I made my way down the stairs and plopped myself on the couch. The smell was so intense it assaulted me on my way down the stairs. Thankfully, the room's air circulation was good, thanks to the giant hole in the ceiling.

It was after I propped my legs up that I remembered I had something that could have prevented the olfactory overload. I summoned my mask with a disappointed facepalm and locked it into place. The mask would do nothing to help the me from a minute ago, but it was good to have in case I ran into more of those 'people' dressed in black.

Now that unfortunate hindsight was out of the way, I focused on the spider resting on me. Erebus waited patiently on my chest, staring at me with his unblinking purple eyes. I may not have understood the little spider completely, but I appreciated him as a familiar. His thoughts that did bleed through, the ones I could parse, were simple and direct. His happiness was quick to come, and he did not burden himself with the rest of the world.

I'm a little jealous, Erebus.

He didn't respond to my thoughts but tapped my arm with his two front legs. Chuckling, I stopped delaying the looting process and cracked the orb. What landed in my hand nearly made me toss it on instinct.

I may have jumped, only a little. It was another glass container, a spherical vial with a clay stopper on top. There were the same runes for sealing and containment, but instead of 'anchor,' there was a new symbol. It looked like a pair of swords on fire. It was the most intricate rune I'd ever seen.

It didn't give me a good feeling about the vial's contents.

Like a pulsating mass of writhing worms, a ball of ooze-covered tentacles was floating inside a brackish liquid. At first, I thought it was alive, and I almost threw the vial away, not wanting it near my face, but after inspecting it closer, I found that the tentacles were merely swaying inside the solution.

The thing looked gross as hell, and I could only imagine what weird potions it would make if I handed it over to an alchemist. If I sold it to them, Khrem and Travis would probably need to wear biohazard suits. If they tried not to, I'd heavily insist; I didn't want to be responsible for some eldritch virus infecting the village.

"What do you think, Erebus?" I asked as he tapped at the glass sphere with his legs. He tapped a few more times before spinning around and did the spider equivalent of a shrug. "Yeah, I don't know what to think of it either. Looks gross as hell, though."

I waved goodbye to Erebus and returned him to my soulspace. Not wanting to risk the vial getting shattered in a fight and its contents spilling out, I had Chomperz suction it up. When I summoned him, he even took the time to examine it slowly before he stored it inside his stomach. I couldn't blame him.

After another few minutes of relaxing and going through the memories Zharia shared, I finally exited the house. A quick rush of mana got Zharia and Áine onto my shoulders, and we set off.

The plan was to keep a low profile and stay in the shadows. But after having found out the rift creatures could hide in extra-dimensional pockets, I made a small change to that plan.

Instead, I kept close to buildings but stayed within the light. If something spotted me, I could run away and duck into one of the houses, but I was mostly hoping to find other adventurers.

A twinge of guilt surged through me, and I pushed the thought away. Now was not the time to have self-introspection over the rift's evolution.

It took me nearly thirty minutes of slow-moving my way through the city till I reached the outer quarter. Most of the delays slowed me down because I had to move around fallen obstacles or find alternative routes. The monster that left the kaiju-sized footprints had done a number on the city streets, and several places were just massive sinkholes that made transversing in a straight line impossible.

What disturbed me the most was the utter silence that blanketed the area. There was no sign of life, monsters, people, or otherwise. I expected something, anything, to pop out, but nothing did. It was not a good sign.

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I crouched low on the ruins of what was once a single-story house, and I watched in silence. Little chance existed that anyone would hear me, but I couldn't risk alerting the horde ahead that I was here.

It seemed I finally found where most of the monsters went.

They weren't awake, but I didn't think they were sleeping either. The mass of tentacles and slimy flesh moved constantly, but the movement seemed somehow delayed.

I wanted to get closer and get a better look, but that would have been suicide. Instead, I activated Magnus' skill.

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When he appeared, I put a firm hand on his back and pushed him low to the roof. "Careful, big horde in front of us. Can you feel anything from here?"

Magnus sniffed at the air and stalked to the roof's edge. I kept a hand on his back in case he fell. When he activated his skill, I could feel his mana shift around him, actively trying to grab at something in the air.

After nearly a minute of watching my familiar flex his claws, he opened his eyes and lowered his head. "No, Master. I'm sorry.... The mana is too faded for me to absorb."

I placed my hand on his head and gently ruffled his fur. "Don't be sorry. You did a good job. Go to Áine and see if you can find anything in that direction."

He responded with a lick to my fingers, and I smirked as he bounded off towards the other side of the roof. Zharia was going slowly through some of the more intact buildings, searching for enchanted spaces like the cellar. And Áine was memorizing which parts of the city were the least damaged.

I shifted my attention away from my companions and directed it towards the motionless creatures near the barrier. Their tentacles hovered close to the invisible line about five meters away, suggesting they were deliberately avoiding physical contact with the barrier.

Noting that tidbit for later, I continued my examination.

The monsters varied in size, shape, and colour. Some had claws, others had tentacles, and they all had several pairs of eyes. They looked like a mix of monsters of the deep trenches and creatures of rot and shadow. They all looked disgusting.

I clicked my tongue and began crawling away from the roof's edge. There was nothing I could do here. Any chances I had at trying to meet up with the others were nonexistent. The monsters covered the entire edge of the barrier, their bodies and limbs forming a wall that prevented sight to the other side.

"Guys, come back to me. We're leaving."

Áine flew over with Magnus walking behind her. I sat Áine on my shoulder while I picked Magnus up and jumped off the roof onto a nearby platform.

Before I could send a message to Zharia, a rush of excitement flowed through the connection, and I raised an eyebrow. "Zharia? What's up?:

"Master! Saw movement. Sounded like feet. Come this way." Zharia sent over her flight path, and I picked up on the general direction of where she went.

She looked like she was flying above the remains of a butcher shop. A part of the building that stood standing had lines of hooks hanging from the ceiling. A few hooks still held up fish by their tails.

Plunging deeper into her thoughts, she showed me the spot where she thought she heard the sounds of leather boots sprinting across the stone floor. There was even a vague impression of a footprint in the dust.

I grabbed Magnus, and we set off. I had to jump over a wreck of spikes and blood-stained earth, but it was relatively easy to get to where Zharia was perched. She flew down and extended a wing towards the building, and I nodded.

Setting Magnus down, I let him take the lead, and we carefully approached. The vague footprint was still there, and I searched for other signs of passage but found none.

Magnus bent down and sniffed the print but shook his head a moment later.

That was fine.

I kept everyone nearby in case another monster was near and then cleared the room in a circular sweep. There wasn't much to search for. The building the freezer was attached to was no more, and despite probing with my mana sense, I found no signs of enchantments in place.

After another two passes, I called the search off and exited the building. "Did you find anything else during your search, Zharia?"

She shook her head and let out a defeated trill. "No."

Where the hell are you hiding?

I looked both ways and did a mental coin flip; in the end, I decided to check out the building that was three stories tall. It had a large double door, so I had no idea what the actual business the place used to conduct was.

The doors were closed, but I noticed something strange about the steps leading to the door. It looked melted in place. Several spots on the stone material had holes that were a quarter thick.

I crouched and noticed a trail of the same melted holes leading towards the side of the building. My familiars perked up, and Magnus licked one of the holes. I quickly pulled him back, concerned for his tongue, but he looked at me concerned.

"Master?" he asked.

"Magnus, don't go licking things like that. You don't know what's inside; it could have been acid," I lectured in exasperation.

He lowered his head and flicked his tail. At first, I wasn't sure what he was doing, but then I noticed it. Barely affecting more than five strands of fur, a small patch of crystal covered the hairs. And shining with a faint light was a tiny bit of green.

"Mana activated your skill? What does it taste like?"

He swished his tail back and sniffed one of the holes again. "Sour, sharp. It tingles."

So probably poison-based, potentially acid. That rogue, Levin, from the rift expedition, used that kind of mana.

Still, I put both hands on my hip and let out a sigh. I was getting too worked up, and my nerves were not appreciating the stress of the situation. "Alright then, you did well. Just please be careful in the future. I'll be relying on you, okay?"

He nodded and bumped his head into my leg. I reached down, scratched behind his ears, and stood up.

Following the trail, we made our way around the tall building and stopped at a narrow space between it and another house next to it. Magnus could fit as well as my other familiars, but I had to turn sideways and hold my spear to my side.

As I squeezed my way through, I sensed the use of mana and tried to move, but something wrapped around my mouth and pulled me backwards. Magnus let out a roar in protest, and Zharia screeched, but a sharp sssshhh came from behind me, and I told my familiars to relax.

If whatever or whoever grabbed me wanted to take me out, they didn't need to tell my spirits to be silent. They could have slit my throat right then and there.

Now that I wasn't in panic mode, I realized what I felt pulling me deeper into the hidden passage.

"You know, this doesn't do anything to silence me," I said casually as the person clutching me came to a stop.

Their fingers tightened around the edge of my mask, and I stuck out my tongue to lick them. The person recoiled and pulled their hand back, which let me break free.

The sound of the passage closing behind me was followed by the passage being plunged into darkness, but I didn't care. My night vision enabled me to see easily in the lightless space.

I held out my spear, and Magnus and Zharia lit up with mana. Magnus' fur grew a layer of crystal, and Zharia sprouted little juts of flames.

Standing before me was a lithe figure around the same height as me. She was dressed in all black leather except for the green patterned scarf around their neck. She had a black mask covering the bottom half of their face, but two features made my eyes widen.

On their head was a pair of dark brown horns that curved up and backwards with a slight tilt. And glowing in the pitch-black room was a set of bright orange orbs that switched between my spear and my spirits.

She's a felkin... that's... unexpected.