Samantha blinked dumbly at her outstretched hand as she found herself in a completely unfamiliar place. She had expected that she would need to step ‘through’ the rift somehow, but that wasn’t the case. In one moment she was holding onto Silas and reaching out to test what the unfamiliar tear in space would feel like, and in the next instant she was just… here.
She set Silas down on the ground and looked around. They stood alone on a narrow path of neatly placed stones. The road ended right behind her, and just past the final cobblestone was a familiar looking ripple in the air–the rift exit. The path extended in front of her for several hundred feet until it curved out of sight behind a tall, mountain-like sand dune. All around them was a vast expanse of sand and heat-warped air, reminiscent of the desert she’d arrived in when she first ascended to the second floor.
She took several cautious steps forward and looked back towards the exit for any sign that the Ancient Cliff drake was coming through as well. Even though the delvers had said the creature couldn’t enter the rift, it didn’t hurt to treat that statement with a healthy dose of skepticism–especially considering how unexpectedly deadly it had been. Her chest tightened at recalling all the bodies piled around her in the cave. Most of them–including herself when she was first brought up–had been mangled beyond all recognition. She dreaded who might be amongst the dead, but grieving the loss and dealing with the guilt wasn’t helpful right now. She would mourn them–whoever they ended up being–properly later.
“Samantha, look! There’s a wall here.” Silas said, calling her attention to his location a short distance up the path. As she watched him, he jumped forward and then bounced off of seemingly nothing. Curious, she moved forward to examine the mysterious phenomenon for herself. When she placed her hand against the invisible wall a notification appeared.
Rift Quest: Extermination*
Defeat all enemies occupying the town.
*Note: Rift Qi Reserve = 100%. First time delved. The difficulty and rewards for this quest will be enhanced accordingly.
Accept? Y/N
She dropped her hand away from the wall and the notification completely vanished. Worried that she’d accidentally closed or declined the message, she put her hand back on the wall and it appeared once more, exactly the same as before. She let out a sigh of relief.
“Good find, Silas.” she encouraged, suddenly feeling exhausted. She sat down and rested against the unseen barrier to keep the notification active, just in case its reappearance had been a fluke. Taking some calming breaths, she considered how she should proceed.
Obviously, exiting the rift in her present state was not an option. Given what she had been told about rifts, time was now flowing faster for her than it was for the rest of the second floor–though she didn’t know by how much. That meant she couldn’t rely on any surviving delvers to come back to kill the guardian or help her before she died of thirst or starvation. She didn’t want to find out if her rebirth core would somehow restore the lost liquids and nutrients to her body, or if she’d be trapped in an unending cycle of rapid deaths and revivals.
Of course, assuming the delvers would come back for her at all was generous thinking. With her lack of guild membership and the fact the outpost’s strongest fighters were already bested, it would be more logical for them to cut their losses or wait for a larger force to arrive. Even if she somehow managed to hold out until they entered the rift, who was to say they would rescue her? They might resent her for surviving when their friends and family didn’t, or want to get rid of her so they could monopolize the rift’s rewards. The contract she had finalized with them was contingent upon defeating the guardian and entering the rift together, which was now null and void as far as she was concerned. Luckily she wouldn’t suffer an Oathbreaker mark because she had acted in good faith to assist them and only ended up entering the rift alone out of necessity, but she doubted they would be as understanding towards her.
No, the only way she was getting out of here was with her own strength. If she assumed the ‘worst case’ where time compression was incredibly high, she could spend months in here and exit to find the drake just returning to his den. It would be like she hadn’t spent any time away at all. In short, she had to gain enough power to either kill the drake or survive long enough to escape it. However, the trouble was that she had no idea how rifts actually worked. She knew that it was possible to repeatedly enter them and retrieve items because that was the primary business of the delvers, but she didn’t know if they needed to do something special to preserve the rift. If she finished this quest, would the rift disappear and eject her back into reality? Could she somehow prolong the quest so she could cultivate here?
Speaking of which…
Samantha reached out with her spiritual senses to gauge what the ambient qi levels were, and was shocked to find it was truly abysmal. Even worse than the first floor was, if she had to guess. It felt to her, ironically, like a qi desert. There were wisps of it here and there, but otherwise nonexistent. She looked at the notification again with confusion.
If the rift’s qi reserve is at 100%, where has it all gone? Is this invisible wall blocking it somehow?
Standing up with a groan, she started feeling around the wall to see if there was a way past. As she followed the curving barrier, she discovered that it was a perfect circle with the rift exit at its center. Asking Silas to see if he could fly out of the barrier revealed that it was actually not a perfect circle at all, but a dome. Once she confirmed there was truly no other way forward other than accepting the quest, she took the opportunity to fully recover.
Several hours later she had healed her body to peak condition and had a full qi pool. Only then did she mentally confirm ‘Yes’ on the quest prompt.
Rift Quest: Extermination [IN-PROGRESS]
Premise: This ‘settlement’ was overrun by rampaging spirit beasts not long ago. While some of the creatures have moved on, others have lingered behind and are in the process of building a nest. Scouts have reported that there are currently 150 hostile entities ranging from Rank 3 to Rank 5, with a singular rank 6 ‘queen’ guarding the nest. You have been tasked with clearing the location. While there is no official time limit for completion, be warned that the queen will periodically replenish enemy forces.
Optional Objectives: Recover or secure any resources* left behind during evacuation and deposit them near the rift exit. Search for and escort any ‘survivors’ to the rift exit. Limit collateral damage to structures.
*Resources will be clearly marked and labeled as such
She was caught a bit off guard as she read through the notification. From the information that Fara had given her about rifts she was anticipating something more mystical and unpredictable in nature, but this quest was more structured than any she’d received before. It seemed almost like a training exercise, and perhaps it was. If those outside the tower had influence over it and wanted strong soldiers to emerge, this would be a very effective training regimen. It would also explain why spirit beasts supposedly couldn’t get in without being bonded to a cultivator. The rifts weren’t made for them, and this quest left no doubt in her mind that this place was indeed ‘made’ rather than naturally occurring.
She closed the notification and reached out her hand to see if the invisible wall was still in front of her. When her hand passed through the previously inaccessible space with no issues, she did a quick check of the ambient qi once more. Again, nothing. She was still confused by how barren it all was, but eventually chalked it up to being an oddity of this rift. She didn’t have enough information to form any other conclusions.
“The wall is down now. I accepted a quest to clear out some town up ahead, and it opened up. We should scout out what we’re dealing with before approaching though. Can you keep watch? It might be a while until I’m done.” she asked Silas.
He sat down and scratched behind his ear a few times with his rear leg, “That’s fine. Unlike you, I still have snacks.” He gestured to the still mostly-full pouches along the harness.
Now that he mentioned it, she was starting to feel a bit parched. Snacks or no, finding water was a top priority for both of them. Hopefully the settlement had a good source of it somewhere that wouldn’t be too hard for her to access.
Sitting down, she entered spectral form and flew up and over the dune that was obscuring her line of sight. What awaited her was a real mess.
Encircled by tall mountains of sand was a small oasis town. The oval-shaped body of water was situated on the far side of the structures and took up about a third of the town’s total area. The buildings–less than 100 by her rough estimation–wrapped around 3/4ths of its shoreline in a ‘U’ shape. The vegetation was generally few and far between, but there was a sparse grouping of a couple dozen trees around the one section of the oasis that wasn’t surrounded by buildings.
The settlement itself–or what was left of it–was crawling with spirit beasts. Flying down to get a closer look, the smallest of the beasts were similar in size to Silas while the larger ones came up to her waist. They were insect-like in nature with six segmented limbs, a hard-looking exoskeleton, and a long ‘tail’ that curved overhead and ended in a sharp point. They walked with four legs which extended from a thin, lanky abdomen, while their other two limbs jutted out from a short, straight torso and appeared to serve as arms. Instead of hands or claws, however, these arms ended in sharp curved blades that resembled a farmer’s scythe. Atop the torso was a triangular head with two oversized compound eyes and a pair of serrated mandibles.
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Wanting more definitive information about the disturbing creatures, she looked for the smallest one in her immediate area and used [Inspect].
Scorpis Worker (Rank 3 - Mid)
Highest Attribute: Agility (19)
Lowest Attribute: Strength (5)
The role of a scorpis in its hive (Worker => Soldier => Queensguard) is determined by its rank. The smaller they are, the more concentrated and deadly the poison in their stinger-tails. Highly collective beings, they lack any sense of self-preservation and only act in service of the queen.
Great. Every single one of these are venomous.
Starting to search through some of the nearest buildings to see if there was anything notable inside, she was stopped dead in her tracks when she entered a half-destroyed home and found a young girl hiding under a pile of fallen furniture. The girl–who couldn’t have been older than five or six–was clutching a small doll while her terrified eyes darted around the room. Tear streaks cut through a layer of dust on her cheeks, but had long since dried. There were dark circles under her reddened eyes, and her too-thin frame quivered as she curled into a tight ball.
Samantha immediately canceled spectral projection and stood. Righteous anger filled her as she paced in the sand.
“What’s the matter?” Silas asked, worried by her surge of dark emotions.
“They have real people in here!” she hissed, “There’s a little kid trapped in a building. Who would put a child in a situation like this just for training purposes?”
Silas flattened his ears and growled, “Was it one of the ones who fed me?”
She shook her head, “I’ve never seen her before, but it didn’t look like she was in good shape. I was hoping to take my time preparing to enter town, but that’s not an option anymore. Who knows how long she’s been stuck there already?”
Silas puffed up his fur, “I understand. I will follow you.”
Firming up her resolve, she switched her mindset to Hyperfocus and ran down the path with Silas in tow. Once they were close to rounding the dune she activated [Translucence] and directed Silas to do the same. Though their combined qi pool could technically support over an hour of continuous [Translucence] for both of them, Silas could only keep the ability active for 60 minutes at a time before he was forced to rest. This didn’t worry her much though, since she planned to be in and out of the town before ten minutes had passed.
Silas flew high overhead and became practically invisible against the blue, cloudless sky. Conveying to him which building she was aiming for with imagery from her memory, he scouted her path and warned her if she was nearing any enemies. There were several occasions when she needed to duck behind buildings, use rooftops, or take unconventional routes to avoid roaming spirit beasts.
After jumping down from a roof into a narrow alley near the ruined home, she froze when a dog-sized scorpis rounded the corner and paused.
She felt a jolt of frustration come from Silas, “Sorry! I couldn’t see it from here. Do you need help?”
“I don’t think it’s spotted me yet. Hold off and keep watch.” She hoped that the enhanced obscurement [Translucence] gave when staying completely still would cause it to overlook her and move on.
It turned towards her, tilted its head slightly, and began rapidly clicking its mandibles together. The chittering sound made her hair stand on end.
Unsure of how these creatures communicated with the hive and uncomfortable with how it was lingering while looking in her general direction, she chose to act with decisiveness before her position was revealed. Though currently without her spear or Nethershot, a cultivator was never truly unarmed. Today, her body would be the weapon. Using [Indomitable Body] to increase the Resilience of her feet and legs, bringing up her Agility to 40 with [Swift], and activating [Flurry], she rushed the scorpis.
The spirit beast seemed to try and follow her movements with its head, but it was too slow to properly defend itself before she reached it. She planted her left foot and twisted her hips to execute a strong horizontal roundhouse kick. Keeping her leg straight, her shin struck at the joint between its head and torso with speed that caused the air to whistle slightly. Instead of withdrawing her blow on impact, she attempted to power the kick through the scorpis to inflict the most damage.
With a distinct crunching sound the scorpis’s head was separated from its torso and flung into the nearby alley wall with a dull ‘thud’. As if still conscious, the clacking of its mandibles increased in tempo and volume while its headless body stumbled around like a drunkard and lashed out at random. Horrified that it appeared to have survived its beheading, she brought her heel down on the head with an axe kick. The head exploded like a smashed melon… but the body continued to try and fight its unseen attacker with slashing arms and a striking tail.
“Enemies are coming your way. You should hurry.” Silas warned.
Waiting for a suitable opening, Samantha brought down a series of axe kicks on the abdomen until its body was thoroughly crushed under her foot. At last, it went still.
Canceling her combat arts, she fled into the sky with [Cloud Step] and hoped the incoming spirit beasts would overlook her translucent form above them. When they passed beneath her without incident, she knew she would be in the clear for now. Since the girl’s home was only a short distance away, she ran the final distance with [Cloud Step] and dropped into it from a hole in the roof. Canceling [Translucence] so she wouldn’t frighten the child with her approach, she navigated to the room she recalled seeing her in.
Upon making eye contact with the girl, Samantha paused and held up both hands in what she hoped was a universally-understood sign for ‘I don’t mean you harm’.
“Hey there.” Samantha said in a low, soft tone, “My name is Samantha. I’m going to get you out of here, okay?”
The girl’s fearful eyes filled with fresh tears, and her bottom lip quivered as if she were on the verge of bawling.
“Hold on,” Samantha said with a hint of urgency, “We need to be quiet. Can you do that for me?” When the tears began falling and the girl’s breathing hitched, she tried a different tactic, “What’s your name? Also, does your doll have a name? She’s very pretty.” She hoped the mundane questions would distract the child enough to pause any hysterics.
“...Molly.” The girl croaked out between sniffles.
“Your name is Molly?” Samantha confirmed.
The girl shook her head and held up her doll.
“Oh! Your doll’s name is Molly?” Samantha said, smiling.
“We call her Molly the Dolly. My mom made her for me. My name is Trista.”
“Trista is a wonderful name, and your mom did a good job making Molly. Are you able to come out and show her to me?”
Trista shook her head again, “My leg hurts too much.”
“I’m sorry to hear that! If it’s okay with you, I’m going to come over there and see if I can help you. What do you say?”
Trista nodded.
Samantha quietly moved to Trista and looked her over for injuries. Sure enough, her left leg had a long, shallow cut on it that looked to be infected.
“Wait just a moment, I’ll get this fixed up in no time.” Samantha soothed, gently touching near the wound with her fingertips. She activated [Flawless Healing Touch] and watched as the wound closed and all signs of infection vanished. Trista let out a small gasp of amazement.
“All better, right? Now, come on. Let’s get out of here. I’m going to carry you, and I want you to hang on to me as tight as you can!” Trista wrapped her thin arms around Samantha’s neck as she was scooped off the ground. “We’re going to fly up into the sky, so just close your eyes if you get scared, okay? I promise I won’t drop you or let anything happen to you. You’re safe now.”
Trista buried her face into the crook of Samantha’s neck and nodded.
Since [Translucence] wouldn’t cover both herself and Trista, she opted to exclusively take the roofs or use [Cloud Step] until they were safely out of town. Making her way up and out through the same hole in the ceiling she entered from, she propelled herself forward with as much speed and silence as she could manage. With a base of 23 Agility and 14 Strength, she had no issue with jumping the sometimes-large gaps between buildings smoothly. The real problem was that the scorpis all around had finally spotted her and were swarming. The loud clicks of their mandibles merged into a low-pitched drone as more and more of the spirit beasts joined the pursuit. They started climbing onto the roofs in an effort to cut off her path, but she managed to avoid being boxed in by either jumping or using [Cloud Step]. Some flew after her with thin, translucent wings, but they didn’t seem capable of maintaining flight for extended periods or gaining much altitude with them.
Finally reaching the end of the building line, Samantha jumped down and landed on the street below. As she accelerated into a full sprint, Trista cried out in despair, “Molly!”
With [Prey’s Awareness] Samantha could see the small doll had been dropped and left behind. She immediately focused on it, grabbed hold of it with a mental hand, and pulled it towards her with 5 points of [Telekinesis]. Samantha slowed her pace for a split second to allow the doll to catch up to her and grab it, but as soon as she felt the fabric touch her palm she sped back back up again.
“Don’t worry, I got Molly!” she assured Trista.
She could see at least 20 or 30 of the creatures following after them now, but with a small investment into [Swift] she quickly outpaced even the fastest of their group. Once she rounded the corner of the dune and was out of sight of her pursuers, Silas chimed in with an update.
“They’re turning back! You can slow down.”
She took his advice and relaxed her all-out sprint into a jog. As she neared the rift exit she set Trista down and handed Molly over to her. Trista took the toy with enthusiasm and hugged it close to her chest.
Samantha wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do with the child. It wasn’t safe to exit the rift, and there was no shelter, food, or water she could give Trista. As she was starting to panic over the logistics of keeping the young girl alive, Trista looked up to her and gave her a wide grin.
“Thank you for saving me!”
Trista turned and took a few steps towards the rift and Samantha reached out to stop her. Unexpectedly, her hand passed straight through Trista’s body as if she were a ghost. Over the next few seconds, all of the color seemed to fade out from Trista’s form until her body began breaking apart into blue motes of light. She turned back one last time and waved goodbye to Samantha, and then was gone.
Quest progress updated!
Hostiles Remaining: 149/150
Survivors Rescued (Optional): 1