The descent down the sheer side of the caldera was enough to get Alex’s heart racing as he was immediately buffeted by surprisingly strong crosswinds. Yet the careful stairway construction and safety rails was more than enough for even the Ruidians with physical stats close to the norm to safely make their way down the escarpment, the stairs quickly leveling to take advantage of a natural overhang providing partial shelter and a wide stone pathway lit by a steady stream of strategically placed Qi lights, which made perfect sense, because why wouldn’t the academy assure a well-maintained and well-lit path to their delve sight?
What Alex hadn’t been expecting originally was the echoing thunder steadily picking up in volume as the humidity in the air increased considerably, their group turning a shallow bend to be presented with the awe-inspiring sight of a magnificent spray of water shooting free of the tunnel in a brilliant spray of water and mist sparkling under the light of a twin pair of full moons and countless brilliant stars overhead as the life giving waters rained down upon the lush valley below.
Alex blinked in surprise. “Don’t tell me we’re going to have to fight against the currents to enter the cave? That sounds like suicide for anyone lacking the strength of a Bronze,” Alex said to the pair of cultivators taking the lead, earning a condescending snort from Lu Gang.
“Seriously, boy? You think we’d risk our jewel masters that cheaply?” He snorted and shook his head.
“The path were on leads to a tight bend right into the cavern, fool. We don’t set a single foot in the river, for that is death,” declared Lieberman with a certain amount of asperity. “Really, think before you speak, jewelless child, lest you’d insult your clan any more than you already have.”
Alex smirked, but didn’t bother jousting words with Lieberman as an excited Linnea squeezed his hand, pointing at the entrance shimmering with an odd distortion radiating a surprising amount of spiritual energy, both Light and Dark. “Oh, there it is, Alex. The entrance! Now hurry up and party up with me, and we’ll get started.”
Her words were immediately cut off by Lieberman. “He’ll party up with me. As will you. As per protocol.” This was said in their tribal dialect, the pair of Bronze patiently waiting on. Alex swallowed, suddenly feeling the idiot for not having known that this was coming. They were Ruidians. Of course they would party up to take advantage of experience sharing and potency surges for emergency healing. And of course they expected him to join them, having absolutely no idea of what that entailed.
Alex took a deep breath, heart racing as he turned to lock gazes with Lieberman, praying his plan would work.
“Wrong. You’re all partying with me.”
Lieberman’s eyes flashed with sudden heat. “And what makes you think I’d defer my authority to an unproven whelp?”
Alex flashed a mirthless smile. “Because I can link the cultivators to our party as well.”
Those words caused all three Ruidians to stiffen, gazing Alex’s way with hawk-like intensity.
“I don’t believe you,” Lieberman said at last, voice oddly strained.
To which Alex turned to Lu Gan and Su Rin. “So, how would you guys like to party up with me? I’m not sure if any Ruidian’s offered before, but my mixed heritage lets me open it to anyone. And before you protest… it will allow you to sense where everyone is in relation to yourself, which will make tactical planning a breeze and make sure you never have to worry about your guandao clipping someone in the head.”
Su Rin snorted in clear protest, but a thoughtful looking Lu Gang stared at Alex for long moments as spray from the nearby waterfall matted their hair before soaking through their clothing.
“Show me,” the man said at last, eyes widening in awed surprise when Alex did just that.
Party invite offered to: Lu Gang. Trace Ruidian ancestry detected. Slave node det— Master node interface-locked! Interactions limited to peripheral sub-routines! Interaction limited to location & potency exchange.
Alex felt an awful blade of tension in his gut as Lu Gang’s eyes widened, before his brows furrowed. “Strange. I can…” He closed his eyes and smiled. “I know right where you are in relation to myself,” he declared at last, earning an awed look from Linnea and Hanz and a disapproving scowl from Lieberman.
“Well, I guess we know who our party leader is now,” Linnea smirked her uncle’s way, earning a glower in turn.
“Not helping, Linnea,” Alex and Hanz said in unexpected unison as Su Rin grudgingly accepted the party invite at Lu Gang’s insistence, scowling as he rubbed his temples. “This headache better go away.”
Lu Gang snorted. “It does. What matters is whether or not you can sense where everyone is in relation to yourself.”
Su Rin shook his head. “No. Only you and the Blond Ruidian… wait, I sense the girl and the boy too… but I don’t sense the third one.”
Alex calmly held the gaze of the scowling Lieberman, showing no indication of the surge of relief flooding his soul that his so-called Master Node had been pacified to the point that neither Linnea nor her cousin were gazing at Alex with looks of unmitigated horror. Alex just hoped that he could hold on to that odd focus where he deliberately relaxed his mental muscle, for lack of a better word, no matter how much Lieberman personally grated.
The man stared and spat. “Fine. But that doesn’t mean you’re getting a leader’s cut!”
Alex shrugged. “I’m not asking for a leader’s cut… this time. Just a fair share.”
Linnea positively beamed. “That’s very fair and generous, Alex. And I’m sure uncle will have no problem granting you such, once you prove yourself on this run.”
Her uncle positively scowled, before unexpectedly backing down with a sigh. “If your odd cultivation class actually lets you sync us all up… then yes. It’s worth us all working together harmoniously.”
He gave no more ground than that, but Alex was happy enough with it, giving everyone a nod of acknowledgment. “Are we set, then? What’s the protocol for entering the rift?”
“We hold hands or link arms so we all port in at the same location and time,” Lu Gang said, ignoring the look of surprise Alex cast his way.
“Wait… you mean these rifts are individual instances?”
“Of course! This is nothing like fighting wild beasts in the desert,” Linnea explained, lips curved in a sisterly grin. “But don’t worry. Since we’re all partied up, our connection is even stronger than if we were all lovers holding hands. But just to be safe...”
“Just to be safe, we’re following protocol,” Su Rin snapped, linking arms with Lu Gang and a sighing Hanz, who grabbed his cousin’s hand who immediately claimed Alex, forcing him to link arms with Lieberman.
“Everyone linked up?” Lu Gang, the true leader of the group, whatever Alex’s interface said, received nods from everyone before returning. “Everyone have water, backup weapons, and know the plan?”
Alex chose not to argue with any of that as Lu Gang’s hard gaze softened into a smile. “Excellent. We’re going to earn ourselves enough silver and credits to gift every member of your tribe, or feast on high quality spirit beast meat for a month, easy. Now we’re going in on the count of five. Stay linked together. If our link’s broken, don’t panic, just make your way for the exit as quickly as possible, which should be less than a hundred feet away, if it didn’t manifest right behind us. We’ll then meet up and try again.”
With those words, Lu Gang boldly stepped for the shimmering gate sparkling with all the colors of the rainbow whenever the reflected moonlight from the spray hit it, and shadowy gloom when it didn’t. Between one moment and the next, Alex found himself wrapped in a cocoon of absolute darkness and shockingly rich spiritual energy, before blinking open his eyes and taking a gasp of incredibly fresh air radiating spiritual energy so potent and tasty that his mouth began to water.
Su Rin immediately stumbled to the limestone ground, trembling for long moments as Lu Gang immediately took up a defensive guard with his guandao, concern clearly written on his features.
“Su Rin!”
The younger man grit his teeth and forced a smile. “It’s alright. It just… you know how the miasma takes me. Just give me a minute, we’ll be fine.”
His friend frowned. “You didn’t spend enough time cleansing yourself from our last delve. We’re going to call it off early.”
Su Rin ignored his friend’s protest, looking over everyone else in their group. “It’s been a month, and I focuse on nothing but shedding impurities for several glasses before and after high noon every single day.”
Lu Gang shook his head with a curse. “You’re being foolish. The sun should be caressing your skin every hour its out for a full month after every run.”
“That’s not what master Glin says, brother. He assured me that I’d only need to spend three hours a day cleansing myself.”
This earned a snort. “Sure, but for how many weeks?”
Su Rin scowled. “Six.”
“And it’s only been four.”
Su Rin waved away Lu Gang’s concern. “I’ll be alright, as always. At least the Ruidians all made it. And with four of them… I have high hopes for this run.”
Alex took a moment to close his eyes and center himself, after carefully examining the forty-foot diameter cavern they found themselves in, sensing no hostile threats nearby, quickly setting up his party interface to flag any other sentients radiating spiritual energy as red until proven otherwise.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Party Leader: Alex Hammer
Party Members: Lu Gang (Bronze tier body cultivator) / Su Rin (Bronze-tier body cultivator) / Hanz (Rank 6 Lesser Ice Elementalist) / Linnea (Rank 6 Lesser Fire Elementalist) / Lieberman (Rank 7 Lesser Fire Elementalist) - Note! Suppressed Master Node limits access to all character sheets and skill tables!)
Reds detected to the Northwest.
Alex jerked open his eyes as Su Rin smacked his chest, none too lightly. “Pay attention! Our lives depend on everyone being alert!”
Alex ignored him, turning his focus to Lu Gang. “There’s something coming our way from the northwest.”
The man scowled. “And just how the hell do you know that?”
Alex gazed down at the sand by his feet, then up at the piercing blue sky when he realized that the light had shifted, surprised to find that they weren’t in caves at all. And why had he even thought that? And wasn’t there a stalagmite? He shook his head, focusing on what mattered, the terrain they were in now. They were in a steep limestone gorge, with a far more sedate river flowing beside them than what was outside. To the left and right were odd cracks in the stone walls forming natural gullies from long dried tributary streams, perhaps caused by many years of desert flash floods. Or perhaps it was simply a manifestation of what he realized must be a pocket realm or rift. Either way, he sensed something within the narrow gully.
“Let’s just call it a knack with the desert sands. And I’m damn lucky that there’s sand in this pocket realm and that it actually works. Either way, if we’re looking for shit to hunt… we just need to turn left.”
Surprisingly, the pair of Bronze exchanged bemused looks before turning to smirk at Alex. “Are you really that stupid?”
Alex blinked reining in the hot flash of temper he felt. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”
Su Rin chuckled. “It must be because you’re so new, or because you really don’t belong here. Either way, it should be obvious even to you that the side tunnels are absolutely polluted with waste Qi.” He gave a curt shake of his head, glaring down the far more shadowy gully. “No. All your warning does is let us know to be alert for ambushes, but we sure as hell aren’t going to go down those narrow side-passages looking for trouble. Doing that will saturate our channels with so much waste Qi so fast that we’ll be spending a month cleansing ourselves for just a single beast core, if we’re lucky.”
Alex blinked. “I see. We’ll avoid the side tunnels, then. Thank you for educating me on the matter,” he said, the picture of politeness, earning a bemused snort from Su Rin. Which was fine with him. Snarky comments hurt him precisely as much as he allowed them to, which was absolutely nothing compared to the bitter sharp sting of steel or the furious fist of a Gold-tier monster. And this was stuff he most definitely wanted to keep in mind when delving in the future, hopefully with cultivators who were far less of an asshole than Su Rin. Because even if so-called waste Qi was the absolute least of his concerns, such was not the case for anyone else he might adventure with.
If nothing else, his humility seemed to ease Su Rin’s ruffled feathers a bit, the man snorting and shaking his head. “It’s fine. This is your first run. We all played fools the first time, even me,” the man admitted with a humorless smile. “But I’d rather avoid getting over-saturated with Dark Qi, just the same.”
“Which is why we should be making our way up the main tributary right beside the river wicking away most of the waste Qi in the air here, not stand here jawing,” declared Lu Gang, before pointing to the other side of the river, which was really just a very shallow stream, and an easy step across.
“Alex, you stay on the left bank, shield ready to guard our flank. Don’t worry, if you end up stepping in the water, it’s fine, nothing like the current outside that will sweep you a thousand feet down into the valley below,” he said with a mirthless smile. “I’ll leap over and cover you, if you manage to grab and lock the attention of anything we come across. Now let’s get hiking. The more ground we cover, the more likely we’ll see some action. Just remember, we have to jog the whole way back when we’re done our run. So if you’re feeling saturated and heavy with waste Qi, you let me and Su Rin know.”
“No problem,” Alex said agreeably enough, as they began walking up the river bed at a fast clip, Alex frowning whenever he sensed a pressure coming from one of the side passages, but so far, no creature bothered coming out to play.
Still, Alex’s thoughts were racing, even as Linnea and her relatives seemed to exult in the extended line-of-sight that this chasm manifestation offered.
“This is perfect!” Linnea crowed. “I’ll be able to Flame Strike those critters easy as cake. You boys up front won’t even have to swing your spears!”
“Guandao,” Su Rin correct.
“Whatever,” she shrugged, animatedly whispering in a sighing Hanz’s ear so intently that she didn’t even notice the shadow suddenly blocking the light.
Not until it was nearly too late, though to be fair, Lu Gang was frowning and raising his head by the time Alex forced the words out of his mouth, already springing into action.
“Shadow beast over our heads!” Alex roared as a pack of oversized pumas sprung in perfect coordination to tear out the throats of the three Ruidians moving far, far to slow to counter.
Quickness check made!
You have successfully intercepted Greater Leap!
Enhanced Water Shield deflects Greater Beast Claws!
Wind Blade infused with Water and Steel successfully slices open Desert Puma’s throat!
Alex paid no mind to the interface messages flashing across his mind’s eye as he desperately knocked aside the massive spirit beast that had come so close to tearing out Linnea’s throat.
Only to witness the second puma widening it’s jaw, just inches away from disemboweling a desperately backpedaling Hanz. Adrenaline flooded Alex as time seemed to stretch with the horror of inevitability as he fought against it with all he had, his blade seeming to cut through molasses for all that he knew he was slicing through the air far faster than his Rank 1 Bronze Quickness had any right to as the air flashed with the crack of lightning and a spray of crimson.
The spirit beast that by all rights should have ripped Hanz wide open instead found itself biting steel as a roaring Alex cleaved through its skull in a shower of brain and blood, revealing secrets Alex would have rather kept hidden, but were a small price to pay if it kept a panicked Hanz alive, the youth crying out as blood spurted from between his trembling fingers thanks to a raking claw powerful enough to rupture the steel rings of his mail shirt, even in the cat’s death throws.
“Hanz!” Lieberman’s desperate cry was that of a father terrified for his son as a massive roaring spire of flame drilled into the third puma that Alex had successfully slammed aside with his shield, drilling through instantly charred flesh to tear through it’s heart in an explosion of superheated blood.
Alex’s startlement lasted only a heartbeat, but it was long enough for the final puma to land right on top of Lieberman. Or would have been, if Lu Gang’s planted guandao hadn’t impaled the massive cat, tearing open its belly, the yowling beast now desperate just to twist away from its executioners, claws knocking Lieberman aside, as opposed to killing him outright, before Lu Gang’s furious follow-up swing chopped right through the spirit beast’s spine, dropping it instantly.
“Is everyone alright?” Lu Gang roared, panic inching underneath a voice rigid with brittle control.
Alex, however, had already closed his eyes, accessing his interface sheet.
Party member Hanz has suffered a loss of 50 HP & 2 Broken Ribs.
Party member Lieberman has suffered 70 Damage and 1 Severe Wound. (Partial disembowelment)
You have accessed Potency Pool! Potency Pool channeled to party member: Lieberman.
Injuries stabilized! Full healing will occur in 1 minute, 15 seconds.
You have accessed Potency Pool! Potency Pool channeled to party member: Hanz.
Injuries stabilized! Full healing will occur in 35 seconds.
You have used all earned potency for this combat.
Potency Mastery skill in effect! You enjoy 4 Qi Recovery per second for 240 seconds.
“Father!” Hanz cried out in desperate panic as the pair of cultivators flinched at the sight of the massive gut wound the vicious beast had left, from a stray wild rake that was little more than a chance blow. Only to lurch back and curse in awe as the man’s entrails seemed to suck back inside his abdominal cavity, Lieberman’s flesh knitting and repairing at a visible rate. And had they had any sort of healing gifts, Alex was almost certain they would have understood that their companion’s body wasn’t so much rapidly healing, as reverting to the time before the fight.
After an anxious minute, a shuddering Lieberman abruptly sprung to his feet. “What just happened?” He said with confused alarm, eyes widening at the sight of the dead cats, each the size of a tiger, their skulls in tatters as Lu Gang brusquely tore free their cores.
He paled and stumbled back. “Did they… did they kill me?”
Alex shook his head, giving the man a reassuring pat on his shoulder. “Nope. You did suffer a bit of a disembowelment, but no blow to the heart, or anything like that.”
The man closed his eyes, bowing his head in relief, before glaring up the chasm walls. “They sprung from above, didn’t they?” His eyes, oddly intent, gazed into Alex’s own. “Can you explain to me exactly what happened, so I may learn from it, as if I were there?”
“Myself as well,” Hanz said with a raspy voice. “That was too damned close, and I know I blanked out for a couple of seconds. Was I reset as well?” He trembled and shook his head. “Sure as hell, those aren’t lesser spirit beasts!”
Alex sympathetically nodded and did just that, the cultivators among them respectful enough of Ruidian customs, it seemed, to mime the entire battle sequence for their edification.
“Are you all ready to go?” Lu Gang gently asked a few minutes later, receiving four nods, some more reluctant than others. He flashed a humorless smile. “Good. And you’ll be pleased to know that our near-death scrape there wasn’t for nothing.” When he flashed the beast cores, the wide-eyed looks and pleased smiles earned a smile from him as well. “Bronze tier, at least! Each worth hundreds of school credits or supply slips that your clan can use to buy supplies, including all the restricted items you all pretend to have no need for and we pretend never to sell you.”
All of them laughed at that, some of their chuckles more strained than others.
A frowning Alex wanted to ask what was meant by Bronze tier, as opposed to just greater or lesser beast core, but he had no desire to stick out as a clueless outsider any more than he already did. He had no doubt that he’d learn it all in time, especially considering his present company.
Lu Gang’s bemused smile hardened. “And if even one of these beauties had been of Water Affinity, we could call it an end, right here. But since none of them are… we press onward.”
With a final check they all proceeded up stream, Alex turning his focus to the chasm edges overhead where he feared beasts cloaked in Shadow Qi far more than he did the creatures (horrors) he sensed lurking in the side tunnels, which, perhaps fortunately, never bothered to leave the rich thick miasma of Dark Qi they so obviously preferred to hunting two-legged prey out in the open.
So great was Alex’s focus that he paid little mind even to Linnea’s husky words of thanks when she crossed what was no little more than a stream to speak to him.
“Alex, I… if I had any doubts before, I know you’re one of us now.”
Alex didn’t do anything but nod his head, eyes immediately snapping upward. Not because he sensed prey approaching, but because he didn’t.
He sensed nothing at all.
Not even his companions, save via his interface.
Which meant that something was suppressing them all, which could only mean one thing.
Linnea’s piercing green eyes tried to arrest his own. “Alex, I know what you did for my cousin, and my uncle. If you hadn’t flooded them with all of your earned potency, using a skill I don’t even understand…” She swallowed, shaking her head. “My cousin would have made it, but my uncle would have perished. And as much as I can’t stand him sometimes, he’s still my flesh, my blood. He’s also Hanz’s only living relative. So for his sake, for both their sakes…”
Her eyes widened with dismay when Alex seemed to disappear before her eyes.
Before the ravine rang with his desperate cry. “Silver Beast attacking, ready yourselves!”