Noah had only 1 hour of time inside Vesper before the expedition assembled, this meant that only 30 or so minutes were available for him in reality.

Being without much choice he left a message for his parents on their home network, it said that he didn’t know when he would be free and to leave a ready to eat meal for him. He concluded with apologies for being distant in these past days and a request to be sympathetic for the coming times.

He realized how few moments were spent with his parents in his past years after having grown up, with only an urge to seek distraction and not many interesting and fulfilling relationship, he ended with the result of being isolated and closing in himself. He forgot the last time he had a joyful and light conversation similar to the ones with Lawrence, or when he felt the support of another person in difficult times; thinking on it, he didn’t experience any predicaments in his life, there were only those hard times while playing random games on which he even got really hangry but it felt pointless, fake, useless. With Vesper, it was different, under many aspects. Apart from the urge to satiate his hunger or having to take care of the body needs, it was like experiencing a real life; Vesper was a fake and unreal world, true, but Noah memories were real, he really lived those moments.

Still immersed in deep thoughts, he got up from the bed and moved in front of his bedroom screen, it was a good norm to constantly check the forums If he wanted to play seriously. This was a realization that he got after his recent experience with his lack of basic knowledge.

Opening the taming related section he looked for information on various creatures suitable as companions, finding a single post that stated to be a complete guideline on creatures allowed him to get some understanding on the general power level.

In fact, that thread affirmed that wolves were excellent creatures, fast, hard-hitting and overall dangerous that usually moved in packs. It was advised to confront one with at least 3 people at the same level, hunting a wolf alone was possible starting from level 6, this only to contend on equal grounds. Noah thought back on what Dominik said about his ability to fight one evenly with his physical abilities alone, apparently his stats were a lot higher than what he thought; a strong resolution to diligently train more those passives surged in him.

Apart from that interesting fact, this guide didn’t give any other useful information; bears were said to be not worth it to hunt, simply put, there were too many risks while facing one and the time it took was too much. In some areas, there was a more varied wildlife where deer or other less aggressive creatures could be found, such as very large forest cats and boars, those were the preferred creatures by tamers.

Finding nothing useful in this post, he decided to look at the general discussion wondering if something was said about the coming expedition. Actually, he realized that it was quite a huge issue: there were millions of views on one thread. “Undead discovered!” , such was the title of said discussion.

Inside he could find only basic information regarding the expedition and its objective, there was also a promise from the author to keep everyone informed on the development. The user responsible for this post was a certain Beldegard, leader of a large guild based in Divel. It was a guild that was kinda famous in the online gaming community, at least this was what Noah learned by reading some replies. Hildegar, he noted this guild name on his mind since they were probably going to quest together soon.

He spent the rest of free time by taking care of natural needs and showering to refresh his mind.

____________

Many peoples moved at the city gates, guards and soldiers kept shifting piles of foods from large carriages to smaller ones. Dominik said that was necessary to cross many difficult terrains in order to reach the outpost near the outbreak, from it smaller expeditions would be organized. Their main objective was to establish a contingent at the outpost and clear the surroundings from the undead menace, at that point a part of the expedition would stay there to help the garrison with containment and find the problem source.

It didn’t take long for Noah to find the Instructor, his head stood like a mountain peak between the other army members. Reaching him, he found another known figure: it was Markus Barbian, Divel’s first division commander.

“ Hey greenhorn! What are you doing here, shouldn’t you be at the training camp right now? “.

A curious look was in his eyes while he asked this question, and then he looked at Dominik after the Instructor signaled Noah to not speak.

“ Markus, Pestilence was deemed unworthy of the Reign Army. I personally decided so but for this long expedition I needed an aide, you know that I’m not young anymore, and Pestilence looked like a decent follower “.

Markus looked at the old instructor with a knowing but respectful expression, this man in front of him had always been an inspiration. He still remembered the training period with him, and only respect could be felt for this person.

“ Okay, then you aren’t greenhorn anymore. By the way, that big wolf of yours looks interesting; see you around wolf boy!”. Said Markus’s powerful voice whit a laughter while taking his leave from the Instructor.

Noah learned that Markus was the leader of this expedition since he was the highest ranking military on field in town, Dominik also revealed that the other day, when Noah was training alone with him, Markus personally came to see him out of worry for this outbreak: apparently the reports depicted the situation as difficult, this explained why so many soldiers were deployed.

Now two things bothered Noah: this adventure filled with unknown dangers in which he was going to dedicate a lot of his time was the first one. After all, this was his first mission albeit he didn’t obtain a quest since his role was only that of an aide of Dominik, whit whom he already had an open and going quest, even though he still hoped to achieve something more while at the outpost.

The other thing was a less important one but not at all, less curious: Dominik’s appearance didn’t look so old but seeing that the big man referred to himself as not young anymore, he wondered about his real age. Maybe everything was due to the man bald and shiny head and that dubious black beard, not having hairs is always a good method to appear a few years younger.

Giving a mental laughter at this matter, he decided to put it aside. Maybe it was really the case in which the instructor refused to appear old, this game possibility never stopped to surprise him; turning his head to face directly Dominik he got welcomed by an embarrassed look.

“ Albeit It’s been a few years since I retired, don’t think that I’m an old geezer. I’m not at an age to be a grandfather yet, so don’t look at me with those eyes and stop staring at my head. “

Apparently, Noah was looking hard at Dominik or the man was really conscious of his surroundings.

The nearby soldiers watched with curiosity at the boy that was so freely speaking with the Head Instructor, that wolf pet of his only increased their wonder; that boy looked only average and everybody knew that it was much more difficult to tame a creature when one didn’t act alone.

Among them there was also one player watching this scene unfolding, he had disbelieving eyes and his mouth hanging open: a wolf was following a player that walked with only beginner clothes on and this person was speaking with a mountain of muscles that also walked bare-chested, he decided that his guild leader should be informed about this and left right away.