I woke up to a world of pain. My body felt like it had been dragged across burning sand for a few miles and then left to soak in a bath of salt and lemons. It hurt; by the gods, it hurt. The worst part was that it took me an agonizingly long time to muster enough coherent thought to channel my mana. Once I tapped into my mana pool, a brief surge of numbing cold liquid spread from the core of my chest. The feeling was like taking a breath of fresh air after nearly drowning. It felt amazing. Of course, that was when reality decided to give me the middle finger and a new wave of pain hit me from all sides. If before I was a broken and bleeding body in some sadistic acidic soup, then now I was all that in the same soup, but now it was boiling and had demonic jellyfish shocking me.

The pain was intense, and it consumed my world. After some time, I finally acclimated to the pain. It didn't lessen the torture I was experiencing, but I was able to think about things outside of the experience. Slowly but hesitantly, I tried to channel mana again. I was hit with the same spike of agony as last time, but I understood what was wrong. It wasn't just my physical body on the outside that was hurt; spiritually, my mana channels were rough. Whatever happened to me while I was traveling through the void; it took its toll on my body.

There was only one way I knew how to get the pain to stop, and I was afraid that if I didn't hurry up, I might end up dead. So after gritting my teeth so hard I could vaguely hear them crack, I managed to channel enough mana to connect to my Verdant Healer skill and summoned Áine. She emerged in a flash of green light, and our mental connection hooked itself into my thoughts. I was bombarded by a barrage of emotions ranging from deep sorrow to extreme worry and, finally, a seething anger. In all my time, I don't think I've ever felt Áine so angry or even expressed this level of emotions. It was touching and useful at the same time. The cascading emotions helped blanket the physical pain. The last thing I could think about was how cute the little fairy was when she slammed her tiny hands onto my chest.

When I woke up for the third time, I was feeling remarkably better. I still felt like a chewed dog toy, but I was stable and no longer suffering from physical torture. There was a feeling of cold emptiness, but that was both familiar and welcomed. Looking inside myself, I could see my mana was at the threshold of reaching mana fatigue. Áine must have used as much mana as she could to stabilize me but not use so much that she afflicted me with another debuff of some kind.

Speaking of the little fairy, I could feel her resting on my chest. Even if I couldn't see her face clearly inside the darkened tunnel, the mental connection informed me she was unconscious. Content to let her rest, I lay there on the stone floor and watched my surroundings. Idly, I noticed that while the air was somewhat chilly, the floor itself was heated. Which honestly made the otherwise uncomfortable stone a relaxing place similar to an ondol.

Once my mana recovered some, I summoned a pair of potions. I slowly downed the health and mana potions and relaxed on the floor as my body recovered. There was a large blinking notification in the corner of my vision, but I ignored it for now. I knew what it was, but I couldn't bring myself to think about it for the moment. It brought back the reality of the situation I was in, or rather, the situation Sam was in. I didn't know if she was dead or not, but I didn't want to accept it. I would, if I had to, I wouldn't shame Sam's death by wallowing in sorrow, but that didn't mean I would embrace the fact with welcoming arms. Besides, if I survived, that meant she could have too. She was hardier than me. With her hulk-like physique, there was no reason to think she would have a higher chance of dying. My brain pointed out that she didn't have an amazing, cure-all healer fairy-like I did, a fact that I pointedly ignored.

An hour and a half passed, and I finally decided that being alone with my thoughts was depressing. Channeling my mana, I summoned Zharia and Chomperz. I chuckled softly when a miniature missile made of flaming feathers smacked into my face. The moment she joined in on Áine and my mental connection, a flurry of chirps hit me both physically and mentally. Throughout the bombardment, I could make out a few coherent passages. Mostly it was her chirping out 'Master' repeatedly, along with a couple of questions asking if I was hurt. When she hit the peak of asking if I was okay, a stream of mental curses blared out about Arz'odral. All the while, the little angry bird never got off my face, which meant her claws were making chicken tracks across my cheeks.

I felt another weight land on the top of my head, causing me to tune Zharia out and look up. My eyes met two orbs of endless black only a couple of inches away. I didn't have a mental connection to Chomperz as I did with my other familiars. He wasn't technically a familiar, more like a sentient summon that I made. Or at least, that was how I understood how things worked between him and me. Frankly, I wasn't even sure Chomperz had a gender, but he never corrected me when I called him a him. It was another thought to shelve in the back of my head on my list of things to figure out.

Chomperz gave a weak chomp with his jaws, the sound echoing around the tunnel walls. After giving me a boop on the nose, similar to what Áine does, he disappeared back into my chest. By now, Áine was awake and sitting on her knees, watching Zharia slowly calm down. Scooping the fairy in my right hand, I cradled Zharia in my left, sat up, and laid my back against a wall.

"Master?! Are you hurt again? Áine, heal him with your skill! I swear, I'll burn that stupid demon-man. I'll turn him into kindling!" Zharia chirped out furiously.

Áine grabbed my thumb with her tiny hands and squeezed. "I'm sorry.... too much pain..."

I bopped her lightly with my finger and shook my head. I made sure to look at both of them in the eyes. "No, I'm not hurt. Not anymore. Thank you, Áine, you saved me there. And thank you as well, Zharia. I would love nothing more than to see that demon-man turned to dust."

"Are you sure, Master?! I'll burn him to nothing, I swear it! And besides... we lost Sam...." The little bird shook her head, and a roiling ball of anger, sadness, and worry transmitted through the link. "We'll get him someday, I know it. He hurt all of our friends, and that cannot go unpunished."

Áine was nodding along as Zharia spoke. The amount of care both of them displayed tugged at my heartstrings. In response, I gently squeezed them closer to my chest, content to hug them gently for a time.

Eventually, I had to pack away my emotions and deal with life. It was not lost on me that I was currently in an unknown place with unknown dangers that could easily sneak up on my unknowing arse. And despite what some story protagonists like to do, delaying obvious advantages that could save my life was akin to writing stupid in bold letters on my head.

"Master?" Zharia chirped.

I gave her a smile and sent her thoughts of everything being okay. "It's time I stop ignoring the glaring blip across my vision. Even if the rift ended in a catastrophe, we technically completed it. Time to see if all the hype about rift rewards is worth it," I replied

With a drawn-out sigh, I brushed away my emotions and temporarily locked them up. I stared at the glowing blip and willed it to show.

Congratulations Ascendant

For a feat worthy of a tale, you shall be rewarded.

Your legend may be sparse, but it has grown through your mighty deeds.

For the completion of the Tier One Rift: Bloody Assault, you shall be rewarded.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Reward upgraded due to the completion of a rift a full tier higher than your own.

Rewarded enhanced for the completion of an extreme rift.

I sucked in a breath as the words appeared across my eyes. The Grand Weave really had a thing for tales and stories. And the idea of having a legend like I was some fabled character of an epic made me laugh. I certainly didn't feel very legendary.

The rifts name was both fitting and too simplistic. The bloody assault made sense, but it did not describe the horror fest that was a room of mutilated corpses and sacrificed team leaders on a table.

The rewards made me excited. Despite all that had happened and how potentially dire the situation I was now in could be, I was excited. I wanted, no, I needed something from all that. I went through a lot to get to the end of that rift, and I was not going to let Arz'odral mess that up for me. Besides, if it were good enough, it would help me survive whatever came next.

You have been rewarded with the following:

* For your efforts in protecting the village: you have been rewarded with the perk: Child of Mana

* For completing the rift scenario Bloody Assault: you have been rewarded the skill stones: Thickened Blood and Lord's Mantle

* A random piece of equipment has been enhanced: Ink Master's Mask of Expression has become: Ink Lord's Mask of Expression.

Legacy Bearer, The Grand Weave awaits your ascension.

Weave a tale worthy of the gods and ascend beyond your mortal limits.

The realms await the Lord who wears the Obsidian Crown.

When my eyes reached the bottom of the text, a wave of energy pulsed in front of me. Instinctually, I shielded both of my familiars with my body, but there was no need. A portal made of endless colours faded into existence. To describe it as shimmering or iridescent would be a disservice to the display in front of me. If I were back in my old human body, it would not be physically possible to see what I was seeing. Humans from Earth didn't have the ability to process such a broad spectrum of light.

Seeing that there wasn't any danger, Zharia popped her head out from beneath my arms and chirped in delight. "It's so pretty,"

"Beautiful..." Áine added.

With a final pulse of shimmering energy, the rift popped and out spilled two crystals. I figured it was over, but then the energy in the air rose in a spike of tangible static and drove right into my chest. The force was enough to drive me flush against the wall, earning a worrying cracking sound from the back of my head. My world was not on fire but instead filled with ice water, and electricity. The energy spread throughout my body from my sternum and engulfed my limbs until finally, it reached my brain and caused me to black out briefly.

When I regained my senses, I tuned out the rapid-fire squawks from Zharia and inspected my body. When I looked inwardly, I gasped in shock. Where before, my mana was like a small pool. Now, it was as if a lake's worth of water was dumped above it and drilled out an even deeper container for the liquid. To be fair, I wasn't entirely sure how much of what I saw was my brain trying to conceptualize foreign concepts, but it was a marked improvement. I could only assume the blast of pain and energy was the new perk taking effect. It wasn't hard to guess what Child of Mana meant.

I stretched my back out and noticed my head wasn't hurting. Looking down, I saw the tail end of Áine healing skill before the glow ended.

"Thank you, Áine, that would have been a nasty headache."

She nodded in response and then booped my nose.

Before I could reach over and grab the two crystals on the ground, I felt a knocking sensation inside my chest. When I focused on it, I felt my mana channel itself, and Chomperz appeared in a hurry. Outside of the revelation that he could somehow knock on my soul like a door, I noticed the mana was faster than usual. The actual channeling of the skill was near instantaneous, and I could feel it flowing through my channels without resistance. Already, I was seeing benefits from the perk take effect.

Chomperz's appearance was unexpected, but when he opened his mouth and spat out my mask, I understood why. The mask had random sparks of the same rainbow energy as before zipping across its surface. After a dozen seconds, the sparks died down, and the energy was seemingly absorbed into the mask itself.

Chomperz flew next to it and gave it a light kick with his stubby foot. I could tell he was annoyed at the object, and it made me want to chuckle, but I held it in. With his signature chomp, he waved again at the girls and flew back into my chest.

I picked up the mask and tried to see what had changed. The mask felt smoother, like unseen blemishes were sanded down. And the ink splotch across the mask's face had an oily sheen to it now. Without the guild enchanter to tell me the item's details, I was left with figuring out the rest of the changes on my own. Not wanting to summon Chomperz again, I decided to put the mask on instead of storing it away. It didn't feel any different on my face, but I noticed a few changes. The first thing to note was the tunnel was now clearer. Where there used to be certain shadowy areas in the tunnel, it was now revealed to me in full. It wasn't like I was seeing the lichen-lit tunnel with night vision or something, but rather like I could see through the shadows better. Another thing to note was the lessening of smell. The tunnel didn't smell foul, but it had a strong earthly aroma, and the air was stale. Now? I could still smell everything I could before I put on the mask, but only if I actively chose to focus on it.

I willed the mask to make a series of emojis and stared at the girls. Áine laughed silently while Zharia tried pecking my face. When I tried brushing her aside, I felt my fingers sink through and touch my nose. After trying again in a few different ways, I came to the conclusion that the mask had selective permeability. Rejoice! I didn't have to take it off to eat or drink something.

After playing with my mask's new features, I picked up the two skill stones and held them up to the light. Zharia helped by puffing out her feathers and making the golden flames coming off her body grow.

One of them was a dark maroon with an inner core that gave off a dimmed crimson light. I assumed it was Thickened Blood, which meant the other had to be Lord's Mantle. The Lord's Mantle skill stone was crystal clear with prismatic specks trapped beneath the surface. The first skill stone had to be blood-aspected, and the second was some amalgamation of different types. I was weary of adding random skills to my body, but once again, I couldn't afford to be picky.

"Are we adding another familiar? As long as it's not a bird. I'm the only phoenix you'll need." Zharia chirped.

"I don't know, honestly. They don't sound like something that would make a familiar. But I don't know how my legacy will change them. Still, it should help make it better suited for me."

I shrugged and held them in my hands. Closing my eyes, I channeled mana into the first stone and felt it dissolve between my fingers. I repeated the process for the other stone and waited till the skills settled in my soul. With a thought, I willed my status to appear.

STATUS

Name: Cyrus

Race: Reborn ( Felkin)

Age: ??

Tier: 0

Active Skills:

* (T:0 R:4)Summon Familiar: Verdant Healer: (Áine )

* (T:0 R:4)Summon Familiar: Resplendent Inferno: (Zharia)

* (T:0 R:4)Racial Skill: Dimensional Storage: (Chomperz)

* (T:0 R:1) Spirit Lord's Invocation

Passive Skills:

* (T:0 R:1)Etherious Blood

Perks:

Legacy of the Obsidian Crown

Scion of Calstrax

Demonic Blood

Child of Mana

Spirit Mantle became Spirit Lord's Invocation, which made my nerdy heart tingle. Sure, it made me feel edgier, and I was already on my way down into the depths of chunibyo, but it was a good feeling.

Thickened Blood became Etherious Blood, and I wasn't sure if that was an upgrade. Of course, the first thing I did was try to look inside myself. I didn't find anything that I could see was different. On a whim, I held my thumb up to my mouth and punctured my skin with a shallow bite against my fangs. I let out an inner sigh when I saw that my blood had changed. It was semi-transparent and felt less thick. I shelved that detail in the back of my ask later box and moved on.

I was about to pull up my status again to figure out what precisely the new perk and skills did when I heard a loud hiss come from one end of the tunnel. A head the size of my torso poked its way out from the corner and released an echoing Hsshssssss sound from its throat.

I stood up and cracked my neck—no time like the present to try out new skills. With a flex of mana, I activated Spirit Lord's Invocation. At the peak of the skill's mana activation, I felt a probing question halt the skill. It was an instinctual feeling rather than actual words, and I replied back with my choice. With a loud chirp, I saw Zharia's body break apart into motes of golden light and settle over my body.

The tunnel was bathed in a torrent of golden flames.