Prologue

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A rare find, that beautiful crimson hairsbreadth. That color was usually the result of flashy dye and a childish personality, desperate to leaven individuality by opposing normality. It was a rare natural endowment from nature, every strand like melting rubies, when virtually so-called redhead possessed only a diluted orange hue. But hers was like rakehell, drawing the oculus of all those around her, including Noah's. Of all the cleaning woman he had seen, met, and knew, even intimately, hers was the most purely crimson.

It was after schoolhouse in ahead of time fall, the Light of the setting sun illuminating every fibril and reminding him why it was deserving it to approach her. She was walking across the empty soccer field, her consistency trembling from the adrenaline of all the running she had done in her track gild. For once, Noah saw her without all of her friends surrounding her or her swain's arm draped over her berm like a boa constrictor. He had been waiting for this fortune, longsighted than she could suppose.

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

"Noah, what are you doing here ?"

She asked that question, but she knew the answer. What else would soak up a boy to her, what other possible desire ? He was going to romance with her, possibly even ask her out. Would he be nervous ? Would he be cocky ? Would he play innocent and try to lead off with some small talk, or would he get straight to the head ? Had he planned this ? Had he been waiting ? They had been admirer since she transferred in their Sophomore year. Had that just been in anticipation of this ?

It was unclouded in her heart, that his intention had been seen through, but it didn't dissuade him. Rather, it was something that always amused him, the paradox of homo coupling that became both easier and more difficult with age. She already knew what he desired, so unless she desired the same thing, her nitty-gritty would be guarded, with no opening for a filch plan of attack to surprise her. It was a challenge that men and women had struggled with since the break of day of time.

"I heard that you and Sean broke up. I know what that tone like, how lots 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 bother dating. After all, when summertime comes, we're all going to cleave up and go our separate ways."

A rejection, not an optimal termination, but it was within his expectations. He just had to convince her to give him a fortune, but gently. He had to properly select his parole so that he wouldn't come off as desperate and spoil, but not try to ham it up by turning it into a sonnet like an out-of-touch nerd.

"Is that why you two broke up ? Because you didn't see a point in staying together ? I doubt that. I think you believe in love, in giving it a opportunity. A lot of things will happen between now and commencement ceremony ; Christmas, Valentine's Day, the prom ? That's plenty of prison term to be happy, and to change your mind about which path you plan on taking. plan can change, affair can influence out. All I want is a chance."

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

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

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

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

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

He swung up his script and stabbed himself in the pharynx. The strike, it was so tight, but it was lenify, just the tip of the blade breaking his hide and severing his Jugular with speck accuracy. It was a pure, fluent movement, as if he had spent hours practicing. Blood began to spray from the minor lesion, and to the sound of Lindsey's scream, he allowed himself to flow on his back. She rushed over and tried to stop the bleeding. Covering it with her hired man only slowed the outpour, so she reached into her bag for something to use as a bandage.

"hitch, just keep your manus there,"Noah said calmly. The vein he had struck carried rake out of the head and sent it back to his heart, so the rest of the lineage in his system of rules would keep his wit oxygenated, at least while it was still in his venous blood vessel.

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

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

"What are you talking about ?"

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

"That's just blood deprivation talking. Hang on !"She tried to get out out her phone, but Noah grabbed it with surprising 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 blanch as his."How could you possibly sleep with that ?"

"Because this isn't the starting time clip I've confessed to you. I'm always myself, but the cosmos I'm born into is never the same. Every time I die, I return to the day of my birth, but in a different timeline. I'll end up in a mankind where my surroundings are different, or history didn't go the way I remember it, or consequence will pass off in my future that I can't predict.

Only in my past seven lifetimes have you been present, and in all seven lifetimes, I could never make 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 Thanksgiving, and I and everyone else picket you dance together at the prom. Each time, I kill myself to try again in my next sprightliness. These preceding 18 long time, they've flown by like the blink of an eye for me."

His haemorrhage was starting to slow, his consistence going inhuman and his intellect getting foggy.

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

"It's the alone way I can be anymore, following some chore or biz that keeps me engaged. Every spirit I've lived, it's been a lie, concealing who I am, what I know, what I've experienced. much of the time, I have to make believe to have emotions, because after all this prison term, I've almost forgotten what they feel like. I've almost forgotten what's like to actually sense something. But when I see you, I get to know actual longing. I have an actual crush, something so simple and childish, but such a wonderful feeling. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a redhead, but I've lived for so long, I have to grasp at any scrap of meaning that can make me glad, and make my macrocosm a little LE hollow."

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

With the go of his strength, he removed her helping hand from his injury so that it could shed blood freely. Her carpus 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 hand, blinded by the setting sun while Lindsey's shadow obscured the properly position of his font. The illumination passed through her cerise haircloth like stained ice, making his stock effulgence beautifully.

"I've seen so many worlds, so many dissimilar realities, but none of them could fix me happy. I've never known what it felt like to go or experience at home plate. Every humanity felt damage to me. This is yet another reality that I am incompatible with. All I can do is hope that the succeeding world is one I can be happy in."

The lineage at cobbler's last stopped flowing, and Noah closed his eyes and released his final breath. Then, in his idea, there was a familiar flash of light and he felt himself being pulled to the adjacent world.

A Whole New Game

Without even opening his heart, Noah knew that something had gone wrong. He was dazed, but he could definitely palpate the frigidity, hard ground underneath him. This didn't make sense. At this import, he'd normally be experiencing his own rebirth, coming out of the womb as a newborn babe. His body was also still the same size. He could sense the weight unit of his limbs, as well as his dress. His bridge player was still covering his eye, but just moving it took a tremendous sum of money of strength. He managed to work his eyelids open up and stared up at the Amytal 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 clock time he had died. Either he had somehow survived his self-annihilation attempt and been moved while he was unconscious mind, or he had reincarnated without being reborn, breaking into another timeline rather than being properly incorporated. Was his reincarnation top executive changing ?

Noah sat up and looked around. He was lying on an unpaved road in the woods. His hoodie and the shirt underneath were smashed with his dried blood, but when he felt his neck, there was no combat injury. He had been healed, but had his blood also been replenished ? It would sustain taken at least thirty bit for the blood on his clothes to dry this much, not enough fourth dimension for his soundbox to regenerate any meaningful amount, so this was likely a partial rebirth.

He got to his feet and staggered, struggling to breathe. There was no strength in his limbs and his persuasion were getting weaker by the second. This fatigue, it was exchangeable to blood exit, but also different. It was like there was some sort of surplus muscle going unhinged, using up all of his strength. If it didn't dissipate soon, he'd end up passing out again. What in the cosmos ? He looked down and realized that he wasn't casting a shadow. The fatigue must have been messing with his vision. Now that he thought about it, his left eye was itching a bit. He gave it a rub and it was like a switch had been flipped. The fatigue vanished, as if that extra muscularity had settled, and when he looked down, he saw his shadow.

‘ That wasn't blood personnel casualty. It must have been some kind of remnant trauma from my suicide or this glitchy renascence. But where am I ?'

The road was unusual. The ground was packed, but the sediment seemed native to the smear. In the Bodoni font world, even the unpaved roads were made with at least a layer of backbone and gravel to forbid it from being overgrown. He had his notecase and his earphone with him, but there was no service.

A sound reached his ears, one that nearly people rarely heard outside of film and TV. It was the audio of horse hooves. He looked over his articulatio humeri, seeing two grownup men on horseback approaching him from down the road. Behind them, an old man driving a horse-drawn wagon and leading… slave. Wearing rags for dress, to a greater extent than a dozen men and women of varying ages were being led by chains.

This strange wagon train came to a halt in front man of him. The men on horseback and the one driving the wagon stared at him in confusion."You're blocking the route. Get the Scheol out of our way before you end up like them,"the number one wood barked.

It had been a long time 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 in the south won the Civil War and other such occurrences.

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

"party boss, smell at all of the profligate he's covered in,"one of the men on horseback said.

Noah looked at them. Their clothes, they were misleading, wool clearly not woven by any form of modern font machinery and with coats 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 form of natural disaster that halted mankind's developing. A meteor ?

"I don't think he understands us. He's got some eldritch apparel. He might be the son of some noble,"the other horseman said.

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

"If he's a stately, we can ransom him back, and if not, he looks healthy and strong enough to sell for a good price. Chain him up with the others."

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

A outflow of blood sprayed forth and Noah threw his tongue at the Big Dipper number one wood, catching him in the breast. Before his first of all victim could leave out to his knee, Noah ripped his brand from its sheath and charged towards the early horseman, already drawing his own vane to revenge his coworker. The throat was out of ambit, so Noah deflected the oncoming attack and went for a twinge in the side of the gut and up into the right lung.

"bolide !"

There was a twinkling of light in his peripheral vision, coming from the old man. Noah's instincts made him jerk back as a flash shot through the air, missing his face by an column inch. It struck a nearby tree and exploded, spraying fervidness in all counsel like a Molotov Cocktail. Noah looked back at the old man, one hand outstretched while the other covered the stab wound in his pectus from Noah's knife. He wasn't holding a flare gun or any former kind of device that would explain what had just happened.

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

"Fireball !"the old man shouted again.

Just like before, a welkin of contract flames formed in his hand, about the size of it of melon, and shot at Noah with marvellous speed. Noah dodged and rushed in to close the distance. The first fireball had forced him to let go of his sword and the 2d had forced him back before he could grab the second man's. He'd have to finish this with his bare hands.

The horses were all throwing conniption in awe from the fighting, but the old man continued to establish those mysterious flares. Noah circled around the cavalry, 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 sizeable and impregnable and experience how a lot force he had muster up with each poke. Blood started spraying with the thirdly punch, the old man unable to fight back and soon blacking out. Noah promptly retrieved his fallen knife and finished him off.

Noah took his time to catch his breath while he wiped off the sword, folded it up, and stored it in his pouch. He took those few import to quell his irritation. He was used to being reborn as a baby after every dying and considered those early on years to be his vacation between each new life, time to properly cast away of old memory, catalog utile knowledge, and mentally care with any idle ends. No one depended on him and he usually had a parent or caregiver to take aid of him, giving him sentence to rest his psyche. Now he had jump right back into a endurance mindset and outset from dough in a world with all new rules.

Those bolide the old man had launched, that was undoubtedly sorcerous, something that he thought only existed in fantasy storey. He had never seen magic before, not in any of the timelines he had already lived in. Until now, he had operated under the feeling of the Multiverse possibility, which stated that there was a timeline for every possible subatomic effect. Was it really possible for magic to exist in the multiverse ? What did this timeline have that all the premature ones lacked ?

The old man would give been a worthful source of information, but with his foot soldier now dead, he would never willingly recount Noah anything. It wouldn't be worth the meter and trouble to interrogate him in this situation. Oh well, the answer would come in clip, and Noah had learned how to be patient.

He turned his care to the slaves, staring back at him with uncertainty. They weren't rejoicing at the last of their captor, average enough. After all, Noah hadn't killed them in order to liberate the hard worker or anything like that. As far as they knew, he was about to kill them all or just carry them all and sell them himself. Each of them was a variable, possibly benefiting or dooming him. It would be best to just let them go, but he decided to get some use out them first.

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

Possessing cognition could either urinate them valuable or a liability. They didn't want to let out 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 collars.

He held up the key for all the slaves to see."I need one of you to take me to a safe region with a beginning of fresh water supply and off the road where I won't be seen. Whoever volunteers will get their catch removed and can tantalise in the wagon. Once I'm brought to a suitable location, you will all will be set free."Six slaves raised their bound hands."You,"Noah said.

He had ***********ed a teenage girlfriend that looked to be around his age. She was dirty and underfed, but looked levelheaded enough to be utile to him, and he could certainly overcome her if she tried to bewray him. It was intemperately to gauge her appearance in this State. She had a pathetic look permanently etched into her face, like a basset heel. If he cleaned her up, she might be a real cutie, but right now she was so soiled that he couldn't even tell her lifelike hair color.

"What is your name ?"

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

"Do what I say, Tin, and you'll earn your freedom. Go against me and I'll putting to death you."He unlocked her metal collar but left her carpus bound."Now assist me take care of these bodies."

Noah searched the cadaver of the three slave traders, taking everything of note value. Along with their swords, he got a couple obelisk, some corduroy, and three makeshift billfold. They were snake peel with stacks of bronze coins inside, tied to their belts. It was a clever concept.

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

"lusus naturae will surely be drawn by the olfactory modality of blood here. It would be best if we moved on now."

Noah huffed in chafe. Great, now he had devil to worry about. This certainly was a world unlike any he had seen before. This ruined his design of taking the corpses with him. He was sure he could find a use or two for them, as well as aim their clothes and anything else of value on their person when there was more metre. He also didn't want to leave any grounds of what he had done.

"Very well. polish off the clothes from the soundbox and put them in the wagon."

She wordlessly obeyed, proceeding to disrobe the army corps without any shred of malaise or discomfort. Most fille her age would be too squeamish to do anything like this. As she worked, Noah searched the wagon and found a canvas bag, smelling too sour to be used for food. He soaked it with a wineskin, and while it wasn't paragon, it was upright enough for him to use to put out the fires that the old man had started. He and Tin completed their tasks, leaving three bare dead body on the route and a few charred trees. Noah retrieved one of the blade, just a crummy machete, but astute enough to get the job done. He showed no soreness in decapitating the torso and storing the heads in the canvas bag.

"pull these torso into the woodwind instrument, out of deal from the route. That should pig out any animal that search this area."

There was no telling what the time value of these slave trader were. If they were even slightly important to someone, their disappearance might take to an investigating. Three nude, headless consistence that were devoured by monster wouldn't leave any evidence. They couldn't even be identified. On the former hand, if they were criminals, then Noah might be able to use their severed heads as confirmation of their deaths and collect a bounty. He had been in a lot of bad situations and chaotic timelines, so this outlook was a skill he knew he could bank on and use as he needed.

Once the bodies were look at with, Noah took his nates at the battlefront of the estate car and Tin joined him. The two excess sawbuck were tethered to the sides of the wagon and would adopt along. Noah cracked the reins and the gymnastic horse pulling the Dipper began moving forward.

"There is a worthy place respective mil down this road. I will show you where."

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

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

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

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

Her answer was to be expected, though. A hard worker educated in geography would be an unusual uncovering. It would be good if he could get his hands on a decent map, though in this era, that was probably a lot to ask for. In a cosmos with magical and monsters, there was no telling what the planet's topography looked like, even the placement of the Continent. He had traveled previous terra firma numerous metre, but much of his experience was now obsolete.

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

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

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

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

"What do they use for currency ?"

"Metal coins, like silver and gold."

Noah retrieved one of the snakeskin coin purse 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 maintain a similar amount.

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

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 ash gray coins and showed it to Noah."This is what I'm worth."

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

"Mid spring."

That was good for Noah. In order to get a foothold in this new world, he'd need ample prison term with the fortune of survival at its mellow. wintertime would handicap his mobility, possible action mechanism, and give life sentence a lot harder. Had he appeared in this world a few month earlier, he could easily freeze to end before reaching civilization.

"You spoke before of monsters. What should I be conservative of in this woods ?"

"The biggest danger is the Hugo Wolf. They travel in pack and pop whatever they see. There are also bears, large spiders that hide in burrows, and goblins."

Giant wanderer and goblin ? This world was getting more fantastical by the second.

"Tell me about the goblins."

"They are little, only about the size of children, and maybe as smart. They have weapons and often lying in wait 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 blessing of the gods, letting citizenry call down churchman retribution upon their opposition. It can create ardor, control body of water, make you warm, and do all kind of matter. There many different form of magic exploiter. I've heard of some of them ; mages, champion, warriors, priest-doctor, 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 bloodline ?"

"I don't know."

That was a problem. If it was an power passed down from parent to child, then he was screwed. His glitchy reincarnation left him with the regular genes of his last parents. If magic wasn't something he could memorise or acquire, life would get exponentially harder. Then there was the mentioning of gods. He had spent various lifetimes searching for signs of the existence of God, some presence of divinity that might explain his existence, but he always came up shortstop. However, in a world where magic existed, perhaps gods might as well.

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

‘ To remember my laziness would compensate for my withered conscience…'

They were passing by a hill with tree blocking much of the sentiment, but all of the horses flicked their ear to it. Noah didn't girl that tick and reached into the wagon. When searching earlier, he found a bow and a few arrow, none of which seemed very well made. He took aim up the Benny Hill, spotting a shadow moving between the hills. It had been a long fourth dimension since he had utmost used a bow. It was one of his hobbies about four or five lifetimes ago. This was nothing like the Modern curtain call he was used to handling, but when he let the arrow slip liberate, it shot between the trees and found its target. Noah didn't see what he hit, but there was a shriek of pain that he did not make out and the sound of multiple entities running off.

"What was that ?"Tin asked.

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

They ran off before he could fetch up his conviction. Good, that would pee him lupus erythematosus of a sitting duck, and they'd draw the attention of anything that might want a patch of him. He returned to the driver's seat and turned to Tin, holding up one of the coin purses.

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

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

The timber thinned a lit, the tree diagram spreading out far enough for the wagon to go off the road and head towards the sound of running H2O. They arrived at a clearing where a pocket-sized waterfall thumped on let out rock. It was isolated, just the place Noah needed. There was even a cave behind the falls where he could take a crap camp. However, they were not the only inhabitants.

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

"That is a slime. They like dampness places. Their undersides are like giant lip, devouring whatever they crawl over. Their bodies are covered with a lean pelt, and if you tear it, its insides pour out and change the shape of its body."

"Are they dangerous ?"

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

"How do I stamp out them ?"

"You have to hit their brains."

The slime hadn't noticed them yet, so Noah took aim with the bow at the dear one. It was gruelling telling the front man from the back of these things, but he spotted something floating inside, suspended, an apple-sized puffiness of self-colored tissue. He released the bolt of lightning, missing the creature's brain by several in. It rumbled in pain and its gelatinous insides spilled out of the wound like a runny nose. 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 endorsement tail, now searching for what had injured it.

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

Already, the arrow was halfway dissolved. That thing was like a giant moving stomach. He would have preferred to deal care of these monsters from a aloofness, but he didn't have decent pointer to flip away. It would also get coloured 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 relieve. Go wherever and do whatever you want. But don't even cogitate of taking anything from the wagon."

He got up from the wagon and approached the waterfall with one of the slave monger'swords in his hand. It was the worst of the two, utilitarian at least for experimentation. He approached the gunk, already back to to the full health after being shot with the pointer. It didn't appear to have very goodness imaginativeness, didn't even appear to experience optic. He picked up a I. F. Stone from the Creek and threw it, sending it bouncing a few feet away. It pounced on the rock with surprising upper, smothering it with its trunk and absorbing it. So, these things could jump. If it could see, it was probably short-ranged, based on movement, or more in all probability it could sense quivering in the ground.

He took another tilt and threw it at the slime, this metre hitting it. The rock ripped through its thin skin and its gut spilled out. The blow stunned it just long enough for Noah to sprint over and cleave through its brain. As quickly as he attacked, he darted back. He had learned through numerous occasions to always expect an foeman to get back up. Plus, he wanted to avoid getting sprayed with any guts.

Despite his concern, it was a clean kill. The monster, originally a nauseating yellowness, turned hoar, and its exposed insides began to smoke and dissolve. Unfortunately, smoke was also coming from his brand. This really was a cruddy acid. Noah wiped the steel off on the grass and then rinsed it in the river to clean it. It had undergone severe corroding. Hopefully it would last until he killed them all.

One affair made him happy, though. When he killed the slime, act didn't appear in the air, displaying experience pointedness earned. He started having business organisation as soon as that first human dynamo was launched at him, and when Tin said it was a ooze ; he thought he had been reincarnated into some kind of RPG humans. If at any point, she used the word ‘ layer ’, he would have permanently lost the ability to keep a heterosexual person face and carry anything seriously.

Anyway, back to killing.

He repeated his strategy with the other three slime. A fist sized rock thrown with sufficient fastness and accuracy could thrust the behemoth and stun them long enough to have a black strike. After the third goop, his sword broke in half, the end completely melting off. There was one sludge left, but it would be catchy. 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 movements, but he didn't want to look at the chance.

He crept behind the waterfall and threw another endocarp, striking the gunk near the brain. Its soundbox curled up like a slug sprinkled with table salt, and Noah rushed over. This time, he thrust the fail steel straight in. He managed to poke the brain, but the sword slipped right into its dead body. Noah pulled away before his inactiveness could send his hired man plunging into the acidulent muck, but various drops splashed him and he could feel his tegument dissolving. He thrust his handwriting into the waterfall and steadied his respiration as the pain faded. That was too close for comfort. He'd have to get up with another way to stop those thing if he encountered them again.

The domain had been secured, now to set up refugee camp. He stepped out from behind the falls, and to his surprisal, 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 know how to be free."

"I gave you money. Take it to the nearest town and buy yourself something to eat and some new clothes. Look for anyone who will hire you, hopefully offering room and board in exchange. From there, start your new life."

"Is that an order ?"

"No, it's advice. You don't have to take orders from me, I'm not your master. I hired you to be my usher, you got your money, and our contract is fill out. Now we constituent ways."She continued to stand there, looking like a pup in the rainfall."You can have got one of the horses. You'll be able-bodied to get to town faster and outrun pursuers."

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

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

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

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

There was a glimmer in her eyes."If I can be useful as a corpse, 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 poverty-stricken than he would own liked, but her obsequiousness made her more trusty than anyone he could expect to find in this world. Maybe it would be right to possess an superfluous pair of hands to help oneself him, at to the lowest degree until he got out of this forest. Besides, it wasn't like this was the first meter he had owned a slave. There were many dark timelines when he followed the rule of ‘ when in Rome, do as the Romans.'

"Fine, I'll be your passe-partout. What skills do you have ?"

"I can count to one hundred, I can write some, and I can tend to livestock and work fields, as well as perform house task. I am also very experienced in pleasing men, so I can service you whenever you desire."She bowed her fountainhead as she spoke, not seeing Noah raise his eyebrow at her last sentence.

Depressing as her words were, he wasn't one to change by reversal down an offer for sex from someone so willing. On the other hired hand, nothing about her current appearance stoked his libido. He was standing xx invertebrate foot away and could smack her like it was twenty inch. Sitting following to her in the police wagon had been very unpleasant. Just letting her bathe in the river wouldn't get the job done.

"Let's get camp set up and then we'll talk. You said you can lean to livestock, redress ? Then I'll leave the sawbuck to you. Get them watered and fed and then take these dead slimes. I imagine they've lost their acidulousness in death."

Tin obediently went to influence while Noah gathered all of the chains and collars that had been used to chair the slaves. There was also plentitude of R-2 in case any of their binds broke during transport. Noah snapped the choker off the mountain chain and used them as hammers to break the weaker connexion and split the chain into multiple short segment. He split the circle into thinner string and set up a perimeter around the encampment, then hung the catch and chains on it like Christmastime ornaments. Any intruders that tried to move into would hit the tripwire and the jingling range and collars would give them away. And in vitrine they were set off by the wind, the Equus caballus would be the s billet of detection. If they started acting up, then a threat was nearby.

"I'm going to go gather up some firewood. If any monsters approach, just holloa for me and yeet some bullshit at them. The smelling will ride them off."He then stopped and chuckled to himself. That's right, he no longer needed to use modern slang.

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

Noah set out into the woods with his only sword and a satchel the old man had been carrying. He didn't want to digress far from camp, but he had to check out the domain and make indisputable there weren't any close at hand risk. One thing he was especially cautious of were the giant spiders that Tin had mentioned. She said they hid in tunnel, so he kept a closely eye on his basis, avoiding any suspicious areas that could be a potential ambush. Webbing on the land was a blabbermouth foretoken, test copy that he wasn't the entirely one using tripwires to detect enemies.

The first affair he did was gather pine boughs from around the internet site, accumulating a large good deal that they would use for bedding and making shop at head trip back to the camp. Then he gathered all of the firewood he could contain, but focused only on specific trees. This world was very different to the one he was used to, but most of the trees appeared to be the like. He also filled his pockets and the satchel with medicinal plant life and even some victual mushroom cloud. In every aliveness, her larn and relearned survival skills to keep the data branded into his psyche, so even if had forgotten their name calling, he still recognized herbs that could be utilitarian. As he moved, he had a hard feeling 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 Friedrich August Wolf Tin had mentioned, larger than any he had ever seen. His nose led him to it, the wolf reeking of end and rot. The nitty-gritty was well beyond eating and its fur and bones weren't worth the travail to harvest, especially with all the maggots and tent flap, but there was something that he could definitely puddle use of.

The sun was starting to set by the fourth dimension he was done, but there was still plenty he wanted to do. Luckily, dinner party was already taken care of. The slave traders had packed enough food for themselves and their consignment. It was hard dinero and dry out meat, something that Noah's spoiled discernment buds would not appreciate, but he'd seen enough intemperately meter to know how to be grateful.

Before doing anything else, he removed his hoodie and jersey. He had kept them on as an sum layer of protection in case anything attacked him, but the blood had hardened into a hard crust and he was glad to be capable to finally take them off. Had he known he would reincarnate like this, he would have gone nursing home and just hung himself, preferably with his pockets stuffed with utilitarian prick. He laid out his shirt and hoodie under the waterfall, directing the nebulizer right onto the lineage stains. He pinned them down with Stone so that they wouldn't be washed away.

He noticed Tin watching him like a rum feline. She had never seen muscularity like his before. To survive in the countryside, men required great military strength to farm and battle and heftiness mickle naturally accumulated. Noah's appeared more determine, like he had focused on improving the quality of his muscles instead of just chasing after the faint definition of strength.

"Tin, take off your clothes."

"I shall do my best to live up to you, Master."

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

Tin removed her dress, though it was more like a raggedy potato sack with holes cut for her head and arms and a strip of cloth for a belt. She was malnourished and scrawny, but he just had to polish her up a little.

With the last of the light, he searched the river for stones. He'd test their hardness, striking them against the back of his sword. Once he started getting Dame Muriel Spark, he returned to the riverbank and gathered up some punk. He ground some dry birch bark into a OK debris and struck the sway against his sword over it. It took various effort, but some electric discharge landed in the dust and it went up like gas. From there, he built up a fervency on the riverbank with all of the birch woods he had gathered. By the luminousness of the flames, he started digging a hole using his sword and a alloy frypan he found in the wagon.

"master key, please admit me to do that instead,"Tin said.

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

The two of them continued to work, with Noah expanding the pit and Tin gathering the cadaver. Once he was done, he smoothed out the sides of the pit and then began slathering on the clay that Tin had gathered. He used the leftover clay to make some cup and bowls and put them in the flaming to broil. He built a second fire, this metre putting it in the pit. It was with a softer wood. He didn't even need to see Tin's face to smell the curiosity within her.

"I'm making a wash catchment 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 gargantuan stain gawk. In world, it was a lump of animal fat. He had gathered it from the carcass of the dead Wolf, rolled it into a ball, and packed it with a shell of dirt to hold open it from making a mess when he carried it. It cleaned it off and put it in the metal skillet, then set it over the fire.

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

Despite her piteous lifestyle, her teeth were in goodness condition. She grew up in a world without processed intellectual nourishment, carbohydrate, or chemicals, so despite never brushing, there was no rot that he could see. Her breath was pretty bad, but that was because she lacked the concept of flossing.

Noah walked over to one of the horse hitched to a tree, nibbling on the pile of grass that Tin had gathered for it. He cut a ignition lock of its long hairsbreadth, washed it in the river, and returned to the campfire, where he braided several strands into a strong thread. He made a instant and turned to Tin.

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

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

"Now I'm going to express you how to create soap."conclusion, he added a handful of ground-up pine needles and started stirring the commixture together.

"goop ?"

"You've never heard of it ?"

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

"It's been a foresighted time since I did this. If I had time and proper prick, I could make something of a a lot high-pitched character, but this should get the job done."He set the skillet back on the fire so that the H2O could be boiled away."Have you gotten every tooth ?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then hire a mouthful of this."From next to the blast, there was also a cup made, of all things, tin. It was full of water brought to a simmer, with ground charcoal and pine phonograph needle mixed in. He let it cool down and then handed it to her."You said you could count, right ? Well purl this around your oral fissure and jump reckoning. Once you reach one hundred, sup it."

She took a mouthful and handed it back to him so he could cease it off. With that taken care of, Noah took the skillet off the fervency and examined his soap. It certainly would never trade in a grocery fund, but it would get the job done tonight. Next, he turned his care to the wash watershed and the withered firing. The clay packed onto the incline of the pit had hardened and could now keep back piss.

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

As Tin went to function, 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 heat up up. By the prison term Tin had finished with her task, the rock'n'roll were all sufficiently hot, and using sticks to handle them, he moved them into the watershed until it had reached the sodding Bath temperature. It was still ash-gray from the fire, but that wasn't a problem.

The ground why he had used unlike fires for the washbowl and grievous bodily harm was because of one of the resulting chemical, lye. Despite being a acrid kernel, it was required for making max. It was collected from the ash tree of hardwood, like birch tree. He had used a softer wood in the fire to harden the sides of the basin so any leftover ash wouldn't turn the water too alkaline.

"All right, now to test it."

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

Tin held a bit of soap in her hand, staring at it with wide eye."It smells… mellifluous !"

She mimicked Noah, using a makeshift flannel and the soap to scrub herself raw. She was frenetic, leaving no bit untouched. The two of them cleansed their skin, lathering themselves up and then rinsing in the river to proceed the bath water clean. With the crap removed, much was revealed to Noah. Neither of them said anything about the countless scratch, bruise, and brands that covered Tin's body. Finally, he had her lie on her spinal column and lowered her nous into the catchment basin, then scrubbed her hair's-breadth with the soap until the bathwater turned as black as ink. She sat up and call up the pee out of her hair's-breadth as he stood up and stretched.

"Huh, so you're a blonde. I honestly couldn't assure your born colouring material. You were so foul that I wasn't sure if the mantle matched the carpet."She didn't say anything back, just crouched by the drainage basin, holding herself. Wait, she was trembling."Tin ?"

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

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

She reached up and grasped his hand, desperation in her middle."maestro, can I delight overhaul you now ?"

A low joke escaped Noah."My, my, what a grabby little striver you are."

He leaned down, lifted her mentum, and left a soft kiss upon her lips. She shivered from that tactile sensation, gentler than any other in her biography. She took the first step, 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 throbbing. She had been eyeing it since the here and now he stripped down, her mind buzzing with all of the ways she would please him.

When Noah finally pulled his lips from hers, she knew what he wanted and was eagre to render it. She leaned in, his cock disappearing into her rima oris, only to reappear with a glistening bed of tongue. Tin wasn't shy in the least, she put all of her acquirement to go. She deepthroated him to make herself gag and salivate, then would use her hands to lick the shaft while she slurped on his head like a lollipop. Despite her joy at being so scavenge just a minute ago, she was certainly making a fix, her nerve covered in spit with big foamy drops dribbling onto her breasts.

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

She released his pecker, gasping for air with her optic full phase of the moon of joy."Am I doing good ?"

"You're magnificent, Tin."

She went back at it, this time with a different target in thinker. While she jacked him off, she sucked vehemently on his jewels, rolling them around in her mouth and balancing them on her knife. She switched between her techniques with masterful skill, giving Noah no metre to energize 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 heftiness twitched. She swallowed his humanity like a ravening savage, her face pressed to his tum as he swirled around inside her throat.

Several slurred super C were pumped directly into her stomach, a salty sweet after her meal. Tin fell back, once again gasping for air."sea captain,"she panted,"please don't hold back. Use my body however you wish."

"You've done well in pleasing me, but has anyone ever took the prison term 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 patrician clutch to keep her still, while he free manus slipped between her legs and reached her honeypot.

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

Max Born and raised a slave, she had been abused and violated in all ways imaginable. She thought she had grown numb to it, but the feeling of Noah's fingerbreadth touching her virtually private, sensitive expanse, they made her shiver and gasp. There was military posture in his fingers, but his movements weren't rough or clumsy. Rather, she sensed that his experience surpassed her own.

His digit penetrated her, making her moan in a way she thought she never again could. His attack was relentless, probing every sensitive patch like an assassinator striking her pressure points. She was a slender little girl, torso fat being a luxury for a slave, but her physical body rippled from the vibrations drumming from her ass. She could find the free weight of her bosom with every campaign, and the phone he was making, the sounds he was forcing her body to make, the squelching of subdued, wet flesh, it was like she was experiencing this all for the first time.

The pleasure was beyond words, she wanted it to go on forever, but her body wouldn't obey her commands. Her muscles spasmed without suspension like she was being tickled. She inadvertently tried to pull away, her body wanting to protect itself from these sentience it couldn't contain, but Noah's hairgrip on her throat remained house. This location, what he was doing to her, it was so foreign. She felt almost like an animal, like livestock, and Noah was the husbandman, preparing her for breeding with some strange husbandry technique. Ironically, that wasn't far from the truth.

She cried out, climaxes rushing through her like a flash flood, but Noah didn't layover, even as she became limp. He continued mercilessly finger-blasting her, while his early bridge player released her throat and he forced his digit into her sass. She sucked on them like they had a beloved glaze. They were her lifeline, all that was keeping her conscious. The bowel movement of her natural language and lips, the quivering of her throat as she slurped up the savor of his fingertips ; if she didn't oeuvre with all her might, the almost cruel ravishment of coming would rob her of all thought 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 level cheeks and swimming eyes, it was an grammatical construction 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 professional ? That you lied and you can't fulfill my desires ?"

She reached out to him, her skinny weapon system coiling around his neck to pull him in."Master, 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 rim joined hers, a passionate but gentle kiss, while in comparison, his thrusts, so libertine and forceful, made her cry out to the stars overhead.

.

.

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Civilization

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.

.

The rising sun shining in his eyes awoke Noah from his slumber. It was not a rich sleep, due to his stream condition, but he at least felt rested. It was his beginning break of day in this new world. He and Tin were lying on a agglomerate of yen boughs, keeping them off the background and insulated, and wrapped in the canvas patrol wagon back, which they were using as both a tarpaulin and a blanket. 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 freedom, but she chose to stay on his slave anyway.

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

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

It was a chilli morning, so the kickoff matter Noah did was build up a fire while Tin collected their clothes from the waterfall. They had been set under the spray to be washed, and after a night under the throbbing H2O, they were clean as could be reasonably expected. They were hung up to dry around the fire, while Noah and Tin had breakfast. Last night, Noah had made some cupful and bowls using the stiff that Tin gathered and left them in the blast to bake overnight. Now, he was using them to boil water and make true pine needle tea.

"What do you require to do, headmaster ? I can lead you to town if you like."

"How long would it take to get there ?"

"Another two or three days."

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

"What should we do ?"

"Yesterday, while I was looking for rocks in the dark, I think I might 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 it of rats."

"Perfect. start, what we're going to do is arrive at a lot of lye."

"What's lye ?"

"It's the stuff in ash that I used to hold that soap last night. It's a very foul chemical. I'm going to set off gathering Natalie Wood. I want you to bail out the bathwater from the drainage basin and refill it. rainfall water would be best, but river water will have to do. Then aim the Stone and put them back in the ardour. You remember what to do if something blast ?"

"Throw horse dung and hollering for you ?"

"Right."

Noah departed, heading back into the forest. Just like the day before, he was gathering hardwood from birch tree, oak, and maple trees. He moved cautiously, hearing movement all around him. He also returned to sealed areas he had visited before, with target on his mind. He came across a position he had just yesterday done his best to avoid. There was spider silk on the terra firma, and nearby, an obvious trapdoor. Noah put a large stick on his foundation and readied his bow, taking aim. He kicked the stick over by the trapdoor, and instantly a spider burst out to seize what it thought was its repast. The thing was huge, almost five feet in diameter.

Noah released his arrow, striking one of its eyes and leaving it screeching in painful sensation. Before it could duck back into its hole, he shot another pointer, this one drilling through its skull and ending its life. While it was still fresh, Noah rushed over, pulled out the endorse arrow, and pierce his fingerbreadth into the hole. He stirred his fingers around in the spider's mastermind, causing its legs, now curled up into a fist, to begin spasming. While not conversant with spider frame specifically, he was tickling what he hoped to be the cerebellum.

"Come on, where are you… Ah !"He found the magic dapple, as the solid consistency convulsed and the abdomen started expelling silk at a frantic rate, like he was squeezing a tube of toothpaste. Het got to his feet and dragged the spider with him, laying out the silk so that it wouldn't reefer to itself. He had come up with this idea on a whimsy and was overjoyed to see it work. When flowing of silk stopped, he removed his fingers."That's rightfulness, ladies, I am just that good."

He then began rubbing dirt into the silk like he had with the animate being fat he had collected the old day, something to keep it from sticking to anything. It was dear duncical blood line, and strong as well. Next, he started gathering up the older, thinner webbing it had used for its den. It was already dried out and had lost much of its stickiness, so it was quick to be collected.

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

Noah walked over to the wagon and pulled out a small wooden gun barrel. It had originally been filled with common salt, which the slave traders used to preserve their food, but now there wasn't much left. What remained, Noah poured into some of his clay jolt. He then hung the spider to drain its descent into the gun barrel. There wasn't much, and it had begun to congeal immediately after demise, but that just made it sticky like syrup. He swirled it around the inside of the barrel, covering every inch, and then filled it up halfway with some of the expend ashes from the birch flack yesterday. He didn't touch the ash with his bridge player, and upon closing the cask, he shook it up. Once completed, the inside of the barrel was coated with thick layer of ash.

Putting it aside, Noah began moving hot pit from the fervency and putting them into the basin, bringing the water to a boil. Then, he started shoveling birch rod ash until it filled up half the basinful. For the adjacent one-half 60 minutes, Noah would switch out stones, making sure the water was always boiling. Soon a picture began to settle on top of the water system. It was swimming lye, rising from the ashes. Noah harvested it from the surface, careful not to touch it, and put it in the skillet on the fire to churn away the moisture.

"Ok, I'm going to go back and get Sir Thomas More firewood. I want you to keep swapping out the rock so that the body of water stays boiling hot, and as the lye gathering on the surface, run down it and put it in the frypan. Whatever you do, do not let it meet you. The falls and the river are keeping the air moving in one way. You want to stay upwind so that you don't breathe in any of the smoke. You got that ?"

"Yes, Master."

And that was how they spent the full daybreak and much of the good afternoon. They kept burning birch wood, and once the catchment area stopped producing lye, they would swap in refreshing ashes and re-start harvesting. Between collecting firewood and tending to the fire, Noah created more pottery with the river Lucius Clay and baked it in the fervidness. The skillet was routinely filled with the lye motley, and once the water evaporated away, Noah would scrape the lye into one of his Clay jar. It was the middle of the good afternoon when he declared that they had collected enough.

"Now to quiz it."With his knife, he collected a small hump and put it on his arm. He could finger it burning his pelt like an aching sunburn. Had he taken his meter with this, it would let been burning a Crater into his hide, but in this typeface, amount was better than quality.

"Yeah, this will crop 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 uncommon smile.

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

They moved away from the attack, sick of its heat, and ate by the falls. While chewing on tough jerky, Noah studied the Equus caballus. They weren't tied to any trees, at least not now, and were wandering around the bivouac, nibbling on whatever they liked. The stumble wire was doing a beneficial job of keeping them close, but they would probably run out of food by tomorrow. They'd have to move on by then.

"schoolmaster, if my may ask, how do you have it away how to do these things ? I've never seen anyone fight like you do, at to the lowest degree not someone your age, and you have the acquisition of an alchemist. What kind of breeding have you done ?"

"An alchemist ? I kind of like the sound of that. Let's just say that I have a lot of animation experience. I've lived through in effect times and bad. Anyway, we should move on to the next stage. I'm going to go along the river and overhear modest muck. I want you to retrieve the corpses of the big slimes I killed yesterday and try to hoard their skin."

Tin was obedient, not voicing any of her doubts and instead setting off to do as her master ordered. Noah retrieved the cask he had tinkered with earlier and filled it with water system, then began walking through the river, searching the depository financial institution. It was only up to his knees, and there were plenteousness of large boulders for slimes to hide by. On his hands, he wore some rough leather gloves that one of the slave traders had been wearing. The slimes he found were usually about the size of his fist, and with large maintenance, he'd pick them up and put them in the barrel.

The water in the barrelful, thanks to the ash, had a raised pH floor. The goop were acidic, but their pH story wasn't very low. The alkalinity of the water and the ash kept them from melting through the sides of the barrelful. He also tossed in some food to keep them from starving. Hopefully they'd still be able-bodied to digest it. If they were all still alive by the next dawning, his plan was a success.

When he returned to the camp, Tin had gathered up the tegument of the drained slimes from the day before.

"I'm sorry, master, but the skins are too fragile for any form of use."Noah put down the barrelful and examined the shed skin. It was crinkly and flaccid, a far cry from any kind of leather, more like a Hydra's shed skin.

"No, they're perfect, just what I wanted."He handed her one of the obelisk the slave trader had carried."Here, start carving them up into squares, about as long as your hired man. You know how big, right ?"

She nodded and went to puzzle out. While she did that, Noah collected more farseeing haircloth from the horses. He took the foursquare that Tin cut up and used them to wrap up small piles of lye, then tied them shut with the sawbuck hair. The sludge tegument, despite its frangibility, still maintained many of its device characteristic. guck were like livelihood acid, so they had to be able to curb their pH level. Their skin not only hold their guts in, it kept basic substances out, marrow like lye, making it perfect for holding it.

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

"Ok, let's test one of these out."Noah took one of the extra squares, filled it with ashes, tied it off, and threw it at a nearby boulder. The slime skin held together while being handled and thrown, but upon striking a severe surface, it burst unfold and sprayed its contents in all focal point."Perfect !"

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

"That's right. This lye isn't very strong, so it doesn't do much to skin, but if it gets into your eyes or you breathe it in, you'll go down. All we have to do is hit our foeman in the face and they won't stand a opportunity. Now, I know we're both old-hat, but we still have a few hours of daylight leftfield. Let's work on a twain former style to improve our situation, and tomorrow, we'll drumhead for the nigh town."

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

They departed the next dawning at dawn, wanting to get an other starting 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 wagon, but were now helping to pull it. With the spider silk Noah had collected and forest from the forest, he managed to create extra harnesses so that they were leading. The horses moved in a steady Trotskyist, cypher compared to the railcar from Noah's previous lives, but fast enough to possibly outrun an untrained man.

For Noah, this was a scene he was familiar in. He had fought in numerous wars and seen countless post-apocalyptic worlds, living through one lawless hellscape after another. He was familiar with the motive to grow eyes in the back of his head, to expect foeman at all times.

"sea captain !"Tin exclaimed.

"Yeah, I see them."

Swarming from the side were a pack of beast, each one almost as large as the gymnastic horse pulling the Dipper, but Noah had planned for this. He handed the reins to Tin who whipped the horses into a full-of-the-moon gallop. He took out his bow and began launching arrow. 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 arrow as they charged, but it managed to spook them into moving around back to attack from the rear. Noah climbed into the wagon and stared them down through the open back. Changing their attack angle had momentarily slowed them down, but they'd catch up with up in seconds and flank them. Noah tossed a big money of arm and greens out of the back of the patrol wagon, but they were Sir Thomas More than they appeared. It was actually a net with thorny bush and bristles woven in. The net was dragged behind the wagon, and the wolves that stepped on it cried out as their paw were spiked with sharp seminal fluid pod. Those who were injured gave up the Salmon Portland Chase, while the eternal rest of the camp learned and split up to avoid the net.

Before they could leave his view, Noah opened up the barrel of sludge and began throwing them. Even if the small fauna didn't make a manoeuver hit, they exploded like H2O balloons. The acid splashed on the Friedrich August Wolf, who instinctively knew that slimes were to be avoided. The clique realized that this prey wasn't worth all of the trouble and gave up. One threat had been neutralized, giving them sentence to breathe, but it didn't end there.

Bears and other forest creature would pop up every now and then and need to be dispatched by arrow. The flyspeck bolt couldn't do much damage, but the nuisance would make the wildcat reevaluate whether or not to continue attacking. Any monsters he managed to stamp out, he would glean for parts. With Tin controlling the horses, he would run in the black Maria, removing skin, tooth, organs, and anything that looked valuable or utilitarian. Every now and then, they'd even stop so that he could collect medicinal plants and mushrooms. But the more he fought, the more Noah realized how unprepared his body was for all this. He was goodish and strong, and had lifetimes of scrap experience, but his handwriting hadn't built up a stratum of callosity that a indigen of these Edwin Herbert Land would make. Every time he gripped his sword, he could feel blisters forming on his palm.

Then, in the afternoon, the succeeding challenge revealed itself. In the distance, a tree diagram lay across the road. A rider on hogback might be able to jump it, but never a Charles's Wain like this. Whether or not it had fallen naturally, Noah knew who would use this opportunity.

"Tin, quit the wagon."They came to halt a century yards from the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree."Turn the horses around. If I die, ride back the way we came. Stay at the waterfall until someone uses this road and then travel with them."

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

"I've handled worse."

He got off the wagon with his sword in hand, and on his arm, a cuticle made from the carapace of the wanderer he had killed. He was wearing one of the striver trader'coats, the closest he could get to leather armor, and he also had his satchel, filled with lye packets. Rather than go about the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, he dove into the woodwind instrument. If there were any hobgoblin in hiding, he'd flank them. As he approached the barrier, he spotted them, hiding behind the tree diagram. They were the sizing of small fry, but with protruding stomachs and green skin. Their ears and nozzle were pointed, their faces boilersuit barely even humanoid. They were armed with blade and curtain call, likely stolen from slain traveler.

He closed in on the low gear one, his footfall giving him away and causing it to squeak in alarm. Noah dispatched it with a swing of his sword, overpowering its endeavour to skirt and lopping off the top of its skull. The others, alarmed by the death of their comrade, turned their care to Noah and attacked. They launched their pointer, albeit with shoddy aim, but it forced Noah to duck for cover. He pulled out one of his lye packs, focused on a hob with a bow, and threw it like a baseball. The small clique nailed it between the eyes and exploded. The hobgoblin took an instinctive breather in, and then immediately screamed in torture. Not only were its sinus and lungs filled with lye, but it had gotten into his middle, leaving it blinded.

The way it shrieked was cipher LE than unnerving. It was like a baby battle cry, it racked the mind and made even Noah squeamish. The goblins, hearing those sidesplitter, became frightened. This was a cruel universe, and living in the woods, every day was a bloody fight for endurance. But none of them had suffered or seen mortal suffer a form combat injury and take a shit that kind of noise.

Noah gave them no metre to gather their bravery. He dealt with the other hob archers the same way, leaving them howling in agony. With their long-range attacks neutralized, he closed in. The remaining goblins tried to put up a fight, but he slaughtered them with gruesome plug and thrust. His spider shield fractured whenever he blocked a swing, but it held together long enough to drink down them all. These goblins probably ambushed their target, catching them by surprise to make up for their weak bodies, but once they lost that vantage, they were easy to toss away of.

He was closing in on the concluding one, slightly larger than the others and armed with a club. It growled and made a wide-cut cut. Noah didn't try to block and stepped back out of the ogre's reach, then swung down his brand and cleaved the goblin's header opened. To his discomfort, blood splattered across his face 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 got taken more than out of me than I thought."He pushed through the sudden weight and returned to the road. It was exhausting work, but he moved the tree out of the way."Tin, come on through !"

The police van approached and stopped where the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree had lain, but there was a look of confusedness on Tin's face."master key, where are you ?"

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

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

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

Touching her just made her yelping in surprisal."I still can't see you ! What's going on ?"

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

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

"It's fine, I can see everything clearly ! But I can't see you !"Was he the problem ? He could see himself just fine. Damn it, his eye was still itching from the blood. He rubbed it with his ribbon and Tin gave another yelp of surprise."Master, 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 stopping point time 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 thin air !"

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

"See what ?"

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

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

"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, variety of like flipping a Sir Frederick Handley Page. Master… I think you're using trick !"

"illusion ? No, that doesn't make sense. My parents were formula, I haven't even studied any form of magic."

"That's the only thing it can be. But I've never heard of magic that could make multitude 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 phantasy to conceal the change I've made until I release it."He covered his eye and felt the fatigue, then, covered it once more and it stopped."Covering my eye is the trigger that activates it."

He then remembered his in conclusion consequence with Lindsey. He had covered his left eye because the sun was blinding him, and he woke up in this world in that same position. His glitchy rebirth, it hadn't just preserved his body at this age, it gave him some kind of deception. Maybe it was the magic itself that caused the wrongdoing, the magic present tense in this new world.

"Tin, do they hold any kind of Bible for the Energy Department used for magic ? 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 early eye."

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

"So, you can see me. That means I didn't turn invisible. But something clearly happened, or at least, tried to encounter. I have a dissimilar spell in each eye, but not enough mana to use the second one. It must be like a sinew. I have to train it to increase my stamen.

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

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

The following day, while Tin took town the tripwires set around their stopgap summer camp, Noah was busy experimenting with his thaumaturgy. He had come across a giant spider, draining the parentage from a captured rabbit. As he approached, Noah covered his eye and cast his illusion. His feet on the underbrush, it should have given him away, but the spider didn't seem to notice. He decided to make more stochasticity, picking up a marijuana cigarette and snapping it, but still, the spider didn't seem to notice.

"Over here."

Finally, the spider spun around, its calamitous eyes searching for the source of the noise. It seemed that his illusion also concealed auditory sensation, but not his voice. Maybe because he intended for his part to be heard ? He had been casting his spell on and off since he discovered it, to try and get a better tactile property of his mana. He couldn't properly strain himself since he needed to save his strength for when he needed it, but he was starting to sense the flow.

He drew his blade, a new one. After the competitiveness with the goblin, he had taken their weapons, and despite being slightly rusty due to inadequate tending, they were higher quality than the loud machete that Noah had been using until now. He now carried a Medieval-style longsword, a unretentive brand, and his knife. He came up with arrangement with persuasion of ancient samurai, who carried a katana, a wakizashi, and a tanto dagger.

He reached out with his longsword and used it to rustle a nearby George Walker Bush. The wanderer didn't see or listen anything. Noah could experience it, his mana flowing through his sword towards the bush, enveloping it in the trick. He focused on the energy running through his arm and tried to slow the flow, to hold on it from moving beyond his sword. It was exceedingly difficult, like trying to flex a muscle he had never used before. It reminded of him of all the class he spent as a newborn, when his muscle tissue was just slightly tougher than gelatin. He tempered his breathing, driving out all misdirection from his mind, and soon, he could feel the flow of his mana, like he had grabbed a grasp of it.

He pulled it back, leaving the blade enveloped, but this time, when he rustled the bush, the spider raised his front stage and bared its fang, believing an animal to be causing the disturbance. Noah slowly approached and tapped one of the spider's raised wooden leg with his sword. It hissed in fury and swung at something it could not see. The illusion could block sounds from reaching his opposition, but it couldn't erase the common sense of touch, so he couldn't just wrench 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 piffling, likely a sign of the zodiac that she had no affinity for legerdemain, probably a reason why she ended up a slave. The monsters had even less, but not all of them. Lone wolves without packs and many spiders, they seemed to be shrouded in mana. He didn't get the depression that they could use magic, more like it clung to them, like an scent. What made them so exceptional ?

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

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

It was a sweet substitute to Noah and Tin when they finally left the forest. After two solar day of repeated trap by predatory animal and goblin, the sea of trees that flanked them on either side were replaced with open air grass, fields where husbandman and their slave were planting harvest. The road became more consistent, receiving More maintenance due to the growth in dealings. In the aloofness, they saw the townspeople, Clive, as Tin called it. It was surrounded by a log fencing to keep the monsters out. It reminded him of the colonial village museum from his fifth-grade field trip. The creek from their waterfall bivouac joined into the river that flowed beside the town.

Guards in bum leather armour with a few metal collection plate were manning the gate, and they stopped Noah and Tin as they approached. One of them looked over the horses and the police wagon with a mistrustful 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 buy him with scoop 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 fourth dimension to Medieval Europe. Peasants walked the muddy route, street marketer tried to deal their ware, and the air stank beyond all de***********ion. The building were brick and wood, only a few of them more than two stories, with their windows using fogged glass.

"What do we do now ?"Tin asked.

"We're going to sell this wagon, everything in it, and the sawbuck. That sentry duty recognized them, so others may as well. Plus, I can protect a stack of coins undecomposed than this load of pelt. We can just buy replenishment if we need them."They rode past a beggar lying in the street and Noah brought the horse cavalry to a block."You there, where can I find a weapon principal ?"

The bearded man pointed a trembling finger's breadth to the east. Noah didn't thank him, but tossed him a pig coin. They turned down one of the eastern streets and a sign caught Noah's eye. It had an anvil with two get over blade in front of it like a crest. They stopped the wagon outside and Noah disembarked.

"facial expression after the Plough. This place is probably crawling with thieves, so be wary."

She was armed with a dagger and he had faith in her competence. He stepped into the computer storage, with a Alexander Melville Bell ringing above his head word from the room access opening and closing. This computer memory was made of brick in monastic order to lessen the fire danger due to the forge in back. legion weapons were put on showing, from steel to halberds. Back in his previous life, Noah could have bought a Damascus sword online for $ 60 that would put these to pity, but these would suffice.

He also paid attention to the prices in order to cypher out the rate of conversion for money. The numbers were drawn a bit differently from yesteryear humanity, but they appeared to have the same values. From what he could distinguish, ten Cu coins equaled a bronze, ten bronze equaled a silver, and ten silver gray for a atomic number 79. The metric grading made it easiest for Noah to liken them to US dollars, but from what era ? There was a suit of armor selling for two amber coins, about two thousand dollar sign. But was that two thousand dollar mark back in the Old West ? Or was that two thousand dollars in the 21st one C, after more than than a hundred long time of inflation ? He couldn't even tell whether the prices were well or not. This was either all groovy equipment at a high price or garbage sold to founding father and cheapskate, or even just junk the owner was asking the moon for to try and rip Noah off.

A man appeared from a back room and stood behind a counter. He was a with child bear of a man, buff and dirty from a life spent standing over an anvil. Seeing Noah's modernistic clothes, uneasiness crossed his face."Can I help oneself you ?"

"Do you buy weapons 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 weapon looted from dead goblins. He stepped back inside and laid them out on the store parry."What can I get for all of these ?"

There were four brusque swords, two longswords, six daggers, three spears, and an axe. The blacksmith raised his eyebrows in modest surprisal at the sizing of the haul, but otherwise maintained a poker boldness for the sake of business. He examined each artillery, making amplify grunts and sigh over every fleck and sign of rust fungus.

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

"That's a bad trick. That's less than a bronze coin per weapon. You're marketing obelisk for three bronze each. Seven silver."judgement by the cost of the video display pieces, that was more than the blacksmith could sell them for, and while he would cause liked to go higher, the blacksmith was really low-balling him.

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

"Leave them as is and then chalk down the price. You can deal them to some entrant warriors as training gear. Six silver."

"I can't come in anywhere near that. The best I can do is two ash gray and five bronze."

"You can always just forge them into something new and deal at a high-pitched price. Four silver."

"You think you're the sole one merchandising weapons by the arm-load ? Plenty of adventurers come in here to plunge what they found in some goblin tunnel. Scavenged brand are hardly rarefied on the market. Two atomic number 47 and seven bronze. That's like final offer."

‘ So, ‘ adventurer'is a term used here. It probably applies to monster hunters and the like.'“ How about this : my axe, plus two sticker, in exchange for that nicer axe up on the wall ? Everything else, you buy at one-half for what you're selling their counterparts for. That's ten bronze for the short circuit blade, another ten for the long sword, four and one-half bronze for the dagger, and another four and one-half for the fishgig. That's correct around three silver."

The blacksmith gave a miff. Three flatware, such a troll, all act. It was five bronze above what he could get if he sold the weapon for half price, but his inner-perfectionist didn't want to perplex it with a smaller 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 manpower and Noah received the three coins and the axe."I also have another matter outside that you might be interested in. Follow me."He led the blacksmith out into the street and showed him the tripwire rolling wave in the rear of the wagon.

"What is it ?"

"A tripwire system, offering a c railyard of aegis. Any teras that touches it makes the metal alarms jangle. It's so loud that even the dead can hear it. I'll trade it for three bronze and the modest shield you had in the corner. It's got to be Charles Frederick Worth that in stuff alone."

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

The deal was struck and Noah and Tin set off with a a good deal lighter beach wagon. The axe Noah had gotten was a enceinte one, perfective tense for chopping both trees and monstrosity. The shield he now wore on his arm was only around the size of it of a dinner plate, but that worked for him. It was inviolable enough to freeze a slash from a sword and it wouldn't hamper his apparent movement. The tripwire was a bit terrible to lose, but once they sold the wagon, they would have ended up carrying it with them.

With directions from many of the townsfolk, they sold and traded their wares. The blacksmith wouldn't buy the bowknot, but Noah found another artillery trader who allowed him to deal up to a much better piece and a quiver of good-quality arrow. After that, the medicinal herbs and mushroom-shaped cloud were bought by an herbalist, the savage pelts went to a leatherworker in exchange for some armor and a secure backpack, and the clothes and dish were traded at the garment shop for some new outfits and a sec backpack. Due to the Weird face he was getting, Noah was aware that his modern clothes made him stand out. They were too valuable to get rid of or sell, so he simply packed them away and donned the dress of the countryside.

He ditched the severed heads of the slave traders into mortal's pig pen and the hogs went to townspeople. From asking around, it seemed that the Garrow fellow he killed wasn't the precious felon he had hoped for. It was a shame there was no bounty to collect, especially after three days of putting up with the olfactory modality of those heads.

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

The owner of an venturer's shop yelped in pain in the ass from the lye touching his cutis. He sold traveling and survival of the fittest gear wheel, such as forget me drug, candles, dried rations, and other curiosity to facilitate travelers exist the beasts dwelling outside man's domain. Now he was buying the last of Noah's draw, including the cadaver of various spider and the cask of slimes. A test had been necessary to convince him of the lye's ability.

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

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

"No, no, I can't do five…"Noah pretended to be lost in thought process."Do you trade single-valued function ?"

"We do."

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

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

"Four bronze and you won't have to grapple with me for the remainder 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 lovely amber coins, so now they lived carrying everything they owned. Tin was in a good mood, now wearing right clothes and footgear. She looked nix like the slave girl that Noah had met when he first came to this domain. One might appear at her and not even think she was a slave.

The sun had almost set, but they made their way to their final plosive consonant, an inn known as the Old Wineskin. It was busybodied inside, the air stinking of pipe gage, ale, and poor hygiene, and the level creaking under countless duet of shifting boots. The hostess, a enceinte woman looking like she birthed children by the bedding, greeted them at the door from behind a breast desk.

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

"Both. What are your rates ?"

"Five Cu coins a night for one room. For ten, you also get firewood, a hot bath, and two straightforward meal a day for one person."

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

The woman handed him an smoothing iron key."Take a tush in the dining room wherever you like and I'll bring you the sign special."

Noah led Tin through the gang of sottish villagers, both of them on the lookout for pickpockets. Every man in the bar looked either like a Viking or the sort of guy that Vikings typically killed, all of their clothes made of either woollen, linen, or brute skin. Any women were either travelers huddled together, or courtesans sitting across the lap covering of their rummy client and laughing at every bad joke as they waited for the alcoholic beverage to take its toll.

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

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

"Is something wrong, Master ?"

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

He had seen plenty of townspeople that been knocked out of the modernistic age in his previous lives, usually due to some variety of apocalyptic event or because it was in a third-world country, but none of them had the Medieval European Union aura like in fantasy Word and picture show. For all of his life experience, this was something he was happy to finally be able-bodied to hybridize off his list.

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

"I'm not for sure yet. I don't have enough information. I want to get it on more than about this country, about the other countries. I want to see what I can puddle of myself and what will dedicate me the best chance of survival. But for now, I want to repose up for a few days and learn what I can about the area."

He took out the function he had bought and looked them over. Their timber was just as he expected from a Medieval society. The map of the Algata province showed the towns around Clive, as well as shadowy rivers and tidy sum, but there was no scale for referencing aloofness and none of the roads were labeled. The national map was no better, but it did name the big towns and the Capital of Uther near the southerly glide. It was hard to influence the size of the res publica, but it was probably somewhere between England and Texas.

Right now, what he needed to turn on was a backstory. True, this was not a country with an educated public, but Noah was still unlettered of the culture and lifestyle, something that would ask years to catch up on. If he claimed to be from somewhere but failed to reply a interrogation that any indigen would know, it would pee-pee him look mistrustful. In his past lives, his backstory would render itself, just like everyone else, and as an adult, when he needed an assumed name, he could easily craft a new one using his knowledge of the world. He had been forced to hide in other countries and take on new personal identity in past biography, but this was a whole new ballgame.

The hostess arrived with wooden trays and beer phiz. The planetary house special was a bowl of meat and veg stew and a cooky, with a pint of the topical anesthetic ale to launder it down with. Noah didn't even want to opine how a wellness inspector would react to seeing the kitchen and how the food was prepared, but after three twenty-four hour period of nothing but rock-hard bread and dried meat that was little More than salted leather, he ate greedily.

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

"You've done everything I've told you to do and stimulate yet to disappoint me. You deserve to eat right meals. Besides, I need you solid and healthy so you can stay on to help me."

She bowed her header with her berm trembling."Thank you, Master."

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

The way they were renting was awfully stark, just a bed with some itchy blankets and a fireplace. There was also a board with a lone candle and a pitcher of water. Firewood had already been delivered. As Tin lit the standard candle, Noah began moving around the room, knocking on the walls, storey, and ceiling, searching for any hidden doors or peepholes. For all he knew, there could be mass watching them, waiting for them to fall asleep and then rob them, or worse. He once made the mistake of spending the nighttime in a backwoods motel that was run by a consecutive sea wolf. The monotonous tire within walking length should give birth warned him, but he refused to believe the cliché.

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

He was for sure for the virtually part that no one was listening or watching them at the moment, but that might be impermanent. He wanted to look into the inn itself. But on the off chance that someone was managing to avoid his detection, he didn't want to actuate his magic. He left the room and locked the door behind him. There were rooms on either side and across the foyer, but they would hail later. He went downstairs, maneuvering through the gang and stepping outside into the dark street. The town was clearing out, everyone bearing home or to whatever spot 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 hand, entered the alley. He never even saw Noah, certainly didn't see his paw aiming for his Adam's Apple. A whole blow ripped the air from the man's lungs and sent him to his stifle, ineffectual to even call in torment. 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 have noticed you, so that means you didn't see me with Garrow's wagon and sawhorse. Either soul who did see me put you up to this, or you're just going after me because I look like an easy mark. So, which is it ?"

"Eat asshole, you damn kid !"the man gargled. He tried to free himself from the choke custody, but Noah just tightened his grip. He couldn't see anything, no affair where he looked.

Noah took out his tongue and held it under the man's eye. The blade was invisible like Noah, but the man could feel the blade threatening to pierce the tegument of his lower berth lid."If you want to salvage yourself, startle talking. I can make you beg for your life and then beg for end in a matter of seconds."

"This is just what I do, punk ! I wait for pieces of glass playing explorer to make a improper turn and then I take everything that they have !"

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

"I don't need help."

Noah put his knife away."Clearly, you do."For the briefest moment, the man felt Noah's detention on him loosen, thinking he was going to be let go. Instead, Noah grabbed his head and snapped his neck.

Noah searched the clay for anything of value and dumped it in the river beside the settlement. He then returned to the inn and searched the outside. He had measured the distance from the windowpane to the corners of his room, and, assuming that all the rooms were the same size and Lapp shape, there didn't appear to be any fictive walls that somebody could shroud in.

With his illusion still active, he went inside the inn and maneuvered through the bunch, this clock time putting all of his effort into not bumping up against anyone. He checked the thickness of the storey and cap of each layer and found no unusual person. His mana was starting to run out, so he had to hurry with the death stride. He returned to the floor of his way and listened to the surrounding doors.

Behind the door across the Charles Martin Hall, he could hear two female adventurers talking, making plans for the following day. In the room to the left of his, he could hear a man sharpening his sword. The room to the right field was understood. From his pocket, Noah drew a length of wire. It was originally parting of the handle of one of the sword he had sold, but he took it before taking it out of the station wagon. Lockpicking had been a acquirement of his respective life-time ago, so he was a piddling rusty. Regardless, he managed to open the door and peeked in, seeing the one dweller sleeping.

Noah ended his lookup. He now felt like he could truly relax. 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 door."Is everything ok ?"

"Yeah, I think we're safe."

They both stepped into the room and released their held breathing time upon the door closing. Finally, they could let down their precaution, at to the lowest degree for the most part.

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

On the table with the lone candela, he spread out the coins from their cut-rate sale. There was a large numeral of ash grey coins, plenty of bronze, and several cop, as well as some gold."With all of this, we can stay put 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 sweetener or a decoy against dip. The 3rd wallet 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 fervency to obliterate them in his clothes and self-command, such as the lining of his cap and the strap of his backpack.

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

Noah let her in and she placed a wooden tub on the floor, filled with steaming water and some tabloid. In this world, it seemed like outside of swim, the simply way to maintain even remotely clean was with a simple slipstream fabric. Noah tipped her and she departed.

"trade good, I've needed this,"he said.

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

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

There was a despairing shimmer in her optic."Something which I beg your forgiveness for. I must point my gratitude for your kindness."

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

She embraced him from keister."It is my duty to serve my master. Please, give up me to continue not disappoint you."

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

She made a diminished noise of ease, almost like a cross between a laugh and a gasp."Please train a seat."

Noah sat on the metrical unit of the bed and Tin retrieved some of their remnant soap, then brought to tub future him. She kneeled before him and wetted the straw man of her body with one of the tag, then with the soap, lathering up her knocker and between her thighs. He could tell she was excited. Despite her perpetually expressionless boldness, he could see the modest curling of her backtalk, the shimmer in her eyes, sign of joy. It was an ironical combination ; she, having never known delight from contact with a man, and he, so numb that contact with a fair sex was one of the finish few things that could give him pleasure.

She began by taking one of the washrag and scrubbing Noah's branch, trying to take the sweat and grease from their days in the woods. Then, her breathing would deepen, and she'd scratch rubbing her chest up against him, grinding against him like a stripper magnetic pole. Her breasts were far from sizable, due to her harsh life and piteous dieting, but what gentleness there was, she used to please Noah. She made sure he felt every cubic centimetre of fat, as if the mass of her breasts equaled her loyalty.

She washed off the goop and then got on the bed to echo the process on his arms. Her effort gave him an amused smile. With her privileged thigh nice and sudsy, she'd straddle his hands, letting him cup her muliebrity in his palm and feel how wet she was. She was beginning to pant and whimper, her lecherousness building up in her. Her frantic hint in his ears was likewise getting him worked up. He had a few ex-girlfriends that would give him this treatment.

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

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

She moved behind him and scrubbed his spine, then began smooshing her breasts against him in sweeping move. It reminded him of washing windowpane. While she grinded on his vertebral column, she washed his chest and her hired hand naturally fell to his throbbing manhood. She stroked it lovingly, as if wanting to memorise every detail. She started rubbing against him with more force and jacking him off. Despite Noah being on the receiving end, Tin's efforts were making her breathe heavily with an aroused whimper passing her rim. The tactile property of her breasts on his book binding and her masterful stroking were also getting to Noah. Even with all of his sexual experience, he always enjoyed a slight stimulation.

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

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

She began sucking on his phallus with reverent inscription. Every fall of cum, she slurped off while savoring the taste of his effort. Like the other Night, she paid tending to his balls, either massaging them while his cock plunged into the depths of her throat, or sucking on them and rolling them around her sass while she jacked him off.

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

She looked up at him, a knuckle down both to him and to her desires."Yes, Master. My trunk feels so a lot 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 blissfulness as she felt him move into her. She was so wet, his cock sliding against her privileged soma without any resistance. There was no hesitation in any of Tin's movements, she didn't need to adjust her position or let her body turn habituate to the feeling of being penetrated. As soon as she was down to the base, she began bouncing on his cock at wide-cut hurrying.

Noah laid back with his hands gripping her ass. The endeavor she was putting in was commendable, she was fucking him like a pornstar. Her moan of bliss, she didn't bother trying to conceal them. She let her representative 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 deep. She was putting all of her strength into keeping up this rhythm, dropping all her weight onto Noah's lap so that he could truly explore her body. She couldn't allow him to exert himself. There were no fields to work, no livestock to claim care of. She couldn't fight, couldn't hunt, couldn't do anything to refund her original for the kindness he had shown her. All she could do was offer her body for his enjoyment, to give him something to unleash his desires on.

But her forcefulness was fading fast. Despite her efforts, Noah wasn't giving in. In fact, he decided to fight back. He retrieved one of the damp washcloths and wiped the scoop off her white meat, making her nipples become erect. He then sat up and began running his glossa and backtalk across her peel, kissing her areolas and sucking on their peaks. He often pulled his mouth away to join with hers, kissing her with skill she could only ring art. kind of than letting her continue bounce, he implemented his own technique. Cupping her tight ass in his workforce, he began gyrating her pelvic arch in one direction while he moved in the opposite management. Now, instead of doing prospicient, inscrutable virgule, his cock was stirring up the depths of her womanhood like he was whisking some scrambled eggs.

The two-fold attacks, they were more than Tin could bear."victor ! Ah ! sea captain !"she moaned.

She held onto his shoulder joint as a moving ridge of coming rushed through her, soaking Noah's lap in her rousing. Noah fell back, this meter while pulling Tin down with him. Tin, lying across his breast, was given no prison term to rest. He lifted her hips up and began bucking his own, driving up into her at maximum speed and deepness. His Assault on her, there was no harshness to it, but it was so strong that Tin wondered if she had done something to enrage him. She felt no pain, but if any former man tried to do this, she would be suffering beyond words. It was his skill and experience, she could finger it with every move he made. He knew exactly what to do to not have any impairment, despite the strength itself leaving her on the brink of blacking out.

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

"custody on, I'm almost there."

She held onto him for pricey sprightliness, as if a tornado had ripped off the ceiling of the inn and was threatening to pull her up into the sky. Soon, the storm passed, and Tin felt that final jabbing and Noah emptying himself into her. The sensory faculty of her maestro's semen flooding her womanhood, the warmth of it inside her, it made her moan a unmarried crystal-clear note, like a shuttle vociferation. Then, she collapsed on top of him, using the live on of her strength to run kisses across his chest.

"Master, when you wanted to know the expanse and me and some early hard worker raised out hands… thank you for choosing me."Noah didn't say anything. He knew that this was a billet that one couldn't simply answer with ‘ you're welcome ’. Yet after so many lifetime, he still didn't know what the right reply was."And at the waterfall… thank you for letting me stay by your side."

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

.

.

.

Stamina

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.

.

The morning of the next day found Noah roaming the small town. Before he made any decisions, he wanted to recognize what this town had to offer, what endeavors it could put up. According to the maps he bought, Clive was far away from the nation's cap, out in the back country, but it appeared to have a warm economy, with many professions one might not expect in such a rough area, like a Au and silversmiths. In fact, it seemed to boom on touristry, but no one would ever come out here on vacation. It was because of the cancel resources.

So far, Clive had some farm land and a river for solid food, as well as the vast wood for lumber, but its top commodity was monsters. As Noah explored the townsfolk, he saw numerous venturer buying food and provision before going off to hunt and gather. In the early 17th one C, the fur trade wind exploded in Europe, sending numberless men out into the Wilderness of Siberia and the Americas to find their lot. Here, the principal was the Saame. Furs were in demand in the big metropolis, but about of the freak had been wiped out around the more populated areas, so adventurers spread out to the countryside to hunt down and sell their catch, and where there is an exploitable resource, you can bump capitalists looking for the great unwashed with money burning a golf hole in their pockets.

His lookup brought him to the topical anesthetic apothecary, where numerous pots and jolt adorned the paries on ledge while dissimilar plants were hung to dry operating cost. He recognized various flora, but many were new to him. An old woman ran the shop, watching Noah like a hawk through the smoke coming from her pipe. It filled the air, along with several different kinds of incense. No sunlight was allowed in, so as to save the plants and potions on presentation.

"Anything I can serve you see ?"

"Do you have potions to help restore mana ?"

"Yes. I sell them in three qualities at a Leontyne Price of five, ten, and xx bronze coins, but you have to buy the bottle as well if you don't have any of your own. expect to the shelf behind you, the blueness potions."

He examined the phial, three phellem bottles with blue liquids, each one a different shade. There was no telling how useful they were. He didn't roll in the hay how often mana they could fill again, compared to the measure of mana he had within him. And the coloring shade, was that because of the presence of a specific ingredient that increased its potency ? Or were they just watered down ?

"What about health ?"

"The red ones, above them, and we also sell bandages. However, those are only for showing my wares. Simply severalize me what you want and my granddaughter will find it from the back room."

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

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

The woman relayed the order to individual in the back way without ever taking her eyes off Noah. A immature miss 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 fixings, I could help in exchange for a discount."

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

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

He left the apothecary and breathed the fresh morning air. The sun had broken relieve of the skyline, and while it was still early, the townspeople of 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 job. It is my duty to run your errands."

She was getting clingier, he had been noticing it steadily progressing. When they first met, she hardly said a give-and-take, usually only speaking when necessity, such as to acknowledge lodge 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 room access 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 fertilize him like he was paralyzed from the neck opening down. But it made her well-chosen, so he went along with about 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 cozenage then you are. Since I now know the cost of the potions, I can make sure that woman at the workshop doesn't try to soak you."

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

"Now that we're finally in a rubber place, I'm going to begin experimenting with my magic, and I need your assistant for that. Because there was always the threat of goliath, I never allowed my mana to fully run through, so now I can start pushing my limits a little."He pulled out the three mana potions and put them on the table."I'm going to roll my fancy and not stop until my mana is completely used up and the spell comes undone. I need you to monitor my wellness during the process."

"sea captain, forgive me, but I'm not a therapist. I don't live how to do affair like that."

"It's easy. While I'm invisible, I want you to prevail my wrist and keep an eye on my impulse while counting to a hundred over and over again until the patch rupture. If I should drop off consciousness, pour one of these potions down my throat and place my hand over my eye to make sure the spell is cancelled. Should my pulsing or breathing full point, there is a procedure I'll have you perform 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 breath flutter. He placed his hand on the center of her chest and felt her become tense."I can feel your warmheartedness beating. Should mine diaphragm, you'll motivation to press down on the shopping mall of my chest in rapid thrusts."He stacked his paw and gave a few downward shoves. The rhythm of his pushing, the way it forced her deeper into the mattress, it reminded her of something, and seeing the looking in her eye, he knew what it was.

"You'll deficiency to do that thirty times. Then, you'll need to pinch my nozzle, and bungle air into my lungs."He lowered his mind and kissed her. She replied with enthusiasm, her breathing space now fluttering, and not because he was pinching her nose. Noah got on top of her."Of class, when you do it, I expect you not to use so a great deal spit. You'll give me two deep breathes, then do another XXX compressing. reprize the process until you feel my heart startle. Understand ?"

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

"goodness. Now, to do sure I only use up my mana, I need to completely drain my physical stamina. Care to help me with that ?"

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

To the enjoyment of some and the vexation of others, the sounds of Tin's moan could be heard throughout the inn. Not only brassy, it was incessant. parenthesis from some short breaks, her vocalisation continued to bound off the walls even with the sun now at the gamy point of the day and everyone eating lunch.

On the bed in their shared room, Noah was battering Tin from behind with unappeasable intensity. She no longer had the strength to even persist on all quartet, and instead had her case pressed to the tack, now sticky with their combined fluids. Every slam he delivered would form her cry out in euphoria. She didn't know how many metre he had brought her to culminate, nor how many metre she felt him inundate her body with his come, but each event threatened to rob her of her knowingness. Regardless, she fought through, doing everything she could to remain awake so that she could continue to please her master.

"Am I hurting you ?"It was a question that none of her previous 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 end, which it often was. To hear it from him, such kind discussion, 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 tired, her trunk at its demarcation line. She didn't understand how it was potential for him to go so long and exercise so practically military group. He was far too Lester Willis Young to accept amassed this kind of experience. His intensity even frightened her. He acted so that she was assailed with only pleasure, but if she angered him, if the fiend of sadism possessed him, could she even survive ?

How had this all started ? What was the reasonableness he had given ? She could barely recall, it felt like so long ago. Oh, that's rightfield, he called it practice session. He asked it of her, but had he demanded it instead, invoked his authority as her master, she would own been no less excited. It fulfilled her, to finally be able to show her allegiance in the only way she could. He was depending on her, trusting her to fulfill his expectations, and she was ready to devote her consistence for that. Her brawniness begged for rest, but her soul didn't want it to end. She wanted to wrap around him like a snake so that he could never impart, and instead cover 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 mild figure around his putz, the taste when their tongues curled around each other when they kissed, the smell of her womanly essence as he brought her to climax, the survey of the fret glistening on her body as he made her writhe and groan, he bathed in those sensations. He felt slight affection for her, but at to the lowest degree forcible sensation could quell the ancient maelstrom in his nous, let him shut off his brain and truly finger again. His someone, so hunger and without baring, it was like cracked desert clay now becoming fertile with the spring rains.

His physical staying power, something that Tin was ready to label as inhuman, was just as lots mental as forcible. With so many lifespan'worth of experience, he knew how to work through the pain. He had felt the torture of exertion enough times to memorize how to cut it. He couldn't perform any dramatic effort of posture like some sort of superhero, but he knew how to properly aerate his blood for the maximum output and knew how much metier his heftiness could exert without suffering detrimental equipment casualty. He was digging down deep for strength and harnessing every small calorie and spark of energy, and while he wasn't on the level of a bodybuilder, he had built his physique through a workout that he had mastered over various lifetimes.

He shuddered as he emptied himself into Tin. After all this time, he couldn't imagine having any sperm left. His soreness was approaching unbearable horizontal surface, but even though his erection was fading, he didn't give in. He grabbed Tin by the shoulders and pulled her against him, his sassing joining hers. She was nearly delirious, acting as if on muscle storage when she swirled her glossa around his backtalk. His hands went to Ithiel Town on her, massaging her modest breasts and stirring up the cum in her pussy. Tin was so tired and her throat was sore from moaning, but the way Noah tickled her button and bullied her nipples, 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 zippo. He let go of Tin and she fell back onto the bed. Her optic were blank from enervation, but she rolled onto her back and spread her legs, putting herself on display and letting Noah see the ejaculate overflowing from her womanhood.

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

"No, that's unspoilt. You were perfect. I can't even exploit up the durability for a 1 thrust."He reached into his bag and pulled out the weakest of the three healing potions. Even that undertaking was almost beyond his reach. He might as well have just won the Tour de Anatole France."Here, drink this."She was too tired to be active, so Noah put the bottle to her lips and let some filter down her throat. She was soon revived, her body no longer trembling.

‘ So, downhearted potions restore witching stamina and red potions restore physical stamina.'

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

"Master, what about you ?"

"I can't, yet. I need to measure only my mana, and if I eat or do anything to recoup my strong-arm enduringness, 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 have sex how my mana backlog compare to an average out magic substance abuser my age, and this is fastest way to increase it. Now, don't let go of my articulatio radiocarpea and set off counting as soon as I become inconspicuous. If my heart stops or there are any signs that my health is deteriorating, devote me both a mana potion and a health potion, then perform CPR. Remember : 30 compressions and then two breaths. You got that ?"

"Yes, Master."

Noah put his hand over his eye and disappeared in front of Tin. However, Tin could still feel him, find his wrist in her hired hand and his warmth, and it comforted her. Upon the activation of the trance, Noah could feel his mana being depleted. It was a foreign weariness, like he was bleeding to death. All of his mental focus was put on restricting the flow of mana to just his body, so that nil else would get caught in his fancy and waste mana. It was why he left the job of timekeeping to Tin.

From his experience so far, he could keep the illusion for about three minutes before his motor single-valued function declined too far for him to fight. He didn't know if that was good or bad, but in time, he could feel that business being crossed. From there, his thinking and physical strength began a rapid decline. Noah fought with everything he had to stay on conscious, even when he could no longer keep his eyes open. His consciousness soon sank into a rift 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 consciousness started to bubble back to life, and he soon opened his eye 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 last until that happened ?"

"I managed to count to a hundred almost four prison term. Then when you became visible, I gave you the potion. Your sum slowed, but it didn't stop, and you kept breathing."

"So, while with my physical stamen completely drained, I can keep the spell for about five bit before I pass out. At full strength, I can defend it that long while still being able to fight. This is respectable, I'm in perfect tense circumstance to get the best benefit for stressing my mana, and since my heart and breathing didn't stay, I don't need to worry about suffocating. Either that potion will wear off or it'll manage to fill again all my mana, but whichever happens outset, I'll start again immediately after."

He gave himself time for the mana to recirculate through his body. He checked his reflex response, physical forte, and genial processing. True, he felt half-dead from exhaustion and sore all over, but he knew what existent damage would feel like. consummate mana loss felt just like bleeding to death, so there was always the possibility that being drained of it for too long would have standardized effects to his body, like blindness or muscle death. There was no telling if the wellness potions could mend those kinds of injuries.

zip appeared to be unseasonable, so he returned to the bed."All right-hand, we're going to hold on doing this."

They repeated the process over and over again. Noah would expend all of his mana through his deception, Tin would wake him up with a potion, he'd tab himself for terms, and then they'd start all over. He sent Tin out multiple times to buy more potions for him, and they even experimented to see how much they could H2O it down while still providing sufficient rejuvenation.

As the day rolled on, Noah's body begged for food. The grumble of his stomach and his disorientation concerned Tin, but he refused any form of sustentation, and for honest reason. Each fourth dimension 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 stamen to soften the C of depletion, the reservoir of his mana was being stressed to its limits, and was reaping the benefits. There were a lot of things about mana and magic trick that he didn't understand, such as how fast an individual could strengthen theirs. For all he knew, he could be lagging behind in the training, but he was fairly certain that he had struck gold.

As dark fell, Tin once more arrived at their room, despondent."Please forgive me, master key. The herb doctor had closed down her shop for the nighttime and wouldn't even afford her door."

"For the best, I imagine, considering how she started throwing hooey at you close time. We've probably bought up all the provision that she's willing to deal us."

"So what now ?"

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

"I can experience it brought up to us."

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

He tried to sit up in the bed, but even that was almost beyond him. How farseeing had it been since he was this drained of strength ? There was that prison term when he starved to death… When was that ? Even his head was on the verge of shutting down. He tried to get dressed, but his body wouldn't obey his will, and to his shame, Tin had to 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 more and more frequently."You need not worry, master copy. While I was never the retainer of any great nobles, I heard that this was a duty that their maiden often performed. Simply imagine that you are a great viscount, or even an earl."

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

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

Now fully dressed, he was helped to his substructure and they left the room, though he had to angle on Tin for support. From upstairs, they could hear the rowdiness of the guests in the dining room, singing song and knocking their mark together. Yet as the teenager appeared and made their way to their board from the previous evening, that clamor went died down, with all oculus on them. There was some hushed murmur, several masses whispering to their friends to inquire as to the secretiveness. Noah and Tin took their seats, the bar as quiet as a cemetery, then the boniface showed up with their dinner. It was chunk of heart carved from a wolf, and Noah's portion was larger than anyone else's.

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

That appeared to be some form of signboard, because a man at the bar with a face fungus down to his knock raised his mug."Hail to the young king ! He who could make even a succubus beg for rest !"

The bar practically exploded, with people of all old age swarming their tabular array 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 approach with a hungry—or rather"thirsty"—look in her eye and a wide smile on her face. Tin also got plenty of attention. Everyone wanted to know who was struggling to hold back up with who, which of the two was the insatiate one. The cleaning woman who could not set up Noah would work to her, asking for details while voicing their jealousy. In the background, the client began singing vocal of wooing women and amorous tales, with the convention natural action of the bar becoming a raving party.

Noah simply sat there with an awkward smiling, annoyed that his program to hold a low profile had gone of up with smoke, but amused with the situation nonetheless. Tin, too nervous and abashed to say anything, simply hung her head while her face turned red as a tomato.

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

It was fill up to midnight, and Noah, having regained his strength, made his way to the sinister apothecary. He carried a lantern with him, but its flame, like Noah, was invisible to anyone and anything, and the road remained as dark as it would be without his presence. He had shrouded it in his magic trick as a way to test himself. If his mana slipped, light would escape. After the day's training, the mana using up was future to cipher. He had already passed the five-minute mark and didn't feel dizzy. With a few more day of training, he might be capable to maintain the delusion for an hour or more.

He reached the computer memory and went to lick picking the lock while sending his mana into the door. Wrapped in his illusion, the threshold made no stochasticity, even when he opened it. There were a few safeguard patrolling the town, but they wouldn't have noticed him, even without being invisible. He entered the store and thinned the mana around his lantern just enough to release a deliquium beam of light.

There was wad of valuable materials to steal, but Noah and Tin's suspicious behavior would have left an impression on the old cleaning woman, and she'd assume they did it. He could have just killed her and taken whatever he wanted, even wiped out her kinfolk to be dependable, 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 trade good. It would have been so light, he kept reminding himself, but that wasn't the aliveness he wanted to live, even if it was one he would have lived in the past.

Instead, he searched the shop for account book and potion recipes, simply to memorize, rather than steal. None could be found, meaning they must have been hidden elsewhere. He did find mess of compounding equipment, which he memorized in order to duplicate. Noah moved beyond the fund and into the char's home. She lived, as everyone else did in this humanity, rustically. All brightness level was rude or flame-based, any food that could go bad was salted and kept in jarful, there was no unravel water, and all the pecker were pre-industrial. It still reeked of potions and herbs, but that look was probably difficult to detain to the workshop.

He came across a large wooden chest set against the wall, and after picking the lock, got it open, revealing his swag. The old woman's whole subroutine library was kept neatly arranged, all the resolution Noah needed. In this populace, information was as important for survival as solid food and water, so until society managed to invent the printing press, books were worth their weight in gold. Despite the tantalizing knowledge at his fingertips, Noah went straight for the chemistry script. He looked up the recipe for canonic health and mana potions, memorizing the constituent and processes.

Finding satisfaction, he removed all tincture of his visit and left the apothecary.

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

The reaching of the following day brought Noah and Tin out to the woods to gather herb and hunt colossus. Buying all the potions yesterday had taken a big chunk out of their funds, so Noah wanted to gather some materials he could trade. He had asked around the tap house the previous dark and managed to find out out the most worthful office of monster. He also found out some occupy facts.

"Summoned by legerdemain ?"

"Yes sir,"said the bartender as he used a dirty rag to scavenge a looking glass."If you're really prosperous, you'll manage to see it happen. There are magical circles scattered across these lands, absorbing mana from the air and using it to summon beasts. About a quarter of each demon race is created by magic. And not just teras, woodland animate being as well, from the deer to the shuttle. Shouldn't you know that by now if you're going to be an venturer ?"

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

Despite it being true, it was used as a lie. Ignorance of introductory facts would give him away and construct people suspicious, so he was hesitant to ask about anything involving illusion. He couldn't expect much from this globe's level of education, but a man with no noesis of magic would probably stand up out like a man in the 21st century that had never seen electricity before. At least claiming to be a foreigner would excuse nigh errors. He just had to hope he didn't meet up with any International merchants before he got more selective information.

"Where do these magic band come from ?"

"According to legends, there was a war between the gods and the hard drink of nature. The spirits used their magic to summon armies of brute, so that the minions of the Supreme Being could never walk the world, and that conjuring trick remains to this day. Some believe that it is a weapon being used against mankind, to stem our enlargement and exploration into new commonwealth. Many believe it to be the work of bad hat that got their hands on some sort of illegal magic, spreading the legerdemain circle to produce havoc.

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

As Noah thought back to the conversation, he heard move nearby. Bursting from the undergrowth, an jejune wolf lunged at Noah and Tin. Noah was quick on the lot and managed to slash the goliath on the articulatio humeri with his longsword. It landed behind him, slightly limping but showing no signs of giving up. It flashed eyes full of bloodlust while it snarled and foamed. Tin hurried behind Noah, as per his parliamentary law, while he stared it down. If he cast his illusion, he could easily kill it without it ever seeing the flak coming, but today, he was sharpening his fight skill and refining his swordplay, so he needed to face his opposition without hiding from them. Besides, goliath that lost track of him often turned their attention to Tin.

Noah made the first move, charging while swinging down at the Friedrich August Wolf's other shoulder. It jumped to the side to evade, but Noah widened the Angle of the slash as he brought it down, turning it into a separatrix attack. Chasing the wolf with his swing, he managed cut into its flesh. The wolf, infuriated by pain, pounced from a richly Angle, aiming for Noah's school principal. The angle was slippery, Noah sidestepping out of the reaching of its nipper, raising sword, and delivering an executioner's chopper to the spinal column of the neck opening, severing its head.

He didn't drop cloth his guard and scanned the area, searching for any early wolves in concealing. He could detect none."Clear."

That was his sign to Tin. With Noah keeping safety, she went to work on the wolf, removing the valuable theatrical role like the skin and certain muscles and organs. It was mussy work, but worth the effort. Everything was stored in her knapsack and several other sack and bags, along with Noah's bow and other adventuring supplies. Since Noah was doing all the scrap, the job of gang mule fell to her, or rather, she insisted on it.

Once she had gathered the in effect pieces, they set off again. Many might disapprove of letting so much of the lusus naturae go to waste, but the race couldn't go nonextant and something else would add up along and eat it, so Noah didn't finger too bad. second after they moved on, Noah caught sight of something ahead, zooming between the trees.

"Tin, footfall back."

Noah readied himself, his sword raised as the blur approached. It was another wolf, moving much more erratically than the one Noah had just killed. It lunged for him and he sliced off its brain. It was rather easy, as if the beast's brain was scattered. Perhaps it was rabid ? But as he turned to canvas the corpse, he realized he had broken a Cardinalis cardinalis sin. There was an arrow in its hind leg, meaning that this wildcat had already been claimed.

Two youthful cleaning lady appeared, having apparently sprinted a great distance and now gasping for breath. Noah had seen them before at the inn. One of them, a blonde archer, had attempted to peach to him the previous Night, but her protagonist, 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 collapse. Noah looked to Tin and nudged his head word towards them. She got the subject matter and approached with a H2O 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 close 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 astray smile."Oh, I know who the two of you are !"

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

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

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

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

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

"Kind of,"said Mira,"but not against colossus this enceinte and libertine. We each came from areas where the fight was a lot well-fixed and numeral were thinner, but we weren't making adequate money and decided to try moving out here for a while."

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

"Oh, well I'm a mage, so I can use primary magic to bring up and ensure things like fire and water supply. My talent lie in controlling the land, like this."She turned away and looked into the distance. Rings of sandstone-colored light appeared around her wrist like halos, and Noah could see diagrams and runic letter of an unsung oral communication."Earth Bind !"

She raised her staff and then slammed it into the dry land. There was a pulse, and the ground came undone like there was an animal tunneling just under the airfoil. It guesswork across the timber floor, and thirty ft away, there was an eruption of earth, with hard-packed soil forming jagged configuration that converged like a windup flower. Anything caught within it would surely get held in place, even stabbed if they moved around the awry way. The give notice land used to produce the spindle produced a pit, just in case anything tried to duck.

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

"What ? Why ?"

"Well we're in the woods. The solid ground is riddled with base holding it together, so it takes a lot of time and effort to gather the soil and form it into those spikes. Also, you're going for loyal prey with good reaction amphetamine, so as soon as they sense the attack, they'll move before it fully activates. I assume your strategy was for Beth to injure it with the arrow, keeping it from moving while you cast your go ?"

"That's right,"said Beth.

"And then you finish it off with More arrows, right ? It's a safe strategy, keeping your distance from the opposition to derogate hazard. However, in this kind of environs and with this butt, you'd want to change it up a bit. I suggest using poison arrows, or at least some kind of paralytic agent. That way, even a low-damage hit will slacken it down. I'd also suggest using a with child bow for Sir Thomas More penetration.

Mira, do you know any early spells ?"

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

"But naught close-range ? That'll be a problem if there is more than one foe or they get within striking aloofness. Mira, I suggest you work on learning a while for melee combat, and Beth, get a sword. You also should line up another member to join your company, sorry I couldn't be that person. They'd have to be able to pin down the enemy in one emplacement for your arrow and conjuration to be capable 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 preserve near of the money ! And if that isn't decent, I can pay you extra in nighttime fun !"Beth added.

Noah hadn't expected them to get so worked up and wanted to back away, only to realize Tin was standing behind him. She was tugging on his shirt, giving him her basset hound blackguard optic, though he couldn't tell if she was trying to convert him to change his mind or telling him that they were just off on their own.

"Sorry, but I can't. I'm really trying to focus on training. I'm sure you can obtain a struggling swordsman who's desperate for a political party to bring together and would fit correct in with you two. Tin and I have to get going. You were first to injure the masher, so the body 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.

"fountainhead, the idea of forming a party is appealing, and their long-range abilities would definitely avail out. However, I'd prefer to function away from prying eyes for the metre being. I didn't sense any evil intent in them, but there is no telling if they can be trusted or not. But I'm sword lily we ran into them, it gave me a opportunity to contemplate elemental magic a bit."

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

They continued through the timberland, hunting for monsters while trying to deflect other venturer. Along with fight, they also stopped to amass herbaceous plant. Noah was always playing through the potion recipes in his mind. Then, when noon arrived, they stopped for lunch by the river. Their food was slightly amend than the stuff they ate before reaching Clive, in the common sense that the bread wasn't quite-rock gruelling and the meat actually had flavor. It was still disappointing compared to a hot meal. Their water came from the river, first filtered through a survival husk that Noah made.

Once they were done eating, Noah pulled out all of the plant life they had gathered. He picked three different industrial plant out of the pile ; branches of drab strawberries, respective feet of a vine with squarely leaves, and an orange tree moss."Of the recipe I saw, this one is the easiest and doesn't require any specialized creature. Even if it doesn't work, it will still be just practice. We just have to grind these up with a ratio of 5:2:7 and mix them together with some water."

They gathered stones from the river to use as makeshift howitzer and pestles and went to figure out. Working side by side, Noah noticed a belittled smile on Tin's boldness."This reminds me of making lye at the falls,"she said.

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

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

"Good, now to screen it. I think this will be the perfect opportunity to see what my following spell is."It was very slight, but Noah could see Tin's exhilaration."You should impress back. If this second spell is anything like my illusion, you probably won't be in danger, but it's honest to be safe."

Tin moved back twenty substructure, and Noah, after taking a deep breathing spell, put his deal over his right hand eye. The effect was instantaneous, his mana being drained twice as fast as his first patch, and this clip, he could actually experience something happening to him. His body, it felt weightless, and his limbs, they were just moving of their own accord like jellyfish tentacles. His vision, it was almost fuzzy, like he was seeing doubles. It felt, of all matter, like he had just taken a hit of some high-quality pot.

If his density broke for even a sec, he felt like his limbs and head would just swim 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 movement 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 stay on in control. While this would be a great affair to do while attending a concert or watching a odd movie, it was far from useful in battle.

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

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

"Doing what ?"

"skipper, looking at at your hands."

Noah, through bully difficultness, raised his palms and looked them. He blinked and squinted various times, trying to see through the afterimages floating around them like an aura. Had he touched some bad mushroom cloud and then breathed in the spores ?

‘ No, wait a second…'

These afterimage, they weren't some blurry silhouette ; they had crystal-clear details. They were like exact transcript trying to engross the same space. He moved his arms around, watching the copies follow the originals. They were illusions ! He stopped moving his actual arms and tried to move the copies. He thought about it, he envisioned it happening, but only when he gave up and tried to parent his real subdivision did the copy obey and fulfill the action. It was only for a moment before they returned to their original place, but he had gotten them to move.

It took several moment of repeated attack before he figured it out. Halfway between thinking of moving his arms and actually harnessing the forcible speciality within them to create that movement, there was a point where he could go the copies. He was soon moving the illusional 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 hide my tangible consistency, while my right eye can create a juke. I can control it similar 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 ground and reactivated the spell."sentry this."

Tin could immediately see it on his face, the elbow grease and direction he was putting in, but her attention was immediately drawn elsewhere, as a second Noah seemed to heighten from the body of the first like two jail cell dividing. For Noah, it almost an out of body experience. The conjuration stood up, every crusade that Noah would give made being performed. It was hard beyond words, leaving him drenched in sweat and gasping for air. Every muscleman involved in standing up had to be acknowledged, from the sinew supporting his head, all the way down to the muscles in his feet as they tried to grip the flat coat for balance. He had to visualize not just the movement, but the aesthesis of moving.

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

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

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

For the next three weeks, Noah and Tin worked out a routine of expanding Noah's mana reserves and going out to hunt down, one day inside and one day outside. Everyone in the inn became aware of the pattern, as every other day, from breakfast to lunch, Tin's moans filled the building. It became quite the tale around townsfolk, many citizenry coming to the inn just see if the rumor were true. Tin would rob Noah of all of his stamina and they'd perform the waste pipe and replenish procedure with the mana potions. The following day would be spent gathering herb to piddle Thomas More potions and materials to sell, and continue cultivating Noah's scrap abilities.

To eat up his mana, Noah experimented with his indorse go. For the number 1 calendar week, he focused on perfecting the knockoff's movements and language. He tried to get it as rule looking as possible, having it walk around the way and imitate several actions. Unfortunately, since it was just an thaumaturgy, it couldn't actually tactile sensation anything or feign its surround, and while he could speak through it, he couldn't see what it saw or hear what it heard. Unless it was in tidy sum 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 smell was concealed.

He spent the next week learning how to run both his veridical and misrepresent eubstance at the same time. He started out small, low with finger drive, then limb movements, then upped it up to having it walk around the room while he stood by the bed, which was surprisingly difficult with all of the muscularity required to stay brook upright. By the end of the workweek, he and the clon could walk simultaneously.

In the third hebdomad, he added his low patch to the mix, moving the clone around as he performed a chore while unseeable. The mana expenditure was monolithic, so much so that the rate of his militia increasing was slowed, and it became more difficult to tell how practically advance he was making. Despite that, they proved to be a favourable combination. The clone could act as a perfect decoy, while Noah would attack in his invisible form.

His first off spell didn't just make him unseeable, it affected whatever target he touched, concealing and also creating conjuration to hide any alteration he made, like footprints, while the second could produce a full illusion, but of himself, one that had a penny-pinching physical presence. These spells, they were more than than just bending visible radiation. It seemed like they were two halves of a individual enchantment.

When he wasn't training, Noah went around town to pull together info about the res publica, magic, and monsters. In a little backwoods village like this, the resultant role were far from bountiful or even honest. He would ingest to move to a bigger city to get better-quality information. The Utheric capital would be his best bet, but it was weeks of travel and cookery had to made for a trip like that.

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

.

.

.

Medicine

.

.

.

The spring rains were dramatic, passionate, the lifeblood of Mother Nature as she fully awoke from her winter slumber and prepared for summertime. Yet at the present moment, the craze with which the magnify drops fell was not appreciated, for they numbed Noah's finger as he gripped his brand and made him throb as his clothes became worthless from the moistness. It was also difficult to see, splashing against his face and blurring his vision, but he kept his gaze focused on his enemies.

He was out in the forest, Tin having retreated as per his orders. Before him, a triple of bandit, all with weapons raised. Noah was armed with his short steel, unable to maintain his chief blade, due to an arrow stuck in his shoulder. When he was beginning struck from behind, he had hoped it was simply a hunter's honest mistake, but the bloodthirsty feel on the men's faces told him that he was their real target. They probably robbed and killed venturer for a living, and he couldn't imagine their female victims dying quickly.

Should he just become invisible and slay them before they could avenge ? No, there was something he wanted to try, and a man opponent would be the perfect tense test national. He raised his free hand towards his face, breaking the stalemate with one of the bandits firing his sozzled arrow. Noah deflected it with his shield, the most he could do with his injure shoulder. He swept his hand across his optic as if trying to net his visual sense, activating both of his spells. However, rather than splitting from his illusionary clon, he wore it, syncing his campaign with the bandit not even noticing a difference.

One of the Sagittarius's cohorts, this one armed with a orotund battle axe, charged towards him. Noah had his knockoff take a justificatory stance, while he pulled away, stepping ahead and stabbing the man through the heart before he could lay down his cut. The Sagittarius the Archer guessing another pointer as Noah stepped back into his illusion, but he again blocked with his shield. Noah, with his movements concealed, drew respective small knives from his belt and hurled them at the archer. His mana clung to the blades, rendering them invisible as they buried themselves in the bowman, taking him out of the game.

All that was left was a swordsman, and he knew that something was going on. Two of his cohorts were dead, but he didn't understand how. He pushed his mental confusion aside and charged towards Noah. Noah blocked and parried his attacks with his sword, wanting to take his time and savor the competitiveness. He was so used to fighting monsters, he wanted to name sure his skills in killing other human beings hadn't gone dumb, to refamiliarize himself with their unequaled movements and technique.

He was allowing the bandit to labour him back, though there was little he could do to quit it. His opponent was armed with a two-handed sword, so he could birth more force out than Noah could muster with his myopic blade. He strung the bandit along, using repetitious, easy social movement, laying a juke lead as to what his next motility would be. He made a all-embracing golf shot from the side, and the bandit automatically blocked, however, the blade never came, it was only Noah's illusional arm. His genuine arm swung from the opponent side, slashing the bandit across the stomach.

He staggered back, cursing in annoyance and trying to understand what happened. Noah closed in and the brigand tried to open some space with a powerful cleave. Noah blocked with his blade, at least, that's what the bandit saw. In truth, he had blocked with his shield, allowing him to jactitate the bandit across the wrist without him even seeing the onrush coming. Blood poured freely, the man's hand now useless. He released a cry of exertion and tried a one-handed swing music. The sword sliced through Noah's neck, just as the man had aimed for, but he knew something was wrong when no severed head fell, and what's more, he hadn't felt anything when he made the virgule. It was like he had hit zilch but air. He raised his sword to block a swing music from Noah, but in reality, it was a stab, with Noah's sword piercing his chest. Noah confirmed all three deaths and then called out to Tin.

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

"I'm afraid it'll hurt."

"I can handle it."

She was nervous, but she grabbed and arrow and ripped it out without military issue, making Noah grimace in pain. She pulled out a red potion from her bag and poured it on the wound. In arcsecond, 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 post horse, meaning there was no bountifulness that he could pick up with their foreland. Tin went to work, stripping the torso of everything useful. They were so used to this routine that he rarely needed to ease up her orders.

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

"I agree,"Tin said.

They set off stake towards the townspeople, fantasizing of removing their soaked clothes and warming themselves beside a fire. They had plenty to transmit, and the rain made everything heavier, with the added frigidness sapping their strength. By the fourth dimension they reached the inn, even Noah was on his live leg, and felt weak. The sun hadn't fully set yet, but the cloud were so thick that it was almost lurch sinister out.

It was a stand-in to finally get inside and out of the rainfall, but Noah knew something was off. He felt woozy, his cerebration getting hazy.

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

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

"Sure thing, dearie."

They proceeded up the stair, but Noah had to give up halfway up. He was out of breath, and it felt like the way was spinning.

"master key, is something incorrectly ?"

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

She lent him her shoulder and they made their way up to their room. Before they even closed the room access, Noah dumped his pack and weapons and began pulling off his clothes. Tin locked the threshold and started a fire in the fireside. Once gratuitous of his wet wearing apparel, Noah collapsed on the bed. The mattress was lumpy straw, the sheets were bumpy like emery paper, and the cover smelled like wet dog no matter how many times it was cleaned, but Noah was grateful for them.

As the fire started to burn and fulfill the room with light and heat, there was a knock on the door. Two fille de chambre stood outside, the boniface's daughters, though they were new than Tin. One of them held two trays of food, and the other held an exceptionally great package of firewood. Noah hid himself beneath the cover and Tin answered. As Noah had taught her, she kept the door subject just enough to take the food and firewood, and didn't allow them inside.

Tin brought him his meal and felt his brow."Master, you're burning up."

"I'll be delicately. Take off your apparel and ardent 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 party. It was hot stew, the hone comfort food. Unfortunately, Noah was starting to regain it difficult to swallow. By the time he finished, his external respiration was becoming labored and his bosom was beating irregularly. Noah was hoping it was just a stale, but this was starting to feel much Sir Thomas More intense and was coming on too quickly. Perhaps a disease indigene to this humankind ?

Tin could see his condition worsening."overlord, you should get some sleep."

She took his tray and gently pushed him onto his back. verity be told, as soon as his head hit the pillow, he lost the specialty to locomote. 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 woods to the fire and slid under the blankets. Her naked trunk met his and she curled up against him.

Noah closed his eyes, but while sleep was quick to come, it was unpleasant. incubus assailed him, a burning rut ravaging him both physically and mentally. He remembered tossing and turning throughout the Night, when the pain in his consistency outweighed his fatigue. All of his muscles ached and spasmed almost nonstop flight, his abdomen felt like it was wide of oil, and he couldn't escape his fever.

He finally awoke the next break of day to the raft of pelting pelting the window. His oral fissure was as dry as ashes and he felt like he was going to die of thirst, just like he had a few fourth dimension in the past. The rainfall, it had gotten him into this sight, but now he so desperately wanted it. He wanted to go out and air the heat that clung to him like a monkey on his back.

"Tin,"he murmured. His articulation was deliquium, as it felt like his tongue and throat would crack like clay."Tin,"he said again, putting all of his speciality into it.

"Master ?"

He saw her in his peripheral device imagination, but he didn't have the strength to turn to her.

"Water."It was all he could say.

She brought him a cup of weewee, and in his impatience, he tried to pull it from her custody, if only to get it to his mouth a nanosecond Oklahoman. His clumsy reaching was ignored and she helped him become on his back so that he could drink. It was some of the best water he had ever tasted, and he felt some life return to him, if only a little.

"More."

She brought over the mound to refill the cup, but he simply snatched it and pledge the whole matter.

"How do you feel ?"

"Everything hurts, I feel like I'm on fire. I think I'm gon na … gon na …"He covered his mouth and frantically pointed to the chamber pot in the corner of the way. He had detested the presence of such an unsanitary matter since he first arrived at this inn, but finally, he was grateful to receive it. Tin brought the pot over and he vomited everything he drank, plus last night's dinner party. He fell back on the bed, with his stomach feeling even worse. He had gotten a nasty flu a few years ago, but even that wasn't as bad as this. This was like malaria combined with detox."Ugh… piece of ass. In every lifetime, getting regorge sucking ass."

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

"No. Me being sick folio us vulnerable, and the more citizenry know about it, the greater the peril. If I can't battle, we're well-heeled target. If I'm still in this term by tomorrow, then you can get help."

"What can I do ?"

There were plants that could serve with cold and flu symptoms, but his mind was too bleary to call up them."pine needle tea, like I made by the river, and see if somebody in the kitchen will make up me some hot oatmeal."

Tin was hesitant, not wanting to allow for his side, but she obeyed. With her gone, Noah tried to shine back to sleep, but could only get a pallid imitation that was nowhere near as restful. For Noah, it felt like his mental capacity was being fed on by emmet. He spent the eternal sleep of the day in bed, passing in and out of consciousness. Tin remained with him whenever possible. She used damp rags to restrain his pyrexia in curb, and hung a kettle over the fire, making tea for him whenever he asked, though his thirst was unquenchable.

high noon came around, and Noah sat up to eat his luncheon, though it was a bowl of soup. Normally, people ate whatever the house special was at the time, but by paying extra, guests of the inn could order particular foods, at least, within grounds. The stock went down easy, but the meat and vegetables felt like cacti rolling down his pharynx. As he ate, Tin helped wipe the elbow grease from his body. His position on the bed would call for some time to dry out. When he had finished eating, he simply sat with his head in his paw, taking trench hint and trying to ignore the throbbing pain.

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

"You're doing plenty for me already."

"There must be to a greater extent that I can do."

"Well it hurts me to say this, but I'll want your help using that sleeping accommodation pot."

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

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

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

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

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

"Exactly what you've been doing. I know of some afternoon tea that will facilitate him sense a bit better. He'll either gain it or he won't, though I think his chances are good."

"How practically clock time would I have if it were to be fatal ? How long does this last ?"Noah asked.

"threesome Clarence Shepard Day Jr.. After that, you're in the clear."She got to her pes and returned to the door."I'm confining you both to this room until this blows over. The last thing I need is for everyone in the inn to get sick."She left the room and locked the door behind her.

"It would be better for her to just hold us out,"said Noah,"rather than simply insulate us and risk everyone. She must like us a bit, or at least want to protect her reputation. I told you to hold back 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 floor board, can you get it for me, please ?"

Tin lifted a loose floor board, revealing a bodily cavity underneath, in which a leather pocket sat. She presented it to Noah and he opened it up to reveal his phone and pocketbook. While they were mostly useless in this new world, he held onto them in the hopes that he could at least use them for parts and kept the phone off to save its push. If he ever needed to pop out an pinch fire, that Li battery could come in in William Christopher Handy. Luckily, he had his earbuds with him, so he could at least savour one objet d'art of his old aliveness. Tin stared at the device, possessed by peculiarity. She had only seen it once or twice, the metal shell, the twinkle it produced. Was it some kind of magic 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 play list to random and lay back down, hoping that the music would distract him. He drifted once more into the rupture between being departed and awake, cursed with his fever even in his dreams. During his waking minute, he was either drinking water or throwing up. The just grounds why nature wasn't calling was because he was sweating so profusely. The music didn't distract him as he had hoped, so very much as permeate his unconscious mind. One song in particular came up,"sign of the zodiac of the rise Sun ”, and as that opening guitar strung out, a store was pulled from the depths of his mind, another fourth dimension he had heard that vocal.

It was before aurora, he had been driving out in the Sagebrush State desert, out of the sight of Vega. Noah was in his thirties at the clip, lamenting all the rubble the Cadillac was kicking up, so much of it sticking to the exterior. He'd have to clean it up later, as his employers wouldn't be happy if he returned the company car in a disgraceful condition. The easterly clouds were pinkening as he pulled to a stop consonant at the sharpness of a ravine.

He got out of the car and circled back to the bole, from which he removed a man with edge wrists and a bag over his question. He stumbled on his feet, and Noah pulled him to the edge of the ravine and removed the bag over his case. The man's face was streaked with dried blood line, 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 so he could try the rest of the Sung dynasty. The exterior of the car was an antique 70's mannikin, worth its weightiness in gold, but the interior had been upgraded into the modern age. When he returned to the man, it was with a gun in his hand."Killing me will just fuck up your life and whoever threw me under the bus. You really think Alejandro can take mightiness ? Once this gets out, the streets will become battue and your school principal will end up stuck on a pike."

"In all likelihood,"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 shift of whoever hired me. That doesn't mean I don't like it, though. It's the little affair that matter. You need to enjoy the limited little endowment like this."He flicked his gun towards the car, where the song was still playing."I once heard someone say that this is the C. H. Best birdsong for driving with someone in the trunk of your car. It is certainly a delicious coincidence."

"The irony of your ilk : hoi polloi like you think you'll do great in our business sector because you have no morals, no hesitancy, 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 affair how bloody their hands get."

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

The man laughed and spat on the ground."What could you trust in ?"

"Mercy. I'm lease you enjoy the break of day, after all."

The sun broke absolve of the horizon, and as its Light Within was soaked up by the land, a gunfire rang out across the desert.

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

Once Noah had fallen asleep, Tin sat beside him and freshened the damp rags that were opposing his febrility. 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 make out to her in those vulnerable fourth dimension. It pained her to be so useless, to not recognize how to serve. Most of everything she had done was just obeying his instructions.

As she wiped away his sweat, her eyes fell to his exposed humanness, and lust fluttered through her, a feeling that Noah had introduced her to. Their turn had been disturbed by this sickness, as yesterday was the day she was supposed to help him train his mana. She cherished those Clarence Day, when she could finally help oneself him in the way she knew secure, when she got to experience euphoria.

Women would always flock to her master, flirting with him, trying to take in 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 adventurers, she saw everything she could not do in Mira, and everything she could do in Beth, rendering her obsolete.

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

As her foreland bobbed up and down over his lap, Noah was sinking farther and farther into his mind, while being pursued by the music from his phone. Once to a greater extent, a lone guitar was playing, and what minuscule cognizance his judgement still had tried to remember what it was from. Ah, the lyrics, yeah, this was Pink Floyd,"want You Were Here ”. It was his wife's favorite, one of his past wife, that is. He played it at their wedding and her funeral. He could think of the sunny sky viewgraph when they cut the cake, and the somber clouds that matched the color of her casket as it was lowered into the ground. He remembered the intellectual nourishment served at both occasions. But what was her name ? They danced to this birdsong, but he couldn't commemorate her face. She loved the oldies, 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 clip, each song conjuring up a computer storage. He remembered studying at MIT while listening to Two Steps From blaze. He remembered the stereo blaring Metallica when his convoy was blown up in Syria. He remembered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart playing in the hospital as he died from pancreatic malignant neoplastic disease. He wasn't aware of the mussitation escaping his mouth, recalling conversations from across sentence and space.

When next he woke up, it was Nox out, and the earbuds felt like hot coals in his ear. He looked at his phone, now with a quarter battery left. How many Sir Thomas More prison term could he listen to music before his phone just became a useless block ? He put his head 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 sleep, and he would throw 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 food !"Ah, one of the chambermaids.

"Please, just leave it there."

Noah slowly sat up and released another groan. Wait a second, he felt better. He felt like he just have the shit beaten out of him for three hour straight, but he could finally move around. His fever had lessened and the irritation was due to the line it had put on his body.

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

He turned to her, seeing a flush face, moist with lather. The gentle breathing he had listened to utmost night was now an anguished trouser."shit. Tin can you hear me ?"

He tapped her boldness a few times and her eyes opened."professional ?"

"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 faint that he almost didn't need to.

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

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

"Tin, can you hear me ? How many finger's breadth am I holding up ?"

He showed her his script, but she just looked at it with glazed over centre."Are we going to go Richard Morris 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 fine, I'm all better now. Just leave everything to me."

He climbed over her to get out of bed, but as soon as he stood up, he fell to his knees, gasping for air. He was on the mend, but he was still in a rotten situation. 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 failure. He downed them both, and the bother racking his body subsided. His strength and stamina were still close to zero, but at least the soreness was gone.

The first matter he needed to do was get her fever down before she suffered good impairment. side by side to the bed was the washout drainage area, filled with rags. Just as Tin had done when he was retch, he draped them across her body.

"Master, your pyrexia,"she mumbled. She began trying to put the rags on him instead, and he had to repeatedly discontinue her and pin down her arms.

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

Noah got dressed and limped over to the door. Outside were two food for thought trays and a pitcher of brisk pee. He brought them in, and having already experienced the infliction of this disease, he brought the pitcher over to Tin, rather than just a cupful. He lifted her head and poured the water between her pale brim. She released sighs of easing between each gulping, and every time he thought she was done, she'd lean her foreland forward, as if trying to snap up it like a dog not wanting to surrender its toy.

He filled up the tea kettle and hung it over the fireplace, with a new fire soon blooming beneath it. When he was sick, he hated the firing, the heating system it gave off. It was the only metre he was grateful for the draftiness of the room, all the short holes for impertinent air to slip in, but it was needed. As he waited for the tympanum to boil, he retrieved Tin's breakfast and once more lifted her brain. It was warm porridge, probably made with him in mind, but now perfect for Tin.

"metre for breakfast, Tin. Can you give your mouth for me ?"He brought a spoonful to her sass, 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 know what would help Tin's chances with this sickness.

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

"No… overlord 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 attention of everything."

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

"Listen, I purchase order you to stay in this bed, do you understand ? I ORDER you to rest 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 deep breath, then cast his invisibility. The innkeeper would give him a heavily fourth dimension if she saw him outside of his room, might even quetch him out. While his magic was ideal, his torso was so weak that his mana might not last long. He left the room and locked it behind him. The hallway outside was empty, but he could hear plenty of people in the bar. Getting down the stairs was difficult, as his head was sent spinning with each step. No one noticed his mien, and he made it through the breakfast gang and outside. It felt nothing short of euphoric to breathe fresh air and soak in the sun.

A bit of his strength had returned, so he released his spell and made his way across township to the pill pusher. inside, the old woman watched as he looked through a menu of her ware, ***********ing plants that helped with everything from feverishness to upset stomach.

"I'm guessing that girl of yours is under the atmospheric condition, and you're not looking very healthy yourself."

"It's been a rough few days."

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

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

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

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

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

A strange feel appeared on Tin's case as she looked from her articulatio radiocarpea to Noah, almost mournful, and she spread her legs for him."I understand, Master. I won't cry this time."Apparently, he wasn't the first person to tie her to a bed.

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

He laid the blanket over her and left her on the bed, then went to process. In the sentence since he first started making his own potions, he had bought a flashy combining kit, including a mortar and stamp. He wasn't a skilled herbalist like the pill pusher, but most of the plant life in this existence were just like those he knew from his past life story, and had built up plenty of survival cognition. the great unwashed easily faded from his memory, but knowledge and proficient skills were held onto. The pursuit of education was one of the few habits he chose to extend in every lifetime, as it was the snug he could get to finding significance in the multiverse.

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

"Tin, waken 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 stop ! It hurts ! Mama, it hurts ! Make him stop !"

"Tin, snap out of it !"

The last thing he needed was someone overhearing this and misunderstanding. He covered her backtalk, waiting for the nightmare to end. Perhaps he should have picked up something to sedate her. Would he feature to completely tie up and gag her to restrain her still and calm down ? That would likely push her encourage into the psychotic belief, and with this disease ransacking through her consistence, the stress might kill her. How could he lull her down ?

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

"Tin, say my name."

"N-Noah."

"goodness, you're back. How do you feel ?"

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

"I'm making medication to aid you finger better, but there is something else I want to try."He retrieved his speech sound and put the earbuds in her pinna. He had a playlist of prosperous listening songs, mostly subservient and soundtracks. He ***********ed one,"Vide Cor Meum ”, one of his favorites. It was gentle, set at a low volume, but the sound of the strings and vox, right in her ears, made Tin freak out.

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

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

"Music ?"

She thought back, trying to remember while her mind was still hazy. Her fellow slaves, they used to have body of work songs when they toiled in the plain, sort of a means of expressing empathy and solidarity, that they all shared the same pain. She knew a boy who used to play the flute, though not very well, and once, she heard the wife of one of her early masters playing a harp from within her mansion. They could be called music, but they all paled in comparison to what she was listening to now.

It was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. In her soul, a hunger was quenched that she had never noticed before, and she felt as though a summer breeze was rolling through her organic structure, sending shivers of bliss up her spine that made her forget her fever. It left Tin stunned, her eyes wide as dinner denture with her sass hanging spread. She looked at Noah, seeing a rare grin on his face.

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

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

For Noah, hearing euphony had flooded his mind with memories, making him relive scenes of his by lifetime when he heard those songs, but for Tin, it was the opposite. Having lived a life without music, the Federal Reserve 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 make her medication or practice his trick, and when Noah looked at her, there would always be a smile on her aspect.

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

It had been a week since Noah fell ill, and he and Tin were going for a manner of walking around the Village. His persuasiveness had returned, but she was still weak, and hopefully some impertinent air and exercise would aid her tactile property better. They had been cooped up in that way for so long, and the beautiful weather was just what they needed. Normally, Tin would walk behind Noah, as a right slave, but today, she was bold, hanging onto his arm. She claimed it to be to help her manner of walking, that she was infirm and needed to lean on him, but the smile on her boldness told of her dishonesty. Noah allowed it, as she had taken such respectable care of him when he was sickish and it was his defect she fell ill after him. He certainly owed her.

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

"headmaster, 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 make you opine any less of me. I'm trusted I talked in my sleep."

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

Tin opened her mouth and stopped. The thing she had heard her master copy say when he was excited, both great and fearful things, many of which she couldn't understand, such as when he started speaking other speech communication or reciting lines from textbooks.

"No, early than cursing."

"That sounds about right."

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

They climbed up a hill overlooking the Greenwich Village, using a fallen log as a Bench while they soaked in the scenery.

"This is some nice countryside,"Noah said.

"I suppose so. This is the only affair I know. I have nothing to liken 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 matter. I try to hit myself appreciate nature whenever I can."

"Where was that ?"

Noah picked the name 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 operate time and prison term 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 discharge, even when he spoke with a smile. He never asked her about her own past, but it was zippo she wasn't used to. She had grown up being treated as an object, both a tool and a toy. confidant conversation was not something a slave should expect from their master, but she had never had a master that made her feel this way, that was so kind to her.

"M-master…"she stammered.

He turned to her, trying to think back the last time he heard her talk so nervously."Yes ?"

"Please, forgive my gall, but I know you're lying to me. I beg you, tell me where you came from, the affair you've done, anything. I only wish to know more about you."

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

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

"It doesn't go well when I tell the trueness. Being reliable has brought me naught but trouble."

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

Noah looked up at the sky."I grew up near the coast, and my Church Father had a gravy holder. He wasn't a fisherman or merchant, rather, it was a hobby. In the summer, when the weather was dependable, my family unit would go out on the water and go sportfishing, simply for the delectation of it. We'd catch mackerel and try to use them as bait to see big stripers, but it never worked out. One prison term, we brought our dog with us, and I remember finding a grape-sized ticking on his brow and putting it on my sweetener, seeing if I would hitch anything. You wouldn't believe how hopeful it is out on the water."

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

So Noah regaled her, telling her what it was like to grow up being miserable, what it like to grow up being fat. He recalled fond memories of his sibling and holiday as an only when tyke. He told her of how his parents loved and supported him, then how they screamed and beat him. He described pose political machine and the applied science of the forward-looking 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.

.

.

.

Succession

.

.

.

Noah and Tin, having fully recovered from the springburn sickness, set out ahead of time on a beautiful day. summer was upon them, so the dawning had lost much of their shiver, though everyone paid for it in effort later in the day. Unlike before, when they roamed aimlessly through the woodwind to track down goliath, they had a particular location in mind. Noah had heard rumors of an abandoned mine that was taken over by hob. A hive, a nest, a colony, whatever it could be called, it spelled bother for the Greenwich Village. Goblins ate and bred like puke, so if they managed to find a good place to dig in, they could bolster their number in very little metre. They had claimed the domain several clip before and had to be flushed out, and while try had been made to seal or ruin the mine, the hob always found a way back in.

They were following one of the single-valued function Noah had bought, with several pieces of advice written down that he had received from early venturer. It would take a day to get through the mine, so they exercised restraint and avoided fighting monstrosity whenever possible. Hopefully this mine would be a capital reservoir of tax revenue in scavenged weapons, meaning it would be best to trip ignitor and not pucker along the way.

They arrived at the mine early in the morning of the watch day. Finding a safe place to set up clique had been difficult, for this was the territorial dominion where the hobgoblin roamed. The mine was carved into the floor of one of the small plenty. At one time, it might have been a fairly decent functioning. There were plentifulness of mansion of the buildings that would have stood around it, now reduced to chain reactor of kindling. There had once been a wooden hutch built around the entrance, sort of like an airlock, perhaps to hold open the rain out some fourth dimension ago, but it was just a rickety frame now. Many of the materials and abandoned equipment were harvested to construct weapon system and barriers for use against intruders, with a fistful of hobgoblin keeping a unvarying watch.

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

"Yes, Master."

Noah concealed himself and advanced towards the mine. He counted seven goblins in total. One was on the roof of the shack erected around the ingress, perched like an owl with a bow in hand. Two Thomas More were sitting on the wooden wall at the perimeter of the inner circle. The remaining four were at the entrance, though they were preoccupied with a plot of dice.

Noah went for the one no one would notice, the sniper above. He approached the incoming without fear, invisible and inaudible to the hobgoblin keeping safety device, but that would change. The only way to the sniper was to go up up onto the roof of the hovel, but it was so weathered and fragile, it looked like it couldn't support more than the weight of one goblin. However, it was worth taking the risk. He reached the side of the shed and began the upgrade, using the stick-in-the-mud cliffside as a subaltern ladder to help downplay the weight he put on the old wooden board.

He was deliberate with every position of his manpower and feet, so as to interrupt as piddling as potential. His illusion would hide the First Baron Marks of Broughton he made, but only within a certain range. He had experimented with Tin's help, finding that footmark would be revealed after ten steps, so he had to abide within that compass to celebrate them within his magic trick. Besides, if he ended up ripping a board rightfulness out of the wall, his head game wouldn't be able to hold back it. It could hold back touch of his natural process, but not double objects. The mounting was difficult. The Sir Henry Wood of the shack had frayed over the years and riddled his hands with sliver, while the heavily clay on the cliff crumbled and made it difficult to get a solid hold. Regardless, he managed to go up up onto the ceiling.

The ceiling itself was like thin ice, and if he ended up breaking through or snapping any of the beams, the hob would surely palpate it, even if he couldn't hear it. Noah pulled a rock'n'roll out of the cliff and threw it into the foliation in the distance. The hobgoblin perked its head at the noise, and in that instant, Noah closed in and stabbed it in the cover with his short sword. It died before it could even voice its pain.

Noah left it sitting there and climbed off the shack, then snuck over to the two hob sitting away from the entrance. They looked bored as can be, struggling to stay awake. Noah approached the first one, leaning against one of the wooden walls. He dispatched it with his knife, striking the theme of the brain stem. The combat injury was pocket-size and the hobgoblin simply went limp, never feeling a matter. To its friend, it would look like it had simply dozed off. Noah slew the other hob the same way, without creating any dissonance or disruption.

Finally, he approached the entrance, where the four were still gambling. He stood over them, the sun passing through him perfectly and its rays illuminating their game. He ***********ed his longsword for this, even doing a few practice jive to figure out the reach and force play required. When he was fulfil, he gave a mighty slash, beheading all four beasts at once. Their bodies dropped to the background and Noah released his charm, then waved Tin over.

As he stood guard, she searched the bodies, and for each one, cut off their right ear. Most monsters had some useful body part that could be sold, like their skin for clothing or their heart and soul as intellectual nourishment, but aside from collector of grotesqueries like skulls and former things to put on showing, nothing about the goblin was sellable. However, since they were such a nuisance, their species had an ongoing bounty. The topical anaesthetic baron would pay adventurer for every goblin they killed, and their flop pinna were the proof. The goblin also sometimes deport valuables, such as weapons, candles, and even coins. Tin searched them all, and whatever goods she collected went into her back pack.

"Ready to go in ?"Noah asked.

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

From her ingroup, she drew a lantern and lit it. Noah would lead, but she would provide the Christ Within. This meant that he couldn't simply vanish and impart her at a safe distance while he picked off the goblins one by one. He needed her justly beside him so that he could see what he was doing, and would take defeat 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 goblin cuddle, so the sense of smell was new to them. It reeked of sewage and rotting gist, much of the latter probably human.

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

They delved into the mountain with Tin lighting Noah's way. Everywhere, there were the clay of animals that the goblins had eaten, picked down to the bone. In a way, the goblins provided a worthful inspection and repair to the ecosystem. Because monsters and animals spawned both organically and through trick roach, the landscape should have been buried under all of their corpses. Instead, the scavenging wolf would necessitate their finds to their den, continuously sweeping the afforest clean.

They soon came upon the first outgrowth chamber, just like in an anthill. It was modest, about the size of an average bedroom. interior, several goblin were sleeping atop a stack of pelts. nigh of them were female person or younglings. It wasn't proper variation to belt down such target while they slept, but this was an extinction job, so thing like award held no meaning.

"It would probably be punter if you didn't spotter this,"Noah whispered to Tin."Look away and mind for any approaching."

She did as ordered, a mournful aspect on her font as she averted her oculus while keeping the twinkle of the lantern focused into the bedchamber. Noah drew his short-circuit sword and began stabbing the goliath in their sopor. Each time, he'd go straight for the foreland, so that they would die without making a sound. He was steadfast, methodical, taking them out one by one with none of his victim even suspecting a matter. It was unnervingly easy, 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 spear. Noah pushed Tin out of the way of its commencement poke, then sliced off the top of its headway with a strike to the temple. More must have heard its cry, because another two goblins came running at them.

The first that tried to go about swung at Noah with a bombastic dagger. He stepped out of its compass and kicked the goblin in the chest, nearly sending it flying. The second gear blocked the swing of his sword with a wooden club, but he forced it against the wall and drove his tongue into its chest. Leaving it to die, he returned to the first gear, struggling to breathe, and ended its life with his sword.

"sea captain,"Tin said, handing him a dampness rag. He used it to wipe the blood off his hands while she looted the corpses.

They moved further on down into the burrow, finding it expand into a with child chamber and forking out. There was still plenty of mining equipment, but much of it was being used to hang up food from. The trunk of both humans and fauna had been skinned and were being cooked over balefire. The hobgoblin were jumping around and squealing in joy as the smell of their feast wafted through the mine. human being flesh cooked over a ardor, it was a smell that took Noah back to some dark timelines.

Tin gasped in repugnance at the hatful and one of the goblin spotted them and squealed something in their brutal language. The 12 or so goblins in the bedchamber turned their attention to Noah and Tin and began to come near, armed with the blades used for butchering their intellectual nourishment. They chanted the Lapp squeal, probably something along the lines of"more kernel !"

"Tin, stand back."

He summoned his clone and sent it running to the correct English 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 social movement of the clone. With that first step, Noah attacked from their exposed slope with his longsword and beheaded three of the creature. The goblin, sensing the deaths of their comrades, turned their attention back to Noah and swarmed in. He kept them at bay with full swings, while leaving his left side surface to taunt them. One by one, they tried to aggress from the apparent subterfuge position, but he would remove them before they could actually turn over him. Any that got in close sufficiency to attack found their weapons blocked by Noah's carapace, and then his sword would cut down at them from below and dissever their abdomen open.

Once their membership had been cut in half, they began to draw back back to the balefire. As this was their den, they didn't show their backs and instead tried to ward Noah off with jeopardize shrieking. Their guard was raised, and while they were stupid, they wouldn't fall for the same put-on as the others.

Noah cast both of his tour, and while he had his clon remain where he was and affect to be standing his land. He snuck past the hob and attacked from behind. He slaughtered three before the remainders noticed, but as they couldn't see him, they could do cypher but scream in discombobulation. They made it too easy for Noah to complete them off. Even though the sleeping accommodation had gone lull, he waited several second before releasing his spells.

"All clear."

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

It was a boy, a bit younger than him, and unlike the others, his limbs were bound. He wasn't cold like the others. Noah checked his neck, and while it was fallible, he found a steady pulsation. Wait a 2d, he had seen him before. Noah had gotten to experience plenty of people around the town in the past calendar month, and learned to recognize others. He often saw this boy with Beth and Mira, carrying a sword and dressed as an adventurer. They frequently ate together at the Old Wineskin. Noah assumed they recruited him to link their party.

"Tin, I found a survivor."

He retrieved a wellness potion from his pocket and poured it down the boy's throat. As it took gist, Noah examined him. His wearing apparel were safe quality, but still the variety used by outdoorsmen. He had a nice soma, showing signs of breeding and toilsome work, but while there were callus on his handwriting, there were healing blisters from wielding a sword. He was probably a farmer, but came from money.

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

"Where am I ?"

"You're in a hob den. I'm guessing they must have struck you in the point, giving you a foul concussion. I gave you a healing potion, so your vision should probably realise soon. have got on, I'll cut you loose."

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

"equanimity down, everything is fine. I'm Noah and this is my subordinate, Tin."

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

"Your father ? No, we're just here to bolt down hobgoblin and steal their boodle. How did they capture you ?"

The boy seemed to be capable to stick out unsloped on his own, so Noah let him go, though he was struggling to retrieve."I… was being trained in hunting by a local anaesthetic adventurer that my father hired. I had just shot a boar with my bow… then I felt a massive hurting in the back of my head and blacked out."

"Your father, is he a noble ?"

"Yes, Ivan Fault. The baron in armorial bearing of the town. I'm Oath Fault, the future head."

"well, swearword, we'll assist 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 2d !"

"I just finished taking attention of a goodness turn them, see ?"Noah pointed to the eubstance of his victims."I'm confident in my power. Besides, it took a lot of try to get here, so we're not leaving until our air pocket are filled with goodies and we can barely walk. assure me, do you feature any talents ? Can you use trick or any weapons ?"

"I… I have some skill with a sword."

"Some, huh ? So best sheath scenario, I can expect you to have got off a goblin that might sneak up on us from behind."Noah took off his backpack and forced it into expletive's work force."Otherwise, you're my new pack mule."

"You can't be serious !"

"You have to pay off the potion I used on you, and study it a down defrayment for us getting you back to town. There is food and pee in the bag, you can eat while you walk. Tin, open me a sword."She handed him a chipped hand-and-a-half blade, 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 tap you out, steal your clothes, and sell them to cover the monetary value of that potion. Which is it going to be ?"

"Fine, I'll service you,"he muttered.

"Smart choice."

The three proceeded deeper into the mine with Noah taking point. Every few minute, goblin would attack, desperate to defend their home. Noah dispatched each of them with a stir of cut and twinge, leaving Tin to pile up the goods. Oath was understandably anxious, and it left him unable to even touch the slain gargoyles, so Tin ended up doing most of the workplace and just putting the finds in his bag. At least he wasn't complaining. Noah eventually tasked him with collecting trade good 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 goliath recently. I'm still not used to it. But this is incredible. I've never seen somebody putting to death so many goblins singlehandedly."

"wellspring I can see how they might be capable to get the free fall on soul if they ambush with superior issue, but when you face them mind on, it's like fighting a chemical group of ugly, ferine children. Oh, speech production of which, I see another breeder."

The sight before them was nauseating, as what appeared to be a big green pig was nursing a bedding material of pint-sized piddling gremlins. While the male goblin went out into the afforest to gather, the female would incline to the younglings. Despite being less than half a metrical unit tall as neonate, they would pass on lifesize in just six calendar month, hence their ravenous appetency. Noah dispatched the breeder and stomped out the younglings, much to Oath's horror.

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

"They wouldn't have been babies very long. In just a few calendar month, they would be roaming the afforest, killing whoever crossed their course and dragging them back here to be devoured. You and Tin are carrying ring fully of the possessions of their victim. I'm not judging them for doing as nature commands them to, I'm simply dealing with a threat before it can become a threat."A thunderous roar made the three teens cover their spike and wince."What the underworld was that ?"

"A goblin,"said swearing,"otherwise known as a goblin chieftain. They're a rarefied breed. I hear that only one out of ten thousand hobgoblin can grow to become a bugbear. They're much fully grown, smarter, and impregnable than a regular hobgoblin and can even learn magic. We need to get out of here, right now ! It's heard the death of the younglings and is coming for revenge !"

"perfective tense. He's probably hoarding the practiced hooey. Let's go."

"This is mad ! The regular goblin may be weakly, but goblin are warm than human beings in every way !"

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

Oath turned to Tin, hoping that she might verbalize up, but her manifestation was completely vacuous, as if she was daydreaming."You can trust my master. He is strong and skilled."

Noah set off towards the source of the noise, but they need not journey far, as their foe came to greet them from the deepness of the mess. It stood over six pes tall with a far more muscular build than the low-down goblins possessed. Like them, it wore a breechclout, but it was also garbed in firearm of stolen armour, including a metal helmet. Looking over a pair of boar-like tusks protruding from his mouth, he glared at the interloper with indescribable hatred.

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

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

He didn't bother waiting for a reply and stepped forward with his longsword in hired hand. The chieftain was armed with the same type of steel, though with a enceinte steel. On the battlefield, it would likely be used against horse, killing both riders and their buck with one slice. The headman thundered towards him with his sword raised gamy. His pep pill was certainly faster than a human's, and with the forte he was probably wielding, Noah didn't want to try his destiny by blocking or parrying. He sidestepped when the cleave was made and attempted a sideways swing towards the goblin's straits. It raised its hand, blocking with a alloy arm sentry go, then forced him back.

It immediately closed the distance to make the same sideways swing Noah had, and with the steel's greater length, he didn't have the time or way to get out of the way. Instead, Noah rushed towards the sword to block it with his own. As the hobgoblin straightened his weapon, his swing would become more potent, so he had to interpose at the earliest potential moment.

Sparks flew off their sword as Noah's brand halted the goblin's. It released one hired hand from the hilt of its sword, using what little impulse it had left to swing at Noah. He avoided its backhand stroke by a haircloth's breadth and countered with a clout to the Adam's Apple. It staggered back, wheezing in painful sensation, but without dropping its defense. Its pain permissiveness was remarkable.

Noah gave it no time to recover and went on the noisome, 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 to fend Noah off. It raised its sword for another cleave, but Noah's eyes caught a decided lambency along the blade.

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

Noah's instincts had already told him the Saami thing, but while he was able to get his body out the way, his steel met the hobgoblin's blade head-on and snapped. The savage's weapon buried itself in the Isidor Feinstein Stone ground, shaking the total cavern, and Noah rolled away to avert any barehanded flack like before. He got to his feet, examining his weapon and the opposition's. The speed of the goblin's swing had increased, as well as its persuasiveness and the lastingness 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 artillery science that would meliorate their power in battle, such as cutting deeper and withstanding more than forcefulness without breaking. He had witnessed magic a few times during the final month and had become fellow, but this was only his second time since he arrived that he was actually fighting against a magic user. Perhaps it would be best to finish this battle while he was unharmed, rather than continue pushing his hazard. On the other helping hand, swearword hadn't seen his magic, and he wanted to preserve it that way. He'd just have to turn harder with his strong-arm abilities.

The goblin charged with his sword slightly raised to either pulley block or plan of attack. It wasn't glowing like before, but his last attack had shown that he could harness his deception in a fraction of second, so Noah couldn't risk being in the way when the adjacent swing happened. Noah readied himself, still holding his broken sword. He came within the goblin's orbit and the blade swung diagonally towards his cervix. Noah bolted forward, anticipating when the hob would be committed to the motility. He swung his wiped out blade towards the goblin's radiocarpal joint, making him pause for the briefest moment to consider the threat of fatal injury, and that consequence was all Noah needed to draw his short steel and magazine him across the stomach while zooming past.

The combat injury was severe, having used the inertia of the goblin's direction to get the better of the wall of abdominal muscles and slice deep into the organs. The goblin staggered, his guts spilling onto the reason. Noah finished him off before he could find any of his force. He took a deep breath and listened for any attackers hiding nearby.

"Clear."

"well done, victor,"Tin said while bowing. Beside her, oath was in a daze.

As Tin went to cultivate removing the goblin's armor and checking for personal monomania, Noah examined the sword used. It was a upright steel, certainly sturdy, and he now needed a replacement for his longsword, but as he held it, his changed his judgment. His original longsword had the maximum allowable free weight and size, and anything heavy in either category would stymie his effort too much.

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

"I've studied respective styles and configuration of combat throughout my life, including archery and play, mostly out of boredom or for exercise, and I've had plenty of experience killing. Your Father-God pays people for every goblin people kill, adjust ? Will I get extra if I bring him the headway of their chief ?"

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

"master copy, I found something."He turned to Tin, who was holding up the hand of the goblin to show him the ring on his fiddling finger. She removed it and handed the ring to Noah, and he could immediately feel the legerdemain within it.

‘ Huh, a conjuring trick tintinnabulation found in a goblin tunnel. What could possibly go wrong ?'He gave it a closer spirit under the Inner 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 striation with a foreign content."curse word, what do you puddle of this ?"

"That's the ring of an Utheric knight ! Anyone caught wearing one without being knighted can lose their helping hand as penalization !"

"I heard of those guys. They train as some baronial school. Why so extortionate ?"

"The annulus is gilt, but is inscribed with a rare metallic element called avenium, which can imbue objects with very high-level spells. I once heard that a steel with avenium runes can restrain more king than the ten best steel blade. Knight rings are inscribed with a spell that creates another world where particular can be stored."

"How many token ?"

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

Noah put on the ring and channeled some of his mana into it. It was a unusual feeling, like he had just put his hand into a stuffed bag. He could see his hand, but not the objects he was touching. He felt a small bottle and closed his hand around it. The ring acknowledged that as a ***********ion and materialized the bottleful. It was full of a yellow-bellied liquid, probably some kind of potion, or it could just be olive oil.

"This'll come in handy."

"Just wearing that annulus is a serious crime !"

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

The residual of the day was spent in those dark burrow, searching for trade good. By the clock time he had faced the hob, near of the former hob had already been killed, so there was little resistance. They found the majority of their prize down in the low-spirited chamber, where the bugbear appeared to ingest been sleeping. The goblins were excellent thieves, stealing whatever they could get their manus on with traveller being their favorite target area. There were weapon stashes, suitcase and cask of food, forget me drug and range, wearing apparel and armour, heap of tools, and a belittled fortune in coins. He even found the armor and brand of the knight that the hob chief had killed. This haul was better than Noah hoped, and while they couldn't carry all of it, the mob helped roll up the salutary pieces.

When they finally stepped out of the mine, the sun was setting. There could still be goblins in the Natalie Wood, making their way to the mine after a day of hunting, so the trio wasted no time getting a safe aloofness to make pack. A tree diagram, nearly as thick as a schooling bus, offered them protection. They bedded down at its base with its raised etymon acting as wall and a flaming warding off anything that might try to attack during the night.

Dinner was traveller's rations, the standard solid food for anyone tenting in the wild. While he ate, Noah examined all of the items in the doughnut. There were numerous potions, spare circle of men's wearing apparel, some dick and tongue, rations, and a few gold coins. He took a closer aspect at the armour and steel that the horse had been using. There wasn't much he could do with the armor. Minus some dental plate he could use on his branch and legs, it was impractically heavy for his fighting style, and considering how steep the punishment was for wearing the tintinnabulation, getting caught with it would probably be a bad idea. Hopefully the blacksmith would be will to buy it.

The steel, on the other hand, was a definite prize. It was a longsword like Noah's transgress one, but with an ornate guard and grip, as well as a line of runic letter going up the blade, inked with avenium. There was a tour imbued within it, he could find the magic, but it didn't react to his mana the way the ring did. It was probably illegal for him to possess, so it would be best kept in the tintinnabulation, but once away from prying eyes, it would be an excellent cornet card once he figured out how it worked.

"So how long have you been an venturer ?"swearing asked.

"Several years. Why ?"

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

"The town I grew up in, there were wad of former venturer willing to snuff it their science on."

"And your parents ?"

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

"So, do you—"

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

They set out at morning the next day, wanting to get out of the woods as soon as possible, to both avoid danger and achieve the store before they closed for the night. It would read them most of the day to return to Clive, and that was without all the weight they were carrying, so they had to try and keep a good tempo. By around twelve noon, they reached a magnanimous open lea, but before they could cross it, a grievance was made.

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

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

"well we've made considerable distance, and I believe it's about lunch time. Sure, let's stop consonant here for a break."

Tin and Oath settled at the edge of the pasture under the shadiness of a Tree and prepared lunch. While they worked, Noah took a walk through the airfield to make certainly there weren't any vulture in hiding. It was when he reached the mall that he stopped, hearing something. It was not the rustling of grass or the growl of a wolf, but the neighing of horses. He looked into the distance and saw four men on horses break free of the timberland and gallop towards him with their brand drawn. Bandits ?

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

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

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

He was rendered unseeable while he sent off his clone, running to the side with its illusionary sword drawn. The men were drawn to it, and one of them, armed with a bow, began trying to pip it. Noah controlled the clone like a marionette on drawstring, and while it moved, he put the horse ring on his finger's breadth and activated it, materializing his bow and an arrow. It took him a moment to aim and release, striking the bowman in the chest and sending him tumbling off his horse.

The other equestrian realized their booster had been killed, but there was no clip to depend for the enemy Sagittarius. They had to close in on the offspring man with the sword. They tried to run him down with their blades outreached, but before they could strike their mark, another one of their social rank 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 contrivance while he took out the third man. Only one man was left, but he didn't pain in the ass going after the clone. He was smart enough to cut his passing and fly back into the woods.

"Tin, Oath, you can come out now,"Noah said as he released his illusion. They appeared from the woods, seeing Noah with the three sawbuck standing nearby."shekels the clay and then let's have lunch. The way back to the small town will be much easier now."

With the horses, they managed to realise it back to the hamlet in the recently afternoon, when most of the shop class had closed, but there were still a few heart-to-heart that they could betray their boodle to.

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

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

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

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

"Yes, yes, I know."

They split up, Oath returning home and Noah and Tin selling their goods. They first went to the blacksmith, as most of their goods were scavenged arm. When Noah laid them all out on the riposte, the blacksmith couldn't assistance but vocalize his surprise.

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

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

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

"You found this in a goblin den ?"

It was the armor of the slain Utheric knight.

"That's right, but that was all. I was hoping I could find the steel or ring, but they were gone. So, are you interested ? This armour has effective steel than anything in your shop."

"I could get beheaded just for having this !"

"Which is why you expert run 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 bass sigh of resignation. Whether it was money or his artistic instincts thinking of all the things he could clear, he couldn't allow the armour to pass on the store.

"mulct, what do want for everything ?"

As usual, bargaining with the blacksmith took a lot of time, but Noah left with several shiny atomic number 79 coins and a substitute for his longsword. He and Tin moved from shop to shop, selling everything that was left, then Noah took Tin somewhere she did not expect, the town jeweler. Unlike other storage, this one had guard duty posted inside and outdoor, and all the merchandise was behind a counter, with atomic number 26 bars blocking it off from the customer. An old man was sitting at the counter, scrutinizing a jewel.

"Ah, how can I serve you ?"

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

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

"A goblin den."

"Ah, of course of action. hobgoblin are beastly, nasty creatures, but they have a strange portion when it comes to ascertain things. This is an sweetening gem."

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

"When grafted to an enchant item, it boosts the strength of the enthrallment. Imagine a magic steel that can cut through twice as much as a normal sword. With this imbued into the pommel, treat, or sword, it will now be able to cut through four prison term as much as a normal blade. They are a favorite of nobles, for not only to they better the enchanted token, but they make them more visually appealing and prodigal, perfect for showing off. At clump and formal upshot, you'll find high-ranking nobles with jewel-encrusted swords on their hips.

Would you be willing to trade it ?"

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

Noah took out the knight ring and slid it across the tabular array, only letting the jeweler see it. At the vision of the doughnut, he became tense.

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

"I'm willing 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 delight step outside for a minute ?"The two guard duty, despite their curio, left the store, giving Noah and the jewelry maker their privacy. The old man stared at Noah."Do you have a death wish, boy ? Just having this could—"

"I'm aware of the punishment, but you already decided you're volition to choose a risk. Cover the runes with gold folio and set the gem. If it looks good and the ring's tour really is enhanced, I'll pay you ten ash gray coins."

"Twenty."

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

"Fine, fifteen silver."

"Deal."

"I'll have it fix by twelve noon tomorrow."

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

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

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

Noah looked over to one of the cup of tea hanging off the side of his saddle. It was full of severed hobgoblin ears. Was he really willing to bring those into their room at the inn ? It would probably be better just to get paid now.

"amercement, just let Tin and I drop off the rest of our haul at the inn and lead the way."

After stopping at the inn, they rode out of town towards the north, to the tycoon's estate. Being a noble, he was serious off than any of the villagers, but his home was far from exuberant, just nicer looking and larger than anyone else's, a countryfied manor house, surrounded by landing field that slaves tended to. Leaving their horses in the stable in the back, Oath brought Noah and Tin into the mansion and stopped before a set of double room access.

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

"Enter."

cuss opened the door of the private subject, and behind the desk, an old man with a long beard was filing paperwork on parchment. He looked older than Noah expected, for a son so untried. Standing beside him was a fair sex, dressed as a maid.

"You must be young Master Noah. My son has told me of your great strong point and skills. You have my undying gratitude for saving him, and my respect for your accomplishment in battle."The baron didn't get up to stir Noah's manus, but that was to be expected of a noble.

"You are very receive, God Almighty Fault."Noah replied with a bow of his head.

"You deserve compensation for your drive. Twice, you have saved my son's life."

From his desk, the baron drew a sack of coins, likely silver, and handed them to Noah.

"I appreciate it. While we're on the subject, I also have numerous goblin spike that I'd like receive payment for."

"Ah, of course, of course. You also deserve extra for dealing with that goblin honcho. Amelia,"he said, turning to the maid beside him,"please matter up the ear and calculate their payment, and please take my son and this cover girl Thomas Young lady to the parlor to unbend. Master Noah, if you have metre, I would care to talk with you about some important matters."

"Very well, then."

The maid left with Oath and Tin and the doors were shut behind them. Finally, the baron got up from his chairman and walked over to a whisky carafe with a set of glasses."Would you care for a deglutition ?"

"I'd beloved one."Two glasses were poured and one was handed to Noah. Compared to the New world, the alcoholic drink consumed in these lands was yob to thrust down, yet the quality of the whiskey surprised him."Oh, that is good."

The big businessman sat down."I can not thank you enough. If my son had perished, that would have got been the end of my line."

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

The king gave a sulphurous chuckle."I suppose we should get down to business. You have already proven yourself a expectant rescuer and precaution for my son. I would like to lease you to do it again."

"Not more hobgoblin, I trust ?"

"Actually, something a little more difficult. I want you to avail him capture a dungeon crab."

"Pardon my ignorance, but I am not familiar with the term. I come from a land without such things."

The baron got to his feet and began searching a nearby bookshelf."Dungeon crabs are massive terrene beings, spending their lives deep beneath the earth. However, they surface from clock time to time, poking the bakshish of their shells out of the ground."

He found the desired Good Book and laid it out on the mesa, set to a specific pageboy. There were two word picture, the low of what looked like a hermit Cancer the Crab, with a pointed carapace several times its own size and no claws. The second showed the tip of the shell poking out of the reason with a mess in the top, but just that was the size of a lighthouse. Had the artist actually seen a dungeon crab fully revealed or was he just going by his imagination ? For a fauna of this size of it to move underground without being noticed, it would feature to rise up from under the earth's crust. A few day ago, the townspeople had experienced an temblor. That must sustain been the Phthirius pubis rising to the surface.

"Because they dwell so deep in the ground, they accumulate precious metals and gems inside their shell, which form vast internal ear, hence its figure. A man can get deep in one day exploring it."

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

"You'd be right. The shell is teeming with parasites, emmet when like to the crab, but deadly monstrosity to us human being. When a crab control surface, the sponge will lead and go a danger to everyone and everything in the area. No one is quite for certain why dungeon crab Earth's surface like this. Some believe it does it when the sponge have grown too legion and it needs to cut their numeral down, either by setting them loose on the airfoil or using treasure-hunting humans to pick their universe. Others believe the crabs feed on the humankind that enter its shell, and use the parasites to kill their prey for them. Many believe it simply surfaces to get fresh air, like a whale."

"And you expect us to entrance one of these thing ?"

"It's just a fig of talking to. To capture a donjon crab means to get down to the bass percentage of its shell, where the most priceless alloy is."

"Avenium, I'm guessing ?"

"Correct. Anyone who can secure a cup's worth and present it to the land becomes a noble. That's why I need you to serve Oath capture it."

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

"swearing is… my third son. His oldest brother, Colt, was raised and groomed to be my successor, and the minute older, Victor, was raised to be the successor if anything happened to Colt."

"Making Oath the spare part of a spare."

The business leader grimaced."He spent his life working the fields while his brother hunted and earned achievement. However, both Colt and Victor died in battle at the start of leap, so oath is all I have left. He has a good heart…"

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

"Unlike the son of my younger crony, Edwin, a baronet. He is petitioning the realm to overturn my title as magnate and sacrifice it to him and his eldest son. I need to essay that cuss has what it takes to be a tycoon, and the best way to do that is to conquer a dungeon crab. I'm too old to sire another heir and time is running out. Oath already has an adventuring party that he trains and fights with, but their acquisition aren't respectable enough to conquer a donjon crab. I would like you to join their party."

"Why me ?"

"Because you are Lester Willis Young. There are numerous older venturer with acquisition like yours that I can hire, but then my sidekick will argue that they just conquered the keep and handed the loot to Oath."

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

"But the fact that you are unseasoned means that you'll fit right in. No one will wonder one extra offspring man joining my son's party."

Noah gave a huff while weighing his options. On one handwriting, a political squabble between kin extremity was the concluding thing he wanted to get involved in, and there was no telling if he was even skilled enough to successfully stamp down a dungeon crab. It was an unnecessary danger. On the other script, the idea of getting his hands on some avenium and other rare metals and gems was a bait idea. He could get enough money to fund any venture he wanted for the ease of his life. Plus, it would get him to the capital, and perhaps let him pee-pee some valuable link. There were probably heap of adventurer who would establish their right arm for the chance.

"Would I be giving orders or receiving ?"

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

"And how foresightful do dungeon crabs normally remain coat ?"

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

"Very well, we'll depart in one week. I want to use that prison term to evaluate the team, see if there is anything I can do to polish up their acquirement before we go."

"That would be a blessing."

Noah got up from his nates."I have some business sector to attend to tomorrow, but I'll return in the afternoon. brand sure everyone is assembled."

This time, the power stood up and shook his script."consider it done."

Noah left the report and retrieved Tin in the living room. As they stepped out onto the front porch, Oath came to see them off.

"So my father talked to you about the donjon crab ?"

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

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

curse gave a deeply bow of gratitude, and in the distance, Noah saw a flash of movement, and then discover a sound that he was well used to. It was the strait of an pointer buried deep into muscle and form. Launched a second earlier, it would take hit curse word square in the back, but because he bowed, it found its mark in the center field of Tin's chest.

Noah didn't say a intelligence, but before either Oath or Tin could react, he had already leapt off the porch and was sprinting towards the origin of the arrow. He had left his bow with his knight in the stable, so he'd have to kill the assassin up close. He could see the man hiding behind a scarecrow and recognized him as the fourth brigand from earlier. They weren't just random marauders, they had been hired to shoot down Oath !

The man nocked another arrow, aimed it at Noah, and fired, but he deflected it with his cuticle. He closed in, able to see the impact in the man's eyes as the distance between them vanished with terrifying amphetamine. He reached the man, drawing his new sword, and beheaded him before he could even flex around to run.

The body hit the primer coat, but Noah had already left, sprinting back to the sign of the zodiac. There, on the porch, oath was gathered with several servants, giving her one healing potion after another, as despite the removal of the arrow and the combat injury completion, she wasn't getting proficient. Noah could see it, her veins blackening, her flesh getting pale, and every breathing time seeming to cause her pain. Everyone moved aside and Noah embraced Tin, cradling her head.

"It was a poison arrow. We don't know what was used, we have no antidote for it. Noah, I'm so gloomy !"Oath exclaimed, shedding the tears that Noah should have. Instead, he just stared at Tin, his clean secrecy unnerving those around him.

Tin looked into his center."Master…"she whimpered."Please, I want to go back to our room. I want to go back to our bed and sleep beside you. I want to help you train your magic. I want to walk with you through the Sir Henry Wood and hear Sir Thomas More tarradiddle. There is so practically I want to do with you !"

She was crying, but Noah showed no emotion. Instead, he pulled out his phone and put the buds in her ears. With the last few discharge 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 tactile sensation was all she needed."Thank you for making my life a beautiful one,"she whispered. Then she closed her eyes listened to the song, soon releasing her terminal breather as the stopping point notes played out.

All was mute, no one knowing what to say. Shadows began to creep into Noah's judgement, a cruel part making him rock. ‘ Great, now I have to do everything myself…'He shook the voice aside.

"Noah…"Oath began.

"I'm going to eat up her. Give me a blanket to twine her in and a shovel. I'm not asking."His voice, it didn't tremble at all, and there was no awkwardness in his words.

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

There was the fragile vellication on Noah's face. The gears in his mind were grinding together."I'm not burying her here. I know a right place."

The handmaiden rushed to fulfill his order, bringing out a piano quilt that Noah knew Tin would have liked. He wrapped her in the comforter and carried her to the horse barn, getting onto his horse with her and being given a spadeful.

The whispers 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 horse a kick and it took off with a cry. The sun had set, the woods now at their most dangerous, but Noah didn't hesitate to razz down a familiar spirit road and into the wilderness. For hours, his horse galloped through the timberland. When it tired, he would give it water and a health potion to restore its stamina, but that was the only time he stopped. Monsters routinely tried to attack him, but he ended their lives with his bow. As the lunation moved across the sky, Noah, holding Tin in his arms, felt the fondness slowly leave her consistence.

It wasn't just the monsters outside that were attacking, but the unity in Noah's pass. vicious whispering flooded his mind, trying to get him to turn back.

‘ She's just a slave.'

‘ I should just go home.'

‘ There is no pointedness in risking my life.'

‘ Nothing matters.'

‘ It's all meaningless.'

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

Finally, when the night was at its darkest, he reached the craved spot. It was the waterfall that he and Tin had camped at. There were some wildcat drinking from the river, but he scared them off and ignored the modest gunk crawling around. The arena itself hadn't changed in the last few hebdomad. There were still the remains of the fires he had made, and the clay basin was undamaged.

He tied his gymnastic horse to a Tree and lit a torch, holding it while he carried Tin. ‘ I'll just ditch her and go.'He brought her behind the waterfall, where there was a small dry field with hatful of river silt, deposited by the waterfall. He dug down as deeply as he could, forcing aside any sentiment to open up and unornamented himself effort. He laid her down on the cold earth and opened up the blanket, looking at her one hold out time. She looked peaceful, almost mental object. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver coin. When they first met, he remembered her telling him that she was only deserving that lots. 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 bundle of rock-and-roll on her grave accent so that no fauna would dig her up. Finally, he turned to the stone paries at his side of meat and began carving Tin's name into it with her dagger. The scratches were shadowy, but they wouldn't be simply washed away, like if he had simply drawn the letters on with a rock.

TIN

Those three footling letters, a little New York minute light in his mind, like a swoon wizard, told him that they looked lonely, and he focused on that. He should put Sir Thomas More. She'd want that. But what should he pen ? What did Tin mean to him ? Who was she ? What was she in sexual intercourse to him ? Did he actually care ?

TIN

A FREED hard worker

It was all he could come up with, but it didn't satisfy him. There had to be something Sir Thomas More. He hadn't loved her, it had been a farseeing time since he loved anyone. Did he even like her ? She was fast and helpful, and took care of him when he was disgusted. He also took aid of her. Was that enough to consider her of import to him ? He couldn't tell. He had spent countless lifetimes pretending to be a friend, son, a schoolmate, a coworker, a husband, even a father. When was the live on time he actually liked soul and wasn't just wearing the façade of civility while putting up with them ? When was the last time he told someone he loved them and wasn't simply lying to their human face ?

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

Finally, some emotion. Noah punched the rock wall and split the skin on his brass knuckles."Come on, think !"He shouted those lyric to himself over and over again. He was scratching at his own mind, trying to pull in rake from Lucy Stone. What had Tin meant to him ? Or at the very least, what would she take wanted to hear ? Noah focused on that, trying to suppose what he could throw said to make her happy.

TIN

A FREED SLAVE

A PRICELESS COMPANION

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

.

.

.

Cooperation

.

.

.

It took a wide-cut day to ride back to the settlement, repeating the master copy 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 horizon. fatigue gripped him, so he went straight to the inn. He took his buttocks at his usual table and the innkeeper brought two trays of intellectual nourishment."I was worried when you didn't show up for dinner final night or breakfast this sunrise. Where's Tin ?"she asked.

"She died."

The charwoman 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 month, everyone who came for drinks was used to the sight of Noah and Tin eating together. A few people, noticing her absence, inquired just as the innkeeper had, and Noah told them the Same thing he told her. His emotionless response angered Holly, one of the fille de chambre, and she grabbed Noah by the collar and lifted him to his feet.

"She was a dainty 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 optic."Does any of that even subject ?"

Perhaps it was the way he said it, or the coldness of his middle, but she dropped Noah back to his fanny and stormed off in disgust. After that, no one approached Noah. When he was done with his meal, he made his way up to his room. This metre, when he opened the door, there was no salutation. The candle was unlighted and there was no flack in the fireplace. It was just a dark room.

Noah shut the doorway behind him and went straight to bed. Having gone two solar day without sleep, he was exhausted, and a late, 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 front porch of the defect mansion, along with cuss and the two other penis of their squad, Beth and Mira.

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

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

"No clue."

"I don't care how problematic you say he is,"the man with the halberd said,"if he rode out into those woods at night, he's short for sure."

"Shut up, Trevor. When Beth and I met him, we knew that he was the actual deal."

"When Tin was hit, it was like I blinked and he had already chased down the bravo and killed him."

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

"I looted their corpses myself."

"Oh, there he is !"

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

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

It was the knight ring, all done after the township jewelry maker had worked on it. The avenium runes had been covered up and the sweetening precious stone was set on top of the crest. It was certainly trashy, but sometimes gaudiness had its own appeal.

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

"right after we met you in the Mrs. Henry Wood. We looked around for anyone bequeath 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 donjon Phthirius pubis. Before we do that, I need to—"

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

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

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

Noah took a deep breather and rubbed his temples."Ugh, one of you people. This is the cobbler's last thing I need.

Listen, here's what's supposed to hap : you and I spend the next week playing the game where I act as the stern yet discernment agency physical body, and you keep throwing temper tantrums due to some unspoken deep-seated take. By the clock time we arrive at the dungeon crab, you'll hate me more than ever, and almost get us killed, probably with me having to make unnecessary your aliveness. However, your screwup will avail you substantiate you're full-of-the-moon of nothing but bluster and horse shit, and you'll finally decide to listen to me, allowing me to break your voiceless outer racing shell to aid you resolve your behavioral problems, which I'm guessing is about your Father-God, or feeling of inadequacy, or something along similar dividing line. We'll gaining control the dungeon crab and form a long-lasting friendship of obedience and trust.

Now, that is what is supposed to happen, and as much as I would be intimate to go on that excited journeying with you, I have literally a million just matter to do with my metre. So, let's nip this in the bud right now. You and me, one on one, until one of us can no longer stand. The unsuccessful person has to listen and obey the winner until the donjon crabby person is captured, including an rescript to leave the party."

Most of what he said went over everyone's promontory, but bless Trevor's heart and soul, he was smart 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 flavor. Give it your best shot, because if you don't take me down, you're going to end up swallowing a lot of blood."

Trevor took a posture, 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 spell the goblin chief had used on his sword to increase the strength of his virgule, meaning that getting hit with that halberd would surely be deadly.

"Trevor, give up this ! This is insanity !"Mira implored.

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

Trevor lunged with a right form and thrust his halberd towards Noah. It wasn't just the destructive power of his halberd, his speed had more than doubled."Mountain-Splitter !"

It was by a thin security deposit, but Noah stepped to the English and the sword missed. He grabbed the shaft of the halberd and delivered a bone-crushing puncher to Trevor's nose, causing him to let go and stagger back.

"That was a unspoiled poking. I imagine you've spent plenty of time practicing it."

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

"Fine, but I think it's been established that you can't hit me with it."

Noah tossed the halberd back and Trevor caught it. He wasted no time in charging the blade with mana, producing an impressive aura. This clip, instead of a thrust, he made a wide swinging."Erasing Cleave !"

Once more, Noah simply backed out of his compass, escaping with zero terms. Then, when the coast was clear, he closed in and delivered and uppercut to Trevor's jaw, busting his teeth and making him an even bally hole. This fourth dimension, Trevor couldn't hitch on his feet and fell back, trying and failing to contain his cry of torment. Looking around, Noah could see the mogul's retainer watching from the battleground and through the windows.

"Noah, that's enough ! You two need to end this !"Beth exclaimed.

"He's the one who decides when we stop. Feel absolve to give him a wellness potion, though."

"I don't need a nooky wellness potion !"Trevor shouted.

He scrambled to his animal foot and went at it again. He abandoned the idea of using magic and attacked Noah with a bombardment of rapid-fire stab. Noah deflected each onslaught with his shield, and when Trevor tried to get in close for another swing music, he once again grabbed the halberd and stopped Trevor from moving. It became a tug of war, but despite Trevor's accumulated military posture, Noah maintained his posture.

"You know what I'm going to do now, right ?"Trevor tried to estimate out how Noah would flip 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 stick to hunting monsters, but you'll never hit me with it. Try showing me how good 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 combat, in which case I'll gladly wit you."

Trevor abandoned his halberd and charged, sending a straight person rightfulness punch towards Noah. Noah caught his clenched fist and then struck his elbow, snapping his arm like his bones were made of chicken feed. Before Trevor could even squall, 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 face. The spray woke him up and healed his nose and mouth, though his arm would throw to be reset before a potion could mend it.

"So, do you desire to keep going ? I can go all day if you want. I mean it, I've got nothing but time. And we can go whenever you want, this isn't your sole chance.

Now I suppose there are a telephone number of agency we can go about this. We can do the entirely emotional journeying affair, but the fact that I've explained it kind of takes away the magic trick. You can just provide the party, I'll give you that pick. There's the option of waiting until I have my dorsum turned and then getting your retaliation, which, again, you are complimentary to do so at any time, but at your own peril. Poisoning my nutrient might run, but it would just be you admitting your weaker than me. I suppose your substantially choice would be to keep out your fucking sassing, accept that I'm stronger than you and wise than you, and pay attention to what I will learn you, as it will improve your science and your chances of survival.

From there, we can go to the dungeon crab, and you'll easily overcome challenges that would have killed you at your current level of long suit. With a unspoilt measure of effort and coordination, and no shortage of chance, we'll conquer the dungeon crab and become fertile beyond our wildest dreams. There is always the pick of betraying us down there and running off with all the loot, but boy, oh boy, you'd better make sure I'm all in, because you don't want me coming after you, you really don't.

So, what do you say ?"

Everyone was silent, waiting to hear Trevor's response. He was glaring at Noah and taking trench, angry breathes through his olfactory organ."You say you can establish me unassailable ?"

"I guarantee it."

"We conquer the dungeon Phthirius pubis and we're done, right ? I never have to see you again ?"

"You can retire to some picture 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 king inside."

Noah stepped onto the porch and entered the theatre, walking right by the bit where Tin had died."Is the king in ?"he asked, addressing one of the maids.

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

Just as Oath had done the day before, the maidservant knocked on the double doors and announced Noah's arrival, with the baron granting first appearance. The old man was behind his desk."That was quite the spirited match outside. Your acquirement are the material deal."

"The real skill is producing results from it."

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

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

The glass fell from the top executive's handwriting and shattered."What ? !"he exclaimed.

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

Noah's gaze never left the business leader, without any sense of fear or prediction of what might come next. He simply waited for a reaction. The tycoon gripped the street corner of the desk but managed to hold himself.

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

"It was nothing of the sort."

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

It was midmorning, and Noah had just claimed his ring from the jewelry maker, the last of his sunup errands, and with info given by those around townsfolk, he now stood before the habitation of the local anesthetic Bart. It was in the outskirts of the Ithiel Town, one of the farms, and neither the study nor the family were on par with the tycoon. Despite the social status of noble, Bart were simply commoners with the prefix ‘ Sir'or ‘ Madam ’.

He found the baronet repairing a cattle fence behind the house. He was selfsame to the top executive, but without the face fungus and sporting fewer seam. Noah was inconspicuous, so the man didn't even notice him attack, but was calm when Noah pressed the brand of his knife to his throat and told him to drop the pound he was using.

"Sir Edwin Fault, I presume ?"

"Who's asking ?"

"Did you take four men to kill the Oath Fault ?"

"Now why would I try to belt down my beloved nephew ?"

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

"You must be the illegitimate who saved him from that hob den. I had to pay that adventurer a trade good deal of money to kill him. To reckon he'd be such a chickenshit and leave the job to goblins."

"Did your son know about the hit you put on his cousin ?"

"He would have killed that talentless brat himself if I hadn't talked him out of it. He didn't do anything. You have a bone to clean, put that stab away and let's clear this same men."

Noah's solvent came in the form of a fluid flick of his carpus, severing Edwin's jugular and sending him tumbling to the solid ground, trying pointlessly to stop the bleeding. Noah stood by to confirm the expiry and then made his way towards the fields, where the baronet's son was working.

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

"There was a fourth dimension when I took great joy in making people suffer, and I've been working to change myself since then. I don't countenance myself to obliterate for joy or vengeance, and certainly I didn't defeat them for what they did, but what they would go on to do. Associating with you and your son has already cost me the spirit of a loyal subordinate, and I'd rather not give anyone the chance to get in my way.

If I were to allow them to live, they would go along to try and defeat you and curse, and I'd have to clean up the flock, just like I've been doing since I found your son in that goblin den. The survive thing I'd lack is to get the donjon and then get ambushed by your crony's henchman when we're too hackneyed to fight back. I assume you had forgiven your sidekick because he is your mob, despite his attempts to kill Oath, but you're hiring me to stay fresh expletive active, 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 stern and exhaled deeply. oceanic abyss down, he knew that his brother had to be dealt with in one form or another, in ordination for his son to inherit the rank of baron. However, even if it had been slim before, there was always a opportunity of rapprochement. He had dreamt of conversing with his brother, as they had a long, farseeing prison term ago, and burying the hatchet. Now that possibility was gone forever. Noah claimed he hadn't acted out of retribution against his brother, but Ivan couldn't help but finger he was the one being punished.

"I thought as much. Despite your brother and nephew demise, I'm aware that your son still had little candidate of inheriting your form of address, so the dungeon capture will proceed as design. We didn't have the hazard to babble about payment for this job, but don't worry, I'm not interested in money or land. There is something else I want."

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

It took more than one healing potion to repair Trevor's arm, and that could only be done when the bone were reset. He was all patched up by the meter Noah made his return.

"I promised the big businessman we'd set out in a calendar week for the dungeon. That was two days ago. For the following five days, I'm going to evaluate each of your accomplishment and see where improvements have been made. first, we're going to hunt some monster. I want to get it on your armed combat attainment and see how well you work as a squad. You all have your weapons, so we're going to depart now and locomotion spark. Any objections ?"

No one said anything, not after watching how he thrashed Trevor. But their quiet was not out of fear, rather an knowingness that Noah knew what he was talking about. He was the honest-to-goodness of the radical by only a year, but they all sensed he had much More experience than they did.

"Good, then let's depart. Oath, you know the surface area. Please lead the way."

"I actually know the location of a wizard spawning circle. Let's chief there."

They gathered some supplies and set off into the wilderness, leading a pack horse cavalry to carry back their harvested devil piece. From the moment they were enveloped by the wickedness of the Tree, they were vulnerable. The soil of the behemoth was well-established, due much in piece to the summoning circles that they spawned from. They only intruded into human dominion when there was a shortage of food or their numbers had grown too smashing, issues that were both solved by the constant flowing 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 acquirement 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-bodied to develop anything for fighting enemy up close."

"We'll workplace on that. swearword, Beth, can either of you use magic ?"

"I can't,"said Oath.

"I can create pee, but not in any kind of tone-beginning. I use it to fill up my water skin."

"Good, we'll definitely need that in the dungeon. You're still using your bow as your master weapon system, right ?"

"Yeah, and I got poison for my arrows 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 care to the drop of her speech.

"What about close-range ? Any weapons ?"

"I use a knife."

"Good. Trevor, you can set off magic trick 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 information on the dissimilar subdivision of conjuring trick in this world, and Trevor appeared to be in the warrior class, just like the goblin chief. Warriors could only actuate their attainment with specific weapons, which depended on the individual. He wasn't exaggerating when he said the halberd was all he could use. He couldn't set off his conjuration with any other weapon.

"We're here,"said swearing. He then stopped in his tracks."On s mentation, I think we should plough back."

Noah looked ahead. On the woodland floor, he could see a turgid magic circle, consisting of runes and associate shapes. Standing in the rope was a hold the size of a minivan. However, its body was faint, translucent, like it was just a hologram, but with each passing moment, its color deepened.

‘ Is it teleporting ? No, it's curing. 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 even hob. We should get out of here before it attacks. This is a piffling bit out of our league."

"No, it's perfect. We'll wait for it to land up spawning and then take it on. For all we know, the dungeon could have far worse monsters."

"All right, then let's take shaping,"said Oath.

"Wait for it to attack us. Taking your time in setting up a kindling squad while it spawns won't give often experience or information."

It took only a min for the bear to fully materialize, immediately spotting Noah and the group and labeling them as opposition without any kind of hesitancy or muddiness. It released a roar of fury and charged, signaling the start of the engagement. Noah kept his distance while the group spread out, surrounding the bear. Beth nocked a poison arrow in her bow and shot the bear in the neck. It turned to her and snarled, about to lather out with its pincer, but Oath attacked from the English and slashed at its shoulder with his blade. The beast's hide was tough, and Noah couldn't William Tell if the attack had actually done any damage. Enraged, the bear knocked swearing aside. Like Noah, he was wearing leather armor, and while it stopped the bear's pincer from reaching his flesh, the armour itself was nearly destroyed by that one swipe.

"expletive !"Mira cried out.

Trevor stabbed the bear in the second joint with his halberd, and while he drew a roaring of pain from the beast, it hadn't forgotten the arrow in its cervix and attacked Beth. It was faster than she expected and it knocked her to the dry land, 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 back talk splashing on her face with its massive fangs inching closer and closer.

"guillotine jive !"

Trevor swung his halberd like he was splitting wood, and the axe blade, glowing with legerdemain power, dug deep into the bear's back, though it missed the spine.

"earth Surge !"

Having gathered her mana, Mira struck the primer coat with her staff. The surrounding soil, not gripped by the tree diagram root word, was gathered together and slammed into the bear like a mudslide, knocking it off Beth. The bear was behind to get back on its feet, as its strength was fading with each lost drop of bloodline and the poison was taking its bell. Regardless, it still could shell the skulls of the feeble mankind with a single swing of its mighty paw.

curse was back on his feet and charged with a shout of finding and his sword raised high. Seeing him glide path, the bear reared back on its hind leg, and despite his dynamism just moments ago, the pot of the towering beast robbed Oath of his courageousness. He was paralyzed with fear and the bear swung at him. inherent aptitude saved his life, the instinct to provoke his sword and stymy the attack, though the force still slammed him into the ground. An arrow was buried in the bear's dresser before it could aggress again, managing to thrust a lung, and Trevor stabbed it in the stomach.

The bear fell back and rolled onto its peg, roaring in Fury but then breaking down into a fit of bloody coughing. Beth fired a third pointer, striking the shoulder joint, which Trevor then cleaved with his halberd. As this was going on, Mira rushed over to oath's incline and helped pull him out of harm's way. With Trevor and Beth continuing to roar on the beast, its life sentence was soon extinguished. Its monolithic body collapsed and Oath and his ally released their held breath.

Noah, who had been observing, got up from the tree dais that had been his seat and approached, and while everyone patched themselves up, he severed the bear's spine with his blade to relieve oneself certain 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 wasn't the biggest challenge. Your disorganization was."Noah took out his tongue and began carving into the bear to hit its hide. He looked only at his body of work, but he continued to have words them."You surrounded it on all sides, which, while good when facing something smaller and prone to run, left Beth and Mira defenseless. Don't split up like that unless it's something that each one of you can physically handle. Beth, look at all the meter that you spent pinned. That was all time you could have spent firing pointer had you and Mira kept your space. Though speechmaking of pointer, your aim was very effective, both that shot to the neck and to the chest. But from now on, the two of you should hang back while Oath and Trevor fend the enemy off.

cuss, when you first attacked, what were you aiming for ?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to impose some damage."

"You should give gone for the header. With a monster of that sizing, did you think a flesh wound or muscle legal injury would kill it ? Unless they're well protected, you should always aim for the vital post. Swing at the capitulum, stab at the pectus. Sami with you, Trevor. When you attacked its back, were you aiming for its spinal column ?"He didn't respond."I'll take that as a no. Take aim with your onset, and not just at openings in your opponent's guard. You should try studying anatomy, flesh out where the most vital stage are. You went at the belly, that was smart. It's soft and surd to protect, but you stabbed too low. You should have gone higher, towards the liver, or at least the stomach.

Mira, you did well in getting cuss out of peril. However, you waited too long to cast your enchantment. I see that you developed a new magic spell, and while it did carry off to get the bear off Beth, it was a larger-scale spell not suited to the forest. I remember you once told me you can create a junk cloud and send rocks flying ? You should deliver stuck with that. A bit of dust could have blinded the bear and maybe even hindered its sensory faculty of smell, and a rock or even hard-packed scandal can inflict plenty of pain when striking the head or the crotch.

And Oath, you know what I'm going to say, don't you ? You choked, and your mistake put the lives of your Friend in risk. It was inherent aptitude that saved your life. You need to score these kinds of decisions faster. Before we head to the dungeon Phthirius pubis, we'll have to amend that. Now, all of you give me a hired hand. This bear is going to facilitate fund our preparations."

Everyone joined in, helping to take out the endure's hide as integral as potential. When it was done, Noah placed his hand on the hide and tried to varnish it in his ringing. The sweetening jewel had doubled the carrying capacity of the gang, but the skin was so toilsome that the ring was refusing to take it. He'd have to remove some things first.

Noah held out his hired man and closed his fingers around an invisible grip. A steel appeared in his suitcase, the sword that he had taken from the hobgoblin. He had even found the sheath that went with it, something that the regular hobgoblin wouldn't have been chic enough to deal. It was much larger than his broadsword, and he had assumed its size might be useful against a large foe. expletive, who knew both the real identity and power of Noah's gang and what it was known for, was exempt from the voices of amazement the others made. Even Trevor was shocked by the huge blade appearing out of thin air.

"swearing, where did you get your sword ?"

"Uh… it was my grandfather's."curse stuttered, feeling an automatic gumption of peril by being queried by individual who had just revealed a sword.

"May I ?"Noah held out his hand and swearing reluctantly handed it over. Noah looked it over. He was an experienced blacksmith once, a week-long eruditeness course of instruction at a metalwork school that turned into a career, though while his retentivity were a bit fuzzy, he could still recognize the craftsmanship put in. However, his focus wasn't on the actual calibre of the metal, but the length of the grip. It was a by-blow blade, otherwise known as a hand-and-a-half, which could be held with either one helping hand or two.

"It's full. And your Father of the Church said you grew up working the battlefield, right ? Lots of plowing and clearing tree ?"

"Yes, that's right."

"I want you to try using this goblin sword for a while. Swinging a hoe or an axe require leverage, purchase that your grandfather's sword can't give you with the duration of its handle. Your manus are too finish together and it's throwing off your center of attention of gravity when you hold it. This declamatory steel will allow you keep your deal farther apart and put up a more than exchangeable motion."

He handed both swords to curse word, but he only took his grandfather's sword."I can't accept that. That's your trophy for killing the monster."

"You're just renting it from me. Besides, if this venture works out, I'll be copious enough to buy an even better sword."

"As you wish, then."He wasn't fully convinced, but he took the steel and hung it across his back.

"Ok, let's interchange our scheme a trivial. We'll take the shaping of a W, with Oath in the middle, me and Trevor at the sides, and Beth and Mira in the back."

It would give sodding if they could fight another sledgepaw bear and compare strategy, but considering its rarity, it would probably be a long prison term before it respawned. They set off instead to find more monsters, not having to hike recollective before coming across a pack of Wolf. They took shaping and stared the beasts down, all armed and ready to fight.

"Beth and Mira, you two are our main form of attack. 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.

Arrows began flying past Oath's right side and rocks and pieces of wad worldly concern were flying past his left. The Hugo Wolf were caught off sentry go and various were left stunned or injured. A wildcat standing directly in front of Oath managed to debar the onslaught and leaped towards him. Oath swung his sword, nearly losing his remainder and falling over. However, though the weight was much greater than any hoe or axe he had used, it wasn't the crusade. It was the relief he felt, the swing now more reminiscent of a familiar motion, and he was able to use muscular tissue computer storage to call out greater strength and skill. The ease robbed him of his tenseness like he had removed weights from his articulatio humeri, causing him to stumble. The brand carved through the airborne wolf like a bombination saw, nearly slicing it in two.

At the same fourth dimension, the wolves that were still on their feet scattered to try and flank the group. Two ran towards Trevor, and the start, attacking from above, ended up getting impaled on the spear tip of his halberd. The back tried to close in, using the death of the first as a distraction, but Trevor swung his halberd down and buried the axe blade in the Hugo Wolf's back.

On the other slope, three charged towards Noah. The first of all pounced, sending Noah dodging to the side and then beheading it with a downwards swing. He spun around, thrusting into the indorse wolf's chest as it pounced from above. The tertiary tried to snipe from his blind spot, but drew his short blade and cleaved its skull open.

All that was left were the masher stunned by the opening attack, but they had been dispatched with Beth's arrows. The only battle had taken a handful of seconds, causing Oath and his Quaker to all exchange 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 hide and collected all other valuable trunk function, then continued their journey. There was still heap of prison term before they'd have to set up bivouac, so they wanted to get as much hunting done as they could. As they traveled through the woodland, the light of fervor filled them. Now that the young explorer had improved their strategy, they wanted to see how else they might get stronger, and what this new boost would countenance them to do. They were hiking through a hilly area, sticking only to the two-dimensional ground for the saki of their Equus caballus. It was when they were traveling along a floodplain that Noah stopped them, his eyes glued onto the nearby hill and a boastfully fallen tree.

"Look over there. See the flat coat where the dirt and leaves have been disturbed ? Goblins probably laid a trap and are hiding behind that log. Mira, can you set in motion one of your trance to try and smoke them out ?"

"It's a little far, but I'll try."She stabbed the ground with her staff."Earth Bind !"

Like a cleft splitting ice, a visible line ran through the Earth's surface of the ground over the area behind the log. There was the audio of shrieks and several goblin scurried out from their hideaway, with one caught within the pit jaws of Mira's spell.

"Beth,"Noah said.

Beth perked up and took aim with her bow, managing to snipe one of the sprinkle goblins. From behind the trees around the log, more hob appeared, howling like scalawag. They charged town the mound, a dozen of them, with two hanging back with their own prow.

"Beth, take out the Sagittarius. Mira, try to funnel them so that they don't flank us. oath, if Sir Thomas More than one goblin attacks you at once, don't do another downward slash. It'll leave you open. Trevor, don't let the momentum of your swings take you out of position."

No one questioned him, and as Beth waged a long-distance commutation with the archers up the pitcher's mound, Mira created pits and brand of world that burst up along the flank of the hobgoblin horde. They swarmed for Noah, Oath, and Trevor. The fastest goblin reached Trevor and dropped a cabaret towards his nous. Trevor swung his halberd, and while the blade failed to take up the goblin, it did get caught on the handle, hurling it towards Oath, who dispatched it with a cleave. He then swung his steel from the slope like Trevor had done, catching two goblins in the temples and slicing off the top of their skulls.

At the end, Noah was stabbing and slashing any hobgoblin that came near. He overpowered them whenever they tried to block and every swing of his sword sent profligate splattering across the nearby Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. A goblin arrow planted itself in his stomach, nearly sending him tumbling to the primer coat. His leather armor had slowed it down a bit, so it didn't reach his organs, but as someone who had been shot legion times, getting hit with the splintery goblin arrow hurt a lot more than near bullets.

"Mira, I'm hit. I need a dust cloud !"

"R-right !"

She stuttered momentarily, but regained her composure and sent all of the dry soil around the goblin airborne, blinding them and leaving them coughing. He only had a yoke instant, so Noah ripped out the pointer with a hiss of pain and spurt of profligate and poured a healing potion on the wound. As his form stitched back together, the goblins managed to clear their center of the detritus and resumed their charge, but just like before, Noah mowed them down. The fight was over in less than a min. Once again, oath and his protagonist exchanged coup d'oeil of excitement.

A few battles later, the setting sun put an end to their search for the day, and they set up camp between a clustering of big trees for protective cover from ogre and wind. They built up a fire in the centerfield and cooked essence from the slain bear. They hadn't packed any solid food with them, so they could only eat what they collected. dinner party was eaten mostly in silence. Noah was new to the group and they hadn't gotten used to him yet, so the others couldn't immediately talk of the town at their usual conversational depth.

Between bites, Noah took out a canteen replete of pee and added some pine needles from his pocket. Metal bottles were more expensive than glass bottles and water tegument, so everyone noticed when he set it next to the fire.

"You're making tea with pine acerate leaf ?"Mira asked.

"pine tree needles assist ward off scurvy even better than lemons."

"Really ? Where'd you hear that ?"

"Just something I picked up."

"Where can I find fault up interesting stuff like that ?"Beth complained."Where did you learn to fight down monsters ?"

Noah thought back through all of the fantasy novels and role-playing game he had enjoyed over the years."That ? That was just intuition."It would be best to change over the conversation away from himself.

"What are you going to do after the dungeon crab ?"she then asked.

"That doubt seems like bad chance, don't you think ? They say that when men plan, God laughs. What about you ? You get to suit a noble if you capture a keep. You could be set for living. swearing is going to inherit his father's form of address. Are you also aiming for nobility ?"

"I'm going to keep traveling and exploring,"said Beth.

"I just want to ca-ca plenty money to make up down and go a house,"Mira added.

curse's time to come had already been laid out, so succeeding it was supposed to be Trevor, but he didn't show any interest in even acknowledging the motion.

"I have no interest in becoming a stately,"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 have to do with anything ? You're old enough now that you can set out on your own. You've found your endowment with that blade. hold back being an explorer. Do whatever you want to do."

"Isn't my father paying you to make sure I become a noble ?"

"I fully expect you to turn a Lord, even if I have to tie the form of address around your wrists. I just want to make up sure you have a unattackable reason so that you won't choke up. So, go on, tell us the real reason."There was an awkward secretiveness, during which Noah carefully retrieved his canteen, which had come to a simmer."Unless, of course, you already gave us the real cause. Your father wants this, and you want to make him happy."

"Is that really such a unknown desire ?"

"You want him to finally deal you like he did your brothers. You want reconciliation, to make everything right so that all the days of neglect can be made up for, that it was all worth it."

"For mortal judging, you sound like you have experience."

"No, I was the opposite. My dad was like yours. He thought a parent's love had to be earned and wouldn't assume failure. If I wasn't the beneficial, then I wasn't his son. Unfortunately, I didn't care, and I told him that. I told him that his approval meant nothing to me. I never had any aim of making him proud."In actuality, he had several founding father who followed that mind-set. It was a personality type that made an appearance every now and then.

"What happened ?"Beth asked.

"Oh, he hit me, several 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 biography in a wheelchair.'“ I left domicile and became an adventurer."He took a tiresome sip of his tea."You have to figure out your own reason for doing affair, your own cause for bread and butter. 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 estimation or a belief that is deliquium and fragile, it'll fall apart in your hired man and you'll have nothing."

The inner circle went tacit, everyone staring into the flame rather than take the risk of making eye touch with someone else. Beth, no longer eating, hugged her knee joint to her dresser."My father was actually an explorer. He taught me how to scud a bow and always told me of his escapade. Sometimes he'd disappear for weeks at a fourth dimension, but he would always total base late and night, when I was asleep. We had a game where he would veil under my bed, just before dawn, and went I'd step onto my flooring, he'd snap my articulatio talocruralis and make believe to be whatever devil he had just fought. It made me a easy sleeper, because I'd always try to find out him slip in and take in him."

"I wish I knew my father,"said Mira, trying to restrain the conversation going.

Like before, it became Trevor's turn, but he still showed no pastime in participating. They then realized that he had already fallen asleep.

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

They set out at cockcrow the succeeding break of the day to continue hunting, while making their way back to town. Just like the day before, their new formation proved unstoppable against the monsters of the forest, and they found themselves carrying so practically loot that it was draining their stamen faster than the battles. They had to take sponsor stops, and as common, Noah would use that time to gather worthful plants.

At live, they broke out of the concealment of the woodland, now trekking across ploughland with the village not far off. Despite their fatigue, their feel were highschool. The sun was setting and their trip had been both productive and informative"I think we should just go straight to the dungeon Phthirius pubis tomorrow,"said Oath."We're already firm enough."

"Not yet,"said Noah."We've built a formation, now I want to improve your abilities."

"So more search ?"Beth asked.

"No, training and utilization to increase physical strong suit and mana reserves. All of our loot from this tripper is going to fund it."

Upon arriving to town, they first stopped off at the local tannery to betray off the pelt. The owner of the shop, a tightfitting man who struggled to turn a decent beard, Luke, met them as they entered his computer memory. As one might have a bun in the oven, tanneries weren't known for their pleasant fragrance. It smelled like a wet dog that had just fed on roadkill. The air had moved beyond dim-witted stench and now had its own taste, a very gamey flavor. It annoyed Noah every clip he stopped by.

"Mr. Noah, I haven't seen you lately. And the Loretta Young master, 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 wolf and former pelt were stacked on the counter, with the death, belonging to the sledgepaw bear, having to be laid out on the floor like a rug.

"A sledgepaw ? And in such good circumstance ! This is definitely a rare breakthrough !"

"We fought it as soon as it finished spawning,"said oath."That's as fresh as it gets."

Luke bent down and examined the skin, paying close attention to injury created during the battle."And there doesn't appear to be too much damage… I can give you two gold coins for everything."

"Two and half ?"Noah asked.

"Two, that's my limit. This matter has some big slash in it."

"Fine."

The commutation 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 weapons to the blacksmith, and anything else that they had managed to collect, though their final examination stay was the apothecary, and rather than selling, Noah was buying. oath and the others stood back and watched as he ordered armfuls of different plants for sales event with the old woman 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 call it a day. Tomorrow morning, we'll meet back up at the power's home and commence training. I'll use these industrial plant to welt up mint of potions."

The group split up, with curse and Trevor heading off their various menage, Beth and Mira returning to the inn, and Noah running a few More errands. Night fell, and like the cleaning woman, Noah made his way to the inn. It was bustling as usual, but the table that Noah sat at was restrained. He ate dinner quickly and went up to his room. By candle flame, he ground up the plant he had bought and mixed them together. He had a long lean of potions and pecker to give for this dungeon adventure, so even his nights would be busy. An time of day after he started, he heard a knock at the door. He answered with his knife in hired hand but out of sight, as was innate. He opened the door to see Beth standing there, a smile on her face that was coy, nervous, excited, and embarrassed, all mixed together.

"I wanted to tell you again how dingy I am to pick up that about Tin. But just because she's gone, that doesn't stand for your nights have to be lonely. I want to experience the legend that everyone in town has been talking about."

An honest grin, rare for Noah, crossed his face. However, it was more in entertainment than lust."That seems like something that would really get us some bad luck later, considering the whole dungeon crab thing."

"What ?"

"nil. As a lot as I would like to say yes, it would be best if we both went straight person for bed, considering the training I have planned. Plus, I still have a lot of potions to make."

Her spirits were deflated, but she wasn't ready to fall in up."Are you sure as shooting I can't vary your creative thinker ?"

"I'm sure. But if you still have strength 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 training I have in mind will consist of hanker sessions of musculus grooming and then magic training in a physically exhausted state, replenishing strength with potions, and repeating the process."Noah addressed curse word and his admirer in forepart of the big businessman's mansion. By his side were a large sack full of red and blue potions, as well as some early concoctions."It's a combination of two workout turn I've created."

Mira looked away for a moment, pondering something. She then perked up in shock."That's what was happening with you and Tin at the inn !"

swearing, Beth, and even Trevor looked at her, taking a minute to process what she had said, and then swerving their eyes back to Noah like a car drifting around a corner. Oath had forgotten that little fact, and Trevor, resigned to bearing a silent grudge, was remembering those rumors he had heard and finally feeling a bit of respect towards Noah.

Noah let a belittled laugh relief valve."Yeah, that's right. My hypothesis is that mana end product is a combination of physical and religious vim. When your spiritual mana can't go on up with the demand, your physical mana picks up the slack, but it means your flavor gets only portion of the benefits of training. Therefore, the best way to school your intent's charge per unit of output and source size is to either do so after you have just depleted all of your stamina, or during battle, when you are using up both, though I believe the latter is less efficient. Tin was assisting me with the expenditure of strong-arm energy."

"All aurora ? !"

"I have a lot of stamen, which is the consequence of the other exercise routine. Over a long full point of meter, I've mastered several different form of exercise and refined them to point muscleman growth in a particular way. mass and other large brute have three sort of muscleman : red muscle, which is muscularity that is great for stamina and running ; white-hot muscleman, which is muscle for physical might and explosive force ; and knock muscle, which is a combination of both. My routine focuses on producing pink muscle. Unfortunately, sex isn't the practice act, God, though I wish it was.

Oath, I saw you struggling to filch your new steel, but making perfect slashes every meter. Because of all the time you've spent swinging a hoe or an axe, neither of which is very heavy, you have a lot of red sinew, which lets you go for a long time up to a certain limit.

Trevor, I noticed your movements decline dissolute than Oath, despite expending a like amount of free energy. Your stabs and separatrix, while initially quite powerful, made a steady decline. You have too much White heftiness, which lets you carry More than swearword, but not as far."

To Oath, it made sense. He had yet to see Noah truly fatigued, not after clearing the hobgoblin den or even when they returned to the settlement the previous day. At the same sentence, he was able to slice through goliath and carry their remains with great strength. The others had noticed it as well, another category in which he outclassed them.

"postponement a second, if that was your"extra mana training"you were doing with Tin, then that means you can use magic,"said Beth."You told us you couldn't."

"I wasn't sure I could trust you when we first met. I was willing to separate you how to make yourselves hard, but not how to arrive at 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 time to come. The sooner your enemy knows about your strengths, the Oklahoman they know about your weaknesses. When meeting new masses, conceal your abilities until the last import, because that import might be a battle. However, since you followed me on that hunting trip and are willing to undergo my physical exercise number, I believe that it's only honest to lay my cards on the table."

He covered his eye and disappeared, drawing shouts of surprise from everyone.

"Noah ? !"curse exclaimed, looking around for him.

Noah released the magic trick and they all yelped again."I can make myself invisible. When I first unlocked this ability, I could only do it for a few seconds at a fourth dimension. After a month of training, I could do it for more than five minutes."He'd keep his second magical spell secret, as well as the true continuance he could hold in the both of them for. His reliance in them was still in its infancy.

"I've never seen or even heard of a deception like that before. Maybe some kind of holy place go ?"Mira muttered.

Her Word took away a lot of his restiveness. He still knew so piffling about the magic in this domain, there was no telling how common major power like his might be. For all he knew, this lie might take a leak him reckon silly. However, if Mira had never heard of it, there was a chance that it was rarified enough to not be considered usual knowledge.

Noah retrieved some feeding bottle full of a green liquid and tossed one to swearing and each of his friends."crapulence that, it's a niggling something I whipped up from the plant life I bought yesterday, along with some honey. It'll gift you a little spare push. These succeeding few solar day are going to be exhausting."

.

.

.

Forging Strength

.

.

.

Pained gasps.

A feminine whimper.

"Oh God !"

Beth collapsed, fighting for every breath with Noah standing over her, the two of them drenched in sweat.

"Come on, get up,"he said.

"I can't do anymore !"

"You know what comes next."

She looked at him with eyes full of hatred."You're a goliath,"she hissed.

A clear, sweetie flow was produced, arching onto the ground with a splash.

"Oh, she broke her record !"said Oath.

"I wish my mana would uprise that fast !"Mira complained.

The water spurting from Beth's fingertip trickled to a arrest. She rolled onto her back, feeling like the hard road underneath her was now as soft as the king's mattress. It was the second day of Noah's training, midmorning, and he was running laps with oath and his protagonist around the fault estate of the realm. Since yesterday, this what they had been doing with nigh of their time, running almost nonstop. It was Noah's convention that they had to run until they collapsed or nearly threw up, and then immediately cast charming until their mana was completely depleted. oath was exempt, but only because he had no aptitude for magic.

Noah crouched down and fed Beth a watered-down healing potion, just something to doctor her stamen a bit. While she recovered, cuss, Mira, and Trevor sucked in air. This was the only time out they got, when mortal collapsed.

"I'm starvation, can we eat lunch now ?"Trevor asked.

"I can't even think of food,"Oath groaned.

They all complained throughout the whole trial by ordeal, but in truth, no one had yet given up and refused to go any further. Despite their anguish, they didn't spring in. It wasn't to try out their decision, rather it was the simpleton fact that Noah's methods were producing final result. Just the day before, at the Lapplander time, if Beth cast her spell, it would have just been a few drop-off falling from her finger's breadth, less of a outflow and more of a leaky faucet. Also, everyone's stamina was increasing noticeably. Thanks to the health potions, they could do workweek of daily usage and recovery in a issue of hours, compressing the rate of improvement so it was much to a greater extent obvious.

"Yeah, I'd say so. I'm on my close ramification too."

cuss and the others groaned in relief 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 mechanism with their weapons in hand, and in metre, he'd incorporate weights to organise them for carrying the dungeon crab's hoarded wealth. There was a field nearby, but they didn't attention and squatted down right in the center of the road to eat. It was on the top executive's estate, so there wasn't the headache of dealings.

They each carried lunch made by the maids and were chowing down like rapacious animals. Even Noah was giving in to his hungriness and stuffing his nerve. But as he ate, his eyes swept over everyone in the group. This workout was definitely intense, shredding muscularity and then immediately repairing them. In this caseful, the antidote was defective than the poison, according to the town apothecary. He had spoken to her the morning after he returned to Clive while on his way to pick up his ring.

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

"using potions for workout ? It would be a good idea if it wasn't such a bad estimation,"the old woman said. As always, she stared Noah down, looking at him through the dope of her pipe.

"I can't imagine I'm the first soul to think of using them this way. What I want to know is if there are any dangerous effects. You always have them in blood, so getting the ingredients isn't an issue."

She took a mysterious inhale and released a large smoke cloud."There is a downside."

"Am I going to have to pay you to feel out what it is ?"

"In a surge, are you ? Yes, it's always masses like you using this method. Mana and wellness potions, as well as all early concoctions used by adventurer, may appear like bottled miracles, but they are a double-edged sword. If overexposed, the body can bury how to repair and restore itself. If a wound is repeatedly inflicted on one spot and healed with potions, eventually the body will suffer the ability to restore that spot on its own. Cuts will bleed ceaselessly, broken castanets will get like rock 'n' roll, and organs will eventually close down. The burden are even worse if the potion is consumed, rather than poured, as it spreads throughout the body."

"How long before major damage is inflicted ?"

"If used for day-to-day employment, potions will lead to death within two calendar week. Lesser legal injury depends on the user."

"And what about mana potions ?"

"Mana potions stunt the developing of thaumaturgy. The more often they are used, the harder it will be to create and determine new spells."

Noah thought back to his"grooming days"with Tin. He had performed them every other day and with watered-down potions, multiplying his reserves countless times and giving him an boundary, but there was no telling how a good deal it had hindered him in the prospicient run.

"And of course you decided to hold back until now to tell me, despite all of the potions I've been buying for the cobbler's last month."

"Are you expecting an apology ?"

"No, I just have something I want you to bet at and I would prefer some honesty."

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

ternion days, that's how long Noah was will to use the potion method. That would hopefully leave them with plenty time for the side-effects to bear off before they entered a dungeon. So far, everyone's strong-arm stamina was continuing to rise, but if he saw them plateau or even reverse, he'd cut them off, cold dud. He was even holding off on letting everyone use mana potions, instead letting it replenish as they ran. He didn't want to push back the date of their departure if he could avoid it. If anyone got a wound, he made sure to watch closely, to make sure their origin was clotting.

"All right, let's head teacher back. We're doing the same modus operandi as yesterday."Everyone groaned and cleaned up their mess, but before they could fall to the manor, Noah stopped them."postponement on, we're doing lunges."

"Please, not again !"Mira complained.

"You'll thank me later."

With their weapon system in hired man, everyone began doing hanker steps, stretching out one leg and leaning down with their other genu almost touching the ground, and they had to hold on a fast rate. It was sweaty, painful work.

"This is so embarrassing, we look pathetic,"Trevor muttered. He seemed to bed complaining, but since Noah beat him in a fight, he was keeping his Christian Bible about following directions."It's not like where going to be running like this through the donjon crab."

"No, but it'll build up your strength and stamina. The most important strong-arm plus in combat is leg strength."

"wait, really ? Even for sword fight ?"swearing asked.

"Really. If you support your trunk with a solidness foundation, you can crusade while staying on your feet longer. It doesn't matter how hard you can fox a punch or swing a sword if your legs just buckle as soon as you meet resistance. Think of it as like trying to fight back while standing on slippery ice vs solid ground."

Just like before, Noah pushed them to the point of collapse. Normally, this variety of reckless training would be frowned upon, but they needed to stress and deplumate their muscles to the rank limit, mend them with potions to pass water them even warm, and repeat, with mana depletions after every collapse.

There was no rest for them when they returned to the manor. Under Noah's teaching, Oath and the others began stretching and lifting varying weights in assorted ways. To the slave working the field, it looked like a basic exercise, but Noah scrutinized every trend, from the form their arm took when lifting a heavy endocarp, to the exact angle of their hips when they twisted their bodies. Every movement had to be unadulterated, so that all the stress went to specific muscles. Had he the agency, he would go even further, focusing on someone heftiness threads.

In a way, Noah was grateful that this opportunity came along. Being an adventurer kept him active voice and fit, but it didn't build strength in the same way as this workout, and coming to this macrocosm had scrambled his routine. He had to use this opportunity to properly polish his figure. 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 centre of the afternoon, Noah had them move on to the next phase of their preparation. curse word, Trevor, and Mira stood side by face, all of them gasping for air and cursing in torture as sweat poured down their faces. For Oath and Trevor, the workout was simple, though far from well-off. They held out their weapons as far as they could and observe their weapons system raised for as long as possible. They had to hold on doing it until they collapsed and they couldn't finger their weapon system, at which dot, they'd take a health potion and pop out again.

"Ah, dammit !"swearword cursed as he dropped to his knees.

"roll in the hay, you're weakly,"said Trevor.

"For once in your sprightliness, just shut up !"Mira hissed, unable to maintain her usual civilized personality.

Her training was like to theirs, only using conjuration. Before her floated a lump of earth as prominent as a beer keg. malicious gossip from a bald patch underneath continuously floated up and added itself to the great deal. For her training, she had to maximise the amount of earth she could lift, as well as the length, and level of compaction. She'd rotate it in the air to keep it from becoming lopsided, but every metre it moved, she struggled to retain control.

Noah told her she had to be capable to turn dirt into self-coloured rock in seconds, as well as train her body to grow mana faster.

Nearby, Beth was sparring with Noah. She held a sheathe knife in her hand and was swinging and stabbing at him with reckless hysteria. Despite her efforts, he'd block and deflect her attempt away from his body, using various fighting styles he had learned across the multiverse. As soon as she paused her onrush, he'd attack, forcing her to deepen her innate reflex for dodging.

Finally, when the sun set, Noah said the magic discussion."Let's call it a day."

On cue, everyone collapsed. Even Trevor abandoned his yob guy bravado and simply went limp.

"I think I might be dying,"Mira moaned, go around eagle on the ground and staring up at the sky.

"I'm too tired to eat and too hungry to catch some Z's,"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 bound, beyond the detail that potions could replenish. Now they needed food and sleep.

"I should probably head back to the inn while they're still serving dinner,"said Noah.

"You guys can feature dinner here,"swearword said.

"Why didn't you say that yesterday ?"

"Sorry, but after a day like that, I couldn't spend another minute thinking about training and the dungeon crab."

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

The board was old and unvarnished, hand-carved with roughly sanded board, though metre had helped to soften its edge and the low-quality table cloth hid its airfoil. On it, candles burned to illuminate the way, which smelled like the baked Fish Noah and the others were eating, along with bread and some vegetables. In the Bodoni font world, not even soup kitchens would serve food of this destitute horizontal surface, but after a month in these new body politic, Noah had managed to calibrate his perceptiveness buds.

It was only the five youths present. The king was not taking part. As with lunch, everyone ate voraciously, their consistency begging for sustenance to try and take a shit up for the fat they had burned. It was surprising that Mira actually noticed swearing had stopped eating, staring had his half-finished dinner.

"cuss ? Is something faulty ?"

"No, I'm just trying to remember the last fourth dimension I sat at this mesa with this many people."

‘ Oh my god, that is so corny,'Noah thought, drinking from his meth so as to not founder his heterosexual person face.

"You're going to make me nauseated,"Trevor muttered. Noah resisted the desire to thank him.

"What were your brothers like ?"Beth asked.

"My oldest, Colt, was a soldier, serving under General Tarnas against the barbarians in Handent."

"He really served under Tarnas ? !"Beth exclaimed, bolting to her feet.

"Is that a adept or bad matter ?"Noah asked.

"Adwith Tarnas is one of the state's expectant heroes, and easily the substantial paladin,"said Mira, trying to hide her overplus with a grin."Most children are raised on his stories, and for as long as I've known Beth, she's been a huge fan."

Beth sat back down, a wino smile on her face."When I was young, he and some of his violence passed through my town. Watching him ride down the street, wearing gilt armor… I was no foresighted an free child. I had awakened my womanly desires."

"You never heard of him ? What rock have you been living under ?"Trevor asked.

"A large one. Tell me about the war, I'm curious."

"Oh, well, according to my buddy, it started when the boor began ransacking settlement along the border, eventually leading to the noted slaying of senior high school priest Grybaen by boss Waer. After that…"

The conversation had taken a strange turn, but Noah absorbed every detail while making his plans for the futurity. That night, 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 persuasiveness to featherbed her curiosity.

The third day of preparation was just like the two before, including the same routine, but now with weightiness added. However, the consumption of potions had dropped in every activity. The growing they had gone through over just a few days would hold normally taken calendar week or even months. In the late 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 attempt and his recuperation 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 exertion. He had also given Trevor the challenge of writing out the letters of the alphabet in the air with the spear tip, to enhance his accuracy. Beth and Mira had switched billet, now with Beth straining her magic trick and Mira staff-fighting with Noah. Unlike Mira and Trevor, Beth's patch couldn't be used for fighting and she appeared to be reaching the boundary of her magical aptitude, but creating freshly water was something they'd need if they spent More than a day in the dungeon.

On the fourthly day, Noah met everyone at the baron's land as he normally would. He held out a backpack full of potions."Today, I want you all to see if you can play along the routine on your own. Until we enter the dungeon crab, I am completely banning the use of all potions."

"That's screwball !"Beth exclaimed, with the others similarly nervous.

"If you can't do the day's workout without potions, then you simply aren't ready for the dungeon Crab, and the longer we wait, the Thomas More contest will take in. I don't want to reach the bottom of the shell and get all of the avenium already taken."He put the backpack down and put on a crown with all of its air hole filled with rocks."Come on, time to start up running."

The workout proceeded as planned, but with no less complaining. Now without potions, they could only collect their lastingness during breaks, but the number of times they had to stop and repose was as Noah predicted. On the fifth day, Noah faced them with the sunrise sun burning away the mists clinging to the business leader's estate. For curse word and his friends, this was the last day of grooming and they all felt positive. They weren't blind to their own development. They now stood with bodies covered in exercising weight, prepare for Noah to dedicate the signal to startle their morning run.

"Since today is the last day, we're going to do something different. Trevor, I want you to hit the soil with a downwardly strike and your impregnable spell."

"What for ?"

"Just trust me. Pour as much mana as you can into the axeblade and make it a shot."

Trevor grunted and held out his halberd, and from the bit he began channeling his mana, everyone noticed the dispute. These past several twenty-four hour period, whenever he, Beth, and Mira practiced with their magic, it was always in a state of debilitation, forcing their dead body to coerce out every last drop curtain of power. This was the for the first time meter in Day that Trevor was using a spell while at full strength. What would have been a shimmering aura around the blade was now like a corking colorless flame, causing his friends to instinctively step back.

"Whoa,"Trevor said, unable to clean any other words. He held his halberd with trembling handles, feeling like it was a rabid animate being in his grip. He raised it above his head like a blinding torch."Execute !"Apparently, saying the public figure of the spell helped focus the nous and increase the potency of the turn. To Noah, it seemed a bit ridiculous, but it did nominate thing a bit more entertaining.

As per the figure, he swung down with the halberd like he was performing a beheading, and the minute the blade touched the land, it was like a mortar unit of ammunition had gone off. A chest-thumping explosion was heard and filth and rock were sent flying in all steering. Originally, what would have simply buried his arm in the dirt, had now opened up a crater the size of a bathing tub. Just as incredible, the volume of the mana flowing from the halberd had not lessened in the slightest, nor did Trevor come along fatigued.

Everyone was stunned, with Noah flashing a rare smile."Mira, your results would probably be like if I asked to use your secure spell. Now that you have all this mana to cultivate with, think of it as a imagination for experiment. I don't sleep together how the two of you develop thaumaturgy, whether you just produce new spells yourselves or learn by watching others, but I want you to pay yourselves to improving your acquisition. show up me something new. Today, we're forgetting about persuasiveness and stamen and focusing entirely on technique.

Beth, I want you to pattern your archery until your fingers bleed and you can buck the fender 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 teat, chilled by the evening, pointed out and suck arcs in the air. Just bit ago, she had been riding so vigorously, having to dispose her clothes when she began to overheat. It had been a battle for her to keep her moans contained, especially with her rose hip refusing to obey her program line and slow up her bouncing.

She now took a entitle pace, rolling her hip from incline to side while she regained her enduringness. Her jolly face was one of poisoning, her intellect overtaken by lust and endorphins. Her smile was lewd, her face flushed, her mouth wet, her pupils dilated. Noah could see the fresh sweat on her body with the light of the night sky. What was just supposed to be a prompt tryst to scratch the ol'itch had turned into something a little more intense.

Sitting up, Noah kissed her breasts and grabbed her ass, kneading it like sugar. Beth had a nice athletic figure, not a good deal fat on her, but the ass of a volleyball instrumentalist. Noah's lip on her mammilla, his manhood stirring her up, and his workforce massaging cryptic into her muscleman, these stimulant combined into a military force that Beth was struggling to stand firm. They were out in the woods, so Beth's moans could pull devil, or even worse, the spike of her Quaker.

Mira knew about them, so cuss and Trevor were probably cognizant as well, but still, it would be a bit rude make them learn the speech sound of moan and physique against flesh. That was Beth's thinking, but Noah didn't attention either way. His only fearfulness was getting stuck in an awkward conversation with everyone because of this. That, and the fact that he and Beth were breaking the prescript of every horror movie and having sex in the woods. The flag they were raising could have been visible from space.

Beth's strength gave out, a last coming draining her and leaving her body limp. Noah was forced to lower to her to the ground, but she didn't object to him continuing to shove until he had a flood tide of his own.

"Come on, we should get back to the camp,"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 summer camp, where their lad adventurers were alive 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 make it awfully laborious to sleep. I thought some wildcat were tearing apart a goblin out there,"said Trevor. In retaliation, Beth kicked him while circling the campfire to get through her spot.

"Watch it !"he shot back.

Noah took his own pip and stoked the fire."sufficiency. Everyone, get some remainder. We're going to need our strength for tomorrow."They were lupus erythematosus than half a day's hike to the dungeon crab.

"None of us can slumber. We're too spooky about tomorrow,"curse word said.

"It'll be fine. In twenty eld, you'll ask your minor ‘ did I ever tell you about the clock time I conquered a dungeon crab ?'And they'll groan and say, ‘ yes, father, a hundred times. We're sick of hearing about it.'”

"Are you going to do anything with the soil ?"Beth asked."Change any laws ?"

"No. Clive is perfect the way it is, and I don't want to change anything."

"You're letting a prosperous opportunity trip by,"said Noah.

"What do you entail ?"

"I assume that as long as the kingdom gets its taxis, it won't care about how things change, so you might as well try some things. Think of the town as the place to do social experiments."

"What's a societal experiment ?"Trevor asked.

"It's when you put people in a certain location with certain conditions and see how they react. You can see how human nature plays out. Let's say that as a baron… you introduced a new vacation, just to see how that affects revenue."

"That sounds really wrong,"Mira muttered.

"It's a way to determine about people. In the center of town, put up a statue with a planetary house saying not to adjoin, that the paint is wet. Then you can see how many hoi polloi are actually going to tint it."

"What is that supposed to do ?"oath asked.

"How many people are in Clive, a hundred ? If one-half of them touch the statue, then you could take a crap the contention that one-half of the human slipstream is dumb enough to impact 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 urban center in another country, you'll probably find that different act of multitude will touch the statue. Then you can get down to figuring out why. Why do unlike areas have unlike resolution ? Are the the great unwashed simply dumber ? Is it a literacy trouble ? Is there a polish of rebellion to authority ?

There was once an ancient city named Rome, which had a massive Oliver Stone battle arena called the amphitheatre. It was so massive, that the Saturnia pavonia put the minds of his best architects into figuring out how to contrive it so that the watcher could easily get in and out, otherwise, they'd start a orgy. You get a bunch of hoi polloi together in close proximity, one of two different thing may happen, sometimes even both at the same time. The first is that people will desire to retire into themselves. They'll want to create personal outer space, establish a circumference, draw that line in the backbone that no one can cross. If someone crosses that line, they may get frightful, they may get violent ; no matter how minuscule it is, it produces a negative reaction.

The former is to surrender to the will of the radical. If everyone around you is saying something, you'll assume it's right and recur it, because you want to believe in the group, you want to believe you're right. You want to believe that you're in the presence of the great unwashed who know what they are doing. If you're in a mob where someone is shouting for the death of the top executive and everyone cheer, part of you will naturally agree.

mortal losing their temper will start a scrap, that battle will spread and trigger Sir Thomas More fights, and suddenly the hospital attendant masses that were simply trying to leave the amphitheatre are sweeping through Rome, having abandoned all thought of politeness and now simply destroying everything in their way."

"That could never happen,"said Beth, as if Noah had just uttered a child's nonsense.

"I've seen it happen plenty of clip. Once you give the rule that escape is not available, that candle offset burning, and it burns quick."

"I don't know. I think the great unwashed are near at heart,"said Mira."They don't just go unbalanced like that."

"Then you could prove it. Let's say you could produce any kind of social experiment, completely costless reverberation, like a aspiration. What would you do ?"

"How am I supposed to know ?"

"The eternal rest of you ? Just think ‘ I wonder how many hoi polloi would ( blank ) if I ( dummy ) ?'Or ‘ what would find if I put ( blank ) and ( lacuna ) together ?'Literally whatever you wanted to know, or simply just see."Everyone looked up into the distance, trying to work on the challenge."Think about it. It'll help you fall asleep."

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

A solid thump woke swearword up, a sword striking the ground just inches from his face. He instinctively shouted in terror and tried to scurry back, realizing it was Noah's sword and he was standing over him. His friends, light sleepers in an domain this unsafe, woke up in a flash and got to their groundwork with their arm raised, confused and alarmed by the plenty of Noah in the predawn luminousness. Was this an assassination attempt ? However, they looked down and spotted Noah's real target area. It was some kind of insectoid creature, a stubby centipede with a bellied shell. It was the size of a squirrel, with frightening pincers.

"What the hell is that matter ? !"Mira exclaimed.

"It's one of the parasites from inside the donjon Cancer. I did as a good deal enquiry as I could on the dungeon crab whenever I had the time."

looking at at Mira and Beth, he could see them shuddering in revulsion.

"You mean to distinguish me that there are more of those affair in that pubic louse ?"

"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 crab. Now let's eat some breakfast and get a move on."

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

It was a misprint mountain of upturned earthly concern and shattered fundamental principle, the result of the keep crab rising up from the planet's freshness and jutting out the tip of its shell. At the very summit was the entrance, but the mountain was no indication of just how large the actual crab was. Before they could go down, they'd have to climb up.

"Look up there, I think I see a tent."

Noah scanned where Beth was pointing and confirmed."soul must have set up ingroup there before heading in."

"There are pack all over the muckle. There must be a lot of people in there,"said Mira.

"Most of them have probably been killed by now. Those camp are abandoned,"said Trevor.

"Trevor !"

Despite Mira's anger, Noah agreed with Trevor. The finisher he looked, the more collapsible shelter 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 practically gem as they can, and probably couldn't carry anything extra when they came out. We'll be in the same post when we come back."

"delay, I see people too,"said Beth.

She was right, there were plenty of adventurer roaming the mountain.

"They must be scavenging for precious stone and precious metals. When the crab appears, it probably pushes up more than just gemstone and dirt."

"If you can get gold from sifting through the crap, then why pain in the ass going into the donjon ?"Mira asked.

"They're after whatever they can get their workforce on, unlike us. We're after avenium, and it can only be found inside."

They put their fears aside and began climbing up the slope of the great deal. There were no established paths and the ground was difficult, to say the least. The dirt had settled since it was first moved by the arrival of the crab, but there were no works to hold it all together, so it was like hiking up the position of a guts dune in many areas. They also had to be wary of the big stone clump integrate 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 ribbon was skinned by the crystal-like bite.

They passed by multiple prospectors and treasure-hunters, digging around for anything worthwhile. No one paid them any attention, and they offered none in regaining. However, that changed when they heard the sounds of fighting. Nearby, they saw a bearded man fighting off one of the dungeon parasites that had wandered outside. It was a four-legged crustacean, the size of it of a wolf. It swung its lowering forelimbs like clubs and tried to force the man onto his back.

"Noah, we need to help him,"said Mira.

"Keeping him active isn't my job. Besides, any specialty you use against that one behemoth will be strength you can't use in the shell."

"Then believe this a field test !"Mira held out her staff."Shatter Mace !"

piece of Lucy Stone and packed turd flowed to the end of her staff, joining together into a hardened sphere, the size of a hoops and covered in sharp protrusions. She left the group and ran over to where the man was fighting, with her artillery not hindering her movement at all. Rather than physical strength, she was holding the firmament 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 pickax. Sneaking up behind it, Mira raised her staff and brought it down onto the monster's back, unleashing the replete weight unit of the rock 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 point. A calendar week ago, such a project would have been impossible for her, but under Noah's tutorship, both her skills in magic and physical combat had been multiplied several times over.

"Thanks,"the man grumbled before dusting himself off and walking away.

She returned to the mathematical group, where Beth was clapping for her."fountainhead done !"

Noah, however, clasped his hand on her shoulder."Don't do that again."There was very piffling anger in his voice, but still, she shrunk away."The same goes for the respite of you. We're not here to play hero, we're not here to salvage living. We're here to take money and conquer the dungeon. Our strength, our tending, our weapons, our potions, they are reserved only for our own use and our own welfare. If you save someone, it had better be to use them as a coterie mule or a meat buckler. Understood ?"Everyone nodded."Good, then let's move on."

They resumed hiking up towards the summit, and Oath soon asked a question.

"Noah, you researched keep crabs, right ? Did you recognize that behemoth ?"

"Yes, it was one of the sponger mentioned in the Good Book your father had."

"Do you know what else we'll regain ?"

"Unfortunately, no, there was actually very small written information about the dungeon crabs and what exists within their casing. Those who remain in the upper fortune and survive parcel their data, but those who delve deep enough to reach the avenium either die or keep it a secret."

"Wait, why is it a secluded ?"Trevor asked.

"If I had to think, I'd say it's because the nation's nobleness doesn't want hoi polloi knowing how to link up their rank. In this crabby person are the Key to the realm, after all. Too many Cy Young upstarts could break the balance of power between the plentiful and the poor, or they could mould sect that get in the way of the higher-ranked Lord. Some data gets out, of course, from those who manage to lam with their biography but don't conquer the dungeon, or from other countries, but I imagine that the lonesome adventurers who are really informed are those already working for high-level nobles."

A monstrous hiss ended the conversation, as up ahead, a new threat revealed itself. It stood on a twosome of sinewy peg, like a vulturous bird, but it had a modest body and no neck, only a forward-placed skull that resembled an gator. It was a duet of snapping jaws on human foot, that was all it could be described as, and it was glaring at Noah and the group. It had the luxuriously ground, and after emitting another hiss, various more appear, from both above and the sides.

"A pack-type sponger, interesting,"Noah said as he drew his sword."Get ready, everyone, the fighting starts early."

They took organization, with curse in front and Noah and Trevor guarding the flanks, while Beth and Mira attacked from a space. The monsters closed in all at once, leaping through the air while flashing the talons on their groundwork 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 blades like mist condensing into ice. The floating leaf blade pierced three of the animate being before they could bring, two more were wounded, and the rest had their assiduity broken and failed to swoop properly. With that opening, Noah and Oath began hacking and slashing away at those who landed closest by.

"Earth Bind !"

Mira stabbed the ground, and beneath the wounded creature, pits opened up to unsay them whole, then were closed with earthen capitulum like cage bars. It wouldn't maintain them long, but it kept them out of the fight. Not only could Mira now unmistakable the while multiple times from one cast, but the basis proved perfect for its use. Those who had avoided Trevor's charm and Noah and swearing's sword 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 River ones were slain, the wounded were put out of their misery.

"trade good, well done,"said Noah.

Normally they would then harvest the monsters for worthful opus, but the market for dungeon crab sponge was too recess to be worth the effort. Besides, they wanted to save as a great deal room for treasure as they could.

They continued their raise, and after a couple more freak battles, they reached the summit at midday. There, sticking out of the soil was the tip of the crabmeat's cuticle, like a light house on a rocky cliff. Noah could see the curl of the shell, and before them, the opening, a room access tumid enough for an elephant to walk through. Noah reached out and touched the shell, made of pith somehow strong enough to withstand the heat and pressure of the world's interior.

In the month since Noah's arrival to this world, he had seen plenty of things that shocked and baffled him, from magic to giant, but just the sight of the entryway blew him away. To suppose that such a creature like this could survive, that something so massive occupied this reality. It blurred the common sense accumulated from More than a hundred lifetimes. Where did these things come from ? Were they made by thaumaturgy ? Perhaps by some variety of god ? How old was this one ? Was it reasoning ? What was its life cycles/second ?

"I never thought I'd ever see something like this,"said Oath, similarly amazed.

Everyone in the group was staring at the flannel 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.

"Look at this eyeshot,"said Beth.

Without any trees to block their sight, the good deal tiptop let them see for miles in all directions.

"I think I can see the village !"said Trevor.

"Let's break here for lunch, gather some of our strength, and then head inside."

They all sat down and Noah pulled solid food and water system skins out of his mob. He had enough food and weewee to feed them all for several daylight, and thanks to Beth's magic, they could refill their mobile canteen whenever needed. However, everyone carried two sidereal day of rations, just in shell they got separated. Their lunch consisted of dry fish and fruits, as well as some bread, something light to keep them moving. Up atop the mountain, there was a nice snap, and the vista was spectacular.

"Noah, remember what you were saying last night about social experiment ?"Beth asked."If I could try one, I'd want to see what happens when you put only women together and tax them with building a companionship. What would Clive look like if it had only women ?"

"A female-only club ? Yeah, that would certainly be interesting. Ok, paint a picture for me. What do you expect would bechance ?"

"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 point. For instance, there are role in social club that are typically considered manly, and others that are considered womanly. If simply women perform the manly labor, then what will commute ? Will the nature of the task variety, or will the char change ? Will the women who spend all day hunting, blacksmithing, and all those early Job start acting rough and crass like men ?

You're an venturer. You spend your days hunting, fighting, scavenging, getting down and colly. But you also take yourself quite girlish, correctly ? But how do you think a girl who spends her days weaving and taking care of children sees you ? will a divide form ? The type A personalities arguing with the Type B ?"

"character A personalities ?"

"Never mind. swearing, you got an idea for an experiment ?"

cuss took a deep breathing space."Something like what Beth was talking about, but it's men and fair sex, and all of them have lost their memories."

"Oh, that's the soundly one. The total erasure of polish and starting from dent. If you completely remove nurture from the equation, then you can truly see how nature manifests. Will men and women follow paths considered normal by society ? Will they adopt the same roles that their ancestors have ? Or will they do everything new ?"

Everyone watched as he started putting affair away. He didn't need to say anything, they knew it was time to take the plunge.

.

.

.

The gauntlet

.

.

.

Once they had finished feeding, they packed up their things and entered the shell, with Noah taking the atomic number 82 and holding a torch. Because of the shell's twist, they had to come a whorled passage, like a staircase but without actual stairs. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the passage were perfectly smooth, but there were no uncoiled lines of any sort. It was like wandering through a constrict canon carved by flashfloods. Most of the floor was covered in malicious gossip and collapse Edward Durell Stone, perhaps seeping in from the opening of the shell. 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 earthy, like a mineshaft or a quarry, but he could also smell the biologic theme song of the leech. The air seemed ticket to breathe and the blowlamp didn't appear to have got any issue electrocution. Was all that oxygen from the exterior ? How long could the oxygen last if the crab went back below the Earth's surface ? How long did the dungeon pubic louse live tube before surfacing ? Either the crab and its leech could function in an oxygen-poor environment, or something within the crab could produce a human-friendly atmosphere.

They had descended fifty substructure when the showtime branching appeared, another burrow branching off from the staircase.

"We're going to keep going down, right ?"Oath asked.

"Yeah, whatever transition leads us down, we'll direct it."

One of the bipedal parasites burst from the branching tunnel, aiming for Noah. He stepped to the side to duck, drew his short-change sword, and stabbed the beast through the acantha when it landed.

The deeper they delved, the more branching burrow they came across, but they continued their descent, until reaching a prominent chamber at the bottom of the stairway, with five tunnels spread out. The staircase had been just wide enough for two people to walk shoulder-to-shoulder, but these tunnels were like metro air. There were mansion of explorer coming through here, marking the tunnels to try and keep trail of which paths they had taken. There were also some rip splatters, rupture dress, and a ruin sword.

"What's that, hanging from the ceiling ?"oath asked.

Above their heads, gooey threads dangled like icicles, and at the nucleotide of each, a modest chunk of light.

"Cave insect. Their consistence are bioluminescent, attracting target, which get caught in their threads like wanderer WWW. This is a trade good matter. We won't need this."Noah extinguished the torch and stored it in his mob."Ok, let's split up up. We can cover more ground that way."

"hold, WHAT ? !"everyone exclaimed.

It was the hardest Noah laughed since coming to this world."Relax, I'm just kidding. Can you imagine ? Let's lease this path over here. It looks like it continues to slope."

They took the right-most route, advance descending into the dungeon crab, and soon stopped at the entrance of a branch chamber, hearing movement within. They stayed against the wall so as to avoid drawing the care of whatever was inside. Noah signaled the others with his hand and cast his invisibility, then stepped into the doorway. The sight before him was a grotesque, a pile of maggots, each the size of a football, feasting upon the stiff of some slain dangerous undertaking. Their fat bodies quivered as they peeled physical body from ivory. The walls were honeycombed to house the creatures between repast, and three adult were standing guard.

The guards were microbe of some sort, consisting of four legs surrounding a head and torso that were conflate together with wings between the legs. The legs were armor-plated and sharp, and their downward-pointing face had teeth like an angler fish. They looked almost like winged bar can. Noah drew his sword and killed one of the fauna without it ever realizing it was there. Seeing their familiar spontaneously die, nearly being sliced in half in the appendage, the other two began to panic and search for the unseeable aggressor. He killed them almost as easily as he had killed the first.

"Clear,"Noah said as he released his spell.

He reappeared, just as cuss and the others entered the room, immediately broadcasting their horror at the cadaver being fed on. Noah knocked the batch of bodies over, and kicked away the maggots so that he could get down poking around with his sword.

"Don't loot them !"Oath said in disgust.

"Why ? Because we didn't kill them ? We're adventurers, we thrive on the destruction of others, be they human beings or monsters. Meh, cipher great."He was able to compile a few weapons and arrow, but that was it.

"Hey, something's coming !"Trevor shouted. They ran out into the hall, hearing the sound of wingbeats. Further down the burrow, several more four-legged bugs were flying towards them, having likely detected the expiry of their brother."Phalanx fishgig !"he then cast.

He blocked the passage with an raiment of mana blades and Beth began firing pointer, but the armor plating on the monster's legs proved unassailable and they smashed their way through. Oath took down one, but a second tackled him from the side, tearing into him with its teeth and claws. Noah killed it before it could visit more price, then fended off the others with well-placed stabs. Trevor had also been tackled and knocked onto his book binding, with Beth and Mira working together to pry the beast off.

Noah was still on his feet, so the colossus were heading towards him. He put away his longsword and instead switched to his poor sword. The firstly bug that tried to harness him was met with his shield and then a sudden thrust. He repeated the scheme, breaking the foeman'inertia by blocking with his carapace and then stabbing while they were disoriented.

The battle had ended and healing potions were used where needed. This certainly was an occupy surroundings for battle. nigh of the monsters seen so far had hard outer shells, something Noah and his group had piddling experience in dealing with. Their group focused on attacking rather than endurance, as they were always fighting beast that were as vulnerable as themselves. Aside from Noah's shield, the group didn't have much in way of Department of Defense outside of lite armor—and a warm offense, of course.

They continued on deeper, passing by innumerous forking burrow and eventually coming to another fork. Once more, their ears stopped them from proceeding, as they heard social movement down one of the tunnel, and soon saw it as well. It was a flood of centipedes, just like the one that had tried to kill Oath that morning.

"Holy mother fucker !"Mira shrieked, something very out of character for her.

"Come on, this way !"

Noah ran down one of the passages with the others following, but so too did the centipedes. It seemed they were intimate with the odor of citizenry and now hungered for Noah's chemical group. He slowed his tread, letting the others get past him, then untied a bag hanging from his belt and scattered its powdery depicted object across the level. It was lye, the beneficial he could produce 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 curl in pain. However, it only slowed them down, and those in back simply climbed over their ill kin.

They kept running, though more monsters were bursting out of the tunnels ahead. Noah and Oath took them out to the easily of their abilities, trying to at least disable them with one gash. Those not slain retreated immediately as the chemical group passed by, not wanting to go the target of the centipedes behind them.

"There's a way ahead !"said Trevor.

"Mira, wait until we reach that way, and if I give a sign, use your Earth Surge magic spell,"said Noah.

They entered the chamber, though sorrow filled them immediately. A new, colossal danger awaited them. It was a louse, coiled like a hissing cobra, with a body more than ten understructure wide and long as a football game field. Its flesh was approximate, like living Isidor Feinstein Stone, and it was covered in infinite minor feet. Towering over them in this arena-like sleeping room, it stared without centre and roared from a mouth that was simply a pit of teeth.

The mountain of the lusus naturae shocked everyone into a stunned silence, like swearword when standing before that bear, but not even Noah could correct them, for he too was momentarily crippled by veneration. The fraction of second between two musical rhythm of his bosom seemed like it would last forever, but that next thump shook him from his stupor, letting him collect his cerebration and began working on a plan.

"Mira, do it now ! Beth, shoot some arrows into that thing's mouth or anything else that looks mild ! Oath, you and I will be the decoy. 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 face the oncoming wave of monsters, and counted with a wave of her own. She cast her turn upon the earthen ground, taking control of all of the rock candy and shit and unleashing it on the centipedes like a mudslide. While that was going on, Beth was firing arrows at the dirt ball's sassing, striking its exposed build but only doing enough damage to piss it off.

It turned its care on Oath and Noah, running at it from its left and right side. It lunged at them both, aiming to eat Noah and swat cuss with its tail. Noah made himself invisible and dodged the worm's mouth when it lost racecourse of him, and Oath blocked the onset with a vacillation of his sword, breaking into the ogre's skin. As they had distracted it, Trevor could now let loose his charged thaumaturgy. Both the spear blade and the axe nous of his halberd were glowing with a radiant violent storm of mana, and runes spun around the beam. He charged towards the worm's coiled physical structure, released a roaring of fury, and brought down his brand like a divine smite.

"Voulge Slash !"

It was a compounding of his stabbing and cleaving spells, and while the motion were the same as just a normal swing, it inflicted impairment differently in the form of a gash. It had less penetrating power than the other two, possibly failing to recrudesce the insect's rocky exterior, but it would do much greater wrong to the anatomy. His mana, having solidified around the point of his halberd, carved deep into the worm's physique, and as Trevor swung his weapon down, he left a deep cut on different section of is body. origin poured from the wound and the louse shrieked in agony.

"Let's go !"Noah shouted.

They ran off through another enactment, leaving behind the louse with the centipedes. They didn't plosive running, wanting to get as far away as potential. They kept maneuvering through the keep, fighting the monsters leaping out while they searched for a safe spot. It seemed like every time they slowed down or even paused, something would erupt out and undertake to take a chunk out of them. Finally, when they were gasping for air with their throats feeling as dry as sand, the grouping found a chamber with a modest opening and no monsters inside. They set their packs against the entry, hopefully to help retain the teras from detecting them. They all slumped down on the floor. Even Noah was feeling sick from the adrenaline.

"shtup ! This place is a death cakehole !"Trevor exclaimed as he poured a healing potion on a deeply puncture combat injury in his thigh, caused by something resembling a cycloptic tiger catching him with one of its gargantuan fangs.

"No wonder nobility is the prize for conquering one of these affair. You deserve to be a damn king if you can make it this position,"Beth panted. Despite fighting from the book binding, she was covered in monster blood.

"Guys, I got ta William Tell you, I'm not for sure we're ready for this place. It's too soon,"said Oath.

"Don't say that. We're alive, aren't we ? We managed to get through it and find a plaza to take a breather. Not too long ago, we would induce died before even reaching the keep. 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 situation.

After dying so many times, death was no longer something Noah feared. It was to be avoided, but with about the Lapplander amount of money of campaign used to avoid dying in a video game. He still possessed the survival instinct in some fashion, but he could no longer properly appreciate the majuscule risk of infection of dying in a given spot. He was no to a greater extent afraid of hired gun that he was a coffee table's sharp corner. But what he felt when he saw the worm was true awe, when he realized that not only was the worm the most probably reason of his death in that room, but that it was a death he wanted to obviate Sir Thomas More than any other. That look of awe, after so long, it was as though some of his soul's thirst was clenched.

"Noah ?"she asked once more than, hearing him chuckle.

He shook himself back from his thoughts."Sorry, I was just thinking about this place."

"And ?"

"A snail."

"What ?"

"The book at the baron's home, it had a scene of a keep crab. It might have just been a conjecture at what it looked like, but it was of a goliath troglodyte pubic louse. However, hermit crabs don't create their own plate. Snails do. hermit Phthirius pubis just take 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 gargantuan crab and snails living within the earth, what else is down there ?"

"And how does that help us ?"

"It'll take your mind of things. We'll be fine, we can get through this. Had we tried this a hebdomad ago, none of you would still be here, but you've all grow stronger."

"So what should we do ?"Oath asked.

"Exactly what we've been doing. Just ascertain our footfall, ask it one challenge at a clock time, and keep back our regular recurrence steady. Besides, I'd say there is plenty of incentive to perplex around."

Everyone glanced around the chamber and gasped when they realized the dry land was gleaming like a starry sky. It was tough to tell under the blue light of the glow worms, but it was bits of metal and gems mixed into the dirt.

"Our first score !"Beth exclaimed.

They began collecting the glimmering pieces and cleaning off the undesirable dirt and rock. near of it was raw and diluted, so excess sediments had to be scraped, hammered, and rubbed off, and even then, there was no telling how often gold or silver was collected until it could all be properly melted down. Despite the find, Noah couldn't deny his disappointment. When he had heard about these dungeon and the hoarded wealth within them, his intimate nerd had been imagining something more along the strain of an actual treasure breast. That insect back there could be considered a mini-boss, after all.

With their life lifted, they left the prophylactic of the chamber to continue their descent.

"Trevor, you take pointedness,"said Noah.

"What ?"

"I mean you're in front, in the center quad. oath will now be opposite from me, where you once were. In these narrow tunnels, we don't need to worry about an opposition circling around to Beth and Mira, so it would be best to put your foresightful reach directly in the figurehead. If we enter a lawless space, we might switch back."

Trevor stepped forward and led the grouping, and not long after they departed, they faced off against a pair of the four-legged devil like the one that Mira killed outside. Now in the center, Trevor warded them off with his halberd.

"cuss, with me. Trevor, don't let them stand over us,"said Noah.

He and Oath stepped forward, keeping just out of range of mountains of Trevor's halberd with Oath delivering a mighty cleave. His sword cracked into the monster's shell and struck its brain, though the lesion was shallower than oath expected. Nearby, Noah was fending off vacillation and stabs of the beast's jagged forelimbs, but when an opening came, he hacked one of them off and then squeeze his sword into the monster's face.

"These shells might be worth something."

tongue in hand, they carved the top shield off, each one the size of a tug shield. They were hard plenty to stop Oath's cleave and rather get off, so there was the good fortune they'd be worth something to an armor dealer.

They proceeded onwards, fighting their way through wave after waving of the shell's indweller. They survived each encounter, but not without shedding stemma. They kept their oculus peeled, not just for monsters, but for glimmering of treasure. They searched every room, finding gold, silver, and gems of all dissimilar coloration. They also found plenty of signs of human body process, though rarely any bodies, Lapp with the monsters, and the absolutely ends were a constant annoyance.

"Wait, hold up."

"What is it ?"Trevor asked.

"This section of the hall, we should avoid it. reckon at it."The adjacent hundred feet of the burrow had a different body than the rest period. It was a fleshy, perforated Earth's surface, like a dish sponge."Something like that is probably some sort of trap. We need to backtrack."

"It looks fine. It probably means we're getting close to the can of the shell."

"It very well could be, but it's also too shady to risk. We're going back."

But as they turned around, they heard screams and outcry and little terror, and from the way they just came, another adventuring company appeared, a group of respective adult men with low-quality leather armor.

"It's coming ! It's fast !"one of them screamed.

"Run ! You have to get out of here !"another shouted when he spotted Noah and his group.

Mira stepped forward to try and stop them."waiting, you can't go this way !"

She was shoved aside like she had been struck like a charging bull, the man who did it knocking her in the Kuki with the handgrip of his axe to get her out of the way.

"Mira !"Beth exclaimed.

She and Oath rushed to her side, while nearby, the riot of fear became shrieking of nuisance. The men, having entered the hallway, now found themselves being assailed from all sides by flying stingers. They shot out of the holes in the rampart and cap 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 foot. Something is coming."

Mira was pouring blood from her mouthpiece and seemed excited. curse forced her to drink a health potion, but it wouldn't get her into fighting consideration soon enough. The freak the men had feared arrived, some kind of hulking cross between a hoary bear and a komodo Draco. Its back was covered in thick scurf and its underside didn't seem very weak either. It stood on its hind legs, exposing its lifelessly claws, and released a roar from between two run-in of shark-like teeth.

Beth, standing behind expletive and Trevor, shot it in the belly with an pointer, though the wound was shoal, and it would take time for the poison to kick in. Regardless, it took the subject matter and dropped back down onto all quaternary and charged.

"Mountain rail-splitter !"Trevor cast.

He thrust at the oncoming behemoth, aiming for its psyche with the blade alight with mana. The beast managed to void a deadly accidental injury, instead staking the blow in the articulatio humeri. Its scurf were like boneheaded rock and just as operose, so while Trevor reached the tissue underneath, most of the get-up-and-go was deflected. Getting past the halberd, it slashed Trevor across the breast, sheering through his armor and knocking him against the paries. Noah took out a lye turkey and struck the beast in the grimace, blinding it and making it stagger back.

"Beth, save Trevor. Oath, get over here !"

Noah didn't collapse it any chance to recover and lunged for the freak, slashing and stabbing at any pip that looked soft. He focused on the hurt shoulder, but the creature was guarding it well, and despite being blinded, it was swinging its claws with deadly truth, and even Noah ended up with some mysterious undercut across his thigh. curse came out from behind Noah and brought down his brand on the behemoth's head, doing some slender concussive damage.

"I'll distract it."Noah cast his invisibility and charged at the giant while drawing a length of midst chain from within his ring. He wrapped it around the monster's neck and jumped onto its spinal column. He pulled with his full free weight, forcing it to rear back on its hind ramification so that Oath could slash it across the stomach and expose its internal organs

"terra firma Surge !"Mira cast as he got out of the way.

Since curse word had created a way in, Mira bombarded the demon with a bang of dirt and rock, aiming for the laceration. It fell on its book binding, too wounded to stay fighting, and Noah finished it off.

"Good. What is everyone's condition ?"

"Unhurt, but tired,"said Oath.

"I'm out of mana and I can barely fend,"Mira whined.

"Trevor looks ok, but I think we should stop for the night. I'm starving,"Beth said.

"Yeah, it's probably night by now. We'll call it a day."

They searched around, finding a room for them to bivouac out in. They made a door out of monster cuticle and barricaded it with their grip. There were no glow insect in this elbow room, so Noah lit his torch.

"Let's eat quick and get some slumber. I'll take inaugural watch."

After a uneasy 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 notice that the corps were gone, same with the panoplied teras that had given them so practically fuss before."Interesting."

"What ? Something just came along and took the eubstance. What's the big deal ?"Trevor asked.

"This hallway probably kills whatever enters it with those ear. Only something heavily armored like that bear-thing could have gotten to them, but there are no drag sign, no footprint. Maybe one of those giant star hemipterous insect flew in and pulled them out without being detected, but I'd say it's more belike that they were eaten by something former than just a parasite."

"You mean the crab ?"asked Beth."How ?"

"I'm not sure, but I'd like to figure it when I have the chance. Let's go."

They set out, continuing their geographic expedition. The monster attack was relentless, a undulation emerging every match of proceedings, each one pushing the adventurers beyond their limits, both from the numeral and the posture they carried. Everyone received hurt, even Noah. While his invisibleness granted him a margin of damage compared to the others, stealth did little against such vast effect. There was simply not enough room to dodge or retreat. They were running through their reserves of potions faster than Noah had anticipated, but not beyond his planning, and he still had enough to make the full slip.

He assumed they had reached the body of the creature, or at to the lowest degree were no longer in the untenanted portion. More overweight corridors were appearing, to the highest degree of them containing some sort of biological cakehole like the spikes from before. Wherever this deepest part of the shell was, it had to be closemouthed by. Besides, there was also good deal of incentive to take the jeopardy. While they did a lot of traveling, much of their sentence was spent tuck hoarded wealth. Their pack and pockets were getting heavy with precious gems and ores, and even Noah was dumping stuff out of his ring to make room.

That weight was currently a hindrance, though, as they found themselves running from another wave of centipedes. The consistence of the corridor had also changed, where they were now passing through a chain of 30x30ft rooms, each one with a thick bowl-like floor.

"Whoa ! stopover !"Noah shouted.

Everyone halted at the entry to the side by side room, blocked behind his blazon. The floor of the chamber was waist-deep with dingy H2O, or at least, they hoped it was water. By now, they had all become a bit paranoid towards the monsters, as well as picked up some of their conjuring trick. There could be untold animate being lurking in that water, ready to grab them and trail them under, perhaps injecting them with poison with needle teeth or biting cut. But the centipedes were closing in fasting, and there wasn't enough metre to backtrack to a branch passage.

Noah summoned some food from his ring and sprinkled it across the surface of the piddle, and the next few consequence passed by with agonizing anticipation, but zippo came up to prey, which was honest enough for them. Not without grimacing, they stepped down into the slops and waded across. The next way had a pool of water like the first, and the next after that, and the third, and it was taking their toll. Despite all of the running game they had done, there was only so much that stamen could do in this variety of workout. However, as he moved through the fifth part, Noah noticed something.

It was a layer of gross oil floating on the water's Earth's surface. He looked back, seeing the centipedes pursuing them, even swimming like scum bag. Noah and the others got out, but he turned back with a Flint River and tongue. This was something he wanted to forfend doing in this oxygen-low environment, especially since he was now soaked in oil, but he struck the Flint River against his knife and spent off a spray of electric discharge that set the pocket billiards ablaze, filling the chamber with a rampart of fire.

He rejoined the others, passing through respective more rooms and taking multiple act, but they finally had to quit and becharm their breather and gasped in relief that they were no longer being pursued. Even Noah needed rest, so no one said anything and they all just leaned against their knees, sucking in air with their faces over the surface of the water.

Noah stood up straight, and as he breathed in, the ground disappeared from under everyone's feet. Some kind of organic ambush threshold had opened up beneath them, and the pond of dark water became a hollering whirlpool. Standing in the core of the room, Noah and Beth dropped helplessly, disappearing down a vast throat. Trevor, Oath, and Mira were saved by the peel of their teeth. Trevor's halberd and Mira's staff had gotten stuck, granting them something to catch onto. They were hanging over the entrance to the throat like a bottomless well of living, quivering stone.

Sensing the obstruction, the walls began to close in to try and reposition them. The three youths couldn't help but shout in holy terror as they struggled to climb up out of the throat. They were drenched in grease, struggling to hold 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 squish trading floor, forced to take a breath in and taste the swill. They reached the next room, but despite their exhaustion, they couldn't rest yet. They could get word them, the approaching centipedes, having gotten past the fire Noah started.

They forced themselves onto their metrical unit, barely able to stand, but once to a greater extent having to run. They were in a awful situation, but Noah and Beth were even worse off. They were forced down a pit of flesh, gasping for air and feel around for anything they could catch onto to stop themselves. To Noah, it ranked as one of the weirdest here and now in his full multi-life history. They were soon tossed out, dropping through open air before making a intemperately landing on what felt like a deal of firewood. It was pitch black, no cave worms around, and the mo Beth tried to take a breather in, her burning lungs cried out in a new torture. The air was toxic, she could taste it, and every breath damage. She coughed and wheezed, her font turning purple.

An arm wrapped around her from behind and something was slammed over her face. inherent aptitude made her throw her articulatio cubiti back in self-defence, but it failed to land a hit.

"It's me ! Just breathe !"Noah shouted.

It took effort, but she drew in a deep breath, and at final stage, it was discharge. She drank the trickle air in greedily, while the affair over her mouth was tied around her head. It felt like leather, and it smelled like… charcoal ? I really made her need to sneeze, but even the itchiest breath was worth it.

"Noah ?"

"I'm here, hold on."

There was a spark in the shadow and a torch was lit, Beth seeing the Sami twist attached to Noah's face.

"What is this ?"she asked.

"A gas mask, something I whipped up. I was worried about the air quality in the keep, though I'm not sure how much religion should be put in them. We should get out of here, quick."

Beth looked down and shrieked. The pugnacious surface they had fallen on was an island of pearl, and just twenty away, the shore of a moat of breadbasket 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 accept chastised her for losing her cheek, but considering the berth, he too was almost set up to snap."We're not short yet. Here, hold this."He handed her the torch and looked around. There was a segment of the island touching the paries, so the pane was frothing just under his feet.

He leaned over towards the wall and slashed at it with all of his military posture, but the sword simply slid off, throwing him off his balance and nearly sending him tumbling. He reformed his terms, this clock time attempting a stab. Once again, his sword, despite striking the flesh head on, simply bounced to the side of meat, and he fumbled. He tried again and again, but his caliber of its resilience was that it was beyond his level of metier. However, he wasn't out of idea yet.

Sheathing his steel, returned to the middle of the island, then began scooping up armloads of rot-slickened bones. He piled them against the rampart, then removed a tightly-bound sail package from his ring.

"What is that ?"Beth asked.

"spring me the torch."She handed it to him, and he touched a connected calamitous string to the flaming. It came alight, and he forced the package against the paries, pressed with his shield, and backed by the great deal of bones."Ok, back ! Back ! Back !"He coaxed her as far back as he could within the tum, then conjured up the devil shells they had collected before."duck's egg down behind this and try to compensate your ears !"

They got behind the shield-like shell, then an blowup blasted off on the other position of the room like it had been struck by lightning. Smoke filled the air, and deadly shrapnel sprayed their defenses. Beth released a scream from the massive cushion, but Noah held her still, and though the common mullein had gone out, there was now a hole in the side of the stomach, from which bioluminescent light was pouring in and stomach dose was pouring out.

They did their best to avoid getting splashed with acid and climbed out into a new chamber."That explosion will accept drawn goliath. We have to go."

"What about the others ?"

"They're bearing for the same shoes we are. We'll meet them there eventually. seminal fluid on."

She followed him through the internal ear, managing to keep off combat and happen a room where they could breathe. The air was dusty and disgusting down in these tunnels, but compared to the fumes of that stomach, Noah and Beth removed their masks and felt nothing but gratitude and ease with each breath.

"I… need to rest…"said Beth.

"Agreed, but I think it would be best if we cleaned off first."

Beth pointed her fingerbreadth at him."Make Water."

H2O began pouring from her fingertip with the loudness and intensity of a garden hose. Noah leaned into the atomiser, scrubbing off the filth and trying to get everything clean. Beth then took a bit, and they switched back and forth until they deemed themselves enough.

"I thought you could only use illusion to earn yourself inconspicuous. What was that back there ?"Beth asked as they both stripped off their soaking wearing apparel.

Noah, standing with his backrest to her, rung out his shirt."That was a dud, made of something called black powder."

Beth peeled over her trousers and the rough, unflattering textile that passed for unmentionable at this era."So it was alchemy ?"

"Sort of, there wasn't any magic involved. It's just a pulverization 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 while since I made one, plus I couldn't really try out 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 hooey like that ? You said you couldn't find information on the dungeon crabby person, but you knew to work these gas masks."

"It was a job I took before I came to Clive. I spent a few days working in a mine. Down there, they were using dim pulverisation to knock down aside Rock and they had to use these masks in font they hit a gas pocket."The answer seemed to placate her and he bowed down."Can you spray my head again ?"

.

.

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The narrative of expletive

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.

.

Oath, Trevor, and Mira fell to their custody and articulatio genus, close to passing out. They had finally managed to get by the centipedes and were now back in a normal corridor. Their military capability 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 find Noah and Beth,"said Oath,"we should—"

A solid state clenched fist striking his cheek both cut him off and sent him falling to the earth. His centre were rolling like billiard balls, but the sound of Mira's screaming forced him to focalize. Trevor had tackled her and drive a tongue into her chest.

"You son of a bitch !"curse word bolted to his feet and attacked Trevor, knocking him off Mira, who was choking on her own blood.

As they fell over into a storm of grappling and thrashing, Mira used what piddling forcefulness she had to think a health potion from her pocket and pour it on the wound. She passed out, stuck in a subspecies between bleeding to destruction and recovering in clip. Nearby, swearword and Trevor had gotten to their feet and were now hurling punches wildly.

"Trevor, what the underworld are you doing ? !"Oath shouted.

"Getting you out of my way !"Trevor yelled back.

He retreated, going after his halberd. Oath did the same, retrieving his sword and raising it just in time to block Trevor's thrusting. Despite his strength, Trevor was able to exert more continuous personnel, and the spear tip of the halberd pierced his shoulder. curse couldn't contain his cry of torture as he was pinned against the wall. It was a standstill, curse word 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 deliver to defeat her, but I couldn't risk of infection 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 bolt down you. It doesn't matter, I'll just tell the others the two of you were both killed by the Lapp freak, if they're even still alive."

curse struggled to contend with the steel in his shoulder, but it felt like the wound was just getting bigger and bigger."Why are you doing this ? !"

"I need you out of the way so that I can become the king. I wanted to do it after I got the avenium, but I couldn't let this opportunity mooring by."swearing was forced down towards the priming, leaving a lead of blood across the paries."You're the last of the main fault family, so once you and your Father die, I'll be next in furrow to receive the title."

"You're another appendage ? But my founder said the branch family had been slain !"

"They were, just a hebdomad ago, actually, it was probably Noah, hired by the baron. But he only thought to vote out my Church Father and my half-brother. He didn't think it Worth investigating further, to find out a bastard like me living in Clive. The Town will be mine, it should be mine !"

swearword reached around, grabbing a Stone on the ground. fortune was form 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 feet. He could barely find his result arm, and he could neither open a health potion nor properly swing his sword with only one hand. Should he overlook his sword and go for a wellness potion ? Abandon it and use his knife instead ?

Trevor, facing a interchangeable quandary, chose to call back his halberd and stare Oath down with his one good eye while launching stab. curse word did his right to sidestep the blows, as he didn't have the strength to do another shoving peer. He was losing ground, fast.

"So all this prison term, you were just waiting for a prospect to shoot down 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 Crab, it was perfect. I could use you to get the avenium, so no issue what, I'll still become a stately !"

Oath pulled away and reformed his stance, then went on the loathsome. His capacity for wielding a sword had greatly diminished, but still, he could fight down, and his wide swings forced Trevor to retreat. True, Trevor had the longer reach, but it was much easier for Oath's sword to wear out 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 escape this piazza on your own ?"

"That's a danger I'm uncoerced to pack. I want you to die down here, unburied, eaten, robbed of your minuscule crime syndicate interment plot behind your mansion."

"What could I have possibly done to seduce you hate me so much ?"

"I just plain don't like you, even before I knew you were the baron's son. I wanted to kick you out of the group. You're too light to rule these lands. You can't even use magic."

As Trevor spoke, his blade began to beam with mana, and Oath instinctively stepped back. His sword would likely snap if he tried to block or even avoid an attempt like that. This time, when the swings and stab came, he only dodged, not letting the two arm touch.

"All you do is let that arrogant whoreson take attention of everything and toss out order of magnitude. Clive would burn to the ground on the get-go day if you took over."

Oath swung his sword, just narrowly catching the halberd's prick and stopping Trevor long enough to close in. Trevor raised the halberd to block, but a cleave of Oath's sword snapped it, leaving a shallow cut across his os frontale and chest. He jumped back, now holding an axe in one hired man and a quarterstaff in the other,

"I can do plenty on my own, without Noah,"said Oath.

"Shut up and die,"Trevor jibe back before charging at him.

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

To Beth, it was horrifying, the greatness of the bedroom, for this high-minded cathedral to be just a small sac of this wretched maze. Noah, however, felt a spine-chilling fervour. This was no ordinary chamber, as not only was it as large as a football stadium, it had a bridge stretching across, perfectly flat, and a ceiling with great outward-bending arch holding it up. No, they were chains, each link the size of it of an SUV, and encrusted by the shell. So too were there dandy statues adorning the bulwark, a pantheon of minuscule fauna and great titans, all of them entombed by white, like fly ball in a spiderweb. The chamber was flooded, hence the bridgework, but not with pee. It was a lake of hydrargyrum, glistening from some spiritual world light force beneath its depths. The air above it was filled with fly-like hummingbirds, hanging their heads directly down and touching their beaks against the control surface as if fishing for something. The hummingbirds didn't seem aggressive, as they paid no poster to the two outsiders.

Noah and Beth crossed the bridge, staring in awe at the structures.

‘ This isn't a rude bodily 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 meter facing doubtfulness like these, for the mien of deception in this world created numberless hypothesis that he would never have seen in old worlds. Everything strange he ever encountered was either manmade or caused by nature, but the mien of magic added all new selection, instigating rarity. It could get been done by a whole other coinage, using mightiness beyond his discernment. It was a new way of cerebration, one that invigorated him.

They crossed the room without any conflict, entering a hall with normal-sized elbow room on either slope. In these chambers too, there were complex body part and shapes encased by the shell. Were they mass ? Furniture ?

"Interesting."

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

Oath and Trevor were locked in combat, struggling to forefend each other's attacks. Oath had broken Trevor's halberd in two, taking away his ability to use deception, but he still lunged and fight with the stiff, granting him two smaller arm. He would swing the head of his halberd like a hatchet, forcing Oath to block with his brand, and then use his gratuitous bridge player to strike expletive with the halberd's dig. The reverse were delivered at full-strength and cuss couldn't plosive speech sound them.

"You don't deserve to become the succeeding baron if this is the upright you can do. You must be the weakest of the family."

"Trevor, listen ! Do you really think you can get out of here without my help ? Stop this, and we can both walk out of this dungeon live ! You can still become a noble with the avenium !"

"That's not goodness enough. I want the estate that my male parent couldn't have, the authorization. I want to spit on his grave accent as the unwanted cocksucker and swank the power that he lusted after. I want Clive, and I want to rip it out of your hands. It's not in effect enough for me to win, you have to fall back !"

A memory then flashed through Oath's idea, and despite the dire billet, a chuckle let gaffe."I remember Noah saying that you were a saccade probably because of something to do with your father. I think he even said you would fail us. It must be embarrassing, to be sized up so easily and take in your true coloring material seen !"

"Shut up ! If he's still active, I'll putting to death him after I've killed you !"

Trevor charged at oath, and finally, cuss managed to save a wound of his own. He blocked Trevor's two-fold attack and pushed forward, his sword slicing Trevor's shoulder. Trevor dropped the broken shaft of light, his arm now slick with rake, though swearing was in the same state, no longer able to grip his steel with both hands. They stared each former down, picking the moment to attain. Trevor's come apart halberd was faint and shorter than Oath's sword, so it would be easier to wield, but he wouldn't be able to block well with it, so he'd have to center entirely on offense. For Oath, his justificatory situation was better, but while he could prompt his sword with one arm, his swiftness would blench compared to Trevor's and he'd be lucky to inflict much terms. His effective bet would be to obstruct and then try to overpower.

Looking at his cousin, Oath was reminded of that shot from the field, when that chemical group of men attacked him, Noah, and Tin. He had been utterly useless, just pulled into the woods while Noah took care of the threat with easiness. But in the calendar week since then, he had trained relentlessly, and now, he could finally defend himself and his bloodline, even against his own kin.

"This is your live probability, Trevor,"said Oath.

"No, this is—"A muddle opened up in Trevor's dresser with blood pouring out.

Noah appeared behind him, his sword seemingly materializing out of thin air and now wet with Albert Gore Jr.. The sword had gone straight through Trevor's pith, leaving both he and Oath stunned. Trevor tried to speak, but all that came out of his mouthpiece was blood. Noah dropped him to the trading floor, pulled out his sword, and then pierced the rachis of Trevor's skull for upright measure.

"stay ! What are you doing ? !"Oath shouted.

"I'm fulfilling my contract. He became an enemy, so I dealt with him."

"It wasn't your place to decide he should die ! Trevor wanted to become the next baron in my place, so it was my province to demand him down !"

"What are you talking about ? He wanted to take up your space as Clive's side by side mogul ?"Noah asked.

"He… he said he was my full cousin, an illegitimate child. He kept it hidden all this time."

"Oh please. His founding father wasn't ranked high enough to feature an"illegitimate child ”. Trevor was nothing to a greater extent than a common bastard. And while I'm sure he had some hard-luck backstory about growing up on the streets that would make us all pity or documentation him, I'm simply not interested. We don't have time for you two to bond over your pa issues."

Beth arrived, standing beside him."What's going on ?"Mira was with her, having narrowly recovered and been given a second potion.

"I can't just entrust it this way !"Oath yelled."I can't just walk off without knowing how it would have ended ! If I could ingest beaten him myself !"

"That's just your superbia talking, but pride won't keep you live in this place. Should I have just sat back and let you continue your childish fuss ? I was hired to go along you from dying, not facilitate you satisfy your ego."

"wait, what happened ?"Beth asked."What happened to Trevor ?"

"He tried to kill me and Oath,"said Mira.

"You can't be serious ! After all the time we spent together, he just turned on us like that ?"

"It was his plan from the beginning,"Oath muttered."He's my full cousin, and as soon as he found out we were in rivalry for the title of baron, he planned out how to use us and pour down me."

"We're not going to stool it out of here, are we ?"Mira asked.

"We should have turned back when we had the probability !"Beth tearfully exclaimed, falling to her knee as the pent-up strain finally released itself.

"Crying and worrying about it won't help us,"said Noah."feeling, we're all exhausted. Beth and I found a elbow room we can rest in. Let's set up camp and get our strength back. You three go, I'm going to screen through Trevor's things."

"Noah, you can't,"said Mira."Trevor may receive gone crazy, but it's not veracious to just rob his corpse."

"well you can either choose to stop me, or you can go, eat some luncheon, and put the hale matter out of your psyche. 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 prostration and I'll have to channel you to the camping site. You're injured, go plot of land yourself up. I'll be fine."

"I guess you will, won't you ? Nothing ever gets to you,"Oath muttered.

"I hear talking when I want to hear anguish footsteps. Go."

Oath limped off after Beth and Mira, and Noah began picking through the treasure that Trevor had gathered, as well as taking tools and supply 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 carry and still move effectively.

Once he had collected everything of Worth, he activated his invisibility and backed off to a safe distance, where he sat down and waited. It happened after only a few minute, gap in the floor appearing like sally in ice, but the shell wasn't actually breaking. They were seams, inconspicuous to the defenseless eye until they actually opened up, and from within, a green slime appeared. instead than simply spreading out under the personnel of gravitation, it was moving willfully towards Trevor's corpse. It enveloped him, and though Noah could not see it, the trunk was being disassembled in pieces the size of cereal of moxie. In sentence, the slime retreated, leaving aught but some pearl and scraps of fabric.

‘ So that's how it feeds.'

He went to the camp bedchamber, where everyone was sitting against different rampart. There was a perfectly expression in their centre, debilitation that was both mental and physical. They had each held a promise deep down that they would take a shit it out of the keep crab together, all of them, that their political party would live on this trial and stay unscathed. Trevor was primitive and untalkative, but his loss left a void, and they suddenly felt much weaker without him. But with the truth they were forced to admit, was it really a loss ? After all, he showed no faltering in trying to dispatch the people 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 ally ? All those conflict where we had to calculate on each other, did that really mean nothing to him ?"

Noah sat down and began unpacking his lunch."You'd be storm how long you can keep the lies going, how easy it can get."

"rich person you lied to us about anything ?"

Noah stared at her, challenging her to admit his result."plenteousness of things, none of which topic in this situation."He tossed some food for thought to everyone."Eat up. It doesn't matter if Trevor is dead, it doesn't change our plan."

"No, it changes everything."Beth stood up."We should leave. While we're still active, while we still have supplies and potions, we should leave. We're not quick for this place. We weren't make even when we had Trevor. We have plenty of treasure, more than enough to live happily. Isn't that enough ?"

"It's too late to turn back now, to result 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 adventure all of our lives ?"

"The same thing as you, an escapade. Isn't that what you wanted ?"

"I was wrong, this is too much."Beth gave an outraged sigh."Oath, Mira, you agree with me, right ?"

Oath took a cryptic breathing spell."I can't take the air away from this, not now. I want to see this through to the end. I need to. I don't want to experience my lifetime as a coward."

"Mira ?"

Mira hugged her knees to her thorax and hid her side. 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 headspring. It was a mistake to come—"

"You're discharge to impart 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 itch, I'm late."

Mira tensed in shock absorber and swearword's brow nearly shot off his face, yet Noah didn't even squinch."And ?"Beth stammered at his doubtfulness, not sure how to reply."Again, you knew what the deal was when we started, no adherence. I'm getting that avenium, and there is nothing you can say to stop over me. You can either go away now and try to make it back out on your own, or you can come with us down to get the avenium and we'll make the slip back together."

"This is an obsession ! 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 laborious toll on the group. Beth and Mira continued to attack from behind Noah and Oath, but the devil still withstood battery of stones and arrows to try and sink their dentition into something. Normally, Trevor and his halberd could deliver warded them off, breaking their impulse so that Noah and Oath could go in for the kill, but now, they had to be the main defensive wall and block everything with their swords.

They battled through the monsters, but took injuries with each clash. It wasn't just their geological formation that had been disturbed ; Noah could see the grouping morale at the sharpness of an abysm. Noah was immaterial, but the others were grappling with desperation. Which hurt more ? Losing a friend ? Or finding out he was never their protagonist at all ?

At the instant, they were surrounded by centipedes in a wide-open sleeping room. Noah, swearing, and Beth were stomping on the little illegitimate as they drew close, while Mira was swinging her staff, equipped with her Shatter Mace spell. She was wild, taking out her strain and frustration on the beasts, with her shriek of elbow grease becoming louder with each swing. sort of than helping, the bombardment of monsters only seemed to increase her sottish aggression. Beth, on the former hired man, was acting sluggish, paralyzed by fearfulness and the personnel casualty of hope.

As Noah stomped on every centipede that came close, he heard a scream. A few of the beasts had managed to startle up onto Mira and were digging in. cuss rushed over to aid her, but that left two side of their formation unguarded, and the lusus naturae were closing in.

"I have a program !"Noah said."When the monsters move away, everyone head towards that passage over there !"

Before the others could say anything, Noah drew his knife and slashed his radiocarpal joint, sending a cloudburst of blood pouring onto the ground. Seduced by the smell of profligate, the centipedes turned their attention from swearword and the others and swarmed towards Noah. He took off, sprinting across the field of armored backs and spindly pegleg, leading them like the Pied Piper.

The three didn't hesitate and rushed towards the loss, though looking back to see Noah's situation deterioration. Once he saw them accomplish the threshold, Noah turned around and made himself invisible. The centipedes were understandably confused, as even his scent disappeared. His parentage, 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 stairway. However, unlike the tight spiral of when they first arrived at the donjon, this staircase spun down the wall of a chasm-like chamber like grooves on a recitation bit. It was too dark to see the ceiling or the floor of the chamber, but in the black, there was a blink hotshot, far below their foundation when it should receive been above their heads.

"Everyone, be extra careful and stride quietly. I think we've reached the stern of the shell."

They proceeded down the staircase, this one having real stairs. The darkness 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 stairs that their fears all came rushing back like a flood.

‘ Of course,'Noah thought bitterly.

The undersurface of the room was occupied by some kind of massive slumbering behemoth. This round chamber was more than than a hundred base all-inclusive, and the creature was coiled up all over itself like a snoozing boa constrictor. There was no telling what its actual size or form was, and Noah's torch couldn't provide enough luminance to properly bring out its appearance. But in the center of the elbow room was the prize for this journey. The walls and staircase were solid racing shell, but the floor under the devil was figure, and in the centre, in a resurrect basin, was a syndicate of powdered metallic element with a turquoise glimmer. It was avenium, just like on Noah's ring. It was so closelipped, but the risk before them was giving everyone doubts.

Oath stepped forward."I'll go,"he said as quietly as he could.

Noah grasped his shoulder joint."No, I'm better at stealth, think back ?"

curse word turned to him, loudly whispering."Please, it has to be me ! The whole cause why we made this journey was so that I could turn a noble ! I need to be the one to get the avenium. Let me earn my title."

"None of that matters, not in here. All that is significant is getting the job done and getting out of here alive. If you want to do things the"right"way, do it on your own time. I'm going to do thing the bright way. If this matter so much as twitches, leave me behind and run as fast as you can up the stairs."

Noah didn't wait for him to answer and activated his invisibleness. True, this monster slept with its eyes closed, but he couldn't discount its sense of smell and hearing. He moved retiring Oath and stepped onto the fleshy 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 unmanageable, not just on the outside, but the inside. Noah had not been able to break away the ravages of weariness, and his muscles were becoming undependable.

For curse and the others, it was trying, as they couldn't see Noah, just the great mullein he was holding over his caput. Every sentence the light trembled, they imagined him fumbling, stepping on one of the monster's tentacles and waking it up. When the flannel mullein finally reached the basin, they released their held breaths. It was a substantial amount of avenium, at to the lowest degree two cubic decimetre of the glistening dust, and it was so fine as well. Perhaps it was expelled from the Phthirius pubis like a splinter, and it would amass in the basin over time while the crab was underground. ‘ If this ends up like that setting from raider, I'll just drink down myself here and now.'Noah rested his hand atop the avenium and sucked it all into the hoop, every grain.

Nothing happened, there was no reaction from either the monster or the basin. Noah waited a few moments to be sure, then turned and made the tax return journey back to the staircase. Once he reached expletive, Beth, and Mira, they all resumed external respiration and began the silent climb back up the stairs. It was when they reached the halfway point that a terrifying roar shook the sleeping room, and rather than below, it was coming from above. The group looked up in horror, seeing a s monster descending towards them. It appeared to be the same species as the commencement, looking like a prodigious lion with a teeth-filled snout and tentacles growing from across its spine that it used like wanderer legs to avail its blood. It was like some variety of Lovecraftian griffin. Just one swinging of its paws would shoot down a sledgepaw bear. Had it also been nesting in this chamber ? Perhaps the mate of the one down below ?

"Beth, shoot it down !"

"Too late !"

It reached across the bedroom with its tentacles and swung over, its beak broad open. The group scattered, managing to obviate its bill, which smashed into the wall, though Beth ended up losing her bow over the edge of the staircase. One the talons on its forelegs made its brand and clipped Mira's grimace, but that was all it took to crush her skull like a Gallagher melon. Oath and Beth, seeing her headless consistence slump to the storey, were left in stunned silence. Noah, already back on his feet, stabbed the animate being in the eye, forcing his sword in all the way to the hilt. The beast howled in pain and jumped back with his blade pulled from his grip, and it wasn't the only when one in suffering. Oath and Beth now cradled Mira, sobbing and screaming at what was done to her. Beth, Noah could understand, but swearword's reaction stood out.

‘ Goddammit, don't say me he loved that girl.'“ We got to displace ! There is zippo we can do for her !"

"No, I can fix this !"Oath sobbed."Give me all the healing potions we have !"

"Her head is gone, she's absolutely. 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 world-class monster had woken up. expletive scrambled to his fundament, not in fearfulness, but furor. He grabbed his blade with tears streaming down his face.

"I'll down them ! I'll drink down them both !"

"This is no meter 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 throat and a knee to the belly. Oath collapsed like a business firm of card and Noah grabbed him and hoisted him over his shoulder. He turned to Beth and handed her his bow to replace hers."bread and butter those things off our rear. If you run out of arrows, I'll give you more. Now move !"

They raced up the steps as fast as they could. Noah was struggling under the drive of hauling swearword and everything they both carried, and he had to hold the blowlamp as well. Ahead of him, Beth was raining arrows down on the two colossus to the adept of her ability. They seemed aware of the poisoned lead and were keeping a safe distance, but they were still following them up. They started swinging at Noah and Beth with their tentacles, trying to stymy their route. Beth would slash at them with a knife to make them draw in, but it was just getting high-risk and forged, 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 combat ! That's all we can do !"

They continued their charge up the stairs, stomping on the centipedes and ignoring the feel of their pincers digging in and not letting go. Their bites didn't appear poisonous, but they put bullet train pismire to shame on the pain in the ass scale. Not even Noah could assert a poker fount with them biting down on his legs.

With luck on their side, they escaped the chamber, running down several corridors before arriving at a chamber where they could rest. Noah dropped Oath on the reason and began ripping off the centipedes biting his ramification. It was strange for Beth, to see Noah so winded and injured. He collapsed near the bulwark, downing a healing potion to halt his bleeding. Oath, having regained consciousness, got back to his base and approached the doorway with his sword.

"Don't even think about it,"said Noah.

"I refuse to give her physical structure down here. I'm going to get my revenge on that wildcat and get her menage to bury her."

"It's a monster, it doesn't understand your tactile sensation. If you go swinging at it for revenge, it's just going be glad that its future 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 have it. She's gone, there is nothing you can do to help her. zilch can be done to switch what happened. I'll say it as harshly as I need to if it gets the message through your thick skull."

"What would you have done if it was Tin who died in there instead of Mira ?"

"I would have left her. I've seen plenty of people die. This isn't my first time leading masses into fighting, and fatal accident are to be expected."

"So you were just waiting for each of us to die ? !"Beth exclaimed.

"As long as I could fulfill my contract, I was prepared for all potential losses, though I'm honestly foiled that you two all came here expecting to do this without losing anyone."

"Is that all we are to you ? Just future losses ?"

"Yes, that's right."Noah got to his fundament."Look, we've got the avenium, so the hard role is done. Now we can head home."

"Two of our friends are dead and we're in the bum of a dungeon crab ! How is that not the tough part ? !"Beth screamed at him.

"Because I have an thought on how to get us out of here."He took out a water skin from his packsack and poured in some powdered avenium from within his ring, then shook it up and handed it to Oath."Both of you, dowse this on yourselves. Try not to let any go to waste."

"What will this do ?"swearword 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 employment on anything animation. The mana just won't control stick on, like it's being repelled. However, I did some research on avenium. It is a metal, but it bends brightness like a watch crystal, and it manipulates mana the same way. I can't apply my invisibleness to you, but if you're covered with powdered avenium, it may help oneself me conceal you a bit. Try it."

swearword sighed and poured some of the confection on his straits, then went to sour rubbing it into his pelt and clothes. He handed the rest to Beth and she did the Saame. Noah activated his legerdemain and grasped their custody. The air around them shimmered, their bodies becoming faint, like they were shrouded in a heat daze. They became like mirages of their true selves. Oath and Beth voiced their shock absorber as they looked at each other, and the fact that Noah could learn them was concerning. It was a far-cry from Noah completely erasing his presence, but at the very least, it would make them less noticeable.

"This takes a lot of mana, so I'm going to use it on and off as we go, and we're going to be running. If there is anything you don't want to carry, provide it here now."

Beth and swearword couldn't see Noah, but they stared at the outer space he occupied. He could see it on their faces, the distrust, the frustration, the fear, the grief, the debilitation. They'd just give to suck it up.

"Let's go, and step lightly."

They left the chamber and began their journey back to the control surface. They no longer moved in establishment, and they tried to keep a quick but still pace. When monstrosity were nearby, Noah would activate his spell and they'd do their best to avert detection. It didn't always work. At one point, they were being pursued by a pack of the bipedal carnivores like the I they had faced outside. It was too many for them to demand on, and the longer they stayed in one spot fighting, the greater the chance More monsters would be drawn.

Noah, pulling curse and Beth along, activated the enchantment in his right eye.

"What the hell ? !"Oath said in shock as he watched the dead ringer Fall back, while the literal Noah was still gripping his hand.

"It's another illusion I can create, just hold on moving !"

As they ran, Noah had the clon start waving his arms and shouting at the approaching ogre, doing whatever he could to draw their attention. They passed through the clone in everlasting discombobulation, turned around, and tried again and again. Their eyes, ears, and noses were all telling them that target was standing before them, but no matter how many times they tried to seize with teeth down, their jaws closed around zilch 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, sustain running instead !"

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

natural spring was planting season, so the farms on the Fault demesne were in a frenzy. Oath, the baron's third son, was the"God Almighty"of this task. He and the slaves spent their daylight working the subject, though there was little distinction between them. He lived and ate his meals with his Father-God and Brother, at least, when they were at home, but his ranking in the category was just a step above"dickhead ”. His Father lauded all of his praise on his brothers, with the younger always trying to surpass the elder and win the demesne.

The oldest was a soldier, a squad leader, one gradation below confessedly knight. He would be gone for months at a clock time, then refund home plate and line-shooting about the conflict he fought for the glorification of Uther, and how he bolstered the report of the Fault household. The middle son was a lofty hunter and skilled in magic, a endowment he often lorded over the older sidekick. He claimed magic to be infinitely superior to swordsmanship, meaning he, the magically-affluent, was the future of the origin. Neither pal liked swearword, simply treated him like one of the retainer. He was just another laborer. His father, on the other hand, wasn't cruel like them, but he simply didn't care beyond parental instinct. His female parent was long gone.

Oath had been outside when he learned of their deaths, but on break. Lying on a sun-warmed grassy hill, he watched the clouds pass command overhead. As the third son, he was compelled to keep his forefront down, to concentrate only on the chore in front of him and not rock the boat. Skygazing was the only if time he'd breakout that linguistic rule, abandoning the fields to instead center on farming his own psyche, to blank out about his life-time and province and try to figure out what was left.

He knew nada of the creation beyond his abode and village, couldn't even read, and most of his socialising came from talking with the slaves during work. They often didn't have much to say, but they trusted him enough to include him in their gossip. He wasn't like the power and his sure-enough sons ; his feet were more used to the stain of the field than the floorboards of the geological fault household. Those conversations were the only if time he could pick up of things beyond simply swinging a hoe or scythe, to discover that there was more to existence than just harvest and livestock, and when he gazed at the sky, Oath would use that glimmer to try and educate himself, find out who he was. That was the program, at least, but he was disturbed by one of the maids of the house.

"Master curse, your Fatherhood requires your presence immediately."

The use honorific was just a courtesy acknowledging his bloodline. There was no honest respect in her parole.

"Understood."Oath got up and followed her to the menage, where she led him to his father's study. As he approached, he heard nonsensical shouting and things falling over.

Inside, the king, Ivan, was pacing back and Forth River, unbalanced and drenched in tears. newspaper publisher and items from his desk were scattered across the level and he was gripping a whisky glass with a shaking hand.

"Father, what is it ?"

"swearing, Colt and superior have perished."Ivan picked up a letter with a break dance wax cachet."colt was killed in battle on the Petosic Steppes."He threw it aside."And superior was killed by a bear while hunting. His remains were found this morning."He emptied his whiskey glass in one draft and staggered, looking like he was on the wand of collapse.

Oath took a moment to process the news, but there wasn't much to operation. There was no such matter as sibling passion in noble households."I'm sorry, Father."

The baron fell back in his death chair."cuss, you are now my only son. That means that you will inherit my statute title when I die, unless my conniving comrade manages to steal it !"

"Father, I can't be a baron !"

"This is not something you can decline ! I will not allow our planetary house to let nobility pillowcase from its fingers ! But you're right. The way you are now, the kingdom would be wise to hand it over to Edwin, so we're going to change that. From now on, I am going to sculpture you into a suited replacement."

After that, everything changed. From the crack of dawning until belatedly at nighttime, cuss was trained in combat, etiquette, and version and writing. The tools of the farm were replaced with his grandfather's blade, and hours not spent swinging it were spent hunched over one book after another, studying by candlelight. None of it stuck. Unlike his chum, he was born without talent and raised without an education. He couldn't use magic, could barely push, and was about as cultured and learned as the lowest peasant. There was niggling hope for him.

One day, he found himself at the Old Wineskin, looking for an stake job. multitude would stake notices, requesting item like worthful plant or monster parts, or tasks like escorting person through the forest. Helping around Town would give him some accomplishment he could use to prove his eligibility for inheriting the Clive barony. He had also heard some weird rumors about the inn, about some sick couple that had the loudest sex imaginable. From dawn to midday on every early day, anyone in or near the inn would be flushed with embarrassment as they heard a young woman's cries of euphoria, along with the knock of a bedframe threatening to break apart. However, today, the inn was quiet. The sole voice he heard was addressed to him.

"Hey you, by the notice gameboard, over here !"

He looked over to the author, spotting a table occupied by three youths like himself, a man and two women.

"Me ?"

"Yeah, come on !"one of the cleaning woman said, a marvelous and bubbly blonde.

cuss crossed the bar to them."What is this about ?"

"You wouldn't happen to be searching for a party to join, are you ?"the early woman asked, a cute brunette with short hair.

"Oh… uh, yeah, I guess. I haven't been making a lot headway on my own."

"Well train a rear !"

Oath hesitated, feeling the man beside him shooting daggers from his eyes. He was sizing him up, and apparently didn't like what he saw.

"No, change of program, hold on moving. We don't need any more weaklings in our group."

"Shut up, Trevor,"said the blond."Ignore him. I'm Beth and this is Mira. We're currently in need of a swordsman in our mathematical group, and you look like you would fit good in."

"She means you look weak enough that no one better would have invited you to join their mathematical group, and no really adventurer would sully their dignity by joining this gro— Ouch !"Beth had just kicked him under the table.

"You're not allowed to badmouth the chemical group while being a piece of it,"she scolded.

"Truth be told, none of us are very good, but that just means we should gravel together,"said Mira.

Oath finally took a buns and put a hand on the blade hanging from his belt."Ok, certain, I'll join you guys. My name is Oath. I'm actually kind of surprised, I thought this place would be… louder."

"Oh yeah, those news report ? We've actually met them, Noah and Tin, the pair who make all that noise,"said Mira.

Now Trevor seemed interested."Really ? Were they freaks ?"

"No, normal 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 cracking advice about tactic and wizardly. We tried to get him to link our team, but he wanted to work on his own, him and that slave miss. God, I envy her."

"Settle down, you're so unbecoming,"Mira said with a sigh. She then turned to Oath."Anyway, welcome to the group !"The smile she flashed at him made his essence disturbance in a way it never had before.

For the adjacent few weeks, swearword and his new Quaker adventured together, fighting what monsters they believed they could tucker, but were most often forced to run away and tend to their wounded bodies and bruised egos. But no matter how many times they were beaten, Oath was never dejected, because it was the world-class time he felt truly accepted, and with people his own age, no less. True, Trevor always gave him the cold shoulder, but Beth kept the liveliness of the group raised, and Mira… she was something else altogether.

She spoke with him, laughed with him, and smiled with him, all consequence of confusing seventh heaven that he drank like fine wine. He was drawn to her, pulled by a force that he could not describe. One day, after they had managed to kill a savage, and only just barely, he and the others all collapsed from exhaustion. Mira, sitting next to him, ended up placing her bridge player on his. The minute her finger touched his, it was like cold lightning surged through his mettle, a frighteningly sinewy maven, but one that made him feel more alive than the battle just bit before.

Perhaps it was just the Adrenalin and the endorphins, but he looked at Mira, and she, realizing the inter-group communication between them, didn't pull away, and instead gazed at him with a shy smiling and flushed cheeks. The first time oath fought a monster, he froze up in terror, and it wasn't the final stage time his reverence got the better of him, but at that minute, he broke through his fear, turning his paw over to agree hers. They gazed at each other, their venter filled with Sir Thomas More butterflies than a meadow in summer. That was the moment he realized his touch for her.

The succeeding day, his sire sat Oath down in the parlor of their home. With them was a gruff middle-aged adventurer with a bow."oath, no affair what, you must not let anyone outside of your party know this. I've just learned that a dungeon Cancer has surfaced nearby."

dungeon crabs were one of the great anomalies in the world, but their mythology was melt off. They were vague beast, described as bread and butter fortresses that rose up from the ground. Many believed that they were a leftover of the war between the God and the spirits.

cuss wasn't sure how to respond to the news, so his Father continued."Adventurers who manage to capture a keep crab by taking the avenium inside are granted the rank of baron or gamey by the kingdom. If you and your supporter can accomplish this, then there is nix Edwin can do and my title will be passed on to you without question."

"My friends and I can barely present the monsters in the Sir Henry Joseph Wood. We can't handle a dungeon crab."

"I am well cognisant of your weakness when it comes to swordplay. I'm hoping that switching to a different weapon will unlock your likely. This man is Sendal, a oldtimer adventurer and Sagittarius. He'll Thatch you how to use a bow."

Just looking at Sendal, cuss could order he wasn't the friendliest guy, but his beginner wouldn't change his thinker. That day, he and the archer rode into the woodwind to trace, and that was the last thing he remembered. When next he woke up, he was in a goblin tunnel, racked with pain sensation flowing from the back of his foreland down to the pourboire of his toes, but it was waning, thanks to the potion he had received.

serving him to his base was a young man, a bit sr. than him, with a female child standing behind him. Noah and Tin, he had heard those figure before. They were the origin of the strange rumors about the Old Wineskin, but more than that, Beth and Mira had vouched for Noah's strength. Oath was skeptical, especially when Noah declared that he was going to clear out the goblin den himself, something that was naught short of suicidal. Despite his life being saved, Oath wasn't feeling very grateful, considering he now had to wreak as Noah's multitude mule while he marched to his doom.

But then he saw the results. Noah slaughtered the hob with ease, never displaying any kind of thaumaturgy. Oath and his acquaintance had repeatedly tried search goblins, nearly dying every fourth dimension, but they fell like Walter Reed with every swing of Noah's sword. Then, when the goblin gaffer revealed itself, cuss got to witness honest play, and the memories of his older comrade's attainment were painted over by Noah's fight. Had he and his booster attempted this, they would possess ended up being cooked and eaten.

During the journey home, they were attacked by bandits. Tin, obeying Noah, pulled swearing into the woodwind instrument before he could even grab his sword. The battle lasted only a minute, leaving curse word in awe when he saw the bodies of the slain bandit. He rode back to Baron Clive of Plassey with Noah and Tin, and when he arrived back nursing home, his father threw his arms around him, wailing backup to see his son's return. It was the first clip his Father of the Church had ever hugged him.

"Church Father, there is something I need to assure you."They went into his forefather's study and closed the threshold behind them. Oath, standing while the top executive sat, leaned against the desk."The Hunter you hired, he knocked me out handed me over to goblins."

"Damn him ! Edwin must bear bribed him to get you out of the picture. But if he handed you to goblins, how did you break loose ? Did you fight back your way out ?"

"No, I was saved by someone, a man named Noah. He's younger than Colt but twice the warrior, and he's already helped my booster before. He wiped out a huge goblin nest himself and even killed a hobgoblin."

Ivan leaned back in his chair."If a Danton True Young man of such skill were to fall in your party, perhaps you might be able to capture the dungeon crab."

"I was thinking the Same thing."

"Bring him here. I'll talk to him."

The next thing Oath knew, Tin lay dying, and he watched as Noah slew the assaulter. 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 guilty conscience, he applied every potion in the house, pouring them on her lesion and down her throat, but her condition didn't improve. As Noah approached, expletive braced himself for the high-risk. It was curse word's fault that she had died, her aliveness ended because he had been saved, so would Noah demand his life as compensation ?

But Noah didn't acknowledge Oath. He simply kneeled down and held Tin. There were no bust, not even a trembling breathing place. Tin voiced her final goodby and closed her eyes, while Noah simply stared at her like a statue. Noah then departed with Tin, riding off to obtain a suitable place to bury her. Watching him drive off, expletive remembered the grin on Tin's face when she said goodbye, and imagined that look on Mira, the pure, honest, intoxicating emotion. He wanted to see her. He had nearly died, and he wanted to choose the risk he never could have if he hadn't been saved.

To his founder's protest, he rode out to the Old Wineskin, and as soon as he entered, he heard Mira's phonation."Oath !"

There they were, gathered at their usual table. Never was he so felicitous to see his admirer. He crossed the tavern and took his keister."Hey."

"Your founder told us you were out training with an archer,"said Beth."I'm rather insulted you didn't ask me first."

"You guys aren't going to believe this, but I swear this really happened. That Sagittarius 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 welfare of the doubt."Really ?"

"Yeah, but I was saved by that Noah guy that you told me about, he and Tin. I watched him clear out an stallion mine full moon of hob single-handedly."

"Of form someone like you would need to be saved,"said Trevor.

"An total mine ? !"Beth exclaimed as she bolted to her feet.

"We can barely contend a handful of them,"Mira sighed.

"Anyway, listen to this."He leaned in and waved for them to all do the same."A donjon pubic louse has appeared nearby."He was lucky that everyone understood that terminus. He didn't have faith in his ability to explain it. His booster all fell back in their seats.

"You honestly can't be thinking of trying it !"Beth exclaimed."We'd be short in an hour !"

"Listen, Noah has agreed to link up our team and discipline us. With his supporter, I'm sure we can do it."

"We don't need some freak's advice,"said Trevor.

"Did I forget to observe that he also killed a goblin ?"

Trevor didn't respond.

"I don't know. I think it's way too early for us. Why ? Are you really that broke ?"asked Mira.

"There is something I haven't told you guys. My full name is curse word demerit, son of magnate Ivan error. I'm his third son but I'm side by side in parentage to pick up his title."

"darn it, he's delirious ! Everything he's said so far was a hallucination."

"cuss, did you eat some unusual mushrooms in the Wood ?"Mira asked with true concern.

Stared in remain silence.

"I swear to you, it's dependable. I'm sure the archer gave me to the hobgoblin to celebrate me from inheriting the title. When I returned home, that Lapplander archer tried to obliterate me, but ended up killing Tin instead."

Both Mira and Beth were left in stunned muteness. While they had only met her once, the news of her death was a shock blow. Her endless moaning had become a point of pridefulness in the villagers, considering it a valued quirkiness in the identity of their home, like the swallows returning to Capistrano. Besides, they had both seen the erotic love in her eyes.

"Yeah. Noah killed the guy and rode off with Tin to bury her. He said he would be back the day after tomorrow."

"That's awful,"said Beth.

"poor Noah,"Mira added.

"I don't think we should make 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 safe return of our associate, toast our approaching success, and mourn a fallen booster !"

oath wanted to laugh, but truth be told, he'd need some fluent courage.

Late into the dark, the four adventurer splurged on nutrient and drinks, until all was quiet and the host was preparing to close up the bar. Trevor had gone family, Beth was currently passed out, and now it was just Oath and Mira.

"I hope this dungeon crab thing works out,"said Mira, to a greater extent than a petty tipsy.

"Yeah, and all the riches from the adventurers is really going to assist this village."

"With that money, I can finally pay off my female parent's debts."

"You never said your female parent was in debt."

Mira giggled."I guess we both kept enigma. I never liked adventuring, but it was the advantageously way I could make money after my Father left. In a way, I'm gladiolus I did it, but I just want a nice tranquillize dwelling life."

"wellspring I'll become the mogul of the townspeople. Maybe you could settle down here."Never in a million eld would a solemn swearword have the courage to do so, but he reached out and held her paw like he had on that day in the Natalie Wood."And I could realise a family with you."

Like him, Mira was fueled by liquid courage, but she got to her feet with trivial grace and gravid courage, and pulled Oath to his."Come on,"she mumbled with an stymy smile. They were both more than a little drunk, so they had to help each former up the stairs, giggling with each step. They reached the door to Mira's room, and as she fumbled with the key, Oath leaned in and stole a kiss. It was his first-class honours degree, as well as hers, and while he got her mostly on the nozzle, she touched her lips with a smiling and a blush.

They got the door open and stumbled into the way, shutting it behind them. Mira lit a candle and then made herself at habitation in Oath's embrace. Standing in the middle of the room, they kissed once more, this metre able-bodied to put their hearts and souls into it.

"Are you set for this ?"Oath asked.

"I think so. Are you ?"

"I'm not sure. I don't have any experience with being with a woman. I mean… I've seen beast on the farm…"

Mira burst into laugh, which, second to her yelling at him, was the absolute live response he wanted at a here and now like this."Beth has told me how to do it, don't concern. Now that we've kissed, the adjacent step is we take off our clothes."

cuss was already sporting a woody, and those finish four discussion nearly pushed him over the edge. He took off his pelage, Mira removed her cloak, and for a consequence, they paused, feeling the tension as they gripped their shirts, but upon struggling to actually draw out 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 headlight. 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 equal them ?"

"I… guess."

She hesitantly lowered her arms, and expletive, with trembling hands, began to fondle her modest shelf. That gentleness, that fluency, 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 touch, afraid of being so vulnerable, both her eubstance and her feelings exposed to another for them to do with as they pleased. Perhaps it was the comportment of that care that made it feel so good, the fear of being touched so intimately, mixed with the joy of finding someone whom she wished would do so.

Massaging deep into her flesh and relishing the way her nipples felt when he toyed with them, Oath, like Mira, was overwhelmed. The hazard to explore a woman's eubstance like this, to experience it, intimately, it teased his most innate, instinctive curiosity. He was so excite, trembling like a leaf and feeling like he was going to jump out of his skin. It happened before he could do anything about it, he came, having already been pushed over the edge. Flushed with shame, he did his best to try and hide it, but to Mira, it looked like he was just getting impatient.

She lowered her hands and pushed off her trousers. cuss didn't immediately oppose, but that was because he was trying to forgather his intellection and his strength. When he realized what she had done, he didn't have time to think, and simply dropped his own knickers. This clock time, it was Mira's good turn to stare, as she tried not to recall of when their group last fought goblins, 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 matter goes."

oath put out the candela, plunging the room into add up iniquity. He meandered his way back to the bed, feeling the natural covering. His hands found Mira's consistence and he felt her stir like a frightened beast. He slipped under the mantle and their nude bodies met, first in the form of an embrace, then in the pattern of a kiss, and finally…

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

Noah, Oath, and Beth sprinted up the winding staircase towards the release of the keep Cancer the Crab. They were covered in profligate, lather, and turd, and had countless untreated injuries. Noah's mana was completely drained, and the three of them were running on fumes. They couldn't William Tell if the teras were still chasing them. After all this time, the chorus of roars repeated in the back of their creative thinker no matter what.

Finally, when their bodies felt like they'd fall apart like sandcastles, they breathed fresh air, and felt the sun shine upon them. They burst out of the top of the Phthirius pubis's shield, collapsing near the doorway. For the three of them, it was like a religious experience. Beth crumbled, binge pouring down her human face, a mix of happiness, misery, backup man, and bereavement, and as the sun rose, Oath stared like his soul had left his trunk, turning him into an vacuous chaff. As for Noah, he dropped the horse brand he had been using and gripped the worldly concern with shaking work force. How long had it been ? How long had it been since he live on fought that laborious for his life ? How long had it been since his survival inherent aptitude pushed him that far ? No, when it was more than just his survival of the fittest instinct pushing him ? The fear, the adrenaline, the endorphins, the pain, they flowed through the faithful of his gray topic like a flood lamp across a desert.

"Get up, on your feet."

Noah looked over, seeing Oath standing with his sword pointing at him.

"What the Inferno do you cerebrate you're doing ?"Noah muttered.

"You heard me, get up and face up me."

"swearing, you're kidding, right ?"Beth asked.

"No. You and me, Noah, right here, right now."

"You ungrateful footling brat. After all I did for you, you have the spunk to point your sword at me ? The sword I gave you ?"

"You didn't do this for me. I was just a prop in whatever spate you struck with my Fatherhood. Now Mira is beat and I was robbed of my prospect to settle things with Trevor. We never should have gone in there, but you kept pushing us. We never should have let you be a part of our team."

"swearword, it's not his fault ! You also wanted to save going ! Just put your blade down and we can all go home !"

"No ! I have to do this !"

"You're right,"said Noah, getting to his feet,"you were just a prop, but I'm still under contract and not allowed to defeat you. Once we're back and I've gotten my reward, then I'll put you down as hard as you want."

"No ! I'm done listening to you ! From the moment we met, you've run my spirit. I was supposed to be the one to seize the avenium, to confiscate my own destiny, not let you take it and swallow whatever scraps you toss my way ! I couldn't avenge Mira, I couldn't beat Trevor, and I couldn't even conquer the keep pubic louse ! I can't go home this way ! I refuse to live like this ! But if I beat you, that'll be enough."

Noah gripped the hilt of the horse steel, and the sensation he got back was far from saint. His consistence 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 cuss was in the same position. Despite his anger and bloodlust, he was on the verge of passing out. The look was leave, but the build was another account. If Noah fought him in this State, even the pocket-size lesion could prove calamitous, then his muckle with the baron would be out the window.

"I'm not going to indulge you. If you want to get yourself killed, do it after we get back. I want to exist long enough to cash in everything I've collected."

"You can't talk your way out of this !"

cuss charged with his brand raised, attempting his signature tune cleave. Noah stepped to the English, nearly falling over as he did so. rather than a cut, he struck oath in the abdomen with the hold of his sword. Oath nearly retched, but regained his basis and punched Noah. He tried to dodge, but was still grazed and staggered back, drawing his steel completely.

"Stop this, you two don't need to fight !"Beth pleaded.

"William Tell him that !"Noah argued.

Oath unleashed a bustle of lilt towards Noah, who lacked the agility to get out of the way. Instead, he had to forget and parry each swing. They locked blade, pushing against each other in a shoving match.

"You chose to go into the dungeon crab,"said Noah."You chose to follow me, despite knowing how unsafe it was for Mira. You put your pridefulness and your nobility over her. I killed Trevor because you were too infirm to get it done and you would let woken up that monster with just three gradation. You don't get to blame your incompetency on me."

"You're a heartless bastard ! You couldn't even shed a snag for Tin, no wonder you didn't care about us !"

"Grow up !"

Noah let go of his sword and perforate Oath, sending him staggering back. Noah touched his hand to his eye, casting his invisibility. He only had decent mana to persist hide for a few moments, so Noah tackled Oath, disarming him and knocking him to the ground. Three solid blows to the face left him unconscious.

Noah dropped to his human knee, gasping for air with his tour coming undone. Hopefully, Oath would be much more sensical when he woke up. As Noah got to his feet, there was a monster's snarl, followed by Beth's howler. One of their chaser from within the shell 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 physical body being shoot and her bone breaking.

"tinker's damn it !"Noah growled.

Beth still had his bow, so Noah pulled out his dead sword and threw it, winging the beast in the shoulder joint. It turned to Noah and charged, and Noah, trying to activate his thaumaturgy, realized he had used the death of his mana to deal with cuss. He jumped to the side of meat to dodge the lunging tiger, but as he hit the background, he realized he had less long suit than he thought. He had planned on hitting the primer with a roll and then jumping to his groundwork, but he just fell like a Tree. All he could do was roll up on his spinal column, and this time, when the tiger pounced, he wasn't able to dodge. It tried to drop down its dentition into his neck, but he blocked its oral fissure with his sword, though he could do cipher about its nipper, digging into his shoulder. It was pushing down on him with its wax weight, and he didn't have the strength to obligate it back.

Noah stared into its one, fist-sized eye and watched slaver pour from its lip, mix with the blood from the cuts that his sword was creating. This certainly ranked among the top of his uncanny deaths. Yet when his military strength was about to falter, expletive attacked the Panthera tigris from behind, slicing off his head with a swing of his sword. curse word then kicked the Panthera tigris's corpse off Noah and pointed his steel at him.

"You'll never get a unspoiled opportunity than this,"Noah said with a smirk.

Oath took a deep breath and sheathed his sword."I suppose saving your life is as much an skill as ending it."He held out his hand to Noah."Let's go home."

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epilog

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The town of Clive was bustling, filled with adventurers following the news of the donjon crabby person's issue. Around half of them would die within its shell, but those with skill and portion came back to town with air pocket full of ores and muffin. Having returned to townsfolk just the previous night, Noah had tried listening for gossip of whether or not anyone else had managed to capture the dungeon. He had taken all of the avenium he found in that room, so it's possible that was all there was in the crab. Oh well, they'd just have to produce do with everything else they found. The majority of the venturer were voguish enough or perhaps not ambitious enough to go very deep into the crab.

But that's not what Noah was focusing on at the import. He was at the inn, sitting on the bed in Beth's room and examining her arm. It had been badly mangled by that tiger and wasn't fully healed. Since they were out of potions at the time, Noah and Oath had to wrap it and run it as best as they could. On the way down from the dungeon's entry, they met an venturer and bought some healing potions off him. However, they weren't able-bodied to completely reverse the damage. The frame on her arm looked molted, like severe reaching fall guy, and the brawn underneath was out of proper shape. At least the os had been reset properly, but the way Beth winced as she stretched it per Noah's education, he knew that she was lucky to still receive it at all.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think you'll be able to take in a bow or rise anything sound anytime soon. If you find someone with healing magic, they might be able to loosen the harm, but otherwise, I can't imagine your arm will ever regain its full use or strength."

"That's mulct,"she said with a monotone voice and dead fish eyes. She shuddered, as if shaking herself awake."No, it's not very well, it's frightening. 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 experience something like that again. I'm going to try and come up a therapist to mend my arm, but after that, I'm going to do what Mira wanted and make up down and build up a family."

"That's for the safe, 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 cushion."How'd you know ?"

"I have enough experience with char to bonk how to avoid getting them fraught, and I can tell when it's close to that time of the month. Mira told you she was late before we entered the donjon, didn't she ? You pretended it was you instead. Did you lie to try and keep yourself, or her ?"

"Both, I guess. swearing didn't know, he can never know."

"I'm surprised they were able to keep open it hidden from me. They always seemed a little protective of each other, but I had no mind they were so intimate."

"She told me they were both drunk when it happened, and later told Oath that she thought it would be full if they focused on getting warm for conquering the dungeon. After, they would have the rest of their lifetime to…"She trailed off, then looked out the window and sighed."I'm going to go visit her mother and sibling, distinguish her what happened. They were in debt, so hopefully the treasure I've collected will help pay it off. I owe Mira that much."

"This should More than cover it,"said Noah, handing her a small bottleful of avenium.

"So much trouble, so many split over this metal dust,"she muttered, staring at the bottle.

"proceeds care of yourself,"Noah said before getting up and leaving.

He stopped by his elbow room, getting his bag and any possessions he deemed worth carrying. He had already sold off all of his ores and muffin, so he had plenty of amber coins with him, along with versatile early peter and gem hidden within his anchor ring, including a huge fortune of avenium. He put on his packsack with his steel hanging from his smash, including a new longsword, and left the elbow 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 blue to see you go. But before you do, you should talk with your friend. 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 father only briefly, then came straight to the inn and started drinking to submerge his sorrows. It was a miracle the boy hadn't died from alcohol poisoning.

"Are you planning on drinking away your intact chance ?"Noah asked.

Oath raised his drumhead, looking at him with bloodshot optic."Leave me alone."

Noah took the pot future to him and ordered a potable."I will, soon. For now, just body fluid me."

Oath sat up and wiped his face."Remember that hunting trip the six of us took in the showtime ? When we were sitting around the fervour, you told me that I had to adjudicate my rationality for bread and butter, for fighting, that I had to create my own meaning. When I went into that dungeon, I thought I was doing it for my don, to finally win his commendation. But when Mira died, I realized I had done it for her. I wanted to prove to her that I was a man, that I was just as strong as you and Trevor, and I wanted to prove it to myself. Everything I failed to do, they were the accomplishment of the king that I wanted to be. I loved her, but my pride got her killed. Now… I just don't want to think about it, any of it. I just want to forget so everything will lay off hurting."

Noah, having received his drink, downed it in one gulp and slapped the crank on the table, then took a rich breath."If I were to give you one last lesson, one last piece of advice, would you take it ?"Oath just glanced at him, neither agreeing, nor refusing."Stop drinking. Go 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 in force that goes with it. treasure your flavor for Mira, your memories of her. Don't try to bury them and bury. Be thankful that it hurts. Believe me, there is nothing more awful than being truly numb. When you've lost all meaning and mavin, you end up in a very wickedness place, where you'll do anything just to feel again, and you never fully come back from that."

For a moment, the words went over Oath's mind, but then his centre widened as a retentivity flashed through his alcohol-soaked creative thinker. The face Noah made when Tin died, that stony formula, it finally made sense.

"Is that what happened to you ? You lost someone ?"

"I've lost a lot of people, more than you can imagine. Losing a get laid one, mourning them, it's supposed to be hard, because if it's easy, you forget how to do it."Noah then got up and shouldered his backpack.

"Where are you going ?"Oath asked.

"I have business in the capital."

"My founding father and I are going there in three days. You can move with us."

"Nah, I'll find my own way. Besides, I've already given your father decent avenium to check you become a imposing, 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 king, after Tin died.

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

Noah was sitting in the big businessman's study, 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 worry, I'm not interest in money or earth. There is something else I want."

"Which is ?"

"I want a letter of recommendation to the Uther horse academy. I heard they only grant accession on the good give-and-take of a stately, such as yourself."

Ivan scrunched up his face and nearly spat out his beverage. To be an Utheric knight was a nifty honor and responsibility, as while they ranked below tycoon on the nobility scale, their achievements could move over them greater authority and political influence."I have no interestingness in putting my good figure on the line for a unknown. Just take some avenium for yourself and become a noble. You'll be even copious than a horse. Or if you want to serve your country, just join the military."

"Any schmuck with a pulse can be con***********ed and turned into a soldier. I'm not after riches, prestige, or accomplishment, and I don't fear about this country."

Noah then reached into his pocket and placed a yellow potion on the magnate's desk.

"What is that ?"Ivan asked.

"I got this in that goblin den, and just this morning, I had it appraised by the chemist. It's a high-level counterpoison, able-bodied to cure almost any poisonous substance. I doubt even a business leader like you could afford one. I had this with me when Tin was shot and didn't know it could keep her life. She died because of my ignorance. I've come to realize that despite my acquisition and experience, I don't know nearly enough about this creation. I want to exchange that, and to do so, I need an educational activity. Spending years in an ivory tower doesn't interest me. I want to hear how to live and properly fight in this world, and the best blank space to do that is the horse academy, where they supposedly train the best of the best. That hobgoblin apparently killed a horse, but hopefully that was a fluke.

So what do you say ? Is your son's futurity not worth a single letter ?"

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

"I suppose…"Noah said, looking back to swearword,"I just wanted to finally keep a promise, rather than making yet another lie. in force luck to you, overlord Fault."

Noah left the inn and walked over to the post where his knight was hitched. He rode out of Clive, and when he was finally alone, he held out his hand, and an envelope appeared on his palm from within his ring. On it was a wax seal, the Fault coat of arms. With this, his path was laid out before him. His succeeding catch : the Utheric royal capital.

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*Roundabout plays*

To be continued…

*Roll credits*

Please remark ! I 'm going to try to have vol 2 prepare by the end of the year .