Chapter 787: Past

"..." Everyone was speechless. They never thought Noel had it.

'Still, it makes sense. That must be the reason why someone like him would follow Noel.' Anna looked down for a moment.

Meanwhile, Old Ru wanted to say something, but the words stuck in his throat. On the one hand, he wanted to prevent his grandson from following Noel. On the other hand, he couldn't say much regarding Force Control.

However, Noel actually said, "It seems that you are having trouble. It is not that hard to be honest."

Old Ru opened his mouth, but before his voice came out, Noel added, "I will write down the knowledge about the Force Control and give it to you. You can think of it as my repayment. I mean, you have done a lot for us, even teaching this technique."

"Huh?" Old Ru was surprised that Noel didn't even bother negotiating. He simply gave everything away.

Still, in Noel's perspective, Old Ru had taught them a lot during the past few months. In fact, he actually accepted them without asking for anything in return.

Of course, he requested that Noel didn't bring his grandson away, but he could fulfill that just by not accepting Noel or even killing him. Yet, he didn't do it.

That was why Noel felt this debt couldn't be repaid easily. Since the Force Control was extraordinary, he should give this to them. He didn't want to owe others after all.

"Do you know the real worth of that Force Control? That—" Old Ru suddenly stopped talking.

It seemed like his eyes were playing at him because there was a glitch in his vision.

"Kh. What is this?" Old Ru felt a sharp pain in his head before an image flashed into his brain. "This is..."

The image was completely unbelievable. It consisted of two people: him and Noel. It appeared they were talking about something in the house.

"Old Ru. I have this Force Control, which seems to be very important to you. So, can you please take this? Thank you for taking care of me in the last few months."

"You brat. Do you know the real worth of that Force Control? By using that Force Control, you can actually become immune to poison or other status ailments because you can simply expel them by Force Control. On someone's hand, it will be like a miracle doctor, but what if that technique is known by a lot of people? There will be an army of them."

Noel actually smiled at him and said, "You have saved my life and even made me stronger. I don't have anything in me except for this Force Control that can enter your eyes."

"Still, even my life is not worth an army of Force Control users." Old Ru gritted his teeth.

"Then, are you going to refuse this?" Noel asked with an innocent face, making it hard to refuse.

"Kh." Old Ru thought for a moment and pointed at the shell on his back. "In that case, I will give you my shell. I don't think it's enough to repay you, but I don't have anything else. This shell can give you the chance to rewind time. However, depending on how you perceive time, the meaning can be changed. Just like how time always moves forward, the moment you try to rewind it, it will definitely become a new world that you know nothing of. You can say rather than going back in time, you go to a different world similar to this one."

"This..." Noel wanted to refuse, but he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

While they were discussing, a young man suddenly slammed the door open and pumped his fist, shouting, "Grandfather. Please let me leave with Noel. If it's not enough to match the worth of that knowledge, then let me learn and stay beside him. This way, I can help him for a while and repay him the rest of the favor. In addition, since his ancestor is the one giving that knowledge, learning from him will give me a more beneficial experience."

Yes, the one who intruded on their conversation was none other than Old Ru's grandson.

But his appearance actually gave a hint to what Noel planned to do.

After some contemplation, Noel asked, "Old Ru. How about this? I will accept your shell and him right now. However, I'm surely going back to your place in the future... Or more like the past... But at that time, I might not be the only one, excluding my subordinates. I will definitely give you the knowledge and you just have to accept and train me like you did here. You could say I owed you a favor now and repaid you in a different time."

"Huh?" Old Ru widened his eyes in shock when Noel mentioned the past. It seemed that Noel wanted to use that shell on someone else. "Why?"

"It's not that I don't like your present, Old Ru. At the same time, I can't really disclose it." Noel made a wry smile. "I hope that you're satisfied with this arrangement without asking me why."

Old Ru thought for a moment and said, "I understand. Let's go with your arrangement. But you should know my power of time, right?"

"I know. That's exactly the reason why I choose this path. I know how good you are, Old Ru. So, I will say this in advance... Please take care of me." Noel politely bowed his head.

Looking at that sincere feeling made Old Ru scratch the back of his head, saying, "You are surely a sly brat."

...

"Haaa... Ha..." Old Ru panted after receiving the image. He obviously understood the way his ability worked.

"Old Ru... Is there something wrong? Why are you suddenly..." Noel looked at him with a curious expression.

Old Ru sighed, thinking, 'You sly brat. You think that everything can be done that easily as long as you arrange all this? If I accept this gift, you should know that in this timeline, this gift is worth what I've given him. It seems that this sly brat wants to suck me dry.'

Despite cursing the past Noel, Old Ru actually smiled. "No, I'm fine. Let's go back first."

"Then..." Noel's gaze reminded him of the Force Control.

"I know, I know. I will accept the Force Control, but only on the last day. Don't mention anything before that... Or else he will end up following you back."

"I understand." Noel smiled.

Old Ru realized that he had been played by this brat. Though, he didn't hate the outcome.

Anna was confused about the whole thing, but she didn't say much since there might be something that even she wouldn't know. Considering it was Noel who linked them to Old Ru, it was better not to probe it.

Noel looked at Anna and said, "In any case, I will recover my stamina first and try to help you later."

"Well..." Anna only nodded her head.

Since they had nothing to do on the way, Noel chose to use this time to check his reward.

The first reward was the one coming in the eliminating all demons mission, the Empowerment Rune. As its name suggests, it could increase one's physical ability and Spiritual Energy for a set period of time. However, this rune was more useful in another application, the Rune Body.

If he engraved the rune on his body, he would be able to use this rune just by pouring his Spiritual Energy into it. In other words, it would feel like he had another layer of armor that boosted his combat prowess.

The second reward was Force Control. Just like how Old Ru described, Force Control was actually an extremely powerful ability. While the requirement to learn this technique was high, it didn't change the fact that more than a thousand people could learn this in the Muivell Kingdom alone.

As for the last mission, he couldn't help but smile.

Medal: Challenger Medal

Effect: Physical Ability +10% when there is only one opponent.

The effect was simple, but a 10% increase in physical ability was huge. So he could understand that there was a restriction on it.

However, what shocked him the most was the second reward, the secret to Career Advancement. He actually receives the information about the requirement regarding his job.

'Hmm? Rune Knight?'

[Career: Rune Knight]

[Description: There are a total of five categories of a rune: Support Rune, Attack Rune, Defensive Rune, Utility Rune, and Movement Rune. Master 5 Runes of each category]

[Requirement: Support Rune (2/5), Attack Rune (0/5), Defensive Rune (0/5), Utility Rune (3/5), Movement Rune (0/5)]

'Hmm? Mastering all five categories? This is easier than I originally thought, but wasting all my SP just for this is slightly concerning. In addition, I don't know what I will get once I become a Rune Knight. Those who have been mastered are also basic runes like Increase Agility and Strength Blessing Runes.'

'It seems I have to take my time to consider my options and continue on this path. I also need to help Heisk and become a Spirit Grandmaster as well. This is going to be a lot harder than I originally thought. Maybe I should ask permission to move alone when we go back?'

Noel was contemplating his next move, but without him realizing it, Dimitri had prepared a special 'gift' for him in the house.