Despite loving to gossip, the system knew when to stay quiet. Rin knew from past experiences that the system wouldn't give anything away, so he focused on the more important thing right now—the sacred artefact.
By now, the sun was high in the sky, lighting the clearing. Rin did not have to worry about a monster ambushing him in the dark.
He woke Teressa up once it was time to go after the sacred box but he did not expect Teressa to grab his sleeve and stop him.
"Don't go. It's dangerous for you to go. If you want someone to take this risk, you should send me or—"
"It will be worse if you go. My skills will grant me some immunity to my own attacks, but I cannot say the same for you. It will be much harder to move around if one of us gets injured."
Rin spoke clearly and explained the situation to Teressa. Her eyes went wide and she let go of his sleeve.
Her acting was impressive but the relieved look in her eyes was obvious. Even if she had been brave enough to volunteer herself as tribute, she was still afraid of getting hurt.
Rin carefully made his way to a better position and took a deep breath. He felt both nervous and excited. It was finally time for him to see what his enhanced weapons could actually do.
[User, aren't you too happy about facing monsters? Is this world too easy for you? Shall I talk with the higher-ups and raise the difficulty of the future missions?]
The system decided to rain on Rin's happiness with its sharp comments. It soured Rin's mood and he sobered up instantly.
"Do you want to kill all humans, including your precious main character's harem members? It's hard enough to survive in this world currently, a lot of people would perish if you raised the difficulty anymore.'
Was this world a game or something? What did raising the difficulty even mean? Rin did not have answers to these questions.
But what he did understand was that he needed to stop the system at all costs.
[Well, raising the difficulty or not is not in the system's hands. The higher-ups make such decisions. All this system can do is make suggestions based on logical reasoning.]
That sounded like bullshit. But Rin was in no position to make the system his enemy. It was the only thing that was helpful to him in this ruined world.
Once the system went quiet, Rin focused on the monsters in front of him. On the other side, Teressa was waiting for his orders.
Rin nodded at her and Teressa activated her powers. All the monsters around the clearing stopped moving and looked around for the source of what was binding them.
They were distracted and Rin used this to throw down all the bombs, causing them to explode.
His system window lit up with notifications of the status ailments taking effect and a few monsters died as a result of the explosion as well.
But Rin had no time to celebrate. He ran through the horde of paralyzed monsters to get to the relic. He put it in his inventory and started to run back toward Teressa.
Most monsters could not catch him even if they tried to, some broke through their ailment and came after him.
Thankfully, he had enhanced physical weapons as well and he was able to respond reflexively to deal with the monsters.
"Thank God I trained with all kinds of weapons beforehand. It would have been disastrous if I did not know how to use a sword."
Rin was not clumsy, but he wouldn't call himself skilled with a sword either. He was just average at best. But even that much was enough to save his life.
'I wonder how much better Shelly has gotten with her skills. She was always a genius, so I am sure she must have gotten even better compared to the original story.'
Thinking about Shelly made Rin miss her. He wanted to call her and hear her voice again, but it was not possible in this ruined world.
At least he would get to see her soon.
"Rin, come this way. Hurry-!"
Teressa's sweet voice made Rin's body follow her command instinctively. He reached her location and grabbed her arm and pulled her along.
"We need to put more distance between them and this place. Those monsters won't stay down forever and they will be angry once they realize what happened."
Rin spoke before Teressa even had a chance to get a word out. She was a slow runner and slowed Rin down. But he could not leave Teressa behind.
The fight earlier had been a good example of how beneficial a support like Teressa was. She had immobilized the enemy so they would be within attack range for Rin to handle.
Thankfully, they made it far enough and the monsters did not follow. It was safe for Rin to check the progress of his quest.
[Sacred relics gained: 2/3]
[Oh my! The user is progressing so fast. Maybe there is hope for you after all.]
[But don't get too cocky. This apocalypse has just started. More challenges will be prepared accordingly. The system will always cheer you on.]
Rin ignored the messages popping up on the screen and instead, looked at the third point on the map.
It was the furthest away from him and realistically, it would take two days on foot. Rin only had 1 day left in this quest.
But even if he did manage to push himself during this quest, he would definitely exhaust himself.
The next task would be issued the second his task timer expired and Rin needed to have enough energy to head back and lead his people as well.
"Teressa, do you know how to hotwire a car?"
Before Rin made a decision, he asked Teressa this question. But she shook her head to show that she had no idea.
It made Rin sigh and he decided to drag her to the nearest car dealership.
'So it did come down to this. I should have known this would happen sooner or later.'
The place looked intact but Rin ignored all the money and other stuff and headed toward the cabinet that stored the car keys.
Breaking this lock was surprisingly easy and Rin even felt foolish for not doing this before. But at least he had a car now.