Hearing the Blacksmith's comment about the ruined monster's corpse everyone present got a nasty distorted face excluding Noah.
'That's a lot of money down the drain.'
Realistically even a B Rank Monster corpse wasn't that much money but to normal villagers this was enough money to buy grains to last them several months.
It didn't take long before Noah's attention turned back to his father, he quickly stood up to go help his father again.
"There's no need, I recovered my mana again."
While escaping from the forest Nelson had used all of his mana up and used up all of his stamina but after all these events took place he had recovered some of it back.
After saying that Nelson stood up by himself, it was almost as if nothing happened, only if you ignored the hole in his armor and the bloodied clothes. His wound had healed completely and he had gotten his stamina back so he could start moving.
"Come on, let's go home, Amanda must be worried."
Nelson placed his hand on Noah's head and started stroking his hair. Noah looked at his father and got a bit confused. To Noah, something felt very wrong.
'He's smiling?'
Nelson had a bright and cheerful smile on his face, this confused Noah greatly as moments ago he thought he was going to lose his father but to his surprise, his father had the most bright smile on his face.
"Pa, why are you smiling?"
As Noah was curious he asked his father right away, this would generally be something stupid to ask but as Noah was undersocialized he didn't know how awkward his question really was.
"Oh, the problem is solved so why not be just enjoy ourselves. You know it's been a long time since I had so much adrenaline pumping through me. Hehe, I guess I still want to be an adventurer deep down."
To Nelson, such moments were what life was all about, even though the man was a guard for a large business, he never had that many life-threatening experiences. But with the few experience he had had, he started to cherish life more and more, to him this was the thrill of being an adventurer, going out and exploring stuff, fighting creatures never seen before, learning more about the world, and living life to the fullest.
When he heard his father say that he had something click in his head, to him adventurers were nasty people that would kill monsters, pick fights amongst each other and get shitface drunk at night. This might seem fun to some normal child but Noah on the other hand was someone that had read too many stories regarding nobles and their etiquette, so such things he couldn't see himself enjoying.
But after hearing his father he understood something. All adventurers are masochists- UHM UHM, I mean all adventurers were adrenaline junkies, they enjoy danger. For some reason Noah actually liked this idea of experiencing danger, this reminded him about the stories of knights that found and fought one dangerous creature after another to get stronger.
*****
It was the next day, Noah had never expected to see his mother cry after looking at the amount of blood stained on his father's clothes. Amanda who was a strong and intelligent woman for most of the time had actually started crying like a baby after hearing the story from Noah and Nelson. Again, it was justified as she also was very close to losing her family.
Nelson had already left for work in the morning, as for Noah, the kid had bags under his eyes which clearly showed that he had not had a wink of sleep last time, as for why, this was because the events of the day before still kept replaying themselves in his head, again and again, the whole night. He kept getting reminded of how his father got hurt trying to save him, another thing that left an impact on Noah was the show of power by the mysterious man that had shown up.
'How did he disappear instantly when Pa told him the direction, that wasn't magic... how high was his agility?'
Noah was intrigued by the strength of the blacksmith, which motivated him to become stronger. But there was a problem though, Noah didn't know where to start from and was totally clueless about training. He could ask his father but Noah knew that his father wouldn't be able to help him that much as he himself was only someone at D Rank.
As cruel as that may sound, Noah was already on a routine that his father had provided him and he knew that if he relied only on the help of his father, he would be stuck somewhere in D Rank someday.
'I should be able to ask him for help... I think.'
The person that Noah thought of was the Blacksmith from yesterday. He had heard his father mention where he lived when he was recounting the story to his mother, during that conversation his father had said something along the lines of the Blacksmith that lived near the Adventurer's guild helping them out.
'But... where is the adventurer's guild?'
"Noah, listen can you do something for me?"
Suddenly he heard his mother call out for him, even though he was interested in going out to find this blacksmith that could potentially be his teacher, he didn't know the layout of the village. Even though he was a 9 year old, he wasn't really a fan of leaving his house, whereas a normal kid would go outside to play with their friends, Noah would rather just train in the morning and read books in his leftover time.
"Your father forgot to take his lunch with him, can you take this to the guild for him?"
'Wow, isn't this exactly what I needed?'
"But Ma, where is the guild?"
"Ah, it's in the middle of the village, just take a left after leaving the house and walk straight, you should be able to reach it in 10 minutes."
As she said that she handed a basket to Noah, this was the first time Noah was tasked to go outside. But to Noah, this task couldn't have come at a better time than this, now he could go and deliver the lunch to his father while also getting to meet the Blacksmith that saved them yesterday. Maybe he would directly be taken in as a student.
"Thanks, Ma, I will be back quick!"
Noah was quick to leave as he was excited about getting to meet someone that could teach him something about getting stronger.
"Hey there slow down, huh, since when did this boy enjoy going outside?"
Looking at Noah leaving excitedly and in a hurry, Amanda got a bit confused as she started wondering about how Noah usually dreaded the idea of going outside. Soon a sigh left her mouth as she started smiling.
'He seems happy.'
As Noah left the house, he took a left, he kept on imagining the possibilities of getting stronger, could he also become strong enough to protect his family and keep the people near him safe.
Soon he found himself in a very interesting place. There were stalls on both sides of the path and the street was bustling with people, the shouts of merchants and the sound of bargaining filled his ears. This place was the marketplace that he read in books about, this was the first time had he had gone this far from his house.
As he entered the marketplace, he brought the lunch basket close to his chest to make sure he kept it safe. He was still supposed to walk on this path to reach the adventure's guild, and so he did, he carried on walking through the marketplace while taking glances of the various merchant stores. There were shops selling fruit, bread, meat and much more. This also gave Noah an idea about where the food he gets at home comes from.
Walking straight ahead he found a massive building in the middle of the path, this was it, this was the famous adventurer's guild. The guild was a famous place with a lot of markets prospering near its vicinity because of how much attention the adventurer's guild gets, the only business the guild partakes in is outsourcing adventurers and trading monster corpses. By no means is it a small business as the guilds deal with mass amounts of adventurers daily.
As Noah walked closer to the guild's entrance he felt a hand on his shoulder, he started shuddering like a cat as he started racing his mind with the possibility of getting his father's lunch stolen by some thief. Noah closed his eyes in fear, funnily enough, he thought that if he couldn't see the thief, they would cease to exist.
'Please don't steal the food, please don't steal the food, PLEASE!'
"Noah? What are you doing here?"
Surprisingly for Noah, this voice was very familiar to him, this was his father's voice, as soon as he recognized the voice he opened his eyes with a smile on his face.
"Pa you scared me!"
"Well, you scared me first. What's wrong, how come are you here?"
"Ma said you forgot to take your lunch with you so she sent me to bring it here for you."
"Oh it's like that, thank you, little man, hehe, it is a surprise how quickly kids grow up."
"Pa also, I wanted to ask you something."
"Go ahead, what is it?"
"You remember the blacksmith from yesterday? Can you tell me where he lives?"
"What? Why do you want to know that? You are interested in blacksmithing?"
"Uhm, I just wanted to... I wanted to more about blacksmithing."
Noah wasn't able to tell his father that he wanted a new training method, something better than the one his father had provided for him. He was afraid that his father would be sad knowing that his son chose to get help from someone else instead of him.
"Ah, no worries, we can go and visit him in a bit, let me just go inform my superiors."