Chapter 164 – Taking risks

After hearing Tessa's analysis Noah went silent, sinking deep in thoughts.

Seeing this Tessa's face went sad as she heavily sighed.

"I know what you think, dear. And I am sorry. I don't see a quick solution." She said as Noah gazed at her. "I have no idea why they were so obsessed with that girl Firria, you mentioned. But if I am right, they need her for some other purpose than simply selling her at the Black market." She added, shaking her head.

"If they were taking her to the underworld dungeon you could sneak in like last time. If you are quick enough here's a chance you would save her before she is sold. However, I don't think they are taking her to the Black Market dungeon in their region. They are taking her somewhere else and I don't know how to find her. All I can offer is to try to save the Bullmen slaves in the Red Bull town while it is still possible."

"I see. Thank you." Said Noah and kissed Tessa. "You helped a lot already. Show me where the villages are on the map please."

Tessa quickly walked into the library and took a book from one of the shelves, opening it and listing quickly until she found one particular page.

"It is old, but White Bull clan's and Red Bull clan's towns didn't have any serious changes for the last century, so the geography should be more or less the same." Said Tessa giving Noah the book.

"Thanks." Said Noah. "I'll see what I can do with it. I have a bit of a plan regarding the slaves in the town." He added preparing to leave but then stopped. "One more thing. Could you give another anonymous hint to the Archduke about the incident in the church? We'll use it later as another argument in our favor when we negotiate with him."

"Royal Investigator have a powerful system. He may be able to catch up to those women you tried to protect if you point him there so quickly." Said Tessa.

"Yeah. About that. Yuko said that Bri offered them a hiding place." Said Noah.

"They agreed?" Asked Tessa.

"Samantha is not stupid. They are in deep shit and even if we have…frictions in our relationship," said Noah scratching his cheek with an expression of discomfort from remembering the reason for their hate toward him. "taking this offer is the best choice they have."

"How sure are you of this? If they live here they will eventually find lots of your secrets. And we can't be sure they won't hold a grudge. Even after you helped them this time, there is no doubt you were the most bright factor that brought the avalanche of problems that came crashing on them." Said Tessa, watching him carefully.

Noah sighed, nodding slightly.

"I know. But I still want to help…" He said with his head bowed.

"I see. If it is your wish, I have nothing against it." Said Tessa, nodding.

Noah then turned to look at Priscilla and saw her nodding as well with a smile.

"Maids are good, but we need other help here too." Said Priscilla. "We'll find a place for them here."

"Thank you both. You three are God's gift." Said Noah coming over and kissing both Tessa and Priscilla.

"Go on already, or we'll not be able to hold ourselves from dragging you to the bed." Said Tessa.

"Mooom!" Moaned Priscilla, throwing a shy gaze at Dahlia standing at their side.

"Do you want me to pretend, I don't know what's happening behind the closed door of this mansion?" Asked Dahlia with a smirk.

"Khe-khem." Coughed Noah with his face going red. "I think I'll go. I need to hurry." He said and disappeared to the mind realm

*****

Inside his mind realm, Noah entered the house where Ugy and Yuko sat in the main room waiting. As he walked in Ugy opened his mouth but Noah stopped him lifting his hand.

"Later. We will discuss your actions later. Right now all I want to know is can you help me find her?"

"Yesterday I would have answered, No." Said Ugy gazing back at Noah.

"But now it's different? What changed?"

"You chose a path of evolution. Once you level up, you and I will evolve in the chosen direction and some skills that were previously considered none applicable to your system capability will not be banned from our use anymore. There is a skill I may create that would be able to help."

"But, I sense a hesitation in your words." Said Noah. "What's the problem?"

"There are several conditions that we need to meet. First, we need more source codes. But as I have an idea of the stories that may possess the needed info, this is a minor problem."

"Alright. What's the second problem?" Asked Noah, nodding.

"The second condition is of course that you need to level up. And we just used up all Evolution Energy to binge-level. We don't have enough EE. Of course, as a quick solution, we can use the cheat skill of Malign Aura and desecrate some nearby lands, polluting them with Malign Aura raising EE quickly as we did back in Great Tree Labyrinth's forest. But considering the fact that we have Dryads in our team this is a definite conflict of interest that they may take offense from."

"I see." Said Noah. "But this is not what you are most worried about."

"Indeed. There is a third condition. Remember our discussion about the possible side effects if you connect your mana sense to the system and comment section?" Asked Ugy.

After hearing these words Noah's face went grim. He sat down on the couch sinking into the soft backrest.

"You mean the one where we are risking to die if crazy people in CS do the usual crazy things that may disturb my sense of magic so much it'll interfere with my body's inner mana circulation?" He asked.

"Yes." Simply confirmed, Ugy.

"And you need to open that sense?" Asked Noah.

"Yes."

"I thought you don't choose what opens." Said Noah.

"We evolve. I will be marking the direction of our evolution, according to the path you've chosen. It will give us limited flexibility. I think we will be able to make it the next thing that opens on this evolution path."

"Alright. So the main problem is the strength of my mind?"

"Yes. Ever since crazy granny taught you the way to train your mind, we haven't been training anywhere near enough to feel safe. We both thought you still had time, so you slacked and I did not press you with it. But opening it now is too soon. Your mind is not ready. One crazy thing that unbalances your state of mind and your heart may stop, your brain will fry, eyes blow up. Disturbance in inner mana circulation has infinite ways of killing you. As long as we don't have access to it we are safe. But once you have a way to consciously influence it…." Said Ugy without ending his words. It was already quite clear how much danger it posed.

"What's your estimation? How long do I need to get to the level where I can be safe?" Asked Noah.

"With the normal meditation in Cultivation story reading mode - about a year." Said Ugy and Noah squinted his eyes looking at the plush bear suspiciously as he sensed an implication in his words.

"Yes. There is a way to quicken it with Paula's method. We meditate in Great Tree Labyrinth walls gradually raising the difficulty level until we reach the needed strength of mind." Said Ugy making Noah groan. Just remembering what he was through when Paula showed him the method made him sick. But Ugy offered to go beyond that.

"But this will still take weeks or even months." Said Ugy. "In any case, too long to speak of any rescue of that girl Firria."

"Unless I take the risk." Said Noah raising an eyebrow.

"This is way too risky." Said Ugy, shaking his head.

"We get her, we get back and get to the Great Tree Labyrinth for training." Said Noah.

"Month." Said Ugy. "Month of constant risk where payment is your life. Too much of a gamble."

After these words, they sat gazing at each other with serious faces in silence for a few long moments.

"This is the path I chose." Said Noah firmly.

"Very well." Said Ugy sighing.

*****

With a flash of black energy, Noah reappeared in the carriage startling Samantha once more.

"Alright. I am back. Ready to go home?" Asked Noah.

Brianna nodded with a smile before jumping at him, squeezing him in a tight hug.

"Don't scare me like that!" She said as he hugged her back, gently stroking her head.

"I am sorry." Said Noah quietly.

"Don't be. Just punch Ugy a few times for me." She said, letting him go with a smile and moist corners of her eyes.

"Alright." Answered Noah smiling back.

"Oh, by the way. About the girls." Said Brianna turning to look at Samantha that sat watching him at the side in silence while biting her lip with an expression of discomfort on her face.

"I already spoke with your mother and sister." Said Noah lifting his hand, stopping Brianna's words. "Yuko already explained everything."

Noah turned to look at Samantha and Lilly that sat clenching her sister's hand tightly gazing back at him with a firm face.

"Sam, I know we have difficulties but as long as you need the roof over your head or job you and your team have a place in the Threadweaver Mansion."

Samantha sat watching him for a few seconds before nodding.

"We will work, and pay off our stay with our job. You don't own us, we are not your property or your bitches that you think you can take a piece of whenever you feel like it. We will work honestly. But we are not bound to you like leashed dogs as other adventurers that put an aristocratic leash on themselves. If I ever see you conduct like them, fuck you. We get out and try our chances surviving against Dark Association, Adventurers Guild, and whoever the fuck is after us on our own." Said Samantha with a straight face, and Lilly felt her hand squeeze tighter as they held hands.

"Fair enough. I don't want it any other way either." Said Noah, nodding. "If I break this agreement in any way you mentioned I don't deserve you anyway."

Noah stretched his hand to Samantha and she grabbed it shaking it in agreement. Before Noah let her go he looked at Lilly behind her.

"If I ever hurt your sister again, you have all the right to come at me with the intent to kill."

"Before that, I'll cut off your balls." Said Lilly.

"Fair." Said Noah smirking and let go of Samantha's hand.

"But right now I need you two and your friend to entrust yourself to me and allow these girls to put you to sleep." He said, nodding at Zinnia and Aster who sat across from them.

"What for?" Asked Samantha.

"That's how my skill works. I can transfer us away. But you need to sleep." He said, looking her in the eyes.

She measured him with her gaze for a few seconds in silence before nodding.

"Stop the carriage. I'll go speak with Kate and Dany." She said after the agreement.

The Giant spider pulling the carriage immediately stopped and they all walked out into the bright early morning sun.

While Samantha and Lilly went to have a conversation with Kate and Dany that jumped off the coachman seats that they occupied, Aster and Zinnia went to prepare the spider for transfer. At that moment more spiders that silently followed through the forest came out at Brianna's silent call.

She transferred a whole group of them when they tried to stop hypnotized villagers, but when Noah was out of commission, they had no choice but to travel back home all together.

One of the spiders that left the forest, as Noah noticed, had a big cocoon on its back.

"Who's that?" Asked Noah.

"Theron's fiance. Long story. I'll explain later. I think Aunt Cass needs to take a look at her." Answered Brianna.

"Alright." Said Noah, nodding and turned around looking at two Dryads busy putting to sleep the small army of huge spiders.

"By the way. How's villagers?" He asked, turning to look at Brianna for a moment.

"We helped that ex-adventurers team to send them all home before lifting the sleeping magic. If they are lucky, this night will seem just a creepy dream to them."

"Good. Royal investigators should take care of everything else." He said smiling.

"Pffft ahahaha." Laughed Brianna. "Doing the lion part of the work and leaving the clean up to the Royal Investigator? That's gotta be humiliating to them."

Noah smirked but his smile disappeared soon.

"What is bothering you?" Asked Brianna, noticing his serious face.

"I need to do something risky one more time. Your mother will explain the details. I am pressed for time. After that I'll be busy for about a month, minimizing the risk.

"How risky?" Asked Brianna.

"As risky as saving you and Cil was. But I still wish to do it."

"That time you made a huge gamble." She whispered.

"Yes."

"Someone needs your help that much?" Asked Brianna sternly.

"No one except me can help." He answered

"Then do it. We will hold the fort." She said with a firm voice.

"I love you three immeasurably." Said Noah.

"So do we. Be safe." Said Brianna, hugging him tightly.

"Khem" Coughed Nu from behind them interrupting their moment.

"Oh…" Said Noah only now remembering about the doppelganger

"Yeah. I am still alive too." Said Nu in the shape of a young woman dressed in adventurers clothes with an annoyed face.

"So, why are we stopping?" She asked, looking at Dryad's actions in suspicion.

"We are taking a shortcut back home." Said Noah scratching his cheek.

"To the Threadweaver mansion?" Asked Nu.

Noah looked at Brianna.

"She risked her life to save Lilly, I heard." Said, Brianna.

"We had an agreement. I take care of her until you come, you do my job for me." Said Nu shrugging.

"Listen, I figured you have a strange skill that allows you to transfer all these spiders from far away. And looking at the situation it seems like you are all going to use it now to go back. I need to report to Cassandra Vespertine as you know. If it's not too hard could you also take me with you and drop me off at Threadweaver mansion? I don't want to lose days of traveling in the same direction."

"I need to put you to sleep." Said Noah.

"Umm. I can see that." Said Nu watching spiders drop to the ground under Dryad's magic one by one.

"It's easier for me to get rid of you while you're asleep to shut you up forever so that my secrets would not be leaked." Said Noah.

"Yeaaah." Said Nu licking her lips feeling discomfort from that idea. "Well, I thought my offer might be of more use to you." She said, making Noah raise an eyebrow waiting for her to continue in silence.

"My job for Vespertine is basically done and I would need to search for a new job, so…" She explained rubbing her hands nervously.

"You want to work for me?" Asked Noah surprised.

"I heard you offering a job to those girls, and you seem to be quite trustworthy. I'll take a risk. So if you feel the need for someone with my talents…"

"Will I have to discuss it with the Doppelganger Household?"

"Umm… yeah about that eh?..." Said Nu suspiciously mindful of her words

"She's an exile." Suddenly said the Raven from a tree.

"Shut up!" Said Nu turning to the bird.

"Thrown out, like garbage. No one needs her."

"Fuck you!" Said Nu grabbing a stone and throwing it at the bird but it evaded easily and flew to the higher branch.

"Well yeah. I am kinda going solo, hence the need for a private asshole to keep an eye on me." She said, pressing her lips together.

"Well." Said Noah stretching his hand. "We are a bunch of outcasts, you'll fit in nicely. But I wish to hear your true story later."

"Fair enough." Said Nu shaking his hand.