Boss was dead.

Oh. The essence.

Keynes braced for the pain but first came a paralyzing shock. The strength of the Level 2 rift essence was stunning, literally. It was potent, terrifyingly potent. Vaguely aware of his surroundings, Keynes heard the soldiers speak in excited voices. Yes. They felt it too.

The damned shock lasted less than a few seconds but if there were more monsters like this boss, Keynes believed the essence could become very harmful, very quickly. Why was that? According to what Keynes learned so far about levelling was that it shouldn’t be painful. Obviously, the rift essence was a different deal.

When the overwhelming effect of the boss’ essence passed, Keynes focused on the residues and managed to steer them toward the channels inside his body. It turned from painful to unpleasant to neutral and by the end of the process, he had a faint impression of weak pleasure.

“Report back to the base,” the captain said and the soldiers looked ready to protest.

“Do as he says,” Kaito Ren added.

They didn’t challenge the specialist but they were ready to do so with the captain. This place had everything upside down.

They watched the soldiers walk away. Only after they disappeared between trees, Captain Ventura spoke up.

“Now the spoils.”

He turned and walked to the corpse of the boss. With his sabre, he started a gruesome process of cutting away the canines and claws. It wasn’t that Keynes had a weak stomach, but he’d remember every detail and he wasn’t keen to hold such a memory.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m harvesting raw materials.”

“How’s your arm, captain?” Keynes asked, feeling a need to remind the two men of his presence. The sheer fact that they didn’t send him away nagged at his mind. He had a perfect memory, not a genius mind, but he wasn’t stupid. The captain was up to something and Keynes wasn’t sure what to think about being so close to his intrigue.

“It’s nothing,” the captain showed his arm, faint red marks were the only indication that the boss had bitten him. From Keynes’s perspective it looked dire as if the captain was about to lose his arm in the jaws of the monster. “The boss was only Level 2 and it didn’t give its best. I wouldn’t sweat it.”

“It proved harder to kill than you expected,” Kaito Ren noted and Keynes agreed.

The captain stopped the bloody harvest and stood up, turning slightly to them.

“Why do you think I am taking this stuff? The metal should have gone through the neck without resistance but I couldn’t chop through the bone as easily as I thought. You don’t need to be a genius to do the math.”

“Level 2 material is stronger.”

“More than that.” The captain pointed at Keynes. “It’s obvious what’s the Kid’s Talent is. He can open rifts. The fact that you’re here, levelling him up, means they look for higher-level rifts or they have already found them. Either way, materials found in rifts should always be of better quality than what we have on Earth.”

Was this why the twig Keynes had taken from the rift ‘felt’ weird. Was it somehow better than an ordinary twig? In what way?

“I know a few people with enchant-related Talents. They’d be able to use these claws and canines to make something sharper than my sword.”

Slowly a world of possibilities opened in Keynes’s head. His first thought travelled to his father as he thought about glyphs.

“Would they be able to make glyphs out of these materials?” Keynes asked against himself.

“Sure.”

“Bullets,” Kaito Ren added. “The other day, I found a slab of an unidentified metal in the reward chest. With Level 1 and 2 metal we could have stronger bullets.”

“Oh.”

The captain looked at the reward chest. He hadn’t opened it yet.

“If they can find metal already then… I guess we won’t have much choice.”

They followed Captain Ventura to the reward chest. He studied it for a moment then he whistled in admiration.

“Whatever this chest is made of it isn’t the part of the rift. It doesn’t have Level and yet it feels spiritually heavy.”

Keynes started to feel that he was missing something in this conversation. Obviously, his knowledge wasn’t complete—far from it—but at the same time, Kaito Ren looked similarly confused by the captain’s words. The veil of mystery shrouding the man only added to the mix.

“You can sense its Spirit?” Kaito Ren asked.

“I can, yes.”

“How?”

The captain didn’t answer the question. He opened the chest and pulled out two scrolls, a round object and a cloth.

“How?” Kaito Ren repeated his question, this time with more insistence.

The captain ignored him. Keynes watched with fascination as the scrolls vanished when Captain Ventura touched the round object and the cloth. A scroll per item.

“So, the World Government has access to this stuff now?” the captain asked but Kaito Ren gave him a silent treatment.

Unbothered by this, the man threw Kaito Ren both objects.

“What do you think about these?”

Kaito Ren looked perplexed by whatever he saw.

Switch.

Keynes’s curiosity exploded to the point he didn’t care about anything but finding out what these two things were. The captain narrowed his eyes, watching him as he approached Kaito Ren.

“Show me,” Keynes said, his voice hard and unafraid.

It took Kaito Ren by surprise though he was quick to recover. A glance at the captain showed that he wasn’t convinced but the captain didn’t mind and Kaito Ren handed him a cloth.

Linen Cloth (Common)

“Makes tailors happy.”

+1 Agility

Level 1

It added 1 Agility. But so far Keynes learned that there was no Agility but Dexterity. And what did he need to do to gain the bonus? Hold the item in his hands? He didn’t feel anything. More questions piled up and answers weren’t coming but then he decided to do something else and focused on the material trying to sense its Spirit, the same way the captain had done with the chest.

Something… was there. He had a vague impression of Spirit but it was again like an echo not the exact thing. It felt stronger than the twig though.

He handed the cloth back to Kaito Ren who parted with the other object with troubled expression. Soon Keynes knew why.

Lesser Rift Orb of Luck (Uncommon)

Adds 1% chance for the rift monsters to drop a common item upon death.

Affinity: Luck

Note: Can be used on a Dungeon

Level 1

Who cared about Agility? This thing spoke of a Dungeon! And it affected a rift. Was this like a modifier? Monsters dropping items? What was going on?

“What are your thoughts?” the captain asked when Keynes’s eyes lost the glaze and he focused on the surroundings. His curiosity burned bright.

“I must know more.”

“Don't we all?” the captain chuckled. “What about you Kaito? The look on your face…”

“What is your deal, Ventura?” Kaito Ren snapped, losing his usual cool. “Why do you keep showing me these things? What do you want?”

Precisely Keynes’s thoughts. He had to know the answers to these questions and more. More. MORE.

“Fine.” The captain nodded. “It is very simple. I want to get out of this base.”

“What?” What? Keynes’s thoughts echoed Kaito Ren’s question.

“You heard me. I think we are wasting our time here. We should be out there searching for other rifts before Windsor Freeman and his friends find them.”

Kaito Ren opened his mouth, they worked for a couple of seconds before any sound escaped it.

“You’re talking about treason.”

Captain Ventura shrugged.

“I am merely an opportunist. And this is the opportunity of a lifetime. We have the Kid who can open those rifts and you can teleport us around. Sounds like a good deal.”

Kaito Ren was shaking his head but something else was going through Keynes’s mind. Despite being muddled by the overwhelming curiosity, one thing itched him and he didn’t like it. They talked as if Keynes didn’t have a say in this. First, the World Government had come and kidnapped him, giving him no way out of this. Now the captain wanted to take away his choice. But what can I do about this? That was exactly the question he badly needed to uncover. He lived in the brutal world where High-Level individuals ran the world and no one could do a thing about it. So he needed a way out of this loop or this would never end. They’d always find another rift to open and keep Keynes hidden in some underground base.

“You lost your mind,” Kaito Ren muttered. “The World Government will hunt you down in a matter of days. If you’re lucky.”

“Oh, so you’re content with them growing more powerful? Growing to the point, they will be invincible. Because that’s what is going to happen eventually. Rifts not only hold power but knowledge. I have never heard of a Dungeon and there are only theories about Agility being a sub-attribute. Do you see how much we learned today?”

“You’re a madman,” Kaito Ren pulled a gun and aimed at the captain. “You leave me no choice.”

“You’re pulling a gun against Level 5? Good grief.”

“Wait!” Keynes shouted. “I must know MORE! And I have a bad feeling that the World Government will not give me answers.” I also must find a way to become stronger to escape the people like you, Captain Ventura and organisations like the World Government that you’re part of, Kaito Ren.

“Back off, Keynes,” Kaito Ren snapped. “This isn’t about you.”

“Oh?” the captain smiled. “How is this not? He can open rifts and judging by the military response, he might be one of a few if not the only one at this point. If you join me, Kaito. I will train you both. I will show how you can sense Spirit and more.”

Keynes expected an instantaneous refusal but when it didn’t come the captain continued.

“The future isn’t guns, bullets. There might be a place for them but it will never be the same. Our bodies are weapons.”

If not for the blazing curiosity, Keynes would facepalm himself. It sounded exactly like something his brother would have said. But in his current state, Keynes soaked the words of the captain. This man evidently knew a lot.

“I won’t be a part of this. You should know better than asking a member of the Oriental League to tarnish his honour.”

“True,” the captain replied suddenly solemn. “But this is not a big deal.”

Something changed but Keynes couldn’t say what. His powerful curiosity that was centred around the mysterious figure of the captain vanished. They were talking about… Keynes didn’t remember. He didn’t remember!

Kaito Ren glanced at the gun in his hand then at the captain.

“What happened? What did you do?”

“Nothing. We had an argument about the rift rewards and I decided to not back down so you pulled out a gun on me.”

“What? Why I don’t remember this?”

And neither did Keynes. The captain did something with their memories.

“I blasted you with my spiritual aura. It’s a strong one.”

Did he? He did. Still, uneasiness remained.

***

Keynes returned to his room filled with doubt. When was the last time he couldn’t remember something? Whatever the captain had done, it left a hole in his memory and what was even more terrifying, by the time they left the rift, Kaito Ren was no longer aware of this hole. If Keynes didn’t perfectly remember before and after, he would have missed it too.

What kind of Talent did the captain possess?

The next morning, Kaito Ren came to Keynes’s room and their hellish training started anew. These were getting harder somehow.

Three days later, a messenger found Keynes in his bed as he was recovering his stamina. He was late for the meeting with Murphy Polloc! He completely forgot about the man. Struggling, he changed his clothes and followed the messenger to the office area.

Murphy Polloc's head was a mess, his clothes had seen better days too. Only his green eyes showed frightening lucidity.

“Excuse my appearance but my Level 1 body can’t keep up with some of my Level 2s and 3s colleagues without pushing it a little.”

Keynes nodded, taking in the office. It was twice the size of his room. Despite several computers and projectors, all the available space was taken by the stacks of paper. Either this man had a Talent that allowed him to make sense of this mess or no real work was done here. Even Keynes’s perfect memory would be strained here.

He showed Keynes to his seat then went to the back of the room where a large shelf held many items and devices. Being so close to the inner workings of the base, Keynes scanned everything he could lay his eyes on. His photographic memory would take care of the rest.

Murphy Polloc returned with a device with many thin wires. The device stood on a stand and wasn’t larger than a laptop but there was something different about it. Once again it was hard to pinpoint the exact dissimilarities but they were there.

“This is an old, good mana-powered technology,” Murphy Polloc noted Keynes’s attention. “It will allow me to better understand the mechanisms of your Talent on a magical level.”

Was this even a thing? Mr Frog had had a lot of strange equipment too. It shouldn’t surprise Keynes that this facility possessed some of that hot stuff as well.

“I tried to look into my Talent but there is nothing of note.”

“That’s normal,” Murphy Polloc replied as he fiddled with the device. Its screen looked old and the buttons were definitely analogue. How could this thing measure anything magical? “Spirit attribute is pitiful at Level 1.”

“How do you know?”

Murphy Polloc paused, staring into the distance.

“Well, there isn’t a definitive answer to your question. There are two main schools of thought that argue about the Spirit attribute. One school, which I am not a part of, believes that five main attributes make up the Spirit attribute and therefore to measure Spirit all we need to do is to measure main attributes. They had made massive headway years ago. Croft’s one of the contributors, by the way. But then they reached a wall they couldn’t breach. If their hypothesis held, then to raise Spirit all that needed to be done was to raise main attributes. This is where their argument fell apart.”

“What’s the other school?”

“The other school doesn’t know what Spirit attribute is.”

That… wasn’t convincing. It was basically a weak argument against no argument. Unless the man was lying. At this point, Keynes wouldn’t be surprised. He slowly had had enough of secrecy. He already asked Kaito Ren if he could see his family but his request awaited a response, which was another way of saying – not now.

Challenging other people didn’t appeal to Keynes but Murphy Polloc was all business and he shouldn’t take it the wrong way. Right?

“So you don’t have a clue what Spirit attribute is? Like at all?”

The researcher’s fingers danced on the keyboard.

“Oh, there are guesses, hypothesis and some claim to have theories but so far no equipment or Talent gave us proof as to what Spirit attribute is the same way we learned about main attributes.”

“And what is your guess, sir?”

Without stopping, Murphy Polloc replied, “I like to think that Spirit is our Soul and therefore it resides in a place we cannot touch. As to why it is weak… I guess we are simply born weak.”

With a satisfied grunt, he stopped typing and asked Keynes to unroll his sleeve.

“It’s painless although can tickle.” They said the same thing about the essence.

As the device hummed to life, Murphy Polloc gave Keynes small objects to unlock. They were easy to open, Keynes barely felt his Talent do the work. He’d trained with these items before and remembered how hard some of them were. He had improved a lot in his Talent’s department. Only if he wasn’t constantly exhausted because of training with Kaito Ren he’d appreciate the progress. He wished to catch a breath. A few days without a grind or his emotional switches.

“Thank you,” Murphy Polloc tore Keynes out of his mind. “I gathered plenty of valuable data. I will need a couple of days to analyze it before we can meet again.”

“No problem.”

Later that day, Kaito Ren came to him with another news. From now on, only Captain Ventura and him would accompany Keynes in the rift. Lord Earl wasn’t happy about Keynes’s progress with the essence. At first, Keynes felt bad about it and accused Kaito Ren.

“Isn’t your training causing it? I don’t have a say in this.”

Kaito Ren didn’t look his way and seemed troubled. Then Keynes reconsidered his words. Despite the ever-present exhaustion, his body started showing subtle changes he had never expected to experience. He was glad he was growing stronger. He needed to become strong. Didn’t he want to escape the clutches of these people? He did, so the last thing he should be doing now was to antagonize the only person who could train him.

“I’m sorry, sir. I should’ve held my tongue.”

“Apology accepted,” Kaito Ren said but something was still wrong. “But they have a point.”

“What? How?”

“You only progressed 2% since you have started entering the rift. Without my training, you should have gained at least 7%. If we include the training, the number shouldn’t be below 5%.”

Awfully precise numbers and at the same time they didn’t know what Spirit attribute was. That was another reason, Keynes decided to keep things from others.

“What are you trying to say?” Keynes asked hesitantly. He felt like the specialist was going to drop a bomb on him.

Kaito Ren glanced at Keynes, an unknown glitter in his eye.

“You didn’t pick up any new tricks on the way, did you?”

“No.” It was an easy lie. Kaito Ren was nice to him, excluding murderous training sessions, but in the end, could the red-haired man be trusted? It was not the right moment to find an answer to this question.

“In this case, let’s move. We must attend a briefing about the new rift excursions. I don’t know how are they expecting us to carry all the guns.”

Remembering the boss rift, Keynes didn’t think they’d be carrying guns.

And he wasn’t wrong about this.