just hoped that the others wouldn't see through his false bravado.

'Luckily, everybody's just following along obediently.' Nate mused as he gave the others behind him a short glance. His actions and plans were actually based off of a web novel he had read. 'Nobody wants to be the leader when in a crisis. Everybody just wants to turn their brain off, find a person that seems to know what they're doing, then depend on them. That's probably how I got accepted as a leading figure quickly, despite the fact that I've literally only been here in an hour. All of the so-called leaders here haven't offered an actual solution. I was the first one to confidently suggest attempting to get to the Altar while having actual combat experience, which immediately set me apart from everybody else.'

As Nate was ruminating, he suddenly heard a bright and bubbly voice call out.

"Wait! I'm coming along too! Miyu!!" A cute girl, who would remind most people of a small animal, rushed up and hugged Miyu.

"Ayumi? I thought you didn't want to join cuz you're scared...?" Miyu asked in bewilderment.

"How could I just let you go to such a creepy place by yourself? Of course I'm coming!" Ayumi chirped happily while beaming. "I-I was just joking about being scared!"

"Uhm..." Miyu looked troubled. She glanced at Nate, nonverbally asking him what they should do about this.

Nate shrugged. "The more the merrier. Since both of you are bow users, the two of you stay in the middle of the formation. Miyu, please focus on helping out the left flank and... Ayumi? Please handle the right flank."

"Roger!" Ayumi saluted in her best impression of a soldier.

With the addition of another attractive woman, the group visibly brightened. They were even more motivated to do well so that they could impress the two pretty ladies in the middle.

'Men.' Nate remarked exasperatedly. He understood them, but he was still amazed at what a beautiful woman could do to a man just by being present. 'Still... what a bunch of simps.'

After their makeshift Warband finally made it to the entrance of the valley, Nate took a moment to inspect the stone slab nearby. Unlike the one in the middle of the village though, it didn't glow nor did it offer any services. Touching it only told you that the valley led to the inner forest and that it was dangerous there.

Nate gazed at the valley from its entrance, but he couldn't see very far due to the heavy fog that veiled it. The fog rippled and swayed, as if beckoning all who looked at it, and yet every single one of them instinctively knew that the place was dangerous.

"Well, let's go." Nate led the way into the mouth of the valley, and the others followed right after.

Some people who chose to remain had followed the group to see if Nate and the others would really go through with it. They watched as fifteen people with assorted weapons walked into the mist.

None of the bystanders were sure whether the number of brave men and women would still be the same when they returned from the valley.

Or whether they would return at all.