Chapter 579: Arousing Suspicion
For the next couple of minutes, everyone walked around harvesting cores.
The first thing everyone was taught upon becoming a Walker was how to tear monster corpses apart and extract their cores.
Everyone was very busy harvesting cores... and sending glances over to the several Northerns doing the same on the other side of the expanse.
All of them had different expressions on their faces.
"I thought his ability was offense-based. You know, like the black tentacles from earlier?" Hansel voiced, pacing and staring at Northern.
"Did you see the burning light that pierced that monster?" Rafel intoned, bewilderment lighting up in his eyes.
"I didn't really see it. But its force was tremendous-it sent all of us flying away before we could register what was happening."
"Seriously. That was insane. Hans, is this guy even as old as us? And he's already that strong?"
"I heard that dude Alystren saying to the captain that he's one of those guys that just came back from the dark continent."
Rafel's eyes widened. "What? Really? Bro... I thought that was some kind of propaganda shit nations wanted to use to bring down the academy."
"Well, I actually didn't believe it either. The truth was not many people believed that a couple of students were sent to the middle of that disaster, much less by the former academy principal who had been principal for over a hundred and fifty years."
Hansel breathed and bent down, using a small dagger to tear the flesh of a Rabid Rot as he continued, his breath paced by the strain of what he was doing.
"Moreover, the families didn't seem to care too much. I mean, your kids were taken and minimal effort was put into getting them back. It's almost as if they didn't try hard to make the lie believable."
He removed the four cores one after the other, handing them to Rafel who dumped them into a coffer at his feet.
He responded.
"But now that survivors are making it back, we know it is true. It just so happens that at the same time, the former academy principal is also not around. Don't you find something fishy?"
"Whatever fishy it is, it won't matter if that man comes back as the first Luminary in seven hundred years."
"You really think he will be the first? Or rather, he is?"
Hansel paused for a moment, looking up at Rafel with a slight frown.
"What do you mean?"
Rafel shrugged. "I mean, I'm just saying, we don't know much about the Northern and Eastern continents. What part of history we have is only what the Central Plains have been since the day the world became divided. Then there's Reimgard-they say a single one of their princes is enough to subjugate a citadel. And moreover, there's the first princess who is a Paragon. Are you now saying almost all his sons and daughters are Paragons, Ascendants and Sages, and he too will be a Paragon?"
"And what's wrong with that?"
Rafel shrugged again. "Nothing. But it just doesn't feel right. Aren't they basically all the same, and won't the children grow balls to challenge and overthrow their father? I mean, there has to be a reason why Reimgard is very private with their affairs."
"So you think...?"
"I'm just saying, how can we be so sure that the former academy principal will be the first Luminary in a while? When there's a country that keeps its matters very private and lets the world know only what they need to know, then there are two other continents which we have no idea about at all. I mean, we have to be realistic."
"Realistically speaking, you guys have been yapping like hell and barely even done anything."
Shane's voice entered, startling the two.
Hansel stood up, looking at the lady's pale face.
"Are you okay? You don't look okay."
"I am fine. I've taken first aid; the wound will get better. You guys should round up on your end so we can absorb the cores and rest. Doing that will make me more okay."
She muttered the last part and was about to walk away but stopped and turned back.
"And quit yapping about nonsense. We have more to do than all this!" She yelled, then walked away.
"Tch."
Both of them smacked their lips and focused more on what they were doing but still yapped every now and then, only now more silently.
Shin stood at the edge of the havoc of corpses that Northern had propagated.
He carefully observed with a ruminating expression as several clones of his son walked about, picking up cores and disappearing with them.
"What is wrong? Does he terrify you now?" Alystren said as he arrived at his side.
Shin did not answer immediately; a few beats passed before he shook his head.
"He is amazing..."
Alystren chuckled; he seemed to be in a better mood than when he entered this rift, now that their chances of survival seemed to have spiraled upward.
"Well, you don't need to tell me."
"That is my talent that he awakened, I can remember. But he has gotten so much better with
it. I can't ever imagine reaching a phase like that."
Alystren's brows furrowed; he averted his eyes from the moving clones and turned to Shin.
"What do you mean?"
Shin glanced at the old joker's worked-up face.
"I have a talent called Advanced Cloning. When I move up the soul rank, the number of clones I can make increases by one. It's not really impressive when you look at it, but its usefulness on the battlefield is explosive for someone like me. When Northern awakened, he awakened with my abilities. I never imagined being able to create such a magnanimous amount of clones. He really has advanced it more than I ever thought possible. He is amazing."
Alystren's frown deepened.
"No. That's impossible. It's impossible for him to awaken with your talent. You don't understand-the details of our soul core are so intricate that no two talents of the same kind
can exist in two people."
"Well, maybe it's not really the same. But something like it," Shin replied, nonchalantly displacing the suspicion Alystren was trying to raise.
'If Shin is using a clone ability, why didn't he use it in battle?' The curiosity suddenly piqued his mind, but something else was of more important concern.
Northern awakened with his father's kind of ability? How often does a phenomenon like this
happen?
Alystren was willing to bet his all that this was not the case. It was a thought, just a thought. But what if Northern could copy talent abilities?