Master! Only twenty seconds left … you must do something… Absorb [Chaos Aura] FAST!

Keynes heard Alice’s voice in his head and almost ignored it as he pondered the failure he was. But when she said to do something she’d been adamantly against from the beginning, it got a desired reaction from Keynes. He took out the skill shard from his dimensional pouch and stuffed it in his mouth.

What happened next wasn’t what he expected. All previous skill shards had gone down easily, this one burned like hell.

New Skill acquired!

Chaos Aura (passive)

Keynes felt strange, something wasn’t right. That skill—

Alice entered Keynes’s body as runes started to glow all over his skin.

No…

Suddenly, a powerful aura exploded out of Keynes, and disintegrated the runes.

Not all of the runes were destroyed in time and pain came from all sides. Keynes screamed in agony as his health plummeted to barely a few percent. His mind reeled, overwhelmed by the excruciating experience.

I … will … fix … it… Alice’s shout came from far away.

Keynes’s awareness drifted away.

***

A jolt brought Keynes back.

“Ouch,” he moaned. “My body feels like…” he trailed off seeing that his HP was at 7%. It was dangerously low. Without thinking, he took out the Liquid Health Flask from his pouch and drank from it. His HP jumped instantly to 32% as the flask recovered 25% of max HP.

He felt much better than with 7% but far from good.

Alice?

No response. Forcing panic down, he searched for the bond with his spiritual companion. When he found it, it seemed strangely muted. He touched it with his mind.

The Spiritual Companion is currently unavailable.

Why? What happened?

As if hearing him, another system message appeared.

The Spiritual Companion committed a forbidden action.

The Spiritual Companion is disabled for 7 days.

A forbidden action? This time the system didn’t reply and Keynes was left without an answer. When his thoughts settled down, he realised that he was somehow alive even though he should be dead.

Keynes remembered that Alice had warned him that there were lines she couldn’t cross or the System would disable her. But what had she done to earn it? She kept Keynes alive by making him absorb [Chaos Aura].

He pulled up the skill system screen and checked his newly acquired skill.

Chaos Aura (Passive)

A highly disruptive and unstable magic aura that has a destructive effect on the spiritual energy and spirit-based magic and structures.

Cooldown: 0. Mana cost: 0.

WARNING: The skill user may also be affected by the skill.

WARNING: Chaos-based skill. All Chaos-based skills can affect the surroundings in an unexpected effect. Not always beneficial to the chaos magic user.

WARNING: Chaos Aura is a spiritually heavy skill.

Alice, can you… Keynes trailed off, remembering that Alice was disabled for a week. Without her, he felt blind. Even though she wasn’t very forthcoming with information, she supported him as much as she could. Not having her here was a blow to Keynes.

Keynes read through the description of [Chaos Aura] and got a bad feeling about it. But at the same time, this skill saved his life. He couldn’t forget that.

I have to learn more about this aura. There is so much potential in it. But first, I must find a way out of here. I’ve survived the runes, but if I won’t find the exit in time, I may still die here.

Keynes was inside the pyramid. If not for [Night Sight] he would be blind as there were no sources of light here. His vision wasn’t perfect but enough to see the outline of the interior. All the runes and the artificial source of light that had been present earlier now were gone.

The labyrinth was dead. On one hand, it meant no traps but on the other one, no magical way out. Judging by the size of the labyrinth, a substantial part of it was rune-enhanced. There was no guarantee that the labyrinth was passable without the active runes. Keynes hoped so, but couldn’t exclude such a possibility.

He inspected the walls and the floor, finding nothing. There was no way out of here. As he muttered curses, he considered his options. He had unlimited water and enough food to keep him alive for a week.

The prospect chilled him, especially when Keynes thought about his items and skills. He was not equipped for demolishing walls.

He started with [Telekinesis], scanning the entire interior and finding not a single loose piece of rock to be used as a hammer.

And that was about it. He had two shortswords: what good could they do against the rock?

Some, Keynes reminded himself. The pyramid must be made out of Level 0 materials while the shortswords were Level 2. Two Levels of difference amounted to something. Keynes took out the shortswords, instinctively expecting the labyrinth’s message that didn’t come, then he began hacking the squint wall.

After an hour, Keynes realised that the damage to the walls was small.

Anger, stemming from powerlessness, started to build up inside Keynes like a poison. There was nothing… Wait a minute. Keynes replied in his head the description of [Chaos Aura] and decided it might be worth giving it a shot.

Keynes released [Chaos Aura] around himself, not more than ten metres in radius. When [Chaos Aura] was projected on its own, it didn’t have any drain on mana or Spirit but Keynes couldn’t manipulate it.

It was as the description said, passively hanging around Keynes. The moment Keynes added spiritual aura on top of [Chaos Aura] he felt the drain on his spiritual energy and stamina. It was gentle but he suspected it would increase if he started using the auras actively.

On that note, Keynes extended the auras toward the wall, affecting no more than a square metre. After just a few seconds, Keynes understood how difficult it was to manipulate [Chaos Aura]. On the bright side, he had a Rapid Learning buff which should streamline this process.

In the total darkness, only slightly alleviated by [Night Sight], Keynes couldn’t see much and so he used his hands to feel out the surface of the affected wall.

He jumped back, shocked by what he experienced. The part of the wall affected by [Chaos Aura] had begun disintegrating but it wasn’t what Keynes expected. The wall didn’t crumble down, no. Some parts were wet, others were dry but hard and smooth like a crystal. Through [Telekinesis] Keynes could sense a pile of sand beneath the affected area.

So, it didn’t just disintegrate, it caused the material that made up the wall to change. Or maybe the impact of [Chaos Aura] ran deeper than Keynes could see.

It doesn’t matter, he reprimanded himself. I have to get out of here first.

There was no telling how long it took Keynes to break through the wall. It was at least a metre thick. Cutting through this with the shortswords would’ve been impossible.

With a shiver that partially stemmed from Keynes’s exhausted state and partially from what the aura had done to the wall, Keynes stepped outside.

He was inside a cave. He sensed a gentle draft and his vision got better a notch, which meant that there was an exit from this cave. With [Chaos Aura] turned off—skill’s auras didn’t have the same issue as the spiritual aura which was always turned on—Keynes ascended above the pyramid. No monster attacked him this time, which meant they had been created by runes. That was impressive. What else were runes capable of?

What also was interesting was the cavern itself. When the runes were active, it didn’t look like a cave. There were smooth walls made out of sandstone.

Keynes landed on the other side of the pyramid, led by his technique of lesser wind currents. The draft came from behind the two large boulders. As he climbed the slope, he discovered a path between the boulders. It was quite nicely hidden from sight, even with the rune illusion turned off.

So, the labyrinth has a backdoor. Or, this was the proper way out but the active runes had made it look like it was something more spectacular.

The rough tunnel changed into a proper corridor made out of stone with signs of wear. The walls were inscribed with inactive runes. The corridor opened to a room with many smaller corridors. Keynes focused on the one with the draft…

He sensed something then that made him turn left into the opposite corridor to the one where the draft was coming from. It led him to a strange cavern with a paved circular floor, over a hundred metres wide. It looked as if someone had started to work on this place and sometime later abandoned it. But none of that mattered to Keynes because of what he was sensing from the middle of the cavern.

As he approached it a system window popped up.

Rift (Epic; Mayhem)

Level

3

Status

Sealed

Requirements

-

Modifiers

Lesser Orbs drop more commonly. Monsters are stronger than usual. A small chance of a Deadly Encounter.

Details

This rift contains a higher number of monsters, champions and a boss (overcharge effect).

Affinity

-

Special Status

Overcharged, Unexplored, Modified

A rift?! How’s this possible? Why is a rift in the middle… oh. Realisation dawned on Keynes. This must be the location given to him by Shaper. And judging by the rarity and type, this must be the most valuable Level 3 rift in the world. Lesser Orbs were no jokes. Obviously, Keynes would prefer the Rift Orbs but this was good too.

So, Shaper knew about this place. And whoever built it, knew about this rift too. This cavern was built to accommodate the rift. And this is why the vision pushed me into this stupid race. Incredible, scary but incredible.

Rather than opening the rift, Keynes returned to the edge of the room and pondered his next step. As soon as he considered waiting until his HP fully recovered, the vision unravelled in his mind, showing him the consequences.

This time it wasn’t the world that was at stake. The world could wait a day but Vivena couldn’t. It was clear by now that the tribesmen had betrayed him, although Keynes didn’t know how deep the betrayal ran. In his vision, he saw Vivena die to the tribesmen when she returned to the Capital. It looked like the Capital wasn’t as weak as Keynes thought.

His feelings for Vivena, while hidden, were real and true. A mere possibility of Vivena dying was enough for Keynes to stick to the vision. After all, he’d survived the race and then found this precious rift.

He understood that all of this might be engineered by Shaper but he didn’t care. Vivena’s life was at stake here.

Keynes returned to the rift and checked his health. Almost 40%. It was risky, considering that the rift had epic rarity monsters, which meant two passive and two active skills. Plus, Keynes didn’t know what these skills were. They could range from some harmless resistances to something very deadly like a poison on hit or worse. On top of that, the rift’s type was mayhem. According to Haruka and Bill, the lower rank type – volatile – was deadly enough. There was no telling what mayhem type did to the rift.

It doesn’t matter, Keynes told himself. Vivena’s life is the most important. Besides, Keynes was Level 3 now. He wasn’t going to be intimidated by a Level 3 rift. If all he needed to save Vivena was—the third outbreak…

The vision was clear. He needed the outbreak to save her. Opening this rift alone wouldn’t make a difference.

Screw this.

Attempting to open the rift…

The Rift’s Status: Sealed.

Lockpicking initialised…

Like before, he had two options. He could open only this rift or cause the outbreak by rupturing the rift. The exact mechanism of this process was unknown to Keynes, and right now, he didn’t much care about it. He went with the second option.

System Warning: Rupture Detected!

Do you wish to continue?

Yes/No

As he picked ‘Yes’ the familiar wrongness spread all over the cavern, and this time it stirred something inside him. By now, Keynes knew it was linked to the Chaos debuff but pushed the thought aside.

The rift opened successfully.

The Rift’s Status: Open (Ruptured)

*

System Warning: Rifts Breakout detected!

*

System Warning: Risk of the Greater Rift appearance increased!

*

System Warning: Chaos Magic detected!

*

System Warning: The Planet’s Core is Contaminated by Chaos Magic! A Drastic Global Event is imminent!

*

The Planet’s Spiritual Energy is sufficient.

*

The System is Online…

*

The System attempts to reduce the amount of Chaos Magic has failed.

*

Drastic Global Event is imminent!

New Era Begins:

DOMINION OF MONSTERS

Access the System for details…