“I’ll be leading the way, saviour!” Giselle smiled, though she didn’t hide the sarcasm in her tone. She marched forward with a confident stride. “Don’t fall behind.”
Jesus. The woman’s boots crunching the rocky path screamed to the planet that she was there, loud and proud. She seemed confident that I would fall dead at any moment, but I felt fine physically. I matched a step behind her pace. The commotion at those gates had grown quiet and the mountain was nothing but the sound of crunching of twigs beneath her boots. We were now away from the bodies and destruction the loud Knight caused.
It wasn’t like I was sad about them dying, but the utter detachment I had for these so-called brothers and sisters of mine was slightly terrifying to me. Was I really this changed? Maybe I became heartless because Leah died and because of that, I lost all sense of hope in finding anything good existing in this world.
Or maybe I was being dramatic. I caught a glimpse of a blond lock of hair peeking out from underneath Giselle’s helmet. To me, she was moving at a leisurely pace, so I had time to go over my Status. No notifications, no Status points to fuss over, everything was perfectly fine and clean for now. I sighed.
Magically, however, was an entirely different story.
Opening my magic channels and looking at how large the core of pure mana was inside my mental space was taxing enough to give me a headache. I was an ant compared to that giant ball of magic now. Staring up at its pure azure ocean of E rank Magical Power stretching across the wide inner plane within my body, I shuddered to think of how much more bigger it was going to get. I could even pick up storms and dark patches of water moving around within its shimmering depths, but it was too opaque to see what was swimming inside of it. Was that the reason why I couldn’t heal humans? I couldn’t even imagine how to control this massive thing, yet, here I was pretending I could with this virtual system panel.
Perhaps, I needed more Wisdom to contribute to my own understanding of the magic inside of me. At any rate, I definitely would need extra Wisdom in order to absorb those Coagulated Blood blobs, if I ever ran into those things again. But raising the attribute seemed like a waste when I needed to upgrade more practical stats to survive.
Examining Giselle after tapping into my magic gave me the ability to see magic temporarily around me, however, I saw something that I probably shouldn’t. That black ring glowing in the middle of her chest was getting bigger and wider, but I didn’t mind healing her if it meant getting free status points. Then I remembered she said I would die soon and gave up that idea. She could keep her potions for all I cared.
I wondered if there was something wrong with me. Keeping a dangerous, untrustworthy enemy around me seemed suicidal, but really, I was in charge. I truly didn’t know if I would have healed her if I was a tiny bit more selfish. Part of me wanted to kill her and bolt, but another, softer and a potentially residual nicer part passed over from my previous life prevented me from acting that way. I was so embarrassed when I changed into fresh clothes that I didn’t realize my dagger was missing. It was probably in the Rift, gone forever. I didn’t need it to beat Giselle, but snapping her neck or something with my own hands would be so uncomfortable.
Looking at her sword in the Item Box proved that it was indeed usable according to my Plus Menu, but like the dagger, it said I didn’t have any Skills associated with it. I wasn’t going to take it out anyways, considering Giselle was still a wild card. As far as I was concerned, since she hasn’t been registered as a temporary party member in my Plus Menu, she was nothing but a big meatshield that could bite me at anytime.
As if Giselle could sense my stare, she stopped and turned to look at me. The trail narrowed to a single file of packed earth and broken shale, bordered by trees resembling purple and brown pines. A patch of piles of the soft needles muffled our steps a little bit, but there weren’t any signs of Ravenclast parties searching for us. Through an opening between the trees, the world fell away in soft, enormous folds of meadows.
Brown and snow specked grass rolled downward, before it all shattered into a jagged row of teeth made of crumbling stone, roofless towers with black sockets where windows once were. An ancient fort or medieval city of sorts, half downed in ivy and young birch. At the corner of the fort’s square lay the remnants of a church whose spires seen better days, leaning against each other. More sprawling hills and ridges of fields, where the fires and activity of a distant town rested, leaving the ruin’s silent ending in the past. Something caught my eye as I took in the scene. In the ruin’s market center, blaring against the paling orange sunset, was a smaller portal. A Rift, huh?
I raised a brow. Why is that portal so small? I suppose the enormous Rift we came from was a special one. We were headed in that direction anyways, so who was I to judge the sizes of Rifts?
“What an utterly charming countryside,” I mused aloud. “Boring.”
“Ha! You don’t appreciate a peaceful view?” Giselle laughed. “A typical Hunter, you are. It’s a good thing you’re getting out more, huh.”
I shrugged. It wasn’t like I didn’t appreciate it, but I’ve been surrounded by fields and long stretches of roads my whole life. Though, paradoxically, I had a feeling I wouldn’t get along with city folk. Correcting myself again mentally, I knew I wouldn’t get along with anyone period.
“Though you’re probably a dead woman walking anyways, Rifts like that appear everywhere,” Giselle continued. “There’ll be plenty of them to get your glory anyways.”
“So what do normal people do about it?” I asked, ignoring the comment on my health.
“It either collapses over time and monsters spill out of it for us Adventurers to clean up, or the ruling Houses sends brave Hunters like yourself to seal it.”
Giselle leaned against a lichen covered boulder, waiting to see my reaction. She found only my blank stare. Cleaning up definitely meant something like what she did to those batchlings up in the mountain and I imagined the monsters would be a massive inconvenience. It seemed like Hunters and Adventurers didn’t get along. The breeze picked up the loose ends of her blonde hair, raising strands against the front of her helmet.
“I guess I’ll go check it out,” I started to get up. “It probably beats whatever you Adventurers have.”
“Are you serious?” Giselle exclaimed, though there was more marvel than shock over my apparently crazy notion. “Rifts usually take a lot of Hunter parties to conquer. Surely, you aren’t planning to go in there and die, right?”
“What’s with the questions?” I retorted. “I don’t get you, seriously.”
Giselle seemed to deflate like a balloon, though I didn’t mean to sound harsh. I was genuinely perplexed over this giant idiot. One moment she’s fussing over dead bodies and getting clothes for me. The next she’s cynical and telling me I’m going to die. Could it be she’s the one with issues in her head? It had to be. Killing that many people on a regular basis definitely had to screw with one’s mental facilities, even if she wasn’t human. Or that wound festering inside her was truly driving her mad.
“You don’t need to follow me everywhere I go if you don’t want to,” I growled, exasperated. After shooting daggers at her with my eyes, I finally said what I was thinking. “I didn’t ask you to worry over me or what I do. Besides, if you hate us Hunters so much, then why bother slumming it up with me and pretending? You know what? Here. Take your shit and get lost.”
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I opened my Plus Menu’s Item Box panel and selected the Knight’s sword, letting it sink into the dirt between us as a final drawn line.
Giselle looked at it, then back at me. For the first time, she seemed like she was out of words to say. I didn’t really care what she had, so I turned and walked down the pathway anyways. It’s a shame that there weren’t cars in this world, because the roads ahead stretched for miles to the plains and beyond.
After a half hour of walking, I could hear footsteps trailing behind me, but I paid her no mind and hurried my steps even quicker. If the Ravenclasts come to investigate, then Giselle was a ticking time bomb that I had to get away from. There wasn’t exactly many places to go, so my telling her to get lost was a little awkward in retrospect.
At last, a pair of those goat headed statues stood sentinel as I reached the foot of the mountain. Thankfully, my Plus Menu didn’t indicate that they were alive. The clouds above were drifting quickly into grey and violet shadows. As I stepped onto the path, I heard many strange and spooky noises haunting the winds.
A breeze pushed my hair back, and that’s when I noticed the sky itself. There were several celestial objects hanging in space above me at various distances away. They were beautiful as Earth’s own moon. I could see that there were craters on their surfaces, along with other structures and strange glowing things I couldn’t quite see. Each of them clearly hid secrets of their own.
More animal noises forced my eyes away from the sky and back to my surroundings, where bushes rustled and dark shapes scattered around them. Well, at this rate, I couldn’t tell if being out here alone or in the Rift would be safer. For now, I at least had someone following me. That persistent lady stalked me like a lost puppy. I let out a long sigh, my own breath misting my face. I was surprised that I didn’t feel cold at all now that I was wearing clothes that didn’t have holes in them.
“What’s your deal?” I said to the Knight behind me. “I thought you said we were going to split up.”
To my surprise, she was already a step behind me, moving with a domineering speed. She pulled her hand up to her head, and in a blur, she took off her helmet. It landed on the gravel road with a thud. One hand landed on my shoulder; the other held up a cold finger and traced my cheekbone, guiding my eyes to look at her face.
“Isn’t it obvious, saviour? I’ve seen how you look at me. You’re interesting to me, and suddenly very captivating.”
For a second, my breath hitched. Her face was breathtakingly beautiful. Her skin was healthy and smooth looking, despite a long scar running down from her forehead over her left eye and stopping right in the middle of her cheek. Her blonde hair was also shining under the starry night. She also had two big reasons on her chest that I found difficult to beat up. It was hard to match the big oaf behind the face like hers. Not bad at all, I mused, ignoring the heat gathering again in my cheeks. Though, the way she talked was weird.
Then I remembered the circumstances in which we met and my mood instantly soured. My eyes glared at her hand on my shoulder and then at the one practically cupping my face. Then I noticed a boulder behind her a short distance away, looking like a nice target to hurl an oblivious ball of iron who encroached my personal bubble at.
“If you don’t take your hands off me right now, I’ll throw you into a rock.”
A competitive, but foolish, glint ignited in Giselle’s eyes. “Oh? Will you? With what—“
She didn’t have the time to complete that dare, because I seized her by the waist, lifted her up and hurled her like a ragdolll directly into the boulder. Surprisingly light, I mused as I shook my hands. Bullseye.
Birds and leaves plumed out of the nearby wood surrounding the target, and a nice figure shaped crater now embedded itself in the face of the innocent rock, which had tiny fragments crumbling down into its wound like a waterfall. A red dot appeared above the Plus Menu’s tiny symbol at the corner of my eye. A free throw to shake some irritation off and a free five points as instant gratification. How lovely!
Giselle’s hand twitched as it slumped out of the hole, but she wasn’t dead or even unconscious. What a tough cookie, able to survive E rank Attack Power. I called out to her before I walked away.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I didn’t hide a chuckle this time. “Follow me if you want or don’t, then, you big bird. I don’t care.”
Who knew that throwing a rude, handsy Knight could actually be amusing? Well, if she makes it out of that crater, fine. Then I heard the pop of a cork being pried, and a gulp. A strange whoosh and tinging noises of magic being slurped down followed. I chuckled to myself and smiled mirthlessly. I forgot she had the bag of healing potions on her. Why didn’t she use those when that guy tried to control her?
So far, the plains and rolling hills had been relatively empty. No monsters, please. Though, if I was heading towards a Rift, shouldn’t I be ready for them anyways? I regretted handing her the sword. I supposed it would have helped make me feel more confident in my walk towards the ruins, even if I could only swing it and use it for its intended purpose.
Though, with the Knight’s presence stalking behind me at a distance, I assumed she was the one truly repelling any monster or predator that might have lingered around me. The bright blue light of the Rift made it easy to navigate to, giving off its aura even above a hillside from the other side.
The ruins were predictably quiet. Too quiet. The Rift portal did not reach half of the size as the first one I’ve seen, only reaching to the height of the ruins of a corner tower. I could even look at the top of it without straining my neck. I hoped it wasn’t as hectic inside of it. I doubted a peaceful rift was possible, but still. Couldn’t a girl like me get a small break for once? The reason why I was so interested in it lay inside my Plus Menu, of course. It detected something inside of the Rift that was beneficial.
———————————————
+
Notifications
> A successful throw! Giselle Flametongue has been badly injured!
> Host has received 5 status points!
> A Key has been located within this Rift. Slay the Boss and acquire it.
+
———————————————
I sighed. Everything that drove me to do anything was because of the damn menu. I casually tossed the 5 points into my Movement Speed and sped off closer to the ruins, past rotted wooden barricades blocking the roads. There wasn’t a soul in sight, so I slipped through a hole in one of the rocky walls, popping out on the other side to get a good look at the Rift. Perhaps its dangerous energy was enough to scare off critters and potentially other humans.
Well, who’d want to stick around and wait for things to come out of an ominous humming disc? I squinted at the Rift. Another tag hovered over the middle of its bright blue surface like a pop up ad. After making sure nothing was around and panicking, I sat on a pile of rocks in the market square and read the tag attached to the Rift. It was surprisingly animated, with letters scrambling in meaningless sequences.
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+
RIFT IDENTIFYING…
NO SCROLL IN ITEM BOX FOUND.
RIFT IDENTIFYING… GATHERING COORDINATES.
RIFT IDENTIFIED.
RIFT P|E|O|D|N0429FB DISCOVERED.
+
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A scroll can identify Rifts? I wondered if it could reveal more than my Plus Menu. Come to think of it, that Adventurer Ravenclast woman used a Skill named something similar. That was a long time ago. I had no clue what those letters and numbers meant at all, but the Rift began to hum as if sensing my presence. A new red dot showed up at the corner of my eye.
———————————————
+
Notifications
> Rift Identified!
Rift Identification:
übatopit, A Delicacy Offered To The Devourer
— Long May He Reign —
[Worldline Coordinates: P|E|O|D|N0429FB]
Biome: Overworld Stomping Grounds
Warning: RIFT WORLDLINE TIMELINE IS CONTESTED BY THE ARMOURED ONE.
+
———————————————
The information was a dense brick to my mind, which simply went into my brain and escaped through my ears without processing a single thing. I recognized the Armoured One as the prick who sent that Minotaur after me. I guessed by the Contested warning literally meant that the Armoured One was invading this Rift as well. Who gave it the nerve? I swiped the notification out of my sight. The Devourer seemed like a grotesque monster, though I couldn’t be certain what separated the two factions unless I went in there myself. I hesitated for a split second.
Do I want to go in there? Of course not! But what if it really does have something for the Plus Menu…?
The sound of footsteps approaching me from behind pulled me out of my thoughts. They were hurried, definitely on the offensive. Shit! I cursed under my breath. I was too engrossed to notice my surroundings. I should have finished her off! Giselle was approaching me, fast and hard. A twisted agony was on her face, clearly that King guy had his hands on her and was making her go against her will.
“Hey, Hunter! Watch out!” She seemed to be struggling.
Something dark was in her hand, but I couldn’t tell what it was, instinctively yanking at it to keep my balance. She slammed into me. The blow sent me tumbling right into the portal’s electric and stinging embrace.
That little…!
