Chapter 184 Growth Is Inevitable
[Your clone has slain Hazardous Savage - Corpse Eater]
[You have gained +2 talent fragments]
[Your clone has slain Hazardous Savage - Corpse Eater]
[You have gained +2 talent fragments]
Another thing Northern was thinking about was exactly these...
'I did remember it correctly, I can gain talent fragments when my clones hunt for me, right?'
His memory about it was a bit fuzzy, perhaps that was due to the effect of the madness on his mental fortitude.
But it had been particularly hard recalling some things before the moment he went into that state of madness and was unaware of what and how he acted during that period.
However, he was sure...now, that his very late premonition was not wrong.
At the same time, what baffled him was that...
'If that was the case, then why am I not getting any talent fragments from Dark Terror?'
The devil was probably somewhere hunting for more monsters. Even he had seen the traces of its hunt while he was on his way to this forest.
The forest that bordered the capital city to the north.
Dark Terror had slain a lot as per his commands.
He had even seen some enormous sized monsters laying lifelessly on the ground.
"Ah, crap! That reminds me!!"
Northern immediately turned and summoned two more clones. Then he removed his bag which was handed to him after he was released and gave it to one of them.
"Go back and harvest all the cores for me."
'How could I seriously forget about that?'
He turned, facing the rest of the monsters; they were already far behind, stuck in between running or trying their luck.
While Corpse Eaters are spineless monsters with barely any commendable amount of brazenness, they are also driven by an extreme hunger for flesh.
Most especially dead flesh.
But they also don't mind the one that is alive and well.
That extreme hunger that burns in them is the reason for their hesitation to run, the reason why they kept snarling viciously at Northern even though they were withdrawing deeper into the forest.
"Ah, fuck it!"
Northern dashed towards them in reckless abandon, bearing the Mortal Blade in one hand, the Soul Taker on the other.
The Mortal Blade carved a vicious upward arc, cleaving through the underside of the lead monster's jaw and erupting out the top of its neck in a gory spray.
Its jaws hung askew, black blood and shards of bone raining down as it crumpled to the ground.
The group broke ranks in a frenzy, realizing too late the mistake of underestimating their prey.
Northern was already among them, Soul Taker flashing a ghostly light with brutal precision.
A beast to his right staggered as the razor-edged weapon laid open its ribs in a ragged slash.
Ichor sprayed Northern's face, the coppery tang of it invading his nostrils and mouth as he pressed the assault.
He spun, blades whirling in an intricate dance of death, parrying snapping jaws and raking claws with almost contemptuous ease.
Bathed in the darkness of the night, Northern continued, swinging both blades endlessly, two clones by his side, two more picking all the soul cores from behind.
The night paid silent heed to his rueful vent of frustration as it persisted throughout...till twilight.
—
Huff
Huff
Huff
'Crap, why the fuck... Huff are there so many monsters... Huff in this forest?'
Northern's face was covered in dry black blood, his eyelids were gladly closed, although his eyeballs still carried a dangerous azure glow...but they were dim.
'Fuck, I'm tired...'
He had been angrily fighting, hunting with just one purpose in mind.
Growth.
He just wanted to grow so badly!
He wanted to change his circumstances up until now.
He wanted to never face such an embarrassing situation again.
Such a humbling situation.
He staggered tiredly to the front, almost falling down but supported himself with the Mortal Blade, stabbing it into the ground, using the momentum of his slight stagger. He plunged the Soul Taker into the exposed flank of the monster before him.
In just one hit, the monster wriggled and died.
In his few hours of his endless fight with the Corpse Eaters,
Northern, although tired now, had ended up discovering far more than he usually would.
First was the use of item orders.
He had totally forgotten about it since he was very blessed with abilities and had a broad option to choose from.
Realizing, now that the majority of his abilities couldn't be seen, some he had hadn't even had a complete hang of.
For example, even though [Formless] looked like an ability that would really benefit him the most,
he didn't even know how to consciously activate it.
Whatever had happened with Hao just happened before he could recount what was going on.
But he didn't need to sulk on the things he couldn't control. If there was one thing he was sure about, it was the fact that he would get it.
However, he still needed to explore all the possibilities of strength that he carried.
The most he had forgotten were weapon orders.
Name: [Eternal Twilight]
Type: Armor
Rank: Enchanted
Order: [I]
Description: [The Twilight usually donned this armor with pride, oh how joyful he looked when he marched to war at the dawn of the day and rode back on the helm of victory at dusk. What is left of it now is corruption and carnage]
Weapon Order: [Mistwalker]
Mistwalker: [The white and brown leather armor releases thin wisps of fog and dust from its seams, you can teleport to areas within the fog. Once this ability has been used, it can't be used again until dawn]
Since he was a walker and had an unrefined soul essence, he was not able to use this weapon order, but Northern had also forgotten about it.
Plus, he gained a better armor, didn't he?
And now thanks to the embarrassment he faced, he began to consider ways to make himself stronger, better than a minute ago.
A hunger that he never really had began to be birthed inside his bowels.
This caused him to inspect every aspect of himself while he fought.
He even had to dismiss his clones since they were eating up his reserve of Void essence.
Eventually, being driven into a tight corner caused him to use a particularly powerful order of the Mortal Blade.
Name: [Mortal Blade]
Type: Weapon
Rank: [Superior]
Order: [II]
Description: [Blinded by his greed for supreme power, the insane monarch laid waste to his entire kingdom, making of it nothing but an ocean of blood]
Weapon Abilities: [Blood Reaver], [Last Blood]
Blood Reaver: [Mortal Blade will absorb blood from its target to heal the wounds of its wielder. However, the blood must be crimson]
Last Blood: [When the wielder is at the point of death, Mortal Blade might exchange the Blood state of its wielder for that of its target–however a hit must be made before this ability can be activated]
[Last Blood] activated just at his peak of fatigue, when he was about to die. The gruesome blade moved like a mad weapon, as if possessing his hand for a minute.
It impaled the monster and dried its entire blood, healing Northern's wounds and fatigue.
That was eventually how Northern was able to survive the night.
But that one experience caused him to remember all the orders of his items.
Even though he couldn't use [Blood Reaver] since the blood of the Corpse Eaters was not crimson,
he could use others like [Mistwalker] and even the shadow restraining effect of one of his stilettos.
Name: Northern Longguard
True Name: [Nameless]
Attributes: [Formless], [Spawn of Void], [Limitless Void], [Vestige of Chaos and Void], [All Eyes], [Chaos Thread], [Flames of Chaos]
Soul Rank: [Drifter]
Talent Fragments: [276/2000]
[Copied Talents]: [1/2]
[Owned Talents]: [1]
[Attribute Abilities (Active/Passive)]: [9/10]
[Owned Items]: [Mortal Blade], [Eternal Twilight], [Silver Sword], [Death Glare] and 4 others.
"...not enough…"
Huff
"No, that's enough…" A cold voice rang out from behind him.
With a slight frown, heaving and panting roughly, in a battered state, hair and faced bloodied, Northern slowly turned.
A black haired lady was standing, bathed in the orange radiance of the twilight, her crimson eyes were coldly piercing his soul.
"You… what are you doing… here?"