Chapter 488: The Warp Gate [Part 1]
The waiting room was filled with several other people, which made the air a mixture of different fragrances, transitioning from soft and tender to thick and choking, but there was nothing anyone could do about it.
The place was an array of cushion chairs with different people sitting.
The portal officials would intermittently come around and call names.
Northern, the moment he entered the lobby, had gained a total count of how many people were sitting in the room.
He had managed to be able to suppress his Void Aura to the point where the chill just existed when one sat close to him; the pressure around him had also dropped, although slightly.
A mundane human might notice nothing, but a drifter who is quite perceptive would know immediately.
Which Northern didn't like; hopefully, with more practice, he'd be able to suppress it really hard or turn it into something else that is not a mood of intense power and depression around him.
A few minutes after Northern had settled down, he was able to tell how strong everyone in the room was, and who were impressive enough to deserve his attention.
And out of all of them, only two made him curious. The fascinating part was that he seemed to fascinate them as much as they fascinated him.
Because they wouldn't stop looking at him. Even though he wasn't looking at them. The way their gaze confidently rested on him over time.
Northern somehow knew they wanted to gauge their strength by looking directly into his eyes, which before now had been closed, while he waited for their turn.
The two of them were seated on the couch opposite his, but slightly adjacent to the direction he sat.
They were opposite sexes but looked exactly the same. The girl had an intense and striking
appearance.
She had dark skin with glowing purple eyes that gave off a powerful, almost mystical aura. Her hairstyle was bold, featuring two large, puffy buns on either side of her head, with tight, intricate braids leading into the buns.
Her expression was serious, exuding confidence and a touch of defiance.
The boy was calm and confident. His skin was dark as well, and his striking purple eyes mirrored an intensity that also reflected in his calm expression. A small smile curled on his lips.
His hair was styled in short, thick twists that were neatly arranged, adding to his sharp, well- groomed appearance.
He had a few subtle lines shaved into the sides of his head and a dangling silver earring, enhancing his modern, stylish look.
Both of them had their hands folded, but the girl sat a little crudely. Beside her was a large black box; she crossed her legs, allowing most of her thighs below her skimpy flare skirt to be displayed.
Northern liked the confidence they exuded; it made him curious as to who they were, but he was not going to give them what they wanted because of it.
It served him no purpose to make two younglings who have no idea what lies in front of them pee their pants.
While he did accolade their level of strength, he considered them reckless still. He'd roast them with his look alone.
A while later, a male official came and called:
"Soraya and Kaelen Val'Keth"
Immediately, the girl and the boy stood up. The girl took the long box and strapped the handle to her shoulders, her short skirt swaying left and right as she walked away.
The boy also followed with his hands in his pockets and his usual accommodating smile, even after stealing a glance at Northern before he eventually left; the smile was ever stagnant. "Oh? They have like Vida's skin..." Ellis murmured as he watched them go.
Everyone in the cohort that saw them also had the same thought. But they were silent about it until they both had left.
It took another while, then Hao was called separately. He stood up and bade Northern and his father farewell, looked at Ellis and gave him a knock on the head, asking him to behave and remember all he'd been taught, before leaving with the official.
The portal was always functioning round the clock; however, there were certain hourly breaks every now and then to give the gate and crystal a rest period.
The crystal itself had been cultivated from rifts, although the history of these rifts dates back to the first and only tier X rift to ever appear.
There was no accountable history, or better still, Northern had not come across one to accurately say for sure what happened with the appearance of this rift.
But he knew that the population of the world greatly reduced; it was also the major cause of the continental division, well, except for Starlock, which used to be a part of Central Plains all
along.
After a while, Northern and his crew were eventually called towards midnight. Then they proceeded to the Warp gate.
It was a small open space gate beneath the crystal. The crystal served as the connector source.
It was the main reason why they could teleport to another point.
The gate, as it meant, was a passageway to the reception point of teleportation.
The crystal kept the connection online, hence making it possible for the gate to warp them to another receptor gate.
Of course, several crystal-tech advancements had gone into this project, further evolving the navigations and receptor-to-receptor accuracy.
The female official who had switched since the recent break was over briefed them on things to do as they marched to the gateway.
"Any electrical source around your body can inhibit the teleportation, so it's advisable to leave such material at the storage point; it will be transported manually to the location you desire. Also, it is advisable to cease any soul essence activity as this can trigger malfunctions and misdirection."
They got to the step that led to the gateway, then the whole crew nodded in acceptance as the official lady finished talking.
Northern looked at the gigantic crystal from below, subtly narrowing his deep gaze as he examined the phenomenal material.
'A tier X rift has to be a different kind of hell. I feel hell would be an understatement in fact,' he thought as he averted his gaze and walked to the gateway.