Chapter 7: Settling in

One year had passed since Noah arrived in the temple, and during that time, Ryan had left a total of 2 times, and this time he was away again for his usual job. He had been gone for a month now and Noah wasn't sure when he'd be back.

His relationship with Diara could be likened to a mother and her child, while Serah the apprentice priestess was like an elder sister, quiet, calm like a ghost, always there when you need her but you would forget about her if she didn't appear for a while. Granted you don't get her angry, Noah could say from experience that he didn't want to do that again, the last time was trouble enough.

His studies had grown to the point where Diara didn't have to supervise him at every giving moment, she'd just drop in once in a while to check up on him and he'd ask any questions he had in mind. It was one of the calm and soothing moments for both of them as over time the topics discussed widened and diversified into different places.

'Interesting' was what Diara thought most times, lost in the depths of their conversation.

As for his physical training, Ryan had finally declared him ready after five months of training his foundation and building what he called the perfect body and reflexes for battle, but that was just the beginning of Noah's hell.

Ryan would beat the life out of Noah every morning in the name of developing his battle instincts, he refrained from teaching him any specific art so as not to hinder his progress when he finally awakened, should in case his path and battle style differed greatly from what he learnt.

"Would be too much trouble to retrain you and forge your reflexes and instincts, dropping your habits and style to the way it should be. Just a waste of time and effort" Ryan declared, but that didn't stop him from trashing Noah time after time every morning. Then in the evenings Noah would go through a set of training regime together with a ridiculous house sized contraption Ryan had built with the aid of the local smithy.

During the first five months of Noah's training, Ryan alongside Karl, the dwarf who ran the only smithy in the town built what Ryan called a battle simulator. Only God knows how they made it work with just iron, wood and God knows whatever else was put into the death machine, but it worked just fine. Too fine in Noah's opinion, as if getting beat up by Ryan wasn't enough he had to get beat up by the simulator too. This wasn't what he signed up for.

On the bright side of things, over the months, he was hit less and less, he was starting to understand how to read and anticipate the moves and go with the flow. That doesn't mean he didn't get bruised and battered though as Ryan said would be too easy of the pattern was the same everytime. So it switches up randomly after every run.

'Goddammit, just how where they able to build this monstrosity ' Noah thought inwards, because neither Serah nor Diara allowed any form of causing, if they caught him doing any form of cursing, he'd be in big trouble, just the thought of it had him shivering. It was the start of a new day, the sun's rays just starting to light up the sky and winter was approaching, he had just finished his session with the death machine, as he liked to call it, and was preparing to start the day.

"I see you're working up a sweat as usual, it's so early in the morning and yet you never miss it, I'm really starting to believe Serah's words of you being a masochist"

A voice said from behind, laughing loudly, It was a boy around 5 ft 5 inches tall, he looked ripped with muscles bulging, threatening to spill out of his clothes. Although his body proportions looked a little off as the size of his head and arms were distinctively larger than the rest of his body, it was totally normal for he was a different race. He had red hair that flowed down to his shoulders, that is if they were not in braids at the moment, and Noah eyed the stubble underneath his chin.

"Valdor"

Noah called out with a sigh

"You know I'm not a masochist neither do I enjoy this but if Ryan gets back and notices I slacked off even the slightest bit, I would probably visit the afterlife when he's done with me"

Again Noah shivered at the thought of Ryan's special love sessions.

Valdor or Val, just laughed at his friends plight and worked towards him, pulling him into a hug, not minding his friends state at all.

"I know, I know it's good to see you doing your best brother, now go take a bath, you stink, we have a job for us"

Val told Noah patting his behind with such strength you wouldn't believe came from such a small figure.

"Come on, into the house we go"

Val pushed Noah

"Yes brother, just give me a few minutes and I'll be ready"

Noah sighed once again before going towards his house to take a bath and prepare himself.

Val happened to be a halflin, a child formed from his drawven father Karl, the Smith and his human mother Eva. He had the dwarven side dominant but was a taller than the average height of the dwarven race.

They had met for the first time during the construction of the battle simulator and it off quite nicely. Val was older than Noah by 2 years but happened to be the only one that was close to him in terms of knowledge and age group, with the others either being too old or too young. After a little spat and tussle to strengthen their bonds they become sworn brothers.

They both got in with Val staying in the living room, taking out some material from the bag he brought alone with him, the work they had at hand wasn't going to be easy it seems if even Val had to prepare that much before going.

Noah took his time to take a bath and prepare himself. His reflection in the mirror showed just how much he had grown in the past year.

He was taller now, around 180cm he estimated, his body looked like it was sculpted from marble, his complexion tanned from the constant exposure to the sunlight he trained in. He no longer looked like a child and was more of a man, even if there was no sign of a beard or moustache sprouting yet.

'Just my luck ' He sighed to himself after making sure he was properly dressed.

He went to the living room and had a good look at Valdor, his brother, who was engrossed in his drawings and papers scattered over the table that he didn't even pay any attention to Noah.

Just as Noah was about to speak up, Valdor finally looked up

"First off, I have gotten permission from both our parents and Diara and everything we're about to do won't get you in any trouble this time, I give you my word"

Valdor said while staring into his friends eyes.

This wasn't the first time Val had dragged Noah into one of his adventures and most times, Noah always ended up getting caught up in some mess because Valdor didn't properly set things up. But looking at the way his brother was acting, Noah felt he might as well listen to what he had planned.

"Alright then, show me what you got"

Noah sighed, as he looked at the papers scattered over the table. He really had been sighing a lot lately