I Got a New Skill Every Time I Was Exiled, and After 100 Different Worlds, I Was Unmatched (WN)

“……………………”

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I ignored the old man who was still trying to talk to me, and left the place in a staggering way.
There was no destination in sight.
I just couldn’t sit still and kept walking aimlessly through the rubble.

“Dead ……, dead …………, all dead …………………….”

It was a strange feeling.
It was only one of the 100 hero parties I had been a part of.
It was only a year and a half out of a hundred years of activity.
The death of a person who, if I hadn’t crossed the world, would have been no more than a friendly shopkeeper.
….
Somehow, that weighed heavily on my mind.

“Alexis  …… Gonzo …… Tia died …………?”

The names and faces of my former comrades who had been swept away and relegated to the corners of my memory came flooding back to me in clarity.
Alexis’s face looking down at me with his soft blond hair brushed up, Gonzo’s face showing off his muscles, and Tia’s annoyed face trying to act like a sissy were burned into the back of my eyelids.

If I had just forgotten who they were I wouldn’t have felt this way, but I couldn’t ….
do that.

“Ha, ha, ha.
…… What, am I that compassionate? They were the first “ex” people to exile me, remember? So why this ….?”

For example, if this had been 100 years later and everyone had died of old age …, well, Tia was an elf, so she would still be alive, but … she would not have felt this way..
I’m not sure I’d have felt this way if she had died.The embarrassment was in the distant past.
If I had just offered one of my favorite foods at the grave and put my hands on it, I would have thought it was just a matter of reminiscing about the past.

And even if I hadn’t been expelled from the heroic party, the outcome would still be the same.
It would have been a different story if it was the current me, but back then, I was so weak that I could barely carry my luggage when I really tried, so there was no way I could affect the war situation.

Then, this was a reality that I should accept.
As an outsider who had suddenly returned to the world, the right thing for me to do would be to accept the end of the story without saying a word, express my condolences, and then quickly return to my world.
I know that.
But whether I could accept ….
was another story.

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“Appear, [Akashic Compass].”

I muttered to myself as I thrust my right hand lightly forward, palm up.
Then a cross-shaped metal frame, about the size of two clenched fists, appeared on my hand, and a light flickered in the center of the blank in search of the object I needed to find.

“I am looking for …… Alexis the hero.”

As I said these words, a white mist appeared in the empty frame, and Alexis’s pompous face appeared on it…, but it just fizzled out and disappeared.
That meant that the hero Alexis did not exist anywhere in this world.

“If …., then where did the Hero Alexis … … die?”

Biting my lip, I entered a new command.
Then, inside the empty metal frame, a place I had never seen before appeared, followed by a cluster of blobs that turned into an arrowhead-like shape, indicating the location of my destination.

“Gonzo … …, where did the warrior monk Gonzo die?”

A slightly different question, but my banishment skill, Akashic Compass, showed the same scene.
That would mean they both died there.
Then again, so did Tia.
….

“Where did Tia die?”

With the feeling of coughing up blood, I asked a third time.
The smile of Tia that suddenly emerged made me feel like crying.
…… The blur disappeared without forming anything.

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“Gone? She’s not dead ……!?　W-Where, where is Tia!?”

I shouted angrily, and my banishment skill pointed in the direction of Tia’s location.

At that moment, I was running as fast as I could.
Taking into account the possibility that Tia was being held captive by the Demon King’s army, I didn’t forget to activate the [Mirage Shift] banishment skill.
I could only use it once a day, and it was only valid for an hour, but no one would be able to find me while I was using it, and I could slip past people and walls as I pleased.

However, it was not a panacea.
In this state, I couldn’t interfere with anything, and I couldn’t slip through … things that were rooted in the world with a certain mass, such as the ground or mountains.
Well, thanks to that, I won’t be falling headfirst to the bottom of the earth, and I could use that property to run on water, but that was not important right now.

“Hah …… Hah …… Hah …………”

I ran, I ran, I ran.
Through the trees, the ruins, and everything in my path, I just ran straight to where Tia was.

I ran, I ran.
Faster than a warhorse, faster than a flying dragon.
I ran over mountains, rivers, and valleys, and when the effective time of the [Mirage Shift] was almost up, …… the needle like an arrowhead finally disappeared from the [Akashic Compass].
Of course, that didn’t mean Tia was dead.
It meant that I had reached my destination.

“Ha … ha … ha ……… here ……?”

After catching my breath, I dispelled [Mirage Shift[.
As soon as I did, the feeling of the wind and the smell of my surroundings came back, and I couldn’t help but frown.

“….
At any rate, it doesn’t look like the situation is as dangerous as it could be.”

I was in a fierce hurry to run, but what surrounded me was a deep forest, not a fort of the Demon King’s army.
And the place in front of me was not a cold prison, but a rather rundown but warm wooden hut.

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In other words, there was no need to rush at all.
I mean, if I jumped into someone’s house with that kind of momentum, I’d be a suspicious person.

“Ah, that’s a problem.
Did I get anything suitable…?”

一Feeling calm at once, I put my hand into the Stranger Box,, and rifled through its contents.
I knew I would need at least one souvenir if we were to meet again after 10 years.
Tia was fond of sweet fruits, so something like that ….
might be around the corner.

What I pulled out of the black hole was a bright yellow citrus fruit.
Actually, they were from a different world, but I didn’t care about the details.
I stuffed about five of the citrus fruits into a suitable woven basket and knocked on the door of the house after catching my breath once again.

Knock

“……………………?”

Knock, knock.

“…………………… hmm?”

I repeatedly knocked on the door, but no one seemed to come out.
However, there were definitely signs of human presence in the house, and the fact that the Akashic Compass had disappeared here made it certain that it belonged to Tia.

‘Well, but sometimes you just can’t get out right away.”

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I could think of many reasons why she couldn’t answer the door right away, such as she was working on something she couldn’t let go of right away, or she was taking care of something.
So I kept knocking patiently, but it was strange that there was no response after about ten minutes.

No, I thought it was pretty stupid of me to stick around for ten minutes, but I couldn’t really leave a note which said “see you later” in such a remote place, can I? It would be too sad to leave her with just a souvenir after coming all this way, and more than anything, I wanted to at least see her face.

“Hey, Tia? Are you there?”

After giving up on the surprise reunion, I finally called out Tia’s name.
But still there was no response from inside the house.
…. This is not a good sign, right?

“I’m afraid of … dying alone.
Okay, then this is a legitimate action.
It must be.”

After arming myself with theories and good excuses, I gently opened the door.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the door was not locked, and it opened with a squeak.
…… The room, which showed signs of life, was empty, however.

“This way, …?”

Stepping into someone else’s house without permission.
I opened the door that I thought would lead to her private room, fully prepared to get down on my knees at the barbaric act.
……

“……………………”.

“You’re sleeping!?”

I couldn’t help but shout out at the look on Tia’s face as she slept comfortably in the middle of the day.