Northern was beyond dazed.
He knew monsters... he knew that they were versatile and could be anything.
But he never knew that anything went this far!
'It can't be right...' Northern's mind wavered.
There was only one way to find out.
His eyes glowed subtly as he used [Soul Eyes].
Several tabs, all depicting the same thing, appeared in front of his eyes, connected to the trees by white and barely visible linear strings.
Common Name: Blackwood
True Name: (Salvia innoxia)
Attribute: [Journey Of The Lost Days]
Talent: [You cannot see this detail]
Talent Ability: [You cannot see this detail]
Northern paused for a moment, everything about him halted as he took a look at the runes displaying the information of the trees before him.
Something was definitely wrong!
'First of all, I know Salvia... Salvia is a type of tree that is used in treating green veins. All one had to do was cut its bark and soak it inside warm water, then drink.'
And green vein was a situation when one experienced a reverse flow during absorption of essence from soul cores.
It could be caused by many things, sudden and dangerous interruptions, or even breathing and technique mistakes during absorption.
It used to be a big deal back in the days, but mundane healers were able to find a solution to this through Salvia innoxia, of course.
This further proved that both non-drifters and drifters had contributed to the universal society and progression of the world as a whole, regardless of the continent.
Northern, of course, knew all of this due to his mother, although not a mundane healer, she was very vast in the knowledge of herbs and had practically taught him all there is to know about it.
At the age of five, Northern was already handling poisonous herbs and telling each and every single one of them apart.
He knew what to do to stop bleeding.
What herb to use in place of CPR.
Or the one to use when someone is having a seizure.
He knew a lot. But of course, as much as he knew a lot of herbs, there were also a lot more he had not known.
Not because he wasn't taught, but because he had not met them.
There were, after all, almost an unlimited amount of trees and plants out there, especially with the constant newness of everything that rifts brought. His mother had specifically said all of that.
Particularly, this Blackwood was a well-known one.
And there is no way, no way, that it should have a talent, talent ability or even attribute!
Northern couldn't make sense of what he was seeing at all.
Something was disturbingly wrong!
Raven and Terence stopped and turned back to him.
"Is something wrong, Mr. Northern?" Terence softly asked.
He lingered for a moment, then he turned his eyes directly to Raven and with a slightly trembling voice, asked:
"Raven, I have a question."
Raven squinted her eyes a little and nodded, "Go ahead."
Northern, even after she had said that, took a while to make another sound.
The tremor in his voice was becoming more palpable, as his mind fully realized the magnitude of what could be happening in this place.
"When you say it could be a horde of monsters, or it could be one... if the soul rank of the monster is a Maelstrom, and the danger level is Apex, is it possible that we are surrounded by a forest of incredibly strong monsters... the strongest I have seen so far?"
Raven was silent for a while, he could tell she was deeply thinking about his question.
Terence shared glances between the both of them, looking a little bit lost at the same time, waiting for Raven's reply as much as Northern was.
Raven then looked at Northern, lingered, then responded:
"I guess we could say that. That would mean that we are surrounded by a lot of maelstrom rank monsters of the apex danger level."
Northern felt his heart drop, his legs weakened.
They weren't even in the rift!
Before he could go any further with his terrorized thoughts though, Raven's silvery voice cut through.
"...But that will make no sense."
Northern looked at her.
"And why is your reason for that?"
"Well, it's common sense, Northern. First of all, this is not a rift, even if it is, there is an order to the ecosystem of monsters in a rift, and it's like an inherent enactment in the head of monsters to follow and obey the hierarchy of that ecosystem. However, because of the differences in danger levels of monsters, a very versatile variability is introduced.
This means a monster that puts disruption to that very ecosystem can arise. Most likely this situation begins from the Calamity level. Because of this, monsters of the same rank but lower danger level are bound to enter an intense internal fight as an adaptation mechanism. Same thing with monsters of higher ranks... they begin to want to eliminate this threat or better still, even out the variability by breeding a lot of equally strong monsters as this variable who are obedient to the hierarchy."
Raven looked at Northern and continued:
"Now, Northern, think about a vast number of monsters of the Apex... the Apex, peak of the peak, level of monsters, Maelstrom for that rank, all dwelling in a place ?"
Northern was silent, he looked down for a moment and looked at Raven, then he answered:
"That will mean riot, each monster would be out for each other as a means of adaptation, I guess?"
Raven nodded and added:
"Since they are all Apex, Apex have a behavioral pattern of leadership, reigning supreme wherever they are, the rank does not matter. An apex level fiend rank would want to go against an apex level infernal rank monster because of the nature they have."
She looked around once more and said:
"If a horde of monsters is residing in these woods, then it would have been a total disaster... no one would be alive in Sloria Stronghold."
"You are right..." Northern looked down a bit.
Raven studied him for a moment and then opened her mouth.
"I'm quite shocked, didn't you receive basic knowledge for all these things? I thought you attended a citadel since you know Master Annette, Sage Gilbert, and the Hidden Daggers."