Chapter 396: A Ray Of Hope
After reaching the peak of the colossal carcass, Northern could now get a better view of the landscape.
A couple of miles away, a white beast was struggling to free itself from the grip of a massive serpent that was coiled around it.
"Mr. Fluffy!"
The white beast thrashed about in a frenzy. Mr. Fluffy found it very difficult to release himself from the serpent's curling grip, which was surprising given its immense size.
This, however, hinted at only one thing-the serpent was strong.
Northern had faced one like it before and had to enlist Mr. Fluffy's help in defeating it.
Using Chaos Eyes, he could tell that this one was even stronger.
He breathed steadily and spun Grengar. Then he leaped into the air. Upon reaching midair, he released a blast of black flames from his entire body, propelling himself further.
He loomed above both creatures and gripped the twin-bladed staff tightly as he descended. He twisted and dove down with a curved edge of the blade, gliding down. Midway, he applied Velocity Dash with an outburst of black flame to instantly increase his speed and power.
Grengar plunged into the serpent as Northern landed, creating a web of cracks in the ground. Mr. Fluffy felt the serpent's strength diminish almost instantly as Northern landed and quickly scrambled away, snarling viciously at the lifeless creature.
"It's dead," Northern said and wrenched Grengar from its head, spraying blood all over the ground.
He turned to Mr. Fluffy and warned, "I told you, I won't be responsible for you. From here on out, you're on your own."
The beast's wolfish ears lowered, and so did his gaze. He released a low growl and reduced his size.
Northern sighed and looked away, inspecting the rest of the terrain.
The land was barren, but here and there, several carcasses like that one jutted out of the ground.
Northern focused more on his Danger Sense, which wasn't picking up anything. He wasn't quite sure about the idea of just walking forward without a certain destination.
So, he just waited a few minutes where he was, switching his view to the other side of reality.
Several ligatures flowed out of everything, the expanse lost its color in his eyes, and everything became black and white, except the sky.
"This has never happened before," Northern switched back to reality view, and everything regained its color.
He raised his head to the sky and grimaced.
"Lately, I've been feeling a need to get a flight skill. Why does it seem like I always need to fly?"
Then an idea formed in his mind. Immediately, Northern dove into the Limitless Void, leaving his physical body standing like a statue.
The Void had the capability to store the soul of every creature he had killed, and thanks to his Cloning ability, he could give them a vessel to temporarily wear.
"I killed a couple of flying creatures. I can just use them to fly instead of wasting my goddamn essence."
Of course, it required essence to maintain those creatures, and even twice as much, considering that he was technically retaining a clone and a soul summon at the same time.
"However, I need to check something first."
"Summon Profile"
Name: Northern Longguard
True Name: [Nameless]3
Attributes: [Formless], [Child of Void], [Limitless Void], [Vestige of Chaos and Void], [Chaos Eyes], [Chaos Thread], [Flames of Chaos]
Soul Rank: [Nomad]
Void Summons: [6/100]
Talent Fragments: [2346/3000]
[Copied Talents]: [1/3]
[Owned Talents]: [3]
[Attribute Abilities (Active/Passive)]: [8/11]
[Owned Items]: [Mortal Blade], [Eternal Twilight], [Silver Sword], [Death Glare], and 10 others.
"I suspected as much..."
Northern had feared that his fragments would have piled up a lot while killing those
creatures.
He didn't want to get a sudden notification of soul evolution like last time, considering he had not used up his Copied Talent slots.
So he planned to spend at least a couple on evolving his talent instead.
The clone talent particularly.
"Evolve Cloning Talent"
[Are you sure you want to use 600 talent fragments to evolve talent 'Advance Cloning'?]
"Yes"
[There are two evolution pathways...]
The Path Of Many: [Advanced Cloning prioritizes many over one. Upon further evolution, the number of clones will keep increasing, but their sheer power will keep reducing.]
The Path Of One: [Advance Cloning prioritizes one over many. Upon further evolution, the number of clones will be restricted to only one; however, sheer power will be built upon that
clone alone.]
A small smile played on his lips as those words appeared on two different panels.
Before now, Northern felt like he made a bad decision, but now that he looked at it again, he didn't think he did.
There was no way he would have known that he would need an ability to save souls.
"I will choose quality over quantity anytime." He exhaled, "But let's see what this has to
offer."
Northern selected the pathway of his choice, and immediately both panels disappeared.
[You have chosen the path of many...]
"Wait!" Northern hurriedly tried to stop the process, but he wasn't listened to.
[Evolving Advanced Cloning]
[Congratulations, Advanced Cloning (A) has evolved to Duplicate (S)]
[Talent Ability, Self Clone has evolved to Multiple Clone]
[Talent Ability, Other Clone has evolved to Independent Clone]
[Talent Attribute, All The Same has evolved to Identification]
[Talent (True) Name has been lost in the process of evolution as it holds no reason to the new
purpose and essence of the evolved Talent]
Talent: Duplicate
Class: [S]
Talent Ability: [Self Clone], [Other Clone]
Attributes: [Identification]
[There's a slight chance that a certain one in a thousand clone could gain a sense of identity. When this clone gains a sense of identity, it can be used as a separate vessel for soul summons and would be able to evolve to a Void Summon later.]
"Just like Night Terror..."
Northern observed the panel for a while, thinking. Afterward, he breathed and decided to let it
go.
"I guess it wasn't a total loss then..."
After approving the evolution, Northern realized he needed to seek the path of quality over
quantity because he needed more Void Summons. Hence, the reason he tried to stop it.
But it was all futile.
Now, he was stuck with how exactly he would create Void Summons.
As far as he knows, he might not be able to even devolve the talent like it had happened
before.
So, thanks to his mistake, he really was stuck, however, this time with a ray of hope.
And one can't really say how bright that single ray can shine.