The Infinite Bk. 01 Ch. 06

Luke bent down and examined the hide, paying close attention to wounds created during the battle. "I can give you a gold coin for everything."

"How about two?" Noah asked.

"One and a half is my limit. This thing has some big cuts in it."

"Fine."

The exchange was made, but Trevor objected as Noah received the coins. "Why do you get the money? You didn't fight it!"

"I'm not keeping the money, just holding onto it until we spend it."

Next, they sold off some goblin weapons to the blacksmith and anything else they had managed to collect, though their final stop was the apothecary, and rather than selling, Noah was buying. Oath and the others stood back and watched as he ordered armfuls of different plants for sale, with the old woman watching him with an eye of interest.

"I'll also take every health and mana potion you're willing to sell."

"Why can't every customer be like you?" she asked, teasing him.

They returned to the street. "Ok, let's call it a day. Tomorrow morning, we'll meet back up at the baron's home and begin training. I'll use these plants to whip up lots of potions."

The group split up, with Oath and Trevor heading off to their respective homes, Beth and Mira returning to the inn, and Noah running a few more errands. Finally, night fell, and Noah returned to the inn with the women. It was bustling as usual, but Noah's table was quiet. He ate dinner quickly and went up to his room. He had a long list of potions and tools to make for this dungeon adventure, so even his nights would be busy.

An hour into grinding potions, he heard a knock at the door. He answered with his knife in hand, but out of sight, as was natural. He opened the door to see Beth standing there, a smile on her face that was coy, nervous, excited, and embarrassed, all mixed together.

"I wanted to tell you again how sorry I am to hear that about Tin. But just because she's gone, that doesn't mean your nights have to be lonely. I want to experience the legend that everyone in town has been talking about."

An honest smile, rare for Noah, crossed his face. However, it was more in amusement than lust. "That seems like something that would really bring us some bad luck later, considering the whole dungeon crab thing."

"What?"

"Nothing. As much as I would like to say yes, it would be best if we both went straight for bed, considering the training I have planned. Plus, I still have a lot of potions to make."

Her spirits were deflated, but she wasn't ready to give up. "Are you sure I can't change your mind?"

"I'm sure. But if you still have strength tomorrow after dinner, then I'll happily indulge you."

"I'll look forward to it." She then gave him a wink and went back to her room.

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"The training I have in mind will consist of long sessions of muscle training and then magic training in a physically exhausted state, replenishing strength with potions, and repeating the process." Noah addressed Oath and his friends in front of the baron's mansion. By his side was a large sack full of red and blue potions and some other concoctions. "It's a combination of two workout routines I've created."

Mira looked away for a moment, pondering something. She then perked up in shock. "That's what was happening with you and Tin at the inn!"

Oath, Beth, and even Trevor looked at her, taking a moment to process what she had said and then swerving their eyes back to Noah like a car drifting around a corner. Oath had forgotten that little fact, and Trevor, resigned to bearing a silent grudge, remembered those rumors he'd heard and finally felt a bit of respect toward Noah.

Noah let a small laugh escape. "Yeah, that's right. My theory is that mana output is a combination of physical and spiritual energy. When your spiritual mana can't keep up with the demand, your physical mana picks up the slack, but it means your spirit gets only part of the benefits of training. Therefore, the best way to train your spirit's rate of production and reservoir size is to either do so after you have just depleted all of your stamina, or during battle, when you are using up both, though I believe the latter is less efficient. Tin was assisting me with the expenditure of physical energy."

"All morning?!"

"I have a lot of stamina, resulting from the other workout routine. I've mastered several different forms of exercise and refined them to target muscle growth in a specific way. People and other large animals have three kinds of muscle: red muscle, which is great for stamina and running; white muscle, which is muscle for physical power and explosive force; and pink muscle, which is a combination of both. My routine focuses on producing pink muscle. However, it's not as effective at draining stamina as sex, nor is it as enjoyable, so I didn't use it for mana training.

Oath, I saw you struggling to lift your new sword but making perfect slashes every time. Because of all the time you've spent swinging a hoe or an axe, neither of which is very heavy, you have a lot of red muscle, which lets is best for expending effort in little bursts over a long time.

Trevor, I noticed your movements decline faster than Oath, despite expending a similar amount of energy. While initially quite powerful, your stabs and slashes made a steady decline. This is because your strength revolves around white muscle, which lets you carry more than Oath, but not as far."

To Oath, it made sense. He had yet to see Noah truly fatigued, not after clearing the goblin den or when they returned to the village the previous day. He could even slice through monsters and carry their remains with great strength. The others had also noticed it, another category in which he outclassed them.

"Wait a second, if that was your "special mana training" you were doing with Tin, then that means you can use magic," said Beth. "You told us you couldn't."

"I wasn't sure I could trust you when we first met. I was willing to tell you how to make yourselves stronger, but not how to make me weaker."

"You've been hiding magic this whole time? But we showed your ours!" Trevor yelled.

"And let that be a lesson to you in the future. The sooner your enemy knows about your strengths, the sooner they know about your weaknesses. When meeting new people, conceal your abilities until the last moment, because that moment might be a battle. However, since you followed me on that hunting trip and are willing to undergo my workout routine, I believe that it's only fair to lay my cards on the table."

He covered his eye and disappeared, drawing shouts of surprise from everyone.

"Noah?!" Oath exclaimed, looking around for him.

Noah released the illusion, and they all yelped again. "I can make myself invisible. When I first unlocked this ability, I could only do it for a few seconds at a time. But, after a month of training, I could do it for more than five minutes." He lied about the duration, and he planned to keep his second spell secret. His trust in them was still in its infancy.

"I've never seen or even heard of a magic like that before. Maybe some kind of holy spell?" Mira muttered.

Her words took away a lot of his nervousness. He still knew so little about the magic in this world, and there was no telling how common powers like his might be. For all he knew, this lie might make him look pathetic. However, if Mira had never heard of it, there was a chance that it was rare enough not to be considered common knowledge.

Noah retrieved some bottles full of a green liquid and tossed one to Oath and each of his friends. "Drink that, it's a little something I whipped up from the plants I bought yesterday, along with some honey. It'll give you a little extra energy. These next few days are going to be exhausting."

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