Martial Era: Starting With The Strongest Talent-Chapter 73: Twenty One In Number

Adam and Abigail had chosen to follow the acolytes for a single, shared reason. Neither of them believed that whatever Henry had planned ended with turning Siren’s Swamp into a mutant rift.

That outcome alone felt... insufficient.

Adam was certain of it.

He had read Henry’s soul flame. Even stripped of emotion and reduced to something almost mechanical, it still carried intent, clear, directed, and far-reaching.

That kind of resolve didn’t align with a plan that affected only one rift.

It was too small and inefficient.

More importantly, the scale simply didn’t justify the means. Erecting a barrier across an entire incursion, one that bled into the surrounding wild zones and even included the sector, just to interfere with a single rift made no sense."

A far smaller area would have sufficed. The scope alone implied that multiple points of influence were involved.

Multiple rifts.

That was Adam’s suspicion.

And the fact that Abigail had arrived at the same conclusion independently only reinforced it.

Still, suspicion wasn’t proof.

Checking a single rift wouldn’t confirm anything. Within the barrier’s range, there were twenty-one rifts in total, fifteen scattered throughout the wild zones, including Siren’s Swamp and Golem’s Tundra, and six more embedded within the sector itself, where martial artists worked relentlessly to keep them in check.

One anomaly if they found one could be a coincidence.

A pattern would not be.

That was why during the journey Adam had informed Vanessa of his concerns.

She needed to know that if Henry’s actions extended beyond Siren’s Swamp, then what they were dealing with wasn’t an isolated disaster, it was the beginning of something far worse.

Adam scanned the area thoroughly, his eyes moving slowly across the warped terrain.

So... what exactly am I looking for?

That was the problem.

He was certain Henry’s actions hadn’t stopped at Siren’s Swamp, and equally certain that this rift had been affected in some way, but the question was how? There was no obvious distortion, no violent fluctuation like the one at the swamp, nothing that clearly screamed interference.

Adam glanced at Abigail.

She looked just as lost.

Her group was spread out, checking the ground, the air, even the ice formations, but their expressions mirrored his own confusion.

Whatever they were searching for, none of them could define it clearly enough to recognize it.

Footsteps crunched behind him.

Mark approached, his expression serious.

"Found anything yet?" 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Mark already knew about Adam’s suspicions and he was determined to help in whatever way he could.

Adam shook his head.

"Nothing so far."

Mark studied him for a moment, then nodded.

"Don’t worry. Once we’re done mapping the barrier, we’ll give you a hand."

Adam returned the nod as Mark turned and headed back toward the acolytes examining the barrier’s edge.

As Mark walked away, Adam exhaled softly and returned his attention to the surroundings.

For a brief moment, he thought about the group they’d left outside. More people meant more eyes, maybe that would’ve helped.

But the thought died just as quickly as it formed.

It wouldn’t have mattered.

They didn’t even know what they were searching for.

For all they knew, there might be nothing here at all. Or the change could be subtle, something buried deeper in the incursion. It could be tied to a monster, a formation, an object... or something far worse.

It could be anything.

Adam stood still, mind turning over possibilities, eyes continuing their quiet search.

And just like before, nothing revealed itself.

And before he knew it the Acolytes had already finished mapping the barrier.

Once their readings were complete, they immediately shifted gears and joined Adam and Abigail in the search.

With trained efficiency, they expanded the sweep radius, ran additional scans, and even tested the rift itself for abnormalities.

But they got nothing.

They took their time, far longer than strictly necessary, but as the minutes stretched on into hours, it became clear that their suspicions were turning into a wild goose chase.

Whatever Henry had done, if it had touched this rift at all, it left no obvious footprint behind.

And time inside an incursion was never something to waste lightly.

Eventually, Mark gave the order to pull back.

As they regrouped on their way to the exit, Mark walked up to Adam and spoke quietly.

"Don’t worry. We’ll make sure the other rifts, and this one, get checked properly after this."

Adam nodded in acknowledgment.

He understood the situation. Even though he had informed the manager of his suspicions, their immediate priority was still the barrier and the mutating Siren’s Swamp.

After all they were clear, present dangers that they could see and respond to. As much as they valued Adam, they couldn’t divert resources based purely on intuition.

Not yet.

Once the immediate crisis was handled, then they could afford to look deeper.

As Adam walked back toward the path to the exit with the others, a faint unease settled in his chest.

But why does it feel like we’re missing something?

That feeling had been there since the beginning.

It was the same reason he had held off on equipping the D-rank cultivation talent. He couldn’t explain it logically, there was no concrete evidence, no warning sign, but his instincts kept telling him that something would go wrong.

Yet now...

They had checked the rift and scanned the barrier, yet they had found nothing.

Adam frowned slightly.

Am I just being paranoid?

He didn’t have an answer.

Just as they were nearing the exit, an elite frost golem emerged from the tundra, its massive body radiating cold far denser than the others they had faced inside.

The acolytes tensed, instinctively shifting formation, but Adam stepped forward before anyone else could react.

The fight was brief.

A blur of motion, a sharp crack of force, and the elite golem collapsed into fragments of ice and stone before it could even properly engage.

Adam didn’t linger on the kill. Too tired to harvest the valuables, he simply stored the entire corpse in his ring, turned, and continued walking as if nothing had happened.

The moment they crossed out of the incursion, Mark re-activated the pulse container, and a familiar, almost imperceptible pressure spread through the air as the high-frequency pulse reasserted itself.

The tundra fell silent again, the wired fence humming faintly as the incursion returned under containment.

Mark let out a breath and turned to Adam and Abigail.

"I’ll put a call through to the manager and report what we found. After that, we head back to the sector."

They both nodded.

Mark stepped aside to make the call, leaving Adam and Abigail standing a short distance away from the others.

They exchanged a look.

They had come here confident and certain, that they would uncover something more about Henry’s plan.

Instead, they were leaving with nothing but unanswered questions.

Adam broke the silence.

"By any chance... do you have any idea what he might have done?"

Abigail shook her head slowly.

"No. I’m just as lost as you are."

She exhaled, the tension finally slipping from her shoulders.

"Sorry. I couldn’t be of any help."

Adam looked at her for a moment. He hadn’t viewed her presence as helpful, but it seemed she felt otherwise.

"It’s okay," he said simply.

Abigail nodded and walked back to rejoin her group.

Dickson paused briefly, giving Adam a small nod before following after her.

Adam watched them go, then turned toward Mark, who was still in the middle of his video call with the manager.

After a moment’s hesitation, Adam walked over.

****

A/N: Happy New Month!