The thunderous sound that came from his surroundings jarred his heart, shaking him awake just as his state of slumber began to near its end.

Northern's eyes slowly unfolded, the lines of stress beneath it quite evident.

Propping himself up, he supported his whole body with his arms and spent a couple of seconds trying to come back to reality.

His muscles still felt a bit sore and tense, but it was bearable. The fact that he could pick himself up was a testament to that.

Northern then belatedly looked around with his blue eyes, absorbing every sight that came into view.

A slight frown creased his brow as he inquired irritably;

"Where the fuck am I?"

The walls were ashen and antique, cracks ran across them in several areas, and cobwebs made a nest for themselves at their corners; tattered and burnt red curtains shielded the interior from the shimmers of light that danced outside.

But Northern could still tell a ruckus was going on, the thunderous growls of monsters were almost making his bed vibrate.

He slowly crawled off the bed and gently placed his legs down on the concrete floor, looking around once again.

'This feels odd… did they bring me somewhere else?'

Northern stood up and walked towards the broken mirror; this was the first time he had seen himself since coming to the dark continent.

And he was not very proud of it.

He stared in disgust at the boy in the mirror and walked away.

'What's the deal with looking like a starved freak?'

Northern stood in the middle of the wide room, compared to the dungeon he had been staying in, this was….

"Bigger is an understatement for real." He thought with a snarl and ran towards the window, consciously dodging the broken pieces of wooden furniture on the floor.

He pulled the curtain to the side and looked down.

The field before him was awash with the wild roars of several monsters, tearing the flesh of a humongous creature, something that looked like a giant crab.

Northern frowned a little bit, he couldn't clearly see what the creature was. But the wild roars, the glee in their eyes as they tore apart its body, the way they grappled at each other, some even looked like they were having a growling competition.

All these activities came together to produce a ground-shaking noise.

Northern stared continuously, his expression blank. Then a couple of seconds later, he walked away indifferently. He paused and looked over his shoulder with a distorted look on his face.

"Sure, party all you want you bastards. I will be the one to end you."

The creaking of the door opposite him at the same moment made him shift in his stance, properly positioning himself to freely lunge forward for a first attack.

Northern looked at his legs, even as the entrant made its way inside.

'Did I just…'

It was not like he had practiced before or had thought about stances and footwork. But what he exhibited right now felt like he had been so used to it.

Northern frowned… Was that how quick the development was? It was frightening to think of, but more exciting because this was happening to him.

The thought of getting stronger through a clone made his heart leap with excitement.

He shifted his eyes to the familiar monster that came in with a tray. His death guardian bowed its head a little low and went on to place his meal on the table at the foot of his large bed.

Northern silently watched the hideous creature walk out on its own, the scenes from the battlefield replaying itself in his head.

'He had my back… I fought side by side with a monster… monsters.'

Northern raised his head and softly covered his face with his palms, letting out a heavy sigh as he lowered his head.

'I don't know what to think anymore… it's like I'm going crazy… like I'm drowning.'

He looked at the dish on the table, his pale complexion becoming splotchy as he thought of the hell he had been through since entering this hell.

He turned in the direction of the window again… his eyes growing distant.

'Just how am I supposed to close this rift?'

Closing rifts had technicalities to it. Drifters often made the mistake of thinking that there was a straightforward road to closing down rifts, which was defeating its guardian.

While that was an erroneous notion, In order to defeat a rift, one needed to find its core and take it out.

Of course, in order to reach its core, you had to pass its guardian. However, locating the core of the rift always proved to be the most daunting of challenges faced in rifts.

Because drifters would constantly need to search while surviving the onslaught of monsters. In order to be able to find the core of a rift, one needs to pay attention to everything.

Since a rift was a disease that placed a choke hold on a dimension and drove it to extinction, the cue to finding its core was to know the first point of contact with the rift and the captured dimension.

It was easier said than done, it wasn't like the drifters themselves had been there when the rift invaded the dimension they found themselves in.

But it was also not like Northern knew all of this, so the thoughts he could put together was that every item received was, in a way, connected to the history of the rift. And this he knew thanks to Shin being a blabbermouth who would never shut up about his endeavors.

Especially when drunk.

On some special occasions, his mother would sit him down and tell him of her adventures; of course, he was very observant and paid rapt attention when she spoke of the diversities of challenges posed by a rift.

However, having not received a formal education about rifts still affected by an extensive distance.

If he had been a noble, he would, at the very least, have undergone teachings before getting ready for the academy: teachings about talents, what happens in the rift, and survival.

But Northern knew nothing, he was just a helpless kid thrown into the broad pit of hell.

A frown creased the lines on his forehead.

It won't stop him… his state would not render him useless. It didn't matter if he didn't know anything, he would find a way to escape from this place.

But first, he had to get stronger… a wide grin formed on his face.

'I have to absorb more and more of those skills, yes, I have to go to more war, get stronger… strong enough to defeat Night Terror.'

The glee in his eyes suddenly died down.

"No…it's not like Night Terror is the guardian of the gate."

That's right, there was another monster, more fearsome than Night Terror.

If Northern wanted to survive this hell, then he needed to become terrifying enough to decimate the lord of the Red Mine castle.