บท 22: Surviving The Wilderness [part 2]

Northern gripped the knife tightly in his hands, retreating as he waited for the creature to enter the area illuminated by the fire.

Slowly, a white-furred creature with savage-looking blue eyes crept out of the darkness, snarling and gnashing its long fangs.

Its legs trembled In fear, but the creature did not cease its snarling as it tried to intimidate him instead.

Instead of being scared, what Northern saw was a creature that had survived against all odds.

Perhaps it had been hidden here by its mother who had lost her life to the war raging outside.

As a drifter, or one aspiring to become a drifter, he was expected to kill all rift creatures.

Undoubtedly, some creatures could be tamed, but it depended on one's talent.

Trying to tame a creature without the appropriate talent was essentially suicidal.

Even if it was a cub, one day it would grow, and there was no telling what might happen.

Hence, the rules compelled Northern to eliminate this creature.

He clenched his fist tightly around his knife. A cub shouldn't be too difficult.

The pitiful youngling's fur was marred, and blood stains splattered across different areas.

Its eyes held a fading light, but the ferocity on its face showed what a valiant fighter it was.

Seeing it put on such a brave front despite its situation left a bitter taste in Northern's mouth.

He couldn't bring himself to kill the poor thing.

Northern withdrew his knife and tucked it into his bag, then raised his hand in a non-threatening manner.

The pup shrank back in fear when Northern did this.

However, it stood its ground and glared at him tentatively.

Both of them had something in common— White hair and blue eyes.

'I wonder if it's fate or mere coincidence...'

After all, he had encountered creatures that seemed to control the strings of fate before reincarnating into this world.

Even if he wasn't a believer in things like fate or destiny, Northern was open to every possibility in this world.

Besides, there was no way something wasn't at play here— rifts, monsters... maybe they were just as affected as the humans and left with no choice but to fight for their survival.

"I'm not about to understand the perspective of a monster, but at least I can help and protect you until you can do so on your own. In the future, you'll owe me one."

Northern said to the pup, not sure if it could understand him or not.

The pup stared blankly at him, tilting its head slightly.

Northern sighed and reached into his bag— at that moment, the furry pup snarled in warning.

The next second, all the folds on its muzzle disappeared, it began sniffing the air, and carefully, the creature began moving closer to Northern.

Northern tossed the meat to the ground and watched the pup pick it up with extreme caution.

It must have been betrayed before to be so wary.

The little thing tentatively took a first bite, its eyes still fixed on the white-haired boy.

Seeing that the creature would not eat peacefully with him around, Northern finally turned away.

Immediately, the monster gobbled up the meat as fast as it could.

When Northern turned back, it was done, and was snarling at him again.

"What an ungrateful thing... at the very least, I gave you food, so I don't expect you to attack me."

Northern casually returned to the fireplace and observed the wary pup for a while.

It resembled a wolf from Earth, except that it had more fur and no tail. But every other part was wolf-like.

The creature stared at him cautiously and didn't move from its spot.

Both of them spent the next few hours wary of each other.

At some point, it began to doze but refused to sleep until it saw the human fall asleep first.

Only then did it also succumb to slumber.

Northern woke up the next day, shocked to find the cub fast asleep, for once looking peaceful and at rest.

Deciding not to disturb its sleep, Northern tiptoed outside to examine the skies.

He paused as he reached the cave's entrance, a slight frown creasing his features.

"What is this?" He murmured under his breath.

He was certain the sleep he had enjoyed had lasted at least four hours.

If he calculated the time based on how long he had been here, it should have been at least eight hours.

Although it wasn't a calculation he could boast of being accurate, it should be more or less correct.

By now, the sun or daylight star, whatever it was called in this region, should at least be preparing to climb the sky.

However, what greeted his vision was the same ashen darkness.

Rifts were an embodiment of strange worlds– a part of a dimension torn from its original and linked to Tra-el.

When another rift appeared, it was a piece of another dimension severed and connected to Tra-el.

So yes, they could be different in weather conditions and conceptual laws.

There was no particular thing to expect, and anything could be possible.

But it wasn't like Northern knew this. He had just been thrust into this place with no knowledge whatsoever, hence his assumption that there should be daylight.

But if there wasn't, there was nothing to do about it. He just had to keep moving forward.

Northern stared at the grotesque landscape.

The sea of crimson gore prompted him to imagine what sort of horror would have occurred to cause a scene like this.

It was sickening to contemplate— there must have been at least hundreds of thousands of monsters clashing against each other.

From what Northern could tell of the corpses, one part was a chitinous creature with powerful bone scythes for hands. The other was a bestial creature with muscular limbs and a head resembling that of an ox.

Its hairless hide revealed sinewy flesh that would have undoubtedly rippled with each movement.

Its lipless muzzle curled back to expose rows of jagged, dagger-like teeth.

Beady eyes like dark caverns glared from sunken sockets, devoid of any trace of reason or emotion besides primal bloodlust.

Or maybe it was because this particular one was dead.

Northern felt his entire body tremble from the chills. A few seconds later, he shook away the feeling and looked towards the south— a straight line from where he had been coming.

Northern squinted his eyes, staring absent-mindedly for a few seconds.

He could start moving forward or stay back in the cave and wait for whoever set the fire to come around and rescue him.

He was torn between those two decisions. While the latter seemed peaceful and safe, Northern did not feel good about lying around to be rescued.

And what if what was coming for him was not a rescuer but his demise?

So he decided he was going to take the risk and continue his journey forward.

It was dangerous and scary, but he didn't have a choice. The least he could do was be cautious.

He divided himself into two copies. For now, the number of clones he could manage was just one, hopefully, that would change as he started hunting monsters.

'I wish I had copied a better clone and not Shin's. But who knew something like this would happen...'

After examining his father's talent, he understood how talents worked.

When a drifter gained a dimensional name, the name was tied to the talent they awakened.

Because of the name, they received certain attributes, which were more like passive abilities that shaped their talents and their passive effects, either in relation to them or their environment.

Then talents themselves had abilities. While talents were the core, their abilities were capable of growing endlessly– of course, a large part of that depended on the class of talent.

For example, an F-class talent was not capable of much growth and would only be equipped with one talent ability. In terms of what one could do with such talents, it was very limited.

However, that did not mean their growth would stop there.

A drifter's soul rank increased in proportion to the effort put into closing down rifts or the number of monsters killed.

Basically, the more soul essence one absorbed, the more their soul core was filled and finally upgraded, taking them to the next rank.

Upon reaching the next rank, usually, a new talent ability was unlocked.

But for F-class talents, which were the lowest, were limited to only one ability.

Another perk that came with ranking up was that the body itself was reinforced.

If a drifter with an F-class talent was an unparalleled martial artist, they would be strong, even compared to a drifter with a C-class talent at best.

There was also the effect of one's attributes. Attributes were like invisible strings of fate.