****(POV)

On a tall city wall stood a mighty and powerful being. One strong enough to withstand the erosion of time itself and to survive all the wars it encountered so far. One strong to the point of disbelief. One that lurks in the shadows, unknown by mankind…or any other species for all that matters.

One so powerful it never had any real trouble in the entirety of his life. Until today that is.

Today for the first time ever it felt completely at a loss. Below it a unicorn in disguise. One that just made its way through the city gates. A few soldiers tried to stop it but to no avail. It just came inside as easily as taking a walk.

One can obviously imagine the effect of such an act of aggression. It would obviously turn into an all-out troop mobilization and a tentative at a quick suppression…

….or not.

None of the guards on duty bothered to chase at all.

None bothered crying for help either from their colleagues.

Why such an illogical choice? Well, they decided that none of them wanted to be the one to sound the alarm, not for a donkey at least.

Losing face might be one thing but losing their job another. Should they disturb a cranky supervisor for such a banal reason they would end up on the street.

In their minds, they knew that perhaps this donkey was no mere donkey given the momentum it had. Given the many choices offered to them, they simply decided to turn a blind eye to it.

As long as this creature did not disturb the peace, who were they to care after all.

This being saw all of this play out before its very eyes. The uneasiness it felt still did not diminish in any way from a conflict being avoided.

After all, this being did not care about the life and death of ants. Even this rank 5 unicorn did not constitute an opponent worthy of it.

In fact, its uneasiness was not related to the unicorn at all. What would be the point of it observing the situation so closely then?

It didn't especially. Being a silent observer is what it always did best. Always and forever. This silent watcher was now having a profound and serious dilemma.

A dilemma concerning a man that is obviously a mortal being. Yet the things he seems to be accomplishing are both extremely simple yet extremely impressive in their own ways.

Yes, this powerful being was worried about the actions of a man that started his own peculiar sect. For no apparent reason other than on a whim too.

The issue is not what this man does but when he does it. The timing being extremely off.

At first, it started as a failed summon from a failure of a goddess. Then there was the part where he became the king of the endless forest unwittingly. Finally how he first came into contact with the outside world in the border town.

All these were fine. Afterward is when the issues started appearing. He started walking toward a new city with a goal in mind.

Over a short period, he disabled a professional assassin, corrupted a mythical creature, tamed the same one, visited some ancient death domain, released an incredible evil on the world, and finally reached this place where he already ate a king slime. These are only the main points!

Usually, these feats would take anyone an extremely long time. Not him! He did it all in one go. Casually. Without much stress. This is completely insane! Hence the dilemma of this mighty being.

There stood Anotoki (?/10) the snail wondering about where everything went wrong. Every single thing listed above worthy of being the feature of an arc of its own. Yet all of this was accomplished while casually traveling.

Should the travel itself be considered one big arc? Would that be making light of everything the man accomplished already? Should an arc be classified based on the actions involved or upon the lengths? Or perhaps it should be classified by location instead.

This is a problem any historian is at some point confronted to. Many quibble on where to draw the lines between the various historical periods for that exact reason. It is an endless and ceaseless argument.

This was the first time in its existence that this snail was confronted with such a thorny question. As it kept pondering and pondering it suddenly came to enlightenment. Yes, there was an easy way to fix the issue.

When faced with hardship it is perfectly fine to look for the answer in your surroundings.

The guards earlier too were confronted with a difficult problem. Between potentially losing their jobs should they act and the chances that everything would be alright even if they didn't.

In the face of such a difficult choice, they opted to act oblivious. This snail decided at that moment that it would act the same. Of course, professional integrity is important.

Of course, this man's story could be classified in many diverse ways and all would have pros and cons. Still, why deliberate endlessly when there is an obvious solution available.

Thus came to be Anotoki (4/10). The all-powerful and useless snail that decided this would do.

When in doubt just bump the counter by one and call it a day.

Meanwhile, it witnessed a peculiar unicorn slowly make its way toward what appeared to be a library.

In front of it stood guards their standard equipment shining under the sun. There started a stand-off between a legendary creature and some puny humans. How would such a fight end?

Chances are, very badly for the humans. However, they do have the home-ground advantage in this place. Meaning they are more likely to end up with losses.

One should never fight in one's home is something this snail knew very well. It had viewed the effect of such insane actions many times already. After all, no one is safe and no measure is overkill when such beings are involved.

That begs to question. Would the whole city be destroyed that very same day?

No matter what Anotoki (4/10) would bear witness to history.