Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

”Huh?” Both John and two other pioneers had confused looks on their faces.

John had even wanted to say something else entirely in regard to the words Uhtred had just spoken. To him, he had heard nothing but the English language and had wanted to remind Uhtred that Minh could not understand English.

But hearing the question from Etounde, and the heavy surprise in his voice, he stopped and frowned.

”What do you mean, ’Vietnamese?’” he asked. ”He clearly just spoke English, right?”

John looked to the other two pioneers who were English speakers for support, and they both nodded, repeating John’s assertion.

All three of them had heard Uhtred’s words in English, meanwhile Etounde, and even Minh, from the looks of it, had heard his words in Vietnamese.

Before they could continue to debate what Uhtred had said and what he hadn’t, however, Uhtred spoke again, this time in English for everyone to hear, without any use of the language translation device:

”I did speak in English, but the System translated my words to their language,” he held up the pendant on his neck for all to see.

”This device translates my intentions from my words to something any person I’m speaking to will understand in their own language.”

All eyes immediately focused on the pendant Uhtred was holding up. Of course, not all of them could understand his words in English. Only two of the pioneers could; the others were speakers of other languages, but even they could see that he was pointing to something important.

”But that’s not the main issue anyway,” Uhtred drew their attention back to the present.

He put the pendant back behind the fabric of his cloth and stepped forward past Minh, who calmly made way for him to speak to the captured Homo erectus scout.

There was still intense curiosity in the eyes of everyone, but they knew when to remain silent about some matters. Regardless of where Uhtred had gotten such a device from, the important thing remained that he could use this to communicate with the Homo erectus scout.

Uhtred squatted next to the trembling, heaving body of the Homo erectus. His screams had died down now that Minh was no longer actively torturing him.

Looking at the Homo erectus this up close again, Uhtred could not help that weird feeling from resurfacing. The feeling of looking at something so similar to a human yet so very dissimilar in the same glance.

This firmly fell into the uncanny valley. But Uhtred had already steeled his resolve about such uncanniness.

He opened his mouth to speak and begin his interrogation. However, before he could, the makeshift curtains covering the doorway opened up, drawing everyone’s attention.

Diya stepped inside. Her eyes were firm as she took in the whole room before settling her gaze on Uhtred and the Homo erectus lying on the ground.

Uhtred met her eye, looking pleasantly impressed. He gave a nod then faced forward and continued.

”Where is your camp located?” Uhtred didn’t even waste any time with preambles. His face was entirely cold as he stared at the Homo erectus.

The Homo erectus remained silent, simply heaving on the ground with deep breaths. His body shivered and trembled from the pain wracking through his entire frame.

Minh Quan had done an extremely thorough job at weakening his resolve. Uhtred could still see some fire in his eyes as he stared up at him dully, but there was now a deep tiredness behind that fire.

From the slight tremble in those eyes, it was obvious he had clearly understood Uhtred’s words, but he still remained silent nonetheless.

”The children. What do you want to do with them?” Uhtred asked another question.

”Our discoveries from history have shown us the kind of things you ancient variants usually indulge in...” Uhtred paused, not expanding further, though his meaning was very clear.

Among the many acts of inhumane savagery, geological records had shown that cannibalism was especially rampant in the prehistoric days among the ancient variants of humans.

”...and that is why I hope,” his voice turned deathly cold, ”not just for your sake, but for the sake of everyone else you hold dear, that you have not done anything to those children.”

Uhtred leaned in further, tilting his head to stare deep into the Homo erectus’ dull eyes.

”So I am asking you again... Why did you take the children? And what have you done to them?”

The Homo erectus continued to remain silent at first, but then, through his heavy weariness he cracked a slow, mocking smile then spoke in an ancient language, heavy with garbled noises and consonants.

”I do not fear your threats, human... Your kind think they know violence, but you have not seen violence,” he chuckled before bursting into a coughing fit.

”What’d he say?” John asked, shifting forward several steps subconsciously. He looked very eager, but Uhtred did not respond to him. Instead, he spoke to Minh Quan.

”Minh.”

Without needing any specific order, Minh Quan moved forward with his bone tool to inflict more pain on their prisoner.

The Homo erectus instinctively moved backwards in response before he could even realize it. Minh Quan had truly solidified himself into his mind, and seeing him simply step forward with his tool put the Homo erectus on edge despite his talk just now.

However, the moment Minh Quan stepped close, it turned out that even that instinctive response might have been a ruse.

In the blink of an eye, with a level of energy that his body was not supposed to possess after being tortured for so long, he lunged straight at Minh Quan, reaching for his face with his jaws wide open.

His blocky, forward-jutting teeth were on full display, intent to tear off Minh Quan’s face as he was squatting down.

But before his teeth could even graze Minh Quan’s skin, Uhtred’s hand shot out like a flash of lightning.

His palm clamped directly around the Homo erectus scout’s thick neck, intercepting the explosive lunge mid-air with brutal precision.

The raw physical force of Uhtred’s Level 10 grip violently slammed the Homo erectus’ upper body right back down onto the hard dirt floor, pinning him securely. The impact knocked the wind clean out of the scout’s lungs, forcing a choked gasp from his throat as his vision swam from the impact.

For Minh Quan, on the other hand, despite the sudden, jarring shock of the lunge right in front of his face, he didn’t even flinch in the slightest.

His face remained entirely stone-cold and expressionless, his eyes fixed on the pinned scout without a single trace of fear.

Where exactly his lack of fear stemmed from, one didn’t know. Perhaps that was just his nature, or perhaps he simply knew Uhtred would reach the Homo erectus scout before he would reach his face... No one knew for sure.

But immediately after the Homo erectus was downed, he delivered a sickening stab to one of his open wounds, eliciting another pained cry.

With him continuing his torture, and with Uhtred continuing his interrogation, it was in this manner that they eventually got out all the information they wanted.

After nearly an hour, the flaps of the small room burst open as Diya rushed out and retched, heavily expelling the contents of her stomach.

Uhtred, along with the others, stepped out right after.

”Great job, Minh,” he patted the short Vietnamese on his shoulder. The wiry-framed man was cleaning his hands with a piece of cloth. He nodded in response to Uhtred, just as John Allen spoke with haste:

”So...? What did he spill? What are their plans? What about the children?”

”Well, it’s not good,” Uhtred started. He turned his head and looked at John Allen, along with the rest of the pioneers who had been inside with them.

”You all need to get strong... fast. I hear there’s a dungeon in the camp. You guys should start grinding and cultivating levels rapidly.”

”What exactly did you learn?” John urged. For Uhtred to keep reiterating the obvious, something they were intending to do anyway, it meant what he had learned was urgent.

He listened with rapt attention as Uhtred explained everything.

Apparently, the end goal of the ancient factions and the reason why they had abducted human children was because of some so-called ”Prime Sapien Project.”