1. Into the Rift

I awakened to the sounds of escape—the sound of heavy steps in the deep snow and the breathing of a fatigued voice. The warmth from an unfamiliar source compensated for the cold gust that grazed me.

Having no recollections of how I ended up here nor what was going on, I felt a sudden qualm form in my mind; I needed to grasp the situation.

Despite everything appearing blurry as I opened my eyes, I could still see the figure tightly holding me to her chest. She was a heavily injured woman with blood dripping down like a half-open faucet from her face, while sharp puffs of fog came out when she exhaled. Her footing was unstable, limping with every step she took. Yet, even though she was terribly hurt, she still carried me through a storm of gusts and hail, prioritizing my wellbeing. Around us were a barren landscape with glacial and frostbitten trees and a carpet of glistering snowflakes.

I rubbed my eyes in an attempt to refresh my vision, but it had no effect. Subsequently, I saw my own hands—my tender teeny infant hands—before a thick haze clouded my mind. What...? Were they always this small—no, wait, who was I anyway? Did I lose my memories? Of course, I must have, but I couldn’t lose any memories if I were this young, implying some sort of reincarnation must have occurred to me.

“There it is!” Exclaimed the woman while picking up the pace. “Don’t worry, dear; I will keep you safe. Just go back to sleep and let me handle everything.”

I assume this is my mother. I can’t think of other young people whose business is fleeing with a child and viewing them as dear. My stereotype-judging brain imagines the father staying behind, holding back whatever was chasing us, while the mother keeps herself and the child secure.

Even in this awful state, her eyes lit up when she spoke to me. Looking closely, I would assume she was in her early-20s, or maybe a bit older. She was stunning with her well-defined face and smile as pretty and bright as a new dime. Something felt off, though; she didn’t strictly come off human-like. She must be a mix of something else, but I couldn’t precisely tell due to my newborn eyesight. It was more like she had a strange aura surrounding her that set her apart from others I hadn’t even met yet. Well, not in this life, at least.

She ran towards an opening on a massive boulder. A gigantic overgrown tree with dense roots grew along with it, presenting the entrance like the passage to an ancient cave. Still not fully understanding the situation, I was nervous about going in. Were we running away from animals or bounty hunters? Or maybe other “not entirely humans” like us?

Upon entering the boulder, I noticed that the interior was more significant than the entrance otherwise suggested. Colorful and illuminating flowers dangled from the ceiling that appeared as illuminating fireflies. But, expectedly, the further we went, the fewer buds came into sight, darkening the space.

There were several small corridors and also some larger and gloomier ones. Without hesitation, she hurried to a dark alcove like she was familiar with this cave. Pathway after pathway, you would be considered an expert maze solver if you could return to the surface without a map. This place was so prominent that it felt like we were tiny ants in a neverending colony. After several more chambers, she finally led us to a room blooming with nature and tree roots growing from the roof. There she laid me down on a soft pillow of leaves and lightly patted my face.

“Stay here, okay? Mommy will be back,” she reassured right before leaving.

I reached out my arm and tried to call her, but only a soft groan came out.

This room worked wonders as a hiding spot. An average person couldn't navigate here without a light source. But I still didn’t want to be alone here in the darkness. The unknown of this cave frightened me. Well, I certainly shouldn’t try and chase her either, so instead, I concentrated on hearing what would happen.

For some reason, my hearing seemed… absurdly good, especially for an infant. Faint footsteps echoed in the distance. Not just hers as there roamed a decently sized party near the entrance. Those must be the people we were escaping from. Was she trying to fight them all at once, alone and injured? As they came closer, my mother’s steps suddenly stopped as if she were hiding somewhere. The plan was probably assassination. She’d use the dark to her advantage and somehow take each of them out one at a time.

For a moment, there was quiet. Then a sharp sound ringed through the cave alongside a painful scream. The sound of blood splattering on the ground resounded in my ears. I could hear more bodies falling to the ground, cry after cry.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but when an explosion occurred, the killing stopped. Then, after a moment of silence, two distant voices began to talk about something while their footsteps came closer.

What? No! It couldn’t be. Did they kill her? She promised me she’d come back safely! I haven’t even gotten to know her or at least my name!

Now isn’t the time to worry about that; the hunters were getting closer. They must have gotten a light source and started to follow her blood trails. I must find a way to stop them, but I struggled to even crawl around in this body. Instead, I wriggled and rolled my tiny body around desperately, only to fall off the leaf pile and wound my arm on a sharp rock. When blood started leaking out, I curled up and started crying unstoppably as my body’s instinctive response. The pain in my arm was more excruciating than anything I’ve ever felt. It felt like millions of maggots had started infesting it, spreading further through my nerves and my brain. When it, however, reached my head, the pain turned into nothing more than a mild headache

- [Notice] -

The Rift reacted with your blood. As a result, you have evolved from a Hybrid Riftborn to an Awakened Hybrid Riftborn.

Passive Skill [Basic Night Vision] Obtained!

Passive Skill [Basic Regeneration] Obtained!

Passive Skill [Enhanced Senses] Levelled Up!

[Enhanced Senses] - Lvl. 1 -> Lvl. 2

Passive skills? Leveled up? What was that? Couldn’t I have lost my mind, right? After all, information just came out of my head! It reads that I had obtained night vision and regeneration, so did that mean I could see in the dark and regenerate wounds more efficiently now?

As confirmation, I slowly opened my eyes and realized I could see better in the dark. My arm was mainly healed as well, meaning the skills were legit. Sure, this was useful for the future, but it wasn’t anything that could save me from the hunters—no, actually I could use this skill to set up a trap. They must be injured as their footsteps were unsteady; after all, I only needed to buy myself some time to escape. I could also use those insanely sharp rocks to do something. The plan was doable, but I needed to use my advantage, the element of surprise entirely.

The plan was simple: make them trip and fall into the sharp rocks as I ran away. I don’t know where to flee yet, but anywhere safe would do, even if it were a temporary safe spot. Surviving here shouldn’t be impossible if I somehow could acquire more skills.

To get started, I rolled my body around to get my hands on some leaves that I put where the hunters likely would enter. I also ensured to get some saliva and snot on the bottom to make it more slippery. Quite disgusting, I must say, but as this was between life and death, I shouldn’t complain. Of course, I didn’t forget the rocks as they were the most crucial part. Ideally, I wanted to target their head or stomach where the stones could cause a painful cut. Unfortunately, there was no way to know how tall they were nor where they wore armor, so the rock’s placement was challenging.

In the end, I decided to leave them where they already were. Even if the people in question were enormous, the rock would still pierce their lower torso and there was no point in wasting energy and time moving them around if it didn’t make a difference. The plan was flawless. Now, all I had to do was hide in the leaf pile and—.

“Fooound him!”

Two rough hands wrapped around my body and picked me up. He brought me up to eye level and stared into me with corrupt intent. One glance at him, and I could tell he wasn’t someone you should mess with. His muscular body was full of intimidating scars indicating his battle experience.

“Now, what the hell do we do with him?” he asked.

“We kill him on the spot. This is his natural habitat, and if we don’t kill him now, he will become an actual monster in the future,” answered the man behind him. He had fire coming from his hand that lit up the room. His sorcerous-looking clothes suggested that he caused the explosion.

Besides, they completely ignored the trap! And they plan on killing me too! So, naturally, it wouldn’t work when they had a light source. I was so focused on surviving that I forgot how cruel reality was. A newborn would never be able to beat two fully grown men, one of them even being able to use magic.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t sell him?” he asked while raising an eyebrow. “I mean, he is still a rare breed.”

“If you aren’t going to kill him, I will,” answered the mage. He held his hand forward, ready to scorch me with his flame.

“Okay, okay! I’ll do it. I don’t want you to burn me accidentally.” He pulled a knife from his back pocket and placed it on my neck. “Welp, here goes noth—”

“Wait, stop, be quiet for a moment,” the mage interrupted. “Something is coming.”

“Then I’ll kill him immediately, and we can get the hell out of here! I don’t want to deal with this stupid quest anymore.”

“No! Don’t! If it’s the kid’s mother, we can use him as a hostage. I don’t have enough mana to cast another effective spell if we had to fight.”

I focused on listening to the person who was coming. The footsteps were different from those of my mother’s. With my skill-enhanced senses leveled up, it was far easier to recognize things through sound. Something was off, though, as it sounded like two people jogging in sync, implying that it had four legs.

“Stand back... It’s coming,” warned the mage.

Swoosh. Splat.

“Urgh! What the hell. My arm, my—. This is acid!” cried out the hunter in pain. He pointed at the thing that emerged from the dark as his eyes and voice expressed fear. “Wh-what the hell is that?”

The creature quickly trotted toward us from side to side, dodging the knife slashes flung at it, and began to lick the hunter’s legs. He tried bolting away but fell and dropped me; screamed as the acid from its tongue liquefied his clothes and flesh into a horrid bright green.

“Aaargh! My-my legs! Run away, idiot!”

“Arf, arf,” barked the creature joyfully as it locked on its next target, the mage.

Immediately, he tried to flee, but the creature charged up its spit and spat a perfect sphere of acid that melted half of his head. His lifeless body immediately tumbled to the ground and splattered blood all over us.

Looking behind, I saw that the other hunter had died too, presumably from blood loss or shock. Then, having just slaughtered both of them with ease, it turned to me menacingly and growled. Matching the phenomenon, my few minutes of life flashed before my eyes as I questioned: Was it my turn now?