Chapter 271: Good things

After several hours of invasion, the Blessed crossed the portal and returned to the normal world. Everyone's expressions showed extreme fatigue. It was as if they had run two triathlons in a row.

But despite the fatigue, the Blessed were excited. Before leaving, the captain had said that their contribution would be tripled to this Fortress, as it was a much more dangerous place than imagined, both because of the strange monsters they encountered at the beginning of the Fortress, as well as the six Rank C Boss trolls, and especially the two Rank B monsters they encountered in the cave. Even though they hadn't participated in battles against Rank B monsters, they were still in danger. So as compensation, the Khan family would pay three times as much contribution points.

For the Blessed in the inner circle of the team, which were the leader, the bearded man,and the young healer of the team, who normally received a maximum of 160 contribution points, this time they would receive 480 contribution points. As for the Blessed in the outer circle, who normally received a maximum of 60 contribution points, this time they would receive 180 points. This was a value that everyone liked, as with the savings they had, everyone could buy at least one essence today because of this Fortress.

Only Noah was given a different value. As he was able to help in the battle against the Rank B monsters, either controlling the trolls to buy time or holding the vampire to protect the captain, Noah would receive ten times as much contribution points, reaching a total of 1,600 points. With that, Noah could buy at least 5 essences for Maggy, which might seem a little, seeing as it only yielded 0.5 stat points, but this was from just a single Fortress, and that if Noah got at least 50 essences for her, that would be 5 full points!

5 points in a stat was a lot, to the point that even for Noah who currently had approximately 30 points in mana, 5 points represented almost 20% of his total. For Maggy this improvement would be even more important.

So with that in mind, Noah decided to buy essences to make her stronger, since he knew that with her and Carlos' system, in the future they would be very important helpers for him, who would have to deal with monsters above Rank S. But that wasn't something Noah could do now, as he was practically dragged by the other Blessed to the most famous restaurant in town to celebrate their fruitful harvest today.

The Blessed decided that they would split Noah's bill among themselves so that Noah would not have to pay anything, as they knew that without Noah's contribution to the invasion, they would have had a lot of trouble finishing the Fortress, and would probably have had to have given it up after killing the first troll.

Seeing how excited they were, Noah couldn't refuse and went with them to have lunch at the restaurant he had already gone to before with Marcel.

Before that, however, they each went home to take off their armor and put on more sociable clothes, as the armor was uncomfortable and was very bloody. And when he got home, Noah saw Maggy and Bel playing in the backyard of the house, each controlling a small animal made of flames as they bickered over which animal was cuter. Maggy had made a small pony with a horn on its head, probably taking inspiration from Noah's unicorn, while Bel had made a lizard with four pairs of horns and teeth as sharp as swords.

While Maggy said the unicorn was cute and the lizard was weird because it looked like a villain's monster, Bel said the lizard was cute because it was powerful, while the unicorn was weird because it looked useless.

"You're wrong, the unicorn is much cuter! Look at her big eyes just beg for attention!" Maggy yelled at Bel.

"Since when are big eyes cute? You gotta see what the first angels were like! They were big giant rings with an eye the size of a truck! Big eyes are ugly. My lizard has no eyes and has teeth made up of cute swords, and yes, swords are cute!" Bel yelled back as he felt the lizard was much cuter, though to normal people, Bel's lizard looked like a machine made to kill that could easily make a child have nightmares for weeks.

"Hey kids, don't fight," Noah said with a smile as he approached them.

"Noah!!! I missed you!" Maggy yelled as she ran to Noah and hugged him.

With Pyakugan always active, even though Maggy was standing in front of Bel, Noah saw the boy look at them with an expression of envy and shame, which made Noah hug Maggy with one arm and open the other arm for him, before saying, "Come Bel. Here at home we give hugs to those who come back after leaving."

Hearing Noah's explanation, Bel's cheeks took on a rosy complexion, but still, shyly, Bel moved closer to Noah before being caught in a hug.

At first Bel stiffened, but in a second he lightened and squeezed Noah tightly for a moment. To Bel, it was just a little strength, but to Noah, who felt it personally, it was like Bel had thrown a truck at him. Luckily Noah managed to resist until the end of the hug, but seeing Bel's smile after releasing Noah, and the expression that he wanted more, Noah didn't say anything embarrassing, just stored it away mentally.

'I need to get stronger soon; just a light hug from Bel almost broke my bones...'

Lilith was dozing in a nearby chair, and only saw Noah now, which she readily took advantage of to curl herself around Noah's wrist, which was her most comfortable spot.

"Was it difficult for you?" Noah asked her mentally.

"Initially it was a little bit. Bel was very scared, but his curiosity managed to break that barrier and made him open up more to us. He's a good boy," Lilith responded as she closed her eyes and snuggled closer to Noah's wrist.

"That's nice," Noah replied mentally in a gentle way.

He spent a few minutes talking to the children, before ordering food on his cell phone for them to eat, and went out to meet the Blessed. Little did he know that this lunch wouldn't be peaceful, but Noah would get very good things from this lunch.

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