“Three percent.” Noone frowned and his eyes finally opened. It was deep into the night and the Inn was silent except for the subtle creaking of wind blowing against the building’s sides.

The first absorption was completed with relative ease, bringing Noone just to the peak of the 5th level of Qi Condensation. After calming himself, he continued through to the second absorption – another 8 percent – pushing him over the cap. However, despite raising him above 100% capacity, his brows furrowed, and he quickly began to realize that it wasn’t going to be enough to break through.

His mind moved swiftly. Noone didn’t understand it earlier, but the amount of energy required for the breakthrough process alone was quite a bit more than just capping out his energy.

His body was like a dam, and the energy was like water flowing through him. Any good dam could withstand being at 100 percent capacity. If there was a bit more than 100% capacity, the dam would still hold – and the extra water would just run over the top.

This was not what Noone wanted.

He needed to punch a hole in the dam.

This is what had occurred when he absorbed the threads of energy accompanying Sarah’s advancement. The energy had been overwhelming – and easily but forcefully helped Noone surpass the fourth level.

Noone quickly absorbed the energy from the third weapon, carefully maneuvering his divine sense to snatch the thread of universe thread embedded into it. It easily dissolved inside of him, joining the torrential waves of energy already coursing inside of his body.

114%

“Is this enough?” Noone thought. Beads of sweat began to form on his body and his head throbbed. Pushing excess power through his meridians was like trying to force a stream through a drinking straw. The more power he added the more uncomfortable he became.

Noone forced the energy to flow faster… faster… faster. Coursing through him and crashing through his meridians and the core of his body like an untamable flood.

Despite having his meridians and core reinforced by the galaxy tree, Noone began to realize that even it was being strained to its limits.

“This will have to do…” He quieted his mind, and slowly fell into a trance, trying to control the energy while forcing it through him. Nearby, Alaviv looked on curiously. He was unable to see the exchange happening from the inside, but he would have wasted his long life if he couldn’t draw some of his own conclusions.

“What a freak.” Alaviv thought. “If he’s able to just absorb magic from anything and make it his own, then assuming his body can handle it – there might not be any limit to his strength?”

After another hour Noone’s eyebrows finally relaxed. He let out a deep breath, and along with it came a gas of toxins and bad air which had collected inside of his body.

On the outside, his body was covered in a sticky film of grime and sweat. All the impurities which had formed inside of him were forced out through his pores. Noone frowned as he stood and had to consciously avoided trying to wipe the grime off. He was planning to go ask for a bath to be prepared.

Suddenly a cooling wave of magic washed over Noone. The grime and sweat and fatigue were washed from his body – pulled away as though he had just jumped in a cool river.

Noone looked at Alaviv.

“Well you can’t go asking for a bath like that!” Alaviv barked with a slight humor. “What will they think of me if you go out there in the middle of the night reeking of…” The gnome let the joke trail off, leaving Noone to fill in the blanks.

Noone could only smile wryly, however he realized the old gnome wasn’t exactly wrong either. He could imagine the looks he would receive from anyone still awake at this time. Once again, he regretted the fact he didn’t know any magic. Even simple magic like this was extremely useful, he thought.

After chatting with Alaviv for a bit, Noone returned to his usual sitting posture and began to feel out the internal workings of his body. It wasn’t a huge change from before, merely the energy had condensed again, increasing the quality by several folds.

Noone’s entire body felt flush with strength.

He stretched out his divine sense to find it had increased by another meter, which seemed to be a consistent pattern with each level.

Now… His divine sense focused on the last weapon which he had not yet absorbed. Noone easily manipulated his divine sense, sending it wrapping around the weapon and - after a few minutes - snatching the thread of energy which zipped around inside of it.

He carefully watched the thread shoot through his divine sense like a fish caught on a line and be pulled through his body and into his core. The energy was quickly aerosolized before condensing naturally into a similar quality as the already existing energy.

Noone’s eyes widened. He quickly calculated the volume of the energy and compared it to before.

“From eight percent to three percent huh…” A frown formed on his face. “I would need to absorb just over 34 of a similar strength enchantment to just reach level 7… at 15 gold a piece… 500 gold…” Suddenly, Noone began to realize that he might want to put a bit more emphasis on the worth of money. Especially now that he knew he could just buy energy to absorb.

“But that also raises the question… how much am I going to need at the higher levels?” Noone began to shudder at the thought.

After taking the rest of the night to consolidate his strength, Noone felt refreshed the next morning – preparing to move out just before sunrise.

Alaviv also woke up with a large ‘good morning’ stretch which looked funny on the small gnome. Both were heading out with Novrada’s caravan this morning – and Noone had to return to the party from the order he had grown used to.

As they walked through the relatively quiet city streets Noone transmitted his thoughts to Alaviv.

“Al. Should I stay with the party? If I continue to follow them, they might deliver me right into the hands of the diviner – Elize?” Noone, of course, understood that the party were only doing as they were instructed under the order of their grand-priest. But he didn’t want to just follow along blindly either.

“It’s up to you Noone. That is a possibility of course. However… chances are that she already knows you made contact with us and wouldn’t risk receiving you directly. She has managed to avoid the eyes of the wizard council for centuries – I doubt she would majorly slip up now.” The gnome spoke evenly. “Though… you are heading to Stone-Eye?” A mischievous smile played on his face. “If you want to disappear out of their grasp… I might be able to help.”

The gnome began to tell Noone of his thoughts, as well inform Noone of an assignment he had been tasked to complete at Stone-Eye mountain relating to the teleportation circle there.

The more Noone listened, the more intrigued he became. And soon an excited smile spread on his lips. Yes… that just might work.

It only took 15 minutes for the two to arrive at the Caravan, immediately running into Tobias’s party which was arriving at the same time.

When Tobias looked at Noone he had a strange feeling of pressure momentarily pass through him, causing his eyes narrow and scrutinize Noone. However, the feeling quickly passed and soon he was unable to tell what it was he had felt. Noone on the other hand hadn’t noticed anything wrong, and easily joined back in with the party.

“See. I told you I would get him back in one piece.” The gnome flashed his best smirk at Tobias who returned a polite smile.

“Indeed you did. I am glad you are a gnome of your word.” Tobias spoke smoothly. However, internally he didn’t trust the gnome in the slightest. Gnomes were wily and willful beings of magic. He had no negative feelings against them, but he also knew how much trouble they could cause.

Noone could only watch on silently from the side. He wondered what Tobias’s reaction would be if he told him everything that occurred yesterday. Or if they told Tobias the woman who had requested his retrieval as a ‘favor’ was actually a diviner who caused the last – and probably the current – epoch-tribe wars.

Instead Noone decided to keep his thoughts to himself, preparing for the long road ahead.

“Stone Eye… huh?” Noone was silently committing the words the gnome had spoken to memory.