23 Surviving The Wilderness [part 3]

Northern sighed and looked at the cave once more, torn in between taking the pup and just letting it continue to on its own.

Which would most likely result in its death.

But if he took the poor thing and decided to care for it which he was in no capacity to by the way. Peradventure he pulls it off somehow… what happens when it becomes a crude white ferality.

Who even knows what it'd become.

Northern reconsidered his choice and shook his head at the thought of rescuing the pup.

'One good is enough…'

He was not about to outdo himself.

He held onto the strap of his bag and turned to the front. He was about to take a step when he heard a little whimping cry from below.

Northern looked down, there it was. The little pup had manage to muster the courage to step out of the cave.

"Argh…"

Northern let out a tired breath then turned away, saying to the monster:

"Don't follow me pal… you are on your own from now on"

However, the monster decided to do the exact opposite of what it's been asked not to do.

Northern's eyes remained at the front, not once did he turn back until after traversing a certain distance.

'It's has small legs, so there should be no way it would follow me closely to this point' Northern thought as he turned around.

To his surprise, the little mutt was right behind him, speared in dried blood of the corpses it walked amidst. The furs of its paws were soaked black by blood.

Northern paled his face, exhausted.

"Seriously… how are you even able to make it this far."

The mutt raised innocent blue eyes at him with lonely chill that pierced his heart.

Northern felt pity for it but he really was in no position to have a pet. He looked to his front but stopped again and turned to the mutt.

"I'll help you to a safe place and that'll be it." He uttered and picked up the monster.

Continuing forward with it in his arms.

—

With Northern's clone in front, and him directly receiving the mental details of whatever was going on in front, Northern confidently trekked forward.

Leaving footsteps in the murky floor of blood, Northern continued forward with the pup in his hands.

Sometimes they would rest at little stone elevations that have managed to emerge victorious from the weathering effect of seasons and now stood a level above the ground as a sign.

Although they were no better, smeared with blood of crude abominations.

Other times, Northern would try find cores, and also taught the mutt to do the same.

To save himself the stress of having to whistle to call it, Northern decided to name it Mr Fluffy and made sure to check if it was male or female before adding the Mr.

Mr Fluffy was a fast learner and turned out he kind of understood Northern.

He didn't understand the language Northern spoke but with the hand gestures and his amazing intelligent, he got the idea of it. And acted accordingly after two failed trials.

The first time it brought Northern a broken arm, the second time it was a spilled intestine.

...The second time Northern puked.

Then he used the recent soul core he got to demonstrate to him. After that Mr Fluffy became very useful at spotting soul cores.

Raising the number of Northern's soul core loot to sixteen.

The corpses of monsters were tremendously reducing at this point, which made Northern certain that he was progressing forward.

The area of effect of the battlefield was reducing and hopefully he meets someone very soon.

But there was a weird feeling within him, a subtle fear that everything was going his way.

The farthest his clone could go from him was 100m, the moment their distance began to exceed 100m, Northern stopped receiving information details to his brain.

The manifestation of the clone was fuelled by soul essence, the form of energy that saturates the soul core.

Although for an half awakened drifter it was hard for them to accurately pinpoint their essence flow, the rules applied more or less.

So if the clone should stay too far away from him for a long while, it will cease to exist.

Northern closed his eyes for a moment, receiving the details of the clone. It was just like being there for a moment himself.

However, since his brain could break down from such task, he needed to carefully do it without distractions.

The good side was that it was brief. Northern picked the recent soul core and stood.

His fell on the little mutt and drove back to the core in his hands.

Then he dropped it on the ground.

"I don't know how this works for monsters but that's your share… you should be able to get stronger a little bit that right?"

Mr Fluffy raised its head, puzzled and shifted down to the core. Then opened it's mouth wide before Northern could stop it, munched on the white orb.

A part of its crunched into the mouth of the mutt. Even though it had a fragile teeth, they were enough to eat the whole core and yawn mouth wide.

Northern helplessly shook his head, amazed by the monster's way of absorbing a soul core.

'I wonder if this is how all monsters absorb soul cores.'

For a second, he was tempted to give all his soul cores to Mr Fluffy but he killed the idea immediately it was birthed.

As far as anything goes, soul cores and crystals were the most important materials in rifts.

He was not about to feed something like that to a mutt he just met a few hours ago. That's called getting emotionally attached.

Come what may, neither humans nor cute fluffy monsters would make him compromise his beliefs.

Northern continued to walk forward, as time passed them, the floor was ridden of corpses.

It was bare with reddish brown sand, that kicked into the air with every step he took. His walk was slowed and strained because of it.

But it was relieving to know that there was no danger in front.

Suddenly Mr Fluffy's ear shot up, he became alerted and started to growl lowly.

Without warning, the air turned blisteringly hot and oppressive around Northern.

Before he could react, a hulking form hurtled toward him from behind, slamming its jagged, ebony talons into his unprotected side.