65 65 - Beggar

Among the big and tall trees, one of the latter type of species was running as if his life depended on it. Looking more closely, it was possible to see that the running person was a human, with short black hair that almost blocked his view because of his bangs. He was wearing an outfit that, because of the vision filter, looked orange, but it was actually white. On his back, a large backpack rocked from side to side, as if it were filled with something very heavy and bulky. That human was apparently being very careful with what was in his backpack so that it wouldn't break, even though it was still rocking a lot.

As you might expect, that human running nonstop was Noah. He had descended from the giant nest with a single teleport instead of descending in stages because he was afraid of what he found up there. In fact, he was not afraid of what he found, but of what could happen to him because he found it.

As he ran away, whenever Noah came across a group of monsters, he would act in the most practical way possible, teleporting on top of the bird, dropping the boar, causing it to fall from the air. while using his flames to set the bird on fire, causing it to fall as well and die from either the fall or flames.

In this way, Noah killed five groups of monsters alone, some groups being just a boar and a bird, other groups being two pairs. This earned Noah much more exp than he would have earned in a party, but it also made him take too much risk and waste energy. Currently, because of the high rate of teleports he was making, the energy he was recovering from burning the monsters was not enough to replenish what he spent in battle, so at that point Noah had just under half his total energy.

In addition to tiredness making him vulnerable to some monster that was a little more intelligent, it also meant that he still couldn't hunt in the Fortress completely alone.

Looking at some scratches and small cuts he received when dealing with the last group because he was not so attentive thanks to exhaustion made Noah think. 'Unfortunately, I'm still not strong enough to be self-sufficient in a Fortress. Perhaps in the future, with a greater variety of skills, I will be able to go into Fortresses alone, but for now it is not feasible, and very risky.'

Leaving that thought aside, after resting for a while, Noah continued to move in the direction that Marcel said the group would be.

It didn't take long for them to meet. From a distance Noah could hear the roar of Angry Birds who were angry with the Blessed fighting them. When he approached, he saw that the group was no longer as composed as when he was with them.

Jasper's clothes were so wet that if he told anyone he had plunged into a river, no one would doubt it, but in reality it was sweat. He had worked so hard in this Fortress that even though he was a Blessed Rank E, he was still very tired.

The warriors in the group were heavily scratched on their monster leather armor, while the wizards and archers had no heavy injuries, but exhaustion was evident on the faces of everyone in the group.

Seeing that they were having a hard time dealing with the monsters and that no one had noticed him there, Noah threw a fireball at a bird and one at a wild boar, causing the two to fall to the ground screaming in pain and opening themselves up for the humans to kill them.

When the two monsters died, Jasper didn't even care that he was on top of a pool of blood that one of the cuts on a boar had caused and lay down to breathe. Not to say that the rest of the group did anything much differently, just looking for some shady place and then sitting on the floor to rest too.

Marcel looked at Noah and opened his eyes a little in surprise at seeing Noah's condition. All over his body it was possible to see dirt and small scratches and cuts, but nothing more.

'He left alone and came back with only a few minor cuts? Even a warrior in our group had a slightly deep cut while fighting against a group and he had 13 other teammates supporting him, but still Noah managed to hunt alone and come back with just those injuries? He definitely ambushed them!' Marcel found the only possible explanation he could and became convinced that this was the reason Noah was not so hurt. After all, in his view, Noah was very talented, but he was still "just a wizard"; even though he had very powerful spells, the only way Noah could not seriously injure himself was by ambushing his opponents, Marcel thought, since that way he could defeat the monsters before they had a chance to strike back. If he had known that Noah was practically hunting monsters head-on, using melee combat the whole time, he would probably be very surprised indeed.

Noah wondered what Marcel was thinking when he saw the look he was getting, but he had no desire to correct the team leader on whatever it might be.

When Jasper saw Noah approaching the group, he gathered the strength to get up from the ground and staggered towards Noah.

Noah was not confused as to why Jasper was so tired from getting up from the floor and coming towards him, but when Jasper came face to face with Noah and Noah thought he was going to fight with him for leaving him in that state, Jasper actually made a crying face and grabbed Noah's leg as he fell to the floor while mumbling, "Please help me, please! Get me out of this suffering, please!! I can't take it anymore!!! Pleeease..." Seeing this reaction from Jasper, Noah had to control himself a lot not to start laughing at his attitude right then and there. When they first met at the Goblin Fortress, Jasper was an incredible leader: inspiring team motivation, making great decisions, instructing the Blessed to do the most practical things, and always having an aura of confidence that inspired everyone around him. But when comparing that leader with the current Jasper, crying on the floor while clinging to Noah's leg, it seemed that in front of him there was actually a child who could no longer do the exercises at school and was begging his mother to take him home.

Noah, of course, just ignored Jasper in that state and pretended he didn't hear or feel what Jasper was doing. Noah had already grown tired and hurt unnecessarily while venturing out into the Fortress alone. Even though it was a Rank E Fortress like the Goblin Forest, this Fortress was much more difficult and dangerous than the Goblin Forest, which also reflected in the reward they would receive in the end.

Everyone in the group was very grateful to see that Noah had returned and sighed with relief as they remembered how practical and powerful his flame was, which would help them a lot in dealing with the monsters, releasing a great burden from everyone in the group, both the wizards and archers, as well as warriors. Only one person in the group would not be relieved with less work because Noah came back, that one being the beggar lying on the floor... or rather, Jasper lying on the floor.

Knowing that if it weren't for Noah coming back, they would soon be lying on the dirty floor just like Jasper because of the fatigue and the great wear and tear due to dealing with the monsters, there was a silent consensus of everyone in the group to say nothing about Jasper's situation and just ignore how he was doing so that everyone didn't need to be like that either. This obviously made Jasper start tantruming and complaining about how unfair the world was to him, just like a child - which was not far from reality, since from what Noah heard, as Jasper was the youngest of the group, next to Marcel, he was always treated as the junior of all the rest of them as a joke.

Yet they were all clearly real friends; this way of dealing with Jasper was just because they knew he could handle it and trusted that he wouldn't die even though he was more tired. Everyone respected the rest-time between battles so that Jasper would recover, since everyone cared about him and didn't want to see him die.

If Jasper's tiredness was really so severe that he didn't have the strength to play his role safely, no one would force him to do that, even if they needed to give up the Fortress. So it was not toxic to treat Jasper like that; it was more like a way of relieving the climate so as not to generate so much tension in the group in such a dangerous place.

Once Jasper was ready, the group moved on until they decided to deal with Boss, which encouraged Noah a lot.

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