Chapter 344 344. SUPERIOR SPEED

Shock filled Noah's face and the faces of all that were watching when Derek announced his desire to leave the battle before it even started, and Noah wasn't having that.

With a frown of displeasure on his face, Noah prepared to move when the voice of the lady reached his ears.

"Contestant Aiden, attacking him will result in immediate disqualification," she announced before proceeding to name him the winner.

"Why?" Noah couldn't help but ask. He had been looking forward to that battle, but everything had gone down the drain with just two words.

"It's pretty simple, Aiden. I found no way of winning a battle with you," Derek stated. "Your agility and speed are annoying traits to deal with in a fight. Especially one that's close-ranged. Maybe if spells were in play I could win, but not on martial arts. You simply have the superior speed."

"You could have at least tried to fight me, don't you think it's shameful to quit a battle before it even begins," Noah spoke releasing a few taunts, and Derek heard them loud and clear. Unfortunately, taunts had little to no effect if they came from an extremely powerful person.

"I for one never came here for any of the rewards, I simply came to check our nation's bests, and I've not been disappointed. However, you bring things to a whole new level. Everything about you seems special, and I'm sure everyone watching would think twice after witnessing your battle yesterday." Derek shrugged.

"Besides it's not shameful to run from a battle you can't win," the expert added before following the lead of the two men that had arrived behind him.

They led him towards a hallway and he soon disappeared in it. Noah didn't even give importance to the beauty of the stage and simply followed another pair of individuals into another passageway.

A room similar to the one they had waited in before unfolded in his sight, but his mood had plummeted after Derek's words.

Although he felt glad about the fact that he would probably enter the top ten, maybe even top three even if there were still really strong experts around, he couldn't help but feel moody.

It seemed people would begin to run from a fight with him, and it put him in a bad mood.

'When did I become a battle junkie,' Noah giggled inwardly as a certain individual entered his mind. 'She's a bad influence. Her habits are already rubbing off on me,' he sighed focusing on the blank screen in the distance.

His eyes, however, fell on an approaching trio, and they were of course his guild-mates.

"You did great out there," Williams started and his words inevitably put a sarcastic smile on Noah's face.

"I literally did nothing," Noah replied swiftly scanning the expert. "Your wounds are healed," he changed the subject.

"Yes. The potions available here are of high quality. More than I expected," Williams gave a momentarily stunned expression. The matter still left him surprised.

"Well that's great," Noah replied wondering if there would be any potion capable of healing him, then he recalled that there wouldn't.

"Today was filled with great performances, and the entire council commends you for it," the lady suddenly started, pulling everyone's attention to the blank screen. Her voice contained a significant amount of excitement.

"As you all know, tomorrow would be the last day in which only ten of you will emerge victorious. Normally we would tell you what is to occur tomorrow, but there'll be a new addition of events this year to make the winners worthy of their positions." She continued.

"So for now you all should rest. Tomorrow will not be as easy as today was," she ended and the screen disappeared.

Not a moment further, magical circles lit up the entire room and everyone found themselves facing their room's door. The hallway was now really scanty, but no one placed any importance on it.

Noah for one didn't need to rest, he had done nothing that day and only needed a rest from the slight frustration he had experienced knowing his almost five hours of wait would amount to no action.

Fortunately, his guild-mates came around again and a few hours of surprisingly fun chats occurred before they returned to their rooms. Their behavior had forced him to a conclusion. They weren't necessarily bad people, and he could trust them a bit, even if he hoped to never have to rely on them.

Their departure allowed him to return to his training, but this time around he vanished from his room to the cultivation room, he did this after placing his room's key on his bed, he had confirmed that it was a tracking device of sorts.

Stacks of bottles existed within the white room. Noah had long since maxed out the number of potions he could create, and he had made sure to finish the old ones, and now only the new ones existed.

They could add a proper 50% to his core and he had 100 of them. He would never be able to run out of essence unless it was a really long fight, one that was taxing on his core.

His body cultivation manual appeared in his palm and he couldn't help but fall into marvel when he gazed at the many blank pages. The fourth tier wasn't that far anymore and he hoped to achieve that level of power before his year run out.

He still had about four to five months remaining, and had to admit that he had grown a lot in the months of training and he wasn't nearly done with the various forms of the Roiling thunder technique.

Storing the object in his inventory, he sat down to begin a body cultivating session. The gains weren't much, but he mostly did it for the peace of mind he gained.

Leveling up was abrupt, but cultivating was slow and peaceful.

He normally felt inclined towards battling it out, but meditation helped him calm the raging storm within his mind. He usually refrained from switching sides in his mental state due to the backlash of that strange ability, and also because Elder Sarah's training had helped him put his mind a state of almost constant calmness.

​ Noah had the system wake him with a prompt when about five hours had passed and he didn't hesitate to return to his room. His body and mind refreshed from the session, even if there was only a miniscule increase in power.

Noah slept and didn't wake until an announcement reached his ears.