Heavy breaths escaped the mouths of Noah''s captives, and he felt pleasantly surprised to see them sit in a cross-legged position.


    His cold smile never left his face, and he too soon adopted their sitting postures.


    Noah could sense the fear in their eyes, and for reasons unknown to him he enjoyed it.


    "Now that I have your full attentions; I have a few questions in mind," Noah started, his cold smile never leaving his face.


    "I believe you wish to know why you are here," the fire mage spoke ncing at his frozen solidpanion. Great pain spread in his heart at that sight. How things had turned out that way; he didn''t understand.


    "I didn''t ask you to talk, but what is your name anyway" Noah announced raising an eyebrow.


    "I am Bernard, a merecenary. Actually I am the leader of this group," the man mage spoke nonchntly, he had already epted his fate in front of that young monster.


    "Good, Bernard. Why did you capture me?," Noah enquired with his smile still on.


    "I have no obligations to answer that," Brenard answered, his gaze nk.


    "If you want to keep you life, you will," Noah stated almost breaking into augh, but Brenard did, and his smile slowly faded.


    "Keep my life? We both know you don''t n on doing that," Brenard spoke, ignoring Noah''s cold gaze.


    "If I''m going to die either way, why do I need to answer your questions," Brenard stated, his expression also turning cold.


    A heavy silence fell upon them at that point. The six didn''t want to speak so as to not anger Noah, but their leader seemed intent on doing that.


    "Oh I see...." Noah muttered suddenly sweeping his gaze on the still silent six, a nasty idea forming Inside him.


    He hesitated in carrying out the idea, but Brenards uncaring expression annoyed him.


    "I might eventually not kill you..." Noah stated slowly shooting gaze''s at the man''s colleagues. He did so until their eyes widened in surprise, then fear.


    Brenards expression flickered at the understanding of Noah''s words. He nned to use his team against him.


    "Are you going to be a coward and do such a dishonourable thing," Brenard spoke trying to bottle up his ever growing panic.


    A big smile cracked on Noah''s face at those words. "I can hear your heartbeat," he announced truly focusing on that detail. And he felt surprised to actually hear them.


    He had never tried using his senses in that way, and the results left him stunned. Their heartbeats sounded like distant drums, not too close, but also not too far; just enough for him to clearly hear them.


    Brenard limited himself to remain silent at Noah''s words, he wasn''t sure if the young man was bluffing, but that wasn''t the point.


    "You have tens seconds," Noah eventually announced.


    "Nine...Eight....Seven.....Six.....Five..." Noah counted down to 2, then did Brenard raise his hand, and a bigger grin appeared on Noah''s face.


    "Go on," Noah ordered with his grin. He enjoys the whole scenario.


    A sigh escaped Brenards mouth at that point. He caught nces of his colleagues sighs of relief, and felt he had done the right thing. Or had he?.


    "We were hired by an expert to deliver dead or living humans," He stated.


    "For what?" Noah immediately responded.


    "For a ritual apparently," Brenard announced, and Noah''s smile faded.


    ''A ritual,'' he thought. At this point in his life he had began to ept every new thing he heard as the truth of that world. His constant shock at new information had started to subside.


    "What type of ritual?," Noah asked. He doubted that the man knew that detail, but asked anyway.


    "I don''t know. We were only sent to bring bodies, and be paid for our service" Brenard promptly exined.


    Seeing Noah''s frown his mouth opened to voice more words.


    "Nheless, we were given a few details. Mostly concerning the levels of those who would be performing the ritual," Brenard announced.


    "Ohhh..how strong will they be?" Noah felt intrigued.<novelnext></novelnext>


    "Apparently middle-stagedtier 3 cultivators to even the peak of tier 3 will be present," Brenard exined stroking his beardless chin. "Though a rumor from the other hired groups spread. The rumor spoke of even tier 4 experts being among the nners of that diabolical event."


    Noah fell into thoughts at those words, he picked up the words like "other groups". Confirming that the whole ritual would be arge and well funded event.


    He didn''t desire to dabble into things such as rituals, as he didn''t know much, or even events with such powerful cultivators.


    "Where were you going to deliver me to?" Noah eventually spoke, his anger having subsided by a significant margin.


    "We were journeying towards an abandoned mansion deep in the outskirts of the city," Brenard exined, his expression soon turning solemn.


    "I see...Do you know who hired you," Noah asked nkly. He had lost most of his interest in that matter.


    "No. The expert kept their face hidden during our conversation, but I suspect even he was but a messanger, although he had power in the middle-stage," Brenard exined.


    "Hmmm.... troublesome," Noah shook his head. His lips parted to release words, but a red glowing object shot out of the frozen grasshopper, and floated towards Noah, who proceeded to y with it for a bit, before eventually storing it. But the beasts frozen body didn''t disappear.


    His audience had their mouths open.at that sight. They had never seen such an effortlessly extraction of mana cores in their lives until that point.


    Now that they thought to it, the man before them had done something even more astonishing; by moving far faster than their eyes could follow.


    Technically, they were supposed to be at least faster than he was, even if his body had more defense, which made for their surprise.


    "Are you a Deviant?," Brenard suddenly threw a question at Noah.


    Recalling that he had seen that word on the mutated snake''s panel, Noah proceeded to ask questions on that matter, as even Aiden didn''t have that knowledge.


    "What is a Deviant?" he enquired, startling the group of seven.


    Complicated expressions appeared on their faces at his words, they weren''t certain if that question was a joke or not, as he could be testing them.


    Not wanting to provoke the seemingly genuinely curious man, Brenard opened his mouth to answer that question to the best of his knowledege.


    "Deviants, are as the word means. Those who deviate from the normal system. Most especially in elemental affinities, or abilities," he exined. "Deviants are also usually very powerful. Far powerful than the norm, causing for their immense value."


    "What type of Deviants exist," Noah spoke, finding the topic Interesting.


    "Well I don''t know much, since individuals like that are really rare, and their abilities can also be really random ording to what I read. But from what I''ve heard; there are deviants who have monstrous physical strength, or have the elemental affinity of nts, being able to manipte them, and so on. You can literally input anything in the nk spaces,'' Brnard exined.


    "So basically, they are special amongst even the special," Noah stated.


    "Yes," Brenard replied.


    "Have you ever met one. A Deviant?" Noah asked.


    "No," Brenard replied.


    "That''s nice knowledge, I guess," Noah announced getting up. He found himself having thoughts about the mutated snake in the valley, and wondered how much it would sell in the market.


    "Are there Deviant magical beasts. And if there are how much are they worth in the market," Noah asked without giving a hint about his knowledge of a real deviant.


    "Yes there are, though they are usually born from mutations, kind of like the beasts of the w region, some Deviants were found there," Brenard exined, "As for how much one would go for in the market; I believe it would be Incredible. Even a tier 1 deviant beast could make a person as rich as a small sized noble family. That''s how rare they are."


    An excited smile threatened to break out on Noah''s face at those words, but he managed to retain his cool.


    He immediately promised himself to keep his findings a secret. Hopefully no one would find and kill it before he returned.


    Stretching his body since a stiffness had appeared in his arms, Noah opened his mouth to speak.


    "I don''t think I''m a Deviant, and honestly I don''t care," he stated tly.


    "Do you know where the head branch of the Divine Lightning guild is?" Noah asked, focusing his now cold gaze on the still seated experts.


    "Yes," Brenard responded following Noah''s arm movements with his eyes.


    "Good, I need you to take me there," Noah announced, then a popping sound escaped his right arm.