NOVEL NEXT 1.32 – Fine
“Wat?” Sophie had a dumbfounded look on her face. “Did that just come from your necklace?”
Noah smiled and replied. “Yup. Let’s just say that it’s an artifact with A LOT of space in it.”
“I thought you just liked weird jewelry. Did you make it with those runes you talked about?”
“HA! I wish! If I was able to make stuff like this, then I’d be rich! But no, unfortunately, I’m nowhere near good enough to make something like it. It pretty much dropped out of the sky.”
“Where even were you when it dropped out of the sky? I think I need to go there!” She laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. First the apocalypse happens and now there are random priceless artifacts dropping out of the sky? “But seriously, that kind of artifact would be so useful to a scout that has to survive out in the wilderness for days on end.” She said as she looked expectantly at him.
Noah shrugged and said. “Sorry, it’s soul bound. Which means I’m the only one who can use it. It won’t even work if you kill me and took it, it would just fly off and find a different compatible owner by itself.”
“Well damn, that’s pretty nifty.”
“It is! It’s like I have insurance. But that… probably won’t stop people from trying to steal it though. So let’s keep this between us, yeah?”
“No problem!”
With that, they continued eating and talking about the city and what it was like living there. Noah and Mark were glad to find out that there was still electricity in some parts of the city. Some of the coal-fired power plants and a massive stock of solar panels were still going strong and providing some power. Giving the residents some much-needed semblance of normalcy in the world.
And speaking of normalcy, some new stores were even being put up by the residents. Ranging from blacksmith shops, tailors and, of course, restaurants, all run by appropriately classed people. Which meant…
“Did you say restaurants?” Noah looked to Mark and they nodded at each other. Noah hurriedly started packing their things into his artifact and said. “Okay! Lily we’re finally going to go eat some decent food so get the boars ready to go!”
Lily did a salute. “Aye, sir!” She said as she chuckled.
“Why the sudden rush?” Sophie asked, clearly confused.
“Well, we’ve been isolated from civilization since the apocalypse started and have only been eating amateurishly seasoned meats. No matter how delicious mana infused meat is, it tends to get old pretty quickly.” Mark spoke up and cleared her confusion. “Now finish your fish so we can get to that restaurant!”
Sensing the urgency in his voice, she proceeded to scarf down the fish in her hand and hurriedly drank her water, almost choking in the process.
A few minutes later, all their stuff, except for the main tent, which served as the core for the rune matrix, were neatly put away into the artifact and they were ready to go. They all had normal looking backpacks of course, with some necessities inside in order to hide the fact that they had a spatial artifact with them. Noah even bought a large pack that fit snugly on Emeri’s back and doubled as a saddle for Lily.
They crowded around the main tent as Noah stepped forward and put his hand on a small button-like protrusion at the side of the tent, sending a sliver of mana into it, causing the shimmering barrier of light to rapidly contract. The tent then collapsed in on itself, shrinking to the size of a small box made for a ring which Noah proceeded to pick up and put away into his artifact.
“I just can’t get used to the whole magic is real, thing.” Sophie remarked as she marveled at the process of just putting away a magic tent.
“You’ll get used to it, eventually.” Mark said. “It certainly helps to not think about it too much and just go with the flow.”
“Yeah, you have a point…”
“Are you love birds done talking? Because I’m… ready to go right now~~ I’m ready to go right now~~” Noah excitedly began singing an old song that popped into his head, looking forward to tasting some new food and to meeting new people.
Mark then walked up to Sophie and put his arms around her.
“Ummm. What’s happening Mark?” She asked.
Mark then picked her up and her draped over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry. “You’re too slow. Carrying you will speed things up and we can get to the city faster.”
She tried to wiggle herself free but was unable to because of the immense strength disparity. “Let me go! I’m a scout! I can run fast! Besides, those piglets can’t be faster than me!”
“We saw you running from those orcs Soph, we know how fast you can run. Trust me, the piglets are faster than you.” Mark replied.
“Then Why can’t I just ride with Lily?”
This time, it was Lily that replied. “Because mama Emeri doesn’t want to let a stranger ride her and I don’t want to force her.”
Sophie visibly deflated at that and gave up trying to free herself. “Okay, let’s just get this over with.”
Noah then cast his new spell [Wind Stride] on everyone and they started running. “Really need to get that flying car up and running. We can’t just keep on running whenever we want to travel.” He thought as he put one foot in front of the other, jets of air blasting out of his outstretched arms and legs, careful to match his speed to that of the piglets. “Note to self: make the flying car big enough to fit all the boars and then some.”
“I’ll meet you at the city.” Mark suddenly said before shooting off ahead of them.
“Guess he wants to show off in front of his ex.” He thought as he shrugged and continued at a leisurely pace.
A half hour of running later, Noah’s group came upon a scene of carnage just a few kilometers from the city. Bodies of orcs were strewn about on the forest floor with all their heads cleanly cut by what Noah assumed was Mark’s sword. “He’s really showing off for Sophie, huh… Hmmm…” He pondered the implications of this for a moment. He thought of the time when Mark was bawling his eyes out after breaking up with her, after finding out that she drunkenly kissed someone else at a party, then shrugged. “I thought he was over her from how he acted when they reunited… Hmmm… I’ll have a talk with him later.”
They continued on for a few more minutes and he finally looked ahead of them and saw that they were now at the border of the city. They could now see a tall earthen wall surrounding the borders and a large, heavily guarded opening big enough to fit some massive semi-trucks serving as a gate. Beside the gate, they saw Mark patting the back of a hunched up Sophie while a guard wearing a Kevlar vest and holding a rifle was beside them, seemingly talking to Mark.
One of the guards saw them close in on the gate accompanied by the boars. He raised his rifle and shouted at them. “HALT! Identify yourselves!” This caught the attention of all the other guards, including Mark and the puking Sophie.
They froze and immediately stopped walking.
Mark stepped forward and said. “Ease up guys! They’re with us.”
Seeing the new arrival that saved one of their scouts step forward, some of the guards relaxed and put their guns away while the others looked at the only guard wearing a Kevlar vest as if waiting for him to shout a command. Seeing this, the guard sighed and shouted. “At ease!”
Finally free from being pointed at by guns, Noah, Lily and the boars all resumed walking closer to the gate.
The Kevlar wearing guard walked up to them and stretched his arm out to Noah. “You must be Noah. I’m the C.O. at this gate. The name’s Owen.”
Noah caught his hand and shook it, noticing that there were faint wrinkles on the Owen’s face. “Nice to meet you, sir.”
“None of that! I’m just a former soldier, forced to come out of retirement by this goddamn world.” He said as he gripped Noah’s hand hard as he laughed.
Hearing a crunch, Noah screamed. “Gah! That hurt! Why’d you do that?” He hurriedly pulled away from the handshake and wildly shook his hand in the air in a bid to make the pain go away. “Good thing I have high regen. That crunch didn’t sound good.” He thought as the pain almost immediately disappeared after a few seconds.
“Ah, sorry about that.” Owen shyly said. “I assumed you’d be pretty strong, seeing as how you’re with a ranker.”
“I’m a mage!” Noah said indignantly. “And I’m definitely stronger than that guy!” He thought to himself but didn’t speak it out loud. They didn’t need to know that. “How’d you know that he’s a ranker?” He asked.
“Ah that… I have an identify skill which told me his name and level.” The guard said. “It’s one reason why I’m the captain at one of the main gates, aside from me being a former soldier, of course.” He paused for a moment and looked blank for a second. “Oh, you really are pretty high level.”
“Yup. Anyway, can we go?” Noah asked as he pointed at Mark, who was back to patting and holding Sophie’s hair.
Captain Owen stepped to the side and waved his hand theatrically at the gate. “Oh, of course! After you.”
With Lily and the boars in tow, Noah started walking toward Mark. “What’s up with her?” He asked as he got close.
“I kind of ran too fast.” He chuckled awkwardly.
“BLEEEEGH” Sophie retched. Thankfully, everything that could’ve come out already did, so it was nothing but a dry heave. “You moved WAY too fast!” She complained and glared at the paladin, which elicited a wry laugh from him.
“Hang in there, big sister!” Lily said from behind them, but didn’t dare come any closer lest she get any vomit on her. The piglets oinked in disgust and smartly hid behind Emeri’s massive frame.
A few more minutes of dry heaving later, Sophie was finally well enough to stand up straight and walk towards the gate. “Let’s go. I need to brush my teeth. Then we’ll go meet the chief, he’ll want to speak to you, seeing as how we’ve apparently got a ranker big shot with us.” She said as she once again glared at Mark.
“Hey, no need to glare! You never asked!” He said indignantly. “And to be fair, I was never trying to hide it. My name is on the leaderboards, for christ’s sake!”
She waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah. Now let’s go. I need to get the puke out of my mouth.”
And so they went past the gate and walked past the gate. They noticed something. Noah looked behind them, only to see a smiling captain Owen following them. “Why are you following us?”
“Well, we can’t just let people as powerful as you guys walk around freely. I’d get an earful from my C.O. for letting that happen.” He sighed. “I can double as a tour guide too since we’re stuck together.”
Noah looked at Mark, who nodded and just sighed. “Fine.”