UNLIMITED SPEED

"Why?" Noah asked taking a few steps back until he was close to Riveta again. He could now clearly feel Stella's hostility, and it was a bit worrying, to say the least.

"Don't take her current hostility to heart, she's like that to anyone new."

"On the flip side, she's surprisingly calmer to you," Riveta explained floating forward, and Noah felt the beast's focus leave him. Even if only partially.

"Oh?" An eyebrow rose on his face.

"Mhm. She wouldn't even allow most people touch her," Riveta continued to pat the phoenix's head.

"That's actually why I brought her out, to test you. Now I've confirmed that there's something more to you than the eyes can see. Not even my senses can properly pick it up, but she seemed to be able to do so," Riveta explained shooting a cold glance at Noah's figure.

Noah however, limited himself to a calm expression. He didn't exactly feel surprised about her words. After all the bracelet was only a tier 6 object, and she was already close to that level.

Things would change when it crumbled. The whole world would know of his existence. He had come to terms with that inevitable event, so he didn't react much.

"You're right. But isn't there something special about everyone," Noah tilted his head to the side.

"I doubt that. But your type of difference is something else. It's completely beyond what the norm is. But I can't place my finger on it."

"In short I'm quite stunned that your being could be this hidden from my senses. I can't even see your core's color," she admitted moving closer to him.

Noah simply shrugged at that point. "I guess when it's time it would be revealed," he stated with such confidence and calmness that Riveta was forced to change the topic since she knew probing wouldn't get her anywhere. And she wasn't one to probe. Especially when the said person was her first real guest in decades.

"Do you want a ride or not?" She sighed at some point.

"I never said I didn't," a smile shone on Noah's face at her words and he didn't hesitate to draw nearer to her.

Shaking her head in wonder at who her guest really was, Riveta raised the two of them on her beast and pat Stella's back signaling that she was ready to move.

Stella took off at that point, and Noah watched the world around him become a proper blur.

Stella broke the sound barrier upon acceleration, and her velocity directly shot upwards until Noah understood that she had crossed Mach 50 in one go!

They barely had time to scan the world below them since Stella shot through miles of land area in seconds.

Soon, however, she began to rise higher and higher until she reached a certain point that she maintained. Noah wondered why she didn't go higher, but he didn't ask, he was too busy enjoying the event.

It felt mildly surprising that something so huge could travel that fast, but he had seen it being done by weaker beasts that he didn't think too much about it.

Stella circled a vast region before curving to return to the plain, and it took them only a few seconds, but they were one of the best few seconds in Noah's life. All three.

Their movement had been barely noticeable, but Noah didn't care about that, he just wanted a flying beast more now.

"That was awesome!" Noah exclaimed getting off the beast with Riveta's help.

"How did you even survive that speed?" Riveta marveled openly at this point. There had to be a limit to how much unique a person had to be.

This was beginning to get too much even for her.

Noah shrugged at her question with a cheeky smile.

"Young man I wonder what you'll become at my level," Riveta shook her head trembling at the thought.

"I'll be the strongest," Noah proclaimed, and Riveta burst into short laughter.

"We'll see about that. Get to tier four first," she waved dismissively approaching the tower while pulling him closer to her with her consciousness.

"I'll do that then," Noah replied nodding his head. His was already close to that level after all.

The dungeon was still cooking, but he hoped to reach a decent level by the time he was done with the dive.

"Come let's eat," Riveta pulled Noah out of his thoughts, then a blue light shone from her figure, wrapping its light around him, and they vanished to appear inside a certain room within the tower.

Noah opened his eyes before a long golden-brown table. A really long one. Empty silver plates sat before him and although only he and Riveta were on the table, the plates filled the table as they numbered sixty, excluding the large ones on the center of the table.

Shooting a quizzical gaze at Riveta, he watched her shrug with a smile.

Before he could speak, however, the sound of marching reached his ears, and he felt stupefied to lay eyes on a series of humanoid dummies in clothes. Situated on their palms were golden plates filled with different delicacies that reminded Noah of his hunger.

He had never seen humanoid dummies utilized that way, and it was even more astonishing when he sensed that their material was in the fourth tier. They weren't even at its beginning.

Noah shot another gaze at Riveta, and she opened her mouth to speak.

"I forge in my spare time. I've had too much spare time," she stated.

"How are they able to do this?" Noah asked even if he more or less knew the answer to that.

"Well I've placed a simulation inside of them, but they have a core of sorts even if I command them," she gave a short explanation before picking up the eating utensils beside her and decided to have a go at the food so abundant before her.

The different aromas of freshly cooked food substances permeated the wide and very empty room.

The room was wide enough to fit a minimum of two relatively large buildings, but it only featured that table and the chairs.

Noah and Riveta ate in the presence of the humanoid maids numbering exactly a hundred. Some of them had not brought anything with them, and Noah couldn't help but feel intimidated before that might.

There was enough power inside that room to probably wipe out a continent, even if Riveta was excluded.

He got reminded for the nth time how weak he was. Noah couldn't gauge their complete level, however, so only Riveta knew that none of the Dummies were below the peak of tier 4. And compared to how many she had, one hundred of them was quite small.

It showed how wide the gap between tiers was. A peak tier 4 would find it difficult, practically impossible to kill a tier 5. There was simply too much difference in the quality of their energy, body, and mind.

Noah enjoyed the meal and ate to his heart's content while the dummies stood silent.

Soon he was done. He had eaten more than Riveta had, but even at that, the table remained filled.

"What are you going to do with the rest?" Noah asked, finding it sad to see such good-tasting food be wasted.

"Store them for later, even if I might eventually end up throwing them away," she revealed wiping her mouth with a piece of white cloth set beside her plate.

Noah unknowingly frowned at her words, which prompted her to speak again.

"But you can keep them if you want, I hardly eat," she added standing up from her chair and gesturing that Noah store the food.

Noah could only nod and do as she said, before following her toward where she was going.

She took him on a sort of tour around her tower while Stella continued to do as she pleased outside.