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Everything went silent, apart from the constant crackling, of the campfire, and the distant sounds of animals in the forest. Every other thing was dead silent.

The hunting group seemed to be in a daze, as their expression was that of pure surprise. Although for some odd reason, Gerald wasn’t, he just stood there with a light smile.

Noah was not sure which they were surprised about, was it the fact that he wasn’t lying about killing the wolf, or that he brought it out of thin air, he wasn’t sure.

After a few seconds, Gerald stopped smiling, as his voice rang out, “What are you doing over there?, come. And bring the wolf with you”, he said.

It was Noah’s turn to be surprised, he hadn’t expected Gerald to welcome him like that.

He expected at least a few questions, like how he made the wolf appear, but the man seemed to not care. ｎ𝚘𝚟ｌ.ｃｏ𝚖

Noah started walking towards the camp, dragging the body of the wolf-like it was a rag.

As he walked past the men who were still in a daze, they followed both him and the dead wolf’s body, with their eyes, as though they expected it to jump up alive.

Getting to one of the five tents, that Gerald had walked into, Noah wasn’t sure of what to do, so he simply waited outside.

During that short moment, of standing outside the tent, the men of the hunting group all walked back to their various tents, but not without eyeing Noah.

It seemed they didn’t trust him, though Noah had expected that much from them.

After a few seconds, he heard the voice of Gerald call out to him.

“What are you doing out there? come in,” he said.

At that, Noah simply left the body of the wolf outside and entered the tent.

On getting inside, he noticed that the tent was well lit, apart from that, and the mat on the ground, the tent was empty. Although, there were a few bottles on the ground, which Noah guessed, were either for water, alcohol, or both.

He saw Gerald sitting on the mat while holding a bottle, and two cups, “Come on. Sit down”, he said. Which Noah did without hesitation.

Sitting close to Gerald, Noah noticed the features, that he had failed to notice before.

Gerald looked something around his late thirties or early forties.

He had deep blue eyes with sharp eyeliners. He had black hair, a short beard, and also had a scar, that ran from under his right eye, to his jaw. Which gave him the look of someone who had been in a lot of life, and death situations.

Gerald gave him a small cup filled with a golden liquid.

Noah stared at it, not sure of what to do.

He still didn’t trust this man, that had invited him into his camo. For all he knew, it could be poisoned.

In his short moment of hesitation, Gerald noticed his uncertainty.

“You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to”, he said

At that Noah, frowned. Though only for a split second. He didn’t want to come off as disrespectful, so he decided to drink it, hoping that the user system would alert him if it was poisoned.

Drinking the contents of the cup, in a single gulp. Noah felt a hot sensation, run down his throat, till it reached his stomach, though only for a second.

Then a panel popped up,

[ A form of poison[ Alcohol] detected]

[Detoxification commencing …]

[Detoxification complete.]

The system continued to surprise him with its usefulness. Though he would love to get drunk one day, at least, he knew he wouldn’t be able to get poisoned easily.

Noah snapped out of his daze, to see Gerald staring at him, with one of his eyebrows raised, probably wondering what his guest was looking at.

Noah noticed this and tried to look for an excuse, but Gerald talked first.

“The whole thing about being abandoned was a lie right?” his voice rang out.

Noah froze from shock and began racking his brain to look for an answer, but Gerald continued.

“I guess your tense reaction proves I’m right”, he said with a short laugh at the ending.

“Though you don’t have to worry, I’m sure you have your secrets”, he said.

Noah was incredibly embarrassed, he didn’t know what to do, but he still managed to reply.

“Haha…..Was my lie that easy to see through?”, he said trying to fake a short laugh.

“Yes it was, actually it was unrealistic. Why would your team abandon you, if they knew you could kill it, unless you didn’t tell them, but at least they would know the abilities of their group members.

So them abandoning you was unrealistic, which is why your story didn’t add up”, he explained with a chuckle at the ending.

Noah facepalmed himself in his mind, because of his stupidity, he hadn’t thought of what to say beforehand, so he had come up with an excuse on the spot, but alas he wasn’t a master of lying.

Gerald looked at him again, seeing that Noah wasn’t responding, confirmed his theory,

“But still, I would like to know where you come from”, he said

And Noah answered, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you”.

A few seconds of silence passed before Noah broke it saying, Though I am lost, please can you tell me where the nearest settlement is, and more about where we are, and other countries?” Noah said.

Gerald looked at him like a freak but just for a second.

The air was tense for a few seconds.

Noah was about to tell him not to worry, but Gerald cut him short saying, “Yes I will but at a price”.

Noah thought about it for a second before saying “What do you want”

“Just the body of the wolf”, Gerald answered, with a smile.

“Done,” Noah immediately said. He didn’t require the wolf’s body, apart from the plan of eating it, which was before he met the hunting group.

“Where do you want me to start,” Gerald said.

“You can start anywhere”, Noah replied.

Gerald seemed to think about something, for a few seconds, before starting.

“There are three kingdoms, The Papine nation, The Cusk nation, and The Nevaldine empire.

“Each is ruled, by an unknown, near godlike entity. We are in the Cusk nation which is ruled by the Monderi royal family. No one knows who the king or queen, is but according to records during the time of conflict between the great kingdoms, it was said that a single attack from the mysterious rulers could wipe out a whole city”.

Noah’s full attention was on Gerald, his brain was working in full gear. Imagining the power those mysterious rulers had, he couldn’t fully comprehend it!.

Gerald let Noah digest, what he said before continuing.

“I don’t know much about the other kingdoms, but a substantial amount about our nation, though not much Is released to the public, before I became a hunter, I used to work as a guard in one of the noble families, so I know enough”, he explained.

Noah nodded at what he said, while he opened his mouth to talk, “If I may ask, why did you stop being a guard, I’m sure you would have been paid enough”.

Gerald sighed, he seemed to be reminiscing about something, before saying, “I didn’t stop being a guard, we were disbanded”, he sighed again this time heavily.

“The noble family, I used to serve were, found guilty of some crimes, which caused them to be executed, and instead of we the workers being executed.

We were given a chance to start afresh. Honestly, we weren’t really being paid that much, but still stayed, since to get more power, we needed the noble families” he said.

Noah once again, digested the information given to him, he didn’t understand the political situation, of the country, and honestly, he didn’t care, but still, it was safe to know a little.

Noah had wanted to find the next settlement, but he didn’t know where it was, so he asked Gerald where he could find it, “The next settlement which is a relatively large town, named ‘Maria’, is located exactly northwest of our current position”, Gerald explained, “I doubt you would need to find it yourself since you are with us”.

Noah nodded at his words, making a mental note of their position, he was about to say something, when one of the men of the hunting group brought in their food.

It was a bowl of some type of soup with meat in it.

Noah immediately began to eat, he wasn’t worried about it being poisoned since his system would protect him.

He was done in a matter of minutes, when he looked up, he saw Gerald staring at him with, pure curiosity and a small smile.

“Thank you for the meal, it was delicious”, Noah said. Gerald simply waved his hand in response.

Since he was done, with his food. Noah decided, to ask a question that had been on his mind for a while

“Can you tell me more about animals, like the wolf I killed?”