Everything suddenly started to make more sense to Northern. He now understood how exactly Rughsbourgh had expected his plan for strength to work.
If there was a dungeon beneath the academy, then that meant there were stronger and more dangerous rifts below, at lower levels.
And those were what Rughsbourgh was probably fighting right now to get strong and become a Luminary. In essence, that was his closed solitary training.
The populace probably thought the old man was locked up somewhere absorbing an endless amount of cores.
But no-Rughsbourgh right now was vehemently fighting for his life. Every second, perhaps on the brink of losing it, but at the end of each second that he survived, he was getting stronger than a moment ago.
It was insane, and it took a mentally deranged person to develop and commit themselves to a plan like that.
'Yeah, right now, I know only two people who would dare to do something like that. Rughsbourgh is one of them.'
Northern chuckled shortly.
No understating that if Rughsbourgh should come back, he might be the strongest drifter in the Central Plains.
Northern wanted to say in the world, but information didn't flow freely among other continents, so it was difficult to know how strong they were on the other side.
Also, there was an underworld-although not confirmed yet, Tyrants and Origins might live there, and even if they didn't, Northern was sure there were more people on the level of Sura or even stronger.
People like that could probably one-shot the whole of Central Plains.
'Sucks for them that I exist though...' A wicked glint appeared in his eyes.
Anyone who wanted to raze the Central Plains to the ground would have to raze him too.
And he was not going to let himself be easily razed.
Without even asking, it seemed like the Central Plains had gotten themselves a darkly powerful guardian angel-or devil?
And not even one of them appreciated it!
'Those ungrateful bastards!'
Northern's thoughts went silent as he looked over the whole thing to find something he might have missed. He knew he wanted to think about something else but had forgotten.
'Ah! Yes, I remember... the creation of the dungeons could not have started with Rughsbourgh.'
What Northern meant was that, according to the popular history of the academy, it was created three hundred years ago. And recently, he had found out that Milhwa, the first principal of the academy, created it with his friends.
Those two friends, however, he did not know. What he did know was that Milhwa had to be at the center of it. If the academy started with Milhwa, then it was possible that the dungeon- the idea to get stronger through fighting rifts alone-must not have been Rughsbourgh's to begin with.
'So, he wasn't the original mentally derailed dude.'
However, Milhwa must have left off at a point that made it easy for Rughsbourgh to continue. Or did he become successful and eventually die?
'No. I don't think so.'
If Milhwa had become a Luminary, the world would have recorded it. But no one mentioned him as a Luminary. The last Luminary was from five hundred years ago.
"Ah, I definitely need to find out more about this. I guess it's time for me to go to the main library."
The main library was located in the main school. The place was one of the reasons Northern had come to the academy.
He had before decided to tackle things one after the other, but this discovery about a dungeon in the underground of the academy changed everything-the possibility of the academy founder being a part of this, the very reason for why the academy could have been created, and even down to the sea of red clouds.
Northern could feel something dangerous looming at the bottom of all these secrets. This was why he needed to go to the library. He didn't just want to speculate; he wanted to be sure what he was saying. And for him to be sure, he needed to grapple with history as hard as he could.
He sighed tiredly and looked at the rest of the red crystal ore. "I guess I will have to set this aside for a while."
Northern looked outside-the afternoon was getting late, but it was still until 6 PM before school closed fully.
He glanced at the day star and watched how the shadows of the nearby plants subtly shifted. It was an old trick to tell time he had learned from his old world, and gladly the same principles still applied here. It was one of the very few similarities Tra-el and Earth had.
He slowly pulled off his shirt, revealing his perfectly aligned body.
At that moment, a sudden yelp entered Northern's ears.
Frowning, he turned around to the other side of the stream, beyond the garden, and narrowed his eyes.
"Who's there? Show yourself this instant!" Northern's voice rang with terror.
He had not perceived anyone with his perfect spatial awareness until the person had made a sound-he didn't even know that anyone was there!
Slowly, from behind the tall flowery grass, the figure shifted out.
The first thing that caught Northern's attention was the white hair that seemed to blindingly shine beneath the rays of the day star. Snow-white hair that fell just to the shoulders, framing childish and almost aloof facial features.
His frown deepened. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" His voice loudly traveled across the stream and reached her with no problem.
The lady blinked her pale-blue eyes, so aloof that the words had passed her without her realizing. Her focus instead was stuck on Northern's body.
Northern suddenly frowned and stepped back, but before he could finish the step, the lady's index finger was already slightly touching his abs.
"How do you get a body ?"
Before even minding the question, Northern's mind flared at something else entirely.
'Eh? What? What just happened now?'