Chapter 302 302. ENGROSSED
"Am I even allowed to cast such a spell," Noah wondered out loud. There wasn't much he could do apart from accepting that the system had found a way to allow him to utilize skill books gotten from dungeons, even if they didn't match his elemental affinity. Unfortunately, he still couldn't utilize the one he had gotten as a reward during the guild's trials.
His eyes fell on the brown book as he felt eager to finish those tasks and move on to the next one. Picking up the also normal-looking skill-book. Noah opened it and saw a panel pop up.
[You have come in contact with a mind-based spell]
[Hum of fear[Unique]]
[Origin: Dungeon of the dishonored serpent]
[Tier: 3]
[Current power output: N/A]
[Rank: B]
[Do you wish to learn it]
[Yes/No]
Noah immediately picked yes and watched the pages light up with a deep-brown light, and rather than the illusory head of a serpent, a deep low hum exited the pages of the book, after which the book began to silently shatter.
The now millions of pieces the book had turned into merged to form a magical circle, and Noah felt compelled to stare at it again. This once again caused a reaction in his mind as the exact magical circle appeared in his soul realm and shot into his soul core.
The book vanished at that point, and information began to flow into Noah's consciousness. Understanding the weird skill fell on him and he quickly found how useful it would become.
[You have gained a new skill: Hum of fear]
[Hum of fear[Unique][Active]: Fear is a powerful thing; capable of bringing the strongest to their mental knees before a battle even begins. When activated, a low deep hum un-perceivable to the ears of man is released from your body. Those within the range of your mental consciousness and the hum will experience deep fear at your presence. Note, however, that this ability only works well on beings weaker than you, and requires more willpower to work well on those stronger than the user. Cost: 1000SE, Duration: 30 seconds, Cool-down: N/A]
'The weaker an individual is, the more fear they will feel,' Noah thought inwardly. Although his words weren't in the skills information his comprehension had reached that level after mere seconds of studying the information available to him.
Noah closed the panel and shut his eyes to assimilate all that he had received. His assets had increased, and they weren't just any type, but far above average ones. However, things had changed now that he was in a guild. He wouldn't hide most of them now.
A few seconds had to pass before Noah reopened his eyes, and he wondered what next to do, even if he already had one particular plan in mind.
During his time checking out his skills and understanding that he would soon be locked up somewhere, Noah recalled his clone skill.
[Speed Clones[Active]: Create a clone physically identical to you and has 50% of your full power and speed. You can summon 2 of these clones(0/2)
Costs: 70% of SE Pool and 50% soul core fragment per Clone, Duration: N/A, Cool-down, N/A]
He had not touched it since he became a tier 3, but now that he would be away for months he felt it was the right time to utilize it. After all, no one apart from the higher-ups of the guild knew he would be staying within the central region.
Although Nathaniel had seen him come for the audition of sorts, no one outside of the higher-ups knew about Lady Sarah accepting him.
'There are still risks, but it should work well,' Noah evaluated. He desired to continue his rise in the guilds ranking system since his overall power would not increase during those months of training.
Noah felt hesitant about the whole ordeal, but he also felt compelled to test the skill. The requirement of fifty percent of his soul core fragment scared him since a cultivation session would be required after it, but he also wanted to understand what it meant.
'This might not be the smartest thing, but worse comes to worst I'll send it into the cultivation room, or destroy it,' Noah shrugged.
However, a series of deeper thoughts occurred within his mind and he spotted issues that wouldn't allow his plan to function in the city.
The major one being that his clone wouldn't feature the guilds mark, disabling it from utilizing the guilds structures. Even if he somehow managed to bypass the first hindrance, he recalled how the guild's higher-ups received information about the new member's achievement everytime.
He couldn't escape the second one, which effectively put an end to his plan. A sad but necessary ending. Pulling such a feat would have been easy if he had been in the cities of the Cusk nation, but on the floating city run by individuals far more knowledgeble and powerful than he, he could only hold it back.
'Maybe on my first real mission out of the city,' Noah encouraged himself.
With nothing else to do than wait for time to pass, Noah simply lay on his bed. He could go on missions, but he didn't want to. He planned to move around less until he returned to the central region, where his new level of power would be drowned by the myriads of tier 4's.
Surely questions would be asked, but he really didn't care, the guild would have to take him as he was or send him out. He remained promising expert after all, and he felt certain that there were other guilds willing to take him in.
'I'm like gold to this hungry guilds,' he mused voicing a soft giggle. He spent the next few hours talking a nap, after which he cultivated his mind.
This time around however, he didn't blackout during the ten hour session which had only felt like a few minutes to his engrossed mind.
For the first time since his cultivating journey, Noah understood what it felt like to be completely lost and deep in his meditation. Cultivating his body or core never brought him to the same state of mind, and due to his former mental weakness he hadn't been able to experience it. There had only been one time he had been close to such a state, and that had been way back during his time in Vonol.
Noah would have continued staring at the page filled with white words, had a knock not reached his now really sensitive ears.
The event had felt like a dream, but Noah confirmed that he had a visitor, and even more shock ran through his mind when he found Nathaniel at his door.