Chapter 128: Church

Although he looked perfectly fine on the outside, only Noah knew how weak he was at the moment. He had spent almost all of the energy reserves he now had to heal himself, to avoid having any kind of permanent injury, leaving just enough that he could teleport to a safe place nearby in case everything went wrong.

When the judge announced the other man's victory, the lights that danced around the man disappeared as if they had never existed in the first place. Noah sighed when he saw this, as he thought of returning to the stage quickly to absorb some of that light with his flame so as not to be so helpless without energy in a place like this.

But luckily the man with the bright eyes had no intention of continuing the battle and opened a small friendly smile towards Noah, which Noah just ignored and treated it like a facade. After all, whoever smiled at someone else after shooting at them was the worst kind of person to have around.

Noah didn't teleport back to the stage to avoid wasting any more energy, so he just walked among the spectators as they made their way to him naturally. Initially they thought he was just a weak Blessed Rank E at most, someone who just reached Rank D, but the strength he showed was already enough to prove that he deserved the respect of everyone there, even more because they thought that he was a Blessed Rank C.

If they were told that Noah hadn't even moved up to Rank D, and that he was still officially considered a Blessed Rank E, they probably wouldn't have even believed that information. It didn't make sense for a Blessed Rank E to be that strong.

Noah had joined his current invasion group for security. If he wanted, he could have risked himself in Rank D Fortresses a long time ago, but up until the accidental entry of the dwarven Fortress, the group he was in never obliged him to put himself in any situation of extreme risk, the only other exception being when he fulfilled the mission of obtaining the wings, which were still as small as before.

Noah very much wanted the system to give him another mission with the reward of increasing the size of the wings he had, but unfortunately the system was very stingy and didn't care to issue another mission for that.

After passing through the entire audience, Noah took the stage and gave the other man a small nod before returning to the waiting room. Because of this man, he failed the earn the money that would speed up the process of Maggy's treatment, so Noah couldn't help being angry with the man, not for himself, after all, he was not a child who would want to kill the other person just because he lost, but he was angry for his sister, who would be suffering in the hospital for a few more months because of this man's actions.

But the man apparently wasn't as interested in the prize as he had been in Noah, since as soon as he saw Noah go to the prep area to take a shower in one of the stalls there, before putting on the clothes he was wearing before before the fight, the man followed Noah, apparently still wanting something from him.

When Noah saw that the man had entered the room with him, Noah's countenance fell when remembering Maggy, and he stared at the man, waiting to see what he wanted.

The man definitely saw Noah's reaction, but still he opened a big white smile, which next to his dark skin and bright eyes gave that man a really good look, but that didn't make Noah's opinion improve of him at all, quite the contrary in fact, Noah was getting even more angry at this man. After all, even though the other man had bested him, he was still shameless enough to come after Noah with a big smile on his face.

But what Noah didn't know was that he had confused the reason for the man's smile. He wasn't smiling because he was happy to have beaten Noah, he was smiling for another reason. "Hey, that was a good fight! Do you want to fight again in the future? It's been a while since I made such an effort against members of other churches besides the houses of my pantheon."

"I'm sorry, but I won't have time for that; I'll be busy working," Noah answered in a seriously cold way.

The man again just ignored how Noah was acting and continued with the smile on his face. "Come on, don't be like that. You just lost a game. What's the matter with that? Are you going to tell me you're so childish as to not accept defeat for someone more powerful than you?" The man raised an eyebrow at Noah when he finished saying that.

But Noah wouldn't tell others about Maggy in order to keep her safe, despite the difficult situation he might be going through, so he just answered. "No, losing or winning the tournament is irrelevant to me; entertaining these rich young people was never my goal. I just needed the money for something personal."

The man's smile got even wider after hearing Noah's answer, apparently he knew Noah was telling the truth, or he just trusted what Noah said as if it were the truth, nobody knew, but the next answer he gave made Noah a little surprised and truly happy. "Don't worry, I never was truly interested in the prize money, in fact, I can't even take that money home, since the priest doesn't let anyone earn any money while on a mission so that no kind of deviation happens. So if you want to keep it, that's fine with me," the man said as he shrugged, but at no time did he remove that smile that Noah could have sworn was shining brighter than usual.

But because of what the man said, Noah was truly happy to be able to help Maggy with far less time than he initially thought it would take. But after having been screwed by wicked people in the past, some of whom were his own family, Noah learned that there was no free meal in this life; everyone would have to do something to get something in return, and he knew that this time would be no different. So Noah asked with a raised eyebrow, "And what do you want in return for it?"

Hearing Noah's question, the man realized that he was considering accepting whatever he asked, so as long as the request wasn't too excessive, he could ask for anything that Noah would probably accept, which made him realize that Noah truly needed the money for something personal, but he decided for politeness not to interfere too much and ask what the matter was about. "It's actually quite simple. Like I said, I came here to find someone who has your characteristics, and I strongly believe that the person I was sent to look for exactly is you. So, in exchange for the $85,000 prize, you will voluntarily come to a meeting with me and someone sent by the priest of my church, how about it?"

"Where will this meeting be? I will not go anywhere that isn't public. I cherish my safety very well," Noah answered with a question that he wanted to know outright.

"I will still have to inform my church's priest. After all, he told me to find you and gave me a much longer period to fulfill my mission than I ended up needing, so I don't think he's expecting either one of us yet. How about you give me your phone number, so when he sends me a location and a date I can pass it along to you. But don't worry, we also prefer public places since we don't have many opportunities to go out for a walk outside the church, let alone places with interesting things to do," the man said, still keeping a smile on his face, but this time it didn't look so big and shiny anymore. Maybe it just went back to the normal size it should have been?

"And to receive this award, will I have to be the person you are looking for?" Noah still stared at the strange man with a suspicious expression.

Hearing what Noah said, the man did not worry about it and replied, "No, as long as you show up, I will transfer all the money to you immediately. Don't worry; it is more like me paying for your presence there, since as I said, I cannot keep this money anyway. For me, it will not be missed, even more because I'm sure you're the person we're looking for," the man said nonchalantly.

Hearing the man say something like that without worry, and even more with a relaxed expression like that, made Noah's curiosity, which always made him want to have everything under control, take over and made him ask something else important. "I need to know who is inviting me to this place. So tell me, who are you?"

For a second, the man's face showed a little hesitation. He didn't know whether to say it to Noah, since their church was not like the normal churches that people just prayed to other gods. So saying it to a stranger could be a serious mistake, but from Noah's serious expression, he knew that Noah wouldn't go to the meeting if he didn't feel comfortable with it, so he decided to tell him anyway.

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