36
1001 Words
“Catalog the rest of your rings and use or sell the rest of the skills.” He shook his head and continued, “There are thousands of skills in there. Why do you even have skills that far below your Tier?”
Putting up his hands, Emmanuel began to teleport out, but then remembered what else he had wanted to tell them.
Moving on to more important concerns, Emmanuel said, “I have a delve slot for you next month. Tur’stal had to pass on hers, so I swapped it with yours.”
Their playful demeanor and fake injuries disappeared, and a more serious Leon asked, “Is that going to create an issue?”
Emmanuel shook his head. “No. This seems to just be a case of bad timing. She had a favor called in that required her immediate attention.”
Despite the stress relief that were his two Tier 48s, he had far too many things to deal with. So, after settling the economy of the vassal states, Emmanuel teleported to his own estate.
Matt pulled his attention back to the rift in front of him and inspected it for instability. Luna and Kurt had been destroying every monster that escaped from the rifts that were to be delved, so Matt and his team couldn’t get any hints about the rift before they entered.
This was a Tier 8 rift he’d be delving with Liz and Aster. As they were used to working together, they were restricted in a few ways. Matt was limited to fifteen seconds of [Flamethrower], and only two minutes of [Mage’s Retreat] and [Endurance] for the whole rift.
Liz had more stringent restrictions, with her golem form completely prohibited. As for Aster, she wasn’t allowed to use Winter’s Embrace.
They still didn’t expect too much of an issue with the rift, as they had cleared more than their fair share of Tier 8 rifts before. They were extra cautious, as this particular delve was his and Liz’s idea to train for Luna’s Tier 9 rift.
If they had to fight in a rift that was specially crafted to be difficult for them, they first needed to delve weaker rifts that were made in the same way.
They had discussed it with everyone else, and in theory, this rift combination was one they should struggle with.
They used earth mana with an unyielding subaspect for fifty percent of the mana, then used touches of water, wind, and air mana with no subaspect for thirty percent. The remaining twenty percent was an even split between unaspected mana and Wrangle’s summon aspected mana.
To seed the rift, they used a single-edged sword and reinforced plain clothes, hoping to get the rift to create lightly armored opponents.
The monsters in the Tier 9 rift were fairly easy to kill if you survived the initial ambush. But the trio recognized that they had only gotten a few hundred feet into the rift before they were forced to retreat.
They hoped that this would give them a good challenge despite Erwin complaining that they were skipping too many steps in the rift-making process for his liking.
Matt stepped through and checked his surroundings, and found nothing out of place in the dark, forested area. The woods seemed to circle the perimeter of the clear area they had arrived on.
He stepped out of the direct entrance and into the rift, and found that it was still quite bright despite the lack of sun. The moon was massive and reflected a yellowish light down on everyone in the graveyard. The only problem was the lingering fog that enveloped them as soon as they entered the rift. It ensured that they couldn’t see more than a dozen feet in front of them and it grew worse by the second. As he struggled to peer ahead, Matt noticed that the fog also restricted his spiritual sense, and he couldn’t perceive any more than the vague direction of the entrance rift.
Matt was still cursing as Liz came through next. “I think it’s an undead rift.”
Aster yipped, “Smells like rotting meat.” She gagged for effect, but it really did smell bad enough he could feel it through their bond.
Matt spun to take in the rest of the surroundings. The moon seemed to be growing brighter as they waited for anything out of the ordinary. Matt ran through his manipulation skills, testing the area around them for any immediate danger. Matt wished that his [Water Manipulation] skills were better, as he might have been able to remove the fog, but the diffuse liquid was outside the limits of his control.
“I’ve found nothing. What do—” Matt was giving his report when a massive bell rang out, causing the air itself to vibrate.
Aster yowled in pain as the loud sound hurt her more sensitive ears, while Matt spun toward the direction of the noise. As the note of the bell faded away, all the fog suddenly dissipated.
With visibility finally restored, Matt saw that they were in a massive graveyard littered with, as he expected, zombies.
They also could clearly sense the exit rift. It was in the same direction that the bell had rung from.
Matt noticed that in the center of the clearing, not far away from where they stood, there was a massive, three-story building with a bell tower attached. The tower stood another two stories above the roof. Directly under the bell was a clock glowing a cheery yellow through the panes of glass.
The clock seemed to be functioning and read five minutes till midnight as the second hand made its way around the face. Matt couldn’t be sure without his AI, but he was pretty sure that time in the rift was moving along at a normal pace.
All the zombies started to move toward them as the fog slowly began to rise from the damp ground once again.
- Writer
