I Can Copy And Evolve Talents - Chapter 126

Chapter 126: The Situation As It Might Be
CHAPTER 126

Northern stood before the terrifying monster, arms folded across his chest.

‘I’m not sure what to do with this guy. Killing it would be a waste. Besides…’

A wry smile crept onto his face.

‘…The Headmaster must’ve left this as some kind of welcome package for me.’

Annette had mentioned it that the place was swarming with monsters, the Headmaster gave him this place, knowing fully well that a powerful monster dwelled within.

Northern couldn’t help but admire the old man’s boldness.

He probably did it to see if Northern could defeat the monster, or expected him to turn tail and flee.

He did have an actual tail, after all…

‘It will be boring to give him what he’s expecting, won’t it?’

That’d be utterly unmodest!

Northern looked down at the shuddering creature and sighed.

“I’ve decided to spare your life.” His voice rumbled in the monster tongue.

The beast immediately glanced up, drinking in Northern’s imposing form.

Ever since coming into existence and growing stronger by consuming its kin, it had never heard a voicunmolested!

All that echoed in its mind was the maddening urge to destroy and kill – the only voice controlling all monsters.

The insane call that compelled their obedience.

So to hear another voice, one belonging to a monstrous being far greater than itself, was like divine salvation.

Northern’s powerful timbre overwhelmed the madness ringing in its head.

The abhorrent creature’s eyes gleamed with reverence.

Observing the shift, Northern arched a brow, his tone dripping disgust.

“You better not act funny… no, don’t do that”

He didn’t plan on befriending another monster like Night Terror.

Didn’t plan on befriending any monster at all!

He had no desire to pen stories about he and humanity’s nemesis becoming best of buddies.

And strangely, that possibility annoyed him more because he felt powerless to avoid it.

He could consume their souls, materialize them…

He’d probably end up traveling with hordes of monsters nipping at his heels later on.

Maybe that was another cruel joke fate planned to play.

And Northern hated it.

He craved incredible strength, yes. But he also yearned for normalcy… maybe a bit of craziness attached to it.

Inhaling deeply, he schooled his expression, addressing the creature coolly.

“I’ll spare you, and you’ll continue whatever you’re doing here, undisturbed. Just make sure our paths don’t cross again.”

The monster nodded vigorously.

‘Great, it understands! Looks like this monster language came in handy.’

With a dismissive wave, Northern gestured for it to leave.

The abhorrent beast hurled itself backward into the deeper hall, disappearing into the embrace of darkness.

Afterward, Northern surveyed the area – the cracks, the gore staining the ground.

He considered how to explain the situation to Gilbert and his people, should they arrive.

“I guess I’ll just tell them I fought it but couldn’t win, so I ran away.”

Not like he sought their approval anyway.

“Now to finding myself a nice place to settle. I need about a week’s rest after these past six months.”

He turned left towards the stairs, his armor disintegrating in a shower of black flames, revealing a pale, shirtless torso and once-white pants now stained black.

Northern spent a few minutes exploring the mansion’s upper floor, finding seventeen rooms. Incredibly large ones.

It made him think that whoever owned the place must have been incredibly wealthy, likely a duke of the Lotheliwan Kingdom.

‘I wonder what happened to the nobles and the king himself.’

With such widespread devastation, chances were they’d perished.

The monster plague had ravaged the land for at least twenty years, from what the rumors he heard as a kid.

A small part was what he’d experienced himself.

In fact, a small part of it was what he got to experience. It isn’t far fetched to say that the Kingdom of Red Mine had lesser amount of monsters in the entire three distinct races of monster that it continually went to war with.

Their only saving grace was that their monsters were stronger.

The weakest of them were beast ranks, while their foes were much more weaker – many being fiend ranks.

Had he fought against the Kingdom of Red Mine’s monsters, he might have reached a thousand fragments much sooner than he did… or worse, he might have died.

But after all those battles in blinded madness, Northern had wondered why he took so long to evolve and seen a reason as to why he had to pay attention to how the fragments are harvested.

It was one of the reasons while he was chilling and not killing anything yet.

Back in rift, the monsters were either weak, or he didn’t slay as many as he thought he did.

But it all worked out in the end.

‘The others may be weaker individually, but their sheer numbers are overwhelming. Factoring that in, it makes sense they overwhelmed us on the battlefield. Still, the presence of a fifth rift? And it shattered immediately?’

Northern ruminated on the pieces of information he received from Gilbert.

While the Headmaster spoke to him, he mentioned something about a fifth rift and how it shattered immediately and since then it had continually bothered Northern.

He couldn’t help but think about the rift he and Night Terror encountered on their way to the kingdom of Red Mine.

Could it have been possible that, that was the rift that linked other rifts to the tier V rift and vice versa?

It was also very possible that the four cardinal rifts corresponded to dimensions housing the four different monster races, the kingdom of Red Mine included.

‘With the Kingdom of Red Mine gone, that leaves three, I guess? And each probably has kingdoms with guardians too… the rest would be probably be easier to deal with compared to Red Mine’s Kingdom.’

But something felt deeply amiss…

He stood motionless for several long minutes, ruminating.

Then his head shot up.

“Koll! Yes, it’s him – he’s the strange phenomenon. I can’t shake the feeling that guy’s up to no good.”

Koll had mentioned being imprisoned. And what Northern and Night Terror fought was merely an alter.

And there are two of those alter…

‘What if the other alter is in another rift, staring up trouble… or worse. What if it’s not in a rift?’

Ice crept down Northern’s spine. He shuddered and shook away all his thoughts.

“Crap, I’m getting distracted. I need to find a damn place to live!”