I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

The most traumatizing experience for Northern was the days he spent in the prison mine.

A spineless teenager, captured by a monster and thrown into a prison where he was forced to mine red crystals continuously night after night.

The only time he got to rest was when the monster guarding him went to pack up the heaps of mined crystal shards.

His food had tasted like shit.

He had almost died… and he had promised himself that he'd kill these two monsters that caused his life to become a living hell.

Then, one night, under a sky as gray as any other night, he was marched to the battlefield, not given any choice but to serve as a meat shield for the monsters of the Red Mine.

Earning them barely a minute to fight.

As his body shivered from the pain caused by the red crystals, Northern felt the fog shrouding his mind being barrelled through.

Overwhelmed by so much pain, his mind was torn apart, making it easy for the desperate memories to resurface.

The feeling of nostalgia completely overtook him as the sound of clanging metal continued.

And in came a torrent of memories rushing into his head.

He survived! Somehow, he had survived until now.

However, Northern couldn't tell if he was to be proud of himself… or to even call this a survival.

His widened eyes creased into a frown.

For how long had he been lost inside himself?

Northern tried to stand but his movement was restricted by the shackles.

He peered through in the darkness.

'Tsk… disgusting.'

Being shackled was an 'all-too-familiar' feeling. One that was not exactly pleasing.

And here he was again…

Northern warded the thought away from his head and tried to calm down. After breathing in and out for a couple of seconds. He summoned his clone.

A pale figure in dirty armor appeared next to him. Despite how ragged he looked, Northern's perfect copy still radiated a fearsome chill.

The clone materialized a silver sword and stepped back with two of its hands on the hilt.

The silver sword cut through the air and destroyed the chain binding one of Northern's hands; momentarily shrouding the chamber in a resonance of steel.

Quickly, three other attempts followed, as Northern expected the monster that had stabbed him with a crystal to appear at any moment.

He rolled away from the platform, falling to the ground. Resting at the base of the concrete wall enclosing the opposite end of the chamber.

He pulled out the crystal, groaning. Then smashed it on the ground, shattering it into splinters.

His clone stood in front of him, facing the entrance while he picked a few shards of crystal and swallowed it.

Just as he did, footsteps began to approach.

Northern's clone blurred forward, blending into the darkness that loomed in between the cocoons.

As the monster walked past, the clone appeared from behind; with a clean sweep, the silver sword flashed in the night, and the head of the monster rolled onto the floor.

<You have killed a Calamity Beast - Shoremonger>

<You have gained an item>

{You have slain a Calamity Beast - Shoremonger}

{You have gained +6 talents fragments}

Northern felt a slight surge of strength course through him. Now it was more palpable. Why? He wondered and decided to see what he had been missing.

The last thing he could vividly remember was how tired he was… his death angel's demise.

'I looked forward to ending him with my own hands but it didn't feel right doing it…'

The monster had died a hero… he couldn't even hate it anymore.

Since then, he remembered giving himself into ceaseless mock battles with the monsters.

And he remembered always going to war.

But what happened during the war and after became a blur. He couldn't come up with a clear image of them in his head.

"My profile." He muttered.

{Access granted}

[Profile]

Name: Northern Longguard

True Name: [not yet received]

Attributes: [Formless]

Soul Rank: [Walker]

Talent Fragments: [911/1000]

[Owned Talents]: [1/1]

[Owned Items]: [Mortal Blade], [Eternal Twilight], [Silver Sword], [Death glare], and 23 others.

His mouth dropped open.

"Crap! I received so many items?!" He unknowingly blurted out and immediately held his mouth afterward.

He looked around to be sure that there was no one after him and looked down again. Sparks of surprise were still dancing in his eyes.

He dismissed the panel, but his brows became creased.

What bothered him the most was…

'Everything was going on fine… if I was winning wars for them… why did they capture me?' Northern inquired internally.

He turned around to look at the cocoons of monsters that filled the room, spreading out to the left and right, growing above the ethereal glows of Red crystals.

Then something occurred to him.

'I've seen this before!'

That's right. This was not his first time seeing this place; previously he had sent his clone to inspect where the red crystals were going.

And this was where it had traced it to… and that was where he had also discovered that they were creating several other Night Terrors.

'If my memory serves me right… Those were the same bastards that attacked me.'

One of them joined him during the war; maybe he didn't think about it quite deeply, but now that he did, Northern was sure.

'That thing is not the night terror I know… and the other two that attacked me too… they seemed equally powerful but they were not it.'

He sighed.

'This is so confusing, I don't even know what is what anymore. What is the kingdom of Red Mine? What is going on in this place? Is there a reason for the war or are all these monsters consumed by a mad hunger for blood?'

Northern probably knew the answer to the last question, after all, he had been there.

To be consumed by insanity such that one lost their soul. If such an effect were to weigh on a monster, wouldn't it result in a more drastic effect than it had on him?

Then that would explain why all the monsters in this rift continually fought each other.

But another question arose at that moment.

Northern had a basic understanding of rifts and what to expect of them.

A rift per appearance was a manifestation of a particular dimension, which meant that all the monsters that a person encountered in a rift were related to that dimension.

From their physical appearance to habits to their mechanisms and their goals.

But here, there were not just two but four distinct kinds of monsters.

Always battling for dominion.

Wasn't it weird that even when the monsters from the kingdom of Red Mine claimed victory every time? They never made an effort to besiege the enemy.

And the enemy had never reached as far as their kingdom's gates to lay it to waste, not even an ambush.

It was just the same thing over and over again.

The horn would blow, they would go to war, they would win, they would come back, and they would celebrate.

Over and over again… in a never-ending loop, or so it seemed.

Sooner or later Northern's mind was bound to be consumed by the madness that attached itself to the unreasonable quest for blood.

Pain was the only liberator that could have set him free from those arduous shackles of darkness.