The last light of the day languished on the horizon, red rays grasping at the cool air and the clouds gray as tombstones. There was little time to make mistakes. It was thirteen days into their three-week training plan that they now had a choice: Either Isaac and Zach delved the rift today, or they had to wait until Claire was back, and by then the rift would definitely be Tier 1.
Then what?
At Tier 0 the rift was doable. Pok-ball gear wasn’t exactly meant for combat, so they had no effective armor and shoddy gear. With a tier difference they could do it. But if they tried to delve the rift when after it became Tier 1, they could just as well donate their organs to the nearest school of hungry reef-dwellers. Since that was less than desirable, they would have to tell Claire or Hammond, and then it would be out of their hands.
Would that be so bad?
Zach certainly seemed to think so. His sandals were fixed sloppily as he rummaged through scattered supplies and old paraphernalia. Isaac made sure their collection of neat sticks was safely stowed, as was an old bow they had built with twine before realizing that the wood on the island could barely store a few pounds of draw weight before snapping. Good wood was in short supply. It felt like everything was, especially right this moment.
For Isaac, loot from a single delve could go a long, long way. It was enough that he would consider being truly unfair to his sister, just this once. And they’d agreed to share the spoils with her anyways, so all he really was doing was protecting her from their collective stupidity.
“Hey,” Sophia called as they tried to lose her, high-tailing it out in the opposite direction of the orphanage. “Heeey!”
“I’m sorry, I forgot my fishing pole, I have to take a shit, I have rabies.” Isaac gasped, stumbling through the bushwork as every branch on the island decided today was the day to slap him in the face. It was a bad day to be tall and a good day to be small and nimble.
The loamy ground made way for sand and the beach. Their canoe was still fastened to a tree, and the waves were not yet churning with the distant storm.
Isaac came to a halt, as did a pair of footsteps behind him, and then another pair.
“What I’m trying to say, Sophia, is we’ll be right there, you can go on ahead and—”
“Isaac,” Zach sighed. “She’s onto us.”
“You better believe I am.” Two awfully harsh fingers jabbed him beneath the ribs. “You’ve both been coming back covered in more bruises than normal. Even if you’re serious about it, nobody just up and decides to be a delver one day; either they’re born into it and taught from a young age to be good at it, or their bank-accounts force them to and they die. So what, are you planning to run away from home in that cockleshell just to croak while trapped in some thirty-year non-compete clause?”
“We found a rift. We’re going to delve it.”
Her eyes snapped to Isaac, practically electrified.
Yep, it’s not as bad as you thought, it’s way worse.
“It’s Tier 0,” Zach added. “Basically free money and essence. Maybe enough to get me to Tier 2.”
Her mouth gaped open and closed. “That… you’re doing this because… That is such carpshit. And you” — she whirled around at Isaac, who took an involuntary step back — “you should know better.”
“I mean—”
“We can’t rely on Claire and Hammond forever,” Zach countered. “She is not getting richer. Do you know how much it takes to feed the twenty-three of us at the orphanage? I’ve seen the ledgers. The government subsidies do not cover even half of the expenses. They’re giving her less because she’s high tier, and at the same time they're also taxing the scales off her ass.”
“Sorry that we didn’t tell you.” And Isaac did feel sorry. “You said it yourself, you don’t want to have anything to do with rifts and monsters, no matter your boon.”
“I never said I wouldn’t help you.” There was a bitterness in her voice, and genuinely, Isaac would have felt betrayed in her shoes as well. “You’re both my brothers, my idiot, stupid brothers. You were keeping this from me — because what, because you thought I couldn’t handle it?”
This didn’t feel right. They’d always done everything together, day and night, pranks and presents. But the rift was there and they were only moderately underprepared while Sophia wasn’t even mentally ready to go and risk her life. She must have been expecting a secret prank, or some stupid boy-secret, like a hidden porno magazine.
Maerdon, he wished it was just a porno mag. The embarrassment was easier to deal with than the shame he was feeling now.
“Do you think I wouldn’t help you?” he heard Sophia ask. “Is that it?”
“Actually, it’s because you’re a narc,” Zach added, unhelpfully. “And you barely reach up to Isaac’s chest.”
It felt like a slap, watching Sophia grow near tears. “... I’m going to tell Claire.”
“You better run then.” Zach wasn’t even looking her way, eyes fixed straight ahead. “We might be done here before you can find her.”
She glared at them for a moment, then took off at full tilt.
Hey, at least you hesitated. Good for you.
“Ugh. I feel terrible,” Isaac said.
“You and me both.” Not that Zach would ever show it. “Now c’mon, let’s net us a load of gups.”
The waves lapped at the shore as they paddled in silence. The sea smelled of dead algae and bioparticulate mush. It was the foam, and Isaac thought that no matter what would happen today, he would never forget that rotting smell. They rounded the spit of land, and soon enough they were at the nook in the rock. They fastened their boat nearby and tugged themselves until they were parallel to the cliff.
The rift warbled in place as it had before, a translucent-gray sphere or disk gently dislodging space.
It looks bigger, Isaac thought, full of all kinds of monsters.
“Lo’,” Zach said, “she beckons us with open bosom, our eyes filled to the brim with endless treasures.”
Isaac just gave Zach a look. “Poetry? Now?”
“I thought it fit the occasion.” Zach scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish before turning to Isaac. “Alright then. You first?”
Then, with a grin, Zach dove head-first through the rift, leaving Isaac staring with a strangled cry in his throat. The rift oobled ominously and innocently.
Mystery rift, Two boys dead, more at five.
He shook his head, slapped his cheeks until they burned while his heart and amygdala threatened treason.
“Carpshit.” He set a foot inside, retracted it and found it whole. “Shit, fuck, dammit.”
The world turned inside out as he stepped through. It was like pressing against an invisible membrane, before the exact force blocking him beckoned him in with an encouraging shove on the shoulder. It felt comforting, and the taste of essence was heavy on the air.
I feel like a VIP. Makes sense. The rift probably makes all its food feel like that.
He blinked, steading himself on uneven ground. His eyes were deciding that now was the time to spend the entire day’s budget of blinking all at once, but when he finally got a clear sight, Zach was standing a few steps ahead in a cave-like corridor wide enough for three people to walk side-by-side comfortably. Blue and green moss dimly illuminated everything all around. Barnacles covered nearly every surface of the corridor, mounds razor sharp like, well, barnacles. A sad anemone hung on the ceiling like a squashed butthole. The place didn’t look too threatening.
He could even see back outside through the entrance, a pinhole of the world shimmering in a mirror of the rift outside.
“Heya,” Zach said without taking his eyes off the way ahead.
“Hey.” Isaac swallowed a gulp. “Any monsters?”
“None so far.” He hefted his own pok-ball bat. His magical long-dagger was dangling from his hip because for all its lethality, killing monsters with it would require getting damn close. “The only thing dangerous in here would be tripping on flat ground.”
That tickled a snort out of Isaac. “Maybe that’s the rift’s thing. Death by immobile barnacles.”
“I sure hope not. It’ll be a pain to kill them all when they’re wedged in every crack. I didn’t bring a hammer.” Zach laughed, the sound echoing far ahead before he shut himself up.
They both stared ahead, waiting for something to happen. For a minute, they just stood there.
Isaac wiped a bead of sweat from his brows. “Great. Now whatever not-barnacle is up ahead definitely knows we’re here.”
Zach at least had the good grace to look ashamed. “It’s not like the rift doesn’t know we’re here. Everything inside is part of it.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“And yet, everything in here only notices us if we give it good reason to. Handy Hand-divers Handmanual, Issue 223.”
“Don’t quote the sacred texts to me,” Zach countered. “I was there when they were first read.”
This time, Isaac couldn’t keep himself from grinning. A bit of the tension he had been feeling was pouring out his pores, and the rest was buried under the shared knowledge that they weren’t alone in this.
I can do this. No fear. Follow Zach’s lead.
Zach gave him a slap on the back. “Onwards! One step after the other, towards riches and rancor.”
+++
Rifts were still largely a mystery to the general populace. Popular media bombarded everyone with exaggerated ideals on how they worked, while in the backrooms of universities and places of education, the smartest people on the globe struggled to convey exactly how little they knew for certain. Every rift was unique, like a person was, and like a person they all had a collection of similar attributes.
For one, Rifts always offered a reward. Be it essence, magical items, or natural treasures, they were the sweet fruit used to entice creatures from outside to come on in, have a look, and stay a while, preferably forever. Similarly, a rift always had a rift guardian, its strongest defense against people trying to taste the forbidden fruit.
Kill the rift guardian, get the greatest rewards. That was how it always went for every rift.
When it came to rifts, that treacherous word ‘always’ had to be taken with two grains of salt. ‘Always’ implied predictability, and though a rift may be predictable nine times out of ten, it was that tenth time that broke the rule, or the delver’s back.
They happened upon the first room within minutes. The rift wasn’t any more complicated than a single corridor leading ever forward, terminating in an open area as wide as a living room. The ground was mostly even here, and besides a small mound of clams and other sea life clinging together, there was nothing inside the room at all.
They checked, thoroughly, both in front of them, behind them, and on the ceiling.
“Well, only one place we haven’t checked,” said Zach as he strode forward.
“It can’t be. That would be stupid.” Isaac stared ahead at the obvious mound of seastuff when suddenly, it jumped, shaking coral and other loose bits off itself. “Holy shit, Zach get back, it’s a…”
“A crab?”
It was crab-shaped, though a bit long and they couldn’t tell where its shell stopped and the growths on its back started. Standing at the shoulder-height of a medium to small sized dog, it was the biggest crab Isaac had ever seen. There was something familiar about it; Isaac had seen it before, but he just couldn’t place where.
“I think that’s more of a shrimp.” Sophia would know. “Alright, you take the left, I take the right and—”
Before he could finish, Zach stepped forward and into the critter’s area of attack. Its threatening posture turned into a quick lunge, a two-meter hop forward. Zach had already stepped back when it landed with a flop, and in one quick swing he bashed it over the head with his bat.
The crab-shrimp went crunch. Blood and juice went everywhere. Zach inspected the crab-juice trailing off his bat, then wiped a couple droplets off his glasses.
“Well. That was anticlimactic. A perfect takedown though,” he said while the blood on his glasses just smeared further. “All it takes is one good hit.”
“Is it dead?” Isaac poked it with the end of his bat. An eyestalk drooped sadly onto the ground. “How do we know?”
With a start, the body released a puff of see-through gas. It was deflating in front of their eyes, one centimeter at a time. The rift was reclaiming what it could, because rifts were nothing if not resourceful.
Zach inhaled and his face was a grin of victory. “You feel that? The essence?””
Isaac took a deep breath as well. The sensation of a cool, deep filling tickled at the edge of his chest. The same feeling he remembered from when they first discovered essence. “It’s not a death-fart, for sure. But I didn’t expect the smell of a year’s cultivation of natural essence to smell so… crabby.”
“It’s not a whole year’s worth of cultivating natural essence, but it’s almost there.” Zach looked deep in thought. “Though, normal crabs don’t carry this much at Tier 0.”
“They’re also not made of pure essence.” The crab thing was already looking quite hollowed out. In a few minutes, even the shell would be gone. The same applied to anything they dropped in here and left unattended, which Isaac guessed made sense if he thought of rifts like the belly of a whale. “Think the rift has enough to boost us to Tier 2, sire?”
“That’s the spirit, young Isaac!” he said in a posh accent before setting one foot on the deflating corpse. “Now let us continue, the two of us. Isaac and Zach, adventurers extraordinaire, plunging jolly holes no man has dared plunge before.”
“Phrasing.”
“In space! Holes in space and time, to fill the holes in our hearts and pockets.”
“Well said, sire, well said. Tally-ho then?”
“You may release the hounds.”
“Woof, bark.”
The exit of the first room looked as barebones as the way inside. Spirits were high. Isaac was almost looking forward to getting a crab-shrimp done-in himself.
The cave went on for what felt like an eternity. It was likely closer to five minutes, but minutes turned to hours with how often they checked in front and behind.
“Is that anemone the same shade and in the exact same spot as all the others?” Isaac asked.
“Sure could be. The little baby rift is trying to skimp on resources by copying room designs. Smart.”
They doubled back, just to be sure they weren’t walking in a loop, before moving onwards.
Then, they found a second room. It was exactly the same one as the first, including the mound in the middle, but sans the exit.
Isaac nodded at Zach and at the unspoken agreement, stepped forward right to the mound that was already rising out of the ground. With his longer arms and bat, Isaac didn’t bother to wait for it to launch an attack, smacking it with the wooden edge with as much force as he could muster.
Crunch.
The moment his bat connected with the crustacean, the walls shook. Four pieces detached themselves from where they were in hindsight quite obviously hugging the wall. They scuttled, twitched, and eyed them with black beads on stalks.
Isaac was surrounded by all four, two of those were also flanking Zach. It was a trap, simple as anything, and they’d fallen for it.
Carpcrap.
Without knowing which one would come first, Isaac was too slow to dodge or deflect the first crab missile. It smashed painfully against his shin, little mouth-bits immediately scrabbling to pinch and pierce while the two bigger claws tried to clip toes.
Crap crap.
Isaac stomped, kicked, and pried it off before tearing his head around to check where the other ones were. He barely caught sight of one that Zach was wailing aggressively on before a heavy lump of chitin smashed into his back, barrelling him over.
“Come on!” Zach yelled as Isaac wrestled with the mother of all things ugly. “Get a piece of this one!”
The crab-prawn were surprisingly heavy, though they weren’t very good at grabbing what they wanted. Isaac tore it off, most of his shirt coming with it, before smacking it so hard on the underside it could have made his bat crack.
He twitched, threw himself out of the way of the second crab, then kicked it against the wall before pressing his bat up against where it’s throat was supposed to be.
How do you choke a lobster? How!?
What a dumb thought.
He stood up, something the crustacean was having a lot more difficulty with. It didn’t flip itself upright before he splattered it against the wall with a wet scrunch, then whacked it a few more times until it stopped twitching.
Ok. Two down. I’m ok, mostly. Zach?
Zach was still digesting his last enemy, stumbling backward as it nip-nip-nipped at his toes. It was probably rude to step on its flat tail, then let him whack it until its face was mush, but what did Isaac know about dungeon etiquette? He was neither a delver nor was he going to start moralizing for the case of something that would very much have liked them to both keel over dead.
The adrenaline though, woah, that was still pumping loud in his ears. He didn’t hear his own question and had to repeat it, as neither had Zach.
“Dagger. Why didn’t you use your dagger?”
“Didn’t need it. Better reach with the bat.” Zach spat, luckily not blood. “Eugh, I think I got some gunk in my mouth.”
“Injuries?”
Zach held up his feet, noting only a few bruises. “Nothing much. You good yourself?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?” For the first time of the day, Zach looked concerned,
“It’s nothing...”
Isaac looked himself up and down, and he had to admit: by comparison he looked like he had just been mauled by a dog. None of his injuries were too deep, but he would definitely need to get them all disinfected after rolling over those barnacles. The last thing he needed today was an infection from a few scrapes.
“I look like crap.”
“And yet, Claire’s going to verbally thrash me the most.”
“Hey, you just have the face of a natural troublemaker.”
“I can’t help it, I was born with it.” He grinned and Isaac grinned back. “Well, how was this for your first delve?”
Isaac blinked. “That was it?”
“Yep.”
“Five crabs total?”
“It’s a bit underwhelming, but my guess is that we’re picking the fruit while it’s still green.”
“But…”
“Maybe we can get another delve in after we’ve spent the next month on toilet duty.” Zach laughed, then turned to pick up a small glowing casket that could barely fit a soda. The rift had tested them, they had called its bluff, and now they got to reap the rewards, as was only fair. “This here is what makes it worth it. Our rift-reward.”
He popped it open. Inside, nestled in a bed of satin, there was a small nearly see-through crystal as large as half a pinky.
“Tier 0 mana crystals don’t exist. This is a genuine, Tier 1 specimen.”
Isaac goggled at it, touched it, felt the bumps and irregularities of the surface. This kind of crystal could power anything, from magical cars and ships to heating systems, magical items, and spaceships. The world ran on mana as much as on electricity, but few things stored mana in an effectively harvestable form. The Immortal Empire was always starved for mana, because there was never enough to power the spaceships, nor enough to have healers heal every single illness with magic.
The mana inside a mana crystal was dense, pure, and so very desirable. Not for Isaac, though they could sell it for a lot of money. There was a way to make the wild mana inside it palatable to humans, but mana potions were so expensive only the richest of people could hope to use them.
“Ten thousand gups. We’re rich. Think we can sell the box?”
It was a fine wood, not a single seam in sight. Rift-crafted.
“A collector might buy it?” Zach held it up, made sure there wasn’t a double bottom or anything. “The designs are unique to the rift. The later ones can get pretty big, but this… I guess we could sell it for fifty gups?”
“Let’s not undersell fifty gups. Hey, what’s with that look?”
“Oh, nothing,” Zach said, but Isaac knew what the issue was without even seeing his sullen face. “We didn’t make Tier 2.”
Isaac took a breath and indeed, after sharing the essence between the two of them, they were maybe seventy percent of the way there. That was still a couple years worth of natural cultivation, but Zach didn’t seem satisfied. “Any chance we can run this rift again?”
“No. It needs to recharge its mana stockpile and what-have-you, while we need to rest up, and get chewed out by the rarest of sea dwellers: an angry Claire.” Zach sighed. “Let’s just make for the exit.”
They reached the exit in record time. He checked the time on his brick. Zach was proven correct,roughly fourteen minutes had passed for one delve, which felt fast. Too fast. From the repeated room-designs to the barely-dangerous crab-shrimp, everything about this rift felt just a tad too simple.
That’s just how it is. The rift is new and hungry, it’s basically starving. And here we are, hoping for the motherlode.
The exit warbled in place. Zach was staring off through the pinhole, calculating or scheming or maybe just sulking in a way only he ever did. But Isaac’s gaze roamed right past it, where the dimming moss-light was protecting an unusual secret. He licked his lips, tasting the wet, salty breeze.
“Hey Zach.”
“Mhm?”
“The rift keeps going.”