Chapter 169 – Cliffhanger
The combination of skills 'He who lives in dreams' and 'He who hears the call' had an almost miraculous power. They were an utter masterpiece of skills. As long as Noah heard himself being called he could connect with any person through the dream realm and transfer anywhere in the world. This power outmatched even the best space magic users, however, had a minor disadvantage. He could not choose targets.
System with its ingeniousness and superior analyzing ability found a roundabout way to overcome this disadvantage, using the power of connection.
As long as Noah had physical contact with any object at least once, he could now leave a mark of connection that allowed him to transfer to that object. This was a brilliant solution. Yet this method still had limitations.
He could not go somewhere without his connection mark. Also having many marks was mana consuming.
But this time System has outdone itself. It created something that lowly mortals could not even grasp with their measly brains. The Stalker skill broke the common knowledge of this world. And it was not a fluke. Because this knowledge was really based on revolutionary, for this world, concepts that only Noah's magnificent and unmatched System could peek at from another world.
While the System monitored the so-called CS that Noah received instead of the common system database with skills and development tree, it realized that CS was a treasure trove, because it was connected to a world that lived on entirely different concepts.
That world had no magic, no monsters, or anything supernatural. But it had science and it had people's unbound imagination developed from their hunger for the supernatural. For those who did not fully understand these two points, the people in CS were strange and eccentric, however, they were far from just crazy and stupid.
All of them had an unruly imagination that in many cases drove Noah mad. But what hid underneath it was also knowledge far above even the most renowned scientists of Noah's world. The very world where Noah lived from the CS commenters' point of view could have been called undeveloped and ancient.
While their world science allowed them to fly in the sky and travel beyond the planet's atmosphere without relying on magic. The world where Noah lived did not even grasp the concept of planets and stars yet. While every scientific finding heavily relied on magic that could not be used equally by everyone.
In another world people could contact each other from across the globe, and exchange information as freely as if they stood in a theater full of people, broadcasting their word to masses from any part of the world.
In Noah's world people barely developed a way to communicate over a distance of a country that still competed with written letters sent by post.
Normally, all banal, simple, dumb systems that were gifted to the people in Noah's world relied on the base of knowledge that could be found in this world. Yet through CS, Noah's magnificent, brilliant ingenious System, could take a peek at the groundbreaking and revolutionary concepts of another world.
With this it could overcome the limits set by the primitive science of this world and created revolutionary, groundbreaking, unparalleled skills, shaking the very foundation of common sense in such a barbaric and simplistic world.
One such spec of information that became a revelation for the System was a concept mentioned just in passing by one of the commenters.
According to their world's research, all people in the world were in one or the other way connected to each other through six other intermediate people. There were billions of people in their world. Yet if you passed a letter from person to person with a simple condition that they passed a letter to someone they know or met, within just six or seven passes, your letter would reach the person you want it to reach. All you have to do is build that path of connection.
And System had a revelation. If it could build that path then it would be able to overcome the limitation of its previous skills and would be able to choose a target to connect with.
But there was a major problem that needed all of Noah's System's brilliance to be solved. In another world, this concept could be realized through the net connecting every person in their world called - the internet.
However, in Noah's world, they did not have it. What they did have though was magic.
The only problem with it was, however, that Noah's world lacked the necessary knowledge to realize something of this proportion.
That's where the System came to an ingenious solution to use the unbound imagination of the other world.
Making a long and hard analysis, the result of which Noah's primitive simple human mind would have been unable to grasp, System found the stories that had the potential to be of use.
The lack of supernatural in the world of CS forced people living there to develop this concept on their own, through the power of imagination.
They imagined different worlds with different concepts and while most of them lacked any usefulness, as Noah and System found out at some time, but there were concepts that could really be borrowed and implemented within Noah's world.
And for the revolutionary idea that the System wanted to realize, it found stories that had the needed concepts.
The first concept used for that skill came from Cultivation Manhuas that drove Noah mad with their long stories spanning millennia. All of these stories had one common thing: cultivators had a sixth sense that allowed them to sense things through their inner energy.
The second concept was of the unseen and unperceivable power that connected everything and everyone and could be used to connect with others. This concept was taken from the story Star Wars.
The third concept was the method that allowed us to use the inner energy and trace its path through the distance. This was borrowed from the latest story about a boy named Naruto.
But what allowed the system to gather it all together and implement, was the fact that it was a special type System, that is using different concept of power in its evolution.
"Hold it, hold it." Said Noah interrupting the system's long-winded story of how it came to the idea of such a skill, that spanned the entire length of Noah's travel through different knots until he reached the current one.
He stood in the middle of the frozen monochrome scene of a carriage full of chained women, one of which was the very girl he was looking for. Firria.
After enduring this story, that system retold him for, hell only knows how long, not shutting up for even a second the whole time, Noah finally found her.
"What do you mean we use a different concept of Evolution Energy? You mean there are different energies that can evolve systems? And why can't we Level Up with the same energy that all the systems in the world use? That would have been a lot easier, damn it. Everyone Level Up killing monsters and I need to do hell knows what to gather it. What the hell is that?" Said Noah, while studying whirlpools in the sky.
"I was just about to reach that part." Said System. "Can't you just listen without interrupting?" Sounded an annoyed voice in the world around Noah.
"Sorry, sorry. Please continue." Said Noah.
"Khem. Where was I? Ah yes…
But what allowed the system to gather it all together and implement, was the fact that it was a special type System, that is using different concept of power in its evolution.
"Wait, wait. Hold on a bit." Said Noah, interrupting his system again.
"What?" Asked System's voice, clearly annoyed.
"Tell me the rest of it later. We are at the end of her string." Said Noah and willed himself to travel through the whirlpool that he chose.
"But this is the culmination of my story!" Protested System
"I like cliffhangers." Said Noah and the world around him changed and for the first time since he used the skill 'Stalker' the world around him gained back all its colors as he found himself floating above the girl he was searching for.
Firria sat in the corner of the carriage, curled up and shivering. Beside her sat other women of the Bullmen race that were chained just like her.
The carriage was quite dim as the sun outside was nearing the horizon spreading shadows around the world. With it, the temperature has been drastically declining as well, and the skimpy clothes that the captured women had, did not give them any protection from the cold.
"Firria." Muttered Noah, glad that he found her, and was surprised as he saw the girl jerk in place as if surprised. She looked around with an expression of wonder on her face.
"She can hear me?" Asked Noah surprised.
"Who?" Asked Firria gazing around quickly, fear creeping into her eyes.
"It seems so." Said Systems voice. "I have overlooked this, however, it is quite understandable. The Stalker skill creates a connection between you and the target similar to the one that you have with Dutchess Threadweaver and her daughters. Just like you can converse with them over a long distance through that connection, you can converse with this girl right now.
"Firria, I am the person that you met in your dream tonight. I have come to save you. I will get you and all these women out of there, but I need you to do something." Said Noah. "Please nod your head if you hear me."
Firria stared around with her eyes wide as if she saw a ghost before slowly nodding once.
"Good. Right now only you can hear my voice. I want you to warn all the women that I will come to you shortly. And I want you to ask them to not be surprised and not raise any sounds to not attract the guards' attention." Said Noah.
Noah saw the girl hesitate a bit, probably thinking she was going crazy, but she did as he told her, quietly whispering to everyone in the carriage, attracting everyone's attention.
The result however was not as Noah hoped. Most of the women just turned away and shook their heads, probably thinking that the girl finally lost it.
"I tried." Muttered the girls feeling ashamed from the looks that gazed at her as they would at an insane.
However, a second later, a few of them gasped as they saw a black ball suddenly appear in front of them.
"Shhh." Voiced Firria, reminding them to be silent and women covered their mouths with their hands as they stared at this phenomenon with widely opened eyes.
A second later black object quickly changed its shape, morphing into a black human-like form, then completely turning into a human.
When Noah appeared he turned around, showing all the women the sign to be silent as he held a finger to his lips. As he saw them all nod in silence, he contacted Theressa and a second later Dahlia appeared at his side.
Dryad waved her hands and all women suddenly started to feel sleepy as their eyes slowly closed.
While Dahlia worked on putting them all to sleep, Noah came over to Firria hunching in front of her.
"I will get you out of here." He whispered to her and saw tears starting to run down her cheeks.
"You will be safe now. Sleep." Were the last words that she heard before her eyes closed and her head sunk down as she fell asleep while still sitting.
Noah reached to her chains and used his degenerative touch, turning them to powder as he sucked out all energy from the material.
"Where is she!" Suddenly sounded loud voice from outside.
"Lady Night Breeze, it is an honor to…" started to say someone in a pleasing voice but was interrupted by her roar.
"Shut up. I don't care about your trash talks. Give me my vessel!" Shouted Lady Night Breeze at him.
Noah and Dahlia gazed at each other.
"We have to hurry!" He whispered and she nodded at him.
They started to quickly move around, freeing women and sending them to his mind realm.
"Please, please. Come this way. They are all right here." Said the male's voice now a lot closer to Noah as he scrambled around grabbing the chains of two women at once while Dahlia sent away everyone that he freed.
But as they were about to send off the last two women the canopy at the furthest side of the carriage swung open.