Chapter 53

The next day, Seth slept till late, recovering from the after effects of using Abyssal Form.

His whole body stung as he moved and only after a hot soup from Jeff that he felt a bit better.

Noah hadn't come back with him to the inn since he was apparently staying in the Guild. Seth didn't know that they had accomodation rooms, but thinking of it, it was one of the largest buildings in the City and high ranked adventurers must have special benefits.

Still, he hadn't been able to talk to him about Rebecca's master and their plan to go to the Academy yesterday, and that was the top thing in his priority list.

He had been barely able to tell Erika about the completion of his quest since she had been busy with ogling at Noah.

He made his way to the Guild immediately in the morning and found it was full of people. It was on expected lines since just the “fan event” yesterday had gone on till midnight.

People had still poured in then, hoping to get a look at Noah.

Looking through the crowd of people and hearing a bit of chatter from loud adventurers, they were all talking about Noah.

He soon found him beyond the counter, talking to Erika and a girl he hadn't seen before. He had a smile on his face as he spoke.

Seth approached him, hoping to talk to him about the carriage that was going to the Academy soon.

“Hey Noah,” he said, walking closer and he turned towards him with a smile.

“Seth, you are up early. How's your body now?”

“It's better,” he said. “Actually, I was hoping to talk to you—”

“Good.” Noah suddenly put his hand on his shoulders, cutting him off. “I need your help with something.”

“What?”

“I got a quest I liked. We both are going to do it together. What do you say?” He asked, then shrugged his shoulders with a smile before Seth could reply. “Well, you can't reject it. I don't want to do it alone. You are coming with me.”

Seth blinked his eyes. What type of quest was it even for Noah to be interested in it? Were they going to fight Rank 5 monsters? Drakens of sorts? Wyverns? Or was he going to do down in the Tunnels of Grithza final chamber for some material?

He doubted whether he would even be able to keep up, but still, it was a good opportunity. Anyway, it didn't seem like he could get away.

“What type of quest?” He asked and Noah looked at the unfamiliar girl.

“We are going to clean this girl's house.”

“What?”

“Her house.”

“Is it monster infested?”

“If you believe rats and cockroaches to be monsters.”

Seth still doubted what he was wearing. He wondered if Noah was playing a bad joke on him.

***

It wasn't a joke.

Three hours later, Seth dealt with dirt and rats as he swept the floor with his broom, making sure to reach every corner he could.

They were at one of the residential corners of the City and were now cleaning the house of an unknown lady who couldn't do it since she had a day job and lived alone.

Throughout the way, he kept thinking that Noah was lying to him, but once they had reached here and given the broom and tower to clean the place up, there was no escaping.

“Tell me why are we doing this?” Seth asked, swishing at the floor and sending a dust cloud in the air. He coughed a bit. The place wasn't big, but it hadn't been cleaned for quite a long time.

He wondered how the woman had even lived here.

“I felt like the quest was interesting.” Noah's voice came up from the other room. He was cleaning off a wardrobe and organising everything in it.

“Interesting? How?”

“It's not everyday I get to clean places up. I have a few mansions around the world, given by kings and other rich people, but they all come with maids. I haven't done any cleaning quest in decades, so it's interesting. You need to break the rhythm sometimes or it gets boring.”

His answer made sense to Seth, but he still wasn't happy with the work that was given to him. Though, he did it with conviction.

“I used to clean my house every week back on Earth. It's not an interesting thing to me.”

“Then, won't it just bring back good memories?”

Noah emerged out of the room, having done with it and immediately went to work in the kitchen, starting with the dishes.

“Not really. I never really enjoyed it. I think I liked cooking sometimes, but that's it.”

They talked more for a while, mostly about Seth's life on Earth. He was happy to answer Noah's questions since he had no one to talk to about it. Rebecca hardly seemed interested, probably because she felt like it was a sensitive topic for him.

Once he was done with sweeping the floor, he looked at Noah and asked, “I wanted to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Rebecca and I, I told you about her before. The only other person who knows where I'm from. She had a master in BlackStone Academy who's proficient with a lot of things. He might be able to help us deal with Seven Seals and maybe, have a way to send me back home. At least we are hoping for it. We were leaving for the Academy before you appeared,” he spoke carefully, keeping an eye on Noah's expressions. “Do you want to come with us?”

Noah didn't reply for a second, silently doing the dishes.

After a while, he said, “Let's talk about it once we finished with the work.”

Seth didn't object to it and started cleaning with the goal to finish the whole work as soon as possible.

Let's see what he says after work.

***

Noah didn't say anything after work. Once it was over, he got surrounded by people who needed autographs on their way back to the Guild. The Archmage Knight told him to go ahead since it would be a while before he got free.

Seth did as told and only met him again three days later. Before he could get to the talk, Noah delayed it again and dragged him to the forest to hunt for Forest Trolls.

“Why am I fighting with these monsters?”

Seth ducked down as the Troll swung his club. An ugly deformed face with lines going through its neck and bark like skin stood in front of him. The monster was taller than him by a few inches and was muscular, but despite its bulky build, it moved with a nimbleness.

There were four of them in total, each with clubs and scorn on their faces.

“We got a quest to exterminate them and get back a few herbs. They are eaten by the Trolls, so they must be nearby,” Noah said from the back.

“Then, why are you not helping me out?”

“I am looking for herbs. If things go bad, I will save you. Don't worry, they are weaker than you.”

The Trolls were at mid Rank 3, so Seth could handle them. Still, with Noah here, he could easily kill them in one move yet he wanted to preserve his strength.

I just have to get it over with fast.

He ducked under another attack and swung his blade. It hit the Troll's side, but it didn't penetrate as much as he had hoped. The Troll pushed him back as another one took a wild swing at his face.

“Hit the area around their necks. It would kill them.”

A voice came from behind him as he kicked a Troll away.

Using Flickering Step, he disappeared as an attack landed on leaves. Appearing right in front of a Troll, he dug his blade into its neck, blood spurting out as the Troll fell on the ground.

It clutched it's neck and struggled, but Seth knew it was done.

Doing a backflip, he landed on top of another troll and hit it's head with a punch, then dug his blade on the neck before he was thrown back.

He quickly got up and rolled on the ground.

Continuing his relentless attacks, he kept jumping and disappearing before aiming at their necks. Some attacks worked, others landed a club on his shoulders and face, but he was able to deal with the Trolls again.

The last one fell to the ground with a thud and Seth pushed the blood off his blade as notifications filled his vision.

You have defeated a Forest Troll!

You have gotten experience!

You have defeated a Forest Troll!

Looking at the notifications, he frowned as he was still stuck at Rank 3. He wondered how long he would have to wait to advance as Noah's voice called him out from behind.

“You did a good job. Your skills aren't half bad for someone who never held a dagger in his original dimension.”

He said, holding up a few herbs in his hand. They looked like roots more to Seth, but he hadn't taken up this quest. Noah had simply dragged him.

“My skills help and I had to fight to survive back in the Tunnels,” he said. “Are we going back now?”

“Yes, I got the herbs. No need to wait for more Trolls to find the blood of their tribe and attack. You won't be able to handle a Forest Troll King. They are higher up in Rank 4 normally.”

“Sure.”

They started walking back towards the city. It was over an hour long walk and they had nothing to talk in the meantime, so Seth again decided to shot his chance.

“So, did you thought anything about going to the Academy with us? The carriage driver is already waiting for a day.”

“Not yet,” he said simply, then passed him a few herbs to hold. “Don't let them fall on the ground. They are actually quite rare.”

“About the carriage—”

“You did well there at the battle, but there were a few parts I felt could be better.”

Noah again cut the topic short and started talking about pointers from the battle. Seth listened intently since they were good points. Still, he couldn't help, but feel like Noah was intentionally delaying answering his question.

For what reason, he didn't know.

***

A few more days went like this and Noah kept dragging Seth around the city and outside it to do quests. From silly ones to a few scary ones. Seth did everything from finding a cat to fighting large Archanides that were like his worst nightmare came to life.

It seemed like Noah was taking up every quest that came his way and with the rumour spreading in the city, there were normally lines in the morning for him to take up on a quest. Seth heard from Derek that people were even putting bets who Noah would take a quest from.

According to him, pretty girls were chosen the most.

Even with that, he didn't got any answer from him. He didn't reject it, but also didn't accept it which made things more complicated for him.

“Seth, I just talked to the carriage driver. He's going to leave without us soon if we don't come on board.”

Rebecca said when they were eating lunch in the Guild. She looked exhausted, seemingly coming here after apologising to the carriage driver.

“We even got a free ride to hitch and we only had to protect him. He's stalling because there's no better adventures going that way and he don't want to deal with putting up a quest, but I know he's going to leave with just a few cheap guards if we keep delaying it.”

“I'm sorry,” Seth said, lowering his head. “I tried to talk to him, but he's just delaying it. It's making me frustrated too.”

He frowned. These past days, his frustration with Noah had just increased.

“You should go and talk to him now and not let him go away without any answers. That's the only way. If not, you can decide whether to leave without him.”

Rebecca said with a stern expression and he nodded.

Quickly eating his fill, he stood up and looked around the Guild for Noah, finally finding him upstairs playing cards with a few staff members. It was a sight to see, but he had important matters to deal with.

“Seth, want to join in?” Noah asked when he saw him and Seth shook his head.

“No, I need to ask you something. The thing about the Academy,” he said, putting up his best flared up expression as possible, the frustration making him rile up. “Why don't you give a definite answer? You are stalling me for days. If you don't want to come, just say so.”

“It's not that.”

“Then, what is it?”

“Well, boys, it looks like fun is over. I will talk to you all later.”

Noah stood up as a few men in the crowd groaned. He gestured to Seth to follow him down and smirked at him.

“Why is that expression on your face?”

“You will see. I know I have delayed it again and again, but there's a good reason for it,” he said, chuckling to himself. “I need to show you something.”

He said as they walked down the stairs. Seth wondered what it could be. Hopefully not another quest.