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"So there isn't any trouble," Noah spoke, sitting before a man who looked to be in his fifties. His eyes were weary, his skin wrinkled, his voice rasp, and his hair mostly grey.

The man held a subpar cultivation base at the peak of tier 2, he seemed unable to go further. Yet he continued to feel strange to Noah.

"I apologize for the inconvenience young master, but we have no issues with magical beasts. But we thank you for your worry," The old man explained standing to bow his head while Noah simply looked at him.

'Worry? I only came here because I would make money,' Noah shook his head inwardly. Nevertheless, he didn't like that situation and began to wonder how that bill had arrived at the guild's board.

He didn't know exactly how calls for help were brought to the guild, but he felt maybe there had been a mix-up or something.

But even with that thought, nothing added up. The elders said there hadn't been any troubles with beasts for years. So how come the paper had found its way to a great guild for that matter?

He valued Lina's words over theirs since he knew her a bit, and she wasn't even allowed to hurt him.

"It's okay then," Noah spoke at some point. "I'll simply report this to my guild and have this checked out."

"That's great, young master," The town's head bowed again. "Now let them show you to your room. I believe your journey has been far."

"I heard the members of your prestigious guild make use of flying magical beasts." The man whose name was Benal suddenly spoke. "Why have you refrained from doing so?"

"Well, we do at times. But I decided not to this time around," Noah lied. He didn't trust those people and he couldn't give proof of his ride.

"Ah, I see. I hope you enjoy your stay then," Benal bowed.

Noah only nodded and stood to exit that building.

The light of the sun shone on his face when he pushed the door open and walked out of it, and the elders were waiting outside.

"I have confirmed that nothing was wrong," Noah spoke before any of them could, and they glanced at themselves before one of them spoke.

"Please let us lead you to your room," The man spoke. And Noah simply followed their lead.

They passed the town again, and stares landed on him again. He still had his mask on, but none of them had complained about it.

Noah found himself gazing into the eyes of many of them and felt on edge since some; especially the children looked on edge.

The elders took him to another almost remote area in the town where a small house lay. Its interior only featured a room and a restroom, but Noah wasn't planning on using them much.

The room itself wasn't that large. Barely 3sq-m. It featured a small but low bed and a green blanket.

"Thank you," Noah head-bowed, admiring the windows of the building.

The windows were nice and big, but one was so big he could comfortably fit through it, and it was slideable. Good for sneaking out.

A stream ran about 10m from the building, and he felt interested in it since it wasn't sparkling blue.

"It's our pleasure, young master," the elder at the forefront bowed, and so did the others.

"We will take our leave now," the old man spoke and they turned to leave. Noah watched them until they were completely out of his sight before he sat to think.

He still found the entire town strange and he felt certain that something was going on, even if he wasn't in the mood to actually investigate anything.

None of them could touch him even if they wanted. He was far stronger than those his level not to talk of them.

Noah sat inside the room for a while to not rouse any suspicion. He still had his mask on his face and he wasn't going to remove it any time soon.

At some point, he began to wonder why he felt worried about a bunch of tier 2 cultivators. But even if logically there wasn't anything dangerous, he remained paranoid, so he decided to blow off some steam by checking out the flowing stream.

'Nice... and cool too,' Noah commented, dipping his hand in the clear and shallow water.

It didn't seem to feature that much mana which was the reason for its less sparkly nature. Mana had stopped being important and available to him, which was why he couldn't tell its ambient density.

But from the looks of things, it wasn't much. Feeling adventurous, Noah scooped a bit of the clear water and poured it into his mouth.

He had learned long ago that his hold on mana had vanished after he broke the oath of the royals, but he had never actually tested what would happen drinking water filled with mana.

Apparently, it was dangerous to the body of humans. And only beasts could consume it in its raw state. But he wasn't human, at least not fully.

The cool liquid slid down his throat and eventually reached his belly, but nothing happened, at least for a while.

His gut began to protest violently, barely after a minute had passed, and Noah felt nausea for the first time in a while.

He ended up puking, but only water. Shockingly.

Now that he tried it, the water tasted bad and it smelt repulsive.

"Why?" Noah asked the system. An action he had stopped doing for a while now.

[[Your body is unable to take it as a result of how lower its quality is]]

[[By normal standards ingesting the water should have amounted to nothing since your body should have refined it to nothing. But your body is currently unable to take anything that features something that has mana. Or any other power source]]

The system explained relieving him of his confusion.

"Then that means one day I might be able to ingest mana," Noah said, still trying to get rid of the taste of the water.

[[By calculations, yes. But when? I am unable to tell as a result of your difference]]

"I see," he muttered wondering what would have happened to him if he had drank those waters sparkling as a result of the high density of mana they contained.

The hours passed and Noah opted to cultivate his mind to pass time. He, however, stopped when the moon rose. He didn't because he wanted to, but because he had noticed a figure standing right across the stream staring straight at him through the wide widow.