Death Smith - Book 2 - Chapter 9

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Experiencing traps

Three days later.

Late-March, 14 AR.

Inside Rift 8.

Several days had passed since the party had entered the Rift, although back on Earth, far less time had passed. Claudia, Myles, Noel and Lance had cleared out most of the apartments, sweeping every room, staircase, or supply closet. The Rifters looted every slain monster, both for their black-shards or valuable items, afterwards dragging their corpses to a single room on the lower floor. Although they would only stay a few more days inside this Rift, one couldn’t underestimate what rotting corpses could do to one’s physical or mental health.

“There. See?” Noel asked, pointing down the elevator shaft. Lance had to squint his eyes a bit but could see a dozen of the three-legged monsters down there. All the monsters had plummeted to their death or ended up crippled and unable to move at the bottom of the shaft. “These monsters rely mostly on sound and smell,” Noel continued, pulling on a rope that was previously lowered down the elevator shaft. At the end of the rope was a tin can filled with a small amount of human blood to act as a lure. The blood inside of it had dried up and was losing its effectiveness as bait.

Lance had learned much about being a Rifter from his new companions. In terms of prowess, Lance knew they were not all that imposing or skilled. Despite their decent equipment, all three of them frequently hesitated or were missing vital organs. Lance figured that even Myles, their strongest member, wouldn’t even be able to hold a candle to Dieter or Daniel had they all been on the same level. Still, the white clovers had some other skills that Lance had learned to appreciate. Traps, fortifications, and defensive tactics, all of it Lance would remember and take with him on future Rifts.

Myles had grown up hunting with his father when he was a child and knew a lot about tracking and setting up basic snares. Noel had been an engineer before he became a Rifter, and Claudia had studied to become a chemist. The three of them combined resulted in quite effective traps, improvised explosives, and other gadgets. Not factoring in Lance’s contribution, most of the kills lately stemmed from traps the four of them had placed.

Lance watched Noel grab his blade, placing it against the palm of his hand, but hesitated. Noel did not like getting hurt. It was the reason he disliked fighting up close and why the role of mage suited him so well. “Here, let me,” Lance said, grabbing the blade and nicking a spot on his hand that he knew would produce a steady flow of blood. Lance would have rather used a needle to collect blood, but circumstance was never really accommodating.

Lance let a fair amount of his blood pour into the can before he moved away from the elevator, dripping blood as he made his way down the hallway. He made sure the route was the same as before. It was a straight line to the eastern stairwell. The damaged walls there opened up to the landscape of the Rift itself. Climbing outside, Lance let his blood pour onto the rocky soil, forming a small pool before Lance flung his hand to the sides, propelling droplets far in different directions, carrying his scent with him. Afterwards, his whole body lit up like a blue flare as he activated his healing skill, quickly closing the minor wound on his hand.

“This place is enormous,” Lance said out loud, hearing Noel slowly catch up with Lance. Everywhere he looked was rock and snow covered, from the deep valleys on one side and the large peaks on the other. The mountainous terrain showed little signs of life or vegetation. The four of them had performed short expeditions on the outside, to inspect the state of the apartment complex that was rammed into the side of a cliff, as well as locate the spot where the Rift-event would be.

“It sure is. Still, I prefer these types of Rifts compared to a boiling desert or an active volcano,” Noel offered, shuddering as if he remembered the temperature in those Rifts.

“Thanks again for taking the time to teach me, Noel. Too bad the GRRO did not offer courses in this field,” Lance commented, remembering the days when Daniel had given Lance a tour through one of the GRRO facilities, explaining what types of courses were being taught and what sort of personal trainers one could book for a private session.

Noel laughed at that, a dark hand running through his greying hair. “Well, I hardly think the government would approve of the GRRO teaching people how to make homemade pipe bombs or how to mix bathroom supplies into a corrosive element,” Noel explained.

“But they are fine with the GRRO overseeing the buying and selling of swords, rifles and rocket launches?” Lance countered with an amused expression.

Noel grinned, patting Lance on the back as the two of them made their way back to the open elevator shaft. “Never said it made sense, right?”

Upon reaching the open elevator shaft, Lance moved slowly, peering over the edge to see if there were any monsters alive. If so, they would either bleed out in a little while, or one of the Rifters would throw heavy or sharp things down the shaft and end the threat there and then. They would come and collect their black-shards after a few days had passed. “How many are still out there?” Lance asked Noel, wanting to hear the man’s thoughts.

“Tough to say. From what we learned of the previous Rifters that cleared this Rift, there were a few hundred of them last time. But that was a level three Rift. So, I’d say a hundred at the very least at this Rift level?” Noel mused, scratching his beard, shrugging his shoulders afterwards. “I think we killed most of the roamers, the ones that actively search for Rifters. Myles figures it is safe for us to make a push for the Rift-event in the next few days,” Noel added before he retrieved a flask of oil from his backpack and poured a generous amount of it on the floor near the elevator shaft, ensuring that any monster that rushed towards the scent of Lance’s blood would have no choice but to plunge into the elevator shaft.

“Come, let’s get some lunch. Seeing as you donated the blood, I’ll let you have some proper meat and vegetables I brought with me. Perhaps that will stave off any atrophy in your tastebuds,” the greying man said with a chuckle he led the delighted Lance up to the higher floors again, passing several barricades, rows of bear traps, and other improvised devices.

* * * * *

Lance had guard duty later that evening with Claudia. At the beginning of their stay in the Rift, that had meant guarding a single floor, nearly back-to-back. But with them establishing dozens of traps, barricades and a general familiarity of this place, guard duty was now more relaxed. Often that meant that one of them did the rounds while the other could relax near a fire, catching up on reading, repairing tools or savaging the apartments for any valuable loot.

For Lance, this was a chance to train. As soon as he was done with his rounds, he’d make his way down to the lower levels, past the destroyed stairs and finally near a section where many of the bear traps were. Most nights, they would trap a few of the monsters like that, with large steel rods hammered in the floor to keep the bear traps firmly in place.

Using his axe, Lance then killed some monsters that would be too difficult to handle outside of the traps, thinning their numbers until he felt comfortable in getting close to a wounded monster. It wouldn’t be hard to subdue one at that point. He used large strips of bed sheets he had bundled together to make restraints. Once he had secured one of them, he then dragged it into an empty apartment, closing the door behind it.

[You have combined and retrieved four items from the inventory.]

Ash suddenly appeared; his body dressed in the R.A.M. outfit. The man quickly took up a defensive position, holding the shield out in front of him with the smaller knife at the ready. Like practised.

“Ready?” Lance asked Ash, waiting for a single nod before Lance undid the bindings of the Trihorn. It had numerous wounds caused by the traps and the monster having flailed around for a while. Even then, it could prove a tough enemy to face. It was stronger than Lance, but currently had no real chance at matching him in speed or evasion. After clearing most of the apartments with the other Rifters, Lance had levelled up three times in total. Any spare attributes Lance had, he dumped into Agility, preferring more speed and swiftness on his side at the moment. He felt comfortable handling two or three monsters on his own if he had room to move. In a smaller room such as this apartment, he’d prefer to only fight one or two at a time.

For Ash, it would be a far more challenging task, seeing as he was basically a normal human in terms of his physical qualities. The shield and weapons would give him a decent edge, but Lance had spent more than one night repairing Ash. Lance had seen Ash get impaled by the Trihorn’s nasty horn or got trampled by one of its three legs. Still, each time it happened was a learning experience for Ash and he seemed to get better.

Unlike the last time, Ash now took the fight to the monster, dashing as quickly as his body could take him. The shield slammed into the charging monster. Ash had not put his weight behind it. Instead, he let it serve as a distraction, with him sliding to the side. Quickly, Ash slammed the knife into the monster’s hind leg and began violently cutting, aiming for essential tendons rather than more durable muscles and bones.

‘Clever move,’ Lance thought, having witnessed this first exchange between the two combatants. The monster was faster, stronger, and far more durable than Ash, but Ash had rendered the monster’s single hind leg useless with its tendons cut. In one move, Ash had levelled the playing field, equalizing their speed.

As the second and third exchange happened, Lance already knew what the end result would be, with Ash slashing and stabbing at the creature. While the broken steel shield circumvented most of the damage to Ash, save for some bruises and perhaps a few hairline fractures in his arms. As the monster bled more and more, it slowed down, not to mention occasionally slipped on the blood with its hooves. Ash did not have that problem, seeing as losing blood wouldn’t lessen his combat prowess. The only thing Ash had to monitor was the loss of function to his body and the overall durability rating.

After the fifth exchange, Ash blinded the monster’s left side, hiding in his blind spot afterwards. By the time the monster found Ash again, it would feel a sharp slab of steel slam into its throat as Ash rammed his shield into it with both his arms. This happened again and again until he neutralised the threat.

“Is the threat dealt with?” Lance asked Ash, wanting to see if Ash had remembered to inspect the body of a fallen monster, to see if it was dead or simply incapacitated for now. With the monster’s throat cut open and neck crushed, Ash nodded to Lance. “Good, cut out the black-shard and hand it to me,” Lance instructed as he made his way over to Ash and placed a hand on his back, activating his skill.

‘Repair item’

[You have used Repair item lvl1. Reducing Stamina and Magicka regeneration by 25% until completion]

Lance felt the shift internally, feeling something was off. It was hard to put into words how Stamina and Magicka felt beyond some innate feeling, almost instinctual. The sudden shift in his regeneration of it was noticeable but did not cause any discomfort. The repair skill wasn’t something that worried Lance, seeing as he usually repaired Ash when he was training him in private, or when Ash was in Lance’s inventory. It might prove more challenging in the future when Lance had more skills that required Stamina or Magicka, meaning he’d either had to be more careful in how often he used those skills in battle or simply choosing not to repair Ash during a fight.

[You have repaired an item. Ash is now at 100% durability.]

“Good job. I saw nothing wrong during this fight. Are you up for another round?” Lance asked, a smile appearing on his face as Ash gave a determined nod. Lance then stored his pale companion before retrieving discarded makeshift restraints, determined to fetch another unfortunate monster or two.

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Several hours later, Lance had finished his shift and was on his mattress, staring at the dark ceiling as if it might hold some sort of answer. Today had been an eventful day. Noel had shown him how to make more complex traps. Claudia had told Lance what items to look in apartments in terms of worth or usefulness, while Myles had taught Lance more about tracking and how to cover one’s tracks or scent. This knowledge alone would be exactly what he needed to survive a Rift on his own, provided he had some more tools and basic equipment. But all of that seemed trivial compared to the notification he had on his status screen.

[You have been awarded a Level up.]

[You are now level 15.]

[You have unspent attribute points.]

It wasn’t the fact that he had levelled up again that Lance was so surprised. It was how. He was slowly getting less and less bang for his buck in terms of experience for each monster he killed. It took him more and more kills to level up, with level 14 taking him several days’ worth of killing monsters. The other Rifters had allowed Lance to kill the monsters in the elevator shaft, letting Lance drop heavy things on them to kill them and gain experience. The amounts the others would get from it would barely make a dent in their own required experience.

After dozens of killed monsters in the elevator or during his patrols, Lance knew he had been getting closer to level 15. Lance had figured he’d hit the mark when he killed the occasional monster that Ash couldn’t take down on his own. It had surprised Lance when Ash stood triumphant above the fallen monster, with Lance having gotten a notification that he had levelled up.

‘This changes everything,’ Lance thought as he held up his hand in the dark, forcing it into a fist as he felt his mood taking a turn for the better. Getting experience could happen in a lot of ways, but it had to involve Rift related creatures or items. Some crafters could gain experience from creating high-quality items, or when a Rifter healed or buffed others while in combat. But a Rifter gained the most amount of experience when killing a monster. It did not matter if you killed it utilizing a firebolt, a sword to the brain or a thrown javelin. Even traps worked, if someone had made it out of Rift-materials and a Rifter had placed it.

That Lance’s level up came right after Ash’s victory meant that Lance was gaining experience through Ash’s kills. It meant that this Rift and the rules that governed it all were truly treating Ash like a tool or weapon wielded by Lance. Suddenly Lance’s goal of increasing his level to where he could confront Connor, Kira and Louis seemed a lot closer.

[Strength:] [30] (+3)

Lance placed the three attribute points into Strength, deciding it was fitting considering the moment. As expected, the surge of strength overwhelmed him as the clenched fist suddenly became more painful, the additional strength straining the bones, tendons, and muscles in his fist to their limits before he finally relaxed his hands. He placed his hand back on his chest, feeling his excited and rapid pulse.

After a minute, Lance opened his inventory and let his gaze fall on Ash’s name and icon. He was suddenly fully aware of the true value of what Ash could be to Lance, beyond an extra set of hands in combat or to carry things. It was almost fitting that Thomas’s sacrifice had now given birth to the tool that Lance needed in order get justice for his friend. And at that moment, just for a little while, Lance had let go of the shame and self-loathing he felt at what he had done to Thomas’s body.

‘I promise you, Thomas, I’ll catch up to them.’

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Author: Osirium

Copyright: 2022 OsiriumWrites

Released: 2022