Chapter 702: His Actual Goal
After he had finished eating, Liam made his way toward the very peak of the rocky outcrop and settled himself there in silence.
The sun had already begun its slow descent beneath the horizon, casting long orange and crimson streaks across the distant sky as Nalim gradually prepared itself for nightfall once again.
From where Liam sat, the entire stretch of forest beneath him seemed endless. Layers upon layers of dark green canopies spread outward like a living ocean, swaying gently beneath the evening wind. From this height, he could see the river cutting through the forest far below like a winding scar of silver reflecting the fading sunlight. Even farther in the distance, barely visible beyond the haze and overlapping trees, he could make out the towering canopies of the swamp region he had escaped the previous day.
Just seeing it from afar made him remember the endless Gravecoils, the unstable terrain, and the evolved monstrosity he had been forced to kill far earlier than he ever intended to reveal that level of power.
’At least today was less of a pain than yesterday,’ Liam thought calmly as he sat there near the edge of the rocky formation.
The cool evening wind brushed against his exposed arms and dark sleeveless shirt while Smoke remained a short distance behind him beneath the shadow of a taller rock, silently watching the surrounding forest.
Liam rested one forearm over his raised knee as his crimson eyes remained fixed on the horizon.
’Now I can focus on what I actually came here for,’ he thought. ’Though this wound is going to make things more annoying than they should be.’
His gaze lowered briefly toward the bandaged puncture wound on his thigh before returning to the forest again.
’Still... once I find what I’m looking for, I can stop worrying about holding back so much.’
Long before the assessment had ever been announced, Liam had stumbled upon a piece of information hidden within one of the deeper sections of the academy library.
The book itself had been strange; old and worn down with age.