At that time, Noah had faced a dilemma: in front of him were three human corpses, but he didn't know what to do about them. Normally in Fortresses there was no standard for how to deal with human corpses. There were cases where the Blessed was a friend or acquaintance of someone from the invasion, and that person took the body of the Blessed to be properly buried; on the other hand there were times when nobody in the Fortress cared about who died and they just left, which was the case with the last Fortress in which Noah participated.
At the time Noah was trying to identify if anyone was interested in the corpses, because if no one showed interest, he would try his luck by burning the bodies. Before, his ability did not allow him to absorb anything from the dead humans, but now if the human he burned carried a large number of sins, it was possible for him to benefit from their disposal.
'When I burn monsters, my energy is recovered beyond the exp points I gain from the skill, but I don't know what would happen if I burned humans... Maybe I would get something other than just the points?' Noah thought. He had countless assumptions in his head as to what could happen, but no way to substantiate those assumptions so far.
Another thing that made Noah very excited was that when he saw his stats, he had noticed that by leveling up he had gained 2 points in each stat. This may seem small, but if one looked at it from another angle, it was as if Noah had become 20% more efficient in everything: both strength, agility, and physical endurance.
Curious to know the reason for all this, Noah used the system option he had learned that showed details about a skill, and that option told him that as he leveled up, he became closer to the power of Lucifer, and that by reaching the maximum level, Noah would have a body as strong as that of the fallen angel himself. Unfortunately, the system did not say what the maximum level was, so he felt like he was running a long marathon but that he didn't know exactly where it ended up, just following a path.
"That last attack was very good. Your teleportation skill is extremely useful!" Noah heard a voice speaking beside him; it was Jasper, showing a friendly smile.
Hearing that Jasper assumed the ability was teleportation, Noah did not correct him, as it would be more difficult to try to explain what the ability really was, since in the end the functionality of the ability was basically teleportation.
"Thank you, it really is. The only problem with it is that it consumes a lot of energy," Noah replied to Jasper as he tried to understand what the man wanted by coming up to talk to him. Noah had already met many people in the Fortresses, but strangely just now in the Rank E Fortress was the first time someone came to talk to him so amicably and treated him well. Usually people excluded him; sometimes they kept talking bad; at best, some ignored him.
Jasper noticed Noah's suspicious look and couldn't help but sigh; he supposed Noah had been offended until now from what happened outside of the Fortress. Even more, now that Noah had shown such great battle power, it would make perfect sense that he should be offended by being despised. After all, every man has his pride. But little did he know that Noah had actually been used to this sort of thing for a long time, and that his pride didn't affect him that much anymore.
"I'm glad you didn't seriously hurt yourself beyond those little scratches. Even though I was on the frontline, I still saw you protecting the life of the backline countless times. I'm sure if it weren't for you doing this, our casualties in the invasion would have been much greater. This time I came to invite you," Jasper said to Noah with a serious look.
Raising an eyebrow, Noah already imagined where this conversation would lead him, but not that it was a bad thing; in fact, it would make things easier. "What would it be?"
Seeing Noah's interest, Jasper smiled and said, "I am part of a Fortress invasion group. Unfortunately, one of our members recently passed away in an invasion without the rest of the group and we are looking for a powerful member to fill her place. As the member who died was the one who protected the backline, I believe you would fit her role perfectly."
This was exactly what Noah imagined was going to happen. He had never been called to any group before, for obvious reasons, but he was in doubt about something. "But why did you join a random invasion instead of going for invasions with your group?"
Since Jasper already had an invasion group, it would be natural for him to undertake invasions with the known group, since, as everyone already knew each other and had synergy, the chance of someone dying in an invasion group was several times less than when going to Fortresses with strangers.
"Actually, Erick and I are together. The invasion group doesn't restrict anyone; in fact, we usually schedule Fortress invasions at two or three times a week. The rest of the days the members are free to do whatever they want. For instance, I want to change my car for a better one and Erick is renovating his house. We have been breaking into a few extra Fortresses a week to get some more money." Jasper replied calmly. He understood the reason for Noah's doubt, since there are many groups that do not allow members to participate in invasions alone.
Hearing that, Noah was interested. To pay for his sister's treatment, he would need a lot of money. Even if he broke into eight Rank E Fortresses a month, in the end it would be just $8,000. For a normal family, that money would be considered a lot, but for Noah, who needed to pay for his sister's treatment in addition to paying off his uncle's loan, in the end that money was far from enough.
Many people believed that if there were so many Blessed making so much money, then there were many rich Blessed, but this was not even close to reality. The number of people who awakened Blessings was not low, but it was also not high; if it were not for the high remuneration, many with Blessings would not even want to invade Fortresses because many people had died inside them. It can be said that among the Blessed: 45% of them were of Rank F, 28% of Rank E, 15% of Rank D, 8% of Rank C, 3% of Rank B, and 1% of Rank A. The amount of Blessed Rank S was so low that it didn't even factor into the statistic.
Many had high rank Blessings, but they died long before reaching the strength that the Blessing would allow the Blessed to attain.
Noah didn't want to be counted among those Blessed ones who died before reaching their potential, but he needed urgent money, so this opportunity was ideal. Being part of an invasion group would guarantee him peaceful Fortresses and a stable source of income, in addition to the benefit of being able to invade Fortresses without the group as well, since he did not want to limit himself to them.
"I'm interested, yes. When we leave the Fortress, I'll give you my phone number. How about it?" Noah answered Jasper with a smile on his face. He knew that Jasper only reached out to him because he showed that he was strong. If Noah had been weak, Jasper wouldn't have even cared about him, but what would be the matter with that? If Noah were in Jasper's position he would do the same thing; the only thing he didn't accept was discrimination and prejudice, as Abigail had shown before they entered the Fortress.
Speaking of Abigail, looking to the side, Noah saw the woman coming towards him while making a strange expression.
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Damn, we reach the goals again? Crap... I'll have to publish a lot of chapters today then... VOTE FOR NEXT SUNDAY MASS RELEASE!!! YAY :3
[Today: 3/6]
-----------------
Sunday's Extra Chapters Challenge!
[3.300 Stones = 2 Extra Chapter]
[3.500 Stones = 4 Extra Chapters]
[+500 Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Chapter edited by Azurtha]
-----------------
Damn, we reach the goals again? Crap... I'll have to publish a lot of chapters today then... VOTE FOR NEXT SUNDAY MASS RELEASE!!! YAY :3
[Today: 3/6]
-----------------
Sunday's Extra Chapters Challenge!
[3.300 Stones = 2 Extra Chapter]
[3.500 Stones = 4 Extra Chapters]
[+500 Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Chapter edited by Azurtha]
While Noah was talking to Jasper, Abigail came walking towards him with a strange expression on her face.
Abigail was a beautiful woman, apparently 19 years old, with long black hair that was tied in a ponytail so as not to disturb her during the battles mainly because she was an archer and depended a lot on her own vision to be able to hit an enemy; having hair covering her face would be inconvenient. Her appearance was the option most likely to be the fault of why she was so arrogant even though she was still 19 years old with no sort of achievement to support this arrogance Noah figured in his mind.
It was common knowledge that the younger someone was, the more impulsive they were, too, so Noah just determined it to be the fault of her age. Since Noah had no contact with anyone his age except Carlos, who was forced to be mature because of the family business, and Noah himself had to mature very early in order to survive alone, he did not know what other people's mentalities were like from about the same age.
"Okay, after we leave I will talk to you outside the Fortress," Jasper told Noah before leaving, after seeing that Abigail wanted to talk to Noah.
Noah nodded in agreement to Jasper and turned to Abigail. Looking at her, Noah remembered what happened before they entered the Fortress, as well as all the arrogance she had also displayed at the Rank F Fortress at which they met and the little scenario that happened before they came to attack the goblin camp. What made him realize how strange it was was that she remembered his name even though they never had any kind of interaction with each other besides that Rank F Fortress. He himself only remembered her name because he was reminded of it by Jasper, since from the encounter at the Fortress that happened a few years ago, Noah automatically forgot her name because it was not an important name in his life.
Abigail looked at Noah and was unable to know what he was thinking, as he always kept a poker face staring as if he were bored. She noticed this seemed to be a more recent development in his character, since before, he was definitely more cowardly than not. When Abigail had first met him, she was, like her other girl friends, captivated by his handsome appearance, but upon discovering that he was just a Blessed Rank F, all her interest in him was replaced out of contempt, since she would only want someone powerful to be associated with herself.
This would have been the end of their interaction, except for the irony of fate. Today she had met him again, and not only had he become more beautiful than when she first met him, but he had also become much stronger - even stronger than she herself was. Abigail wasn't stupid; she knew she had already spoiled any kind of good relationship she could have had with him because of the way she acted before, but she still wanted to work things out. "Hi..." She spoke in a low voice.
"Hi." Noah responded with the expression of disinterest that he always kept.
"I... I'm sorry. I talked to my friends and they made me understand how wrong it was, what I did. I'm sorry for everything I said. I believe I ended up getting carried away by prejudices that I had and if you hadn't shown up, those three wouldn't have been the only ones to die to the Boss. I don't expect you to forgive me; you have every right to feel the way you want. But I at least wanted to show my gratitude that you left this matter aside and still helped us. I hope at least we can get on with our lives and leave what I did behind," Abigail said as she looked at the floor, sometimes looking up momentarily, but quickly looking away again out of shame.
Seeing her reaction, Noah couldn't help raising an eyebrow in amazement once again. He was used to people talking poorly about him. If he was going to hold a grudge against everyone who wronged him and keep wishing evil on each one of them, his heart, which was already very well occupied by his sister and good things, would have had no more space; since so many people did terrible things to him, there would be so much resentment that he would go into depression.
But seeing that Abigail was really sorry from her body language, due to her constantly looking at the floor and messing with her hair which meant nervousness, Noah was surprised, as this was the first time anyone was mature enough to apologize to him.
Harry and Wendy were the two great recent examples of immaturity: even though their lives were practically saved by Noah, because of childish pride they took him as an enemy. But Noah had already become so accustomed to dealing with troubled and childlike people like them that dealing with someone mature like Abigail was a breath of fresh air.
With a serious look on his face, but an amused smile, Noah replied. "Your apology has been accepted. Don't worry that I would hold a grudge for something silly like what happened before. I'm happy to see your attitude; few people are able to bow their heads and accept their error when they do something wrong."
Hearing this, Abigail felt relieved, and with a smile she went over towards a woman's corpse. Noah, seeing this, assumed that the woman could have been her friend.
Suddenly a section of the forest distorted and a large black portal with the familiar purple plasma was available for the Blessed to cross.
Some just went through the portal; others gave a last farewell to one of the corpses; while the big man who carried the goblin was now carrying the corpse of a young man while he had a sad expression on his face.
Noah watched this all from the side while looking at the Boss, or rather the ashes left over from the now burned Boss.
The Boss's bow had already been sold to an archer and the money would be distributed evenly to all the Blessed. Noah already had one of the daggers, and no one dared to ask him to pay for the dagger after he practically saved the lives of each of the Blessed at least once during the invasion.
Now alone, Noah was happy to see that a corpse had been left abandoned. Looking at it, he knew he couldn't take long, since even if nobody said anything, someone might still have a doubt that he had stayed because he was a pervert, since the corpse that remained was that of a woman.
Noah obviously wasn't a pervert, so he quickly conjured the flames of hell and set fire to the woman's entire body.
When looking at the body beginning to be burned, Noah's only concern was whether this woman would have sinned enough to make "cleansing" possible or not, and that she might just be turned to ashes.
Noah didn't take long to think about it, since as soon as the woman started to be truly burned, a system message appeared floating in front of him.
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Okay, I'm too tired, I'm not uploading the other chapters today, but don't worry, they will still be published.
[Today: 4/6]
-----------------
Sunday's Extra Chapters Challenge!
[3.300 Stones = 2 Extra Chapter]
[3.500 Stones = 4 Extra Chapters]
[+500 Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Chapter edited by Azurtha]
-----------------
Okay, I'm too tired, I'm not uploading the other chapters today, but don't worry, they will still be published.
[Today: 4/6]
-----------------
Sunday's Extra Chapters Challenge!
[3.300 Stones = 2 Extra Chapter]
[3.500 Stones = 4 Extra Chapters]
[+500 Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Chapter edited by Azurtha]
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