A month had passed after that awful incident, Noah had almost recovered from it during this time.
It was a life changing experience for him, for a few days he was at a loss.
He had killed someone, indirectly or directly, ghost or human, he had murdered someone, it was hard for him to get back to his normal routine, even so he knew that this wasn't the end.
From the day he had stepped in this world at the age of 11 he understood that this was only the beginning and it would get harder and more difficult.
Therfore for the past month he had been training himself, exercising and doing sports to build a better physic and stamina, obviously he wouldn't become a pro with just a few weeks of work out but at least there was an improvement.
And lastly in a forest far away from the city where no one would go, Noah tired to use the peculiar whip, it was remarkable, firstly it's design, it was made out of some kind of really soft leather, it was really light allowing it to be extremely swift.
The way it did complex movements made it look like a black serpent.
The thing he liked most about it was it's colour, even though it was pitch black it had a tint of gold making it look really beautiful especially during the night.
Another important thing he found was a website formed by people like him, he was flustered, why did he never knew this existed?
It could have help him so much...maybe it was because he never tried to understand what or who he was.
In any case he found that there were lots of jobs for people like him, they were commissioned by ordinary citizens to a specific Gou, a name decided by the community, who then created a group to make things a little easier.
With this much preparation it was time to go into a samsara again, this choice wasn't made because of his greed or something else, but it was the only way to survive, he needed experience because there was a big chance that he could encounter another high-ranking Goush.
So one day after finishing the shift of his part-time job, as the site instructed he went to an unknown location provided by the description.
He was little skeptical since there wasn't any information about what kind of samsara it was but this was the only one that didn't seem like a scam.
So following the directions Noah arrived at an abandoned warehouse near the outskirts of the of the city he lived at.
He himself didn't know this place existed, even though he had been living here since the day he was born.
Right now he felt like a small fish lost in a big ocean without a way out.
He seriously felt like there was so much he didn't know, he was so ignorant!
With an exhausting sigh he entered the warehouse were he saw at least twenty people, seeing an empty corner on the left side of the door he decided to go there and wait.
The details on the site said that they would enter the samsara at 16:30 so he still had 10 minutes left.
He quietly glanced at the people,he noticed how everyone was just wearing their normal everyday clothes just like him.
Something interesting he saw was that some people had already formed groups and looked quite at ease.
On the other hand some were bitting their nails or trembling, they were probably newbies just like him.
Unexpectedly Noah wasn't feeling nervous unlike others maybe it was because he had been preparing for this moment and didn't hope to be lucky.
"Alright! Everybody listen."
It was a man with a very well maintained shaved head, it was shining you could almost see a reflection of the roof on his head, it was extremely noticeable.
"My name is Shived and I'm the one who found this samsara.
In a minute I will form a gate to go inside it.
Since it's a samsara it will definitely be hard, so I hope everyone will be able to survive.
Goodluck!"
Said the man while his lips curved up so high that they almost reached his eyes.
The next second he actually opened a gate, seeing this Noah's eyes widened and his mouth sightly parted, he was fascinated, he also wanted to learn how to do this.
While Noah was immersed admiring someone next to him said "Look at him showing off his money, leaving a teleportation device inside the samsara and then getting out of it.
But I guess for newbies this is amazing.
Mhp."
Listening to the other party Noah felt kind of depressed.
Teleportation device huh. Money really could do anything.
As Noah was grieving about his life everyone one by one entered the egg like sparkly and blue gate.
The first thing Noah felt passing through it was the familiar headache.
After regaining his stability he slowly opened his eyes.
What he saw was quite hard to describe.
Unlike the previous one this place gave off even more of a sinister feeling.
Unquestionably it was afternoon, the clock tower literally said that but it wasn't for the sky, it was dark and cloudy to the point that even the sky in some parts had turned the color velour.
Observing this he thought of a certain mith, if a thunderstorm was coming it ment that the thunder god was upset with the behaviour of humans.
This flow of thought made him laugh, there's no way this also applied to the village, right?
Recovering from his ridiculous theory he looked around the environment, though this was a feeling it didn't give off that vibe.
It was deserted, you couldn't feel any presence nearby.
The houses, most of them were breaking down some litterly had a whole wall missing, some were even covered in moss or some had no windows.
Whit this kind of weather living inside them wasn't any different from sleeping outside.
The most surprising was that the soil wasn't even soft.
You would think that because of the weather the dirt would be wet and mushy but it wasn't.
Noah was about to leave the group to conduct futher investigation by himself when Shived said "Mhh...This place is different from a normal Samsara.
I have a feeling that it is made by a high-ranking Goush.
We have to be careful everyone!"
Hearing this Noah frowned but he decided to go along.
"I sense lots of people over there.
We should go in that direction."
This was the difference between Noah and someone who was expirenced, thinking about this Noah pursed his lips, he wanted to get better.
Taking a deep breath he quitly followed the others.
After a short walk everyone arrived at a graveyard, just as Shived said there were lots of people gathered there.
Looking at their ragged and tattered clothes there was no doubt that they belonged to this village.
While everyone was discussing about what to do, Shived took things to his own hands and went to the villagers.
In the mean time everyone behind him were cursing him silently.
"Excuse me, we are lost travellers.
We don't know where we are can you tell us?"
Hearing what Shived said a certain old man with a hunchback stepped forward.
His skin was dry as a leaf, especially his face it was filled with black spots around his mouth, it looked like he had some kind of virus or disease.
He wasn't the only one everyone else near him appeared to have ethe same spots men, women, teens or children no one was shown mercy.
"Hello dear travellers, I'm the village chief.
You are at village Borinville, unfortunately the nest bus to get out of here will come in a week.
The only thing we can do is provide an accommodation.
Hey you! Bring our special guests to the hotel."
As the chief finished his speech a woman who looked in her mid 30s stepped forward and guided everyone.
The hotel was near the cemetery, this was quite unlucky...
Really for an accommodation near the graveyard it didn't disappoint.
Some of the windows were broken, the curtains were litterly flying with the wind!
The wallpaper put on the outside was coming off and there were cokroaches climbing the wall.
The sign on the wall that said Hotel Borinville was hanging down, a single rope was preventing it from falling and the light on the sign weren't even working.
To make it even better there was a dead tree near the hotel with crows on them, ominous, really inauspicious
The village was already gloomy and now he had to live in a place with this conditions!
Thinking about this Noah's face distorted real quick, he had gone pale, he looked like he was going vomit any second.
As he took small steps at a time before going inside from the corner of his eyes on the top floor from a window he saw a shadow moving, seeing this scene Noah just walked away.
Inside the hotel he noticed how the floor was dirty, it was filled with some kind of yellow water, Noah shivered hard, he didn't want to know what it was at all.
"I'm sorry this is the best we can offer, you all can decide ehow to divide between yourselves."
Said the woman smiling as she left the building hurriedly.
"Everyone listen." Said Shived.
"As I said before there might be a high-ranking Goush, so if we want to survive we should become one group and not decide and try to find some clues. I hope you all agree with my decision."
Since most of the people were clueless or didn't know what to do, they decided to follow the person who seemed the most reliable.
Of course they weren't idiots they knew something was wrong but no one wanted to point that out, everyone just wanted to survive.
Seeing that no one was answering the corners of Shived's mouth rose up and his eyes formed a crescent moon, simply put he looked revolting.
"I see so everyone ag-"
"I'd like to go alone."
Shived hadn't even finished talking when his face distorted and he clenched his jaw.
"Me too.
I'd also like to alone like the handsome guy."
Said a young man, he had curly light brown hair with dark brown eyes, he looked like a teenager even though he looked quite well-built, he looked like a buff squirel.
"I-i see, anyone else?"
Said the man clenching his hands.
Since no one responded the man gradually calmed down and said "Well because these two want to be alone I think we should go outside and leave them alone."
One by one everyone followed Shived leaving behind Noah and the boy, some people even looked back and gave them a look of pity.
"Looks like they are excluding us.
Well this outcome was expected." Said the boy.
"Oh by the way my name is Kari, you are?" Said the boy with a blooming smile.
"Noah." Said Noah also showing a smile.
Both of them stared at each other touching their necks for a few seconds when Noah decided to break the awkward silence.
"Since it's the two of us why don't we team up?"
"Sure that's a great idea haha..." said Kari scratching his head.
"So what should we do?" Questioned Noah.
"Well I was thinking that since this is a hotel there should be a map for the most popular attractions, right?
This way we might find the Goush.
Oh! Sorry I talked to much, you probably already hiw to proceed."
Said Kari laughing awkwardly and playing with his hands.
"Don't worry about it.
This is little different from how I normally do it, so some insight wouldn't hurt.
I think there was a board near the tree, should we go there?"
Hearing about the tree Kari shivered.
"Seriously that thing gives me the creeps,it looks like a place where lots of people would hang themselves."
Said Kari sighing in despair.
"So true." Responded Noah smiling.
Slowly they proceeded to advance towards the board , but of them were quite awkward.
In the first place everything happened really quickly, they didn't know each other but they somehow ended up being a team.
Fortunately the sign wasn't that far away, so it didn't take much to change the atmosphere.
"Wow the board is really big how did I miss it before?" Said Kari putting his hand infront of his mouth.
"It seems like it really is high-ranking Goush."
Hearing this sentence Noah immediately became curious about something and asked
"What's the difference between a high-ranking Goush and a normal one?"
"Well to put it simply it doesn't change much.
Only the fact that they can create a big and complicated samsara so it can be really hard to find them.
But in the end everything depends on the Goushes intellect.
If you consider that then even a normal one can be dangerous."
Hearing Kari's helpfull explanation Noah just nodded silently.
They looked at the rusty board for a minute and came to the same conclusion.
"I think we should go and see the shrine, it's a five minute walk from here.
We might find something there if we are lucky." Said Kari indicating it on the map.
"I agree." Said Noah as he took the lead to go there.
As predicted they arrived there in around six minutes.
It should have been expected seeing the accommodation but the shrine was deserted, it was empty, it also had probably been left alone for a long time, since it had been not cleaned properly, the stone shrine was covered in moss and it had been invaded by a really big family of spiders, rats, mouses and other horrible creatures.
Just looking at it made you forget the idea of entering it.
Sweating and covering his mouth Kari said "Do we have to do this! I still can't get use to this even after all this time."
Feeling overwhelmed and tired Noah said "W-we have to do t-this."
Stomping and shouting a few times Kari just rushed to the entrance, unfortunately for him his foot twisted a little and he fell down straight on his butt, whimpering Kari looked back and said "Don't laugh!"