UNLIMITED SPEED

Noah stared at the closed door for whole minutes before blinking his eyes to snap out of his daze.

“What just happened,” Noah muttered laying on his bed.

Ariana had left, but her last words rang in his ears like a church bell. Her confession had caught him unawares and he soon found himself thinking about the young woman. Her hasty escape had left Noah with no chance to respond, but he felt that her plan had always been that approach.

The situation felt surreal, strange even, but Noah could only settle for its abruptness.

An hour seemed to pass and it did, but Noah remained immersed in his thoughts about the young lady. His roommate eventually returned to the room and she immediately walked towards a bed to lie on. There wasn’t any need to stick to one bed since only she and Noah were in the room.

The young lady seemed to immediately go to sleep, and Noah felt that the time for rest had arrived. A few tens minutes had to pass before the darkness of sleep enveloped Noah’s consciousness.

Noah woke up to a once again empty room, but he really didn’t care about that detail. Walking towards the food platform, he ordered a series of dishes which he didn’t hesitate to dig into.

Unfortunately for him, Ariana’s words continued to ring in his mind, and he felt unable to stop them. He still felt unsure of what next to do.

Noah spent most of his time alone, but at some point down the line, his roommate had a conversation with him.

He felt compelled to engage in such activities since people were an important detail in a man’s life, she could prove useful sometimes later

Noah learned a few things about her such as her name. And during the hours they conversed he managed to understand a bit of her personality.

Phelia was a woman who looked to be in her early thirties, she had an oblong-shaped face, had long and completely straight black hair which complemented her look. She had black eyes that seemed to have seen and been through a lot. Her soft facial features were enhanced by her smiling face, even if most of such smiles were forced. Phelia had an affinity for fire.

From their interaction, it was clear that she desired to be closer to him for future gains, but the same could be said for Noah, so he didn’t mind.

Sweeping his gaze on his once again empty room, Noah heaved a sigh when he understood that Ariana wouldn’t be coming there. In truth, a part of him felt glad about her confession, but another side saw it as something of a distraction.

In honesty, he could already feel himself developing feelings for her, but those emotions were still in their early stage. He barely knew the young woman even if he approved of her character and they were capable of flowing in conversations.

Another sigh escaped Noah’s mouth at some point, he had a lot to do now that he had joined a great guild. Making time for other things apart from his advancement in power would be difficult. At that thought, Noah’s mind fell on his clone skill.

He had never tried to cast it since he became a tier 3 around a month ago. Taking a moment to dwell on his quick advancement in power. It felt surreal thinking about the fact that he had achieved such power in such a short period, and he could tell that any friends he made now would be eventually left behind by him.

The clone skill sounded cool but he would only activate it when he had settled into the guild since there would be backlash for using it. Meaning a period of rest would be required.

Hours went by with Noah doing nothing but laying on his bed. He took the man’s words of resting to heart, whoever the person was. Needless to say, another period of sleep happened before the doors of the rooms were flung open.

“On a single file please all of you!” A feminine voice boomed into the rooms of the already prepared aspirants, and soon they began to peep out of their various rooms to see who the person was.

Noah being one of such individuals, found himself staring at a middle-aged woman who had long

red hair falling on her shoulders. The woman radiated an aura that belonged to someone in the higher stage.

This was all he needed to listen to her words and exit his room.

A few experts had already lined up by this point and Noah promptly joined them. The lady waited only a few minutes for the experts to be done, and her mouth opened to release words.

“I am Lady Yevette. I congratulate you all on succeeding in the trials to join my great guild,” she started. “For today I shall be your tour guide amongst other things, after which the way we do things will be explained to you. And after that your first missions will be given to you,” the lady explained, her voice traveling through the passageway to reach those at the far end of the line.

Noah felt excitement begin to seep into his mind, but he didn’t stop it. He had finally become a member of the Divine Lightning guild, he let himself revel in his excitement.

“As guild members, there are a few basic things you should know,” Lady Yevette continued, waving her hand at the aspirants and a series of necklaces appeared out of her space ring to float towards the aspirants.

Noah saw an obsidian black necklace falling on his palms. and immediately inspected it. To his shock, he found that the necklace was a tier 4 item.

It pulsed with a purple light and even featured lines of the same color inscribed into its very material. The tier 4 necklace featured a tiny purple gem embedded inside the metallic material of the necklace.

‘Is this a purple mana stone,’ Noah wondered wide-eyed, further gazing at the intricate details that made it appealing to the eyes.

“You are to always wear it at all times if you don’t want to wind up with a broken soul core or even dead,” she announced scaring the experts who immediately placed it on their necks.

Wearing the necklace Noah saw a panel pop up in his eyes.

[You have equipped special item: Niaar]

[Grade: A]

[Tier: 4[???]]

[Effects: Fends off external pressure too powerful for wearer]

[Cool-down: N/A. Duration: N/A. Cost: N/A]

‘What pressure are we going to be facing,’ Noah thought in surprise. It felt shocking that such a powerful item’s function was to only fend off pressure. Though the description didn’t specify which type of pressure, mental or physical. ‘Maybe both,’ Noah thought.

“Good,” Lady Yevette exclaimed seeing that they had all worn the necklace. “Before we do any heavy touring; you all will have to take the oath for joining our guild. This won’t take too much time since everything has been prepared. But before then I’ll show you the environment of our guild,” she explained. 𝗼𝐯𝗹．𝐞𝘁

“I’m sure many of you have been wondering what exactly the outside of this trial environment looks like, well wonder no further,” she announced when a mage staff appeared in her right hand and she waved it.

Her abrupt action caused a series of lights to spin around the lined-up experts before a magical circle expanded beneath their feet.

They each felt the red light of the magical circle caress their skin before their environment experienced a drastic change.

Noah saw and felt his environment go dark, but not totally, while an odd pressure landed on his figure but the necklace glowed to fend it off.

Before he and the rest of his guild members could notice anything else, they realized how high up into the sky they were, and to their astonishment, a bright city lay below them.

However, everyone noticed something; something too outrageous that they failed to put into words. Why is this city high in the sky, many thought? But Lady Yevette’s voice rang out behind them before they could wonder too much.

“Welcome to the only floating city in the entirety of the Cusk nation. And yes this is the Divine lightning guild. Or should I say city.”

______________________

Authors note:

I believe this is a good place to end volume 3. See you tomorrow.