97. Seclusion
'One thousand!?'
Noah noticed how the attendant's eyes widened before she lowered her head again, he understood that it was a big sum.
"I agree."
Solomon smiled seeing that Noah accepted his offer and waved his hand.
Twenty shining crystals appeared on the desk, their brilliance far surpassed that of Noah's Credits.
Noah picked one up and examined it with interest.
Solomon noticed his action and spoke casually.
"They are worth fifty Credits each. Careful on your actions, someone might exploit your inexperience."
He seemed in a good mood after he obtained the spear.
Noah put the Credits in his space-ring and bowed.
"Does Master Solomon have some advice for the academy test?"
Solomon laughed.
"Haha, as soon as you saw some goodwill you tried to take advantage of it! You remind me in my old days."
Solomon shook his head a bit before speaking again.
"The test changes every time so all the knowledge is dated, just go to Ebonrest city and follow the line of youths like you. Maybe you should be careful on the road to the city though."
Noah nodded and bowed again before exiting the shop.
Inside it, the woman turned her head toward her master and asked in a confused voice.
"Master, if you knew that he was inexperienced why didn't you lower the price?"
Solomon replied.
"He won't be inexperienced for long. If I had tricked him, he would have never returned to sell more of these good weapons. And you never know, he might actually become the next talent of the academy."
The attendant looked in the direction where Noah went and fell in thought.
'He is surely weaker than me. However, why do I feel that if I had to fight him, things would be dangerous?'
Meanwhile, Noah went to the poorer looking hostel that he could find and entered it.
Behind the reception desk, there was a woman with almost no teeth in her mouth and oily and dirty hair.
The main hall of the hostel had only a couple of cracked wooden desks with drunkards sleeping on them.
The smell of puke and piss filled the room.
'This is perfect.'
However, Noah chose this place exactly because of the poor state in which it was handled.
Solomon's words had confirmed his worries about the noble families so he decided to be as low-key as possible.
Living in a smelly place for a while was not a problem if that helped him arrive at Ebonrest city
Noah faced the old woman on the desk and spoke resolutely before she could say anything.
"I need a single room for one month and a half, possibly a silent one. There will be no need to bring me any food, just be sure to leave a bucket full of clean water twice a day in front of my door."
The woman smiled showing her ugly mouth and spoke a single sentence.
"Thirty pieces of gold."
Noah put his hand inside his clothes and when it came out, thirty pieces of gold were in his palm.
He put the money on the desk and the woman hurriedly picked a big rusty key and passed it to him.
"Last floor, at the end of the corridor, the one on the left."
The hostel was a three-story building so Noah went directly to the last floor.
At the end of the corridor, he opened the designated door and entered it.
The room was small, with only a simple bed and no other furniture in it.
To Noah that had spent the last two months in a forest though, it was more than enough.
Noah sat on the floor and thought for a little.
'Two months before the test and Ebonrest city is at three days of travel from here. I will train hard for this month and a half and then move.'
It was deep in the night when he reached the hostel so he began to meditate in the cultivation technique.
His legs were crossed and a vortex appeared between his joint hands.
Days passed, and then weeks.
The environment of Toottac town became even more lively as luxurious carriages entered its borders and joined the marked area.
Many noble families from different domains arrived and enjoyed the services offered by the city to important people.
There were large-size, medium-size, and even small-size families, all gathering for the test of the academy.
Noah didn't join the commotion and simply remained in his room to cultivate.
He knew that the families from the Shosti domain wouldn't come there since there was another test area at one month of travel from Mossgrove city, he had chosen this place carefully after all.
Sometimes he would come out of his room to gather some information from the desk woman about recent events and to buy more provisions.
Many of the stories that she told him were just rumors but some of them alerted Noah, raising his caution.
'A group of bandits appeared in the forest between Toottac town and Ebonrest city. They are assaulting noble caravans, killing or gravely injuring their younger members. The bandit's faces are completely covered so it's impossible to know their origins.'
'Bandits so strong that they can target noble families? It seems that they are not even trying to hide their actions.'
As he had suspected, the nobles had begun to scheme against the participants of the test.
'I didn't imagine that they would have targeted other noble families too. The spot in the academy really is coveted.'
His eyes shined slightly as he thought of that.
'One more reason to enter it! Echo!'
The tattoo of the three-eyed bat released a soft sound inaudible to humans.
Immediately, an image of a circular area of one hundred meters with Noah as its center appeared in his mind.
There weren't many details as the scene was created from the vibrations of the objects that the sound met but it was more than enough to know if there was someone spying on him nearby.
'Nothing suspicious today too, it seems that I really have no one following me.'
He had been careful in the city but there were still times when he had to expose something about himself.
For example, Solomon knew that he was in possession of one thousand Credits, yet no one came searching for him in this period.
'That's really good. Now it's time to prepare. In one week, I will go to Ebonrest city!'