Chapter 13

Noah left the temple before dawn. After watching the shifts closely, Noah was able to find out what time the guards shifted each day.

Disguising himself from head to toe with old clothes from the temple, Noah looked like any other villager kid with his face covered.

As morning slowly set in, shops around Ayr city slowly started to open up.

Noah wanted to go to one of the medicinal and herb shops to buy potions but was unable to as he had no money. For medical emergencies, Noah almost robbed half of the temple's supplies. Although it only included basic first aid and recovery potions Noah was happy with the loot nonetheless.

As he reached the border of the city, Noah turned around one last time to bid farewell.

Ayr city being the connecting city for all towns in the north was located at the base of the mountain.

There were direct connecting roads towards the east and south, but it was mainly used for goods transportation.

Usually, someone only visited the north for its scenic beauty to relax and have a vacation or to sell goods.

With the decree of the royal family, northern parts of the north and west were prohibited from using modern technologies for ecological preservation. Allowing only the towns and cities in these areas to run environment-friendly tech. Although they weren't plenty there were enough such as the magic-based lamps and heaters.

With development clogged because of the decree, only a few lived and migrated here as it brought concerns over ease of life and safety. Getting attacked on the road wasn't uncommon and hence most would travel with guards or knights escorting.

Taking the risk, Noah continued east towards the nearest village. Memorizing the map beforehand, Noah was confident in taking the shortest path towards the next village.

Although an F grade person like him had more than double the stamina of a regular person, Noah didn't want to take any risks and took breaks each time his stamina went half.

Reaching halfway towards the nearest village, Noah finally met his first opponent, a snow wolf.

Snow wolves were a common species that lived in the area.

'Skadi, any thoughts?'

'Yes, master.'

Although the tone wasn't very polite, Noah was able to hear Skadi. With his last rule forcing her to only address him as 'master', Skadi had to reluctantly follow through.

'We won't be doing any of the parlour tricks master learnt. Take out your sword, master.'

Taking the sword out of the inventory, Noah felt the weight of the sword. Holding the sword that was nearly as tall as him, Noah took the posture of the ice temple sword style.

'Master can't use any of the intermediate elemental skills you showed me earlier as well. It taxes heavily on your body. Master will probably die using ice element skills with my power before the wolf kills you.'

'You want me to add another rule to motivate you?'

As the wolf jumped up on him, Noah could only slash at it to redirect the full impact.

The single confrontation took almost an eighth of his health whereas the wolf barely lost anything.

Even while playing EtherWorld, what he noticed was that the health bar was very accurate. Unlike other games where the health and the physical appearance of the opponent looked contradictory.

Although this meant that he could trust the health gauge wholeheartedly, he didn't want to test it on himself.

'Ideas are welcome.'

'Use ice touch on your sword when you swing at it and don't follow the sword style for dodging. That style is useful only if your opponent is a human. Just duck and roll.'

Pacing around the wolf as it moved, Noah charged to hit the wolf only to be bitten on the arm. With luck, he was able to throw the wolf away by swinging the sword with all his strength and with the sword covered in ice touch.

Although it dealt a good chunk of the wolf's health, the wolf was in much better shape than him.

'Don't charge. Parry, duck and roll, and strike from the back.'

Nodding, Noah waited for the wolf to jump on him once more. Timing the duck and roll almost precisely, Noah evaded before landing a strike on the wolf.

With the wolf limping forward, Skadi continued. 'What are you waiting for, master? Thrust and finish it.'

Following through, Noah thrusted the sword deep inside before using ice touch to finish it off.

Snow Wolf Killed.

Gained 100,000 exp.

Gasping for air, Noah supported himself against a tree.

Taking a bottle of low grade health potion out of his inventory, Noah gobbled up half and sprayed the remaining on top of his wounds. Noah could only clench his teeth hard from the pain.

Although it wasn't a high grade potion, Noah could see the wound clotting and healing slowly. After applying a layer of antiseptic, Noah wrapped the wound on his arm with gauze.

'Not bad for my first hunt, huh?'

'Tough question...I don't want to hurt myself.'

Tsk.

Staring at the wolf carcass, Noah stretched out his hand to try and store it in his inventory only to fail.

'Hmm, do I need to skin it?'

After getting Skadi's help, Noah skinned the wolf to its fur and meat as neatly as he could. This time he was able to store it in his inventory as separate items.

Getting himself ready, Noah continued the journey.

====

At the Ice temple.

"Noah, are you sleeping in again? Come on out or you'll miss breakfast." Melissa knocked on Noah's door.

"."

"I am coming in, okay."

Opening the door, Melissa could see the room neat and tidy, even the blankets were folded properly. Looking around Melissa was able to find a note.

"Hi, I am sorry for leaving without saying goodbye. It's just that I want to see the world myself. Anyway, thanks again for letting me stay, I'll never forget the favour.

Yours,

Noah

P.S I borrowed a few supplies for my trip."

'What?' Melissa could only read once more to process. 'Is he going to be okay? Why did he leave so suddenly? Is it because of what the knights were talking about? I need to go find him, it's not safe for him outside by himself.'

Melissa rushed towards the main temple to talk with Reynard and the other priests, only to hear another serious discussion.

"It seems half the medical supplies we had were stolen."

"I just checked, there is some shortage of food as well. I wonder what else was stolen?"

"Who could even think of robbing the temple an-and how?!"

'When he said a few supplies? Was it Noah who stole this?'

Hearing the conversation, Melissa could only yell reflexively. "NOAH!!!"