Chapter 580: Spiritual Force
The masses of corpses were gathered together and frozen by Ryan, forming a four-cornered wall of sorts to protect them from any sudden attack.
Each of them sat back-to-back with a certain number of cores in front, which were given after they had divided the cores equally.
There was a certain style and technique that was usually employed during essence absorption from soul cores.
And to keep drifters from copying each other's technique, it was advisable that two drifters should back each other when absorbing soul cores.
Of course, they weren't just backing each other. They were sitting in a circle, but each person's back was faced against another in such a way that it was a bit stressful to look at the person beside them—at least not when busy absorbing soul essence from cores.
Even Shin, Ryan, Alystren, Jeci, and Lynus were involved.
Northern and Dante stood above the wall while they watched the others as they absorbed their soul cores.
Silence persisted between the two of them for a while. Then the Lieutenant spoke.
"Why are you not absorbing all the soul cores you've collected?"
Northern was silent for a beat, then he shrugged.
"Soul cores are more expensive and useful when traded."
The Lieutenant raised a brow and looked at Northern. "That's surprisingly low thinking. You do realize that the people you are trading them to are buying them because they want to absorb them."
"Which is good for them. I don't need to absorb soul cores in order to grow."
As Northern said this, Dante's eyes widened; a moment later, he opened his mouth with a small grin.
"So you are one of those?"
Northern narrowed his eyes. "One of what?"
Dante's gaze rested on him for a short while, his eyes scrutinizing all of Northern's features to find any hints of pretense.
But Northern's gaze was sincerely inquisitive, and Dante could clearly see that.
He sighed and looked downward at the circle of people sitting cross-legged with cores between their comfortably resting hands.
"You really do not know..." His gaze slowly came back to Northern, the corner of his lips curving up to give a small smirk.
"No, I don't. What are you talking about?"
The Lieutenant looked forward to the horizon; he seemed to be taking his time, a strange gaze rising in his eyes.
"There is uncommon knowledge about soul essence. It started as a postulated theory."
"A postulated theory?" Northern tilted his head a bit as he focused on the Lieutenant, thinking, 'Why am I getting scientific vibes from this...'
"The theory postulated that soul essence is not just soul essence. There is something called a spiritual force. And this spiritual force stands like a canopy that branches out into other forces -soul force is just one of the other forces. Then in soul force, we have soul core, soul essence, and talents. The theory establishes the possibility of the existence of other forces and their properties."
Northern could sense the lines connecting as Lieutenant Dante continued.
"It was all a protected hidden theory until ten years ago, when another force was found in a rift resource."
Northern squinted his eyes a bit as he thought about what the Lieutenant had just said before he eventually voiced what he did not understand.
"What do you mean it was found in rift resources?"
"It's simple-if you don't understand something like that, it means you don't have even the most minimal knowledge that a drifter should have before venturing into a rift."
Northern nodded. "Yeah, it sort of happened."
"Sort of happened?" The Lieutenant looked at him strangely.
Then he sighed, as if letting go of the thought in his head.
"Rift resources are of different kinds and types. Their special trait most times is derived from the kind of environment they're exposed to while in the rift."
"I know pretty much that."
"Good for you. What you probably don't know is that those resources have essence-it is their essence that makes it possible for them to develop special abilities from being exposed to rifts over a long period of time. So, every resource gotten from rifts has faint essence in them; however faint it is, it's detectable."
He paused for a bit.
"Have you heard of empty rifts?"
Northern looked at him, answering, "I'm not sure, but judging from the name, it's an empty rift?"
"Yes. An empty one. It seems like a ruin more than a rift, but it's totally empty, no monsters at all, however symbolizing the existence of an old civilization. That is where the theory comes that rifts are dimensional fragments of places breaking into our own dimension." Northern would have accepted that notion if he hadn't met Sura and learned better.
These people and their theories were plausible, but he had realized what rifts were from meeting Sura.
Rifts are the line in-between. However, it is very possible that that line in between continues to leak two dimensions now in particular-the world below and the world above-into each
other.
Northern wanted to believe that it was possible for the back door of a rift to lead to the underworld. But where would one find the backdoor?
"Judging by your look, you have heard this before..."
Northern smiled shortly. "Well, being in the dark continent, I heard a lot about what rifts are in our countless attempts to live."
"I see... Ten years ago, an empty rift was found—a ruin that we had never seen even in the history of finding empty rifts. And a purer kind of essence was found. This essence was further termed as Divine essence, hence Divine force. Not much has been discovered about Divine essence since then, and so it has remained as a protected theory."
Northern nodded his head subtly in understanding. He didn't expect that a random conversation like this was going to help him better understand what his ability was.
"I am sincerely grateful," he responded politely.
"Are you?"
Northern stared at the Lieutenant, lingering before he responded, "I am."
"Then do you think you can do me a favor?"
'I darned expected that crap. He knew what he was doing since he opened his mouth and
started talking.'