The difference after his mental fortitude was enhanced felt very vivid to Orsted. His mind wouldn't grow paranoid unless he allowed it and stayed focused and stable almost like a rock.
'Wait....can I use [Rewrite] to kill myself instantly?' Orsted was tempted to try so immediately, but stopped hearing the system's voice.
[It's possible.]
For a while, Orsted was really disappointed by his past self. Not being able to use the resources provided efficiently was a trait of a failure and that's what he was.
'It won't be the same anymore.' Orsted continued jogging towards the road portrayed in the map, while making up his mind to stay focused.
Truthfully, If it wasn't for the side-effects of the [Rewrite] - Orsted was confident that he could have fought his way out of the flower field in the before loop. He just had to be careful about his stamina and his aim was never to kill all the Courtesan bears.
It was to escape safely.
'I need a sword... Without one, I can't even bring out half of what I'm capable of. Magic is still out of question...'
Orsted could feel that it would take almost half a day just to recover the mana - that he used to conjure the water ball spell just before.
"Sigh...Focus on the future." Orsted tried taking his mind away from all the mistakes he made in the past.
Taking a few breaks along the way, Orsted predicted that he should be able to reach the road within a few hours.
However, seeing his progress in the map, Orsted realized he wouldn't reach the city of Banan before tomorrow afternoon.
Feeling the hunger rising from his stomach, Orsted didn't continue staring at the dark starry sky and activated [Rewrite] to clear his hunger, bringing his body to its peak state.
[Rewrite - 2 months]
'Ha, so it can recover my mana too, wonderful.' Orsted continued travelling without hesitation.
The temperature grew colder as the night plunged the world deeper into darkness.
Even with his senses enhanced, Orsted couldn't see his surroundings perfectly. Still, his dragon-like eyes weren't just for show - a normal person wouldn't have been able to see a thing in his situation.
"At last..."
The road or what appeared to be a mountain track made Orsted smile for the first time. Nevertheless, he didn't let his guard down.
After brainstorming for almost three hours as he travelled, Orsted had thought of every last possibility that he could imagine.
Even with his body in good condition, slight tiredness spread through his mind.
'Right, I forgot to erase my need to sleep this time around.' He held himself from using lifespan recklessly - he could just resist sleep with his enhanced fortitude.
Keeping an eye always on both sides of the track, Orsted moved towards Banan.
Travelling for an unknown amount of time, A flicker of light appeared at the far end of the track, opposite from Banan.
Seeing the light, Orsted launched immediately away from the track and continued putting some distance so he would stay out of sight.
The reason for his caution was simple - the title [Dragon god].
The main mode of transportation in this world used ground dragons - which definitely possessed dragon bloodline. In Kararagi, there were other mounts such as Rigers, but ground dragons were still more sought after.
Orsted was pretty sure that those ground dragons would come rushing towards him, to defeat him and take his [Dragon god] title.
Once again, his pride was slightly hurt, having to hide like a weakling.
'Tch, stupid lizards.'
Watching the dozens of lights moving past where he stood, Orsted slowly went on towards Banan.
There were a few more instances where he had to move out of the way to stay safe. However, when he caught the sight of a single carriage moving towards him - Orsted didn't move out of the way this time.
'At last, a lone prey.'
Being a famous merchant city, they usually wouldn't turn away even random people from entering the city - but there always exists the possibility of things turning wry.
Since, there was a high chance [Dragon tribe's curse] would make them fearful of Orsted, which in turn might lead to being rejected entry.
'I won't take a gamble there, so I can only take a smaller gamble here. I hope that carriage just belongs to a small-time merchant...'
Moving to the side, Orsted acted as if to make way for the carriage to pass. His eyes coldly followed the light approaching nearer and a brownish ground dragon was soon visited to his eyes.
'Perfect. Now I don't have to be the aggressor.' Though Happy internally, Orsted's expression grew colder on the outside.
"GRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRR!"
As he expected, the ground Dragon suddenly accelerated towards him with a mighty battle roar. It was as if only Orsted existed in the ground dragon's slit eyes. It thrashed forwards without a care for the carriage behind it.
"What?!....What is the deal with you...?" The merchant was visibly baffled and tried taking control of the ground dragon.
The merchant could see a silhouette of a person at the far end of the track, which just fuelled the rising tension within him.
Seeing the ground dragon refusing to follow his order, the merchant recklessly disconnected the carriage from the dragon - deciding to save his merchandise from being damaged first.
The ground dragon's speed increased dramatically, being freed from the load.
"GRRAAAAHH!"
Orsted locked eyes with the rushing beast, accepting the challenge confidently.
'If it's just a physical fight, I should be able to match it with my current strength. It doesn't appear to be of any special breed either....but, defeating it without a weapon will be hard.' Orsted analysed and turned his body towards the ground dragon without fear.
'Then, I can only rely on magic to win smoothly. I will be borrowing one of your moves....Rudeus.'
Focusing mana into the ground from his feet, Orsted created a familiar quagmire just a few meters before the ground dragon.
The ground dragon's feet sank into the quagmire suddenly, throwing its body forward out of balance. Many injuries appeared around its body after the fall, however it hadn't given up - which was apparent seeing it try to stand back shakily.
The ground dragon's yellow eyes still burnt with fighting spirit.
"....."
Orsted pointed one of his hands towards it without changing his expression.
[Stone bullet] formed before his outstretched hand, still not comparable to what Rudeus could do - appearing to be just the size of a finger.
"Stay down." Orsted commanded, looking into the ground dragon's eyes.
The [Stone bullet] shot forward without a pause after forming - connecting with the ground dragon's head in a blink of an eye.
Bang!
The [stone bullet] shattered upon coming in contact with it, but the damage was done.
Seeing the ground dragon dragon fall just after it stood up shakily, Orsted breathed out coldly.
Slight disappointment flickered across his eyes, seeing his [stone bullet] wasn't able to fully penetrate the ground dragon's scale. It was most likely the strongest spell he could conjure currently after all.
'I have barely used 10% of my mana, so even with just 1% of Orsted's template - my magic capabilities are quite good. Though, mana regeneration is the real problem.'
To deal with his mana regeneration problem, Orsted could only turn to his [Rewrite] ability - which was a temporary solution for now.
Watching the unconscious ground dragon, Orsted could suddenly feel a connection with it.
'Is this the effect of [Dragon god] title? Now, this ground dragon would turn eternally loyal to me, I guess.' Before Orsted could rejoice on his first successful fight, a system notification appeared before his sight.
[Your existence has been noted by the copy of {Tome of wisdom}. Do you wish to erase your existence from it?]
[5,000 dragon points are needed for the erasure.]
'Hm!?'