With that loud shriek, the lady began to convulse, shuddering off Northern’s back. He had to pay extra attention to make sure she didn’t just fall off and gently managed to place her on the ground.
His face was tensed as he turned to Raven, who had almost the same expression on her face, but hers was more choleric.
“Please protect her, I’ll be right back.” Without giving Northern a second to speak, she dashed forward, speeding almost like the wind, sinking further into the now subtle darkness.
Northern gritted his teeth.
‘Damn it, how does she go ahead doing things on her own!’
This was the second time now!
…And it was beginning to piss him off!
He turned to Terence, who was still shaking tremendously; her body was like the dislodged tail of a reptile that was throwing tantrums.
Northern even had to use his hand to support her head as she almost smashed it on the wall.
All of this was a new territory for him, but he was guessing Raven was used to it a lot.
Northern crouched in front of her and tried to hold her to one place, placing his hand tenderly on her shoulders.
A couple of minutes passed, and he didn’t hear anything… not even from outside.
Just as his patience was wearing thin, he began to hear footsteps, drenched in caution. He sprang to his feet and swiftly summoned the dagger, lashing out his hand as the figure reached him.
But his hand stopped in the air, held by a cold grip. Raven slowly lowered his hand and smiled.
“Smooth.”
Northern raised an eyebrow, noticing a smudge of red blood on her cheeks. He asked:
“What did you do to the scouts?”
She opened her mouth, lingered, then finally said:
“I killed them. There was no other option?”
Northern’s mouth fell.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Exactly,” she curled up a corner of her lips, “I was kidding you.” Then she added, “It’s fun to see you act like you care… I’m curious as to what demon lay dormant in you.”
Odd… she was incredibly odd!
Passing Northern, she knelt in front of Terence and took her into her bosom, hugging her tightly.
No matter how fierce the lady shook and trembled, Raven just took it all in, holding her tightly with her eyes closed.
Northern watched this persist for a while and felt a faint heaviness weigh on his chest.
He had been thinking Raven to be a manipulative fox, someone filled with stupid ideologies, a careless hero… but right now, he didn’t even know what to think.
And strangely, he felt like the wicked and bad one in this atmosphere.
Refusing to yield to the feeling, he swallowed nothing and took his eyes away.
After a while, Terence calmed down and slowly slumped, falling asleep.
Northern observed with a side gaze, not wanting to show that he was paying serious attention to them.
Raven stood up after the beautiful oracle had been laid on the ground and faced Northern.
Northern asked in that instant,
“What next? What are we doing?”
Raven was silent for a bit; she looked around as she spoke.
“Now, we are going to disguise ourselves and enter the city.”
She looked at Northern and continued:
“These Slorians are quite unique; the first thing you might want to know about them is that they are made up of students like us.”
Northern’s brows rose, “Students like us?”
“Yes. But much stronger, they have spent longer than we have in this place. There’s even some among them that are Savants and Sages.”
Northern felt his mouth subtly drop.
He might not know how long it took for one to become sages or Savants, but he knew it was a lot of investment.
Gilbert, who looked like he was in his late fifties after all, was still a Sage.
That was enough to hint at the fact that it was not an easy feat.
Once one became a drifter, advancing to the next rank became a hundred times harder, and most times, the better way to go about it was challenging higher tier rifts.
But that particular act jeopardized the lives of drifters.
Because it was recorded that only 20% of masters that enter tier VII rifts and above end up coming alive.
One needed a cohort of eight with at least three masters, or in the best-case scenarios, a Savant or a Sage.
Of course, this was even for just tier VI and tier VII rifts; the requirement for other rifts was tremendously high.
Even till date, it’s unknown if a tier IX rift is closable. Tier VIII already poses a continental destruction level of challenge.
And so, the fact that they were sages who were just students like them was amazing.
But what baffled Northern immediately was:
‘Why are the rifts still here then?’
How were they able to advance so quickly… he sort of knew the answer, but Northern was filled with curiosity.
He wanted to see other people too and know how strong they are.
“But this is crazy… other students are here too like us?”
“Yes. It’s crazy, right? Doesn’t it make you want to question the reputation of the Central Plains Academy?”
Northern looked at her, then looked away.
Honestly, he didn’t want to have to have this conversation with her.
But maybe her perception was just too amazing.
‘It doesn’t matter, let’s leave things as they are… at the very least until I can trust her.’
Both of them were silent again for the next couple of seconds. Northern had actually expected that they’d start moving after she said what she said.
But then she just stood there… which then prompted him to ask,
“So… are we not going to go?”
Raven looked at him, her expression back to stern and emotionless, then she gave a short smile.
A smile that got on Northern’s nerves… like… what is funny?!
‘Why the hell does she keep smiling?!!’
“The sun is still high up; we have to wait till dusk till we move so we don’t get noticed.”
Northern frowned slightly.
“I see.”
Then he heard her voice again.
“In the meantime, do you want to hear about what exactly we are going to do and why we need to steal from a sage?”