Northern did not know what exactly it was she was doing here or why she was even here in the first place.
Not that he cared, but he was in a very ‘non-presentable’ state right now.
Right now, he was at his lowest of the low, his downtime.
Raven slowly trudged forward to him, seeing that Northern frowned and slowly moved his sword a little, she stopped and folded her hands, speaking to him with unwavering confidence.
“What are you doing? I have searched the entire city for you.”
Northern’s brow came together in distrust.
“Searched for me? Why would you search for me?”
“Why else? I needed to give you an answer,” her response was straight-toned, not betraying any hint of emotions.
“Answer?” Northern’s response, on the other hand, was slow… both in tone and emotion.
“Terence decided to give up half of the soul cores. Is that fair with you?”
Northern was silent for a couple of seconds. Then he responded finally, albeit slowly.
“Ah… I see…”
Raven’s brow furrowed slightly at his unceremonious reaction. But she disregarded it immediately, even with her facial expression.
“We’ll be moving tomorrow at dawn. It’s supposed to be today but…” she paused, looking at him from up to down. “…you are clearly in no state to move anywhere.”
Her voice rang out once more.
“Lael, have all the rest you can get. I’ll also need to debrief you on what exactly we are doing before we go. So that means we’ll meet at midnight. Don’t worry, I’ll come find you.”
She completed her statement and turned around but paused before she took a step.
She looked over her shoulder and said to Northern.
“You are not weak… go easy on yourself and rest. Moreover, this expedition will be a great chance for you to grow. Look forward to it.”
Then she walked away slowly and beautifully, her figure even seemed to disappear into the embrace of the twilight.
Northern stood there for a couple of minutes, motionless and silent.
Before he finally remembered.
‘She called me Lael again…’ he gritted his teeth, but there was no use.
He didn’t even feel as angry as he used to about it, and that was strange.
Gritting his teeth just now felt like a faked anger.
It was strange, very strange.
He turned around; in the meantime, all the monsters had scurried away. They were not much to begin with since he had almost completely cleansed the forest.
But at least there were a few…
‘I guess I should just rest here, huh…’
Not to say, he could vividly feel the drastic increase in his strength.
It was as if every time he gained talent fragments, his physical stats built up.
And over two hundred talent fragments in one night was a drastic change, one that caused him to vividly feel his difference in strength.
‘At least the growth is visible…’
Northern dismissed his blades, leaving them to disintegrate into black shards of sparks.
‘I guess I should go home… first I should harvest the soul cores.’
He summoned two clones and commanded them as usual.
And also gave a mental command to Dark Terror to return, since the devil was a huge part of the reason why he got so tired during his fight.
Dark Terror, after all, still needed a chunk of his Void essence to materialize.
It was a manageable amount, but in a situation where he was working at full power, it took a great toll on him.
Northern fell to the ground and laid facing the sky, slowly breathing as his clones harvested the soul cores.
He was gazing at the orange glow that slowly seeped out of the embrace of the clouds.
It was as if the clouds were gradually and dramatically revealing the radiant glow of the day star.
Northern admired its beauty for a moment, however, the next moment… his eyes were closed.
Slowly and peacefully breathing, asleep.
—
His eyes slowly fluttered open, for two reasons.
One, he had had enough sleep, his muscles still ached here and there but he had rested so much and thankfully had regained much of his vigor.
Second, was the figure that seemed to be blocking the ray of the sun that was entering his eyes.
While Northern felt too asleep to wake up, he was somewhat concerned that someone might be trying to steal from him, or harm him.
A subconscious thought that managed to cause him to wake, even though he was so deeply asleep.
As he opened his eyes, the image of the person bending over him was at first blurry.
But with the passing of the seconds, it got clearer and Northern could see.
“Ellis?” He called out softly and propped himself up.
“Ya really made a mess of this place, huh,” a thick voice rang out from the side.
Since he still felt light-headed, Northern took a few seconds before he turned around.
Ellis was crouching and Hao was right behind him, barely taller though.
“What are you guys doing here?”
“We’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Why?”
A quizzical arch formed on Ellis’ brow, “What do you mean why? We have a transaction to finish…”
Northern stared blankly at Ellis for a few seconds.
“Don’t worry, you can be rest assured that I revealed none of your secrets. I took the courage to tell them about what that bastard had been doing. But I think they accepted it after I told them my secret because they kept pestering me about what I was hiding.”
Northern looked away for a moment, hiding his grin. ‘Will you look at those bastards.’
“Anyway, after telling it to them and showing them, Lady Raven said she would like me to join her party. She also said she would take full responsibility for my growth.”
Ellis exhaled into the air and inhaled sweetly.
“Lady Raven, she’s an angel.”
Northern looked at him, his face contorted by peak disgust and irritation.
“Will both of ya stop goofing and wasting my time?!” Hao’s thick voice interrupted.
“Ah, right!” Ellis stood up finally, dusting his dirty trousers. “Hao said he has something very special for you.”
He stretched his hand to the white-haired boy sitting on the floor.
Northern stared at Ellis’ hand for a couple of beats before taking it and standing up.
He looked at Hao, “You have something for me? What could it be?”
The short man shrugged and turned around, “Just let’s go.”
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[A/N]
Thanks guys for the golden tickets and power stones.
No words, literally no words can convey how grateful I am for your support.
The only way, I can express my gratitude is to cook up really nice and make y’all eat good.
Don’t worry, we are getting to the part… ‘The part’ hehee
I’d really loved if more people joined the discord server so we can interact.
