Noah's life became quite engaging.
He would still maintain his usual training routine most of the time but, at specific intervals, his presence was requested in Kurt's hunting group to organize and plan their next mission.
They would usually hunt twice a month and only in danger zones where they were sure that the number of rank 4 magical beasts was not too high.
Noah was a burden for them after all, they couldn't risk being ganged up by several strong creatures.
That's why their focus was on the lone packs in specific areas, they had to be sure that nothing unexpected could happen.
It had to be said though that Noah wasn't completely useless.
The group of hunters soon discovered that, during the planning phase, his insights on the behavior of the magical beasts were extremely valuable, so much that Ada would often ask for his opinion.
There was a time when they had to face two packs of Hellish hounds both led by a rank 4 magical beast.
Noah suggested for the two sisters with the fire aptitude to create a pyre and let the magical beasts fight themselves for it.
Hellish hounds were innately attracted by fire since it was their nourishment and the one created by spells was a delicacy in their eyes.
Noah knew that, even in the presence of humans, the hounds would have prioritized the fire and fought the opposing pack for it.
That had allowed the hunting group to kill two rank 4 magical beasts instead of retreating and abandoning the hunt.
Another time, they had difficulties tracking a rank 4 Furred worm that was nearing a low-danger area, endangering that environment.
Noah suggested creating a bait with a pack of ant-type magical beasts which was the favorite meal of that creature.
Pointless to say that the bait worked perfectly and the Furred worm couldn't resist the temptation of that meal, exposing itself to the hunters that ably vanquished it.
The quantity of information that he had learned in the magical beasts' course of the academy was incredible and he also was really interested in that topic.
Noah didn't know why he liked studying so much about magical beasts, maybe the dragon in his childhood had left a deep impression on him or maybe the fact that his first kill was a magical beast influenced his psyche.
Anyway, his value was acknowledged and his group began to rely more on him.
Noah didn't mind helping them out.
On one hand, a smooth hunt would ensure his safety and prevent any mishap from happening.
On the other one, he needed those rank 4 magical beasts to speed up the growth of his body.
Every time he used the Blood drain spell on a dying beast of that rank, he would gain days worth of training!
Also, with each successful hunt, his Credits would increase and he would gain access to better discounts over items deriving from magical beasts.
The speed at which his body improved increased, his money increased, and his stash of rank 4 materials did the same.
Everything about the situation was completely beneficial to him, Noah had to just give some pointers when they planned their hunts and he would gain part of the profits.
It must be said though that his situation was quite peculiar.
The Hunters' guild had to choose between letting Noah roam free in low-danger zones and harm the work of all the weaker hunters or forcefully bring him in dangerous missions where his life was on the line.
In order to maintain a peaceful environment inside the guild, they had to give some free rewards to Noah or else he would have continued to hunt rank 3 magical beasts.
Like that, time passed, and the number of rank 4 creatures on which Noah used his spell increased, with their joint work, Kurt's group managed to complete two hunts per month.
It was impossible to hide Noah's improvements during that period of time.
His skin became whiter and his aura colder, it seemed that he was going to transform into a piece of ice.
Only Noah knew that the cold aura exuded from his body was caused by the type of "Breath" of the darkness element that he was absorbing.
"Vance, today the wine it's on you! That damned pig broke my stick!"
Newton exclaimed.
Kurt's hunting group was in a forest near the border of the Utra country.
They had just vanquished a pack of Iron-tusks boars and the rank 4 specimen had destroyed Newton's weapon in the process, thus being named "pig" by him.
One year had passed since the events with the Shrinking elephant and the hunting group had successfully killed twenty-seven rank 4 creatures in that period of time.
Of course, Noah had used the Blood drain spell on each of them.
Noah's gaze was lost, he was deep in thought and didn't hear Newton's words.
He was carefully inspecting his body with his mental energy, quantifying the "Breath" that he had just absorbed and calculating how much nourishment it could give.
"Vance, are you alright?"
The others in his group noticed his unusual behavior and Kurt gave voice to their worries.
Noah came back to reality and saw that the other six hunters were staring at him with confused gazes.
"I think I will have to skip the next mission. It seems that I need to stabilize my gains for a while before I can use again my cultivation technique. Don't worry though, it's nothing too serious. I should be fine in one month."
The hunters nodded at his words.
Unorthodox techniques were dangerous, they needed to be trained carefully and the cultivator had to stop at the first sign of instability or he could irremediably hurt himself.
"Sure, take your time. We will just go hunt slightly bigger packs in the meantime, my body was getting rusty with all this safety first after all."
Kurt said with a laugh and patted Noah's head before turning on the path back to the Royal city.
Noah didn't even notice that gesture since his focus had gone back on his body.
'This "Breath" and a couple of nights of training should bring me to the peak of the third rank! Finally, after one year and a half of time spent hunting, I can attempt on the breakthrough to the heroic ranks!'
He masked his excitement with his usual cold expression and then went after the others in his group, it was finally time for his body to reach the fourth rank.