Chapter 49 Do You Have What It Takes?
The thunderous sound thar came from all sides, jarred his heart, shaking him awake just as his state of slumber began to near its expiration.
Northern's eyes slowly unfolded, lines of stress squeezed beneath it.
Propping himself up, he supported his whole body with his arms and spent a couple of seconds trying to booth back to reality.
His muscles still felt a bit sore and tensed but it was bearable. The fact that he could pick himself up was a testament to that.
Northern then belatedly glided around with his blue eyes, absorbing every visualization that came in view.
A slight frown creased his brow as he inquired irritably:
"Where the fuck am I?"
The walls were ashen and antique, cracks ran across in several areas and cobwebs made a nest for themselves at the curving corners, tattered and burnt red curtains shielded the interior from the shimmers of light that danced outside.
But Northern could still tell a ruckus was going on, the thunderous growls of monsters was almost making his bed vibrate.
He slowly crawled off the bed and gently placed his legs down on the concrete floor, looking around once again.
'This feels odd… did they bring me somewhere else?'
Northern stood up and walked towards the broken mirror, this was the first time he was seeing himself since coming to the dark continent.
And he was not very proud of it.
He seethed at the boy in the mirror and walked away.
'What's the deal with looking like a starved freak'
Northern stood in the middle of the wide room, compared to the dungeon he stayed, this was….
"Bigger is an understatement for real." He retorted with a snarl and ran towards the window, consciously dodging the broken shards of furniture woods on the floor.
He packed the curtain to a side and looked down.
The floor was bathed with the wild roars of several monsters, tearing the flesh of an humongous creature, something that looked like a giant crab.
Northern frowned a little bit, he couldn't see clearly what the creature was. But the wild roars, the glee in their eyes as they tore apart its meat, the way the grappled each other, some even looked like they were doing growling competitons.
All these activities came together to produce a ground-shaking noise.
Northern's gaze stayed intensely, expression blank. Then a couple of seconds later, he walked away indifferently. He paused and looked over his shoulder with a distorted look on his face.
"Sure, party all you want you bastards. I will be the ones to end you."
The creaking of the door opposite him in the same moment made him retake his stance, properly positioning himself to freely lunge forward for a first attack.
Northern looked at his legs, even as the entrant made its way inside.
'Did I just…'
It was not like he had practiced before or had been thought about stances and footworks. But what he exhibited right now felt like he had been so used to it.
Northern frowned… was that how quick the development was. It was frightening to think of but more exciting because this was happening to him.
The thought of getting stronger through a clone made his heart leap with excitement.
He shifted his eyes to the familiar monster that came in with a tray. His death guardian bowed its head a little low and went on to place his meal on the table at the foot of his large bed.
Northern silently watched the hideous creature walk out on its own, the scenes from the battlefield replaying itself in his head.
'He had my back… I fought side by side with a monster… monsters'
Northern raised his head and softly covered his face with his palms, letting out a heavy sigh as he lowered his head.
'I don't know what to think anymore… it's like I'm going crazy… like I'm drowning.'
He looked at the dish on the table, his pale complexion becoming splotchy as he thought of the hell he had been in since entering this hell.
He turned to the window direction again… his eyes growing distant.
'Just how am I supposed to close this rift?'
Closing rifts had technicalities to it. Drifters often make the mistake to think there's a straightforward road to closing down rift. Which is defeating its guardian.
Whereas that is an erroneous notion. In order to defeat a core, one needed to find its core and take it out.
Of course, in order to reach its core, you have to pass its guardian. But locating the core of the rift always proves to be the most daunting of challenges faced in rifts.
Because drifters would constantly need to search while surviving the truculence of monsters. In order to be able to find the core of a rift one needed to pay attention to everything.
Since a rift is a disease that choke hold a dimension and drives it to extincition—the cue to finding its core was knowing the first point of contact with the rift and this captured dimension.
It was easier said than done, it wasn't like the drifters themselves were there when the rift invaded the dimension they found themselves in.
But it also not like Northern knew all of this, the thoughts he could put together was that every items received is in a way connected to the history of the rift—and this he knew thanks to Shin being a blabbermouth that would never shut up about his endeavors.
Especially in drunkenness.
Special times, his mother would sit him down and tell him of her adventures, of course he was very observant and paid rapt attention to when she spoke of the diversities of challenges posed by a rift.
But having not received a formal education about rifts still affected by an extensive distance.
If he was a noble, he would at the very least undergone teachings before getting ready for the academy, about talents, about what happens in the rift, about survival.
But Northern knew nothing, he was just a helpless kid thrown into the broad pit of hell.
A frown creased lines on his forehead.
It won't stop him… his state would not render him useless. It didn't matter if he didn't know anything, he would find a way to escape from this place.
But first he had to get stronger… a wide grin formed on his face.
'I have to absorb more and more of those skills, yes, I have to go to more war, get stronger… strong enough to defeat Night Terror.'
The glee in his eyes suddenly died down.
"No…it's not like Night Terror is the guardian of the gate."
That's right, there was another monster, more fearsome than Night Terror.
If Northern wanted to survive this hell, then he needed to become as terrifying enough to decimate the lord of the Red Mine castle.