Chapter 60 – Premonition
The next day Noah was sitting inside the wall in lotus position, amazing Paula and the whole team with his advancement. Noah could feel his mana circulating inside of him and the interference that the wall was giving. With his mind he could now easily help his mana circulate with no problems, negating the influence of energy coming from the wall.
Noah opened his eyes and willed himself to exit the wall. He felt that if he wanted to he would be able to pass through the wall to the second layer of the Labyrinth even.
"Done?" Asked Paula.
"Yeah. It doesn't feel like it puts any more pressure at me to advance further." Said Noah.
"Well you achieved the main target. Now that you can sense the flow you can train further on your own without my help." Said Paula. "Go have lunch and let's get back to the town. And take a bath before you go to the guild boy. You reek so much we barely tolerate you in the forest. You'll suffocate the whole guild if you go there like that." Said Paula.
By the time they returned to Greenville it was already evening. After getting a bath just like Paula suggested it would be really quite late, so Noah decided it was better to take an early rest and report to the guild in the morning.
*User I have an important finding that I would like to share.* Said system when Noah plummeted into the bed feeling totally exhausted after the bath.
/What is it?/ Asked Noah.
*I have analyzed the information we received in the recent stories and with the achievements of mana flow mastery I have found that we might be able to use offensive magic skills that we were so lacking.* Answered system
/That's wonderful, so why do you not just add it?/ Asked Noah.
*We lack information for finer adjustments of these skills. As you know I am creating all skills on my own instead of just installing ready made skills like all the other systems that other people possess. Other systems has the luxury of installing the pre-made skills of different levels suitable for their current power. We however would have to make tests before I can finalize the skill suitable for our level.*
/I see so we have to go make some test in the wild tomorrow./
******
Early in the morning Noah entered the overcrowded hall of the adventurers guild and moved through the crowd to the available attendant. Starting day early was a must for adventurers as missions would usually be given out in the beginning of the day and it tended to be more profitable that completing daily tasks of monster hunts in the labyrinth. So morning was the most intense time for the guild attendants.
Noah looked around but did not see Miss Louriat around.
"Is Miss Louriat not working today?" Asked Noah handing his guild card to the attendant girl.
"It's her day off." Blurted the girl without even properly lifting eyes to look at him to compare his face with the one she saw at the checking device. "How can I help you?"
"I would like to register for a daily hunt at the northern hunting ground."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Done. Have a nice day." Said the girl returning his card.
Noah walked away and another adventurer took over his place at the attendant immediately.
*****
"Hey Dad." Said Lina walking into the inn where Noah was staying in the morning.
"Lina? How come you are so early for a visit honey?" Asked her the inn owner. "Sweetheart Lina's here!" He screamed toward the kitchen.
"Lina?" Asked a woman coming out of the kitchen. "Sweety, you coming barely after breakfast time is uncommon. Is everything alright?"
"Umm. Yeah. Actually I came to…ask if the adventurer I sent to you last week is still asleep. Young man named Noah."
Her mom and dad looked at each other and their eyes started to sparkle.
"Well, well. Noah is it? And why do you ask?" Questioned her mom, grabbing her by the hand and leading her to the counter sitting down in the chair.
"Well, I thought maybe we could spend time together as it's my day off. But I could not make plans with him previously as he was in the labyrinth for a few days and came back yesterday very late." Explained Lina brushing away her hair behind the ear with a shy gesture.
"Oh, I am sorry. Sweetheart." Said her dad from behind the counter. But I marked here that he left early in the morning today.
"Oh." Said Lina dispirited
"Aaah." Said her mom. "Could he have gone to the hunt again just as he returned. That reminds me of your father, he did not rest properly as well."
"Sorry, Mom, Dad, I'll be going. There is something important I need to check at the guild." Said Lina and hurried away.
******
"Hey, Mary." Said Lina coming up to one of the adventurer guild attendants.
"Oh, Lina. Isn't it your day off? What are you doing here?"
"Mary, could you please check for me if Noah Lewenred came by the guild today?"
"Hmmm." Voiced Mary smirking at Lina. "Suuure." She said with a smug face but then her smile vanished. "Oh, yeah he was here. Registered for a Northern hunting ground."
"I see. Thanks." Said Lina and walked away, but not out of the guild but to the second floor.
She barely knocked twice before opening the door to the guild managers office.
"Lina? Why are you here? Did something happen?"
"Guild manager, did you assign someone to supervise Noah?"
"Noah? Isn't he still in a labyrinth with Paula?"
"They returned yesterday. He already went to a Northern hunting ground."
"Fuck." Said Raimond. "I was just going to give everyone an order to report to me if Noah comes to the guild to put someone in his surveillance. I thought I still had time. Theoretically they should have been in the labyrinth for a few more days."
"Can you send someone? We should keep an eye on him until investigators are here. We would be in real trouble if something happens to him before they come here.
"How would anyone find him there now? We would have to wait for his return now, patiently and hope he'll be okay. Well what can happen to him in these low level hunting grounds anyway?"
Lina did not say anything. But felt a strange worry in her heart. As if a premonition.
*******
"He registered for the hunt at the northern hunting ground." Said the voice of a woman that was coming out of the shadow in the alley not far away from the guild.
"What about Paula?" Asked the woman standing covered by the dimness of the alley while observing the guild's entrance.
"Doesn't look like she was there."
"This is our chance."
"You sure?"
"If he is going to be under that old woman or any B-rank team surveillance until the Royal investigators come then we will fail the mission. This might be the last chance we have a go at him. Holy Lady's mission is a priority."
The second woman did not say anything and just nodded. After that they both dispersed into the shadows.
*****
"Hello, how may I help you?" Asked a girl when Lina entered the hotel lobby.
"Good day. I am with the adventurers guild." Said Lina showing her guild card. "May I know which room is an A-class adventurer Paula is in?" Asked Lina.
"She is not in the room." Paula's voice said from the stairs. "What brings you here, las?"
"I have a request?"
"Damn, quite a lot of requests I get lately. Did I become famous or something? What do you want?" Said Paula lazily.
"We have a bit of a problem. We were ordered to supervise Noah until riyal investigators arrived to make sure he is not targeted by the dark society, however today something unexpected happened. He went to the northern hunting ground without any supervision. The Guild manager says there is no way to find him. I would like to ask if this also concerns your team. Can you find him if I make a request, Paula?"
"Yeah we might." Said Paula, scratching her temple.
"I would like to request your team to find and supervise Noah Lewenred until his return. We will take care of him tomorrow to not trouble you anymore."
"Yeah, alright." Said Paula and went upstairs to call her teammates.
******
"Fucking hell. What happened here?" Asked the ranger girl standing in the middle of the ruined forest.
"You sure this is the place?" Asked Paula.
"Yeah, quite sure. I can still feel his energy around." Answered the ranger. "But this is strange, there are two more energies scattered around but they are somehow unnatural. Unlike what I ever felt."
"Explain what you see, Ria" Asked Paula with a serious face.
Ranger girl spread her hands and closed her eyes.
"There was a fight here. One fighter was Noah. For some time, at least. Then something changed. As if he became…different. His enemies are even stranger. Their movements are somehow unnatural. The energy they leave is scattered as if they were disappearing from time to time. I don't really get how they moved like that. I also sense the leftover dark mana presence here."
"What if you imagine this place at a different time of day."
"Different time of day?" The ranger asked, surprised. "Well then…." She started to think about what Paula meant and then was startled by her own thoughts. "I see it. But how is this possible?"
"So it's really what I thought?"
"Looks like one of the opponents moved through the shadows. The traces did not make sense until I adjusted the image of this place in my mind to how the shadows would look a few hours ago. Then their movement path would indeed match the shadows. But what does it mean?"
"It means it was a shadow squad."
"Shadow squad? The one from myths? The secret squad of the central church?"
"They are not a myth. They are real." Said Paula. "I've met them once."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. It is a bad memory. They were weaker than me and not even close as skilled, but compensated for it with this shadowy mojojojo of theirs so well, I had my ass kicked. This was my first time losing to a weaker opponent."
"Why would someone like that target some E-class tamer who knows where?" Asked ranger girl.
"That is a good question. We will ask our guild manager these questions later." Said Paula. "Are there any other energies? Where did they disappear?"
"The trace ends here. As if they all simply vanished." Said ranger girl.
"Vanished?" Asked Paula. "Bern?"
"I don't sense any trace of the spatial magic." Said the man in the mages attire.
"Contact the guild. Tell them to send Rey and Keena. We should rummage through the whole forest. There should be some other trace. We won't be able to do it alone." Said Paula, squeezing her fist so hard that her gauntlet started to creak.