“The cost analysis doesn’t usually favor me.”

- Excerpt from Lieutenant Hans Hoffman’s Journal Entries.

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

AUG 23, 1538 CE

Ygeian Countryside

Coffee.

Hans sighed, watching as the sunset rose from the horizon with his displays. His eyes fell on the time—05:44 hours. Early morning. Just a few minutes before Adelyn and Alizée awakened during the last loop.

So this is my new reset point?

Hans chuckled a bit, looking straight into his holster, and his pistol.

I just…I did that…I…

He continued laughing at himself, but as each laugh came out, it became slower and slower, as his volume slowly tapered off. He touched the back of his head and tried moving his mouth a bit.

Strange. So blowing your brains out feels like that? Hans tried to feel any lingering pain in his head. Aside from the normal ghost pain that he was starting to get used to, there was nothing too bad. Crappy, but at least it beats being beheaded. Or bleeding out. Or…being turned into a damned undead…

Hans looked again at his pistol.

For a brief few seconds, his mind started to see another tool. Was it the right thing? Could he use it all he wanted? Could he just, from now on, whenever he failed, even in minor things, just…

He slapped his cheek to wake himself up.

“Snap out of it, you moron,” Hans chastised himself. “What kind of thinking is that?”

He reached for his mug of coffee and took a sip from it, waking himself up further, until at last…he heard it. Adelyn’s snoring. He spat his coffee a bit upon realizing it. That was right. I was making fun of her that day. He immediately closed his comms. What a goddamned weirdo I am. He took another sip of his coffee.

Well, to be fair…only a goddamned lunatic would start looking at his pistol as if it’s a loophole out of his misery.

He popped his hatch open, exiting his mech, cup of coffee in hand, as he climbed down off his mech. The sounds of nature were peaceful. The gentle breeze of the morning wind allowed Hans to breathe fresh air and lighten his mood a bit. He placed his cup on his mech’s chassis, stretching a bit. Sitting for so long certainly took a slow toll on his body.

Hah…another death, another goddamned loop. Hans thought, eyeing the flying birds. Kinda gets old at this point. I made so much progress too. Now I’m back again to square one.

He shook his head.

I have to do all that goddamned work again. Kill goblins. Kill monsters. Then…fight that demon too. Actually can’t I just bypass it?

He entertained that idea for a while, before shaking his head.

No, impossible. This road is too important. And that thing is in the rear of the frontlines. It’ll just raid supplies coming through here. It’s also attacking local towns and villages. It’d be too difficult to ignore that. But then, I can’t exactly risk Adelyn and Alizée too, so…hmm, I might have to go solo.

Until he remembered what happened whenever he went solo.

Not exactly the most fun of results.

No, I need Adelyn. Maybe that’s why my shots weren't doing anything. It wasn’t…effective. Not anti-demon. Maybe I should invite Adelyn into hunting trips to raise her level too? Get her a good mech upgrade to take it down quickly and easily.

He looked back at his mug of coffee, grabbed it, and took another sip from it.

Well, quick and easy is a theoretical concept. I also haven’t triggered it enough to know its full range of capabilities. So far, it can shoot magical musket balls that can pierce through my armor. Cool, but not exactly the most painful way to die. Unless my fuel tanks went to hell. But even that’s just a few seconds of agony.

He looked back at the trees, thinking about his stupid idea for a little while. He already did it back then. Purposely dying just to gain intelligence. Just to…test things out. He wondered for a second if he should really entertain it this time.

Adelyn will be sorely disappointed in me. Hans took another sip of his coffee. Maybe I should go the reasonable route and just help her prepare for it. Then we can take it down together. It’s a better plan, not too disgusting to her conscience, but again, that places her at risk.

He then looked at Adelyn’s parked Wanderadler. Last loop, she mostly stayed in the town to protect it, and, really, to keep watch of Alizée. But really, Alizée is probably safe. The town seems to be quite receptive to her. Not much anti-Vanus hate for some reason. Which is nice. And she has some sort of power capable of killing demons. For a moment, Hans looked at that possibility too.

She keeps hiding it, but I imagine that kid’s got something. But, it’d be immoral to use her.

That was when his eyes widened.

Wait…no.

He looked back again at Adelyn’s mech, imagining Alizée again.

The last demon’s target was her. What if this one is the same? It managed to locate me. Somehow. It managed to find where exactly I was in a remote area. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that it’s scouting this place for Alizée. The last one targeted her directly in the city to do…something to her. This one…

He shook his head.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The first one was something, but the second one…it cannot be a coincidence. I can’t just be getting attacked again and again for no reason ever since I bought that kid with us.

Risky. Very risky. But Hans…he wouldn’t back out of it now. He drank his coffee in one go. Time to devise another gambit to get out of this loop.

+++

The goblins didn’t stand much of a chance.

Hans watched as the cave, once again, much like in his last loop, burned violently in front of him. And just as the last time, his eyes were dead empty as he watched the inferno from his display screens, silently munching on some biscuits as he did. Sure, it gave him a lot of levels, but this wasn’t going to cut it, that he knew.

I still need more.

Hans however wasn’t sure if he could get to a general tier of Tier II in just three days. That seemed like a very unlikely proposition. But it was a damning nice idea. Facing that demon would be a lot easier if he had two more skills to back himself. Perhaps, even ‘Trace the Dots’ would be nice if he could upgrade it to its Tier II version.

He finished one of his biscuits, pulled another one from the container, and snacked on it again as he waited for his kill count to rack higher and higher. Adelyn and Alizée must have finished their breakfast already. Hans looked back a bit. Hmm…again, what should I do? Should I just observe things by following the last loop?

One goblin however suddenly rushed out of the cave, rushing into the direction of Hans’ mech as it burned, but Hans just pulled the trigger to put it down, returning back to his thoughts.

Hmm…again, that’s a bad idea generally speaking, but…if I do that, I can drastically improve the chances of complete success in the next loop.

His kill count wasn’t rising further. The ‘system’ screens showed that he was now at level thirty-six, which was the same as the last loop. He also had the same number of kills. Consistent as expected. It was nice, Hans thought, but he started driving his mech around the vicinity, hunting for more. Maybe I still have a few more minutes. Have some fun and raise it a bit more before we continue.

He drove his mech further into the woods, activating his specialized sensors, his thermals especially, to look for any biological creatures that he could hunt. Each kill counts. Each AP counts. If I spend all of my time doing this, I’d reduce my problems rather quickly. His mech went deeper and deeper into the woods, as Hans began spotting more monsters.

First, he murdered another group of night wolves when he spotted them within three minutes. It only took a few machine gun rounds, but it inched him closer to level thirty-seven. Then, he continued further. He even started shooting deer and other wildlife for no apparent reason.

But the effects were pretty small.

Kinda useless, Hans thought, as he eyed a dead, strange bird the size of an ostrich that he thought counted as a monster. I’m now at level thirty-eight though, so that’s something. But normal animals grant very little progress. Only monsters matter.

He turned his turret to a dead deer somewhere, riddled with bullet holes.

Ack…Captain will chastise me for this if she sees this. Hans shook his head. Well, screw her regulations. If she can’t see it, she can’t have a moral crisis. Not that I’d continue hunting random wildlife.

After all, they didn’t seem to be very useful. Just a waste of machine gun rounds.

Hans continued further until the twenty-minute mark, as his mech moved rapidly to hunt in the forest. With its powerful sensors, each and every monster in his hunting rounds, whether they be night wolves, goblins, orcs, or, strangely, slimes, died from his mech. By the time Hans returned to the road to reunite with Adelyn and Alizée, he had already reached level forty.

His mech was also very much bloodied, as Hans took every opportunity to save bullets by using his mech’s legs and razors to murder something in close range. And so, when he drove back to Adelyn’s position, his mech looked more like a steed of a seasoned marauder.

“Lieutenant! What the hell was that?” Adelyn snapped on her radio as Hans approached them. “I heard a lot of gunfire. Care to explain?”

“Lots of monsters, Captain,” Hans said. “I suggest you do the same too soon. Pretty useful. I reached level forty.”

“In just an hour?”

“This place seems quite dense,” Hans replied, as he stopped his mech right next to the place where Adelyn and Alizée dined, with Alizée even covering her nose a bit as she smelled the stench of guts and blood on the armor of the Peacemaker.

Hans popped his hatch open and climbed off his mech to explain things a little bit more to Adelyn. As he approached her though, Adelyn seemed a bit annoyed, her hands crossed.

“What did you mean dense?”

“I meant there’s a lot of monsters in a relatively small area,” Hans answered. “Though, I probably cleansed the area for other people to hunt around for a year or two. I don’t know. I…well, I wiped out an entire goblin nest for one.”

“Uhuh, how many rounds did you use?”

Hans smiled nervously.

“I used up nine hundred plus,” Hans said. “It was…a target-rich environment, you see.”

“I can see that,” Adelyn sighed. “You said side mission, and you do this. Are you sure this is important, or justified? I mean, we already managed to get the auto fabricator thing.”

“Yes,” Hans answered curtly. “I am sure it is. In fact, come on, doesn’t the idea of reaching a Tier II not sound good to you? It’ll help us big time.”

“Yeah, but like…okay, fine, we’ll do it,” Adelyn shook her head. “Just don’t attract too much attention. This is kinda wasteful. You know, normally, people kill monsters not just to get levels off them, but also to take the special stones off them. And it’s important in the local economy. They can even refine it to AP regeneration potions.”

“I mean…yeah, but…” Hans scratched the back of his head. “Well, I guess…but you know, we kill monsters en masse with our weaponry. It’s kinda impossible for us to process that much anyway. Hmm…actually, maybe next time, we can just…massacre an entire field and hire dudes to get it for us.”

“Ah, business-minded now, aren’t we?” Adelyn chuckled.

Right then, Hans’ eyes suddenly widened, looking at Adelyn incredulously.

“Wait, AP potions?”

“Huh? Haven’t you read about them? It’s expensive, but, well, it’s there.”

Hans suddenly shook Adelyn roughly, as her eyes widened.

“Why didn’t you tell me?! My logistics could have been fixed much more easily!”

“Hold your horses, you fool!” Adelyn replied as Hans continued shaking her shoulders. “Also, you’re treating me way too roughly!”

“I’ve been grinding my arse to Tier II because I can’t regenerate AP properly, and you just didn’t even tell me!”

“I said calm down!” Adelyn exclaimed as she pushed him off a bit, while Hans stopped. “Gee, look, again, it’s an expensive process. I mean, can you stomach shelling two hundred Imperial Marks to regenerate one hundred AP?”

“Erm…well, probably not?”

“Exactly,” Adelyn said. “Besides, it requires a lot of those special stones from those monsters. And it takes time to produce. Days in fact. So places that produce it are specialized production shops. Usually ones close to major academies that have a large demand for it. Something, which, guess what, is non-existent in Rousselot. At least, that’s what I’ve read. Again, expensive, with limited supply, and limited availability. Not to mention, you drink it, it tastes like crap, and you can’t go too far and overload yourself with AP.”

“Get me to a city quickly!” Hans demanded. “I mean, my cap is unlimited, so maybe I’m more resistant. I can finally have my ammo stores full. Think about it! I can finally spam my shots to my pleasure!”

“Pfft…” Adelyn laughed a bit. “Alright, we’ll try doing that. Next time.”

“Oh come on!”

“Well get there when we get there,” Adelyn said. “Anyhow, get back to your vehicle. We have a bigger job to do for now. Unless you want to drive hundreds of kilometers to find a city for it first?”

“I guess not…”

“Exactly.”