Swish!
The Mortal Blade swung across the air, burying deep gashes onto the smooth skin of the monster that sprang out from corners of the woods.
‘As I guessed… I missed some…’
Northern did suspect the fundamental problem to be distance, but trying to find something else that will work wouldn’t be too bad now, would it?
He came to an abrupt stop and stabbed his sword downward without looking.
The corpse eater beneath him shrieked and eventually died.
[You have slain Hazardous Corpse Eater]
[You have gained +2 talent fragments]
Northern ignored the message, he was currently focused on something else.
“I wonder where the noise had come from… it was around this place.”
And funnily, Northern suspected who it could be.
The notion was just quite unbelievable.
‘There’s no way he would have.’
Northern was standing in the thick of the forest that marked the back of the mansion, where he evaluated the voice should have hailed from.
But there was no… a frown fell on his brows and he turned his gaze to the left, looking at a certain fat tree in particular.
“Come out now, or I’ll make you.”
A breeze of silence blew past and… later, a sluggish step crawled out from behind the tree.
A slender boy of 6 feet 1 inch revealed himself, head bowed and almost squirming.
His hair was black, although it looked more brown than black… but when the disheveled appearance of it is taken into account anyone would conclude that it’s just the level of dirt his hair had packed.
He was wearing makeshift armor that seemed to have been patched together from different kinds of woods, his breastplate however was a round metal.
His pants were the same black pants he wore to the academy, his boots were now replaced by some sort of knee-length ones.
“I—I’m s-s-sorry…” His voice trembled.
Even after his words had fully registered in his mind, Northern still found it hard to digest. He just stood there, blinking.
‘It’s really him. He came…’
Northern was speechless for a couple of seconds, those seconds passed in grave silence.
The slender boy standing in front of a tree, Northern standing opposite him.
Then finally, Northern’s voice cut through the silence.
“Are you insane? What are you doing here?” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Ellis shivered even more the moment Northern’s hoarse tone shot at him. His heart felt like it was shrinking.
The entirety of Northern’s form made his blood curl. There was something, something about the armor Northern was wearing that bore a striking similarity to the monster that had saved him.
In fact, Ellis had undoubtedly thought that it was Dark Terror that was coming.
He could sense the ominous presence as it came closer with inhuman speed which was why he thought of hiding before it approached.
But on seeing its visage, he saw blue streaks of light… he never saw blue with the monster, it was just the red flames in its eyes.
Northern was giving off the same malicious aura that the monster had, although slightly inferior but it was too similar to be overlooked.
Ellis could tell in an instant that there was a very vivid connection between this monster and Northern.
Most likely it had more to do with his talent and talent ability.
‘I’m glad… I didn’t make the wrong decision!’
“Are you deaf? I said, ‘What are you doing here?'” Northern’s voice shook him out of his thoughts.
“I’m sorry, I’m very sorry,” he apologized, bowing ninety degrees each time the word sorry made it out of his mouth.
Then shakily, he straightened his back but still tried to keep his eyes from meeting with Northern’s while stealing glances of him as he responded.
“T—There was n–n–no w–where else I–I could go.”
Northern arched a brow, “What do you mean? Calm down and speak to me…” his tone simmered down a little.
Strangely, the entire atmosphere seemed to ease up and Ellis suddenly found his words flowing out better.
“The thing is… a strange monster came to save me when I screamed Dark Terror.”
“I know that,” Northern’s response was sharp and short.
“But I am in more trouble…”
“How is that my business? You owe me one already for saving your ass.”
“Yes. But you said you were going to help me out of the situation.”
“I asked why I should, and I don’t think I got a reasonable reply from you. Is there something you could give me…” Northern’s gaze trailed up and down on him for a moment, then his voice continued. “No, I don’t think you have anything you can give to me.”
Northern began walking closer.
“Or… you could give yourself. You could serve me?” A smirk curved his lips.
Ellis immediately frowned and retorted sternly:
“I’m not looking to get out of that slavery only to enter into another one.”
“Of course, of course…” Northern paused and stood in front of him, silent.
Suddenly, a panel appeared before Northern’s eyes.
[Do you want to copy Talent – Soul Eyes (C-Class) for 100 talent fragments?]
[Sorry, you do not have enough Talent Fragments to copy the talent]
Northern’s eyes widened, ‘What? Wait, what just happened now?!’
Northern frowned and looked at Ellis. At that moment, Ellis’s head suddenly jerked backward causing him to stagger back.
He managed not to fall and as he was about to straighten his head, Northern appeared at his front and grabbed his neck.
“You fool, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Ellis trembled as Northern clenched his throat and glared at him, he tried to struggle away from Northern’s grip but it was too strong.
Besides, his left eye had gotten blurry, and a drop of blood was streaming down his cheek from his eye.
Northern squinted his eyes.
‘He is the one. He is the owner of the ability!’
It suddenly made more sense, when Dark Terror saved him, it’s possible that he had tried to take a peek at Dark Terror and since Dark Terror was linked to Northern.
He could copy the talent without having to be there directly.
And now he is using it again.
‘The name does sound fancy… but I am more curious what it is. I need to be very meticulous, to be sure I’m not making a mistake.’
Northern looked at the poor boy, obedient and calmly fitted in his grip.
‘For now, I should keep him around and find out more about his talent.’
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[A/N]
I apologize for the delay in update schedule, yesterday and today was a lot.
Eid Mubarak to my Muslim readers. Thank you all for the support!
And others too, thank you guys a bunch.
If you are not supporting yet, please do, it makes me happy and motivated. Hehee