SIAW Vol. 1 Chapter 9 (PROLOGUE)
Chapter 9 – 15th Year – End of Training
After the life-or-death bout against the Ancient Dragon, I stopped thinking about stats, skills, and level-ups; I just spent every day relaxing and taking it easy.
The rest & relaxation was mostly for my mind, though: I did all sorts of things in this period.
I returned to the base facility to take food and things from the “Resources” menu and spent most of my time in my “Room”.
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I became especially interested in crafting and enjoyed making all sorts of items.
At first, I thought of farming, aiming to raise enough crops to sustain myself, but I got bored quickly. All the things I could raise were already available in “Resources”.
I enjoyed cooking a bit, but the most exciting part of the process was developing processed food and recreating the ingredients and seasonings of my old world.
I managed to produce smoked food such as bacon and ham, seasonings like soy sauce and miso, and luxury products like alcoholic drinks, sweets, and desserts. I also modified magic tools to be used for food processing.
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I also fitted the interior of my “Room” to be increasingly comfortable and convenient.
I used plenty of precious monster-dropped materials for the bed, using my scientific knowledge from the old world and what I learned about the magic tools of the new world, ultimately aiming at the finest sleeping environment possible.
I enriched the kitchen and the various workshops similarly; in the end, my “Room” became much more well-furnished than the training facility.
I also built various residences around the island as a series of second homes. I crafted barrier magic tools and put them in place to protect each home, adding furniture and appliances inside as I had done for my “Room”.
Sometimes, the harsh memories from my past life would surface in my mind, making me shake in anger. Other times, I would complain out loud about the woman who sent me here, about the loneliness of not having anyone to talk to…or I would see myself in the mirror, still in the same 14-year-old silhouette I had when I first came here and battled with the fear that I might be confined to the island forever.
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Even so, I lived a pretty full lifestyle for 2 more years. Until one day, all of a sudden…
『You will be reborn tomorrow at 9 AM.』
I was greeted by this display.
“What? Why now!?”
I hurriedly checked the base monitor, which showed that 15 years and 6 days had passed since the start of the training period. The monitor there too read 『You will be reborn tomorrow at 9 AM.』
I had no idea what triggered the transportation so suddenly like that. I had not done anything out of the ordinary or witnessed any particular changes.
In any case, the next day I could leave this place! Finally!!
“Who cares about the reason!!”
Once I was in the new world, I could see people! Talk to people!
Almost shaking in joy, I checked the time: it was just past 6 PM. If I set a wakeup call with the Time spell, there was no risk of oversleeping. After leveling up, the Time spell now had alarm and schedule creation features as well.
I made preparations for dinner immediately. I wasn’t sure when I could eat again after being transported to the new world, so I chose a pork cutlet curry. I also had some pudding and ice cream as dessert.
After dinner, I had just a few drinks, ensuring I didn’t indulge too much, and turned in early.
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The next day, I woke up at 7 AM and had ham and eggs for breakfast. I added a raw egg and nori seaweed as toppings and ate some natto.
I leisurely enjoyed the breakfast, completing it with a cup of coffee.
After that I went outside, soared high in the sky and had one last look at the whole training island.
At half past eight, I went back inside the facility and checked to see if there was anything left I wanted to do. I made myself a cup of tea and sat on the sofa, waiting for the transportation.
At 8:50 AM, a message appeared: 『The transportation will begin in 10 minutes』.
I couldn’t contain a wide grin.
Then, at exactly 9 AM, the message 『Initiating transportation』 appeared: the very instant I read it, everything turned black.
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The young woman returned to the room Tenma was in before being sent to the training facility.
She looked exhausted, as evidenced by the black bags under her eyes.
Until a few moments ago, she had been drilled about any misgivings in her guidance and explanations, as the last eight people she had sent to other worlds had all died immediately after being transported.
She was asked to report about each one of them, so the supervisors could check if there were any mistakes in her guidance.
The final conclusion was that there were no glaring mistakes on her part, but she was strongly urged to provide a more polite and courteous service.
15 hours had already passed since she left the room. Physically speaking, she did not need to sleep, but strongly felt the need for some rest. Not that she could say it, though.
Mentally drained, she dropped herself on the chair in front of the monitor.
She gave a look at the screen — which was flashing yellow. The woman went wide-eyed and remembered the candidate she had sent to the training facility.
One hour in her world was equivalent to one month in the training facility: since 15 hours had passed since she left the room, 15 months had passed in the facility.
“Crap, crap, crap, crap!!!”
Nervous and agitated, she closed the yellow alert windows, one after the other.
One of them read, 『Unexpected error registered in training facility!』.
She thought it was related to the fact that more than three months had passed. The alert, however, referred to the fact that unexpected destruction had happened in the facility: the report was about the destructive effects of the high-grade magic spells used by Tenma.
In the end, two notices remained. One was about three months have passed: the woman knew that well enough, so she closed it.
The other was about the candidate reaching level 10 after about 10 hours of her time.
“10 months to reach level 10!? What the heck was he doing!?”
The woman couldn’t help but shout.
She thought that the extreme slowness of his level-ups was caused by his lack of ability.
If she checked the logs, she would realize that it took Tenma not 10 months, but 10 years instead, and that he had grown excessively in other ways…
The woman held her head in her hands.
Even if the candidate was lacking, there was no way to talk to them or stop the transportation process now.
The silver lining was that a longer training period should ensure he wouldn’t die immediately. That was her conclusion, at least.
After hesitating a little, the woman activated the transportation process.
The only thing she could do was hope that the candidate didn’t die immediately after.