"Uh?"
Noah was first surprised, then happy.
Only then did he inspect his body.
His seven acupoints were absorbing "Breath" at full speed, and the limit he had felt the previous night had disappeared.
His body felt light but was sturdy and full of strength. He also seemed to have a better perception of the "Breath" inside his body, as he noticed it was a little empty.
'Now that I think about it, I've never run so fast in my life, and my sight seems to have improved as well. Logically speaking, my other senses should have had an improvement too.'
He kept staring at his dirty body with curious eyes.
He had to stop because his Master scolded him.
"What are you still doing here? Go take a bath, you stink!"
William pointed at a door at the start of the corridor while holding his nose with the other hand.
Noah happily bowed and went hurriedly through that door.
Inside the room, there was a large basin that Noah supposed was used as a bathtub and some buckets full of water.
He washed carefully and then took a white kimono from a pile in the corner of the room.
When he went out, his Master was waiting for him in the corridor.
He was dressed in a tight dark green gym suit with a sword sheathed on his back.
"Since you woke me up, you will have to come with me. I have to retrieve some special herbs for a mission. The only problem is that a group of four-eyed wolves has recently made the place where the herb is found their lair. Those magical beasts are just rank 1, and even of the lowest level, so you should be able to easily take them down even if their number amounts to fifteen. I could do it by myself, but it's about time you have an actual fight, and you can even familiarize yourself with your new body while you are at it. Go to your room to pick up your sabers and meet me at the main gate of the defense wall."
Noah was instantly excited and almost forgot to make a bow when he was about to leave.
He happily ran back to his building to pick up the two sabers hidden in his room, and since he had no sheath for them, he just tied them to his waist with pieces of a blanket.
'A fight to the death! This is totally different from some simple sparring with Master. And this body is astounding, I did nothing but run today yet I'm still not sweating. Even the "Breath" stored in my body is increasing, right now I should be able to attack with it at least seven times by just using the ones in my arms!'
The advantages of a rank 1 body were already that evident with just some hours of nourishment.
'I wonder how much time has to pass before I can go through the second cycle.'
The sudden increase of power made Noah totally disregard the pain and dangers of the treatment, leaving inside him only an endless eagerness to become stronger.
When he arrived at the main gate of the Balvan mansion, he found William waiting for him with a sleepy face, and apart from his previous outfit he had a leather bag in his hand.
Looking at the shabby way Noah had tied his sabers, he could not help but shake his head.
"Did you forget to steal a scabbard from the guards last time?"
Mocking him a bit, he threw the leather bag at the feet of his disciple.
Noah looked inside the bag and was surprised to see two short sheaths inside it, with a leather belt that could hold them.
'He really thought of that too.'
He could not help but smile when he saw how caring his Master was of him.
He hastily replaced his gear with the one in the bag.
When he was done, he deeply bowed to his Master, trying to express all his gratitude to him.
William nodded and realized that the kid's figure was starting to resemble the aspect of a warrior more and more as days went by.
No master would like a shabby disciple.
After all, his appearance would reflect on the image of his master.
"Follow me, we are going to run to the wolves' lair immediately and take care of them."
Noah was a bit surprised.
"Are we not taking horses?"
Horses were the main form of travel in that seemingly medieval world, and a stable was situated right before the main gate to provide its services more rapidly.
"You are a cultivator now, even if a weak one. Your body broke through rank 1, and even if it's not as fast as a horse, it can still run pretty fast. Also, you seem to forget that we are going to fight against magical beasts, a normal horse can only run away at their sight. Come on, I will explain things more in detail as we run."
William exited the gate and started running with Noah trying to keep up with his pace.
That was the first time in his life that Noah left the mansion, and he could not help but look around with curiosity at his surroundings, noticing the Evergreen Forest and all the nearby fields first and then some mountains in the distance.
William saw his behavior and snorted internally, raising his speed to force Noah to focus on following him.
'You are going to fight for the first time, and, instead of being agitated, you waste your time looking around, I guess he really is a kid.'
Noah and William sped in the direction of the forest that was at three days of distance on a horse.
After about fifteen minutes of running, when the mansion was quite at some distance away from them, William started explaining.
"The four-eyed wolf is a magical beast the size of three meters, it generally has a pale-yellow fur and, as its name says, it has one pair of eyes on each side of his head. Its attacks consist of scratching and biting like every other wolf, and of a mental shockwave to startle his prey momentarily. With the steadiness of your mind, standing your ground against that attack is a stroll in a park, so don't be too worried about it."
Noah lowered his head a bit to cover his complex expression.
The reason was that no matter what level of mental energy his Master thought he had, he would always have way more of it.
'I know I can trust him, but there is really no way to explain the transmigration thing to him. I'll just let him think of me as a normal hardworking kid who also possesses some proficiency in what he's doing.'
William didn't notice the change in expression on his disciple and kept on with his explanation.
"Before, I said that the four-eyed wolf is a rank 1 magical beast, so I think it's time to explain the ranks of a magical beast. It is humans who give a rank to the species of beasts based on their strongest attributes. For example, the four-eyed wolf has a rank 1 body, but its mental attack is below that threshold, so their body-related attribute grants their species a rank 1."
Noah was really interested in this part of the explanation since he could never read something more specific about the world of cultivation because all the books were in the library of the inner circle.
He was about to ask which rank the dragon that had attacked ten years before was when William resumed his speaking.
"Yet, Heaven and Earth are fair, and since humans have a higher intellect and can create techniques to better express their strength, magical beasts have an easier growth process. Other than absorbing "Breath" naturally, they can get stronger by eating other living beings full of "Breath" like magical beasts or cultivators. This causes innate aggression in their behavior and explains the reason behind cannibalism among their ranks."
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Edited by: Alessandro Sica