Chapter 10 – Escape
Noah was traveling through forest with his loyal guardian paving the way at a quite hurried pace. After he ended "reading" the story he found out that a few days had passed in the real world while he lived months of events in the story.
When he finished the story he thanked the person suggesting it by posting another comment
/Thank you that was great story/
After some time he got a reply
Dude, did you just binge read 200 chapters? It takes me days to finish 100. You did it all in 2 days? Damn you must be hella bored.
After that Noah received a few more suggestions to lighten his "boredom".
"Binge read? Was that how it was called when you spent months within that story world?"
Anyways he was not bored he just did not know he could stop that story and get a rest. After that, he gave his system an order to count time in the real world he spent within the story to not get drowned in it for days again. Because this was quite a dangerous thing to do. For example this time he spent 2 days in a place that was destroyed by strong malign energy.
Noah was not an idiot, he understands very well that such an event could not pass High Cathedral unnoticed. Most likely some investigators have already been sent to find the cause and deal with it. Only this time there were no demons causing it. It was him. He had no idea how they would react if they found it was done by a human, but he bet that nothing good awaited him. At worst he would be dealt as a demon worshiper and be killed on spot.
Considering that, getting out of there as quickly as possible and as far as possible was the surest way.
So, although he was eager for a new story to "read" he did not start any of them immediately. He asked the system to make a data list with the links to the stories given in the CS so he could check them later, and then went to the real world, to start his run through forest.
He put a bit of thought into what would be the best course of getting out of here and changed his direction a bit later. The wolf companion knew these parts of the forest as his own background and knew the direction of the human settlement quite well. However that was not the direction Noah decided to take.
Two days have passed since his malign energy outburst and the investigation squad must be moving this way. If he met them on the direct path from the polluted area to the nearby town. He would be as suspicious as he could get. The best decision would be to take a roundabout route. Also he needed to find a way to cover any traces. He was no good at any of the ranger skills and investigators were bound to have at least one good pathfinder with ranger skill that would allow them to pursue him by following the traces he left behind.
After considering this Noah asked the wolf to lead him to the closest river. With no ranger skill, travelling through water would be the easiest way for a dilettante like him to complicate the finding of his traces to whoever was following him. They would have to check shores up and down the river for footprints to find where he left. Some of these footprints were bound to be left by other travelers.
This was a Labyrinth after all. Many hunting parties came here to hunt monsters for gaining evolutionary energy. Although this forest was so huge you could sometimes travel for days without meeting someone while in the deeper parts of it, Noah and that asshole of a brother-in-law of his were not hunting overly deep in the forest when they came here. They hunted in a so-called newbie area. Taking Noah deeper when he could not even use his system at that time would be suspicious, after all his "good" brother-in-law took him hunting "to help Noah with his system".
As a recently turned 18 years old. Noah was finally old enough to be considered an adult and could sign in the adventuring guild without any additional bullshit from the guild. And Noah guessed it was the main reason why his family waited for his coming of age to get rid of him in this way. Adventuring guilds rules actually saved his life up till now.
The guild would not take in minors unless they have proof of competence, such as a certain level and passing the test or having recommendations from the highschools of martial arts and magic, and then also pass the test.
The rules were set because many idiot nobles tried to show off their stupidity in the most dumbest way, by showing off their might in the hunt, which of course brought them their premature death in the jaws of monsters. And although it was good to have less dimwits in the world from Noah's point of view it was not perceived so by the families of these dumbass nobles that would always come forward to blame the Guild for their "prodigal'' offspring deaths.
Since the Guild implemented these rules, those idiot sons of important houses could only go into labyrinths and forests to hunt for EE while still being minors, only while being accompanied by experienced adventurers. Which took off the blame from the Guilds shoulder if anything were to transpire with their well being while on this mission. It was an adventurer's own risk to take brats with him to dangerous places. Which explains why Noah has not been taken to the forest before.
Had anything happened to him, the one taking this son of Count of a kingdom to the dangerous place would take the blame. On the other hand, now that be was 18 and registered to the Guild on his own, as well as taken assignment for hunt on his own, there is no way to implicate his brother-in-law if there was an accident such as for example wolves that dwelled in the more dangerous place than they were hunting, decided to come to try some meat of a newbies in the less dangerous monster hunting area. Perfect crime.
After Noah was poisoned his brother-in-law could not take him too deep into the forest while carrying him. More dangerous parts of the forest are not such a place to let such a huge liability slide. No, most likely Noah was thrown out barely on the precipice of the newbie and a more dangerous area border. This way even if the Guild decides to investigate the death of a Count's son there would be nothing overly strange in his death.
That however makes the area he was in right now too uncomfortably close to the nearby human settlement for someone in Noah's circumstances. Any hurriedly placed order for investigation and team assembly as well as travel through forest would give Noah at most two to two and a half days worth of time. Which also means he had no time at all already. Noah felt as if his feet were on fire from the urgency to get out of there. But he needed to remain with a clear head. He needed to do this the smart way.
Soon Noah and the wolf came to the river and jumped into the water with no delay. It was not overly deep and allowed him to travel through water.
Noah chose going upstream because that allowed him to make a good path toward the town later. There's no way the investigation team would assume that whatever did that malign pollution in the forest was human. So they should assume this creature either went deeper into the forest to hunt better prey which is also the downstream direction or went to attack human settlement which also does not coincide with an upstream choice as it would be a roundabout.
"Upstream is a human choice". Said Noah and hurried to get away as quickly as possible.
******
Two teams of five people stood in the dry weathered forest with a strong sense of malign energy spreading in it, watching at the black bubbling swamp.
"Such a strong miasm trace. The creature must be powerful" said the cleric dressed in battle garments and a white wooden staff in hand. His hands were adorned by several magical bracelets and talismans.
"The creature has left. We need to find it. Spread out and find the trace. Give a signal when you find it. Killiam, compiled a report of the state of miasm pollution in the area and send it to the headquarters.This area, needs a team of clerics to cleanse all this dark energy." Said a warrior clad in armor adorned with runes and a smoldering sword in his hands
A few dozen minutes later they all as a team travel following the trace found by the ranger.
"The creature is powerful. Do not engage it in battle immediately, our task is to trace it and measure its strength. Then we call for backup"
"Understood!" Replied the team.
****
After humans left a barely noticeable laughter spread in the area around the black swamp. On the border where dry forest met green and lush plants 3 beautiful women appeared. Their sensual bodies that had a slight green tint to it were barely covered by anything at all. And what cover they had was simply a bunch of leaves shuddering on the wind and rustled at their every move.
The women stood silently for a moment at the border of dead and full of life areas and then stepped forward to walk in the dry and full of ashes ground.
They walked toward the swamp and stopped almost at the very edge of it. One of the women kneeled and pressed her hand forward, hovering it barely above the black goo that comprised the swamp. She closed the eyes and sat this way for some time. A few minutes later she stood up and held out her hands to the other woman standing at her sides. They took her hands and closed their eyes.
"Human?" Asked one of them finally after a few moments.
"Is he really a human, if he can do something like this? No human could hold such malice and not succumb to it. And this one looks sane, if only a bit strange."
"We must find out ourself. Eliminate him if he is a danger to the forest. Assist those human hunters if he is too powerful to fight on our own"
"Agree" answered the other two. After that they turned around and left in the same direction that the team of humans took before. As soon as they walked out into the unharmed by pollution area they seemed to dissipate into the surrounding greenery and disappeared from place.
It took two day for humans to get here from a nearby town with an Adventurers guild that was at a day's worth of distance. It took these women two days to get here as well, but from the very core of this Labyrinth that is weeks if not a month worth travel distance for a human hunting party. And now they have gone after Noah as well.