Rin had gained a new party member, but that didn't make things any easier. In fact, her curious gaze distracted Rin from concentrating on his task.
It was not Teressa's fault, but Rin still decided to have her leave the room for now.
"Teressa, why don't you take a walk outside? You probably haven't moved much because of your condition. You should stretch your legs a little."
Rin half-expected Teressa to push back and protest against his order. But she was a smart girl who picked up hints quickly. So she also realized that Rin was getting distracted by her constant stare.
She nodded and without much protest left the room. But not before she shuddered at his command and her face flushed deeper.
With Teressa out of the way, Rin was able to enter the storage room and locate the box with the sacred relic. But it was not easy to break the lock.
In the end, he had to use a pin-sized bomb to blow up only the lock. He opened the box and pulled out the blue diamond necklace from inside. It shined beautifully, reflecting the effort Rin had put in.
[Sacred relics collected: 1/3]
[User, congratulations on getting a sacred relic. But aren't you running late? The first day is already over. At this rate, you will barely make it before the deadline.]
The system chipped in with its commentary and successfully drained any joy Rin felt from it.
Still, the system did have a point. Rin had wasted a lot of time getting here and he would also require a lot of time to get to the other sites.
"I wish I knew how to hotwire cars at such times. I should have learned that skill during my preparations."
Rin had learned how to drive and even gotten a fake license. But he had forgotten to buy a car. His family did have a lot, but Rin did not have the keys for them. So it had not even crossed his mind to take one to travel fast.
In the end, he and Teressa had to walk to the second location. He felt slightly tired, but Teressa seemed to be in desperate need of rest.
Despite Teressa's inhuman nature, her stamina wasn't any different from a human's. In fact, she seemed to get tired easily. But despite this, she refused to give up and ask for rest unless Rin told her to
The worst part was that he did not know if she was doing this on purpose to get commanded or if she actually had no sense of self-preservation.
Whatever the case was, it was beginning to cause Rin a headache.
Even now, Teressa's legs threatened to give up and she was shaking due to exhaustion. But she kept pushing herself to walk slightly behind Rin and smile at him. Her mouth moved quickly, but all that came out was incoherent babble.
It drained her energy even faster until she was forced to lean against Rin's back for comfort.
She was heavy and Rin was tired as well. He could only take her weight for so long before he was forced to sit down and shift Teressa into a better position so that her weight was off his back.
That ended up with him sitting against the wall with Teressa's head in his lap.
Teressa looked flushed and apologetic. Her eyes directly looked into Rin's and she forced a shy smile on her face.
"I-I am sorry for being such a burden. I will try to do better in the future."
Rin did not doubt that she would do better. He would ensure she did better, even if he had to train her stamina and endurance.
After all, supporters like her had the most important job during a fight- to run and keep themselves alive.
But he kept his words quiet and instead, gave Teressa a reassuring smile.
"It's alright. It has not been that long since you awakened, so you must still be getting used to your new body and powers. I will help you train your stamina once we return to the base."
The smile on Teressa's face looked genuinely happy. But little did she know that she had nothing to be smiling about.
If only she knew about the torture-ehm traning in her future, then she would have declined this offer no matter how nice it sounded at the moment.
…
After resting for about half an hour, it was time to start moving. Unlike the first location, the artifact was located in the middle of a monster field. It was a paper mache box with beautiful flowery prints and an alluring scent.
A dozen or so monsters were not difficult to take out. But the problem was the night.
It had gotten dark and the monsters had better eyesight compared to Rin. He did not want to attack them under such conditions.
So the only choice left was to wait for the morning to arrive. It was a few hours away but Rin did not dare fall asleep there.
His body was protesting at him, reminding him that he was tired and needed to go to sleep. But Rin knew that the second his head touched the pillow, he'd be out for good.
So it was time to rely on the store for some quick relief.
Rin knew he was abusing the store and the system was 'kind' enough to remind him.
[User, aren't you relying too much on this system's generosity? At this rate, the higher-ups might take offense and revoke your right to use the store. Please be more mindful of what you buy from here]
The system did not want Rin to use the store too much because it was a cheat reserved mainly for the main character. But wasn't Rin already using the store resources?
Unlike the MC, who used the store every few hours, Rin had only used it two or three times. That was far from enough to cause such outrage.
Still, since the system had brought this up, Rin felt like he had to appease the system as well.
"I will keep my shopping in moderation. But won't it be better for your higher-ups if I perform well? Isn't that why they gave me this store as a reward?"
The system went quiet. It did not want to give away too much information to Rin. The silence felt like a confession but the reason behind it was not clear.