25 25 - Entering a Rank E Fortress

Hearing the woman speak out loud in such an accusatory tone suddenly caught the attention of the other assembled Blessed, who looked at both Noah and the woman with curiosity, wondering what was about to happen.

Noah was surprised by the woman's sudden reaction and for some reason she seemed a little familiar to him, but he confirmed her suspicion. "Yes, I am Noah, why?" He spoke with uncertainty, not understanding why this Blessed Rank E suddenly singled him out.

"I knew it was you! I have already invaded a Fortress with you. You are the Blessed Rank F who received a Blessing from the god of beauty! What did you come here to do in an E Rank Fortress? Did you finally think it was your time to die, or do you think you will simply enchant monsters with your beauty?" The woman laughed in disdain as she looked at Noah.

Hearing what the woman said, Noah finally remembered who she was. One time he had been placed in an invasion group with several arrogant newbies (similar to the last Fortress he invaded), and this woman was one of the Blessed Rank E who felt far superior to the Blessed Rank F who came to invade the Fortress.

Because that Fortress was just an ordinary Rank F Fortress, the difficulty was not high for an average group, so in that invasion only 2 Blessed Rank F newcomers died of carelessness while the Blessed Rank E managed to get through the Fortress with just a few minor injuries, causing their arrogance to skyrocket.

Unfortunately, Noah did not pay enough attention to the woman to remember what Blessing she had had, so he couldn't prepare for it if she were to cause problems inside the Fortress. "The reason I came to a Rank E Fortress doesn't matter. The best thing you can do is be quiet."

When the group heard the woman saying that Noah was a Blessed Rank F, almost everyone had already had a bad first impression of him, and after he said such arrogant words to the woman who had raided several Fortresses alongside all of them Noah had made it seem like he, and not her, was the aggressor, causing everyone's impression of him to be the absolute worst possible, even causing some to openly look at him with an expression of disdain.

Noah knew very well that this was going to happen, and that was exactly what he wanted. During the bus ride, he was wondering what excuse he would have to use to part with the group after entering the Fortress, but even though he had thought of an acceptable excuse, now that such a perfect opportunity to part with the group had appeared, he wouldn't let this chance pass by him. Even if it made the other members of the group dislike him, he knew that just because he was known to be a useless Blessed Rank F, no one would give him sympathy. That, in their view, would only delay the group inside the Fortress.

Noah was not surprised by such arrogance from this woman, since after being ridiculed for so long, this kind of thing for him was like a simple "Good morning". So, regardless of the woman's clear provocation, Noah just placed more wood on the fire to get what he wanted. "As I said before, it's none of your business. Keep quiet, and stop pissing me off."

Seeing that she was being ridiculed by someone of such low rank, the woman could not control herself and said out loud with extreme animosity, "I want to see how you will handle yourself inside the Fortress." She saw the angry looks the rest of the group were giving Noah, knowing that if she elected to expel him from the group no one would object, since if he were left alone he would die and half of his share of the payment would be distributed among the rest of the group.

"That's enough! The portal is already open. The cabinets for personal effects have already been removed from the bus and set up near the entrance. Keep your belongings there and enter the portal before any monsters leave. This Fortress has been open for almost a week," the government official said without taking his eyes off his tablet that held the data of all the present Blessed.

Listening to what he said, some of the group did not understand what it meant, others were concerned about that news, but Noah was different. He was excited, since the longer a Fortress stayed open, the more monsters would be inside to the point that if a Fortress spent more than a week open without anyone destroying it, the monsters would start to spill out and invade the planet, killing everything they could find. For the rest of the people, this sort of Fortress was undesirable, as it meant more monsters to deal with, but for Noah it was great news, as it meant that he had more monsters to kill and consequently more exp to gain from their death.

So while the others were worried about discussing their strategy to kill the monsters, Noah, who knew from the beginning that it would be better to face the Fortress on his own, already had a plan in mind of what he would do to survive this Fortress.

Unfortunately for him, this was possibly one of the worst places to go alone, as goblins had always been known to be weaker than normal Rank E monsters, but unlike other monsters, goblins had a greater sense of community beyond their intellectual capacity, forming simple strategies for dealing with attackers in groups.

For Noah who would go alone, having to deal with monsters in groups was already slightly problematic. Now having to deal with intelligent monsters in groups with battle strategies made the battle for him even more difficult, but since he had already been thinking about his plan for this Fortress for the last few hours, Noah already had in mind what he would do to deal with this situation with the least possible risk in relation to the greatest possible benefit. And for that to happen, the group's opinion of him today was the best possible outcome.

One thing that Noah thought was funny was that besides himself, only two other people had been concerned with wearing the most practical clothes for the forest Fortress. The rest of the Blessed had only taken some clothes that they found beautiful and comfortable, but they didn't care what usefulness their clothes might have inside the Fortress in terms of camouflage.

After storing his own cell phone, headphones, and some other technological gadgets, Noah noted that the group of Blessed Ones was still discussing what strategy they were going to use inside without even considering asking him to participate. Taking advantage of their distraction, Noah, without warning anyone, entered the portal.

As he crossed the portal he laughed at the difference there was between a group made up of veteran Blessed Rank E and an average group entering a Rank F Fortress, since as there were many newbies going to Rank F Fortresses, Noah had never seen a situation where the entire group of invaders willingly met to discuss the strategy they would use like the group was doing here.

Of course, he knew that many in the group did not even bother to study anything about the Fortress, but the more experienced people were already filling in those carefree people with at least the bare minimum information necessary for the invasion.

Crossing the portal, Noah found himself moving from a purple forest to a completely green forest. The trees had green leaves, the ground was covered with green undergrowth, the surroundings were covered with green bushes. Noah knew his clothes would be effective in this place, different from the flashy clothes that the other Blessed were wearing which basically would be useful only to draw the attention of monsters unnecessarily and expose the group's position.

Putting that thought aside, Noah went off in a random direction into the forest and walked away from the portal in search of monsters.

The search for green goblins in a green forest was obviously not going to be easy, since in the same way that Noah's clothes helped him to camouflage himself against monsters, the green skin of the little monsters also served the same purpose. But Noah had something that would work in his favor: as the Fortress was open for more than a week, it meant there were many monsters inside, so it would be much easier for Noah to find monsters in the forest.

And just as he imagined, he didn't have to walk many meters before finding a small group of 3 goblins patrolling the forest, probably looking for food.

'This is my chance.' Noah thought as he prepared an excited ambush to see how much exp he would get after killing these goblins.

--------