TF Chapter 48 Alistair

***Danny***

"Hey there! Buddy! Alistair, what's up?"

I have never liked interacting with people as it entails me to fake my expressions and how I feel. Honestly, it was disgusting! How I wanted to be a loner! But I had been trained since young in how to read people and also how to hide from the scrutiny of those with the gift of reading faces and expressions.

Bora and senior Nat weren't exactly the sociable people in our group, so interacting with people was always my task.

There is a fundamental reason why I needed to interact with people, and that was the fact that knowledge is power. If we isolated ourselves from the others, we might miss out on all the important stuff we might have otherwise known if we had interacted more.

Now as I and the other apprentices were making their way towards the academy, I had decided to split off from the two and try to gather information from my contacts...with one of them being this guy, Alistair.

He was a person I wanted less interaction with, yet, he was the only one who had access to more information. This guy was a person whom I was most wary of in this place, strength aside. Just his wits, intelligence and demeanor were a cut above others, almost equal to my own.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at me sideways. There must have been something deeper within his gaze this time because it was different from before...

"What is it?"

"Danny Whitmore, you are an interesting person. It took me a lot of trouble to find about your background."

Shit! How could he have managed to track that information down?!

My eyes narrowed as I contemplated finding a way to shut the guy up for good.

"Many would want your head on silver platter..."

I trembled inside even as I kept a neutral expression on my face.

"Are you going to expose me?" There was an edge to my voice I had let creep in. I had to appear dangerous.

"Now, why would I do such an unprofitable thing? I could get money from them by giving them some hints...but you and I both know that there is no point in that, now is there?"

Even with those words, my vigilance only heightened. This wasn't a benevolent man by any standards. What was he thinking in his mind?

"What do you want?"

No matter how uneasy or angry I was, I couldn't afford to show any of my insecurities. This young fox would definitely take a bite if I showed weakness!

"I heard that your clan has certain powerful gifts...gifts that let you ride on some people's coattails to reach the top..."

Here, he paused, his eyes meaningfully looking behind me to where Bora and senior Nat were.

"...I wonder. Which of the two is the ONE?"

The moment he asked that question, I did everything within my power to keep my expression from instantly changing. This was one of the few things I had feared even more than anything else! Someone finally figuring out this! Our clan emphasized that our backgrounds had to be kept secret when we were following figures who would achieve greatness in the future as our enemies might strike!

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Alistair, it would do you good if you don't become an enemy of mine!" I deepened my voice, the threat evident. I wanted him to pull back, but seeing that ambitious gleam within those black eyes of his, that was most definitely impossible!

"Hehehehe...Danny, you might think that you were hiding yourself well, but I do know why you socialised with me and the others; to collect information! There is absolutely no way that you like being in a group of obnoxious young masters...honestly, I agree with you there...so that could only be obvious! One of those two should be on the path to become a great figure...and if I am right, its that male. Don't look at me like that! I am not planning on doing anything! All I want is for you to introduce me to him."

He had finally aired out his true goal. But, was that really his true goal?

Alistair wasn't some typical young master who had no brains...no no no, this was a guy who would plan multiple steps ahead! I had to admit that I was far inferior to him on that, which made me suspicious that his goal was simply that. There must have been something deeper!

"There is no need to be in a rush! We have a few years here together." He slapped my back as his face took on that fake faint smile he always adorned.

"If I am not mistaken you must have come to me to see whether I had any idea about the order to gather, right? I will tell you that I have absolutely no idea about anything...which is suspicious in itself."

Oh! This is going to be troublesome. Alistair had a background surpassing that of the dead Everett. If even he had no idea, then that meant that whatever we were being gathered for wasn't simple!

*** Nathaniel ***

The amphitheater like hall was filled to the brim with many people, some chatting away in their own bubbles of social friends, while others were alone, having various expressions flashing on their faces as they waited patiently. There was no anticipation within their eyes, only puzzlement and other similar expressions, just like me.

As I sat there and watched as Danny interacted with another person who seemed to have originated from the State of America, I wondered why we had been summoned here.

Bora was quiet as always, simply having closed her eyes, probably experimenting with coating her entire body with spirit.

I moved my gaze away, towards the sword that was in between my lap. Many had already seen it, so there were no other curious eyes around. The forgers had already explained it away as simply something I had insisted be sent to me the moment I had stepped onto this continent for sentimental value. Of course, none truly believed it, but they didn't deign to ask as the forgers had allowed me to stay with it...so that had to mean something.

I stroked the hilt even while I connected my spirit to it. At first, I had been averse to the idea, but after that time when I had nearly died, i had asked myself, what was the point of pushing away things that could only make me stronger?

With both our spirits linked, I could sense every small particle that the sword was made up of. It was amazing how the particles appeared to be flowing around the sword. In my perception, it was like gazing at a sword shaped metallic ocean of water that was spiralling in a loop continuously without end. Celeste had even said that such a configuration of particles couldn't even be achieved by those who had entered the third stage on the forger path.

The reason I was linking my spirit to the sword was simple. I was studying the bonds between the particles, for the future when I had grown my spirit to the point of being capable of forming an entire armor of atoms. Its makeup was complicated for me right now, but I bet that I could make something simpler for my armor in time.

The next lesson was supposed to be related to extracting atoms from solids, like pulling an iron atom from a stone, something that was supposed to be harder than extracting them from liquid metal.

I had extensively studied the visions in the past year, the one where that alien being had been extracting the metal, causing I, and my two group mates to reach a point where we had far surpassed the others in our extraction level. It also made it so that our spiritual growth had surpassed that of the others for the moment. It was a secret that hadn't been divulged to anyone, so we were still safe. Caution was the mother of safety after all.

As I was till within my thoughts, a tap sounded from inside that same tunnel leading to the stage. It was probably that same forger from before, those times when I had just arrived. It felt as if I had been on this continent for a long time!

Just a single year and I am like this! Imagine how drastic a change I would have gone through when all five are completed!