Noctis turned his head away and proceeded to walk towards the corpses of the Silver Dire Wolves that he had recently killed. He wanted to see if any of them had any echo cores inside them because he could always trade them in for money or use them in other ways.
The large group of villagers that had their spears pointed at Noctis noticed him walking away, and were about to collectively call him out and chase him, but was stopped by the man known as Hakan,
"Leave him be! He is obviously not an enemy nor a threat… I will discuss matters with him alone, but for now there is something else that needs to be settled. Tahu, take others with you and go back to the village, so you could inform the village chief that we have found Mika and Moki! This should calm him down now considering his children are safe and sound…"
"Yes, sir!" The man named Tahu replied and obediently followed Hakan's command. He quickly gathered some of the other villagers before heading back into the forest.
Hakan's eyes returned to look at Mika and Moki, and then went into a half-kneeling stance in order to level his head with them. He faintly smiled and said,
"Mika… Moki… the two of you are fine now, so we should return to the village. You can explain everything to your father once we get there, but I want to know one thing first. Mika, who is that stranger over there? He seems very young, but his clothes are very odd and have been quite roughened up…"
Hakan moved his eyes past the two siblings and landed on Noctis's figure, as he was inspecting the corpse of a Silver Dire Wolf. The adolescent girl named Mika did the same and observed Noctis before softly replying to her uncle,
"He… He saved us from these beasts! Moki and I… we were pushed into a corner and thought that we had no other choice but to jump into the river stream down below, but he came and killed them! Uncle Hakan, he is a good person, so please don't do anything bad to him…"
Mika gave out a nervous yet honest reply, as she had a little trouble speaking her words. Her voice became even more quieter as soon as she spoke out her plea towards her uncle involving Noctis.
"Mika, you can be rest assured that I won't do anything to him. How can I repay the person that went through danger and had risked his life to save you and your brother, with any sort of malice or animosity!? I will invite him over to our village and treat him as a guest… it's the least that we can do."
Mika didn't say anything else and gently nodded her head in response like an adorable puppy. Hakan lightly patted her shoulder and had stood up, but before he was able to take a step forward, Moki had suddenly spoken up after being quiet all this time,
"He is… strong! No trouble with the monsters! He moved very fast and… and killed them very fast!"
Mika's little brother, Moki, spoke in a somewhat exaggerated manner and even waved his delicate arms around to seemingly emphasize some of his words.
Hakan didn't think much of what the small boy had said, but he did find it kind of interesting, so he couldn't help but ask Mika if what her little brother said was true,
"He killed these Silver Dire Wolves with no problems? Is this true, Mika?"
Hakan raised his eyebrows because he found it rather unbelievable that a very young man was able to easily deal with these Silver Dire Wolves. This is because he had first-hand experience against the Silver Dire Wolves before, but it was with a group of his fellow villagers. These ferocious beasts were extremely dangerous if one were to fight them alone, mainly because they had higher intelligence compared to the animals that they hunted and were used to.
"Yes… Moki is right. He had no trouble… and didn't get hurt at all!"
Mika raised her voice, as if she really wanted to praise the man that had saved them. She immediately noticed this and became embarrassed, so she quickly went back into being silent once again…
Hakan furrowed his eyebrows and thought to himself, "A young man at the Fourth Level of the Mortal Blood realm that can easily handle Silver Dire Wolves? His background can't be simple… he must be a talented genius from somewhere far from here, but I wonder what he's doing here then…"
Hakan didn't think about this any longer before calmly walking towards Noctis.
…
A few minutes beforehand, Noctis had actually been checking any echo cores that were formed inside the Silver Dire Wolves that he killed. He wasn't able to sense one at all from the four smaller Silver Dire Wolves, so he moved towards the corpse of the large Silver Dire Wolf that was the leader of the pack.
Noctis was about to check this dead Silver Dire Wolf's body, but he stopped because he noticed that Spirit Magi was casually floating towards him off in the distance!
He turned his head and moved his eyes towards the large group of villagers, and noticed that some were still looking at him, whereas the others were watching over the perimeter.
He realized that not one of them were even looking at Spirit Magi!
Spirit Magi soon arrived next to Noctis and was starting to hover around him. The spirit didn't have any chance to speak before Noctis blatantly asked a few simple questions,
"What's going on? How come nobody can see you? Can it be that only Spirit Ster and I have the ability to do so?"
Spirit Magi didn't think much of what Noctis said before replying in a solemn tone,
["This is merely one of my innate abilities… I only allow you to see me and it naturally comes with Spirit Ster, who is a spirit that belongs in a sacred object within you. Regardless of cultivation base or insight knowledge, no one else can ever see me unless I decide so! Consider it as a beneficial and convenient ability if you will; this way no one should be able to trouble you because of my unique existence."]
"I see… that is good to hear... then what other unexpected abilities do you have that I should know?"
Noctis couldn't underestimate Spirit Magi because it was a spirit created by one of the wisest Old Great Ones that existed in the ancient past… the all-mighty Old Great One Animo! For all he knows, the spirit's abilities could be as vast and deep as the great ocean, or as small and shallow as a tiny puddle. He felt like he wouldn't know the limits to the spirit's abilities, but he could at least definitely assume that they weren't simple, merely due to its special identity.
["You will find out when the time comes… but don't have too much hopes for it because in the end, everything is decided by you after all."]
Upon hearing these words, Noctis couldn't help but breath a prolonged sigh of defeat because he expected that Spirit Magi would say something like this, but still hoped for a different answer.
Noctis decided to pay attention to another matter and continued where he left off, which was the inspection of the large Silver Dire Wolf's body for an echo core.
Fortunately, he was able to find one within this corpse, so he skillfully performed the method of an echo core extraction once again. He had become successful, but as soon as he was about to store it in the Fallen Space-Time Chasm, he heard a man's voice behind him,
"So, you know how to extract an echo core without physically getting your hands dirty hahahaha… your background is even more mysterious to me now."
Noctis turned around and noticed this tall man from earlier before. He wore a somewhat different type of clothing compared to the others, which indicated that he was most likely the leader of the large villager group… and if his memory didn't serve him wrong, then he was the uncle of the two young villagers that he saved.
Noctis ignored what this middle-aged man said to him and didn't say anything, as he momentarily stared at him. This made the man helplessly smile and give out a subtle laugh before saying,
"My name is Hakan… I apologize for before; my fellow companions didn't mean no harm and were on edge because we have been looking for Mika and Moki for a while. They are completely safe now because of you, so with that, I give you my sincerest gratitude. I will cut to the chase; you have no idea how saving the two of them means for our village, so I would like to invite you as our guest… What do you say?"
Noctis was initially caught a bit off guard, but it wasn't because of the unexpected invitation, rather it was because this man spoke pretty well. He regained his composure and lightly smiled before thinking to himself that this was the perfect opportunity to get what he needed! Not only would he receive a new fresh set of clothes, but he could also gather information about a variety of things, including the waterfalls in Mount Trinity to solve his puzzle note!
Noctis 'thought' for a moment and then replied to Hakan,
"Alright… lead the way! It so happens to be that I'm in need of something… since I saved those two over there, Mika and Moki, then I take it that you can grant it to me? It's not anything excessive, it's just clo – information!"
*Cough*
Noctis softly coughed and cleared up his throat, as he started walking past Hakan. He had almost slipped up and revealed his secret top objective he had in his mind, but thankfully he recovered and his walking didn't even falter one bit.
Hakan didn't think this matter was strange and remained oblivious, but in his mind, he definitely thought that Noctis was not an average youth. The fact that Noctis essentially called out for a reward after being invited to the village is already something noteworthy and peculiar. He didn't think about it much further before he replied back to Noctis in a resolute tone,
"I can grant you audience with the village chief… he is most likely the person you would need to meet if you want to know about information. If that doesn't satisfy you, then we will try our best to gather it for you!"
Hakan followed after Noctis and eventually grouped up with the rest of the large villager group. He quickly gave out the order to return to the village and then walked back next to Noctis, but he wasn't able to say anything at all before Noctis said,
"I haven't revealed my name yet… the name is Noctis. Also, the information I'm seeking is nothing serious. It has something to do within Mount Trinity, so I'm sure I'll be able to get answers in your village…"
Hakan opened his mouth, but didn't say anything in return, so he moved ahead of the group in order to lead them back to the village.
Noctis remained at the back of the entire group and eventually thought about different matters…
…
Some time had passed and the light in the sky started to dim, which indicated that it was about to become evening.
Noctis turned his head away to look at the surrounding trees, but he didn't observe for too long before he felt a strong gaze a few meters ahead of him!
He looked back towards the front, but as soon as he did, the gaze had left him.
Noctis furrowed his eyebrows because he was barely able to catch a glimpse of the head turning away from him, which came from the adolescent girl that he had saved earlier named Mika!
This wasn't the first time that Noctis felt this gaze, but in the beginning, it came from the other villagers as they curiously observed his movements.
He wasn't bothered by this because after some time they stopped looking at him, but one gaze continuously stayed on him for a lot longer!
Noctis was at a bit of a loss...
After a few moments, he decided to ignore this matter and let her stare however long she wanted, but then Spirit Ster's loud voice suddenly appeared within his mind,
"Hahahah kid, this is it! This is the start of your romantic life! You can't be so dense to not realize that this girl has obviously taken an interest in you! Hahahaha… the fact that you saved her from those wolves earlier must've charmed her, but because you did it so decisively and quickly, it left a permanent mark in her heart that she would never forget! Young girls tend to fantasize about a strong and handsome man, who would swoop down and save them from the claws of death! What you did earlier was no different… not to mention that this girl is quite beautiful despite her being a villager! She's practically a rare kind, so what do you say? How about you go after her and make her your wife huh? Hahahaha…." |
"…"
Noctis widened his eyes to the fullest and was completely left dumb-struck... he was at a total loss for words!