The decision to delve a Tier 2 rift as a Tier 1 was not a foolhardy one. After working for Edison and interacting with the equipment she made, Solace had come to the conclusion that her Talent had something to do with reducing the spiritual strain of the things she crafted.
It also helped that she confirmed it when he had asked.
As a result of her Talent, he was now fully equipped in expertly made Tier 2 plated armor. The shortsword at his side, the glaive attached to his back, and the knife on his thigh were Tier 2 while the shield was Tier 3. None of it was enchanted and he was now nearly broke, but the reduced spiritual strain when carrying the higher Tiered stuff would be worth it if he could leverage it to safely tackle a Tier 2 rift which gave far more essence per delve.
Since the rift he chose was close enough to reach by foot, he walked. The trek was uneventful. Hardly anyone batted an eye at his getup. When he entered the building which housed the rift, the personnel keeping watch over the jagged tear in space merely asked him to confirm his identity and intent.
“Solace?”
“Yes.”
“This is a difficult Tier 2 rift. Are you sure you want to enter as a Tier 1?” the guard asked.
“Yes.”
“While you have excellent gear, it may not be enough without the proper preparation. Are you aware of what’s inside?”
“Yes.”
While waiting for his free delve to refresh, he had spent the entire week scouting possible Tier 2 rifts until he had decided on this one. It was the best for his plans.
"Then just sign here, here, and here," the guard said, waving a tablet.
He carefully read the form before signing. It was a liability waiver and nothing more.
“Good luck,” the guard said when he was done, stepping aside.
And then he was through. Beyond the distortion, he found himself in a cave five paces wide lit by dimly glowing crystals attached to the walls in grooves. Tier 2 rifts still had thresholds and a safe starting room, so he quickly set down the bag with food and water he had also brought. He mentally reviewed his notes.
In addition to being reachable by foot, the rift was also near a hospital. Much like the slime rift, the monsters within were unpopular which increased its slot availability. Unlike the slime rift, however, the monsters could be crippled instead of needing to be trapped to be handled. This meant that, should Solace succeed in managing the rift on his own, he could begin carrying others through it too and keep them completely safe.
But that would be a concern for later, he needed to focus on what was relevant now. The monsters were ambush predators with venom, so he needed to preempt his defenses rather than raise them in response to anything—especially since they would be extremely fast as Tier 2s. In addition, he needed to make sure the retreat to the exit at the start of the rift was easily accessible in case he got bitten. He mentally recited the list of traps and tricks the rift often employed before finally stepping past the safe room’s threshold with the shield in one hand and the glaive in the other.
Immediately, a giant spider fell from the roof onto him. The size of a shepherd dog, the monster would have been dangerous if it had caught him unawares. Instead, it merely got impaled by the glaive, which he had carried vertically for this very reason. The creature hissed as if in pain, and he threw it to the ground with the flick of his spear before deftly cutting off its head. The legs twitched wildly for several moments before going still. A rush of essence, far greater than what the slimes gave, confirmed that it was dead.
He spent several minutes examining the carcass. The shell was hard to cut through, but not impossible with his weapons. Something to keep in mind if he found it difficult to strike a chink in the exoskeleton. The eight eyes on the spider suggested a wide range of vision that he couldn’t abuse, another thing to keep in mind.
When finished, he made some adjustments to his cultivation. He kept the mana side empty while reducing the amount of essence in the durability and regeneration areas before redistributing it between the rest with an emphasis on dexterity. With his armor, durability wouldn’t be as important. The same logic was extended to regeneration to some extent, but that area also governed recovery and thus stamina so he didn’t completely empty it.
Once done, he stood up and began to delve deeper. It was a winding but straightforward tunnel. The spiders came from the ceiling, holes in the wall, and tiny alcoves in the floor. They often attacked individually, but sometimes came in pairs from different angles to try to catch him by surprise. They never did.
A particularly cheeky assault was when a spider hiding in a hole went for his feet to try to knock him off balance so another arachnid could strike him from above. He blocked the aerial attack with his shield while dealing with the one on the ground with his glaive. It had been a difficult fight since it was hard to get a clean hit on one opponent when the other was hissing and trying to get past his defenses with eight long spindly limbs, pedipalps, and glistening fangs.
Fortunately, I don’t have a phobia for spiders.
Seeing the enlarged features up close and personal was an unpleasant experience, but altogether far from the worst he’d ever had.
As he progressed, the walls of the cave grew increasingly covered in webs until everything was practically covered in a second layer. It forced him to slow his pace, as spotting the spiders in their hiding spots was now much harder.
There was also a chance for three spiders to appear at a time now, a bit of knowledge which proved invaluable when he was ambushed again by what seemed to be just another pair of them. Most people did not think to check for a third in the heat of battle, especially if it came jumping out of the floor.
If he had to be honest, dealing with three at once was a bit nerve wracking. His helmet limited his field of vision just enough to make it difficult to track all of them simultaneously. At the same time, he had to trust that when the spiders tried to bite through the plate, the metal would hold.
The webs on the winding cave began to expand outward, with a few wispy tendrils that would stick if he touched them. He could hear the sounds of skittering further ahead. It meant he was getting close to the end.
The cave gradually turned to the left and straightened out, revealing a large pair of doors—the boss room. But rather than approach the doors, he turned around the moment he was at the spot where the cave stopped curving. Behind him were two tunnels. The one he came from and a tinier, almost hidden one in which several spiders were laying in wait. Their little hidey holes formed a honeycomb and beady eyes stared right at him as they glistened in the crystal light.
When they saw that he had noticed them, they attacked. They leapt from the hole and skittered across the cave at him, five in all.
He quickly sprinted down the way he came, glad he had made certain to clear everything out on the first trip so he didn’t have to worry about any other monsters joining in as a surprise. He didn’t go that far back, however, his Tier 1 physique couldn’t outrun them anyways. He moved enough to give him a bit of time to observe them approaching. The main thing was not fighting them when he was trapped in uncharted territory like the portion of the cave leading to the boss room.
They came at him from all directions. Two on the walls, one on the ceiling, the rest on the floor.
He kited backwards, abusing the reach his glaive gave him to make swipes at the chinks in the closest spider’s exoskeleton or to bat it into its compatriots. The cave’s size limited the range of the spear’s motion, but tight control still made it viable. He cut down one on the floor and sent another on the ceiling to the ground after cutting off a pair of legs. He mentally cursed when that spider got back up and continued as if it wasn’t missing limbs.
A spider leapt from the wall and he smacked it to the ground with his shield. The movement briefly blocked his vision and he took additional steps back to compensate for anything the arachnids attempted during that brief window. None of them did, however, so he brought the glaive down hard on the monster which had jumped at him. It dodged by surging forward and closer to him, bringing it into a range disadvantageous for his glaive.
Another mental curse and he changed the grip on the spear such that his hands were closer to its head. Then, using his Talent to move as much essence as possible from other areas into strength at that moment, he thrust as hard and fast as possible, punching through the creature’s cephalothorax.
The time it took to do this meant that the remaining monsters had closed the distance. The three arachnids set upon him as a group.
He raised his glaive with the spider’s twitching corpse still on it and stopped another’s leap by putting the haft of the spear between him and it. He threw it against the wall and promptly dropped the weapon to draw his shortsword and sliced the thing’s abdomen open.
With only two enemies left, it was far easier to deal with them. His shield kept one at bay while he fought the other. It was the six legged one and still just as agile as any other. The lack of range of his sword was compensated by its greater range of motion and speed. He cut a probing leg and then swiped at its eyes. The high pitched shrieks it gave echoed along the tunnels before Solace silenced it.
The final spider, seemingly given up on trying to penetrate the shield, dropped off it and to the ground to attack. Solace promptly bisected it with the bottom edge of his medium shield, cutting into it with all of his weight behind his strike.
… Finally…
It was over—this fight at least. He wearily collected his gear and made his way back to the safe room to do the typical pre-boss recovery. He didn’t dare alter his cultivation until after he was past the safe zone threshold, then he moved everything into regeneration as he ate, drank, and allocated his essence.
In order to optimize the cultivation of essence, one had to compact the essence to its maximum density for that Tier. Essence of a higher Tier was useful for helping with this process, as the density of higher Tiered essence was always greater than the maximum density of a lower Tier. It made the compaction easier.
Solace closed his eyes and guided the Tier 2 essence into his physical core. Once it was all there, he willed the Tier 1 essence to match it, applying pressure with his mind and spirit. The process took three sessions of complete concentration, the weight of the Tier 2 essence helping him crunch everything together as much as possible. The end result was a much larger and denser pool of essence.
He tested moving the essence around with his Talent and found that it was traveling much slower than before. An expected setback, and he was fine with the tradeoff since he knew he could train the speed back up.
Solace opened his eyes and stood up. His internal clock told him that the whole process took roughly an hour. He spent the walk back to the portion of the cave with the doors leading to the boss practicing with his Talent. Once at the section, he focused on making sure that there were no more tricks or traps between him and the final fight. There weren’t.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Now right in front of the doors, he was unsure about which boss it would actually be. There were eight variations for this rift, which was another reason why it was unpopular. The moment the doors opened, however, it was quite easy to tell.
“Jumping spider,” he said with distaste.
Beyond the entrance lay a massive cavern filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and pillars made from the fusion between them. Within would lie a singular jumping spider the same size as the normal ones he had already faced. Based on what he had read, he knew that bosses for this rift would only show once he was near the center of the room. They would also refuse to follow him if he left the room.
So, before he went in, he double checked his gear and made minor adjustments to his cultivation. Durability was almost completely emptied while strength and regeneration reduced. All of that essence was then reallocated into mind, senses, and dexterity. He kept flexibility the same.
When finished, he stepped inside. It took thirteen strides to reach the center, after which he waited for it to appear.
It didn’t take long.
There was a small scuffling sound behind him and he turned while raising his shield. The monster struck it like a heavy stone and he tried to throw it off while swinging his glaive. As he moved, he managed to see the spider up close with his enhanced senses. It was a fuzzy thing with large pedipalps and eight eyes. The four largest ones were like black glassy orbs in which he could see his own reflection.
And then it was gone, jumping from the shield and using it as a springboard to reach the ceiling. A leap of dozens of yards covered in seconds. He watched as it hopped behind a stalactite, disappearing from view.
“What a pain,” he muttered as he swapped his glaive for his sword and cut at the string of web stuck to his shield.
The leaping spider, on top of being capable of jumping from any side of the cavern to the other, also left behind a strand of web wherever it went. Its webbing, he knew, would only be sticky for a few moments and then harden into something that only sharp Tier 2+ steel could cut. The webbing was meant to entrap him over time as the spider leapt everywhere, disorientating him until he was unable to keep track of it all and found himself in a position where he wouldn’t be able to maneuver amongst the myriad strands.
The solution to beating the jumping spider wasn’t a hard one, but it was tedious. At the end of the day, it wasn’t able to kill him or place strands of web in his vicinity without getting close. All he had to do was control a position and keep it clear of webs while waiting for the spider to make an exploitable attack. It was, afterall, unable to change its trajectory mid leap.
So that’s what he did. A waiting game as the spider flitted around him in circles, using everything within the cavern as cover to try to attack him from an unseen angle. From above, the side, a quick hop as a feint into another strike, it leapt at him many times in various ways. Every instance, he warded the attempts away while unfortunately being unable to do any real damage to it himself.
But that was fine, he was patient. Taking a moment to assess his stamina, he decided to reallocate all of the essence affecting regeneration into his senses. It was with that boost that he was able to locate the spider’s movements by its sound. The tiny rustling of small stones on the ground into a rush of air; it was on the pillar to his right.
He quickly turned to his left, pretending to think he had detected something there, but then quickly whipped around the moment he heard the almost inaudible click of its exoskeleton as it jumped. In the seconds it took for it to reach him, he used his enhanced mind, dexterity, and flexibility to angle his sword perfectly. The spider was chopped in half as its own force shot its body into the blade.
He felt a large rush of essence which confirmed its death and flicked the viscera off of his sword. The exit rift and reward distortion quickly appeared. He waved his hand over the orange glow and out popped seven Tier 2 mana stones. These ones were the same size despite storing more mana and were worth 250 credits each. With these in hand, he was suddenly no longer broke.
Overall, the rift had taken roughly three hours according to his internal clock. While taking a good chunk of time longer than the slime rift, he had received six times the amount of essence in total. Six weeks of Tier 1 delves in a single run, it was fantastic progress.
And, if he could convince anyone that he was carrying to sign up for this rift instead of a Tier 1, it would be even better. He would be face to face tonight with Gao Xieren to collect her promised meal, so he would broach the topic then.
Solace stepped out of the rift.
—
“Thank you, thank you!” A man said, bowing after Solace dropped all of the Tier 2 mana stones into his hands.
“Yes,” Solace said, trying not to notice what he thought were tears in… his client’s eyes.
Roughly three weeks had passed since his first Tier 2 rift delve, and over that time Gao Xieren had recruited five others for Solace’s carrying scheme. He was mostly paid in the essence he took, but some of them also gave back a few of the mana stones each delve. Not the man in front of him though, but from what he understood that one had a family and Solace didn’t begrudge him for wanting to take care of them first.
“Xu Wei, is everything packed up?” Solace asked.
“Yes!” The boy stood up from beside the carcass of this rift instance’s boss, a brood mother. “Ready to leave when you are!”
At some point over the weeks, Xu Wei had asked Solace to teach him how to fight. It was an uncomfortable request for various reasons, the primary one being he simply didn’t know how to teach another person about fighting. Solace had never had formal training in combat, his first lives were merely him as an ordinary person being dumped into the clutches of monsters and dying over and over until he learned how to fend for himself. He knew no basis for educating Xu Wei in combat, because his teachers were injuries, blood, pain, and deaths.
No one should have to go through that.
So, after Solace explained it in vague terms to hide his many lives, Xu Wei had asked for what he thought was the next best thing: to shadow Solace when he delved. Solace… hadn’t had a reason to refuse since the rifts wouldn’t change with an additional presence and so the boy had become his assistant at Xu Wei’s insistence.
The boy was actually very useful. Beyond carrying the supplies like food, water, antivenom, and other miscellaneous things with him, Xu Wei was a calming presence for those that Solace carried. It was understandable, afterall, to be afraid of being in a Tier 2 rift while being ungeared, trusting one’s life to a stranger like Solace. With Xu Wei around, a lot of tiny details were able to be mentally put aside so Solace could focus on the main problems during a delve.
Now, as the three were exiting the rift, the man whose name Solace had already forgotten made his way back to the street of complexes. Xu Wei followed, but quickly turned around when Solace called his name.
“Not today,” Solace said, going in a different direction.
“Ohhh,” Xu Wei said as he ran to catch up to Solace. “Is today your personal delve?”
“Yes.”
He was looking forward to it since he was nearing the amount of essence needed to break through into Tier 2. The delve today would put him over the edge.
The two found a bench to sit on, and Xu Wei set aside the bags he carried to pull out his lunchbox and one of the sandwiches inside. They were medium sized submarine loafs stuffed with leafy greens, onions, and a type of salami from the Sects.
“Leave the rest for the actual delve,” he warned Xu Wei.
“Okay.”
It would be an hour before Solace’s rift slot came up. So as they waited, he spent the time mentally refreshing himself. He moved all of his essence allocation away from his senses and into regeneration and mind, allowing his consciousness to do whatever as he recovered. He leaned back and looked up. The sky was blue and the day a bit cool, though in a pleasant way as the sun’s rays warmed him.
I wonder what Peter is up to. Or—
He quickly sat up, forcing himself to cut off the thoughts.
“What is it?” Xu Wei asked.
“Nothing,” he replied.
After filtering through all of the stimuli from today, his brain had drifted towards the subconscious—especially the memories stored in his spirit which were now permanently just under the surface. It was a bothersome thing, these intrusive thoughts. Solace tried his best to never look back nor form any strong bonds in the realities he visited. It would make it easier when he finally retrieved all of the Tokens, and he could shove all of these memories aside like they were a dream while returning to his own reality and home.
But clearly the nature of his Talent storing the memories made it difficult for him to not pay attention to them. He needed a distraction. His eyes drifted over to a nearby building.
“Xu Wei, have you ever had cheesecake before?” Solace asked. He used the word for cheese and cake separately since there was no equivalent in the language of the Sects.
The boy frowned. “No, what is it?”
“A popular dessert in the Corporations. Would you like to try it while we’re waiting? I’ll pay.”
“Is it good?”
Solace paused at the question.
Was it good?
He had to think about it for a moment.
“...Yes…”
The boy grimaced. “That doesn’t sound very convincing.”
“Well, it’s popular for a reason, right? Besides, the shop will have other things to try if you want something else.”
“Okay, let’s go then!” Xu Wei jumped off the bench and made his way towards the correct building.
He’s getting better with the language, Solace noted.
He followed after the boy, entering the shop with a jingle of the bell attached to the door. Solace watched as Xu Wei spent a few minutes window shopping, reacting to the various types of desserts, before settling on the cheesecake. So Solace ordered two slices and, after a payment on credit using his essence as the signature, they were given the cuts of cheesecake on paper plates with plastic forks. The two sat down at a nearby table to eat.
“It’s so good!” Xu Wei said.
Was it good?
He tried a bit of his slice and found it unsatisfactory. The filling was bland and the graham crackers were nothing more than wooden dust in his mouth. He frowned, certain that cheesecake was supposed to taste like something else. He looked back into his memories, trying to remember the last time he had had cheesecake. His first slice had been in New—
Solace shook his head and shoveled another mouthful in. He focused on the process of eating as he realized that it would be a long wait before he could delve the rift.
—
When the two entered the rift, they were immediately met by an irregularity. The walls were already coated in the layers of web. Not only that, but the ground was coated with it as well.
Solace stepped to the edge of the safe zone and peered out at the near white landscape. The descriptions matched the warnings on the information packet for the rift.
“Xu Wei,” he said. “Do you know what this is?”
The boy slowly walked forward taking in every detail as well. Eventually, a single word escaped his mouth, filled with fear and reverence. “Tribulation.”
Solace nodded. It was the Sects’ word for a terrible danger. Something so dangerous only one in a million survived. The information provided by the Corporations refused to elaborate on the details, since it stated that anything beyond the warnings would encourage people to attempt it.
“Yes, a tribulation. But here in the Corporations, it’s called by many names. A fool’s wish, a false promise, and…”
He racked his brain for another.
“A rift’s challenge.”