- Rifts, mechanics, and pulling our weight

The six of us are all geared up. Just in front of us are the six of them running us through our first 'expedition' and making us get a feel for what is really out there.

It has been years since I have seen the outside, so many things could have changed but I doubt the creatures we are fighting look any different from those that raided our town back in the mountains. I like to believe that I have some sort of edge over them but stats wise I am at an all-time low.

From our team, we are all still hiding our armour under the transmog effect as we leave through six layered gates, each of the metal bars slowly lifting itself one after the other but as soon as we step through they all drop down in unison.

The other six have the two people we learned of, one dwarf, and three elves. The five of them haven't paid any attention to us - not even bothering to greet us with the two humans walking in the back.

Hilde stops next to me, "You like her don't you?"

"What?" I watch her with wide eyes, "I recall saying that specifically that I recognize her from somewhere."

She lifts her shoulders, "Just asking~" then with a giggle, she then holds her smug expression as she walks next to me, "So? Are you going to keep on pretending that you don't?"

"I mean she is attractive…"

"Hm mhm," she nods, clearly waiting for me to finish my sentence, "Go on."

I roll my eyes at her, "That is as far as it goes."

"Okay," she then folded her hands behind her back as we walk, "I think we are kind of lucky to have ended up in a situation where a group like theirs will be showing us the ropes - do you think it will be scary?"

I twist my lips to the side, "I have seen them before," I admit, "I can't really describe them from memory but it would be like fighting savages, their movements are inhumane and erratic. There are a lot of things out here that are hostile and hyper-aggressive."

She nods, "Like the odd ogre, goblin tribes. Sometimes the wildlife."

"Then there are the… corrupted? I suppose? I don't know what they officially call them yet," I lift my shoulders, scrunching up my face trying to recall them clearly but my memory fails me, everything of that time is majorly occupied by that woman and the story she told.

I am curious about it, I always have been.

Immediately outside of the Last City, we are surrounded by highlands with the occasional small forest on the hill or near a small pocket of water. Roaming in the open we spot the occasional wildlife of deer, wolves, and hares. Most of them scatter away at the sight of the size of our group and either retreat far away or hide behind the hills.

The woman then lifts her hand, "Stop here," then turning around she addresses the rest of her team, all five of them continue on their path forward, she then looks at the six of us, "Looks like we lucked out with a rift being formed near here."

"What is a rift?" Ray asks, he is at the very front of the group.

"Two things. A rift is either a tear in a reality where the Sun-touched, or if it is nighttime, moon-touched pour out of attacking everything around it - two things can happen, you can clear them out and then the rift can close itself on its own."

"The other side of it," she then lifts her hand to her face, "A memory. Stepping inside you will appear in an unfamiliar zone where you will meet either of the corrupted. Something on the other side will appear that you need to kill. Once inside, make sure to take whatever you can carry because they are incredibly valuable and can be used to earn yourself credits."

She then turns in place stating, "Follow me."

Different from the other six, the seven of us travel down the hill towards a lake below us. It is a steep hill down with a large plateau just before reaching the water. In the field, there is a golden-black orb shaking violently. I glance around to notice the closer we get to it, the more our surroundings appear to become more tainted.

The grass withered, the pitch black sky no scarred with golden marks that reflect the same colour as the orb. Its form warps around violently shifting from a spiky exterior to a large dent. Then for a brief moment a perfect sphere before repeating it again.

She then glances over her shoulder at us, "An interesting one - try to not die," she walks away from the front of us, passing by me she narrows her gaze at me for a brief moment before I glance in front of me.

I manifest my weapons between my fingers, I have a hundred and fifty arrows ready to be used. Though we are standing silently waiting for something to happen - nothing is breaking through as I expected… we are clearly missing something.

Ray then states, "Let's push forward."

"You sure?" Rourke asks, "Getting closer to that thing spells out danger."

"It isn't doing anything other than pulsating," Valery states, "It is more than likely in a dormant state and we need to activate it somehow."

"I can shoot it?" I ask with a shrug.

Welyn then snorts, "The best way to approach anything hostile."

Ray then nods, "Take your shot then, be prepared for anything to come out of it."

With a quick motion, I slide in an arrow. Aim, pull back, and release. The arrow whirls through the sky, though before it could get closer to it a bolt strikes down the arrow vaporizing it before it can connect - a cloud of smoke hangs in the air as all of us glance at each other.

"Is this a trick?" Hilde asks with a concerned tone.

The woman then sighs, "I'd have hoped you would figure out by now - this is clearly a rift that wants you to enter it! Walk up to it you idiots!"

Hilde then mutters, "I thought there would have been things around it, she doesn't need to act like a bitch about us newbs having to figure it out for ourselves."

We all approach it carefully, and as we get closer I can see a translucent screen pop up. Ray stops right in front of it as he states, "A dimensional rift, a gateway to an alternate reality. Nothing like a reward tab, nothing telling us what to expect either," he then looks with an uncertain expression at the rest of us, "All or nothing, right?"

"Any jitters?" Valery asks but her focus is on me.

"I will be fine."

Rourke then states, "Then let's go."

Ray then presses a notification - the orb expands instantly swallowing us. We can see each other clearly, but our surroundings are pitch black. Under our feet, a white stained marble floor appears spreading quickly. Our surroundings take shape revealing what appears to be the inside of a throne room.

Apart from the marble pathway leading to a giant throne, opposite the walkway are sets of dark stone pillars that travel all the way toward the throne. Further beyond walls with hollowed-out windows with no light coming through them.

Memory? This world feels more artificial than anything.

"Sun-touched," I remark, in the distance, I see a faint red glow.

Everyone looks towards the throne, I mutter under my breath, "[Eagle sight]."

My vision locks onto their person and enlarges them, soldiers wearing full-plated armour. Their hands are burning a bright red, with the same flame flickering inside their armour and underneath the chainmail hiding their insides. The slits in their bucket helmet reveal black hollowed-out eyes.

Like thralls, they drag their feet across the marble, their weapons merely dangling in their gauntlets. Their bodies start to distort as if reality isn't accepting their presence, twisting similarly to that of the orb we just saw.

Ray then snaps everyone out of their trance, "Get ready, Rourke we are leading the charge allowing Valery to sneak through the side of the pillars. Hilde stays as close as you can, Welyn covers her back with your magics and allow Volk to take the furthest ones."

In silence we all nod.

I slide out from behind them, steadying my stance and drawing my first arrow. Pulling it back I let it whirl through the air aimed at the core of one of the knights. It pierces through the rusted armour, its entire body engulfed in flame in response before dropping to the ground.

"That easy?" I scoff.

My worry hits me in my stomach, if these are that easy to kill then there must be something else far worse. I am seriously under-levelled for anything of this scale and I can take them on this easily? If I were on my own I'd have to retreat constantly but that would be enough.

Firing another shot, the shock travelling through my arm shatters the illusion revealing the chain-scaled armour. Thin leather armour with chain scales over my fingers and knuckles and across my arm. The scales covered the largest areas on my chest and back but not the softer spots under my arms and my sides.

Rourke charges forward with his heavy axe, his hand gripping at the shaft near the head of the weapons. He leaps forward slamming the edge into one of the knights that easily gets torn through - then stepping forward he swings it across his body killing seven more of them.

Raymond charges after him with a shield in hand, and a one-handed blade in the other. Keeping his shield up he fights more with the shield knocking them around only using his blade to counterattack.

In the midst of his charge, I try to land my hits far away to make sure they don't get into my line of fire. My strength isn't that high so I luckily can aim higher at the expense of not hitting as hard as I want to hit. Raining down a volley of arrows I use my high dexterity to shoot my arrows as quickly as I can.

Hilde, her magic creating barriers protecting them from attacks that they would otherwise not block, then occasionally shooting pale yellow chains that attach them to their limbs and drag them to the ground or stop their weapons in place.

Unlike Welyn, she doesn't need a tome to cast her magic.

Welyn took some time to come online but he opted to bombard them with spectral magic, translucent skulls crash against the floor in a white mist that quickly fades away - it must have some cold properties because it is snuffing out the fire inside them.

I tread forward closely trying to make sure I push up along with them.

A low growl forces me to throw myself forward and skitter forward on all fours with my bow in hand, then on my knees aim my bow behind me and shoot it into the knights that have suddenly appeared in the dozens behind me. Their roars echo in my ears.

Their movements have grown a lot faster and less sluggish. Forcing me to rush towards the rest of the team while taking pot shots as I make contact with them, "They are attacking our flank."

Welyn instantly turns around, "I can control the crowds behind us, just keep our front clean!"

I turn to face the front, taking shorter pulls seeing as I am far closer to them. I then notice the giant of a knight sitting on the throne to the end of the room that we were pushing towards, then calling out to Ray, "Ray! We need to trigger that thing at the end of the room, these waves are never going to end."

He glances around at the rest of us, "Can you pull it?"

"Do we want to?" I ask him first.

Rourke then states, "We have to do something, we can't keep fighting forever," sweat dripping down his brow she locks eyes with me, "Pull it."

I nod, "[Eagle eye] [Deadshot]," I hold a deeper stance pulling it further back knowing that I can't really do anything else because my skill in bow combat isn't exactly all that high yet, I let go of my string as the arrow whirls over their heads towards the corpse on the throne.

The arrow pierces the rotten helm, and a wave of flame travels through the new hole and slits. The entire body lights up, revealing a skeletal body slowly lifting himself off of the giant throne wielding a two-handed blade. On its feet, it starts to walk towards us with liquid flame dropping from its ribcage onto the floor.

A smoky cloud appears above it with Valery driving both daggers into him, summoning an even larger spectral dagger appearing out of the sky and piercing its chest.

With a backhanded smack, it knocks her out of the air but before she could land on the marble floor another smoky cloud appears next to us with her rolling between us.

She gasps loudly, "Fuck that hurt."

I offer her a hand, she takes it quickly as I opt into bombarding it till it finally meets us.

Ray then calls out, "Wait for my mark, Hilde use your chains to disarm it to allow me and Rourke to attack it - Welyn when this call happens ignore everything behind us and bombard it with any form of cold spell you can muster."

He then exclaims, "Don't have a lot of those but okay!"

I notice that my arrows are being drained, I hold the last four in my hand waiting for their call.

"Now!"

On his call, Rourke steps forward cleaving everything in front of him and then leading the charge towards the giant knight. He slams his axe into one side as Ray knocks his shield into his chest, breaking open the little armour and then piercing it with ease.

They back off allowing Welyn to bombard it with the same spectral explosions, I launch all of my arrows into the skull all while each limb is held on by the yellow chains. After sending off my last arrow, I turn in place pulling my spear and blocking a slash aimed at Welyn's back breaking the spear in half.

Grabbing the end I stab it into the helmet of the closest knight before launching it into the next one's head. It drops down to its knees with a gurgling sound, I take a step back as the closest one's slice clashes against the scales on my chest before it drops onto the ground into a pile of dust and armour.

I breathe a breath of relief as all of them simultaneously fall to the ground.

"Fuck me," Valery laughs, "A bit harder than I had hoped it to be."

"We are all alive!" Hilde cheers, then with a chuckle, "We don't know how long we are here, grab whatever looks good enough-"

The rift swallows us again before she could complete her sentence. Our world fades back into existence with all of us standing exactly where we stood prior to that - though in the place of the black orb is a chest with the same texture as the orb.

"Nobody died?" she then scoffs, "I am impressed. You cleared the lowest level rift with ease, I almost expected one of you to be injured."

Valery then gives her a smug expression, "That little faith in us?"

"You'd be surprised how many rifts trick you into believing you are doing the right thing only for it to rapidly kill you," then gesturing to the chest, "Better take what you earned before it disappears."

We all instantly walk up to it, and in front of each of us appears a translucent window - I notice that there is nothing on anyone else's panel and that it must be purposely hiding what you got to make sure nobody saw what you got. We barely had time to see what happened.

To gather anything.

I then read my stats.

Enemies slayed >>> hundred thirty-two

Levels gained >>> ten, twenty attribute points to assign

Skills upgraded >>> Consult stats screen

Items received >>> Share or Loot.

You can share things before you can see them? I shake my head as I take everything I have earned for myself - no point in not doing that. From it, I got only things I would be able to use. Another drop-down list appears. One pyro knight's bow, one pyro knight's spear. Hundred thirty-two bone shards, rusted scraps, and… flame essence?

They weren't sun-touched? It almost felt like they would be.

The pyro knight's bow is just a thirteen damage under my current bow but it has a flame aspect attached. Which transforms all arrows into flame arrows. I am definitely keeping that along with a fully metal spear that won't break from one swing.

I haven't earned any more than that.

The durability on my breastplate has only ticked down by a single percentage, at least the armour did what it needed to keep me from dying - I suppose I am going to be forced to use lighter armour going forward. I slide away from the screen looking at the rest of the team.

The woman then states, "We are done here, let's head back and then you get to sell everything you don't need at the Adventurer's Guild's exchange officer tomorrow for credits. If you have weapons and armour that dropped you can appraise it for hidden stats at the quartermaster or sell it to him."

She then turns around leading us back to the Last City.

Valery sides next to me, "You did great in there, I didn't expect you to do as much but you obviously proved me wrong."

I nod, "We were a good team more than anything else."

With a chuckle, "Got anything good?"

"Ten levels are pretty high on the good things I got out of it."

She nods, "Awesome," she then lifts her fist, and I lift mine bumping it against hers, "If you need help navigating the skills section when we get back just come ask me after we got to the residential area and after they gave us our rooms."

"Thank you."

I didn't expect to perform as much as I did, but I don't want to compare myself with the rest with the fear that I really didn't drag my weight - but as far as boss damage goes I probably did a better job killing the lessor enemies than anything else.