NOVEL WEB Ch. 6 Into the Rift
There were a few aborted screams as people were startled, but Santi was moving. He cracked some glow sticks and started tossing them around the front lobby. The pale green light offered eerie illumination as everyone slowly settled down. They had only moments before the system announced itself.
Santi bent down and reached into the larger duffel bag, pulling out a splitting maul. It was designed to split logs, but he could use it on the weaker monsters that would be spilling out soon. The three guys looked shocked, their eyes wide open and mouths agape as Santi’s words started to seem real.
“Tank, if I don’t come back, in my room there’s a notepad. Take it. It has all my notes and thoughts on how to survive. I trust you.” Santi said and started to head toward the glass door. Behind him people were murmuring as they relaxed, not knowing what was exactly happening.
A hand gripped his elbow, and in his heightened state, Santi nearly lashed out with the ax. Chloe was looking at him with suspicious eyes.
“You knew what was going to happen?” Half question, half accusation. Santi didn’t have time for this.
“Yes, just stay here and you’ll be safe.”
“Yeah, fuck that. Give me one,” She pointed with her chin toward the ax cradled in his hands.
SYSTEM INITIALIZING
STAND BY
HOSTILE RIFTS DETECTED
CLASS SYSTEM ACTIVATING
Everyone paused as the words floated in front of them and Santi used that second to break free of Chloe’s grip. He needed to be outside where the rift was going to open. Rifts were dangerous, they were portals to small sub dimensions that could lead to nearly anywhere. There could be one enemy or ten thousand. Piles of loot, or none at all. They had the highest risk to reward ratio of everything that was coming. Luckily, Santi knew what this rift would hold.
He pushed open the doors and ran into the warm spring night. The air was muggy and clung to his skin. The lack of light made the world darker than most people had ever experienced, only the thin sliver of the moon offering its bounty. In the middle of the parking lot, a blast of red tinged sunlight had appeared.
It started as a pinprick and slowly started to spin, increasing in circumference till it was an eight foot tall silver arch. Figures were scampering out, short and fuzzy and filled with sharp teeth. Santi dodged to the side as they raced past him toward the buildings without thought. Santi hoped they were ready. Kobolds were weak, but their numbers could prove dangerous.
The first wave passed him by as he huddled to the side of a car, axe in hand. He was a mage without mana. Not the best place to be, but he had been here once before. He could do it again. But, better this time. Hopefully. Santi burst into a sprint heading straight for the opening of the rift. Behind him, he heard a terrible scream, and then sounds of fighting. Bones breaking, flesh splitting, metal cutting into bodies. The stink would be worse, but for now, the sounds haunted him. He was a mage for a reason. He stood far away and blasted at his enemies and didn’t have to watch the light leave their eyes.
Santi sprinted for the arch, the heavy pack bouncing on his back as he dove through the portal. The world twisted and changed, vertigo inducing spinning and then Santi was on his knees vomiting. He had forgotten how rough it was to travel rifts without higher stats. He was staggering to his feet, axe held in front of him, ready to start cutting his way toward his objective in only a moment.
A single kobold stood staring at him with dull orange eyes. Santi looked at the monster for the first time, for the second time. It was a strong sense of deja vu, his faded memories whispering hints to him. At four feet tall, it was bipedal with a snout full of teeth and orange eyes that looked at everything as if it was food. They were dull, dumb, idiotic, and hungry. It came at him in a rush, a snarl rumbling in its throat.
Santi brought the ax up and over, a huge swing that landed perfectly. The heavy head of the maul cracked bone and the kobold went limp as its skull fractured. It sprawled in a boneless pile in front of him, but Santi was already moving. He didn’t have any skill to use for looting right now. Hell, the class system wasn’t even activated.
He was on a large flat plain, with an angry red star blazing across the salmon colored sky. It was hot, sweat already rolling down Santi’s back, staining his clothes. It went from a warm night to the equivalent of a brutal summer day in only a few steps. In the center of the plains, the ruins of a large stone temple sprawled out. It was where the Rift Heart was located.
Rift Hearts were like dungeon cores, tightly condensed balls of mana that kept the small pocket realms stable as they connected to reality. Unlike dungeon cores, they didn’t reset a rift once it was cleared. It just held the rift stable and created the portals. They would slowly drain the mana out of wherever they were connected, strengthening the heart and expanding the realm. This one was small, barely a tier one rift. Something a squad of Initiate's could clear.
Santi wasn’t an Initiate, not yet anyway, and he was by himself. He was risking everything for a title. The first person to clear a rift. It would be hefty, something to boost his potential and possibly even a stat boost. He jogged towards the center of the rift. There were kobolds moving around the long gray grass, but none bothered him. They were all heading toward the portal. It was their chance to hunt, to gather supplies. Rifts were a lot like ships out at sea, just looking for a port in the storm to anchor to.
Minutes trickled by, the heat sapping his strength. His body was in terrible shape. He had been active as a youth, but the last seven months of college had seen him grow accustomed to fatty foods and being slothful. He was cursing his past self for that now. Every breath was a chestful of daggers, his heart palpitating wildly as he felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest. Blood leaked from his nose as the strain of exercise and the dry heat did their work, staining his face and dripping to his shirt, but he had no time to plug the leak.
There was a minor time dilation to the rift, each one different. This one wasn’t strong, every minute on the outside two inside. It would take him hours to clear it, which would be the majority of the night of his friends trying to survive without him. He hoped they would be ok. He just kept jogging.
Finally, the slate gray stone of the temple broke the horizon. Nearly an hour of jogging and Santi was ready to die. His body was in the midst of attempting a full body cramp and he was literally spitting blood. The blood was from his nose, having ran into his wide open and gasping mouth.
Forty feet high, it was squat for a temple. Covered in dust and worn down by time, scores of kobolds were jostling around the base of it. Santi pulled up and started to catch his breath. He broke open his backpack and pulled out several bottles of hydration mix. Filled with electrolytes, the mix was supposed to be better than water. At the moment, he couldn’t care what it was. He just drank and drank. Part of him knew better to chug the water, but his willpower had always been weak. The hydration mix came back up a minute later and Santi was forced to use a third bottle of it that he sipped.
He waited impatiently as the horde of kobolds started to stream directly toward the arch. If they noticed him off to the side, they didn’t care. Hundreds of the dog-faced monsters marched toward the arch and his friends. It would be a bloody night regardless of what happened. He just hoped that the guys could organize a defense. The other dorms were doomed.
As the last of them tramped away, leaving the temple mostly deserted, Santi started toward it. He walked, taking his time now that he was close. He remembered what guarded the temple and he couldn’t enter it exhausted. The normal kobolds were terrified to enter for the creatures that guarded the Rift Heart. There would be a few elite versions of the kobold: warriors, shaman, and a chief. It was the rift guardian that would be the real challenge though. Especially without magic. He cursed not having magic again.
Maybe he should have ground out a few levels outside before leading a party in? The thought had been nagging at him since he had decided on this plan. Self-doubt had a way of corrupting everything, shadowing clear and concise thoughts. He had planned it out and this was the best he could think of. The Apostate’s would be just as reckless as they grabbed every morsel of power they could and there were six of them and only one of him. He needed to take every risk, every opportunity if he was to succeed. So, he entered the temple alone and without a class.