Northern sat on the mattress cross-legged. Ellis had leaned against the wall and was already fast asleep, snoring in fact.
Northern spared a fleeting glance and wondered, ‘How can he even sleep comfortably in a place like this?’
He sighed and looked down.
He was plagued by something different entirely, apart from not being able to catch a wink of sleep. Something bothered him strongly.
And it was what he had seen before.
‘Five thousand talent fragments?’
Truth be told, Northern had never thought about such a magnanimous amount.
Tsk, he had never even thought about what came next after this rank. And right now, he was realizing that he had been too lenient with a lot of things.
‘I should be growing at a rapid rate…’
If Raven could become a Master within the period they had, then he could have done better.
He could have handled things better, maybe even become a drifter while he was in the rift.
Although Ellis had said that it was impossible for walkers to become drifters while inside a rift, they needed to come out of the rift first.
But Northern doubted if that would have been the case for him.
He was of a different breed after all, a drifter with no soul cores.
‘I guess I really messed up, huh? If I had become a drifter while in the gate, I probably would almost be a Nomad by now.’
Northern ground his teeth hard.
It was a mistake.
A very stupid and annoying mistake.
And seeing how strong others around him had now become, Northern couldn’t help but hate himself.
He let out a deep exhalation.
‘There’s no use sulking about it… what I should do now is hasten the pace of my growth. I have been too lenient with things. But as things are right now, I want to evolve [Soul Eyes], see its upgraded capability and also focus on grinding for talents.’
Northern was silent for a couple of seconds.
‘My clones…uh…no…’
While the clones looked like the best option, Northern had to remember that they were bounded to him by distance.
Of course, there was a miraculous case where a clone of his managed to live for a while after he was captured, however, till today, he didn’t know how or what had happened.
But he did know that a crucial facilitator of that was the immense amount of soul essence he had.
Now, he didn’t have that much… he didn’t even have as much as he operated on Soul essence.
There was no telling if it would work.
‘I guess we’ll just try things out and see how it turns out.’
Northern slowly opened his eyes.
‘Oh, it’s time already?’ The ghost of a grin left its fleeting trace on the corner of his lips.
A couple of seconds later, footsteps began to echo into the passage, then minutes later, two men arrived at the dungeon cell.
They were donned in leather armor, the colors of their vambraces, pauldrons, and helmets were distinctively apart.
Which made what they wore look like a makeshift armor, but it was slightly better.
Clang! Clang!
They hit the cell bars with their spears, causing Ellis to jolt awake.
“Huh? Huh? Are we dead yet?!”
Northern looked at him in palpable disgust.
“You are who will die? I am not dying in this place and neither are you because I have to collect my items.”
“Hey, shut up! White haired boy, come out!”
Northern glared at them, ‘Will you look at these bastards?’ He sneered for a moment.
Then he calmed himself with two deep breaths and stood up.
“Ellis, hold the Forte tight, I will be back soon.”
“Yes sir.”
He had responded before he realized what he had just responded to. At once he shouted back as the guards opened the iron bars for Northern.
“Hey! What do you mean?! This is not our house! You should work on getting me out of here, not coming back!!”
Northern ignored him and stepped out of the cell.
“Your hands,” the guards requested.
Before putting both hands forward, Northern looked at both of them one after the other and stated:
“If I told you that putting me in shackles is totally useless, I’d still kill you both if I wanted to escape this place, would you believe me?”
One of the guards frowned—he was wearing an absurd looking winged helmet and his face was too stony for him to be a student.
‘I guess he’s a native…’
“Shut your mouth and bring your hands!” He yelled and yanked the shackles onto Northern’s hands.
Northern watched them, silently muttering, “There’s really no need for all this… it changes nothing.”
Regardless, he was taken in the middle and escorted away.
Ellis could only stare in worry and longing, holding the iron bars and wondering, ‘I hope I have not caused trouble for him.’
Northern was, after all, in all this mess because of him.
‘Maybe, if I had not involved him, things would have been better… for him.’ Ellis tightened his grip around the iron bar and slowly dropped his head.
—
Northern found himself standing in this hall he had been in once before.
It was not particularly enticing, the place was worn-out, the chandeliers still hung strong from the ceiling but were rusted and had lost their beauty.
The windows were covered with veils, although it made no difference since the night was already thick.
Northern was standing in front of the large table, confronted by thirteen party leaders.
Some group of people with tense faces and shuddering shoulders were standing to the side.
A few seconds of grave silence passed, nobody said anything, and he just stood there, staring in utter silence while observing their faces.
There was Raven… that face vexed him to the bone.
There was Annette… she had been a great help but he couldn’t, because of that, be complacent. Nothing changes the fact that she’s amongst their ranks.
‘Although, I think she’s being sneaky… is she planning to clear a rift on her own?’
There were the twins, in Northern’s opinion, they’ve grown to look even more deadly than a viper. Perhaps more like a Taipan.
‘I guess they too have changed from the ordeals faced on this continent.’
Then there was Sage Gilbert.
The white-haired girl with golden eyes, Terence.
Whom he was going to start with.
‘I will make sure to check the talent of every single person here, starting with the lie detector!’