7 07. HUNTING
Morning came fast. Noah had never felt so refreshed from sleep in his entire life. All three of them.
When he sat up, he noticed that Gerald wasn't in the tent, so he got up and left the tent.
The first thing that hit his face, was the bright light from the world's star. He wasn't sure if they called it the sun like his former world, so he decided to stick with 'star'.
After getting used to the light, he looked around and found that where he left the wolf, there was no wolf to be found.
But he didn't worry about that. He and Gerald had made a deal, and Gerald had fulfilled his side of the deal, while the wolf was Noah's side of the deal.
Sweeping his gaze on his immediate surroundings he found that no one was. present, but he heard voices coming from where the campfire was. Which was somewhere behind the tent he was staying in. So he began walking towards the place.
Hearing the loud laughs of the happy men of the group, Noah smiled a bit.
Arriving at his short destination, Noah met the beheaded body of the wolf and the men of the group sitting in a circle, all of them celebrating something.
Gerald spotted Noah during his daze and immediately called out to him.
"Noah. Come over here," He shouted In an excited tone.
The men noticed Noah at that point but limited themselves to ignoring him. Noah shrugged that hostile reaction like it was nothing. After all, he didn't expect them to trust him in one night.
He walked over to where Gerald was, and on getting there, he noticed the other individual standing beside him.
"Noah. let me introduce you to my friend. We worked together in the noble family I told you about," Gerald explained.
"Nice to meet you, Noah, I am Anthony," The man said bringing his hand forward for a handshake.
"Ah nice to meet you too," Noah replied returning the handshake.
The man named Anthony was around 6ft in height. Noah couldn't see much due to his leather clothes, but he knew the man was physically fit.
Anthony had brown neatly cut hair. He had no facial hair, or rather, it was shaved, giving him a neat look.
Anthony's eyes were green in color which complimented his brown hair.
Facially he looked as old as Gerald but was still handsome nonetheless.
"We were discussing going on a hunt, and I would like you to come," Gerald chipped in.
Noah initially didn't know what to say to those words. He wanted to explore more of this new world and also take the test for his elemental affinity. But Gerald had been nice enough to teach him how to perceive Mana, so he simply agreed to go with them.
"When do we leave?" Noah asked.
"In about thirty minutes," Gerald answered, while also shouting orders to the others in the group.
Noah was given food to eat, which he ate with delight. He was seriously happy that he didn't have to worry about being poisoned.
#
#
The thirty minutes quickly passed and the group was on their way.
Upon entering the forest, the men of the group wielded their weapons. It seemed they were wary of the forest.
Personally, Noah wasn't on edge. After all, he could perceive things in slow motion. Heck right now every other person was moving at a snail's pace to him, so he knew that even if a creature jumped out of the forest, it would be in slow motion. And if it seemed too dangerous, he would simply run.
Speaking about slow motion, Noah wondered why whenever he was in a conversation, the person he conversed with did not move in slow motion.
He had initially expected that he would get tired of talking to people since he was supposed to perceive them in slow motion. But that didn't seem to be the case during his conversation with Gerald and Anthony.
The system was really strange and he had just started using it. He eventually pushed the matter to the back of his mind. Not perceiving people in slow motion during a conversation was good.
Sweeping his gaze on his surroundings, Noah realized that he was behind the group, although Anthony and Gerald were with him, he still had the chance to inspect them.
The group was twenty in number including Gerald and Anthony, excluding Noah. All of them being tier 1, most being within the levels of 13 to 18.
The lowest level among them was a man who was level 7. This meant that in terms of level, Noah was the lowest, but according to his Inspection they all had one thing in common: None of their danger levels went up to impossible.
This made Noah confident in his strength, which he wasn't sure was normal
He also inspected Anthony the system revealed this to him.
[Anthony: Tier 2]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 35]
[Danger level: Impossible]
Anthony was strong. Although weaker than Gerald by three levels that didn't change the fact that he was strong.
The more Noah realized how weak he was, the more he wanted to level up and get stronger. And the gods answered his prayer almost instantly.
A powerful roar suddenly spread out in the air, disrupting the serenity of the forest. Followed by the appearance of a large bear.
If the bears on Earth were considered big, this one was massive. This bear's height touched 10ft, and it was on all four of its legs.
The group immediately reacted to this by entering combat mode. Most of the men were wielding swords, while some had daggers and a few other types.
Noah didn't have any weapons, but he could check to see its dangerousness.
[Tier 1 Brown bear]
[Level: 16]
[Danger level: Normal]
Noah relaxed, albeit a little. Even though the system classified it as "Normal", it could still kill someone in the group.
The bear took the initiative, throwing its clawed paw at the nearest man. The man tried to parry it with his sword, but the weight behind the attack flung him away, to the side.
At that, the others from the group did something that Noah could only have imagined for a fantasy novel. They activated their spells.
Some of them chanted something and small glowing circles appeared right before they threw out attacks, which varied from bullets of water to balls of air or fire.
While some, their weapons began to gain elemental attributes after they lit up with some strange letters. Most swords caught fire or had blue water dancing around them, while some had daggers that pulled the air around them.
Noah was astonished. The scene in front of him was simply magical, and it was.
Noah felt even more eager to know his elemental affinity and get even stronger.
The men who had their weapons ready, rushed at the bear, though carefully. They didn't dare to underestimate their opponent.
Some managed to land an attack on the bear before retreating to let their teammates launch ranged magical attacks. This tactic of attack continued for a while. The group's teamwork is seemingly perfect.
Noah felt utterly useless at that point. He didn't know whether to join them or not. Although, Gerald and Anthony were simply watching the fight play out.
It seemed that they would only intervene if something bad was about to happen, or if their enemy was a tier 2.
The combat went on for minutes. Between the good teamwork of the group and the lone bear, the team was winning.
Large cuts that bled badly eventually began to appear on the bear's body. Its rough breathing could also be heard from Noah's position. It was slowly dying.
Noah wondered why it didn't use any elemental attacks. Gerald had said that magical beasts had elemental affinities too.
His question was answered, when the ground shook and long spikes shot out of the ground, around the injured bear,
The men had to retreat at that sight, the bear looked to have had enough of them.
Everyone's eyes were on it, even Gerald and Anthony were on alert, afterall a cornered animal was the most dangerous.
The bear swept its gaze around. its eyes blazing with fury. It had never expected itself to get that injured in a fight. It wanted to rip apart the humans that were in front of it.
"Be careful it seems to be planning something," Gerald shouted.
He could end the beast, but he didn't want to, at least not yet. He had told Anthony about the uniqueness of Noah, but Noah had yet to attack at all.
He also wanted to be sure that what Noah told him was true, so he waited it out since Noah seemed full of surprises.
Noah's attention was also fully on the bear, to the extent that he forgot that there were two tier 2's behind him, who could wipe the bear's existence.
Everything moved in slow motion to him. He saw the bear eye the group of men, that were all at alert.
Some of them seemed to be a bit tired, while some looked exhausted.
Particularly one man who wielded a sword that was on fire, but he stopped feeling that function with mana, due to his exhaustion.
The bear noticed the man in his moment of weakness and it instantly attacked.
The bear created more spikes, to distract the others, but left its target alone. When it saw that its distraction had worked it moved.
Noah had noticed the man that the bear had eyes on. He had seen the man stop fueling his sword with Mana. He had also realized that the bear had wanted to attack him.
So when the bear made more spikes, he had seen that it had left its target alone.
So when it moved to give the man a killing blow, Noah unconsciously moved to.
Noah suddenly took a step forward, light cracks spreading on the ground where he was. Noah Instantly crossed the distance of about thirty meters, appearing in front of the bear that was just a meter or two from its target,
Due to Noah's unholy speed, the bear wasn't fast enough to react, heck it was even surprised.
In that split second of getting to the bear's position, Noah threw a punch at the bear's head, and it directly exploded on contact
