UNLIMITED SPEED

The young-looking man led the duo down a flight of stairs that led into a red and white room. Within the room stood the red-haired man in a nice-looking red robe and six individuals stood around him. Three of which were individuals within the 4th tier.

Upon their arrival, the six individuals glanced at them and Noah got able to see their faces.

'I guess these are the other experts going for the tournament,' he thought moving closer to take a position beside them, while Elder Sarah stood behind him like the three tier-4 cultivators.

"Good, you arrived just in time," The red-haired man commented as his attention remained on a series of green symbols casually swirling around his wrists. An eyebrow rose on his face at the face mask Noah had on, but he made no comments about it.

During their walk there, Noah had placed his mask on, and that sight created an air of mystery around him, one that his fellow guild-mates found hard to pierce.

There were two males and a female in the group, he identified them as the other registrants due to their weak cultivation level compared to their masters.

All three of them looked a bit in their late twenties or early thirties. The males were quite average in terms of looks but their peak middle-stage power was something he had to watch out for.

The lady on the other hand was quite pretty. She had long straight pink hair, and a pair of beautiful silver eyes and her facial features were alluring even if her expression was icy cold. She had only glanced at him once, but her expression never flickered even if she too felt curious about the white-haired man.

Noah would differentiate the two men with their hair color. One had long blonde hair, while the other had short green hair.

After the red-haired man welcomed Noah and Elder Sarah, silence fell in the room, as everyone waited for what he was so focused on doing. The glowing symbols continued to increase in number even after a few minutes had passed, and soon the experts were compelled to talk to each other.

The first to break the silence was one of the three tier-4 existences, and his words were directed to Elder Sarah.

"It's good to see that you have a student Sarah," the man commented with a short laugh. "However, he's weaker than I imagined," he cast a disdainful gaze on Noah's figure for just an instant. But Noah felt it.

Shooting a short glance at Elder Sarah, Noah communicated his feelings even if his cold expression never wavered. They had spent too much time together not to understand a bit of their feelings even if no words were spoken.

Elder Sarah replied by shaking her head and shooting a glare at the speaking expert.

"I bet he's stronger than your student," she declared with a tone dripping with mockery. It felt quite quizzical watching a tier 3 expert practically insult a tier 4 without the least bit of fear in her eyes.

"I bet he's stronger than all your students put together," she added sweeping her gaze on everyone present. Her words inevitably gained everybody's attention, and Noah felt all their piercing gazes fall on him.

'This woman!' He yelled inwardly while a muscle jerked on his forehead. Notwithstanding, he remained calm on the outside. After all her words were true.

"That's arrogant of you to say," The second male spoke. He stood behind the green-haired man, so Noah knew he was his teacher.

"William here has proven time and time again amongst his peers that he's one of the elites. I don't even know who your student is," the man continued with anger burning in his voice.

The lady who stood behind the beautiful girl kept to herself, but her expression showed her displeasure concerning the matter.

Tension soon began to build among the four experts. Three belonged to the realm of tier 4 and one at the very peak of tier 3. However, the students themselves barely made any reaction. Heck, they behaved as though their masters weren't about to explode into a battle that they would certainly be caught in.

The sound of energy crackling broke the silence and brought everyone's attention back to the red-haired man. And then Noah noticed that the young-looking man had vanished.

"The portal is ready before any of you start a fight," the red-haired man announced shooting an annoyed glance at all the masters. And surprisingly they all shrunk back, except Elder Sarah of course.

That woman really seemed to be made of steel.

"Step forward youngsters," the man announced gesturing at them. "The rest of you can leave, we don't need you here, we never did," the red-haired man waved dismissively at them and the three tier 4 cultivators immediately left, but not after shooting glares at Noah.

"Sarah, are we going to do this here?" the red-haired man sighed. She was mentally draining. He had already begun to wonder how Aiden managed with her.

She clicked her tongue at his words then something suddenly appeared in her grip which she threw at Noah.

Catching the long object, Noah immediately saw that it was a sword, and he didn't hesitate to unsheath it a bit.

"You might need it. I know you've been practicing with different weapons, but swords fit our style, daggers also do, but they are limited," she explained before approaching the exit.

"I see we're all done," the red-haired man announced shortly making eye contact with them.

Waving his hand at the crackling mass of energy, they watched its multicolored but mostly blue glow intensify until it transformed it a rectangular mass, after which it stabilized.

"You'll take turns in entering it, and are to wait for me on the other side," he commanded gesturing at the pink-haired lady, who immediately walked towards the portal and stepped through it, vanishing inside its light.

The rest did the same, but when it got to Noah's turn, the red-haired man placed his hand on his shoulder.

"They currently do not see you as a worthy ally because they haven't seen you in action, but I have. I expected this from them, so I'm taking a little side mission. The tournament itself starts in four days and that's all you need to know. See you in two days young Aiden," the expert explained before hurling him into the portal.

The environment changed around Noah at that point and the bright light of the sun soon shone high above him, and the figures of tall trees spread out in all directions.

Noah rolled on the ground before uttering a few curses in annoyance. However, before he could settle down, his instincts trembled and he found himself rolling sideways led by his instincts.

A large figure crashed on his former spot and Noah felt mildly surprised to find a dead beast there. Then it dawned on him. His group had landed right at the center of a magical beast pack. A relatively large one at that.