Chapter 650: A New Discovery
A beautiful orange-hued light flowed into the garden surrounding the private forge, bouncing off and down the streams.
Northern was still keeping at his work. He had already refined a lot of Rethium. With a towel around his neck and sweat dripping down his body, he hammered several more pieces and placed them into the bowl.
It was a good thing that Eleina had left this place to him-it had been a great boon. He had been using it to practice his forgery skills. He hadn't really worked on the Aetherium project yet, wanting to make his skill reach its peak before proceeding with that task.
In the meantime, he was busy doing three things: crafting common swords, learning the craft of armor and other gear from general lectures, and taking a proper survey of the forgery in case he needed to build something like this in the Limitless Void.
'Would it even be possible?'
Northern was sure transporting physical things into the Limitless Void was possible. Now, building an entire edifice from scratch was a different ball game entirely. He couldn't say anything for certain, but sixty percent probability leaned towards its possibility, with forty against it.
The rhythmic pounding of the hammer echoed through the forge as Northern shaped the molten metal into another ingot. The fire roared, casting flickering shadows across the walls, and the hum of soul essence filled the air like a low, ominous chant.
His gaze suddenly flickered and he paused. Then he turned around, looking left and right with both his heightened spatial awareness and his eyes.
"Show yourself, Black Mamba."
A shadow on the ground that no one would have noticed slowly rose, forming into a black humanoid.
Black Mamba lingered for a couple of seconds, then tried to open his mouth. "Big. Maze. Wide. Underground. Level. Deep."
Another thing the void summon had been trying so hard at was speech. Ever since Bairan joined their ranks, he had endlessly chattered with everyone. Since then, Northern had observed Black Mamba trying harder at speech learning.
This particular void summon's uniqueness lay in its ability to learn, usually at a ratio beyond normal. Black Mamba was slowly getting accustomed to using speech, and it fascinated Northern. He looked forward to the creature's growth like a father anticipating the growth of his son.
Black Mamba, however, had a long way to go before he could be fully understood when speaking the language of Tra-el.
"For now, how about we speak the normal way?" Northern said encouragingly.
The void summon looked like the flames of his spirit had been put out for a second, then his eyes gained their light again and he began to demonstrate this time with his hands and expressions.
Northern paid rapt attention to every single thing the void summon demonstrated. As he did, a dark and foreboding frown slowly creased his brows. He had a very grim expression on his face, and nothing in Black Mamba's message seemed to be good.
After the creature was done, he finally dropped his hands and bowed to his master.
Northern waved him away. "You can return."
Immediately, Black Mamba dissolved into the shadows and vanished completely.
Northern, however, still had that grim look on his face. He found the nearest stool and sat on it, worry climbing his face with rapacious hunger. He rubbed his chin, slowly thinking.
The conclusion of the news that Black Mamba had brought was one that put Northern in a very confused state: the presence of monsters in the academy.
Although he had felt it too during his first days at the school, he had thought it was just the academy—surely they would have a few captured monsters that the students could use for real practical combat.
However, what Black Mamba had reported was different.
Northern leaned his head down, the question hanging heavily in his mind. "What is a dungeon full of monsters doing underneath the academy?"
Black Mamba had reported that the academy was very vast. Its buildings were large and shiny, glassy and beautiful. The void summon might not have used those exact words, but that was the impression Northern got from the scale of the creature's demonstration.
Northern let out a slow breath, the rhythmic pounding of his heartbeat matching the echo of the hammer strikes still lingering in his ears. He rested his elbows on his knees, his fingers laced tightly together as his mind raced.
A dungeon full of monsters beneath the academy? That wasn't just an anomaly—it was a dangerous secret. Dungeons weren't something that could just exist in this world. Northern had never even heard about their existence.
There were catacombs, caves, and labyrinthine planes, but a dungeon had never been heard of, not to speak of one that held monsters according to levels.
Northern could not help but smell something fishy going on here. He leaned back on the stool, his mind churning. The very idea of a dungeon-something so structured and deliberate- existing beneath the academy was unsettling. Because to fill it with monsters, the only way was to capture those monsters from rifts and put them into the dungeon.
Northern stood abruptly, his stool scraping loudly against the floor. His gaze fell to the dark corner where Black Mamba had disappeared.
'Could he have been mistaken?'
He didn't believe so. Out of all of them, Black Mamba was the stealthiest, most precise, methodical, and unflinchingly loyal. If the void summon said there was a dungeon, then there was a dungeon.
The question was: what was it doing here?
He began pacing the forge, his steps measured but restless.
'...wait!'
Northern's mind suddenly raced back to the events of the dark continent. The little he had managed to find out about Rift appearances being manipulated.
'...ahh...' Something like a pale realization settled on his face.
If that was the case, and Rughsbourgh really had the power to summon rifts, then could it be that in those dungeons were several rifts that monsters spawned endlessly from?