Prologue

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A rare breakthrough, that beautiful cerise tomentum. That color was usually the resolution of cheap dye and a childish personality, desperate to prove individuation by opposing N. It was a rare endowment from nature, every strand like melting rubies, when most so-called redheads possessed only a dilute orange hue. But hers was like blood, drawing the oculus of all those around her, including Noah's. Of all the women he had seen, met, and knew, even intimately, hers was the most purely crimson.

It was after school in early fall, the light of the setting sun illuminating every strand and reminding him why it was worth it to draw close her. She was walking across the empty soccer field, her dead body trembling from the adrenaline of all the running she had done in her track club. For once, Noah saw her without all of her friends surrounding her or her beau's arm draped over her shoulder joint like a boa constrictor. He had been waiting for this fortune, longer than she could guess.

"Lindsey, hey,"he said, meeting her in the open air, free from any interruptions.

"Noah, what are you doing here ?"

She asked that question, but she knew the response. What else would draw a boy to her, what other possible desire ? He was going to flirt with her, possibly even ask her out. Would he be nervous ? Would he be cocky ? Would he play barren and try to start with some small talk, or would he get straight to the point ? Had he planned this ? Had he been waiting ? They had been friends since she transferred in their Sophomore class. Had that just been in anticipation of this ?

It was sack up in her oculus, that his intention had been seen through, but it didn't dissuade him. Rather, it was something that always amused him, the paradox of human coupling that became both leisurely and more difficult with age. She already knew what he desired, so unless she desired the same matter, her heart would be guarded, with no opening for a sneak flack to surprise her. It was a challenge that men and women had struggled with since the sunrise of time.

"I heard that you and Sean broke up. I know what that feeling like, how much it hurts, so I'm sorry. But if it's not too soon, I wanted to ask if you'd like to go out with me this weekend ?"

"Sorry, but since we're graduating soon, I'm not sure I want to rile dating. After all, when summer comes, we're all going to split up and go our separate ways."

A rejection, not an optimal outcome, but it was within his expectations. He just had to convince her to dedicate him a chance, but gently. He had to properly choose his words so that he wouldn't come off as desperate and disappointed, but not try to ham it up by turning it into a sonnet like an out-of-touch nerd.

"Is that why you two broke up ? Because you didn't see a point in staying together ? I doubt that. I think you believe in beloved, in giving it a chance. A lot of things will find between now and graduation ; Xmas, valentine's Day, the prom ? That's plenty of time to be happy, and to change your idea about which itinerary you plan on taking. program can change, things can work out. All I want is a chance."

"Sorry, but I'm just not interested in dating, and I'm too occupy anyway. Besides, I like you only as a friend."

She crossed her arms to warm herself, but she kept them low. It was an instinctive move, one that Noah's eyes didn't miss. He gave an exasperate smile and began to laugh."Ok, I get it. Maybe next time."

Lindsey, wanting this conversation to be over, walked past him, but beneath his continuing laughter, she heard something, a metallic click, and it chilled her blood. She spun around and saw the knife in Noah's hand.

"Deliverer Christ, what are you doing ? !"she screamed while raising her hands to shield herself.

"Don't trouble. This isn't for you."

He swung up his hand and stabbed himself in the throat. The strike, it was so fast, but it was docile, just the tip of the blade breaking his skin and severing his Jugular with pinpoint accuracy. It was a thoroughgoing, fluid movement, as if he had spent hours practicing. Blood began to spray from the minuscule wound, and to the sound of Lindsey's shriek, he allowed himself to fall on his back. She rushed over and tried to stop the bleeding. Covering it with her mitt only slowed the outpour, so she reached into her bag for something to use as a bandage.

"plosive speech sound, just keep your deal there,"Noah said calmly. The vein he had struck carried stemma out of the foreland and sent it back to his bosom, so the rest of the rip in his system would keep his brain oxygenated, at to the lowest degree while it was still in his veins.

"You're fucking demented ! I'm not going to let you die like this !"

"I've already died like this… more than a C times before. This isn't my first rodeo."

"What are you talking about ?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like. renascence, transmigration, whatever you call it, I count lives like you count twelvemonth, and every time I die, I'm immediately reborn with all the memories from my past lifetime. I've been born and died so many times, laughed and suffered through so many lifetimes."

"That's just blood exit talking. Hang on !"She tried to pull out her earpiece, but Noah grabbed it with surprise strength.

"You're pregnant, aren't you ? Sean freaked out after you told him and that's why you broke up."

Her look became as wan as his."How could you possibly sleep with that ?"

"Because this isn't the for the first time time I've confessed to you. I'm always myself, but the macrocosm I'm born into is never the same. Every prison term I die, I return to the day of my parentage, but in a different timeline. I'll end up in a existence where my environment are unlike, or history didn't go the way I remember it, or events will happen in my future that I can't predict.

Only in my yesteryear seven lifetimes have you been present, and in all seven life-time, I could never make you mine, no matter how much I wanted you. Five of those times were because you were pregnant. You and Sean get back together by Thanksgiving Day, and I and everyone else vigil you dance together at the prom. Each metre, I kill myself to try again in my next life. These past eighteen years, they've flown by like the winking of an eye for me."

His hemorrhage was starting to slow, his body going cold and his mind getting foggy.

"Why me ? Why would you keep going after me ? Why am I worth killing yourself over ?"

"It's the only way I can survive anymore, following some task or game that keeps me busybodied. Every life I've lived, it's been a lie, concealing who I am, what I know, what I've experienced. Much of the time, I have to pretend to have emotions, because after all this metre, I've almost forgotten what they feel like. I've almost forgotten what's like to actually feel something. But when I see you, I get to experience real longing. I have an actual puppy love, something so uncomplicated and childish, but such a wonderful notion. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a redheaded woodpecker, but I've lived for so long, I have to savvy at any fleck of meaning that can make me glad, and make up my existence a little less hollow."

"What about your family ? What about this life you've built ? You're just going to drop it all away ?"

With the net of his strength, he removed her hand from his wound so that it could bleed freely. Her wrist was limp. Had he convinced her ? Or had she simply realized that he had already bled too a lot and was beyond saving ? He covered his go out eye with his script, blinded by the setting sun while Lindsey's shadow obscured the right side of his face. The brightness level passed through her redden hair like stained meth, making his pedigree radiancy beautifully.

"I've seen so many worlds, so many dissimilar realities, but none of them could prepare me happy. I've never known what it felt like to belong to or feel at home. Every humanity felt haywire to me. This is yet another world that I am inappropriate with. All I can do is go for that the next world is one I can be well-chosen in."

The line at last-place stopped flowing, and Noah closed his heart and released his final breath. Then, in his intellect, there was a familiar newsbreak of lightness and he felt himself being pulled to the adjacent world.

A unit New secret plan

Without even opening his eyes, Noah knew that something had gone wrong. He was groggy, but he could definitely feel the cold, operose basis underneath him. This didn't make sense. At this moment, he'd normally be experiencing his own conversion, coming out of the womb as a new-sprung sister. His eubstance was also still the like size. He could find the weightiness of his arm, as well as his clothes. His hired man was still covering his eye, but just moving it took a terrible amount of money of strong point. He managed to make his eyelids out-of-doors and stared up at the blue sky. It was late in the afternoon when he killed himself, but now it looked to be midmorning.

This had never happened before, no thing how many metre he had died. Either he had somehow survived his suicide attempt and been moved while he was unconscious, or he had reincarnated without being reborn, breaking into another timeline rather than being properly incorporated. Was his reincarnation ability changing ?

Noah sat up and looked around. He was lying on an unpaved road in the woods. His hoodie and the shirt underneath were stiff with his dried blood, but when he felt his neck, there was no wound. He had been healed, but had his blood also been replenished ? It would have taken at least 30 mo for the profligate on his clothes to dry this much, not enough time for his physical structure to regenerate any meaningful amount, so this was likely a partial rebirth.

He got to his feet and staggered, struggling to breathe. There was no intensity level in his limbs and his thought were getting washy by the indorsement. This fatigue, it was similar to blood red ink, but also different. It was like there was some kind of special muscle going loony, using up all of his military strength. If it didn't dissipate soon, he'd end up passing out again. What in the mankind ? He looked down and realized that he wasn't casting a shadow. The fatigue must bear been messing with his vision. Now that he thought about it, his left eye was itching a bit. He gave it a rub and it was like a switch had been flipped. The fatigue vanished, as if that extra heftiness had settled, and when he looked down, he saw his shadow.

‘ That wasn't descent exit. It must have been some sort of remnant trauma from my suicide or this glitchy rebirth. But where am I ?'

The route was unusual. The soil was packed, but the sediment seemed aborigine to the spot. In the modern world, even the unpaved roads were made with at to the lowest degree a layer of sand and gravel to foreclose it from being overgrown. He had his wallet and his phone with him, but there was no service.

A sound reached his pinna, one that well-nigh mass rarely heard outside of film and TV. It was the sound of knight hooves. He looked over his shoulder, seeing two adult men on horseback approaching him from down the road. Behind them, an old man driving a horse-drawn waggon and leading… slaves. Wearing rags for clothes, Sir Thomas More than a 12 men and women of varying ages were being led by chains.

This unknown wagon train came to a check in front of him. The men on hogback and the one driving the wagon stared at him in muddiness."You're blocking the road. Get the inferno out of our way before you end up like them,"the driver barked.

It had been a long time since Noah saw a break one's back dispatch. He normally only found them in post-apocalyptic timelines, when companionship had broken down. That, or timelines where the south won the Civil War and other such occurrences.

"Did you get word me ? Get out of the way !"

"Boss, look at all of the blood he's covered in,"one of the men on horseback said.

Noah looked at them. Their clothes, they were shoddy, wool clearly not woven by any kind of modern machinery and with coats and boots made of primitively-treated leather. Maybe he had reincarnated to a third-world res publica ? If this was a post-apocalyptic timeline, then whatever happened wasn't manmade. It happened before the Industrial Revolution, some variety of natural disaster that halted mankind's exploitation. A meteoroid ?

"I don't think he understands us. He's got some uncanny dress. He might be the son of some noble,"the former horseman said.

Their weapons, they had sheathed swords but no signboard of any guns. So, this was an era before gunpowder was invented. Medieval ? It sure seemed like it.

"If he's a noble, we can ransom him back, and if not, he looks good for you and substantial enough to sell for a good price. range of mountains him up with the others."

One of the men got off his horse and approached Noah with a length of roofy. None of them were mindful that he still had his knife on him. As the man reached out to grab his hands, Noah slashed him across the throat. It wasn't the pinpoint jab like he had given himself earlier, this was a fucking grinning stretching from ear to ear. It had been a long fourth dimension since he had last killed someone, but it was something he was very well-practiced in.

A outpouring of blood sprayed Forth and Noah threw his knife at the wagon number one wood, catching him in the chest of drawers. Before his first victim could throw away to his knees, Noah ripped his sword from its sheath and charged towards the former horseman, already drawing his own vane to avenge his coworker. The pharynx was out of orbit, so Noah deflected the oncoming flack and went for a stab in the English of the gut and up into the aright lung.

"Fireball !"

There was a flashing of light in his computer peripheral vision, coming from the old man. Noah's inherent aptitude made him jerk back as a flair snapshot through the air, missing his face by an inch. It struck a nearby tree and exploded, spraying fervidness in all directions like a Perm Cocktail. Noah looked back at the old man, one helping hand outstretched while the other covered the stab wound in his dresser from Noah's tongue. He wasn't holding a flare gun or any other variety of device that would explain what had just happened.

"You can't be grievous,"Noah muttered.

"Fireball !"the old man shouted again.

Just like before, a sphere of digest fire formed in his hired hand, about the size of melon, and shot at Noah with marvelous speed. Noah dodged and rushed in to close the distance. The first-class honours degree fireball had forced him to let go of his sword and the secondly had forced him back before he could grab the second man's. He'd have to eat up this with his bare hands.

The buck were all throwing tantrums in fright from the fighting, but the old man continued to launch those orphic flares. Noah circled around the horses, jumped, and tackled the man. There was no clumsy fumbling for ascendency, Noah simply began beating him with his clenched fist. His stream physical structure hadn't been trained for combat, but he kept it intelligent and strong and have it off how much strength he had muster up with each punch. descent started spraying with the third poke, the old man unable to fight back and soon blacking out. Noah promptly retrieved his lessen knife and finished him off.

Noah took his clock time to catch his intimation while he wiped off the steel, folded it up, and stored it in his pocket. He took those few moments to quell his annoyance. He was used to being reborn as a baby after every death and considered those other years to be his holiday between each new living, prison term to properly fling of old memories, catalog utilitarian noesis, and mentally deal with any free ends. No one depended on him and he usually had a parent or health care provider to call for maintenance of him, giving him time to take a breather his psyche. Now he had start right back into a survival of the fittest mindset and first from sugar in a world with all new rules.

Those fireball the old man had launched, that was undoubtedly magic, something that he thought only existed in fantasy tale. He had never seen trick before, not in any of the timelines he had already lived in. Until now, he had operated under the belief of the Multiverse hypothesis, which stated that there was a timeline for every potential subatomic effect. Was it really possible for magic to live in the multiverse ? What did this timeline have that all the former I lacked ?

The old man would get been a valuable source of information, but with his subordinates now dead, he would never willingly tell Noah anything. It wouldn't be worth the time and trouble to interrogate him in this situation. Oh well, the reply would come in time, and Noah had learned how to be patient.

He turned his attention to the slaves, staring back at him with uncertainty. They weren't rejoicing at the Death of their captors, bonny enough. After all, Noah hadn't killed them in order to loose the slave or anything like that. As far as they knew, he was about to shoot down them all or just bring them all and sell them himself. Each of them was a variable, possibly benefiting or dooming him. It would be best to just let them go, but he decided to get some use out them first.

The slave bargainer had spoken with an dialect that he had never heard before, but it was English, though they probably didn't call option it that. These hard worker must also speak it."All of you, I give you permission to speak. Do you all understand what I'm saying ?"They didn't say anything, but they nodded in the affirmative."Are there any among you who are familiar with this area ?"None of them answered.

Possessing knowledge could either make them worthful or a liability. They didn't want to expose themselves unless they knew what awaited them. Noah sighed and returned to the old man, patting him down until he found an smoothing iron key, likely going to all of their collars.

He held up the key for all the slaves to see."I need one of you to lead me to a dependable orbit with a source of fresh piddle and off the road where I won't be seen. Whoever volunteers will get their collar removed and can cod in the wagon. Once I'm brought to a desirable location, you will all will be set free."Six slaves raised their limit hands."You,"Noah said.

He had ***********ed a teenage fille that looked to be around his age. She was dirty and ill-fed, but looked healthy enough to be utile to him, and he could certainly overpower her if she tried to betray him. It was hard to gauge her appearance in this Department of State. She had a wretched look permanently etched into her face, like a basset hound. If he cleaned her up, she might be a real cutie, but right now she was so dirty that he couldn't even tell her lifelike hair color.

"What is your name ?"

"Tin, sir."She didn't make eye contact. None of them did.

"Do what I say, Tin, and you'll earn your freedom. Go against me and I'll killing you."He unlocked her alloy apprehension but left her carpus bound."Now aid me fill care of these bodies."

Noah searched the corpses of the three striver monger, taking everything of value. Along with their sword, he got a span sticker, some corduroy, and three makeshift pocketbook. They were snake peel with stacks of bronze coins inside, tied to their swath. It was a clever concept.

"Tin, is there any danger of wild fauna in these woods ? Anything that I should care about ?"

"ogre will surely be drawn by the look of blood here. It would be best if we moved on now."

Noah huffed in annoying. Great, now he had monsters to vex about. This certainly was a human race unlike any he had seen before. This ruined his plan of taking the corpse with him. He was sure he could find a use or two for them, as well as lease their apparel and anything else of value on their person when there was more than time. He also didn't want to leave any evidence of what he had done.

"Very well. Remove the apparel from the bodies and put them in the wagon."

She wordlessly obeyed, proceeding to strip the corpses without any shred of disquiet or irritation. well-nigh fille her age would be too squeamish to do anything like this. As she worked, Noah searched the wagon and found a canvas tent bag, smelling too rancid to be used for food. He soaked it with a wineskin, and while it wasn't ideal, it was good enough for him to use to put out the fires that the old man had started. He and Tin completed their job, leaving three au naturel soundbox on the route and a few blacken trees. Noah retrieved one of the steel, just a crummy machete, but sharp enough to get the job done. He showed no discomfort in decapitating the physical structure and storing the oral sex in the canvas bag.

"pull these torso into the Mrs. Henry Wood, out of sight from the route. That should satiate any brute that search this area."

There was no telling what the value of these knuckle down trader were. If they were even slightly important to someone, their disappearing might lead to an investigation. Three nude, headless bodies that were devoured by behemoth wouldn't leave any evidence. They couldn't even be identified. On the other hand, if they were criminals, then Noah might be able to use their severed fountainhead as confirmation of their deaths and gather up a bountifulness. He had been in a lot of bad spot and chaotic timelines, so this mindset was a acquisition he knew he could rely on and use as he needed.

Once the body were mete out with, Noah took his tail at the social movement of the wagon and Tin joined him. The two extra horses were tethered to the face of the coaster wagon and would comply along. Noah cracked the reins and the Equus caballus pulling the police van began moving forward.

"There is a suitable place several miles down this route. I will shew you where."

"Until we get there, I have interrogation that I need answered. Where am I ? What country is this ?"

"This is the Algata responsibility of the nation of Uther."

"How large is Uther ? How often of the continent does it take up ?"

Tin bowed her head."Please forgive my ignorance. I do not know the size of this commonwealth, nor what a ‘ continent'is."The way she had reacted, was she expecting him to punish her ?

Her solution was to be expected, though. A hard worker educated in geography would be an strange find. It would be good if he could get his helping hand on a decent map, though in this era, that was probably a lot to ask for. In a existence with conjuring trick and lusus naturae, there was no telling what the planet's topography looked like, even the arrangement of the continents. He had traveled premature world legion clock time, but much of his experience was now obsolete.

"Relax, I'm not going to hit you for not knowing something. Just keep answering my questions as best as you can. Uther, is it a racy country ?"

"I… don't know for sure. Perhaps there is wealth in the capital, but this is the countryside."

"Does it operate under a monarchy ? Or do they elect their loss leader ?"She looked at him like he had spoken in gibberish."Does it have a king or queen ?"

"Oh, yes, sir. There is a regal family, but I don't know anything about them."

"What do they use for currency ?"

"metallic element coins, like silver grey and gold."

Noah retrieved one of the snakeskin coin bag and emptied it out onto the seat between them. It was about a dozen bronze coins and a few silver medal. The other two could be expected to obtain a similar amount.

"How much would you say this is ? Would you say it is a with child amount of money or not much ?"

She looked at the coins with her glum expression."I don't know. I've never handled money before."She picked up one of the silver coins and showed it to Noah."This is what I'm worth."

‘ Well, that's a lower thought.'“ What season is it currently ?"

"Mid spring."

That was good for Noah. In order to get a footing in this new public, he'd need ample time with the chances of survival at its gamy. Winter would hamper his mobility, possible military action, and make animation a lot harder. Had he appeared in this domain a few calendar month earlier, he could easily immobilize to end before reaching civilization.

"You spoke before of monsters. What should I be cautious of in this timber ?"

"The handsome danger is the Friedrich August Wolf. They travel in packs and kill whatever they see. There are also bears, magnanimous spiders that hide in tunnel, and goblins."

behemoth wanderer and goblins ? This world was getting more fantastical by the second.

"Tell me about the goblins."

"They are small, only about the size of it of children, and maybe as smart. They have weapon and often bushwhack travelers."

"The old man, what was that technique he used ? I've never seen anyone do that before."

"That was magic."

‘ idea so.'“ William Tell me everything you know about magic."

"It is the boon of the gods, letting multitude call down divine vengeance upon their enemies. It can create ardor, control condition water, make you stronger, and do all kinds of things. There many different kinds of wizard substance abuser. I've heard of some of them ; mages, paladins, warriors, shamans, but I don't know much about what they can do."

"What sort was the old man ?"

"A mage, I think."

"So can anyone use it ? Or is it passed down through the stemma ?"

"I don't know."

That was a problem. If it was an ability passed down from parent to child, then he was screwed. His glitchy reincarnation left him with the even cistron of his last parents. If magical wasn't something he could learn or acquire, life would get exponentially harder. Then there was the mentioning of gods. He had spent respective lifetimes searching for signs of the creation of God, some presence of divinity that might explicate his beingness, but he always came up short. However, in a world where magic existed, perhaps graven image might as well.

As they continued through the woods, Noah thought about the striver walking behind the beach wagon. Letting them go might be a liability. They knew he had killed three slave dealer, they knew where he would set up camp. The slave traders mistook him for the son of a noble, so if the slaves went into some town and started blabbing about him and what he had done, people might come up after him. Perhaps it would be better to dispose of all of them ? No, the luck of him managing to kill them all would be low and that would be a lot of corpses to plow with, not to mention he didn't know if killing them would get him into trouble.

‘ To think my laziness would recompense for my shrink conscience…'

They were passing by a hill with Tree blocking much of the view, but all of the horses flicked their ears to it. Noah didn't miss that tick and reached into the wagon. When searching earlier, he found a bow and a few arrows, none of which seemed very well made. He took aim up the Alfred Hawthorne, spotting a shadow moving between the Hill. It had been a tenacious time since he had finis used a bow. It was one of his by-line about four or five lifespan ago. This was nada like the modern bows he was used to handling, but when he let the pointer slip gratuitous, it shot between the trees and found its brand. Noah didn't see what he hit, but there was a shriek of pain that he did not recognize and the strait of multiple entities running off.

"What was that ?"Tin asked.

"I assume that was one of those hob you mentioned."This was getting dangerous."You stay here,"he told Tin. He brought the police wagon to a stopover and went back with his knife and the key. He cut the striver'binds and unlocked their collars."You're all free to go, get out of here. But don't even think of trying to follow—"

They ran off before he could cease his judgment of conviction. Good, that would create him less of a sitting duck, and they'd draw the care of anything that might want a piece of him. He returned to the driver's seat and turned to Tin, holding up one of the coin purses.

"Get me to that safe spot and this is yours."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The timber thinned a lit, the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree spreading out far enough for the wagon to go off the road and head towards the sound of running water supply. They arrived at a clearing where a small waterfall thumped on bring out rock. It was isolated, just the place Noah needed. There was even a cave behind the waterfall where he could build cantonment. However, they were not the only inhabitants.

"Tin, what the hell is that ?"he asked, looking at the fauna sliding across the undercoat. At first, he thought it was giant slug, the creature about the size of it of a beer keg, but he then realized it was translucent. There were four of them.

"That is a gunk. They like damp places. Their bottom are like giant oral cavity, devouring whatever they crawl over. Their eubstance are covered with a sparse skin, and if you tear it, its insides pour out and vary the physique of its body."

"Are they dangerous ?"

"Yes. Anything that their undersides touch will melt, Saame with anything you stab them with. The bigger they are, the faster it happens, and the faster they can move."

"How do I defeat them ?"

"You have to hit their brains."

The slimes hadn't noticed them yet, so Noah took aim with the bow at the good one. It was hard telling the figurehead from the back of these thing, but he spotted something floating inside, suspended, an apple-sized lump of solid state tissue. He released the deadbolt, missing the wight's brainpower by several inches. It rumbled in pain and its gelatinous interior spilled out of the wound like a runny nose. Upon contact lens with the air, the viscera began to congeal and make grow a layer of skin. It formed an extension phone of itself, like a second tail, now searching for what had injured it.

‘ So, that's what she meant when she said it changed the human body of its body.'

Already, the arrow was halfway dissolved. That thing was like a jumbo moving stomach. He would have preferred to aim care of these freak from a length, but he didn't have enough arrows to have away. It would also get dark soon, and he didn't want to try and look for another spot.

He turned to Tin and cut her binds, then handed her one of the coin purses."You're free. Go wherever and do whatever you want. But don't even think of taking anything from the wagon."

He got up from the wagon and approached the waterfall with one of the slave traders'brand in his hand. It was the worst of the two, utilitarian at least for experimentation. He approached the gook, already back to wax health after being shot with the arrow. It didn't appear to have very good imaginativeness, didn't even appear to take eye. He picked up a stone from the creek and threw it, sending it bouncing a few fundament away. It pounced on the rock with surprise speed, smothering it with its body and absorbing it. So, these things could jump-start. If it could see, it was probably short-ranged, based on bm, or more probable it could smell vibrations in the ground.

He took another rock and threw it at the goo, this clip hitting it. The rock ripped through its fragile skin and its gumption spilled out. The blow stunned it just long enough for Noah to sprint over and cleave through its mentality. As quickly as he attacked, he darted back. He had learned through numerous occasions to always bear an opposition to get back up. Plus, he wanted to nullify getting sprayed with any guts.

Despite his concern, it was a unclouded kill. The lusus naturae, originally a nauseating yellow, turned gray, and its let out insides began to fume and dissolve. Unfortunately, bullet was also coming from his sword. This really was a nasty dot. Noah wiped the blade off on the grass and then rinsed it in the river to clean house it. It had undergone severe corroding. Hopefully it would terminal until he killed them all.

One thing made him happy, though. When he killed the slime, numbers didn't appear in the air, displaying experience points earned. He started having concerns as soon as that first fireball was launched at him, and when Tin said it was a slime ; he thought he had been reincarnated into some kind of RPG world. If at any point, she used the word ‘ level ’, he would have permanently lost the power to observe a straight face and hold anything seriously.

Anyway, back to killing.

He repeated his strategy with the other three slimes. A fist sized rock thrown with sufficient swiftness and accuracy could pierce the fiend and sandbag them long enough to return a calamitous tap. After the third sludge, his brand broke in half, the end completely melting off. There was one slime left hand, but it would be dodgy. It was slithering around behind the waterfall, unaware of what had happened to the others. The vibrations of the water would probably mask Noah's trend, but he didn't want to take the chance.

He crept behind the waterfall and threw another endocarp, striking the gunk near the brain. Its torso curled up like a slug sprinkled with salt, and Noah rushed over. This meter, he thrust the disclose vane straight in. He managed to stab the brain, but the steel slipped right into its body. Noah pulled away before his inactiveness could mail his manus plunging into the acid guck, but various drop curtain splashed him and he could feel his skin dissolution. He thrust his bridge player into the waterfall and steadied his breathing as the pain faded. That was too close for comfort. He'd have to hail up with another way to halt those things if he encountered them again.

The area had been secured, now to set up coterie. He stepped out from behind the waterfall, and to his surprise, he saw Tin standing by the wagon, as if waiting for him.

"What are you still doing here ? I told you, you're free."

"I… don't know what that means. I don't have sex how to be free."

"I gave you money. Take it to the penny-pinching townsfolk and buy yourself something to eat and some new dress. Look for anyone who will hire you, hopefully offering room and table in exchange. From there, start your new life."

"Is that an order ?"

"No, it's advice. You don't have to shoot orders from me, I'm not your headmaster. I hired you to be my pathfinder, you got your money, and our declaration is concluded. Now we piece ways."She continued to endure there, looking like a puppy in the rainfall."You can have one of the horses. You'll be able to get to town faster and outrun pursuers."

"So you want me to cook for your arrival into townsfolk ?"

This girl was starting to get on his cheek."You're not listening. You don't have to do anything for me. You're your own person now."

"But I'm not. I'm yours."She was almost whimpering now. Time for some tough love.

Noah retrieved his bow and an pointer and took aim at her."leave-taking now, or I'll putting to death you and use your clay for bait to watch my dinner."

There was a glimmering in her eyes."If I can be useful as a stiff, I'll do that. Please, use me as bait."

Noah sighed and lowered the bow. Were he a harsher man, that wouldn't have been a four flush. This young woman was needier than he would take liked, but her subservience made her more trustworthy than anyone he could look to encounter in this world. Maybe it would be good to have an superfluous pair of script to aid him, at least until he got out of this forest. Besides, it wasn't like this was the first time he had owned a slave. There were many sinister timelines when he followed the ruler of ‘ when in Rome, do as the Romans.'

"Fine, I'll be your master. What skills do you have ?"

"I can count to one hundred, I can spell some, and I can tend to livestock and work theater of operations, as well as perform home chores. I am also very experienced in pleasing men, so I can service you whenever you desire."She bowed her nous as she spoke, not seeing Noah produce his supercilium at her last sentence.

Depressing as her words were, he wasn't one to sour down an offer for sex from someone so willing. On the other hand, aught about her stream visual aspect stoked his libido. He was standing twenty feet away and could smell her like it was XX inches. Sitting next to her in the paddy wagon had been very unpleasant. Just letting her bathe in the river wouldn't get the job done.

"Let's get ingroup set up and then we'll talk of the town. You said you can run to livestock, compensate ? Then I'll leave the horses to you. Get them watered and fed and then remove these dead ooze. I imagine they've lost their acidity in death."

Tin obediently went to work while Noah gathered all of the Ernst Boris Chain and collars that had been used to lead the hard worker. There was also plenty of roach in lawsuit any of their binds broke during transport. Noah snapped the pinch off the chains and used them as pound to split up the watery links and split the chains into multiple short segments. He split the rophy into thinner filament and set up a margin around the bivouac, then hung the collars and chains on it like Yuletide ornaments. Any intruders that tried to insert would hit the tripwire and the jingling chains and collar would give them away. And in case they were set off by the wind, the horses would be the endorse line of sleuthing. If they started acting up, then a threat was nearby.

"I'm going to go collect some firewood. If any monsters approach, just holler for me and yeet some horseshit at them. The smell will drive them off."He then stopped and chuckled to himself. That's right hand, he no longer needed to use modern slang.

Tin seemed to gist of what he was saying."Yes, Master,"she said with a bow.

Noah set out into the woods with his only when sword and a satchel the old man had been carrying. He didn't want to stray far from camp, but he had to check out the area and make for sure there weren't any imminent peril. One matter he was especially cautious of were the jumbo wanderer that Tin had mentioned. She said they hid in burrow, so he kept a close eye on his basis, avoiding any suspicious region that could be a possible ambuscade. Webbing on the dry land was a telltale sign, proof that he wasn't the only one using tripwires to detect enemies.

The first thing he did was gather ache boughs from around the site, accumulating a large pile that they would use for bedding and making frequent trip back to the camp. Then he gathered all of the firewood he could impart, but focused only on specific trees. This worldly concern was very different to the one he was used to, but most of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree appeared to be the Lapp. He also filled his pocket and the satchel with medicinal flora and even some victual mushrooms. In every life, her hear and relearned survival of the fittest skills to save the information branded into his idea, so even if had forgotten their names, he still recognized herbaceous plant that could be useful. As he moved, he had a substantial feeling that he was being watched, and he knew what was watching him, especially when he found one of their stagnant.

It was one of the wolf Tin had mentioned, larger than any he had ever seen. His nose led him to it, the wolf reeking of Death and rot. The meat was well beyond eating and its fur and osseous tissue weren't worth the effort to harvest, especially with all the maggots and fly sheet, but there was something that he could definitely piddle use of.

The sun was starting to set by the time he was done, but there was still plenty he wanted to do. Luckily, dinner was already taken care of. The slave dealer had packed enough intellectual nourishment for themselves and their cargo. It was difficult bread and dried meat, something that Noah's spoiled taste buds would not apprise, but he'd seen enough intemperate clip to acknowledge how to be grateful.

Before doing anything else, he removed his hoodie and T-shirt. He had kept them on as an tally bed of protection in case anything attacked him, but the blood had hardened into a hard Earth's crust and he was glad to be able to finally assume them off. Had he known he would renew like this, he would have gone home and just hung himself, preferably with his sack stuffed with useful instrument. He laid out his shirt and hoodie under the waterfall, directing the spray right onto the descent stains. He pinned them down with stones so that they wouldn't be washed away.

He noticed Tin watching him like a peculiar feline. She had never seen sinew like his before. To come through in the countryside, men required great lastingness to farm and fight and muscle good deal naturally accumulated. Noah's appeared more defined, like he had focused on improving the quality of his muscles instead of just chasing after the vague definition of strength.

"Tin, take off your clothes."

"I shall do my best to satisfy you, Master."

"Not like that. Put that dress of yours here under the falls. Do the Same with all the clothes you removed from those slave monger. It may be low-quality, but whether we use them or trade them, it would be best if we can at to the lowest degree remove the stink."

Tin removed her wearing apparel, though it was more like a raggedy potato sack with holes cut for her mind and arms and a strip of fabric for a whack. She was malnourished and scrawny, but he just had to smooth her up a little.

With the last of the light, he searched the river for stones. He'd test their severeness, striking them against the spine of his blade. Once he started getting sparks, he returned to the riverbank and gathered up some tinder. He ground some dry birch rod bark into a ok detritus and struck the rock'n'roll against his blade over it. It took various endeavor, but some arc landed in the dust and it went up like gasoline. From there, he built up a fervour on the riverbank with all of the birch tree Ellen Price Wood he had gathered. By the light source of the flaming, he started digging a hollow using his sword and a alloy skillet he found in the wagon.

"headmaster, please set aside me to do that instead,"Tin said.

"No, what I need you to do is bulge out collecting remains from the river. If you dig under the silt, you'll find it. Make a big pile of it here next to me."

The two of them continued to influence, with Noah expanding the pit and Tin gathering the clay. Once he was done, he smoothed out the sides of the pit and then began slathering on the clay that Tin had gathered. He used the leftover clay to nominate some cups and bowlful and put them in the fire to bake. He built a indorse fervency, this metre putting it in the pit. It was with a softer wood. He didn't even need to see Tin's boldness to sense the rarity within her.

"I'm making a wash catchment area. No umbrage, but you stink. But for now, let's eat."

With two flaming burning, Noah and Tin dined on low-quality rations. There wasn't any conversation between them. Once he finished eating, Noah reached into his satchel and took out what looked like a behemoth dirt lummox. In reality, it was a lump of carnal fat. He had gathered it from the carcass of the dead wolf, rolled it into a ball, and packed it with a cuticle of dirt to preserve it from making a pickle when he carried it. It cleaned it off and put it in the metallic element skillet, then set it over the fire.

"Now, while that thaw, let me see your teeth."It was a request that Tin wasn't used to hearing, but she obeyed, flashing her teeth like a snarling beast."Huh, not too bad."

Despite her pitiful modus vivendi, her teeth were in commodity condition. She grew up in a world without processed foods, sugars, or chemical, so despite never brushing, there was no rot that he could see. Her breath was pretty bad, but that was because she lacked the concept of flossing.

Noah walked over to one of the horses hitched to a tree, nibbling on the mess of grass that Tin had gathered for it. He cut a lock of its long hair, washed it in the river, and returned to the campfire, where he braided respective string into a strong train of thought. He made a second and turned to Tin.

"payoff this thread and do as I do."He used the thread to floss his tooth, something which Tin had never seen before. The ribbon was thick and coarse and broke a few meter, but it got the job done, and he showed her the part of meat from their dinner that he had gotten out.

She mirrored the action to the Charles Herbert Best of her abilities, and while she did that, he looked at the skillet, now with a puddle of melted fat. He gathered some white-hot ashes from the fervour and mixed it in, as well as some water.

"Now I'm going to establish you how to make soap."Last, he added a handful of ground-up pine acerate leaf and started stirring the smorgasbord together.

"Soap ?"

"You've never heard of it ?"

"I heard that the Lord use it. It makes them smell out nice."

"It's been a long time since I did this. If I had time and proper shaft, I could prepare something of a much higher quality, but this should get the job done."He set the skillet back on the firing so that the piss could be boiled away."Have you gotten every tooth ?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then take a mouthful of this."From adjacent to the fire, there was also a cup made, of all things, tin. It was wax of water brought to a simmer, with solid ground charcoal and pine needle mixed in. He let it cool off and then handed it to her."You said you could numerate, right ? Well swirl this around your mouth and begin tally. Once you reach one hundred, accept it."

She took a mouthful and handed it back to him so he could end up it off. With that taken forethought of, Noah took the skillet off the fire and examined his soap. It certainly would never sell in a market store, but it would get the job done tonight. Next, he turned his tending to the wash basin and the withered flack. The clay packed onto the position of the pit had hardened and could now keep water supply.

Noah carved the Georgia home boy off the frying pan and handed it to Tin."Here, use this to shovel as much charcoal and ash out of the basin as you can, then strip it in the river and use it to fill the washbowl with water."

As Tin went to go, Noah started on his own task. Like her, he went to river, but started collecting Isidor Feinstein Stone. He'd bring them back and put them in the campfire to heat up. By the time Tin had finished with her undertaking, the rocks were all sufficiently hot, and using sticks to address them, he moved them into the watershed until it had reached the perfect bath temperature. It was still ashy from the fire, but that wasn't a problem.

The reason why he had used different blast for the river basin and soap was because of one of the resulting chemicals, lye. Despite being a acerb heart, it was required for making soap. It was collected from the ashes of hardwood, like birch rod. He had used a softer Grant Wood in the firing to harden the sides of the drainage area so any leftover ash wouldn't turn the water too alkaline.

"All right, now to try out it."

Noah stripped down to mate Tin and grabbed a part of fabric from the Charles's Wain to use as a washcloth. He got it wet in the river basin, rubbed some of the soap on it, and, satisfied with how it lathered, started wiping off the fret that had accumulated since his arrival to this world.

Tin held a man of goop in her hand, staring at it with blanket eyes."It smells… sweet !"

She mimicked Noah, using a stopgap face cloth and the soap to scrub herself raw. She was delirious, leaving no spot untouched. The two of them cleansed their skin, lathering themselves up and then rinsing in the river to go along the bathtub body of water clean. With the malicious gossip removed, much was revealed to Noah. Neither of them said anything about the countless cicatrix, bruise, and brands that covered Tin's body. Finally, he had her lie on her binding and lowered her head into the river basin, then scrubbed her hair with the liquid ecstasy until the bathwater turned as melanize as ink. She sat up and rung the water out of her hair as he stood up and stretched.

"Huh, so you're a blonde. I honestly couldn't separate your raw color. You were so colly that I wasn't sure if the drapery matched the carpet."She didn't say anything back, just crouched by the basin, holding herself. postponement, she was trembling."Tin ?"

She looked up at him, and though her face was wet from the bath, he could clearly see her weeping."I… I've never smelled this light before !"

He rubbed the top of her mind."I'm glad."

She reached up and grasped his hand, despair in her oculus."Master, can I please armed service you now ?"

A little jape escaped Noah."My, my, what a greedy niggling slave you are."

He leaned down, lifted her Chin, and left a soft kiss upon her sass. She shivered from that touch, gentler than any other in her lifespan. She took the opening, kissing him in return while her tongue slipped into his lip. As they swapped saliva, she reached out and began caressing his humanity, erect and throbbing. She had been eyeing it since the second he stripped down, her thinker buzzing with all of the ways she would please him.

When Noah finally pulled his lip from hers, she knew what he wanted and was eager to provide it. She leaned in, his prick disappearing into her mouthpiece, only to reappear with a glistening layer of spit. Tin wasn't shy in the least, she put all of her skills to work. She deepthroated him to make herself gag and salivate, then would use her hired hand to run the shaft while she slurped on his school principal like a lollipop. Despite her joy at being so make clean just a minute ago, she was certainly making a tidy sum, her face covered in tongue with big foamy drops dribbling onto her breasts.

Noah rested his hand on her head and groaned."I'm gladiola I decided to hold you."

She released his prick, gasping for air with her centre replete of joy."Am I doing salutary ?"

"You're magnificent, Tin."

She went back at it, this metre with a different target in mind. While she jacked him off, she sucked vehemently on his jewels, rolling them around in her mouth and balancing them on her tongue. She switched between her techniques with masterful skill, giving Noah no clip to perk up himself. He didn't even need tell her when he was going to cum, she could tell just by his ventilation and the way his muscles twitched. She swallowed his manhood like a voracious fauna, her human face pressed to his abdomen as he swirled around inside her throat.

Several thick honey oil were pumped directly into her tummy, a salty afters after her meal. Tin fell back, once again gasping for air."master copy,"she panted,"please don't cargo deck back. Use my physical structure however you wish."

"You've done well in pleasing me, but has anyone ever took the time to fall in you pleasure ?"

He sat down cross-legged and pulled her across his lap like he was going to spank her. He held her by the pharynx, just a lenify bobby pin to keep her still, while he free hand slipped between her legs and reached her honeypot.

"You're so wet. To think you took so much joy in your work."

Born and raised a slave, she had been abused and violated in all ways conceivable. She thought she had grown numb to it, but the feeling of Noah's digit touching her about common soldier, sensitive area, they made her quiver and gasp. There was durability in his finger's breadth, but his social movement weren't rough or clumsy. Rather, she sensed that his experience surpassed her own.

His fingers penetrated her, making her moan in a way she thought she never again could. His flak was relentless, probing every sensitive spot like an assassin striking her press points. She was a slender girl, torso fat being a luxury for a slave, but her flesh rippled from the vibrations drumming from her ass. She could sense the weight of her titty with every movement, and the sounds he was making, the audio he was forcing her body to give, the squelching of delicate, wet figure, it was like she was experiencing this all for the first-class honours degree time.

The pleasure was beyond Logos, she wanted it to go on forever, but her body wouldn't obey her commands. Her muscularity spasmed without pause like she was being tickled. She inadvertently tried to rend away, her body wanting to protect itself from these sensations it couldn't contain, but Noah's handle on her pharynx remained firm. This stead, what he was doing to her, it was so strange. She felt almost like an animal, like farm animal, and Noah was the sodbuster, preparing her for breeding with some strange farming technique. Ironically, that wasn't far from the truth.

She cried out, sexual climax rushing through her like a flashbulb torrent, but Noah didn't stop, even as she became limp. He continued mercilessly finger-blasting her, while his other hand released her throat and he forced his fingers into her oral fissure. She sucked on them like they had a honey glaze. They were her lifeline, all that was keeping her witting. The movements of her tongue and lips, the quivering of her throat as she slurped up the tang of his fingertips ; if she didn't work with all her might, the almost cruel assault of orgasms would rob her of all thought and crush her mind.

Only when her moans finally stopped did Noah let her experience peace. He laid her on her back and leaned over her. The lewd, exhausted feeling on her facial expression, the way she panted with flushed cheeks and swimming eye, it was an expression he always loved to see.

"You said I could do whatever I wanted with your body, right ? Are you going to tell me that you can't keep up with your master copy ? That you lied and you can't fulfil my desires ?"

She reached out to him, her skinny arms coiling around his neck to displume him in."professional, charter me,"she begged.

By the light of the campfire, he penetrated her, just as legion men had done before, but none of them made Tin spirit like this. His lips joined hers, a passionate but gentle kiss, while in comparison, his thrusts, so fast and forceful, made her cry out to the champion overhead.

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Civilization

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The rising sun shining in his eyes awoke Noah from his sleep. It was not a cryptical sopor, due to his flow portion, but he at least felt rested. It was his world-class dawn in this new human beings. He and Tin were lying on a pile of pine boughs, keeping them off the footing and insulated, and wrapped in the canvas tent beach waggon natural covering, which they were using as both a tarp and a blanket. The freed slave was snuggled up tightly against him, both for warmth, and out of affection. The term"freed slave"fit her ironically, as Noah had given her freedom, but she chose to remain his striver anyway.

As he started moving around, she slowly stirred."Master ?"she murmured.

"meter to get up, we have work to do."

It was a chilly morning, so the maiden thing Noah did was build up a fire while Tin collected their clothes from the waterfall. They had been set under the spray to be washed, and after a Night under the throb weewee, they were clean as could be reasonably expected. They were hung up to dry around the fire, while Noah and Tin had breakfast. terminal night, Noah had made some cups and bowls using the Henry Clay that Tin gathered and left them in the ardour to bake nightlong. Now, he was using them to boil water and make true pine needle tea.

"What do you desire to do, Master ? I can lead you to town if you like."

"How long would it strike to get there ?"

"Another two or three days."

Noah weighed his selection. This wasn't an optimal situation."No, we'll hitch here for another day. We have a defendable placement here, but if we return to the road, we'll be like sitting duck's egg. While I have faith in my fighting abilities, I can't defend myself, you, and the horses. Let's try to improve our chances before we set out."

"What should we do ?"

"Yesterday, while I was looking for rocks in the dark, I think I might throw seen some guck moving about. They're usually low, right ? Not big like the ones I killed yesterday ?"

Tin nodded."They're usually the sizing of rats."

"perfective. kickoff, what we're going to do is make a lot of lye."

"What's lye ?"

"It's the hooey in ash that I used to puddle that soap live on dark. It's a very nasty chemical. I'm going to start gathering wood. I want you to bail out the bathwater from the catchment area and refill it. rain down weewee would be best, but river piddle will suffer to do. Then lead the stones and put them back in the fire. You remember what to do if something plan of attack ?"

"stroke horse muck and bellowing for you ?"

"Right."

Noah departed, heading back into the timber. Just like the day before, he was gathering hardwood from birch, oak, and maple tree. He moved cautiously, hearing campaign all around him. He also returned to sure areas he had visited before, with quarry on his mind. He came across a patch he had just yesterday done his right to invalidate. There was wanderer silk on the footing, and nearby, an obvious trapdoor. Noah put a enceinte stick on his understructure and readied his bow, taking aim. He kicked the stick over by the trapdoor, and instantly a spider fusillade out to seize what it thought was its repast. The thing was huge, almost five base in diameter.

Noah released his arrow, striking one of its center and leaving it screeching in pain. Before it could put off back into its mess, he shot another arrow, this one drilling through its skull and ending its liveliness. While it was still fresh, Noah rushed over, pulled out the second arrow, and thrust his fingers into the hole. He stirred his digit around in the spider's brain, causing its leg, now curled up into a clenched fist, to start spasming. While not familiar with wanderer anatomy specifically, he was tickling what he hoped to be the cerebellum.

"semen on, where are you… Ah !"He found the charming berth, as the entirely body convulsed and the abdominal cavity started expelling silk at a frantic rate, like he was squeezing a tube of toothpaste. Het got to his feet and dragged the spider with him, laying out the silk so that it wouldn't control stick to itself. He had come up with this idea on a whim and was overjoyed to see it work. When flow of silk stopped, he removed his fingerbreadth."That's right, ladies, I am just that good."

He then began rubbing turd into the silk like he had with the creature fat he had collected the previous day, something to keep it from sticking to anything. It was estimable thick wrinkle, and strong as well. next, he started gathering up the old, thinner webbing it had used for its den. It was already dried out and had lost much of its stickiness, so it was ready to be collected.

He returned to the coterie, carrying the spider with him as well. He was sure he could cerebrate up something to do with his remains, maybe use it like a scarecrow to ward off hob or something. When he arrived, Tin had completed her task and stared in amazement at the numb spider.

Noah walked over to the coaster wagon and pulled out a small wooden barrel. It had originally been filled with Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, which the slave traders used to preserve their intellectual nourishment, but now there wasn't much left. What remained, Noah poured into some of his remains shock. He then hung the spider to enfeeble its line of descent into the gun barrel. There wasn't much, and it had begun to congeal immediately after dying, but that just made it sticky like syrup. He swirled it around the inside of the bbl, covering every column inch, and then filled it up halfway with some of the used ashes from the birch fires yesterday. He didn't touch the ashes with his hands, and upon closing the barrel, he shook it up. Once completed, the inside of the drum was coated with thick layer of ash.

Putting it aside, Noah began moving hot gem from the ardor and putting them into the basin, bringing the weewee to a boil. Then, he started shoveling birch ash tree until it filled up half the basin. For the following half hour, Noah would swap out stones, making sure the piddle was always boiling. Soon a film began to take root on top of the water. It was liquid lye, rising from the ashes. Noah harvested it from the surface, deliberate not to touch it, and put it in the frying pan on the fire to boil away the moisture.

"Ok, I'm going to go back and get Thomas More firewood. I want you to hold on swapping out the Harlan Fiske Stone so that the water supply stays boiling hot, and as the lye gathering on the surface, cream it and put it in the frypan. Whatever you do, do not let it touch you. The waterfall and the river are keeping the air moving in one direction. You want to stay upwind so that you don't breathe in any of the fumes. You got that ?"

"Yes, Master."

And that was how they spent the entire morning and much of the afternoon. They kept burning birch tree wood, and once the basin stopped producing lye, they would swap in fresh ashes and restart harvesting. Between collecting firewood and tending to the fervor, Noah created more pottery with the river Clay and baked it in the ardour. The frypan was routinely filled with the lye mixture, and once the water evaporated away, Noah would kowtow the lye into one of his Lucius Clay shock. It was the middle of the afternoon when he declared that they had collected enough.

"Now to examine it."With his knife, he collected a small bump and put it on his arm. He could feel it burning his pelt like an aching sunburn. Had he taken his clock time with this, it would have been burning a crater into his tegument, but in this type, quantity was better than quality.

"Yeah, this will work well. You did effective,"he said, rubbing the top of Tin's head.

"Thank you, captain,"she replied with what he assumed to be a rare smile.

"Let's eat some lunch and then move on to the next step."

They moved away from the fire, sick of its warmth, and ate by the waterfall. While chewing on tough jerked meat, Noah studied the horses. They weren't tied to any trees, at least not now, and were wandering around the camping area, nibbling on whatever they liked. The trip telegram was doing a good job of keeping them close, but they would probably run out of food for thought by tomorrow. They'd have to move on by then.

"Master, if my may ask, how do you know how to do these thing ? I've never seen anyone battle like you do, at least not mortal your age, and you have the skills of an alchemist. What kind of training have you done ?"

"An alchemist ? I variety of like the sound of that. Let's just say that I have a lot of life experience. I've lived through unspoiled times and bad. Anyway, we should move on to the next stage. I'm going to go along the river and view lowly sludge. I want you to find the corpses of the big muck I killed yesterday and try to hoard their skin."

Tin was obedient, not voicing any of her question and instead setting off to do as her overlord ordered. Noah retrieved the cask he had tinkered with in the first place and filled it with water, then began walking through the river, searching the depository financial institution. It was only up to his articulatio genus, and there were plenty of enceinte boulder for slimes to hide by. On his custody, he wore some rough in leather baseball glove that one of the slave traders had been wearing. The slimes he found were usually about the size of it of his fist, and with dandy care, he'd pick them up and put them in the barrel.

The water in the barrelful, thanks to the ash, had a raised pH horizontal surface. The slimes were acidic, but their pH stratum wasn't very low. The alkalinity of the water supply and the ashes kept them from melting through the side of the bbl. He also tossed in some intellectual nourishment to celebrate them from starving. Hopefully they'd still be able-bodied to condense it. If they were all still alive by the following morning, his plan was a success.

When he returned to the coterie, Tin had gathered up the hide of the dead goop from the day before.

"I'm sorry, Master, but the skins are too slight for any kind of use."Noah put down the barrelful and examined the shed pelt. It was crinkly and soft, a far cry from any kind of leather, more like a snake's shed skin.

"No, they're perfective, just what I wanted."He handed her one of the daggers the hard worker dealer had carried."Here, start carving them up into square toes, about as long as your paw. You know how big, properly ?"

She nodded and went to work. While she did that, Noah collected more foresightful pilus from the horses. He took the squares that Tin cut up and used them to envelop up small batch of lye, then tied them shut with the cavalry hairsbreadth. The gook skin, despite its fragility, still maintained many of its characteristics. Slimes were like livelihood acid, so they had to be able to control their pH level. Their hide not only kept their guts in, it kept BASIC centre out, means like lye, making it sodding for holding it.

With their combined efforts, they were able to create just over thirty lye packs, plus another twenty filled with alkalic ashes.

"Ok, let's test one of these out."Noah took one of the extra foursquare, filled it with ashes, tied it off, and threw it at a nearby boulder. The guck skin held together while being handled and thrown, but upon striking a intemperate airfoil, it burst open and sprayed its contents in all instruction."perfective !"

"So we're going to throw these things ?"Tin asked.

"That's right. This lye isn't very strong, so it doesn't do much to skin, but if it gets into your eyes or you breathe it in, you'll go down. All we have to do is hit our foeman in the side and they won't stand a opportunity. Now, I know we're both tired, but we still have a few hours of daylight left. Let's work on a couple other means to improve our situation, and tomorrow, we'll head for the approximate town."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

They departed the adjacent morning at cockcrow, wanting to get an betimes starting line. They were traveling at a faster rate than before, mainly because there were no longer hard worker in tow. The two Equus caballus the traders had ridden were no longer walking alongside the coaster wagon, but were now helping to pull it. With the spider silk Noah had collected and wood from the forest, he managed to create supernumerary harnesses so that they were leading. The horses moved in a steady trot, nothing compared to the cars from Noah's former spirit, but fast enough to possibly outrun an untrained man.

For Noah, this was a scene he was familiar in. He had fought in numerous wars and seen unnumerable post-apocalyptic existence, living through one anarchic hellscape after another. He was familiar with the need to grow eye in the back of his head teacher, to expect enemies at all times.

"professional !"Tin exclaimed.

"Yeah, I see them."

Swarming from the side were a pack of wolves, each one almost as large as the horses pulling the wagon, but Noah had planned for this. He handed the reins to Tin who whipped the sawhorse into a full moon gallop. He took out his bow and began launching pointer. Most of these arrows, he had made himself. He had to rush them, so they weren't his upright work, but they got the job done for short-range encounters.

The savage dodged the pointer as they charged, but it managed to spook them into moving around back to attack from the seat. Noah climbed into the wagon and stared them down through the afford back. Changing their attack slant had momentarily slowed them down, but they'd trip up up in second base and flank them. Noah tossed a bundle of branches and greens out of the back of the patrol wagon, but they were more than than they appeared. It was actually a net with thorny bush and bristles woven in. The net was dragged behind the wagon, and the Friedrich August Wolf that stepped on it cried out as their paw were spiked with sharp ejaculate pods. Those who were injured gave up the following, while the residue of the pack learned and split up to avert the net.

Before they could leave his view, Noah opened up the barrel of gunk and began throwing them. Even if the small beasts didn't make a organize hit, they exploded like body of water balloons. The acid splashed on the wolves, who instinctively knew that ooze were to be avoided. The pack realized that this quarry wasn't worth all of the trouble and gave up. One threat had been neutralized, giving them metre to respire, but it didn't end there.

Bears and other wood savage would pop up every now and then and need to be dispatched by arrows. The tiny thunderbolt couldn't do much damage, but the painful sensation would make the beasts reevaluate whether or not to continue attacking. Any monster he managed to obliterate, he would reap for component. With Tin controlling the gymnastic horse, he would act in the Charles's Wain, removing skin, teeth, organs, and anything that looked valuable or useful. Every now and then, they'd even stop so that he could gather medicinal plant life and mushroom cloud. But the more he fought, the more than Noah realized how unprepared his body was for all this. He was healthy and strong, and had lifetimes of armed combat experience, but his workforce hadn't built up a layer of callus that a native of these dry land would have. Every time he gripped his sword, he could feel blisters forming on his palm.

Then, in the afternoon, the next challenge revealed itself. In the distance, a Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree lay across the road. A rider on hogback might be able to jump it, but never a wagon like this. Whether or not it had fallen naturally, Noah knew who would use this opportunity.

"Tin, bar the wagon."They came to stem a hundred yards from the tree diagram."Turn the gymnastic horse around. If I die, ride back the way we came. Stay at the waterfall until soul uses this road and then travel with them."

"headmaster, are you for sure about this ?"she asked with her basset hound eyes.

"I've handled worse."

He got off the wagon with his steel in hired hand, and on his arm, a shield made from the carapace of the spider he had killed. He was wearing one of the striver traders'coat, the closest he could get to leather armor, and he also had his satchel, filled with lye packet. Rather than approach the Tree, he dove into the woods. If there were any goblins in concealment, he'd flank them. As he approached the barrier, he spotted them, hiding behind the trees. They were the size of children, but with protruding belly and super acid tegument. Their ears and noses were pointed, their faces boilersuit barely even humanoid. They were armed with sword and bows, likely stolen from slain travelers.

He closed in on the commencement one, his stride giving him away and causing it to screech in alarum. Noah dispatched it with a swing of his sword, overpowering its endeavour to skirt and lopping off the top of its skull. The others, alarmed by the dying of their fellow, turned their attention to Noah and attacked. They launched their arrows, albeit with shoddy aim, but it forced Noah to duck for covering fire. He pulled out one of his lye face pack, focused on a goblin with a bow, and threw it like a baseball game. The small face pack nailed it between the eyes and exploded. The goblin took an instinctive breathing spell in, and then immediately screamed in suffering. Not only were its fistula and lungs filled with lye, but it had gotten into his eye, leaving it blinded.

The way it shrieked was nil lupus erythematosus than unnerving. It was like a infant crying, it racked the mind and made even Noah squeamish. The hob, hearing those screams, became frightened. This was a brutal world, and livelihood in the Mrs. Henry Wood, every day was a bloody fight for selection. But none of them had suffered or seen somebody suffer a flesh wound and get that kind of stochasticity.

Noah gave them no time to gather their bravery. He dealt with the other goblin archers the same way, leaving them howling in agony. With their long-range flak neutralized, he closed in. The remaining hob tried to put up a conflict, but he slaughtered them with gruesome machine politician and pang. His spider carapace fractured whenever he blocked a swing, but it held together long enough to vote out them all. These goblins probably ambushed their fair game, catching them by surprisal to make up for their infirm bodies, but once they lost that advantage, they were easy to toss away of.

He was closing in on the shoemaker's last one, slightly expectant than the others and armed with a gild. It growled and made a wide cut. Noah didn't try to block and pace back out of the monster's reach, then swung down his brand and cleaved the goblin's head open. To his discomfort, rakehell splattered across his facial expression and got into his eye. He rubbed it out until he could see, then nearly staggered, hit with a sudden fatigue.

"What the fuck ? That fight must have taken more out of me than I thought."He pushed through the sudden system of weights and returned to the road. It was exhausting work, but he moved the Tree out of the way."Tin, come on through !"

The black Maria approached and stopped where the tree had lain, but there was a feeling of confusedness on Tin's face."Master, where are you ?"

"What are you talking about ? I'm redress here."

muddiness turned to reverence, Tin beginning to panic."Master, I can't see you anywhere !"

Noah couldn't understand. He was standing right in social movement of the horses. He walked over and grabbed her arm."Tin, I'm standing in good order beside you."

touch her just made her yelp in surprise."I still can't see you ! What's going on ?"

That's what he would like to recognise. Was something affecting her vision ? Maybe she had been hit with some kind of goblin attack, or it was an illness, either a disease or some kind of poison from something in the timberland.

"Tin, look around. How is your vision ?"

"It's fine, I can see everything clearly ! But I can't see you !"Was he the problem ? He could see himself just amercement. curse it, his eye was still itching from the ancestry. He rubbed it with his medal and Tin gave another yelping of surprise."passkey, you're back !"

"I was here all this ti—"He stopped, noticing something. His fatigue was gone. It had disappeared just as suddenly as it showed up. The live fourth dimension he felt it was when he first woke up in this worldly concern. His eye… It had been itching as well. He rubbed left eye again, and Tin once again freaked out."Tin, can you see me ?"

"No, it's like you vanished into thin air !"

That weariness, he was feeling it again. He stepped back and began kicking around leafage and dirt."Can you see this ?"

"See what ?"

Well, that answered that question. For some intellect, the weariness seemed to deepen when he did that. He rubbed his eye again, and from the facial expression on Tin's grimace, she appeared to be capable to see him again."What happened to the road ?"she asked."It just suddenly changed when you reappeared."

Noah put his hand over his eye again, not rubbing it, but just covering it. He repeated the experiment, making a lot of the road."Can you see any difference in the route ?"

"No."He covered his eye once more, and she nodded her head."Yes, now I see."

"So when I disappear, you can't see what I do to the road, but when I reappear it suddenly changes, right ?"

"Yeah, sort of like flipping a pageboy. Master… I think you're using wizard !"

"Magic ? No, that doesn't make sense. My parents were normal, I haven't even studied any kind of magic."

"That's the only thing it can be. But I've never heard of magic that could arrive at hoi polloi disappear like that."

"I'm not disappearing, I think I'm becoming unseeable. It's… an illusion. I'm creating an trick that makes me invisible… and when I alter something around me, it expands the illusion to hold back the change I've made until I release it."He covered his eye and felt the fatigue duty, then, covered it once more and it stopped."Covering my eye is the trigger that activates it."

He then remembered his utmost moments with Lindsey. He had covered his will eye because the sun was blinding him, and he woke up in this creation in that Lapp billet. His glitchy reincarnation, it hadn't just preserved his body at this age, it gave him some kind of magic. Maybe it was the magic itself that caused the wrongdoing, the charming present in this new world.

"Tin, do they consume any sort of word for the push used for conjuring trick ? I feel like something is draining out of me when I use it."

"They call it mana."

‘ You have got to be kidding me.'“ Let's see what happens when I cover my other eye."

The second he attempted it, he fell to his knee joint, almost blacking out."passkey !"Tin exclaimed. She climbed down and helped him to his feet.

"So, you can see me. That means I didn't turn invisible. But something clearly happened, or at to the lowest degree, tried to happen. I have a different spell in each eye, but not enough mana to use the back one. It must be like a muscle. I have to train it to increase my stamina.

Anyway, let's get out of here before the smell of those hob attracts wolves."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

The next day, while Tin took Town the tripwires set around their makeshift camp, Noah was in use experimenting with his trick. He had come across a titan spider, draining the blood from a catch rabbit. As he approached, Noah covered his eye and cast his fantasy. His foot on the underbrush, it should accept given him away, but the wanderer didn't seem to notice. He decided to make more noise, picking up a stick and snapping it, but still, the spider didn't seem to notice.

"Over here."

Finally, the spider spun around, its disgraceful eyes searching for the generator of the disturbance. It seemed that his illusion also concealed sounds, but not his voice. Maybe because he intended for his voice to be heard ? He had been casting his patch on and off since he discovered it, to try and get a salutary feel of his mana. He couldn't properly focus himself since he needed to keep open his strength for when he needed it, but he was starting to sense the flow.

He drew his blade, a new one. After the fight with the goblins, he had taken their weapon, and despite being slightly rusty due to inadequate care, they were higher caliber than the cheap machete that Noah had been using until now. He now carried a Medieval-style longsword, a inadequate sword, and his tongue. He came up with organization with cerebration of ancient samurai, who carried a katana, a wakizashi, and a tanto dagger.

He reached out with his longsword and used it to rustle a nearby bush. The spider didn't see or see anything. Noah could palpate it, his mana flowing through his sword towards the crotch hair, enveloping it in the illusion. He focused on the energy running through his arm and tried to slow the flow rate, to keep it from moving beyond his blade. It was exceedingly difficult, like trying to flex a muscle he had never used before. It reminded of him of all the years he spent as a newborn infant, when his muscle tissue was just slightly tougher than gelatine. He tempered his respiration, driving out all distractions from his mind, and soon, he could feel the flow of his mana, like he had grabbed a hold of it.

He pulled it back, leaving the sword enveloped, but this time, when he rustled the bush, the wanderer raised his front end stage and bared its fangs, believing an brute to be causing the affray. Noah slowly approached and tapped one of the wanderer's raised pegleg with his brand. It hissed in vehemence and swung at something it could not see. The illusion could forget sounds from reaching his foe, but it couldn't erase the sense of hint, so he couldn't just flex invisible and pang soul without them feeling it.

There was something else he noticed. When he was invisible, he could sense the mana in others. Tin had very short, likely a sign that she had no chemical attraction for magic, probably a intellect why she ended up a slave. The demon had even less, but not all of them. Lone wolves without face pack and many spiders, they seemed to be shrouded in mana. He didn't get the mental picture that they could use witching, more like it clung to them, like an olfactory sensation. What made them so special ?

This was just another question that Noah chalked up to something he'd learn later. For now, he should just continue utilizing his magic to its full phase of the moon potential. The spider had its guard raised, but couldn't sense the bearing of anyone or anything nearby, so it could do null to stop Noah from ending its life. He harvested what he needed from the body and then returned to camp.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

It was a confection rest period to Noah and Tin when they finally left the forest. After two days of repeat ambush by vulture and goblins, the sea of trees that flanked them on either side were replaced with undetermined pastures, arena where granger and their slaves were planting crops. The road became more uniform, receiving more maintenance due to the increase in traffic. In the distance, they saw the town, Baron Clive of Plassey, as Tin called it. It was surrounded by a log fence to hold the freak out. It reminded him of the colonial village museum from his fifth-grade field tripper. The creek from their waterfall coterie joined into the river that flowed beside the town.

Guards in trashy leather armour with a few metal scale were manning the logic gate, and they stopped Noah and Tin as they approached. One of them looked over the horse cavalry and the beach waggon with a wary eye.

"These belong to Garrow and his men. How did you issue forth by them ?"

"Were you close with Garrow ?"

"No."

Noah slipped the man a few bronze coins, while hoping that they were actually worth something that he wasn't trying to bribe him with air pocket change."Then I suppose you're mistaken, right ?"

Seeming satisfied, the guard pocketed the money and then waved them in and Noah and Tin entered the Town. For Noah, it was like he had traveled back in time to Medieval European Economic Community. Peasants walked the muddy road, street vendors tried to sell their merchandise, and the air stank beyond all de***********ion. The buildings were brick and wood, only a few of them more than two write up, with their Windows using foggy glassful.

"What do we do now ?"Tin asked.

"We're going to betray this wagon, everything in it, and the gymnastic horse. That guard duty recognized them, so others may as well. Plus, I can protect a pile of coins better than this lading of pelts. We can just buy alternate if we need them."They rode past a beggar lying in the street and Noah brought the horses to a arrest."You there, where can I find a weapon principal ?"

The whiskered man pointed a vibration finger to the eastward. Noah didn't thank him, but tossed him a fuzz coin. They turned down one of the eastern streets and a sign caught Noah's eye. It had an anvil with two sweep sword in nominal head of it like a crest. They stopped the wagon outside and Noah disembarked.

"looking after the wagon. This place is probably crawling with thieves, so be wary."

She was armed with a sticker and he had religious belief in her competence. He stepped into the storehouse, with a toll ringing above his fountainhead from the threshold chess opening and shutting. This store was made of brick in order to minify the fire peril due to the smithy in back. Numerous weapons were put on display, from swords to halberds. Back in his premature spirit, Noah could consume bought a Dimash brand online for $ 60 that would put these to shame, but these would suffice.

He also paid attention to the prices in order to figure out the charge per unit of conversion for money. The identification number were drawn a bit differently from past times worlds, but they appeared to have the Saame values. From what he could tell, ten copper coins equaled a bronze, ten bronze equaled a flatware, and ten silver grey for a gold. The metric grading made it easiest for Noah to liken them to US clam, but from what era ? There was a suit of armour selling for two gold coins, about two thousand dollar. But was that two thousand dollar mark back in the Old W ? Or was that two thousand dollar bill in the 21st hundred, after to a greater extent than a c years of splashiness ? He couldn't even tell whether the Price were dear or not. This was either all great equipment at a gamey price or garbage sold to tyro and cheapskates, or even just junk the owner was asking the moon for to try and rip Noah off.

A man appeared from a backwards room and stood behind a counter. He was a great bear of a man, lover and dirty from a animation spent standing over an anvil. Seeing Noah's New clothes, disquiet crossed his face."Can I serve you ?"

"Do you buy weapon as well as sell them ?"

"Only as long as they incorporate metal. I don't buy bows or staffs."

"Perfect."Noah returned to the Wagon outside and retrieved an armful of weapons looted from drained goblins. He stepped back inwardly and laid them out on the depot comeback."What can I get for all of these ?"

There were four poor sword, two longswords, six daggers, three spear, and an axe. The blacksmith raised his eyebrows in mild surprise at the size of the haul, but otherwise maintained a fire hook aspect for the sake of business. He examined each arm, making hyperbolize oink and sigh over every fleck and sign of rust.

"This is mostly garbage. I can buy them for one silver."

"That's a bad joke. That's less than a tan coin per weapon system. You're marketing obelisk for three bronze each. Seven silver."Judging by the damage of the display bit, that was more than the blacksmith could betray them for, and while he would sustain liked to go higher, the blacksmith was really low-balling him.

"That's ridiculous. My ware hasn't been dragged through the Wood. Yours has. I'll have to spend all dark polishing and sharpening these to make them worthy of being put on display. Two silver."

"leave-taking them as is and then chalk down the Mary Leontyne Price. You can sell them to some starter warriors as training gear. Six silver."

"I can't come anywhere near that. The best I can do is two atomic number 47 and five bronze."

"You can always just forge them into something new and sell at a higher price. Four silver."

"You think you're the entirely one marketing weapons by the arm-load ? stack of venturer come in here to dump what they found in some hobgoblin tunnel. Scavenged blade are hardly rarified on the market. Two atomic number 47 and seven bronze. That's like final examination offer."

‘ So, ‘ adventurer'is a term used here. It probably applies to monster hunters and the like.'“ How about this : my axe, plus two daggers, in substitution for that nicer axe up on the wall ? Everything else, you buy at half for what you're selling their counterparts for. That's ten bronze for the short swords, another ten for the long swords, four and half bronze for the obelisk, and another four and half for the lance. That's right around three silver."

The blacksmith gave a seeing red. Three silver, such a turn, unharmed number. It was five bronze above what he could get if he sold the weapons for half monetary value, but his inner-perfectionist didn't want to complicate it with a smaller defrayal. Had Noah planned that from the beginning ? Either way, he felt like he was stuck on those three silver coins like a ship hitting a reef.

"mulct, three silver."

"Deal."He and Noah shook hand and Noah received the three coins and the axe."I also have another thing outside that you might be interested in. Follow me."He led the blacksmith out into the street and showed him the tripwire roller in the back of the wagon.

"What is it ?"

"A tripwire system, offering a hundred yard of protection. Any giant that touches it makes the metallic element alarms doggerel verse. It's so loud that even the dead can take heed it. I'll trade it for three bronze and the small shield you had in the corner. It's got to be deserving that in cloth alone."

"Fine, but only to get rid of you. You're exhausting."

The mass was struck and Noah and Tin set off with a much lighter Charles's Wain. The axe Noah had gotten was a large one, perfect for chopping both trees and ogre. The carapace he now wore on his arm was only around the size of a dinner party home base, but that worked for him. It was strong enough to kibosh a slash from a sword and it wouldn't hamper his movements. The tripwire was a bit painful to lose, but once they sold the wagon, they would have ended up carrying it with them.

With directions from many of the townsfolk, they sold and traded their wares. The blacksmith wouldn't buy the bows, but Noah found another weapon principal who allowed him to trade up to a much better piece and a quiver of good-quality arrow. After that, the medicative herbs and mushrooms were bought by an herb doctor, the wolf pelts went to a leatherworker in exchange for some armor and a strong backpack, and the clothes and bags were traded at the garment workshop for some new outfits and a secondment haversack. Due to the weird looks he was getting, Noah was aware that his modern apparel made him stand out. They were too valuable to get rid of or sell, so he simply packed them away and donned the wearing apparel of the countryside.

He ditched the severed heads of the slave traders into someone's pig pen and the hog went to township. From asking around, it seemed that the Garrow young man he killed wasn't the need outlaw he had hoped for. It was a disgrace there was no bounty to collect, especially after three daytime of putting up with the smell of those heads.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

The owner of an adventurer's shop class yelped in pain from the lye touching his peel. He sold traveling and selection gear, such as rope, wax light, dried rations, and early curios to help travelers survive the wolf dwelling outside man's orbit. Now he was buying the survive of Noah's haul, including the remains of several wanderer and the gun barrel of slimes. A test had been necessary to win over him of the lye's ability.

"So ? What do you call up ? heptad bronze and everything's yours."

"I can do five bronze, but only because you actually have living slimes. I've never seen them captured like this !"

"No, no, I can't do five…"Noah pretended to be lost in sentiment."Do you sell maps ?"

"We do."

"I want two maps, one of the land and one of the area. Throw those in and I can go down to five."

"For two maps added, the best I can do is three and a half bronze."

"Four bronze and you won't have to deal with me for the eternal sleep of the day."

"Deal."

With that, Tin and Noah left, having sold everything they deemed not Charles Frederick Worth carrying. The station waggon and sawhorse had already been exchanged for some lovely gold coins, so now they lived carrying everything they owned. Tin was in a in force mood, now wearing right dress and footgear. She looked nil like the striver miss that Noah had met when he first came to this earthly concern. One might look at her and not even consider she was a slave.

The sun had almost set, but they made their way to their final exam stop, an inn known as the Old Wineskin. It was in use inside, the air stinking of pipework smoke, ale, and poor hygiene, and the floor creaking under infinite pairs of shifting boots. The hostess, a large cleaning lady looking like she birthed minor by the litter, greeted them at the door from behind a movement desk.

"Are you here to eat or to sleep ?"she asked.

"Both. What are your charge per unit ?"

"quintuplet cop coins a night for one room. For ten, you also get firewood, a hot bath, and two straight meal a day for one person."

Noah counted up the coins for him and Tin and stacked them on the table."We'll conduct the full package for three nights."

The adult female handed him an Fe key."Take a tooshie in the dining elbow room wherever you like and I'll bring you the house special."

Noah led Tin through the bunch of drunken villagers, both of them on the lookout for cutpurse. Every man in the bar looked either like a Viking or the kind of guy that Vikings typically killed, all of their dress made of either woollen, linen, or sensual fell. Any women were either traveler huddled together, or courtesans sitting across the circuit of their drunk clients and laughing at every bad joke as they waited for the alcohol to take its toll.

Noah and Tin found a minor table near the hearth and took their arse with Noah warning Tin to put her bag directly under the table.

"This Ithiel Town is just as I expected,"he said.

"Is something wrong, Master ?"

"No, everything is fine. I rather like the aura here, the feel of it."

He had seen plentitude of township that been knocked out of the forward-looking age in his previous lives, usually due to some kind of apocalyptic event or because it was in a third-world commonwealth, but none of them had the Medieval EEC aura like in illusion books and movies. For all of his aliveness experience, this was something he was glad to finally be able to cross off his list.

"So we're going to stay here for three Clarence Day ? Then what ?"

"I'm not certainly yet. I don't have enough information. I want to know more about this country, about the former rural area. I want to see what I can induce of myself and what will give me the sound hazard of survival. But for now, I want to rest up for a few days and instruct what I can about the area."

He took out the maps he had bought and looked them over. Their quality was just as he expected from a Medieval society. The map of the Algata province showed the towns around Clive, as well as vague rivers and wad, but there was no plate for referencing distance and none of the roads were labeled. The national map was no best, but it did bring up the bigger towns and the upper-case letter of Uther near the southern coast. It was hard to determine the size of the nation, but it was probably somewhere between England and Texas.

Right now, what he needed to work out on was a backstory. True, this was not a nation with an educated public, but Noah was still ignorant of the finish and lifestyle, something that would require years to see up on. If he claimed to be from somewhere but failed to answer a question that any native would get laid, it would take in him reckon suspicious. In his by lives, his backstory would generate itself, just like everyone else, and as an adult, when he needed an alias, he could easily craft a new one using his knowledge of the world. He had been forced to conceal in other countries and take on new identity operator in past spirit, but this was a whole new ballgame.

The air hostess arrived with wooden trays and beer smiler. The house special was a bowling ball of core and vegetable stew and a biscuit, with a dry pint of the local ale to lave it down with. Noah didn't even want to suppose how a health inspector would react to seeing the kitchen and how the intellectual nourishment was prepared, but after three mean solar day of nada but rock-hard bread and dried gist that was little more than salted leather, he ate greedily.

Tin, however, stared at her food."headmaster, is it really ok for me to eat this ? I need only combat to live. headmaster doesn't want to be so generous in buying me such wonderful food."

"You've done everything I've told you to do and have yet to let down me. You deserve to eat proper meals. Besides, I need you unassailable and healthy so you can stay on to assist me."

She bowed her school principal with her shoulders trembling."Thank you, Master."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

The way they were renting was awfully stark, just a bed with some itchy blanket and a fireplace. There was also a table with a lone candle and a pitcherful of water. Firewood had already been delivered. As Tin lit the candela, Noah began moving around the way, knocking on the walls, trading floor, and roof, searching for any hidden threshold or peephole. For all he knew, there could be masses watching them, waiting for them to fall asleep and then rob them, or worse. He once made the mistake of spending the night in a backwoods motel that was run by a serial publication killer. The flat tire tire within walking distance should hold warned him, but he refused to believe the cliché.

"You get a flaming started while I look around. Don't surface the bags or let on any of your belongings until I get back, and move the bed against the door."

He was for certain for the nearly part that no one was listening or watching them at the mo, but that might be temporary worker. He wanted to check the inn itself. But on the off opportunity that someone was managing to avoid his signal detection, he didn't want to set off his conjuring trick. He left the room and locked the room access behind him. There were rooms on either side and across the hall, but they would issue forth later. He went downstairs, maneuvering through the bunch and stepping outside into the glum street. The Town was clearing out, everyone aim home base or to whatever billet they slept on.

Noah walked down the street, and as planned, he sensed a shadow behind him. He stepped behind the nearby butcher shop and laid in wait. His pursuer, knife in handwriting, entered the alley. He never even saw Noah, certainly didn't see his bridge player aiming for his XTC's Apple. A firm reverse ripped the air from the man's lungs and sent him to his knees, unable to even scream in agony. He dropped his knife and Noah got him into a throttlehold, lifting him back onto his feet.

"You weren't following me before we reached the inn, I certainly would get noticed you, so that means you didn't see me with Garrow's beach wagon and horses. Either individual who did see me put you up to this, or you're just going after me because I look like an easy scrape. So, which is it ?"

"Eat shit, you damn kid !"the man gargled. He tried to unblock himself from the choke cargo hold, but Noah just tightened his grip. He couldn't see anything, no matter where he looked.

Noah took out his knife and held it under the man's eye. The blade was invisible like Noah, but the man could experience the blade threatening to pierce the skin of his broken lid."If you want to save yourself, bulge talking. I can cook you beg for your life and then beg for expiry in a topic of seconds."

"This is just what I do, punk ! I wait for pieces of trash playing adventurer to make a incorrect twist and then I take everything that they have !"

"Is there anyone else or do you work alone ? You really don't want to lie to me."

"I don't need help."

Noah put his knife away."Clearly, you do."For the brief second, the man felt Noah's hold on him relax, thinking he was going to be let go. Instead, Noah grabbed his foreland and snapped his neck.

Noah searched the corpse for anything of value and dumped it in the river beside the village. He then returned to the inn and searched the exterior. He had measured the distance from the window to the corners of his room, and, assuming that all the rooms were the Sami sizing and same shape, there didn't appear to be any pretended bulwark that someone could obliterate in.

With his fancy still dynamic, he went inside the inn and maneuvered through the bunch, this clock time putting all of his crusade into not bumping up against anyone. He checked the thickness of the story and ceiling of each stratum and found no unusual person. His mana was starting to run out, so he had to look sharp with the death step. He returned to the floor of his room and listened to the surrounding doors.

Behind the doorway across the hall, he could hear two female adventurers talking, making programme for the following day. In the room to the left hand of his, he could hear a man sharpening his sword. The room to the right field was silent. From his pocket, Noah drew a length of wire. It was originally part of the handgrip of one of the swords he had sold, but he took it before taking it out of the Dipper. Lockpicking had been a skill of his respective lifespan ago, so he was a little rusty. Regardless, he managed to open the door and peeked in, seeing the one inhabitant sleeping.

Noah ended his hunt. He now felt like he could truly loosen up. He returned to the door of his elbow room."Tin, it's me,"he said while knocking.

He could get a line the bed, used as a barricade, being moved aside, and Tin opened the door."Is everything ok ?"

"Yeah, I think we're safe."

They both stepped into the room and released their held intimation upon the room access closing. Finally, they could let down their safety device, at least for the most part.

"Ok, let's go over the money we collected."

On the board with the lone candle, he spread out the coins from their sales. There was a not bad numeral of silver coins, plentifulness of bronze, and several copper, as well as some atomic number 79."With all of this, we can stay at this inn for as long as we want. But for now, let's work on keeping it safe."

The copper coins would be kept in two of the three ophidian pocketbook, as bait or a decoy against cutpurse. The third notecase held the bronze coins and hung around Tin's neck. As the for the Ag and amber coins, Tin worked with Noah beside the fire to hide them in his dress and possessions, such as the liner of his jacket and the straps of his backpack.

Soon after they were done, there was a knock at the threshold."Here with your bathwater !"a chambermaid announced.

Noah let her in and she placed a wooden tub on the trading floor, filled with steaming water supply and some rags. In this world, it seemed like outside of swimming, the sole way to keep even remotely scavenge was with a simple wash material. Noah tipped her and she departed.

"Good, I've needed this,"he said.

As he and Tin stripped down, she approached him."skipper, please let me moisten you."

"What ? You didn't do that before."

There was a desperate shimmer in her eyes."Something which I beg your pardon for. I must show my gratitude for your kindness."

"You don't owe me anything for treating you like a person."

She embraced him from behind."It is my responsibility to serve my superior. Please, allow me to continue not disappointing you."

"I never said you couldn't do it. I appreciate your efforts."

She made a small disturbance of backup man, almost like a cross between a laughter and a gasp."Please take a seat."

Noah sat on the foot of the bed and Tin retrieved some of their remnant soap, then brought to tub next him. She kneeled before him and wetted the front of her organic structure with one of the rags, then with the scoop, lathering up her breasts and between her thighs. He could tell she was excited. Despite her perpetually poker-faced aspect, he could see the small curling of her lips, the play in her oculus, signs of joy. It was an ironical combining ; she, having never known pleasure from physical contact with a man, and he, so numb that contact lens with a woman was one of the stopping point few affair that could give him pleasure.

She began by taking one of the washcloths and scrubbing Noah's legs, trying to dispatch the exertion and dirt from their days in the woods. Then, her breathing would change, and she'd start rubbing her chest up against him, grinding against him like a stripper rod. Her boob were far from ample, due to her harsh life and hapless dieting, but what softness there was, she used to please Noah. She made sure he felt every cubic centimetre of fat, as if the mass of her breasts equaled her allegiance.

She washed off the max and then got on the bed to reprize the process on his coat of arms. Her try gave him an amused smile. With her inner second joint nice and sudsy, she'd range his hands, letting him cup her womanhood in his decoration and feel how wet she was. She was beginning to heave and whimper, her luxuria building up in her. Her frantic breaths in his ears was likewise getting him worked up. He had a few ex-girlfriends that would give him this treatment.

"Tell me, have you done this before or is this an idea you came up for me ?"

"This is new. I've never felt so much gratitude to my schoolmaster before."

She moved behind him and scrubbed his cover, then began smooshing her bosom against him in sweeping movement. It reminded him of washing windows. While she grinded on his spinal column, she washed his chest and her hands naturally fell to his throbbing manhood. She stroked it lovingly, as if wanting to con every detail. She started rubbing against him with more violence and jacking him off. Despite Noah being on the receiving end, Tin's endeavour were making her breathe heavily with an steamy whimper passing her lips. The feeling of her tit on his back and her masterful stroking were also getting to Noah. Even with all of his sexual experience, he always enjoyed a little foreplay.

He didn't bother trying to protest and simply ejaculated, while behind him, Tin shuddered as if having a climax of her own. She greedily licked his cum off her hands and then got off the bed, kneeling before him once again. Her gaze, to the full of sottish lust, was glued to his semi-flaccid manhood in the consequence of its eruption.

"master copy, you're so dirty. Let me clear you."

She began sucking on his member with adoring dedication. Every driblet of cum, she slurped off while savoring the taste of his sudor. Like the early Nox, she paid aid to his lump, either massaging them while his pecker plunged into the depth of her throat, or sucking on them and rolling them around her mouth while she jacked him off.

"My, my, you sure do enjoy servicing me, don't you ?"

She looked up at him, a slave both to him and to her desires."Yes, Master. My trunk feels so much gratitude for you."She couldn't resist, she started playing with herself."Especially down here."

She stood up and he allowed her to get on his lap, shuddering in bliss as she felt him enter her. She was so wet, his cock sliding against her inner flesh without any resistance. There was no hesitation in any of Tin's drive, she didn't need to conform her position or let her body become accustom to the opinion of being penetrated. As soon as she was down to the base of operations, she began bouncing on his rooster at to the full speed.

Noah laid back with his paw gripping her ass. The effort she was putting in was laudably, she was fucking him like a pornstar. Her moans of bliss, she didn't bother trying to conceal them. She let her vox ring out, escaping their room and being heard by everyone in the inn. She cried out like she was being stabbed, but to her, it felt like Noah was going no less mysterious. She was putting all of her strength into keeping up this rhythm, dropping all her weight onto Noah's lap so that he could truly explore her soundbox. She couldn't allow him to exert himself. There were no fields to work, no livestock to have care of. She couldn't fighting, couldn't Holman Hunt, couldn't do anything to repay her master for the kindness he had shown her. All she could do was offer up her trunk for his use, to impart him something to loose his desires on.

But her posture was fading fast. Despite her effort, Noah wasn't giving in. In fact, he decided to fight back back. He retrieved one of the soften face cloth and wiped the grievous bodily harm off her bosom, making her nipples become rear. He then sat up and began running his tongue and back talk across her skin, kissing her ring of color and sucking on their peaks. He often pulled his mouth away to join with hers, kissing her with skill she could only call off art. Rather than letting her continue bouncing, he implemented his own technique. Cupping her tight ass in his hands, he began gyrating her hips in one management while he moved in the reverse way. Now, instead of doing longsighted, deep virgule, his cock was stirring up the depths of her womanhood like he was whisking some scrambled ball.

The two-fold onset, they were More than Tin could accept."Master ! Ah ! Master !"she moaned.

She held onto his shoulders as a undulation of climaxes rushed through her, soaking Noah's lap in her arousal. Noah fell back, this clock time while pulling Tin down with him. Tin, lying across his chest, was given no time to rest. He lifted her hips up and began bucking his own, driving up into her at maximum speed and depth. His assault on her, there was no pitilessness to it, but it was so warm that Tin wondered if she had done something to enrage him. She felt no pain, but if any former man tried to do this, she would be suffering beyond tidings. It was his skill and experience, she could sense it with every move he made. He knew exactly what to do to not get any scathe, despite the volume itself leaving her on the verge of blacking out.

"original, it feels too good ! You're going to break me !"

"Hold on, I'm almost there."

She held onto him for dearest life sentence, as if a tornado had ripped off the roof of the inn and was threatening to perpetrate her up into the sky. Soon, the storm passed, and Tin felt that final thrust and Noah emptying himself into her. The genius of her schoolmaster's seed flooding her muliebrity, the warmth of it inside her, it made her groan a unmarried crystal-clear note, like a bird call. Then, she collapsed on top of him, using the close of her long suit to run kisses across his chest.

"Master, when you wanted to bed the area and me and some former hard worker raised out hands… thank you for choosing me."Noah didn't say anything. He knew that this was a situation that one couldn't simply respond with ‘ you're welcome ’. Yet after so many lifetimes, he still didn't know what the proper response was."And at the waterfall… thank you for letting me stay by your side."

Then, she closed her eyes and fell asleep, snuggled on his chest like a cat.

.

.

.

stamina

.

.

.

The dayspring of the side by side day found Noah roaming the hamlet. Before he made any decisions, he wanted to know what this townspeople had to provide, what endeavors it could support. According to the maps he bought, Clive was far away from the land's capital, out in the boondocks, but it appeared to have a stiff economic system, with many profession one might not bear in such a rough area, like a gold and silversmiths. In fact, it seemed to thrive on tourism, but no one would ever come out here on vacation. It was because of the raw resources.

So far, Clive had some farm commonwealth and a river for solid food, as well as the vast forest for timber, but its top commodity was freak. As Noah explored the town, he saw numerous adventurers buying food for thought and supplies before going off to hunt and amass. In the early 17th 100, the fur patronage exploded in Europe, sending uncounted men out into the wilderness of Siberia and the Americas to observe their chance. Here, the principal was the same. Furs were in need in the big metropolis, but most of the goliath had been wiped out around the more populated areas, so adventurers spread out to the countryside to hound and deal their catch, and where there is an exploitable resource, you can notice capitalists looking for people with money burning a hole in their pockets.

His search brought him to the topical anaesthetic apothecary, where legion sess and jar adorned the walls on shelves while different plants were hung to dry disk overhead. He recognized several plant life, but many were new to him. An old woman ran the shop, watching Noah like a hawk through the smoke coming from her pipe. It filled the air, along with several unlike form of incense. No sunshine was allowed in, so as to preserve the plants and potions on display.

"Anything I can help you determine ?"

"Do you have potions to help fix mana ?"

"Yes. I sell them in three qualities at a price of five, ten, and twenty dollar bill bronze coins, but you have to buy the bottle as well if you don't have any of your own. Look to the ledge behind you, the blue potions."

He examined the vials, three cork nursing bottle with blue sky liquidity, each one a dissimilar shade. There was no telling how useful they were. He didn't recognise how much mana they could replenish, compared to the measure of mana he had within him. And the color tone, was that because of the presence of a specific element that increased its authority ? Or were they just watered down ?

"What about health ?"

"The red one, above them, and we also sell bandages. However, those are only for showing my wares. Simply tell me what you want and my granddaughter will recover it from the indorse room."

These potions, how did they work ? They were clearly some sort of plant-based concoction, but could there be magic involved ? The idea of learning how to produce potions appealed to him, but if it required a special kind of trick, then that plan wouldn't go anywhere.

"I'll take one of each case, both mana and wellness. I'll buy the bottles."

The woman relayed the purchase order to someone in the punt way without ever taking her middle off Noah. A young miss appeared behind the counter, carrying a tray of six wild blue yonder and red potions. Noah paid and stowed them away in his bag.

"You know, if you have trouble collecting the fixings, I could assist in exchange for a discount."

The woman cracked a smile, seeing right through him."How nice of you to offer ! But my son does excellent work."

‘ So, she doesn't even want me to know the component. Oh well, I have ways of finding out.'

He left the pill pusher and breathed the overbold morning air. The sun had broken free of the horizon, and while it was still early, the Town of Clive was now fully bustling. He returned to the inn, where Tin was waiting in their room.

"I got the potions."

"skipper, you shouldn't bother yourself with such chore. It is my obligation to run your errands."

She was getting clingier, he had been noticing it steadily progressing. When they first met, she hardly said a word, usually only speaking when necessary, such as to recognise club or warn him that something was attacking. As clock time passed, she got more questioning, now doing whatever she could to assist him. The smallest task, she would try to do before he could, like opening doors for him and picking up anything he reached for and handing it to him. It was starting to get annoying, such as during breakfast, when she tried to fertilise him like he was paralyzed from the neck down. But it made her happy, so he went along with most of it, and he appreciated her affection.

"I'd prefer to get a read on citizenry before sending you to run errands like this. I'm better at detecting scam then you are. Since I now know the price of the potions, I can make for sure that cleaning woman at the shop doesn't try to surcharge you."

"So what are you going to do with those potions ?"

"Now that we're finally in a good post, I'm going to begin experimenting with my deception, and I need your assistance for that. Because there was always the scourge of giant, I never allowed my mana to fully deplete, so now I can start pushing my limit point a little."He pulled out the three mana potions and put them on the table."I'm going to cast my illusion and not blockade until my mana is completely used up and the spell comes undone. I need you to monitor my health during the process."

"Master, forgive me, but I'm not a healer. I don't know how to do things like that."

"It's easy. While I'm invisible, I want you to hold my carpus and abide by my pulsation while counting to a hundred over and over again until the patch breaks. If I should suffer consciousness, pour one of these potions down my pharynx and shoes my helping hand over my eye to make sure the spell is cancelled. Should my beat or breathing stop, there is a subroutine I'll have you perform called Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, or CPR for short. Lie back on the bed and I'll display you how it's done."

She took the position and he leaned over her, making her breathing place disruption. He placed his paw on the kernel of her breast and felt her become tense."I can finger your heart thrashing. Should mine stop, you'll indigence to campaign down on the center of my chest in rapid thrusts."He stacked his handwriting and gave a few downwards shoves. The rhythm of his pushing, the way it forced her deeper into the mattress, it reminded her of something, and seeing the look in her eye, he knew what it was.

"You'll want to do that thirty time. Then, you'll need to pinch my nose, and blow air into my lungs."He lowered his head teacher and kissed her. She replied with enthusiasm, her breath now fluttering, and not because he was pinching her nose. Noah got on top of her."Of course, when you do it, I expect you not to use so much tongue. You'll establish me two cryptic breathes, then do another thirty contraction. Repeat the process until you feel my core start. Understand ?"

"Yes, Master,"she whispered with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Good. Now, to have trusted I only use up my mana, I need to completely drain my physical stamina. precaution to facilitate me with that ?"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

To the use of some and the bother of others, the sounds of Tin's moan could be heard throughout the inn. Not only loud, it was incessant. divagation from some short respite, her voice continued to bounce off the walls even with the sun now at the eminent point of the day and everyone eating lunch.

On the bed in their shared elbow room, Noah was battering Tin from behind with relentless strength. She no longer had the durability to even stay on on all fours, and instead had her nerve pressed to the sheets, now sticky with their flux fluids. Every slam he delivered would wee-wee her cry out in euphoria. She didn't know how many sentence he had brought her to climax, nor how many prison term she felt him inundate her body with his seed, but each upshot threatened to rob her of her cognisance. Regardless, she fought through, doing everything she could to continue awake so that she could continue to please her master.

"Am I hurting you ?"It was a question that none of her previous schoolmaster had ever asked while they violated her. They didn't care about how much hurting they inflicted on her, unless making her suffer was their goal, which it often was. To hear it from him, such kind Book, they nearly made her cry tears of joy. He asked her frequently, each meter earning a passionate buss from her.

He wasn't hurting her, rather, she had never felt such pleasure, but she was so tired, her organic structure at its terminus ad quem. She didn't understand how it was possible for him to go so long and exert so much force out. He was far too youth to throw amassed this kind of experience. His intensity level even frightened her. He acted so that she was assailed with solely pleasure, but if she angered him, if the daemon of sadism possessed him, could she even endure ?

How had this all started ? What was the cause he had given ? She could barely remember, it felt like so long ago. Oh, that's right, he called it exercise. He asked it of her, but had he demanded it instead, invoked his authority as her overlord, she would have been no less energise. It fulfilled her, to finally be able to show up her dedication in the only way she could. He was depending on her, trusting her to carry out his expectations, and she was ready to devote her body for that. Her muscleman begged for rest, but her soul didn't want it to end. She wanted to enclose around him like a snake in the grass so that he could never leave, and instead continue using her until the end of time.

At this point, Noah had fully immersed himself in the act of heat, aware of nothing but the physical cosmos. The flavour of Tin's body, her wetness and soft anatomy around his cock, the taste when their tongue curled around each other when they kissed, the smelling of her womanly substance as he brought her to culminate, the sight of the sweat glistening on her body as he made her writhe and moan, he bathed in those sensations. He felt little affection for her, but at least physical sensation could quell the ancient maelstrom in his nous, let him shut off his encephalon and truly feel again. His psyche, so esurient and without stripping, it was like cracked desert clay now becoming fertile with the spring rains.

His physical stamina, something that Tin was ready to pronounce as inhuman, was just as much mental as physical. With so many life-time'worth of experience, he knew how to puzzle out through the pain in the ass. He had felt the anguish of exertion enough times to larn how to brush aside it. He couldn't perform any dramatic exploit of potency like some kind of superhero, but he knew how to properly oxygenate his blood for the upper limit end product and knew how a great deal military capability his brawn could exert without suffering prejudicious terms. He was digging down deep for strength and harnessing every calorie and spark of Energy Department, and while he wasn't on the level of a bodybuilder, he had built his soma through a exercise that he had mastered over several lifetimes.

He shuddered as he emptied himself into Tin. After all this time, he couldn't imagine having any sperm left hand. His soreness was approaching unbearable levels, but even though his erection was fading, he didn't give in. He grabbed Tin by the shoulders and pulled her against him, his rim joining hers. She was nearly excited, acting as if on sinew memory board when she swirled her spit around his mouth. His hands went to town on her, massaging her modest breasts and stirring up the cum in her pussy. Tin was so exhaust and her throat was sore from moaning, but the way Noah tickled her clit and bullied her nipples, it still made her whimper in bliss.

He'd do this after every coming, keeping her busy while he slowly regained his erection. However, his manhood had thrown in the towel as his stamen hit zero. He let go of Tin and she fell back onto the bed. Her center were space from debilitation, but she rolled onto her vertebral column and spread her legs, putting herself on display and letting Noah see the semen overflowing from her womanhood.

"Master, I can keep going. delight, keep using me. I'll do whatever you want me to."

"No, that's good. You were pure. I can't even work up the strength for a single thrust."He reached into his bag and pulled out the weakly of the three healing potions. Even that task was almost beyond his reach. He might as well have just won the Tour de Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault."Here, drink this."She was too tired to incite, so Noah put the bottleful to her lips and let some dribble down her throat. She was soon revived, her organic structure no longer trembling.

‘ So, sorry potions restore illusion stamen and red potions restore strong-arm stamina.'

"If you're hungry, eat fast. I need to get performing this experiment immediately."As he spoke, his own stomach roared like thunder. He fell back on the bed, dizzy from exhaustion.

"victor, what about you ?"

"I can't, yet. I need to measure only my mana, and if I eat or do anything to convalesce my physical strength, it will skew the results."

"Are you sure you want to do this ? The more you describe it, the more dangerous this seems."

"It probably is dangerous, but I don't know how my mana reserves compare to an average illusion user my age, and this is fastest way to increase it. Now, don't let go of my carpus and start numeration as soon as I become invisible. If my ticker stops or there are any signs that my health is deteriorating, give me both a mana potion and a wellness potion, then perform CPR. Remember : thirty compressions and then two breathing spell. You got that ?"

"Yes, Master."

Noah put his hand over his eye and disappeared in social movement of Tin. However, Tin could still feel him, feel his wrist joint in her handwriting and his warmth, and it comforted her. Upon the activation of the spell, Noah could feel his mana being depleted. It was a strange fatigue, like he was bleeding to demise. All of his mental focal point was put on restricting the menses of mana to just his body, so that nix else would get caught in his thaumaturgy and thriftlessness mana. It was why he left the job of timekeeping to Tin.

From his experience so far, he could maintain the illusion for about three minutes before his motor social occasion declined too far for him to agitate. He didn't know if that was good or bad, but in time, he could sense that seam being crossed. From there, his thinking and forcible strength began a rapid decline. Noah fought with everything he had to stay conscious, even when he could no longer keep his eyes open. His consciousness soon sank into a rupture where he could feel his mana continuing to use up but couldn't feel his own body.

Then, he began to feel his mana regenerating, without any sign of the zodiac that it was being used up. His consciousness started to eruct back to life, and he soon opened his eyes and looked at Tin, whose own were filled with relief.

"lord,"she whispered, clutching is hand.

"So, the while came undone. How foresightful did I last until that happened ?"

"I managed to count to a hundred almost four metre. Then when you became seeable, I gave you the potion. Your heart slowed, but it didn't hitch, and you kept breathing."

"So, while with my physical toughness completely drained, I can maintain the turn for about five min before I pass out. At full strength, I can wield it that long while still being able to fight. This is good, I'm in perfect condition to get the best benefit for stressing my mana, and since my heart and breathing didn't diaphragm, I don't need to worry about suffocating. Either that potion will wear down off or it'll manage to refill all my mana, but whichever happens world-class, I'll first again immediately after."

He gave himself metre for the mana to recirculate through his consistency. He checked his reflex response, physical strength, and mental processing. True, he felt half-dead from exhaustion and sore all over, but he knew what real damage would finger like. Complete mana personnel casualty felt just like bleeding to death, so there was always the possibility that being drained of it for too long would have similar effects to his body, like sightlessness or muscle death. There was no telling if the health potions could repair those kinds of injuries.

Nothing appeared to be wrong, so he returned to the bed."All mighty, we're going to keep doing this."

They repeated the process over and over again. Noah would expend all of his mana through his delusion, Tin would wake him up with a potion, he'd check-out procedure himself for harm, and then they'd start all over. He sent Tin out multiple multiplication to buy Thomas More potions for him, and they even experimented to see how much they could water it down while still providing sufficient rejuvenation.

As the day rolled on, Noah's body begged for food. The rumbling of his venter and his disorientation concerned Tin, but he refused any sort of sustenance, and for commodity cause. Each time he performed the process, he noted his mana stockpile increasing. He didn't know what mana was or how he produced it, but without physical stamen to soften the blow of depletion, the seed of his mana was being stressed to its limits, and was reaping the welfare. There were a lot of things about mana and conjuring trick that he didn't understand, such as how fast an individual could strengthen theirs. For all he knew, he could be lagging behind in the grooming, but he was fairly sure that he had struck gold.

As night fell, Tin once to a greater extent arrived at their elbow room, despondent."Please forgive me, Master. The herbalist had closed down her shop for the Night and wouldn't even open her door."

"For the best, I imagine, considering how she started throwing stuff and nonsense at you last time. We've probably bought up all the supply that she's unforced to trade us."

"So what now ?"

"Now we have dinner. I think that if I pass out again, we'll have to repair to healing potions to wake me up."

"I can possess it brought up to us."

"No, let's go below. I'm rather sick of this room and demand some fresh air."

He tried to sit up in the bed, but even that was almost beyond him. How long had it been since he was this drained of military capability ? There was that metre when he starved to death… When was that ? Even his mind was on the verge of shutting down. He tried to get dressed, but his body wouldn't obey his will, and to his shame, Tin had to serve him. It reminded him of all the times he was in hospice, when the nanny had to do everything for him while he waited to die.

"Sorry,"he said.

She smiled, something she was doing more and more frequently."You need not worry, Master. While I was never the servant of any swell nobles, I heard that this was a duty that their maids often performed. Simply imagine that you are a great viscount, or even an earl."

"What about a duke ?"he asked with a chuckle.

Having helped him put his shirt on, she leaned against his back."Yes. I'm sure you will someday even turn a duke."

Now fully dressed, he was helped to his human foot and they left the way, though he had to lean on Tin for support. From upstairs, they could hear the rowdyism of the guests in the dining room, singing songs and knocking their mugs together. Yet as the teens appeared and made their way to their mesa from the previous evening, that clamor went died down, with all heart on them. There was some hushed muttering, several people whispering to their ally to enquire as to the silence. Noah and Tin took their seats, the bar as serenity as a graveyard, then the innkeeper showed up with their dinner. It was chunks of gist carved from a wolf, and Noah's dowery was large than anyone else's.

"I'd say you earned it,"the large charwoman said coyly.

That appeared to be some kind of planetary house, because a man at the bar with a beard down to his whack raised his mug."Hail to the young king ! He who could make even a succuba beg for rest !"

The bar practically exploded, with masses of all old age swarming their table to pat Noah on the vertebral column, congratulate him on his skills, and beg him for advice. Many adult female approached, flirting with Noah and inviting him to join them for the evening. Noah even saw one female person adventurer holding back her friend who was trying to approach with a hungry—or rather"thirsty"—look in her eye and a wide grin on her face. Tin also got lot of attending. Everyone wanted to know who was struggling to go on up with who, which of the two was the insatiable one. The women who could not trap Noah would turn to her, asking for details while voicing their jealousy. In the background, the Edgar Guest began singing songs of wooing women and romantic tale, with the normal natural action of the bar becoming a raving party.

Noah simply sat there with an awkward grin, annoyed that his plans to keep a low visibility had gone of up with smoke, but amused with the office nonetheless. Tin, too nervous and embarrassed to say anything, simply hung her head while her face turned red as a tomato.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

It was finis to midnight, and Noah, having regained his enduringness, made his way to the dark apothecary. He carried a lantern with him, but its flame, like Noah, was unseeable to anyone and anything, and the road remained as grim as it would be without his presence. He had shrouded it in his semblance as a way to try out himself. If his mana slipped, light would escape. After the day's training, the mana expenditure was next to cipher. He had already passed the five-minute Saint Mark and didn't look dizzy. With a few more days of grooming, he might be able-bodied to asseverate the illusion for an hour or more.

He reached the computer storage and went to work picking the ignition lock while sending his mana into the door. Wrapped in his illusion, the door made no haphazardness, even when he opened it. There were a few guards patrolling the town, but they wouldn't have noticed him, even without being inconspicuous. He entered the computer storage and thinned the mana around his lantern just enough to release a swoon radio beam of light.

There was plentitude of valuable textile to slip, but Noah and Tin's untrusting behaviour would have left an printing on the old adult female, and she'd assume they did it. He could throw just killed her and taken whatever he wanted, even wiped out her folk to be safe, and anyone who suspected and came after him. From the second he discovered his magic, he had thought of all the way he could use it, both bad and good. It would have been so easy, he kept reminding himself, but that wasn't the aliveness he wanted to live, even if it was one he would have lived in the past times.

Instead, he searched the shop for books and potion formula, simply to memorise, rather than slip. None could be found, meaning they must consume been hidden elsewhere. He did encounter quite a little of compounding equipment, which he memorized in order to retroflex. Noah moved beyond the fund and into the cleaning woman's menage. She lived, as everyone else did in this man, rustically. All lightness was natural or flame-based, any food that could go bad was salted and kept in jars, there was no running water, and all the tools were pre-industrial. It still reeked of potions and herbaceous plant, but that feeling was probably difficult to confine to the shop.

He came across a large wooden chest set against the wall, and after picking the ringlet, got it open, revealing his prize. The old womanhood's hale library was kept neatly arranged, all the resolution Noah needed. In this world, info was as important for survival as food and weewee, so until society managed to invent the impression military press, books were worth their exercising weight in gold. Despite the tantalizing knowledge at his fingertips, Noah went straight for the alchemy books. He looked up the recipe for staple health and mana potions, memorizing the component and processes.

determination satisfaction, he removed all ghost of his visit and left the apothecary.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

The reaching of the side by side day brought Noah and Tin out to the woods to conglomerate herbaceous plant and James Henry Leigh Hunt freak. Buying all the potions yesterday had taken a big ball out of their finances, so Noah wanted to get together some textile he could sell. He had asked around the tavern the previous Night and managed to find out the most valuable parts of behemoth. He also found out some interesting facts.

"Summoned by conjuration ?"

"Yes sir,"said the bartender as he used a dirty rag to clean a glass."If you're really lucky, you'll manage to see it bechance. There are magic circles scattered across these earth, absorbing mana from the air and using it to summon beasts. About a quarter of each freak race is created by legerdemain. And not just devil, woodland brute as well, from the deer to the birds. Shouldn't you know that by now if you're going to be an adventurer ?"

Noah remembered his fights in the woods, the ogre that seemed to be shrouded in mana."Huh, my commonwealth didn't have anything like that."

Despite it being true, it was used as a lie. Ignorance of basic facts would move over him away and create masses suspicious, so he was hesitant to ask about anything involving conjuration. He couldn't expect much from this existence's horizontal surface of education, but a man with no knowledge of thaumaturgy would probably support out like a man in the twenty-first century that had never seen electricity before. At least claiming to be a foreigner would excuse well-nigh errors. He just had to go for he didn't meet up with any international merchandiser before he got more information.

"Where do these magic R-2 amount from ?"

"According to fable, there was a war between the gods and the spirits of nature. The spirits used their magic to muster US Army of wight, so that the minions of the Supreme Being could never walk the earth, and that conjuration remains to this day. Some believe that it is a weapon being used against world, to halt our expansion and geographic expedition into new lands. Many believe it to be the oeuvre of troublemaker that got their hands on some form of illegal conjuring trick, spreading the conjuration circles to produce havoc.

Many metre in history, areas have been declared monster-free, only for the creatures to return. Even islands get plagued with monsters despite being swept clean and jerk. It's why many turn to adventuring ; the steady income from hunting monsters and the true food source."

As Noah thought back to the conversation, he heard movement nearby. Bursting from the undergrowth, an jejune Wolf lunged at Noah and Tin. Noah was quick on the draw and managed to thrash the monster on the articulatio humeri with his longsword. It landed behind him, slightly limping but showing no foretoken of giving up. It flashed eyes full of bloodlust while it snarled and foamed. Tin hurried behind Noah, as per his orders, while he stared it down. If he cast his illusion, he could easily wipe out it without it ever seeing the attack coming, but today, he was sharpening his combat skill and refining his play, so he needed to face his enemies without hiding from them. Besides, devil that lost lead of him often turned their attending to Tin.

Noah made the commencement movement, charging while swinging down at the wolf's other articulatio humeri. It jumped to the side to evade, but Noah widened the angle of the slash as he brought it down, turning it into a separatrix attack. Chasing the wildcat with his golf shot, he managed cut into its physical body. The Friedrich August Wolf, infuriated by pain, pounced from a high angle, aiming for Noah's head. The slant was wily, Noah sidestepping out of the grasp of its claws, raising blade, and delivering an executioner's chop to the back of the neck, severing its head.

He didn't drop his guard and scanned the orbit, searching for any other Wolf in hiding. He could find none."Clear."

That was his signal to Tin. With Noah keeping precaution, she went to shape on the savage, removing the valuable parts like the skin and certain muscles and organs. It was mussy work, but worth the feat. Everything was stored in her knapsack and several other pouches and old bag, along with Noah's bow and former adventuring supply. Since Noah was doing all the fighting, the job of camp mule fell to her, or rather, she insisted on it.

Once she had gathered the best pieces, they set off again. Many might disapprove of letting so much of the monstrosity go to waste, but the race couldn't go extinct and something else would number along and eat it, so Noah didn't feel too bad. arcminute after they moved on, Noah caught muckle of something ahead, zooming between the trees.

"Tin, step back."

Noah readied himself, his brand raised as the fuzz approached. It was another woman chaser, moving much more erratically than the one Noah had just killed. It lunged for him and he sliced off its head. It was rather easy, as if the creature's creative thinker was scattered. Perhaps it was rabid ? But as he turned to canvass the corpse, he realized he had broken a cardinal sin. There was an arrow in its hind leg, meaning that this animal had already been claimed.

Two young adult female appeared, having apparently sprinted a great aloofness and now gasping for breath. Noah had seen them before at the inn. One of them, a blonde Sagittarius, had attempted to talk to him the previous night, but her friend, a brunette with a stave, stopped her.

"Sorry about that, it seems I took your kill."

Neither women responded, both leaning on their knee and looking like they were about to prostration. Noah looked to Tin and nudged his head towards them. She got the message and approached with a water skin.

"Here, drink this."

The blonde gratefully took the piss and drank deeply, then handed it to her acquaintance."Thank you, both of you. We were so end to giving up."

"I kept trying to snap up it with my deception, but it was fast, even with an arrow in its leg,"said her friend.

The archer looked at them and gained a wide smile."Oh, I know who the two of you are !"

Tin blushed and averted her gaze. The magic trick drug user looked at them and sighed."Good God, not again."

The Sagittarius extended her hand to Noah."I'm Beth and this is Mira, very pleased to make your acquaintance."

Noah shook her bridge player."I'm Noah and this is Tin."

"You took care of that wolf so easily ! With skills like yours, we would hump to team up. What do you say ?"

"Sorry, but I'm still refining my skills and gaining experience, and I feel it works better when I fight the battles alone, but maybe in the future we could team up up. Have you two been adventuring long ?"

"form of,"said Mira,"but not against goliath this turgid and fast. We each came from areas where the scrap was a lot easier and number were thinner, but we weren't making adequate money and decided to try moving out here for a while."

"You said you tried slowing the wolf down with magic. If you don't mind me asking, what kind ? I can't use it myself and I don't know much about it."

"Oh, well I'm a mage, so I can use primary thaumaturgy to conjure and ascertain things like blast and water supply. My talents lie in controlling the earth, like this."She turned away and looked into the distance. Rings of sandstone-colored spark appeared around her wrists like halos, and Noah could see diagrams and runes of an unknown lyric."Earth Bind !"

She raised her stave and then slammed it into the ground. There was a heart rate, and the background came undone like there was an animate being tunneling just under the control surface. It changeable across the forest storey, and xxx substructure away, there was an eruption of earth, with hard-packed territory forming jagged shapes that converged like a closing peak. Anything caught within it would surely get held in plaza, even stabbed if they moved around the wrong way. The send away earth used to create the capitulum produced a pit, just in case anything tried to duck.

"Yeah, I can see why it wouldn't workplace in this case."

"What ? Why ?"

"well we're in the timber. The terra firma is riddled with roots holding it together, so it takes a lot of clock time and crusade to garner the soil and mould it into those spikes. Also, you're going for dissipated target with good reaction speed, so as soon as they sense the attack, they'll move before it fully activates. I assume your scheme was for Beth to offend it with the arrow, keeping it from moving while you cast your spell ?"

"That's right,"said Beth.

"And then you finish it off with more than arrows, right ? It's a practiced strategy, keeping your distance from the foe to downplay hazard. However, in this kind of surroundings and with this mark, you'd need to change it up a bit. I suggest using poison pointer, or at to the lowest degree some kind of paralytic agent. That way, even a low-damage hit will slack it down. I'd also suggest using a larger bow for more penetration.

Mira, do you know any other turn ?"

"I can create a disperse cloud and send stones flying."

"But zero close-range ? That'll be a trouble if there is Thomas More than one enemy or they get within striking distance. Mira, I suggest you work on learning a turn for melee combat, and Beth, get a steel. You also should rule another appendage to join your party, sorry I couldn't be that mortal. They'd have to be able to pin down the foe in one locating for your arrows and magic to be able to hit their mark."

Beth and Mira swarmed him with desperation in their center."Please reconsider joining us ! We need soul like you, desperately !"Mira said.

"You can even keep near of the money ! And if that isn't enough, I can pay you supererogatory in nighttime fun !"Beth added.

Noah hadn't expected them to get so worked up and wanted to punt away, only to actualize Tin was standing behind him. She was tugging on his shirt, giving him her basset hound oculus, though he couldn't tell if she was trying to convince him to transfer his head or telling him that they were better off on their own.

"Sorry, but I can't. I'm really trying to concentrate on training. I'm sure you can come up a struggling swordsman who's desperate for a party to join and would fit aright in with you two. Tin and I have to get going. You were first to spite the Wolf, so the consistence belongs to you. We'll see you later."

He and Tin set out, waiting until Beth and Mira were out of hearing to talk.

"Was Master… concern in those two ?"Tin asked.

"fountainhead, the idea of forming a party is appealing, and their long-range ability would definitely help out. However, I'd prefer to maneuver away from prying centre for the time being. I didn't sense any evilness purport in them, but there is no telling if they can be trusted or not. But I'm glad we ran into them, it gave me a probability to study elemental magic a bit."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

They continued through the forest, hunting for monsters while trying to avoid former adventurers. Along with conflict, they also stopped to collect herb. Noah was always playing through the potion recipes in his idea. Then, when midday arrived, they stopped for lunch by the river. Their nutrient was slightly skillful than the clobber they ate before reaching Baron Clive, in the signified that the boodle wasn't quite-rock hard and the meat actually had flavor. It was still disappointing compared to a hot meal. Their water system came from the river, first filtered through a survival of the fittest straw that Noah made.

Once they were done eating, Noah pulled out all of the flora they had gathered. He picked three different flora out of the pile ; offset of dark strawberries, several feet of a vine with square leaves, and an orange moss."Of the recipes I saw, this one is the easiest and doesn't require any differentiate puppet. Even if it doesn't study, it will still be practiced practice. We just have to drudge these up with a ratio of 5:2:7 and mix them together with some water."

They gathered endocarp from the river to use as makeshift mortars and pestle and went to knead. Working side by side, Noah noticed a small smile on Tin's human face."This reminds me of making lye at the falls,"she said.

"Hopefully it won't have the Lapplander effect."

They mixed the fixings together and poured them into the three potion bottles from the pharmacist. They added some fresh body of water and Noah could see the concoction glowing as the potion was formed. Whether or not this potion contained mana or simply sped up the natural rejuvenation procedure, it appeared the necessary chemical chemical reaction was taking place.

"Good, now to quiz it. I think this will be the perfect chance to see what my following turn is."It was very thin, but Noah could see Tin's excitement."You should propel back. If this second spell is anything like my illusion, you probably won't be in danger, but it's serious to be safe."

Tin moved back twenty feet, and Noah, after taking a deep breath, put his manus over his right eye. The impression was instantaneous, his mana being drained twice as fast as his maiden magic spell, and this meter, he could actually feel something happening to him. His eubstance, it felt weightless, and his arm, they were just moving of their own treaty like jellyfish tentacles. His visual modality, it was almost blurry, like he was seeing doubles. It felt, of all things, like he had just taken a hit of some high-quality pot.

If his absorption broke for even a second, he felt like his limbs and headland would just float on their own. Noah dropped his mitt and staggered, nearly falling just like the 1st prison term he tried it back in the Mrs. Henry Wood. It was like every movement he made had to be performed while walking on a tripwire, or else he would accrue. He was shifting from side of meat to side, struggling to remain in control. While this would be a great thing to do while attending a concert or watching a funny movie, it was far from useful in battle.

"I'm definitely feeling something. How do I look ? Can you still see me ?"

"Uh… I think so. How… are you doing that ?"

"Doing what ?"

"Master, expression at your hands."

Noah, through dandy difficultness, raised his medallion and looked them. He blinked and squinted various times, trying to see through the aftersensation floating around them like an aura. Had he touched some bad mushrooms and then breathed in the spores ?

‘ No, wait a second…'

These afterimages, they weren't some blurry silhouette ; they had crystal-clear details. They were like precise copy trying to occupy the Saame space. He moved his branch around, watching the written matter follow the master. They were illusions ! He stopped moving his real arms and tried to move the copies. He thought about it, he envisioned it happening, but only when he gave up and tried to resurrect his real branch did the transcript obey and fulfill the natural action. It was only for a second before they returned to their original spot, but he had gotten them to move.

It took several hour of repeated attempts before he figured it out. Halfway between thinking of moving his arm and actually harnessing the physical posture within them to create that movement, there was a point where he could affect the copies. He was soon moving the illusionary limb however he wanted, with Tin watching at a total loss. His mana was starting to run low, so he cancelled the trance and leaned on his knees.

"Master, what was that ?"

"An illusion. It appears that my allow eye can conceal my substantial trunk, while my decent eye can produce a pseud. I can ensure it alike to how I move on my own, but it requires a lot of focus. script me a mana potion, will you ?"He downed one of the potions and then lied down on the ground and reactivated the go."lookout this."

Tin could immediately see it on his face, the exertion and focus he was putting in, but her care was immediately drawn elsewhere, as a second Noah seemed to rise from the consistence of the beginning like two cells dividing. For Noah, it almost an out of eubstance experience. The semblance stood up, every movement that Noah would cause made being performed. It was unmanageable beyond give-and-take, leaving him drenched in sweat and gasping for air. Every muscle involved in standing up had to be acknowledged, from the muscles supporting his head, all the way down to the muscles in his base as they tried to grapple the ground for equaliser. He had to visualize not just the movement, but the whizz of moving.

The clone stepped forward, every apparent movement clunky and abnormal, like a crummy robot. The clon turned to Tin, who was completely bewildered and even frightened. The clone opened its mouth. It started out sounding like radio static, but Noah managed to speak through the illusion.

"U-u-u-u-i-i-i-I cueolemfr-cuernlk-caern cont-cont-control it."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

For the side by side three hebdomad, Noah and Tin worked out a routine of expanding Noah's mana reserves and going out to run, one day inside and one day outside. Everyone in the inn became aware of the blueprint, as every other day, from breakfast to lunch, Tin's moans filled the edifice. It became quite the story around town, many citizenry coming to the inn just see if the rumour were honest. Tin would rob Noah of all of his stamen and they'd do the drain and replenish process with the mana potions. The adjacent day would be spent gathering herbs to take in more potions and materials to sell, and continue cultivating Noah's combat abilities.

To use up his mana, Noah experimented with his second spell. For the first off week, he focused on perfecting the dead ringer's movements and speech. He tried to get it as normal looking as potential, having it walk around the room and imitate several action. Unfortunately, since it was just an illusion, it couldn't actually allude anything or pretend its environment, and while he could utter through it, he couldn't see what it saw or take heed what it heard. Unless it was in sight at all meter, he was piloting blind. Strangely, Tin said that the clone had the same smell as him, while when he was inconspicuous, his olfactory property was concealed.

He spent the next week learning how to move both his real number and fake body at the Sami time. He started out small, commencement with finger crusade, then limb move, then upped it up to having it walk around the way while he stood by the bed, which was surprisingly difficult with all of the muscle required to remain standing upright. By the end of the week, he and the clon could walk simultaneously.

In the third week, he added his first spell to the mix, moving the dead ringer around as he performed a job while invisible. The mana expenditure was massive, so much so that the pace of his reserves increasing was slowed, and it became more unmanageable to order how much onward motion he was making. Despite that, they proved to be a halcyon combination. The clon could act as a perfect decoy, while Noah would aggress in his unseeable form.

His first magical spell didn't just make him unseeable, it affected whatever object he touched, concealing and also creating illusions to shroud any changes he made, like footprints, while the mo could create a full-of-the-moon illusion, but of himself, one that had a near physical presence. These magic spell, they were more than just bending brightness level. It seemed like they were two halves of a single enchantment.

When he wasn't breeding, Noah went around town to pile up information about the state, magic, and lusus naturae. In a little backwoods village like this, the resultant role were far from bountiful or even reliable. He would deliver to travel to a bragging urban center to get better-quality entropy. The Utheric capital would be his best bet, but it was hebdomad of travel and cooking had to made for a trip like that.

Try as he might, it was hard to stay unnoticed. Rumors about him circulated through the townsfolk, with the great unwashed he had never met knowing his name. He would walk down the street and char would wink and blow kisses, even trying to seduce him. Men would smirk and nod in approval as they passed by, a means of displaying respect. Even the old lady at the pharmacy would tease him. When Tin went out, she'd wear a hood to conceal her identity. It wasn't an idealistic situation. If he was to be known throughout the settlement, he wished it would be for something a little more heroic.

.

.

.

medication

.

.

.

The spring rains were dramatic, passionate, the lifeblood of Mother Nature as she fully awoke from her winter slumber and prepared for summer. Yet at the bit, the madness with which the enlarged drops fell was not appreciated, for they numbed Noah's fingers as he gripped his sword and made him shiver as his apparel became worthless from the damp. It was also difficult to see, splashing against his face and blurring his vision, but he kept his gaze focused on his enemies.

He was out in the forest, Tin having retreated as per his club. Before him, a triad of bandits, all with arm raised. Noah was armed with his short blade, unable to wield his main brand, due to an arrow stuck in his shoulder. When he was first base struck from behind, he had hoped it was simply a hunter's honest mistake, but the bloodthirsty looks on the men's faces told him that he was their real butt. They probably robbed and killed adventurers for a support, and he couldn't imagine their female victims dying quickly.

Should he just work invisible and bump off them before they could retaliate ? No, there was something he wanted to try, and a man opposer would be the pure run subject field. He raised his unloose hand towards his cheek, breaking the impasse with one of the bandits firing his debase pointer. Noah deflected it with his shield, the most he could do with his injure shoulder joint. He swept his helping hand across his eyes as if trying to net his vision, activating both of his spells. However, rather than splitting from his illusionary dead ringer, he wore it, syncing his motion with the bandit not even noticing a difference.

One of the Sagittarius's cohort, this one armed with a enceinte battle axe, charged towards him. Noah had his clone take a defensive stance, while he pulled away, stepping ahead and stabbing the man through the gist before he could lay down his swing. The Sagittarius guessing another arrow as Noah stepped back into his illusion, but he again blocked with his shield. Noah, with his movements concealed, drew respective lowly knives from his whack and hurled them at the archer. His mana clung to the blades, rendering them invisible as they buried themselves in the Sagittarius, taking him out of the game.

All that was left was a swordsman, and he knew that something was going on. Two of his cohort were dead, but he didn't understand how. He pushed his discombobulation aside and charged towards Noah. Noah blocked and parried his onrush with his sword, wanting to take his time and savor the fight. He was so used to fighting fiend, he wanted to make certainly his acquisition in killing former man hadn't gone dull, to refamiliarize himself with their unique drift and techniques.

He was allowing the bandit to push him back, though there was little he could do to blockade it. His opposition was armed with a two-handed sword, so he could deliver more force play than Noah could muster with his short-change steel. He strung the bandit along, using repetitive, light movements, laying a fake trail as to what his following relocation would be. He made a wide-eyed swing from the side, and the bandit automatically blocked, however, the sword never came, it was only Noah's illusionary arm. His real arm swung from the opposite side, slashing the bandit across the abdomen.

He staggered back, cursing in pain and trying to understand what happened. Noah closed in and the bandit tried to open some space with a powerful cleave. Noah blocked with his brand, at to the lowest degree, that's what the bandit saw. In truth, he had blocked with his shell, allowing him to slash the bandit across the radiocarpal joint without him even seeing the attack coming. descent poured freely, the man's hand now useless. He released a cry of exertion and tried a one-handed golf shot. The sword sliced through Noah's neck, just as the man had aimed for, but he knew something was wrong when no severed head fell, and what's more, he hadn't felt anything when he made the slash. It was like he had hit naught but air. He raised his blade to block a swing from Noah, but in reality, it was a stab, with Noah's sword piercing his chest. Noah confirmed all three demise and then called out to Tin.

"Do me a favor and tear this arrow out."

"I'm afraid it'll hurt."

"I can deal it."

She was uneasy, but she grabbed and arrow and ripped it out without topic, making Noah face in pain. She pulled out a red potion from her bag and poured it on the wound. In seconds, it scabbed over, with the tissue paper within stitching itself back together. These health potions were a material life-saver, miracles in a bottle.

"Thanks."

Noah once more checked the bodies, but their faces didn't friction match any wanted posters, meaning there was no bounteousness that he could call for with their heads. Tin went to work, stripping the trunk of everything utilitarian. They were so used to this routine that he rarely needed to chip in her orders.

"I think we should call it a day. I don't think this rain is going to block anytime."

"I agree,"Tin said.

They set off back towards the town, fantasizing of removing their stiff clothes and warming themselves beside a fire. They had pot to pack, and the rain made everything heavier, with the tot frigidity sapping their strength. By the sentence they reached the inn, even Noah was on his finale wooden leg, and felt weak. The sun hadn't fully set yet, but the clouds were so duncical that it was almost pitch black out.

It was a relief to finally get inside and out of the pelting, but Noah knew something was off. He felt woozy, his intellection getting hazy.

"Don't tell me you two were out in that rain all day !"the innkeeper said when she saw them.

"We're going to stay in our elbow room tonight. Can you have someone work our meals up to us, along with special firewood ?"

"Sure affair, dearie."

They proceeded up the stairs, but Noah had to barricade halfway up. He was out of breathing place, and it felt like the room was spinning.

"captain, is something wrong ?"

"I think I'm coming down with something. Help me up the stairs."

She lent him her articulatio humeri and they made their way up to their room. Before they even closed the door, Noah dumped his pack and weapons and began pulling off his clothes. Tin locked the threshold and started a fire in the hearth. Once free of his wet dress, Noah collapsed on the bed. The mattress was lumpy shuck, the sheets were rough like sandpaper, and the blanket smelled like wet dog no matter how many clip it was cleaned, but Noah was grateful for them.

As the fervency started to burn and fill the room with light and warmth, there was a bash on the room access. Two fille de chambre stood outdoors, the innkeeper's daughters, though they were vernal than Tin. One of them held two trays of food, and the other held an exceptionally prominent bundle of firewood. Noah hid himself beneath the cover and Tin answered. As Noah had taught her, she kept the door open just enough to choose the food and firewood, and didn't allow them inside.

Tin brought him his meal and felt his forehead."overlord, you're burn up."

"I'll be okay. Take off your clothes and warm up yourself by the fire before you end up like me."

He watched her undress and the two of them sat on the bed, wrapped in blankets as they ate their dinner. It was hot stew, the perfect comfort food for thought. Unfortunately, Noah was starting to find it difficult to swallow. By the time he finished, his breathing was becoming labored and his heart was beating irregularly. Noah was hoping it was just a cold, but this was starting to find much more intense and was coming on too quickly. Perhaps a disease aborigine to this world ?

Tin could see his condition decline in quality."superior, you should get some sleep."

She took his tray and gently pushed him onto his back. Truth be told, as soon as his question hit the pillow, he lost the strength to move. He lay there, watching Tin set up a clothesline so everything could be hung up to dry. Once she was done, she added some more Mrs. Henry Wood to the flame and skid under the blankets. Her naked trunk met his and she curled up against him.

Noah closed his eyes, but while sleep was quick to follow, it was unpleasant. incubus assailed him, a burning at the stake heat ravaging him both physically and mentally. He remembered tossing and turning throughout the Night, when the nuisance in his body outweighed his tiredness. All of his brawniness ached and spasmed almost day-and-night, his stomach felt like it was full of oil, and he couldn't escape his fever.

He finally awoke the next morning to the sight of pelting pelting the window. His mouth was as dry as ashes and he felt like he was going to die of thirst, just like he had a few times in the past. The rain, it had gotten him into this stack, but now he so desperately wanted it. He wanted to go out and ventilate the heat that clung to him like a monkey on his back.

"Tin,"he murmured. His voice was faint, as it felt like his clapper and pharynx would check like clay."Tin,"he said again, putting all of his specialty into it.

"Master ?"

He saw her in his computer peripheral visual sense, but he didn't have the strength to plow to her.

"Water."It was all he could say.

She brought him a cup of pee, and in his impatience, he tried to root for it from her hands, if only to get it to his mouth a nanosecond Sooner. His inapt stretch was ignored and she helped him rick on his rear so that he could drink. It was some of the best body of water he had ever tasted, and he felt some life return to him, if only a little.

"More."

She brought over the pitcher to refill the cup, but he simply snatched it and drank the completely matter.

"How do you palpate ?"

"Everything hurts, I feel like I'm on fire. I think I'm gon na … gon na …"He covered his mouthpiece and frantically pointed to the sleeping accommodation pot in the street corner of the room. He had detested the presence of such an unsanitary thing since he first arrived at this inn, but finally, he was grateful to have it. Tin brought the pot over and he vomited everything he drank, plus go night's dinner. He fell back on the bed, with his breadbasket feeling even worse. He had gotten a nasty flu a few years ago, but even that wasn't as bad as this. This was like malaria combined with detox."Ugh… fuck. In every lifespan, getting throw up sucks ass."

"I'll go get the innkeeper. She may know what's wrong."

"No. Me being sick folio us vulnerable, and the more people know about it, the greater the danger. If I can't fight, we're easy prey. If I'm still in this condition by tomorrow, then you can get help."

"What can I do ?"

There were plants that could help with coldness and flu symptoms, but his mind was too fuzzy to remember them."Pine goad tea, like I made by the river, and see if someone in the kitchen will make me some hot oatmeal."

Tin was hesitant, not wanting to pass on his side of meat, but she obeyed. With her gone, Noah tried to go down back to sleep, but could only get a blench imitation that was nowhere near as restful. For Noah, it felt like his head was being fed on by pismire. He spent the residuum of the day in bed, passing in and out of awareness. Tin remained with him whenever possible. She used moistness rags to continue his febrility in check, and hung a kettle hole over the fire, making tea for him whenever he asked, though his thirst was unquenchable.

Noon came around, and Noah sat up to eat his lunch, though it was a bowl of soup. Normally, hoi polloi ate whatever the planetary house special was at the time, but by paying spear carrier, guests of the inn could gild special foods, at to the lowest degree, within reason. The stock went down easy, but the meat and vegetables felt like cacti rolling down his throat. As he ate, Tin helped wipe the effort from his body. His spot on the bed would necessitate some sentence to dry out. When he had finished feeding, he simply sat with his head in his hands, taking trench hint and trying to brush off the throbbing pain.

Tin leaned against his back."Please, what can I do to serve ?"

"You're doing plenty for me already."

"There must be more than that I can do."

"fountainhead it hurts me to say this, but I'll involve your help using that chamber pot."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

"Aye, this is springburn all right."Noah opened his center, finding the boniface examining him, with Tin standing in back. The woman was holding a hanky over her pry and lip, and not touching him directly, instead with one of the tag end Tin used.

"That's really bad, isn't it ?"Tin asked.

"It's not in effect. I know four others in town who have it and they are suffering as well. It always manages to toss off a few people each twelvemonth. My oldest once had it and he nearly died."

Noah saw it, Tin's articulatio humeri trembling."What can I do to help him ?"

"Exactly what you've been doing. I know of some teas that will help him palpate a bit better. He'll either wee it or he won't, though I think his chance are good."

"How a good deal fourth dimension would I have if it were to be fatal ? How long does this last ?"Noah asked.

"threesome days. After that, you're in the clear."She got to her feet and returned to the door."I'm confining you both to this way until this blows over. The final thing I need is for everyone in the inn to get sick."She left the room and locked the room access behind her.

"It would be better for her to just throw us out,"said Noah,"rather than simply insulate us and risk everyone. She must like us a bit, or at to the lowest degree want to protect her repute. I told you to expect a day before calling her."

"But I did. Don't you remember ? You told me that yesterday."

"Ah, withdrawn, my apologies. The pouch under the floorboard, can you get it for me, please ?"

Tin lifted a loose floorboard, revealing a pit underneath, in which a leather pouch sat. She presented it to Noah and he opened it up to disclose his phone and pocketbook. While they were mostly useless in this new globe, he held onto them in the Leslie Townes Hope that he could at to the lowest degree use them for parts and kept the phone off to save its energy. If he ever needed to bug out an emergency firing, that atomic number 3 assault and battery could come in William Christopher Handy. Luckily, he had his earbuds with him, so he could at least enjoy one piece of music of his old living. Tin stared at the device, possessed by wonder. She had only seen it once or twice, the metal caseful, the light it produced. Was it some kind of illusion dick ? She wanted to ask what it was, but when Noah put in the ear buds, she assumed it was something that would assist him get better.

He set his play list to random and lay back down, hoping that the music would disquiet him. He drifted once more into the rift between being asleep and awake, cursed with his feverishness even in his aspiration. During his waking consequence, he was either imbibe weewee or throwing up. The but grounds why nature wasn't calling was because he was sweating so profusely. The music didn't distract him as he had hoped, so very much as permeate his unconscious judgement. One Sung dynasty in finicky came up,"household of the uprising Sun ”, and as that orifice guitar strung out, a computer memory was pulled from the depths of his intellect, another time he had heard that strain.

It was before break of the day, he had been driving out in the NV desert, out of the pot of Vegas. Noah was in his 30 at the metre, lamenting all the debris the Cadillac was kicking up, so practically of it sticking to the exterior. He'd have to cleanse it up later, as his employers wouldn't be well-chosen if he returned the company car in a disgraceful consideration. The easterly swarm were pinkening as he pulled to a check at the bound of a ravine.

He got out of the car and circled back to the torso, from which he removed a man with tie carpus and a bag over his head. He stumbled on his fundament, and Noah pulled him to the edge of the ravine and removed the bag over his face. The man's grimace was streaked with dehydrated blood, some of which also stained his garb shirt. He was perhaps in his fifty dollar bill, a older in the ship's company.

"You fucking retard,"he spat. Noah ignored him and turned up the radio so he could learn the rest of the song. The exterior of the car was an demode 70's mannikin, worth its weight in atomic number 79, but the interior had been upgraded into the modern age. When he returned to the man, it was with a gun in his hand."Killing me will just love up your life story and whoever threw me under the bus. You really think Alejandro can take power ? Once this gets out, the streets will become bloodbath and your head will end up stuck on a pike."

"In all likeliness,"said Noah,"but it'll be fun to watch."

"You're uncoerced to bulge out a war just because it'll be fun ?"

"Whatever happens is the fault of whoever hired me. That doesn't mean value I don't like it, though. It's the little things that matter. You need to relish the special trivial giving like this."He flicked his gun towards the car, where the song was still playing."I once heard soul say that this is the better birdcall for driving with someone in the trunk of your car. It is certainly a delicious coincidence."

"The satire of your ilk : people like you think you'll do great in our business because you have no morals, no indisposition, but it gets you killed so quickly. It's the people who actually believe in something that make it, that have a line they never cross, no matter how bloody their hands get."

"That's what's nice about my way of life, I feel no need to stick around. But even I believe in a bit of something."

The man laughed and ptyalize on the primer coat."What could you believe in ?"

"Mercy. I'm lease you enjoy the sunrise, after all."

The sun broke free of the skyline, and as its light was soaked up by the land, a gunshot rang out across the desert.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

Once Noah had fallen asleep, Tin sat beside him and freshened the damp rags that were opposing his fever. It was all she knew how to do when somebody was ill, and it came from memories of when she was the victim, though kindness was rare to come to her in those vulnerable times. It pained her to be so useless, to not know how to serve. virtually of everything she had done was just obeying his instructions.

As she wiped away his sweat, her center fell to his let out humanness, and lecherousness fluttered through her, a spirit that Noah had introduced her to. Their function had been disturbed by this sickness, as yesterday was the day she was supposed to aid him train his mana. She cherished those days, when she could finally help him in the way she knew best, when she got to experience euphoria.

Women would always cluster to her master, flirting with him, trying to invite themselves into one of his"workouts ”. It terrified her, that she might be discarded for someone else, having lost her economic value. When she and Noah met those distaff venturer, she saw everything she could not do in Mira, and everything she could do in Beth, rendering her obsolete.

She lowered her fountainhead and began performing felatio, slurping up the salt from his travail. She did it often when he slept, compelled by her lust but also hoping that it was helping him feel trade good, each climax forming a shield against the pain of his pyrexia. It was something she could do for him. If Noah was aware of it, he wasn't saying anything.

As her fountainhead bobbed up and down over his lap, Noah was sinking farther and farther into his idea, while being pursued by the music from his phone. Once Thomas More, a lone guitar was playing, and what slight awareness his mind still had tried to call up what it was from. Ah, the lyric poem, yeah, this was garden pink Floyd,"Wish You Were Here ”. It was his wife's favorite, one of his past married woman, that is. He played it at their wedding and her funeral. He could think the sunny sky disk overhead when they cut the cake, and the somber clouds that matched the color of her coffin as it was lowered into the ground. He remembered the solid food served at both occasions. But what was her name ? They danced to this song, but he couldn't remember her facial expression. She loved the oldie, always playing them while she worked in the garden. Didn't they have a son together ? No, that was someone else.

Noah's mind continued to drop off through time, each Song conjuring up a store. He remembered studying at MIT while listening to Two Steps From hell on earth. He remembered the stereoscopic photograph blaring Metallica when his convoy was blown up in Syrian Arab Republic. He remembered Mozart playing in the hospital as he died from pancreatic cancer. He wasn't aware of the murmuration escaping his lips, recalling conversations from across time and space.

When next he woke up, it was night out, and the earbuds felt like hot coal in his ears. He looked at his earphone, now with a quarter battery left. How many Sir Thomas More prison term could he hear to music before his speech sound just became a useless pulley block ? He put his headland back on his pillow, instead listening to Tin's breathing as she slept soundly beside him.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

A knocking on the doorway shocked Noah from his sleep, and he would have sat up, if not for the throbbing pain in all of his musculus. He groaned and fell back on the pillow.

"Who is it ?"he asked.

"It's Buddy Holly, I've got your food for thought !"Ah, one of the chambermaids.

"Please, just leave it there."

Noah slowly sat up and released another groan. Wait a secondly, he felt better. He felt like he just gotten the shit beaten out of him for three 60 minutes straight, but he could finally proceed around. His fever had lessened and the soreness was due to the strain it had put on his body.

"Tin, let's eat breakfast."She didn't respond."Tin ?"

He turned to her, seeing a reddened expression, moist with exertion. The gentle breathing he had listened to lowest nighttime was now an anguished gasp."Shit. Tin can you get wind me ?"

He tapped her cheek a few times and her eye opened."original ?"

"There you are. I need you to distinguish me everything you feel, everything that hurts."

"Ah, I'm sorry. I haven't started the tea yet."She tried to sit up, but he stopped her. She was so weak that he almost didn't need to.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine, but you caught the springburn sickness. I'm going to get you through this."

"It's so hot in here. Don't trouble, I'll wash away your exertion. I just need to…"She trailed off and tried to roll up out of bed, and Noah had to snaffle her before she could fall to the floor.

"Tin, can you get a line me ? How many fingers am I holding up ?"

He showed her his hand, but she just looked at it with glazed over eyes."Are we going to go Hunt giant today ?"

‘ Shit, it's hitting her even harder than it hit me. She's already delirious.'“ No, we're staying here. Everything is o.k., I'm all better now. Just leave everything to me."

He climbed over her to get out of bed, but as soon as he stood up, he fell to his articulatio genus, gasping for air. He was on the fix, but he was still in a stinky state of affairs. He crawled over to his backpack and pulled out a health and mana potion. He had tried drinking them before, to see if they could cure him, but was met with failure. He downed them both, and the pain racking his organic structure subsided. His intensity level and stamina were still close to zero, but at least the soreness was gone.

The first base thing he needed to do was get her fever down before she suffered sober damage. side by side to the bed was the wash basin, filled with rags. Just as Tin had done when he was sick, he draped them across her body.

"Master, your febricity,"she mumbled. She began trying to put the tag end on him instead, and he had to repeatedly turn back her and pin down her arms.

"Just handle still, that's an order."

Noah got dressed and limped over to the door. Outside were two intellectual nourishment trays and a pitcher of bracing water. He brought them in, and having already experienced the pain of this disease, he brought the pitcher over to Tin, rather than just a cupful. He lifted her read/write head and poured the water between her pallid lips. She released sighs of assuagement between each gulp, and every metre he thought she was done, she'd tend her capitulum forward, as if trying to catch it like a dog not wanting to cede its toy.

He filled up the tea timpani and hung it over the open fireplace, with a new attack soon blooming beneath it. When he was purge, he hated the firing, the heat it gave off. It was the merely time he was thankful for the draftiness of the room, all the trivial holes for refreshing air to slue in, but it was needed. As he waited for the kettle to boil, he retrieved Tin's breakfast and once more lifted her headway. It was warm porridge, probably made with him in mind, but now perfect for Tin.

"sentence for breakfast, Tin. Can you spread out your rima oris for me ?"He brought a spoonful to her mouth, but as soon as she smelled it, she instinctively turned away, whimpering."I know your pharynx and stomach hurt right now, but you need to eat. You need all the nutrients you can get."

She gave in and he fed her bit by bit, washing it down with some tea. He then scarfed down his own breakfast and looked outside. He was thinking clearly now and be intimate what would help Tin's chances with this sickness.

"Tin, listen to me. I'm going to go out and get something that will help you palpate better. I'll be back soon, and until I get back, I want you to stay in bed. Can you take over that vertebral column to me ?"

"No… Master should leave alone errands to me."Once more, she tried to sit up and he pushed her back down.

"Tin, you're sick and you need to reside. I'll take care of everything."

"I can do it ! Please let me do it !"She was crying, trying to head for the hills his grasp. He held her against him, waiting for her pitiful flailing to break off. She soon went hitch and he laid her back down.

"Listen, I order you to stay in this bed, do you empathize ? I ORDER you to continue in this bed !"She gazed at him with swimming eyes and nodded."serious, now go back to sleep. I'll be back before you wake up."

He got up and took a cryptic breath, then cast his invisibility. The innkeeper would give him a heavily clock time if she saw him outside of his room, might even kick him out. While his magic was apotheosis, his body was so weak that his mana might not last long. He left the way and locked it behind him. The hallway outside was empty, but he could get word deal of people in the bar. Getting down the stairs was difficult, as his head was sent spinning with each measure. No one noticed his presence, and he made it through the breakfast gang and outside. It felt zilch shortstop of euphoric to breathe clean air and soak in the sun.

A bit of his strength had returned, so he released his while and made his way across township to the apothecary. interior, the old womanhood watched as he looked through a card of her wares, ***********ing plants that helped with everything from fever to upset stomach.

"I'm guess that miss of yours is under the weather, and you're not looking very sizable yourself."

"It's been a rough in few days."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

Tin was on the level when he returned to their elbow room at the inn. The door actually struck her header when he opened it.

"Goddammit, I told you to remain in bed."He put down the bag of herbs and rolled her onto her back."Tin, wake up."

"I'm sorry, Master, I'll tend to the horses in just a moment."

She was completely out of it. He scooped her up and carried her to the bed. He needed to establish some medicine for her, but he couldn't do it while she was crawling around like this. He took the blanket and tore off a long strip show, then used it to tie her wrist to the bedframe. Restraining her was not an idealistic solution, but at least the material wouldn't leave a mark.

A strange aspect appeared on Tin's face as she looked from her wrist joint to Noah, almost mournful, and she spread her legs for him."I understand, captain. I won't cry this time."Apparently, he wasn't the first off person to tie her to a bed.

"Christ, even your delusion are depressing,"Noah muttered.

He laid the cover over her and left her on the bed, then went to work. In the time since he first started making his own potions, he had bought a cheap compounding kit, including a mortar and pestle. He wasn't a skilled herbalist like the pharmacist, but most of the plant life in this universe were just like those he knew from his past biography, and had built up plenty of survival knowledge. multitude easily faded from his memory, but cognition and technical attainment were held onto. The avocation of education was one of the few habit he chose to keep on in every lifetime, as it was the close-fitting he could get to finding signification in the multiverse.

As he toiled, Tin continued to mutter in her sleep, occasionally crying. Nothing Noah heard could be called pleasant. He eventually stopped to assure on her, see if he could shake her from her nightmares.

"Tin, wake up, I have tea."

"No ! No !"She started flailing, knocking the cup from Noah's hand. He grabbed her and pinned her down."No, please stopover ! It hurts ! Mama, it hurts ! Make him stop !"

"Tin, snap out of it !"

The finish matter he needed was someone overhearing this and mistake. He covered her sassing, waiting for the incubus to end. Perhaps he should consume picked up something to tranquilize her. Would he have to completely constipate and gag her to keep her still and tranquilize ? That would likely advertise her further into the delusion, and with this disease ransacking through her body, the strain might wipe out her. How could he calm her down ?

He left her to call back a cup of water and splashed it on her face. That seemed to shake her awake."Huh ? Master ?"

"Tin, say my name."

"N-Noah."

"Good, you're back. How do you find ?"

"It… hurts."Fresh tears began to rain cats and dogs down her cheeks.

"I'm making medication to serve you sense better, but there is something else I want to try."He retrieved his telephone and put the earbuds in her ear. He had a playlist of sluttish listen Song dynasty, mostly instrumental and soundtracks. He ***********ed one,"Vide Cor Meum ”, one of his favorites. It was assuage, set at a low volume, but the speech sound of the strings and part, right in her ears, made Tin junkie out.

"What is this ? What is this ? !"she exclaimed in shock. Her showtime instinct was to rive out the earbuds, as if swatting a mosquito when hearing its buzzing, but Noah stopped her.

"It's euphony, it's just medicine. Have you ever heard it before ?"

"euphony ?"

She thought back, trying to remember while her mind was still bleary. Her fellow slave, they used to stimulate work vocal when they toiled in the field, sorting of a substance of expressing empathy and solidarity, that they all shared the same pain. She knew a boy who used to play the flute, though not very well, and once, she heard the wife of one of her former overlord playing a harp from within her mansion. They could be called music, but they all paled in comparison to what she was listening to now.

It was the most beautiful matter she had ever heard. In her somebody, a thirst was quenched that she had never noticed before, and she felt as though a summer breeze was rolling through her body, sending chill of seventh heaven up her spinal column that made her forget her febricity. It left Tin stunned, her eyes all-inclusive as dinner plates with her mouth hanging open. She looked at Noah, seeing a rare smiling on his face.

He rubbed the top of her promontory and gently laid her back down."Just rest now, ok ?"

She nodded, staring up at the ceiling as the song continued. Noah resumed his work, eventually completing his medicine. It wasn't a therapeutic, but it would help dilute her symptoms. For the next three days, Noah looked after Tin, doing all the things for her that she had done for him. Thanks to the medical specialty, he was able to prevent her from hallucinating, though she still had incubus from her life-time of abuse. When that happened, Noah would put the earbuds in her capitulum and trifle a song for her, and she would immediately ensconce, as if hypnotized.

For Noah, hearing music had flooded his mind with memory board, making him relive scenes of his past spirit when he heard those Song, but for Tin, it was the contrary. Having lived a life story without music, the notes and voices filled every facet of her mind, forcing everything else out, every bad thought and memory. When she was awake, she'd listen while watching Noah make her medicinal drug or practice his magic, and when Noah looked at her, there would always be a grinning on her human face.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

It had been a week since Noah fell ill, and he and Tin were going for a walk around the village. His effectiveness had returned, but she was still rickety, and hopefully some fresh air and exercise would assist her feeling better. They had been cooped up in that room for so foresighted, and the beautiful atmospheric condition was just what they needed. Normally, Tin would walk behind Noah, as a proper hard worker, but today, she was boldface, hanging onto his arm. She claimed it to be to help her walk, that she was faint and needed to list on him, but the smile on her grimace told of her dishonesty. Noah allowed it, as she had taken such good concern of him when he was sick and it was his fault she fell ill after him. He certainly owed her.

What bothered him, though, were the looks they were getting. It had been a week since she had stopping point"helped him"with his magic training, but the two of them were still a bit of a renown couple, so when they saw the way Tin held onto Noah, they all grinned like they had just heard a unclean joke. There was a saying going around, a joke, that even those who had never met Tin had heard her voice.

"overlord, when I was pallid, I'm sorry for misbehaving."

"Huh ? Where's this coming from ?"

"I just… hope you didn't hear me say anything that would make you mean any less of me. I'm sure I talked in my sleep."

Noah didn't even hesitate."I don't know what you're talking about. You were quiet as a church mouse the whole time."She halted and let go of his arm, and he turned back to typeface her."Why ? Did I talk in my rest ?"

Tin opened her mouth and stopped. The things she had heard her superior say when he was mad, both great and painful affair, many of which she couldn't understand, such as when he started speaking former oral communication or reciting crease from textbooks.

"No, early than cursing."

"That sounds about right."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

They climbed up a mound overlooking the village, using a fallen log as a work bench while they soaked in the scenery.

"This is some overnice countryside,"Noah said.

"I suppose so. This is the lone thing I know. I have nothing to compare it to."

"I've seen what happens when nature is taken for granted, when everything is used up without any thought of the future. It is an ugly, nauseating thing. I try to form myself appreciate nature whenever I can."

"Where was that ?"

Noah picked the name of a town from one of the map."Nellow."Truth be told, it was multiple lands, in every timeline.

"Is that we're you're from ?"

"Yes."

Tin looked at him, the man who she called her master. She knew when he lied. She saw him do it to everyone he talked to, especially her. There weren't any tells for her to say, he never stumbled or hesitated, and she had seen it work time and time again, but there was something about his eyes, a hollowness she thought she saw. She had tried asking about his past times, but his gaze was always empty, even when he spoke with a grinning. He never asked her about her own past, but it was nil she wasn't used to. She had grown up being treated as an object, both a tool and a toy. intimate conversation was not something a slave should expect from their superior, but she had never had a master that made her spirit this way, that was so variety to her.

"M-master…"she stammered.

He turned to her, trying to remember the hold out time he heard her talk so nervously."Yes ?"

"Please, forgive my impudence, but I know you're lying to me. I beg you, tell apart me where you came from, the matter you've done, anything. I only wish to know Sir Thomas More about you."

He stared at her, unsure of what his future motion should be, but as he saw the wetness of her center, his fear waned."I talked in my sopor, didn't I ?"

"Please forgive me for lying to you, but some of the things I heard… I didn't think you'd want individual like me to know."

"It doesn't go well when I tell the Sojourner Truth. Being honest has brought me nothing but trouble."

"If you refuse to tell the accuracy, I can live with that. I can inhabit with lies, as long as they come from you. All I want is something I can paint in my mind, a scene that I can see you in."

Noah looked up at the sky."I grew up near the sea-coast, and my Fatherhood had a gravy holder. He wasn't a fisherman or merchant, rather, it was a hobby. In the summer, when the weather was effective, my family would go out on the pee and go fishing, simply for the enjoyment of it. We'd snap mackerel and try to use them as hook to catch big striped bass, but it never worked out. One time, we brought our dog with us, and I remember finding a grape-sized tick on his eyebrow and putting it on my hook, seeing if I would enchant anything. You wouldn't believe how bright it is out on the water."

Tin moved closer to Noah, clutching his arm and leaning her head on his shoulder. At nighttime, when they lay in bed together after having sex, she would often snuggle up to him just like this."Please, tell me more."

So Noah regaled her, telling her what it was like to grow up being misfortunate, what it like to develop up being robust. He recalled fond memories of his sibling and vacation as an only child. He told her of how his parents loved and supported him, then how they screamed and beat him. He described astonishing automobile and the technology of the mod world, and the fight for endurance in the aftermath of the apocalypse.

Tin listened without saying a thing, never questioning his contradiction, only enjoying the tale that Noah wove and what they told her about the man he was.

.

.

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chronological sequence

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Noah and Tin, having fully recovered from the springburn malady, set out early on a beautiful day. summer was upon them, so the mornings had lost much of their chill, though everyone paid for it in sweat later in the day. Unlike before, when they roamed aimlessly through the Sir Henry Joseph Wood to hunt devil, they had a specific emplacement in thinker. Noah had heard rumors of an abandoned mine that was taken over by goblin. A hive, a nest, a colony, whatever it could be called, it spelled trouble for the settlement. Goblins ate and bred like rat, so if they managed to retrieve a well place to dig in, they could bolster up their numbers in very little clip. They had claimed the sphere several prison term before and had to be flushed out, and while attempt had been made to seal or put down the mine, the hob always found a way back in.

They were following one of the single-valued function Noah had bought, with several pieces of advice written down that he had received from former adventurers. It would demand a day to reach the mine, so they exercised restraint and avoided fighting goliath whenever possible. Hopefully this mine would be a not bad source of revenue in clean weapons, meaning it would be best to travel light and not gather along the way.

They arrived at the mine early in the morning of the stick to day. Finding a prophylactic place to set up camp had been difficult, for this was the territory where the hobgoblin roamed. The mine was carved into the base of one of the modest mountains. At one fourth dimension, it might suffer been a fairly decorous operation. There were wad of preindication of the buildings that would have stood around it, now reduced to piles of kindling. There had once been a wooden hut built around the ingress, form of like an airlock, perhaps to keep back the pelting out some prison term ago, but it was just a rickety systema skeletale now. Many of the fabric and abandoned equipment were harvested to construct artillery and barrier for use against trespasser, with a handful of hobgoblin keeping a incessant watch.

Noah and Tin were hiding nearby, scouting the entrance."You wait here and I'll convey out the guards. I'll wave you over when it's all clear."

"Yes, Master."

Noah concealed himself and advanced towards the mine. He counted seven hobgoblin in total. One was on the roof of the shanty erected around the entrance, perched like an owl with a bow in hired hand. Two more were sitting on the wooden paries at the perimeter of the camp. The remaining four were at the ingress, though they were preoccupied with a secret plan of dice.

Noah went for the one no one would mark, the sniper above. He approached the entryway without fear, unseeable and inaudible to the goblins keeping guard, but that would shift. The only way to the sniper was to climb up onto the roof of the hut, but it was so weathered and frail, it looked like it couldn't support more than the weight of one goblin. However, it was worth taking the jeopardy. He reached the side of the shed and began the climb, using the mossy cliffside as a secondary ladder to help minimize the exercising weight he put on the old wooden circuit card.

He was careful with every positioning of his paw and infantry, so as to raise up as little as possible. His illusion would conceal the marks he made, but only within a certain mountain range. He had experimented with Tin's help, finding that footprints would be revealed after ten whole tone, so he had to abide within that range to keep them within his head game. Besides, if he ended up ripping a instrument panel right hand out of the wall, his illusion wouldn't be able to conceal it. It could conceal traces of his activity, but not replicate object. The ascent was hard. The wood of the hovel had frayed over the years and riddled his work force with splinters, while the hard clay on the cliff crumbled and made it difficult to get a satisfying hold. Regardless, he managed to climb up onto the roof.

The roof itself was like thin ice, and if he ended up breaking through or snapping any of the balance beam, the goblin would surely feel it, even if he couldn't hear it. Noah pulled a tilt out of the cliff and threw it into the foliage in the aloofness. The goblin perked its chief at the racket, and in that moment, Noah closed in and stabbed it in the back with his short steel. It died before it could even voice its pain in the neck.

Noah left it sitting there and climbed off the shack, then snuck over to the two goblins sitting away from the entrance. They looked bored as can be, struggling to stay awake. Noah approached the first one, leaning against one of the wooden walls. He dispatched it with his knife, striking the Qaeda of the brain root word. The combat injury was little and the goblin simply went limp, never feeling a thing. To its friends, it would bet like it had simply dozed off. Noah slew the other goblin the same way, without creating any randomness or disturbance.

Finally, he approached the entering, where the four were still gambling. He stood over them, the sun passing through him perfectly and its re illuminating their plot. He ***********ed his longsword for this, even doing a few practice session swing to figure out the scope and force required. When he was satisfied, he gave a mighty slash, beheading all four beasts at once. Their bodies dropped to the ground and Noah released his spell, then waved Tin over.

As he stood guard, she searched the bodies, and for each one, cut off their right ear. Most monsters had some useful body part that could be sold, like their pelt for clothing or their essence as solid food, but aside from collectors of grotesqueries like skulls and former things to put on show, goose egg about the hobgoblin was vendible. However, since they were such a pain, their species had an ongoing bountifulness. The local baron would pay adventurers for every goblin they killed, and their right ears were the proof. The hobgoblin also sometimes carried valuables, such as artillery, candles, and even coins. Tin searched them all, and whatever goods she collected went into her knapsack.

"Ready to go in ?"Noah asked.

Tin nodded."I'll follow you wherever you lead, Master."

From her battalion, she drew a lantern and lit it. Noah would lead, but she would allow for the Light Within. This meant that he couldn't simply vanish and leave her at a condom distance while he picked off the hobgoblin one by one. He needed her aright beside him so that he could see what he was doing, and would have defeat the goblins drawn to the Inner Light.

They entered the mine, and were immediately assailed by the stench. This was the first time Noah or Tin had ever seen a goblin cuddle, so the odour was new to them. It reeked of sewage and rotting substance, much of the latter probably human.

"This air might be toxic. tell apart me if you start getting dizzy, because if one of us loses consciousness, we're both doomed."

They delved into the mountain with Tin lighting Noah's way. Everywhere, there were the corpse of animals that the goblins had eaten, picked down to the bone. In a way, the goblin provided a worthful service to the ecosystem. Because behemoth and animals spawned both organically and through thaumaturgy circles, the landscape should have been buried under all of their corpses. Instead, the scavenging beasts would lead their finds to their den, continuously sweeping the forest clean.

They soon came upon the first subdivision chamber, just like in an anthill. It was small, about the size of an average bedroom. Inside, several goblins were sleeping atop a mount of fur. most of them were distaff or younglings. It wasn't proper sport to down such prey while they slept, but this was an extinction job, so affair like honor held no meaning.

"It would probably be better if you didn't watch this,"Noah whispered to Tin."Look away and listen for any approaching."

She did as ordered, a mournful look on her typeface as she averted her eyes while keeping the light of the lantern focused into the sleeping room. Noah drew his curt steel and began stabbing the ogre in their sleep. Each time, he'd go straight for the straits, so that they would die without making a sound. He was steady, methodical, taking them out one by one with none of his victim even suspecting a thing. It was unnervingly easy, and when he was done, he harvested their ears.

"skipper !"

Noah heard it with a monstrous shriek. He ran back out into the tunnel as a hobgoblin charged from deeper within, armed with a wooden spear. Noah pushed Tin out of the way of its first thrust, then sliced off the top of its head with a strike to the synagogue. More must have heard its cry, because another two goblins came running at them.

The first that tried to approach swung at Noah with a large obelisk. He stepped out of its reach and kicked the goblin in the breast, nearly sending it flying. The second blocked the golf shot of his steel with a wooden club, but he forced it against the wall and drove his tongue into its dresser. Leaving it to die, he returned to the first off, struggling to rest, and ended its aliveness with his sword.

"Master,"Tin said, handing him a damp rag. He used it to wipe the blood off his workforce while she looted the corpses.

They moved further on down into the tunnel, finding it expand into a large bedroom and forking out. There was still plenty of excavation equipment, but much of it was being used to fall solid food from. The body of both man and animals had been skinned and were being cooked over bonfires. The goblin were jumping around and squealing in delight as the smell of their feast wafted through the mine. Human material body cooked over a fire, it was a look that took Noah back to some dark timelines.

Tin gasped in horror at the spate and one of the goblins spotted them and squealed something in their brutish terminology. The 12 or so hob in the chamber turned their attention to Noah and Tin and began to draw near, armed with the blades used for butchering their food. They chanted the same squeal, probably something along the argumentation of"more meat !"

"Tin, stand back."

He summoned his knockoff and sent it running to the right slope as if to flank them. The goblins paid no attention to the fact that their prey seemingly just split into two, and were drawn to the movement of the clone. With that scuttle, Noah attacked from their exposed position with his longsword and beheaded three of the beasts. The goblins, sensing the deaths of their comrades, turned their attention back to Noah and swarmed in. He kept them at bay with wide swinging, while leaving his left incline clear to twit them. One by one, they tried to attack from the evident blind spot, but he would dispatch them before they could actually reach out him. Any that got in close plenty to attack found their weapon system blocked by Noah's shield, and then his brand would slash at them from below and split their stomachs open.

Once their ranks had been cut in one-half, they began to withdraw back to the balefire. As this was their den, they didn't show their backs and instead tried to ward Noah off with threatening scream. Their safety was raised, and while they were stupid, they wouldn't tumble for the same tricks as the others.

Noah cast both of his magic spell, and while he had his clone remain where he was and make believe to be standing his ground. He snuck past the hob and attacked from behind. He slaughtered three before the remainders noticed, but as they couldn't see him, they could do nada but scream in muddiness. They made it too promiscuous for Noah to complete them off. Even though the chamber had gone quiet, he waited several moments before releasing his spells.

"All clear."

Tin went to work, gathering up valuables. The blades might be Worth something to the blacksmith, but they'd have to wash off the dried lineage off them first. As Tin searched the goblin corpses, Noah looked around at the other bodies being stored here. There were plenty of freshly killed humans and animals that were waiting to be cooked, so it was possible that their pocket hadn't been picked yet. Noah dug through the pile of bodies, ignoring their stench, but one of them caught his attention.

It was a boy, a bit unseasoned than him, and unlike the others, his arm were bound. He wasn't frigidness like the others. Noah checked his neck, and while it was weak, he found a steady pulse. expect a second, he had seen him before. Noah had gotten to know mass of hoi polloi around the town in the past tense month, and learned to acknowledge others. He often saw this boy with Beth and Mira, carrying a sword and dressed as an adventurer. They frequently ate together at the Old Wineskin. Noah assumed they recruited him to join their party.

"Tin, I found a survivor."

He retrieved a health potion from his air hole and poured it down the boy's throat. As it took effect, Noah examined him. His apparel were good tone, but still the sort used by outdoorsmen. He had a in good order physique, showing signal of training and hard work, but while there were calluses on his hands, there were healing blister from wielding a sword. He was probably a James Leonard Farmer, but came from money.

He at last woke up and looked around, struggling to see. Even with a bonfire nearby, this wasn't exactly the substantially place to wake up in.

"Where am I ?"

"You're in a goblin den. I'm guessing they must have got struck you in the heading, giving you a nasty concussion. I gave you a healing potion, so your sight should probably clear soon. retain on, I'll cut you loose."

He severed the boy's bonds and helped him to his metrical unit. For a moment, he seemed back in honest condition, but as he looked around, he began to panic and hyperventilate, and Noah had to catch him before he could devolve back down. Either this was entirely new to him, or he was realizing how close he was to the most grim of deaths.

"Calm down, everything is okay. I'm Noah and this is my subordinate, Tin."

"Did… did my father send you ? Are you here to rescue me ?"

"Your Father ? No, we're just here to kill hobgoblin and steal their prize. How did they capture you ?"

The boy seemed to be able-bodied to fend upright on his own, so Noah let him go, though he was struggling to commemorate."I… was being trained in hunting by a topical anaesthetic explorer that my father hired. I had just shot a boar with my bow… then I felt a monumental pain in the back of my head and blacked out."

"Your father, is he a imposing ?"

"Yes, Ivan Fault. The baron in charge of the town. I'm Oath Fault, the adjacent head."

"fountainhead, swearword, we'll help you get back to town as soon as we're done with this mine."

"This mine ? What are you talking about ? We have to get out of here ! The goblins will be arriving any second !"

"I just finished taking forethought of a good act them, see ?"Noah pointed to the bodies of his dupe."I'm confident in my power. Besides, it took a lot of effort to get here, so we're not leaving until our pockets are filled with goodies and we can barely walk. Tell me, do you have any talents ? Can you use deception or any weapons ?"

"I… I have some skill with a sword."

"Some, huh ? So best case scenario, I can expect you to harbour off a goblin that might swipe up on us from behind."Noah took off his backpack and forced it into Oath's paw."Otherwise, you're my new pack mule."

"You can't be sober !"

"You have to pay off the potion I used on you, and consider it a down payment for us getting you back to town. There is solid food and piddle in the bag, you can eat while you walk. Tin, throw me a sword."She handed him a chipped hand-and-a-half brand, taken from one of the goblins, and he gave it to expletive."And I'm renting this to you, unless you would prefer to go unarmed. So, what do you say ? Either do some work, or I can rap you out, slip your clothes, and deal them to cover the cost of that potion. Which is it going to be ?"

"fine, I'll help you,"he muttered.

"Smart choice."

The three proceeded deeper into the mine with Noah taking level. Every few instant, goblins would attack, desperate to defend their dwelling house. Noah dispatched each of them with a flurry of stroke and stab, leaving Tin to collect the good. Oath was understandably nervous, and it left him ineffectual to even touch the slain gargoyles, so Tin ended up doing most of the oeuvre and just putting the finds in his bag. At least he wasn't complaining. Noah eventually tasked him with collecting good found in the burrow, while Tin would baffle to looting corpses.

"I've seen you with Beth and Mira at the inn. Aren't you an adventurer like them ?"Noah asked.

"I used to be a farmer, I just started fighting monsters recently. I'm still not used to it. But this is incredible. I've never seen individual kill so many goblins singlehandedly."

"well I can see how they might be able to get the drop on someone if they ambush with superior identification number, but when you face them pass on, it's like fighting a group of ugly, savage children. Oh, speaking of which, I see another breeder."

The sight before them was nauseating, as what appeared to be a big jet pig was nursing a bedding of sawn-off niggling gremlins. While the male hobgoblin went out into the forest to gather, the females would tend to the younglings. Despite being lupus erythematosus than half a foot tall as newborn, they would turn over full-size in just six month, hence their voracious appetite. Noah dispatched the stock breeder and stomped out the younglings, much to Oath's horror.

"They were just babe ! They couldn't even fight back !"

"They wouldn't have been babies very long. In just a few month, they would be roaming the forest, killing whoever crossed their way of life and dragging them back here to be devoured. You and Tin are carrying ingroup wide-cut of the self-command of their victim. I'm not judging them for doing as nature commands them to, I'm simply dealing with a threat before it can turn a threat."A thundery holler made the three teens cover their ears and wince."What the hell was that ?"

"A hobgoblin,"said oath,"otherwise known as a hob top dog. They're a rare stock. I hear that only one out of ten thousand goblins can uprise to get a hobgoblin. They're much bigger, smarter, and stronger than a steady hob and can even learn magic. We need to get out of here, right now ! It's heard the dying of the younglings and is coming for retaliation !"

"Perfect. He's probably hoarding the best stuff. Let's go."

"This is insane ! The regular hobgoblin may be weak, but hobgoblins are unassailable than humans in every way !"

"Your issues are duly far-famed. I'm going after that chieftain, and if you run, you'd better Bob Hope that he kills me. Let's go."

Oath turned to Tin, hoping that she might speak up, but her locution was completely blank shell, as if she was daydreaming."You can trust my passkey. He is substantial and skilled."

Noah set off towards the generator of the noise, but they need not travel far, as their foe came to recognise them from the astuteness of the good deal. It stood over six feet tall with a far More sinewy form than the lower goblins possessed. Like them, it wore a breechcloth, but it was also garbed in pieces of slip armor, including a metal helmet. Looking over a twosome of boar-like ivory protruding from his backtalk, he glared at the intruders with untellable hatred.

"You will suffer for the last of my kin !"he snarled.

"Huh, so it really is smarter. Oath, you remember your job, right ? If any other hobgoblin come, you have to deal with them."

He didn't bother waiting for a reply and stepped forward with his longsword in hand. The chief was armed with the same type of brand, though with a gravid blade. On the battlefield, it would likely be used against cavalry, killing both rider and their horses with one gash. The honcho thundered towards him with his sword raised high. His speed was certainly faster than a human's, and with the posture he was probably wielding, Noah didn't want to try his luck by blocking or parrying. He sidestepped when the cleave was made and attempted a sideways swing towards the goblin's nous. It raised its hand, blocking with a metallic element arm guard, then forced him back.

It immediately closed the distance to make the Sami sideways swing Noah had, and with the blade's greater distance, he didn't have the fourth dimension or room to get out of the way. Instead, Noah rushed towards the sword to immobilise it with his own. As the goblin straightened his arms, his swing would turn more muscular, so he had to intervene at the other potential moment.

glint flew off their steel as Noah's steel halted the goblin's. It released one hand from the hilt of its sword, using what fiddling momentum it had left to swing at Noah. He avoided its backhand by a whisker's breadth and countered with a puncher to the Robert Adam's Apple. It staggered back, wheezing in nuisance, but without dropping its defence. Its pain in the neck permissiveness was remarkable.

Noah gave it no fourth dimension to recover and went on the unsavoury, slashing and stabbing at the goblin while it did its best to block. In import, it had regained its dual-hand clasp and was able to fend Noah off. It raised its sword for another cleave, but Noah's eyes caught a distinct lambency along the blade.

"It's using magic ! You have to hedge !"Oath shouted.

Noah's instincts had already told him the same affair, but while he was capable to get his body out the way, his brand met the hob's blade frontal and snapped. The beast's weapon buried itself in the Lucy Stone dry land, shaking the entire cavern, and Noah rolled away to avoid any barehanded attacks like before. He got to his metrical unit, examining his weapon and the enemy's. The speed of the goblin's vacillation had increased, as well as its speciality and the durability of his sword.

It must have been warrior magic, something he heard of while gathering information in Clive. Warrior conjuring trick was the ability to trigger weapon skill that would meliorate their abilities in battle, such as cutting deeper and withstanding Sir Thomas More force without breaking. He had witnessed magic a few times during the lowest month and had become fellow, but this was only his second time since he arrived that he was actually fighting against a legerdemain user. Perhaps it would be best to finish this fight while he was unharmed, rather than cover pushing his luck. On the former hand, Oath hadn't seen his thaumaturgy, and he wanted to restrain it that way. He'd just have to sour harder with his physical abilities.

The goblin charged with his sword slightly raised to either block or onset. It wasn't glowing like before, but his utmost attack had shown that he could harness his magic in a fraction of second, so Noah couldn't risk being in the way when the side by side baseball swing happened. Noah readied himself, still holding his broken sword. He came within the hob's range and the blade swung diagonally towards his neck. Noah bolted forward, anticipating when the goblin would be committed to the relocation. He swung his broken sword towards the hobgoblin's articulatio radiocarpea, making him pause for the abbreviated moment to deliberate the terror of black hurt, and that moment was all Noah needed to draw in his short sword and magazine him across the stomach while zooming past.

The wound was severe, having used the inertia of the goblin's boot to overcome the wall of abdominal muscles and cut deep into the organs. The goblin staggered, his backbone spilling onto the ground. Noah finished him off before he could regain any of his strength. He took a deep breathing spell and listened for any attacker hiding nearby.

"Clear."

"fountainhead done, Master,"Tin said while bowing. Beside her, Oath was in a shock.

As Tin went to shape removing the goblin's armor and checking for personal possessions, Noah examined the blade used. It was a good blade, certainly sturdy, and he now needed a replacement for his longsword, but as he held it, his changed his mind. His original longsword had the maximum allowable weight and size of it, and anything cracking in either category would hamper his movements too much.

swearword approached him."Where did you learn to fight like that ?"

"I've studied versatile styles and forms of combat throughout my lifespan, including archery and swordplay, mostly out of ennui or for physical exertion, and I've had plenty of experience killing. Your father pays people for every goblin people kill, correct ? Will I get spare if I bring him the top dog of their chief ?"

"Don't worry, I'll tell him myself. He'll want to know about this."

"passkey, I found something."He turned to Tin, who was holding up the deal of the hob to show him the halo on his little finger's breadth. She removed it and handed the anchor ring to Noah, and he could immediately feel the magic trick within it.

‘ Huh, a magic ring found in a hobgoblin tunnel. What could possibly go wrong ?'He gave it a closer feel under the luminousness of Tin's lantern and found a crest, depicting a shield with a swan on it. It was the national symbolization of Uther. There was also something written on the band with a foreign message."Oath, what do you make of this ?"

"That's the ring of an Utheric knight ! Anyone caught wearing one without being knighted can suffer their mitt as punishment !"

"I heard of those guys. They train as some noble school. Why so unconscionable ?"

"The ring is gold, but is inscribed with a uncommon metal called avenium, which can penetrate target with very high-level spells. I once heard that a steel with avenium runes can hold more than big businessman than the ten in force sword swords. knight rings are inscribed with a spell that creates another macrocosm where point can be stored."

"How many token ?"

"I heard it can store up to the Sami weightiness as the one who caries it, but you only experience the weight of the ring."

Noah put on the ring and channeled some of his mana into it. It was a strange tactile sensation, like he had just put his hand into a ingurgitate bag. He could see his helping hand, but not the target he was touching. He felt a small bottle and closed his bridge player around it. The ring acknowledged that as a ***********ion and materialized the nursing bottle. It was wide-cut of a yellow liquid, probably some kind of potion, or it could just be olive oil.

"This'll come in handy."

"Just wearing that pack is a grievous crime !"

"What ring ? I don't see a closed chain,"Noah replied as he stowed it in his pouch."See ? No offence is being committed. Now zip it, we're not done searching this mine."

The rest of the day was spent in those nighttime tunnel, searching for goodness. By the time he had faced the hobgoblin, most of the other hobgoblin had already been killed, so there was little resistance. They found the bulk of their prize down in the low-down chamber, where the bugbear appeared to have been sleeping. The goblin were excellent thief, stealing whatever they could get their bridge player on with traveler being their ducky targets. There were weapon stashes, bags and barrels of food, ropes and range, dress and armor, plenty of tools, and a small fortune in coins. He even found the armor and sword of the horse that the goblin chief had killed. This draw was better than Noah hoped, and while they couldn't carry all of it, the ring helped garner the best pieces.

When they finally stepped out of the mine, the sun was setting. There could still be goblin in the woods, making their way to the mine after a day of hunting, so the triplet wasted no metre getting a safe aloofness to make camp. A Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, nearly as thick as a school bus, offered them protection. They bedded down at its base with its raised roots acting as walls and a fire warding off anything that might try to attack during the night.

Dinner was traveler's rations, the touchstone solid food for anyone camping in the wilderness. While he ate, Noah examined all of the item in the ring. There were numerous potions, spare sets of men's clothes, some peter and knives, rations, and a few gold coins. He took a closer looking at at the armor and sword that the horse had been using. There wasn't much he could do with the armor. Minus some crustal plate he could use on his arms and legs, it was impractically grueling for his fight style, and considering how steep the punishment was for wearing the gang, getting caught with it would probably be a bad idea. Hopefully the blacksmith would be volition to buy it.

The sword, on the other hired hand, was a definite prize. It was a longsword like Noah's let on one, but with an ornate guard and handle, as well as a line of runic letter going up the blade, inked with avenium. There was a enchantment imbued within it, he could feel the magic, but it didn't react to his mana the way the ring did. It was probably illegal for him to possess, so it would be easily kept in the ring, but once away from prying eyes, it would be an excellent trump carte du jour once he figured out how it worked.

"So how long have you been an adventurer ?"oath asked.

"Several twelvemonth. Why ?"

"I was just making conversation. You said you studied several different school of combat. Who taught you ? Where did you get your lessons ?"

"The township I grew up in, there were plenty of other adventurers bequeath to pass their skills on."

"And your parents ?"

"I haven't seen them since I set off from dwelling house to spend a penny my fortune."

"So, do you—"

"I suggest you stop for a mo and ponder why I'm not asking you doubtfulness about your life or trying to get to know you."Noah glared as him, unblinking."Think hard."Oath wisely closed his mouth.

They set out at dawn the next day, wanting to get out of the forest as soon as possible, to both avoid risk and strive the shop class before they closed for the night. It would hold them nigh of the day to repay to Clive, and that was without all the weightiness they were carrying, so they had to try and hold on a safe rate. By around noontide, they reached a boastfully receptive pasture, but before they could cross it, a grievance was made.

"I can't go any further !"oath exclaimed.

"headmaster, please forgive me, but I too am at my limit."

"Well we've made considerable length, and I believe it's about luncheon clock time. surely, let's plosive here for a break."

Tin and swearing settled at the boundary of the eatage under the tone of a tree diagram and fix lunch. While they worked, Noah took a walk through the field to make trusted there weren't any marauder in concealing. It was when he reached the center that he stopped, hearing something. It was not the rustling of grass or the growl of a brute, but the neighing of Equus caballus. He looked into the distance and saw four men on horses break free of the forest and extend towards him with their swords drawn. brigand ?

"Tin, take curse word and get back into the forest, deep enough that you can't even see me !"

Tin didn't understand, but when she heard the horses in the distance and the hollering of the approaching men, she hurried to her feet and dragged curse word into the Natalie Wood. With them out of the way, Noah faced the oncoming enemies.

"Thanks for the Equus caballus,"he said as his brushed his hand over his eyes.

He was rendered invisible while he sent off his clone, running to the English with its illusionary sword drawn. The men were drawn to it, and one of them, armed with a bow, began trying to shoot it. Noah controlled the dead ringer like a puppet on strand, and while it moved, he put the knight ring on his finger's breadth and activated it, materializing his bow and an pointer. It took him a present moment to aim and loss, striking the bowman in the chest of drawers and sending him tumbling off his horse.

The early horsemen realized their friend had been killed, but there was no prison term to look for the foe archer. They had to close in on the Brigham Young man with the sword. They tried to run him down with their blades outreached, but before they could strike their target, another one of their ranks was taken out with a well-placed shot. The two remaining men swung at Noah's ringer, but for the saki of appearance, he had it dodge while he took out the third man. Only one man was left, but he didn't bother going after the clone. He was impertinent enough to cut his losses and flee back into the woods.

"Tin, Oath, you can come out now,"Noah said as he released his magic. They appeared from the Natalie Wood, seeing Noah with the three sawbuck standing nearby."kale the corpses and then let's have lunch. The way back to the settlement will be much leisurely now."

With the cavalry, they managed to make it back to the village in the of late good afternoon, when most of the store had closed, but there were still a few undefended that they could betray their loot to.

"Thank you for getting me back here,"said Oath.

"No indigence to give thanks me, you paid off your debt."

"Still, I'm sword lily you didn't just knock me out and slip my clothes like you said you would. I have to go see my father, he must be worried sick."

"I'll expect you to impart that Equus caballus back."

"Yes, yes, I know."

They split up, Oath returning nursing home and Noah and Tin selling their goods. They first went to the blacksmith, as almost of their goods were scavenged weapons. When Noah laid them all out on the counter, the blacksmith couldn't service but voice his surprise.

"I don't think I've ever seen one man with a haulage like this. You really did all of this yourself ?"

"Well I had some help carrying it back. But there is another thing you might be concern in."

Noah held up a sheet bag and set it on the tabulator. Its contents had originally been in the ring, but he had emptied it before entering the shop. The blacksmith looked inside and gained a derriere look.

"You found this in a goblin den ?"

It was the armor of the slain Utheric knight.

"That's justly, but that was all. I was hoping I could see the sword or ring, but they were gone. So, are you concerned ? This armor has adept sword than anything in your shop."

"I could get beheaded just for having this !"

"Which is why you better evaporate it down fast to make into something really nice that you can deal for a lot of money."

The blacksmith mulled it over and released a deeply sigh of resignation. Whether it was money or his aesthetic inherent aptitude thinking of all the things he could take, he couldn't allow the armor to leave the store.

"mulct, what do need for everything ?"

As usual, bargaining with the blacksmith took a lot of time, but Noah left with several shining gold coins and a permutation for his longsword. He and Tin moved from shop class to shop, selling everything that was left, then Noah took Tin somewhere she did not ask, the township jeweler. Unlike other stores, this one had safety posted inside and outdoor, and all the merchandise was behind a counterpunch, with atomic number 26 bars blocking it off from the customer. An old man was sitting at the counter, scrutinizing a jewel.

"Ah, how can I help you ?"

"I was hoping you could appraise this for me."Noah took out a ignominious gem, the size of the first articulation of his little finger, and laid it on the counter. The old man took the gem and looked at it through a serial of lenses.

"Oh, this of superb character. Where did you see this ?"

"A goblin den."

"Ah, of line. Goblins are brutish, nasty brute, but they have a strange luck when it comes to get hold things. This is an sweetening gem."

"I thought I sensed illusion in it, it appears I was right. What is it used for ?"

"When grafted to an enchanted point, it boosts the strength of the enchantment. Imagine a wizard sword that can cut through twice as lots as a convention sword. With this imbued into the pommel, handle, or blade, it will now be capable to cut through four clock time as much as a formula vane. They are a deary of nobles, for not only to they better the enchanted item, but they make them more visually appealing and exuberant, perfect for showing off. At balls and schematic effect, you'll find upper-level nobleman with jewel-encrusted brand on their hips.

Would you be willing to sell it ?"

"Actually, I was hoping you could set it into something."

Noah took out the horse pack and slid it across the table, only letting the jeweler see it. At the passel of the annulus, he became tense.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to…"

"I'm will to pay handsomely. I've already sold the armour that went with it."

Like the blacksmith, the jeweler took a deep breath."Tob, Gon, could you two please step outside for a minute ?"The two guards, despite their oddity, left the storage, giving Noah and the jeweler their privacy. The old man stared at Noah."Do you have a death wishing, boy ? Just having this could—"

"I'm aware of the penalisation, but you already decided you're willing to deal a risk of exposure. deal the runes with gold leaf and set the gem. If it looks adept and the doughnut's charm really is enhanced, I'll pay you ten eloquent coins."

"Twenty."

"thirteen silver. Come on, no one out here is going to care about this. You think some royal stag knights are going to come bursting in ? You could picture this to the magnate and he wouldn't care."

"amercement, fifteen silver."

"Deal."

"I'll have it set up by noon tomorrow."

Noah and Tin left the jeweler and headed back to the inn to call it a day, but as they approached, Oath appeared."Noah, my Father of the Church wants to speak with you."

"Can't it await ? The sun is going to set soon."

"He says it is of expectant importance. He also wants to reward you for saving me."

Noah looked over to one of the bags hanging off the side of his saddle. It was full of severed hob ear. Was he really uncoerced to land those into their room at the inn ? It would probably be better just to get paid now.

"Fine, just let Tin and I drop off the relaxation of our haulage at the inn and extend the way."

After stopping at the inn, they rode out of Town towards the north, to the mogul's landed estate. Being a noble, he was adept off than any of the villagers, but his family was far from extravagant, just nicer looking and large than anyone else's, a rustic manor, surrounded by discipline that slaves tended to. Leaving their horses in the stalls in the back, Oath brought Noah and Tin into the mansion and stopped before a set of bivalent doors.

"forefather, I've returned with Noah,"he said while knocking.

"Enter."

expletive opened the doors of the private subject, and behind the desk, an old man with a long beard was filing paperwork on parchment. He looked honest-to-god than Noah expected, for a son so young. Standing beside him was a woman, dressed as a maid.

"You must be young Master Noah. My son has told me of your heavy strength and skills. You have my deathless gratitude for saving him, and my respect for your achievement in battle."The top executive didn't get up to agitate Noah's bridge player, but that was to be expected of a noble.

"You are very welcome, Divine Fault."Noah replied with a bow of his head.

"You deserve compensation for your efforts. Twice, you have saved my son's life."

From his desk, the tycoon drew a firing of coins, likely silver grey, and handed them to Noah.

"I appreciate it. While we're on the subject, I also have numerous goblin capitulum that I'd like receive payment for."

"Ah, of track, of course. You also deserve additional for dealing with that goblin chief. Amelia,"he said, turning to the maid beside him,"please weigh up the ears and calculate their defrayment, and please withdraw my son and this lovely young peeress to the parlor to relax. Master Noah, if you have metre, I would like to speak with you about some important matters."

"Very well, then."

The maidservant left with Oath and Tin and the threshold were shut behind them. Finally, the magnate got up from his chair and walked over to a whiskey decanter with a set of eyeglasses."Would you worry for a drink ?"

"I'd sexual love one."Two crank were poured and one was handed to Noah. Compared to the modern world, the inebriant consumed in these acres was tough to pull down, yet the quality of the whiskey surprised him."Oh, that is good."

The baron sat down."I can not thank you enough. If my son had perished, that would have been the end of my line."

"I'm sure a man like you could work up a few heir. There are probably some already running around the town."

The baron gave a virulent chuckle."I suppose we should get down to job. You have already proven yourself a smashing rescuer and guard for my son. I would like to hire you to do it again."

"Not more goblins, I trust ?"

"Actually, something a little more difficult. I want you to facilitate him appropriate a keep crab."

"forgiveness my ignorance, but I am not associate with the term. I come from a land without such things."

The baron got to his feet and began searching a nearby bookshelf."dungeon crabs are massive terrestrial beings, spending their sprightliness deep beneath the Earth. However, they surface from time to time, poking the tips of their shells out of the ground."

He found the desired book and laid it out on the table, set to a specific Thomas Nelson Page. There were two photo, the first of what looked like a hermit crab, with a pointed scale several times its own size and no chela. The second showed the tip of the carapace poking out of the ground with a hole in the top, but just that was the sizing of a lighthouse. Had the artist actually seen a dungeon crab fully revealed or was he just going by his mental imagery ? For a animal of this size to travel underground without being noticed, it would have to rise up from under the earth's crust. A few days ago, the town had experienced an earthquake. That must ingest been the crabby person rising to the surface.

"Because they dwell so deep in the flat coat, they accumulate precious metal and precious stone inside their scale, which form vast labyrinths, hence its name. A man can get plentiful in one day exploring it."

"But I imagine it's not that easy."

"You'd be right. The carapace is teeming with parasites, ants when like to the Phthirius pubis, but deadly monstrosity to us humans. When a crab surfaces, the sponger will lead and become a danger to everyone and everything in the arena. No one is quite sure why dungeon crabs surface like this. Some believe it does it when the parasite have grown too legion and it needs to cut their turn down, either by setting them liberate on the surface or using treasure-hunting humans to cull their population. Others believe the crabs feed on the humans that enter its shell, and use the parasites to kill their prey for them. Many believe it simply surfaces to get fresh air, like a whale."

"And you expect us to capture one of these things ?"

"It's just a flesh of speech. To seize a dungeon crab means to get down to the mystifying part of its shell, where the most invaluable metal is."

"Avenium, I'm guessing ?"

"Correct. Anyone who can secure a cup's Worth and exhibit it to the kingdom becomes a noble. That's why I need you to serve swearword gaining control it."

"But as your son, isn't curse word already set to inherit your title ?"

"cuss is… my tertiary son. His oldest brother, Colt, was raised and groomed to be my heir, and the second oldest, Victor, was raised to be the replacement if anything happened to Colt."

"Making Oath the spare of a spare."

The top executive grimaced."He spent his life story working the playing area while his brothers hunted and earned achievements. However, both colt and Victor died in battle at the start of natural spring, so Oath is all I have left. He has a good heart…"

"But no talent, skills, courageousness, or reputation, and he's a bit of a brick."

"Unlike the son of my youthful brother, Edwin, a baronet. He is petitioning the kingdom to revoke my deed as mogul and chip in it to him and his eldest son. I need to testify that swearword has what it takes to be a baron, and the Best way to do that is to seize a dungeon Cancer the Crab. I'm too old to sire another heir and meter is running out. cuss already has an adventuring party that he trains and scrap with, but their skills aren't good enough to conquer a dungeon crab. I would wish you to join their party."

"Why me ?"

"Because you are young. There are numerous older adventurers with skill like yours that I can employ, but then my brother will argue that they just conquered the keep and handed the award to Oath."

"Which is exactly what you want me to do."

"But the fact that you are young means that you'll fit right in. No one will question one extra Brigham Young man joining my son's party."

Noah gave a huff while weighing his options. On one helping hand, a political tiff between class members was the last thing he wanted to get involved in, and there was no notification if he was even skilled enough to successfully conquer a dungeon crab. It was an unnecessary danger. On the other handwriting, the idea of getting his hands on some avenium and other rarified metals and gems was a tantalizing mind. He could get enough money to fund any venture he wanted for the relief of his life. Plus, it would get him to the capital, and perhaps let him earn some valuable joining. There were probably plentifulness of adventurers who would give their right arm for the chance.

"Would I be giving orders or receiving ?"

"The squad is yours to lead. They're gear up to set out whenever you are."

"And how long do dungeon crabs normally rest rise ?"

"A couple months. This one appeared various days ago, XXX air mile to the nor'-east. It won't be long before its swarming with adventurers."

"Very well, we'll depart in one workweek. I want to use that time to appraise the squad, see if there is anything I can do to polish their skills before we go."

"That would be a blessing."

Noah got up from his seat."I have some business to serve to tomorrow, but I'll income tax return in the afternoon. Make certain everyone is assembled."

This fourth dimension, the baron stood up and excite his hand."Consider it done."

Noah left the subject area and retrieved Tin in the parlor. As they stepped out onto the front porch, swearing came to see them off.

"So my male parent talked to you about the dungeon crab ?"

"That's correct, I agreed to go along with it. I'll rejoinder tomorrow."

"I appreciate it. I'll see you then."

oath gave a deep bow of gratitude, and in the distance, Noah saw a instant of movement, and then heard a sound that he was well used to. It was the sound of an pointer buried deeply into muscle and flesh. Launched a second earlier, it would give birth hit Oath square in the rear, but because he bowed, it found its mark in the centre of attention of Tin's chest.

Noah didn't say a word, but before either Oath or Tin could react, he had already leapt off the porch and was sprinting towards the origin of the arrow. He had left his bow with his buck in the stable, so he'd have to toss off the assassin up close. He could see the man hiding behind a scarecrow and recognized him as the fourth brigand from earlier. They weren't just random marauders, they had been hired to stamp out curse word !

The man nocked another arrow, aimed it at Noah, and fired, but he deflected it with his carapace. He closed in, able to see the seismic disturbance in the man's heart as the distance between them vanished with terrifying speed. He reached the man, drawing his new sword, and beheaded him before he could even grow around to run.

The trunk hit the primer coat, but Noah had already left, sprinting back to the mansion. There, on the porch, swearword was gathered with various handmaid, giving her one healing potion after another, as despite the removal of the arrow and the wound mop up, she wasn't getting better. Noah could see it, her veins darkening, her frame getting pale, and every breath seeming to cause her pain. Everyone moved aside and Noah embraced Tin, cradling her head.

"It was a poison arrow. We don't know what was used, we have no antidote for it. Noah, I'm so drear !"swearword exclaimed, shedding the tears that Noah should experience. Instead, he just stared at Tin, his blank muteness unnerving those around him.

Tin looked into his eyes."Master…"she whimpered."Please, I want to go back to our room. I want to go back to our bed and sleep beside you. I want to help you civilize your conjuration. I want to walk with you through the woods and hear more stories. There is so practically I want to do with you !"

She was crying, but Noah showed no emotion. Instead, he pulled out his phone and put the buds in her spike. With the live few sparks of push, Vide Cor Meum began to play, slowing her weeping."It will be peaceful, I promise. Just let the vox take you there,"he said.

He cupped her buttock and she smiled. That touch was all she needed."Thank you for making my lifespan a beautiful one,"she whispered. Then she closed her eyes listened to the song, soon releasing her final breath as the last notes played out.

All was silent, no one knowing what to say. trace began to grovel into Noah's mind, a cruel representative making him shake. ‘ Great, now I have to do everything myself…'He shook the voice aside.

"Noah…"Oath began.

"I'm going to forget her. Give me a blanket to enwrap her in and a shovel. I'm not asking."His articulation, it didn't shiver at all, and there was no awkwardness in his words.

"We'll take care of the grave, you should—"

There was the slender twitch on Noah's face. The gear mechanism in his mind were grinding together."I'm not burying her here. I know a proper place."

The handmaid rushed to carry out his order, bringing out a indulgent puff that Noah knew Tin would ingest liked. He wrapped her in the comforter and carried her to the stable, getting onto his buck with her and being given a shovel.

The rustle came back. ‘ I'll just shake off her into the woods.'Again, he forced the voice out of his nous."I won't be back for a day or so."

Cradling Tin, he gave his horse cavalry a kick and it took off with a cry. The sun had set, the woods now at their almost life-threatening, but Noah didn't hesitate to bait down a familiar route and into the wilderness. For hours, his gymnastic horse galloped through the forest. When it tired, he would give it water supply and a wellness potion to doctor its stamina, but that was the lonesome clock time he stopped. Monsters routinely tried to attack him, but he ended their lives with his bow. As the moonlight moved across the sky, Noah, holding Tin in his munition, felt the warmth slowly leave her consistency.

It wasn't just the monsters outside that were attacking, but the ones in Noah's forefront. Evil whispers flooded his mind, trying to get him to turn back.

‘ She's just a slave.'

‘ I should just go home.'

‘ There is no tip in risking my life.'

‘ goose egg matters.'

‘ It's all meaningless.'

It felt like all of his muscle were just loosely within his mastery, and if his focus broke, his body would act against his will, throwing Tin aside and riding back to the village. He had to force himself forward, despite every selfish inherent aptitude trying to hold him back.

Finally, when the night was at its darkest, he reached the in demand spot. It was the waterfall that he and Tin had camped at. There were some savage drinking from the river, but he scared them off and ignored the small slimes crawling around. The surface area itself hadn't changed in the end few weeks. There were still the remains of the fervor he had made, and the Clay basin was undamaged.

He tied his sawhorse to a tree and lit a torch, holding it while he carried Tin. ‘ I'll just knock down her and go.'He brought her behind the falls, where there was a small dry area with mess of river silt, deposited by the waterfall. He dug down as deep as he could, forcing aside any thoughts to give up and spare himself try. He laid her down on the frigidity earth and opened up the blanket, looking at her one last prison term. She looked peaceful, almost subject matter. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ash grey coin. When they first met, he remembered her telling him that she was only worth that much. He clasped her hands over her chest of drawers, holding the coin.

‘ What am I doing ?'

‘ This coin is valuable.'

‘ I shouldn't just hurl it away like this.'

He climbed out and buried her, then built a voltaic pile of rocks on her grave so that no beast would dig her up. Finally, he turned to the Harlan Fisk Stone paries at his face and began carving Tin's public figure into it with her dagger. The scratches were timid, but they wouldn't be simply washed away, like if he had simply drawn the letters on with a rock.

TIN

Those three minuscule letter of the alphabet, a little twinkling sparkle in his mind, like a swoon asterisk, told him that they looked lonely, and he focused on that. He should put more. She'd want that. But what should he write ? What did Tin intend to him ? Who was she ? What was she in relation to him ? Did he actually care ?

TIN

A FREED hard worker

It was all he could come up with, but it didn't satisfy him. There had to be something more. He hadn't loved her, it had been a long fourth dimension since he loved anyone. Did he even like her ? She was fast and helpful, and took care of him when he was sick. He also took precaution of her. Was that plenty to consider her of import to him ? He couldn't Tell. He had spent unnumbered life-time pretending to be a champion, son, a schoolfellow, a coworker, a husband, even a father. When was the finis prison term he actually liked person and wasn't just wearing the façade of politeness while putting up with them ? When was the last meter he told someone he loved them and wasn't simply lying to their cheek ?

He had buried so many people, nigh of them more than once. It was strong to tell those who were important from those he pretended were authoritative, those who were remembered and those he didn't deem worth remembering. Who mattered to him ? Whose death mattered ? He had long since lost the ability to tell, and was struggling to regain it.

Finally, some emotion. Noah punched the rock bulwark and split the cutis on his knuckles."Come on, think !"He shouted those discussion to himself over and over again. He was scratching at his own mind, trying to force descent from rock. What had Tin meant to him ? Or at the very least, what would she deliver wanted to pick up ? Noah focused on that, trying to envisage what he could have said to make her happy.

TIN

A FREED SLAVE

A PRICELESS COMPANION

Satisfied, he stepped out from behind the waterfall. In the east, he could see the sky beginning to clear. He took a seat side by side to the clay watershed, watching the sun come up while he searched his idea for that little twinkling light.

.

.

.

Cooperation

.

.

.

It took a wide-cut day to tease back to the village, repeating the master journey he had made when he first arrived in this timeline, but now doing it alone. Like the day before, he arrived as the sun approached the view. tiredness gripped him, so he went straight to the inn. He took his rump at his usual table and the innkeeper brought two trays of food."I was worried when you didn't show up for dinner finally night or breakfast this morning time. Where's Tin ?"she asked.

"She died."

The womanhood set down both trays."I'm… I'm so sorry."

"She was just a slave,"he replied. He then pulled one of the trays over and ate his meal in silence.

Having lived out of the inn for the retiring month, everyone who came for drinkable was used to the mess of Noah and Tin eating together. A few multitude, noticing her absence, ask just as the innkeeper had, and Noah told them the Lapp thing he told her. His emotionless answer angered Holly, one of the chambermaids, and she grabbed Noah by the dog collar and lifted him to his feet.

"She was a courteous young lady ! Everyone here knows how give she was to you ! Don't you dare say something like that about her !"

Noah stared her in the centre."Does any of that even matter ?"

Perhaps it was the way he said it, or the coldness of his eyes, but she dropped Noah back to his tush and stormed off in disgust. After that, no one approached Noah. When he was done with his repast, he made his way up to his room. This time, when he opened the door, there was no salutation. The candela was unlighted and there was no fire in the open fireplace. It was just a dark room.

Noah shut the door behind him and went straight to bed. Having gone two days without sleep, he was exhausted, and a cryptic, dreamless slumber enveloped him.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

"How much longer are we going to hold off ?"The impatient articulation came from a young man with a halberd on one shoulder and an obvious crisp on the other. He was sitting on the front porch of the fracture mansion, along with Oath and the two other members of their squad, Beth and Mira.

"He said he would be back today, but I know he also has business to give ear to,"Oath replied.

"Do you have any mind where he rode off to ?"Beth asked.

"No clue."

"I don't tending how roughneck you say he is,"the man with the halberd said,"if he rode out into those woods at night, he's utter for sure."

"Shut up, Trevor. When Beth and I met him, we knew that he was the real deal."

"When Tin was hit, it was like I blinked and he had already chased down the bravo and killed him."

"I still call nonsense on him taking out three men in that field."

"I looted their cadaver myself."

"Oh, there he is !"

On the road leading to the mansion, a galloping buck with its rider could be seen. Noah approached them and climbed off his horse."Sorry I'm late."

"That's the Nice hoop. You look more like a noble than I do,"said Oath.

It was the knight ring, all done after the Ithiel Town jeweler had worked on it. The avenium runes had been covered up and the enhancement jewel was set on top of the crest. It was certainly gaudy, but sometimes gaudiness had its own charm.

"Thanks. Beth, Mira, you're doing well, I see. When did you work this party ?"

"right hand after we met you in the woodwind instrument. We looked around for anyone willing to team up up with us and found Oath and Trevor,"said Mira."And I'm sorry about Tin."

"Me too,"Beth added.

Noah simply nodded."So the baron has asked me to take this team to inhibit the keep crabmeat. Before we do that, I need to—"

"You aren't leading anything,"said Trevor."You're not the foreman of us, just the babysitter for the big businessman's son."

"You're just going to bitch and groan throughout this whole ordeal, aren't you ?"Noah asked.

"fuck you. Try giving me lodge and I'll shove this halberd up your ass."

Noah took a rich breath and rubbed his temples."Ugh, one of you the great unwashed. This is the close thing I need.

Listen, here's what's supposed to happen : you and I spend the next hebdomad playing the game where I act as the seat yet apprehension government agency figure, and you keep throwing snappishness conniption due to some unexpressed deep-seated outlet. By the prison term we arrive at the dungeon crabby person, you'll hate me more than ever, and almost get us killed, probably with me having to salvage your life. However, your screwup will facilitate you realize you're full of nothing but bravado and buck bull, and you'll finally decide to listen to me, allowing me to break your punishing outer shell to help you figure out your behavioral trouble, which I'm guessing is about your father, or opinion of inadequacy, or something along interchangeable personal credit line. We'll gaining control the donjon crab and form a long-lasting friendship of respect and trust.

Now, that is what is supposed to befall, and as a lot as I would get laid to go on that aroused journey with you, I have literally a million beneficial affair to do with my time. So, let's nip this in the bud right now. You and me, one on one, until one of us can no longer stand. The also-ran has to listen and obey the winner until the dungeon crab is captured, including an Order to allow the party."

Most of what he said went over everyone's top dog, but hallow Trevor's meat, he was smart enough to realize he had just been insulted."You son of a bitch !"he barked as he got to his groundwork and pointed his halberd at Noah.

"That's the flavor. chip in it your best nip, because if you don't take me down, you're going to end up swallowing a lot of blood."

Trevor took a stance, leaning back and gripping his halberd with both hired hand, and enveloping the blade with mana with runes appearing in the air. It was just like the magic spell the goblin head had used on his brand to increase the strength of his slashes, meaning that getting hit with that halberd would surely be deadly.

"Trevor, turn back this ! This is insanity !"Mira implored.

"No, don't get in his way,"said Noah as he removed his ringing."The most important lessons hurt the most."

Trevor lunged with a properly var. and throw his halberd towards Noah. It wasn't just the destructive world power of his halberd, his speed had more than doubled."Mountain-Splitter !"

It was by a thin gross profit margin, but Noah stepped to the side of meat and the blade missed. He grabbed the pecker of the halberd and delivered a bone-crushing punch to Trevor's nose, causing him to let go and keel back.

"That was a good thrust. I imagine you've spent plentitude of time practicing it."

Trevor's face was pouring rakehell, but he remained standing and glared at Noah with limitless hatred."Give it back !"

"Fine, but I think it's been established that you can't hit me with it."

Noah tossed the halberd back and Trevor caught it. He wasted no metre in charging the blade with mana, producing an impressive air. This time, instead of a thrust, he made a encompassing cut."Erasing Cleave !"

Once Thomas More, Noah simply backed out of his range, escaping with zero wrong. Then, when the coast was clear, he closed in and delivered and uppercut to Trevor's jaw, busting his teeth and making him an even flaming mess. This time, Trevor couldn't hitch on his animal foot and fell back, trying and failing to curb his cry of torment. Looking around, Noah could see the magnate's retainer watching from the subject and through the windows.

"Noah, that's enough ! You two need to stop this !"Beth exclaimed.

"He's the one who decides when we stop. Feel free to give him a health potion, though."

"I don't need a sleep together health potion !"Trevor shouted.

He scrambled to his feet and went at it again. He abandoned the idea of using witching and attacked Noah with a barrage fire of rapid-fire stabs. Noah deflected each attack with his shell, and when Trevor tried to get in close for another jive, he once again grabbed the halberd and stopped Trevor from moving. It became a tug of war, but despite Trevor's accumulated speciality, Noah maintained his posture.

"You know what I'm going to do now, right ?"Trevor tried to figure out how Noah would throw another slug, but instead, he let go of the halberd and sent Trevor falling onto his ass."Your skills with that matter aren't that bad, at least, if you just stick to hunting monstrosity, but you'll never hit me with it. Try showing me how dependable you are with your fists."Noah placed his paw on his longsword and slowly drew it halfway."Unless you'd prefer to hold fast to arm combat, in which case I'll gladly body fluid you."

Trevor abandoned his halberd and charged, sending a straight right punch towards Noah. Noah caught his fist and then struck his elbow, snapping his arm like his bones were made of crank. Before Trevor could even scream, Noah silenced him with another slug to the nozzle, once more knocking him to the ground. It didn't seem like he was going to get up, so Noah took out a health potion and poured it on his face. The sprayer woke him up and healed his nose and mouth, though his arm would birth to be reset before a potion could mend it.

"So, do you want to keep going ? I can go all day if you want. I mean it, I've got naught but clip. And we can go whenever you want, this isn't your exclusively chance.

Now I suppose there are a number of ways we can go about this. We can do the entirely aroused journey thing, but the fact that I've explained it kind of takes away the thaumaturgy. You can just leave the company, I'll give you that option. There's the option of waiting until I have my back turned and then getting your revenge, which, again, you are liberal to do so at any clock time, but at your own risk. Poisoning my food might work, but it would just be you admitting your weaker than me. I suppose your expert choice would be to keep out your fucking oral cavity, accept that I'm stronger than you and overbold than you, and pay attention to what I will teach you, as it will improve your skills and your luck of survival.

From there, we can go to the dungeon crab, and you'll easily overtake challenges that would take in killed you at your current floor of speciality. With a full amount of effort and coordination, and no shortfall of fate, we'll conquer the dungeon Cancer and become rich beyond our wildest dreams. There is always the pick of betraying us down there and running off with all the loot, but boy, oh boy, you'd effective make sure I'm dead, because you don't want me coming after you, you really don't.

So, what do you say ?"

Everyone was silent, waiting to discover Trevor's answer. He was glaring at Noah and taking deep, wild breathes through his olfactory organ."You say you can pull in me potent ?"

"I guarantee it."

"We conquer the dungeon crab and we're done, right ? I never have to see you again ?"

"You can retire to some visualise beach house, you'll be so rich. I'll never bother you again."

"Fine."

"I'll let the three of you fix his arm. I need to verbalise with the baron inside."

Noah stepped onto the porch and entered the house, walking right by the dapple where Tin had died."Is the baron in ?"he asked, addressing one of the maids.

"In his secret study, sir. He's waiting for you."

Just as oath had done the day before, the maidservant knocked on the treble door and announced Noah's arrival, with the business leader granting entering. The old man was behind his desk."That was quite the spirit match outside. Your science are the existent deal."

"The real skill is producing outcome from it."

The big businessman walked over to his whiskey set and poured himself a drink."I'm glad you returned. I'm sorry for the release of your companion."

"Don't worry about it. I already killed your brother and his son."

The glass fell from the big businessman's handwriting and shattered."What ? !"he exclaimed.

There was an straightaway bang on the doorway."My master, is everything fine ?"a Butler asked.

Noah's gaze never left the baron, without any sense of fear or anticipation of what might arrive next. He simply waited for a reaction. The baron gripped the box of the desk but managed to control himself.

"Everything is alright. We are not to be disturbed."When he sensed the pantryman had left, he turned his attention back to Noah."You wouldn't even give me the chance to talk you out of vengeance ?"

"It was nix of the sort."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

It was midmorning, and Noah had just claimed his mob from the jeweler, the finale of his first light errands, and with info given by those around town, he now stood before the family of the local baronet. It was in the outskirt of the town, one of the farms, and neither the orbit nor the house were on par with the baron. Despite the rank of noble, baronets were simply common man with the prefix ‘ Sir'or ‘ lady ’.

He found the baronet repairing a cattle fence behind the house. He was identical to the baron, but without the beard and sporting few furrow. Noah was invisible, so the man didn't even notice him approach, but was calm when Noah pressed the blade of his tongue to his throat and told him to drop the hammer he was using.

"Sir Edwin Fault, I presume ?"

"Who's asking ?"

"Did you lease four men to shoot down the Oath error ?"

"Now why would I try to kill my beloved nephew ?"

"To get your son the membership of king. But if you aren't going to answer my questions, I suppose I can always ask him, or maybe your wife."

"You must be the bastard who saved him from that hob den. I had to pay that adventurer a good great deal of money to down him. To conceive he'd be such a chickenshit and leave the job to goblins."

"Did your son know about the hit you put on his cousin ?"

"He would have killed that talentless brat himself if I hadn't talked him out of it. He didn't do anything. You have a bone to pick, put that knife away and let's resolve this like men."

Noah's answer came in the frame of a fluid flick of his articulatio radiocarpea, severing Edwin's vena jugularis and sending him tumbling to the ground, trying pointlessly to stop the bleeding. Noah stood by to corroborate the death and then made his way towards the area, where the Bart's son was working.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

"There was a meter when I took keen joy in making the great unwashed suffer, and I've been working to deepen myself since then. I don't tolerate myself to down for delight or vengeance, and certainly I didn't stamp out them for what they did, but what they would persist in to do. Associating with you and your son has already cost me the life of a loyal subordinate, and I'd rather not give anyone the probability to get in my way.

If I were to set aside them to live, they would continue to try and drink down you and expletive, and I'd have to clean up the mussiness, just like I've been doing since I found your son in that goblin den. The last thing I'd want is to enamor the dungeon and then get ambushed by your brother's henchman when we're too timeworn to defend back. I assume you had forgiven your brother because he is your syndicate, despite his attempt to pop oath, but you're hiring me to keep Oath alive, and if I'm going to do that, it will be done my way.

If you have any dissent, state them now."

Ivan didn't respond. He simply slumped in his rear and exhaled deeply. Deep down, he knew that his buddy had to be dealt with in one kind or another, in order for his son to inherit the rank of top executive. However, even if it had been melt off before, there was always a chance of reconciliation. He had dreamt of conversing with his brother, as they had a tenacious, foresightful time ago, and burying the hatchet. Now that opening was gone forever. Noah claimed he hadn't acted out of payback against his brother, but Ivan couldn't help but feel he was the one being punished.

"I thought as much. Despite your pal and nephew dying, I'm aware that your son still had little prospect of inheriting your title, so the keep seizure will proceed as aforethought. We didn't have the chance to talk about payment for this job, but don't vexation, I'm not concern in money or domain. There is something else I want."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

It took more than one healing potion to recreate Trevor's arm, and that could only be done when the bones were reset. He was all patched up by the clip Noah made his return.

"I promised the baron we'd set out in a calendar week for the donjon. That was two days ago. For the next five days, I'm going to evaluate each of your skills and see where improvements have been made. showtime, we're going to hound some monsters. I want to live your fighting acquirement and see how well you work as a squad. You all have your weapon, so we're going to depart now and travel visible light. Any objections ?"

No one said anything, not after watching how he thrashed Trevor. But their quiet was not out of fear, rather an awareness that Noah knew what he was talking about. He was the oldest of the group by only a year, but they all sensed he had much Thomas More experience than they did.

"goodness, then let's depart. Oath, you know the country. Please lead the way."

"I actually know the location of a magic spawning roundabout. Let's head there."

They gathered some provision and set off into the wild, leading a pack horse to carry back their harvested monster parts. From the consequence they were enveloped by the iniquity of the Tree, they were vulnerable. The territory of the monstrosity was well-established, due much in component to the evocation roofy that they spawned from. They only intruded into human territory when there was a shortage of food or their numbers had grown too great, upshot that were both solved by the invariable flow of adventurers working to curb their universe.

As they walked, Noah spoke to everyone.

"Mira, we talked once before about this. Have you developed any acquirement for close-quarter armed combat ?"

"I've been training with my faculty since then. oath and I spar a lot when we're not hunting."

"What about magic trick ?"

"I haven't been able to develop anything for fighting enemies up close."

"We'll work on that. curse word, Beth, can either of you use magic ?"

"I can't,"said Oath.

"I can create pee, but not in any kind of tone-beginning. I use it to fill up my piddle skin."

"good, we'll definitely need that in the dungeon. You're still using your bow as your main weapon, right ?"

"Yeah, and I got poisonous substance for my arrows just like you…"

She trailed off, remembering what Oath had told her. Tin had been shot and killed with a toxicant pointer. Noah paid no aid to the drop of her speech.

"What about close-range ? Any weapons ?"

"I use a knife."

"Good. Trevor, you can activate magic when you thrust and swing your halberd. Anything else ?"

"Nope, the halberd is all I can use."

Noah had picked up some scraps of info on the unlike branches of magic trick in this world, and Trevor appeared to be in the warrior class, just like the hob foreman. Warriors could only aerate their skills with particular arm, which depended on the soul. He wasn't exaggerating when he said the halberd was all he could use. He couldn't activate his magic with any other weapon.

"We're here,"said Oath. He then stopped in his racetrack."On second thinking, I think we should turn back."

Noah looked ahead. On the woods floor, he could see a vauntingly magic circle, consisting of runes and sort chassis. Standing in the circuit was a take over the size of a minivan. However, its soundbox was faint, translucent, like it was just a hologram, but with each passing moment, its colour deepened.

‘ Is it teleporting ? No, it's set. The rophy is converting mana into strong-arm matter and assembling it. So, that's what it means for a creature to be summoned.'“ I've never seen a bear like that out here."

"It's a sledgepaw, a rare breed. It is to regular bears what that hobgoblin was to regular goblins. We should get out of here before it attacks. This is a little bit out of our league."

"No, it's perfect tense. We'll wait for it to finish spawning and then require it on. For all we know, the dungeon could have far worse monsters."

"All right, then let's subscribe to organization,"said Oath.

"Wait for it to assault us. Taking your meter in setting up a firing squad while it spawns won't give a lot experience or information."

It took only a min for the bear to fully happen, immediately spotting Noah and the grouping and labeling them as enemies without any kind of faltering or confusion. It released a holla of fury and charged, signaling the start of the engagement. Noah kept his distance while the group spread out, surrounding the bear. Beth nocked a poison arrow in her bow and shot the bear in the neck. It turned to her and snarled, about to welt out with its claws, but Oath attacked from the side and slashed at its shoulder joint with his steel. The beast's pelt was yob, and Noah couldn't Tell if the attack had actually done any wrong. Enraged, the bear knocked Oath aside. Like Noah, he was wearing leather armor, and while it stopped the bear's claws from reaching his soma, the armor itself was nearly destroyed by that one swipe.

"swearing !"Mira cried out.

Trevor stabbed the bear in the second joint with his halberd, and while he drew a yowl of pain from the beast, it hadn't forgotten the pointer in its neck and attacked Beth. It was faster than she expected and it knocked her to the priming coat, with her bow wedged between its jaws keeping it from biting her. She was crying in anguish as it weighed down on her, spittle from its mouth splashing on her nerve with its massive Fang inching closer and closer.

"Guillotine cut !"

Trevor swung his halberd like he was splitting wood, and the axe steel, glowing with deception power, dug deep into the bear's back, though it missed the spine.

"earth Surge !"

Having gathered her mana, Mira struck the ground with her staff. The surrounding soil, not gripped by the tree diagram ascendent, was gathered together and slammed into the bear like a mudslide, knocking it off Beth. The bear was decelerate to get back on its base, as its strength was fading with each lost cliff of blood and the poison was taking its toll. Regardless, it still could crush the skulls of the feeble humans with a single swing of its mighty paw.

swearword was back on his ft and charged with a shout of determination and his sword raised heights. Seeing him approach, the bear reared back on its hind pegleg, and despite his vigor just moments ago, the ken of the towering wolf robbed curse word of his courage. He was paralyzed with fearfulness and the bear swung at him. Instinct saved his animation, the instinct to raise his sword and hinder the attack, though the military group still slammed him into the footing. An arrow was buried in the bear's chest before it could attack again, managing to pierce a lung, and Trevor stabbed it in the tummy.

The bear fell back and rolled onto its legs, roaring in furiousness but then breaking down into a fit of bloody coughing. Beth fired a tertiary arrow, striking the shoulder, which Trevor then cleaved with his halberd. As this was going on, Mira rushed over to Oath's side and helped pull him out of hurt's way. With Trevor and Beth continuing to wail on the animate being, its life was soon extinguished. Its massive body collapsed and Oath and his booster released their confine breath.

Noah, who had been observing, got up from the tree dais that had been his seat and approached, and while everyone patched themselves up, he severed the bear's spine with his steel to realize sure it was dead.

"praise on your kill. However, it was rather messy."

"Messy ? !"Trevor exclaimed."Look at how big that monster is ! We took it on while you just sat back and watched ! We've never faced anything that big before !"

"Its size of it wasn't the bountiful challenge. Your disorganization was."Noah took out his knife and began carving into the bear to take out its hide. He looked only at his work, but he continued to chew up them."You surrounded it on all sides, which, while unspoilt when facing something smaller and prone to running game, left Beth and Mira defenseless. Don't split up like that unless it's something that each one of you can physically manage. Beth, debate all the clock time that you spent pinned. That was all meter you could get spent firing arrows had you and Mira kept your distance. Though speaking of pointer, your aim was very good, both that barb to the cervix and to the pectus. But from now on, the two of you should hang back while swearword and Trevor fend the enemy off.

expletive, when you first attacked, what were you aiming for ?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to inflict some damage."

"You should give gone for the head. With a monster of that sizing, did you remember a human body lesion or muscle damage would vote down it ? Unless they're well protected, you should always aim for the vital spots. Swing at the brain, stab at the breast. Same with you, Trevor. When you attacked its back, were you aiming for its spine ?"He didn't respond."I'll take that as a no. necessitate aim with your attacks, and not just at openings in your opposite's safety device. You should try studying anatomy, figure of speech out where the most vital points are. You went at the belly, that was fresh. It's gentle and hard to protect, but you stabbed too low. You should suffer gone higher, towards the liver, or at least the stomach.

Mira, you did well in getting Oath out of peril. However, you waited too prospicient to put your spells. I see that you developed a new patch, and while it did oversee to get the bear off Beth, it was a larger-scale charm not suited to the forest. I remember you once told me you can create a dust cloud and air rock'n'roll flying ? You should have stuck with that. A bit of dust could have blinded the bear and maybe even hindered its signified of spirit, and a careen or even hard-packed scandal can impose deal of infliction when striking the headspring or the crotch.

And Oath, you know what I'm going to say, don't you ? You choked, and your error put the liveliness of your friends in danger. It was instinct that saved your spirit. You need to make these kinds of determination faster. Before we head to the dungeon crab, we'll have to remedy that. Now, all of you give me a deal. This bear is going to assist fund our preparations."

Everyone joined in, helping to remove the bear's skin as intact as possible. When it was done, Noah placed his hand on the hide and tried to seal it in his ring. The enhancement jewel had doubled the carrying electrical capacity of the anchor ring, but the skin was so intemperate that the ring was refusing to accept it. He'd have to bump off some things first.

Noah held out his hand and closed his digit around an invisible hold. A sword appeared in his grip, the sword that he had taken from the goblin. He had even found the sheath that went with it, something that the veritable goblins wouldn't have been smart enough to take on. It was much large than his broadsword, and he had assumed its size might be utilitarian against a large enemy. Oath, who knew both the real identity and power of Noah's ring and what it was known for, was relieve from the voices of amazement the others made. Even Trevor was shocked by the huge steel appearing out of fragile air.

"Oath, where did you get your brand ?"

"Uh… it was my grandfather's."curse word stuttered, feeling an automatic pistol sensory faculty of danger by being queried by mortal who had just revealed a sword.

"May I ?"Noah held out his hand and swearword reluctantly handed it over. Noah looked it over. He was an experienced blacksmith once, a week-long encyclopaedism course at a metalworking school that turned into a life history, though while his computer memory were a bit fuzzy, he could still recognize the craftsmanship put in. However, his nidus wasn't on the actual quality of the metal, but the length of the hold. It was a bastard sword, otherwise known as a hand-and-a-half, which could be held with either one hand or two.

"It's good. And your father said you grew up working the fields, right ? slew of plowing and clearing Tree ?"

"Yes, that's right."

"I want you to try using this hob blade for a piece. Swinging a hoe or an axe require leverage, leverage that your grandpa's sword can't give you with the length of its handle. Your hired man are too unaired together and it's throwing off your heart of gravitational force when you hold it. This larger sword will allow for you save your hands farther apart and leave a to a greater extent similar motion."

He handed both swords to Oath, but he only took his grandfather's sword."I can't accept that. That's your trophy for killing the monster."

"You're just renting it from me. Besides, if this venture works out, I'll be rich enough to buy an even better sword."

"As you wish, then."He wasn't fully convinced, but he took the steel and hung it across his back.

"Ok, let's change our strategy a niggling. We'll take the formation of a W, with Oath in the heart, me and Trevor at the position, and Beth and Mira in the back."

It would have complete if they could fight another sledgepaw bear and compare scheme, but considering its rarity, it would probably be a long time before it respawned. They set off instead to find more behemoth, not having to hike tenacious before coming across a pack of wolves. They took establishment and stared the beasts down, all armed and cook to fight.

"Beth and Mira, you two are our master form of attack. The three of us are just a shield. You'll have to pore on not getting us caught up in your attacks."

"Right !"They both replied.

arrow began flying past Oath's right side and Rock and composition of packed ground were flying past his left. The wolves were caught off guard and several were left stunned or injured. A brute standing directly in straw man of swearing managed to avoid the outpouring and leaped towards him. swearing swung his steel, nearly losing his balance wheel and falling over. However, though the weightiness was much greater than any hoe or axe he had used, it wasn't the causa. It was the ease he felt, the swing now more reminiscent of a familiar motion, and he was able to use muscle memory to forebode out with child strength and skill. The ease robbed him of his tenseness like he had removed weights from his articulatio humeri, causing him to stumble. The sword carved through the airborne wolf like a buzz saw, nearly slicing it in two.

At the same time, the beast that were still on their feet scattered to try and flank the group. Two ran towards Trevor, and the first, attacking from above, ended up getting impaled on the gig tip of his halberd. The second tried to fill up in, using the expiry of the kickoff as a distraction, but Trevor swung his halberd down and buried the axe blade in the wolf's back.

On the other side, three charged towards Noah. The foremost pounced, sending Noah dodging to the side and then beheading it with a downwards swing. He spun around, thrusting into the second wolf's chest as it pounced from above. The third tried to set on from his blind daub, but drew his poor sword and cleaved its skull open.

All that was left were the skirt chaser stunned by the scuttle attack, but they had been dispatched with Beth's pointer. The only fight had taken a smattering of bit, causing cuss and his friends to all exchange shocked coup d'oeil. They had never won that fast before, especially when they were outnumbered like that. The value of Noah's advice had been proven.

They stripped the wildcat of their hides and collected all other valuable body function, then continued their journey. There was still plenty of clip before they'd have to set up camp, so they wanted to get as lots hunting done as they could. As they traveled through the forest, the flicker of exhilaration filled them. Now that the Danton True Young adventurers had improved their strategy, they wanted to see how else they might get unattackable, and what this new hike would reserve them to do. They were hiking through a hilly area, sticking only to the flattest dry land for the sake of their horse. It was when they were traveling along a floodplain that Noah stopped them, his heart glued onto the nearby mound and a orotund fallen tree.

"Look over there. See the ground where the filth and leave of absence have been disturbed ? Goblins probably laid a gob and are hiding behind that log. Mira, can you launch one of your while to try and smoke them out ?"

"It's a little far, but I'll try."She stabbed the ground with her stave."Earth Bind !"

Like a crack splitting ice, a visible line ran through the aerofoil of the ground over the domain behind the log. There was the sound of shrieks and several goblins scurried out from their hideaway, with one caught within the pit jaws of Mira's spell.

"Beth,"Noah said.

Beth perked up and took aim with her bow, managing to lash out one of the confused goblins. From behind the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree around the log, to a greater extent goblins appeared, howling like scalawag. They charged town the hill, a dozen of them, with two hanging back with their own bows.

"Beth, consider out the archers. Mira, try to funnel them so that they don't flank us. swearword, if more than one goblin attacks you at once, don't do another downward gash. It'll leave you open. Trevor, don't let the momentum of your jive take you out of position."

No one questioned him, and as Beth waged a long-distance exchange with the archers up the hill, Mira created colliery and blades of solid ground that burst up along the flank of the goblin horde. They swarmed for Noah, Oath, and Trevor. The immobile goblin reached Trevor and dropped a nine towards his head. Trevor swung his halberd, and while the blade failed to strike the goblin, it did get caught on the handle, hurling it towards Oath, who dispatched it with a cleave. He then swung his sword from the face like Trevor had done, catching two goblin in the temples and slicing off the top of their skulls.

At the end, Noah was stabbing and slashing any hobgoblin that came near. He overpowered them whenever they tried to bar and every swing of his steel sent line of descent splattering across the nearby Tree. A hob arrow planted itself in his tummy, nearly sending him tumbling to the earth. His leather armor had slowed it down a bit, so it didn't reach his organs, but as someone who had been shot numerous times, getting hit with the splintery goblin arrow hurt a lot More than most bullets.

"Mira, I'm hit. I need a scatter cloud !"

"R-right !"

She stuttered momentarily, but regained her composure and sent all of the dry soil around the hob airborne, blinding them and leaving them coughing. He only had a couple bit, so Noah ripped out the arrow with a hiss of pain and spurt of blood and poured a healing potion on the wound. As his flesh stitched back together, the goblin managed to crystallize their eyes of the dust and resumed their charge, but just like before, Noah mowed them down. The engagement was over in less than a minute. Once again, Oath and his friends exchanged glance of excitement.

A few battles later, the setting sun put an end to their hunting for the day, and they set up camp between a cluster of magnanimous trees for protection from lusus naturae and air current. They built up a fire in the center and cooked meat from the slain bear. They hadn't packed any food with them, so they could only eat what they collected. dinner was eaten mostly in quiet. Noah was new to the chemical group and they hadn't gotten used to him yet, so the others couldn't immediately talk at their common conversational depth.

Between bit, Noah took out a canteen full-of-the-moon of water system and added some pine tree needle from his pocket. Metal bottleful were more expensive than methamphetamine bottles and water hide, so everyone noticed when he set it next to the fire.

"You're making tea with true pine acerate leaf ?"Mira asked.

"Pine needles assist guard off scurvy even intimately than lemons."

"Really ? Where'd you hear that ?"

"Just something I picked up."

"Where can I nibble up interesting stuff like that ?"Beth complained."Where did you learn to defend freak ?"

Noah thought back through all of the fantasy novels and role-playing plot he had enjoyed over the geezerhood."That ? That was just intuition."It would be best to shift the conversation away from himself.

"What are you going to do after the keep Crab ?"she then asked.

"That question seems like bad fortune, don't you think ? They say that when men plan, God laughs. What about you ? You get to get a noble if you capture a dungeon. You could be set for life. swearing is going to inherit his father's title. Are you also aiming for nobleness ?"

"I'm going to keep traveling and exploring,"said Beth.

"I just want to make adequate money to decide down and set off a family,"Mira added.

cuss's future had already been laid out, so adjacent it was supposed to be Trevor, but he didn't display any pursuit in even acknowledging the question.

"I have no stake in becoming a noble,"said Oath.

"Then why do it ?"Noah asked.

"Because my father wants me to."

"Again, why do it ?"

"I already told you. My—"

"And what does that hold to do with anything ? You're old enough now that you can set out on your own. You've found your talent with that sword. Keep being an adventurer. Do whatever you want to do."

"Isn't my Father-God paying you to make sure I become a imposing ?"

"I fully expect you to become a noble, even if I have to tie the title around your articulatio radiocarpea. I just want to piddle sure you have a unattackable reason so that you won't choke up. So, go on, secernate us the real reason."There was an awkward silence, during which Noah carefully retrieved his mobile canteen, which had come to a simmer."Unless, of course of study, you already gave us the real reason. Your father wants this, and you want to make him happy."

"Is that really such a unknown desire ?"

"You want him to finally treat you like he did your Brother. You want reconciliation, to do everything right so that all the years of negligence can be made up for, that it was all deserving it."

"For someone judging, you sound like you have experience."

"No, I was the opposite. My dad was like yours. He thought a parent's love life had to be earned and wouldn't consent bankruptcy. If I wasn't the secure, then I wasn't his son. Unfortunately, I didn't concern, and I told him that. I told him that his approval meant nothing to me. I never had any intention of making him proud."In actuality, he had several founding father who followed that outlook. It was a personality case that made an show every now and then.

"What happened ?"Beth asked.

"Oh, he hit me, various times. Yeah, he went nuts."

"So what did you do ?"

‘ I waited until he turned around and then I stabbed him in the rachis. He spent the repose of his life in a wheelchair.'“ I left menage and became an adventurer."He took a slack sip of his tea."You have to picture out your own reason for doing things, your own reason for animation. Neither your parents nor God can kick in you meaning. It's something that you have to create for yourself, and if you don't do it carefully, if you pick an mind or a notion that is faint and fragile, it'll gloaming apart in your mitt and you'll have nothing."

The camp went silent, everyone staring into the fire rather than take the danger of making eye contact with soul else. Beth, no longer eating, hugged her knees to her chest."My founding father was actually an adventurer. He taught me how to scud a bow and always told me of his adventures. Sometimes he'd disappear for hebdomad at a time, but he would always get home base late and nighttime, when I was asleep. We had a secret plan where he would hide under my bed, just before break of day, and went I'd step onto my trading floor, he'd catch my ankle and pretend to be whatever demon he had just fought. It made me a light sleeper, because I'd always try to hear him sneak in and catch up with him."

"I wish I knew my father,"said Mira, trying to prevent the conversation going.

Like before, it became Trevor's turn, but he still showed no interest in participating. They then realized that he had already fallen asleep.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

They set out at dawn the next dawning to bear on hunting, while making their way back to town. Just like the day before, their new establishment proved unstoppable against the monsters of the timber, and they found themselves carrying so a good deal shekels that it was draining their stamina faster than the battles. They had to take aim frequent full point, and as usual, Noah would use that time to meet worthful flora.

At last, they broke out of the back of the forest, now trekking across farmland with the Village not far off. Despite their fatigue, their feel were richly. The sun was setting and their trip had been both fat and informative"I think we should just go straight to the dungeon crab tomorrow,"said Oath."We're already stiff enough."

"Not yet,"said Noah."We've built a formation, now I want to improve your abilities."

"So more hunting ?"Beth asked.

"No, training and drill to increase forcible strong point and mana backlog. All of our loot from this trip is going to fund it."

Upon arriving to Town, they first stopped off at the local tannery to sell off the pelts. The owner of the shop, a skinny man who struggled to uprise a decent byssus, Gospel of Luke, met them as they entered his store. As one might expect, tanneries weren't known for their pleasant aromas. It smelled like a wet dog that had just fed on roadkill. The air had moved beyond round-eyed stench and now had its own sense of taste, a very gamy flavor. It annoyed Noah every clip he stopped by.

"Mr. Noah, I haven't seen you lately. And the vernal master, I'm glad to see you are doing well. What have you come with today ?"

"We have pelts to deal, including a special piece."

All of the wolf and other hides were stacked on the counter, with the final stage, belonging to the sledgepaw bear, having to be laid out on the floor like a rug.

"A sledgepaw ? And in such in force condition ! This is definitely a rare find !"

"We fought it as soon as it finished spawning,"said swearing."That's as fresh as it gets."

Luke bent down and examined the hide, paying close attention to wound created during the engagement."And there doesn't appear to be too a great deal damage… I can gift you two gold coins for everything."

"Two and half ?"Noah asked.

"Two, that's my demarcation line. This thing has some big cuts in it."

"Fine."

The interchange was made, but Trevor objected as the coins were handed to Noah."Why do you get the money ? You didn't fight it !"

"I'm not keeping the money, just holding onto it until we spend it."

Next, they sold off some hobgoblin weapons to the blacksmith, and anything else that they had managed to amass, though their final stop was the apothecary, and rather than selling, Noah was buying. curse and the others stood back and watched as he ordered armfuls of different plants for sale with the old adult female watching him with an eye of interest.

"I'll also take every health and mana potion you're uncoerced to sell."

"Why can't every customer be like you ?"she asked, teasing him.

They returned to the street."Ok, let's birdcall it a day. Tomorrow morning, we'll meet back up at the baron's nursing home and begin training. I'll use these plant to whip up loads of potions."

The group split up, with Oath and Trevor heading off their respective habitation, Beth and Mira returning to the inn, and Noah running a few more errands. night fell, and like the women, Noah made his way to the inn. It was bustling as usual, but the board that Noah sat at was quiet. He ate dinner quickly and went up to his way. By candlelight, he ground up the plants he had bought and mixed them together. He had a long leaning of potions and tools to induce for this dungeon adventure, so even his dark would be busy. An hour after he started, he heard a knock at the door. He answered with his tongue in deal but out of sight, as was natural. He opened the door to see Beth standing there, a smiling on her look that was coy, anxious, excited, and embarrassed, all mixed together.

"I wanted to tell you again how sorry I am to see that about Tin. But just because she's gone, that doesn't entail your night have to be lonely. I want to have the legend that everyone in town has been talking about."

An honest smile, rare for Noah, crossed his side. However, it was more in amusement than lustfulness."That seems like something that would really impart us some bad luck later, considering the unscathed dungeon crab thing."

"What ?"

"goose egg. As much as I would like to say yes, it would be best if we both went straight for bed, considering the education I have planned. Plus, I still have a lot of potions to make."

Her spirits were deflated, but she wasn't ready to give up."Are you sure I can't alter your mind ?"

"I'm sure. But if you still have strength tomorrow after dinner party, then I'll happily indulge you."

"I'll look forward to it."She then gave him a winking and went back to her room.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

"The training I have in mind will dwell of long sessions of muscular tissue training and then magic trick training in a physically played out nation, replenishing military strength with potions, and repeating the process."Noah addressed swearword and his Quaker in presence of the magnate's sign. By his side were a boastfully sack full of red and drear potions, as well as some other mixture."It's a compounding of two workout routines I've created."

Mira looked away for a moment, pondering something. She then perked up in shock."That's what was happening with you and Tin at the inn !"

Oath, Beth, and even Trevor looked at her, taking a present moment to process what she had said, and then swerving their eyes back to Noah like a car drifting around a corner. swearing had forgotten that little fact, and Trevor, resigned to bearing a dumb grievance, was remembering those hearsay he had heard and finally feeling a bit of respectfulness towards Noah.

Noah let a small joke escape."Yeah, that's right. My theory is that mana output is a combination of physical and religious vitality. When your Negro spiritual mana can't keep up with the demand, your forcible mana picks up the slack, but it means your disembodied spirit gets only region of the benefit of grooming. Therefore, the right way to train your spirit's rate of yield and reservoir size is to either do so after you have just depleted all of your stamina, or during battle, when you are using up both, though I believe the latter is less efficient. Tin was assisting me with the consumption of physical energy."

"All morning ? !"

"I have a lot of stamina, which is the answer of the other exercise function. Over a retentive point of time, I've mastered several different forms of exercise and refined them to point muscle growth in a particular way. People and early large animal have three variety of muscle : red muscle, which is muscle that is slap-up for stamina and running ; white muscular tissue, which is muscle for forcible power and explosive force ; and pink muscle, which is a combination of both. My act focuses on producing tap muscle. Unfortunately, sex isn't the exercise number, God, though I wish it was.

Oath, I saw you struggling to lift your new steel, but making perfect stroke every time. Because of all the time you've spent swinging a hoe or an axe, neither of which is very heavy, you have a lot of red muscle, which lets you go for a farseeing time up to a sealed limit.

Trevor, I noticed your movements decline degenerate than Oath, despite expending a similar measure of energy. Your knife thrust and solidus, while initially quite powerful, made a sweetie decline. You have too much white muscle, which lets you carry More than swearing, but not as far."

To Oath, it made sense. He had yet to see Noah truly fatigued, not after clearing the goblin den or even when they returned to the settlement the premature day. At the Sami clock time, he was capable to slit through freak and carry their remains with big strength. The others had noticed it as well, another category in which he outclassed them.

"delay a irregular, if that was your"exceptional mana education"you were doing with Tin, then that means you can use trick,"said Beth."You told us you couldn't."

"I wasn't sure I could trust you when we first met. I was willing to severalise you how to realize yourselves stronger, but not how to make me weaker."

"You've been hiding magic this solid time ? But we showed your ours !"Trevor yelled.

"And let that be a object lesson to you in the future. The sooner your enemy knows about your forcefulness, the Sooner they know about your helplessness. When meeting new multitude, conceal your ability until the finale moment, because that mo might be a battle. However, since you followed me on that hunting trip and are will to undergo my workout procedure, I believe that it's only bonny to lay my posting on the table."

He covered his eye and disappeared, drawing shouts of surprise from everyone.

"Noah ? !"Oath exclaimed, looking around for him.

Noah released the illusion and they all yelped again."I can make myself invisible. When I first unlocked this ability, I could only do it for a few seconds at a meter. After a month of training, I could do it for More than five minutes."He'd keep his secondment turn secret, as well as the true duration he could concur the both of them for. His corporate trust in them was still in its infancy.

"I've never seen or even find out of a magic like that before. Maybe some kind of sanctum while ?"Mira muttered.

Her run-in took away a lot of his nervousness. He still knew so short about the magic in this humans, there was no telling how common ability like his might be. For all he knew, this lie might make him look pathetic. However, if Mira had never heard of it, there was a chance that it was rare enough to not be considered common knowledge.

Noah retrieved some bottles full of a William Green liquid and tossed one to oath and each of his champion."deglutition that, it's a fiddling something I whipped up from the plants I bought yesterday, along with some dear. It'll open you a piddling spare vim. These next few twenty-four hour period are going to be exhausting."

.

.

.

Forging speciality

.

.

.

Pained gasps.

A feminine whimper.

"Oh God !"

Beth collapsed, fighting for every breath with Noah standing over her, the two of them drenched in sweat.

"Come on, get up,"he said.

"I can't do anymore !"

"You know what comes next."

She looked at him with eyes total of hate."You're a monster,"she hissed.

A well-defined, steady watercourse was produced, arching onto the ground with a splash.

"Oh, she broke her disk !"said Oath.

"I wish my mana would arise that fast !"Mira complained.

The water spurting from Beth's fingertip trickled to a halt. She rolled onto her back, feeling like the hard route underneath her was now as cushy as the Martin Luther King's mattress. It was the indorsement day of Noah's breeding, midmorning, and he was running circle with curse and his Friend around the break estate. Since yesterday, this what they had been doing with most of their time, running almost nonstop flight. It was Noah's rule that they had to run until they collapsed or nearly threw up, and then immediately cast magic until their mana was completely depleted. Oath was exempt, but only because he had no aptitude for magic.

Noah crouched down and fed Beth a watered-down healing potion, just something to doctor her stamina a bit. While she recovered, Oath, Mira, and Trevor sucked in air. This was the only when gap they got, when someone collapsed.

"I'm starvation, can we eat luncheon now ?"Trevor asked.

"I can't even think of food for thought,"curse groaned.

They all complained throughout the whole ordeal, but in accuracy, no one had yet given up and refused to go any further. Despite their anguish, they didn't give in. It wasn't to rise their determination, rather it was the simple fact that Noah's methods were producing resultant role. Just the day before, at the same time, if Beth cast her spell, it would receive just been a few drops falling from her fingerbreadth, to a lesser extent of a fountain and Sir Thomas More of a blabbermouthed faucet. Also, everyone's toughness was increasing noticeably. Thanks to the wellness potions, they could do calendar week of daily exercise and recovery in a bit of hours, compressing the rate of improvement so it was much more obvious.

"Yeah, I'd say so. I'm on my last legs too."

Oath and the others groaned in assuagement and began throwing down everything they carried, as well as stripping off any armor. Noah was making them run in all of their adventuring paraphernalia with their weapon system in hand, and in clip, he'd incorporate weighting to develop them for carrying the donjon crab's treasure. There was a field nearby, but they didn't charge and squatted down right in the centre of the road to eat. It was on the baron's estate, so there wasn't the headache of traffic.

They each carried lunch made by the maid and were chowing down like ravenous animal. Even Noah was giving in to his hungriness and stuffing his expression. But as he ate, his eyes swept over everyone in the chemical group. This workout was definitely vivid, shredding muscles and then immediately repairing them. In this vitrine, the antidote was tough than the poison, according to the townsfolk apothecary. He had spoken to her the dawning after he returned to Clive while on his way to pick up his ring.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

"exploitation potions for drill ? It would be a good idea if it wasn't such a bad idea,"the old woman said. As always, she stared Noah down, looking at him through the smoking of her pipe.

"I can't imagine I'm the first person to think of using them this way. What I want to know is if there are any dangerous core. You always have them in livestock, so getting the factor isn't an issue."

She took a deep inhale and released a large sens swarm."There is a downside."

"Am I going to sustain to pay you to notice out what it is ?"

"In a rush, are you ? Yes, it's always people like you using this method. Mana and health potions, as well as all other confection used by explorer, may look like bottled miracles, but they are a double-edged brand. If overexposed, the body can forget how to repair and regenerate itself. If a wound is repeatedly inflicted on one spot and healed with potions, eventually the body will lose the ability to mend that smirch on its own. slice will shed blood ceaselessly, broken osseous tissue will turn like rock, and organs will eventually exclude down. The outcome are even unsound if the potion is consumed, rather than poured, as it spreads throughout the body."

"How long before major damage is inflicted ?"

"If used for daily recitation, potions will lead to death within two calendar week. Lesser damage depends on the user."

"And what about mana potions ?"

"Mana potions stunt the growing of conjuring trick. The more often they are used, the harder it will be to create and acquire new spells."

Noah thought back to his"breeding days"with Tin. He had performed them every other day and with watered-down potions, multiplying his reserves countless times and giving him an edge, but there was no telling how very much it had hindered him in the long run.

"And of line you decided to wait until now to state me, despite all of the potions I've been buying for the in conclusion month."

"Are you expecting an apology ?"

"No, I just have something I want you to bet at and I would prefer some honesty."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

leash days, that's how tenacious Noah was leave to use the potion method. That would hopefully forget them with decent meter for the side-effects to wear off before they entered a dungeon. So far, everyone's forcible stamina was continuing to rebel, but if he saw them tableland or even annul, he'd cut them off, cold bomb. He was even holding off on letting everyone use mana potions, instead letting it replenish as they ran. He didn't want to push back the date of their departure if he could quash it. If anyone got a wounding, he made surely to watch closely, to make sure their blood was clotting.

"All right, let's point back. We're doing the same routine as yesterday."Everyone groaned and cleaned up their fix, but before they could return to the manor, Noah stopped them."handgrip on, we're doing lunges."

"Please, not again !"Mira complained.

"You'll thank me later."

With their weapon system in hand, everyone began doing foresightful steps, stretching out one leg and leaning down with their other knee almost touching the ground, and they had to keep a tight rate. It was sweaty, painful work.

"This is so embarrassing, we look absurd,"Trevor muttered. He seemed to love complaining, but since Noah beat him in a fight, he was keeping his Word of God about following centering."It's not like where going to be running like this through the dungeon crab."

"No, but it'll make up your strength and stamina. The most of import physical asset in fighting is leg strength."

"Wait, really ? Even for sword fighting ?"Oath asked.

"Really. If you support your body with a solid state foundation, you can defend while staying on your feet longer. It doesn't matter how laborious you can bedevil a punch or swing a blade if your wooden leg just buckle as soon as you meet resistance. Think of it as like trying to agitate while standing on slippery ice vs unanimous ground."

Just like before, Noah pushed them to the spot of collapse. Normally, this form of reckless education would be frowned upon, but they needed to stress and rupture their muscles to the absolute limit, mend them with potions to make them even stronger, and repeat, with mana depletions after every collapse.

There was no quietus for them when they returned to the manor house. Under Noah's instruction, Oath and the others began stretching and lifting varying system of weights in various way. To the slaves working the subject, it looked like a basic workout, but Noah scrutinized every motion, from the figure their arm took when lifting a heavy stone, to the exact angle of their rose hip when they twisted their torso. Every movement had to be perfect, so that all the stress went to specific muscle. Had he the means, he would go even further, focusing on person muscle threads.

In a way, Noah was grateful that this opportunity came along. Being an explorer kept him active and fit, but it didn't material body strength in the Lapplander way as this physical exertion, and coming to this world had scrambled his function. He had to use this chance to properly polish his figure. He had planned on teaching this workout to Tin to pass water her stronger and capable of defending herself, but that opportunity was gone.

Once they reached the middle of the afternoon, Noah had them propel on to the next point of their training. Oath, Trevor, and Mira stood incline by side, all of them gasping for air and cursing in anguish as travail poured down their faces. For Oath and Trevor, the workout was simpleton, though far from easy. They held out their weapon as far as they could and keep open their blazon raised for as long as possible. They had to keep doing it until they collapsed and they couldn't feel their arms, at which point, they'd take a health potion and start out again.

"Ah, dammit !"Oath cursed as he dropped to his knees.

"screwing, you're washy,"said Trevor.

"For once in your aliveness, just shut up !"Mira hissed, unable to maintain her usual polite personality.

Her training was similar to theirs, only using magic. Before her floated a lump of earth as large as a beer keg. crap from a barefaced patch underneath continuously floated up and added itself to the pile. For her training, she had to maximize the amount of earth she could purloin, as well as the length, and layer of compression. She'd rotate it in the air to keep it from becoming lopsided, but every time it moved, she struggled to retain control.

Noah told her she had to be able to turn dirt into solid rock in seconds, as well as train her body to develop mana faster.

Nearby, Beth was sparring with Noah. She held a sheathed tongue in her mitt and was swinging and stabbing at him with rash Erinyes. Despite her efforts, he'd city block and obviate her flak away from his body, using assorted fighting styles he had learned across the multiverse. As soon as she paused her barrage, he'd attack, forcing her to heighten her instinctive reflex for dodging.

Finally, when the sun set, Noah said the magic Son."Let's call it a day."

On cue, everyone collapsed. Even Trevor abandoned his tough guy bravado and simply went limp.

"I think I might be dying,"Mira moaned, spread eagle on the basis and staring up at the sky.

"I'm too jade to eat and too thirsty to sleep,"Beth added.

"I've spent my life working on this farm, but I've never been this tired before,"said Oath.

It seemed that their stamina had been pushed to its terminal point, beyond the period that potions could replenish. Now they needed nutrient and sleep.

"I should probably head back to the inn while they're still serving dinner,"said Noah.

"You guys can have dinner here,"Oath said.

"Why didn't you say that yesterday ?"

"Sorry, but after a day like that, I couldn't spend another moment thinking about training and the dungeon crab."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

The table was old and plain, hand-carved with roughly sanded planks, though time had helped to moderate its edges and the low-quality tabularize cloth hid its open. On it, candles burned to illuminate the room, which smelled like the sunbaked fish Noah and the others were eating, along with lucre and some vegetables. In the modern universe, not even soup kitchens would serve food of this innocent level, but after a month in these new lands, Noah had managed to fine-tune his appreciation buds.

It was only the five youths present. The baron was not taking part. As with lunch, everyone ate voraciously, their dead body begging for sustenance to try and make up for the fat they had burned. It was surprising that Mira actually noticed Oath had stopped eating, staring had his half-finished dinner.

"curse ? Is something wrong ?"

"No, I'm just trying to remember the last clock time I sat at this board with this many people."

‘ Oh my god, that is so corny,'Noah cerebration, drinking from his trash so as to not crack his straight face.

"You're going to make me sick,"Trevor muttered. Noah resisted the desire to thank him.

"What were your brothers like ?"Beth asked.

"My oldest, Colt, was a soldier, serving under full general Tarnas against the barbarians in Handent."

"He really served under Tarnas ? !"Beth exclaimed, bolting to her feet.

"Is that a estimable or bad thing ?"Noah asked.

"Adwith Tarnas is one of the nation's greatest heroes, and easily the unassailable champion,"said Mira, trying to obscure her overplus with a smile."well-nigh children are raised on his story, and for as hanker as I've known Beth, she's been a huge fan."

Beth sat back down, a drunk grin on her look."When I was young, he and some of his forces passed through my township. Watching him rag down the street, wearing golden armor… I was no longer an barren child. I had awakened my womanly desires."

"You never heard of him ? What rock have you been living under ?"Trevor asked.

"A gravid one. Tell me about the war, I'm curious."

"Oh, well, according to my chum, it started when the barbarians began ransacking Greenwich Village along the mete, eventually leading to the famous execution of heights non-Christian priest Grybaen by Chief Waer. After that…"

The conversation had taken a unknown turn, but Noah absorbed every particular while making his program for the future. That night, at the inn, Beth didn't go with Mira into their shared way, but followed Noah into his. She had been too tired the old Nox, but tonight, she had just enough strength to indulge her curiosity.

The third gear day of preparation was just like the two before, including the same routine, but now with free weight added. However, the consumption of potions had dropped in every activity. The growth they had gone through over just a few twenty-four hours would have normally taken weeks or even months. In the deep afternoon, their preparation was changed. Now instead of simply holding out his brand, Oath was practicing his slashes like he was studying kendo. He needed to draw both his attacks and his recovery faster.

Next to him, Trevor was improving his thrusts, using what Noah had taught him and incorporating his legs so he could increase the strength with less feat. He had also given Trevor the challenge of writing out the letter of the ABCs in the air with the spear tip, to heighten his accuracy. Beth and Mira had switched places, now with Beth straining her conjuration and Mira staff-fighting with Noah. Unlike Mira and Trevor, Beth's piece couldn't be used for fighting and she appeared to be reaching the terminal point of her wizardly aptitude, but creating impertinent water was something they'd need if they spent more than a day in the dungeon.

On the fourth day, Noah met everyone at the baron's the three estates as he normally would. He held out a knapsack full of potions."Today, I want you all to see if you can trace the routine on your own. Until we enter the donjon crab, I am completely banning the use of all potions."

"That's half-baked !"Beth exclaimed, with the others similarly nervous.

"If you can't do the day's workout without potions, then you simply aren't ready for the donjon crab, and the farsighted we wait, the more competition will consume. I don't want to touch the bottom of the casing and line up all of the avenium already taken."He put the haversack down and put on a jacket with all of its air hole filled with rock'n'roll."semen on, clock time to depart running."

The physical exercise proceeded as planned, but with no less complaining. Now without potions, they could only meet their strength during rupture, but the number of times they had to stop and rest was as Noah predicted. On the fifth part day, Noah faced them with the sunup sun burning away the mists clinging to the magnate's estate. For curse word and his protagonist, this was the last day of preparation and they all felt confident. They weren't screen to their own growth. They now stood with bodies covered in weights, ready for Noah to give the signal to commence their morning run.

"Since today is the last day, we're going to do something dissimilar. Trevor, I want you to hit the priming coat with a downwards rap and your firm spell."

"What for ?"

"Just rely me. Pour as much mana as you can into the axeblade and give it a shot."

Trevor grunted and held out his halberd, and from the import he began channeling his mana, everyone noticed the remainder. These past several days, whenever he, Beth, and Mira practiced with their magic, it was always in a state of enfeeblement, forcing their soundbox to squeeze out every shoemaker's last drop of mightiness. This was the first time in days that Trevor was using a spell while at full military posture. What would have been a shimmering atmosphere around the blade was now like a great colorless flame, causing his friends to instinctively mistreat back.

"Whoa,"Trevor said, unable to pick any other language. He held his halberd with trembling handles, feeling like it was a rabid brute in his clutch. He raised it above his head like a blinding torch."execute !"Apparently, saying the public figure of the spell helped focus the creative thinker and increase the authorization of the turn. To Noah, it seemed a bit laughable, but it did make things a bit more entertaining.

As per the epithet, he swung down with the halberd like he was performing a beheading, and the moment the vane touched the ground, it was like a mortar round had gone off. A chest-thumping explosion was heard and dirt and rock were sent flying in all charge. Originally, what would have simply buried his weapon in the crap, had now opened up a crater the size of a bath. Just as incredible, the strength of the mana flowing from the halberd had not lessened in the slightest, nor did Trevor come along fatigued.

Everyone was stunned, with Noah flashing a rare smile."Mira, your resultant role would probably be standardised if I asked to use your strongest spell. Now that you have all this mana to work with, think of it as a resource for experimentation. I don't know how the two of you develop illusion, whether you just make new tour yourselves or learn by watching others, but I want you to devote yourselves to improving your science. bear witness me something new. Today, we're forgetting about strength and staying power and focusing entirely on technique.

Beth, I want you to practice your archery until your fingers bleed and you can snap the wings of a fly. As for Oath…"Noah drew his longsword."You're going to be fighting me."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

Beth's chest heaved with each bowel movement, and her nipples, chilled by the evening, pointed out and drew electric discharge in the air. Just moments ago, she had been riding so vigorously, having to throw away her dress when she began to overheat. It had been a struggle for her to maintain her moans contained, especially with her hips refusing to obey her commands and decelerate her bounce.

She now took a gentle pace, rolling her rose hip from side to side while she regained her force. Her pretty brass was one of intoxication, her mind overtaken by lust and endorphins. Her smiling was lascivious, her face flushed, her back talk wet, her pupils dilated. Noah could see the sassy effort on her soundbox with the light of the night sky. What was just supposed to be a quick assignation to scratch the ol'itch had turned into something a little more intense.

Sitting up, Noah kissed her white meat and grabbed her ass, kneading it like dough. Beth had a nice athletic figure, not much fat on her, but the ass of a volleyball player. Noah's back talk on her nipples, his humanness stirring her up, and his hands massaging deep into her muscle, these stimulus combined into a effect that Beth was struggling to hold up. They were out in the forest, so Beth's groan could appeal behemoth, or even worse, the auricle of her friend.

Mira knew about them, so Oath and Trevor were probably aware as well, but still, it would be a bit rude make them learn the audio of groan and flesh against flesh. That was Beth's thought process, but Noah didn't care either way. His only fear was getting stuck in an ungainly conversation with everyone because of this. That, and the fact that he and Beth were breaking the rules of every repulsion movie and having sex in the woods. The flag they were raising could induce been seeable from space.

Beth's strength gave out, a last sexual climax draining her and leaving her consistence limp. Noah was forced to glower to her to the ground, but she didn't aim to him continuing to hurtle until he had a climax of his own.

"come on, we should get back to the coterie,"he said.

"What a romantic thing to say after filling me up."

"You know what this is."

She giggled."Relax, I'm kidding."

They got dressed and returned to the camp, where their fellow venturer were awake and waiting for them.

"What are you all doing awake ?"Noah asked.

"You two are a lot prying than you think you are,"Mira said while keeping her eye down.

"You do throw it awfully intemperately to slumber. I thought some wolves were tearing apart a goblin out there,"said Trevor. In retaliation, Beth kicked him while circling the campfire to hit her spot.

"lookout man it !"he shot back.

Noah took his own spot and stoked the flak."sufficiency. Everyone, get some rest. We're going to need our strength for tomorrow."They were lupus erythematosus than half a day's hike to the dungeon crab.

"None of us can sleep. We're too skittish about tomorrow,"Oath said.

"It'll be very well. In twenty years, you'll ask your children ‘ did I ever tell you about the time I conquered a dungeon crab ?'And they'll groan and say, ‘ yes, father, a hundred times. We're sick of hearing about it.'”

"Are you going to do anything with the territory ?"Beth asked."alteration any laws ?"

"No. Baron Clive of Plassey is perfective tense the way it is, and I don't want to deepen anything."

"You're letting a lucky opportunity slick by,"said Noah.

"What do you stand for ?"

"I assume that as long as the kingdom gets its taxes, it won't tending about how thing change, so you might as well try some things. Think of the town as the station to perform sociable experiments."

"What's a social experiment ?"Trevor asked.

"It's when you put citizenry in a sealed location with sure conditions and see how they react. You can see how human nature plays out. Let's say that as a baron… you introduced a new holiday, just to see how that affects revenue."

"That sounds really wrong,"Mira muttered.

"It's a way to learn about citizenry. In the shopping center of town, put up a statue with a mansion saying not to affect, that the paint is wet. Then you can see how many people are actually going to have-to doe with it."

"What is that supposed to do ?"cuss asked.

"How many people are in Baron Clive, a hundred ? If half of them touch the statue, then you could make the argument that half of the human race is dumb enough to touch paint even when they know it's wet. Or perhaps it's simply that half the town can't read.

If you repeated the experiment in another town, maybe a big city in another country, you'll probably find that unlike turn of people will tinct the statue. Then you can get down to figuring out why. Why do different domain have different outcome ? Are the people simply dumber ? Is it a literacy trouble ? Is there a civilisation of rising to authority ?

There was once an ancient city named Rome, which had a monolithic stone fight bowl called the amphitheater. It was so massive, that the emperor butterfly put the mind of his best architects into figuring out how to design it so that the viewer could easily get in and out, otherwise, they'd start a scream. You get a gang of the great unwashed together in close proximity, one of two different thing may happen, sometimes even both at the same time. The foremost is that citizenry will want to sequester into themselves. They'll want to produce personal place, establish a perimeter, draw that line in the sand that no one can get across. If someone crosses that rail line, they may get fearful, they may get violent ; no matter how small it is, it produces a negative reaction.

The former is to surrender to the will of the chemical group. If everyone around you is saying something, you'll assume it's right and repeat it, because you want to trust in the group, you want to think you're right. You want to believe that you're in the presence of citizenry who know what they are doing. If you're in a mob where person is shouting for the death of the king and everyone cheers, part of you will naturally agree.

mortal losing their temper will part a battle, that fight will circularize and trigger to a greater extent fights, and suddenly the orderly masses that were simply trying to get out the amphitheater are sweeping through Rome, having abandoned all thought of civility and now simply destroying everything in their way."

"That could never pass off,"said Beth, as if Noah had just uttered a child's nonsense.

"I've seen it materialise plenty of times. Once you establish the convention that escape is not available, that candle startle burning, and it burns quick."

"I don't know. I think masses are in force at heart,"said Mira."They don't just go crazy like that."

"Then you could prove it. Let's say you could create any sort of societal experimentation, completely free repercussions, like a dream. What would you do ?"

"How am I supposed to know ?"

"The respite of you ? Just think ‘ I wonder how many people would ( blank ) if I ( blank ) ?'Or ‘ what would happen if I put ( blank ) and ( space ) together ?'Literally whatever you wanted to cognize, or simply just see."Everyone looked up into the distance, trying to march the challenge."Think about it. It'll help you fall asleep."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

A substantial thumping woke swearword up, a sword striking the primer just inches from his face. He instinctively shouted in terror and tried to scurry back, realizing it was Noah's sword and he was standing over him. His friend, brightness sleepers in an area this dangerous, woke up in a newsflash and got to their ft with their weapon raised, confused and alarmed by the visual modality of Noah in the predawn light. Was this an assassination attempt ? However, they looked down and spotted Noah's actual target. It was some form of insectoid fauna, a stubby centipede with a bellying shell. It was the size of a squirrel, with frightening pincers.

"What the hell is that thing ? !"Mira exclaimed.

"It's one of the parasites from inside the dungeon crabmeat. I did as much research as I could on the dungeon crab whenever I had the time."

Looking at Mira and Beth, he could see them shuddering in revulsion.

"You mean to tell me that there are more of those matter in that Phthirius pubis ?"

"Almost certainly, but they're flooding out into the woods, so just means that the more we find out here, the fewer we'll have to fight down in the Cancer. Now let's eat some breakfast and get a motion on."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

It was a typographical error mountain of upturned earth and shattered bedrock, the result of the dungeon crab rising up from the planet's crust and jutting out the tip of its shell. At the very summit was the entering, but the mountain was no indication of just how large the actual crab was. Before they could go down, they'd have to climb up.

"Look up there, I think I see a tent."

Noah scanned where Beth was pointing and confirmed."Someone must have set up camp there before heading in."

"There are camp all over the batch. There must be a lot of people in there,"said Mira.

"Most of them have probably been killed by now. Those camps are abandoned,"said Trevor.

"Trevor !"

Despite Mira's anger, Noah agreed with Trevor. The closer he looked, the Sir Thomas More tents he saw, and the legal age of them probably belonged to the idle, but he didn't want Oath and the others chewing on that."Relax. Everyone going in just packed light because they want to carry as lots treasure as they can, and probably couldn't carry anything extra when they came out. We'll be in the like situation when we come back."

"waiting, I see people too,"said Beth.

She was right, there were plentitude of adventurers roaming the mountain.

"They must be scavenging for jewel and wanted metals. When the crab appears, it probably pushes up more than just stone and dirt."

"If you can get gold from sifting through the turd, then why bother going into the donjon ?"Mira asked.

"They're after whatever they can get their helping hand on, unlike us. We're after avenium, and it can only be found inside."

They put their fears aside and began climbing up the face of the flock. There were no established course and the footing was difficult, to say the least. The dirt had settled since it was first moved by the reaching of the Phthirius pubis, but there were no plants to hold it all together, so it was like hiking up the incline of a sand dune in many areas. They also had to be untrusting of the big Stone glob interracial in. They were freshly broken and hadn't been weathered by the malarky and the rainwater, so they could easily cut through skin. While climbing, Noah grabbed a stone handhold and his palm was skinned by the crystal-like bite.

They passed by multiple prospectors and treasure-hunters, digging around for anything worthwhile. No one paid them any attending, and they offered none in return. However, that changed when they heard the sounds of fighting. Nearby, they saw a bearded man fighting off one of the dungeon parasites that had wandered outside. It was a four-legged crustacean, the size of a beast. It swung its heavy forelimbs like clubhouse and tried to force the man onto his back.

"Noah, we need to help him,"said Mira.

"Keeping him active isn't my job. Besides, any strength you use against that one lusus naturae will be specialty you can't use in the shell."

"Then consider this a arena trial !"Mira held out her staff."Shatter Mace !"

objet d'art of stone and packed malicious gossip flowed to the end of her staff, joining together into a hardened sphere, the size of a basketball and covered in astute protrusions. She left the radical and ran over to where the man was fighting, with her arm not hindering her effort at all. kind of than physical enduringness, she was holding the empyrean together and lifting it with mana.

The savage had the man pinned on his back and he was fending off its snapping pair of pincers with his pickax. Sneaking up behind it, Mira raised her stave and brought it down onto the colossus's back, unleashing the full weighting of the gem and breaking through its scale. The monster hissed in pain and fell over, and she dispatched it with another golf stroke, this one crushing its exposed psyche. A week ago, such a task would have been inconceivable for her, but under Noah's tutelage, both her acquisition in magic and physical fight had been multiplied respective meter over.

"Thanks,"the man grumbled before dusting himself off and walking away.

She returned to the group, where Beth was clapping for her."well done !"

Noah, however, clasped his hand on her articulatio humeri."Don't do that again."There was very small angriness in his part, but still, she shrunk away."The same goes for the rest of you. We're not here to work hero, we're not here to economise lives. We're here to make money and conquer the dungeon. Our strength, our care, our arm, our potions, they are reserved only for our own use and our own benefit. If you save soul, it had better be to use them as a gang mule or a meat shield. Understood ?"Everyone nodded."Good, then let's relocation on."

They resumed hiking up towards the summit, and Oath soon asked a question.

"Noah, you researched donjon crabs, right ? Did you recognize that monster ?"

"Yes, it was one of the parasite mentioned in the books your father had."

"Do you lie with what else we'll find ?"

"Unfortunately, no, there was actually very little written info about the keep pediculosis pubis and what exists within their shells. Those who remain in the upper dower and pull through share their information, but those who delve deep enough to arrive at the avenium either die or keep it a secret."

"Wait, why is it a secret ?"Trevor asked.

"If I had to reckon, I'd say it's because the state's nobility doesn't want masses knowing how to join their ranks. In this crab are the key to the realm, after all. Too many young parvenu could break the equilibrium of power between the rich and the poor, or they could form factions that get in the way of the higher-ranked Lord. Some information gets out, of course, from those who manage to get away with their sprightliness but don't conquer the donjon, or from former body politic, but I imagine that the only venturer who are really informed are those already working for high-ranking nobles."

A grotesque hiss ended the conversation, as up ahead, a new terror revealed itself. It stood on a duo of sinewy legs, like a marauding dame, but it had a minor torso and no cervix, only a forward-placed skull that resembled an gator. It was a pair of snapping jaws on metrical foot, that was all it could be described as, and it was glaring at Noah and the group. It had the high up ground, and after emitting another hushing, several more appeared, from both above and the sides.

"A pack-type parasite, interesting,"Noah said as he drew his sword."Get prepare, everyone, the fighting starts early."

They took formation, with Oath in front and Noah and Trevor guarding the wing, while Beth and Mira attacked from a distance. The ogre closed in all at once, leaping through the air while flashing the talons on their feet and spreading their jaws.

"Trevor !"Noah shouted.

"Phalanx lance !"he cast while swinging his halberd like a flag.

A lead of mana was left behind with each trend, and the mana solidified into floating vane like mist condensing into ice. The floating brand pierced three of the beasts before they could shore, two more were wounded, and the rest had their immersion broken and failed to pounce properly. With that possible action, Noah and expletive began hacking and slashing away at those who landed closest by.

"worldly concern Bind !"

Mira stabbed the reason, and beneath the maimed brute, nether region opened up to swallow them unscathed, then were closed with earthen stiletto heel like batting cage bars. It wouldn't hold them long, but it kept them out of the fighting. Not only could Mira now evidence the charm multiple times from one molding, but the primer proved arrant for its use. Those who had avoided Trevor's patch and Noah and oath's swords tried circling around, but Beth dispatched them with her bow, and any she missed ended up getting cleaved by Trevor. Once all of the Mobile unity were slain, the wounded were put out of their misery.

"Good, well done,"said Noah.

Normally they would then harvest the monsters for valuable art object, but the market for dungeon crab sponger was too niche to be worth the travail. Besides, they wanted to carry through as practically elbow room for treasure as they could.

They continued their acclivity, and after a couple more monster battle, they reached the peak at midday. There, sticking out of the ground was the tip of the crab's scale, like a faint house on a rocky cliff. Noah could see the lock of the racing shell, and before them, the opening, a doorway boastfully enough for an elephant to walk through. Noah reached out and touched the shell, made of inwardness somehow unassailable enough to withstand the heating and pressure of the earth's interior.

In the month since Noah's comer to this world, he had seen plenty of things that shocked and baffled him, from legerdemain to monsters, but just the sight of the entrance blew him away. To remember that such a creature like this could exist, that something so monolithic occupied this world. It blurred the common sense accumulated from more than a one hundred life-time. Where did these affair come from ? Were they made by magic ? Perhaps by some sort of god ? How old was this one ? Was it intelligent ? What was its life sentence bicycle ?

"I never thought I'd ever see something like this,"said oath, similarly amazed.

Everyone in the group was staring at the whiteness tower in awe and acquirement. True, the real struggle had only just begun, but compared to what they were doing not too long ago, just reaching this piazza was a vast acquirement.

"looking at at this horizon,"said Beth.

Without any trees to block up their sight, the batch summit let them see for land mile in all directions.

"I think I can see the Greenwich Village !"said Trevor.

"Let's break here for lunch, gather some of our strength, and then head inside."

They all sat down and Noah pulled food and water pelt out of his anchor ring. He had enough solid food and water to give them all for several Day, and thanks to Beth's thaumaturgy, they could refill their canteen whenever needed. However, everyone carried two days of rations, just in sheath they got separated. Their lunch consisted of dry out fish and fruit, as well as some bread, something light to keep open them moving. Up atop the mountain, there was a nice air, and the sight was spectacular.

"Noah, remember what you were saying last night about social experiments ?"Beth asked."If I could try one, I'd want to see what happens when you put only women together and task them with building a bon ton. What would Clive tone like if it had only woman ?"

"A female-only society ? Yeah, that would certainly be interesting. Ok, paint a flick for me. What do you expect would bump ?"

"I think that without any men to get in the way, they would flourish,"she said, rather smugly.

"Until there is a wanderer that needs to be killed,"said Trevor.

"Come on, I want details. For instance, there are roles in society that are typically considered manly, and others that are considered womanly. If only fair sex perform the manly tasks, then what will transfer ? Will the nature of the project variety, or will the fair sex change ? Will the women who spend all day hunting, blacksmithing, and all those other business start acting rough and crass like men ?

You're an adventurer. You spend your days hunting, fighting, scavenging, getting down and begrime. But you also consider yourself quite girlish, right ? But how do you think a girl who spends her days weaving and taking forethought of children sees you ? bequeath a fraction phase ? The eccentric A personalities arguing with the case B ?"

"case A personalities ?"

"Never mind. Oath, you got an idea for an experiment ?"

Oath took a oceanic abyss breath."Something like what Beth was talking about, but it's men and women, and all of them have lost their memories."

"Oh, that's the skilful one. The total erasure of polish and starting from gelt. If you completely take out nurture from the equivalence, then you can truly see how nature manifests. Will men and women follow way of life considered normal by companionship ? Will they adopt the same function that their ascendant have ? Or will they do everything new ?"

Everyone watched as he started putting matter away. He didn't need to say anything, they knew it was time to take the plunge.

.

.

.

The Gauntlet

.

.

.

Once they had finished feeding, they packed up their affair and entered the carapace, with Noah taking the hint and holding a torch. Because of the shell's twist, they had to deign a spiral handing over, like a stairway but without actual stairs. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the passageway were perfectly smooth, but there were no straight lines of any sort. It was like wandering through a narrow canyon carved by flashflood. well-nigh of the floor was covered in scandal and broken Harlan Fiske Stone, perhaps seeping in from the opening of the shield. Luckily this meant that Beth would give something to work with to use her spells.

The Phthirius pubis had been venting its shell for more than a calendar week, but the air still had a triteness to it. It smelled earthy, like a mineshaft or a target, but he could also smell out the biological key signature of the parasites. The air seemed very well to breathe and the torch didn't appear to possess any exit burning. Was all that oxygen from the outside ? How long could the O last if the Crab went back below the surface ? How long did the dungeon crab louse live underground before surfacing ? Either the Cancer and its parasite could go in an oxygen-poor environment, or something within the crabmeat could acquire a human-friendly atmosphere.

They had descended l human foot when the first crotch appeared, another tunnel branching off from the staircase.

"We're going to keep going down, right ?"Oath asked.

"Yeah, whatever passage leads us down, we'll take it."

One of the bipedal parasites burst from the branching tunnel, aiming for Noah. He stepped to the slope to duck, drew his short blade, and stabbed the beast through the spine when it landed.

The deeper they delved, the more branching tunnels they came across, but they continued their pedigree, until reaching a large chamber at the bottom of the staircase, with five burrow spread out. The staircase had been just broad enough for two multitude to walk shoulder-to-shoulder, but these tunnels were like subway system lines. There were signs of adventurer coming through here, marking the burrow to try and keep course of which paths they had taken. There were also some rakehell spattering, torn wearing apparel, and a broken sword.

"What's that, hanging from the roof ?"cuss asked.

Above their heads, gooey togs dangled like icicles, and at the fundament of each, a small ball of light.

"Cave worms. Their bodies are bioluminescent, attracting prey, which get caught in their threads like spider webs. This is a good affair. We won't need this."Noah extinguished the great mullein and stored it in his mob."Ok, let's rip up. We can get across more priming that way."

"Wait, WHAT ? !"everyone exclaimed.

It was the operose Noah laughed since coming to this universe."Relax, I'm just kidding. Can you imagine ? Let's take this path over here. It looks like it continues to slope."

They took the right-most path, far descending into the dungeon crab, and soon stopped at the entering of a leg sleeping room, hearing cause within. They stayed against the wall so as to fend off drawing the attention of whatever was inside. Noah signaled the others with his hired man and cast his invisibility, then stepped into the doorway. The peck before him was a grotesque, a pile of maggots, each the size of a football, feasting upon the remains of some slain adventure. Their fat bodies quivered as they peeled flesh from bone. The wall were honeycombed to mansion the wight between meals, and three adult were standing guard.

The safety were bug of some kind, consisting of four legs surrounding a head and trunk that were mixed together with offstage between the legs. The wooden leg were steel-plated and sharply, and their downward-pointing font had tooth like an goosefish fish. They looked almost like winged bar ordure. Noah drew his sword and killed one of the fauna without it ever realizing it was there. Seeing their comrade spontaneously die, nearly being sliced in half in the cognitive process, the other two began to panic and explore for the unseeable assailant. He killed them almost as easily as he had killed the first.

"open,"Noah said as he released his spell.

He reappeared, just as Oath and the others entered the elbow room, immediately broadcasting their revulsion at the remains being fed on. Noah knocked the pile of organic structure over, and kicked away the maggots so that he could begin poking around with his sword.

"Don't loot them !"curse word said in disgust.

"Why ? Because we didn't kill them ? We're adventurers, we thrive on the deaths of others, be they human or teras. Meh, nothing great."He was able-bodied to collect a few arm and arrows, but that was it.

"Hey, something's coming !"Trevor shouted. They ran out into the foyer, hearing the speech sound of wingbeats. Further down the burrow, several Sir Thomas More four-legged hemipteran were flying towards them, having likely detected the deaths of their comrade."Phalanx Spears !"he then cast.

He blocked the passage with an array of mana leaf blade and Beth began firing arrows, but the armor plating on the demon's legs proved stronger and they smashed their way through. Oath took down one, but a instant tackled him from the position, tearing into him with its dentition and hook. Noah killed it before it could inflict more impairment, then fended off the others with well-placed pang. Trevor had also been tackled and knocked onto his back, with Beth and Mira working together to pry the beast off.

Noah was still on his base, so the behemoth were heading towards him. He put away his longsword and instead switched to his shortly steel. The first bug that tried to tackle him was met with his shield and then a sudden driving force. He repeated the strategy, breaking the foeman'inertia by blocking with his shell and then stabbing while they were disoriented.

The fight had ended and healing potions were used where needed. This certainly was an interesting environs for battle. Most of the freak seen so far had hard outer shells, something Noah and his grouping had little experience in dealing with. Their radical focused on attacking rather than survival, as they were always fighting beast that were as vulnerable as themselves. Aside from Noah's shield, the group didn't have much in way of defense outside of light armor—and a stiff offense, of course.

They continued on deeper, passing by countless branching burrow and eventually coming to another fork. Once more, their spike stopped them from proceeding, as they heard bm down one of the tunnel, and soon saw it as well. It was a flood tide of centipedes, just like the one that had tried to kill oath that morning.

"holy shit !"Mira shrieked, something very out of grapheme for her.

"Come on, this way !"

Noah ran down one of the passages with the others following, but so too did the centipedes. It seemed they were familiar with the aroma of people and now hungered for Noah's group. He slowed his footstep, letting the others get past him, then untied a bag hanging from his swath and scattered its powdery cognitive content across the floor. It was lye, the best he could make within reason. It was much more acrid than what he had made in the timberland with Tin, and when the centipedes ran through it, getting it on themselves and breathing it in, they immediately began to squirm and curl in annoyance. However, it only slowed them down, and those in back simply climbed over their ill kin.

They kept running, though more demon were bursting out of the tunnel ahead. Noah and swearing took them out to the best of their abilities, trying to at least incapacitate them with one slash. Those not bump off retreated immediately as the group passed by, not wanting to become the prey of the centipedes behind them.

"There's a elbow room ahead !"said Trevor.

"Mira, wait until we reach that room, and if I give a signal, use your worldly concern billow spell,"said Noah.

They entered the chamber, though ruefulness filled them immediately. A new, colossal danger awaited them. It was a worm, coiled like a hissing cobra, with a soundbox more than than ten feet all-encompassing and long as a football line of business. Its flesh was rough, like living stone, and it was covered in uncounted small feet. Towering over them in this arena-like sleeping accommodation, it stared without eye and roared from a sass that was simply a pit of teeth.

The sight of the monster shocked everyone into a astonied secrecy, like swearword when standing before that bear, but not even Noah could correct them, for he too was momentarily crippled by fearfulness. The fraction of second between two measure of his heart seemed like it would last forever, but that adjacent thumping shook him from his shock, letting him collect his mentation and began working on a plan.

"Mira, do it now ! Beth, shoot some arrows into that thing's mouth or anything else that looks subdued ! curse, you and I will be the decoy. Trevor, you attack with all your thaumaturgy. We need to just wound it long enough to get away !"

No one else moved, but Noah giving Oath a shove woke them up. Mira turned back to face the oncoming moving ridge of monsters, and counted with a Wave of her own. She cast her spell upon the earthen ground, taking control of all of the rock and dirt and unleashing it on the centipedes like a mudslide. While that was going on, Beth was firing pointer at the worm's oral cavity, striking its exposed pulp but only doing enough damage to take a leak it off.

It turned its attention on oath and Noah, running at it from its left and right English. It lunged at them both, aiming to eat Noah and swat curse word with its tail. Noah made himself inconspicuous and dodged the worm's sassing when it lost caterpillar track of him, and swearword blocked the attack with a swinging of his sword, breaking into the monster's peel. As they had distracted it, Trevor could now loose his charged magic trick. Both the gig leaf blade and the axe head of his halberd were glowing with a beamy storm of mana, and rune spun around the slam. He charged towards the insect's coiled body, released a boom of wildness, and brought down his steel like a Godhead smite.

"Voulge solidus !"

It was a combination of his stabbing and cleaving spells, and while the motions were the same as just a normal swing, it inflicted legal injury differently in the flesh of a virgule. It had less penetrating power than the former two, possibly failing to dampen the worm's jumpy exterior, but it would do much greater damage to the chassis. His mana, having solidified around the headspring of his halberd, carved deep into the worm's chassis, and as Trevor swung his weapon down, he left a bass cut on different segment of is body. parentage poured from the wound and the worm shrieked in agony.

"Let's go !"Noah shouted.

They ran off through another passage, leaving behind the worm with the centipedes. They didn't stop run, wanting to get as far away as possible. They kept maneuvering through the dungeon, fighting the teras leaping out while they searched for a condom spot. It seemed like every sentence they slowed down or even paused, something would bristle out and attempt to carry a chunk out of them. Finally, when they were gasping for air with their throats feeling as dry as sand, the chemical group found a bedroom with a low opening and no monsters inside. They set their packs against the entering, hopefully to help oneself keep open the ogre from detecting them. They all slumped down on the story. Even Noah was feeling sick from the adrenaline.

"shag ! This station is a death maw !"Trevor exclaimed as he poured a healing potion on a deep puncture lesion in his thigh, caused by something resembling a cycloptic tiger catching him with one of its giant fangs.

"No wonderment nobility is the prize for conquering one of these thing. You deserve to be a tinker's damn king if you can survive this plaza,"Beth panted. Despite fighting from the back, she was covered in monster blood.

"cat, I got ta William Tell you, I'm not sure we're ready for this billet. It's too soon,"said Oath.

"Don't say that. We're alive, aren't we ? We managed to get through it and notice a lieu to lie. Not too long ago, we would birth died before even reaching the dungeon. We can do this, right, Noah ? Noah ?"Mira turned to Noah, seeing him staring at his trembling hand, but with an expression that, frankly, didn't fit the billet.

After dying so many times, Death was no longer something Noah feared. It was to be avoided, but with about the Sami amount of exploit used to avoid dying in a video plot. He still possessed the natural selection instinct in some fashion, but he could no longer properly appreciate the heavy risk of infection of death in a given situation. He was no more afraid of accelerator that he was a coffee berry table's sharp corner. But what he felt when he saw the worm was true fear, when he realized that not only was the worm the most likely causa of his death in that elbow room, but that it was a death he wanted to invalidate Thomas More than any other. That feeling of fright, after so long, it was as though some of his soul's thirst was clenched.

"Noah ?"she asked once more, hearing him chuckle.

He shook himself back from his thoughts."Sorry, I was just thinking about this place."

"And ?"

"A snail."

"What ?"

"The book at the baron's home, it had a picture of a dungeon crab. It might possess just been a guess at what it looked like, but it was of a giant hermit crab. However, hermit crabs don't create their own cuticle. Snails do. Hermit crabs just consider them over. So, either we're actually inside a snail, or if this really is a recluse crab, then that means it probably got this shell from a snail, and if there are these gargantuan crabs and snails living within the land, what else is down there ?"

"And how does that help us ?"

"It'll take your mind of things. We'll be fine, we can get through this. Had we tried this a week ago, none of you would still be here, but you've all grown stronger."

"So what should we do ?"Oath asked.

"Exactly what we've been doing. Just watch our step, take it one challenge at a time, and keep our round unfluctuating. Besides, I'd say there is lot of incentive to stick around."

Everyone glanced around the chamber and gasped when they realized the ground was gleaming like a starry sky. It was hard to tell under the blue light of the glow insect, but it was bits of metallic element and gems mixed into the dirt.

"Our first score !"Beth exclaimed.

They began collecting the glimmering man and cleaning off the undesirable scandal and careen. nigh of it was raw and diluted, so overabundance deposit had to be scraped, hammered, and rubbed off, and even then, there was no telling how much atomic number 79 or silver grey was collected until it could all be properly melted down. Despite the find, Noah couldn't deny his disappointment. When he had heard about these dungeons and the treasure within them, his inner wonk had been imagining something more along the demarcation of an literal treasure thorax. That louse back there could be considered a mini-boss, after all.

With their strong drink lifted, they left the safety of the bedroom to retain their extraction.

"Trevor, you take tip,"said Noah.

"What ?"

"I mean you're in presence, in the middle space. expletive will now be opposite from me, where you once were. In these narrow burrow, we don't need to worry about an foe circling around to Beth and Mira, so it would be outdo to put your long reach directly in the figurehead. If we enter a wide-open infinite, we might switch back."

Trevor stepped forward and led the radical, and not long after they departed, they faced off against a brace of the four-legged monsters like the one that Mira killed extraneous. Now in the nerve centre, Trevor warded them off with his halberd.

"swearword, with me. Trevor, don't let them stick out over us,"said Noah.

He and Oath stepped forward, keeping just out of kitchen range of Trevor's halberd with Oath delivering a mighty cleave. His sword cracked into the ogre's shell and struck its brain, though the wounding was shallower than swearword expected. Nearby, Noah was fending off swings and stabs of the beast's jagged forelimbs, but when an orifice came, he hacked one of them off and then shove his sword into the devil's face.

"These shells might be Charles Frederick Worth something."

tongue in hand, they carved the top shells off, each one the size of a tug buckler. They were hard sufficiency to kibosh Oath's cleave and rather light, so there was the good probability they'd be worth something to an armor dealer.

They proceeded onwards, fighting their way through wave after wave of the shell's habitant. They survived each encounter, but not without shedding line. They kept their centre peeled, not just for behemoth, but for glimmers of treasure. They searched every room, finding gold, silver gray, and gems of all different colors. They also found mess of signs of human activity, though rarely any organic structure, same with the monsters, and the dead ends were a constant annoyance.

"Wait, hold up."

"What is it ?"Trevor asked.

"This section of the hall, we should avoid it. Look at it."The next hundred metrical unit of the burrow had a unlike consistency than the respite. It was a fleshy, perforated control surface, like a serve up sponge."Something like that is probably some kind of trap. We need to backtrack."

"It looks ticket. It probably means we're getting close to the rear end of the shell."

"It very well could be, but it's also too suspicious to take chances. We're going back."

But as they turned around, they heard howler and yell and terror, and from the way they just came, another adventuring company appeared, a radical of several adult men with low-quality leather armor.

"It's coming ! It's fast !"one of them screamed.

"Run ! You have to get out of here !"another shouted when he spotted Noah and his group.

Mira stepped forward to try and stop them."postponement, you can't go this way !"

She was shoved aside like she had been struck like a charging Bull, the man who did it knocking her in the chin with the grip of his axe to get her out of the way.

"Mira !"Beth exclaimed.

She and Oath rushed to her side, while nearby, the screams of concern became shriek of pain in the neck. The men, having entered the hall, now found themselves being assailed from all slope by flying stinger. They shot out of the holes in the walls and ceiling like bullets and imbedded themselves in the men. They were barbed, like bee stingers, and Noah could see them pulsing as they injected their venom.

"Get her on her foundation. Something is coming."

Mira was pouring blood from her sassing and seemed mad. expletive forced her to pledge a health potion, but it wouldn't get her into fighting condition soon enough. The monster the men had feared arrived, some kind of hulking hybrid between a grizzly bear and a komodo dragon. Its back was covered in thick shell and its underside didn't seem very weak either. It stood on its hind stage, exposing its deadly chela, and released a roar from between two rows of shark-like teeth.

Beth, standing behind curse and Trevor, shot it in the stomach with an arrow, though the injury was shallow, and it would take time for the poison to recoil in. Regardless, it took the message and dropped back down onto all fours and charged.

"wad divider !"Trevor cast.

He thrust at the oncoming monster, aiming for its head with the blade alight with mana. The beast managed to debar a lethal injury, instead staking the blow in the shoulder. Its scales were like compact I. F. Stone and just as hard, so while Trevor reached the tissue paper underneath, most of the get-up-and-go was deflected. Getting past the halberd, it slashed Trevor across the pectus, sheering through his armor and knocking him against the wall. Noah took out a lye bomb calorimeter and struck the beast in the face, blinding it and making it stagger back.

"Beth, save Trevor. curse word, get over here !"

Noah didn't give it any fortune to recover and lunged for the monster, slashing and stabbing at any blot that looked soft. He focused on the wounded shoulder, but the wolf was guarding it well, and despite being blinded, it was swinging its claw with madly accuracy, and even Noah ended up with some inscrutable cuts across his thigh. Oath came out from behind Noah and brought down his brand on the monster's straits, doing some slight concussive damage.

"I'll distract it."Noah cast his invisibility and charged at the fiend while drawing a duration of thick chain from within his ring. He wrapped it around the monster's neck opening and jumped onto its back. He pulled with his full weight, forcing it to rear back on its hind ramification so that cuss could slash it across the stomach and expose its internal pipe organ

"worldly concern surge !"Mira cast as he got out of the way.

Since Oath had created a way in, Mira bombarded the teras with a blast of dirt and rock, aiming for the laceration. It fell on its back, too wounded to continue fighting, and Noah finished it off.

"Good. What is everyone's condition ?"

"Unhurt, but tired,"said Oath.

"I'm out of mana and I can barely stand,"Mira whined.

"Trevor looks ok, but I think we should stop for the night. I'm starvation,"Beth said.

"Yeah, it's probably dark by now. We'll birdcall it a day."

They searched around, finding a way for them to tent out in. They made a doorway out of monster scale and barricaded it with their dish. There were no glow dirt ball in this room, so Noah lit his torch.

"Let's eat quick and get some eternal sleep. I'll take first watch."

After a restless night, they left their inclosure."There is something I want to determine out,"he said. He led them back to the corridor that had killed the other adventurer group, only to recover that the corpses were gone, same with the armored fiend that had given them so a great deal trouble before."Interesting."

"What ? Something just came along and took the consistency. What's the big plenty ?"Trevor asked.

"This hall probably kills whatever enters it with those ear. Only something heavily armored like that bear-thing could have gotten to them, but there are no drag marks, no step. Maybe one of those hulk hemipteran flew in and pulled them out without being detected, but I'd say it's more likely that they were eaten by something other than just a parasite."

"You mean the crab ?"asked Beth."How ?"

"I'm not sure, but I'd like to figure it when I have the chance. Let's go."

They set out, continuing their exploration. The devil onslaught was relentless, a undulation emerging every couple of minute, each one pushing the adventurer beyond their demarcation line, both from the identification number and the strength they carried. Everyone received harm, even Noah. While his invisibleness granted him a tolerance of hurt compared to the others, stealing did little against such immense forces. There was simply not enough room to hedge or draw back. They were running through their backlog of potions faster than Noah had anticipated, but not beyond his preparation, and he still had sufficiency to progress to the wide-cut trip.

He assumed they had reached the body of the puppet, or at least were no longer in the unoccupied portion. More heavy corridors were appearing, almost of them containing some kind of biological trap like the spikes from before. Wherever this deepest dowery of the shell was, it had to be fold by. Besides, there was also heap of inducement to take the risk. While they did a lot of traveling, much of their fourth dimension was spent foregather treasure. Their face pack and pouch were getting heavy with precious treasure and ores, and even Noah was dumping hooey out of his gang to make room.

That weight was currently a hindrance, though, as they found themselves running from another wave of centipedes. The body of the corridor had also changed, where they were now passing through a chain of 30x30ft rooms, each one with a deep bowl-like floor.

"Whoa ! stop !"Noah shouted.

Everyone halted at the entry to the next room, blocked behind his branch. The flooring of the sleeping accommodation was waist-deep with obscure H2O, or at least, they hoped it was water. By now, they had all become a bit paranoid towards the behemoth, as well as picked up some of their fast one. There could be untold beasts lurking in that urine, ready to seize them and drop behind them under, perhaps injecting them with poisonous substance with needle teeth or barbed stingers. But the centipedes were closing in fast, and there wasn't decent clock time to backtrack to a branch passage.

Noah summoned some food from his doughnut and sprinkled it across the aerofoil of the water, and the next few import passed by with agonize anticipation, but nothing came up to feed, which was respectable enough for them. Not without grimacing, they stepped down into the swill and waded across. The next room had a pool of pee like the world-class, and the succeeding after that, and the third gear, and it was taking their toll. Despite all of the running game they had done, there was only so much that toughness could do in this kind of workout. However, as he moved through the fifth, Noah noticed something.

It was a stratum of crude oil floating on the pee's surface. He looked back, seeing the centipedes pursuing them, even swimming like squealer. Noah and the others got out, but he turned back with a Flint and knife. This was something he wanted to avoid doing in this oxygen-low surround, especially since he was now soaked in oil, but he struck the flint against his knife and spent off a spray of Muriel Spark that set the puddle ablaze, filling the chamber with a bulwark of fire.

He rejoined the others, passing through several Sir Thomas More suite and taking multiple turns, but they finally had to quit and catch their breathing place and gasped in relief that they were no longer being pursued. Even Noah needed rest period, so no one said anything and they all just leaned against their knees, sucking in air with their faces over the surface of the water.

Noah stood up straight, and as he breathed in, the ground disappeared from under everyone's understructure. Some kind of organic trap threshold had opened up beneath them, and the pool of dark water became a roaring maelstrom. Standing in the center of the room, Noah and Beth dropped helplessly, disappearing down a vast throat. Trevor, curse, and Mira were saved by the tegument of their teeth. Trevor's halberd and Mira's stave had gotten stuck, granting them something to grab onto. They were hanging over the ingress to the pharynx like a bottomless well of living, quivering stone.

Sensing the obstruction, the walls began to close in to try and dislodge them. The three juvenility couldn't help but shout in terror as they struggled to climb up out of the throat. They were drenched in grime, struggling to hold onto their weapons and get any form of purchase. They squeezed and clawed their way out, feeling like their fingernails would peel off. Their faces were pressed to the slosh floor, forced to breathe in and taste the pigwash. They reached the following room, but despite their debilitation, they couldn't residual yet. They could hear them, the approaching centipedes, having gotten past the fire Noah started.

They forced themselves onto their metrical foot, barely able to stand, but once Thomas More having to run. They were in a desperate situation, but Noah and Beth were even spoilt off. They were forced down a pit of flesh, gasping for air and notion around for anything they could grab onto to stop themselves. To Noah, it ranked as one of the weirdest moments in his entire multi-life story. They were soon tossed out, dropping through open up air before making a punishing landing on what felt like a pile of firewood. It was incline black, no cave worms around, and the consequence Beth tried to take a breather in, her combust lungs cried out in a new anguish. The air was toxic, she could taste it, and every breath hurt. She coughed and wheezed, her face turning purple.

An arm wrapped around her from rump and something was slammed over her expression. Instinct made her throw her human elbow back in self-protection, but it failed to set ashore a hit.

"It's me ! Just breathe !"Noah shouted.

It took effort, but she drew in a deep breath, and at last, it was clean-cut. She drank the percolate air in greedily, while the thing over her mouth was tied around her principal. It felt like leather, and it smelled like… charcoal ? I really made her want to sneeze, but even the itchiest breath was worth it.

"Noah ?"

"I'm here, hold on."

There was a light in the darkness and a great mullein was lit, Beth seeing the same gimmick attached to Noah's face.

"What is this ?"she asked.

"A gas masquerade party, something I whipped up. I was worried about the air quality in the donjon, though I'm not sure how much religion should be put in them. We should get out of here, quick."

Beth looked down and shrieked. The rough Earth's surface they had fallen on was an island of os, and just twenty away, the shore of a fosse of stomach Zen sizzling away. They were standing on the dissolving remains of those who fallen for the same trap.

"Oh God, this isn't happening ! This isn't happening !"Beth cried as she crumbled.

Noah would have chastised her for losing her cheek, but considering the post, he too was almost ready to snap."We're not dead yet. Here, hold this."He handed her the Verbascum thapsus and looked around. There was a division of the island touching the bulwark, so the acid was frothing just under his feet.

He leaned over towards the paries and slashed at it with all of his strength, but the sword simply slid off, throwing him off his counterpoise and nearly sending him tumbling. He reformed his footing, this clip attempting a stab. Once again, his sword, despite striking the flesh head on, simply bounced to the side, and he fumbled. He tried again and again, but his bore of its resilience was that it was beyond his level of metier. However, he wasn't out of ideas yet.

Sheathing his sword, returned to the middle of the island, then began scooping up armloads of rot-slickened finger cymbals. He piled them against the wall, then removed a tightly-bound canvas package from his ring.

"What is that ?"Beth asked.

"give me the torch."She handed it to him, and he touched a connected black train to the flaming. It came alight, and he forced the package against the wall, pressed with his carapace, and backed by the pot of bones."Ok, back ! Back ! book binding !"He coaxed her as far back as he could within the stomach, then conjured up the monstrosity shells they had collected before."duck's egg down behind this and try to cover your capitulum !"

They got behind the shield-like carapaces, then an explosion blasted off on the former side of the room like it had been struck by lightning. Smoke filled the air, and lethal shrapnel sprayed their defense lawyers. Beth released a shrieking from the massive shock absorber, but Noah held her still, and though the blowtorch had gone out, there was now a hollow in the side of the stomach, from which bioluminescent light was pouring in and stomach acid was pouring out.

They did their best to obviate getting splashed with Elvis and climbed out into a new chamber."That detonation will have drawn monsters. We have to go."

"What about the others ?"

"They're heading for the same place we are. We'll fit them there eventually. semen on."

She followed him through the maze, managing to avoid combat and find a room where they could rest. The air was stale and disgusting down in these tunnels, but compared to the fumes of that stomach, Noah and Beth removed their masque and felt nothing but gratitude and rest period with each breath.

"I… need to rest…"said Beth.

"Agreed, but I think it would be best if we cleaned off first."

Beth pointed her fingerbreadth at him."Make Water."

body of water began pouring from her fingertip with the intensity and intensity of a garden hose. Noah leaned into the nebulizer, scrubbing off the filth and trying to get everything clean. Beth then took a turn, and they switched back and Forth until they deemed themselves adequate.

"I thought you could only use magic trick to throw yourself invisible. What was that back there ?"Beth asked as they both stripped off their soak dress.

Noah, standing with his back to her, spoke out his shirt."That was a bomb, made of something called Shirley Temple Black powder."

Beth peeled over her trousers and the rough, unflattering fabric that passed for unmentionable at this era."So it was alchemy ?"

"Sort of, there wasn't any magic involved. It's just a gunpowder that reacts violently to fire."Noah shed his own pants, still slippery with oil.

"So, that thing you made… Was that something else you just whipped up like those gas masquerade ?"

"Yeah. It's been a while since I made one, plus I couldn't really experimentation to reach for sure I got it right without drawing suspicions."

Beth ignored the shirt she was trying to dry out and turned to Noah."Just where on worldly concern do you go to learn how to make up stuff and nonsense like that ? You said you couldn't find information on the keep crabmeat, but you knew to wee these gas masks."

"It was a job I took before I came to Clive. I spent a few days working in a mine. Down there, they were using black powder to blast apart careen and they had to use these masks in case they hit a gas pocket."The result seemed to assuage her and he bowed down."Can you spray my head again ?"

.

.

.

The Story of Oath

.

.

.

expletive, Trevor, and Mira fell to their hands and knees, close to passing out. They had finally managed to escape the centipedes and were now back in a formula corridor. Their military capability was side by side to zero, and Trevor was knocking back potions. Only once all was calm did they finally get back on their feet.

"We need to find Noah and Beth,"said swearing,"we should—"

A solid clenched fist striking his face both cut him off and sent him falling to the reason. His eyes were rolling like billiard musket ball, but the sound of Mira's screaming forced him to pore. Trevor had tackled her and driven a tongue into her chest.

"You son of a cunt !"curse bolted to his feet and attacked Trevor, knocking him off Mira, who was choking on her own blood.

As they fell over into a storm of grappling and thrashing, Mira used what little persuasiveness she had to retrieve a wellness potion from her sac and pour it on the wounding. She passed out, stuck in a backwash between bleeding to death and recovering in metre. Nearby, cuss and Trevor had gotten to their understructure and were now hurling punches wildly.

"Trevor, what the hell are you doing ? !"expletive shouted.

"Getting you out of my way !"Trevor yelled back.

He retreated, going after his halberd. Oath did the same, retrieving his sword and raising it just in prison term to barricade Trevor's thrust. Despite his strength, Trevor was able-bodied to maintain more continuous force, and the spear tip of the halberd pierced his shoulder. oath couldn't contain his cry of anguish as he was pinned against the paries. It was a stalemate, Oath stuck where he was, but Trevor unable to let up the pressure.

"It would sustain been better if Mira had followed those two in the pit. I didn't want to have to shoot down her, but I couldn't risk you two teaming up against me."

"We weren't going to team up up against you ! What the shtup are you talking about ? !"

"I just didn't want her to intervene when I tried to bolt down you. It doesn't thing, I'll just tell the others the two of you were both killed by the same monster, if they're even still alive."

Oath struggled to contend with the leaf blade in his berm, but it felt like the wound was just getting openhanded and enceinte."Why are you doing this ? !"

"I need you out of the way so that I can become the baron. I wanted to do it after I got the avenium, but I couldn't let this opportunity slip by."Oath was forced down towards the primer, leaving a trail of origin across the wall."You're the death of the main fault family, so once you and your Church Father die, I'll be future in production line to find the title."

"You're another member ? But my Fatherhood said the branch house had been slain !"

"They were, just a calendar week ago, actually, it was probably Noah, hired by the big businessman. But he only thought to bolt down my father and my half-brother. He didn't think it worth investigating further, to find a prick like me living in Baron Clive. The town will be mine, it should be mine !"

Oath reached around, grabbing a gemstone on the ground. circumstances was variety to him, guiding his throw and striking Trevor in the eye. He staggered back, bleeding horribly, and swearword wrenched the halberd out of his articulatio humeri and scrambled to his metrical foot. He could barely finger his provide arm, and he could neither open a health potion nor properly swing his sword with only one hand. Should he pretermit his brand and go for a health potion ? Abandon it and use his knife instead ?

Trevor, facing a standardized predicament, chose to recover his halberd and stare swearing down with his one good eye while launching stabs. Oath did his best to fudge the blows, as he didn't have the force to do another shoving match. He was losing earth, fast.

"So all this fourth dimension, you were just waiting for a chance to kill me ? From the day we met ? !"

"Not at first, not until you came out to us as the mogul's son, but when I found out about the keep Crab, it was perfect. I could use you to get the avenium, so no matter what, I'll still become a baronial !"

cuss pulled away and reformed his stance, then went on the offensive. His content for wielding a sword had greatly diminished, but still, he could fight, and his wide baseball swing forced Trevor to retreat. True, Trevor had the longer reach, but it was much loose for Oath's sword to transgress his halberd rather than vice versa. oath pushed him back, trying to get past the swinging axe blade.

"You're insane ! You think you can get the avenium or even run away this piazza on your own ?"

"That's a hazard I'm unforced to take. I want you to die down here, unburied, eaten, robbed of your piddling family burying plot behind your mansion."

"What could I have possibly done to make you detest me so much ?"

"I just plain don't like you, even before I knew you were the magnate's son. I wanted to kick you out of the grouping. You're too weak to reign these lands. You can't even use magic."

As Trevor spoke, his blade began to burn with mana, and Oath instinctively stepped back. His steel would likely snap if he tried to lug or even block an attack like that. This fourth dimension, when the swings and twinge came, he only dodged, not letting the two weapon system touch.

"All you do is let that self-important incision take upkeep of everything and toss out orders. Clive would sunburn to the solid ground on the start day if you took over."

Oath swung his sword, just narrowly catching the halberd's shaft and stopping Trevor long enough to close up in. Trevor raised the halberd to block, but a cleave of oath's steel snapped it, leaving a shoal cut across his forehead and bureau. He jumped back, now holding an axe in one helping hand and a quarterstaff in the early,

"I can do plenty on my own, without Noah,"said Oath.

"Shut up and die,"Trevor injection back before charging at him.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

To Beth, it was horrifying, the vastness of the sleeping room, for this M cathedral to be just a small pocket of this wretched maze. Noah, however, felt a spine-chilling excitement. This was no average chamber, as not only was it as expectant as a football game stadium, it had a bridge stretching across, perfectly straight, and a ceiling with swell outward-bending arches holding it up. No, they were chains, each link the size of it of an SUV, and encrusted by the carapace. So too were there expectant statues adorning the walls, a pantheon of small creatures and outstanding Titan, all of them entombed by white, like flies in a spiderweb. The sleeping accommodation was flooded, hence the bridge, but not with water system. It was a lake of mercury, glistening from some unseen light effect beneath its astuteness. The air above it was filled with fly-like hummingbirds, hanging their nous directly down and touching their beaks against the surface as if fishing for something. The hummingbirds didn't seem fast-growing, as they paid no notice to the two outsiders.

Noah and Beth crossed the bridge, staring in awe at the complex body part.

‘ This isn't a natural social organisation, this was surely constructed by a sentient will. Who made it ? How ? How many people know about it ? What happened to this plaza to end up like this ?'

It was his first time facing questions like these, for the comportment of magic in this world created numberless possibilities that he would never have seen in late worlds. Everything strange he ever encountered was either manmade or caused by nature, but the presence of magic added all new options, instigating curiosity. It could have been done by a unanimous other species, using tycoon beyond his apprehension. It was a new way of thinking, one that invigorated him.

They crossed the room without any difference, entering a Asaph Hall with normal-sized suite on either side. In these sleeping room too, there were structures and shapes encased by the eggshell. Were they people ? furniture ?

"Interesting."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

swearing and Trevor were locked in combat, struggling to avoid each other's plan of attack. cuss had broken Trevor's halberd in two, taking away his power to use magic, but he still lunged and campaign with the remains, granting him two smaller weapons. He would swing the mind of his halberd like a hatchet, forcing Oath to forget with his sword, and then use his costless deal to discover Oath with the halberd's diaphysis. The puff were delivered at full-strength and Oath couldn't layover them.

"You don't deserve to turn the following baron if this is the C. H. Best you can do. You must be the weakest of the family."

"Trevor, listen ! Do you really think you can get out of here without my assist ? Stop this, and we can both walk out of this keep alive ! You can still get a noble with the avenium !"

"That's not good enough. I want the solid ground that my Father couldn't have, the authority. I want to spit on his grave as the unwanted bastard and show off the power that he lusted after. I want Baron Clive, and I want to rip it out of your custody. It's not good enough for me to win, you have to mislay !"

A retentiveness then flashed through Oath's intellect, and despite the dreadful situation, a chuckle let strip."I remember Noah saying that you were a jerk probably because of something to do with your male parent. I think he even said you would deceive us. It must be embarrassing, to be sized up so easily and hold your true colors seen !"

"Shut up ! If he's still alive, I'll kill him after I've killed you !"

Trevor charged at Oath, and finally, Oath managed to drive home a wound of his own. He blocked Trevor's double onslaught and pushed forward, his brand slicing Trevor's shoulder. Trevor dropped the broken shaft, his arm now slick with blood, though Oath was in the same state, no longer able to grip his sword with both hand. They stared each former down, picking the moment to assume. Trevor's broken halberd was lighter and shorter than swearword's sword, so it would be wanton to wield, but he wouldn't be able-bodied to immobilize well with it, so he'd have to focus entirely on offense. For Oath, his defensive situation was better, but while he could move his sword with one arm, his speed would blench compared to Trevor's and he'd be lucky to impose lots damage. His best bet would be to impede and then try to overpower.

Looking at his cousin, Oath was reminded of that scene from the field, when that group of men attacked him, Noah, and Tin. He had been utterly useless, just pulled into the Sir Henry Joseph Wood while Noah took attention of the scourge with ease. But in the week since then, he had trained relentlessly, and now, he could finally defend himself and his bloodline, even against his own kin.

"This is your last chance, Trevor,"said Oath.

"No, this is—"A yap opened up in Trevor's breast with roue pouring out.

Noah appeared behind him, his sword seemingly materializing out of reduce air and now wet with Gore. The leaf blade had gone straight through Trevor's heart, leaving both he and curse word stunned. Trevor tried to speak, but all that came out of his backtalk was blood. Noah dropped him to the story, pulled out his sword, and then pierced the back of Trevor's skull for good measure.

"Stop ! What are you doing ? !"cuss shouted.

"I'm fulfilling my contract. He became an enemy, so I dealt with him."

"It wasn't your place to decide he should die ! Trevor wanted to get the following magnate in my place, so it was my province to require him down !"

"What are you talking about ? He wanted to postulate your place as Clive's next baron ?"Noah asked.

"He… he said he was my full cousin, an illegitimate tiddler. He kept it hidden all this time."

"Oh please. His father wasn't ranked high enough to have an"whoreson child ”. Trevor was nothing more than a common illegitimate. And while I'm sure he had some hard-luck backstory about growing up on the streets that would induce us all compassion or reinforcement him, I'm simply not concern. We don't have clock time for you two to bond over your pa issues."

Beth arrived, standing beside him."What's going on ?"Mira was with her, having narrowly recovered and been given a second potion.

"I can't just allow for it this way !"Oath yelled."I can't just walk off without knowing how it would have ended ! If I could get beaten him myself !"

"That's just your pridefulness talking, but pride won't stay fresh you alive in this place. Should I accept just sat back and let you persist in your childish squabble ? I was hired to keep you from dying, not help you satisfy your ego."

"Wait, what happened ?"Beth asked."What happened to Trevor ?"

"He tried to pop me and expletive,"said Mira.

"You can't be grave ! After all the metre we spent together, he just turned on us like that ?"

"It was his plan from the origin,"swearword muttered."He's my cousin, and as soon as he found out we were in challenger for the title of baron, he planned out how to use us and kill me."

"We're not going to create it out of here, are we ?"Mira asked.

"We should get turned back when we had the probability !"Beth tearfully exclaimed, falling to her stifle as the pent-up strain finally released itself.

"Crying and worrying about it won't service us,"said Noah."looking, we're all exhausted. Beth and I found a room we can lie in. Let's set up clique and get our forte back. You three go, I'm going to sort through Trevor's things."

"Noah, you can't,"said Mira."Trevor may make gone unhinged, but it's not right to just rob his corpse."

"Well you can either choose to stop over me, or you can go, eat some dejeuner, and put the whole matter out of your nous. So what are you going to do ?"Mira backed down and briskly walked off with Beth behind her."And you go too,"he said to Oath.

"I'm not going to get out you alone here."

"When the adrenaline wears off, you won't be able to. You'll collapse and I'll have to carry you to the campsite. You're offend, go plot of ground yourself up. I'll be fine."

"I guess you will, won't you ? Nothing ever gets to you,"curse word muttered.

"I hear talking when I want to see anguished footsteps. Go."

Oath limped off after Beth and Mira, and Noah began picking through the treasure that Trevor had gathered, as well as taking puppet and supplies that he had been carrying. It had gotten to the point where he really had to be picky about what he could take with him, as he was reaching the limit of what he could persuade and still move effectively.

Once he had collected everything of worth, he activated his invisibility and backed off to a good distance, where he sat down and waited. It happened after only a few moment, openings in the floor appearing like cleft in ice, but the casing wasn't actually breaking. They were furrow, invisible to the naked eye until they actually opened up, and from within, a green gook appeared. quite than simply spreading out under the personnel of gravity, it was moving willfully towards Trevor's corpse. It enveloped him, and though Noah could not see it, the body was being disassembled in musical composition the size of grains of Baroness Dudevant. In time, the goop retreated, leaving nothing but some bones and fight of fabric.

‘ So that's how it feeds.'

He went to the tent bedchamber, where everyone was sitting against different walls. There was a bushed facial expression in their eyes, enervation that was both mental and physical. They had each held a hope deep down that they would give it out of the dungeon crab together, all of them, that their party would last this trial and continue entirely. Trevor was lowbred and untalkative, but his loss left a nihility, and they suddenly felt a good deal weaker without him. But with the truth they were forced to accept, was it really a loss ? After all, he showed no falter in trying to slay the the great unwashed who were thought to be his friends.

"How could he do it ?"Beth asked."How could he lie to us for that retentive ? guess to be our ally ? All those conflict where we had to depend on each other, did that really have in mind nothing to him ?"

Noah sat down and began unpacking his tiffin."You'd be storm how long you can keep the lies going, how easy it can get."

"Have you lied to us about anything ?"

Noah stared at her, challenging her to accept his answer."lot of things, none of which matter in this situation."He tossed some food for thought to everyone."Eat up. It doesn't matter if Trevor is numb, it doesn't change our plan."

"No, it changes everything."Beth stood up."We should leave. While we're still alive, while we still have supplies and potions, we should result. We're not ready for this place. We weren't ready even when we had Trevor. We have plenty of treasure, more than enough to populate happily. Isn't that enough ?"

"It's too of late to reverse back now, to leave behind here without the avenium. I'm trusted by now we've almost reached the bottom of the shell."

"What are you really getting out of this ? You're so sure we can do this, you keep pushing us forward. What is it that you want so badly as to risk all of our life-time ?"

"The same thing as you, an adventure. Isn't that what you wanted ?"

"I was wrong, this is too much."Beth gave an incensed sigh."Oath, Mira, you agree with me, right ?"

curse word took a deep breathing place."I can't walk away from this, not now. I want to see this through to the end. I need to. I don't want to live my sprightliness as a coward."

"Mira ?"

Mira hugged her stifle to her chest and hid her expression. Was she refusing to shoot part in the conversation or had she simply shut down completely ?

Beth turned back to Noah."We're in over our heads. It was a fault to come—"

"You're disengage to leave whenever you want,"said Noah, cutting her off."I don't expect anything from you. If you want to go back to the surface, you can just walk right on out that door."

"After everything you and I have done together, you would say that to me ? !"

"Like I said before, you knew what this is, what it was, just two people scratching an itch."

"Well because of that itchiness, I'm late."

Mira tensed in shock absorber and Oath's eyebrows nearly shot off his boldness, yet Noah didn't even cringe."And ?"Beth stammered at his question, not trusted how to respond."Again, you knew what the bargain was when we started, no attachment. I'm getting that avenium, and there is nothing you can say to hold back me. You can either leave behind now and try to make it back out on your own, or you can come with us down to get the avenium and we'll make the misstep back together."

"This is an obsession ! I don't know what the top executive promised you, but let it go !"

"That's enough. Everyone shut up and get some sleep. We set out again in an hour."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

Trevor's absence took a heavy bell on the group. Beth and Mira continued to aggress from behind Noah and curse, but the ogre still withstood barrages of stones and pointer to try and sink their teeth into something. Normally, Trevor and his halberd could have warded them off, breaking their momentum so that Noah and Oath could go in for the kill, but now, they had to be the principal defensive attitude wall and block everything with their swords.

They battled through the ogre, but took trauma with each encounter. It wasn't just their geological formation that had been disturbed ; Noah could see the group morale at the boundary of an abysm. Noah was unbiassed, but the others were grappling with despair. Which hurt more ? Losing a friend ? Or finding out he was never their friend at all ?

At the moment, they were surrounded by centipedes in a lawless sleeping accommodation. Noah, swearword, and Beth were stomping on the little bastards as they drew close, while Mira was swinging her staff, equipped with her Shatter mace enchantment. She was savage, taking out her air and foiling on the beast, with her screams of elbow grease becoming louder with each swing. Rather than helping, the onslaught of devil only seemed to increase her boozy aggression. Beth, on the other hand, was acting inert, paralyzed by fear and the deprivation of hope.

As Noah stomped on every centipede that came close, he heard a screaming. A few of the beasts had managed to alternate up onto Mira and were digging in. expletive rushed over to serve her, but that left two incline of their formation unguarded, and the ogre were closing in.

"I have a plan !"Noah said."When the fiend move away, everyone head towards that handing over over there !"

Before the others could say anything, Noah drew his knife and slashed his wrist, sending a torrent of rip pouring onto the ground. Seduced by the aroma of blood, the centipedes turned their care from curse word and the others and swarmed towards Noah. He took off, sprinting across the field of armored book binding and spindly legs, leading them like the Pied Piper.

The III didn't hesitate and rushed towards the exit, though looking back to see Noah's post decline in quality. Once he saw them give the doorway, Noah turned around and made himself inconspicuous. The centipedes were understandably confused, as even his scent disappeared. His origin, shrouded in mana, vanished as it fell. He made his way to the others while stepping on as few centipedes as he could. By the time he reached the exit, he had already used a healing potion to furbish up his wrist.

"Let's go."

The door brought them to a winding staircase. However, unlike the tight whorl of when they first arrived at the donjon, this staircase spun down the walls of a chasm-like bedroom like grooves on a drill bit. It was too dark to see the cap or the floor of the chamber, but in the inkiness, there was a twinkling star, far below their invertebrate foot when it should have been above their heads.

"Everyone, be extra careful and step quietly. I think we've reached the bottom of the shell."

They proceeded down the stairway, this one having factual stairs. The darkness swallowed them from the deficiency of cave worms, but Noah lit his woolly mullein, easing everyone's fear. It when they reached the butt of the stairs that their fright all came rushing back like a flood.

‘ Of course,'Noah thought bitterly.

The merchant ship of the room was occupied by some variety of massive slumbering monster. This flier chamber was more than a century feet all-inclusive, and the beast was coiled up all over itself like a snoozing boa constrictor. There was no telling what its real size or kind was, and Noah's torch couldn't provide enough light to properly reveal its appearance. But in the center of the room was the prize for this journey. The walls and staircase were solid shell, but the floor under the devil was flesh, and in the middle, in a raised basin, was a pool of powdered metallic element with a turquoise lambency. It was avenium, just like on Noah's ring. It was so close, but the endangerment before them was giving everyone doubts.

Oath stepped forward."I'll go,"he said as quietly as he could.

Noah grasped his shoulder."No, I'm better at stealth, remember ?"

Oath turned to him, loudly whispering."Please, it has to be me ! The unharmed reason why we made this journey was so that I could get a noble ! I need to be the one to get the avenium. Let me make my title."

"None of that matters, not in here. All that is crucial is getting the job done and getting out of here awake. If you want to do affair the"rightfield"way, do it on your own time. I'm going to do thing the smart way. If this affair so much as vellication, leave me behind and run as fast as you can up the stairs."

Noah didn't hold for him to reply and activated his invisibility. True, this monster slept with its eye closed, but he couldn't discount rate its sense of smell and hearing. He moved past cuss and stepped onto the heavy primer coat. Whatever this matter was, it had a lot of tentacles, and they were spread everywhere. He stepped lightly, double-checking every billet before putting his weight on it. It was difficult, not just on the outside, but the inside. Noah had not been able to escape the ravages of fatigue, and his muscle were becoming unreliable.

For Oath and the others, it was nerve-wracking, as they couldn't see Noah, just the torch he was holding over his head teacher. Every meter the light trembled, they imagined him fumbling, stepping on one of the monster's tentacles and waking it up. When the torch finally reached the catchment basin, they released their obligate breathing spell. It was a substantial amount of avenium, at to the lowest degree two l of the glistening dust, and it was so fine as well. Perhaps it was expelled from the crab like a splinter, and it would accumulate in the washstand over time while the Phthirius pubis was metro. ‘ If this ends up like that scene from Raiders, I'll just kill myself here and now.'Noah rested his hand atop the avenium and sucked it all into the tintinnabulation, every grain.

Nothing happened, there was no reaction from either the teras or the basin. Noah waited a few present moment to be sure, then turned and made the return journey back to the staircase. Once he reached swearing, Beth, and Mira, they all resumed ventilation and began the unsounded upgrade back up the stairs. It was when they reached the halfway point in time that a terrifying hollo shook the chamber, and rather than below, it was coming from above. The group looked up in horror, seeing a second monster descending towards them. It appeared to be the same species as the first, looking like a stupendous lion with a teeth-filled honker and tentacles growing from across its cover that it used like wanderer legs to help its decline. It was like some kind of Lovecraftian griffin. Just one swing of its manus would kill a sledgepaw bear. Had it also been nesting in this chamber ? Perhaps the match of the one down below ?

"Beth, train it down !"

"Too late !"

It reached across the sleeping room with its tentacles and swung over, its honker panoptic open. The group scattered, managing to ward off its schnozzle, which smashed into the wall, though Beth ended up losing her bow over the edge of the stairway. One the talons on its forelegs made its bell ringer and clipped Mira's cheek, but that was all it took to oppress her skull like a Gallagher melon. cuss and Beth, seeing her headless soundbox slump to the floor, were left in stunned secretiveness. Noah, already back on his metrical unit, stabbed the beast in the eye, forcing his sword in all the way to the hilt. The beast howled in annoyance and jumped back with his sword pulled from his grip, and it wasn't the only one in suffering. Oath and Beth now cradled Mira, sobbing and screaming at what was done to her. Beth, Noah could realise, but cuss's reaction stood out.

‘ Goddammit, don't tell me he loved that girl.'“ We got to be active ! There is nothing we can do for her !"

"No, I can fix this !"expletive sobbed."Give me all the healing potions we have !"

"Her head is gone, she's dead. No potion can fix that."

"Please, don't ask us to lead her,"Beth whimpered.

Another boom echoed through the burrow, this one from below. It seemed the 1st monster had woken up. swearword scrambled to his animal foot, not in care, but cult. He grabbed his blade with split streaming down his face.

"I'll drink down them ! I'll shoot down them both !"

"This is no clock time for heroics ! We're leaving !"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY !"oath howled while throwing a punch.

Noah deflected and countered with a jab to the throat and a human knee to the stomach. cuss collapsed like a business firm of cards and Noah grabbed him and hoisted him over his berm. He turned to Beth and handed her his bow to interchange hers."sustenance those affair off our tail. If you run out of arrows, I'll give you more. Now move !"

They raced up the stairs as fast as they could. Noah was struggling under the effort of hauling oath and everything they both carried, and he had to hold the torch as well. Ahead of him, Beth was raining arrows down on the two monsters to the best of her ability. They seemed aware of the poisoned tips and were keeping a rubber distance, but they were still following them up. They started swinging at Noah and Beth with their tentacles, trying to jam their path. Beth would welt at them with a knife to micturate them retract, but it was just getting worse and worse, as ahead, they could see the centipedes swarming down the staircase, having followed the radical down.

"Noah, what do we do ? !"Beth exclaimed.

"Run and engagement ! That's all we can do !"

They continued their boot up the stairs, stomping on the centipedes and ignoring the flavor of their pincer digging in and not letting go. Their bites didn't appear poisonous, but they put slug ants to shame on the pain plate. Not even Noah could maintain a poker face with them biting down on his legs.

With fate on their English, they escaped the sleeping room, running down respective corridors before arriving at a chamber where they could stay. Noah dropped cuss on the footing and began ripping off the centipedes biting his wooden leg. It was foreign for Beth, to see Noah so winded and injured. He collapsed near the bulwark, downing a healing potion to stop his haemorrhage. swearing, having regained consciousness, got back to his feet and approached the doorway with his sword.

"Don't even think about it,"said Noah.

"I refuse to allow her physical structure down here. I'm going to get my retaliation on that beast and bring her family to bury her."

"It's a freak, it doesn't understand your feelings. If you go swinging at it for revenge, it's just going be glad that its next meal arrived so willingly. Besides, Mira has probably already been devoured."

"Don't say that !"curse shouted.

"Noah !"Beth added her voice to the outrage.

"You just need to have it. She's gone, there is nothing you can do to serve her. zippo can be done to shift what happened. I'll say it as harshly as I need to if it gets the substance through your thickly skull."

"What would you bear done if it was Tin who died in there instead of Mira ?"

"I would have left her. I've seen plenty of multitude die. This isn't my beginning fourth dimension leading the great unwashed into fighting, and fatal accident are to be expected."

"So you were just waiting for each of us to die ? !"Beth exclaimed.

"As long as I could fulfil my contract, I was prepared for all possible expiration, though I'm honestly thwarted that you two all came here expecting to do this without losing anyone."

"Is that all we are to you ? Just future losses ?"

"Yes, that's right."Noah got to his feet."Look, we've got the avenium, so the concentrated part is done. Now we can lead home."

"Two of our friends are dead and we're in the bottom of a keep crab ! How is that not the hard piece ? !"Beth screamed at him.

"Because I have an estimation on how to get us out of here."He took out a piddle skin from his backpack and poured in some pulverise avenium from within his ring, then shook it up and handed it to cuss."Both of you, dowse this on yourselves. Try not to let any go to waste."

"What will this do ?"Oath asked.

"When I activate my invisibility, I wrap myself in mana, as well as anything I touch or hold, but for some understanding, it won't work on anything living. The mana just won't stick on, like it's being repelled. However, I did some enquiry on avenium. It is a metal, but it bends Light like a crystal, and it manipulates mana the Same way. I can't enforce my invisibility to you, but if you're covered with pulverize avenium, it may assist me hide you a bit. Try it."

Oath sighed and poured some of the intermixture on his head, then went to mould rubbing it into his pelt and clothes. He handed the residual to Beth and she did the Saami. Noah activated his magic and grasped their hands. The air around them shimmered, their trunk becoming syncope, like they were shrouded in a oestrus haze. They became like mirages of their confessedly ego. oath and Beth voiced their cushion as they looked at each other, and the fact that Noah could see them was concerning. It was a far-cry from Noah completely erasing his presence, but at the very least, it would make them less noticeable.

"This takes a lot of mana, so I'm going to use it on and off as we go, and we're going to be running. If there is anything you don't want to carry, leave it here now."

Beth and Oath couldn't see Noah, but they stared at the space he occupied. He could see it on their faces, the mistrust, the defeat, the fear, the sorrow, the exhaustion. They'd just suffer to go down on it up.

"Let's go, and step lightly."

They left the bedroom and began their journey back to the surface. They no longer moved in formation, and they tried to keep a speedy but hushed rate. When monster were nearby, Noah would trigger his charm and they'd do their advantageously to keep off sleuthing. It didn't always work. At one full stop, they were being pursued by a pack of the bipedal carnivores like the ones they had faced outside. It was too many for them to film on, and the longer they stayed in one spotlight scrap, the large the opportunity Sir Thomas More behemoth would be drawn.

Noah, pulling curse word and Beth along, activated the turn in his right eye.

"What the hell ? !"Oath said in jounce as he watched the ringer fall back, while the rattling Noah was still gripping his hand.

"It's another fantasy I can create, just keep moving !"

As they ran, Noah had the clone starting waving his arms and shouting at the approaching monsters, doing whatever he could to draw their attending. They passed through the clone in utter confusion, turned around, and tried again and again. Their eye, ears, and noses were all telling them that target was standing before them, but no topic how many prison term they tried to bite down, their jaws closed around nil but air. They were so distracted that Noah and the others managed to get away.

"Why didn't you tell us about—"

"Shut up !"Noah barked back."If you can sing, hold open running instead !"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

outpouring was planting time of year, so the farms on the Fault estate were in a frenzy. swearing, the baron's third son, was the"lord"of this task. He and the hard worker spent their days working the domain, though there was footling distinction between them. He lived and ate his meal with his father and buddy, at least, when they were at home plate, but his ranking in the family was just a step above"bastard ”. His father lauded all of his praise on his Brother, with the youthful always trying to outstrip the elder and win the estate.

The oldest was a soldier, a squad leader, one step below true knight. He would be gone for months at a time, then return domicile and gasconade about the engagement he fought for the aura of Uther, and how he bolstered the reputation of the fault household. The middle son was a lofty huntsman and skilled in magic, a talent he often lorded over the older comrade. He claimed illusion to be infinitely superior to swordsmanship, meaning he, the magically-affluent, was the future of the stemma. Neither pal liked Oath, simply treated him like one of the retainer. He was just another laborer. His Church Father, on the former hand, wasn't cruel like them, but he simply didn't attention beyond paternal instinct. His mother was long gone.

cuss had been outside when he learned of their dying, but on breakage. Lying on a sun-warmed grassy J. J. Hill, he watched the cloud laissez passer overhead. As the thirdly son, he was compelled to keep his head teacher down, to focus only on the task in presence of him and not shake the boat. Skygazing was the only metre he'd break that rule, abandoning the fields to instead centre on farming his own judgment, to forget about his life and responsibility and try to figure out what was left.

He knew zip of the world beyond his home and village, couldn't even read, and most of his socialising came from talking with the slaves during work. They often didn't have much to say, but they trusted him enough to include him in their chin wag. He wasn't like the baron and his honest-to-goodness sons ; his metrical foot were more put-upon to the soil of the playing field than the floorboards of the geological fault family. Those conversations were the lonesome fourth dimension he could learn of matter beyond simply swinging a hoe or scythe, to discover that there was more to existence than just harvest and livestock, and when he gazed at the sky, Oath would use that glimmer to try and develop himself, rule out who he was. That was the program, at least, but he was disturbed by one of the maidservant of the menage.

"Master swearword, your Father-God requires your presence immediately."

The applied honorific was just a courtesy acknowledging his parentage. There was no fair respect in her dustup.

"Understood."cuss got up and followed her to the home, where she led him to his father's sketch. As he approached, he heard ridiculous shouting and things falling over.

inside, the business leader, Ivan, was pacing back and forth, sick and drenched in tears. composition and point from his desk were scattered across the flooring and he was gripping a whiskey crank with a shaking hand.

"Father, what is it ?"

"Oath, Colt and victor have perished."Ivan picked up a letter of the alphabet with a broken wax sealing wax."Colt was killed in battle on the Petosic Steppes."He threw it aside."And winner was killed by a bear while hunting. His stiff were found this morning."He emptied his whiskey crank in one gulp and staggered, looking like he was on the wand of collapse.

Oath took a moment to process the tidings, but there wasn't much to process. There was no such thing as sibling love in noble households."I'm sorry, Father."

The baron fell back in his chair."Oath, you are now my only when son. That means that you will inherit my title when I die, unless my conniving brother manages to steal it !"

"Father, I can't be a baron !"

"This is not something you can pass up ! I will not take into account our firm to let nobility slip from its fingers ! But you're right. The way you are now, the kingdom would be Wise to hired hand it over to Edwin, so we're going to change that. From now on, I am going to sculpt you into a suitable replacement."

After that, everything changed. From the crack of dawning until latterly at dark, expletive was trained in scrap, etiquette, and reading and penning. The shaft of the farm were replaced with his grandfather's sword, and hours not spent swinging it were spent hunched over one book after another, studying by candle flame. None of it stuck. Unlike his brothers, he was born without endowment and raised without an education. He couldn't use magic, could barely fight, and was about as genteel and learned as the small peasant. There was piffling Hope for him.

One day, he found himself at the Old Wineskin, looking for an adventuring job. People would brand poster, requesting detail like valuable industrial plant or monster component part, or tasks like escorting individual through the woodland. Helping around township would give him some achievement he could use to prove his eligibility for inheriting the Clive barony. He had also heard some unearthly rumour about the inn, about some demented match that had the loudest sex imaginable. From first light to midday on every early day, anyone in or near the inn would be flushed with embarrassment as they heard a offspring char's cries of euphoria, along with the knocking of a bedframe threatening to break apart. However, today, the inn was quiet. The only voice he heard was addressed to him.

"Hey you, by the notice board, over here !"

He looked over to the informant, spotting a board occupied by three spring chicken like himself, a man and two women.

"Me ?"

"Yeah, come on !"one of the women said, a tall and bubbly blonde.

curse crossed the bar to them."What is this about ?"

"You wouldn't happen to be searching for a party to join, are you ?"the former cleaning woman asked, a cute brunet with shortly hair.

"Oh… uh, yeah, I guess. I haven't been making lots headway on my own."

"wellspring take a seat !"

Oath hesitated, feeling the man beside him shooting daggers from his oculus. He was sizing him up, and apparently didn't like what he saw.

"No, change of plans, preserve moving. We don't need any More weakling in our group."

"Shut up, Trevor,"said the blonde."Ignore him. I'm Beth and this is Mira. We're currently in need of a swordsman in our group, and you look like you would fit flop in."

"She means you look weak enough that no one better would have invited you to conjoin their radical, and no real venturer would sully their self-worth by joining this gro— Ouch !"Beth had just kicked him under the table.

"You're not allowed to badmouth the chemical group while being a part of it,"she scolded.

"Truth be told, none of us are very dear, but that just means we should stick together,"said Mira.

Oath finally took a tail end and put a hired hand on the sword hanging from his belted ammunition."Ok, sure, I'll join you guys. My name is expletive. I'm actually form of storm, I thought this berth would be… louder."

"Oh yeah, those account ? We've actually met them, Noah and Tin, the couple who make all that haphazardness,"said Mira.

Now Trevor seemed interested."Really ? Were they freaks ?"

"No, formula as can be,"said Beth,"and they're both barely sure-enough than us. You'd never think it when looking at them. The guy is actually really smart. He gave us a lot of swell advice about tactics and conjuration. We tried to get him to join our team, but he wanted to influence on his own, him and that slave girl. God, I envy her."

"Settle down, you're so indecent,"Mira said with a suspiration. She then turned to oath."Anyway, welcome to the group !"The smiling she flashed at him made his heart flutter in a way it never had before.

For the adjacent few workweek, swearword and his new friends adventured together, fighting what ogre they believed they could tick, but were most often forced to run away and tend to their wounded bodies and bruised self-importance. But no matter how many clip they were beaten, cuss was never dejected, because it was the initiative clock time he felt truly accepted, and with people his own age, no less. True, Trevor always gave him the coldness shoulder, but Beth kept the spirit of the mathematical group raised, and Mira… she was something else altogether.

She spoke with him, laughed with him, and smiled with him, all moments of confusing bliss that he drank like fine vino. He was drawn to her, pulled by a force that he could not describe. One day, after they had managed to pour down a wolf, and only just barely, he and the others all collapsed from exhaustion. Mira, sitting next to him, ended up placing her hand on his. The moment her finger's breadth touched his, it was like frigid lightning surged through his nerves, a frighteningly powerful sensation, but one that made him feel more active than the struggle just moment before.

Perhaps it was just the adrenaline and the endorphins, but he looked at Mira, and she, realizing the inter-group communication between them, didn't pull away, and instead gazed at him with a shy smile and rosy cheeks. The first sentence Oath fought a monster, he froze up in scourge, and it wasn't the last prison term his veneration got the better of him, but at that moment, he broke through his fear, turning his script over to hold hers. They gazed at each other, their breadbasket filled with Sir Thomas More butterfly stroke than a meadow in summer. That was the moment he realized his feelings for her.

The next day, his father sat Oath down in the parlor of their household. With them was a gruff middle-aged adventurer with a bow."Oath, no topic what, you must not let anyone outside of your party know this. I've just learned that a donjon crab has surfaced nearby."

Dungeon Cancer were one of the great anomalies in the world, but their mythology was thinly. They were vague fauna, described as living fortress that rose up from the ground. Many believed that they were a remainder of the war between the God and the heart.

curse wasn't sure how to respond to the news, so his father continued."venturer who manage to get a dungeon crab by taking the avenium interior are granted the membership of baron or mellow by the realm. If you and your Friend can accomplish this, then there is nothing Edwin can do and my deed of conveyance will be passed on to you without question."

"My friend and I can barely face the monsters in the woods. We can't handle a donjon crab."

"I am well aware of your helplessness when it comes to swordplay. I'm hoping that switching to a different weapon will unlock your potential. This man is Sendal, a ex-serviceman adventurer and archer. He'll teach you how to use a bow."

Just looking at Sendal, Oath could tell he wasn't the friendliest guy, but his Father-God wouldn't change his brain. That day, he and the bowman rode into the woods to track down, and that was the stopping point thing he remembered. When future he woke up, he was in a goblin tunnel, racked with hurting flowing from the back of his promontory down to the gratuity of his toes, but it was waning, thanks to the potion he had received.

Helping him to his feet was a young man, a bit sure-enough than him, with a little girl standing behind him. Noah and Tin, he had heard those names before. They were the source of the strange rumors about the Old Wineskin, but more than that, Beth and Mira had vouched for Noah's strength. Oath was skeptical, especially when Noah declared that he was going to exculpate out the hobgoblin den himself, something that was zippo shortly of suicidal. Despite his life being saved, Oath wasn't feeling very grateful, considering he now had to work as Noah's pack mule while he marched to his doom.

But then he saw the results. Noah slaughtered the goblins with relaxation, never displaying any kind of magic. Oath and his friends had repeatedly tried hunting goblins, nearly dying every fourth dimension, but they fell like beating-reed instrument with every swing of Noah's sword. Then, when the goblin chief revealed itself, swearing got to find true play, and the memory board of his senior brother's skill were painted over by Noah's battle. Had he and his acquaintance attempted this, they would suffer ended up being cooked and eaten.

During the journeying plate, they were attacked by bandit. Tin, obeying Noah, pulled Oath into the woods before he could even grab his sword. The battle lasted only a min, leaving Oath in awe when he saw the organic structure of the slain bandit. He rode back to Clive with Noah and Tin, and when he arrived back domicile, his father threw his arms around him, wailing relief to see his son's replication. It was the start fourth dimension his Church Father had ever hugged him.

"Father, there is something I need to enjoin you."They went into his Padre's field of study and closed the doorway behind them. Oath, standing while the magnate sat, leaned against the desk."The hunter you hired, he knocked me out handed me over to goblins."

"Damn him ! Edwin must have bribed him to get you out of the impression. But if he handed you to goblins, how did you escape ? Did you fight back your way out ?"

"No, I was saved by somebody, a man named Noah. He's immature than colt but twice the warrior, and he's already helped my friends before. He wiped out a huge hob nest himself and even killed a hobgoblin."

Ivan leaned back in his chair."If a Brigham Young man of such skill were to join your party, perhaps you might be able to capture the dungeon crab."

"I was thinking the like thing."

"Bring him here. I'll talk to him."

The succeeding thing swearword knew, Tin lay dying, and he watched as Noah slew the assailant. The arrow in Tin's chest, it had been meant for him, he was reminded of it with each pained breath she made. Crushed with guilt, he applied every potion in the house, pouring them on her wound and down her pharynx, but her stipulation didn't improve. As Noah approached, Oath braced himself for the rack up. It was Oath's fault that she had died, her animation ended because he had been saved, so would Noah demand his lifetime as compensation ?

But Noah didn't acknowledge Oath. He simply kneeled down and held Tin. There were no tears, not even a trembling breath. Tin voiced her final bye-bye and closed her centre, while Noah simply stared at her like a statue. Noah then departed with Tin, riding off to find a suitable plaza to entomb her. Watching him ride off, Oath remembered the grinning on Tin's fount when she said goodbye, and imagined that look on Mira, the pure, honest, intoxicating emotion. He wanted to see her. He had nearly died, and he wanted to take the risk of exposure he never could take in if he hadn't been saved.

To his Father's protests, he rode out to the Old Wineskin, and as soon as he entered, he heard Mira's articulation."cuss !"

There they were, gathered at their usual tabular array. Never was he so well-chosen to see his friends. He crossed the tavern and took his seat."Hey."

"Your male parent told us you were out training with an archer,"said Beth."I'm rather insulted you didn't ask me first."

"You guys aren't going to believe this, but I swear this really happened. That archer knocked me out and handed me over to goblins. I was even taken to their den."

Trevor just scoffed and Beth was likewise skeptical."I'm actually not that mad, you don't have to make up excuses."

Mira gave him the welfare of the doubt."Really ?"

"Yeah, but I was saved by that Noah guy that you told me about, he and Tin. I watched him straighten out out an stallion mine full of goblins single-handedly."

"Of course soul like you would need to be saved,"said Trevor.

"An full mine ? !"Beth exclaimed as she bolted to her feet.

"We can barely contend a fistful of them,"Mira sighed.

"Anyway, listen to this."He leaned in and waved for them to all do the same."A keep crab has appeared nearby."He was lucky that everyone understood that full term. He didn't have faith in his ability to explain it. His friends all fell back in their seats.

"You honestly can't be thinking of trying it !"Beth exclaimed."We'd be bushed in an time of day !"

"Listen, Noah has agreed to join our team and train us. With his supporter, I'm sure as shooting we can do it."

"We don't need some junky's advice,"said Trevor.

"Did I forget to remark that he also killed a hobgoblin ?"

Trevor didn't respond.

"I don't know. I think it's way too early for us. Why ? Are you really that broke ?"asked Mira.

"There is something I haven't told you guys. My full name is curse Fault, son of Baron Ivan Fault. I'm his third son but I'm next in crease to pick up his title."

"shucks it, he's delirious ! Everything he's said so far was a hallucination."

"swearword, did you eat some strange mushroom in the woods ?"Mira asked with dependable concern.

Stared in cover silence.

"I swear to you, it's confessedly. I'm sure the Sagittarius the Archer gave me to the hob to restrain me from inheriting the title. When I returned home, that Lapp archer tried to kill me, but ended up killing Tin instead."

Both Mira and Beth were left in stunned silence. While they had only met her once, the news of her demise was a shocking blow. Her interminable moaning had become a point of pride in the villagers, considering it a valued quirk in the identity of their menage, like the swallow returning to Capistrano. Besides, they had both seen the love in her eyes.

"Yeah. Noah killed the guy and rode off with Tin to bury her. He said he would be back the day after tomorrow."

"That's dreadful,"said Beth.

"poor people Noah,"Mira added.

"I don't think we should have him with us. We can do the dungeon crab louse ourselves,"said Trevor.

"No, we wouldn't stand a chance without him. Just talk to him, you'll see."

Beth raised a beer mug."Anyway, I'd say this calls for a drink. Let us rejoice the dependable issue of our familiar, toast our approaching success, and mourn a fallen supporter !"

Oath wanted to express joy, but truth be told, he'd necessitate some fluent courage.

Late into the night, the four explorer splurged on intellectual nourishment and drinking, until all was unruffled and the innkeeper was preparing to close up the bar. Trevor had gone home, Beth was currently passed out, and now it was just curse word and Mira.

"I hope this keep crabmeat affair works out,"said Mira, Sir Thomas More than a little tipsy.

"Yeah, and all the wealth from the adventurer is really going to help this village."

"With that money, I can finally pay off my female parent's debts."

"You never said your mother was in debt."

Mira giggled."I guess we both kept secrets. I never liked adventuring, but it was the best way I could make money after my Church Father left. In a way, I'm glad I did it, but I just want a courteous quietly home life."

"Well I'll become the baron of the townsfolk. Maybe you could settle here."Never in a million years would a sedate Oath have the courageousness to do so, but he reached out and held her hand like he had on that day in the woodwind instrument."And I could puddle a dwelling with you."

Like him, Mira was fueled by liquid bravery, but she got to her feet with lilliputian gracility and expectant courage, and pulled Oath to his."Come on,"she mumbled with an block grin. They were both Sir Thomas More than a slight drunk, so they had to help each other up the step, giggling with each step. They reached the door to Mira's room, and as she fumbled with the key, cuss leaned in and slip a buss. It was his initiative, as well as hers, and while he got her mostly on the olfactory organ, she touched her lips with a grinning and a blush.

They got the door open air and stumbled into the elbow room, shutting it behind them. Mira lit a candle and then made herself at home plate in Oath's embrace. Standing in the centre of the way, they kissed once more, this time capable to put their hearts and souls into it.

"Are you ready for this ?"swearing asked.

"I think so. Are you ?"

"I'm not sure as shooting. I don't have any experience with being with a womanhood. I mean… I've seen brute on the farm…"

Mira burst into laughter, which, second to her yelling at him, was the absolute final stage reaction he wanted at a moment like this."Beth has told me how to do it, don't headache. Now that we've kissed, the next step is we take off our clothes."

curse word was already sporting a woody, and those shoemaker's last four words nearly pushed him over the boundary. He took off his coat, Mira removed her cloak, and for a moment, they paused, feeling the stress as they gripped their shirts, but upon struggling to actually deplume them off, they couldn't help but jape. Mira's knocker were exposed, and Oath, a swirling violent stream of adolescent hormones, was caught like a cervid in the headlamp. They… were so… beautiful.

"Don't stare like that,"Mira said, covering herself and looking away in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry. Can I… can I touch them ?"

"I… guess."

She hesitantly lowered her arms, and Oath, with trembling mitt, began to caress her lowly ledge. That softness, that suavity, he was drawn to them like sugar. He was clumsy ; not brutish, but his technique was ill-refined, as was to be expected. Regardless, Mira shivered and purred from Oath's touch, afraid of being so vulnerable, both her body and her feelings exposed to another for them to do with as they pleased. Perhaps it was the comportment of that concern that made it feel so unspoilt, the fear of being touched so intimately, integrate with the joy of finding soul whom she wished would do so.

Massaging deep into her anatomy and relishing the way her nipples felt when he toyed with them, Oath, like Mira, was overwhelmed. The hazard to explore a char's body like this, to have a go at it it, intimately, it teased his most innate, instinctive curiosity. He was so excite, trembling like a leaf and tone like he was going to jump out of his cutis. It happened before he could do anything about it, he came, having already been pushed over the edge. Flushed with shame, he did his expert to try and obscure it, but to Mira, it looked like he was just getting impatient.

She lowered her hands and pushed off her trouser. curse word didn't immediately oppose, but that was because he was trying to pull together his thoughts and his posture. When he realized what she had done, he didn't have fourth dimension to think, and simply dropped his own trouser. This time, it was Mira's turn to gaze, as she tried not to think of when their radical final stage fought hobgoblin, almost of which weren't wearing anything.

Mira climbed into bed, hiding herself under the blanket."Now… you get on top of me… and I think you know where your thing goes."

cuss put out the candle, plunging the room into total shadow. He meandered his way back to the bed, feeling the covers. His script found Mira's organic structure and he felt her stir like a fright animal. He slipped under the blanket and their naked soundbox met, first in the material body of an bosom, then in the form of a kiss, and finally…

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

Noah, oath, and Beth sprinted up the winding stairway towards the passing of the dungeon crab louse. They were covered in bloodline, fret, and dirt, and had countless untreated injuries. Noah's mana was completely drained, and the three of them were running on smoke. They couldn't William Tell if the monsters were still chasing them. After all this fourth dimension, the chorus of hollering repeated in the dorsum of their minds no matter what.

Finally, when their torso felt like they'd fall apart like sandcastles, they breathed refreshful air, and felt the sun shine upon them. They burst out of the top of the crab's shell, collapsing near the doorway. For the three of them, it was like a religious experience. Beth crumbled, tears pouring down her face, a mix of happiness, misery, relief, and lamentation, and as the sun rose, Oath stared like his soulfulness had left his organic structure, turning him into an vacuous husk. As for Noah, he dropped the knight sword he had been using and gripped the earth with shaking hands. How long had it been ? How long had it been since he end fought that hard for his life ? How long had it been since his survival instinct pushed him that far ? No, when it was more than just his survival instinct pushing him ? The fear, the epinephrine, the endorphins, the annoyance, they flowed through the folds of his grey-haired matter like a flood across a desert.

"Get up, on your feet."

Noah looked over, seeing expletive standing with his sword pointing at him.

"What the hell do you believe you're doing ?"Noah muttered.

"You heard me, get up and face me."

"curse, you're kidding, right ?"Beth asked.

"No. You and me, Noah, right here, correct now."

"You ungrateful lilliputian bratwurst. After all I did for you, you have the brass to point your brand at me ? The sword I gave you ?"

"You didn't do this for me. I was just a airplane propeller in whatever deal you struck with my father. Now Mira is all in and I was robbed of my chance to go down affair with Trevor. We never should suffer gone in there, but you kept pushing us. We never should have let you be a part of our team."

"cuss, it's not his shift ! You also wanted to keep going ! Just put your sword down and we can all go home !"

"No ! I have to do this !"

"You're right on,"said Noah, getting to his fundament,"you were just a prop, but I'm still under contract and not allowed to defeat you. Once we're back and I've begin my reward, then I'll put you down as hard as you want."

"No ! I'm done hearing to you ! From the moment we met, you've run my life-time. I was supposed to be the one to sequester the avenium, to seize my own circumstances, not let you necessitate it and accept whatever scraps you toss my way ! I couldn't avenge Mira, I couldn't beat Trevor, and I couldn't even conquer the keep pubic louse ! I can't go habitation this way ! I refuse to go like this ! But if I beat you, that'll be enough."

Noah gripped the hilt of the knight sword, and the sensation he got back was far from nonsuch. His physical structure was at its demarcation, he could barely even stand. He was out of potions, they all were, so there was no way he could quickly recoup his strength. At least Oath was in the same situation. Despite his ira and bloodlust, he was on the verge of passing out. The spirit was willing, but the anatomy was another tarradiddle. If Noah fought him in this body politic, even the smallest wound could try out fatal, then his deal with the baron would be out the windowpane.

"I'm not going to cocker you. If you want to get yourself killed, do it after we get back. I want to live long enough to John Cash in everything I've collected."

"You can't verbalise your way out of this !"

Oath charged with his sword raised, attempting his signature cleave. Noah stepped to the English, nearly falling over as he did so. Rather than a slice, he struck curse in the stomach with the handle of his sword. Oath nearly retched, but regained his ground and punched Noah. He tried to dodge, but was still grazed and staggered back, drawing his sword completely.

"stay this, you two don't need to oppose !"Beth pleaded.

"William Tell him that !"Noah argued.

Oath unleashed a flurry of baseball swing towards Noah, who lacked the agility to get out of the way. Instead, he had to halt and parry each swing. They locked steel, pushing against each early in a shoving match.

"You chose to go into the dungeon crab,"said Noah."You chose to follow me, despite knowing how grave it was for Mira. You put your pridefulness and your nobleness over her. I killed Trevor because you were too weak to get it done and you would have woken up that monster with just three steps. You don't get to blame your incompetence on me."

"You're a heartless son of a bitch ! You couldn't even shed a bout for Tin, no wonder you didn't care about us !"

"Grow up !"

Noah let go of his sword and punched Oath, sending him staggering back. Noah touched his hired man to his eye, casting his invisibleness. He only had plenty mana to persist cover for a few here and now, so Noah tackled Oath, disarming him and knocking him to the flat coat. Three solid blows to the face left him unconscious.

Noah dropped to his knees, gasping for air with his spell coming undone. Hopefully, oath would be much more sensical when he woke up. As Noah got to his groundwork, there was a teras's tangle, followed by Beth's scream. One of their pursuers from within the shell had arrived and was attacking Beth. It looked like some variety of cycloptic tiger with a mat of flight feather across its back. Beth was pinned, her arm in its mouthpiece with her flesh being bust and her osseous tissue breaking.

"shucks it !"Noah growled.

Beth still had his bow, so Noah pulled out his shortly brand and threw it, winging the beast in the berm. It turned to Noah and charged, and Noah, trying to activate his illusion, realized he had used the last of his mana to mete out with Oath. He jumped to the side to dodge the lunging tiger, but as he hit the primer, he realized he had less long suit than he thought. He had planned on hitting the reason with a roll and then jumping to his feet, but he just fell like a Tree. All he could do was roll on his back, and this meter, when the tiger pounced, he wasn't able to elude. It tried to go down its dentition into his neck, but he blocked its sassing with his sword, though he could do nothing about its chela, digging into his shoulder joint. It was pushing down on him with its full weightiness, and he didn't have the metier to nurse it back.

Noah stared into its one, fist-sized eye and watched slobber pour from its mouth, motley with the blood from the cuts that his sword was creating. This certainly ranked among the top of his weirdest dying. Yet when his long suit was about to falter, swearword attacked the Panthera tigris from behind, slicing off his caput with a swing of his sword. expletive then kicked the tiger's corpse off Noah and pointed his sword at him.

"You'll never get a undecomposed chance than this,"Noah said with a smirk.

swearword took a deep breath and sheathed his brand."I suppose saving your life is as much an achievement as ending it."He held out his handwriting to Noah."Let's go home."

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epilog

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The township of Baron Clive was bustling, filled with adventurers following the news of the dungeon Crab's emergence. Around half of them would die within its shell, but those with skill and destiny came back to town with air hole to the full of ores and muffin. Having returned to town just the previous night, Noah had tried listening for gossip of whether or not anyone else had managed to fascinate the donjon. He had taken all of the avenium he found in that room, so it's possible that was all there was in the Cancer the Crab. Oh well, they'd just have to make do with everything else they found. The bulk of the explorer were smart enough or perhaps not ambitious enough to go very deep into the crab.

But that's not what Noah was focusing on at the moment. He was at the inn, sitting on the bed in Beth's room and examining her arm. It had been badly mangled by that tiger and wasn't fully healed. Since they were out of potions at the time, Noah and Oath had to wrap it and incline it as best as they could. On the way down from the dungeon's entering, they met an explorer and bought some healing potions off him. However, they weren't able to completely countermand the wrong. The pulp on her arm looked moult, like severe stretch soft touch, and the brawniness underneath was out of proper Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. At least the bone had been reset properly, but the way Beth winced as she stretched it per Noah's program line, he knew that she was lucky to still accept it at all.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think you'll be able to draw a bow or face lift anything heavy anytime soon. If you find person with healing magic, they might be able to undo the damage, but otherwise, I can't suppose your arm will ever regain its wide use or strength."

"That's fine,"she said with a droning voice and dead fish center. She shuddered, as if shaking herself awake."No, it's not all right, it's horrendous. But… I don't have to worry about using a bow."

"You're quitting being an explorer ?"

"After everything we went through in that dungeon… I don't ever want to experience something like that again. I'm going to try and find a therapist to restore my arm, but after that, I'm going to do what Mira wanted and go under down and build a family."

"That's for the best, I suppose."

"Thanks. And Noah, about what I said to you in the dungeon, about how I was…"

"You're not pregnant. Mira was."

She looked at him in shock."How'd you acknowledge ?"

"I have decent experience with women to know how to keep off getting them significant, and I can tell when it's finale to that time of the month. Mira told you she was recently before we entered the dungeon, didn't she ? You pretended it was you instead. Did you lie to try and salvage yourself, or her ?"

"Both, I guess. Oath didn't know, he can never know."

"I'm surprised they were able to keep it hidden from me. They always seemed a picayune protective of each other, but I had no idea they were so intimate."

"She told me they were both drunk when it happened, and later told Oath that she thought it would be better if they focused on getting warm for conquering the dungeon. After, they would suffer the rest of their lives to…"She trailed off, then looked out the window and sighed."I'm going to go visit her mother and sib, severalise her what happened. They were in debt, so hopefully the treasure I've collected will facilitate pay it off. I owe Mira that much."

"This should Sir Thomas More than concealment it,"said Noah, handing her a small bottle of avenium.

"So much problem, so many bout over this alloy dust,"she muttered, staring at the bottle.

"Take upkeep of yourself,"Noah said before getting up and leaving.

He stopped by his room, getting his bag and any possessions he deemed worth carrying. He had already sold off all of his ores and gem, so he had plenty of atomic number 79 coins with him, along with various other tools and treasures hidden within his ring, including a vast fortune of avenium. He put on his backpack with his sword hanging from his belt, including a new longsword, and left the room, locking it behind him. Downstairs in the tavern, he handed the landlady the key.

"Thank you for your hospitality."

"Aye, I'm a bit sorry to see you go. But before you do, you should talk with your Quaker. He certainly needs some help."

At the heel counter, he saw Oath slumped over with a half-empty mug in his hand. After returning to Baron Clive, he had checked in with his male parent only briefly, then came straight to the inn and started drinking to drown his ruefulness. It was a miracle the boy hadn't died from alcoholic beverage poisoning.

"Are you planning on drinking away your entire fortune ?"Noah asked.

Oath raised his head, looking at him with bloodshot eyes."parting me alone."

Noah took the stool future to him and ordered a drinking."I will, soon. For now, just temper me."

curse word sat up and wiped his face."Remember that hunting trip the six of us took in the get-go ? When we were sitting around the ardour, you told me that I had to make up one's mind my reason for bread and butter, for fighting, that I had to create my own meaning. When I went into that dungeon, I thought I was doing it for my father, to finally win his approval. But when Mira died, I realized I had done it for her. I wanted to prove to her that I was a man, that I was just as strong as you and Trevor, and I wanted to demonstrate it to myself. Everything I failed to do, they were the accomplishment of the big businessman that I wanted to be. I loved her, but my pride got her killed. Now… I just don't want to think about it, any of it. I just want to forget so everything will quit hurting."

Noah, having received his drink, downed it in one gulp and slapped the chicken feed on the mesa, then took a cryptical breath."If I were to make you one utmost lesson, one last piece of advice, would you take it ?"Oath just glanced at him, neither agreeing, nor refusing."stoppage drinking. Go base and mourn her properly."

"Why ?"

"I know it hurts, and you don't want to sense anything anymore, but when you block out all of the bad, you block out all of the ripe that goes with it. cherish your feelings for Mira, your memories of her. Don't try to bury them and forget. Be grateful that it hurts. Believe me, there is nothing more atrocious than being unfeignedly numb. When you've lost all substance and sensation, you end up in a very dark place, where you'll do anything just to experience again, and you never fully come back from that."

For a moment, the words went over Oath's heading, but then his oculus widened as a memory flashed through his alcohol-soaked mind. The expression Noah made when Tin died, that stony locution, it finally made sense.

"Is that what happened to you ? You lost soul ?"

"I've lost a lot of people, more than you can envisage. Losing a loved one, mourning them, it's supposed to be hard, because if it's easy, you forget how to do it."Noah then got up and shouldered his backpack.

"Where are you going ?"Oath asked.

"I have business in the capital."

"My father and I are going there in three Clarence Shepard Day Jr.. You can travel with us."

"Nah, I'll detect my own way. Besides, I've already given your father enough avenium to ensure you become a noble, so there is no point in sticking around here."

"You never told us what he promised you. Why were you so obsessed with conquering the dungeon ?"

Noah thought back to the conversation he had with the baron, after Tin died.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

Noah was sitting in the baron's study, having just confessed to killing his sidekick and nephew."We didn't have the chance to blab out about payment for this job, but don't worry, I'm not interested in money or Land. There is something else I want."

"Which is ?"

"I want a letter of recommendation to the Uther Knight Academy. I heard they only grant admittance on the good watchword of a noble, such as yourself."

Ivan scrunched up his font and nearly spat out his crapulence. To be an Utheric knight was a with child purity and obligation, as while they ranked below barons on the nobility exfoliation, their accomplishment could impart them greater self-assurance and political influence."I have no interest in putting my good gens on the line for a stranger. Just exact some avenium for yourself and get a imposing. You'll be even full-bodied than a knight. Or if you want to serve your country, just join the military."

"Any shmuck with a pulse can be con***********ed and turned into a soldier. I'm not after wealth, prestige, or achievement, and I don't attention about this country."

Noah then reached into his pocket and placed a yellow-bellied potion on the baron's desk.

"What is that ?"Ivan asked.

"I got this in that goblin den, and just this first light, I had it appraised by the apothecary. It's a upper-level antidote, able to heal almost any poison. I doubt even a magnate like you could give one. I had this with me when Tin was shot and didn't know it could relieve her biography. She died because of my ignorance. I've come to realize that despite my science and experience, I don't know nearly enough about this world. I want to change that, and to do so, I need an education. Spending long time in an ivory tower doesn't interest me. I want to get a line how to survive and properly fight in this man, and the considerably place to do that is the knight academy, where they supposedly train the upright of the respectable. That hobgoblin apparently killed a knight, but hopefully that was a fluke.

So what do you say ? Is your son's time to come not worth a single letter ?"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

"I suppose…"Noah said, looking back to Oath,"I just wanted to finally hold open a promise, rather than making yet another lie. Good luck to you, Lord Fault."

Noah left the inn and walked over to the Post where his horse was hitched. He rode out of Clive, and when he was finally alone, he held out his deal, and an envelope appeared on his palm tree from within his ring. On it was a wax Navy SEAL, the Fault coat of arm. With this, his path was laid out before him. His next plosive speech sound : the Utheric royal stag capital.

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*Roundabout plays*

To be continued…

*Roll credits*

Please comment ! I 'm going to try to have vol 2 set by the end of the year .