Prologue

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A rare uncovering, that beautiful reddened hair. That color was usually the effect of brassy dye and a childish personality, desperate to turn up individuality by opposing normality. It was a rare gift from nature, every strand like melting deep red, when well-nigh so-called redheads possessed only a stretch orangeness hue. But hers was like blood, drawing the eyes 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 schooling in early autumn, the light source of the setting sun illuminating every strand and reminding him why it was worth it to come on her. She was walking across the evacuate soccer field, her body trembling from the epinephrine 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 young man's arm draped over her shoulders like a boa constrictor. He had been waiting for this luck, recollective than she could imagine.

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

"Noah, what are you doing here ?"

She asked that doubtfulness, but she knew the resolution. What else would draw a boy to her, what other potential desire ? He was going to coquette with her, possibly even ask her out. Would he be spooky ? Would he be cocky ? Would he play innocent and try to start with some small public lecture, or would he get straight to the point ? Had he planned this ? Had he been waiting ? They had been champion since she transferred in their Sophomore yr. Had that just been in expectation of this ?

It was clear in her eyes, that his intentions 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 easier and more hard with age. She already knew what he desired, so unless she desired the Sami thing, her pith would be guarded, with no initiative for a sneaker attack to storm her. It was a challenge that men and women had struggled with since the dawn of time.

"I heard that you and Sean broke up. I know what that smell like, how practically 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 inconvenience oneself dating. After all, when summertime 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 convert her to give him a fortune, but gently. He had to properly opt his words so that he wouldn't come off as desperate and rag, 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 compass point in staying together ? I doubt that. I think you believe in making love, in giving it a fortune. A lot of things will happen between now and commencement ceremony ; Christmas, valentine's Day, the promenade ? That's muckle of sentence to be glad, and to alter your idea about which path you plan on taking. Plans can commute, things can work out. All I want is a chance."

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

She crossed her arm to warm herself, but she kept them low. It was an instinctive movement, one that Noah's center didn't miss. He gave an exasperated smile and began to laugh."Ok, I get it. Maybe adjacent time."

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

"Jesus Christ, what are you doing ? !"she screamed while raising her hired hand to harbour herself.

"Don't headache. 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 gentle, just the tip of the blade breaking his pelt and severing his jugular vein with pinpoint accuracy. It was a staring, mobile movement, as if he had spent hours practicing. pedigree began to spray from the small lesion, and to the audio of Lindsey's scream, he allowed himself to precipitate on his backbone. She rushed over and tried to stop the bleeding. Covering it with her hand only slowed the outpour, so she reached into her bag for something to use as a bandage.

"Stop, just keep your hand there,"Noah said calmly. The vein he had struck carried blood out of the mind and sent it back to his mettle, so the rest of the blood in his system of rules would keep his brain oxygenated, at least while it was still in his veins.

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

"I've already died like this… to a greater extent than a 100 times before. This isn't my low rodeo."

"What are you talking about ?"

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

"That's just blood loss talking. Hang on !"She tried to draw out her speech sound, 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 face became as pale as his."How could you possibly get it on that ?"

"Because this isn't the first time I've confessed to you. I'm always myself, but the humans I'm born into is never the same. Every time I die, I return to the day of my nativity, but in a dissimilar timeline. I'll end up in a world where my surround are dissimilar, or history didn't go the way I remember it, or events will pass off in my time to come that I can't predict.

Only in my past seven lifetimes have you been give, and in all seven lifespan, I could never arrive at you mine, no issue how much I wanted you. Five of those times were because you were significant. You and Sean get back together by grace, and I and everyone else watch you dance together at the prom. Each prison term, I kill myself to try again in my side by side life story. These past eighteen years, they've flown by like the nictitation of an eye for me."

His bleeding was starting to slow, his organic structure going moth-eaten 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 live on anymore, following some chore or game that keeps me busy. Every life sentence I've lived, it's been a lie, concealing who I am, what I know, what I've experienced. a great deal of the time, I have to pretend to have emotions, because after all this time, I've almost forgotten what they feel like. I've almost forgotten what's like to actually palpate something. But when I see you, I get to experience literal longing. I have an genuine crush, something so simple and infantile, but such a wonderful feeling. Maybe I'm just a fool for a redhead, but I've lived for so long, I have to grasp at any rubbish of meaning that can clear me well-chosen, and make my macrocosm a little less hollow."

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

With the last of his strong suit, he removed her script from his injury 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 much and was beyond saving ? He covered his left eye with his deal, blinded by the setting sun while Lindsey's shadow obscured the right side of his face. The light passed through her ruddy hair's-breadth like stained looking glass, making his blood radiance beautifully.

"I've seen so many creation, so many different reality, but none of them could make me felicitous. I've never known what it felt like to belong or find at home. Every world felt incorrect to me. This is yet another reality that I am incompatible with. All I can do is hope that the next world is one I can be well-chosen in."

The blood at lastly stopped flowing, and Noah closed his heart and released his final intimation. Then, in his brain, there was a familiar flash of brightness and he felt himself being pulled to the next world.

A whole New biz

Without even opening his eye, Noah knew that something had gone wrong. He was groggy, but he could definitely feel the frigidity, punishing ground underneath him. This didn't make sentiency. At this moment, he'd normally be experiencing his own rebirth, coming out of the womb as a newborn babe. His eubstance was also still the like sizing. He could palpate the weightiness of his branch, as well as his clothes. His hand was still covering his eye, but just moving it took a tremendous quantity of strength. He managed to work his palpebra open and stared up at the blue sky. It was late in the good afternoon when he killed himself, but now it looked to be midmorning.

This had never happened before, no matter how many times 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 power changing ?

Noah sat up and looked around. He was lying on an unpaved route in the woods. His hoodie and the shirt underneath were cadaver with his dry out blood, but when he felt his neck, there was no wound. He had been healed, but had his blood also been replenished ? It would deliver taken at least 30 minutes for the blood on his wearing apparel to dry this much, not enough metre for his body to restore any meaningful sum of money, so this was likely a partial rebirth.

He got to his foot and staggered, struggling to breathe. There was no speciality in his limbs and his thoughts were getting fallible by the second. This fatigue, it was similar to blood passing, but also dissimilar. It was like there was some sort of extra muscle going crazy, using up all of his strong point. If it didn't dissipate soon, he'd end up passing out again. What in the existence ? He looked down and realized that he wasn't casting a shadow. The fatigue must ingest 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 replacement had been flipped. The fatigue duty vanished, as if that duplicate muscleman had settled, and when he looked down, he saw his trace.

‘ That wasn't bloodline loss. It must possess been some kind of leftover psychic trauma from my suicide or this glitchy spiritual rebirth. But where am I ?'

The road was unusual. The ground was packed, but the deposit seemed aborigine to the spot. In the mod worldly concern, even the unpaved route were made with at least a level of guts and gravel to keep it from being overgrown. He had his billfold and his telephone with him, but there was no service.

A sound reached his pinna, one that most people rarely heard outside of picture and TV. It was the sound of horse 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 police wagon and leading… slave. Wearing rags for dress, more than a twelve men and women of varying ages were being led by chains.

This unusual caravan came to a halt in front of him. The men on horseback and the one driving the wagon stared at him in muddiness."You're blocking the route. Get the infernal region out of our way before you end up like them,"the driver barked.

It had been a long meter since Noah saw a slave shipment. He normally only found them in post-apocalyptic timelines, when society had broken down. That, or timelines where the south won the Civil War and other such occurrences.

"Did you hear me ? Get out of the way !"

"hirer, 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 coating and boots made of primitively-treated leather. Maybe he had reincarnated to a third-world country ? If this was a post-apocalyptic timeline, then whatever happened wasn't manmade. It happened before the Industrial Revolution, some kind of natural disaster that halted mankind's exploitation. A meteor ?

"I don't think he understands us. He's got some weird clothes. He might be the son of some nobleman,"the other horseman said.

Their weapons, they had sheathed steel but no signs of any gas. 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 healthy and secure enough to trade for a serious Leontyne Price. Chain him up with the others."

One of the men got off his horse and approached Noah with a length of circle. None of them were aware that he still had his knife on him. As the man reached out to grab his script, Noah slashed him across the pharynx. It wasn't the pinpoint jab like he had given himself earlier, this was a blooming smile stretching from ear to ear. It had been a recollective time since he had last killed someone, but it was something he was very well-practiced in.

A fountain of rakehell sprayed Forth and Noah threw his knife at the estate car number one wood, catching him in the chest. Before his first victim could drop to his knees, Noah ripped his sword from its sheath and charged towards the other horseman, already drawing his own leaf blade to revenge his coworker. The throat was out of reaching, so Noah deflected the oncoming fire and went for a pang in the side of the gut and up into the right lung.

"fireball !"

There was a blink of an eye of Inner Light in his peripheral vision, coming from the old man. Noah's instinct made him jerk back as a flare shot through the air, missing his boldness by an inch. It struck a nearby tree and exploded, spraying attack in all directions like a Molotov Cocktail. Noah looked back at the old man, one paw outstretched while the other covered the shot wound in his chest from Noah's knife. He wasn't holding a flash gun or any other sort of device that would explain what had just happened.

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

"Fireball !"the old man shouted again.

Just like before, a sphere of condensed fire formed in his hand, about the size of melon, and stab at Noah with marvellous amphetamine. Noah dodged and rushed in to close the distance. The first bolide had forced him to let go of his sword and the second had forced him back before he could snaffle the indorsement man's. He'd have to finish this with his bare hands.

The horses were all throwing tantrum in fear from the combat, but the old man continued to launch those occult flare. Noah circled around the buck, jumped, and tackled the man. There was no clumsy fumbling for control, Noah simply began beating him with his fist. His current consistence hadn't been trained for combat, but he kept it sound and impregnable and roll in the hay how a great deal military unit he had muster up with each lick. Blood started spraying with the third punch, the old man ineffectual to fight back and soon blacking out. Noah promptly retrieved his fallen knife and finished him off.

Noah took his time to catch his breathing time while he wiped off the sword, folded it up, and stored it in his pocket. He took those few bit to quell his annoyance. He was used to being reborn as a baby after every death and considered those early twelvemonth to be his holiday between each new spirit, time to properly dispose of old memories, catalogue useful cognition, and mentally deal with any loose ends. No one depended on him and he usually had a parent or health professional to take aid of him, giving him time to rest his intellect. Now he had jump right back into a survival mentality and start from scratch in a Earth with all new rules.

Those fireballs the old man had launched, that was undoubtedly magic, something that he thought only existed in fantasy history. He had never seen legerdemain before, not in any of the timelines he had already lived in. Until now, he had operated under the impression of the Multiverse Theory, which stated that there was a timeline for every possible subatomic event. Was it really potential for wizardly to exist in the multiverse ? What did this timeline have that all the former single lacked ?

The old man would have been a valuable germ of entropy, but with his subordinate word now dead, he would never willingly tell Noah anything. It wouldn't be worth the time and bother to interrogate him in this situation. Oh well, the resolution would fare in sentence, and Noah had learned how to be patient.

He turned his tending to the striver, staring back at him with uncertainness. They weren't rejoicing at the death of their captors, fairly enough. After all, Noah hadn't killed them in gild to free the slaves or anything like that. As far as they knew, he was about to kill them all or just take them all and deal them himself. Each of them was a variable quantity, 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 trader had spoken with an accent that he had never heard before, but it was English, though they probably didn't call it that. These slaves must also verbalize 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 region ?"None of them answered.

Possessing knowledge could either gain them valuable or a indebtedness. 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 iron key, likely going to all of their taking into custody.

He held up the key for all the slaves to see."I need one of you to direct me to a rubber area with a informant of bracing water and off the road where I won't be seen. Whoever volunteer will get their catch removed and can ride in the paddy wagon. Once I'm brought to a suitable positioning, you will all will be set free."Six slaves raised their leaping script."You,"Noah said.

He had ***********ed a teenage little girl that looked to be around his age. She was colly and underfed, but looked intelligent enough to be useful to him, and he could certainly overcome her if she tried to fail him. It was hard to gauge her appearance in this state of matter. She had a wretched spirit permanently etched into her face, like a basset dog. 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 natural fuzz 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 exemption. Go against me and I'll killing you."He unlocked her alloy shoe collar but left her wrist joint bound."Now help me take guardianship of these bodies."

Noah searched the army corps of the three hard worker traders, taking everything of value. Along with their blade, he got a couple daggers, some electric cord, and three make-do wallets. They were snake skins with stacks of bronze coins inside, tied to their belt. It was a clever concept.

"Tin, is there any danger of wild creature in these wood ? Anything that I should worry about ?"

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

Noah huffed in annoyance. Great, now he had monsters to worry about. This certainly was a earthly concern unlike any he had seen before. This ruined his plan of taking the corpses with him. He was for certain he could find a use or two for them, as well as charter their clothes and anything else of value on their soul when there was Thomas More metre. He also didn't want to leave any evidence of what he had done.

"Very well. absent the clothes from the consistency and put them in the wagon."

She wordlessly obeyed, proceeding to strip the stiff without any shred of unease or discomfort. Most girls her age would be too overnice to do anything like this. As she worked, Noah searched the beach wagon and found a sail bag, smelling too rancid to be used for intellectual nourishment. He soaked it with a wineskin, and while it wasn't ideal, it was good enough for him to use to put out the fire that the old man had started. He and Tin completed their job, leaving three au naturel bodies on the road and a few blacken trees. Noah retrieved one of the swords, just a bum machete, but sharp enough to get the job done. He showed no irritation in decapitating the bodies and storing the drumhead in the canvas bag.

"Drag these bodies into the woods, out of lot from the route. That should satiate any beasts that search this area."

There was no telling what the value of these hard worker monger were. If they were even slightly of import to someone, their disappearance might lead to an investigating. Three nude, headless bodies that were devoured by colossus wouldn't leave any grounds. They couldn't even be identified. On the former hand, if they were criminal, then Noah might be able to use their severed heads as verification of their deaths and pile up a Bounty. He had been in a lot of bad situations and disorderly timelines, so this mentality was a acquisition he knew he could rely on and use as he needed.

Once the torso were handle with, Noah took his rear at the nominal head of the police van and Tin joined him. The two extra cavalry were tethered to the sides of the wagon and would follow along. Noah cracked the reins and the buck pulling the wagon began moving forward.

"There is a worthy space several miles down this road. I will show up you where."

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

"This is the Algata Province of the Carry Amelia Moore Nation of Uther."

"How large is Uther ? How much of the continent does it submit up ?"

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

Her resolution was to be expected, though. A slave educated in geography would be an unusual find. It would be secure if he could get his hands on a decent map, though in this era, that was probably a lot to ask for. In a globe with thaumaturgy and monsters, there was no telling what the planet's topography looked like, even the arrangement of the continent. He had traveled previous earth legion times, but much of his experience was now obsolete.

"Relax, I'm not going to hit you for not knowing something. Just hold open answering my questions as best as you can. Uther, is it a rich state ?"

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

"Does it operate under a monarchy ? Or do they elect their leaders ?"She looked at him like he had spoken in gibber."Does it take a baron or queen ?"

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

"What do they use for currentness ?"

"metallic element coins, like silver and gold."

Noah retrieved one of the snakeskin coin purses and emptied it out onto the seat between them. It was about a XII bronze coins and a few silvers. The other two could be expected to deem a like amount.

"How much would you say this is ? Would you say it is a large sum of money or not a great deal ?"

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 press down thought.'“ What season is it currently ?"

"Mid spring."

That was good for Noah. In monastic order to get a foothold in this new world, he'd need rich time with the chances of survival at its high. winter would halter his mobility, possible actions, and take a leak life a lot harder. Had he appeared in this world a few months earlier, he could easily freeze to death before reaching civilisation.

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

"The biggest danger is the wolves. They travel in packs and kill whatever they see. There are also bears, with child wanderer that hide in tunnel, and goblins."

monster spiders and goblins ? This worldly concern was getting more antic by the second.

"Tell me about the goblins."

"They are modest, only about the sizing of children, and maybe as smartness. They have weapons and often bushwhack travelers."

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

"That was magic."

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

"It is the benediction of the gods, letting people call down divine retribution upon their enemies. It can create fire, control water, make you potent, and do all kinds of things. There many different kinds of magic users. I've heard of some of them ; mages, paladins, warriors, shamans, but I don't know much about what they can do."

"What kind was the old man ?"

"A mage, I think."

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

"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 regular genes of his net parents. If charming wasn't something he could learn or acquire, animation would get exponentially harder. Then there was the mentioning of gods. He had spent various lifespan searching for mark of the world of God, some presence of divinity that might explain his existence, but he always came up unawares. However, in a earthly concern where deception existed, perhaps gods might as well.

As they continued through the woods, Noah thought about the slaves walking behind the wagon. Letting them go might be a indebtedness. They knew he had killed three hard worker traders, they knew where he would set up camp. The slave monger 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 after him. Perhaps it would be just to toss of all of them ? No, the chances of him managing to obliterate them all would be low and that would be a lot of corpses to divvy up with, not to bring up he didn't know if killing them would get him into problem.

‘ To recollect my sloth would pay for my fade conscience…'

They were passing by a hill with trees blocking often of the prospect, 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 pointer, none of which seemed very well made. He took aim up the Alfred Hawthorne, spotting a tincture moving between the pitcher's mound. It had been a long fourth dimension since he had shoemaker's last used a bow. It was one of his hobbies about four or five life ago. This was nothing like the modern curtain call he was used to handling, but when he let the arrow slip costless, it shot between the tree and found its gull. Noah didn't see what he hit, but there was a screaming of pain that he did not recognize and the speech sound of multiple entities running off.

"What was that ?"Tin asked.

"I assume that was one of those hobgoblin you mentioned."This was getting grave."You stay here,"he told Tin. He brought the wagon to a stop and went back with his knife and the key. He cut the hard worker'binds and unlocked their catch."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 finish his sentence. Good, that would make him less of a sitting duck, and they'd draw the attention of anything that might want a spell 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 speckle and this is yours."

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

The forest thinned a lit, the trees spreading out far enough for the wagon to go off the route and head towards the sound of running water. They arrived at a clearing where a small waterfall thumped on open rock 'n' roll. It was isolated, just the home Noah needed. There was even a cave behind the waterfall where he could make bivouac. However, they were not the only when dweller.

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

"That is a sludge. They like damp plaza. Their underside are like giant mouths, devouring whatever they crawl over. Their consistence are covered with a reduce skin, and if you tear it, its insides pour out and change the pattern of its body."

"Are they severe ?"

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

"How do I kill them ?"

"You have to hit their brains."

The goop hadn't noticed them yet, so Noah took aim with the bow at the nearest one. It was firmly telling the nominal head from the binding of these matter, but he spotted something floating inside, suspended, an apple-sized hunk of solid tissue. He released the bolt, missing the fauna's head by various inches. It rumbled in pain and its jellylike inside spilled out of the wound like a runny nozzle. Upon tangency with the air, the viscera began to congeal and develop a layer of skin. It formed an file name extension of itself, like a 2d fag end, now searching for what had injured it.

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

Already, the arrow was halfway dissolved. That affair was like a monster moving tummy. He would have preferred to take aim care of these monsters from a distance, but he didn't have enough arrow to throw away. It would also get shadow 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 gratis. Go wherever and do whatever you want. But don't even recall of taking anything from the wagon."

He got up from the wagon and approached the falls with one of the slave traders'sword in his hand. It was the worst of the two, useful at least for experimentation. He approached the slime, already back to full moon wellness after being shot with the arrow. It didn't appear to have very good imaginativeness, didn't even appear to have eyes. He picked up a stone from the creek and threw it, sending it bouncing a few infantry away. It pounced on the rock with surprising f number, smothering it with its torso and absorbing it. So, these matter could jump. If it could see, it was probably short-ranged, based on movement, or more belike it could sense oscillation in the ground.

He took another rock and threw it at the slime, this metre hitting it. The rock'n'roll ripped through its tenuous skin and its guts spilled out. The blow stunned it just long enough for Noah to sprint over and cleave through its mastermind. As quickly as he attacked, he darted back. He had learned through legion affair to always expect an enemy to get back up. Plus, he wanted to avoid getting sprayed with any guts.

Despite his business organization, it was a clean killing. The monster, originally a nauseating yellow, turned Robert Gray, and its exposed insides began to smoke and break up. Unfortunately, sens was also coming from his blade. This really was a nasty battery-acid. Noah wiped the blade off on the grass and then rinsed it in the river to clean it. It had undergone severe corrosion. Hopefully it would lowest until he killed them all.

One thing made him happy, though. When he killed the slime, number didn't appear in the air, displaying experience points earned. He started having concern as soon as that inaugural fireball was launched at him, and when Tin said it was a ooze ; he thought he had been reincarnated into some sort of RPG earth. If at any point, she used the parole ‘ level ’, he would have permanently lost the power to keep a straight aspect and guide anything seriously.

Anyway, back to killing.

He repeated his strategy with the early three slimes. A clenched fist sized rock thrown with sufficient speed and accuracy could pierce the teras and stun them long enough to bear a fatal smash. After the 3rd muck, his sword broke in half, the end completely melting off. There was one gook left, but it would be sly. 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 bm, but he didn't want to take the chance.

He crept behind the waterfall and threw another stone, striking the slime near the brain. Its torso curled up like a lick sprinkled with salt, and Noah rushed over. This time, he thrust the broken blade straight person in. He managed to jab the Einstein, but the steel slipped right into its body. Noah pulled away before his inertia could send his hand plunging into the acidic muck, but several drops splashed him and he could finger his hide dissolving. He thrust his manus into the waterfall and steadied his external respiration as the painfulness faded. That was too close for comfort. He'd have to come up with another way to stop those things if he encountered them again.

The sphere 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 do it how to be free."

"I gave you money. Take it to the nearest Ithiel Town and buy yourself something to eat and some new clothes. calculate for anyone who will rent you, hopefully offering room and dining table in commutation. From there, go your new life."

"Is that an lodge ?"

"No, it's advice. You don't have to involve order from me, I'm not your master. I hired you to be my guide, you got your money, and our contract is complete. Now we component ways."She continued to stand there, looking like a pup in the rain."You can deliver one of the horses. You'll be able to get to town faster and outrun pursuers."

"So you want me to prepare for your arrival into town ?"

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

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

Noah retrieved his bow and an arrow and took aim at her."Leave now, or I'll kill you and use your remains for bait to catch my dinner."

There was a glimmer in her eye."If I can be useful as a cadaver, 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 bluff. This young lady was indigent than he would give liked, but her subservience made her more trustworthy than anyone he could anticipate to find oneself in this cosmos. Maybe it would be well to have an additional pair of hands to help him, at least until he got out of this forest. Besides, it wasn't like this was the first metre he had owned a hard worker. There were many sour timelines when he followed the rule of ‘ when in Rome, do as the Romans.'

"fine, I'll be your lord. What skills do you induce ?"

"I can count to one hundred, I can compose some, and I can be given to livestock and shape fields, as well as perform house job. I am also very experienced in pleasing men, so I can serve you whenever you desire."She bowed her psyche as she spoke, not seeing Noah raise his brow at her lastly sentence.

Depressing as her words were, he wasn't one to release down an offer for sex from someone so volition. On the other manus, nothing about her stream coming into court stoked his libido. He was standing XX feet away and could sense her like it was twenty inches. Sitting next to her in the Dipper had been very unpleasant. Just letting her bathe in the river wouldn't get the job done.

"Let's get inner circle set up and then we'll lecture. You said you can tend to livestock, correct ? Then I'll leave the horse to you. Get them watered and fed and then move out these dead slimes. I imagine they've lost their sourness in death."

Tin obediently went to play while Noah gathered all of the chains and collars that had been used to take the hard worker. There was also plenty of rope in case any of their binds broke during transport. Noah snapped the collars off the chains and used them as pound to break the rickety links and split the chains into multiple short section. He split the rope into thinner fibril and set up a border around the campsite, then hung the arrest and chains on it like Christmas decoration. Any interloper that tried to get in would hit the tripwire and the jingling chains and collars would give them away. And in case they were set off by the idle words, the horses would be the second line of detection. If they started acting up, then a scourge was nearby.

"I'm going to go accumulate some firewood. If any giant approach, just holler for me and yeet some horseshit at them. The smelling will ride them off."He then stopped and chuckled to himself. That's right field, he no longer needed to use modernistic slang.

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

Noah set out into the forest with his only sword and a satchel the old man had been carrying. He didn't want to stray far from cantonment, but he had to curb out the area and take sure enough there weren't any imminent dangers. One thing he was especially conservative of were the giant wanderer that Tin had mentioned. She said they hid in burrow, so he kept a close eye on his ground, avoiding any suspicious expanse that could be a possible ambush. Webbing on the ground was a telltale polarity, proof that he wasn't the only one using tripwires to detect enemies.

The number 1 thing he did was gather pine boughs from around the internet site, accumulating a large pile that they would use for bedding and making frequent trips back to the encampment. Then he gathered all of the firewood he could convey, but focused only on specific trees. This populace was very different to the one he was used to, but most of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree appeared to be the Saami. He also filled his pockets and the satchel with medicinal plant and even some edible mushrooms. In every life, her acquire and relearned natural selection skills to keep the information branded into his mind, so even if had forgotten their figure, he still recognized herbs that could be utile. As he moved, he had a impregnable touch sensation that he was being watched, and he knew what was watching him, especially when he found one of their dead.

It was one of the masher Tin had mentioned, great than any he had ever seen. His nose led him to it, the skirt chaser reeking of death and rot. The meat was well beyond eating and its fur and os weren't worth the effort to harvest, especially with all the maggots and flies, but there was something that he could definitely make use of.

The sun was starting to set by the time he was done, but there was still muckle he wanted to do. Luckily, dinner was already taken care of. The slave traders had packed enough food for themselves and their load. It was concentrated gelt and dried meat, something that Noah's spoiled taste buds would not value, but he'd seen enough hard times to have intercourse how to be grateful.

Before doing anything else, he removed his hoodie and t-shirt. He had kept them on as an added layer of protection in suit anything attacked him, but the blood had hardened into a hard crust and he was happy to be able to finally take them off. Had he known he would reincarnate like this, he would induce gone home and just hung himself, preferably with his pockets stuffed with useful shaft. He laid out his shirt and hoodie under the waterfall, directing the spraying right onto the blood smirch. He pinned them down with Harlan Fisk Stone so that they wouldn't be washed away.

He noticed Tin watching him like a curious feline. She had never seen muscleman like his before. To pull through in the countryside, men required enceinte strength to farm and fighting and brawn multitude naturally accumulated. Noah's appeared more defined, like he had focused on improving the lineament of his muscles instead of just chasing after the dim definition of strength.

"Tin, take off your clothes."

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

"Not like that. Put that dress of yours here under the waterfall. Do the same with all the clothes you removed from those hard worker traders. It may be low-quality, but whether we use them or trade them, it would be best if we can at least remove the stink."

Tin removed her dress, though it was more like a raggedy white potato sack with cakehole cut for her head and blazon and a flight strip of cloth for a bash. She was malnourished and underweight, but he just had to polish her up a little.

With the last of the light, he searched the river for Stone. He'd try their rigorousness, striking them against the back of his sword. Once he started getting sparks, he returned to the riverbank and gathered up some touchwood. He ground some dry birch bark into a fine dust and struck the rock against his sword over it. It took several attempts, but some twinkle landed in the dust and it went up like gasoline. From there, he built up a fire on the riverbank with all of the birch rod Mrs. Henry Wood he had gathered. By the light of the fire, he started digging a hole using his sword and a metal frypan he found in the wagon.

"captain, please allow me to do that instead,"Tin said.

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

The two of them continued to make for, with Noah expanding the pit and Tin gathering the remains. 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 remnant clay to make some cups and sports stadium and put them in the flack to bake. He built a back fire, this clock time putting it in the pit. It was with a softer Mrs. Henry Wood. He didn't even need to see Tin's side to feel the rarity within her.

"I'm making a slipstream basin. No offense, but you stink. But for now, let's eat."

With two fires 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 giant star grunge chunk. In reality, it was a lump of animal fat. He had gathered it from the carcass of the dead woman chaser, rolled it into a ball, and packed it with a eggshell of stain to keep it from making a hole when he carried it. It cleaned it off and put it in the metal frypan, then set it over the fire.

"Now, while that melts, let me see your teeth."It was a postulation that Tin wasn't used to earreach, but she obeyed, flashing her dentition like a snarling animal."Huh, not too bad."

Despite her poor modus vivendi, her tooth were in good condition. She grew up in a domain without processed foods, saccharide, or chemicals, so despite never brushing, there was no rot that he could see. Her breathing spell 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 pile of pot that Tin had gathered for it. He cut a lock of its long hairsbreadth, washed it in the river, and returned to the campfire, where he braided several Strand into a strong thread. He made a endorsement and turned to Tin.

"Take this yarn and do as I do."He used the screw thread to floss his teeth, something which Tin had never seen before. The yarn was thick and coarse and broke a few times, but it got the job done, and he showed her the pieces of heart and soul from their dinner that he had gotten out.

She mirrored the action to the best of her ability, and while she did that, he looked at the skillet, now with a puddle of melted fat. He gathered some tweed ash from the flak and miscellaneous it in, as well as some water.

"Now I'm going to picture you how to make soap."utmost, he added a handful of ground-up pine phonograph needle and started stirring the salmagundi together.

"grievous bodily harm ?"

"You've never heard of it ?"

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

"It's been a long time since I did this. If I had clock time and proper cock, I could nominate something of a much higher quality, but this should get the job done."He set the frying pan back on the fervidness so that the body of water could be boiled away."Have you gotten every tooth ?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then learn a mouthful of this."From succeeding to the flack, there was also a cup made, of all thing, tin. It was replete of water brought to a simmer, with priming charcoal and pine tree phonograph needle mixed in. He let it cool and then handed it to her."You said you could count, right ? Well whirlpool this around your mouth and start counting. Once you reach one hundred, swallow it."

She took a taste and handed it back to him so he could finish it off. With that taken care of, Noah took the skillet off the fire and examined his Georgia home boy. It certainly would never sell in a grocery store, but it would get the job done tonight. following, he turned his aid to the backwash basin and the shrivel ardor. The corpse packed onto the sides of the pit had hardened and could now hold water.

Noah carved the soap off the skillet and handed it to Tin."Here, use this to shovel as very much charcoal and ash out of the catchment area as you can, then clean it in the river and use it to satisfy the basin with water."

As Tin went to mould, Noah started on his own task. Like her, he went to river, but started collecting stones. He'd bring them back and put them in the campfire to fire up up. By the meter Tin had finished with her task, the rocks were all sufficiently hot, and using stick to do by them, he moved them into the washbasin until it had reached the perfect bath temperature. It was still ash-grey from the fire, but that wasn't a problem.

The reason why he had used different fires for the washbowl and soap was because of one of the lead chemical, lye. Despite being a caustic gist, it was required for making soap. It was collected from the ashes of hardwood, like birch. He had used a voiced wood in the ardor to indurate the face of the watershed so any leftover ashes wouldn't turn the urine too alkaline.

"All right, now to test it."

Noah stripped down to match Tin and grabbed a piece of fabric from the wagon to use as a face cloth. He got it wet in the basin, rubbed some of the soap on it, and, satisfied with how it lathered, started wiping off the sweat that had accumulated since his arrival to this world.

Tin held a piece of Georgia home boy in her manus, staring at it with wide eye."It smells… sweet !"

She mimicked Noah, using a make-do washcloth and the soap to scrub up herself raw. She was frantic, leaving no smirch untouched. The two of them cleansed their peel, lathering themselves up and then rinsing in the river to observe the tub water clean. With the poop removed, much was revealed to Noah. Neither of them said anything about the countless scars, bruises, and brands that covered Tin's body. Finally, he had her lie on her back and lowered her head into the lavatory, then scrubbed her pilus with the soap until the bathwater turned as black as ink. She sat up and echo the water out of her hair as he stood up and stretched.

"Huh, so you're a blond. I honestly couldn't recite your natural color. You were so dirty that I wasn't sure if the drapes 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 crying."I… I've never smelled this plumb before !"

He rubbed the top of her read/write head."I'm glad."

She reached up and grasped his hand, despair in her oculus."master key, can I delight divine service you now ?"

A pocket-sized jape escaped Noah."My, my, what a greedy lilliputian slave you are."

He leaned down, lifted her chin, and left a soft kiss upon her lips. She shivered from that cutaneous senses, gentler than any early in her life. She took the opening move, kissing him in return while her tongue slipped into his mouth. As they swapped saliva, she reached out and began caressing his manhood, erect and pounding. She had been eyeing it since the mo he stripped down, her head buzzing with all of the shipway she would please him.

When Noah finally pulled his sass from hers, she knew what he wanted and was eager to provide it. She leaned in, his cock disappearing into her oral fissure, only to reappear with a glistening stratum of expectoration. Tin wasn't shy in the least, she put all of her attainment to work. She deepthroated him to make herself gag and salivate, then would use her hands to put to work the shaft while she slurped on his head like a lollipop. Despite her joy at being so clean just a minute ago, she was certainly making a mess, her facial expression covered in spitting with big foamy drops dribbling onto her breasts.

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

She released his cock, gasping for air with her eyes full of joy."Am I doing salutary ?"

"You're magnificent, Tin."

She went back at it, this clip with a different fair game in head. While she jacked him off, she sucked vehemently on his jewels, rolling them around in her back talk and balancing them on her tongue. She switched between her techniques with masterful skill, giving Noah no time to brace himself. He didn't even need tell her when he was going to cum, she could tell just by his external respiration and the way his muscles twitched. She swallowed his manhood like a voracious wolf, her face pressed to his stomach as he swirled around inside her throat.

Several buddy-buddy jets were pumped directly into her stomach, a salty dessert after her meal. Tin fell back, once again gasping for air."Master,"she panted,"please don't clutch back. Use my torso however you wish."

"You've done well in pleasing me, but has anyone ever took the time to give 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 throat, just a gruntle traction to go along her still, while he free hand slipped between her pegleg and reached her honeypot.

"You're so wet. To reckon you took so a lot joy in your work."

Born and raised a slave, she had been abused and violated in all mode imaginable. She thought she had grown numb to it, but the impression of Noah's fingers touching her most common soldier, sensitive area, they made her thrill and gasp. There was specialty in his fingers, but his cause 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 tender touch like an assassin striking her pressure level points. She was a slender daughter, consistence fat being a luxury for a slave, but her build rippled from the shaking drumming from her ass. She could feel the weight of her breasts with every movement, and the audio he was making, the speech sound he was forcing her body to create, the squelching of gentle, wet flesh, it was like she was experiencing this all for the first time.

The joy was beyond speech, she wanted it to go on forever, but her body wouldn't obey her commands. Her muscles spasmed without interruption like she was being tickled. She inadvertently tried to pull away, her body wanting to protect itself from these sensations it couldn't contain, but Noah's handle on her pharynx remained firm. This situation, what he was doing to her, it was so strange. She felt almost like an creature, like livestock, and Noah was the farmer, preparing her for breeding with some strange agriculture technique. Ironically, that wasn't far from the truth.

She cried out, climaxes rushing through her like a flash floodlight, but Noah didn't check, even as she became limp. He continued mercilessly finger-blasting her, while his other hand released her throat and he forced his finger's breadth into her rima oris. She sucked on them like they had a honey glaze. They were her lifeline, all that was keeping her conscious. The effort of her knife and lips, the quivering of her throat as she slurped up the spirit of his fingertips ; if she didn't work with all her might, the almost cruel assault of coming would rob her of all thinking and crush her mind.

Only when her moan finally stopped did Noah let her experience ataraxis. He laid her on her back and leaned over her. The lewd, exhausted look on her face, the way she panted with rosy cheeks and swimming eyes, it was an face 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 captain ? That you lied and you can't fill my desires ?"

She reached out to him, her tightfitting arms coiling around his neck to pluck him in."superior, take me,"she begged.

By the light of the campfire, he penetrated her, just as numerous men had done before, but none of them made Tin feel like this. His back talk joined hers, a passionate but patrician candy kiss, while in comparison, his jab, so fast and emphatic, made her cry out to the sensation overhead.

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culture

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The rising sun shining in his middle awoke Noah from his sleep. It was not a deep sleep, due to his current circumstances, but he at least felt rested. It was his first dawn in this new world. He and Tin were lying on a batch of pine boughs, keeping them off the ground and insulated, and wrapped in the canvas tent beach waggon cover, which they were using as both a tarp and a cover. The freed slave was snuggled up tightly against him, both for warmth, and out of affection. The terminal figure"freed slave"fit her ironically, as Noah had given her exemption, but she chose to continue his slave anyway.

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

"fourth dimension to get up, we have work to do."

It was a chilly dawning, so the first affair Noah did was build up a fire while Tin collected their apparel from the waterfall. They had been set under the spray to be washed, and after a nighttime under the pounding water, they were cleanse as could be reasonably expected. They were hung up to dry around the ardour, while Noah and Tin had breakfast. Last night, Noah had made some cups and bowls using the remains that Tin gathered and left them in the fire to broil overnight. Now, he was using them to boil water supply and gain pine tree needle tea.

"What do you want to do, Master ? I can guide you to township if you like."

"How long would it hire to get there ?"

"Another two or three days."

Noah weighed his alternative. This wasn't an optimal situation."No, we'll check here for another day. We have a defensible position here, but if we return to the road, we'll be like sitting ducks. While I have faith in my scrap power, I can't defend myself, you, and the Equus caballus. Let's try to ameliorate our chances before we set out."

"What should we do ?"

"Yesterday, while I was looking for rocks in the wickedness, I think I might have seen some slimes moving about. They're usually small, right ? Not big like the ones I killed yesterday ?"

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

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

"What's lye ?"

"It's the clobber in ash that I used to make that soap last dark. It's a very awful chemical. I'm going to start gathering Natalie Wood. I want you to bail out the bathwater from the basin and refill it. Rain weewee would be easily, but river urine will have to do. Then aim the stones and put them back in the fire. You remember what to do if something plan of attack ?"

"Throw sawbuck dung and roar for you ?"

"Right."

Noah departed, heading back into the woods. Just like the day before, he was gathering hardwood from birch, oak, and maple trees. He moved cautiously, hearing movement all around him. He also returned to sealed areas he had visited before, with prey on his intellect. He came across a spot he had just yesterday done his best to debar. There was spider silk on the land, and nearby, an obvious trapdoor. Noah put a large stick on his foot and readied his bow, taking aim. He kicked the peg over by the trapdoor, and instantly a spider burst out to conquer what it thought was its meal. The thing was Brobdingnagian, almost five feet in diameter.

Noah released his arrow, striking one of its oculus and leaving it screeching in pain. Before it could duck back into its hole, he shot another arrow, this one oil production through its skull and ending its life. While it was still bracing, Noah rushed over, pulled out the second arrow, and thrust his finger's breadth into the cakehole. He stirred his finger around in the spider's genius, causing its wooden leg, now curled up into a fist, to start spasming. While not familiar with wanderer bod specifically, he was tickling what he hoped to be the cerebellum.

"ejaculate on, where are you… Ah !"He found the magic trick berth, as the whole eubstance convulsed and the abdomen started expelling silk at a frantic rate, like he was squeezing a tube of toothpaste. Het got to his human foot and dragged the spider with him, laying out the silk so that it wouldn't stick to itself. He had come up with this idea on a caprice and was overjoyed to see it work. When menstruum of silk stopped, he removed his fingers."That's right, noblewoman, 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 retain it from sticking to anything. It was good thick melodic phrase, and strong as well. Next, he started gathering up the former, 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 refugee camp, carrying the spider with him as well. He was sure he could recollect up something to do with his corpse, maybe use it like a scarecrow to ward off goblin or something. When he arrived, Tin had completed her task and stared in astonishment at the absolutely spider.

Noah walked over to the Plough and pulled out a little wooden drum. It had originally been filled with salt, which the hard worker traders used to continue their food, but now there wasn't much left. What remained, Noah poured into some of his the Great Compromiser jolt. He then hung the spider to debilitate its lineage into the barrel. There wasn't much, and it had begun to jell immediately after decease, but that just made it sticky like syrup. He swirled it around the interior of the drum, covering every column inch, and then filled it up halfway with some of the used ashes from the birch flame yesterday. He didn't touch the ash with his paw, and upon closing the barrel, he shook it up. Once completed, the inside of the barrel was coated with thick-skulled bed of ash.

Putting it aside, Noah began moving hot stones from the fervency and putting them into the washbowl, bringing the weewee to a boiling point. Then, he started shoveling birch ash tree until it filled up half the basin. For the adjacent half hr, Noah would swap out stones, making sure the water was always boiling. Soon a film began to subside on top of the water. It was fluid lye, rising from the ashes. Noah harvested it from the surface, heedful not to adjoin it, and put it in the frying pan on the fire to moil away the moisture.

"Ok, I'm going to go back and get more than firewood. I want you to keep swapping out the rock so that the water stays boiling hot, and as the lye gathers on the surface, skip it and put it in the skillet. 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 wood, and once the basin stopped producing lye, they would trade in fresh ash and resume harvesting. Between collecting firewood and tending to the flaming, Noah created more pottery with the river clay and baked it in the flame. The frypan was routinely filled with the lye salmagundi, and once the urine evaporated away, Noah would grate the lye into one of his corpse shock. It was the middle of the afternoon when he declared that they had collected enough.

"Now to try it."With his knife, he collected a small bump and put it on his arm. He could feel it burning his skin like an aching suntan. Had he taken his time with this, it would cause been burning a Crater into his tegument, but in this case, quantity was serious than quality.

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

"Thank you, Master,"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 flame, sick of its high temperature, and ate by the waterfall. While chewing on goon jerked meat, Noah studied the horses. They weren't tied to any trees, at to the lowest degree not now, and were wandering around the camping area, nibbling on whatever they liked. The stumble wire was doing a good job of keeping them close, but they would probably run out of food by tomorrow. They'd have to move on by then.

"Master, if my may ask, how do you hump how to do these things ? I've never seen anyone fight 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 kind of like the strait of that. Let's just say that I have a lot of life experience. I've lived through respectable sentence and bad. Anyway, we should incite on to the future leg. I'm going to go along the river and catch small slimes. I want you to recover the corpses of the big muck I killed yesterday and try to collect their skin."

Tin was obedient, not voicing any of her doubts and instead setting off to do as her master ordered. Noah retrieved the barrel he had tinkered with earlier and filled it with weewee, then began walking through the river, searching the banks. It was only up to his stifle, and there were heap of large boulders for goop to hide by. On his hired man, he wore some rough leather baseball glove that one of the slave bargainer had been wearing. The slimes he found were usually about the sizing of his fist, and with large 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 level. The slimes were acidic, but their pH stratum wasn't very low. The alkalinity of the water and the ashes kept them from melting through the sides of the barrel. He also tossed in some solid food to keep on them from starving. Hopefully they'd still be able to stand it. If they were all still live by the adjacent break of day, his plan was a success.

When he returned to the clique, Tin had gathered up the pelt of the utterly slimes from the day before.

"I'm sorry, schoolmaster, but the skins are too slight for any kind of use."Noah put down the barrel and examined the exuviate tegument. 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 slave dealer had carried."Here, start carving them up into squares, about as long as your hand. You know how big, correctly ?"

She nodded and went to cultivate. While she did that, Noah collected more long hair from the gymnastic horse. He took the squares that Tin cut up and used them to wrap up humble piles of lye, then tied them shut with the buck hair. The sludge skin, despite its fragility, still maintained many of its characteristics. goop were like life acid, so they had to be able to control their pH spirit level. Their pelt not only hold on their guts in, it kept basic substances out, meaning like lye, making it perfect for holding it.

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

"Ok, let's quiz one of these out."Noah took one of the special square toes, filled it with ash tree, tied it off, and threw it at a nearby boulder. The slime skin held together while being handled and thrown, but upon striking a strong open, it burst capable and sprayed its contents in all counselling."perfect !"

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

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

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

They departed the adjacent morning at cockcrow, wanting to get an early scratch line. They were traveling at a faster pace than before, mainly because there were no longer slaves in tow. The two sawbuck the traders had ridden were no longer walking alongside the station waggon, but were now helping to pull in it. With the spider silk Noah had collected and wood from the forest, he managed to create supererogatory harnesses so that they were leading. The cavalry moved in a steady trot, nothing compared to the car from Noah's previous lives, but fast enough to possibly outrun an untrained man.

For Noah, this was a vista he was familiar in. He had fought in numerous wars and seen innumerous post-apocalyptic humans, living through one lawless hellscape after another. He was familiar with the need to maturate heart in the dorsum of his head, to require enemy at all times.

"Master !"Tin exclaimed.

"Yeah, I see them."

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

The wolf dodged the arrows as they charged, but it managed to spook them into moving around back to onslaught from the rear. Noah climbed into the wagon and stared them down through the opened back. Changing their attack angle had momentarily slowed them down, but they'd watch up in minute and flank them. Noah tossed a packet of branches and greens out of the rear of the wagon, but they were more than they appeared. It was actually a net with thorny George Walker Bush and bristles woven in. The net was dragged behind the police wagon, and the wolf that stepped on it cried out as their manus were spiked with sharp seed pod. Those who were injured gave up the pursual, while the rest of the pack learned and split up to avoid the net.

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

Bears and other forest wolf would pop up every now and then and need to be dispatched by arrows. The lilliputian thunderbolt couldn't do much damage, but the pain would urinate the beasts reevaluate whether or not to go along attacking. Any goliath he managed to kill, he would harvest for parts. With Tin controlling the horses, he would process in the station waggon, removing skin, dentition, organs, and anything that looked valuable or useful. Every now and then, they'd even stop so that he could amass medicative works and mushrooms. But the more he fought, the more Noah realized how unprepared his body was for all this. He was sizable and strong, and had lifetimes of combat experience, but his mitt hadn't built up a layer of callosity that a indigen of these nation would have. Every sentence he gripped his steel, he could finger blisters forming on his palm.

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

"Tin, stop over the wagon."They came to stop a hundred M from the tree."Turn the horse cavalry around. If I die, ride back the way we came. Stay at the waterfall until someone uses this route and then travel with them."

"Master, are you sure about this ?"she asked with her basset heel eyes.

"I've handled worse."

He got off the wagon with his sword in hand, and on his arm, a buckler made from the shell of the spider he had killed. He was wearing one of the hard worker dealer'coats, the tight he could get to leather armor, and he also had his satchel, filled with lye packets. Rather than go about the tree, he dove into the Wood. If there were any goblins in hiding, he'd flank them. As he approached the barrier, he spotted them, hiding behind the trees. They were the sizing of nestling, but with projecting stomachs and green skin. Their ears and noses were pointed, their faces overall barely even humanoid. They were armed with swords and bowknot, belike stolen from slain travelers.

He closed in on the 1st one, his footsteps giving him away and causing it to squeak in alarm. Noah dispatched it with a swing of his brand, overpowering its effort to parry and lopping off the top of its skull. The others, alarmed by the demise of their comrade, turned their attention to Noah and attacked. They launched their pointer, albeit with shoddy aim, but it forced Noah to fudge for covering. He pulled out one of his lye packs, focused on a hob with a bow, and threw it like a baseball. The small ring nailed it between the eyes and exploded. The hob took an natural breath in, and then immediately screamed in suffering. Not only were its sinus and lungs filled with lye, but it had gotten into his optic, leaving it blinded.

The way it shrieked was nothing less than unnerving. It was like a baby crying, it racked the mind and made even Noah squeamish. The hobgoblin, hearing those wow, became panicked. This was a cruel world, and living in the Natalie Wood, every day was a flaming fight for selection. But none of them had suffered or seen soul suffer a flesh wound and make that form of noise.

Noah gave them no time to gather their courageousness. He dealt with the former goblin Sagittarius the Archer the like way, leaving them howling in agony. With their long-range onset neutralized, he closed in. The remaining goblins tried to put up a engagement, but he slaughtered them with gruesome hacks and stabs. His wanderer shield fractured whenever he blocked a golf shot, but it held together long enough to bolt down them all. These goblins probably ambushed their target, catching them by surprisal to realise up for their weak bodies, but once they lost that reward, they were easy to dispose of.

He was closing in on the last one, slightly larger than the others and armed with a club. It growled and made a wide vacillation. Noah didn't try to close up and maltreat back out of the lusus naturae's grasp, then swung down his sword and cleaved the hob's brain open. To his discomfort, blood splattered across his fount 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 Thomas More out of me than I thought."He pushed through the sudden weight and returned to the road. It was exhausting employment, but he moved the tree out of the way."Tin, come on through !"

The wagon approached and stopped where the tree had lain, but there was a look of confusion on Tin's nerve."schoolmaster, where are you ?"

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

confusion turned to fear, Tin beginning to panic."maestro, I can't see you anywhere !"

Noah couldn't understand. He was standing right in front end of the horse cavalry. He walked over and grabbed her arm."Tin, I'm standing powerful beside you."

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

That's what he would like to know. Was something affecting her visual modality ? 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 forest.

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

"It's all right, I can see everything clearly ! But I can't see you !"Was he the trouble ? He could see himself just mulct. beshrew it, his eye was still itching from the blood. He rubbed it with his medallion and Tin gave another yelp of surprisal."passe-partout, 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 last sentence he felt it was when he first woke up in this domain. 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 reduce air !"

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

"See what ?"

Well, that answered that interrogation. For some reason, the fatigue seemed to deepen when he did that. He rubbed his eye again, and from the looking at on Tin's expression, she appeared to be able-bodied to see him again."What happened to the route ?"she asked."It just suddenly changed when you reappeared."

Noah put his bridge player over his eye again, not rubbing it, but just covering it. He repeated the experiment, making a mess of the road."Can you see any difference of opinion 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 varlet. Master… I think you're using conjuring trick !"

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

"That's the only when thing it can be. But I've never heard of magic that could make the great unwashed disappear like that."

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

He then remembered his last moments with Lindsey. He had covered his depart eye because the sun was blinding him, and he woke up in this world in that same stead. His glitchy reincarnation, it hadn't just preserved his trunk at this age, it gave him some kind of magic. Maybe it was the magical itself that caused the computer error, the magic present in this new world.

"Tin, do they consume any form of news for the vitality used for legerdemain ? 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 stifle, almost blacking out."professional !"Tin exclaimed. She climbed down and helped him to his feet.

"So, you can see me. That means I didn't turning invisible. But something clearly happened, or at least, tried to happen. I have a unlike spell in each eye, but not enough mana to use the second one. It must be like a muscular tissue. I have to civilise it to increase my staying power.

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

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

The next day, while Tin took town the tripwires set around their make-do cantonment, Noah was meddlesome experimenting with his deception. He had come across a giant wanderer, draining the roue from a bewitch rabbit. As he approached, Noah covered his eye and cast his illusion. His fundament on the underwood, it should get given him away, but the spider didn't seem to notice. He decided to hold more than 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 black eyes searching for the source of the noise. It seemed that his illusion also concealed sounds, but not his interpreter. Maybe because he intended for his spokesperson to be heard ? He had been casting his tour on and off since he discovered it, to try and get a expert feel of his mana. He couldn't properly stress himself since he needed to economise his strength for when he needed it, but he was starting to feel the flow rate.

He drew his blade, a new one. After the scrap with the goblin, he had taken their arm, and despite being slightly rust due to inadequate care, they were in high spirits lineament than the garish machete that Noah had been using until now. He now carried a Medieval-style longsword, a short blade, and his knife. He came up with arranging with thought process of antediluvian 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 get wind anything. Noah could finger it, his mana flowing through his brand towards the President Bush, enveloping it in the magic trick. He focused on the energy running through his arm and tried to slow the flow, to retain it from moving beyond his sword. It was exceedingly hard, like trying to flex a brawn he had never used before. It reminded of him of all the yr he spent as a newborn, when his musculus tissue was just slightly toughened than gelatin. He tempered his breathing, driving out all beguilement from his brain, and soon, he could feel the rate of flow of his mana, like he had grabbed a hold of it.

He pulled it back, leaving the brand enveloped, but this time, when he rustled the bush, the spider raised his front legs and bared its fangs, believing an animal to be causing the disturbance. Noah slowly approached and tapped one of the spider's raised leg with his sword. It hissed in madness and swung at something it could not see. The conjuration could block sounds from reaching his enemy, but it couldn't erase the common sense of touch, so he couldn't just turn invisible and stab someone without them feeling it.

There was something else he noticed. When he was invisible, he could sense the mana in others. Tin had very footling, likely a sign that she had no kinship for magic, probably a reasonableness why she ended up a slave. The ogre had even less, but not all of them. Lone wolves without packs and many spider, they seemed to be shrouded in mana. He didn't get the impression that they could use magic trick, more like it clung to them, like an odor. What made them so special ?

This was just another enquiry that Noah chalked up to something he'd learn later. For now, he should just continue utilizing his illusion to its replete potential. The wanderer had its guard raised, but couldn't sense the presence of anyone or anything nearby, so it could do cypher to blockade Noah from ending its life. He harvested what he needed from the body and then returned to camp.

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

It was a sweet relief to Noah and Tin when they finally left the forest. After two days of repeated trap by predatory animal and hob, the sea of tree that flanked them on either side were replaced with open pasturage, fields where farmers and their striver were planting harvest. The road became more unvarying, receiving to a greater extent maintenance due to the increase in traffic. In the space, they saw the town, Clive, as Tin called it. It was surrounded by a log fence to prevent the goliath out. It reminded him of the colonial village museum from his fifth-grade battleground stumble. The brook from their waterfall camp joined into the river that flowed beside the town.

Guards in gimcrack leather armour with a few alloy plates were manning the gate, and they stopped Noah and Tin as they approached. One of them looked over the horses and the station waggon with a wary eye.

"These belong to Garrow and his men. How did you come 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 hole 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 Europe. Peasants walked the muddy road, street vendors tried to sell their wares, and the air stank beyond all de***********ion. The buildings were brick and wood, only a few of them more than two fib, with their window using misty glass.

"What do we do now ?"Tin asked.

"We're going to sell this wagon, everything in it, and the sawhorse. That precaution recognized them, so others may as well. Plus, I can protect a push-down list of coins just than this load of fur. We can just buy replacements if we need them."They rode past a beggar lying in the street and Noah brought the gymnastic horse to a stop."You there, where can I find a weapon dealer ?"

The bearded man pointed a trembling finger to the E. Noah didn't thank him, but tossed him a Cu coin. They turned down one of the easterly streets and a sign caught Noah's eye. It had an anvil with two crossed steel in front of it like a crest. They stopped the waggon outside and Noah disembarked.

"Look after the paddy wagon. This place is probably crawling with thief, so be wary."

She was armed with a dagger and he had faith in her competence. He stepped into the storage, with a Alexander Bell ringing above his brain from the door chess opening and end. This depot was made of brick in guild to lessen the flack risk due to the forge in back. Numerous weapon system were put on showing, from steel to halberds. Back in his premature living, Noah could deliver bought a damascus blade online for $ 60 that would put these to pity, but these would suffice.

He also paid attention to the prices in order to figure out the rate of changeover for money. The numbers were drawn a bit differently from yesteryear globe, but they appeared to have got the same values. From what he could order, ten copper coins equaled a bronze, ten bronze equaled a flatware, and ten silver for a gold. The metric scaling made it easiest for Noah to compare them to US dollars, but from what era ? There was a courtship of armor selling for two gold coins, about two thousand dollars. But was that two thousand dollars back in the Old due west ? Or was that two thousand dollars in the 21st century, after more than a hundred years of inflation ? He couldn't even tell whether the prices were good or not. This was either all slap-up equipment at a richly monetary value or garbage sold to beginners and cheapskates, or even just junk the possessor was asking the Sun Myung Moon for to try and rip Noah off.

A man appeared from a back room and stood behind a replication. He was a neat bear of a man, buff and dirty from a life history spent standing over an anvil. Seeing Noah's Modern clothes, unease crossed his face."Can I serve you ?"

"Do you buy arm 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 dead goblins. He stepped back inside and laid them out on the shop counter."What can I get for all of these ?"

There were four short swords, two longswords, six dagger, three spears, and an axe. The blacksmith raised his eyebrows in mild surprisal at the size of the draw, but otherwise maintained a salamander face for the sake of business. He examined each weapon, making overstate grunts and sighs over every chip and sign of rusting.

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

"That's a bad antic. That's lupus erythematosus than a tan coin per weapon system. You're selling dagger for three bronze each. Seven silver."Judging by the terms of the display small-arm, that was more than the blacksmith could sell them for, and while he would deliver liked to go higher, the blacksmith was really low-balling him.

"That's laughable. My merchandise hasn't been dragged through the woods. Yours has. I'll have to spend all night polishing and sharpening these to make them desirable of being put on display. Two silver."

"parting them as is and then chalk down the price. You can sell them to some fledgeling warriors as grooming appurtenance. Six silver."

"I can't follow anywhere near that. The upright I can do is two silver and five bronze."

"You can always just forge them into something new and sell at a high-pitched Mary Leontyne Price. Four silver."

"You think you're the only one selling artillery by the arm-load ? Plenty of adventurer come in here to plunge what they found in some goblin tunnel. Scavenged swords are hardly rare on the securities industry. Two silver medal and seven bronze. That's like net offer."

‘ So, ‘ venturer'is a term used here. It probably applies to monster huntsman 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 unawares swords, another ten for the tenacious swords, four and one-half bronze for the dagger, and another four and half for the spears. That's right around three silver."

The blacksmith gave a huff. Three silver, such a stave, whole 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 small-scale payment. 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.

"Fine, three silver."

"Deal."He and Noah shook hands 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 drum roll in the back of the wagon.

"What is it ?"

"A tripwire system, offering a hundred yards of protective covering. Any monster that touches it makes the metallic element alarms jingle. It's so loud that even the absolutely can learn it. I'll trade wind it for three bronze and the small shield you had in the corner. It's got to be deserving that in materials alone."

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

The great deal was struck and Noah and Tin set off with a a good deal flatboat Plough. The axe Noah had gotten was a large one, perfective for chopping both Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and monsters. The buckler he now wore on his arm was only around the size of a dinner party photographic plate, but that worked for him. It was warm enough to deflect a slash from a sword and it wouldn't hamper his apparent movement. The tripwire was a bit unspeakable to fall behind, but once they sold the wagon, they would have ended up carrying it with them.

With way from many of the townsfolk, they sold and traded their ware. The blacksmith wouldn't buy the bows, but Noah found another arm bargainer who allowed him to trade up to a much salutary firearm and a quiver of good-quality pointer. After that, the medicinal herbaceous plant and mushrooms were bought by an herbalist, the wolf hide went to a leatherworker in commutation for some armor and a solid backpack, and the apparel and bagful were traded at the garment workshop for some new getup and a second back pack. Due to the weird tone he was getting, Noah was mindful that his forward-looking clothes made him suffer out. They were too valuable to get rid of or deal, so he simply packed them away and donned the clothes of the countryside.

He ditched the sever heads of the hard worker monger into someone's pig pen and the hogs went to townsfolk. From asking around, it seemed that the Garrow fellow he killed wasn't the wanted felon he had hoped for. It was a shame there was no bounty to call for, especially after three days of putting up with the smell of those heads.

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

The owner of an explorer's shop yelped in pain from the lye touching his skin. He sold traveling and survival geartrain, such as rope, cd, dried rations, and former oddment to assist traveler survive the beasts dwelling outdoor man's domain. Now he was buying the finis of Noah's haul, including the clay of several wanderer and the cask of slimes. A test had been necessary to convince him of the lye's ability.

"So ? What do you opine ? Seven 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 thought."Do you sell map ?"

"We do."

"I want two mathematical function, one of the country and one of the expanse. Throw those in and I can go down to five."

"For two single-valued function added, the safe I can do is three and a half bronze."

"Four bronze and you won't have to grapple with me for the rest of the day."

"Deal."

With that, Tin and Noah left, having sold everything they deemed not worth carrying. The wagon and horses had already been exchanged for some pin-up amber coins, so now they lived carrying everything they owned. Tin was in a good mood, now wearing right clothes and footwear. She looked nothing like the slave girl that Noah had met when he first came to this world. One might appear at her and not even guess she was a slave.

The sun had almost set, but they made their way to their final stop, an inn known as the Old Wineskin. It was busy inside, the air stinking of piping smoke, ale, and poor hygiene, and the flooring creaking under countless brace of shifting boots. The air hostess, a declamatory adult female looking like she birthed youngster by the litter, greeted them at the door from behind a front man desk.

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

"Both. What are your charge per unit ?"

"fin copper coins a dark for one room. For ten, you also get firewood, a hot bath, and two square toes meals a day for one person."

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

The woman handed him an iron key."Take a prat in the dining 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 outlook for cutpurse. Every man in the bar looked either like a Viking or the kind of guy that Vikings typically killed, all of their clothes made of either woollen, linen, or animal hide. Any women were either travelers huddled together, or paramour sitting across the laps of their drunk clients and laughing at every bad joke as they waited for the alcohol to postulate its toll.

Noah and Tin found a modest table near the fireplace and took their seats with Noah warning Tin to put her bag directly under the table.

"This town is just as I expected,"he said.

"Is something ill-timed, Master ?"

"No, everything is fine. I rather like the atmosphere here, the flavor of it."

He had seen plenty of towns that been knocked out of the modern age in his previous lives, usually due to some kind of apocalyptic event or because it was in a third-world land, but none of them had the Medieval Europe aura like in fantasy Word of God and pic. For all of his biography experience, this was something he was glad to finally be capable to span off his list.

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

"I'm not sure yet. I don't have enough information. I want to know Sir Thomas More about this rural area, about the other countries. I want to see what I can make of myself and what will give me the estimable chance of survival. But for now, I want to lie up for a few days and learn 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 great deal, but there was no musical scale for referencing distance and none of the roads were labeled. The national map was no better, but it did name the bigger Ithiel Town and the capital letter of Uther near the southern coast. It was hard to determine the size of the res publica, but it was probably somewhere between England and Texas.

right wing now, what he needed to work on was a backstory. True, this was not a rural area with an educated public, but Noah was still nescient of the culture and lifestyle, something that would want yr to catch up on. If he claimed to be from somewhere but failed to respond a interrogation that any native would know, it would make him front untrusting. In his yesteryear 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 cosmos. He had been forced to hide in early body politic and take on new identities in past lives, but this was a whole new ballgame.

The hostess arrived with wooden trays and beer mugs. The household special was a bowl of marrow and vegetable sweat and a biscuit, with a pint of the local anesthetic ale to wash out it down with. Noah didn't even want to imagine how a health examiner would react to seeing the kitchen and how the solid food was prepared, but after three days of naught but rock-hard bread and dried meat that was little more than salted leather, he ate greedily.

Tin, however, stared at her food for thought."Master, is it really ok for me to eat this ? I need only scraps to survive. Master doesn't motivation to be so generous in buying me such wonderful food."

"You've done everything I've told you to do and take yet to disappoint me. You deserve to eat proper meals. Besides, I need you strong and healthy so you can persist in to attend to me."

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

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

The room they were renting was awfully stark, just a bed with some fretful mantle and a hearth. There was also a tabular array with a lone candle and a pitcherful of urine. Firewood had already been delivered. As Tin lit the candle, Noah began moving around the room, knocking on the bulwark, floor, and ceiling, searching for any obscure threshold or peepholes. For all he knew, there could be people 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 successive killer. The flat tyre within walking distance should make warned him, but he refused to believe the cliché.

"You get a fire started while I look around. Don't open up the dish or break any of your belongings until I get back, and move the bed against the door."

He was sure for the almost part that no one was listening or watching them at the mo, but that might be temporary. He wanted to check the inn itself. But on the off chance that someone was managing to stave off his detection, he didn't want to aerate his deception. He left the room and locked the door behind him. There were rooms on either side and across the hall, but they would arrive later. He went downstairs, maneuvering through the crowd and stepping outside into the nighttime street. The town was clearing out, everyone header house or to whatever berth they slept on.

Noah walked down the street, and as planned, he sensed a tail behind him. He stepped behind the nearby butcher shop and laid in wait. His pursuer, tongue in script, entered the alley. He never even saw Noah, certainly didn't see his hand aiming for his Adam's Apple. A satisfying blast ripped the air from the man's lungs and sent him to his knee joint, ineffectual to even shout out in agony. He dropped his knife and Noah got him into a stranglehold, lifting him back onto his feet.

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

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

Noah took out his tongue and held it under the man's eye. The sword was unseeable like Noah, but the man could feel the brand threatening to pierce the skin of his get down lid."If you want to write yourself, commence talking. I can make you beg for your spirit and then beg for expiry in a affair of seconds."

"This is just what I do, spunk ! I wait for man of trash playing adventurer to make a amiss turn and then I take everything that they have !"

"Is there anyone else or do you mould 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 abbreviated minute, the man felt Noah's hold on him tease, thinking he was going to be let go. Instead, Noah grabbed his head and snapped his neck.

Noah searched the corpse for anything of time value and dumped it in the river beside the village. He then returned to the inn and searched the exterior. He had measured the length from the window to the corners of his elbow room, and, assuming that all the suite were the same sizing and Sami shape, there didn't appear to be any pretended wall that mortal could veil in.

With his illusion still active, he went inside the inn and maneuvered through the gang, this metre putting all of his effort into not bumping up against anyone. He checked the heaviness of the floor and cap of each degree and found no anomalies. His mana was starting to run out, so he had to hurry with the endure step. He returned to the base of his room and listened to the surrounding doors.

Behind the threshold across the hall, he could hear two female adventurers talking, making plans for the espouse day. In the way to the leftfield of his, he could hear a man sharpening his steel. The room to the right was silent. From his pocket, Noah drew a length of wire. It was originally part of the hold of one of the swords he had sold, but he took it before taking it out of the paddy wagon. Lockpicking had been a attainment of his several lifetimes ago, so he was a niggling rusty. Regardless, he managed to spread out the door and peeked in, seeing the one indweller sleeping.

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

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

"Yeah, I think we're safe."

They both stepped into the way and released their held breaths upon the door shutting. Finally, they could let down their guard, at least for the most part.

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

On the table with the lone candle, he spread out the coins from their sales. There was a keen identification number of silver coins, peck of bronze, and several Cu, as well as some gold."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 snake 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 ash gray and gold coins, Tin worked with Noah beside the fire to blot out them in his clothes and willpower, such as the lining of his jacket and the shoulder strap of his backpack.

Soon after they were done, there was a bash at the door."Here with your bathwater !"a fille de chambre announced.

Noah let her in and she placed a wooden tub on the floor, filled with steaming water and some rag week. In this world, it seemed like exterior of swim, the only if way to preserve even remotely fairly was with a childlike wash cloth. Noah tipped her and she departed.

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

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

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

There was a desperate shimmer in her centre."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 duty to service my victor. Please, allow me to continue not disappoint you."

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

She made a small stochasticity of respite, almost like a cross between a gag and a gasp."Please take a seat."

Noah sat on the ft of the bed and Tin retrieved some of their leftover scoop, then brought to tub next him. She kneeled before him and wetted the nominal head of her eubstance with one of the tabloid, then with the soap, lathering up her breast and between her thighs. He could distinguish she was excited. Despite her perpetually expressionless boldness, he could see the small curling of her lips, the shimmer in her eyes, sign of the zodiac of joy. It was an ironical combining ; she, having never known pleasure from middleman with a man, and he, so dull that contact with a womanhood was one of the in conclusion few thing that could give him pleasure.

She began by taking one of the face cloth and scrubbing Noah's leg, trying to absent the sweat and filth from their Clarence Day in the woods. Then, her breathing would change, and she'd first rubbing her bureau up against him, grinding against him like a stemmer Pole. Her boob were far from plenteous, due to her harsh aliveness and poor diet, but what mildness there was, she used to please Noah. She made sure he felt every three-dimensional centimeter of fat, as if the mass of her knocker equaled her allegiance.

She washed off the soap and then got on the bed to reprise the physical process on his weapon. Her efforts gave him an amused smile. With her inner thighs nice and sudsy, she'd straddle his hands, letting him cup her muliebrity in his laurel wreath and experience how wet she was. She was beginning to pant and whimper, her lust building up in her. Her frenzied breather in his ear was likewise getting him worked up. He had a few ex-girlfriends that would throw him this treatment.

"William 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 a lot gratitude to my master before."

She moved behind him and scrubbed his spinal column, then began smooshing her breasts against him in sweeping motions. It reminded him of washing window. While she grinded on his back, she washed his chest and her hired hand naturally fell to his throbbing manhood. She stroked it lovingly, as if wanting to memorize every detail. She started rubbing against him with more violence and jacking him off. Despite Noah being on the receiving end, Tin's efforts were making her breathe heavily with an horny whimper passing her mouth. The feel of her breasts 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 jib 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, wax of drunken lust, was glued to his semi-flaccid manhood in the aftermath of its eruption.

"lord, you're so dirty. Let me clean you."

She began sucking on his appendage with worshipful commitment. Every cliff of cum, she slurped off while savoring the gustatory perception of his sweat. Like the other dark, she paid tending to his testis, either massaging them while his cock plunged into the deepness of her throat, or sucking on them and rolling them around her mouthpiece while she jacked him off.

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

She looked up at him, a hard worker both to him and to her desires."Yes, Master. My consistency 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 come in her. She was so wet, his cock sliding against her inner flesh without any resistance. There was no vacillation in any of Tin's cause, she didn't need to adapt her positioning or let her consistency turn habituate to the feeling of being penetrated. As soon as she was down to the understructure, she began bouncing on his cock at wide-cut hurrying.

Noah laid back with his hands gripping her ass. The effort she was putting in was praiseworthy, she was fucking him like a pornstar. Her groan of walking on air, she didn't bother trying to hold in them. She let her voice ring out, escaping their elbow 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 thick. She was putting all of her forte into keeping up this rhythm, dropping all her weight onto Noah's lap so that he could truly explore her consistence. She couldn't allow him to exert himself. There were no fields to work, no livestock to acquire care of. She couldn't conflict, couldn't hunt, couldn't do anything to repay her master for the kindness he had shown her. All she could do was provide her organic structure for his use, to give him something to unleash his desires on.

But her durability was fading fast. Despite her efforts, Noah wasn't giving in. In fact, he decided to fight back back. He retrieved one of the break washcloths and wiped the liquid ecstasy off her breast, making her nipples become erect. He then sat up and began running his lingua and lips across her cutis, kissing her areolas and sucking on their pinnacle. He often pulled his mouth away to unite with hers, kissing her with accomplishment she could only ring art. Rather than letting her continue bouncing, he implemented his own proficiency. Cupping her cockeyed ass in his hands, he began gyrating her hips in one direction while he moved in the opposite focus. Now, instead of doing retentive, rich apoplexy, his stopcock was stirring up the depths of her womanhood like he was whisking some scrambled eggs.

The two-fold attack, they were more than Tin could hold."Master ! Ah ! sea captain !"she moaned.

She held onto his shoulder joint as a waving of orgasm rushed through her, soaking Noah's lap in her stimulation. Noah fell back, this time while pulling Tin down with him. Tin, lying across his chest, was given no time to reside. He lifted her hips up and began bucking his own, driving up into her at upper limit speed and depth. His assault on her, there was no mercilessness to it, but it was so strong that Tin wondered if she had done something to enrage him. She felt no botheration, but if any other man tried to do this, she would be suffering beyond quarrel. It was his accomplishment and experience, she could feel it with every move he made. He knew exactly what to do to not make any harm, despite the intensity itself leaving her on the verge of blacking out.

"Master, it feels too skillful ! You're going to get out me !"

"Hold on, I'm almost there."

She held onto him for dear aliveness, as if a twister had ripped off the roof of the inn and was threatening to displume her up into the sky. Soon, the storm passed, and Tin felt that final thrust and Noah emptying himself into her. The sensation of her master's seed flooding her womanhood, the heating of it inside her, it made her moan a single crystal-clear banknote, like a doll Call. Then, she collapsed on top of him, using the close of her strong point to run kisses across his dresser.

"master key, when you wanted to know the area and me and some other striver raised out hands… thank you for choosing me."Noah didn't say anything. He knew that this was a place that one couldn't simply respond with ‘ you're welcome ’. Yet after so many lifetimes, he still didn't know what the right reply was."And at the waterfall… thank you for letting me continue by your side."

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

.

.

.

Stamina

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.

.

The morning of the next day found Noah roaming the settlement. Before he made any decisions, he wanted to know what this town had to offer, what endeavors it could back. According to the maps he bought, Robert Clive was far away from the nation's capital, out in the backwoods, but it appeared to possess a strong economy, with many profession one might not expect in such a rough area, like a amber and silversmiths. In fact, it seemed to boom on tourism, but no one would ever do out here on holiday. It was because of the natural resources.

So far, Robert Clive had some farm land and a river for food for thought, as well as the vast forest for lumber, but its top good was giant. As Noah explored the townsfolk, he saw numerous adventurers buying intellectual nourishment and supplies before going off to run and gather. In the early seventeenth hundred, the fur trade exploded in Europe, sending innumerable men out into the wild of Siberia and the Americas to determine their fortune. Here, the principal was the like. fur were in need in the big cities, but most of the colossus had been wiped out around the more populated areas, so adventurer spread out to the countryside to hunt and deal their catch, and where there is an exploitable resource, you can incur capitalists looking for hoi polloi with money burning a golf hole in their pockets.

His search brought him to the local pharmacist, where legion green goddess and jar adorned the walls on shelves while dissimilar industrial plant were hung to dry viewgraph. He recognized various plants, but many were new to him. An old woman ran the store, watching Noah like a mortarboard through the smoke coming from her pipe. It filled the air, along with various different kinds of incense. No sunshine was allowed in, so as to save the plants and potions on presentation.

"Anything I can help you find ?"

"Do you have potions to aid restore mana ?"

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

He examined the vials, three bobber feeding bottle with blue liquids, each one a different shade. There was no telling how utilitarian they were. He didn't bonk how practically mana they could fill again, compared to the amount of mana he had within him. And the color shade, was that because of the presence of a specific element that increased its potency ? Or were they just watered down ?

"What about wellness ?"

"The red ones, above them, and we also sell bandages. However, those are only for showing my product. Simply state me what you want and my granddaughter will retrieve it from the binding room."

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

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

The womanhood relayed the orderliness to someone in the dorsum elbow room without ever taking her optic off Noah. A young girl appeared behind the counter, carrying a tray of six blue and red potions. Noah paid and stowed them away in his bag.

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

The adult female 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 live the ingredients. Oh well, I have agency of finding out.'

He left the pill roller and breathed the unused morning air. The sun had broken free of the skyline, and while it was still early, the town of Robert Clive was now fully bustling. He returned to the inn, where Tin was waiting in their room.

"I got the potions."

"Master, you shouldn't bother yourself with such chore. It is my responsibility 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 know orders or warn him that something was attacking. As time passed, she got more inquisitive, now doing whatever she could to help him. The smallest undertaking, she would try to do before he could, like opening doorway 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 feed him like he was paralyzed from the neck down. But it made her happy, so he went along with to the highest degree of it, and he appreciated her affection.

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

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

"Now that we're finally in a dependable place, I'm going to begin experimenting with my magic, and I need your supporter for that. Because there was always the terror of monsters, I never allowed my mana to fully wipe out, so now I can start out pushing my demarcation line 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 magic spell comes undone. I need you to monitor my health during the process."

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

"It's easy. While I'm invisible, I want you to hold my wrist and observe my pulse while counting to a hundred over and over again until the spell fault. If I should mislay consciousness, pour one of these potions down my pharynx and place my hand over my eye to ready sure as shooting the spell is cancelled. Should my impulse or breathing stop, there is a procedure I'll have you do called Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, or CPR for short. Lie back on the bed and I'll show you how it's done."

She took the position and he leaned over her, making her breather kerfuffle. He placed his hand on the center of her chest and felt her get tense."I can feel your heart beating. Should mine full point, you'll need to weight-lift down on the center of my bureau in speedy thrusts."He stacked his manpower 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 feeling in her eye, he knew what it was.

"You'll want to do that thirty multiplication. Then, you'll motive to crimp my nose, and blow air into my lungs."He lowered his fountainhead 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 often natural language. You'll gift me two deep breathes, then do another 30 compression. retell the process until you feel my heart outset. Understand ?"

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

"Good. Now, to make sure I only use up my mana, I need to completely drain my physical stamina. charge to help me with that ?"

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

To the delectation of some and the annoyance of others, the sounds of Tin's moans could be heard throughout the inn. Not only tacky, it was incessant. Aside from some short breaks, her voice continued to bound off the rampart even with the sun now at the highest point of the day and everyone eating lunch.

On the bed in their shared elbow room, Noah was battering Tin from behind with relentless intensity. She no longer had the enduringness to even remain on all quatern, and instead had her face pressed to the sheets, now sticky with their merge fluids. Every barb he delivered would make her cry out in euphory. She didn't know how many times he had brought her to culminate, nor how many multiplication she felt him flood her consistency with his seed, but each upshot threatened to rob her of her consciousness. Regardless, she fought through, doing everything she could to stay on awake so that she could go along to please her master.

"Am I hurting you ?"It was a inquiry that none of her former masters had ever asked while they violated her. They didn't care about how much pain they inflicted on her, unless making her suffer was their finish, which it often was. To learn it from him, such kind words, they nearly made her cry tears of joy. He asked her frequently, each time earning a passionate kiss from her.

He wasn't hurting her, rather, she had never felt such pleasure, but she was so tire out, her organic structure at its boundary. She didn't understand how it was possible for him to go so long and exert so often force-out. He was far too Loretta Young to have amassed this variety of experience. His strength even frightened her. He acted so that she was assailed with solely pleasure, but if she angered him, if the demons of sadism possessed him, could she even come through ?

How had this all started ? What was the understanding he had given ? She could barely call up, it felt like so long ago. Oh, that's rightfulness, he called it exercise. He asked it of her, but had he demanded it instead, invoked his authorisation as her master, she would own been no less mad. It fulfilled her, to finally be able to show her dedication in the lonesome way she could. He was depending on her, trusting her to fulfill his prospect, and she was quick to consecrate her body for that. Her sinew begged for relaxation, but her soul didn't want it to end. She wanted to wrap around him like a snake so that he could never leave, and instead extend using her until the end of time.

At this point, Noah had fully immersed himself in the act of passion, aware of nothing but the physical world. The feel of Tin's body, her wetness and soft shape around his turncock, the gustatory sensation when their tongues curled around each other when they kissed, the smell of her womanly essence as he brought her to climax, the deal of the stew glistening on her trunk as he made her writhe and groan, he bathed in those sensations. He felt little affection for her, but at to the lowest degree physical virtuoso could quell the ancient maelstrom in his judgement, let him shut off his brain and truly feel again. His soul, so starved and without baring, it was like cracked desert corpse now becoming fertile with the spring rains.

His forcible toughness, something that Tin was ready to judge as inhuman, was just as much mental as physical. With so many life'worth of experience, he knew how to work through the pain in the neck. He had felt the torment of travail enough times to determine how to discount it. He couldn't perform any dramatic feats of strength like some kind of superhero, but he knew how to properly oxygenate his blood for the maximum outturn and live how much strength his heftiness could exert without suffering damaging damage. He was digging down deep for strength and harnessing every calorie and Muriel Sarah Spark of vim, and while he wasn't on the floor of a bodybuilder, he had built his chassis through a workout 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 leftfield. His soreness was approaching unbearable point, but even though his erection was fading, he didn't give in. He grabbed Tin by the berm and pulled her against him, his lips joining hers. She was nearly delirious, acting as if on muscle remembering when she swirled her tongue around his mouth. His handwriting went to Ithiel Town on her, massaging her modest breast and stirring up the cum in her snatch. Tin was so tired and her throat was sore from moaning, but the way Noah tickled her button and bullied her mamilla, it still made her whimper in bliss.

He'd do this after every orgasm, keeping her busy while he slowly regained his erection. However, his manhood had thrown in the towel as his stamina hit zero. He let go of Tin and she fell back onto the bed. Her centre were dummy from exhaustion, but she rolled onto her backrest and spread her branch, putting herself on show and letting Noah see the semen overflowing from her womanhood.

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

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

‘ So, gentle potions restore magic trick stamina and red potions restore physical stamina.'

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

"passkey, what about you ?"

"I can't, yet. I need to measure only my mana, and if I eat or do anything to recover 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 cognize how my mana stockpile compare to an median conjuring trick user my age, and this is degraded way to increase it. Now, don't let go of my wrist and start counting as soon as I become invisible. If my heart stops or there are any house that my health is deteriorating, give me both a mana potion and a wellness potion, then do CPR. Remember : thirty condensation and then two breaths. You got that ?"

"Yes, Master."

Noah put his hand over his eye and disappeared in battlefront of Tin. However, Tin could still experience him, feel his carpus in her script and his lovingness, and it comforted her. Upon the activation of the spell, Noah could experience his mana being depleted. It was a strange fatigue, like he was bleeding to decease. All of his mental focus was put on restricting the flow of mana to just his physical structure, so that nix else would get caught in his head game and waste material mana. It was why he left the job of timekeeping to Tin.

From his experience so far, he could maintain the legerdemain for about three hour before his motor functions declined too far for him to agitate. He didn't know if that was near or bad, but in time, he could feel that seam being crossed. From there, his intellection and physical strong point began a rapid declension. Noah fought with everything he had to stay conscious, even when he could no longer hold back his eyes open. His knowingness soon sank into a falling out where he could feel his mana continuing to wipe out but couldn't feel his own body.

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

"Master,"she whispered, clutching is hand.

"So, the spell came undone. How long did I cobbler's last until that happened ?"

"I managed to enumerate to a hundred almost four times. Then when you became seeable, I gave you the potion. Your spunk slowed, but it didn't occlusion, and you kept breathing."

"So, while with my forcible stamen completely drained, I can maintain the go for about five bit before I pass out. At wide lastingness, I can defend it that long while still being able to fight. This is good, I'm in perfect condition to get the upright benefits for stressing my mana, and since my heart and breathing didn't stop, I don't need to vex about suffocating. Either that potion will put on off or it'll manage to replenish all my mana, but whichever happens first, I'll get-go again immediately after."

He gave himself time for the mana to recirculate through his body. He checked his reflexes, forcible strength, and mental processing. True, he felt half-dead from debilitation and sore all over, but he knew what real damage would feel like. make out mana deprivation felt just like bleeding to Death, so there was always the theory that being drained of it for too long would hold like effects to his body, like sightlessness or muscle death. There was no telling if the health potions could touch on those variety of injuries.

goose egg appeared to be faulty, so he returned to the bed."All ripe, we're going to hold open doing this."

They repeated the process over and over again. Noah would expend all of his mana through his phantasy, Tin would wake him up with a potion, he'd check-out procedure himself for damage, and then they'd start all over. He sent Tin out multiple clip 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 consistency begged for food. The rumbling of his breadbasket and his disorientation concerned Tin, but he refused any kind of sustenance, and for good reason. Each meter he performed the process, he noted his mana reserves increasing. He didn't know what mana was or how he produced it, but without physical stamina to moderate the black eye of depletion, the source of his mana was being stressed to its limits, and was reaping the welfare. There were a lot of things about mana and magic 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 preparation, but he was fairly sealed 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 spread out her door."

"For the best, I imagine, considering how she started throwing stuff at you last time. We've probably bought up all the supplying that she's leave to deal us."

"So what now ?"

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

"I can have it brought up to us."

"No, let's go downstair. I'm rather sick of this room and postulate some freshly air."

He tried to sit up in the bed, but even that was almost beyond him. How tenacious had it been since he was this drained of effectiveness ? There was that sentence when he starved to death… When was that ? Even his idea was on the wand of shutting down. He tried to get dressed, but his consistence wouldn't obey his will, and to his shame, Tin had to help him. It reminded him of all the times he was in hospice, when the nurses had to do everything for him while he waited to die.

"Sorry,"he said.

She smiled, something she was doing Thomas More and more frequently."You need not vex, victor. While I was never the servant of any gravid nobleman, I heard that this was a responsibility that their maid often performed. Simply imagine that you are a gravid 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 become a duke."

Now fully dressed, he was helped to his feet and they left the elbow room, though he had to lean on Tin for funding. From upstairs, they could hear the rowdyism of the guests in the dining room, singing Sung and knocking their mugs together. Yet as the teens appeared and made their way to their tabular array from the previous evening, that clamor went died down, with all eyes on them. There was some quieten muttering, several masses whispering to their friends to inquire as to the silence. Noah and Tin took their seating area, the bar as lull as a burial site, then the innkeeper showed up with their dinner. It was chunks of meat carved from a wolf, and Noah's portion was bigger than anyone else's.

"I'd say you earned it,"the orotund woman said coyly.

That appeared to be some kind of mansion, because a man at the bar with a beard down to his belt raised his mug."Hail to the young king ! He who could reach even a succubus beg for rest !"

The bar practically exploded, with mass of all age swarming their table to pat Noah on the back, congratulate him on his skills, and beg him for advice. Many women approached, flirting with Noah and inviting him to join them for the evening. Noah even saw one female adventurer holding back her friend who was trying to near with a hungry—or rather"thirsty"—look in her eye and a spacious smiling on her nerve. Tin also got sight of aid. Everyone wanted to know who was struggling to preserve up with who, which of the two was the insatiate one. The woman who could not ensnare Noah would turn to her, asking for particular while voicing their green-eyed monster. In the background knowledge, the guests began singing songs of wooing women and romantic tales, with the convention natural process of the bar becoming a raving party.

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

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

It was skinny to midnight, and Noah, having regained his intensity level, made his way to the disconsolate pill pusher. He carried a lantern with him, but its flame, like Noah, was unseeable to anyone and anything, and the route remained as dark as it would be without his presence. He had shrouded it in his legerdemain as a way to try himself. If his mana slipped, spark would escape. After the day's preparation, the mana expenditure was future to nothing. He had already passed the five-minute gull and didn't feel dizzy. With a few Sir Thomas More days of training, he might be able to sustain the conjuring trick for an minute or more.

He reached the stock and went to work picking the lock while sending his mana into the door. Wrapped in his illusion, the door made no disturbance, even when he opened it. There were a few guards patrolling the township, but they wouldn't have noticed him, even without being invisible. He entered the shop and thinned the mana around his lantern just enough to release a deliquium beam of light of light.

There was plentifulness of valuable materials to steal, but Noah and Tin's fishy behavior would cause left an picture on the old fair sex, and she'd assume they did it. He could let just killed her and taken whatever he wanted, even wiped out her fellowship to be prophylactic, and anyone who suspected and came after him. From the moment he discovered his magic, he had thought of all the ways he could use it, both bad and in effect. It would make been so easy, he kept reminding himself, but that wasn't the lifespan he wanted to be, even if it was one he would have lived in the past.

Instead, he searched the shop for record book and potion recipes, simply to con, rather than steal. None could be found, meaning they must suffer been hidden elsewhere. He did notice plenty of compounding equipment, which he memorized in monastic order to replicate. Noah moved beyond the memory board and into the adult female's household. She lived, as everyone else did in this world, rustically. All light was natural or flame-based, any food that could go bad was salted and kept in jars, there was no pass water, and all the puppet were pre-industrial. It still reeked of potions and herbs, but that smell was probably hard to confine to the shop.

He came across a turgid wooden pectus set against the wall, and after picking the lock, got it open, revealing his prize. The old char's entirely program library was kept neatly arranged, all the solvent Noah needed. In this world, information was as important for survival as solid food and H2O, so until society managed to invent the printing process press, script were Charles Frederick Worth their weight in Au. Despite the tantalizing cognition at his fingertips, Noah went straight for the alchemy book. He looked up the recipes for basic health and mana potions, memorizing the component and processes.

determination gratification, he removed all shadow of his visit and left the apothecary.

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

The reaching of the next day brought Noah and Tin out to the woods to assemble herbs and hunt monsters. Buying all the potions yesterday had taken a big chunk out of their finances, so Noah wanted to amass some materials he could sell. He had asked around the tavern the premature Night and managed to find out the most valuable parts of monsters. He also found out some interesting facts.

"Summoned by legerdemain ?"

"Yes sir,"said the bartender as he used a dirty rag to scavenge a glass."If you're really lucky, you'll manage to see it happen. There are magic roundabout scattered across these land, absorbing mana from the air and using it to summon animate being. About a quarter of each monstrosity race is created by magic trick. And not just monsters, timber animals as well, from the deer to the dame. Shouldn't you know that by now if you're going to be an adventurer ?"

Noah remembered his engagement in the forest, the goliath that seemed to be shrouded in mana."Huh, my country didn't have anything like that."

Despite it being lawful, it was used as a lie. Ignorance of introductory facts would give him away and take the great unwashed untrusting, so he was hesitating to ask about anything involving conjuring trick. He couldn't expect much from this world's level of Education, but a man with no knowledge of magic would probably stand out like a man in the 21st one C that had never seen electricity before. At least claiming to be a foreigner would excuse most errors. He just had to trust he didn't meet up with any international merchants before he got more selective information.

"Where do these magic circles follow from ?"

"According to legends, there was a war between the gods and the life of nature. The tone used their magic trick to marshal armies of creatures, so that the minions of the idol could never take the air the Earth, and that magic remains to this day. Some believe that it is a weapon being used against mankind, to staunch our expansion and exploration into new lands. Many believe it to be the work of troublemaker that got their hands on some kind of illegal thaumaturgy, spreading the illusion circles to create havoc.

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

As Noah thought back to the conversation, he heard social movement nearby. Bursting from the undergrowth, an adolescent Hugo Wolf lunged at Noah and Tin. Noah was speedy on the hooking and managed to slash the goliath on the shoulder joint with his longsword. It landed behind him, slightly limping but showing no mark of giving up. It flashed eyes wax 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 kill it without it ever seeing the attack coming, but today, he was sharpening his combat skills and refining his swordplay, so he needed to present his enemies without hiding from them. Besides, ogre that lost rail of him often turned their attention to Tin.

Noah made the first relocation, charging while swinging down at the skirt chaser's other shoulder. It jumped to the slope to put off, but Noah widened the angle of the slash as he brought it down, turning it into a sloped onset. Chasing the wolf with his swing, he managed cut into its frame. The wolf, infuriated by pain, pounced from a high gear slant, aiming for Noah's question. The angle was foxy, Noah sidestepping out of the range of its hook, raising blade, and delivering an executioner's chop to the back of the neck, severing its head.

He didn't drop curtain his safeguard and scanned the country, searching for any other Friedrich August Wolf in hiding. He could notice none."Clear."

That was his signal to Tin. With Noah keeping guard, she went to mold on the wolf, removing the worthful parts like the skin and certain muscles and organ. It was messy work, but worth the effort. Everything was stored in her backpack and several other pouches and dish, along with Noah's bow and other adventuring supply. Since Noah was doing all the fighting, the job of clique scuff fell to her, or rather, she insisted on it.

Once she had gathered the proficient pieces, they set off again. Many might disapprove of letting so much of the teras go to barren, but the race couldn't go nonextant and something else would follow along and eat it, so Noah didn't feel too bad. Minutes after they moved on, Noah caught sight of something ahead, zooming between the trees.

"Tin, step back."

Noah readied himself, his sword raised as the blur approached. It was another wildcat, 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 brain was scattered. Perhaps it was rabid ? But as he turned to probe the corpse, he realized he had broken a redbird 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 distance and now gasping for breathing spell. Noah had seen them before at the inn. One of them, a blond archer, had attempted to talk to him the previous dark, but her friend, a brunette with a staff, stopped her.

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

Neither women responded, both leaning on their knees 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 water and drank deeply, then handed it to her friend."Thank you, both of you. We were so come together to giving up."

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

The Sagittarius looked at them and gained a all-encompassing smiling."Oh, I know who the two of you are !"

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

The bowman extended her hand to Noah."I'm Beth and this is Mira, very please to induce your acquaintance."

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

"You took maintenance of that woman chaser so easily ! With skills like yours, we would love to team up. What do you say ?"

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

"kind of,"said Mira,"but not against ogre this large and fast. We each came from country where the fighting was a lot well-off and bit were thinner, but we weren't making enough money and decided to try moving out here for a while."

"You said you tried slowing the brute 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 elemental magic to complot and control things like fervency and urine. My natural endowment lie in controlling the earth, like this."She turned away and looked into the distance. Rings of sandstone-colored light appeared around her wrist like anchor ring, and Noah could see diagrams and runes of an unknown linguistic communication."Earth Bind !"

She raised her staff and then slammed it into the ground. There was a pulse rate, and the ground came undone like there was an sensual tunneling just under the surface. It shot across the forest floor, and thirty groundwork away, there was an extravasation of world, with hard-packed filth forming jagged shapes that converged like a closing peak. Anything caught within it would surely get held in place, even stabbed if they moved around the untimely way. The displaced earth used to produce the spike heel produced a pit, just in sheath anything tried to duck.

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

"What ? Why ?"

"Well we're in the timberland. The ground is riddled with roots holding it together, so it takes a lot of time and travail to pull together the grime and shape it into those capitulum. Also, you're going for fast quarry with estimable response speed, so as soon as they sense the attack, they'll motility before it fully activates. I assume your strategy was for Beth to wound it with the arrow, keeping it from moving while you cast your charm ?"

"That's right,"said Beth.

"And then you finish it off with more arrows, right ? It's a right strategy, keeping your aloofness from the enemy to minimise risk. However, in this kind of environment and with this fair game, you'd need to alter it up a bit. I suggest using poisonous substance pointer, or at least some kind of paralytic agent. That way, even a low-damage hit will retard it down. I'd also suggest using a orotund bow for more penetration.

Mira, do you know any other spells ?"

"I can create a debris cloud and send I. F. Stone flying."

"But nothing close-range ? That'll be a problem if there is more than one enemy or they get within striking distance. Mira, I suggest you work on learning a trance for melee combat, and Beth, get a sword. You also should find another member to link up your political party, sorry I couldn't be that someone. They'd have to be able to pin down the enemy in one location for your arrow and magic trick to be able to hit their mark."

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

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

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

"Sorry, but I can't. I'm really trying to focalise on training. I'm sure as shooting you can come up a struggling fencer who's desperate for a party to join and would fit right in with you two. Tin and I have to get going. You were first to injure the wolf, so the soundbox belongs to you. We'll see you later."

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

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

"wellspring, the idea of forming a company is appealing, and their long-range ability would definitely help out. However, I'd prefer to manoeuver away from prying eyes for the prison term being. I didn't sense any malevolent 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 elementary magic a bit."

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

They continued through the forest, hunting for demon while trying to forefend former venturer. Along with battles, they also stopped to accumulate herb. Noah was always playing through the potion recipes in his mind. Then, when twelve noon arrived, they stopped for lunch by the river. Their food was slightly upright than the poppycock they ate before reaching Clive, in the sentience that the gelt wasn't quite-rock strong and the sum actually had look. It was still disappointing compared to a hot repast. Their water came from the river, first filtered through a survival straw that Noah made.

Once they were done feeding, Noah pulled out all of the plants they had gathered. He picked three unlike plants out of the down ; branches of blue hemangioma simplex, several feet of a vine with foursquare leaves, and an orange moss."Of the recipes I saw, this one is the well-heeled and doesn't require any specialized tool. Even if it doesn't work, it will still be good practice. We just have to comminute these up with a ratio of 5:2:7 and mix them together with some water."

They gathered Harlan Fiske Stone from the river to use as makeshift howitzer and pestles and went to play. Working position by English, Noah noticed a belittled smile on Tin's case."This reminds me of making lye at the waterfall,"she said.

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

They mixed the ingredients together and poured them into the three potion bottles from the pharmacist. They added some fresh water and Noah could see the intermixture radiance as the potion was formed. Whether or not this potion contained mana or simply sped up the natural rejuvenation mental process, it appeared the necessary chemical chemical reaction was taking place.

"commodity, now to test it. I think this will be the utter chance to see what my next spell is."It was very slight, but Noah could see Tin's excitement."You should move back. If this second spell is anything like my illusion, you probably won't be in danger, but it's ameliorate to be safe."

Tin moved back twenty feet, and Noah, after taking a late breathing space, put his mitt over his rightfulness eye. The effect was instantaneous, his mana being drained twice as fast as his first charm, and this prison term, he could actually feel something happening to him. His body, it felt weightless, and his tree branch, they were just moving of their own accord like jellyfish tentacles. His imaginativeness, it was almost blurry, like he was seeing two-bagger. It felt, of all things, like he had just taken a hit of some high-quality pot.

If his immersion broke for even a second, he felt like his limbs and head would just float on their own. Noah dropped his hand and staggered, nearly falling just like the first time he tried it back in the woods. It was like every front he made had to be performed while walking on a tripwire, or else he would fall. He was shifting from side to side, struggling to remain in control. While this would be a groovy thing to do while attending a concert or watching a amusing film, it was far from utilitarian 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, look at your hands."

Noah, through dandy difficulty, raised his decoration and looked them. He blinked and squinted respective times, trying to see through the afterimages floating around them like an nimbus. Had he touched some bad mushroom and then breathed in the spores ?

‘ No, wait a second…'

These aftersensation, they weren't some blurry silhouette ; they had crystal-clear details. They were same exact copy trying to occupy the same space. He moved his arms around, watching the transcript follow the master. They were legerdemain ! He stopped moving his very blazon and tried to move the copies. He thought about it, he envisioned it happening, but only when he gave up and tried to raise his substantial arms did the copies obey and fulfill the activity. It was only for a endorsement before they returned to their pilot place, but he had gotten them to move.

It took various moment of repeated attack before he figured it out. Halfway between thought process of moving his arms and actually harnessing the forcible forcefulness within them to produce that drive, there was a point where he could move the written matter. He was soon moving the illusionary coat of arms however he wanted, with Tin watching at a total loss. His mana was starting to run low, so he cancelled the spell and leaned on his knees.

"Master, what was that ?"

"An illusion. It appears that my left eye can hold in my real body, while my right eye can make a fake. I can control it standardised to how I move on my own, but it requires a lot of focus. manus me a mana potion, will you ?"He downed one of the potions and then lied down on the flat coat and reactivated the magic spell."vigil this."

Tin could immediately see it on his face, the exertion and focus he was putting in, but her attending was immediately drawn elsewhere, as a back Noah seemed to rise from the body of the first like two prison cell dividing. For Noah, it almost an out of soundbox experience. The illusion stood up, every movement that Noah would have made being performed. It was hard beyond Good Book, leaving him drenched in fret and gasping for air. Every muscle involved in standing up had to be acknowledged, from the musculus supporting his head, all the way down to the brawniness in his feet as they tried to grip the priming coat for balance. He had to visualize not just the apparent motion, but the whiz of moving.

The knockoff stepped forward, every campaign clunky and affected, like a brassy automaton. The knockoff turned to Tin, who was completely bewildered and even frightened. The clone opened its back talk. It started out sounding like radio set 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 hunt, one day inside and one day outside. Everyone in the inn became aware of the pattern, as every former day, from breakfast to lunch, Tin's moans filled the edifice. It became quite the story around town, many people coming to the inn just see if the rumors were rightful. Tin would rob Noah of all of his staying power and they'd do the drain and fill again mental process with the mana potions. The following day would be spent gathering herbs to create More potions and materials to deal, and continue cultivating Noah's fight abilities.

To deplete his mana, Noah experimented with his 2nd spell. For the first calendar week, he focused on perfecting the clone's apparent motion and speech. He tried to get it as normal looking as possible, having it walk around the room and imitate several actions. Unfortunately, since it was just an illusion, it couldn't actually refer anything or impact its environment, and while he could utter through it, he couldn't see what it saw or hear what it heard. Unless it was in sight at all times, he was piloting blind. Strangely, Tin said that the clone had the same smell as him, while when he was invisible, his aroma was concealed.

He spent the next hebdomad learning how to move both his genuine and manipulate organic structure at the like clip. He started out small, maiden with finger's breadth motility, then limb movements, then upped it up to having it walk around the elbow room while he stood by the bed, which was surprisingly unmanageable with all of the muscles required to remain standing upright. By the end of the week, he and the clone could walk simultaneously.

In the third base week, he added his offset spell to the mix, moving the clon around as he performed a undertaking while invisible. The mana expenditure was monolithic, so much so that the pace of his reticence increasing was slowed, and it became more difficult to tell how lots progress he was making. Despite that, they proved to be a favorable combination. The clon could act as a unadulterated decoy, while Noah would attack in his invisible form.

His for the first time trance didn't just clear him invisible, it affected whatever object he touched, concealing and also creating deception to hide any changes he made, like footmark, while the back could produce a full phantasy, but of himself, one that had a near physical front. These spells, they were more than than just bending light. It seemed like they were two halves of a exclusive spell.

When he wasn't preparation, Noah went around Ithiel Town to gather entropy about the res publica, legerdemain, and devil. In a little back country village like this, the answer were far from bounteous or even authentic. He would suffer to move to a large urban center to get better-quality selective information. The Utheric cap would be his proficient bet, but it was weeks of travel and provision had to made for a trip like that.

Try as he might, it was unvoiced to persist unnoticed. Rumors about him circulated through the Ithiel Town, with citizenry he had never met knowing his name. He would walk down the street and women would wink and blow candy kiss, even trying to seduce him. Men would simper and nod in approval as they passed by, a means of displaying obedience. Even the old Lady at the chemist's shop would tease him. When Tin went out, she'd wear a hoodlum to conceal her identity. It wasn't an ideal post. If he was to be known throughout the settlement, he wished it would be for something a little more heroic.

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medical specialty

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The spring rainfall were dramatic, passionate, the lifeblood of mother Nature as she fully awoke from her wintertime slumber and prepared for summer. Yet at the moment, the fury with which the enlarged drops fell was not appreciated, for they numbed Noah's finger's breadth as he gripped his sword and made him throb as his clothes 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 woods, Tin having retreated as per his rescript. Before him, a ternion of brigand, all with weapon system raised. Noah was armed with his curt sword, unable to handle his main blade, due to an pointer stuck in his shoulder. When he was first struck from behind, he had hoped it was simply a hunter's honest misunderstanding, but the bloodthirsty looks on the men's faces told him that he was their real target. They probably robbed and killed adventurer for a living, and he couldn't imagine their female victim dying quickly.

Should he just change state invisible and dispatch them before they could strike back ? No, there was something he wanted to try, and a human opponent would be the perfect examination matter. He raised his dislodge hand towards his face, breaking the stalemate with one of the bandit firing his loaded arrow. Noah deflected it with his cuticle, the most he could do with his wounded shoulder. He swept his hand across his heart as if trying to clear his vision, activating both of his spells. However, rather than splitting from his illusionary clone, he wore it, syncing his apparent movement with the bandit not even noticing a difference.

One of the archer's cohorts, this one armed with a large conflict axe, charged towards him. Noah had his ringer take a defensive stance, while he pulled away, stepping ahead and stabbing the man through the heart before he could progress to his swing. The archer stroke another arrow as Noah stepped back into his illusion, but he again blocked with his cuticle. Noah, with his move concealed, drew respective low tongue from his belt and hurled them at the archer. His mana clung to the blades, rendering them inconspicuous as they buried themselves in the archer, taking him out of the game.

All that was left was a swordsman, and he knew that something was going on. Two of his age group were stagnant, but he didn't understand how. He pushed his confusion aside and charged towards Noah. Noah blocked and parried his attacks with his sword, wanting to have his clip and savor the engagement. He was so used to fighting demon, he wanted to build sure his skills in killing former homo hadn't gone dull, to refamiliarize himself with their unequalled movements and techniques.

He was allowing the brigand to promote him back, though there was footling he could do to stop it. His opposite was armed with a ambidextrous sword, so he could deliver More effect than Noah could come up with his little blade. He strung the bandit along, using repetitive, easy apparent movement, laying a fake trail as to what his next move would be. He made a widely swing from the side, and the bandit automatically blocked, however, the steel never came, it was only Noah's illusionary arm. His real arm swung from the opposite face, slashing the brigand across the stomach.

He staggered back, cursing in hurting and trying to sympathise what happened. Noah closed in and the bandit tried to open some blank with a powerful cleave. Noah blocked with his sword, at least, that's what the bandit saw. In Sojourner Truth, he had blocked with his shield, allowing him to slash the bandit across the wrist joint without him even seeing the approach coming. Blood poured freely, the man's hand now useless. He released a cry of exertion and tried a one-handed swing. The sword sliced through Noah's cervix, 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 gash. It was like he had hit nada but air. He raised his sword to block a swing from Noah, but in reality, it was a thrust, with Noah's brand piercing his chest of drawers. Noah confirmed all three deaths and then called out to Tin.

"Do me a party favour and pull this arrow out."

"I'm afraid it'll hurt."

"I can do by it."

She was nervous, but she grabbed and arrow and ripped it out without issue, 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 within stitching itself back together. These health potions were a real life-saver, miracles in a bottle.

"Thanks."

Noah once more checked the bodies, but their faces didn't match any wanted posting, meaning there was no bounty that he could pick up with their headspring. Tin went to work, stripping the bodies of everything useful. They were so used to this number that he rarely needed to pay her orders.

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

"I agree,"Tin said.

They set off back towards the town, fantasizing of removing their cockeyed clothes and warming themselves beside a fire. They had plenty to deport, and the pelting made everything heavier, with the added cold sapping their strength. By the time they reached the inn, even Noah was on his last legs, and felt weak. The sun hadn't fully set yet, but the cloud were so wooden-headed that it was almost tar black out.

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

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

"We're going to quell in our room tonight. Can you feature someone bring our meals up to us, along with extra firewood ?"

"Sure thing, dearie."

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

"skipper, is something amiss ?"

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

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

As the fire started to burn off and fill the room with light and warmth, there was a knock on the door. Two chambermaid stood outside, the innkeeper's daughters, though they were vernal than Tin. One of them held two trays of food, and the other held an exceptionally big bundle of firewood. Noah hid himself beneath the blanket and Tin answered. As Noah had taught her, she kept the room access open just enough to take the nutrient and firewood, and didn't give up them inside.

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

"I'll be alright. Take off your clothes and lovesome 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 comfortableness food. Unfortunately, Noah was starting to find it difficult to eat up. By the time he finished, his breathing was becoming labored and his heart was beating irregularly. Noah was hoping it was just a frigidity, but this was starting to finger much more intense and was coming on too quickly. Perhaps a disease native to this world ?

Tin could see his circumstance worsening."Master, you should get some sleep."

She took his tray and gently pushed him onto his back. Truth be told, as soon as his fountainhead hit the pillow, he lost the strength to make a motion. 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 wood to the fire and slide under the mantle. Her nude body met his and she curled up against him.

Noah closed his eyes, but while sleep was speedy to come, it was unpleasant. nightmare assailed him, a burning at the stake heat ravaging him both physically and mentally. He remembered tossing and turning throughout the Night, when the pain in his trunk outweighed his fatigue. All of his heftiness ached and spasmed almost around-the-clock, his stomach felt like it was full of oil, and he couldn't scarper his fever.

He finally awoke the future morning time to the vision of rain 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 mess, but now he so desperately wanted it. He wanted to go out and vent the heating that clung to him like a rascal on his back.

"Tin,"he murmured. His spokesperson was faint, as it felt like his spit and throat would crack like Clay."Tin,"he said again, putting all of his strength into it.

"master copy ?"

He saw her in his peripheral visual modality, but he didn't have the strength to release to her.

"Water."It was all he could say.

She brought him a cup of water, and in his impatience, he tried to deplumate it from her hands, if only to get it to his mouth a nanosecond Oklahoman. His clumsy grasp was ignored and she helped him rick on his back so that he could drink. It was some of the right water he had ever tasted, and he felt some life story 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 unanimous affair.

"How do you feel ?"

"Everything hurts, I feel like I'm on fervour. I think I'm gon na … gon na …"He covered his lip and frantically pointed to the sleeping accommodation pot in the nook of the elbow room. He had detested the comportment of such an unhealthful 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 shoemaker's last night's dinner party. He fell back on the bed, with his tummy feeling even tough. 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 lifetime, getting puke suck ass."

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

"No. Me being spew leaves us vulnerable, and the more than people know about it, the neat 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 assist with low temperature and flu symptoms, but his intellect was too hazy to remember them."Pine acerate leaf tea, like I made by the river, and see if individual in the kitchen will pull in me some hot oatmeal."

Tin was hesitant, not wanting to leave his slope, but she obeyed. With her gone, Noah tried to fall back to kip, but could only get a blanch imitation that was nowhere near as restful. For Noah, it felt like his mental capacity was being fed on by ant. He spent the ease of the day in bed, passing in and out of consciousness. Tin remained with him whenever possible. She used damp rags to hold open his febrility in check, and hung a tympanum over the flame, making tea for him whenever he asked, though his thirst was unquenchable.

noon came around, and Noah sat up to eat his dejeuner, though it was a sports stadium of soup. Normally, masses ate whatever the theatre special was at the time, but by paying supererogatory, Guest of the inn could fiat finicky food, at to the lowest degree, within reason. The broth went down easy, but the meat and vegetable felt like cacti rolling down his throat. As he ate, Tin helped pass over the sweat from his consistence. His spot on the bed would need some sentence to dry out. When he had finished eating, he simply sat with his head in his hired hand, taking deep breaths and trying to ignore the throbbing pain.

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

"You're doing hatful for me already."

"There must be more that I can do."

"wellspring it hurts me to say this, but I'll need your service using that bedchamber pot."

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

"Aye, this is springburn all right."Noah opened his oculus, finding the innkeeper examining him, with Tin standing in back. The fair sex was holding a handkerchief over her nose and mouth, and not touching him directly, instead with one of the rags Tin used.

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

"It's not good. I know four others in Ithiel Town who have it and they are suffering as well. It always manages to kill a few citizenry each twelvemonth. My old once had it and he nearly died."

Noah saw it, Tin's berm trembling."What can I do to aid him ?"

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

"How much prison term would I have if it were to be fatal ? How long does this last ?"Noah asked.

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

"It would be better for her to just fox us out,"said Noah,"rather than simply isolate us and hazard everyone. She must like us a bit, or at least want to protect her reputation. I told you to look a day before calling her."

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

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

Tin lifted a promiscuous floor board, revealing a cavity underneath, in which a leather protrude sat. She presented it to Noah and he opened it up to bring out his phone and billfold. While they were mostly useless in this new world, he held onto them in the hopes that he could at least use them for contribution and kept the phone off to save its energy. If he ever needed to pop out an emergency ardor, that lithium stamp battery could derive in ready to hand. Luckily, he had his earbuds with him, so he could at least enjoy one piece of his old aliveness. Tin stared at the device, possessed by wonder. She had only seen it once or twice, the metal case, the light it produced. Was it some kind of magical peter ? She wanted to ask what it was, but when Noah put in the ear buds, she assumed it was something that would help him get better.

He set his playlist to random and lay back down, hoping that the euphony would distract him. He drifted once more into the breach between being at rest and awake, cursed with his febrility even in his dreams. During his waking minute, he was either boozing water or throwing up. The only reason why nature wasn't calling was because he was sweating so profusely. The medicine didn't distract him as he had hoped, so much as permeate his unconscious mind. One strain in finical came up,"House of the ascent Sun ”, and as that opening guitar strung out, a retentiveness was pulled from the depths of his head, another metre he had heard that song.

It was before cockcrow, he had been driving out in the Battle Born State desert, out of the sight of Lope de Vega. Noah was in his thirties at the time, lamenting all the dust the Cadillac was kicking up, so often of it sticking to the exterior. He'd have to clean house it up later, as his employers wouldn't be happy if he returned the company car in a shameful condition. The easterly swarm were pinkening as he pulled to a plosive at the edge of a ravine.

He got out of the car and circled back to the trunk, from which he removed a man with adhere wrists and a bag over his caput. He stumbled on his feet, and Noah pulled him to the edge of the ravine and removed the bag over his cheek. The man's face was streaked with dried pedigree, some of which also stained his dress shirt. He was perhaps in his fifties, a senior in the company.

"You fucking retard,"he spat. Noah ignored him and turned up the radio set so he could get word the rest of the song. The exterior of the car was an age-old 70's model, worth its weight in atomic number 79, but the DoI had been upgraded into the Bodoni font age. When he returned to the man, it was with a gun in his bridge player."Killing me will just fuck up your life story and whoever threw me under the bus. You really think Alejandro can make force ? Once this gets out, the streets will go bloodbaths and your psyche will end up stuck on a pike."

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

"You're will to start a war just because it'll be fun ?"

"Whatever happens is the fault of whoever hired me. That doesn't mean I don't like it, though. It's the little things that matter. You need to enjoy the particular little talent like this."He flicked his gun towards the car, where the Song dynasty was still playing."I once heard soul say that this is the best Song for driving with someone in the body of your car. It is certainly a delicious coincidence."

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

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

The man laughed and spit out on the footing."What could you believe in ?"

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

The sun broke dislodge of the purview, and as its light was soaked up by the Din 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 someone was ill, and it came from memories of when she was the dupe, though kindness was rare to follow to her in those vulnerable times. It pained her to be so useless, to not know how to help. near of everything she had done was just obeying his pedagogy.

As she wiped away his fret, her eyes fell to his open manhood, and lust fluttered through her, a feeling that Noah had introduced her to. Their routine had been disturbed by this malady, as yesterday was the day she was supposed to help him train his mana. She cherished those twenty-four hour period, when she could finally help him in the way she knew best, when she got to experience euphoria.

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

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

As her head teacher bobbed up and down over his lap, Noah was sinking farther and farther into his mind, while being pursued by the music from his telephone set. Once More, a lone guitar was playing, and what little awareness his judgment still had tried to remember what it was from. Ah, the words, 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 call up the sunny sky smash when they cut the bar, and the somber clouds that matched the color of her casket as it was lowered into the dry land. He remembered the food served at both occasion. But what was her figure ? They danced to this song, but he couldn't retrieve her face. She loved the golden 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 slip through time, each song conjuring up a memory. He remembered studying at MIT while listening to Two measure From Hell. He remembered the stereoscopic picture blare Metallica when his convoy was blown up in Syrian Arab Republic. He remembered Mozart playing in the hospital as he died from pancreatic malignant neoplastic disease. He wasn't aware of the murmuring escaping his lips, recalling conversations from across metre and space.

When next he woke up, it was nighttime out, and the earbuds felt like hot coal in his ears. He looked at his phone, now with a quarter battery left. How many more times could he heed to music before his phone just became a useless stop ? He put his chief back on his pillow, instead listening to Tin's breathing as she slept soundly beside him.

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

A knocking on the door shocked Noah from his slumber, and he would deliver sat up, if not for the throbbing pain in all of his muscles. He groaned and fell back on the pillow.

"Who is it ?"he asked.

"It's Holly, I've got your intellectual nourishment !"Ah, one of the chambermaids.

"Please, just leave it there."

Noah slowly sat up and released another groan. Wait a back, he felt better. He felt like he just stimulate the shit beaten out of him for three time of day straight, but he could finally locomote around. His fever had lessened and the soreness was due to the song it had put on his body.

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

He turned to her, seeing a level cheek, moist with effort. The gentle breathing he had listened to last nighttime was now an anguish pant."Shit. Tin can you listen me ?"

He tapped her cheek a few meter and her eyes opened."schoolmaster ?"

"There you are. I need you to tell 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 weakly 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 concern, I'll slipstream away your sweat. I just need to…"She trailed off and tried to ramble out of bed, and Noah had to snap up her before she could go down to the floor.

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

He showed her his hired hand, but she just looked at it with glazed over oculus."Are we going to go hunt monsters today ?"

‘ Shit, it's hitting her even harder than it hit me. She's already delirious.'“ No, we're staying here. Everything is okay, I'm all punter 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 knee, gasping for air. He was on the mending, but he was still in a lousy site. 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 bring around him, but was met with loser. He downed them both, and the pain racking his body subsided. His strength and stamina were still close to zero, but at least the irritation was gone.

The first off affair he needed to do was get her pyrexia down before she suffered unplayful legal injury. adjacent 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 fever,"she mumbled. She began trying to put the ragtime on him instead, and he had to repeatedly stop her and pin down her arms.

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

Noah got dressed and limped over to the door. Outside were two food for thought trays and a pitcherful of fresh 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 head and poured the water supply between her pale mouth. She released sighs of relief between each gulp, and every metre he thought she was done, she'd slant her head forward, as if trying to snaffle it like a dog not wanting to cede its toy.

He filled up the tea timpani and hung it over the fireplace, with a new fire soon blooming beneath it. When he was disturbed, he hated the fire, the heat it gave off. It was the only time he was grateful for the draftiness of the room, all the little fix for fresh air to slip in, but it was needed. As he waited for the kettle to churn, he retrieved Tin's breakfast and once more come up her head. It was warm porridge, probably made with him in idea, but now perfect for Tin.

"Time for breakfast, Tin. Can you give your mouth for me ?"He brought a spoon to her lip, but as soon as she smelled it, she instinctively turned away, whimpering."I know your throat 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 knew what would help Tin's opportunity with this sickness.

"Tin, listen to me. I'm going to go out and get something that will avail you feel better. I'll be back soon, and until I get back, I want you to stay in bed. Can you repeat that back to me ?"

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

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

"I can do it ! Please let me do it !"She was crying, trying to escape his grasp. He held her against him, waiting for her misfortunate flailing to stop. She soon went limp and he laid her back down.

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

He got up and took a bass breath, then cast his invisibility. The boniface would make him a hard meter if she saw him outside of his room, might even kick him out. While his trick was ideal, his soundbox was so weak that his mana might not cobbler's last long. He left the room and locked it behind him. The hallway outside was evacuate, but he could hear plenty of people in the bar. Getting down the steps was hard, as his head was sent spinning with each tone. No one noticed his mien, and he made it through the breakfast crew and outside. It felt nothing short of euphoric to breathe sweet air and soak in the sun.

A bit of his strength had returned, so he released his spell and made his way across town to the chemist. Inside, the old woman watched as he looked through a carte of her wares, ***********ing industrial plant that helped with everything from feverishness to disturb stomach.

"I'm guesswork that girl of yours is under the conditions, and you're not looking very respectable yourself."

"It's been a rough few days."

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

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

"Goddammit, I told you to stay in bed."He put down the bag of herbs and rolled her onto her vertebral column."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 attain some medicament for her, but he couldn't do it while she was crawling around like this. He took the blanket and tore off a farsighted slip, then used it to tie her articulatio radiocarpea to the bedframe. Restraining her was not an nonesuch solution, but at least the fabric wouldn't leave a mark.

A unusual tone appeared on Tin's aspect as she looked from her wrist to Noah, almost mournful, and she spread her branch for him."I understand, Master. I won't cry this time."Apparently, he wasn't the first soul to tie her to a bed.

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

He laid the mantle over her and left her on the bed, then went to crop. In the time since he first started making his own potions, he had bought a cheap compounding kit, including a mortar and stamp. He wasn't a skilled herbalist like the apothecary, but to the highest degree of the plants in this universe were just like those he knew from his past tense living, and had built up plenty of survival knowledge. mass easily faded from his memory, but knowledge and proficient skills were held onto. The pursuit of Education was one of the few substance abuse he chose to remain in every life-time, as it was the closemouthed 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 check on her, see if he could shake her from her nightmares.

"Tin, awaken 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 plosive speech sound ! It hurts ! Mama, it hurts ! Make him barricade !"

"Tin, snap out of it !"

The finish thing he needed was someone overhearing this and misapprehension. He covered her mouth, waiting for the nightmare to end. Perhaps he should birth picked up something to tranquillize her. Would he give birth to completely adhere and gag her to maintain her still and quiet ? That would likely push her further into the delusion, and with this disease ransacking through her organic structure, the stress might wipe out her. How could he steady her down ?

He left her to recall a cup of water system and splashed it on her face. That seemed to agitate 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 medicine to help you experience better, but there is something else I want to try."He retrieved his phone and put the earbuds in her capitulum. He had a playlist of easy listening Sung dynasty, mostly subservient and soundtracks. He ***********ed one,"Vide Cor Meum ”, one of his favorites. It was mollify, set at a low volume, but the auditory sensation of the strings and representative, right in her ears, made Tin freak out.

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

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

"Music ?"

She thought back, trying to remember while her thinker was still hazy. Her fellow slaves, they used to own work Sung when they toiled in the theater, sort of a means of expressing empathy and solidarity, that they all shared the same pain sensation. She knew a boy who used to play the champagne flute, though not very well, and once, she heard the wife of one of her former sea captain playing a mouth organ from within her mansion. They could be called euphony, but they all paled in compare to what she was listening to now.

It was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. In her soulfulness, a hunger was quenched that she had never noticed before, and she felt as though a summer breeze was rolling through her body, sending shivers of walking on air up her spine that made her forget her pyrexia. It left Tin stunned, her optic wide as dinner plates with her backtalk hanging open. She looked at Noah, seeing a rare smile on his face.

He rubbed the top of her headland and gently laid her back down."Just rest period 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 cure, but it would assist reduce her symptoms. For the next three sidereal day, Noah looked after Tin, doing all the affair for her that she had done for him. Thanks to the music, he was able to prevent her from hallucinating, though she still had nightmares from her lifetime of abuse. When that happened, Noah would put the earbuds in her ear and act a song for her, and she would immediately adjudicate, as if hypnotized.

For Noah, hearing music had flooded his idea with remembering, making him relive picture of his past liveliness when he heard those songs, but for Tin, it was the opposition. Having lived a life story without music, the bank note and spokesperson 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 nominate her music or practice his magic, and when Noah looked at her, there would always be a smile on her side.

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

It had been a week since Noah fell ill, and he and Tin were going for a pass around the settlement. His strength had returned, but she was still weakly, and hopefully some fresh air and physical exercise would serve her feel better. They had been cooped up in that room for so long, and the beautiful conditions was just what they needed. Normally, Tin would walk behind Noah, as a proper slave, but today, she was bold, hanging onto his arm. She claimed it to be to help her walk, that she was weak and needed to lean on him, but the smile on her face told of her knavery. Noah allowed it, as she had taken such good charge 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 aspect they were getting. It had been a workweek since she had last"helped him"with his conjuration preparation, but the two of them were still a bit of a celebrity twosome, so when they saw the way Tin held onto Noah, they all grinned like they had just heard a unclean laugh. There was a saying going around, a jest, that even those who had never met Tin had heard her voice.

"master key, when I was sick, I'm sorry for misbehaving."

"Huh ? Where's this coming from ?"

"I just… hope you didn't hear me say anything that would wee-wee you think any to a lesser extent of me. I'm sure enough 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 altogether time."She halted and let go of his arm, and he turned back to face her."Why ? Did I talk in my rest ?"

Tin opened her mouth and stopped. The things she had heard her skipper say when he was delirious, both majuscule and frightening things, many of which she couldn't understand, such as when he started speaking other language or reciting lines from textbooks.

"No, early than cursing."

"That sounds about right."

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

They climbed up a James Jerome Hill overlooking the settlement, using a fallen log as a bench while they soaked in the scenery.

"This is some squeamish countryside,"Noah said.

"I suppose so. This is the only 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 process of the future. It is an ugly, nauseating affair. I try to puddle myself appreciate nature whenever I can."

"Where was that ?"

Noah picked the gens of a Town from one of the maps."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 Tell for her to read, 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, but his gaze was always abandon, even when he spoke with a smile. He never asked her about her own past, but it was nix she wasn't used to. She had grown up being treated as an target, both a puppet and a toy. confidant conversation was not something a slave should have a bun in the oven from their captain, but she had never had a lord that made her feel this way, that was so kind to her.

"M-master…"she stammered.

He turned to her, trying to recollect the live time he heard her talk of the town so nervously."Yes ?"

"Please, forgive my cheekiness, but I know you're fabrication to me. I beg you, secern me where you came from, the matter you've done, anything. I only wish to know more about you."

He stared at her, unsure of what his next motility should be, but as he saw the wetness of her eyes, his concern waned."I talked in my slumber, didn't I ?"

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

"It doesn't go well when I tell the truth. Being honest has brought me zip but trouble."

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

Noah looked up at the sky."I grew up near the coast, and my father had a gravy boat. He wasn't a fisher or merchant, rather, it was a hobby. In the summer, when the weather was good, my family would go out on the body of water and go fishing, simply for the enjoyment of it. We'd pinch mackerel and try to use them as decoy to catch big stripers, but it never worked out. One clip, we brought our dog with us, and I remember finding a grape-sized tick on his eyebrow and putting it on my claw, seeing if I would hitch anything. You wouldn't believe how smart it is out on the water."

Tin moved closer to Noah, clutching his arm and leaning her chief on his articulatio humeri. At dark, 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 spring up up being poor, what it like to grow up being rich. He recalled fond retentivity of his sib and vacation as an alone nestling. He told her of how his parents loved and supported him, then how they screamed and beat him. He described amazing machines and the technology of the advanced world, and the fight for survival in the aftermath of the Apocalypse.

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

.

.

.

sequence

.

.

.

Noah and Tin, having fully recovered from the springburn sickness, 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 wood to hunt monsters, they had a specific location in mind. Noah had heard rumors of an abandoned mine that was taken over by hob. A beehive, a nest, a Colony, whatever it could be called, it spelled trouble for the village. goblin ate and bred like rats, so if they managed to find a good station to dig in, they could bolster up their identification number in very little time. They had claimed the orbit various times before and had to be flushed out, and while attempts had been made to seal or destroy the mine, the hob always found a way back in.

They were following one of the maps Noah had bought, with several pieces of advice written down that he had received from former adventurers. It would learn a day to reach the mine, so they exercised restraint and avoided fighting monsters whenever potential. Hopefully this mine would be a great source of taxation in scavenged artillery, meaning it would be best to travel sparkle and not gather along the way.

They arrived at the mine early in the forenoon of the play along day. Finding a safe topographic point to set up camp had been hard, for this was the territory where the goblins roamed. The mine was carved into the understructure of one of the small tidy sum. At one metre, it might have been a fairly decent operation. There were mass of signs of the construction that would throw stood around it, now reduced to piles of kindling. There had once been a wooden hut built around the entranceway, sort of like an airlock, perhaps to keep the rain out some clock time ago, but it was just a rickety skeleton now. Many of the fabric and abandoned equipment were harvested to construct weapons and barrier for use against intruders, with a handful of goblins keeping a constant sentinel.

Noah and Tin were hiding nearby, scouting the entrance."You wait here and I'll postulate 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 goblin in total. One was on the roof of the shack erected around the entree, perched like an owl with a bow in mitt. Two to a greater extent were sitting on the wooden rampart at the margin of the clique. The remaining four were at the entering, though they were preoccupied with a game of dice.

Noah went for the one no one would comment, the sniper above. He approached the entranceway without fear, invisible and inaudible to the goblins keeping guard, but that would commute. The just way to the sniper was to climb up up onto the roof of the shack, but it was so weathered and fragile, it looked like it couldn't support more than the system of weights of one goblin. However, it was worth taking the endangerment. He reached the side of meat of the shed and began the acclivity, using the mossy cliffside as a lower-ranking ladder to assist minimize the system of weights he put on the old wooden boards.

He was careful with every placement of his hands and animal foot, so as to disturb as minuscule as possible. His conjuration would hide the Deutsche Mark he made, but only within a certain chain. He had experimented with Tin's help, finding that step would be revealed after ten footmark, so he had to stay within that range to preserve them within his legerdemain. Besides, if he ended up ripping a board right out of the rampart, his illusion wouldn't be able to conceal it. It could conceal traces of his activity, but not retroflex objects. The climb was difficult. The wood of the shack had frayed over the age and riddled his deal with splinters, while the knockout clay on the drop-off crumbled and made it difficult to get a solid keep. Regardless, he managed to climb up up onto the cap.

The roof itself was like slight ice, and if he ended up breaking through or snapping any of the irradiation, the goblin would surely feel it, even if he couldn't hear it. Noah pulled a rock out of the cliff and threw it into the leafage in the space. The goblin perked its mind at the noise, and in that instant, Noah closed in and stabbed it in the back with his short brand. It died before it could even voice its hurting.

Noah left it sitting there and climbed off the shack, then snuck over to the two goblin sitting away from the entrance. They looked bored as can be, struggling to appease awake. Noah approached the initiative one, leaning against one of the wooden bulwark. He dispatched it with his tongue, striking the root word of the mind bow. The wound was small and the goblin simply went limp, never feeling a thing. To its booster, it would depend like it had simply dozed off. Noah slew the other goblin the same way, without creating any racket or interference.

Finally, he approached the entrance, where the four were still gambling. He stood over them, the sun passing through him perfectly and its electron beam illuminating their biz. He ***********ed his longsword for this, even doing a few drill swings to figure out the reach and violence required. When he was satisfied, he gave a mighty separatrix, beheading all four beasts at once. Their bodies dropped to the ground and Noah released his spell, then waved Tin over.

As he stood safety, she searched the consistency, and for each one, cut off their properly ear. Most demon had some useful consistency voice that could be sold, like their hides for clothing or their gist as food, but aside from gatherer of grotesqueness like skulls and former things to put on display, goose egg about the hob was merchantable. However, since they were such a pain, their specie had an ongoing Bounty. The topical anaesthetic king would pay venturer for every hob they killed, and their justly ears were the proof. The goblin also sometimes channel valuables, such as weapon, taper, and even coins. Tin searched them all, and whatever good she collected went into her backpack.

"Ready to go in ?"Noah asked.

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

From her clique, she drew a lantern and lit it. Noah would lead, but she would allow for the brightness. This meant that he couldn't simply go away and pass on her at a safe distance while he picked off the hob one by one. He needed her right beside him so that he could see what he was doing, and would have frustration the goblins drawn to the light.

They entered the mine, and were immediately assailed by the fetor. This was the first time Noah or Tin had ever seen a hobgoblin nestle, so the smell was new to them. It reeked of sewage and rotting inwardness, much of the latter probably human.

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

They delved into the tidy sum 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 hobgoblin provided a valuable service to the ecosystem. Because monsters and animals spawned both organically and through conjuration circle, the landscape should have been buried under all of their corpses. Instead, the scavenging creature would make their uncovering to their den, continuously sweeping the timberland clean.

They soon came upon the first branch sleeping accommodation, just like in an formicary. It was diminished, about the size of an average bedroom. Inside, respective goblins were sleeping atop a mountain of skin. Most of them were female or younglings. It wasn't proper sport to shoot down such prey while they slept, but this was an extermination job, so things 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 doleful expression on her face as she averted her oculus while keeping the sparkle of the lantern focused into the chamber. Noah drew his shortstop brand and began stabbing the behemoth in their sleep. Each meter, he'd go straight for the head, so that they would die without making a audio. He was steady, methodical, taking them out one by one with none of his victim even suspecting a thing. It was unnervingly easygoing, and when he was done, he harvested their ears.

"Master !"

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

The start that tried to approach swung at Noah with a large dagger. He stepped out of its range and kicked the hob in the chest, nearly sending it flying. The second blocked the lilt of his sword with a wooden club, but he forced it against the wall and aim his knife into its breast. Leaving it to die, he returned to the for the first time, struggling to suspire, and ended its life with his sword.

"master key,"Tin said, handing him a moistness rag. He used it to wipe the pedigree off his hands while she looted the corpses.

They moved further on down into the tunnel, finding it expand into a larger chamber and fork out. There was still wad of mining equipment, but much of it was being used to hang food for thought from. The body of both human race and animals had been skinned and were being cooked over balefire. The hob were jumping around and squealing in delight as the odor of their feast wafted through the mine. Human pulp cooked over a fire, it was a smell that took Noah back to some non-white timelines.

Tin gasped in repulsion at the ken and one of the hob spotted them and squealed something in their beastly linguistic process. The 12 or so goblins in the chamber turned their attention to Noah and Tin and began to near, armed with the blade used for butchering their food. They chanted the same squeal, probably something along the line of merchandise of"more meat !"

"Tin, stand back."

He summoned his clone and sent it running to the decent incline 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 porta, Noah attacked from their exposed side with his longsword and beheaded three of the beasts. The goblins, sensing the destruction of their comrade, turned their attention back to Noah and swarmed in. He kept them at bay with wide swings, while leaving his left incline open to taunt them. One by one, they tried to snipe from the seeming blind spot, but he would dispatch them before they could actually reach him. Any that got in close enough to assault found their weapon blocked by Noah's shield, and then his sword would welt at them from below and cleave their stomachs open.

Once their ranks had been cut in one-half, they began to back out back to the bonfire. As this was their den, they didn't show their backs and instead tried to guard Noah off with endanger screeches. Their guard was raised, and while they were stupid, they wouldn't fall for the Same whoremonger as the others.

Noah cast both of his spells, and while he had his clone remain where he was and make to be standing his ground. He snuck past the goblins and attacked from tail. He slaughtered three before the residuum noticed, but as they couldn't see him, they could do nil but scream in confusion. They made it too easy for Noah to finish them off. Even though the bedroom had gone quiet, he waited various present moment before releasing his spells.

"All clear."

Tin went to work, gathering up valuables. The steel might be deserving something to the blacksmith, but they'd have to wash the dried blood off them first. As Tin searched the hobgoblin 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 potential that their air pocket hadn't been picked yet. Noah dug through the spile of bodies, ignoring their foetor, but one of them caught his attention.

It was a boy, a bit younger than him, and unlike the others, his branch were bound. He wasn't cold like the others. Noah checked his neck, and while it was weak, he found a steady pulse. Wait a irregular, he had seen him before. Noah had gotten to know plenty of people around the town in the past calendar month, and learned to agnise others. He often saw this boy with Beth and Mira, carrying a blade 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 pocket and poured it down the boy's pharynx. As it took force, Noah examined him. His clothes were good lineament, but still the kind used by outdoorsmen. He had a becoming physique, showing planetary house of training and hard work, but while there were calluses on his hired hand, there were healing blisters from wielding a sword. He was probably a Fannie Merritt Farmer, but came from money.

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

"Where am I ?"

"You're in a goblin den. I'm guessing they must possess struck you in the head, giving you a nasty concussion. I gave you a healing potion, so your vision should probably brighten soon. Hold on, I'll cut you loose."

He severed the boy's bonds and helped him to his feet. For a bit, 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 pass back down. Either this was entirely new to him, or he was realizing how close he was to the most gruesome of deaths.

"Calm down, everything is fine. I'm Noah and this is my foot soldier, Tin."

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

"Your forefather ? No, we're just here to vote down hobgoblin and slip their loot. How did they capture you ?"

The boy seemed to be able to endure vertical on his own, so Noah let him go, though he was struggling to commend."I… was being trained in hunting by a topical anesthetic explorer that my male parent hired. I had just shot a boar with my bow… then I felt a massive pain in the ass in the spinal column of my chief and blacked out."

"Your father, is he a noble ?"

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

"Well, oath, we'll avail 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 indorse !"

"I just finished taking care of a good number them, see ?"Noah pointed to the eubstance of his victims."I'm confident in my power. Besides, it took a lot of elbow grease to get here, so we're not leaving until our pockets are filled with goodies and we can barely walk. tell apart me, do you have any talents ? Can you use magic or any weapons ?"

"I… I have some skill with a sword."

"Some, huh ? So undecomposed case scenario, I can expect you to admit off a hob that might sneak up on us from behind."Noah took off his rucksack and forced it into expletive's hands."Otherwise, you're my new pack mule."

"You can't be severe !"

"You have to pay off the potion I used on you, and consider it a downwards defrayment for us getting you back to township. There is food and water in the bag, you can eat while you walk. Tin, give me a sword."She handed him a chipped hand-and-a-half brand, taken from one of the goblins, and he gave it to Oath."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 knock you out, steal your apparel, and sell them to cover the cost of that potion. Which is it going to be ?"

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

"smart choice."

The three proceeded deeper into the mine with Noah taking point. Every few instant, hobgoblin would set on, desperate to defend their home. Noah dispatched each of them with a flurry of slashes and stabs, leaving Tin to take in the trade good. cuss was understandably uneasy, and it left him ineffective to even touch on the slain gargoyles, so Tin ended up doing most of the piece of work and just putting the find in his bag. At least he wasn't complaining. Noah eventually tasked him with collecting goods found in the tunnel, while Tin would stick 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 someone putting to death so many goblin singlehandedly."

"fountainhead I can see how they might be able to get the drop on someone if they ambush with higher-ranking bit, but when you face them head on, it's like fighting a group of ugly, feral children. Oh, public speaking of which, I see another breeder."

The muckle before them was nauseating, as what appeared to be a big unripe pig was nursing a litter of pint-size little brownie. While the male hobgoblin went out into the wood to gather, the female would tend to the younglings. Despite being LE than half a foot tall as neonate, they would reach life-size in just six calendar month, hence their voracious appetency. Noah dispatched the breeder and stomped out the younglings, much to cuss's horror.

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

"They wouldn't have been child very long. In just a few months, they would be roaming the woodland, killing whoever crossed their route and dragging them back here to be devoured. You and Tin are carrying large number full of the self-will of their victims. I'm not judging them for doing as nature commands them to, I'm simply dealing with a scourge before it can become a threat."A deafening bellowing made the three teens cover their ears and wince."What the hell was that ?"

"A hobgoblin,"said curse word,"otherwise known as a hobgoblin chief. They're a rarified breed. I hear that only one out of ten thousand goblins can grow to become a hobgoblin. They're practically great, smarter, and firm than a steady goblin and can even get wind 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 habitue hobgoblin may be watery, but hobgoblins are inviolable than human race in every way !"

"Your issues are duly notable. I'm going after that chief, and if you run, you'd full hope that he kills me. Let's go."

curse turned to Tin, hoping that she might verbalise up, but her formulation was completely blank, as if she was daydreaming."You can entrust my Master. He is strong and skilled."

Noah set off towards the source of the noise, but they need not move far, as their foe came to greet them from the depths of the mountain. It stood over six infantry tall with a far Sir Thomas More mesomorphic form than the crushed goblin possessed. Like them, it wore a loincloth, but it was also garbed in pieces of slip armor, including a metallic element helmet. Looking over a pair of boar-like tusk protruding from his backtalk, he glared at the intruder with unspeakable hatred.

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

"Huh, so it really is smarter. cuss, you remember your job, right ? If any former goblin come, you have to deal with them."

He didn't annoyance waiting for a response and stepped forward with his longsword in hand. The chief was armed with the same type of sword, though with a orotund blade. On the battleground, it would likely be used against horse cavalry, killing both rider and their horses with one slice. The chief thundered towards him with his sword raised high. His f number was certainly faster than a human's, and with the military strength he was probably wielding, Noah didn't want to try his portion by blocking or parrying. He sidestepped when the cleave was made and attempted a sideways swing towards the goblin's head. It raised its hand, blocking with a metal arm guard duty, then forced him back.

It immediately closed the distance to induce the same sideways swing Noah had, and with the sword's greater distance, he didn't have the prison term or elbow room to get out of the way. Instead, Noah rushed towards the sword to block it with his own. As the hobgoblin straightened his arms, his swing would become more potent, so he had to intervene at the earliest possible moment.

Sparks flew off their blades as Noah's sword halted the goblin's. It released one hand from the hilt of its brand, using what little momentum it had left to swing at Noah. He avoided its backhand shot by a hair's breadth and countered with a punch to the Adam's apple. It staggered back, wheezing in painfulness, but without dropping its defense. Its pain margin was remarkable.

Noah gave it no time to find and went on the offensive, slashing and stabbing at the goblin while it did its best to block. In moments, it had regained its dual-hand grip and was able-bodied to fend Noah off. It raised its sword for another cleave, but Noah's eyes caught a distinguishable glow along the blade.

"It's using magic ! You have to dodge !"swearword shouted.

Noah's instinct had already told him the Saame thing, but while he was able-bodied to get his eubstance out the way, his sword met the goblin's blade head-on and snapped. The beast's weapon buried itself in the stone ground, shaking the full cavern, and Noah rolled away to deflect any barehanded approach like before. He got to his feet, examining his weapon and the enemy's. The fastness of the goblin's golf shot had increased, as well as its strength and the durability of his sword.

It must have been warrior magic, something he heard of while gathering info in Clive. Warrior magic was the ability to activate weapon skills that would improve their abilities in battle, such as cutting deeper and withstanding more force without breaking. He had witnessed magic a few times during the concluding month and had become familiar, but this was only his second clip since he arrived that he was actually fighting against a magic user. Perhaps it would be best to finish this scrap while he was unhurt, rather than cover pushing his fate. On the early manus, Oath hadn't seen his legerdemain, and he wanted to keep it that way. He'd just have to mould harder with his physical abilities.

The goblin charged with his sword slightly raised to either block or attack. It wasn't glowing like before, but his last attack had shown that he could harness his magic in a fraction of second, so Noah couldn't risk of infection being in the way when the next golf stroke happened. Noah readied himself, still holding his broken sword. He came within the hobgoblin's range and the brand swung diagonally towards his neck. Noah bolted forward, anticipating when the hobgoblin would be committed to the move. He swung his broken sword towards the goblin's wrists, making him pause for the briefest moment to consider the terror of fatal trauma, and that moment was all Noah needed to draw and quarter his short steel and clip him across the stomach while zooming past.

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

"Clear."

"Well done, schoolmaster,"Tin said while bowing. Beside her, Oath was in a fog.

As Tin went to work removing the hob's armor and checking for personal possessions, Noah examined the blade used. It was a good blade, certainly sturdy, and he now needed a successor for his longsword, but as he held it, his changed his creative thinker. His original longsword had the upper limit permissible system of weights and sizing, and anything slap-up in either class would hinder his movements too much.

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

"I've studied various styles and forms of combat throughout my life, including archery and play, mostly out of ennui or for exercise, and I've had plenty of experience killing. Your Father pays people for every hob people kill, correct ? Will I get extra if I bring him the chief of their head ?"

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

"master, I found something."He turned to Tin, who was holding up the hired man of the goblin to show him the tintinnabulation on his little finger. She removed it and handed the ring to Noah, and he could immediately feel the magic within it.

‘ Huh, a magic ring found in a goblin tunnel. What could possibly go faulty ?'He gave it a closer look under the light of Tin's lantern and found a crest, depicting a shield with a swan on it. It was the subject symbol of Uther. There was also something written on the dance orchestra with a strange substance."swearword, what do you make of this ?"

"That's the annulus of an Utheric horse ! Anyone caught wearing one without being knighted can lose their mitt as punishment !"

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

"The tintinnabulation is gilded, but is inscribed with a rarefied metal called avenium, which can imbue physical object with very high-level spells. I once heard that a sword with avenium runes can hold back more power than the ten best steel brand. Knight rings are inscribed with a spell that creates another world where items can be stored."

"How many item ?"

"I heard it can store up to the Same exercising weight as the one who caries it, but you only feel the weight of the ring."

Noah put on the ring and channeled some of his mana into it. It was a strange feeling, like he had just put his hand into a stuff bag. He could see his deal, but not the objects he was touching. He felt a minuscule feeding bottle and closed his script around it. The ring acknowledged that as a ***********ion and materialized the feeding bottle. It was wide of a lily-livered liquid, probably some form of potion, or it could just be olive oil.

"This'll come in handy."

"Just wearing that ring is a dangerous crime !"

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

The quietus of the day was spent in those drab tunnels, searching for commodity. By the clock time he had faced the bugbear, most of the early hobgoblin had already been killed, so there was petty resistance. They found the bulk of their booty down in the grim chamber, where the hobgoblin appeared to have been sleeping. The goblins were excellent stealer, stealing whatever they could get their manpower on with travelers being their favorite fair game. There were weapon stash, bag and barrels of food, ropes and range, dress and armour, plenty of tools, and a low portion in coins. He even found the armor and sword of the knight that the hob tribal chief had killed. This haul was proficient than Noah hoped, and while they couldn't carry all of it, the ring helped pile up the C. H. Best pieces.

When they finally stepped out of the mine, the sun was setting. There could still be hob in the woods, making their way to the mine after a day of search, so the trio wasted no time getting a condom distance to lay down camp. A tree, nearly as thick as a shoal bus, offered them shelter. They bedded down at its Qaeda with its raised beginning acting as walls and a fervency warding off anything that might try to snipe during the nighttime.

dinner was traveller's rations, the standard food for anyone encampment in the Wilderness. While he ate, Noah examined all of the particular in the ring. There were numerous potions, save sets of men's clothes, some tools and tongue, rations, and a few gold coins. He took a closer look at the armour and brand that the knight had been using. There wasn't much he could do with the armour. Minus some dental plate he could use on his blazonry and legs, it was impractically heavily for his fighting expressive style, and considering how exorbitant the punishment was for wearing the tintinnabulation, getting caught with it would probably be a bad idea. Hopefully the blacksmith would be leave to buy it.

The steel, on the other deal, was a definite loot. It was a longsword like Noah's break out one, but with an flowery guard and grip, as well as a line of runes going up the blade, inked with avenium. There was a trance imbued within it, he could feel the conjuring trick, but it didn't react to his mana the way the tintinnabulation did. It was probably illegal for him to possess, so it would be best kept in the tintinnabulation, but once away from prying eyes, it would be an excellent trump circuit card once he figured out how it worked.

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

"Several long time. Why ?"

"I was just making conversation. You said you studied several dissimilar schools of fight. Who taught you ? Where did you get your lessons ?"

"The townsfolk I grew up in, there were stack of former adventurers willing to fleet their skills on."

"And your parents ?"

"I haven't seen them since I set off from home to make believe my fortune."

"So, do you—"

"I suggest you stop for a moment and ponder why I'm not asking you inquiry about your life or trying to get to know you."Noah glared as him, unblinking."Think hard."cuss 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 head off risk and reach the workshop before they closed for the night. It would take up them most of the day to return to Baron Clive of Plassey, and that was without all the weighting they were carrying, so they had to try and maintain a goodness pace. By around midday, they reached a great open pasture, but before they could cross it, a score was made.

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

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

"Well we've made considerable distance, and I believe it's about tiffin time. for sure, let's stop here for a break."

Tin and cuss settled at the edge of the pasture under the shade of a tree and prepared luncheon. While they worked, Noah took a walk through the field to make indisputable there weren't any predator in concealment. It was when he reached the centerfield that he stopped, hearing something. It was not the rustling of grass or the growling of a wolf, but the neighing of horses. He looked into the space and saw four men on horses break resign of the wood and extend towards him with their swords drawn. Bandits ?

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

Tin didn't understand, but when she heard the sawbuck in the distance and the roaring of the approaching men, she hurried to her groundwork and dragged swearing into the woodwind. With them out of the way, Noah faced the oncoming enemies.

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

He was rendered invisible while he sent off his knockoff, 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 ringer like a puppet on strand, and while it moved, he put the knight ring on his finger and activated it, materializing his bow and an arrow. It took him a moment to aim and spill, striking the archer in the chest of drawers and sending him tumbling off his horse.

The other horsemen realized their Friend had been killed, but there was no time to search for the enemy Sagittarius the Archer. They had to conclude in on the young man with the steel. They tried to run him down with their leaf blade outreached, but before they could chance upon their fair game, another one of their ranks was taken out with a well-placed shot. The two remaining men swung at Noah's clone, but for the sake 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 knockoff. He was wise enough to cut his red and flee back into the woods.

"Tin, swearing, you can come out now,"Noah said as he released his magic. They appeared from the woods, seeing Noah with the three horse cavalry standing nearby."Loot the remains and then let's have lunch. The way back to the village will be much prosperous now."

With the horse, they managed to make it back to the Village in the belated afternoon, when about of the shops had closed, but there were still a few out-of-doors that they could sell their loot to.

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

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

"Still, I'm glad you didn't just rap me out and steal my wearing apparel like you said you would. I have to go see my Fatherhood, he must be worried sick."

"I'll expect you to bestow that horse back."

"Yes, yes, I know."

They split up, Oath returning base and Noah and Tin selling their goods. They first went to the blacksmith, as nearly of their commodity were scavenged arm. When Noah laid them all out on the retort, the blacksmith couldn't help but voice his surprise.

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

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

Noah held up a canvass bag and set it on the rejoinder. Its contents had originally been in the pack, but he had emptied it before entering the shop. The blacksmith looked inside and gained a stern look.

"You found this in a hobgoblin den ?"

It was the armor of the slain Utheric knight.

"That's right field, but that was all. I was hoping I could find the sword or band, but they were gone. So, are you interested ? This armour has better brand 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 prissy that you can sell for a lot of money."

The blacksmith mulled it over and released a deep suspiration of resignation. Whether it was money or his artistic instincts thinking of all the things he could make, he couldn't allow the armor to leave the store.

"Fine, what do desire for everything ?"

As usual, bargaining with the blacksmith took a lot of time, but Noah left with several shiny gold coins and a replacement for his longsword. He and Tin moved from shop to shop, selling everything that was left, then Noah took Tin somewhere she did not require, the townspeople jeweler. Unlike other stores, this one had guard duty posted inside and exterior, and all the product was behind a counter, with atomic number 26 bars blocking it off from the client. An old man was sitting at the counterpunch, scrutinizing a jewel.

"Ah, how can I help you ?"

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

"Oh, this of superb quality. Where did you ascertain this ?"

"A goblin den."

"Ah, of course. hobgoblin are brutish, foul tool, but they have a strange destiny when it comes to finding things. This is an sweetening gem."

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

"When grafted to an enchanted item, it boosts the strength of the enchantment. ideate a trick sword that can cut through twice as much as a normal sword. With this imbued into the knob, plow, or blade, it will now be able to cut through four times as much as a rule blade. They are a ducky of nobles, for not only to they improve the enchanted token, but they make them more visually appealing and extravagant, perfective for showing off. At balls and formal issue, you'll find high-level nobles with jewel-encrusted blade on their hips.

Would you be willing to sell it ?"

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

Noah took out the knight gang and slid it across the board, only letting the jeweler see it. At the tidy sum of the gang, 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 armor that went with it."

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

"I'm aware of the penalisation, but you already decided you're leave to take a risk. Cover the runic letter with gilt leaf and set the gem. If it looks in effect and the ring's spell really is enhanced, I'll pay you ten silver coins."

"Twenty."

"Thirteen flatware. seed on, no one out here is going to care about this. You think some royal knights are going to get bursting in ? You could show this to the big businessman and he wouldn't care."

"fine, XV silver."

"Deal."

"I'll have it ready 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 wants to speak with you."

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

"He says it is of corking importance. He also wants to reinforce you for saving me."

Noah looked over to one of the bags hanging off the side of his saddle. It was replete of severed goblin ears. Was he really uncoerced to bring 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 repose of our catch at the inn and lead the way."

After stopping at the inn, they rode out of Town towards the N, to the big businessman's estate. Being a imposing, he was better off than any of the villagers, but his house was far from extravagant, just nicer looking and larger than anyone else's, a countryfied manor, surrounded by flying field that slaves tended to. Leaving their horses in the horse barn in the back, Oath brought Noah and Tin into the mansion and stopped before a set of duplicate doors.

"Father, I've returned with Noah,"he said while knocking.

"Enter."

curse word opened the doors of the secret subject area, and behind the desk, an old man with a foresighted whiskers was filing paperwork on parchment. He looked older than Noah expected, for a son so young. Standing beside him was a woman, dressed as a maid.

"You must be new lord Noah. My son has told me of your great strength and skills. You have my undying gratitude for saving him, and my obedience for your achievement in battle."The king didn't get up to didder Noah's handwriting, but that was to be expected of a noble.

"You are very receive, lord 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 big businessman drew a sack of coins, likely silver medal, and handed them to Noah.

"I appreciate it. While we're on the bailiwick, I also have numerous hobgoblin auricle that I'd like receive payment for."

"Ah, of course, of course. You also deserve extra for dealing with that goblin chief. Amelia,"he said, turning to the maid beside him,"please bet up the ears and calculate their defrayment, and please lead my son and this lovely young Lady to the living-room to slack up. Master Noah, if you have time, I would care to speak with you about some important matters."

"Very well, then."

The maid left with swearing and Tin and the doorway were shut behind them. Finally, the mogul got up from his chair and walked over to a whiskey carafe with a set of glasses."Would you give care for a boozing ?"

"I'd love one."Two glasses were poured and one was handed to Noah. Compared to the Modern earthly concern, the alcohol consumed in these realm was baffling to force down, yet the quality of the whiskey surprised him."Oh, that is good."

The king sat down."I can not give thanks you enough. If my son had perished, that would own been the end of my line."

"I'm sure a man like you could forge up a few inheritor. There are probably some already running around the town."

The top executive gave a bitter chuckle."I suppose we should get down to business. You have already proven yourself a not bad rescuer and safeguard for my son. I would like to hire you to do it again."

"Not more hob, I trust ?"

"Actually, something a little more difficult. I want you to serve him appropriate a donjon crab."

"pardon my ignorance, but I am not familiar with the full term. I come from a acres without such things."

The baron got to his animal foot and began searching a nearby bookshelf."donjon crab are massive terrestrial beings, spending their lives deep beneath the earth. However, they surface from clip to time, poking the tips of their shield out of the ground."

He found the desired book and laid it out on the table, set to a specific page. There were two word-painting, the first of what looked like a hermit crab, with a pointed cuticle several times its own size and no claw. The sec showed the tip of the shell poking out of the ground with a hole in the top, but just that was the size of it of a pharos. Had the artist actually seen a donjon crab fully revealed or was he just going by his imagination ? For a animate being of this size to make a motion underground without being noticed, it would stimulate to rise up from under the land's crust. A few day ago, the town had experienced an quake. That must have been the crab louse rising to the surface.

"Because they dwell so deep in the soil, they accumulate precious metal and gems inside their shell, which form immense inner ear, hence its gens. A man can get rich in one day exploring it."

"But I imagine it's not that easy."

"You'd be right. The casing is teeming with sponge, ants when comparable to the crab, but deadly monster to us humankind. When a crab surfaces, the leech will provide and suit a risk to everyone and everything in the area. No one is quite sure as shooting why dungeon crabs Earth's surface like this. Some believe it does it when the parasites have grown too numerous and it needs to cut their Book of Numbers down, either by setting them loose on the surface or using treasure-hunting humans to cull their universe. Others believe the crabs feed on the world that enter its plate, and use the parasites to kill their target for them. Many believe it simply surfaces to get reinvigorated air, like a whale."

"And you expect us to catch one of these affair ?"

"It's just a figure of speech. To enamour a keep crab louse means to get down to the deepest part of its cuticle, where the most invaluable metal is."

"Avenium, I'm guessing ?"

"Correct. Anyone who can guarantee a cup's Charles Frederick Worth and present it to the kingdom becomes a noble. That's why I need you to help Oath capture it."

"But as your son, isn't curse already set to inherit your title ?"

"curse is… my third son. His oldest pal, Colt, was raised and groomed to be my successor, and the second one-time, master, was raised to be the successor if anything happened to Colt."

"Making Oath the spare of a spare."

The magnate grimaced."He spent his life working the fields while his chum hunted and earned achievements. However, both Colt and Victor died in battle at the starting of spring, so swearing is all I have left. He has a estimable heart…"

"But no talent, attainment, courage, or reputation, and he's a bit of a brick."

"Unlike the son of my younger sidekick, Edwin, a baronet. He is petitioning the realm to rescind my deed of conveyance as power and give it to him and his eldest son. I need to prove that Oath has what it takes to be a baron, and the in effect way to do that is to conquer a dungeon pubic louse. I'm too old to generate another heir and fourth dimension is running out. swearing already has an adventuring party that he trains and competitiveness with, but their skills aren't goodness enough to inhibit a dungeon crab. I would like you to connect their party."

"Why me ?"

"Because you are young. There are numerous older venturer with skills like yours that I can rent, but then my pal will argue that they just conquered the dungeon and handed the dirty money to Oath."

"Which is exactly what you want me to do."

"But the fact that you are immature means that you'll fit right in. No one will question one extra Lester Willis Young man joining my son's party."

Noah gave a miff while weighing his options. On one hand, a political bickering between family fellow member was the in conclusion affair he wanted to get involved in, and there was no telling if he was even skilled enough to successfully conquer a dungeon crab. It was an unnecessary risk. On the early handwriting, the idea of getting his hired hand on some avenium and early rare metals and gem was a twit theme. He could get enough money to fund any venture he wanted for the rest of his life. Plus, it would get him to the uppercase, and perhaps let him make some valuable connections. There were probably raft of adventurers who would give their right hand arm for the chance.

"Would I be giving orders or receiving ?"

"The team is yours to lead. They're ready to set out whenever you are."

"And how long do dungeon holler normally remain come on ?"

"A couple month. This one appeared several mean solar day ago, thirty mile to the Northeast. It won't be foresighted before its swarming with adventurers."

"Very well, we'll depart in one week. I want to use that time to pass judgment the squad, see if there is anything I can do to fine-tune their skills before we go."

"That would be a blessing."

Noah got up from his place."I have some byplay to take care to tomorrow, but I'll return in the afternoon. Make sure as shooting everyone is assembled."

This time, the baron stood up and shook his paw."Consider it done."

Noah left the subject area and retrieved Tin in the living-room. As they stepped out onto the figurehead porch, swearing came to see them off.

"So my founder talked to you about the keep crab ?"

"That's rectify, I agreed to go along with it. I'll return tomorrow."

"I appreciate it. I'll see you then."

swearword gave a cryptic bow of gratitude, and in the distance, Noah saw a flash of bm, and then get word a phone that he was well used to. It was the sound of an arrow buried cryptical into muscleman and flesh. Launched a second earlier, it would ingest hit Oath public square in the back, but because he bowed, it found its St. Mark in the center of Tin's chest.

Noah didn't say a discussion, but before either swearing or Tin could react, he had already leapt off the porch and was sprinting towards the root of the pointer. He had left his bow with his buck in the stalls, so he'd have to defeat the bravo up close. He could see the man hiding behind a bird-scarer and recognized him as the quartern bandit from originally. They weren't just random vulture, they had been hired to shoot down Oath !

The man nocked another arrow, aimed it at Noah, and fired, but he deflected it with his shield. He closed in, able to see the shock in the man's center as the distance between them vanished with terrifying speed. He reached the man, drawing his new brand, and beheaded him before he could even turn around to run.

The consistence hit the primer coat, but Noah had already left, sprinting back to the residence. There, on the porch, swearing was gathered with several servants, giving her one healing potion after another, as despite the removal of the arrow and the injury closing, she wasn't getting better. Noah could see it, her veins blackening, her flesh getting pale, and every breath seeming to do her infliction. Everyone moved aside and Noah embraced Tin, cradling her head.

"It was a poisonous substance pointer. We don't know what was used, we have no antidote for it. Noah, I'm so sorry !"Oath exclaimed, shedding the tears that Noah should accept. Instead, he just stared at Tin, his space muteness unnerving those around him.

Tin looked into his eyes."Master…"she whimpered."Please, I want to go back to our elbow room. I want to go back to our bed and eternal sleep beside you. I want to avail you direct your magic. I want to take the air with you through the Wood and hear more story. There is so a good deal 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 capitulum. With the last few spark of energy, Vide Cor Meum began to play, slowing her tears."It will be peaceful, I promise. Just let the voices take you there,"he said.

He cupped her cheek and she smiled. That mite was all she needed."Thank you for making my aliveness a beautiful one,"she whispered. Then she closed her eye listened to the song, soon releasing her final exam breath as the endure notes played out.

All was mute, no one knowing what to say. tail began to grovel into Noah's mind, a cruel voice making him shake. ‘ Great, now I have to do everything myself…'He shook the articulation aside.

"Noah…"swearword began.

"I'm going to bury her. Give me a blanket to wrap her in and a spadeful. I'm not asking."His spokesperson, it didn't shiver at all, and there was no unwieldiness in his words.

"We'll take care of the grave, you should—"

There was the svelte vellication on Noah's face. The geartrain in his intellect were grinding together."I'm not burying her here. I know a proper place."

The servants rushed to fulfil his order, bringing out a diffuse quilt that Noah knew Tin would have liked. He wrapped her in the quilt and carried her to the stable, getting onto his horse cavalry with her and being given a shovel.

The susurration came back. ‘ I'll just throw her into the woods.'Again, he forced the voice out of his mind."I won't be back for a day or so."

Cradling Tin, he gave his knight a kick and it took off with a cry. The sun had set, the woods now at their about dangerous, but Noah didn't hesitate to devolve on down a familiar route and into the wild. For hours, his horse galloped through the afforest. When it tired, he would reach it piss and a health potion to bushel its stamina, but that was the only when time he stopped. Monsters routinely tried to aggress him, but he ended their living with his bow. As the moon moved across the sky, Noah, holding Tin in his weaponry, felt the warmth slowly leave her dead body.

It wasn't just the ogre outside that were attacking, but the ones in Noah's head. Evil whispers flooded his thinker, trying to get him to turn back.

‘ She's just a slave.'

‘ I should just go home.'

‘ There is no point in risking my life.'

‘ Nothing matters.'

‘ It's all meaningless.'

It felt like all of his muscleman were just loosely within his control condition, and if his focus broke, his eubstance would act against his will, throwing Tin aside and riding back to the Greenwich Village. He had to draw himself forward, despite every selfish instinct trying to hold him back.

Finally, when the night was at its darkest, he reached the desired place. It was the waterfall that he and Tin had camped at. There were some wolves drinking from the river, but he scared them off and ignored the small goo crawling around. The area itself hadn't changed in the last few weeks. There were still the cadaver of the fires he had made, and the clay basin was undamaged.

He tied his buck to a tree and lit a torch, holding it while he carried Tin. ‘ I'll just dump her and go.'He brought her behind the waterfall, where there was a small dry surface area with plenty of river silt, deposited by the falls. He dug down as deep as he could, forcing aside any intellection to give up and spare himself effort. He laid her down on the cold earth and opened up the blanket, looking at her one last time. She looked peaceful, almost subject. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver 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, holding the coin.

‘ What am I doing ?'

‘ This coin is valuable.'

‘ I shouldn't just throw it away like this.'

He climbed out and buried her, then built a pile of rocks on her tomb so that no animal would dig her up. Finally, he turned to the I. F. Stone bulwark at his face and began carving Tin's name into it with her dagger. The starting line were deliquium, but they wouldn't be simply washed away, like if he had simply drawn the letters on with a careen.

TIN

Those three little letters, a little New York minute light in his mind, like a swoon star, told him that they looked lonely, and he focused on that. He should put more than. She'd want that. But what should he write ? What did Tin have in mind to him ? Who was she ? What was she in relation to him ? Did he actually give care ?

TIN

A FREED SLAVE

It was all he could hail up with, but it didn't satisfy him. There had to be something more than. He hadn't loved her, it had been a foresightful time since he loved anyone. Did he even like her ? She was loyal and helpful, and took care of him when he was crazy. He also took care of her. Was that plenty to consider her important to him ? He couldn't tell. He had spent infinite lifespan pretending to be a Quaker, son, a classmate, a coworker, a hubby, even a Church Father. When was the last sentence he actually liked someone and wasn't just wearing the façade of politeness while putting up with them ? When was the last metre he told someone he loved them and wasn't simply lying to their face ?

He had buried so many people, nigh of them more than once. It was hard to differentiate those who were important from those he pretended were important, those who were remembered and those he didn't deem worth remembering. Who mattered to him ? Whose demise mattered ? He had yearn since lost the ability to secern, and was struggling to find it.

Finally, some emotion. Noah punched the rock wall and split the cutis on his knucks."Come on, think !"He shouted those quarrel to himself over and over again. He was scratching at his own mind, trying to get out blood from stone. What had Tin meant to him ? Or at the very least, what would she have wanted to get word ? Noah focused on that, trying to imagine what he could give said to puddle her happy.

TIN

A FREED hard worker

A PRICELESS COMPANION

Satisfied, he stepped out from behind the waterfall. In the eastward, he could see the sky beginning to brighten. He took a seat next to the clay basin, watching the sun come up while he searched his mind for that little twinkling light.

.

.

.

Cooperation

.

.

.

It took a wax day to depend on back to the village, repeating the original 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 celestial horizon. fatigue gripped him, so he went straight to the inn. He took his seat at his usual tabular array and the innkeeper brought two trays of food."I was worried when you didn't show up for dinner last night or breakfast this morning. Where's Tin ?"she asked.

"She died."

The woman 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 past times month, everyone who came for swallow was used to the sight of Noah and Tin eating together. A few people, noticing her absence, wonder just as the innkeeper had, and Noah told them the same affair he told her. His passionless response angered Holly, one of the chambermaid, and she grabbed Noah by the catch and lifted him to his feet.

"She was a nice girl ! Everyone here knows how devoted she was to you ! Don't you dare say something like that about her !"

Noah stared her in the center."Does any of that even thing ?"

Perhaps it was the way he said it, or the chilliness of his heart, but she dropped Noah back to his derriere 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 clock time, when he opened the door, there was no greeting. The candela was lightless and there was no firing in the fireplace. It was just a non-white room.

Noah shut the threshold behind him and went straight to bed. Having gone two days without sleep, he was exhausted, and a deep, dreamless slumber enveloped him.

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

"How much longer are we going to wait ?"The impatient voice came from a vernal man with a halberd on one shoulder and an obvious chip on the other. He was sitting on the straw man porch of the Fault mansion, along with Oath and the two other members of their team, Beth and Mira.

"He said he would be back today, but I know he also has line to attend to,"Oath replied.

"Do you have any idea where he rode off to ?"Beth asked.

"No clue."

"I don't concern how street fighter you say he is,"the man with the halberd said,"if he rode out into those Wood at night, he's dead 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 assassinator and killed him."

"I still call gimcrackery on him taking out three men in that field."

"I looted their corpses myself."

"Oh, there he is !"

On the road leading to the mansion, a galloping horse with its rider could be seen. Noah approached them and climbed off his horse."Sorry I'm late."

"That's the nice band. You look more like a Lord than I do,"said Oath.

It was the horse ring, all done after the town jeweller 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 gimcrack, but sometimes gaudiness had its own magical spell.

"Thanks. Beth, Mira, you're doing well, I see. When did you form this party ?"

"rightfulness after we met you in the woods. We looked around for anyone willing to team 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 lead this team to conquer the keep pubic louse. Before we do that, I need to—"

"You aren't leading anything,"said Trevor."You're not the honcho of us, just the babysitter for the baron's son."

"You're just going to bitch and groan throughout this whole ordeal, aren't you ?"Noah asked.

"shag you. Try giving me orders and I'll shove this halberd up your ass."

Noah took a thick hint and rubbed his synagogue."Ugh, one of you citizenry. This is the hold out thing I need.

Listen, here's what's supposed to happen : you and I spend the next week playing the game where I act as the hindquarters yet empathise self-confidence flesh, and you keep throwing pique scene due to some unspoken ingrained emergence. By the clock time we arrive at the keep crab, you'll hate me more than ever, and almost get us killed, probably with me having to keep open your life. However, your screwup will assist you realize you're full of nothing but bravado and knight shit, and you'll finally decide to listen to me, allowing me to give out your hard outer shell to help you work out your behavioral trouble, which I'm guessing is about your forefather, or feelings of inadequacy, or something along similar lines. We'll capture the dungeon crab and take form a long-lasting friendship of obedience and trust.

Now, that is what is supposed to hap, and as much as I would love to go on that emotional journey with you, I have literally a million better things 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 digest. The loser has to hear and obey the winner until the donjon crab is captured, including an order to leave the party."

Most of what he said went over everyone's psyche, but sign Trevor's affectionateness, he was smarting enough to realize he had just been insulted."You son of a bitch !"he barked as he got to his feet and pointed his halberd at Noah.

"That's the intent. Give it your serious shot, because if you don't use up 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 hands, and enveloping the blade with mana with rune appearing in the air. It was just like the magical spell the goblin chief had used on his sword to increase the strength of his slashes, meaning that getting hit with that halberd would surely be deadly.

"Trevor, stop this ! This is insanity !"Mira implored.

"No, don't get in his way,"said Noah as he removed his ring."The most authoritative lessons hurt the most."

Trevor lunged with a nice form and hurtle his halberd towards Noah. It wasn't just the destructive powerfulness of his halberd, his upper had more than doubled."Mountain-Splitter !"

It was by a slim perimeter, but Noah stepped to the side and the blade missed. He grabbed the shaft of the halberd and delivered a bone-crushing biff to Trevor's nose, causing him to let go and swag back.

"That was a full thrust. I imagine you've spent mint of sentence practicing it."

Trevor's face was pouring descent, but he remained standing and glared at Noah with limitless hatred."Give it back !"

"mulct, 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 time in charging the brand with mana, producing an impressive aura. This meter, instead of a push, he made a full baseball swing."Erasing Cleave !"

Once more, Noah simply backed out of his range, escaping with zero damage. Then, when the coast was clear, he closed in and delivered and uppercut to Trevor's jaw, busting his dentition and making him an even bally mess. This time, Trevor couldn't stay on his invertebrate foot and fell back, trying and failing to check his cry of torment. Looking around, Noah could see the mogul's handmaiden watching from the fields 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 loose to make him a health potion, though."

"I don't need a have it away health potion !"Trevor shouted.

He scrambled to his feet and went at it again. He abandoned the estimate of using magic and attacked Noah with a barrage of rapid-fire stabs. Noah deflected each attack with his shield, and when Trevor tried to get in close for another baseball swing, he once again grabbed the halberd and stopped Trevor from moving. It became a tug of war, but despite Trevor's accumulated forte, Noah maintained his posture.

"You know what I'm going to do now, right ?"Trevor tried to figure out how Noah would bemuse another punch, but instead, he let go of the halberd and sent Trevor falling onto his ass."Your skills with that thing aren't that bad, at least, if you just stand by to hunting goliath, but you'll never hit me with it. Try showing me how soundly you are with your fists."Noah placed his hand on his longsword and slowly drew it halfway."Unless you'd prefer to stick to armed armed combat, in which suit I'll gladly humour you."

Trevor abandoned his halberd and charged, sending a straight right lick towards Noah. Noah caught his fist and then struck his articulatio cubiti, snapping his arm like his os were made of glass. Before Trevor could even call, Noah silenced him with another punch to the nose, 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 brass. The spray woke him up and healed his nose and mouth, though his arm would experience 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 nil but sentence. And we can go whenever you want, this isn't your only chance.

Now I suppose there are a number of shipway we can go about this. We can do the whole emotional journey matter, but the fact that I've explained it kind of takes away the magic. You can just leave the company, I'll give you that option. There's the pick of waiting until I have my back turned and then getting your revenge, which, again, you are disembarrass to do so at any time, but at your own endangerment. Poisoning my food might go, but it would just be you admitting your weaker than me. I suppose your secure choice would be to shut your fucking mouth, accept that I'm stronger than you and fresh than you, and pay attention to what I will teach you, as it will improve your skills and your chances of survival.

From there, we can go to the donjon crab, and you'll easily overcome challenges that would have killed you at your current horizontal surface of speciality. With a salutary amount of effort and coordination, and no shortfall of luck, we'll conquer the keep crab and become plenteous beyond our dotty dreams. There is always the option of betraying us down there and running off with all the pelf, but boy, oh boy, you'd in effect make surely I'm dead, because you don't want me coming after you, you really don't.

So, what do you say ?"

Everyone was understood, waiting to hear Trevor's reply. He was glaring at Noah and taking deep, angry breathes through his nose."You say you can make me substantial ?"

"I guarantee it."

"We conquer the donjon Cancer and we're done, right ? I never have to see you again ?"

"You can retire to some phantasy 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 speak with the baron inside."

Noah stepped onto the porch and entered the planetary house, walking right by the berth where Tin had died."Is the mogul in ?"he asked, addressing one of the maids.

"In his private report, sir. He's waiting for you."

Just as swearing had done the day before, the maiden knocked on the double doors and announced Noah's arrival, with the baron granting entry. The old man was behind his desk."That was quite the spirited match outside. Your attainment are the real deal."

"The substantial skill is producing solution from it."

The baron walked over to his whisky set and poured himself a drunkenness."I'm gladiolus you returned. I'm sorry for the red of your companion."

"Don't worry about it. I already killed your brother and his son."

The looking glass fell from the mogul's helping hand and shattered."What ? !"he exclaimed.

There was an immediate knock on the door."My Lord, is everything fine ?"a butler asked.

Noah's gaze never left the king, without any sense of fear or prevision of what might come next. He simply waited for a chemical reaction. The baron gripped the nook of the desk but managed to contain himself.

"Everything is fine. We are not to be disturbed."When he sensed the butler had left, he turned his tending back to Noah."You wouldn't even give me the fortune to talk you out of vengeance ?"

"It was cypher of the sort."

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

It was midmorning, and Noah had just claimed his ring from the jeweler, the concluding of his morning errands, and with information given by those around town, he now stood before the home of the topical anesthetic baronet. It was in the outskirts of the town, one of the farms, and neither the fields nor the house were on par with the baron. Despite the rank of nobleman, baronet were simply commoners with the prefix ‘ Sir'or ‘ ma'am ’.

He found the Bart repairing a cattle fence behind the house. He was identical to the big businessman, but without the whiskers and sporting few crinkle. Noah was invisible, so the man didn't even notice him approach, but was calm when Noah pressed the steel of his knife to his pharynx and told him to drop the malleus he was using.

"Sir Edwin demerit, I presume ?"

"Who's asking ?"

"Did you hire four men to kill the cuss mistake ?"

"Now why would I try to kill my beloved nephew ?"

"To get your son the rank of baron. But if you aren't going to respond my dubiousness, I suppose I can always ask him, or maybe your wife."

"You must be the cocksucker who saved him from that goblin den. I had to pay that adventurer a unspoilt deal of money to vote out him. To think he'd be such a chickenshit and leave the job to goblins."

"Did your son know about the hit you put on his full cousin ?"

"He would make killed that talentless little terror himself if I hadn't talked him out of it. He didn't do anything. You have a os to pick, put that knife away and let's work out this like men."

Noah's answer came in the form of a runny flick of his wrist joint, severing Edwin's jugular vein and sending him tumbling to the priming coat, trying pointlessly to halt the bleeding. Noah stood by to sustain the demise and then made his way towards the battlefield, where the baronet's son was working.

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

"There was a time when I took heavy joy in making people suffer, and I've been working to commute myself since then. I don't allow myself to kill for pleasure or vengeance, and certainly I didn't kill them for what they did, but what they would continue to do. Associating with you and your son has already cost me the animation of a loyal underling, and I'd rather not cave in anyone the chance to get in my way.

If I were to appropriate them to hold out, they would continue to try and kill you and Oath, and I'd have to clean up the muddle, just like I've been doing since I found your son in that goblin den. The last matter I'd want is to capture the keep and then get ambushed by your buddy's collaborator when we're too tired to contend back. I assume you had forgiven your brother because he is your family, despite his attempts to kill Oath, but you're hiring me to celebrate expletive animated, and if I'm going to do that, it will be done my way.

If you have any objections, state them now."

Ivan didn't respond. He simply slumped in his seat and exhaled deeply. deep down, he knew that his brother had to be dealt with in one form or another, in order for his son to inherit the rank of power. However, even if it had been lose weight before, there was always a chance of rapprochement. He had dreamt of conversing with his pal, as they had a long, retentive clock time ago, and burying the tomahawk. Now that possibility was gone forever. Noah claimed he hadn't acted out of retribution against his pal, but Ivan couldn't aid but feel he was the one being punished.

"I thought as a good deal. Despite your buddy and nephew dying, I'm aware that your son still had little prospect of inheriting your deed of conveyance, so the dungeon capture will proceed as planned. We didn't have the probability to spill about payment for this job, but don't vexation, I'm not interested in money or terra firma. There is something else I want."

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

It took to a greater extent than one healing potion to revive Trevor's arm, and that could only be done when the osseous tissue were reset. He was all patched up by the time Noah made his return.

"I promised the baron we'd set out in a week for the donjon. That was two days ago. For the next five days, I'm going to evaluate each of your accomplishment and see where improvements have been made. first gear, we're going to run some monsters. I want to know your combat skills and see how well you work as a squad. You all have your weapon, so we're going to go now and travel brightness. Any objections ?"

No one said anything, not after watching how he thrashed Trevor. But their silence was not out of fear, rather an awareness that Noah knew what he was talking about. He was the quondam of the chemical group by only a class, but they all sensed he had much Sir Thomas More experience than they did.

"Good, then let's depart. Oath, you know the area. Please lead the way."

"I actually know the location of a magic spawning rophy. Let's head there."

They gathered some supplies and set off into the wilderness, leading a multitude horse to carry back their harvested devil function. From the moment they were enveloped by the iniquity of the Tree, they were vulnerable. The dominion of the monsters was well-established, due much in part to the summoning circle that they spawned from. They only intruded into human being district when there was a shortage of food for thought or their number had grown too capital, issuance that were both solved by the incessant flow of adventurers working to curb their population.

As they walked, Noah spoke to everyone.

"Mira, we talked once before about this. Have you developed any science for close-quarter combat ?"

"I've been training with my staff since then. Oath and I spar a lot when we're not hunting."

"What about magic ?"

"I haven't been able to develop anything for fighting foe up close."

"We'll employment on that. curse, Beth, can either of you use conjuration ?"

"I can't,"said Oath.

"I can make piss, but not in any kind of attack. I use it to satisfy up my water skin."

"Good, we'll definitely want that in the dungeon. You're still using your bow as your principal weapon, right ?"

"Yeah, and I got toxicant for my arrow just like you…"

She trailed off, remembering what Oath had told her. Tin had been shot and killed with a poison arrow. Noah paid no attention to the drop of her speech.

"What about close-range ? Any arm ?"

"I use a knife."

"good. Trevor, you can touch off conjuration when you thrust and swing your halberd. Anything else ?"

"Nope, the halberd is all I can use."

Noah had picked up some food waste of info on the different branches of magic in this man, and Trevor appeared to be in the warrior division, just like the hobgoblin chief. Warriors could only trigger their attainment with specific weapon, which depended on the person. He wasn't exaggerating when he said the halberd was all he could use. He couldn't trigger off his illusion with any other weapon.

"We're here,"said oath. He then stopped in his racetrack."On back thought, I think we should rick back."

Noah looked ahead. On the forest floor, he could see a turgid magic circle, consisting of runes and classify shapes. Standing in the lot was a put up the size of it of a minivan. However, its torso was faint, translucent, like it was just a hologram, but with each passage moment, its color deepened.

‘ Is it teleporting ? No, it's solidifying. The circle is converting mana into physical 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 fixture bears what that hobgoblin was to regular goblins. We should get out of here before it attacks. This is a slight bit out of our league."

"No, it's perfect tense. We'll wait for it to finish spawning and then pick out it on. For all we know, the dungeon could have far worse monsters."

"All right, then let's take formation,"said Oath.

"Wait for it to attack us. Taking your sentence in setting up a firing squad while it spawns won't give often experience or information."

It took only a hour for the bear to fully materialize, immediately spotting Noah and the grouping and labeling them as foe without any form of hesitation or confusion. It released a roar of fury and charged, signaling the start of the engagement. Noah kept his aloofness while the group spread out, surrounding the bear. Beth nocked a toxicant arrow in her bow and shot the bear in the cervix. It turned to her and snarled, about to lash out with its claws, but swearing attacked from the face and slashed at its shoulder with his steel. The beast's fell was tough, and Noah couldn't William Tell if the attack had actually done any damage. Enraged, the bear knocked curse word aside. Like Noah, he was wearing leather armor, and while it stopped the bear's claws from reaching his shape, the armour itself was nearly destroyed by that one swipe.

"oath !"Mira cried out.

Trevor stabbed the bear in the thigh with his halberd, and while he drew a yowl of annoyance from the beast, it hadn't forgotten the arrow in its neck and attacked Beth. It was faster than she expected and it knocked her to the ground, with her bow wedged between its jaws keeping it from biting her. She was crying in anguish as it weighed down on her, spit from its mouthpiece splashing on her look with its monolithic fangs inching closer and closer.

"Guillotine jive !"

Trevor swung his halberd like he was splitting Natalie Wood, and the axe blade, glowing with sorcerous power, dug deep into the bear's back, though it missed the spine.

"solid ground billow !"

Having gathered her mana, Mira struck the ground with her staff. The surrounding soil, not gripped by the tree roots, was gathered together and slammed into the bear like a mudslide, knocking it off Beth. The bear was slow up to get back on its feet, as its strength was fading with each lost dip of blood and the toxicant was taking its price. Regardless, it still could crush the skulls of the nerveless humans with a single swing of its mighty paw.

swearword was back on his feet and charged with a shout of decision and his blade raised high. Seeing him coming, the bear reared back on its hind legs, and despite his zip just moments ago, the sight of the towering beast robbed Oath of his courage. He was paralyzed with awe and the bear swung at him. Instinct saved his spirit, the instinct to raise his brand and block up the flack, though the personnel still slammed him into the ground. An arrow was buried in the bear's chest before it could attack again, managing to thrust a lung, and Trevor stabbed it in the stomach.

The bear fell back and rolled onto its ramification, roaring in frenzy but then breaking down into a fit of bloody coughing. Beth fired a third arrow, striking the shoulder joint, 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 injury's way. With Trevor and Beth continuing to wail on the beast, its life was soon extinguished. Its massive body collapsed and swearword and his champion released their held breath.

Noah, who had been observing, got up from the tree rostrum that had been his seat and approached, and while everyone patched themselves up, he severed the suffer's backbone with his brand to make trusted it was dead.

"Congratulations 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 biggest challenge. Your disorganization was."Noah took out his knife and began carving into the bear to take away its pelt. He looked only at his oeuvre, but he continued to lambaste them."You surrounded it on all slope, which, while estimable when facing something minor and prone to running, left Beth and Mira defenseless. Don't split up like that unless it's something that each one of you can physically handle. Beth, deliberate all the sentence that you spent pinned. That was all time you could accept spent firing arrow had you and Mira kept your length. Though speech production of arrows, your aim was very good, both that shot to the cervix and to the dresser. But from now on, the two of you should advert back while Oath and Trevor fend the enemy off.

swearword, when you first attacked, what were you aiming for ?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to inflict some damage."

"You should have gone for the head teacher. With a monster of that sizing, did you opine a flesh wound or muscle damage would kill it ? Unless they're well protected, you should always aim for the vital spots. Swing at the header, stab at the breast. Same with you, Trevor. When you attacked its back, were you aiming for its spur ?"He didn't respond."I'll take that as a no. get hold of aim with your plan of attack, and not just at openings in your opponent's safeguard. You should try studying anatomy, name out where the most lively points are. You went at the belly, that was bright. It's subdued and hard to protect, but you stabbed too low. You should sustain gone higher, towards the liver, or at to the lowest degree the stomach.

Mira, you did well in getting Oath out of peril. However, you waited too yearn to regurgitate your spells. I see that you developed a new spell, and while it did manage to get the bear off Beth, it was a larger-scale piece not suited to the forest. I remember you once told me you can create a dust cloud and send careen flying ? You should possess stuck with that. A bit of detritus could take in blinded the bear and maybe even hindered its signified of smell, and a rock or even hard-packed poop can inflict plenty of pain when striking the head or the crotch.

And expletive, you know what I'm going to say, don't you ? You choked, and your fault put the lives of your friend in danger. It was instinct that saved your spirit. You need to make these kinds of decisions faster. Before we head to the keep crab, we'll have to rectify that. Now, all of you give me a bridge player. This bear is going to avail fund our preparations."

Everyone joined in, helping to remove the have a bun in the oven's hide as entire as possible. When it was done, Noah placed his hand on the hide and tried to seal off it in his ring. The enhancement jewel had doubled the carrying capacity of the ringing, but the skin was so heavy that the ring was refusing to admit it. He'd have to transfer some matter first.

Noah held out his handwriting and closed his finger around an inconspicuous handgrip. A sword appeared in his traveling bag, the blade that he had taken from the hobgoblin. He had even found the sheath that went with it, something that the even goblins wouldn't have been chic enough to take. It was much turgid than his broadsword, and he had assumed its size might be useful against a declamatory enemy. Oath, who knew both the real identity and mightiness of Noah's closed chain and what it was known for, was exempt from the voices of amazement the others made. Even Trevor was shocked by the huge sword appearing out of thin air.

"Oath, where did you get your sword ?"

"Uh… it was my granddad's."Oath stuttered, feeling an machinelike sensation of peril by being queried by soul who had just revealed a sword.

"May I ?"Noah held out his hand and oath reluctantly handed it over. Noah looked it over. He was an experienced blacksmith once, a week-long learning course at a metalwork school day that turned into a career, though while his memories were a bit fuzzy, he could still recognize the craftsmanship put in. However, his direction wasn't on the real caliber of the alloy, but the length of the handle. It was a bastard sword, otherwise known as a hand-and-a-half, which could be held with either one deal or two.

"It's good. And your father said you grew up working the battleground, right ? passel of plowing and clearing trees ?"

"Yes, that's right."

"I want you to try using this hobgoblin sword for a patch. Swinging a hoe or an axe require leveraging, leverage that your granddad's sword can't give you with the distance of its handle. Your custody are too close together and it's throwing off your center of graveness when you hold it. This larger sword will allow you continue your hands farther apart and provide a more exchangeable motion."

He handed both swords to Oath, but he only took his grandfather's brand."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 sword and hung it across his back.

"Ok, let's change our strategy a slight. We'll take the organisation of a W, with curse word in the center, me and Trevor at the sides, and Beth and Mira in the back."

It would throw everlasting if they could defend another sledgepaw bear and compare strategy, but considering its rarity, it would probably be a long sentence before it respawned. They set off instead to incur more monstrosity, not having to hike long before coming across a large number of wolves. They took constitution and stared the beasts down, all armed and ready to fight.

"Beth and Mira, you two are our independent variant of blast. The three of us are just a shield. You'll have to focus on not getting us caught up in your attacks."

"Right !"They both replied.

pointer began flying past Oath's decently side and John Rock and pieces of wad earthly concern were flying past his left hand. The skirt chaser were caught off safeguard and several were left stunned or injured. A wolf standing directly in front of Oath managed to avoid the onslaught and leaped towards him. Oath swung his sword, nearly losing his counterbalance and falling over. However, though the weight unit was much greater than any hoe or axe he had used, it wasn't the cause. It was the repose he felt, the lilt now more reminiscent of a familiar motion, and he was able to use muscle computer memory to squall out corking posture and acquisition. The ease robbed him of his stress like he had removed free weight from his articulatio humeri, causing him to stumble. The brand carved through the airborne wolf like a buzz saw, nearly slicing it in two.

At the same clock time, the wolves that were still on their foot scattered to try and flank the group. Two ran towards Trevor, and the initiatory, attacking from above, ended up getting impaled on the gig tip of his halberd. The second tried to close in, using the death of the first as a distraction, but Trevor swung his halberd down and buried the axe sword in the wolf's back.

On the early side of meat, three charged towards Noah. The first pounced, sending Noah dodging to the side and then beheading it with a downwards swinging. He spun around, thrusting into the bit skirt chaser's chest as it pounced from above. The third tried to assail from his blind spot, but drew his short steel and cleaved its skull open.

All that was left were the woman chaser stunned by the opening attack, but they had been dispatched with Beth's arrows. The only engagement had taken a handful of second gear, causing curse and his friends to all substitution shocked glances. 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 wolves of their hides and collected all early valuable torso share, then continued their journey. There was still passel of time before they'd have to set up camp, so they wanted to get as practically hunting done as they could. As they traveled through the forest, the spark of excitement filled them. Now that the young adventurer had improved their strategy, they wanted to see how else they might get stronger, and what this new cost increase would tolerate them to do. They were hiking through a hilly area, sticking only to the plane footing for the sake of their horse. It was when they were traveling along a flood plain that Noah stopped them, his eyes glued onto the nearby James Jerome Hill and a large fallen tree.

"aspect over there. See the ground where the dirt and leaves have been disturbed ? Goblins probably laid a snare and are hiding behind that log. Mira, can you plunge one of your magical spell to try and smoke them out ?"

"It's a picayune far, but I'll try."She stabbed the earth with her staff."Earth Bind !"

Like a crack cocaine splitting ice, a visible line of reasoning ran through the surface of the earth over the area behind the log. There was the sound of shrieking and several goblins scurried out from their hideout, 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 assail one of the dust goblins. From behind the trees around the log, Thomas More goblins appeared, howling like scalawag. They charged Ithiel Town the Hill, a XII of them, with two hanging back with their own bows.

"Beth, take out the bowman. Mira, try to funnel them so that they don't flank us. swearing, if more than one hob attacks you at once, don't do another downward separatrix. It'll leave you heart-to-heart. Trevor, don't let the momentum of your swing music take you out of position."

No one questioned him, and as Beth waged a long-distance exchange with the Sagittarius the Archer up the hill, Mira created quarry and blade of earth that burst up along the flank of the goblin legion. They swarmed for Noah, expletive, and Trevor. The libertine goblin reached Trevor and dropped a nine towards his head. Trevor swung his halberd, and while the blade failed to expunge the goblin, it did get caught on the grip, hurling it towards swearword, who dispatched it with a cleave. He then swung his sword from the side like Trevor had done, catching two hob in the tabernacle and slicing off the top of their skulls.

At the end, Noah was stabbing and slashing any goblin that came near. He overpowered them whenever they tried to freeze and every lilt of his steel sent blood splattering across the nearby tree. A hob arrow planted itself in his tummy, nearly sending him tumbling to the reason. His leather armor had slowed it down a bit, so it didn't pass his reed organ, but as someone who had been shot numerous multiplication, getting hit with the splintery goblin arrow hurt a lot more than most bullets.

"Mira, I'm hit. I need a detritus cloud !"

"R-right !"

She stuttered momentarily, but regained her calm and sent all of the dry filth around the hobgoblin airborne, blinding them and leaving them coughing. He only had a duo present moment, so Noah ripped out the arrow with a hushing of pain and spurt of blood and poured a healing potion on the wound. As his flesh stitched back together, the goblins managed to assoil their eyes of the dust and resumed their charge, but just like before, Noah mowed them down. The battle was over in less than a minute of arc. Once again, cuss and his ally exchanged glances of excitement.

A few battle later, the setting sun put an end to their hunt for the day, and they set up clique between a cluster of big trees for protection from monsters and flatus. They built up a blast in the center of attention and cooked inwardness from the slain bear. They hadn't packed any food for thought with them, so they could only eat what they collected. dinner was eaten mostly in secretiveness. Noah was new to the group and they hadn't gotten used to him yet, so the others couldn't immediately talking at their usual colloquial depth.

Between bites, Noah took out a canteen replete of H2O and added some pine needles from his air hole. metallic element bottles were more expensive than glass feeding bottle and urine hide, so everyone noticed when he set it next to the fire.

"You're making tea with pine needles ?"Mira asked.

"pine tree needles facilitate ward off low even better than lemons."

"Really ? Where'd you hear that ?"

"Just something I picked up."

"Where can I pick up interesting stuff like that ?"Beth complained."Where did you learn to fight monsters ?"

Noah thought back through all of the illusion novels and role-playing plot he had enjoyed over the years."That ? That was just intuition."It would be best to lurch the conversation away from himself.

"What are you going to do after the dungeon Cancer the Crab ?"she then asked.

"That question seems like bad destiny, don't you think ? They say that when men plan, God laughs. What about you ? You get to become a baronial if you capture a dungeon. You could be set for animation. swearing is going to inherit his father's title. Are you also aiming for nobleness ?"

"I'm going to restrain traveling and exploring,"said Beth.

"I just want to pee enough money to settle down and part a family,"Mira added.

curse's hereafter had already been laid out, so next it was supposed to be Trevor, but he didn't show any sake in even acknowledging the head.

"I have no interest in becoming a Lord,"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 possess to do with anything ? You're old enough now that you can set out on your own. You've found your gift with that blade. hold on being an adventurer. Do whatever you want to do."

"Isn't my Father 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 wrists. I just want to make water for certain you have a solid reason so that you won't choke up. So, go on, tell us the really reason."There was an inapt silence, during which Noah carefully retrieved his canteen, which had come to a simmer."Unless, of course, you already gave us the actual reason. Your founder wants this, and you want to do him happy."

"Is that really such a strange desire ?"

"You want him to finally treat you like he did your brothers. You want reconciliation, to make everything right so that all the days of neglectfulness can be made up for, that it was all worth it."

"For soul judging, you sound like you have experience."

"No, I was the opposite. My dad was wish yours. He thought a parent's love life had to be earned and wouldn't admit failure. If I wasn't the best, then I wasn't his son. Unfortunately, I didn't fear, and I told him that. I told him that his blessing meant nil to me. I never had any intention of making him proud."In actuality, he had several fathers who followed that mindset. It was a personality type that made an show every now and then.

"What happened ?"Beth asked.

"Oh, he hit me, respective times. Yeah, he went nuts."

"So what did you do ?"

‘ I waited until he turned around and then I stabbed him in the spine. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.'“ I left home and became an adventurer."He took a slow sip of his tea."You have to figure out your own reason for doing things, your own reason for living. Neither your parents nor God can give 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 impression that is faint and thin, it'll fall apart in your hired hand and you'll have nothing."

The encampment went dumb, everyone staring into the fire rather than aim the hazard of making eye contact with someone else. Beth, no longer eating, hugged her human knee to her chest."My father was actually an adventurer. He taught me how to hit a bow and always told me of his adventure. Sometimes he'd disappear for workweek at a time, but he would always come home late and dark, when I was asleep. We had a game where he would hide under my bed, just before first light, and went I'd step onto my base, he'd catch my ankle joint and pretend to be whatever monster he had just fought. It made me a light sleeper, because I'd always try to find out him hook in and catch him."

"I wish I knew my don,"said Mira, trying to keep the conversation going.

Like before, it became Trevor's turn, but he still showed no interest group in participating. They then realized that he had already fallen asleep.

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

They set out at daybreak the side by side aurora to continue hunting, while making their way back to townspeople. Just like the day before, their new establishment proved unstoppable against the monsters of the forest, and they found themselves carrying so much loot that it was draining their stamina faster than the engagement. They had to take patronize stops, and as usual, Noah would use that time to gather valuable plants.

At last-place, they broke out of the cover of the forest, now trekking across farmland with the village not far off. Despite their fatigue, their life were in high spirits. The sun was setting and their tripper had been both productive and informative"I think we should just go straight to the dungeon pubic louse tomorrow,"said Oath."We're already substantial 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 exercise to increase physical forcefulness and mana taciturnity. All of our loot from this stumble is going to fund it."

Upon arriving to town, they first stopped off at the local anesthetic tannery to trade off the hide. The possessor of the shop, a skinny man who struggled to grow a decent byssus, Luke, met them as they entered his computer memory. 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 dewy-eyed stench and now had its own taste, a very gamey flavor. It annoyed Noah every meter he stopped by.

"Mr. Noah, I haven't seen you lately. And the immature schoolmaster, I'm glad to see you are doing well. What have you come with today ?"

"We have pelts to sell, including a special piece."

All of the woman chaser and other hides were stacked on the tabulator, with the close, belonging to the sledgepaw bear, having to be laid out on the floor like a rug.

"A sledgepaw ? And in such good condition ! This is definitely a rarified find !"

"We fought it as soon as it finished spawning,"said Oath."That's as fresh as it gets."

Luke bent down and examined the fell, paying close attending to wounds created during the battle."And there doesn't appear to be too a lot damage… I can give you two gold coins for everything."

"Two and half ?"Noah asked.

"Two, that's my limit. This thing has some big cuts in it."

"Fine."

The exchange 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 goblin arm to the blacksmith, and anything else that they had managed to collect, though their terminal full point was the druggist, and rather than selling, Noah was buying. Oath and the others stood back and watched as he ordered armfuls of different plants for sale with the old womanhood watching him with an eye of interest.

"I'll also take every health and mana potion you're willing 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 home and begin training. I'll use these plants to whisk up lots of potions."

The group split up, with expletive and Trevor heading off their respective rest home, 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 table that Noah sat at was restrained. He ate dinner party quickly and went up to his elbow room. By candlelight, he ground up the plants he had bought and mixed them together. He had a longsighted inclination of potions and puppet to pull in for this dungeon adventure, so even his dark would be busy. An hr after he started, he heard a knocking at the door. He answered with his knife in mitt but out of sight, as was natural. He opened the room access to see Beth standing there, a grin on her face that was coy, nervous, stimulate, and embarrassed, all mixed together.

"I wanted to secern you again how sorry I am to get a line that about Tin. But just because she's gone, that doesn't mean your Night have to be lonely. I want to know the legend that everyone in town has been talking about."

An honest smiling, rare for Noah, crossed his grimace. However, it was more in amusement than lust."That seems like something that would really institute us some bad luck later, considering the whole dungeon pubic louse thing."

"What ?"

"zilch. As much as I would care to say yes, it would be best if we both went straight for bed, considering the breeding I have planned. Plus, I still have a lot of potions to make."

Her emotional state were deflated, but she wasn't ready to give up."Are you sure I can't convert your judgement ?"

"I'm surely. But if you still have military capability tomorrow after dinner, then I'll happily indulge you."

"I'll look forward to it."She then gave him a wink and went back to her room.

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

"The preparation I have in judgment will consist of long school term of muscularity training and then magic training in a physically use up body politic, replenishing strength with potions, and repeating the process."Noah addressed Oath and his friends in movement of the big businessman's mansion. By his side were a gravid sack good of red and downcast potions, as well as some other mixture."It's a combination of two workout function I've created."

Mira looked away for a moment, pondering something. She then perked up in jounce."That's what was happening with you and Tin at the inn !"

swearword, Beth, and even Trevor looked at her, taking a moment to litigate what she had said, and then swerving their eyes back to Noah like a car drifting around a street corner. Oath had forgotten that little fact, and Trevor, resigned to bearing a silent grievance, was remembering those rumors he had heard and finally feeling a bit of respect towards Noah.

Noah let a small laugh flight."Yeah, that's right hand. My theory is that mana output is a combination of strong-arm and spectral energy. When your spiritual mana can't keep up with the demand, your physical mana picks up the falloff, but it means your disembodied spirit gets only piece of the welfare of preparation. Therefore, the best way to discipline your spirit's rate of production 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 effective. Tin was assisting me with the spending of strong-arm energy."

"All morning ? !"

"I have a lot of staying power, which is the resolution of the early exercise function. Over a long menstruum of time, I've mastered respective different forms of drill and refined them to target brawn development in a particular way. People and other large brute have three kinds of muscle : red muscularity, which is muscle that is great for stamina and running ; white musculus, which is muscularity for forcible business leader and volatile force ; and pink brawniness, which is a combination of both. My routine focal point on producing pinkish musculus. Unfortunately, sex isn't the employment routine, God, though I wish it was.

Oath, I saw you struggling to lift your new sword, but making unadulterated slashes every meter. Because of all the time you've spent swinging a hoe or an axe, neither of which is very expectant, you have a lot of red muscleman, which lets you go for a long clock time up to a certain limit.

Trevor, I noticed your movements decline faster than cuss, despite expending a similar total of muscularity. Your stabs and slashes, while initially quite powerful, made a calm decline. You have too much flannel muscle, which lets you carry more than Oath, but not as far."

To expletive, it made sense. He had yet to see Noah truly fatigued, not after clearing the goblin den or even when they returned to the village the old day. At the same time, he was able to slice through monsters and carry their remains with neat persuasiveness. The others had noticed it as well, another family in which he outclassed them.

"Wait a second, if that was your"exceptional mana training"you were doing with Tin, then that means you can use thaumaturgy,"said Beth."You told us you couldn't."

"I wasn't sure I could trust you when we first met. I was leave to severalise you how to earn yourselves substantial, but not how to realize me weaker."

"You've been hiding magic this whole time ? But we showed your ours !"Trevor yelled.

"And let that be a lesson to you in the future tense. The sooner your enemy knows about your military posture, the Oklahoman they know about your failing. When meeting new the great unwashed, conceal your power until the stopping point second, because that moment might be a battle. However, since you followed me on that hunting trip and are willing to undergo my physical exercise routine, I believe that it's only bonnie to lay my notice on the table."

He covered his eye and disappeared, drawing shouts of surprise from everyone.

"Noah ? !"swearing exclaimed, looking around for him.

Noah released the illusion and they all yelped again."I can establish myself invisible. When I first unlocked this ability, I could only do it for a few seconds at a time. After a month of preparation, I could do it for more than five minutes."He'd continue his secondly magic spell secret, as well as the genuine length he could hold the both of them for. His confidence in them was still in its infancy.

"I've never seen or even heard of a magic like that before. Maybe some variety of holy spell ?"Mira muttered.

Her words took away a lot of his nervousness. He still knew so petty about the conjuration in this world, there was no telling how vulgar powers like his might be. For all he knew, this lie might gain him await piteous. 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 bottle replete of a cat valium liquid and tossed one to Oath and each of his acquaintance."beverage that, it's a piddling something I whipped up from the plants I bought yesterday, along with some honey. It'll generate you a small extra energy. These next few daylight are going to be exhausting."

.

.

.

Forging intensity level

.

.

.

Pained gasps.

A feminine whimper.

"Oh God !"

Beth collapsed, fighting for every hint 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 heart full of hatred."You're a behemoth,"she hissed.

A clear, unshakable flow was produced, arching onto the land with a splash.

"Oh, she broke her disc !"said Oath.

"I wish my mana would grow that fast !"Mira complained.

The piss spurting from Beth's fingertip trickled to a halt. She rolled onto her back, feeling like the hard road underneath her was now as indulgent as the king's mattress. It was the moment day of Noah's preparation, midmorning, and he was running laps with Oath and his Quaker around the demerit estate. Since yesterday, this what they had been doing with virtually of their clock time, running almost day-and-night. 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. curse word 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 restore her stamen a bit. While she recovered, Oath, Mira, and Trevor sucked in air. This was the solely break they got, when somebody collapsed.

"I'm starving, can we eat lunch now ?"Trevor asked.

"I can't even think of food,"Oath groaned.

They all complained throughout the whole ordeal, but in true statement, no one had yet given up and refused to go any further. Despite their anguish, they didn't give in. It wasn't to prove their decision, rather it was the mere fact that Noah's method were producing effect. Just the day before, at the same metre, if Beth cast her patch, it would experience just been a few drops falling from her digit, less of a jet and more of a leaky faucet. Also, everyone's stamen was increasing noticeably. Thanks to the wellness potions, they could execute weeks of day-by-day exercise and recovery in a number of hr, compressing the rate of betterment so it was much more obvious.

"Yeah, I'd say so. I'm on my shoemaker's last peg too."

oath and the others groaned in succor and began throwing down everything they carried, as well as stripping off any armor. Noah was making them run in all of their adventuring gear with their weapons in hand, and in fourth dimension, he'd incorporate weights to fix them for carrying the keep pubic louse's gem. There was a field nearby, but they didn't care and squatted down right in the middle of the road to eat. It was on the top executive's estate, so there wasn't the worry of traffic.

They each carried lunch made by the maids and were chowing down like sharp-set animals. Even Noah was giving in to his hunger and stuffing his facial expression. But as he ate, his eyes swept over everyone in the radical. This workout was definitely vivid, shredding heftiness and then immediately repairing them. In this example, the antidote was worse than the poison, according to the townspeople druggist. He had spoken to her the morning after he returned to Clive while on his way to nibble up his ring.

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

"victimization potions for exercise ? It would be a unspoilt idea if it wasn't such a bad idea,"the old woman said. As always, she stared Noah down, looking at him through the fastball of her pipe.

"I can't imagine I'm the beginning somebody to conceive of using them this way. What I want to know is if there are any dangerous effects. You always have them in line of descent, so getting the factor isn't an issue."

She took a trench inhale and released a enceinte smoke cloud."There is a downside."

"Am I going to make to pay you to find out what it is ?"

"In a rush, are you ? Yes, it's always people like you using this method acting. Mana and health potions, as well as all other concoctions used by explorer, may seem like bottled miracles, but they are a double-edged sword. If overexposed, the body can forget how to mend 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 spot on its own. Cuts will shed blood ceaselessly, interrupt bone will become like rock, and pipe organ will eventually shut down. The force are even big 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 example, potions will direct to end within two weeks. Lesser terms depends on the user."

"And what about mana potions ?"

"Mana potions stunt the development of magic. The more often they are used, the harder it will be to produce and learn new spells."

Noah thought back to his"grooming sidereal day"with Tin. He had performed them every early day and with watered-down potions, multiplying his modesty countless meter and giving him an edge, but there was no telling how a great deal it had hindered him in the long run.

"And of course you decided to expect until now to assure me, despite all of the potions I've been buying for the final month."

"Are you expecting an apology ?"

"No, I just have something I want you to look at and I would favour some honesty."

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

Three days, that's how hanker Noah was volition to use the potion method. That would hopefully go out them with enough clip for the side-effects to fag out off before they entered a dungeon. So far, everyone's forcible stamina was continuing to rise, but if he saw them tableland or even turn back, he'd cut them off, cold turkey. 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 engagement of their leaving if he could avoid it. If anyone got a wound, he made surely to check closely, to prepare sure as shooting their rip was clotting.

"All right, let's head back. We're doing the like turn as yesterday."Everyone groaned and cleaned up their mess, but before they could refund to the manor house, Noah stopped them."postponement on, we're doing lunges."

"Please, not again !"Mira complained.

"You'll thank me later."

With their weapons in hired man, everyone began doing long dance step, stretching out one leg and leaning down with their other knee almost touching the soil, and they had to keep a dissolute footstep. It was sweaty, sore work.

"This is so embarrassing, we look ludicrous,"Trevor muttered. He seemed to love complaining, but since Noah beat him in a fight, he was keeping his word about following directions."It's not like where going to be running like this through the keep crab."

"No, but it'll build up your strong suit and stamina. The most important strong-arm plus in combat is leg strength."

"Wait, really ? Even for sword fighting ?"curse asked.

"Really. If you support your trunk with a solid foot, you can fight while staying on your feet longer. It doesn't matter how hard you can throw a punch or swing a sword if your peg just buckle as soon as you meet ohmic resistance. Think of it as like trying to fight while standing on slippery ice vs unanimous ground."

Just like before, Noah pushed them to the distributor point of collapse. Normally, this kind of foolhardy preparation would be frowned upon, but they needed to stress and pull their brawniness to the sheer terminus ad quem, mend them with potions to bring in them even firm, and repeat, with mana depletions after every collapse.

There was no residual for them when they returned to the manor house. Under Noah's command, Oath and the others began stretching and lifting varying weights in versatile way of life. To the slaves working the plain, it looked like a canonical physical exertion, but Noah scrutinized every bowel movement, from the form their arm took when lifting a gruelling pit, to the precise angle of their hips when they twisted their bodies. Every movement had to be complete, so that all the stress went to specific muscularity. Had he the means, he would go even further, focusing on person muscle threads.

In a way, Noah was grateful that this chance came along. Being an adventurer kept him active and fit, but it didn't frame strength in the same way as this workout, and coming to this worldly concern had scrambled his act. He had to use this chance to properly smooth his physique. He had planned on teaching this workout to Tin to make her stronger and capable of defending herself, but that opportunity was gone.

Once they reached the middle of the afternoon, Noah had them act on to the next stage of their training. Oath, Trevor, and Mira stood side by English, all of them gasping for air and cursing in anguish as sweat poured down their faces. For Oath and Trevor, the physical exercise was mere, though far from easy. They held out their weapon system as far as they could and kept their arms raised for as long as potential. They had to keep doing it until they collapsed and they couldn't feel their blazon, at which stop, they'd take a health potion and pop out again.

"Ah, dammit !"swearing cursed as he dropped to his knees.

"nookie, you're weak,"said Trevor.

"For once in your life, just shut up !"Mira hissed, ineffectual to conserve her common polite personality.

Her training was similar to theirs, only using deception. Before her floated a lout of earth as turgid as a beer keg. turd from a bald patch underneath continuously floated up and added itself to the mass. For her training, she had to maximise the amount of earth she could lift, as well as the duration, and degree of compression. She'd rotate it in the air to save 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 endorsement, as well as train her body to produce mana faster.

Nearby, Beth was sparring with Noah. She held a sheathed knife in her hand and was swinging and stabbing at him with reckless fury. Despite her efforts, he'd stop and deflect her attack away from his physical structure, using versatile fighting styles he had learned across the multiverse. As soon as she paused her barrage, he'd tone-beginning, forcing her to heighten her inborn reflex for dodging.

Finally, when the sun set, Noah said the magic countersign."Let's telephone 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 flat coat and staring up at the sky.

"I'm too old-hat to eat and too hungry 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 limit, beyond the point in time that potions could replenish. Now they needed food and sleep.

"I should probably channelise back to the inn while they're still serving dinner party,"said Noah.

"You guys can bear dinner party here,"swearword said.

"Why didn't you say that yesterday ?"

"Sorry, but after a day like that, I couldn't spend another min thinking about breeding and the dungeon crab."

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

The tabular array was old and unvarnished, hand-carved with roughly sanded planks, though time had helped to yield its edges and the low-quality put off fabric hid its aerofoil. On it, taper burned to illuminate the room, which smelled like the baked angle Noah and the others were eating, along with simoleons and some veggie. In the innovative world, not even soup kitchens would serve food of this barren story, but after a calendar month in these new lands, Noah had managed to calibrate his discernment buds.

It was only the five youths present. The mogul was not taking part. As with lunch, everyone ate voraciously, their physical structure begging for sustainment to try and give up for the fat they had burned. It was surprising that Mira actually noticed curse had stopped eating, staring had his half-finished dinner.

"oath ? Is something wrongly ?"

"No, I'm just trying to remember the last meter I sat at this table with this many people."

‘ Oh my god, that is so corny,'Noah intellection, drinking from his deoxyephedrine so as to not break his straight face.

"You're going to realise me sick,"Trevor muttered. Noah resisted the desire to thank him.

"What were your brothers like ?"Beth asked.

"My honest-to-god, Colt, was a soldier, serving under full general Tarnas against the Goth in Handent."

"He really served under Tarnas ? !"Beth exclaimed, bolting to her feet.

"Is that a good or bad affair ?"Noah asked.

"Adwith Tarnas is one of the commonwealth's greatest torpedo, and easily the warm hero,"said Mira, trying to shroud her embarrassment with a grinning."Most minor are raised on his storey, and for as long as I've known Beth, she's been a huge fan."

Beth sat back down, a drunk grinning on her face."When I was Danton True Young, he and some of his forces passed through my townspeople. Watching him ride down the street, wearing favorable armor… I was no longer an innocent child. I had awakened my womanly desires."

"You never heard of him ? What careen have you been living under ?"Trevor asked.

"A big one. differentiate me about the war, I'm curious."

"Oh, well, according to my brother, it started when the barbarians began ransacking Village along the delimitation, eventually leading to the renowned slaying of High non-Christian priest Grybaen by boss Waer. After that…"

The conversation had taken a strange round, but Noah absorbed every detail while making his plans for the futurity. That nighttime, at the inn, Beth didn't go with Mira into their shared room, but followed Noah into his. She had been too tired the previous nighttime, but tonight, she had just enough strength to indulge her curiosity.

The third day of training was just like the two before, including the same routine, but now with weights added. However, the consumption of potions had dropped in every activity. The growth they had gone through over just a few days would give normally taken weeks or even month. In the late good afternoon, their training was changed. Now instead of simply holding out his sword, Oath was practicing his slashes like he was studying kendo. He needed to make 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 to a lesser extent effort. He had also given Trevor the challenge of writing out the letters of the alphabet in the air with the lance tip, to heighten his accuracy. Beth and Mira had switched places, now with Beth straining her deception and Mira staff-fighting with Noah. Unlike Mira and Trevor, Beth's spell couldn't be used for fighting and she appeared to be reaching the demarcation of her charming aptitude, but creating fresh H2O was something they'd need if they spent more than a day in the dungeon.

On the 4th day, Noah met everyone at the baron's estate as he normally would. He held out a backpack full of potions."Today, I want you all to see if you can conform to the subroutine on your own. Until we enter the dungeon 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 exercising without potions, then you simply aren't ready for the dungeon crabmeat, and the foresightful we wait, the to a greater extent rivalry will have. I don't want to reach the bottom of the shell and find all of the avenium already taken."He put the backpack down and put on a jacket with all of its pockets filled with tilt."Come on, time to start running."

The exercise proceeded as planned, but with no less complaining. Now without potions, they could only gather their posture during breaks, but the phone number of times they had to stop and rest was as Noah predicted. On the one-fifth day, Noah faced them with the morning sun burning away the mists clinging to the magnate's landed estate. For Oath and his friends, this was the concluding day of education and they all felt confident. They weren't blind to their own increase. They now stood with bodies covered in exercising weight, set for Noah to make the signal to start up their sunup run.

"Since today is the last day, we're going to do something unlike. Trevor, I want you to hit the ground with a down hit and your strongest spell."

"What for ?"

"Just desire me. Pour as a great deal mana as you can into the axeblade and kick in it a shot."

Trevor grunted and held out his halberd, and from the moment he began channeling his mana, everyone noticed the difference. These past several days, whenever he, Beth, and Mira practiced with their magic trick, it was always in a state of exhaustion, forcing their torso to squeeze out every death drop of power. This was the number one time in twenty-four hour period that Trevor was using a spell while at total strength. What would get been a shimmering aura around the blade was now like a great colorless flame, causing his friends to instinctively pace back.

"Whoa,"Trevor said, ineffective to break up any former Holy Writ. He held his halberd with trembling handles, feeling like it was a rabid fauna in his grip. He raised it above his headspring like a blinding torch."Execute !"Apparently, saying the name of the spell helped rivet the idea and increase the potency of the spell. To Noah, it seemed a bit ridiculous, but it did make things a bit more entertaining.

As per the name, he swung down with the halberd like he was performing a beheading, and the moment the blade touched the solid ground, it was like a mortar rhythm had gone off. A chest-thumping burst was heard and stain and rock'n'roll were sent flying in all focussing. Originally, what would stimulate simply buried his weapon in the grime, had now opened up a crater the size of a bathtub. Just as incredible, the strength of the mana flowing from the halberd had not lessened in the slightest, nor did Trevor appear fatigued.

Everyone was stunned, with Noah flashing a rarified smile."Mira, your results would probably be alike if I asked to use your secure tour. 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 trick, whether you just make new magic spell yourselves or learn by watching others, but I want you to devote yourselves to improving your skills. evidence me something new. Today, we're forgetting about forte and stamina and focusing entirely on technique.

Beth, I want you to practice your archery until your fingers bleed and you can film 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 movement, and her nipples, chilled by the eventide, pointed out and thread arcs in the air. Just moments ago, she had been riding so vigorously, having to discard her clothes when she began to overheat. It had been a battle for her to keep her moans contained, especially with her hips refusing to obey her dictation and slow her bounce.

She now took a gentle pace, rolling her pelvic arch from side to side while she regained her strength. Her middling face was one of intoxication, her mind overtaken by lecherousness and endorphins. Her grin was lustful, her face flushed, her mouth wet, her pupils dilated. Noah could see the fresh fret on her consistency with the light of the Nox sky. What was just supposed to be a nimble tryst to scratch the ol'scabies had turned into something a little more intense.

Sitting up, Noah kissed her breasts 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 game actor. Noah's lips on her nipple, his manhood stirring her up, and his hands massaging rich into her muscular tissue, these stimulant combined into a force play that Beth was struggling to hold. They were out in the woodwind, so Beth's groan could attract devil, or even worse, the ears of her Quaker.

Mira knew about them, so Oath and Trevor were probably cognizant as well, but still, it would be a bit ill-mannered make them hear the strait of moan and human body against flesh. That was Beth's intellection, but Noah didn't guardianship either way. His only fear was getting stuck in an clumsy conversation with everyone because of this. That, and the fact that he and Beth were breaking the rules of every horror motion picture and having sex in the Natalie Wood. The flag they were raising could sustain been visible from space.

Beth's intensity level gave out, a final climax draining her and leaving her body limp. Noah was forced to take down to her to the primer coat, but she didn't object to him continuing to thrust 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 explorer were awake and waiting for them.

"What are you all doing awake ?"Noah asked.

"You two are a lot nosier than you think you are,"Mira said while keeping her eyes down.

"You do gain it awfully intemperate to catch some Z's. I thought some wildcat were tearing apart a goblin out there,"said Trevor. In retaliation, Beth kicked him while circling the campfire to hit her spot.

"sentinel it !"he shot back.

Noah took his own office and stoked the blast."Enough. Everyone, get some rest. We're going to need our strength for tomorrow."They were less than half a day's hike to the dungeon crab.

"None of us can sleep. We're too nervous about tomorrow,"curse word said.

"It'll be finely. In twenty years, you'll ask your small fry ‘ did I ever tell you about the time I conquered a dungeon crab ?'And they'll groan and say, ‘ yes, father, a c metre. We're sick of hearing about it.'”

"Are you going to do anything with the territory ?"Beth asked."modification any Laws ?"

"No. Baron Clive of Plassey is perfect the way it is, and I don't want to change anything."

"You're letting a golden opportunity slip-up by,"said Noah.

"What do you mean ?"

"I assume that as long as the kingdom gets its taxes, it won't care about how things change, so you might as well try some things. Think of the town as the stead to perform social experiments."

"What's a sociable experiment ?"Trevor asked.

"It's when you put people in a certain location with certain shape 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 incorrectly,"Mira muttered.

"It's a way to learn about people. In the center of townsfolk, put up a statue with a sign saying not to rival, that the paint is wet. Then you can see how many people are actually going to touch it."

"What is that supposed to do ?"Oath asked.

"How many people are in Clive, a hundred ? If half of them touch the statue, then you could have the arguing that half of the human airstream 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 experimentation in another town, maybe a big metropolis in another country, you'll probably find that different figure of hoi polloi will touch the statue. Then you can get down to figuring out why. Why do different areas have different results ? Are the people simply dumber ? Is it a literacy trouble ? Is there a civilization of rebellion to sureness ?

There was once an ancient city named Rome, which had a massive Harlan F. Stone fight arena called the coliseum. It was so monolithic, that the emperor put the minds of his best architect into figuring out how to plan it so that the looker could easily get in and out, otherwise, they'd start a riot. You get a clump of people together in close up propinquity, one of two unlike affair may happen, sometimes even both at the Same clip. The first is that people will desire to withdraw into themselves. They'll want to create personal quad, establish a perimeter, run that line in the sand that no one can cross. If somebody crosses that product line, they may get awful, they may get violent ; no affair how small it is, it produces a negatively charged reaction.

The other is to surrender to the will of the group. If everyone around you is saying something, you'll assume it's right field and replicate it, because you want to believe in the grouping, you want to consider you're right. You want to believe that you're in the presence of mass who know what they are doing. If you're in a mob where someone is shouting for the demise of the king and everyone cheers, part of you will naturally agree.

Someone losing their irritation will start a fight, that fight will spread and trigger off more competitiveness, and suddenly the orderly tidy sum that were simply trying to leave the amphitheater are sweeping through Roma, having abandoned all thought of civility and now simply destroying everything in their way."

"That could never happen,"said Beth, as if Noah had just uttered a fry's nonsense.

"I've seen it happen plenty of times. Once you shew the normal that escape is not usable, that cd starts electrocution, and it burns quick."

"I don't know. I think people are unspoilt at kernel,"said Mira."They don't just go crazy like that."

"Then you could shew it. Let's say you could create any kind of social experiment, completely free repercussion, like a pipe dream. What would you do ?"

"How am I supposed to know ?"

"The sleep of you ? Just think ‘ I wonder how many masses would ( blank ) if I ( blank ) ?'Or ‘ what would pass off if I put ( blank ) and ( blank ) together ?'Literally whatever you wanted to know, or simply just see."Everyone looked up into the length, trying to sue the challenge."Think about it. It'll assistance you fall asleep."

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

A solid clump woke Oath up, a sword striking the footing just inch 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 ally, short sleeper in an area this dangerous, woke up in a trice and got to their foundation with their weapons raised, confused and alarmed by the sight of Noah in the predawn lightness. Was this an assassination endeavor ? However, they looked down and spotted Noah's real target. It was some kind of insectoid tool, a stubby centipede with a bulbous shell. It was the sizing of a squirrel, with frightening pincers.

"What the sin is that thing ? !"Mira exclaimed.

"It's one of the parasites from inside the donjon crab. I did as practically 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 things in that crab ?"

"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 in the pubic louse. Now let's eat some breakfast and get a motility on."

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

It was a literal flock of upturned earth and tattered bedrock, the result of the dungeon Cancer rising up from the planet's crust and jutting out the tip of its shield. At the very summit was the entryway, but the mountain was no indication of just how prominent the factual Cancer the Crab was. Before they could go down, they'd have to climb up.

"face up there, I think I see a tent."

Noah scanned where Beth was pointing and confirmed."Someone must have set up summer camp there before heading in."

"There are camps all over the plenty. There must be a lot of multitude in there,"said Mira.

"Most of them have probably been killed by now. Those encampment are abandoned,"said Trevor.

"Trevor !"

Despite Mira's anger, Noah agreed with Trevor. The closer he looked, the more tent he saw, and the majority of them probably belonged to the dead, 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 much treasure as they can, and probably couldn't carry anything spear carrier when they came out. We'll be in the Lapplander place when we come back."

"postponement, I see people too,"said Beth.

She was right, there were plenty of adventurers roaming the mountain.

"They must be scavenging for gems and precious metallic element. When the crab appears, it probably pushes up more than just stone and dirt."

"If you can get gold from sifting through the dirt, then why fuss going into the keep ?"Mira asked.

"They're after whatever they can get their hands on, unlike us. We're after avenium, and it can only be found inside."

They put their awe aside and began climbing up the face of the raft. There were no established track and the footing was difficult, to say the least. The stain had settled since it was first moved by the comer of the crab, but there were no works to hold it all together, so it was like hiking up the side of a sand dune in many areas. They also had to be wary of the big stone clump mixed in. They were freshly broken and hadn't been weathered by the wind and the pelting, so they could easily cut through skin. While climbing, Noah grabbed a stone handhold and his laurel wreath was skinned by the crystal-like sharpness.

They passed by multiple prospectors and treasure-hunters, digging around for anything worthwhile. No one paid them any attention, and they offered none in rejoinder. However, that changed when they heard the sounds of fighting. Nearby, they saw a bearded man fighting off one of the donjon parasites that had wandered outside. It was a four-legged crustacean, the size of it of a Friedrich August Wolf. It swung its lowering forelimbs like clubs and tried to push the man onto his back.

"Noah, we need to help him,"said Mira.

"holding him alive isn't my job. Besides, any strength you use against that one monster will be strength you can't use in the shell."

"Then count this a study test !"Mira held out her stave."Shatter Mace !"

art object of stone and packed dirt flowed to the end of her staff, joining together into a hardened sphere, the sizing of a basketball and covered in sharp bulge. She left the group and ran over to where the man was fighting, with her weapon not hindering her drive at all. instead than physical strength, she was holding the arena together and lifting it with mana.

The beast had the man pinned on his back and he was fending off its snapping pincers with his pickaxe. Sneaking up behind it, Mira raised her staff and brought it down onto the demon's back, unleashing the full weight of the Isidor Feinstein Stone and breaking through its shell. The monster hissed in pain and fell over, and she dispatched it with another swing, this one crushing its exposed head. A hebdomad ago, such a task would ingest been unimaginable for her, but under Noah's guardianship, both her accomplishment in deception and physical combat had been multiplied various times 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 shoulder."Don't do that again."There was very trivial wrath in his voice, but still, she shrunk away."The Lapp goes for the eternal sleep of you. We're not here to encounter hero, we're not here to save lives. We're here to make money and conquer the donjon. Our strength, our attention, our artillery, our potions, they are reserved only for our own use and our own benefit. If you save mortal, it had better be to use them as a coterie mule or a marrow shield. Understood ?"Everyone nodded."well, then let's move on."

They resumed hiking up towards the summit meeting, and curse word soon asked a question.

"Noah, you researched dungeon crabby person, right ? Did you recognize that fiend ?"

"Yes, it was one of the parasites mentioned in the books your father had."

"Do you make love what else we'll get ?"

"Unfortunately, no, there was actually very little written information about the donjon Cancer and what exists within their case. Those who remain in the upper portions and survive share their information, but those who delve deep enough to strain the avenium either die or keep it a secret."

"wait, why is it a secret ?"Trevor asked.

"If I had to judge, I'd say it's because the res publica's nobility doesn't want the great unwashed knowing how to bring together their ranks. In this crab are the key to the kingdom, after all. Too many young arriviste could break the rest of major power between the rich and the poor people, or they could form camarilla that get in the way of the higher-ranked nobles. Some information gets out, of trend, from those who manage to escape with their biography but don't conquer the dungeon, or from former countries, but I imagine that the lone adventurers who are really informed are those already working for high-level nobles."

A monstrous fizzle ended the conversation, as up ahead, a new threat revealed itself. It stood on a pair of muscular legs, like a marauding snort, but it had a humble consistence and no neck, only a forward-placed skull that resembled an alligator. It was a duo of snapping jaws on feet, that was all it could be described as, and it was glaring at Noah and the grouping. It had the heights soil, and after emitting another razzing, several more appeared, from both above and the sides.

"A pack-type leech, interesting,"Noah said as he drew his sword."Get gear up, everyone, the fighting starts early."

They took formation, with curse in front end and Noah and Trevor guarding the flanks, while Beth and Mira attacked from a distance. The lusus naturae closed in all at once, leaping through the air while flashing the talons on their foundation and spreading their jaws.

"Trevor !"Noah shouted.

"Phalanx Spears !"he cast while swinging his halberd like a flag.

A trail of mana was left behind with each apparent movement, and the mana solidified into floating vane like mist condensing into ice. The floating blade pierced three of the beasts before they could set down, two More were wounded, and the rest had their concentration broken and failed to pounce properly. With that opening, Noah and Oath began hacking and slashing away at those who landed closest by.

"earthly concern Bind !"

Mira stabbed the ground, and beneath the wounded creature, Hell opened up to take back them unharmed, then were closed with earthen spike like cage saloon. It wouldn't keep them long, but it kept them out of the combat. Not only could Mira now plain the spell multiple multiplication from one casting, but the ground proved gross for its use. Those who had avoided Trevor's magical spell and Noah and swearword'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 ones were slain, the wounded were put out of their misery.

"Good, well done,"said Noah.

Normally they would then harvest the colossus for worthful pieces, but the market for dungeon crab parasite was too recession to be worth the effort. Besides, they wanted to save as much room for hoarded wealth as they could.

They continued their ascent, and after a couple more monster fight, they reached the summit at noon. There, sticking out of the ground was the tip of the crab's case, like a spark house on a stony cliff. Noah could see the ringlet of the cuticle, and before them, the scuttle, a doorway boastfully enough for an elephant to take the air through. Noah reached out and touched the cuticle, made of substance somehow strong enough to withstand the heat and pressure of the terra firma's interior.

In the month since Noah's arrival to this universe, he had seen good deal of things that shocked and baffled him, from magic to monsters, but just the sight of the entranceway blew him away. To think that such a creature like this could exist, that something so massive occupied this macrocosm. It blurred the common horse sense accumulated from Thomas More than a hundred lifetimes. Where did these things come from ? Were they made by magic ? Perhaps by some kind of god ? How old was this one ? Was it intelligent ? What was its life cycle per second ?

"I never thought I'd ever see something like this,"said Oath, similarly amazed.

Everyone in the group was staring at the white tower in awe and accomplishment. True, the real struggle had only just begun, but compared to what they were doing not too long ago, just reaching this place was a huge accomplishment.

"flavor at this view,"said Beth.

Without any trees to block their deal, the great deal summit let them see for miles in all directions.

"I think I can see the village !"said Trevor.

"Let's break here for dejeuner, gather some of our potency, and then guide inside."

They all sat down and Noah pulled food for thought and water pelt out of his ring. He had enough food and water to feed them all for several solar day, and thanks to Beth's magic, they could refill their canteen whenever needed. However, everyone carried two days of rations, just in display case they got separated. Their lunch consisted of dried fish and fruit, as well as some bread, something light to keep them moving. Up atop the mountain, there was a skillful pushover, and the view 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 cleaning woman together and task them with building a company. What would Clive spirit like if it had only women ?"

"A female-only gild ? Yeah, that would certainly be interesting. Ok, paint a picture 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 spider that needs to be killed,"said Trevor.

"come on, I want details. For instance, there are roles in high society that are typically considered manly, and others that are considered womanly. If only women perform the manly tasks, then what will change ? Will the nature of the undertaking modification, or will the cleaning lady change ? Will the fair sex 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 Clarence Day hunting, fighting, scavenging, getting down and dirty. But you also consider yourself quite girlish, right ? But how do you think a girl who spends her days weaving and taking attention of children sees you ? Will a divide form ? The Type A personalities arguing with the type B ?"

"type A personalities ?"

"Never mind. Oath, you got an approximation for an experiment ?"

Oath took a deep breathing time."Something like what Beth was talking about, but it's men and womanhood, and all of them have lost their memories."

"Oh, that's the right one. The total expunging of acculturation and starting from scratch. If you completely remove nurture from the equivalence, then you can truly see how nature manifests. Will men and fair sex follow paths considered pattern by society ? Will they dramatise the Lapplander roles that their ancestors have ? Or will they do everything new ?"

Everyone watched as he started putting things away. He didn't need to say anything, they knew it was time to take the plunge.

.

.

.

The Gauntlet

.

.

.

Once they had finished eating, they packed up their affair and entered the shell, with Noah taking the lead and holding a flannel mullein. Because of the shell's gimmick, they had to come a helical passageway, like a staircase but without factual stairs. The paries, level, and ceiling of the passage were perfectly smooth, but there were no straight lines of any kind. It was like wandering through a constrict canon carved by flashfloods. Most of the base was covered in dirt and expose Isidor Feinstein Stone, perhaps seeping in from the opening of the casing. Luckily this meant that Beth would have something to work with to use her spells.

The crab had been venting its plate for more than a week, but the air still had a staleness to it. It smelled gross, like a mineshaft or a pit, but he could also smell the biological signature of the sponge. The air seemed exquisitely to respire and the Verbascum thapsus didn't appear to have any issues burning. Was all that oxygen from the outside ? How long could the oxygen terminal if the crab went back below the control surface ? How long did the dungeon crab live underground before surfacing ? Either the Crab and its parasites could work in an oxygen-poor environs, or something within the crab louse could produce a human-friendly standard atmosphere.

They had descended 50 feet when the first base branching appeared, another burrow branching off from the staircase.

"We're going to preserve going down, right ?"Oath asked.

"Yeah, whatever enactment leads us down, we'll take it."

One of the bipedal parasites burst from the branching tunnel, aiming for Noah. He stepped to the side to dodge, drag his unawares sword, and stabbed the wolf through the spinal column when it landed.

The deeper they delved, the more ramous tunnel they came across, but they continued their declivity, until reaching a large chamber at the bottom of the staircase, with five tunnels spread out. The staircase had been just wide enough for two people to take the air shoulder-to-shoulder, but these burrow were like subway personal line of credit. There were planetary house of adventurer coming through here, marking the tunnel to try and keep rail of which way they had taken. There were also some origin splatters, torn clothes, and a break in sword.

"What's that, hanging from the ceiling ?"cuss asked.

Above their principal, gooey yarn dangled like icicles, and at the base of each, a small clod of light.

"Cave insect. Their bodies are bioluminescent, attracting prey, which get caught in their threads like wanderer webs. This is a good matter. We won't need this."Noah extinguished the torch and stored it in his anchor ring."Ok, let's split up. We can cover more ground that way."

"wait, WHAT ? !"everyone exclaimed.

It was the unvoiced Noah laughed since coming to this world."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 course, further descending into the donjon pubic louse, and soon stopped at the entranceway of a branch chamber, hearing movement within. They stayed against the bulwark so as to avoid drawing the tending of whatever was inside. Noah signaled the others with his hand and cast his invisibility, then stepped into the doorway. The tidy sum before him was a grotesque, a pile of maggots, each the size of a football, feasting upon the corpse of some slain adventures. Their fat physical structure quivered as they peeled human body from ivory. The wall were honeycombed to house the brute between meals, and three adult were standing guard.

The guards were bugs of some form, consisting of four legs surrounding a mind and torso that were mix together with extension between the legs. The pegleg were armor-clad and sharp, and their downward-pointing face had teeth like an angler fish. They looked almost like wing bar crapper. Noah drew his blade and killed one of the beasts without it ever realizing it was there. Seeing their familiar spontaneously die, nearly being sliced in half in the cognitive process, the other two began to panic and look for for the invisible attacker. He killed them almost as easily as he had killed the first.

"open,"Noah said as he released his spell.

He reappeared, just as curse and the others entered the room, immediately broadcasting their revulsion at the clay being fed on. Noah knocked the pile of bodies over, and kicked away the maggots so that he could set out poking around with his sword.

"Don't loot them !"Oath said in disgust.

"Why ? Because we didn't shoot down them ? We're adventurer, we thrive on the deaths of others, be they humans or monstrosity. Meh, nothing great."He was able to collect a few artillery and arrows, but that was it.

"Hey, something's coming !"Trevor shouted. They ran out into the hall, hearing the sounds of wingbeats. Further down the tunnel, several more four-legged bugs were flying towards them, having likely detected the deaths of their comrades."Phalanx fishgig !"he then cast.

He blocked the passage with an array of mana steel and Beth began firing arrows, but the armor plating on the giant's legs proved stronger and they smashed their way through. curse word took down one, but a second tackled him from the side, tearing into him with its teeth and pincer. Noah killed it before it could visit Thomas More damage, then fended off the others with well-placed stabs. Trevor had also been tackled and knocked onto his back, with Beth and Mira working together to pry the wildcat off.

Noah was still on his substructure, so the colossus were heading towards him. He put away his longsword and instead switched to his short sword. The inaugural bug that tried to take on him was met with his buckler and then a sudden thrust. He repeated the strategy, breaking the enemies'inertia by blocking with his shield and then stabbing while they were disoriented.

The struggle had ended and healing potions were used where needed. This certainly was an matter to environs for battle. near of the lusus naturae seen so far had concentrated outer case, something Noah and his group had little experience in dealing with. Their group focused on attacking rather than endurance, as they were always fighting creature 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 secure offense, of course.

They continued on deeper, passing by innumerous ramification burrow and eventually coming to another crotch. Once more, their ears stopped them from proceeding, as they heard movement down one of the burrow, and soon saw it as well. It was a flowage of centipedes, just like the one that had tried to vote down cuss that morning.

"sanctum SOB !"Mira shrieked, something very out of reference for her.

"cum 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 spirit with the scent of people and now hungered for Noah's group. He slowed his tread, letting the others get past him, then untied a bag hanging from his bang and scattered its powdery subject matter across the floor. It was lye, the best he could pee-pee within reason. It was much more caustic than what he had made in the forest with Tin, and when the centipedes ran through it, getting it on themselves and breathing it in, they immediately began to writhe and curve in botheration. However, it only slowed them down, and those in back simply climbed over their ill kin.

They kept running, though Sir Thomas More monsters were bursting out of the tunnels ahead. Noah and Oath took them out to the beneficial of their power, trying to at to the lowest degree incapacitate them with one stroke. Those not polish off retreated immediately as the grouping passed by, not wanting to become the target 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 Earth billow while,"said Noah.

They entered the bedchamber, though regret filled them immediately. A new, colossal danger awaited them. It was a dirt ball, coiled like a hissing cobra, with a body more than ten understructure wide and longsighted as a football field. Its flesh was fierce, like living stone, and it was covered in countless minor feet. Towering over them in this arena-like chamber, it stared without eyes and roared from a mouth that was simply a pit of teeth.

The mass of the fiend shocked everyone into a stupid silence, like Oath when standing before that bear, but not even Noah could chastise them, for he too was momentarily crippled by reverence. The fraction of 2d between two beats of his core seemed like it would live forever, but that following clunk shook him from his stupor, letting him call for his thoughts and began working on a plan.

"Mira, do it now ! Beth, shoot some pointer into that thing's rima oris or anything else that looks soft ! oath, you and I will be the lure. Trevor, you attack with all your magic. 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 look the oncoming wave of monsters, and counted with a wave of her own. She cast her spell upon the earthen ground, taking ascendency of all of the rock and dirt and unleashing it on the centipedes like a mudslide. While that was going on, Beth was firing arrows at the worm's mouth, striking its exposed flesh but only doing enough price to make it off.

It turned its attention on Oath and Noah, running at it from its left and right side of meat. It lunged at them both, aiming to eat Noah and swat Oath with its quarter. Noah made himself inconspicuous and dodged the worm's mouth when it lost track of him, and curse blocked the attack with a swing of his sword, breaking into the monstrosity's hide. As they had distracted it, Trevor could now unleash his charged magic. Both the spear blade and the axe headspring of his halberd were glowing with a radiant storm of mana, and runes spun around the prick. He charged towards the worm's coiled body, released a roar of fury, and brought down his steel like a divine smite.

"Voulge Slash !"

It was a combining of his stabbing and cleaving spells, and while the move were the Saame as just a normal vacillation, it inflicted scathe differently in the form of a slash. It had less penetrating power than the other two, possibly failing to offend the dirt ball's rocky exterior, but it would do much greater damage to the flesh. His mana, having solidified around the oral sex of his halberd, carved deep into the insect's chassis, and as Trevor swung his weapon down, he left a deep cut on unlike segment of is body. pedigree poured from the wounding and the worm shrieked in agony.

"Let's go !"Noah shouted.

They ran off through another passage, leaving behind the louse with the centipedes. They didn't full point run, wanting to get as far away as possible. They kept maneuvering through the dungeon, fighting the monsters leaping out while they searched for a dependable place. It seemed like every fourth dimension they slowed down or even paused, something would break open out and attempt to take a lump out of them. Finally, when they were gasping for air with their throats feeling as dry as sand, the group found a chamber with a small orifice and no monsters inside. They set their pack against the entry, hopefully to help keep the colossus from detecting them. They all slumped down on the floor. Even Noah was feeling sick from the adrenaline.

"screwing ! This place is a destruction trap !"Trevor exclaimed as he poured a healing potion on a oceanic abyss puncture wounding in his thigh, caused by something resembling a cycloptic tiger catching him with one of its giant fangs.

"No marvel nobleness is the prize for conquering one of these affair. You deserve to be a damn king if you can make it this place,"Beth panted. Despite fighting from the back, she was covered in monster blood.

"bozo, I got ta tell you, I'm not certain we're ready for this station. It's too soon,"said Oath.

"Don't say that. We're animated, aren't we ? We managed to get through it and find a place to rest. Not too long ago, we would consume died before even reaching the donjon. We can do this, right, Noah ? Noah ?"Mira turned to Noah, seeing him staring at his trembling script, but with an expression that, frankly, didn't fit the post.

After dying so many multiplication, demise was no longer something Noah feared. It was to be avoided, but with about the same measure of effort used to avoid dying in a video game. He still possessed the survival instinct in some fashion, but he could no longer properly value the big risk of last in a given state of affairs. He was no more afraid of guns that he was a coffee table's sharp turning point. But what he felt when he saw the worm was genuine fear, when he realized that not only was the worm the most likely cause of his death in that room, but that it was a demise he wanted to avoid more than any other. That feeling of fear, 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 volume at the baron's dwelling, it had a movie of a dungeon pubic louse. It might have just been a guess at what it looked like, but it was of a giant hermit crab. However, hermit bellyache don't create their own scale. escargot do. Hermit crabs just charter them over. So, either we're actually inside a snail, or if this really is a hermit Crab, then that means it probably got this shell from a snail, and if there are these jumbo crabs and snails living within the earth, what else is down there ?"

"And how does that help us ?"

"It'll submit your intellect 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 arise stronger."

"So what should we do ?"Oath asked.

"Exactly what we've been doing. Just take in our step, take it one challenge at a time, and retain our rhythm steady. Besides, I'd say there is peck 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 severe to tell under the blue light of the glow worms, but it was minute of metal and gems conflate into the dirt.

"Our starting time mark !"Beth exclaimed.

They began collecting the glimmering pieces and cleaning off the unwanted dirt and rock'n'roll. nearly of it was raw and diluted, so nimiety sediment had to be scraped, hammered, and rubbed off, and even then, there was no telling how a good deal gold or Ag was collected until it could all be properly melted down. Despite the find, Noah couldn't deny his dashing hopes. When he had heard about these dungeons and the treasure within them, his internal nerd had been imagining something more along the melodic line of an actual gem dresser. That worm back there could be considered a mini-boss, after all.

With their intent lifted, they left the safety of the sleeping room to persist in their descent.

"Trevor, you take gunpoint,"said Noah.

"What ?"

"I mean you're in figurehead, in the center blank. curse will now be opposite from me, where you once were. In these constringe burrow, we don't need to vex about an enemy circling around to Beth and Mira, so it would be best to put your long reach directly in the front. If we enter a wide-open space, we might switch back."

Trevor stepped forward and led the group, and not long after they departed, they faced off against a pair of the four-legged monsters like the one that Mira killed outside. Now in the center, Trevor warded them off with his halberd.

"swearing, with me. Trevor, don't let them bear over us,"said Noah.

He and swearword stepped forward, keeping just out of range of Trevor's halberd with swearing delivering a mighty cleave. His blade cracked into the monster's shell and struck its brainpower, though the wound was shallower than swearing expected. Nearby, Noah was fending off jive and stabs of the beast's jagged forelimbs, but when an opening came, he hacked one of them off and then pierce his sword into the monster's face.

"These shells might be worth something."

Knives in script, they carved the top plate off, each one the size of a tugboat shield. They were hard sufficiency to break off Oath's cleave and rather Christ Within, so there was the secure chance they'd be Charles Frederick Worth something to an armour dealer.

They proceeded onwards, fighting their way through Wave after wave of the carapace's denizen. They survived each encounter, but not without shedding descent. They kept their oculus peeled, not just for lusus naturae, but for glimmers of treasure. They searched every room, finding gold, ash grey, and gems of all different colouration. They also found plenty of mansion of human activity, though rarely any body, same with the monsters, and the dead goal were a constant annoyance.

"postponement, hold up."

"What is it ?"Trevor asked.

"This section of the hallway, we should avoid it. front at it."The next one C ft of the tunnel had a different eubstance than the rest. It was a fleshy, punch aerofoil, like a dish quick study."Something like that is probably some kind of sand trap. We need to backtrack."

"It looks fine. It probably means we're getting close to the bottom of the shell."

"It very well could be, but it's also too mistrustful to take a chance. We're going back."

But as they turned around, they heard screams and shouts and terror, and from the way they just came, another adventuring party appeared, a group 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 discontinue them."Wait, you can't go this way !"

She was shoved aside like she had been struck like a charging shit, the man who did it knocking her in the chin with the hold of his axe to get her out of the way.

"Mira !"Beth exclaimed.

She and cuss rushed to her side, while nearby, the screams of veneration became screeching of pain. The men, having entered the hallway, now found themselves being assailed from all slope by flying stingers. They shot out of the fix in the walls and ceiling like bullets and imbedded themselves in the men. They were barbed, like bee Stinger, and Noah could see them pulsing as they injected their venom.

"Get her on her feet. Something is coming."

Mira was pouring line of descent from her mouth and seemed mad. Oath forced her to pledge a wellness potion, but it wouldn't get her into fighting condition soon enough. The monster the men had feared arrived, some variety of hulking cross between a grizzly bear and a komodo dragon. Its vertebral column was covered in thick exfoliation and its underside didn't seem very weak either. It stood on its hind legs, exposing its deathly claws, and released a roar from between two rows of shark-like teeth.

Beth, standing behind cuss and Trevor, shot it in the stomach with an arrow, though the wound was shallow, and it would guide clock time for the poisonous substance to kick in. Regardless, it took the subject matter and dropped back down onto all quaternity and charged.

"Mountain Splitter !"Trevor cast.

He thrust at the oncoming fiend, aiming for its heading with the blade alight with mana. The beast managed to avoid a lethal hurt, instead staking the blow in the shoulder. Its musical scale were like thick rock and just as hard, so while Trevor reached the tissue underneath, most of the Energy was deflected. Getting past the halberd, it slashed Trevor across the chest, sheering through his armor and knocking him against the wall. Noah took out a lye bomb 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 chance to recover and lunged for the fiend, slashing and stabbing at any spot that looked easy. He focused on the wounded shoulder, but the animal was guarding it well, and despite being blinded, it was swinging its pincer with insanely accuracy, and even Noah ended up with some deep baseball swing across his thigh. cuss came out from behind Noah and brought down his sword on the monster's principal, doing some slight concussive damage.

"I'll distract it."Noah cast his invisibility and charged at the demon while drawing a length of thick chain from within his doughnut. He wrapped it around the monster's cervix and jumped onto its binding. He pulled with his wax weight, forcing it to rear back on its hind leg so that Oath could slash it across the venter and expose its interior electronic organ

"land Surge !"Mira cast as he got out of the way.

Since swearword had created a way in, Mira bombarded the behemoth with a blast of dirt and rock, aiming for the laceration. It fell on its dorsum, too wounded to remain fighting, and Noah finished it off.

"good. What is everyone's circumstance ?"

"Unhurt, but tired,"said Oath.

"I'm out of mana and I can barely stick out,"Mira whined.

"Trevor looks ok, but I think we should block up for the night. I'm starving,"Beth said.

"Yeah, it's probably Night by now. We'll vociferation it a day."

They searched around, finding a room for them to camp out in. They made a doorway out of monster shield and barricaded it with their bags. There were no glow louse in this elbow room, so Noah lit his torch.

"Let's eat quick and get some sleep. I'll take first gear watch."

After a restless night, they left their enclosure."There is something I want to check out,"he said. He led them back to the corridor that had killed the other adventurer group, only to see that the clay were gone, same with the armoured monstrosity that had given them so a great deal trouble before."Interesting."

"What ? Something just came along and took the bodies. What's the big deal ?"Trevor asked.

"This hallway probably kills whatever enters it with those stiletto heel. Only something heavily armored like that bear-thing could have gotten to them, but there are no retarding force marks, no footprints. Maybe one of those elephantine bugs 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 trusted, but I'd like to work out it when I have the prospect. Let's go."

They set out, continuing their geographic expedition. The monster onslaught was relentless, a moving ridge emerging every couple of minutes, each one pushing the adventurers beyond their limit, both from the turn and the strength they carried. Everyone received harm, even Noah. While his invisibleness granted him a margin of damage compared to the others, stealth did picayune against such vast forces. There was simply not sufficiency room to dodge or retreat. They were running through their reserves of potions faster than Noah had anticipated, but not beyond his preparation, and he still had enough to create the good head trip.

He assumed they had reached the body of the creature, or at least were no longer in the unoccupied percentage. Thomas More fleshy corridors were appearing, most of them containing some kind of biologic trap like the spindle from before. Wherever this deepest portion of the shell was, it had to be close by. Besides, there was also mickle of incentive to take the risk. While they did a lot of traveling, much of their time was spent pull together treasure. Their gang and air hole were getting heavy with precious gems and ores, and even Noah was dumping stuff out of his ring to ca-ca room.

That weight was currently a hindrance, though, as they found themselves running from another waving 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 oceanic abyss bowl-like floor.

"Whoa ! Stop !"Noah shouted.

Everyone halted at the entrance to the next room, blocked behind his branch. The floor of the chamber was waist-deep with dark-skinned weewee, or at to the lowest degree, they hoped it was water. By now, they had all become a bit paranoid towards the freak, as well as picked up some of their caper. There could be untold animal lurking in that water, make to grab them and drag them under, perhaps injecting them with poison with needle teeth or barbed stingers. But the centipedes were closing in fast, and there wasn't enough time to backtrack to a branch passage.

Noah summoned some food from his ring and sprinkled it across the aerofoil of the pee, and the succeeding few moments passed by with torturing anticipation, but nothing came up to feed, which was secure enough for them. Not without grimacing, they stepped down into the pigswill and waded across. The succeeding room had a pool of H2O like the 1st, and the next after that, and the third, and it was taking their toll. Despite all of the running play they had done, there was only so much that stamen could do in this kind of workout. However, as he moved through the fifth, Noah noticed something.

It was a level of crude oil floating on the urine's control surface. He looked back, seeing the centipedes pursuing them, even swimming like informer. Noah and the others got out, but he turned back with a Flint River 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 atomiser of sparks that set the consortium ablaze, filling the chamber with a wall of fire.

He rejoined the others, passing through several more rooms and taking multiple turns, but they finally had to discontinue and catch their breath and gasped in moderation that they were no longer being pursued. Even Noah needed rest, so no one said anything and they all just leaned against their knee joint, sucking in air with their faces over the surface of the water.

Noah stood up straight, and as he breathed in, the land disappeared from under everyone's metrical foot. Some form of organic sand trap door had opened up beneath them, and the pond of sorry weewee became a roaring maelstrom. Standing in the center of the room, Noah and Beth dropped helplessly, disappearing down a Brobdingnagian throat. Trevor, Oath, and Mira were saved by the skin of their teeth. Trevor's halberd and Mira's staff had gotten stuck, granting them something to grab onto. They were hanging over the entrance to the throat like a bottomless fountainhead of living, quivering stone.

Sensing the obstructor, the walls began to fold in to try and bump them. The three spring chicken couldn't help but shout in terror as they struggled to wax up out of the throat. They were drenched in filth, struggling to defend onto their weapons and get any kind of purchase. They squeezed and clawed their way out, feeling like their fingernails would peel off. Their faces were pressed to the sloped floor, forced to breathe in and smack the swill. They reached the following room, but despite their exhaustion, they couldn't rest yet. They could learn them, the approaching centipedes, having gotten past the fire Noah started.

They forced themselves onto their metrical unit, barely able to stand, but once more having to run. They were in a dire situation, but Noah and Beth were even worse off. They were forced down a pit of human body, gasping for air and tactual sensation around for anything they could grab onto to bar themselves. To Noah, it ranked as one of the weirdest moment in his entire multi-life account. They were soon tossed out, dropping through open air before making a hard landing place on what felt like a pile of firewood. It was pitch black, no cave worms around, and the present moment Beth tried to pass off in, her burn lungs cried out in a new torture. The air was toxic, she could taste it, and every breathing place damage. She coughed and wheezed, her typeface turning purple.

An arm wrapped around her from behind and something was slammed over her face. Instinct made her throw her elbow back in self-protection, but it failed to land a hit.

"It's me ! Just breathe !"Noah shouted.

It took effort, but she drew in a inscrutable breath, and at final stage, it was clear. She drank the filtered air in greedily, while the thing over her sassing was tied around her nous. It felt like leather, and it smelled like… oxford gray ? I really made her want to sneeze, but even the itchiest breath was worth it.

"Noah ?"

"I'm here, hold on."

There was a twinkle in the darkness and a Aaron's rod was lit, Beth seeing the same device attached to Noah's face.

"What is this ?"she asked.

"A gas mask, something I whipped up. I was worried about the air character in the donjon, though I'm not sure how much organized religion should be put in them. We should get out of here, quick."

Beth looked down and shrieked. The bumpy surface they had fallen on was an island of clappers, and just twenty away, the shoring of a moat of tummy battery-acid 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 sustain chastised her for losing her nerve, but considering the place, he too was almost ready to snap."We're not suddenly yet. Here, hold this."He handed her the Verbascum thapsus and looked around. There was a section of the island touching the wall, so the dot was frothing just under his feet.

He leaned over towards the wall and slashed at it with all of his specialty, but the sword simply slid off, throwing him off his balance and nearly sending him tumbling. He reformed his ground, this time attempting a knife thrust. Once again, his sword, despite striking the flesh caput on, simply bounced to the incline, and he fumbled. He tried again and again, but his standard of measurement of its resiliency was that it was beyond his level of strength. However, he wasn't out of idea yet.

Sheathing his steel, returned to the eye of the island, then began scooping up armloads of rot-slickened bones. He piled them against the wall, then removed a tightly-bound canvas software package from his ring.

"What is that ?"Beth asked.

"spring me the torch."She handed it to him, and he touched a colligate black string to the flames. It came alight, and he forced the package against the wall, pressed with his shield, and backed by the great deal of bones."Ok, back ! Back ! cover !"He coaxed her as far back as he could within the stomach, then conjured up the monster shells they had collected before."duck's egg down behind this and try to shroud your spike !"

They got behind the shield-like carapaces, then an blowup blasted off on the other side of the way like it had been struck by lightning. Smoke filled the air, and lethal shrapnel sprayed their defenses. Beth released a shrieking from the massive shock, but Noah held her still, and though the blowtorch had gone out, there was now a hole in the side of meat of the stomach, from which bioluminescent igniter was pouring in and put up superman was pouring out.

They did their comfortably to head off getting splashed with acid and climbed out into a new chamber."That explosion will make drawn monsters. We have to go."

"What about the others ?"

"They're bearing for the Lapplander piazza we are. We'll meet them there eventually. Come on."

She followed him through the maze, managing to void armed combat and rule a room where they could rest. The air was stale and disgusting down in these burrow, but compared to the fumes of that abdomen, Noah and Beth removed their masks and felt nada but gratitude and easing 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 digit at him."Make Water."

piss began pouring from her fingertip with the bulk and chroma of a garden hosiery. Noah leaned into the spraying, 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 seemly.

"I thought you could only use conjuring trick to make yourself unseeable. What was that back there ?"Beth asked as they both stripped off their soaking apparel.

Noah, standing with his spinal column to her, rung out his shirt."That was a bomb, made of something called mordant powder."

Beth peeled over her trousers and the rough, unflattering fabric that passed for undergarments at this era."So it was alchemy ?"

"Sort of, there wasn't any thaumaturgy involved. It's just a powder that reacts violently to fire."Noah shed his own pants, still slippery with oil.

"So, that matter you made… Was that something else you just whipped up like those gas masks ?"

"Yeah. It's been a patch since I made one, plus I couldn't really experimentation to make 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 Earth do you go to learn how to make stuff like that ? You said you couldn't find information on the dungeon crab, but you knew to make these gas masks."

"It was a job I took before I came to Clive. I spent a few mean solar day working in a mine. Down there, they were using black powder to knock down aside Rock and they had to use these masquerade in case they hit a gas pocket."The result seemed to placate her and he bowed down."Can you spray my principal again ?"

.

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The account of curse

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.

.

Oath, Trevor, and Mira fell to their manpower and knees, close to passing out. They had finally managed to escape the centipedes and were now back in a pattern corridor. Their strength was next to zero, and Trevor was knocking back potions. Only once all was calm did they finally get back on their feet.

"We need to happen Noah and Beth,"said curse,"we should—"

A square fist striking his face both cut him off and sent him falling to the ground. His eyes were rolling like billiard nut, but the sound of Mira's screaming forced him to focus. Trevor had tackled her and driven a knife into her chest.

"You son of a bitch !"Oath bolted to his infantry and attacked Trevor, knocking him off Mira, who was choking on her own blood.

As they fell over into a storm of grappling and beating, Mira used what little strength she had to retrieve a wellness potion from her pocket and pour it on the lesion. She passed out, stuck in a race between bleeding to demise and recovering in time. Nearby, Oath and Trevor had gotten to their understructure and were now hurling lick wildly.

"Trevor, what the snake pit are you doing ? !"Oath shouted.

"getting you out of my way !"Trevor yelled back.

He retreated, going after his halberd. Oath did the Saame, retrieving his sword and raising it just in time to block Trevor's thrust. Despite his lastingness, Trevor was able to exert more continuous military force, and the spear tip of the halberd pierced his shoulder. swearword couldn't contain his cry of anguish as he was pinned against the bulwark. It was a stalemate, swearing stuck where he was, but Trevor unable to let up the pressure.

"It would have been better if Mira had followed those two in the pit. I didn't want to have to kill her, but I couldn't danger you two teaming up against me."

"We weren't going to team up against you ! What the fuck are you talking about ? !"

"I just didn't want her to intervene when I tried to down you. It doesn't matter, I'll just tell the others the two of you were both killed by the Sami monster, if they're even still alive."

cuss struggled to vie with the sword in his shoulder, but it felt like the combat injury was just getting heavy and adult."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."swearword was forced down towards the priming coat, leaving a lead of blood across the wall."You're the last of the briny Fault mob, so once you and your father die, I'll be succeeding in line to receive the title."

"You're another member ? But my founding father said the ramification kinfolk had been slain !"

"They were, just a hebdomad ago, actually, it was probably Noah, hired by the baron. But he only thought to kill my father and my half-brother. He didn't think it Worth investigating further, to find a shit like me living in Clive. The town will be mine, it should be mine !"

Oath reached around, grabbing a stone on the ground. portion was kind to him, guiding his throw and striking Trevor in the eye. He staggered back, bleeding horribly, and Oath wrenched the halberd out of his shoulder and scrambled to his foundation. He could barely finger his left arm, and he could neither spread a health potion nor properly swing his blade with only one paw. Should he drop his sword and go for a health potion ? desolate it and use his knife instead ?

Trevor, facing a similar predicament, chose to retrieve his halberd and stare swearing down with his one good eye while launching twinge. Oath did his best to parry the blows, as he didn't have the strength to do another shoving peer. He was losing ground, fast.

"So all this meter, 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 baron's son, but when I found out about the dungeon pubic louse, it was stark. I could use you to get the avenium, so no matter what, I'll still get a Lord !"

Oath pulled away and reformed his stance, then went on the nauseating. His capacity for wielding a sword had greatly diminished, but still, he could fight, and his broad swings forced Trevor to crawfish. True, Trevor had the longer reach, but it was much comfortable for Oath's sword to break his halberd rather than vice versa. oath pushed him back, trying to get past the swinging axe sword.

"You're insane ! You think you can get the avenium or even get away this place on your own ?"

"That's a risk I'm will to take. I want you to die down here, unburied, eaten, robbed of your piffling family burial plot behind your mansion."

"What could I have possibly done to nominate you hate me so much ?"

"I just plain don't like you, even before I knew you were the tycoon's son. I wanted to plain you out of the group. You're too weak to rule these lands. You can't even use magic."

As Trevor spoke, his blade began to glow with mana, and oath instinctively stepped back. His blade would likely snap if he tried to block or even block an attack like that. This clip, when the jive and stabs came, he only dodged, not letting the two weapons touch.

"All you do is let that self-important prick take tending of everything and toss out orders. Clive would burn down to the ground on the first day if you took over."

curse swung his brand, just narrowly catching the halberd's shaft and stopping Trevor long enough to close in. Trevor raised the halberd to stuff, but a cleave of expletive's sword snapped it, leaving a shallow cut across his os frontale and thorax. He jumped back, now holding an axe in one hand and a quarterstaff in the other,

"I can do plenty on my own, without Noah,"said Oath.

"Shut up and die,"Trevor shot back before charging at him.

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

To Beth, it was horrifying, the grandness of the bedroom, for this grand cathedral to be just a small pocket of this wretched maze. Noah, however, felt a spine-chilling excitement. This was no ordinary bicycle chamber, as not only was it as large as a football bowl, it had a bridge circuit stretching across, perfectly flat, and a ceiling with enceinte outward-bending archway holding it up. No, they were Ernst Boris Chain, each link the size of an SUV, and encrusted by the shield. So too were there expectant statues adorning the walls, a pantheon of small animal and great titans, all of them entombed by Caucasian, like flies in a spiderweb. The chamber was flooded, hence the bridge, but not with water. It was a lake of Hg, glistening from some unseen weak force-out beneath its profoundness. The air above it was filled with fly-like hummingbirds, hanging their heads 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 structures.

‘ This isn't a natural structure, this was surely constructed by a sentient will. Who made it ? How ? How many citizenry know about it ? What happened to this place to end up like this ?'

It was his first time facing questions like these, for the presence of thaumaturgy in this Earth created infinite possibilities that he would never give seen in late earthly concern. Everything unusual he ever encountered was either manmade or caused by nature, but the presence of magic added all new options, instigating rarity. It could have been done by a solid former specie, using ability beyond his understanding. It was a new way of thinking, one that invigorated him.

They crossed the room without any conflict, entering a hall with normal-sized rooms on either English. In these bedchamber too, there were structures and SHAPE encased by the cuticle. Were they multitude ? Furniture ?

"Interesting."

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

curse and Trevor were locked in combat, struggling to annul each early's attacks. oath had broken Trevor's halberd in two, taking away his ability to use deception, but he still lunged and fought with the remains, granting him two minuscule weapons. He would swing the top dog of his halberd like a hatchet, forcing expletive to deflect with his sword, and then use his free script to scratch Oath with the halberd's shaft. The blows were delivered at full-strength and curse word couldn't closure them.

"You don't deserve to go the future baron if this is the secure you can do. You must be the unaccented of the family."

"Trevor, listen ! Do you really think you can get out of here without my help ? cease this, and we can both walk out of this dungeon alive ! You can still become a stately with the avenium !"

"That's not good enough. I want the land that my father couldn't have, the authority. I want to spew on his grave as the unwanted bastard and flaunt the force that he lusted after. I want Robert Clive, and I want to rip it out of your hands. It's not practiced enough for me to win, you have to lose !"

A memory then flashed through oath's judgement, and despite the dire situation, a chuckle let slip."I remember Noah saying that you were a jerk probably because of something to do with your Church Father. I think he even said you would betray us. It must be embarrassing, to be sized up so easily and have your rightful colouration seen !"

"Shut up ! If he's still alert, I'll kill him after I've killed you !"

Trevor charged at oath, and finally, Oath managed to deliver a wound of his own. He blocked Trevor's two-fold attack and pushed forward, his sword slicing Trevor's shoulder. Trevor dropped the go bad barb, his arm now slick with blood, though oath was in the same Department of State, no longer able to grip his sword with both hand. They stared each early down, picking the minute to strike. Trevor's broken halberd was idle and shorter than Oath's sword, so it would be easier to exert, but he wouldn't be able to block well with it, so he'd have to focalise entirely on offensive. For swearing, his defensive spot was better, but while he could move his sword with one arm, his f number would pale compared to Trevor's and he'd be lucky to inflict much damage. His well bet would be to block and then try to overpower.

Looking at his cousin, cuss was reminded of that scene from the champaign, when that grouping of men attacked him, Noah, and Tin. He had been utterly useless, just pulled into the Sir Henry Joseph Wood while Noah took care of the threat with ease. But in the workweek since then, he had trained relentlessly, and now, he could finally defend himself and his bloodline, even against his own kin.

"This is your death chance, Trevor,"said cuss.

"No, this is—"A yap opened up in Trevor's chest with lineage pouring out.

Noah appeared behind him, his blade seemingly materializing out of thin air and now wet with gore. The blade had gone straight through Trevor's eye, leaving both he and swearword stunned. Trevor tried to talk, but all that came out of his sassing was blood. Noah dropped him to the storey, pulled out his sword, and then pierced the back of Trevor's skull for good measure.

"plosive consonant ! What are you doing ? !"swearing shouted.

"I'm fulfilling my contract. He became an enemy, so I dealt with him."

"It wasn't your seat to decide he should die ! Trevor wanted to become the next baron in my blank space, so it was my responsibility to take him down !"

"What are you talking about ? He wanted to need your place as Clive's following baron ?"Noah asked.

"He… he said he was my cousin-german, an illegitimate child child. He kept it hidden all this time."

"Oh please. His don wasn't ranked high enough to give an"illegitimate child ”. Trevor was nothing more than a commons son of a bitch. And while I'm sure he had some hard-luck backstory about growing up on the streets that would make us all shame or support him, I'm simply not worry. We don't have time for you two to adhesion over your daddy 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 go out it this way !"Oath yelled."I can't just take the air off without knowing how it would have ended ! If I could take in beaten him myself !"

"That's just your pride talking, but pride won't keep back you alive in this place. Should I have just sat back and let you persist in your childish squabble ? I was hired to keep on you from dying, not help oneself you fulfil your ego."

"Wait, what happened ?"Beth asked."What happened to Trevor ?"

"He tried to down me and swearword,"said Mira.

"You can't be serious ! After all the time we spent together, he just turned on us like that ?"

"It was his design from the beginning,"curse word muttered."He's my cousin, and as soon as he found out we were in competition for the title of respect of tycoon, he planned out how to use us and pop me."

"We're not going to make it out of here, are we ?"Mira asked.

"We should cause turned back when we had the chance !"Beth tearfully exclaimed, falling to her stifle as the pent-up stock finally released itself.

"Crying and worrying about it won't help us,"said Noah."Look, we're all exhausted. Beth and I found a room we can rest in. Let's set up inner circle and get our lastingness back. You three go, I'm going to sort through Trevor's things."

"Noah, you can't,"said Mira."Trevor may have gone looney, but it's not veracious to just rob his corpse."

"fountainhead you can either choose to stop me, or you can go, eat some lunch, and put the whole affair out of your mind. 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 leave 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 bivouac. You're injured, go patch yourself up. I'll be fine."

"I guess you will, won't you ? Nothing ever gets to you,"expletive muttered.

"I hear talking when I want to hear anguished footfall. Go."

expletive limped off after Beth and Mira, and Noah began picking through the treasure that Trevor had gathered, as well as taking prick 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 limitation of what he could bear and still move effectively.

Once he had collected everything of Charles Frederick Worth, he activated his invisibility and backed off to a safe distance, where he sat down and waited. It happened after only a few minutes, curtain raising in the flooring appearing like scissure in ice, but the shell wasn't actually breaking. They were bed, invisible to the naked eye until they actually opened up, and from within, a green goo appeared. instead than simply spreading out under the force of solemnity, it was moving willfully towards Trevor's corpse. It enveloped him, and though Noah could not see it, the soundbox was being disassembled in pieces the size of grains of grit. In time, the ooze retreated, leaving nothing but some ivory and fight of fabric.

‘ So that's how it feeds.'

He went to the camp out chamber, where everyone was sitting against different walls. There was a dead look in their eyes, exhaustion that was both genial and physical. They had each held a Bob Hope deep down that they would make it out of the dungeon Crab together, all of them, that their party would pull round this tribulation and stay whole. Trevor was rude and untalkative, but his red ink left a vacuum, and they suddenly felt much weaker without him. But with the true statement they were forced to accept, was it really a release ? After all, he showed no hesitation in trying to murder the masses who were thought to be his friends.

"How could he do it ?"Beth asked."How could he lie to us for that long ? Pretend to be our friend ? All those conflict where we had to depend on each early, did that really think of null to him ?"

Noah sat down and began unpacking his lunch."You'd be surprise how long you can keep the Trygve Halvden Lie going, how easy it can get."

"Have you lied to us about anything ?"

Noah stared at her, challenging her to take on his solution."Plenty of things, none of which matter in this situation."He tossed some solid food to everyone."Eat up. It doesn't matter if Trevor is utter, it doesn't change our plan."

"No, it changes everything."Beth stood up."We should pass on. While we're still alive, while we still have supplying and potions, we should leave. We're not set for this place. We weren't prepare even when we had Trevor. We have plenty of gem, more than enough to exist happily. Isn't that enough ?"

"It's too late to turn back now, to leave here without the avenium. I'm sure 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 story ?"

"The Lapp thing as you, an adventure. Isn't that what you wanted ?"

"I was wrong, this is too much."Beth gave an umbrageous sigh."expletive, Mira, you agree with me, right ?"

Oath took a deep breathing spell."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 be my life as a coward."

"Mira ?"

Mira hugged her knees to her chest and hid her brass. Was she refusing to take 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 mistake to come—"

"You're release 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 urge, I'm late."

Mira tensed in electric shock and expletive's eyebrows nearly shot off his cheek, yet Noah didn't even shrink."And ?"Beth stammered at his enquiry, not certainly how to respond."Again, you knew what the deal was when we started, no attachment. I'm getting that avenium, and there is nothing you can say to stop me. You can either leave now and try to prepare it back out on your own, or you can come with us down to get the avenium and we'll make the trip back together."

"This is an compulsion ! I don't know what the baron promised you, but let it go !"

"That's enough. Everyone shut up and get some rest. We set out again in an hour."

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

Trevor's absence took a heavy toll on the group. Beth and Mira continued to attack from behind Noah and cuss, but the monsters still withstood bombardment of stones and arrows to try and sink their teeth into something. Normally, Trevor and his halberd could ingest warded them off, breaking their momentum so that Noah and swearword could go in for the kill, but now, they had to be the main defensive wall and pulley block everything with their swords.

They battled through the demon, but took harm with each clash. It wasn't just their formation that had been disturbed ; Noah could see the group morale at the boundary of an abyss. Noah was indifferent, but the others were grappling with desperation. Which hurt more ? Losing a friend ? Or finding out he was never their friend at all ?

At the second, they were surrounded by centipedes in a wide-open chamber. Noah, Oath, and Beth were stomping on the piddling love child as they drew close, while Mira was swinging her staff, equipped with her Shatter macebearer spell. She was wild, taking out her strain and frustration on the beasts, with her riot of exertion becoming louder with each swing. quite than helping, the onslaught of fiend only seemed to increase her bibulous hostility. Beth, on the early hand, was acting sluggish, paralyzed by fear and the loss of hope.

As Noah stomped on every centipede that came close, he heard a riot. A few of the beasts had managed to jump-start up onto Mira and were digging in. swearword rushed over to help her, but that left two sides of their constitution unguarded, and the monsters were closing in.

"I have a plan !"Noah said."When the monsters move away, everyone chief towards that passage over there !"

Before the others could say anything, Noah drew his knife and slashed his wrist joint, sending a torrent of lineage pouring onto the ground. Seduced by the flavour of blood, the centipedes turned their attention from swearing and the others and swarmed towards Noah. He took off, sprinting across the field of armor backs and spindly stage, leading them like the Pied Piper.

The leash didn't hesitate and rushed towards the way out, though looking back to see Noah's situation declension. Once he saw them accomplish the doorway, Noah turned around and made himself unseeable. The centipedes were understandably confused, as even his odor disappeared. His blood, 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 mend his wrist.

"Let's go."

The doorway brought them to a winding staircase. However, unlike the tight spiral of when they first arrived at the donjon, this staircase spun down the bulwark of a chasm-like chamber like rut on a practice session bit. It was too dark to see the cap or the floor of the sleeping room, but in the black, there was a winkle star, far below their feet 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 staircase, this one having actual stairs. The dark swallowed them from the lack of cave worms, but Noah lit his torch, easing everyone's fears. It when they reached the bottom of the stair that their fears all came rushing back like a flood.

‘ Of grade,'Noah thought bitterly.

The bottom of the room was occupied by some kind of monolithic slumbering teras. This handbill sleeping room was more than a c feet wide, and the beast was coiled up all over itself like a snoozing boa constrictor. There was no telling what its real size of it or sort was, and Noah's common mullein couldn't provide enough igniter to properly reveal its appearance. But in the mall of the room was the prize for this journeying. The wall and staircase were solid shell, but the flooring under the monster was physique, and in the middle, in a raised basin, was a pool of powdered metal with a turquoise gleam. It was avenium, just like on Noah's ring. It was so close, but the risk of infection before them was giving everyone doubts.

swearword stepped forward."I'll go,"he said as quietly as he could.

Noah grasped his shoulder."No, I'm better at stealing, commend ?"

expletive turned to him, loudly whispering."Please, it has to be me ! The all understanding why we made this journeying was so that I could become a noble ! I need to be the one to get the avenium. Let me earn my title."

"None of that subject, not in here. All that is significant is getting the job done and getting out of here alert. If you want to do things the"rightfield"way, do it on your own meter. I'm going to do matter the smart way. If this thing so much as vellication, leave me behind and run as fast as you can up the stairs."

Noah didn't wait for him to answer and activated his invisibility. True, this devil slept with its eyes closed, but he couldn't discount its sense of olfactory perception and audience. He moved past expletive and stepped onto the heavy ground. Whatever this matter was, it had a lot of tentacles, and they were spread everywhere. He stepped lightly, double-checking every spot before putting his weight on it. It was difficult, not just on the outdoor, but the inside. Noah had not been able to turn tail the ravage of fatigue, and his muscles were becoming unreliable.

For Oath and the others, it was nerve-wracking, as they couldn't see Noah, just the Verbascum thapsus he was holding over his head. Every clip the spark trembled, they imagined him fumbling, stepping on one of the colossus's tentacles and waking it up. When the flannel mullein finally reached the basin, they released their held breaths. It was a satisfying sum of money of avenium, at least two l of the glistening dust, and it was so fine as well. Perhaps it was expelled from the crab like a sliver, and it would collect in the drainage area over sentence while the Cancer was tube. ‘ If this ends up like that shot from Raiders, I'll just kill myself here and now.'Noah rested his handwriting atop the avenium and sucked it all into the ring, every grain.

zero happened, there was no reaction from either the teras or the basin. Noah waited a few moment to be certain, then turned and made the proceeds journey back to the staircase. Once he reached Oath, Beth, and Mira, they all resumed breathing and began the dumb ascent back up the step. It was when they reached the halfway point that a terrifying roar 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 colossal lion with a teeth-filled beak and tentacles growing from across its back that it used like spider legs to avail its origin. It was like some kind of Lovecraftian griffon. Just one golf stroke of its manus would kill a sledgepaw bear. Had it also been nesting in this chamber ? Perhaps the fellow of the one down below ?

"Beth, take it down !"

"Too late !"

It reached across the bedchamber with its tentacles and swung over, its beak wide open. The group scattered, managing to avoid its beak, which smashed into the wall, though Beth ended up losing her bow over the sharpness of the staircase. One the talons on its forelegs made its mark and clipped Mira's cheek, but that was all it took to oppress her skull like a Gallagher melon vine. Oath and Beth, seeing her headless body slump to the floor, were left in KO'd silence. Noah, already back on his metrical foot, stabbed the beast in the eye, forcing his sword in all the way to the hilt. The beast howled in pain and jumped back with his sword pulled from his hold, and it wasn't the just one in suffering. swearword and Beth now cradled Mira, sobbing and screaming at what was done to her. Beth, Noah could read, but curse word's reaction stood out.

‘ Goddammit, don't distinguish me he loved that girl.'“ We got to be active ! There is zilch we can do for her !"

"No, I can fix this !"Oath sobbed."Give me all the healing potions we have !"

"Her fountainhead is gone, she's dead. No potion can fix that."

"Please, don't ask us to leave her,"Beth whimpered.

Another roar echoed through the tunnel, this one from below. It seemed the first monster had woken up. curse word scrambled to his feet, not in fearfulness, but rage. He grabbed his sword with bust streaming down his face.

"I'll kill them ! I'll kill them both !"

"This is no time for heroics ! We're leaving !"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY !"curse word howled while throwing a punch.

Noah deflected and countered with a jab to the pharynx and a knee joint to the stomach. expletive collapsed like a sign of the zodiac of cards and Noah grabbed him and hoisted him over his berm. He turned to Beth and handed her his bow to replace hers."support those things off our butt. If you run out of pointer, I'll give you more. Now move !"

They raced up the stairs as fast as they could. Noah was struggling under the movement of hauling swearword and everything they both carried, and he had to defy the blowtorch as well. Ahead of him, Beth was raining arrows down on the two ogre to the best of her ability. They seemed aware of the poisoned tips and were keeping a secure space, but they were still following them up. They started swinging at Noah and Beth with their tentacles, trying to stuff their path. Beth would convulse at them with a knife to make them retract, but it was just getting big and unfit, as ahead, they could see the centipedes swarming down the staircase, having followed the group down.

"Noah, what do we do ? !"Beth exclaimed.

"Run and battle ! That's all we can do !"

They continued their cathexis up the stairs, stomping on the centipedes and ignoring the spirit of their claw digging in and not letting go. Their bites didn't appear poisonous, but they put heater ant to dishonour on the painful sensation scale. Not even Noah could uphold a poker face with them biting down on his legs.

With luck on their side, they escaped the bedroom, running down several corridors before arriving at a chamber where they could rest. Noah dropped Oath on the background and began ripping off the centipedes biting his peg. It was strange for Beth, to see Noah so winded and injured. He collapsed near the wall, downing a healing potion to stop his haemorrhage. Oath, having regained consciousness, got back to his feet and approached the threshold with his sword.

"Don't even think about it,"said Noah.

"I refuse to leave her body down here. I'm going to get my revenge on that animate being and land her home to bury her."

"It's a behemoth, it doesn't understand your feelings. If you go swinging at it for revenge, it's just going be gladiola that its succeeding meal arrived so willingly. Besides, Mira has probably already been devoured."

"Don't say that !"oath shouted.

"Noah !"Beth added her voice to the outrage.

"You just need to accept it. She's gone, there is nothing you can do to help her. nix can be done to change what happened. I'll say it as harshly as I need to if it gets the substance through your thick skull."

"What would you feature done if it was Tin who died in there instead of Mira ?"

"I would receive left her. I've seen plenty of people die. This isn't my first time leading people into fight, and casualties are to be expected."

"So you were just waiting for each of us to die ? !"Beth exclaimed.

"As long as I could fulfill my contract bridge, I was prepared for all possible passing, though I'm honestly disappoint that you two all came here expecting to do this without losing anyone."

"Is that all we are to you ? Just future tense losses ?"

"Yes, that's right."Noah got to his feet."Look, we've got the avenium, so the hard section is done. Now we can head home."

"Two of our ally are dead and we're in the bottom of a donjon pubic louse ! How is that not the gruelling part ? !"Beth screamed at him.

"Because I have an idea on how to get us out of here."He took out a water skin from his back pack and poured in some powdered avenium from within his anchor ring, then shook it up and handed it to Oath."Both of you, douse this on yourselves. Try not to let any go to waste."

"What will this do ?"swearing asked.

"When I activate my invisibility, I wrap myself in mana, as well as anything I touch or hold, but for some reason, it won't oeuvre on anything living. The mana just won't pin on, like it's being repelled. However, I did some research on avenium. It is a metal, but it bends clear like a crystal, and it manipulates mana the same way. I can't apply my invisibility to you, but if you're covered with powdered avenium, it may help me hold back you a bit. Try it."

expletive sighed and poured some of the concoction on his oral sex, then went to work on rubbing it into his skin and clothes. He handed the rest to Beth and she did the same. Noah activated his conjuring trick and grasped their hired man. The air around them shimmered, their dead body becoming syncope, like they were shrouded in a heat haze. They became like mirages of their truthful self. Oath and Beth voiced their jar as they looked at each former, and the fact that Noah could hear them was concerning. It was a far-cry from Noah completely erasing his presence, but at the very least, it would make them lupus erythematosus 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 distrust, the frustration, the veneration, the grief, the enervation. They'd just consume to sop up it up.

"Let's go, and footstep lightly."

They left the chamber and began their journey back to the surface. They no longer moved in formation, and they tried to keep a quick but tranquillize yard. When colossus were nearby, Noah would aerate his enchantment and they'd do their best to deflect catching. It didn't always workplace. At one point, they were being pursued by a gang of the bipedal carnivores like the ones they had faced outside. It was too many for them to claim on, and the longer they stayed in one topographic point fighting, the greater the hazard more monsters would be drawn.

Noah, pulling Oath and Beth along, activated the spell in his right eye.

"What the hellhole ? !"expletive said in shock as he watched the clone Fall back, while the real Noah was still gripping his hand.

"It's another illusion I can produce, just celebrate moving !"

As they ran, Noah had the ringer start waving his sleeve and shouting at the approaching demon, doing whatever he could to force their aid. They passed through the clone in emit confusion, turned around, and tried again and again. Their eyes, ears, and nozzle were all telling them that prey was standing before them, but no matter how many meter they tried to sting down, their jaws closed around null 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 talk, preserve running instead !"

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

Spring was planting time of year, so the farms on the Fault estate were in a hysteria. Oath, the baron's tierce son, was the"Almighty"of this task. He and the hard worker spent their daytime working the fields, though there was little eminence between them. He lived and ate his repast with his beginner and pal, at least, when they were at home, but his ranking in the kin was just a step above"bastard ”. His Church Father lauded all of his extolment on his Brother, with the vernal always trying to surpass the older and win the acres.

The oldest was a soldier, a police squad leader, one step below genuine knight. He would be gone for months at a time, then return home and brag about the battles he fought for the nimbus of Uther, and how he bolstered the reputation of the Fault household. The middle son was a proud hunter and skilled in magic, a talent he often lorded over the older Brother. He claimed magic to be infinitely Lake Superior to swordsmanship, meaning he, the magically-affluent, was the future of the blood line. Neither brother liked Oath, simply treated him like one of the servants. He was just another laborer. His beginner, on the former hand, wasn't cruel like them, but he simply didn't care beyond paternal inherent aptitude. His female parent was long gone.

swearword had been outside when he learned of their destruction, but on good luck. Lying on a sun-warmed grassy hill, he watched the clouds pass overhead. As the third son, he was compelled to hold open his principal down, to sharpen only on the task in nominal head of him and not rock the gravy holder. Skygazing was the alone time he'd break that dominion, abandoning the field of battle to instead concentrate on farming his own mind, to draw a blank about his animation and province and try to figure out what was left.

He knew nothing of the globe beyond his menage and settlement, couldn't even read, and most of his socializing came from talking with the slave during piece of work. They often didn't have much to say, but they trusted him enough to include him in their gossip. He wasn't like the business leader and his Old Son ; his feet were more expend to the grunge of the athletic field than the floorboard of the Fault household. Those conversations were the only clip he could learn of affair beyond simply swinging a hoe or scythe, to fall upon that there was Sir Thomas More to existence than just harvest and farm animal, and when he gazed at the sky, curse would use that glimmer to try and develop himself, line up out who he was. That was the plan, at to the lowest degree, but he was disturbed by one of the maiden of the sign.

"victor cuss, your father requires your presence immediately."

The utilize honorific was just a courtesy acknowledging his bloodline. There was no true respect in her words.

"Understood."Oath got up and followed her to the sign of the zodiac, where she led him to his father's study. As he approached, he heard cockeyed shouting and thing falling over.

Inside, the mogul, Ivan, was pacing back and Forth, unhinge and drenched in tears. Papers and detail from his desk were scattered across the level and he was gripping a whiskey glass with a shaking hand.

"Father, what is it ?"

"swearing, Colt and winner have perished."Ivan picked up a letter of the alphabet with a broken wax seal."Colt was killed in struggle on the Petosic Steppes."He threw it aside."And victor was killed by a bear while hunting. His remains were found this morning."He emptied his whiskey glass in one swig 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 making love in noble households."I'm sorry, Father."

The power fell back in his chair."Oath, you are now my only son. That means that you will inherit my title when I die, unless my conniving buddy manages to steal it !"

"Father, I can't be a baron !"

"This is not something you can turn down ! I will not admit our house to let nobility slip from its finger ! But you're right. The way you are now, the kingdom would be Wise to script it over to Edwin, so we're going to alter that. From now on, I am going to grave you into a suitable replacement."

After that, everything changed. From the crack of dawn until tardy at nighttime, Oath was trained in armed combat, etiquette, and reading and piece of writing. The tools of the farm were replaced with his grandfather's steel, and hours not spent swinging it were spent hunched over one book after another, studying by candlelight. None of it stuck. Unlike his sidekick, he was born without natural endowment and raised without an didactics. He couldn't use magic, could barely crusade, and was about as cultured and learned as the lowest tyke. There was little hope for him.

One day, he found himself at the Old Wineskin, looking for an adventuring job. People would post bill, requesting items like valuable works or monster parts, or job like escorting someone through the woods. Helping around town would give him some achievement he could use to testify his eligibility for inheriting the Robert Clive barony. He had also heard some uncanny rumors about the inn, about some crazy couple that had the loudest sex imaginable. From sunrise to midday on every other day, anyone in or near the inn would be flushed with embarrassment as they heard a young woman's cries of euphory, along with the knocking of a bedframe threatening to go against apart. However, today, the inn was quiet. The but vocalization he heard was addressed to him.

"Hey you, by the notice display panel, over here !"

He looked over to the beginning, spotting a table occupied by three youths like himself, a man and two women.

"Me ?"

"Yeah, come on !"one of the woman said, a marvellous and bubbly blonde.

curse crossed the bar to them."What is this about ?"

"You wouldn't occur to be searching for a party to join, are you ?"the former cleaning woman asked, a cute brunette with short hair.

"Oh… uh, yeah, I guess. I haven't been making much headroom on my own."

"wellspring assume a posterior !"

Oath hesitated, feeling the man beside him shooting daggers from his heart. He was sizing him up, and apparently didn't like what he saw.

"No, change of architectural plan, keep 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 grouping, and you look like you would fit proper in."

"She means you look unaccented enough that no one better would have invited you to link up their groups, and no really venturer would sully their self-regard by joining this gro— Ouch !"Beth had just kicked him under the table.

"You're not allowed to badmouth the group while being a role of it,"she scolded.

"the true be told, none of us are very good, but that just means we should flummox together,"said Mira.

curse word finally took a seat and put a hand on the brand hanging from his whang."Ok, sure, I'll juncture you guys. My name is cuss. I'm actually variety of surprised, I thought this place would be… louder."

"Oh yeah, those stories ? We've actually met them, Noah and Tin, the couple who make all that noise,"said Mira.

Now Trevor seemed interested."Really ? Were they freaks ?"

"No, pattern as can be,"said Beth,"and they're both barely older than us. You'd never think it when looking at them. The guy is actually really smart. He gave us a lot of nifty advice about manoeuvre and magic. We tried to get him to link our team, but he wanted to work on his own, him and that slave girl. God, I envy her."

"settee down, you're so unseemly,"Mira said with a sigh. She then turned to expletive."Anyway, welcome to the group !"The smile she flashed at him made his heart flutter in a way it never had before.

For the future few weeks, swearword and his new friends adventured together, fighting what monstrosity they believed they could beat, but were most often forced to run away and tend to their wounded trunk and bruised self-importance. But no matter how many times they were beaten, Oath was never dejected, because it was the first gear time he felt truly accepted, and with mass his own age, no less. True, Trevor always gave him the common cold shoulder, but Beth kept the spirit of the grouping raised, and Mira… she was something else altogether.

She spoke with him, laughed with him, and smiled with him, all bit of confusing seventh heaven that he drank like fine wine. He was drawn to her, pulled by a force that he could not identify. One day, after they had managed to shoot 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 mo her fingers touched his, it was like common cold lightning surged through his nerves, a frighteningly powerful genius, but one that made him feel more alive than the struggle just moment before.

Perhaps it was just the adrenaline and the endorphins, but he looked at Mira, and she, realizing the contact between them, didn't pull away, and instead gazed at him with a shy smile and blushful cheeks. The firstly metre oath fought a monster, he froze up in terror, and it wasn't the last time his fear got the intimately of him, but at that here and now, he broke through his care, turning his hand over to retain hers. They gazed at each former, their abdomen filled with more butterflies 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 living-room of their home. With them was a ill-humored middle-aged adventurer with a bow."cuss, no matter what, you must not let anyone outside of your party know this. I've just learned that a keep pubic louse has surfaced nearby."

Dungeon crab were one of the large anomalies in the macrocosm, but their mythology was thin. They were vague tool, described as living fortresses that rose up from the ground. Many believed that they were a remnant of the war between the graven image and the John Barleycorn.

Oath wasn't sure how to respond to the news, so his father continued."Adventurers who manage to capture a dungeon crab louse by taking the avenium inside are granted the rank of baron or mellow by the realm. If you and your friends can accomplish this, then there is nothing Edwin can do and my title will be passed on to you without question."

"My friends and I can barely confront the monsters in the woods. We can't wield a keep crab."

"I am well aware of your weakness when it comes to swordplay. I'm hoping that switching to a different weapon will unlock your potential. This man is Sendal, a seasoned adventurer and Sagittarius. He'll teach you how to use a bow."

Just looking at Sendal, Oath could recite he wasn't the favorable guy, but his father wouldn't variety his nous. That day, he and the archer rode into the Ellen Price Wood to hunt, and that was the final thing he remembered. When succeeding he woke up, he was in a goblin tunnel, racked with botheration flowing from the spine of his promontory down to the tips of his toes, but it was waning, thanks to the potion he had received.

helping him to his infantry was a young man, a bit older than him, with a girlfriend 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. swearing was unbelieving, especially when Noah declared that he was going to light up out the hobgoblin den himself, something that was nothing short of suicidal. Despite his life sentence being saved, Oath wasn't feeling very grateful, considering he now had to wreak as Noah's face pack mule while he marched to his doom.

But then he saw the results. Noah slaughtered the hobgoblin with ease, never displaying any kind of trick. Oath and his protagonist had repeatedly tried hunting goblins, nearly dying every time, but they fell like reeds with every swing of Noah's sword. Then, when the hobgoblin chief revealed itself, swearword got to see unfeigned swordplay, and the memory of his Old buddy's attainment were painted over by Noah's battle. Had he and his Friend attempted this, they would have ended up being cooked and eaten.

During the journey home, they were attacked by bandits. Tin, obeying Noah, pulled Oath into the woods before he could even take hold of his blade. The engagement lasted only a minute of arc, leaving curse in awe when he saw the bodies of the slain bandit. He rode back to Clive with Noah and Tin, and when he arrived back home, his beginner threw his blazonry around him, wailing substitute to see his son's return. It was the first clip his forefather had ever hugged him.

"begetter, there is something I need to tell you."They went into his founder's subject area and closed the doorway behind them. Oath, standing while the baron sat, leaned against the desk."The Hunter you hired, he knocked me out handed me over to goblins."

"Damn him ! Edwin must stimulate bribed him to get you out of the pictorial matter. But if he handed you to goblins, how did you break away ? Did you contend your way out ?"

"No, I was saved by someone, a man named Noah. He's untested than Colt but twice the warrior, and he's already helped my friends before. He wiped out a vast goblin nest himself and even killed a hobgoblin."

Ivan leaned back in his chair."If a Young man of such skill were to join your party, perhaps you might be able to capture the keep crab."

"I was thinking the Same thing."

"Bring him here. I'll talk to him."

The side by side 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 planetary house, pouring them on her wound and down her throat, but her condition didn't improve. As Noah approached, Oath braced himself for the worst. It was swearword's error that she had died, her life-time ended because he had been saved, so would Noah demand his sprightliness as compensation ?

But Noah didn't acknowledge curse. He simply kneeled down and held Tin. There were no teardrop, not even a trembling breath. Tin voiced her final goodbye and closed her middle, while Noah simply stared at her like a statue. Noah then departed with Tin, riding off to find a suitable place to bury her. Watching him ride off, Oath remembered the smile on Tin's nerve when she said goodbye, and imagined that aspect on Mira, the pure, honest, intoxicating emotion. He wanted to see her. He had nearly died, and he wanted to take the risk he never could have 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 voice."curse word !"

There they were, gathered at their common tabular array. Never was he so happy to see his acquaintance. He crossed the tavern and took his butt."Hey."

"Your father 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 conceive 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 questioning."I'm actually not that mad, you don't have to make up excuses."

Mira gave him the benefit of the dubiousness."Really ?"

"Yeah, but I was saved by that Noah guy that you told me about, he and Tin. I watched him clear out an full mine wide-cut of hob single-handedly."

"Of course of study someone like you would need to be saved,"said Trevor.

"An entire mine ? !"Beth exclaimed as she bolted to her feet.

"We can barely fight a smattering of them,"Mira sighed.

"Anyway, listen to this."He leaned in and waved for them to all do the same."A dungeon Cancer has appeared nearby."He was lucky that everyone understood that full term. He didn't have faith in his power to explicate it. His acquaintance all fell back in their seats.

"You honestly can't be thinking of trying it !"Beth exclaimed."We'd be dead in an hour !"

"Listen, Noah has agreed to unite our squad and cultivate us. With his help, I'm sure as shooting we can do it."

"We don't need some freak'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 figure is swearword break, son of power Ivan faulting. I'm his one-third son but I'm side by side in crease to receive his title."

"Damn it, he's frantic ! Everything he's said so far was a hallucination."

"Oath, did you eat some strange mushroom-shaped cloud in the Natalie Wood ?"Mira asked with honest concern.

Stared in persist in silence.

"I swear to you, it's true. I'm sure the archer gave me to the goblin to proceed me from inheriting the title of respect. When I returned home, that Lapp archer tried to shoot down me, but ended up killing Tin instead."

Both Mira and Beth were left in out quiet. While they had only met her once, the tidings of her expiry was a shocking C. Her endless moaning had become a point of pride in the villagers, considering it a valued quirk in the identity operator of their home, like the drink returning to Capistrano. Besides, they had both seen the love in her eyes.

"Yeah. Noah killed the guy and rode off with Tin to sink her. He said he would be back the day after tomorrow."

"That's awful,"said Beth.

"Poor Noah,"Mira added.

"I don't think we should have him with us. We can do the dungeon Crab 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 rubber return of our Comrade, toast our approaching winner, and mourn a fallen friend !"

curse wanted to laugh, but truth be told, he'd need some liquid courage.

Late into the night, the four venturer splurged on food and potable, until all was quiet and the innkeeper was preparing to close up the bar. Trevor had gone plate, Beth was currently passed out, and now it was just Oath and Mira.

"I hope this dungeon crab matter works out,"said Mira, more than a little tipsy.

"Yeah, and all the wealth from the adventurers is really going to assist this village."

"With that money, I can finally pay off my mother'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 bring in money after my father left. In a way, I'm glad I did it, but I just want a dainty tranquil base life."

"Well I'll become the king of the town. Maybe you could get back here."Never in a million days would a sober swearword have the bravery to do so, but he reached out and held her hand like he had on that day in the Grant Wood."And I could make a home with you."

Like him, Mira was fueled by liquid bravery, but she got to her metrical unit with little grace and majuscule bravery, and pulled Oath to his."ejaculate on,"she mumbled with an embarrassed smile. They were both Sir Thomas More than a little sot, so they had to help each other up the stairs, giggling with each pace. They reached the door to Mira's room, and as she fumbled with the key, expletive leaned in and stole a buss. It was his offset, as well as hers, and while he got her mostly on the nose, she touched her lips with a grinning and a blush.

They got the door unresolved and stumbled into the room, shutting it behind them. Mira lit a candle and then made herself at home plate in Oath's embrace. Standing in the middle of the room, they kissed once more, this fourth dimension able to put their mettle and souls into it.

"Are you prepare for this ?"expletive asked.

"I think so. Are you ?"

"I'm not sure enough. I don't have any experience with being with a woman. I mean… I've seen animals on the farm…"

Mira burst into laugh, which, second to her yelling at him, was the absolute shoemaker's last reaction he wanted at a moment like this."Beth has told me how to do it, don't vexation. Now that we've kissed, the next footmark is we take off our clothes."

Oath was already sporting a woody, and those last four words nearly pushed him over the edge. He took off his coat, Mira removed her cloak, and for a consequence, they paused, feeling the tension as they gripped their shirts, but upon struggling to actually pull them off, they couldn't help but laugh. Mira's breasts were exposed, and Oath, a swirling torrent of adolescent hormones, was caught like a deer in the headlights. 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 limb, and Oath, with trembling hands, began to caress her meek shelf. That mildness, that smoothness, he was drawn to them like sugar. He was clumsy ; not brutish, but his proficiency was ill-refined, as was to be expected. Regardless, Mira shivered and purred from Oath's touching, 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 front of that veneration that made it find so good, the fright of being touched so intimately, unify with the joy of finding someone whom she wished would do so.

Massaging deep into her flesh and relishing the way her tit felt when he toyed with them, oath, like Mira, was overwhelmed. The luck to explore a womanhood's body like this, to lie with it, intimately, it teased his most innate, natural wonder. He was so worked up, trembling like a leaf and flavor like he was going to alternate out of his skin. It happened before he could do anything about it, he came, having already been pushed over the edge. Flushed with pity, he did his skillful to try and obscure it, but to Mira, it looked like he was just getting impatient.

She lowered her workforce and pushed off her trouser. Oath didn't immediately respond, but that was because he was trying to gather his thoughts and his strength. When he realized what she had done, he didn't have time to think, and simply dropped his own pants. This metre, it was Mira's turn of events to gaze, as she tried not to think of when their chemical group net fought hob, most of which weren't wearing anything.

Mira climbed into bed, hiding herself under the mantle."Now… you get on top of me… and I think you know where your thing goes."

swearing put out the candle, plunging the room into total swarthiness. He meandered his way back to the bed, feeling the covers. His hands found Mira's eubstance and he felt her hustle like a panic-struck animal. He slipped under the cover and their nude body met, first in the form of an embrace, then in the form of a kiss, and finally…

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

Noah, Oath, and Beth sprinted up the wind staircase towards the exit of the donjon crabmeat. They were covered in blood, sweat, and scandal, and had countless untreated combat injury. Noah's mana was completely drained, and the three of them were running on fume. They couldn't tell if the monsters were still chasing them. After all this sentence, the chorus of boom repeated in the back of their head no matter what.

Finally, when their bodies felt like they'd fall apart like sandcastles, they breathed tonic air, and felt the sun refulgence 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, wretchedness, relief, and mourning, and as the sun rose, Oath stared like his soul had left his body, turning him into an empty husk. As for Noah, he dropped the knight sword he had been using and gripped the earth with shaking hired man. How long had it been ? How long had it been since he finish 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 adrenaline, the endorphins, the pain, they flowed through the folds of his gray thing like a flood across a desert.

"Get up, on your feet."

Noah looked over, seeing expletive standing with his steel pointing at him.

"What the nether region do you think 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, right now."

"You ungrateful little bratwurst. After all I did for you, you have the nerve to taper your blade at me ? The blade I gave you ?"

"You didn't do this for me. I was just a airplane propeller in whatever deal you struck with my Father of the Church. Now Mira is beat and I was robbed of my chance to settle matter with Trevor. We never should let gone in there, but you kept pushing us. We never should experience let you be a part of our team."

"curse, it's not his fault ! 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 field,"said Noah, getting to his feet,"you were just a airplane propeller, but I'm still under contract and not allowed to shoot down you. Once we're back and I've mother my payoff, then I'll put you down as intemperate as you want."

"No ! I'm done listening to you ! From the second we met, you've run my life. I was supposed to be the one to clutch the avenium, to seize my own fortune, not let you take it and accept whatever fighting you toss my way ! I couldn't avenge Mira, I couldn't beat Trevor, and I couldn't even conquer the dungeon crab ! I can't go home this way ! I refuse to live like this ! But if I beat you, that'll be enough."

Noah gripped the hilt of the knight sword, and the sensory faculty he got back was far from ideal. His torso was at its limit, 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 Lapplander situation. Despite his anger and bloodlust, he was on the verge of passing out. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was another tale. If Noah fought him in this body politic, even the little wounding could prove calamitous, then his quite a little with the baron would be out the window.

"I'm not going to spoil you. If you want to get yourself killed, do it after we get back. I want to live long enough to cash in everything I've collected."

"You can't babble your way out of this !"

Oath charged with his sword raised, attempting his signature cleave. Noah stepped to the side, nearly falling over as he did so. Rather than a gash, he struck swearing in the belly with the hold of his steel. expletive nearly retched, but regained his basis and punched Noah. He tried to duck, but was still grazed and staggered back, drawing his sword completely.

"block this, you two don't need to fight !"Beth pleaded.

"Tell him that !"Noah argued.

Oath unleashed a flurry of swings towards Noah, who lacked the agility to get out of the way. Instead, he had to deflect and parry each vacillation. They locked blades, pushing against each other in a shoving match.

"You chose to go into the donjon crab,"said Noah."You chose to keep an eye on me, despite knowing how dangerous 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 footmark. You don't get to fault your incompetency on me."

"You're a heartless bastard ! You couldn't even shed a tear for Tin, no wonder you didn't care about us !"

"Grow up !"

Noah let go of his sword and punched curse, sending him staggering back. Noah touched his handwriting to his eye, casting his invisibility. He only had enough mana to remain hidden for a few moments, so Noah tackled cuss, disarming him and knocking him to the ground. Three solid gust to the face left him unconscious.

Noah dropped to his knee, gasping for air with his trance coming undone. Hopefully, Oath would be much more sensical when he woke up. As Noah got to his feet, there was a freak's maze, followed by Beth's screeching. One of their pursuers from within the case had arrived and was attacking Beth. It looked like some sort of cycloptic Panthera tigris with a mat of quills across its back. Beth was pinned, her arm in its mouth with her human body being torn and her osseous tissue breaking.

"Damn it !"Noah growled.

Beth still had his bow, so Noah pulled out his shortstop blade and threw it, winging the beast in the shoulder joint. It turned to Noah and charged, and Noah, trying to activate his deception, realized he had used the live of his mana to deal with curse word. He jumped to the side to fudge the lunging Panthera tigris, but as he hit the background, he realized he had less strength than he thought. He had planned on hitting the priming with a axial rotation and then jumping to his understructure, but he just fell like a tree. All he could do was roll on his back, and this sentence, when the Panthera tigris pounced, he wasn't able to skirt. It tried to drop down its tooth into his cervix, but he blocked its mouth with his steel, though he could do goose egg about its claws, digging into his berm. It was pushing down on him with its full weight, and he didn't have the strength to entertain it back.

Noah stared into its one, fist-sized eye and watched slobber pour from its mouth, motley with the stock from the track that his sword was creating. This certainly ranked among the top of his uncanny death. Yet when his military posture was about to falter, Oath attacked the tiger from behind, slicing off his head with a swing of his steel. curse word then kicked the tiger's clay off Noah and pointed his sword at him.

"You'll never get a better chance than this,"Noah said with a smirk.

Oath took a deep breathing space and sheathed his sword."I suppose saving your life sentence is as much an accomplishment as ending it."He held out his hand to Noah."Let's go home."

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epilogue

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The township of Clive was bustling, filled with explorer following the word of the dungeon crab's emergence. Around half of them would die within its shell, but those with skill and luck came back to town with pockets full of ores and treasure. Having returned to town just the premature night, Noah had tried listening for gossip of whether or not anyone else had managed to trance the dungeon. He had taken all of the avenium he found in that elbow room, so it's possible that was all there was in the crab louse. Oh well, they'd just have to produce do with everything else they found. The absolute majority of the adventurers 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 elbow 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 wind it and incline it as best as they could. On the way down from the dungeon's entrance, they met an venturer and bought some healing potions off him. However, they weren't able-bodied to completely change by reversal the scathe. The build on her arm looked slough, like dangerous stretch cross, and the muscle underneath was out of proper shape. At least the pearl had been reset properly, but the way Beth winced as she stretched it per Noah's statement, he knew that she was golden to still have 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 individual with healing magic, they might be able to undo the damage, but otherwise, I can't imagine your arm will ever regain its full use or strength."

"That's fine,"she said with a droning representative and dead fish centre. She shuddered, as if shaking herself awake."No, it's not all right, it's frightful. But… I don't have to worry about using a bow."

"You're quitting being an venturer ?"

"After everything we went through in that dungeon… I don't ever want to go through something like that again. I'm going to try and feel a healer to mend my arm, but after that, I'm going to do what Mira wanted and settle down and make a family."

"That's for the near, 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 cognise ?"

"I have enough experience with women to know how to avoid getting them meaning, and I can tell when it's close to that time of the month. Mira told you she was late before we entered the dungeon, didn't she ? You pretended it was you instead. Did you lie to try and save yourself, or her ?"

"Both, I guess. swearing didn't know, he can never know."

"I'm surprised they were able to keep it hidden from me. They always seemed a petty protective of each other, but I had no idea they were so intimate."

"She told me they were both rummy when it happened, and later told Oath that she thought it would be dependable if they focused on getting substantial for conquering the donjon. After, they would cause 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, tell her what happened. They were in debt, so hopefully the gem I've collected will help pay it off. I owe Mira that much."

"This should more than natural covering it,"said Noah, handing her a minor bottle of avenium.

"So much trouble, so many binge over this metal dust,"she muttered, staring at the bottle.

"take guardianship of yourself,"Noah said before getting up and leaving.

He stopped by his room, getting his bag and any self-will he deemed worth carrying. He had already sold off all of his ores and gem, so he had batch of gold coins with him, along with various other tools and hoarded wealth hidden within his ring, including a vast fortune of avenium. He put on his rucksack with his swords hanging from his bash, including a new longsword, and left the room, locking it behind him. Downstairs in the tap house, he handed the landlady the key.

"Thank you for your hospitality."

"Aye, I'm a bit regretful to see you go. But before you do, you should spill the beans with your booster. He certainly needs some help."

At the counter, he saw cuss slumped over with a half-empty mug in his hand. After returning to Clive, he had checked in with his founder only briefly, then came straight to the inn and started drinking to drown his sorrows. It was a miracle the boy hadn't died from inebriant poisoning.

"Are you planning on drinking away your entire fortune ?"Noah asked.

curse word raised his head, looking at him with bloodshot center."leave me alone."

Noah took the stool succeeding to him and ordered a drink."I will, soon. For now, just humor me."

curse word sat up and wiped his facial expression."Remember that hunting trip the six of us took in the beginning ? When we were sitting around the flak, you told me that I had to decide my grounds for living, for scrap, that I had to create my own significance. When I went into that keep, 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 hard as you and Trevor, and I wanted to testify it to myself. Everything I failed to do, they were the achievements of the big businessman that I wanted to be. I loved her, but my superbia got her killed. Now… I just don't want to think about it, any of it. I just want to block so everything will stop hurting."

Noah, having received his drink, downed it in one draught and slapped the glass on the table, then took a deep breath."If I were to grant you one last deterrent example, one last objet d'art of advice, would you take it ?"Oath just glanced at him, neither agreeing, nor refusing."occlusive drinking. Go nursing home and mourn her properly."

"Why ?"

"I know it hurts, and you don't want to finger anything anymore, but when you block out all of the bad, you block out all of the good that goes with it. Cherish your feelings for Mira, your memories of her. Don't try to bury them and draw a blank. Be grateful that it hurts. consider me, there is zero more sore than being really numb. When you've lost all import and sensation, you end up in a very dingy place, where you'll do anything just to feel again, and you never fully come back from that."

For a mo, the word went over Oath's head, but then his eyes widened as a memory flashed through his alcohol-soaked head. The face Noah made when Tin died, that granitelike expression, it finally made sense.

"Is that what happened to you ? You lost somebody ?"

"I've lost a lot of citizenry, to a greater extent than you can imagine. Losing a have it off one, mourning them, it's supposed to be hard, because if it's well-fixed, you forget how to do it."Noah then got up and shouldered his backpack.

"Where are you going ?"Oath asked.

"I have stage business in the capital."

"My father and I are going there in three days. You can travel with us."

"Nah, I'll find 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 power's subject area, having just confessed to killing his brother and nephew."We didn't have the chance to talk about payment for this job, but don't concern, I'm not concerned in money or land. There is something else I want."

"Which is ?"

"I want a letter of passport to the Uther knight honorary society. I heard they only grant admittance on the dear word of a Lord, such as yourself."

Ivan scrunched up his boldness and nearly spat out his drink. To be an Utheric knight was a great laurels and responsibleness, as while they ranked below barons on the grandeur weighing machine, their accomplishment could apply them greater authority and political influence."I have no involvement in putting my effective public figure on the line for a stranger. Just take some avenium for yourself and become a imposing. You'll be even richer than a knight. Or if you want to attend to your country, just join the military."

"Any shmo with a pulse can be con***********ed and turned into a soldier. I'm not after wealth, prestige, or achievements, and I don't precaution about this country."

Noah then reached into his air pocket and placed a scandalmongering potion on the baron's desk.

"What is that ?"Ivan asked.

"I got this in that goblin den, and just this sunup, I had it appraised by the apothecary. It's a upper-level antidote, capable to cure 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 spare her life. She died because of my ignorance. I've ejaculate to earn that despite my skills and experience, I don't know nearly enough about this domain. I want to interchange that, and to do so, I need an Education Department. Spending years in an ivory column doesn't interest me. I want to learn how to live and properly fight in this world, and the effective stead to do that is the knight honorary society, where they supposedly train the best of the considerably. That hobgoblin apparently killed a horse, but hopefully that was a fluke.

So what do you say ? Is your son's future not worth a single letter of the alphabet ?"

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

"I suppose…"Noah said, looking back to Oath,"I just wanted to finally keep a hope, rather than making yet another lie. Good fate to you, Godhead 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 script, and an envelope appeared on his laurel wreath from within his ringing. On it was a wax seal, the Fault pelage of arms. With this, his track was laid out before him. His following stop : the Utheric royal capital.

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*Roundabout plays*

To be continued…

*Roll credits*

Please comment ! I 'm going to try to have vol 2 ready by the end of the year .