Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

Chapter 37: Kidnapping?

Of course, there were always people observing Uhtred. Even right now, thousands of eyes were covertly glancing at him, assessing him either in awe, envy, or suspicion.

However, among those gazes, this one focused on him differently. It sent a prickle down his neck, giving him a distinct feeling that something dangerous was watching him.

Since noticing it, Uhtred had been scanning the crowd under the pavilion, using his Inspect skill to observe everyone’s levels to find who was making him feel this way.

But no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t see anyone out of the ordinary.

The stare remained incessant, so Uhtred changed tactics this time. He kept his eyes forward and spread his senses out to catch the direction of the stare. freёwebnovel.com

However, he found that he could not maintain his focus on scanning with both his inspect skill and his high perception attribute with such a precise level of specificity.

He needed to focus either on his inspect skill or his perception attribute to pin-point the gaze more accurately.

Acting smoothly, he let out a small yawn and closed his eyes as if nodding off for a moment. In reality, he was shifting all his focus toward finding where that gaze was coming from with his perception.

Before he could latch onto it, however, the feeling vanished again, leaving Uhtred to curse under his breath. It was always like this, incredibly fleeting, as if the person was only checking on him in short sessions.

Uhtred thought about standing up and moving around to throw them off guard. It might create enough tension to make them slip up so he could spot them. But he eventually decided against it, choosing instead to bide his time for when they would probe again.

He opened his eyes unsuspiciously, just as he heard Dennis’s footsteps getting closer.

"I have to say, Michael and John are doing a very efficient job here," Dennis said, sitting down near Uhtred.

"They have already organized a task force out of the people with Uncommon and Rare grade classes. They have also decided how they are going to share access to the dungeon at the center of the sector with the other camps, and how—"

"Dungeon?" Uhtred cut Dennis off before the scholar could finish.

"There’s a dungeon in this sector?" he asked, showing clear surprise and interest.

Dennis’s eyes widened in realization, and he nearly face-palmed.

"Ah, sorry, I forgot to mention it," he said. "Scorpion and his gang had taken control of that as well. I haven’t actually seen the place myself, so it skipped my mind entirely."

The scholar seemed genuinely apologetic, but Uhtred did not mind. He waved his hand to tell the man it was fine. His focus was more on the fact that there was actually a dungeon here.

"I want to see this dungeon," Uhtred said, standing up and balancing his battle-axe on his shoulder. "Can you take me there?"

Dennis stood up without hesitation, moving into action before Uhtred even asked.

They strode forward together and were just about to step down from the platform, when a sudden terrible shriek cut through the air.

It started with a single scream, followed by a yell right after, then another, until a whole crowd of people seemed to be yelling and barking quick orders at each other.

The camp instantly kicked into motion.

Uhtred moved forward, his eyes scanning the crowd as it fell into a panic.

Murmurs and curiosity rippled through the refugees as everyone on the platforms looked toward the center of the sector, where the noise was coming from.

The pavilions were placed in a large circle around the center area. There were a dozen pavilions in total, each holding thousands of people, and walking from one to the next took about three to five minutes. The area was massive, providing plenty of living space for everyone.

Because of this layout, the children had been placed in the space right in the center of the sector. This was especially true for the ones who were here without parents.

They were being cared for by many women and even men who volunteered for the job.

Because so many children had been separated from their families during the integration, they were left without guardians, so the entire sector had taken it upon themselves to look after them.

This was exactly what Michael and John Allen had been working on, ensuring the security of the sector and creating a system for the camps to run on when, all of a sudden, the screams started.

The moment Uhtred reached the center to see what was happening, his brows furrowed in alertness.

The people who had been gathered as fighters, a mix of both men and women, were rushing around in a panic and barking orders at one another. They sprinted right past Uhtred, heading toward the border of the zone in a rush.

Uhtred pushed past the curious crowds trying to ask what was wrong. His eyes quickly locked onto the young soldier, John, who was usually with Michael.

"What is going on?" Uhtred asked the moment he was close enough.

"It is the children!" John yelled, his eyes darting around the area in a frantic search. "Some of them are missing! Diya here said she saw a figure grab one of them and run into the distance before completely disappearing!"

Uhtred immediately turned to look next to John, where a brown-skinned Indian girl stood with shaking eyes. She seemed to be one of the Uncommon or Rare grade talents who had been recruited to keep the sector safe.

"We were patrolling the perimeter of the platform where the orphaned children are staying when we noticed that the numbers did not add up," she said in a rush.

"About thirty of them had vanished in the blink of an eye. The moment we raised the alarm, I saw a figure grab another child and run toward the border. Then they just disappeared out of view... as if they vanished into thin air."

A look of complete disbelief colored Diya’s face, as if she could barely process what she had witnessed.

"Which direction did they go?" Uhtred asked, his voice deathly cold.

The moment Diya pointed toward the northeast, right where he had seen the task force rush towards earlier, Uhtred took off into a full sprint.

Somehow, he knew this had something to do with the gaze he felt earlier...