As Jack raced to catch up with Monty through the twisting and turning hallways of the spaceship, he called out to Monty.

  “Hey, you okay, man? What do you need me to do?” Jack said as Monty continued his pace without slowing.

  “Sorry, Jack. Lots to do. Go find Turrel and get him up to date on how the rift went then get some rest. I will come past tomorrow and we will see what we can do about the vessel's charge.”

  Jack stopped in the hallway as Monty kept walking. He understood, this was what Monty did. Jack was an interesting distraction but this was the real Monty, the busy commander, obsessed with protecting people from broken rifts.

  “Yes sir!” Jack said, with a little more attitude than needed as he saluted. He then glanced around as he tried to work out where he actually was and needed to go next.

  He took a few turns before he got his bearings after asking a crewman that he ran into. Jack felt bad but he was terrible with names and couldn't remember who it was to save his life. He went with the safe “Hey Man!” and “Cheers bud” that he always fell back to when he was in an awkward nameless situation.

  He had no idea what time it was but there seemed to be a lot of activity at the moment so he didn't hesitate to knock on Turrel's door. Well knock might not be the right word. He tapped a sequence on the panel next to the door that let Turrel know someone was there, all pretty fancy stuff.

  The blue-haired man appeared at the door after a few seconds of waiting and ushered Jack in.

  “Take a seat, I am assuming Monty is off working out how to try to break the laws of physics to get us to the under siege system as quickly as possible?” Turrel asked as he sat at his desk and spun the chair around to face Jack.

  “I am going to be real, I have no idea what physics is real or not anymore… I was in a teleporter and a strange alternate dimension like less than an hour ago. But yes.” Jack replied as he collapsed down on the softer couch in the corner of Turrel’s room.

  “That is true, well I would be happy to hear about the rift if you are up to talking. You seem a little tired, Jack.” Turrel asked with a genuine hint of concern.

  “Ahh I am fine, another few hours won't make much difference in the long run. Where do you want to start?” Jack asked.

  “Hmm well I am going to assume you two have defeated the Rift Guardian? Let's start from the beginning, you found a camp location and set up there correct? How did your purge work?” Turrel asked as he took out a notepad.

  “Yeah, we defeated the guardian and destroyed the core. I am Tier 3 now so that's pretty cool. Ohh shit I guess that makes me a higher Tier than you? Am I stronger than you now?” Jack asked as he completely lost his train of thought and forgot Turrel’s question.

  “Wait, Tier 3? So you really did skip a Tier? That is insane Jack. Ok we need to cover that but let's try to do this in order for my mental health. Purge. How did it go?” Turrel asked as he scribbled away at his notepad.

  Jack leaned back, feeling a little like he was being interviewed but trying to get his narrative in order. His mind wanted to follow most of the tangents it found as he thought of the rift and the questions he had put away for Turrel. Instead he tried to keep it to what he needed.

  “Ok, we did set up a little space for the first day or so. The purge worked as we expected. It was hard to focus the first bit but I managed ok until the skill upgraded. The mana just seemed to expand out in a dome around me. It was surrounded by the death mana but the longer I purged the bigger the area was, at the edges they just mingled I guess? Monty was pretty happy.” Jack said.

  “Ok, that is good to hear. It’s not something that has really been explored before… Why would you waste that quantity of mana when it would be more stable stored in a crystal? Interesting. Now skill upgrade? What did you get offered?” His eyes flashed up away from his notepad as he waited for Jack to respond.

  Jack laughed.

  “You know what, Monty’s eyes were the same when he asked about it. I already decided I am all in with the two of you at the moment so I’ll tell you everything. For this one though I have no idea. I think I got the skill upgrade right as I fell asleep or when I was asleep? I don't know, I missed it and didn’t get to choose. The Origin chose for me, the upgrade was called [Passive].” Jack proceeded to explain the skill to Turrel.

  “Jack that is amazing. It must be a unique skill as well. I doubt anyone else has been or would ever choose that. Good. I will get a more detailed rundown of the purge effect on the environment from you and Monty later as I work out some questions. I see you have acquired some new equipment” Turrel mentioned as he looked down at Jack's boots that were misting over the couch.

  “Just give me the quick rundown and what your thoughts are right now, Jack.” Turrel said as he looked intently at Jack.

  Jack knew Turrel was trying to be empathetic, it was his job and he was a teacher at heart but there was something about the normality of all of this. While there were people running around outside due to a rift break, the crazy wolves attacked him with such strange intent. It made him upset and uncomfortable.

  “Turrel, honestly it was shit. It was terrifying in there, until I got this ring it felt like there was something weighing down the entire time. Monty said the rift must have been on the verge of breaking, there was an evolved wolf creature thing, hordes of scary rabbit death wombats. Crazed wolves that wouldn't stop charging at me even when all of their legs were broken. The rift guardian was as big as a fucking house, and it just bloody phased through shit like it wasn't even there.” Jack blurted out, losing his cool a little toward the end as he recounted it.

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  “I’m ok man, Monty is scary strong. But I’m not ok. It’s all a bit too real for me right now hey. Dude I'm a hermit right? I live by myself, in the middle of nowhere because I hate drama, conflict and most of the time people in general. I like to rely on me and only me. I know that’s probably a long shot now, but that is all I want in the future. That’s my goal. I don’t know how or where but that's it.” He continued to rant, arms waving around as he spoke.

  “I think I understand a bit better now, and thank you. Honestly. I doubt many people would have cared enough about a nobody to put themselves at risk. This is way too complicated for me to understand fully, but after seeing Monty in the rift. I think I can understand the ‘Might makes right’ sentiment now; if he wanted to, there is nothing I or anyone here could do to stop him.” Jack looked at Turrel seriously for a second.

  “I need that power. Not for any noble reason, but because I honestly only truly want two things in life. I want to be left alone. I know that won't happen unless I can make it happen myself. The second thing is a fireball.” Jack winked at Turrel.

  “Sorry to trauma-dump on you man. I just needed to say it out loud. It’s been bubbling around in my head for a while. After I locked eyes with that wolf, it was wrecked, limbs twisted and broken. It had no emotion in its eyes other than hunger. It just … kept… coming…” Jack said, elbows on knees and head between hands.

  Turrel stood and walked over to Jack, kneeling to get on his level.

  “That is … Jack. You have been through a lot in a very short period of time, and I know you didn’t ask for any of this. You don’t have to thank me for what I have done either. It is the right thing to do and while I would like to think I would do it for anyone a selfish part of me helped because you are interesting.” Turrel said.

  “I will help you as much as I can so you can achieve your goals. Much like I did with Monty. I don’t know about the fireball, but if you want to get stronger so you can be left alone. I will help.” Turrel reached out and placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

  “As for the wolf, I am assuming this was one of the riftspawn? It is hard I know, they look real, sometimes they act real. But they are not. They are imitations created for the sole purpose of absorbing Origin essence. They are drawn towards it with an unnatural desire. As you have been inducted well you have some of that essence inside you and to them that makes you a target they will do anything to get to.” Turrel said.

  “You can’t let that affect you too much, Jack. What we are about to see will hopefully drill that lesson home a little. Riftspawn are dangerous, not everyone is like Monty. Your reactions when faced with essentially monsters is normal.”

  Jack thought on Turrel’s words, he realised he had partially come to a similar conclusion. His mind had rationalised their behaviour with being unreal and disassociated them from being creatures he knew.

  “You said they were imitations, are they always beasts? Are there humanoid riftspawn?” Jack asked. He doubted that would be something he could handle even if he knew they were not real.

  Turrel stood up from his kneeling positions as he seemed to consider how to respond.

  “Riftspawn more often than not takes on the form of relatively unintelligent life that the origin has encountered. Humanoid is a broad term, do some riftspawn resemble us in that they are bipedal and have human-like features? Yes. Are they intelligent and able to communicate with themselves and others? No. Like an image captured, and given a singular purpose that is all riftspawn are.” Turrel replied as he looked down at Jack, his eyes squinting for a second.

  “Also are you shimmering?” Turrel waved his hands around. “You might want to avoid purging while you are on the vessel, people might look at you strangely if they sense it.”

  Jack laughed, as he realised he had been purging the entire time he had been back on the ship. He manually took over and did a full purge so that he had no more mana running through his system, however, as he emptied his body he noticed that he could still sense and draw on the layer around his body. That could be useful.

  “Ohh yeah that was my Tier 2 trait. It is called [Prismatic Mana Skin].” Jack then went on to explain in detail about the skill, Turrel asked a number of follow-up questions, being quite impressed as he went on. He even dashed over to his desk to get his notepad and started making his own notes.

  Turrel’s excitement was contagious and in light of Jack’s earlier outburst he let himself be swept up in providing Turrel all of the details about his trait so far. Along with the details of his Shockwave upgrade and his body Modification choices.

  He felt better letting it out a little bit, having Turrel confirm that he would help even if Jack’s reasons for wanting power were selfish and stupid. It put his mind at ease a little more, if all he had to pay for it was to give away intimate personal details about skills and abilities. Jack thought that was a fair price to be potentially left alone when he wanted to in the near future.

  After what felt like hours Jack sat back feeling as if he had finally sated Turrel's curiosity.

  “Thank you, Jack, sorry to keep you so long. I think this is great, your options were interesting and your choices so far have been perfect. I will have a think over this tonight and see if I can come up with some things we should be looking for and what to look out for in options for the future. Go rest up for tonight, I think we will have a day or two of travel before we arrive. Maybe a day or two after that as well, we really want to get you to lock down [Imbue] and [Grow] I think you are close, that will give you a great foundation.”

  Jack nodded.

  “Look, after seeing what Monty has managed to do with those skills so far I can’t say I disagree. I didn’t think it would be so effective in combat but Monty was insane.” Jack said as he rose and headed to the door.

  “Yes, I did pretty well teaching him. He came to me after the event on his homeworld and demanded that I teach him how to fight. I will teach you what I taught him then, but I think you will need a different approach. His path was … destructive and until you get a handle on the healing side of things, we are limited. Enough! Go rest, I will see you tomorrow.”

  Jack stopped as he came to the door, he always forgot that Turrel had taught Monty. Something Monty said in the portal popped into Jack’s mind and he had a suspicion, he knew it was rude but he didn’t really care.

  “Turrel, what is your highest levelled skill?”

  Turrel laughed from his desk and hmmmed for a moment.

  “Monty has dedicated his life to progression by strength and the presence of his achievements. I have chosen knowledge and mastery. I am much older than Monty, Jack. I have less traits and body modifications but rest assured my skills are a much higher level than his.” He made a shooing motion that implied he wasn’t going to say anymore.

  Jack left the room and walked back towards his own room, thoughts of a karate movie and an old mentor grabbing a fly flashing through his mind.