Chapter 23: Poor Rank F

23 23 - Poor Rank F

Body shapes like that of the fat Blessed man who invaded the Super Fortress with Noah could only be possible in the lower ranks, since after Rank E, it was almost impossible for anyone to survive inside a Fortress with a body like that. The monsters inside were much faster and much smarter than in the Rank E and Rank F Fortresses, so being fat inside one of those would only make the Blessed One a big walking target, but they'd be so slow that the "walking" part could almost be discarded.

Harry's older brother Robert was looking at Noah with a puzzled look, since he remembered the man he thought was a valet and now saw that man was the man his younger brother was talking about so much, that had survived the Super Fortress even though he had an F Rank Blessing. Seeing this surprised him, since Robert didn't expect he would find this Blessed One right here.

"So you mean you are the Blessed Rank F who survived the Super Fortress with my brother? It looks like you're not really that big a deal…" Robert said as he looked at Noah with an unfriendly stare, as if he were just saying a fact.

Noah raised his eyebrows slightly, surprised that Robert said it so openly yet unhappy that this person came to ruin the atmosphere that was so good between him and Carlos. "I doubt that a poor Rank F could look like anything in your eyes," Noah said, pretending to truly believe that Robert was far superior to him.

"It's good that you know this. From what my brother told me, apparently you are stronger than an ordinary F Rank. What are you? A peak F Rank? Or maybe one of the rare cases that managed to exceed the Rank itself?" Robert asked Noah out of curiosity.

So Noah determined maintaining the facade of being just a weak Rank F was the best choice. For possible enemies so powerful, revealing one's strength would just be suicide.

"Hm, what a pity. I think you really should become a valet, since that way you would have less chance of dying." Robert said before turning to leave with Harry, who followed him while flashing a mocking smile towards Noah.

Every time Robert said something, Noah had to hold Carlos back so that Carlos would not interfere. He knew that from his friend's expression, he was very angry to see how Noah was being treated, but Noah couldn't let Carlos make things worse. "Calm down. Do you think those idiots pissed me off?" Noah said to Carlos.

Carlos snorted and replied to Noah. "I never liked those two. They think that just because their family has a lot of Blessed Rank D and some Rank C they are better than everyone else. And even though they came into my house as guests, they showed me no respect, and worse still, they spoke ill of my friend right in front of me! I can't tolerate that."

"Naah, don't worry about it. They are just two idiots. What comes out of their mouths doesn't affect me." Noah said in a calm voice. He really wasn't angry at Robert. Of course, it wasn't because he wasn't angry that he didn't care, but he also wouldn't be blinded by it and do something inconsequential. He just wanted to enjoy the moment with his friend.

During the rest of the party Carlos made it clear to Noah that he was happy that Noah had come, since if it weren't for him, it would probably be a very long night having to entertain those boring and involved people.

Noah stayed late into night until people started to leave and he called a Woober to pick himself up. Carlos tried to convince him to stay over, since he had already done so several times, but Noah said he had an appointment for the next day. So, leaving his friend behind discouraged, Noah left and had a good night's sleep.

The next day Noah opened the GBC app on his cell phone and put on his profile that he was looking for Rank E Fortresses to invade. That was how the government decided who would invade the Fortresses. Usually the Blessed would receive a login on the application with the account already registered and whenever one wanted to invade a Fortress, the only thing one needed to do was put it to available and looking for a Fortress, in addition to saying if they preferred to go as a group or in partnership with someone they already knew.

Noah never used the group option since no one ever felt that he would be necessary or useful enough to be invited to an invasion. So whenever he looked for a Fortress, he was alone.

Now that he was in line to search for a Fortress, Noah had a good shower and breakfast before training his own skill. The system had said that his skill would get stronger and he would have more control of it when it evolved, but he didn't just want to trust it; he wanted to train the skill for himself so that in addition to becoming familiar with it, he could speed up its skill development.

Sitting cross-legged in the garden outside, Noah took great care not to be near any bushes or trees so that no accidents would happen. He might've been able to control the fire to stop it from spreading, but he didn't want to ruin anything in his home garden, especially now that the bushes were too big because they had grown without any care due to lack of money.

With an open hand, he started to control the fire to float calmly. Noah knew that the only thing he could do was a jet of fire and a strange ball of fire that he forced himself to try to learn in the Fortress.

The jet of fire was what he learned right away with the Blessing; the ball of fire was what he invented. So, since he already knew very well how to control the jet of fire, Noah's idea was to practice the fireball.

Looking strangely at the flame in his hand, Noah started to try to condense the flame into a smaller area, since that was what he did in the Fortress and it had worked a little.

At first, the flame began to condense well in a smaller area, but after a while it became more difficult. It was as if there was an invisible barrier that prevented the flame from condensing further.

With the fire so close to his hands, Noah could feel that when he condensed the flame, the temperature would rise slightly, so he knew that the path he was taking would be ideal since it wouldn't do him any good to make a fireball that just condensed but lower the temperature, as the damage would be reduced.

Noah started to try again. He tried to make a bigger ball and condense it, but it was as if the barrier worked by proportion; if he condensed the fireball by 5%, it was impossible for him to continue condensing, regardless of the size.

Noah's head was already starting to hurt when his cell phone rang, notifying him that a Rank E Fortress had been found.

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