“Uh… Hello?…” Edgar realized that even where the room’s dim light turned into shadows, he could see clearly thanks to his new darkvision.

He couldn’t see any colors, only shades of gray, but it was enough to see the girl.

She was about his height and probably even his same age as well. She wore a traveler’s cloak with a hood, but the hood was down, revealing short hair mostly tied in a top bun.

“I really hope this place isn’t what I think it is…”

She hesitated at the edge of the light.

“EEEK! NO!” She screamed, turning away from Edgar. “A creep in a rift!! This is my nightmare!”

Edgar felt himself turn bright red and scrambled to cover his privates, using his tail and both hands to maximum effect.

“Oh god, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I swear I’m not a weirdo, I just… Rrrr! Damn Pharaoh!”

He could imagine Pharaoh watching right now and snickering to themself through that golden mask.

“I got stranded here without any clothes. I swear, I don’t mean any harm! Look, I’m moving away.”

Edgar shuffled lamely away.

The girl drew a thin sword, speaking over her shoulder, “Fair warning, creep, I’m not some helpless level one! I know how to use a sword and… I’ve got combat skills!”

“Please, if I had any clothes I’d be wearing them—I got pranked.”

“You call this a prank?… Who could you have pissed off to get dumped in a rift, naked and alone?”

He groaned, “somebody with too much power and free time.”

At that remark, she hesitated.

She surprised him by sheathing her sword and waving her hand through the air in familiar gestures. He couldn’t see the screens, but it was clear she was navigating menus and displays. Suddenly a simple pair of pants appeared in her hands.

“Put these on,” she said, tossing them over her shoulder so they landed on the ground between the two of them.

Edgar shuffled over, keeping his privates hidden to the best of his ability—she certainly didn’t seem interested, but it was still embarrassing. With a final glance at her, he picked up the pants and stuck one of his legs in.

“Oh damn, these are way too tight! There’s no way—”

“What? What are you—,” She nearly looked back at him over her shoulder, but flushed red and turned away again.

“Put them in your Inventory and use them from there. You do have inventory, right? Although, I guess that would help explain why you’re naked, if you don’t. Did you lose it somehow? Are you… cursed?”

Concern slipped into her voice.

Edgar sighed, “No, I have it. I’ve just… never used it before.”

A screen unfolded in front of him as he activated the skill, revealing a grid of squares.

“Sigh, as if... Everybody has inventory. Just put the pants on already, will you?”

Edgar glanced from the pants in his hands to the grid of squares and back to the pants, clueless, “ahhh, pants to E5!”

“Holy Pharaoh, you can’t be serious! You’ve never used Inventory before? Just think of a square and hold up your pants. The system will do the rest. Afterwards, poke the square with the pants in it and choose ’equip.’”

Edgar glanced from his menu to the pants in his hand and back to the menu. It was all a bit weird, but hey, he had a tail now. Weird was the new normal.

He focused on the first square in his inventory and held up the pants, as instructed. The pants dissolved out of his hands, which was concerning, but a pleasant pa-ping sounded and an image of the pants appeared in the square.

“Oh, wow. It worked.”

“Of course it worked!”

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He tapped at that square and another screen popped up.

Item: [Simple Pants]

* An ordinary pair of trousers.

* Durability: 86%

* Level Requirements: None

Item Actions:

* Examine

* Equip

Nothing special, clearly. He tapped “equip” and the pants disappeared from his inventory. A distortion formed around his legs and the pants appeared there.

“Does this mean I’ll never have to dress myself again?… I’m not sure how to feel about that…”

The pants were now sized to his body, a perfect fit.

The girl peeked over her shoulder and, seeing that Edgar finally had pants on, exhaled gratefully and turned to face him, stepping out into the light.

In the light, he could see her hair was dark brown, almost black, and her eyes were green. Her clothes were shades of a deep, midnight blue.

“Thanks, you really saved my… butt?…”

The girl huffed, crossing her arms, “hilarious. Who the hell are you and where are we? How did we get here?”

“My name’s Edgar, but I have no idea where we are. I’ve never seen anything quite like this place.”

She poked at the empty air again and appeared to relax considerably, “you’re level one?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I guess. Whatever that means. What’s your name?”

She hesitated for a moment, “Mirai.”

As soon as she mentioned her name, a screen popped up in front of him.

Mirai

* Race: [Human]

* Level: 1

He waved his hand to dismiss the screen.

“I’ve never heard of a Riftling before… Are you some kind of evolved Rift monster? You talk like a player and your system icon is blue.”

“My system icon?” He asked.

She pointed above her own head and as he looked a little blue triangle appear there. As he stared at it, a panel showing her name and level appeared above it. When he looked away, the panel and triangle both disappeared.

“No, I’m not a monster. At least, I hope not… I do seem to have a tail… and claws… and… extendable teeth.”

She flinched. “That sounds worrying? Although, I guess you could say similar things about Lizardmen, Leonids, Cat Folk… sigh. Sorry, the whole ‘naked in a Rift’ thing really got to me. I don’t mean to be racist.”

“Don’t worry about it. So that’s what this place is, then? A rift?”

“Yeah, I think so. I’m not really sure how we ended up here, though. Usually you have to enter through an open Portal. I fell asleep in a bed and now I’m waking up in a rift, staring at some naked guy... So, naked guy, got any combat skills?”

“One, I think, although I have a feeling these claws aren’t just for show.”

“Good, cause I have a feeling there’s only one way out of this particular Rift. Through it.”

New Party Member: Mirai

Her name appeared in the upper left of his field of view, showing her name and two bars, one red and one blue, both full. She turned towards the hallway leading out of the room they were in and together they walked towards it.

“So Rifts… have monsters in them, then?”

“Yup.”

“And I’m guessing these monsters try to kill us?”

“Yup.”

“Great… Just checking.”

Reaching the entrance to the hallway, they paused. A series of purple lanterns sparked to life along the walls, illuminating the full length of the hallway, which then ended in darkness. Edgar could see into that darkness a bit, but from this far away, all he could see were a few piles of rock just beyond the doorway. The dim purple lighting gave the space an eerie vibe.

“You don’t happen to have any trap detection skills, do you?”

Edgar shook his head, “not unless you count darkvision.”

“Sigh… Me neither,” Mirai grabbed a pebble from the ground and lobbed it along the ground. It bounced harmlessly off the floor.

“Skipping rocks?”

She threw him a sharp glance, “checking for pressure traps on the floor. You had better be on your toes, naked boy. Rifts are dangerous, especially for Ones like us.”

Edgar nodded, grabbing a second rock and tossing it further down the hallway, but this one also bounced harmlessly along the floor.

Mirai reached to her waist and drew a rapier with brilliant, sapphire colored metal woven through the knuckle guard and up the center of the blade. Clearly she was no novice when it came to surviving Rifts.

“I’ll take the lead,” she said, stepping forward.

She moved slowly, tapping her sword against the walls, checking for traps.

“Some form of trap detection would be pretty useful, huh?” Edgar glanced between the walls and the floor, although he had no idea what to look for.

“Yes, it would.”

They slowly made their way to the end of the hallway where it opened up into an even larger room. As soon as Mirai’s foot stepped across the threshold into the space, lanterns flickered to life in a ring around the room, throwing dim purple light throughout the space. The domed ceiling towered over them, mostly dark as the purple light didn’t reach that far, but Edgar could see stone alcoves and decorative gargoyles high above.

“It seems… empty?” Edgar slowly ventured into the room.

The space was at least twice as large as the previous room, with many other hallways feeding into it. All of these halls were dark except for the one they had come through. Mirai spun in circles, keeping her eyes peeled for danger.

They both paused as they heard a scratching sound, claws on stone. Edgar gulped as they both turned up towards the ceiling.

A number of black imps crawled out from their hiding places, red eyes glaring at them in the dark. The group screeched and dropped from the ceiling. They were relatively small, about the size of a dog, but they looked angry.

Mirai glanced at him, “Ready for a fight?”

Edgar lowered into a crouch, extending his claws and flicking his tail.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

~~~~~~~~~~

* Check out the Stats Page for this Chapter here