Ch. 11 The Warring Rift

So no escape until the rift was cleared, well at least it's a level 5. I groaned then "Mr. Smith, what did you mean when you said the Rift leveled up?"

He took off his sunglasses and put them in his pocket then straightened his tie. "I meant that with the denizens of 2 different Rifts going to war with each other, the ambient Mana in the air has increased, thus increasing the monsters' own power as well."

"How much are we talking?" The Agent shrugged "Anywhere between 2 to 4 levels. Some rules may have changed, but if one of these Rifts had been over level 10, the reading from outside would have changed. Neither of them is so it is definitely doable, at least it should be with a full team of 10."

I nodded, catching his meaning. 'Claire just had to come with me, shit' I looked down at Bella 'Keep Claire alive. I know I am your master, human or whatever you call me, but keep Claire alive.' she nodded and waddled closer to Claire.

We continued on slowly, everyone keeping a sharp eye out. Smith even pulled out a torch and lit it so we could see better. We were moving at a snail's pace, but we found three more traps before they could be sprung. The first was a wire trap that was connected to a cache of falling rocks.

We set that trap off with Will shooting the wire when we were far enough away it wouldn't hit us. The second was another trip wire that would shoot poison darts out, this one I set off, I had to shoot twice "Breathe, concentrate on the target and breathe. Squeeze the trigger, don't pull." he guided me in a calm voice. It definitely helped me to improve my aim, my hand steadied on the second shot and it hit exactly where I wanted it.

"It's a lot different when you're not fighting for your life, survival instincts kick in then, this is just practice and focus, you will get there."

The third was another raised plate. Tyrone ran back and grabbed one of the rocks, threw it on the plate and a log came flying down on ropes, it would have hurt, a lot.

"Nasty little Kobolds. Their traps aren't usually this impressive. There must be a Kobold Tracker or two in this Rift."

I looked at Smith with a questioning eyebrow, "A Kobold Tracker is exceedingly good at creating traps. They are also called Shadow Kobolds, because they blend into shadows really well. Normally they'd be found in Rifts level 8 or above."

I shook my head, this was definitely turning out to be a bad Rift to jump into.

Then Tyrone put a hand up to stop us. When we were all gathered together we could finally hear it, the sounds of fighting.

We moved even more cautiously until we got to a bend in the cave that opened up into a massive cavern.

There was an eerie red and purple glow inside the cavern. The sounds of screaming and fighting could be heard as we watched the Goblins and Kobolds going at it.

There had to be at least 40 of each. One part of my brain was thinking 'There is no way we can fight that many', but another part of my brain was thinking 'Loot'.

As I looked around at the rest of the group, I noticed they all had the same thoughts.

Tyrone spoke up in a whisper loud enough for us all to hear "So here is the plan. We will watch the battle between the two. Will, Odellin and Claire will keep their weapons trained. If one side seems to be getting the advantage over the other you three even it out. Try not to get noticed."

I grinned and Claire nodded her head, Will just walked over to the wall and got his Glock ready. I held my crossbow up so the blue light couldn't be seen. Claire knocked an arrow and we watched. Tyrone was close to all of us, so he could help us if needed.

The Goblins were smaller than the Kobolds, but a lot stronger, whereas the Kobolds had natural Armor and claws.

I studied the Kobolds for a while, this was my first time seeing one up close. They were red, with yellow stripes down their arms, back and legs. Their bodies were covered in scales and their claws were each the size of a small kitchen knife, maybe 4 inches long. They looked like humanoid lizards to be honest, same face and everything.

Tyrone whispered "The Goblins won't last much longer, Take out a few of the Kobold Slingers." Three shots silently left our group and hit three of the Kobold Slingers in the back, their slings dropped as they grabbed for their wounds. Another three shots went out and they all went down.

We did this for another minute or two, going from one side to the other, making the battle as easy as possible before just a handful were left. Tyrone then walked over to Brock and they stepped out together.

A taunt rang out in the cavern and the 5 Goblins and 3 Kobolds turned towards us and charged Tyrone and Brock.

As soon as the monsters launched themselves at us we were a flurry of movement. Simon ran in with an axe and began hacking at the Kobolds, while Smith rushed in and began punching and kicking the Goblins with metal studded gloves and shoes I hadn't noticed before. Bella dashed forward and grabbed a Goblin by the throat and ripped it out.

It took us less than a minute to finish the rest of them off, we were all covered in gore.

Claire turned and held her stomach, so I began rubing her back "It's gonna be alright sweetie. Remember they were trying to-" she stopped and shook her head, then a huge glob of green spit splattered against the wall "I got Goblin blood in my mouth." she said as she straightened up.

I blushed a bit, then she smiled and hugged me "It's alright sweetie, remember they were trying to kill us." she said and I tried to swat her when she ran behind Bella giggling.

"Smartass." I said and she nodded. It took us almost 20 minutes to collect the Stones from over 80 corpses. We seperated them all between us, getting 12 Stones each, with Claire getting 13.

"Alright so the portal is down that way" Smith said pointing down the tunnel to our right which was flashing violently with reds and purples. "I am assuming the Kobold boss is that way." he said pointing to a tunnel to our left.

"No we are not going to split up, we all go take down the Kobold boss, then get ourselves ready to go through the open Rift."

Then something occured to me "Wait, the open Rift, won't the monsters in it be stronger than normal, like a lot stronger?"

Smith shook his head "No, I know what you mean, but what you saw here of both forces" he said motioning to the Goblins and Kobolds corpses "That is what you should expect to find. Just because the Ambient Mana in the area opened the Rift by itself, doesn't mean the monsters have had time to grow that much stronger."

I sighed in relief, I really didn't think we could take on a Rift full of Orcs and Ogres.

We continued down the passageway to the Kobold Boss room and had to disable one more trap, a pit trap, which we had to carefully hug the wall to avoid the fall into the pit of spikes.

We got there and 10 Kobolds were watching us. The big one, which was the Boss, had wings on his back, very small wings, but still wings. He held a spear that was long, made of bronze and had a curved spearhead that looked like it would rip if it was pulled out.

2 of the Kobolds had black colored smoke coming off their shoulders and were very hard to focus on. The rest of them were the basic melee types, with scales as armor and Claws for weapons.

Before anything could happen the Kobold Boss let out a roar that definitely did not make my knees shake, nope.

The two shadow covered Kobolds disappeared and the rest of them ran straight for us. Tyrone and Brock taunted the Kobolds rushing us as I turned to Bella "Find the shadow ones." She nodded and began sniffing the air, then jumped straight at Claire, Claire went wide eyed until Bella jumped off her shoulder and slammed into one of the shadow Kobolds, sending it into the wall and breaking it out of stealth.

I heard three silenced gunshots and looked over at Will who smiled, then pointed to the Cardinal that hadn't left his shoulder "Animal Companion, boost to eyesight." I nodded and turned, shooting the Kobold Claire had shot with an arrow already, taking it down.

The Kobold Boss roared and glided, his little wings pumping furiously, over to us with his spear level. We still had two more Kobolds attacking Brock and Tyrone.

Then Smith surprised me, he turned and jumped, grabbing the end of the spear just below the head and pulled himself up above the boss, then righted himself and slammed his feet into it's back.

The Kobold Boss smashed into the ground as Smith yanked the spear out of it's hand and stabbed it through the heart.

We all breathed a sigh of relief and I grinned at Smith "Badass man. Bad ass."

He smirked then climbed down off the Boss and walked over to us. We harvested the bodies again and each got another Stone, Will and I getting the two extra while Smith got the Boss' Skill Stone.

We took a breather for a few minutes, munching on snacks we brought and drinking bottled water.

"How many other Rifts turned into Warring Rifts today. I mean we can't be the only ones right?" I asked and Smith shrugged, so did the rest of them. "I think you might be right, but we won't know until we exit the Rift."

I nodded, everyone knew the ambient Mana in a Rift suppressed electronics, which was why you couldn't use phones to contact the outside world.

Once we were done eating Tyrone said "Alright guys, normally I wouldn't say use all the stones right away, but if any of you have Stats that can still be boosted by stones, do it now. The Warring Rift might not be a super high level, but it will definitely be harder than normal."

I pulled out all my stones, lining them up from the smallest to the largest and began crushing them as I watched my Character Sheet and modified it to show me the changes.

Name: Odellin Hundai

Level: 5

Str: 18 +4

Dex: 32 +4

Con: 15 +2

Int: 32 +6

Wis: 18 +1

Cha: 15 +3

HP: 330

MP: 500

STA: 150

(0 unused stat points)

SKILLS:

One-handed - 1

Two-handed - 1

Survival - 4

Evocation - 21

Animal Handling - 15

Ranged - 18

Meditation - 16

Stealth - 2

SPELLS:

Force Missile

Mana Arrow

Break 2 Rifts, consume 4 more Mana Stones. Level 5 progress Quest.

I smiled as I saw not only the progress on my Quest, but also the increased stats. I felt my stomach and chuckled, my 'dad bod' was gone. My arms felt fuller, not a lot thicker, but fuller, they thankfully weren't stretching my shirt I wore to the point it was ripping like before. My mind felt sharper, but not like I could build a nuclear weapon smart, just a bit sharper as if I could remember things I read better.

I looked up as I gathered the last 2 stones I hadn't crushed and put them in my pack, Claire was staring at my face.

I reached up to touch it "What, do I have something on my face or something?" she shook her head and giggled "Did you look this handsome before?"

I eyed my character sheet and almost laughed "My Charisma was boosted. That makes sense." then she shook her head and turned away. The rest of them all chuckled as they stood waiting for Claire and I.

Then I stared as Claire finished crushing all of her stones. "Claire" I whispered, she looked at me "Can I see your Character Sheet again?" she nodded and sent it to me again.

Name: Claire Simmons

Level: 3

Str: 19

Dex: 25

Con: 17

Int: 21

Wis: 17

Cha: 16

HP: 400

MP: 380

STA: 170

(0 unused stat points)

SKILLS:

Ranged - 14

Linguistics - 4

Multi-Tasking - 5

Unarmed - 6

I did some quick math, really quick and from what I remembered of her stats I chuckled "So you just gained 33 stat points from the stones and used all of your attribute points." she nodded and I said "You can only gain 7 more stat points from Stones, so be careful what you use." She nodded again and knocked an arrow as we all got ready to go through the other Rift.

As we got closer, I warned Claire about what would happen when we went through the Rift and she nodded, bracing herself. Tyrone turned around "Alright folks, let us hope this one is easier than the one we just went through."