Kim scanned the treeline, staring forward and clearing the area, spear extended. There was nothing. The entrance, at least, was completely quiet. She turned around; a stone archway supported the gate.

Which was weird.

Normally they just sort of popped into existence, hovering in midair or buried into a wall. Not in an archway. Through the gate she saw the distorted image of Rain. He moved at a snail’s pace, practically crawling from her point of view.

“Rain?” she asked, before frowning. She reached up to touch the gate. An arc of power shocked her hand. “Son of a b — “she cut herself off, waving her hand in the air as if to dispel the pain. The image on the gate slowly distorted, turning into static before disappearing with an audible pop. Kim paled, sucking in air with a hiss before turning around to assess her situation.

What did she know?

Assumption 1: This was a resetting gate. She had heard of gates that closed before when someone entered, and, without fail, they were always resetting gates. Resetting gates seemed to loop. When we cleared them, time inside reset, running backwards. They would close when enough people entered — ranging anywhere from 1 to 100 people. This was a 1 person, resetting gate. They defied causality. But there shouldn’t be any iron resetting gates.

Assumption 2: This was not an iron gate. It was a bronze gate, or a silver gate, or some kind of fucked up gate with powers like Rain’s that the system didn’t recognize.

She was desperately hoping it was just a silver gate. At least then she would know what killed her. At least then she wouldn’t be trapped in a dimension full of monsters beyond her comprehension.

Assumption 3: She had to kill whatever monster was here to get out alive. Resetting gates that shut were public enough knowledge. She would have to kill the world boss to escape.

Kim was especially glad she had prepared. At least resetting gates tended to follow some kind of logic.

“This is a resetting gate.” Kim reassured herself aloud. She felt panic creep up inside her, something she hadn’t felt in years as a guide. The environments were always so much more controlled. Even though she recently explored new gates, she had at least had Rain by her side. Panic attacks when suddenly surrounded by a monstrous unknown were common. In fact, she was trained to help others deal with them. Well, trained by her job. Ex job.

She shook away the extraneous thoughts, beginning a breathing exercise.

It didn’t help.

After a minute or two she looking up, thinking back to her spear practice — to her flow state. Instead of the standard breathing exercise she had been taught, she leaned into the breathing technique Rain had taught her. She felt the Qi brush against her skin, blistering hot here, but she didn’t have the space to think about it. She had to think about surviving and soloing a world boss.

Actually, she had to think about not thinking about soloing a world boss. Kim’s 3 minutes of breathing exercise turned to 30 contemplation. Then it was devoid of thought. Silver light pooled around her. Completely unaware of it, she was advancing forward steadily. She pulled strings of Qi from her dantian, cycling them through her body one at a time, so naturally she didn’t even have to think about it.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed when she heard footsteps.

“Rain!” She said, her eyes snapping open. The spear was still in her hand as she sprang to her feet, smile already climbing up her face as she looked forward.

There was still no one here. She frowned. She heard the footsteps, distant and coming closer.

“Rain?” she asked again, pulling the spear into her hands. Unconsciously, she took a stance with the spear pointed forward.

A foot landed in her vision. It was humanoid, sharp claws digging into the earth, and it seemed to manifest out of thin air, a hundred feet down the road in front of her. The surrounding air boiled like a mirage — it looked like something cast by a mage, some kind of illusion spell. But what was the illusion? The monster stepping into reality or a false wall of reality behind it?

Its leg moved forward, pulling the monster out of thin air.

Silver fur clung to its skin, a fox-like face looking down at Kim and speaking in a language of screeches. It carried a gigantic axe, hung over its shoulder, and stared, apparently waiting for Kim. It had heavy robes stitched together from a mix of leathers. Some of them were furred, deep black contrasting with its silver coat. She observed its every movement, watching its glowing silver eyes. They looked familiar. She had seen Rain’s eyes look like that.

‘Points towards this being a fucked up cultivation world: +1,’ Kim tabulated internally. ‘Hope of survival: -1.’

“Hi?” Kim ventured, keeping the spear extended between them. The monster tilted a head to the side, ears twitching.

He switched languages, speaking in a new, completely unknown dialect, the mild interest in his eyes fading away. Kim stared for a moment, waiting to see what else the monster would do.

The fox stepped forward and swung in the same motion.

A screech echoed out where her spear caught his axe, mana infused stab stopping the blade dead. The axe slid down the side of the spear, and she stabbed forward, forcing the fox monster to the side and out of the way.

Taking the moment he jumped backwards, Kim leapt forward, stabbing again. He raised the wooden heft of his axe to block, and her spear chipped away at the wood.

Kim squinted. 3 more good hits like that and it would break.