They stuck the landing, which was to say that Isaac’s bubble got stuck in a tree, and he had to wait until Andri could clamber up and cut him free.
<
“I’m just glad I didn’t get speared through the gut by a branch and croak.”
Andri stared at him with piercing eyes.
<
“Please, don’t feel obligated to laugh at my puns over text. They’re terrible.”
<
“Alright. I’ve decided to make you laugh for real at least once until the end of this test.”
Andri didn’t even deign him with a snort.
<
“Clearly I’m a parakeet.”
Again, no reaction.
There was a definite tinge of judgment in his voice. But to be fair, Isaac did look like a ripe yellow fruit ready for the picking. He looked out over the jungle, where Bubbles were still slowly raining down here and there in singles or in loose pairs.
“So, where’s Bird?”
<
“Ah.”
Once they were down, Andri tried to call Sophia again, but he didn’t have a signal. There was a large ridgeline to his left that was possibly disturbing it, and climbing seemed to be the only option to find out. He sent a few message.
<
<
<
He didn’t get an answer to any of them.
“We didn’t lose anything else, did we?” Isaac asked as he spooled the last of his rope.
<
Isaac sighed. This was less than an ideal start. “So. What else can go wrong?”
Andri opened his mouth, frowned, then closed it again.
<
“It was a genuine question.”
Andri mulled it over while his ears flicked here and there.
<
<
<
“We could die in a rift,” Isaac added.
<
Isaac couldn’t mirror the confidence with the way Andri casually declared that he was fine with delving up a Tier.
“Let’s find a Tier 1, please, as a primer. And then we focus on delving once we’re all together.”
After all, if only one half of the group finished this test, it would be an awful shame.
+++
The weather was nice, the jungle less so. Mosquitos whirred about endlessly. Every root was a trap made to trip or to slip on. Each step made the mud slide under Isaac’s foot, and the more time went on, the more he realized what fishcakes must have felt like while being baked in an oven.
It was hot. It was humid. All he could do was walk and sweat, sweat and walk. But at least he was going the right way.
Bless Baphomet’s foresight, he thought as he checked the map he’d found on his infosheet. It was a snapshot of Wett’s entire globe, with a pixel resolution of less than a meter. He looked at his arm, where he’d squished a variety of berries against to check for irritability and therefore poison, like Hammond had taught in his wilderness survival training.
Numbers 2, 3, and 5 leave no reaction. 5 looks too similar to some very poisonous stuff, so that’s right out. Now, the taste test.
He was sucking on berry number 3 when he heard a loud rustle in the bushes. Andri did that when he was trying to be obvious, since nobody would ever have the chance of noticing his approach otherwise. And there he came, wearing nothing but his black shorts, his backpack, and a bandana soaked in water and tied over his forehead.
It was the first time Isaac had seen him fully topless. And he was convinced that nothing short of a walk through hell could give someone his age a body like Andri had. Beneath a thin layer of fur, he was all tendons and muscle, wiry to the point of slenderness, but always ready like a compressed spring. The scars that weren’t hidden beneath the fur were many, ranging from slashes and gashes to tears and thin stab wounds.
It was a body forged by unbelievable strain and training, approaching torture. It was no wonder he moved as he did. Only now did Isaac finally realize that even though they were teammates, Andri only ever approached people from behind or from the sides.
Like an assassin.
He did not comment on what looked like an old acid burn on his chest, or the thin strips of white across his back. He seemed to be enjoying running about unchained so much.
<
“Please don’t tell me you went inside?” Isaac asked.
<>
With a look, Andri shut up any retort.
<
<
“Let’s not make clearing deathtraps a competition, please,” Isaac moaned, before remembering that that was exactly the kind of competition he was in. “My brother lost a hand on our first rift because we were careless.”
<>
Andri blinked at Isaac once.
<
<
Andri, meet nail-on-head. Nail-on-head, meet Andri.
Isaac sighed and put his brick away.
“Fine. Is there anything else my loyal scout wants to tell me?”
<
Now it was Isaac’s turn to stare at him for a pointed while.
<
Half an hour of hiking and climbing later, they stood in a field of flowers. Daffodils sat next to sunflowers and molly-petals and so many other flowers all Isaac could do was count their colors.
I’ve found the place where rainbows end.
It was an oddly placed and oddly prospering slip of meadow, perched right at the edge of a tiny plateau that should have long been overgrown by hardier vegetation.
He peeked under a rock, behind a log.
“No thousand year ginseng. I guess we’re not blessed by the heavens.” He sighed dramatically, peeking over at Andri who was busy smelling and plucking the odd inconspicuous green plant or seed. “Not even a reaction? Tell me you’ve at least heard of Young Master must go see God 2.”
<
“Sounds like a fun childhood.”
<
“I was being sarcastic. I’m sorry you went through that.”
Andri turned to give him another look.
<
Isaac waited, watching the distant jungle under gray clouds as Andri cut through a shaggy looking dead bush. The rift was hidden beneath a pile of browned flower stalks and dirt. A snap caught his attention, and when he looked back, there was a hand sticking out of the undergrowth.
A wooden hand. It was two dimensional, color flaking off of it and the odd looking machine it was attached to.
“What is that?”
< Andri pulled the growth back, revealing a rather jolly-looking wooden cutout of a man dressed like a circus conductor inviting you in like he was eager to reveal his newest show. < “Hello dear delver,” the machine blurted out. “This rift owned by < “Ah.” The rift was as dimly yellow as it was small, around the size of Isaac’s first rift. Just standing there as the mana and essence in the air was slowly drawn into it made shivers break out all over Isaac’s back. He shifted in place. < < “I can’t help it! Rifts are dangerous. Who knows what this one could be filled wi—augh!” A rough kick sent him stumbling straight forward and towards the yellow swirl. “Have a delveriffic day!” the rift warden spat as he tumbled right on past. Isaac closed his eyes reflexively, and when he opened them again, he was underground. The walls were made of tightly packed dirt and questing roots. Everything smelled of humus and cold, wet rock. He could taste it even, because his face was smooshed into the ground, and then a grumpy catman took a first explorative step onto him, then around him. He spat out some mud, then got up and looked around the dim hallway. It was much darker than his first rift, though perhaps that was due to where they had found the rift. It was cool at least, almost uncomfortably so, but at least the ceiling wasn’t too low. “This isn’t as bad as falling from the sky,” he told himself. The sound of Andri hammering a piton into the ground echoed through the rift. “Really?” If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. < “You put up traps?” Isaac asked. “When?” < Seeing as that didn’t satisfy Isaac, the catman continued typing for a while. <> “Ah.” He hadn’t even considered that possibility. But the way this test was built up, with the long, expansive wilderness, and only the top forty making it past, it was practically screaming at them to do it the easy way. After all, who better to rob than a group that had spent the past two days wearing themselves down? No doubt, Andri was thinking that way too, except from the opposite side. He was the hard worker worried someone was going to take his stuff. Some part inside Isaac grinned at the idea that Andri refused to steal other people’s stuff due to some weird personal code. “Maybe I should follow your example. Clearly I’m not paranoid enough.” < Or maybe I’m just paranoid about the wrong things. +++ The rift was moderately larger than Isaac had expected. It was Tier 1 as opposed to the Tier 0 shrimp rift on Seagull Island, once again a whole tier lower than he was. They would need to be economic in their delving, as to win they were expected to go into rift after rift after rift. The test would last for three days, but even that would only fill up most Tier 1 mana pools by about half. “This test kind of reminds me of an assassination.” < “We go in, kill the guardian, and go back out while avoiding unnecessary encounters. That counts as delving a rift for the purpose of getting points.” < If Andri said it wasn’t, then it wasn’t. He was the expert. Maybe that was where his confidence was coming from. They peeked over a mound of dirt into the first suspiciously open room. It was filled with flowers like Isaac had never seen, and smelled like an entire meadow crammed into a condo. “Now’s about time to start revealing your tricks, Andri. Got anything cool against flowers?” Isaac asked with wiggly eyebrows. < “Oh c’mon. I showed you my boon, and my skill.” < “I know you have one or the other that has to do with plants.” Andri gave him a weird side-eye. < “But we were such good friends,” Isaac said, pulling him in for a side-hug. Andri dipped right below his arm. < “Sandwich for life?” <> He blinked, and his eyes suddenly focused on the room ahead. < And since rifts this low only had one type plus the guardian, all they had to figure out was how to kill a plant. It sounded easy, and that made Isaac suspicious. < “What? Why me?” < Andri scrunched his nose. < “Boo,” Isaac said as he limbered up. “You just don’t want to get hit.” <> Isaac paused. Instead of a comment, he put a foot forward and eyed the sunflower-like plants. They were about as tall as he was, and with a heavy flower bud that reminded him of a morning star. They looked to be breathing, or rather their bulls were furling and unfurling in rhythmic motions. It was strange how alive they were, or perhaps how they were alive in such an unnatural way. One of the sunflowers turned to look at him. There were two approaches one could take with rift monsters. One approach was to strike first, ask questions later. Claire preferred that approach, because ‘you don’t need to know what a corpse can do’. The second was to cede the first strike to the enemy, then learn, adapt, and counter perfectly. Isaac had always sucked at countering, at least with a weapon. He chose the first sunflower and before it could do whatever sunflowers did, struck it with a full-forced blow with his pok-ball bat. Hitting its green stem was like hitting a small tree. His bat’s dull wooden sword-shape was not enough to cut through anything, but before he could accurately weigh how resistant this plant was to bludgeoning, he hit it again in the same spot, then again. The stem cracked, then bent over before the sunflower could react. Plant monsters were, surprisingly, not very agile, nor quick. But they were still as tough as other monsters. A pinging noise and a sharp pain had him raise his hand in front of his face. The other sunflowers were looking at him, and more than that, they were shooting little bullets from their crowns. He ran for cover, jumped behind it, and took a moment to stop his racing heart from jumping out of his chest. They’d attacked him. And they’d hit, hit with… little sunflower-seed shaped missiles, as long as a knuckle, half as wide, and quite sharp. And he was still alive. He plucked a couple dozen of them from rents in his clothes and where they had dug into his skin. A bit of blood came with every one of them, but the worst that happened was a small trickle from where it had nicked a larger artery on his thigh. He was one tier higher after all, and armored. When he took a sip from his healing potion and saw the blood stop flowing, he couldn’t keep himself from smiling. This is what being an adventurer feels like. The armor had worked tremendously. If he’d gone in wearing nothing but shorts and a sign that said ‘hit me’, he’d have been stuck like a pin cushion and bled dry in no time. There were four large flowers total, one dead thanks to his enthusiastic assault. Now to do the rest, and– He peeked over the ledge, only to see two dead sunflowers, and a third that was being straddled by Andri. He swung around, clinging to its stem with his clawed feet as he placed his chakram to its neck. With a single slice, its head toppled from its stem, and the smell of plant juice and toasted sunflower seeds filled the air. It was essence, pure and fine, and the more Isaac took in the more he realized how he had missed the feeling. It was a light smell, one that felt like it would slot in well with the mind or mana. He chose mana, since a larger pool or more regeneration was more likely to help him now than a better short- or long-term memory. Slowly, he grafted some of the essence to that part of his being, and kept the rest swirling in the middle until they had a break and he could focus on allocating it. Andri was looking at him like what he was doing was weird. < “If you’re asking whether my core is filled so much that I have to shunt all essence to keep myself from tiering up, then no.” Isaac took in another breath. < “Claire said it’s like sugar, and sugar is sweet. It’s nice to feel a sudden improvement, but no-one’s killed for sugar before, right?” But the look on Andri’s face said otherwise. “No. Andri, did you…?” < < < He turned away. “You don’t want to talk about it.” < He sighed, and growled, and took off his gloves to flex some frighteningly sharp, if short claws. They’re probably better used for climbing, Isaac thought. But he could definitely tear my throat out if he wanted. But it was clear which way those claws were pointed. And after this first fight, Isaac was feeling way more confident. “So,” he asked. “Ready to get serious?” < +++ The sunflower rift had a sunflower guardian, a giant thing as tall as an ogre, and with two leaves that it used as flexible, durable shields. I can’t get through, Isaac thought as he bashed at its stem, but was rebuffed by those stupidly soft and sturdy limbs. The sunflower twitched, and Isaac recognized it and dove away half a second before it slammed the ground with its massive crown. Isaac was bounced on his back again and again as Sunflower seeds erupted everywhere and the plant raged in a temper tantrum. An unseen knife appeared at its back, taking another slice out of a point that had already seen a dozen cuts before. “Almost there!” he heard Andri call as he chucked another chakram at that same spot. The sunflower raised its head, showering the nearby exit with seeds the size of Isaac’s middle finger. There was no sound of Andri being hit, and he would have definitely made a sound. These things were razor sharp, and from the two that had hit him in the arm, and one in the leg, Isaac knew that they were a lot more deadly than the normal monsters as well. Should’ve gotten that shield instead. There was a lull in the gatlingfire of unborn flowers, when Isaac noticed the guardian start shining. Andri was still moving from cover to cover, but with the way the sunflower was humming and literally pumping light up its stem in thick globs, Isaac didn’t want to take any chances. He channeled [Cavitate] to push it away, as he ran under it and used his other secret weapon: The gloves of shocking he had bought with his points. They had limited uses, but that was alright with Isaac, they were a trump card after all. Did what gloves of shocking did, sending electricity up and down its stem to the smell of burning plant matter. Then the golden flower shot its beam, golden fire spewing out of its crown as it jittered erratically towards the only target it could see. It was a flamethrower, a shower of golden light that burnt the ground at Andri’s heels and turned it toasty. All it had to do was swerve left a bit and it would give him the world's worst third-degree burns. But if it thought it could forget about Isaac, then it was wrong. [Cavitate] worked wonders from this close up, and he cast it on repeat. It slammed into the ceiling, then the ground, toasting first it, then itself a bit. As it struggled to stand, and Isaac had yet to find some cover of his own, the mink zipped past its back and cut — once, twice, thrice, four times. By the fifth, the sunflower couldn’t lift its heavy head anymore. By the seventh, golden light spewed out of its broken stem, cutting through the rest itself. It died. And boy, was the amount of essence of basic monsters incomparable to that of a guardian. He was pretty sure that the common proverb ‘One monster, one rift, four weeks, three months’ — referring to how much it took to get from Tier 0 to Tier 1, then two, then three and four as a delver — was frighteningly inaccurate. Sure, he’d only needed one guardian of a peak Tier 0 rift to reach the second tier himself, but after that? If he could delve rifts at this pace, he could reach third Tier in under a week. What are the prices for rift-slots again? Haha, oh wait, I’m poor. A concerned looking Andri appeared in Isaac’s field of vision. He poked Isaac in the chest. < “Ask me that in three days again.” < He looked at his dagger as if it had insulted him. <> “Or an axe.” Andri trilled. < “Well, you’ve got some weapons you’re half-decent at.” The scowl that Andri shot him could have cut glass, then fused it back together. Isaac raised his hands. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. You’re a freaking maestro with those hands. If someone asked me to carve something into a birthday cake, I’d hire you.” Andri preened. <> “Which is murking things violently, gotcha.” Isaac got up. “I just realized, you never gave me your scouter’s number.” Andri, who was in the middle of opening the loot-box, froze. “Yes?” “Neat. You can give it now, right? We’re friends.” <> They exchanged numbers and for a moment, all was well. “Wait, Sophia had your number before I did!” < Andri practically tore into the small overgrown chest that had dropped, emptying out the contents on the floor, checking it for a double bottom, then chucking it with the rest of the compost. < It was the least subtle distraction Isaac had ever seen. He let himself be distracted nonetheless. Loot was loot, and that was what they’d come here for. There were two familiar sized Tier 1 mana crystals, as well as two bags that were filled with seeds. “Hey, there’s dinner,” Isaac joked as Andri sniffed them, then picked them up. < “Sure. And the mana stones?” < “Or we could use them.” They both stared at the shards of crystal that were each worth then thousand gups and laughed. “Hey, got you there. You laughed.” With a start, Andri stopped, cleared his throat, and was back in his neutral face. < Isaac opened his mouth, but realized that it really wasn’t. Each of these mana stones held enough mana to keep them topped up for a while, if they had a way to digest them. But they didn’t, because they weren’t monsters or mannequins, nor alchemists that could distill a digestible mana potion out of them. It was like gasoline: Sure, it had a buttload of calories, but would you be able to nourish yourself by drinking it? The answer was no, you would get sick, and it was the same with mana stones. And besides, even if they could, it would be quite literally burning money since they were allowed to keep their loot after the test — and this type of test was exactly what people like Baphomet were even here for. “Hey. You want to go the full way and become an adventurer to get away from your orphanage right?” Isaac asked and Andri nodded. “Alright. If that doesn’t work out, you can take my mana crystals. Selling those will give you a head start in life, and you can pay me back alter, or never.” Andri blinked, exactly twice. < There was another lengthy pause. < That… did seem about right. This test didn’t have a ceiling for the amount of points you could get. If they kept to this pace, they might even be able to get two skills. Isaac would get a defensive skill first — he could already pull enemies and objects towards him, now he just needed some staying power. It would be a self-buff skill, which would be expensive as heck, but with enough points, everything was possible. Wonder if there are any defensive skills with area effects. <> < “Yeah, I can imagine.” Isaac put the loot box into his bag when he paused. “Wait, you don’t have a skill?” He didn’t seem bothered that Isaac had found that out. Possibly, this was his subtle way of revealing it to him, under the condition that he used a minimum of brainpower on the subject. But that didn’t add up. “Then what was the smokescreen on the ship?” < “Ninja-trick?” < To be fair, it did look odd for a smokescreen, oddly yellow and smelling of plants. “So, you’re a ninja now, and an assassin.” < <> < “Interesting,” Isaac said, then pre-typed a message on his brick. < With their loot packed up and after double checking that no monstrous sunflowers were sneaking up behind them, they took a step through and out the rift. There were five people standing there. Isaac felt a sharp pain on his neck. And then he hit the ground.