Edgar raised an eyebrow, “we could definitely fight so that Tail Whip does more damage. I wonder how many skeletons it could down at once, so far—”

She shook her head, “and what, you take all the essence and skill experience? Yeah, no way. I’m serious.”

Raiden gave her a probing look.

She crossed her arms, “solo adventurers level faster, too. It’s proven.”

“They also die more. A lot more.”

She didn’t flinch.

“Mirai, trust me on this. You—“

A couple more skeletons appeared up the road and she ran off.

“—can find your own way without going alone…” He finished, his voice petering out.

Mirai jumped, kicking at one of the skeletons, which knocked its head clean off. The skeleton bumbled around for a moment as Mirai drew her sword and began poking at the other two, separating them so she had space to launch more kicks.

As she fought, she threw some self-righteous looks back at the two of them.

Edgar glanced at Raiden, but the man was deep in thought as he watched Mirai fight.

“I’ll watch her back.”

Raiden glanced at him, “you’re a good kid, Edgar. Make sure to watch your own back too though.”

It only took a few moments for Mirai to kick the skeletons to smithereens. Edgar and Raiden approached, Raiden giving her a skeptical look, but she avoided his gaze, bustling about to loot each skeleton. The bones turned to dust in her wake.

“See, I’m more than just a sword. I have other skills. There’s no way I’m giving up a whole rift’s worth of leveling.”

Raiden raised an eyebrow.

When Raiden didn’t ask, Edgar did. “So what other skills do you have?”

“If you’re lucky, you’ll see!”

Tsk… “You totally don’t, do you?”

Raiden raised a hand to quiet them.

“Please, you’re both level one. Just wait until you get a few levels under your belt… sigh… I think the point of the lesson on strengths and weaknesses is getting lost, so let’s just set that aside for now and figure out where these skelies are coming from.”

Mirai huffed, walking off. “Whatever.”

“Any pointers on our fighting styles?” Edgar flexed his claws eagerly.

“Not yet, I’d hate to give bad advice, so I’ll have to watch you fight more and maybe even spar with you. My own style revolves around speed, a sword, and lightning, similar to Mirai’s, while your style with claws and a tail is… well… not that.”

Together they walked up the road, fighting skeletons occasionally along the way. Edgar used his bulk loot at one point, which surprised Raiden and Mira. At first, they were shocked, so he explained that it came from his [Friend of Pharaoh] ability and that seemed to appease them, although Mirai still eyed him jealously. Apparently [Bulk Loot] is a known skill, but a rare one. Raiden had a registry of skills of some sort that he could check from his status screens and said the going rate at auction was listing in gold coins.

As they continued up the road, winding along the side of the mountain and slowly climbing higher, the landscape of neighboring mountains unfolded in the distance. Clouds clung to them, bunching up against them before ebbing past. Eventually, the road flattened out for a section between two mountains, with forest extending outwards at each side. Here, the skeletons emerged in small groups from a particular section of the forest, so the trio made a turn off the road.

The gloomy weather proved to complicate visibility in the forest for Mirai. Edgar’s [Darkvision] meant he could see regardless of the amount of light that managed to make it through the clouds and the thick forest canopy. There was one moment where he stepped in to take out a skeleton hidden in shadows that Mirai had walked right past, but after this she lit a torch from her inventory and progressed onward.

Edgar had a feeling Raiden had a vision skill that assisted him in the low-light, similar to his [Darkvision] but probably a lot better. The man’s gaze appeared to wander far off into the forest, further than Edgar could see. At a certain point, he poked them both and pointed in a specific direction.

“Found it. That way.”

They nodded and let him lead the way. As they moved through the forest, Raiden completely ignored the skeletons. Whenever they attacked or approached him, his body would crackle with electricity and then he’d simply appear beyond them, out of range. The job of fighting them fell squarely to Mirai and Edgar.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Between Mirai’s kicks and Edgar’s [Tail Whip], the skeletons were no match for them. Also, the more Mirai beat skeleton’s into the ground, the more she seemed to lighten up. Edgar noticed her naturally adjusting to his presence in fights. They weren’t quite at the level of doing combos, but they were making space for each other.

It was a step in the right direction and Edgar smiled, finding himself enjoying the combat. After nearly an hour of taking down skeletons, it was starting to feel a bit like manual labor. His stamina recovered quickly enough between fights, but the strain on his body was undeniable.

However, the aches in his body energized him. The feeling of having a tail was still a bit awkward, but he was getting more accurate with his attacks. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was also clear that when he used the skill [Tail Whip] his accuracy and damage increased even more.

Eventually, they followed Raiden to a cave in the side of the mountain where Raiden stepped to the side and gestured for them to enter first.

“After you.”

Looking into the cave, Edgar could see a crowd of skeletons milling about. At the edge of his vision, at the far end of the cave, he could see the rift—a thin slice of darkness floating a few feet off the ground, radiating purple energy.

Rift Entrance: [The Ancient Tomb]

* Rating: Level 1

* Conditions: [unstable]

* Rift will collapse in 76 hours.

He scanned the creatures, checking each one’s name and level, but they were all level one skeletons. As they watched, another skeleton slipped out of the rift, knocking into the others.

“What’s the plan?” Edgar asked, before realizing that Mirai was already in motion.

She launched herself into the cave, feet kicking out in all directions. Raiden palmed his forehead. Within the first few kicks, Edgar realized that her kicking skill had a slight cooldown and with this many skeletons in a tight space, she would be overwhelmed. They crowded around her, obscuring the light of her torch and the shadows of skeletons stretched out across the cave towards Edgar and Raiden.

“Well, here goes nothing.”

Edgar took a moment to settle his footing. He prepared his [Acrobatics] skill, focusing on it in the back of his mind, remembering how it had appeared fighting the Prince of Imps, just before his falling [Tail Whip] attack. After dropping into a crouch, he launched himself into motion. The [Acrobatics] skill accelerated his movements a bit, but the main effect was how effortlessly he could jump and dodge between the skeletons. As he moved, he also gained a good view of Mirai and how the fight was going overall.

She poked at the skeletons with her sword, not doing much damage but kept them out of reach. Her sword was a blur of metal, and the skeletons stumbled backwards. Having cleared enough space around her, she unfurled a powerful kick, catching one of the skeletons square in the jaw. It’s skull detached and Edgar grinned as it sailed past him, the jaw wagging brokenly.

Ahead he spotted a cluster of skeletons that had somehow gotten themselves tangled. One had its arm stuck through the rib cage of the second, the third had its foot tangled in the leg of the first, and so on. Targeting that group, he curled into a somersault and activated [Tail Whip].

The club of his tail busted all the skeletons at once and their bodies crumpled into piles of bone. Rising to his feet, he drew his claws and pivoted to face the other skeletons. He found himself smiling again, with all the essence flowing into him. Fighting the skeletons was fun, and he wasn’t bad at it. His instincts were on the money.

Despite the number of skeletons, it didn’t take long to take them all out and Raiden strolled into the cave.

“You’re creative fighters. Hold onto that.”

He glanced between them, “I know you both want to level, but don’t forget that all the levels in the world mean nothing if you die.”

Mirai huffed.

Edgar nodded.

“Good teamwork will keep you alive. Try to find even an ounce of that while you’re in there. Build trust. Talk to each other. Make plans, but not too many plans. Things change quickly after the first encounter.”

Mirai shook her head as Raiden’s words of wisdom went on a bit too long.

“Ahem? I have questions,” Edgar tried to inject, but Raiden began ignoring him again. His eyes were glued to his darling niece.

“Did you have enough breakfast? Do you have rations? Extra weapons and armor?”

“Yes, yes. I’m ready to delve the rift, Uncle Ray. Don’t worry.”

“Do you have a timepiece?”

She held up a small, silver pocket watch. “Yes, my father gave me his.”

“Sigh…” Raiden shook his head. “Sixteen years is like a drop of water, but even so, look at you, headed into a rift to fight and grow. Promise me you’ll be careful.”

“I promise.”

“Ahem… I don’t have any rations, weapons, or armor?... Ahh, is that a problem?” Edgar tried to poke his head between Mirai and Raiden, but failed. They ignored him completely.

Mirai finally extracted herself and pushed away, stepping quickly towards the portal.

“Goodbye, Uncle! We’ll be fine. We’ll see you in three days, at the most.”

“How do you know it’ll take three days?” Edgar asked.

She spared him a quick glance. “The rift collapses in three days and if that happens while we’re inside, it’ll spit us back out here.”

Raiden nodded, “it’s not an experience to look forward to, but it certainly beats dying. If you get outmatched in there, bunker up and wait it out.”

Edgar looked nervously at the rift, “I don’t know about this.”

“You’ll be fine, Edgar… Are you sure you have enough rations, Mirai?”

“Please, Uncle! Three days isn’t even enough time to starve.”

“It’s certainly long enough to get very hungry,” Edgar added. ”Please don’t make me eat any more monsters.”

The familial banter ground to a halt as Raiden and Mirai glanced at each other.

Raiden narrowed his eyes. “I swear, you say some weird stuff, Edgar.”

~~~~~~~~~~

* Check out the Stats Page for this Chapter here