Chapter 14

Covered in wolf's blood and smell, Noah continued towards Aruk village, which was the nearest.

Although Noah had enough water to wash up, Noah didn't, for one, water that he had was limited and two, he would not be able to warm himself up afterwards. Even though the temperature was higher than Ayr city, it was still enough to freeze oneself to death if they weren't careful.

It was only a few kilometres in that Noah was interrupted again with a pack of five wolves.

Unlike the previous wolf, these looked much older and taller.

With the wolves surrounding him, Noah took on a defensive posture ready to fight.

'Master will die if you face them all at once.'

'Should I run?'

'The wolves are faster.'

'So, what's the play here?'

'Divide and conquer. Keep maintaining an even distance. If the master gets caught by one, rest will put you down.'

Sigh.

Getting ready to parry, Noah waited until the first wolf jumped on him. Just as it reached nearly on top of him, Noah held the sword sideways, hitting the wolf on its belly with the sword like a bat. Carrying the momentum of the wolf, Noah redirected it to throw the first wolf to the one behind him.

The three remaining wolves soon followed. Unable to dodge sideways or back, Noah held the sword, ready to throw. As the three wolves jumped on him, Noah carried the sword into the mouth of the one in the centre before letting go and evading by sliding underneath using his small size to his advantage.

Snow wolf killed.

Gained 100,000 exp.

Taking the bow out of his inventory, Noah started shooting arrows at all four. Although his accuracy was bad, he managed to lodge half of the arrows he shot into all four of the remaining wolves. With Ice touch inflicted on all the arrows, Noah was sure it dealt enough to slow them down.

Switching the bow with a spear from his inventory, Noah maintained a defensive posture according to the ice temple manual.

Although Noah hadn't trained with the bow or spear yet, the muscle memory he got from learning the manual was enough for him to confidently hold the weapon.

'Master's space attributed skills never seem to not surprise me. It's been so long since I've last seen it.'

'It's not a space attributed skill. It's Goddess Aditi's blessing. I thought she governed probabilities, how can she give control space… hmm, I need to ask her that as well when we meet next time,' Noah thought to himself.

'I am glad you are surprised but any tips you want to offer.'

'No, master is doing well. Continuing at the same pace should be enough.'

With the four remaining wolves back up again, Noah waited for an opening to repeat the same strategy to take out the next wolf.

Following at a steady pace, he was able to knock all the wolves down. With the wolves getting more aggressive over time, Noah wasn't able to evade each time without injuries. As the last wolf remained, Noah was down to a quarter of his health as well. Pushing through, he was somehow able to end the fight without him dying.

Laying down flat on the ground, Noah sighed a breath of relief before taking in potion after potion. As the injuries this time were severe, he had no other choice.

Noah tried distorting the potion to get better effects, but he found the gain not worth the amount of mana spent.

'Master, you need to clean up and camp before it gets dark. It's only a matter of time before the next pack of wolves comes after getting your scent.'

Following Skadi's advice, Noah cleaned up the corpses and himself, before burning the remains along with his clothes using the antiseptic as fuel.

As Noah still hadn't awakened his fire elemental, he was left with no other choice but to use regular matches with a mix of cloth soaked in antiseptic and dry wood as fuel.

Making enough distance from where he had fought, Noah set camp with dry wood before the sun went down.

====

At the Ice temple in Ayr city.

After explaining the note to the priests, Melissa gathered a group of knights for a search and rescue party.

Melissa left out the part where Noah said he had taken the supplies from them as it didn't make sense from her perspective.

It was impossible for a 10-year-old to carry that many items at once unless they had help or had space element based skills and Melissa was confident that both options weren't possible for him.

She knew all about his unawakened elemental affinities and space wasn't one of them. After spending time with him, she also found that, unlike most kids, Noah was an introvert type. This meant getting help from outside to carry all those items was impossible.

'Who would listen and aid a 10-year-old in robbing a temple unless they were acquaintances.'

After going through all the possibilities, Melissa was convinced.

"He must've been kidnapped while the robbers came. We must go and save him!!"

"Calm down, Melissa. We'll find him." Reynard tried his best to console her.

"This only happened because you geezers kept telling him that he will be sent out! He must have felt so alone. I can't let anything happen to him. If anything happens to him, I swear it will be you all who get thrown out of the temple." Melissa commanded the knights to leave.

Their march was interrupted when a carriage adorned with the insignia of the ice temple reached the gate of the temple.

An old man wearing the robes of the ice temple soon got out. His expression and posture was firm and regal. Only one glance was enough for anyone to understand that the old man in front of them was an important person, someone not to be taken lightly.

Yet at this moment, there was one person who threw away the respect he deserved out the window.

"Old man, we need to talk." Melissa welcomed the elder of the ice temple.