Northern raised a brow.
“Hidden Daggers?”
“It’s an infamous name for the twins back in the Central Plains.”
“I see…”
‘They were infamous… I did think them to be dangerous.’
Northern sighed and said to Raven.
“I didn’t go to any citadel. I met Rughsbourgh the day I went for my talent evaluation test. And the next two days, I was in the academy, a couple of minutes later in the rift. My parents didn’t really teach me anything about rifts. The plan was that I would learn all that needed to be learned in the academy.”
His voice grew somber for a bit.
“I wonder if they know I’m not in the academy right now. My mother must be so worried. My father too, he might be a crackhead but he’s an amazing man…”
Northern raised his head, only to see Raven’s eyes widened. Terence was wiping a tear away from her eyes.
“That was so touching, oh bless Ul, you have a story to tell too.”
He tilted his head back and frowned in irritation. ‘What the hell?’
Then he turned to Raven, his frown becoming dark and grim.
“What?”
Raven was silent first, she hesitated, then stuttered as she asked:
“Wait, so you are saying you had no prior knowledge about anything regarding the rift, or monsters, or even anything? You didn’t go to a citadel, didn’t have private tutors such as Masters or Sages train you in basic combat and prepare you for your first walking…?”
Northern shook his head. “I had none of that. But I trained my body a lot with my father, so yes, I can move the way I want to move, and I have seen him hunt a couple of times, so I have these ideas of how to stab and where to stab.”
Raven staggered back a little, shaking her head.
“No, no, no, no, this and that are two different matters, Northern.” She paused, breathed, and continued, “You are telling me that you went into a rift, survived in it alone, and you had no prior knowledge or anything about how to survive in a rift.”
Northern cluelessly shook his head.
“No, I didn’t…” He looked at her.
The young menacing lady was almost breaking apart from shock.
“I know it’s that bad. Can you stop being dramatic about it?”
“No, Northern, you don’t understand. You can’t survive in a rift without being taught how to. It makes no sense you should have died a long time ago.”
Northern’s brows curved deeply.
“Is that a curse?”
“No, I’m not cursing you. I am just stating the facts because that’s how it’s supposed to be. To make things worse, it was a tier V rift. Even a group of three drifters, two nomads and one master, will find it incredibly hard to overcome a tier V rift. Only luck can help them. That level of rift is meant for a Savant or Sage, and you were able to do it as a Walker?!”
Northern looked away and scratched the back of his head with a smug grin.
“Well, it wasn’t that easy for me either…”
The next part, however, not even him expected it.
“And you come out of it, acting like a wuss?! Northern, you should be the strongest person not just in our stronghold but in this continent right now. Why does it look like you’re the weakest?!”
Northern felt a sharp arrow of words pierce through his heart. He almost fell to his knees because of how harrowing the pain was.
Grimacing, he glared at Raven.
“What the hell? Was all that drama just to insult me?”
Raven shook her head, her face was dead serious, and her voice now calm as compared to the little raise from before.
“I was not insulting you, I’m just stating the facts.”
“Yeah, sure… fuck you,” he muttered the latter part.
Raven shook her head, laying a pitiful gaze on him and looked at the trees.
“Anyway, my words about it being a group or one was to throw you off. I wanted to check something, and it seems I confirmed it.”
Northern narrowed his eyes.
“You wanted to check something. What?”
Raven smiled.
“Do you get it now, that this forest is being infested by just one monster, right? An incredibly dangerous one at that. An Apex level Maelstrom.”
Northern nodded, “Yes, you are right.”
The smile on her face grew a little bit wider.
“What?” Northern inquired arrogantly.
Those weird smiles of hers were beginning to piss him off!
Her cheeks puffed as she smiled sincerely wider. Her eyes were on Northern for a while before she then spoke.
Her voice crept coldly, almost filling the entire atmosphere with a frightening frigidity.
“You, Northern, you can see the ranks and danger levels of monsters, can’t you? You have a scout-type ability, don’t you?”
Her questions struck Northern viciously. His heart beat thumped super fast for a couple of seconds.
Did he just get played into revealing his talent ability?
‘This bastard!’
Northern’s mind went back to the beginning…
Raven had deliberately told him that a horde of monsters were probably hiding within each tree or one monster was using all the trees as hosts, expecting that if he had a scouting ability, he would try to find out more.
If Northern had kept quiet, she would have probably guessed that he didn’t.
But he pressed the conversation only because before [Soul Eyes], all the trees appeared as Maelstrom rank, which caused him to freak out.
He wasn’t expecting this at all!
He was completely played.
And the most annoying thing was…
Northern frowned, it seemed to not have been once but twice.
In the darkness, Northern couldn’t help but feel that Raven just used the situation to find out if he had an ability relating to his eyes.
Which meant that she had been planning this out from the beginning?
Because it made no sense as to why she suddenly wanted to find out if he had a scouting-type ability.
…Except if she was driving towards something else.
Northern’s eyes narrowed to a slit.
He glared at her.
“Cut me the crap, what are you trying to do here? Is this what you brought me for? To unravel my secrets?”