UNLIMITED SPEED

Noah found himself barreling backward in an instant, while his body experienced multiple flips in a second. His figure crashed into a tree, but a magical barrier repelled his figure forcing him into the thick bushes he had formerly exited.

His passage parted and damaged many of the vibrant green bushes, but new bushes sprung up to fill up the space left by their predecessors.

Shock and wonder couldn't be more evident on Noah's face after the event. He lay on the ground for a few ten seconds before snapping out of his daze.

'What the heck just happened?' he questioned himself, even if he knew what happened. The rose had exploded in his face after he plucked it.

'Why did that happen?' Noah questioned himself, spitting the bits of dirt that hand entered his mouth, and dusting his hair since his clothes repelled the dirt.

Returning to the spot he had been sent flying from, Noah felt another wave of shock fill his mind when he found that the environment looked the same. However, the real astonishment was finding that the rose was still there, even if he clearly recalled plucking it.

'It's not the same one,' he eventually concluded, 'Another one simply grew from its stem.'

"How do I pluck them if they blow up immediately they are disconnected from their roots," Noah pondered understanding that the quest wouldn't be as easy as he thought, even if it was a mere rank F mission.

'That explosion would have killed a peak tier 1 or even beginner tier 2,' Noah thought. "Is this the real difficulty of Rank F missions," Noah couldn't help but doubt? The death rate of tier 1 and 2 experts would be incredible if that reality was the case.

"No, it isn't. At least not necessarily," he quickly corrected himself. "The guild provided this mission to we tier 3's. I believe this mission is some sort of a last test. They consider it the weakest type of quest for we tier 3's," he considered, feeling his thoughts hit the spot.

"If it isn't some test, then we'd be allowed to pick F-rank quests from the board," he muttered focusing his gaze on the plant.

He hardly ever did this, but after a while of being close to above-average magical plants, Noah realized that he could inspect magical plants the way he did beasts and people. However, that ability had only been unlocked when he reached tier 3. It was more like an expansion of the normal inspection.

[Blazing roses]

[Grade: Low]

[Tier: 2[mid]

[Origin: The roses are made out of the collaboration of mana and nature. They detonate when violently removed from their stems or roots]

"I see," Noah muttered at the panel's information. 'This is still going to take a while,' he inwardly sighed walking closer to the plant.

Crouching before it, Noah dispersed the nervousness that tried to make a home in his mind. Stretching his hand forward he grabbed the thorn-less stem from the point where it connected to the ground and applied a gentle pull.

The rose separated from its roots immediately, unfortunately, Noah found himself inside another fiery explosion.

With the speed force's empowerment, he would be capable of seeing the explosion coming, but since it didn't scratch him, and not even his clothes were affected, he didn't bother to waste speed essence

Noah had to endure another twenty explosions before he could successfully pluck one rose.

Noah stared at a rose made purely out of flames but didn't flicker or move like real flames. The plant didn't even possess any heat. He had never been so gentle in his entire life, but thankfully his around half an hour's worth of effort had paid off.

The trick had been to gently cut the rose plant from the spot closest to its flower, this caused him to have the flamy flowers on his palms rather than its entire branch.

Surprisingly, a new flower didn't immediately grow back, but Noah could already see something slowly emerging out of the stem.

Storing the plant in his inventory where time wouldn't affect it, Noah swept his gaze on the rest of the garden searching for more blazing roses.

However, his expression darkened at the sight that lay before him. 'How did I not notice,' he thought when his eyes fell on bushes featuring multiple Blazing roses. Only a few ones were odd enough to grow directly out of the ground.

The bushes were spread apart from each other, literally in random positions. And the minimum he could sight from one shrub was around twenty.

'This is going to take a long while,' Noah sighed diving into the project that was gathering 99 more flowers.

*

*

*

Sitting on a grassy surface, surrounded by the fantastical and wondrous plants within that garden, Noah gazed blankly at the sky above the transparent ceiling. His eyes fell on the ever-revolving clouds, but he didn't mind that sight.

His appearance had changed during the six hours he had spent in that garden. He had traveled less than five hundred meters from the beginning of the clearing but had successfully gathered the required amount of Blazing roses, only that the reward for that feat was his black face.

The amount of failed pluckings crossed fifty, and things had been even more dangerous with roses growing from shrubs; as if one detonated the others would follow suit; illuminating that area with the light of multiple orange explosions.

Thankfully he never received an injury, but his face had gotten covered by a layer of char anyway.

His attire had also never gotten damaged since at some point he started getting used to the timing of the explosions. Needless to say, he got caught up in some too. Many even.

"I need to refill my core," Noah muttered getting up and wiping the char off his face. He had gathered exactly 100 blazing flowers because his guild mark wouldn't let him gather more without sending pain to his mind.

Because he came there for a quest he couldn't take more than the quest stated, a reality that made him hiss in annoyance. Maybe it was because the roses belonged to the guild.

Crossing the series of bushes to arrive at the first of the three gates, Noah strode forward, crossing the gate where the two guards were still present.

One of the duo tried to call out to him, but Noah resembled an unapproachable person with his back turned at them. The stunned duo could only watch the breathtakingly handsome man vanish when he took a left into a different street.

Noah almost felt tempted to run in that environment. Although he barely had 4k worth of Speed Essence he didn't need that much to arrive at his destination. However, he settled for another carriage ride. That was his first day in the city, he needed to learn about unwritten rules since there definitely were topics like that.

Due to the never-changing environment of the city, Noah felt like he experienced the longest night he had ever experienced in his three lives.

Around twenty minutes had to pass before he arrived at the carriages stop; from which he walked towards the guild hall. Its magnificent structure unfolded in his sight, and he once again admired it, though only at the back of his mind.

The guild hall remained as crowded as he last remembered. 'Do they never rest,' he thought, mildly irritated.

His eyes landed on the counter and he immediately began his walk toward it. Surprisingly the same lady was present, and his appearance surprised her.

"I'm here to submit the flowers," Noah immediately went to the point, and for some reason, the lady almost choked on the cup of liquid she held in her hand.