On the way to the den, Stalwart dug deep into the physiology of rifts, things to look out for, and common plants. Ether Bloom was by far the most useful, but there were a few others he talked about. It was all very intriguing.
I mean, rifts lead to countless different worlds and planets, right? It was incredibly intriguing to me that these ‘common’ plants were spread across so many different places. Was it the ether itself that made them? Or were they an invasive species rapidly spreading across dimensions?
We ran across a few other wolves on the way, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Groups of four or five mostly, which were definitely easier than the seven-stack that attacked us just outside the cave.
The den itself wasn’t all that impressive. It was a rather large cavern opening out the side of a mountain. A massive wolf—probably four times as large as its brethren—lay just inside of the cavern, snoozing lightly. Wolves grouped up around the outskirts of the cave like they were scared of waking the larger wolf.
Stalwart motioned us to get down near the edge of the tree line. “We should peel the pack off before we go in. I’d hate to get attacked by an entire group while trying to take out the alpha.”
“…!” I raised my bow up, waving towards a group on the far end. All in all, there were five groups, totaling about twenty wolves.
”Yeah, good idea. Let's work left to right?” Stalwart pulled back slightly into the brush, looking between me and Raging Bull.
“Um…” Bull called out hesitantly. It seemed the earlier confrontations made him much more subdued and focused. My opinion of the scrawny man rose by a few ticks. The ability to lock was something that couldn’t just be taught. “I have ether bait.”
”Ether bait?” Stalwart paused, staring back at the scrawny man in confusion.
”Y-yeah. Oryx Corp’s newest product. It’s- ugh- it's not exactly public yet.” He shrugged. “But it should lure monsters just fine.”
Oryx Corp… they were- nope, actually, never heard of them. Not even going to pretend I knew who he was talking about. Probably one of the many small or medium corps throughout Bastion. There were enough that I’d never know all of the even if I dedicated several lifetimes to learning.
Ah, right, this guy must be sponsored by Oryx Corp then if he had something like that. Maybe the five Mascots weren’t for streaming and recording like I thought they were, but were rather Oryx keeping a watch on the experimentation of new tech? It’d make sense.
Stalwart paused, waving his hand at his oculus. More accurately, toward the rapidly churning chat projected onto it. ”Oryx okay with that being announced?”
“Y-yeah. Just left the testing phase. They’re still gathering promotional videos to advertise it, but... It functions according to the rule of Ether Concentration, I think.” Bull rubbed at the back of his head. “They didn’t really explain it.”
”The rule of Ether Concentration? It’s- hmm… how do I word this simply?” Stalwart leaned against one of the trees. I got the feeling this time he was talking more for his stream’s benefit then ours. “It’s the theory that all ether is constantly trying to condense, which leads to monsters grouping around the boss.”
What about Archaic Battlefield then? It had multiple boss monsters, at least from what I saw. Surely it broke that rule? Hmm… yet another thing I’d have to look at when I got back to Bastion. This was proving to be a great learning experience.
Stalwart Banner rubbed at his chin. ”Yeah, we can try it. If this ether bait really works, then I might have to go get some once this is over. This is just F-rank anyway. If it goes wrong, I’ll take the brunt of it.”
Raging Bull grabbed one of the drones flying around him and hit a button on it. A cylindrical device popped out of the drone, pulsating with ether. Looked like a complicated mesh of magitech that I wouldn’t even know where to begin with.
“This is it. Flick it on, and then the drone’s precepts change to full evasion.” He showed a small switch at the base of the cylinder. “It’s got a thirty minute lifespan, and then it’ll explode.”
”Hmm… So it's one time use?” Stalwart’s expression dropped slightly, though he quickly recovered. Something like that couldn’t be cheap. And using it meant loosing out on some income since the monsters chased it, yep? Seemed much more niche than I originally thought it was.
”Yes. Ready?” Bull looked at the two of us before hitting the switch.
Immediately, thick waves of ether pulsed out of the device. The drone lifted off and flew into the forest, leaving us behind. A minute later, the dire wolves grouping around the boss howled and vanished into the forest, leaving the sleeping wolf completely alone. Just like that, it was one on three. Much better odds.
“…!” I hurriedly followed after Stalwart when he started moving. Bull lagged a moment behind me, his attention split between the forest around us and the direction his drone flew off in.
As Stalwart moved for the massive alpha wolf in the middle, I climbed up a stalagmite, perching up off the soon to be battlefield with my bow at the ready. Raging Bull followed behind Stalwart and he drew his massive sword.
Stalwart looked around for a moment, flashing his fingers. Three. Two. One. “Furious Leap!”
The man shouted the name of his Skill and made the first move. Ether pooled around his legs, launching him high into the sky. “Ether Shield!”
He came down like a falling star, slamming the sharp end of his tower shield into the giant wolf’s neck. The ether running along it dug deep, sending out a spray of blood. The injured wolf scrambled awake, its head half dangling from its neck.
Stalwart flipped off, wrenching his shield free from the beast’s neck as he went. “Now!”
”…!” I didn’t have any cool skills. That didn’t mean I couldn’t use anything though. I’d been practicing my ether control in my off time, of which I’d had plenty.
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I pulled back on my bowstring, summoning forth ether. It flowed up into the arrow, condensing around the arrow. It was an imitation of the Basic Ether Skills. More costly and required way more concentration, but it didn’t use a Skill slot. The glowing dark-blue ether sharpened on the tip, making the arrow even more deadly.
Twang!
“Awwwuuuhhh-!” The arrow flew true, lancing deep into the wolf’s eye to cut off its howl. The wolf yipped in pain and staggered back right into the waiting clutches of Raging Bull. Distracted by me and in pain, it offered up no resistance to Bull. The scrawny man made his move.
”Haah!” Bull darted forward, jumping up to bring his massive greatsword down in one intense motion. Although he didn’t have Furious Leap or whatever it was called, his legs came apart to reveal the chrome within. They gave him a much better jumping capability than just flesh ones. He lunged for the wolf’s head without hesitation.
Although the guy wielded his overly massive sword like it had no weight, the truth was very different. An overhead strike with that thing? It held a lot of force with gravity alone.
The sword slammed down, perfectly finding the gap on the wolf’s head. It furiously cleaved down the same path Stalwart cut open with his shield. In one fell swoop, the greatsword cut the rest of the way through. The giant wolf’s head cleanly popped off, flopping to the ground. The next moment, its body slammed lifelessly beside it.
Such was the fate of F-rank monsters. While it was the boss, it was only F-rank in the end. Ironically, a swarm tactic of lower level enemies probably would’ve worked better against our group than just the boss given its weak nature.
[Code: RC-1]
[Rift Closing: 29:59]
The ether in the air condensed, surging toward the collapsed boss. The wolf melted into pure ether. The three of us gathered around the dead wolf, waiting patiently.
Unfortunately, the ether in the air dissipated, skipping the item formation process entirely. It was common in lower-rank rifts. I wasn’t sure what the exact cause for loot generation was, but F-ranks had about a seventy-five percent shot at just not dropping anything.
Part of the ether bled off as it dissipated, fading into me.
[Skill: Basic Ether Bow]
[Accept?]
I of course accepted it. I now had four of seven Skills. For the most part they were pretty weak, almost not even worth using. I’d get some stronger ones eventually though. I had one in mind at the moment as a good starting place, and the Basics Ether stuff was a requirement for it.
[Nighteye lets out a cheer at your victory! Congratulations, Aylin!]
Why cheer over something so low-level? Why not just go make a contract with an S-rank and watch them go do raids? Was this really that fun?
[Nighteye pouts, shooting you a glare. It’s not just about the victory, it's about the journey.]
What if the journey was a long, dead one? Where, in the end, nothing matters anymore? Where you tried your best? Where you were just too weak to accomplish what you set out for? Would the journey still be worth watching even if it didn’t mean anything?
[Nighteye’s pout deepens and she shoos away the pessimism.]
Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Probably for the best I didn’t spiral down that thought process again, yep. It never ended well. I shifted my attention back to my fireteam, who were just finishing up with message of their own.
“Stay for the rest of the wolves? Or head back?” The Vanguard looked back toward the forest. Unlike Bull, who had a look of visible disappointment on his face about the lack of loot, he looked as though he expected as much
“Back.” I croaked out my response. No point sticking around and risking a rift closure for a handful of Nytes.
”Yeah, let's go back.” Bull agreed, glancing at his Mascots. “I got what I came for.”
Stalwart headed off in the direction we came from. I could tell off the marks I scattered across the trees on the way out here. “This way, then. Good work on the marking, Moon.”
”…” I nodded lightly. If I was going to be an Anchor, I had to fully play the part. It was also how I ended up with all the ether cores stuffed into my pockets. I really needed to get a white backpack when I got back.
We backtracked through the rift and exited it with twenty minutes to spare.
— — —
“Nice work, guys! I’m impressed. I was doubtful at first, but you both are way above average.” Stalwart laughed heartily. “I’ll pass you both on the assessment.”
”Really? Ugh- Just like that?” Bull looked surprised as he bent over his knees, fighting off a gag.
”Of course!” Stalwart waved lightly at me when I stumbled out of the rift. “Simply standing and fighting puts above the majority of Wardens. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into a rift like this and had to solo-clear it while my ‘fireteam’ cowered in the back.”
”…!” EuGH, cowards. Always left a bad taste in my mouth. They were really missing out on life if they didn’t throw themselves into a fight at the first chance.
Stalwart’s face turned much more serious. “I do have a few notes though, if you’ll hear me out? Some things you might want to look at if you’re going to continue your careers as rift Wardens.”
“…?” Feedback? I think I did pretty well? Ignoring feedback was never good though… unless the person was just wrong.
”Moon first.” He offered a polite smile to me. “Moon, you did good. I can see you have a lot of fighting experience from the way you positioned yourself as well as your skill with the bow.”
Yeah, about what I expected. I did good-
“However, you’re lacking a bit in combat abilities.” He quickly poured cold water on me. See? Bad feedback. He was just completely wrong- “Not that you can’t fight, but I saw that your Trait is All-Speech, right? You’ll need to compensate for not having a combat-focused Trait by doubling down on Skills.”
“Yep.” He actually made a good point. See? Good feedback.
I mean, regardless of what my Trait actually was, it would be smart of me to start grinding out some Skills. I was already working on one, but it wouldn’t hurt to speed up a bit. I wasn’t exactly capable of getting the one I wanted any quicker with so many witnesses, though. I needed a solo rift.
And this Skill needed seven slots to get, so it’d take a bit. The seven slot restriction was apparently the regret of many high-ranked Wardens. I’d read endless laments about it on the Grid. At that level, they couldn’t just abandon all their hard earned and evolved Skills to get it like I could.
Maybe I should ask Pursius to set me up with a solo F-rank? Or I could try to stumble into one on my own? It was a temporary goal, at least. Kali would probably appreciate me being out more regardless.
“Raging Bull…” He shrugged, rubbing his chin. “You said you were part of one of Oryx’s agencies?”
”Yes, sir! The top Striker of my year. They’re even the ones that came up with my awesome alias!” His chin lifted in pride.
”Right, well… I see why they call you Raging.” Stalwart chuckled lightly. “Once you calmed your excitement and ego down a bit, you did fine. Just make sure you don’t fall into that trap. Pride comes before the fall, and I’ve seen plenty of Wardens fall.”
The scrawny Warden looked like he might argue, though froze. His face took on a thoughtful look and shifted into a slow nod. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Good. You have the cores, Moon?” Stalwart asked me.
”…?” I pulled one out of my pocket.
“Market price is a hundred Nytes per F-rank core.” He nodded to us. “I’ll buy them all on behalf of the Bureau so we can skip going to an exchange.”
Bull looked surprised. ”Really? That’d be great.”
I shrugged and passed them over. It took a minute to open each and every single pocket in my horribly stained jacket. It was techwear- specifically designed to hold a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, that meant the cores were stashed all over my body. The total cores came out to twenty four.
Stalwart’s white SIGIL flashed out and he made a transfer to both Bull and I. Twelve hundred Nytes wasn’t so bad for such a quick run, I guess. Not nearly as good as a D-rank rift, but that was to be expected.
Stalwart and Bull chatted a bit longer until a few of the Bureau’s agents came by to check us out. Apparently, it was standard operating procedure for them to check our contamination levels after every rift. The one we just left had very, very low miasma though, so we barely spiked the meter before we were free to go.
I left the two behind, called a cab, and headed for the wall. It was starting to rain, and it’d make just as good of a spot as any to camp out until tonight. The full moon and Guiding Moonlight awaited.
