Death Smith - Book 2 - Chapter 8

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Rift 8

Mere minutes later.

Late-March, 14 AR.

Inside Rift 8.

In a sudden flash of black energy, Lance arrived inside the Rift. Momentum kept him going as he crashed into a nearby wall, banging his nose badly. The throbbing sensation and the taste of blood were enough of a reminder to get his bearings. He forced himself to adapt to his environment, holding out his weapons defensively. The air here felt thin and had a chill to it, as if winter had suddenly embraced him.

He could hear the others call out their names one by one, with them adapting with far more ease because of their higher levels and experience. “Lance!” He shouted, letting them know he was in one piece and conscious. From what he could tell, the others had all landed in different parts of the apartment complex but were still nearby. Firmly holding the axe and entrenching tool, he made his way towards the nearby door, slowly opening it. He held out the shovel and used the still reflective surface to peer inside the other room, only for something to ram into the tool with great speed.

Lance let go of the tool and grabbed his axe with both his hands. He waited near the partially opened door, just to the side, with his axe at the ready. Seconds went by as Lance kept silent, maintaining his ambush. Then, the door slammed open, and a three-legged monster rushed in. It was the size of a large ram, with a single jagged horn jutting from its head. Coarse grey fur, matted with filth and dirt, covered its body.

It barely registered Lance and try to halt its movements when Lance brought the axe head down, slamming into the creature’s back, shattering the spine. Lance then slammed the axe down three more times, biting into bone and severing tendons, muscles, and bundles of nerves.

‘Focus. Secure the kill and your surroundings,’ Lance thought, remembering Daniel’s teaching. He held the axe at the ready as he moved towards the fallen monster, quickly checking its vitals before Lance checked the door again, not wanting a second one to charge him. Having confirmed it was dead, Lance was about to leave when he spotted the notification above the monster’s corpse.

[Would you like to store this item?]

[Yes] [No]

For a split second, it reminded Lance of his last Rift when he noticed the same notification hover above the body of his best friend. Lance felt rage stream up to the surface before he suppressed it. Instead, Lance grabbed a nearby broken lamp and threw it near the doorway, creating a loud sound.

Moments later, another ram-like monster rushed at the lamp, its horn digging into the metal as its two front legs trampled it. It stopped when it felt an axe bite into its side, crushing and tearing apart ribs and vital organs. As it fell to the ground, Lance placed his right leg on the monster’s side and yanked out the axe. Afterwards, he checked to see if the creature was dead or not. This time, Lance did not see the notification appearing right away, it only popped up when the monster had bled out.

‘So, the monster has to be dead for my class to treat it as an item,’ Lance pondered. It was something that he had never heard of before, but he figured it could speed up things, seeing as he could assess whether a monster was truly dead. 'Why check for a pulse or breathing when a notification would work?'

Lance searched around for a moment before he found his entrenching tool. He grabbed it and went to the next door. From its design, it was clearly the front door, or what remained of it. The door appeared damaged and rotten, either by time or more recently, because of monsters. Lance opened it completely and peered outside, seeing a large hallway that was filled with a dozen more of these monsters. Every one of them sliced apart, frozen and shattered into pieces, or their heads smashed in.

“You all right, boy?” Noel asked as he made his way over to Lance, spear at the ready.

“Yeah, sorry. Smashed my face into a wall when I entered the Rift,” Lance said with a red smile, reassuring Noel and Myles. Claudia chuckled when she noticed the red grin.

‘Mend wounds’

[You have used Mend wounds lvl 2 at the cost of 15 Magicka]

[Current Magicka 120/135]

Lance felt the healing energy flow through his body, mending the bloody nose and restoring a bit of the Stamina he had used up during his fight. When the blue light faded, he made his way over to Myles.

Myles nodded as Lance and Noel reached him and Claudia. Myles’s blood covered sword had the same hue as his bloody shield, which had a few more scratches on it. “Perfect. The party is all here with no major injuries. Now, take a minute to catch your breath or secure your gear,” Myles told them as he continued to observe his surroundings.

The four of them were in the middle of a hallway. What Lance could discern from signs on the wall, they were now on the fifth floor. This could either be factual, or the building could have lost several floors when it materialised here.

At Myles’s command, the party closed all the apartment doors on this floor before checking out the staircase, afterwards placing several traps near the stairs. It took Noel a few minutes to set it up properly. Arranged there were a mixture of bear traps, and a basic tripwire device that would lead to a shrapnel filled explosion. It wouldn’t be enough to kill higher levelled monsters, but it would make a lot of noise, allowing the party to prepare for an unknown threat.

Then, with the hallway somewhat secure, the Rifters cleared each apartment one by one. The strategy was to always make a distracting noise from the outside to lure the monsters out. If they stayed inside, two Rifters would go in, backing one another up.

‘Safe and effective, but slow,’ Lance thought as he watched Claudia and Noel return from apartment 5C. At their levels, they would have no problem dealing with these monsters on their own. Even Claudia, their weakest member, could probably clear this floor on her own. That they went in as pairs was either because of safety, or it hinted at what Lance had suspected; They feared these monsters.

Lance went into the next room with Myles, having thrown in several bits of rubble to cause a commotion inside. Myles led the way, holding his shield out in front of him as he charged into the nearest monster, hacking at another one with his sword. Lance rushed past Myles and noticed that there were three horned monsters in total. Myles had already bloodied one with his sword and had disoriented the second one with a powerful shield bash.

Wasting no time, Lance threw his axe at the third monster, hitting it in the rear leg with enough force to send him back a few paces. Then, Lance jumped upwards towards the previously dazed monster, pointing the entrenching tool downwards. The shovel-like tool sank in violently due to the sheer momentum and Lance putting his entire weight behind it.

Lance quickly shifted his gaze towards Myles, seeing the man slice apart a monster’s front legs and pinning it down. No doubt Myles would go in for the kill next. With two of the three monsters down, Lance moved towards the third one. He had partially crippled it after having thrown his axe into it, but it still had some fight in it. The monster’s two powerful front legs dragged itself towards Lance, the tip of its horn aimed at Lance’s torso as it charged forwards. It ran with all its might, but the monster was slower than Lance was. It had an impressive strength behind its charge, but this time it only collided with a brick wall instead of a soft human torso.

‘Not all that intelligent, but capable of ignoring great pain,’ Lance thought as his hands swapped out the shovelhead for the pickaxe setting. Lance and Ash had trained to switch between the pickaxe and the shovel setting in their spare time. Both could change the head of the tool within a few seconds. By the time the monster came in for its second charge, Lance met it with a hardened steel pickaxe, smashing into its skull, killing it instantly.

[You have been awarded a Level up.]

[You are now level 12.]

[You have unspent attribute points.]

Lance noticed the notification but ignored it. Instead, he inspected the slain monsters and noticing the notifications hover above the corpses. “Are you all right?” Lance asked Myles, watching him make his way over to Lance.

“That was supposed to be my line,” Myles said, his tone neutral. He was no doubt revaluating Lance right there and then. “The broker said you just received your Veteran status. Was he wrong?” Myles asked Lance, his gaze shifting between him and the two dead monsters behind him.

“No. But I have had extensive training from several Rifters,” Lance said honestly. He figured this conversation would pop up eventually, although this was way too soon. He hoped he’d be able to build up a bit of a rapport with them first. “I am here to learn and find myself again,” Lance added, each word true.

Myles nodded once, glancing at the slaughtered monsters again before he led Lance to the other rooms in the apartment, afterwards returning to the others. “The pup has got fangs,” Myles said to the others before explaining what had happened inside. “We’ll talk about it later, all right?” Myles asked Lance, waiting for his nod before the group went back to clear the apartments one room at a time.

* * * * *

Several hours later, they had cleared two entire floors, room by room. They had blocked off the staircase by placing a few large steel shelves and wooden tables to form a barricade. It was easy to remove, but it made a lot of sounds to do so. The group had turned one apartment into a temporary base, having picked the one with the sturdiest front door. Beyond that, Noel had placed a lot of makeshift traps on the other levels, all marked with clear signs so no Rifter would fall prey to them. Noel had taken Lance with him, showing him how to make them and place them.

Lance felt somewhat silly for having purchased some of the items he had bought in the Workshop. He was contemplating this as he was sitting on a dirty mattress he had dragged out of a room. Myles and Noel started a small fire outside of the apartment, near an open window.

“Lance… your… well, I was going to say that your meat was ready, but that just feels wrong,” Noel said, holding up a fork that had bits of Rirkling meat on it.

“Is that even edible?” Claudia asked with a shudder, while Myles simply watched it from a safe distance.

“I bloody hope so,” Lance said as he sat down on a dented steel chair next to the others. It felt weird to ‘camp’ in a Rift, while it was still inside an apartment complex. Sure, there was no electricity or running water, but many of the sturdier chairs and tables were still intact. Beyond that, they also had plates, cups and even a spoon they could use. Myles and the others all had their rations, cooking supplies and tools that they could use, but preferred to use local things like this.

The first bite Lance took was as if biting into an old and tattered shoe. The second bite was even worse. “Delicious,” he said as he suppressed his need to gag and puke. A part of him wanted to cry out, knowing that there were several more kilos of the stuff in his inventory.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try the monster meat?” Claudia asked, feeling sorry for Lance.

“Didn’t you say it might be poisonous?” Lance asked before forcing himself to swallow his third bite.

“At this rate, wouldn’t that be a mercy?” She replied, suppressing a snicker before explaining to the others that she was going to use the bathroom and would use her mace on anyone who dared to walk in on her. The other men, wisely, did not respond, instead focusing their attention on their meals.

“Does it bother you, being back in a Rift?” Noel asked finally, placing his empty plate on the ground before leaning forward, curious to hear Lance’s thoughts.

“A bit,” Lance said honestly. He had told the others a bit about his background after they had cleared the floors and had secured the place. Although at a lower level, Lance showed skill and did not seem to hesitate when confronted by a monster. He had explained about his experience within his first Rift and the training he had received from Daniel in the following months after that. Beyond that, Lance had told them about his time with R.A.M. and how he lost his best friend there. The latter he only explained in a few sentences, clearly not feeling comfortable with the subject. The others had not pried in the matter afterwards. Judging by their reactions, they had suffered losses as well in their lives.

“It feels weird being inside of a Rift on my own, you know? Without my friend there,” Lance said, noticing how Noel and Myles nodded at that. They had talked for a long while, with the four of them sharing a bit more about their previous lives, their first Rift encounters and what they had lost.

“I understand. I wish I could tell you it will get better, but sometimes loss never does. You just learn to live with it,” Noel said, patting Lance’s knee once before he got up again. “More meat… or whatever you call it. Want some more?” Noel asked Lance as he got up and went back to the cooking fire.

“No, I am fine, thanks,” Lance said, instead focusing on his status screen and seeing the notifications that he had levelled up twice since entering the Rift, resulting in him having reached level 13 with 6 attribute points to spend.

[Agility:] [28] (+6)

Lance figured the additional points in Agility would help him out here. The monsters -or ‘Trihorns’, as Claudia demanded they would call them- were quite strong, but quite linear in their attack patterns. Lance figured his best course of action while facing them was to outflank or outmanoeuvre them. The additional 6 points would increase his reaction time and boost his speed further. He could have improved his speed by increasing Strength, but it would have become similar to the Trihorns, with it being hard to steer and manoeuvre.

Accepting the upgrades, Lance could feel the changes to his body, with his chest tightening for a few moments before it all settled down again. Agility would also improve the handling of his weapons, help with coordination and other things. He had managed the two levels due to him taking on several of the monsters, but there was a diminishing return. Lance had levelled up the first time by killing two of their numbers, but the second level up had only happened after Lance had killed 7 more.

The others had explained that lower levelled Rifts and monsters gave less experience, with Rifters such as Noel and Myles barely noticing the increase. Instead, they relied on clearing these Rifts and getting the level up after surviving a Rift-event. It made sense to Lance, but it also showed that he couldn’t just do this repeatedly and hope that he could get as strong as Connor, Kira, or Louis. It meant that Lance had to, eventually, clear stronger Rifts and battle stronger monsters.

[You have retrieved an item from the inventory.]

Lance retrieved the stack of red bark fruit from his inventory as he grabbed a few pieces of it before storing the rest of it and the Rirkling meat back in his inventory. The fruit, at least, was sweeter and more manageable compared to the meat. It still tasted like an apple that had gone bad, but it did not make him want to puke right from the start.

He sat there for a few more minutes before he and Noel went to bed. Myles and Claudia would take the first shift that evening, allowing Lance and Noel a whole four hours of sleep before they would have to take over. After he and Noel bade the others a relaxing shift, Lance made himself comfortable on the old worn mattress he had found. His camp blanket would serve as a decent insulator against the icy wind that occasionally blew in through cracks in the building.

‘I think the others are warming up to me,’ Lance thought, remembering the difference between the first few hours in this Rift and how they had all interacted with one another when they had dinner. Lance wanted them to trust him, and for him to learn from them. His other reason for being here Lance kept to himself, hiding it within his inventory.

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Author: Osirium

Copyright: 2022 OsiriumWrites

Released: 2022