Week 1 Day 3

“Hey.” Alia smiled as Ethan approached. She had a leather vest on top of her regular practice uniform, an actual steel sword at her side, and a small pouch.

“Sorry, did I make you wait?” Ethan also had a simple sword on the side, but no armor, just regular uniform. The uniform itself was supposedly reinforced to be tough, but he wouldn't actually try to rely on it.

“Not long, I got here just a while ago.” She nodded. “So, my first level 1 gate. I’m... a little nervous.”

Ethan agreed and tried to lower her expectations. “Me too, but let’s just do what we can. If we can’t cope let’s just back out, alright? We don’t have to defeat it on our first day.”

Alia nodded. “I read up on the rifts last night. The tower’s manufactured rifts are usually standard-sized, instead of the randomness of the wild rifts. We should be expecting one floor, with a ‘boss’ monster at the end.”

“Alright, then we’ll try to make it to the boss, and then we decide?”

The girl with the shoulder length brown hair nodded. Everyone in the Garden was at least pleasant to look at. Their skins mostly smooth and if they had flaws, they were usually minor, their facial features were properly aligned and symmetrical, their bodies correctly proportioned. Those with higher levels and stronger cores even more so, due to the purifying and cleansing effects of the core’s energies.

“Can we attempt a Level 1 rift, please?” Alia asked.

The attendant nodded, as she quickly took their student cards, recorded their names and time of attempt. “Alright. 2nd floor, 1st door. Rift safely.”

“Thanks.”

Through the door was a wall of light, they glanced at each other and stepped right through.

They arrived at a long, brightly lit hallway, and there were two large cat-like creatures. They were not big enough to be lions, and they stared at them.

growl

“Okay. Two giant cats.” Ethan said. He couldn’t use his secret power, so he’ll have to stick to his shadow steps for now. Alia, thankfully, didn’t exactly panic. Her stance changed, and she waited for the monster-cats to come to her.

In fact, she was more natural than expected.

The monster cats charged at the two intruders, and Ethan activated his [Sword Unity]. His sword briefly turned black, and then, right when the monster cats got close, he slashed.

His sword landed, but the monster-cats were much heavier and tougher than expected. One of them was fast enough to swipe his arm with it's claws.

It hurt, yet his skin didn’t bleed. Instead, he felt a reduction in his core’s energy, and a surge of pain. Their cultivation cores protected them like a bubble. It was only after the core was weakened, that their bodies took the hit directly.

If they got to that point, they were usually dead.

Alia had a better time, as she managed to dodge out of the cat’s range, and landed three swift strikes. The monster cat didn’t perish, as it merely landed a short distance away. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Ethan answered, as his body blurred and split into two. The monster cat charged at him again, and this time, the monster cat targeted the [shadow clone]. The clone poofed from the monster cat's attack.

He slashed the monster cat from the side, empowered by the strength of the [sword unity]. It fell, his attack was sufficient to destroy the monster cat.

The cat’s body collapsed, and Ethan turned to see his rift partner already relaxing.

Alia also managed to defeat her opponent. “Wow. No hits!”

“I have [wind-movement].” She smiled. “Alright, our first battle was a success.”

He felt a bit of the cat’s magical energies leak out, and entered his core. It was stored in the area around the core, and he would have to find some time later tonight to consolidate these loose energies. The pair continued their journey, and discovered multiple paths. “It splits three ways.”

“I think let’s stick together for our first gate. I’m worried about ambushes.” Ethan answered and walked closer. The girl nodded.

"I don't think they will, at least, for a level 1 rift, ambush is overkill."

The first path was eventually a dead end, where they were attacked by two more monster-cats. This time, they were both familiar with their foes, and the battle went quite smoothly.

This time, Ethan managed to defeat his opponent without taking a hit.

The second path led to a small room with a large crystal pile, defended by two more cats. A short battle later, the glow around the crystal pile disappeared. Ethan looked at his rift-partner. “Do they do anything?”

“I’m not sure, actually, but we should take them. Maybe we can exchange this for a GP or two.” Alia said, and attempted to pick it up. It was incredibly heavy.

“But how?”

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“I think we need a harvesting pickaxe and a mining bag.”

“We don’t have that now.”

Alia sighed. “Let’s just take what we can for now.” Both of them managed to collect two small crystals, and had to leave the rest in the room. The third path was longer, and eventually led to another room with three more monster-cats.

“I’ll take two.” Ethan said. “I’ll use my shadow-copy to hold them off.”

“Got it.”

For Ethan, it was two-on-two. One shadow copy distracted one of the monster-cats, while he had to finish off the other cat quickly.

But right before he could finish off the first one, the monster cat destroyed his copy, and came for him. He took a full hit to the arm, and felt his core energy drop even more. Alia, thankfully, managed to finish her part and attacked the other injured monster cat.

“Thanks!” Ethan focused on the last remaining cat, and Alia moved to flank the cat from the other side. She had surprisingly good situational awareness.

They attacked together, and the last cat was gone. Ethan felt his core brimming with unprocessed energy.

They looked around, and then, a door appeared on the wall.

“I think the boss is on the other side?” Alia said. “How’s your condition, you took two hits today.”

Ethan touched his own chest, and tried to sense the condition of his core.

“Less than half life left.”

Alia nodded. “Then we bail. I think we’re not ready for the boss. We should attempt the boss with a full health-core. Let’s make a detour and see whether we can carry more of those crystals, then we exit?” Alia suggested.

“Yeah.”

They managed to get three more crystals, and returned to the entrance.

***

The attendant looked at the pair as they stepped back out through that same door and smiled. “Welcome back! It’s alright if you didn’t win on your first attempt.” The attendant pointed to three big looking guys. “That’s Commander Wearnes. His job is to save any students that got injured or tried too hard.”

“How does he know?”

“When you’re in the Tower, your student card flashes a beep when your core drops to almost a quarter. He bailed out six students today.”

“Oh shit.”

Alia nodded, and Ethan felt a little relieved that there’s someone who’s job was a rift-lifeguard. Alia placed the crystals on the table. “Thank you. We have these... crystals. What are they?”

“Oh minerals. They can be sold for gold. A few gold each. Or you can use them to improve your core’s cultivation. They contain a little bit of energy.”

“Oh. Okay. What should we do?” The girl asked.

“Just sell it, the energy inside usually isn’t optimal for your core, so it’s better to just sell and buy yourself a meal. You should get the mining kits if you plan to do more mineral collection. The Garden loans it out to students, so don’t lose it. It’ll cost 10GP to replace, but is otherwise free.”

Alia nodded at the attendant and turned to Ethan. “Alright we’ll take those... tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Tomorrow sounds good.”

The attendant nodded. “I’ll have them ready.”

“That went quite well for our first attempt.” Alia stretched, and started to massage her shoulders.

“Yeah. Too bad I took two hits, or we could’ve tried the boss.”

“Since we’re out, uh... do you- do you wanna have coffee?” Alia asked.

Ethan paused, and imagined the taste of coffee. He actually missed coffee, so he smiled. “Sure.”

They walked to one of the cafes not far from the Tower, and as Ethan looked at the menu, he had to admit, everything looked quite expensive. It’s a good thing he had some gold from selling those crystals.

“You should save some for Andrew. He paid for you last night, right?”

Ethan smacked his head. “Oh yes. Sorry, I’m... I’m not very good with money.”

Alia smiled. “I noticed.” A waitress came along and she did the ordering. “I’ll get a latte and a sandwich. Ethan? ”

“I’ll have the same thing. I can’t decide when I come to these kinds of joints.” Ethan admitted. “They all feel... I don’t know.”

“Overpriced?” Alia nodded. “Gold usually becomes a lesser problem later on. GP is the real currency in the Garden.”

“That’s true.” Ethan nodded at the waitress as she brought the latte over. The sandwich would take a little longer. “You had pretty good reflexes back in the rift, I was quite impressed.”

The common-grade windblade cultivator blushed slightly, “I’m using a windblade core, wind-type cores tend to have more flexible movements.”

Ethan grinned and teased her. “I’m using a shadow-core and I’m still getting hit. That makes me a failure.”

“Aww that’s not what I meant.”

“I’m kidding.” Ethan laughed. “I’ll get the hang of it. I’ll just need more practice.” Knowledge of combat was something the goddesses gave him, this body seemed to know how to fight from some kind of imprinted knowledge. If he wanted to get better, he had to practice.

Alia smiled and sipped her latte. “What... what do you plan to do after you graduate?”

“Hah!” Ethan laughed. They were way too early for that conversation. “I’m not even sure if I’ll graduate.” In truth, his goddess-given-mission meant he’d likely disappear once his part is done.

“Oh... why?”

“I don’t know, I fear I’ll die along the way.”

Alia looked at Ethan, she actually seemed genuinely worried. “Why? From the rifts?”

“Probably.”

“The rifts are dangerous at higher tiers, so don’t take risks unnecessarily.”

Ethan nodded as the sandwich arrived. “I’ll try.”

“Good. I’ll cover you where I can.” The sandwich was quite decent. “I suppose it’s a little early to ask that sort of thing, I guess.”

“What about you?”

“I’d like to join the royal army as a Professional member, buy my parents out of their current work contract, and... I don’t know what’s after that, actually.”

The boy laughed and took another sip of coffee. “I’m pretty sure no one does. It’ll be a life of attacking and destroying wild rifts, as a member of the army.”

“Yeah.”

***

That night, he rested in his room and started to work on energies from the monsters. The first thing he discovered was that a lot of it was going to be wasted. His core’s element was a ‘shadow, and the energies gathered, only a small quantity of them had a shadow-element.

The core in his soul rejected the incorrect elements and he had to purge the other elements.

The monsters seemed to drop a wide mix of elements, not all useful, and wondered whether he could just pick up the ‘shadow-elements’ as he defeated those monsters. That would greatly improve his efficiency.

Still, that little shadow-element energy seemed to help, though no observable increase in his cultivation.

“Anything happen tonight?”

“Miss Whitetower spoke to a few nobles and commoners after dinner, and from what I hear, they will be attempting their first rift tomorrow.” Kaname popped up late that night. “She seems to already have a small band of fans and admirers.”

“It’s been... four days? That’s so fast.” Then again, Miss Violet really was a pretty, bubbly lady, it was natural she’d attract attention.