I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1442: Meeting A New Squad

I CAN COPY AND EVOLVE TALENTS

Chapter 1444:

After the day was done, Northern turned to other things — and other things, of course, meant crafting an armor for himself. That ambition died quickly. All he had to work from was a blueprint, and a blueprint of an armor he did not yet know how to make.

What he knew was this: he needed something capable of changing form. There were stark differences between the armors he could forge and the ones a Drifter received from Ul, and one of them came down to how the thing answered to shape and size.

Take an Armor-type item dropped from a slain monster. You could never outgrow it. It shaped itself to your body and kept shaping itself, year after year, until the day it finally broke for good.

Northern’s armors were not so generous. They stayed bound to a fixed size, and that was the maddening part — he had wasted a whole stack of them trying to force a transformation, only to watch each one strain and split the moment his frame shifted under it.

Still, he did not feel too bad about it. He had not expected to get this far with item-making at all; if anything, it had come too easily, too fast, and nothing said the rest of the road owed him the same.

So he stayed open to studying other people’s work, and he had his eye on certain materials to fill that gap. Even so, he suspected materials alone would not carry him there.

What he truly needed was to grasp the full mechanism behind Ul’s items, and for that he had been bent over General Sethran’s family heirloom every spare hour. Studying a Divine Item, though, proved exactly as daunting as he had braced for.

On forging, then — on all of it — he had hit a wall this time around, and a serious one.

So he retired to sleep that night. Well — this body did, at least.

Ninety-nine other bodies worked on, tireless. The foundation of the Garrison was being laid stone by stone, and Northern and Ultron labored side by side at the refining. Because of it, the Rethium, Ice Stars, and Flame Crystals reaching Hao arrived flawless — impeccable, by Hao’s own account, and good enough to have sharpened his sales.

At the same time, he kept his brother detained in his Tower, waiting to see how the Empire would answer for it.

It was far too much moving through the night to call any of it rest. Even so, this clone slept deep and dreamless.

And in the morning, he made his way to the seventh training ground to meet his squad.

Sandbags stood stacked into low walls across the Castle Keep, marking off one training area from the next. The keep belonged to the Gate Sentinels — though Northern had since learned the real name was the North Guards, and that ”Gate Sentinels” was a flourish they’d pinned on themselves out of their bitter rivalry with the Gate Wardens.

Between the sandbag lines, on clear open ground, stood seven soldiers. Each wore a black shirt that hugged the frame like a second skin, high-necked and long-sleeved, the fabric sewn close to hold off the vicious cold of the northern walls. Below that ran thick trousers tucked into knee-boots. Northern was dressed the same, his jade-like skin catching the morning sun and his jet-black hair stirring loose in the wind like linen.

The soldiers traded looks the moment he stepped onto the ground, Peaker at his back. Nyssira and Pam were among them, the two having signed on at first light as members of the new squad.

And only the stars knew what the pair had done to earn a place in the front line.

Two other soldiers stood up front beside them, four in the leading rank all told. They glanced at one another and went on muttering as the young man and Peaker came on. None of them spoke up loud enough to be answered, but the discontent was plain — in the sideways looks, in the low grumble that never quite died.

Then the third soldier in the front rank spoke first — a young man with golden-blond hair and electric-blue eyes, holding himself with a fierce, coiled focus.

”Respectfully, Ser Peaker, you’re not competent enough to lead us.”

The others burst out laughing, muttering among themselves.

Peaker chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

”Well, it’s a good thing I’m not, then... the—”

Northern raised a hand and cut him off before he could finish.

The blond turned those electric-blue eyes on Northern instead, squinting, suspicious, then let out a disbelieving scoff.

”What? What is going on?”

Northern took a few steps forward and planted himself directly in front of the blond.

”As per Commander Vanessa’s orders, I am the leader of the eleventh squad of the North Guards.”

The boy’s face twisted with displeasure.

”That can’t be... who the fuck are you?”

Northern stood head to head with him.

’I thank my stars for being tall, for moments exactly like this...’

”First, we’re going to have to fix that dirty tongue of yours.”

The boy scoffed.

”You don’t know what you’re talking about, young fellow. Aside from being a competent fighter, I’m a noble that no one here can dare to tou—”

Before he could finish, Northern handed him a hot, ringing slap that snapped his face sideways. A red handprint bloomed across his cheek almost at once.

The boy stared down at the dirt with dazed eyes.

”First of all, when I’m talking to you, face down and hands behind your back.”

The others glanced at one another, looking thoroughly confused.

The boy raised his head slowly, his eyes fierce, a dangerous light kindling behind them. He threw a hand forward — and a blur swept across the gap faster than his eyes could track. The next instant something drove into his stomach like a cart-sized boulder.

He doubled over and gagged.

Northern stepped back, his face curdling with disgust.

”What the hell? Are you a spineless idiot talking smack?”

The boy clutched his belly. For a moment he did not move — then, all at once, yellow lightning crackled out of his skin, and the air around him went taut and humming.

The soldiers drew breath and muttered among themselves, going tense.

”Damnit, why did that boy have to go and anger someone from the Blue Orchid House.”

”Iren is the fastest guy I’ve ever seen — that boy will never catch up to him!”

”He went and pissed off the wrong person. Even the Squad Captains are always mindful of the Blue Orchid House.”

He glared at Northern and vanished. He was not gone though, only moving too fast for the eye to hold. Then he came surging straight at Northern, an overwhelming golden light pouring off his trail and the ground cratering under nearly every step.

Northern, unhurried, put out a hand and caught him by the neck.

The soldiers gasped again, one after another.