Chapter 112 (Patreon)

After getting everyone's feedback I added this to the last chapter to help clarify some things. Thanks everyone. What is obvious to be isn't always obvious to the readers.

Luna then added, "Right now things aren't a huge issue. Just your delving speed and mana generation are enough to buy items above your Tier. But remember that mana stones increase in value and mana capacity massively as they Tier up and you don't have growth items to let you jump Tiers of wealth anymore. Even if you just sit in a box right now and charge batteries all day every day it will take you over a year with the rift mana stone to produced mana value difference to buy a Tier 17 mana concentration potion at Tier 7. We are ok for the next few Tiers but why wait? If you don't reach zero in your current mana when you Tier up you are wasting potential mana concentration. That's where the weakness will creep in. Tier by Tier you will grow weaker the more you don't maximize your mana concentration."

Chapter 112

Emmanuel stood in Mara’s and Leon’s capital world estate as he scolded the newly returned couple.

“You idiots! Do you know what you've done!?”

Leon pursed his lips and tapped his chin, while Mara inspected a fingernail that looked more like a talon as she buffed it with her shirt sleeve.

As if he had an idea, Leon snapped his fingers and said, “We didn’t come into the designated reality stepping location and came into our house directly. Sorry!”

Mara nodded without looking up. “Oh yeah. Whoops.”

Emmanuel had to resist actually smashing the two idiots' heads together. If he didn’t know them as well as he did, he would’ve believed that they actually were idiots. Normally, their antics were a source of stress relief. But dumping that much wealth into a small vassal state had centuries of repercussions, if not handled promptly.

“You gave out enough wealth on that world to crash their entire kingdom’s economy. You gave them credits fifteen tiers above their own. That much money dumped into the economy at once will make any savings or local currency totally worthless! It’s caused a crisis. Most of the people were Tier 6, and now millions of them are walking around with Tier 21 wealth! I carefully regulate the prices of things so that the nobles can't do what you’ve just done.”

Mara looked baffled. “But last time we took a planet, you said we can't do so without proper compensation.” Emmanuel didn’t miss the smirk that flirted on the corner of her lips as she finished.

They were deliberately trying to get a rise out of him. Unfortunately… it was working.

Emmanuel felt his blood pressure rise. His heart didn't need to beat normally, but these two drove him to fall back into old habits.

Through gritted teeth, he said, “No, no, no. I said that you need to stop stealing entire planets. And then, I told you to go pay the refugees that you displaced for their inconvenience.”

Leon nodded along. “Yeah, so this time we brought a new planet, and paid them beforehand. We even paid the other people on it for the inconvenience too!”

Emmanuel battled with his self-control, and decided that it wasn't worth it to hold back anymore.

If they thought playing stupid could get them away from his ire, they were sorely mistaken.

Punching out, he started wailing on the two idiots.

When he felt better, and their living room was destroyed, he brushed the dust off his shirt and toed the two lumps of flesh.

The two blobs quickly reformed into his friends and subordinates. Though, they did so with exaggerated lumps covered with bad bandages, as if they were characters in some sort of children’s cartoon after a fight had taken place.

He knew why they were acting up. They were bored. They were the type who enjoyed the climb more than the power and influence that it brought to them. They had fallen off The Path due to lack of focus, more so than lacking the necessary combat prowess. Stealing planets and creating little shrines to their children's accomplishments had only started after they had their own lands well in hand, and their territory was running smoothly.

That didn't change the severity of what they had done with their little stunt. And he was going to make them pay for it.

Emmanuel found more than a hundred spatial rings scattered throughout the estate with a flick of his spiritual will.

Knowing he wouldn't like the answer, he asked, “Why do you have so many spatial rings? And why are most of them in places that a mortal would lose them?”

Mara used her leg, which now had a large single talon, to scratch her head. “The kids get really mad when we use our spiritual senses to watch them all the time, so we promised to not use it while in any of the houses. So we’ve lost a few spatial rings over the years.”

Leon nodded along as if that made any sense.

“Are any of the kids here now?”

Leon picked up a fragment of the broken table, peered under it, and said, “I don't think so, but if you give me a few hours, I can check.” He then had the audacity to say, “It’ll take that long to check each room, one by one.” Emmanuel had to fight back a smile at that.

If nothing else, they knew how to get him to laugh. “No! They aren’t here, so use your spiritual senses, you idiots.”

Mara looked at Emmanuel and scoffed. “But we promised! It wouldn't be nice if we went back on our word.”

Leon tapped his chin, only to wince as he touched a cut. “A promise is a promise after all. So, we have to be 100% sure.”

Giving up on that line of inquiry, Emmanuel pulled the various rings to his location and changed his Tier 25 Talent to one that let him see inside spatial items. He could only see spatial items that weren’t bound to him, but it was quite the useful Talent.

After cataloging the rings, he threw nearly half of them at the two. “Why are thirty of these filled with sex paraphernalia? One wasn’t enough? And why is one completely full of identical couches?”

Seeing the two happily pick up the rings, Emmanuel moved on. He wanted to avoid any more discussion on the topic. Otherwise, he’d learn something the that would probably make him feel like he needed to shower in the nearest volcano to feel clean again.

Keeping a ring chock full of Tier 26 skills, he tossed the rest back to the two. “I'm using this one to fix your blunder. I’ll offer Tier 26 skills at Tier 21 rates to get rid of most of the money you just dumped into their economy.”

Seeing Mara pout, Emmanuel shot her a dirty look that kept her quiet.

“Catalog the rest of your rings, and use or sell the rest of the skills.” He shook his head and continued. “There are thousands of skills in there. Why do you even have skills that far below your Tier?”

Putting up his hands, Emmanuel began to teleport out, but then remembered what else he had wanted to tell them.

Moving on to more important concerns, Emmanuel said, “I have a delve slot for you next month. Tur'stal had to pass on hers, so I swapped it with yours.”

Their playful demeanor and fake injuries disappeared, and a more serious Leon asked, “Is that going to create an issue?”

Emmanuel shook his head. “No. This seems to just be a case of bad timing. She had a favor called in that required her immediate attention.”

Despite the stress relief that were his two Tier 48’s, he had far too many things to deal with. So after settling the economy of the vassal states, Emmanuel teleported to his own estate.

***

Matt pulled his attention back to the rift in front of him and inspected it for instabilities. Luna and Kurt had been destroying every monster that escaped from the rifts that were to be delved, so Matt and his team couldn't get any hints about the rift before they entered.

This was a Tier 8 rift he’d be delving with Liz and Aster. As they were used to working together, they were restricted in a few ways. Matt was limited to fifteen seconds of [Flamethrower], and only two minutes of [Mage’s Retreat] and [Endurance] for the whole rift.

Liz had more stringent restrictions, with her golem form completely prohibited. As for Aster, she wasn’t allowed to use Winter’s Embrace.

They still didn’t expect too much of an issue with the rift, as they had cleared more than their fair share of Tier 8 rifts before. They were extra cautious, as this particular delve was his and Liz’s idea to train for Luna’s Tier 9 rift.

If they had to fight in a rift that was specially crafted to be difficult for them, they first needed to delve weaker rifts that were made in the same way.

They had discussed it with everyone else, and in theory, this rift combination was one they should struggle with.

They used earth mana with an unyielding subaspect for fifty percent of the mana, then used touches of water, wind, and air mana with no subaspect for thirty percent. The remaining twenty percent was an even split between unaspected mana and Wrangle's summon aspected mana.

To seed the rift, they used a single-edged sword and reinforced plain clothes, hoping to get the rift to create lightly armored opponents.

The monsters in the Tier 9 rift were fairly easy to kill if you survived the initial ambush. But the trio recognized that they had only gotten a few hundred feet into the rift before they were forced to retreat.

They hoped that this would give them a good challenge, despite Erwin complaining that they were skipping too many steps in the rift-making process for his liking.

Matt stepped through and checked his surroundings, and found nothing out of place in the dark, forested area. The woods seemed to circle the perimeter of the clear area they had arrived on.

He stepped out of the direct entrance and into the rift, and found that it was still quite bright, despite the lack of sun. The moon was massive, and reflected a yellowish light down on everyone in the graveyard. The only problem was the lingering fog that enveloped them as soon as they entered the rift. It ensured that they couldn't see more than a dozen feet in front of them and it grew worse by the second. As he struggled to peer ahead, Matt noticed that the fog also restricted his spiritual sense, and he couldn't perceive any more than the vague direction of the entrance rift.

Matt was still cursing as Liz came through next. “I think it's an undead rift.”

Aster yipped, “Smells like rotting meat.” She gagged for effect

Matt spun to take in the rest of the surroundings. The moon seemed to be growing brighter as they waited for anything out of the ordinary. Matt ran through his manipulation skills, testing the area around them for any immediate danger. Matt wished that his [Water Manipulation] skills were better, as he might have been able to remove the fog, but the diffuse liquid was outside the limits of his control.

“I've found nothing. What do—” Matt was giving his report when a massive bell rang out, causing the air itself to vibrate.

Aster yowled in pain as the loud sound hurt her more sensitive ears, while Matt spun towards the direction of the noise. As the note of the bell faded away, all of the fog suddenly dissipated.

With visibility finally restored, Matt saw that they were in a massive graveyard littered with, as he expected, zombies.

They also could clearly sense the exit rift. It was in the same direction that the bell had rung from.

Matt noticed that in the center of the clearing, not far away from where they stood, there was a massive, three-story building with a bell tower attached. The tower stood another two stories above the roof. Directly under the bell was a clock glowing a cheery yellow through the panes of glass.

The clock seemed to be functioning, and read five minutes till midnight as the second hand made its way around the face. Matt couldn't be sure without his AI, but he was pretty sure that time in the rift was moving along at a normal pace.

All the zombies started to move toward them as the fog slowly began to rise from the damp ground once again.

Matt cut down the closest zombie with a [Mana Slash], only to find that he received a fraction of the essence he should have. It was as if most of the essence had been suctioned off.

Cutting down a second allowed him to follow the trail better, and Matt saw a peculiar zombie standing perfectly still in the distance, watching them.

It wasn’t any zombie type that he was familiar with. This one looked like a normal human, but if their face was made of half-finished wax. The only sort of detail on the creature’s face was the circle directly in the center of its forehead.

“Did you notice that?” Matt called out, to affirmations from both Aster and Liz.

Liz called out orders. “I’m a little skeeved out by the monster absorbing essence, but I think we fight it. Aster, backpack time.”

Luna wouldn’t like that, but Matt agreed. With the rising fog, the shortest member of their team was at a distinct disadvantage. They couldn't risk letting her contend with the reduced visibility on the ground.

“Let's kill our way to the monster that was absorbing the essence. I think that's the boss. After that, we check the building.” Liz finished up as Aster got herself settled.

With the plan settled, Matt took the lead as the fog rose up to his waist.

A shuffling corpse walked into view, and Matt chopped it in half with laughable ease. It felt more like a Tier 2 or Tier 3 body than the Tier 8 monster that he should be fighting.

It only took seconds to kill the dozen slow zombies in their path.

They found the odd zombie still absorbing essence from where they last saw it.

When they were able to see it through the fog, the wax-like skin was in stark contrast to the vivid, purple eyes that tracked their every movement.

Matt launched a [Mana Slash] towards the zombie, slicing it in half, but no essence rushed into any of their spirits.

It fell where it stood, causing Matt to say, “That was too easy. And I got no essence.”

Liz and Aster agreed, while Matt thought over the situation. “Let's get to the building.”

They reached it with little difficulty. The monsters they encountered were quickly killed as they passed.

The porch was only raised two steps, but the door had metal bars running across the entrance, preventing anyone from entering the building. Matt puzzled at the dead end as Liz and Aster continued to watch their surroundings for walking zombies that ventured too close. In a moment of morbid clarity, Matt realized that he hadn't seen any other windows or entrances to the building as they had come upon the structure.

He was turning to Liz to question her about it, when the bell chimed again.

All of the fog dropped to the ground instantly, and they could see the entire field now that it was free from the obfuscating clouds. Eerie looking markers in various states of disrepair were scattered throughout the area.

The graveyard was ringed with a deep, dense forest that Matt expected to be the boundary field.

Using that moment of freedom, Matt extended his spiritual sense and found the rift exit inside the building, flickering nearby from what felt like the third floor.

Matt was about to suggest that they try to fly to the roof, or cut their way into the building when Liz said, “Matt, look at the boss.”

Spinning, Matt found the boss standing where they had left it last, but now intact. It also held a large, single-edged blade in its hand.

As it took a step forward, there was a sickening sound to his rear, which caused Matt to spin again.

He found one of the ten bars that had been covering the doors was now retracted.

Turning back around, he noticed green energy rising up from the ground, along with the returning fog, and being absorbed by the zombies. Their shuffles turned into walking strides as their movements smoothed out and their gaits lengthened.

He didn't miss the monsters climbing out of the soil either.

Not liking where this was heading, Matt called, “Let's take to the air.”

As he said that, Matt pulled out his flying sword, only to have it fall to the ground when he activated it.

“Fuck.”

The curse made Liz turn, who didn't need things explained when she saw the sword on the ground.

Quickly retreating and stowing his sword, Matt followed Liz as she used a tendril of blood to cut her way through the zombies who had approached the building during their examination of the door.

As they hit the ground, Aster created a swarm of small ice projectiles and launched them at the monsters in front of them. The zombies fell easily, but Matt could tell that they were harder to kill than they were before the second toll of the bell.

One monster even managed to stagger to its feet after her attack, despite a missing arm.

Speeding up, Matt took the lead and tore through the zombies in their way. When they had circled the building and found no other entrances in either window or door form, they paused in their run.

Matt half turned to Liz and asked, “What do you think?”

Liz shouted, “I think you made a really weird fucking rift.”

Aster didn't let the opportunity to yip her agreement pass.

Matt refocused them. “From everything I've seen, this seems like a mix of a wave rift and a timed rift.”

From behind Matt, he heard the whipping sound of Liz lashing out with a tendril of blood. She said, “Agreed. Do we retreat, or forge ahead?”

Matt thought their situation over, but Aster was the first to answer. “Fight by entrance. Retreat if needed.”

Nodding in agreement, Matt oriented himself and took off at a lope. The zombies were still easy to kill, but they apparently didn't have issues with seeing through the fog as they chased them. The trio always had monsters approaching them, meaning that they couldn't sit still if they wanted to avoid being surrounded.

With that in mind, they needed a new approach, as Aster’s plan would make them sitting ducks.

Halfway to the rift entrance, they encountered the boss monster, who was bisected with a single slash of Matt's blade.

Seeing the monster fall once again without receiving any essence gave him a bad feeling. He started to wonder if they should avoid killing the other zombies, and possibly the boss itself.

They fought near the rift entrance, moving in large circles as the bell tolled its fog-removing sound time and time again.

At the forty-minute mark, they started to struggle.

The zombies were armored in thick bone plates that managed to fend off most of their attacks if they weren’t perfectly placed.

That wasn't the real issue; Liz had enough pure damage to deal with them. The problem was the pale fleshed boss monster.

Matt sidestepped its lightning-fast swipe, more out of instinct than any sort of plan or recognition of its movement. He had abandoned Luna’s rule of not using [Mage’s Retreat] and [Endurance] when the monster became faster than him on the seventh wave.

Now on the eighth wave, the boss outclassed him in speed, even with his enhancements taking all of the mana generation he could spare from [Cracked Phantom Armor]. The only reason he kept his limbs attached was that the boss zombie was fighting like a monster. It had no tactics or strategy in its attacks. It only took wild swings that were more likely to give Matt an opening than hurt him.

The next problem was that the monster's defenses had improved significantly, along with those of the normal zombies. Its thin skin, which he had sliced through so easily during the first few encounters, now only caused Matt's blade to skitter off.

Matt was just thankful that he had upgraded his sword to Tier 8 before this. He could feel the durability and repair enchantments struggling with each hit he landed on the boss, and even worse, when he blocked with it.

His sword had a chip in the blade from that mistake.

Baiting the monster forward with a shuffle step, Matt took the boss in the neck with a heavy, [Mana Charge] empowered swing that exploded its head in a gory mess.

Only then did the bell toll. On the fourth wave, they had learned through some testing that they needed to kill the boss, otherwise the clock tower refused to tick over and sound the bell.

Turning and helping Liz take care of the remaining zombies, Matt cast [Flamethrower] for a second, then used Hail to crack all the monsters’ armor. Early on, they had learned that fire did little to the bone plate and undead flesh underneath. Ice and cold did far better, and together, they were able to shatter the armor with minimal effort.

Casting his gaze to where they had first seen the boss, Matt found it once again standing there. As the sound of the bell ended, the monster raced forward so swiftly, it was blurring in its race toward them.

Matt realized that it was using an unknown skill, and called out to Liz, “It's using a skill. Watch out!”

That in and of itself wasn't odd. Most of the rifts they had delved contained monsters using at least one skill. This rift had been the exception to that rule, since the monsters had not used any skills at all, up until this point. That fact alone had raised his hackles by the fourth wave.

Matt intercepted the boss, but was knocked back when his weapon was intercepted by shadowy armor. It was almost like a dark, corrupted version of his own.

Matt’s moment of surprise allowed the monster to get in a heavy cut that Matt barely managed to block. He had to drop all of his other skills, and put all remaining 80 MPS into [Cracked Phantom Armor] and its second layer.

His under armor managed to block the blow, but having learned his lesson, Matt managed to recenter himself and take a swipe at the monster.

The mana held in his blade washed out in a wave, but the attack once again landed on the zombie’s shadow armor that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Unlike most armor skills, the shadow armor didn’t completely break. It had a hole where the boss's skin was scorched. The rest of the armor was intact, and began filling the hole that Matt's attack created. Tendrils of shadow started to knit the hole closed as he looked on.

Unwilling to give the stronger boss the chance to get its armor back, Matt lashed out with a desperate attack, stabbing forward with his blade. The tip of his blade took the monster in the eye, slicing through the softer flesh as the boss scored a slash at his leg. Agony pulsed out from Matt’s struck leg as the boss roared in defiance.

Keeping control of himself, Matt managed to start casting skills to take out the rest of the monsters, and called to Liz. “Leg's fucked, but I can stand and fight.”

Matt wanted to know what Liz was planning. They needed to use the few remaining minutes to decide whether they were going to go for the rift entrance, or the exit in the house.

They had just finished the ninth wave, and only had one left if the rift subscribed to the same rules as the wave rifts they had encountered so far. The number of bars that had yet to disengage from the door indicated the same, leading him to believe that there was only one final wave to stand against. Matt didn’t want to give up now, but Liz would need to take care of the boss herself if they stayed.

Liz called out, “Let's finish this. I can take him if you can keep the rest off of me.”

As Liz took Matt's shoulder on his left side, Aster scurried from Liz’s backpack to his.

They reached the porch right as the bell tolled, and the second to last lock disengaged. Matt used the railing to steady himself as he tried to avoid putting pressure on his mangled leg. Casting [Hail] and [Flamethrower], Matt took care of the zombies that tried to rush the porch.

When the boss sprinted forward, Liz was ready, and threw her spear at the monster.

It wasn’t a normal attack.

Liz used a spear that she had commissioned after their failed attempt at the Tier 9 rift, forged in the nearest city. While it didn't have the bleeding enchantment that her old spear did, it did have a piercing enchantment, and a hollow core that she kept filled with blood.

As she had the entire spear coated with blood, and Matt could feel her Concept thrumming with power through his own, it was no surprise to him when the spear glowed with mana as Liz cast [Piercing Shot]. She had ruined the first version of the skill that they had found by bringing into her inner spirit. The skill had simply shattered.

It was less effective, as Liz wasn’t using a smaller projectile, but it still gave the spear extra power as it slammed into the charging boss. As the shadow armor flared to life, Liz’s shot tore through it as well.

The boss fell with a hole in its chest as Liz panted heavily at the expenditure of mana, willpower, and stamina.

Matt and Aster fought off the remaining wave, and they were helped once Liz retrieved her spear, using it to attack the rushing zombies from behind.

When the bell tolled for the tenth time, Matt heard the door swing open with a soft creaking that made the hair on the back of his neck rise.

As he turned, Matt saw the boss standing there once again, and they rushed through the door to slam it shut.

As they did, there was a rush of essence that made them all stagger, as seemingly all of the essence that they hadn't earned from the rift streamed to them in a never-ending torrent. It was wasted since they were peak Tier 6, not that Luna would have allowed them to absorb it anyway.

They had to climb one set of stairs, but they found the rift reward and exit rift next to each other. There was no final boss, or even a single monster guarding the area at all.

Aster hopped out of her backpack and dispelled the reward rift. A skill shard clattered to the floor, and Aster scooped it up with her mouth, then jumped into Liz’s arms.

Together, they exited the rift to get healed.

Luna stood next to them and went through everything they did in the rift. Right and wrong.

“You actually kept the restrictions up longer than I expected. I thought you would have abandoned them by the third wave. You should have changed who was fighting the boss at the sixth wave, when you started to struggle with damaging it, Matt.” Her intense glare of reproach went from him to his tired partner. “Liz, you could have done a lot with your blood, like flooding the battleground to give everyone a safer area to fight in. Aster, you should have at least tried Winter's Embrace.”

Aster growled at that. “We never had time, and ground felt bad.”

Luna nodded to that. “Yes, getting low to the ground was dangerous, but you could have relieved a lot of the pressure off of Liz with an attempt.”

Her suggestions and critiques lasted for another five minutes or so, but Matt was pretty happy with the result of the rift. That was not a normal rift, and they had gone in blind.

It only took a glance at Liz to see the same desire in her eyes. None of them had missed the fact that the monsters had been ready to go for another wave after the door had opened. Like most wave rifts, the longer you lasted, the better the rewards.

Their rewarded skill was a simple [Mana Charge], which Liz was going to attempt to absorb and turn into [Blood Charge].

They both wanted a second crack at the rift.

When they were fully healed, and had practiced some tactics they thought would counter the rift's monsters, they were determined to delve it for a second time.

They still took a few days to settle themselves and ensure that they were in the best possible shape.

Matt approached Luna during one of Liz' solo delves of a Tier 6 rift. “Liz said you could get me good potions for way longer than what you implied. What’s my actual cutoff point? When would I have to drop off The Path to avoid losses regarding mana concentration?”

Luna tapped her fingers. “Tier 11, if we don't take into account the potions you got from Helen, and are willing to create some specialized rifts for a guild or two. If you’re also willing to use the potions, Tier 15. Give or take a tier, provided your mana growth doesn’t do something unexpected. If you don’t want to create rifts, and are only willing to use the potions? Tier 11, maybe Tier 12 if you get truly lucky. Depends on whether or not some of my ideas work. Liz wasn’t necessarily wrong, but we will run into issues sooner, rather than later. You only get one chance per Tier to increase your mana concentration. If we lose a chance, it's gone forever, and that will seriously cut into how dangerous you could be. As I said last time the value of mana stones twice your Tier scales far faster than even your prodigious regeneration.”

It was a lot to take in and account for, but for now it was good enough to affirm that they'd be leaving the path at that stage.

Or at least he would. He really didn’t like that idea, and he didn't want to separate from Liz’, but the disadvantages were only growing more obvious. He just didn’t want to pressure Liz into doing something she didn’t want to. Still, the knowledge that he couldn't cripple himself either tore at him. He couldn't ask Liz to give up her own goals for his needs anymore than he believed she would ask that of him.

Eventually, he just tamped it down and refocused on the goals in front of them, as he had no answer he liked.

After ensuring that the rift was fully charged, Matt, Liz, and Aster fought through fifteen waves before they needed to retreat into the house. The rush of essence was proportionally greater for their fighting stronger enemies, and their reward was just as large, if less exciting. Over three hundred Tier 8 mana stones tumbled out. They would have rather had a skill, but the reward was generous by normal cultivator standards.

It was just that Matt didn’t need mana stones by the bucket full.

Three months after their first attempt at the nearly-Path-ending Tier 9 rift, they geared up and moved in for a second attempt.

The rift was nearly identical, and they repeated the same actions of scouting the rift, to again find nothing. Matt even paid special attention to the boulders, but found every rock in his reach to be normal stones. He even went as far as to bury all of them, just in case they were traps again, but nothing jumped out at them.

It didn’t help.

This time, one of the trees changed into a humanoid shape. With a glowing blade, it lunged at Matt.

Liz sliced the monster in half with a tendril of blood, causing the weapon and black rags to fall to the ground as the mist that the monster seemed to be made from disappeared.

Matt cursed and said, “I can't tell the difference. The tree was just a normal tree, until it wasn't. Did either of you pick anything up?”

Liz shook her head, but Aster said, “The smell changed right before the change. Smelled like darkness and damp.”

Liz pointed at the path ahead of them. “Do we keep following the path, or do we push through the forest?”

They had discussed this before, and their decision would depend on what they found inside the rift. The forest was new growth, and had little room between the trunks for them to swing their weapons. If they didn’t have to, they didn't want to risk the forest.

Matt shook his head. “Let's push on. Further, we know there will be ambushes along this path and can be mostly ready for them.”

With that decided, they carefully moved forward. Matt kept [Air Manipulation] and [Earth Manipulation] active, holding their respective elements still around them.

As his [Earth Manipulation] washed over a boulder, he felt nothing amiss. But as he neared it, he could feel the stone turn into another assassin.

With that early warning, Matt was able to cast a burst of [Flamethrower] as the monster lunged at them. To his surprise, this one stepped off the air as if it was solid, and tried to get above the torrent of flames. It didn't matter, as Aster shot it through the chest with an arm-length shard of ice.

During the entire fight, Liz kept a tendril of blood moving around herself and Aster while watching their rear.

After having explained what he noticed, they moved forward carefully. They crept along cautiously until they reached what looked like a deserted, walled-in city, built in an architectural style that Matt hadn’t seen before. There were many circular open spaces and flourishes adorning the buildings, for what he could only think were for ornamentation purposes more than practical ones.

The gate through the ten-foot walls was unguarded, but Matt and Liz still thoroughly inspected it before they decided to enter.

They were three streets in before they heard the clattering of metal on stone. They retreated around a corner to see a nine-man squad of armored humanoids round the bend. Most of them had short spears and shields, but what caught Matt's eye was their armor. It was covered in layered metal plates that overlapped, structured like shingles.

It was also the first time they got to see the face of one of the monsters. They were, going by the tusks sticking out of their mouths, orcs of some variety.

Matt glanced at Liz and Aster and received nods from both of them, so he charged out, casting a preemptive [Hail] on the formation.

The monsters didn’t rush at Matt as he expected; they simply ignored the chunks of ice falling on them and raised their shields and spears, bracing for his charge.

Matt wasn't dumb enough to do as an enemy wanted, and halted twenty feet away from them. He started casting [Fireball]s at the formation as they stood their ground.

The shields all flared to life when the first spell impacted the front line. Matt didn't have enough time to truly get a read on the runes, but the formation obviously had a linked defensive array. The only question was whether or not it would still work if they broke ranks.

As the ice started to build up, and Aster started to control it, one of the orcs raised their spear and pointed it at the spell’s epicenter. A burst of orange light lanced out and shattered [Hail].

Matt recoiled from the unexpected destruction of his skill, which usually was never damaged, and recovered from the shock enough to reset his stance. He quickly retaliated with the [Mana Slash] that he had been charging.

The crescent moon of mana knocked all of the charging orcs back as it slammed against their still upraised shields. Liz whipped out a tendril of blood, which caused the shield to flare up a second time. Aster used the ice that she had taken control over to attack the orcs from the rear, and the same orc as before used their spear to shatter her newest spell as well.

Matt kicked the closest member of the formation's shield, and was happy to see the large monster stumble back without the rest of the shields taking the blow. When he shot out another [Fireball], it was blocked, and caused all the shields to flare up. It told him that this was an anti-magic formation, not a universal one.

“Use melee!”

That shout was all Matt was able to get out as he ducked a spear thrust and a shield bash from two of the monsters.

His sword ineffectually clanged off the thick armor plates, which he had expected, as this was a Tier 9 rift. But with their first enemies being so weak, Matt had hoped that the trend would remain the same.

These monsters were actually well trained with their weapons. It took him five exchanges to create an opening, and thrust his sword into the armpit of the first orc. Then, he retracted his weapon fast enough to parry the next attack and sidestep a second.

Everything went white for an instant, and Matt immediately knew that Aster had used Winter's Embrace. He hurried to finish off the slowed, armored orcs while they battled the frost that froze their armor's joints.

Seeing Aster with a gash along her flank, Matt watched as ghostly darkness rose from the monster's corpse and rushed into the nearby buildings.

Matt froze and asked, “I got essence from them. So what was that?”

Liz pointed to a pillar in the nearest building. “I saw one go into the pillar. Careful. Don't move too much.”

Aster growled as an arm-sized spear of ice impacted the pillar.

As before, an assassin jumped out and tried to attack them, but it was quickly dispatched.

Another rush of essence tried to enter them, but washed off their spirits.

Liz tapped the butt of her spear on the ground. “Well, that explains that. The fallen we kill will inhabit the objects around us. I didn't track the rest of them, but they each went further than the first one.”

Matt looked over his team and saw that they both had slight cuts, but neither were slowed as they continued through the city.

They were almost finished with their third encounter with the orcs when a second squad approached their rear.

Making a split-second decision as the stomping sound rounded the corner, Matt called out, “I'll take the rear group.”

With that, he finished off his opponent and turned and ran.

As he got a good look at the next group, he noticed a difference in the makeup of the squad. This time, there was an additional orc to make ten.

The tenth orc was half a head taller, and had some manner of banner or flag on their back. They also had deep red armor, and a more ornate helmet that finished with a crescent moon on top.

Matt cast [Hail], but the lead orc quickly destroyed the spell.That was fine, as it bought him the time to cast [Flamethrower], letting the flame wash over the upraised shield. A plethora of orange lights lanced out at him as he chopped down at the nearest orc and battered past its shield.

Alone versus an entire shield wall, he took several hits. But with Luna’s training, [Cracked Phantom Armor] could take a much greater beating than before. As if he was using the second layer of the skill like a shield, Matt focused his mana onto the areas that he expected the spears to hit.

While his layer of under armor helped to absorb the blows, Matt felt three of the spears pierce his flesh as he got inside the formation.

Once inside, Matt braced himself and swung his longsword with [Mage’s Retreat] at full strength.

He sliced through the weaker inner leg armor of one orc, and took a second in the throat as a spear pierced his back and got stuck on a bone.

The rush of darkness didn’t leave to the surrounding city as Matt expected, but rushed into the flag the lead orc had on his armor. As he fought on, he saw the armor’s colors brighten. That was accompanied by the leader growing stronger and faster.

It was bad timing that Liz and Aster hit the other side of the formation and killed two of the orcs, which only increased the speed of the leader. The monster was now faster than the zombie rift boss when they had killed the fifteenth wave, and it took all of Matt’s concentration to deflect the blows as they rained down.

If he hadn't spent so much time sparring against Liz and her spear, he was pretty sure he would have fumbled a parry and taken the glowing spear through the chest.

He had no faith in [Cracked Phantom Armor] resisting the orange light that destroyed other spells.

As Liz and Aster killed the remaining orcs, the leader turned into a blur that quickly battered through Matt's defenses, and left ragged wounds on his arms and torso.

Thankfully Liz had enough blood on the ground. She was able to grab the monster's leg for an instant and cause it to stumble. Aster used that opportunity to turn it into a pincushion with all the ice Matt had created with [Hail] that was scattered around.

With an absolutely massive rush of essence, they all knew the fight was truly over.

Panting, Matt spat out a mouthful of blood as he activated [Endurance] and asked, “Did you catch the darkness absorbing? Fucking thing got way too strong.”

Liz nodded. “Sorry yeah. Only after we took out the first one.”

That was when Matt noticed Liz was missing her left arm at the shoulder.

“What happened?” Despite having seen her go through worse in their training, he was worried. Protecting Liz was his job, and he had clearly failed.

Liz shrugged as if it was no big deal. “I needed to finish the monsters off quick, and an arm was the price. Let's get out of here, though.”

Having encountered the second type of monster, then what Matt expected was one of the sub-bosses Luna mentioned, he was more than happy to oblige her.

They needed to heal and strategize for their next attempt.