UNLIMITED SPEED

Elder Sarah came to a sharp stop in front of Noah, as the annoyance on her face vanished to allow her eyes to sharpen, after which surprise appeared on her gorgeous face.

"You are now in the middle stage," she said. Her eyes darted to Noah's deadpan expression, and questions couldn't help but rise in her mind. The reality felt stupendous, less than a week ago he held power within the lower stage even if his prowess crossed into the middle stage.

She had considered him special since then, but how was she to react to the quick rise in cultivation base. She still couldn't sense what color his core was, even if hers was already green.

A few seconds of silence passed before she spoke again, this time her words oozed the sheer amount of curiosity and shock she felt.

"What sort of monstrosity are you?" she commanded, walking around Noah while he followed her with his eyes.

"What do you mean," Noah replied in the most down-to-earth tone he could produce.

Lady Sarah's eyes sharpened at his words, but he beat her to saying anything.

"Oh, you mean my cultivation level. It's just the middle stage nothing much," he shrugged and the whole mansion seemed to fall silent at those grand words.

Lady Sarah sensing the arrogance within his tone shuddered silently, and surprisingly, she calmed down. His cocky declaration threatened to make her explode in rage, but there was also calmness.

'Who crosses into the middle stage in five days after only being at the bottom of the lower stage, and calls it nothing,' she wondered. If only she knew it had taken him far lesser than that to advance.

A bad attempt at a calm smile appeared on Lady Sarah's face and the event troubled Noah. 'It seems our guild has taken in something more than a monster,' she thought opening her mouth to speak.

"Come with me," she announced walking towards the sparring room. Noah knew what she desired to do, and even he felt eager to test his power against her. Notwithstanding, he voiced an objection before she could go too far.

"Can we not do that at least not this moment," Noah spoke shaking his head while still wearing his deadpan expression. His words managed to shock Lady Sarah and she even got annoyed, yet she regained her composure. She had been prepared to take an action that was based on slight jealousy and even eagerness to wipe out his cocky behavior.

A sigh escaped her mouth before she turned to glance at Noah. Her eyes had regained their calmness. Sure the young man had accomplished something that had taken her years to achieve, but that didn't change his position on the scale of power, she remained far more powerful than he could currently comprehend. If that wasn't the case she wouldn't be titled the demi-tier 4 expert across the guilds. The strongest expert within the third tier in the entirety of the guild.

"I'll take you to your room first," she announced walking past him towards the flight of stairs. Noah immediately nodded and followed her.

The air between the duo had turned silent, but neither expert really cared. Although he had managed to postpone his beating, that was all he had done, postpone it.

A series of doors numbering exactly eleven in number appeared before Noah, and he realized that the balcony was far wider than he had thought.

"This will be your room," Elder Sarah announced pointing at the fourth door down that walkway. Noah nodded and proceeded to enter it.

However, Elder Sarah's hand appeared in his way, as both their gazes met.

"Who said you could enter it now," she narrowed her eyes confusing and surprising Noah at the same time. "I only said I'd show you. We are returning to the sparring room now," she ordered leaving no room for complaints.

Noah could only furrow his brows at that point, her words made no sense at all. 'Who shows their guest only the door to their room,' Noah raged inwardly, he had to admit that the lady before him stood at an astonishing level of annoyance.

She began her walk toward the sparring room, and Noah could only exhale deeply to disperse his annoyance.

Soon both experts were facing themselves within the bounds of the corner-less sparring room. The air was tense, and Noah still felt unsure of his current situation.

"Has the training started?" Noah felt forced to ask.

"You can say that, but currently I want to test your power before we move on to the main things," Elder Sarah responded.

"No spells no empowerment, only pure strength, speed, resilience, and defense; is a rule we'll be following for most parts of our training. The use of our spells tends to force us into laziness, but this is a martial arts training session, your body at its normality is what is required." Lady Sarah began to pace but not in any way suggesting worry.

"Following this rule will allow me to gauge the true peak of your body and how we can push it beyond that limit to achieve a level of physical superiority that many don't have," she stopped pacing to stare at him.

"Are weapons allowed?" Noah asked understanding clearly what she meant.

"Good question. For the initial stages of my tutorship, you'll not be utilizing weapons, my martial arts allows a person to utilize their body as their main weapon, but things change along the way. Anyway for now all you need to know is that no weapons are allowed until I say so," she explained crouching a bit.

Noah understood that the time for action had come so he prepared himself.

"Give me everything you can muster, young Aiden," Elder Sarah announced, her face growing cold as an aura of intense focus seeped out of her figure.

Struggle appeared on Noah's face at those words, he didn't want to seriously injure his master only during a spar.

Lady Sarah noticed his struggle and snorted. "Don't underestimate me Aiden, there's a whole lot you've not seen me do, so trust me and do as I say," she explained but with a tinge of annoyance in her tone.

Noah sensed her anger and removed all doubts before sprinting forward, shockingly she had stood still even if her eyes confirmed that she could comfortably follow his movements.

Noah threw a punch at her abdomen, but her left hand caught his fist without the slightest hitch. That reality shocked him since although that had not been his all, it stood somewhere at half his full strength.

"Is that what you call a punch. I said everything you've got," Elder Sarah muttered slowly as her grip on Noah's fist got tighter, so tight that Noah started to feel his bones creak, resulting in pain.

"This is what you call a punch," she announced as her right hand flickered.

Noah saw the world around him spin when an unfathomable amount of power landed on his abdomen. His figure flew across the room, smashed into the wall, and dug into it.