UNLIMITED SPEED

Staring at a book lying on the marble like floor of the cultivation room, Noah felt his mind quiver every once in a while, as his soul island expanded during those periods gazing at the shining words within the book.

Noah had developed a method to last longer in cultivating his souk, which was to simply close his eyes every few seconds. It sounded simple but even at that he had passed out a few times.

His mind expanded at a relatively quick rate, but it remained slow compared to Noah's expectations.

[You have gained 992 points to Int]

[You have gained 564 points to Dex]

Rasing his head up, Noah felt his very core tremble multiple times, a big headache beginning to rise in his head.

'How long have I been doing this,' Noah asked the system while closing his eyes.

[[7 hours 12 minutes and 49 seconds]]

'That long. How many times did I pass out in total,' he questioned.

[[43 times, each only lasting a few tens of seconds]]

'Thats a lot of times to pass out,' Noah exclamained with a grin, 'But I can feel my mind beginning to handle this rank," Noah affirmed.

Before starting the cultivating session, he had decided to flip through its pages, and surprisingly the pages had ranks apportioned to them, for which higher level cultivators would cultivate in.

Currently Noah cultivated in the rank 1 section which was for those within tier 1 to 3. The one's for tier 4's upward only had blank pages, and Noah appreciated it.

'I wonder what a rank 2 would do to me,' Noah furrowed his brows still in pain.

[[Kill you instantly]]

'Wow!, that's.....I honestly do not have words for that,' Noah smiled.

'But I've been thinking, are there only 6 tiers in existence?. The book has too many pages for the tiers to stop only at six, even the speep essence has 10 ranks,' Noah asked, and he received no response from the system.

Shaking his head in pure wonder, Noah proceeded to stand up. His core had stopped trembling and he felt the need to rest. In the outside world that is.

Glancing at the 7 bottle's on the floor, Noah nod his head in satisfaction, he would never turn off the brewing process; ever.

With a slight stretch his figure silently vanished from the cultivation room.

Arriving directly outside his door, Noah felt a bit surprised by the event, but even more shocked when he sighted Jon's figure walking towards him from afar.

The environment currently had no sunlight, making for an eerie vibe.

'I reckon two hours,' Noah thought focusing his gaze on Jon, who had an eyebrow raised.

"I hope you had a good night's rest, Mr Will," Jon's mental voice touched Noah's, and he immediately felt something different.

"You've gotten stronger!," An astonished expression appeared on his face.

"At the cost of my sleep," Noah shrugged his shoulders. "What do I owe this Incredibly early visit?," Noah asked trying to push his door open, when he realized that it currently remained locked from inside.

"Discussion's on my next move. Which involves you," Jon started, "But I'd like us to go somewhere," He added, an orange circular inscription suddenly shooting out of his opened palm, before expanding outwards, touching Noah in the process.

The orange light emitted by the circular inscription increased slightly in intensity, and the duo vanished after that event.

Arriving at the top of the right hill surrounding the village. Noah felt his soul realm tremble from the teleportation, his previously receding headache rushing back with far more intensity.

"What the heck was that!," Noah complained, as his abrupt annoyance caused the wind to pick up around them. Tiny yellow sparks beginning to flicker around them, as the temperature dropped rapidly for a few hundred foots around them, but he quickly strapped his feelings at that point.

Jon noticed all this, and needles to say his shock had caused his mind to go blank for multiple seconds

"Who exactly are you?," he felt the need to ask that question once again.

Noah kept a straight face at that question, his eyes fixed on the middle aged man. He felt ready to go all-out to erase Jon, if he reacted or probed too much.

The expert noticed the potential danger in that situation and immediately regained his composure.

"I apologise for the abrupt teleportation. My plan would need you to understand a bit of this area's layouts," Jon apologized focusing his gaze on the space below them.

Noah calmed down at the man's words, and focused on the vast space before him.

He could see the village in its entirety and even farther than it. His eyes could pickup the path that led into the forest. After that were what looked like a sea of trees currently black due to the lack of sunlight.

Noah felt his headache recede even more at that scene, something about that view felt relaxing, coupled with the early morning breeze that fell on his face, distorting his long hair.

"What exact are we doing here?," Noah eventually questioned the expert, who had remained silent all this while.

Clearing his throat at the question, Jon decided to talk using his mouth.

"I'm sure you find the view soothing, but that isn't why we are here," Jon started.

"I hope you recall my words of surprising the traitor, and this is what i need you to do," Jon's gaze landed on a distant location near the entrance of the forest.

"You see, I want you to leave the village today," Jon spoke, "But you won't actually leave completely I want you to reside in a cave away from the travel path. Do not worry i have a map at hand, but you should still get the rough location since I've hidden it well," Jon explained pointing at a seemingly random spot a few hundred foots from where the road actually started. Nevertheless Noah still made a mental note of the direction.

"Let me guess after I fake my exit, you'll have me return when the battle is about to begin," Noah kept his straight and slightly cold face, his eyes still on the spot the expert pointed at.

"Affirmative," Jon nodded.

"What time do I leave?," Noah asked after a few moments of silence.

"A few hours after sunrise,"Jon responded.

"Hmmm. Okay then," Noah turned to face the expert, "I have a question. Why aren't there any protections from up here. If I were the other village leaders I'd simply attack from up here," Noah said glancing at the thick bushes and even the trees on that wide hill.

"Oh but we do," Jon smiled as a dome shaped veil, white in colour, flickered into existence, before vanishing again, startling Noah.

"And about the other villages simply attacking from up here...well it would have been an effective plan if the hills were that easy to scale," Jon swept his gaze around them.

"As you may not know, there are actually multiple tier 3 beasts simply roaming both hills. You can sight many trees blocking our view, so do expect a few beasts at that level to silently lurk within them," Jon smiled.

"If that wasn't enough, I'd taken it upon myself to place traps in random spots on the hill. I've done this constantly for a few years now, and even I have no idea where I placed all those tier 3 traps," Jon grinned wryly.

"Occasionally, explosions go off, but they aren't nearly as many as I have planted," A shiver went down Jon's spine at the thought of the sheer amount of traps he had created and placed on both hills.

Noah remained stunned at the man's level of preparation, he almost had the whole situation under control, apart from his lack of man power.

"The protections are part of the reason the mana density here is very low," Jon shook his head, "And high-tier mana cores or even mana stones are very pricey, even for us," Jon sighed, but Noah's ears perked up at the sound of the new words.

'Mana stones?,' Noah thought, 'No one ever mentioned any such material,' he sighed heavily.