In a cave, deep into Evergreen forest, a young man was sitting on the ground with his upper body naked.
He was smearing a black liquid on his back while looking at a sheet with a complex rune written on it.
'This beast's essence is good, I'm sparing weeks of nourishment using it and I still have 8 bottles left!'
The young man was of course Noah.
He was using his remaining time for the mission to make use of the goods he chose to keep.
'I bet that the Earth pill will be amazing too.'
In the end, he was too tempted to not keep the brown pill for the dantian.
After a few hours, he stopped his training in the Kesier rune even though he was far from his limit.
He never forgot that he was still in the wilderness, he had to be ready if a sudden attack of a magical beast arrived.
'I bet this smell is keeping them away.'
He looked in the direction of the corpses that were now starting to decompose.
The smell they emitted was awful but Noah didn't care, they had to stay in their spots to create the perfect scenery of a battle.
Noah had already made a plan to appear as innocent as possible and to carry it out he needed 3 days, so he decided to use the days left before them to increase his strength as much as possible.
'I can use two bottles of beast's essence per day, in four days I'll be out of them and I can start preparing for my return to the mansion. I wonder how much of the fifth cycle I can complete.'
A few days after the medicinal bottles were emptied, Noah was carrying a huge pile of items tied together with the clothes of the dead members of the Gray Shadows.
He wasn't going to lift it since its form was too uncomfortable to raise up so he simply dragged the goods with an improvised rope.
'This will leave a good amount of evidence that my version of the story is the real deal.'
.
.
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Some days later.
Quinn was feeling desperate.
He was camping on the perimeter of Evergreen forest near Mossgrove city waiting for the orders of the Merger family.
Only three soldiers were left standing guard on him, while the other two went to their family mansion to inform the inner circle of the events during the trip.
Yet almost two weeks had passed, and of the envoy from the family there was still no trace.
'I'm totally ruined! Even if they manage to take back the goods I will receive no share from it. I might even lose my privileged position as their merchant. My dreams, my plans, everything is ruined!'
He was completely powerless in this situation and the remaining guards started to treat him with coldness even though the job of protecting the shipment was theirs.
In this world, it was always the weaker one to get the blame for any faulty situation.
"Tsk, if that idiot of a merchant didn't take the path in the forest, everything could have been avoided."
"You are right, now our position in the guards will be severely affected because of such a greedy man. And we also have to stand here with him!"
The guards were speaking in such a loud voice that Quinn could clearly hear them.
His daughter understood the situation and remained silent for the whole time, scared that one misspoken word could trigger the anger of the soldiers.
It was at that moment that a kid donned in black and sweating profusely exited the perimeter of the forest carrying a big pile of items tied together by clothes stained with blood.
The group from the Merger family stared with wide eyes at the small figure dragging a burden that was four times his frame.
Quinn looked at the items and recognized some of them as the ones that were stolen from him.
He hurriedly got close to the young man yelling loudly.
"Wait, wait! You, kid, where did you get those items?"
The excitement from finding his assets made him speak without any form of respect.
Noah looked at the fat merchant and answered nonchalantly while continuing o his tracks.
"Found them on the forest."
Quinn felt finally hope after two weeks of desperation.
"There are some items that were stolen from me between those that you are carrying. Please, return them to me."
Noah still didn't stop and only asked a short question.
"Do you have any proof?"
Quinn was at a loss for words and only now realized that the young man in front of him could have not been a simple one, he was, after all, coming back from the forest with a great burden on his back.
When he looked at the signs of dragging on the ground he realized with fear that he could not see where the signs started from.
'For exactly how long has he carried such a weigh?'
The guards though had slower minds than the merchant and when they overheard the conversation they arrogantly neared the items.
"Kid, if the merchant said that these are our items then so it is. If you have any complaints you can come to the Merger mansion to apply for a refund."
The soldiers only saw wealth in the pile in front of them and were already imagining the reward the family would give them when they brought them back.
Just when one of them was about to undo the packaging made of clothes to inspect the items, a kick came in his direction.
The attack was too fast and too sudden, it hit the soldier chest sending him flying away for five meters before he fell on the ground unconscious.
In the spot where he was previously, Noah was now standing with his right leg still raised.
"So you want to rob my Balvan family of the earned reward from a mission assigned by the Shosti family?"
Noah shamelessly used the names of the noble families to stop their claims on the items.
The group was stupefied seeing a kid knocking out a soldier with just one attack, their attitude became immediately more respectful.
Noah simply snorted and went back to his dragging toward Balvan mansion, yet, before he could move again, Quinn placed himself in front of him with a wide smile on his face.
"Ehm, young sir, I want to apologize for my earlier rudeness. That thing that you are carrying seems heavy, would you like a ride back to your mansion?"
'Oh, it seems that this man is not that stupid. Well, they can be my witnesses if I go with him.'
"I agree, but I have a condition."
Quinn lightly bowed while speaking.
"Please speak, young master."
Noah pointed at the pile of items behind him.
"I can take one of those things as a reward so you have to explain to me the effects of the pills in there."