Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 103—Better Grasp

"Lina, this was the uncle that gave us all of that money," Cole heard from a familiar, thin voice.

Cole turned to look at the girl and saw her looking at a much older girl called Lina.

"Thanks for helping us uncle," Lina said in a bow.

Cole felt slightly embarrassed but also slightly happy. He smiled at the kids before turning back to Laura.

"You said we were about to talk about something," Cole said while his face turned serious.

"Have a seat first."

As instructed, Cole looked around and found a random spot to sit while still staring at Laura.

Seeing everyone in a comfortable position, the girl called Laura began her explanation in full bloom.

"As you may have guessed, we are part of the new settlements that you just escaped from," Laura started.

Cole nodded, urging her to continue.

"Since you know that, you must know that there’s something horribly wrong over there."

"The problem isn’t just from a single source; it looks to be from two different sources."

"The situations then combine to make things extremely difficult,"

Cole was still staring straight at her, but his mind was already steering quite a distance away.

He was remembering the men’s discussion about that certain someone and also a ’he.’

"So Micheal is, in a way, one of the problems, and someone unknown is the other."

"Haaaaa, complications are never good."

Laura was about to continue when Cole felt the need to go understand something more, so he decided to ask a question.

"Why are you guys in the slum in the first instance," Cole asked.

He knew people don’t migrate suddenly like that. There must be a reason for that decision, but he had no idea what it could be.

"We have nowhere else to go," The girl said in a low voice.

"You have nowhere else to go? Weren’t you guys originally staying somewhere?"

"You don’t understand; that place is long, long gone."

Instead of clarifying Cole’s confusion, that response compounded it even more.

"There was a battle between two high-level Spiriters...the environment has been completely changed and is now unlivable."

"High Level Spiriters. So Spiriters get so strong they change the whole terrain permanently."

From her words Cole could even confirm that the land involved in such a thing was by no means small.

Cole felt his worldview being completely expanded.

"That is the level of strength I want to achieve and even higher," Cole thought while clenching his fist.

After finalizing his thoughts, Cole looked back up at Laura and noticed an extremely bitter look on her face.

Her eyes were downcast as if she were grieving.

"Many lives were lost, mostly adults, creating so many orphans," she said while looking at the other children.

"The settlement tried its best to provide for us as best as it could, but when it couldn’t afford to. Those bastards decided to start selling us."

"Every day, one at a time, more and more orphans began missing."

"Until I decided to escape with the rest of us, before we were all completely sold."

Cole didn’t attempt to interrupt her, nor did he try to stop her; he only waited for her to get through all of what was on her mind.

Laura took a bit of time before recomposing herself. After regaining her composure, she looked up at Cole.

"I told you all of this information because I want you to help stop those bastards,"

"But how do you know I can?" Cole asked.

"That’s the thing, I don’t know, but if you fail, I will just look for someone else," She said resolutely.

Instead of feeling offended, Cole only smiled.

"Then I better not fail then."

Laura looked at Cole without much trust in her eyes, but she still raised up her voice to speak.

"If you need any more information on the settlement or anything, you can ask now."

Cole thought for a while, but Cole couldn’t really pinpoint what to ask; there were so many things he wanted to confirm that it would take a while for him to sort.

"I can’t really think of anything that’s urgent for now, so how about we speak later?"

"After I discuss with my teammates and we have everything needed,"

"Hmmmm, okay then," Laura said after hesitating for a while.

"But you won’t be coming back here," Laura said while looking at the children pretending to sleep close by.

"No problem, how do I find you though?"

"You don’t need to; I know where you live. I will come to visit tomorrow afternoon," She said.

"We really need to be more cautious," Cole thought helplessly.

"Okay then, thank you." Cole said while standing on his feet.

Laura didn’t say anything further; she only stood up on her feet and approached the door.

Cole followed her closely behind, and from there, they traversed the tunnel until they arrived at another stairwell.

"That’s your way out; you will arrive in a dark and almost empty alley."

"Bye then." Cole waved while climbing the stairs.

Laura stayed below, watching Cole climb up the stairwell, and when she saw he almost reached the top, she turned to leave.

"You better not let anyone know my location," she said in a weirdly ferocious voice.

Cole heard her, but he didn’t respond; he only shut his mouth and smiled and continued climbing.

Opening the hatch again, Cole found himself in a dark, empty alley just like Laura described.

With his knowledge of the slum, Cole tried his best to maneuver across the street with the aim of getting back home.

He consciously tried to avoid any sort of contact with anyone and also stayed unnoticed.

Soon, he found his way back to his house; the night had already grown much darker now.

Cole proceeded directly to his room, quite excited and anxious to tell his teammates what he had actually found.

With a loud swing, Cole entered the room. But what he found wasn’t anything he expected.

"What!!!!" He shouted with wide eyes.