32 32 - Compensation

[User: Noah Stern

Level: 01, 88/100 exp

HP: 10/10

Strength: 10

Agility: 10

Stamina: 10

Skills:

(Hell Flames Lv 02, 15/500 exp: A technique that consists of invoking the flames of hell itself. The flames of hell did not differ from normal flames, but after purifying so many sins and so many sinners, it became the most powerful flame, having even burned the flame god himself, making him beg Lucifer to extinguish the flames before he died.To increase the power of the [Hell Flames] ability, the user must burn sins or sinners.

**After reaching Lv 02, the user's body adapted better to the flame and the control over it became slightly more natural, in addition to making it possible to purify humans very corroded by sin. Humans with few sins cannot be purified.**)]

Looking at the explanation inside the [**] that the system gave when the skill received an evolution, Noah was very tempted to burn some human to find out if he would just get exp or if he would get something else. Unfortunately he still didn't have a target to test this on now, but in the future that could easily be resolved.

While Noah wondered what he would receive when he went up to Level 02, the other bodies of the goblins had finished burning, reminding him that there were still several other bodies for him to absorb and gain exp from. Unfortunately, Noah was discouraged when he saw the amount of exp he would now need to evolve the skill to Level 03. If the skill had still needed only 100 points, it would be easy for Noah to achieve, but now that the skill needed 5x more points, Noah knew that he would need to hurry up to get stronger and be able to invade a large number of Fortresses.

'Maybe I should focus more on Fortress raids to get stronger before I start worrying about making a lot of money, since it wouldn't do me any good to make a lot of money and not have the strength to defend myself. That money would just put my life and that of my family at risk,' Noah thought.

While the Blessed Ones rested, Noah ignored them and went to each dead goblin and set them on fire one by one. When summoning the flames again, Noah felt like it was easier to control the flame so that they would do what he imagined. Even the fireball he once had difficulty maintaining stable control with, now at least no longer flickered as if it were going to break apart at any moment. He was still far from having enough mastery to make words of flame like the system displayed, but this was definitely a start.

He had no way to test it, but Noah believed that if he were to face the Super Boss of that Rank F Fortress again, his current flames would make the battle easier, as they would be able to penetrate the big monster's defenses much better. Not that he could easily kill the monster, but instead of having 11 deaths in the group, perhaps only 7 or 8 people would die at most in the battle.

The tired group around Noah looked at him as if he were a lunatic, but Noah already had an excuse prepared for them. He didn't care what people really thought of him, but it would be very problematic for the group to think that they had a psychopath in the group, so after setting fire to the last goblin corpse, Noah simply turned towards the others assembled and said out loud, "You are not in a position to fight. The best thing to do is to erase the tracks of this battle and get out of here as soon as possible. We don't know if they will return with more reinforcements or if they will lock themselves inside their camp, but I am not in the mood to find out. While I was hunting, I discovered a stream 25 minutes walk in a southwest direction. We can set up a makeshift camp there to recharge our batteries before going to invade their camp, since going now would be suicide."

Jasper was well aware of the situation that the Blessed group was in now. If they tried to invade the goblins' camp it would be no different from seeking their own death. "You are right. I suppose everyone has already managed to get enough rest for a 25-minute walk by now. We are going to set up camp near this stream you mentioned to rest, and there we can build a better strategy to defeat this Fortress. We'll count on you to lead the way, Noah."

Among the group of Blessed Ones, most did not care what was happening and got up to go towards the stream to rest, while a small group, apparently the group of people closest to the woman who shouted before at Noah, even though they stood up to go towards the stream, they made it very clear the dissatisfaction they felt having to obey a Blessed person that they thought was weak.

"If I had my energy full, I would also be able to burn those goblins to death who were already tired, maybe even faster than him..." a man from the dissatisfied group muttered under his breath.

Noah heard clearly what the man said, but he couldn't care less what the man thought he could do or not do. Almost always the reason for the death of a Blessed in a Fortress invasion was not the fault of the monsters, but rather the Blessed's own stupidity.

As they walked, Noah, who was always on the alert for any suspicious noise that might approach them, noticed that someone from the Blessed behind him was coming close to talk to him.

"Thanks again for saving us. I apologize once again for the treatment we gave you before the invasion started. I hope I can make up for it in some way in the future," Jasper said when he got close enough to Noah, as Noah was leading the group walking alone in the front.

When Noah heard Jasper talk about "compensation" he couldn't help but be excited. But still with a disinterested expression, he turned to Jasper and looked him up and down.

Jasper, feeling Noah's gaze, felt a little shiver run down his spine while something deep in his heart said that he shouldn't have said that to the man in front of him, but as he had already said it, it was now too late to withdraw what he had said.

From what Noah could see of Jasper, he had high-quality equipment, both when it came to armor and weaponry, from the light yellow glow that Jasper's little dagger emitted, Noah knew that this was no ordinary dagger but a blessed dagger.

Fortresses did not stop humans from taking out things they found inside. If Noah wanted to, he could even use the goblins' rusty swords and take them out, but the material was so weak and of such poor quality that it wouldn't be worth it. When it came to high rank Fortresses, the weapons dropped by monsters inside were already of much higher quality.

The blacksmiths of the human federation on every planet began to study the metals used in weapons that humans drew from highrank Fortresses since they discovered the possibility of bringing these strong and sturdy weapons out of the Fortresses and in a few years they managed to be able to melt the great axes of the orcs, or fangs of the snow trolls that humans found to make new weapons and armor for humans to use in raids.

The higher the degree of strength the metal was taken from, the more difficult it was for blacksmiths to work with it, but the higher the quality of the item, the higher the price would be as well.

Noah knew he was looking at an object made from one of these metals. While not of very quality, the dagger definitely had been made with what humans call "blessed metals", making it a blessed weapon.

Thinking about "compensation", Noah had an idea...

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