60
1091 Words
Beyond that, a clearly unnatural mist clung to the ground beyond the town, as a more mountainous area sprang out of nowhere.
Looking past the mist that clung to the foot of the mountains, a path was carved out of the cliff face that led to a castle. It seemed like it had just recently survived a war, with holes covering its outer walls and two of the closest towers knocked down.
If his inspection was correct, the fort was guarding a pass that led deeper into the mountains and, eventually, the rift exit.
Dropping to the ground, Torch motioned to the area behind them, and Quill agreed.
Normally, backtracking was a waste of time, but as this was a Tier 13 rift, the extra essence would do them a world of good for their advancement. If they delved enough high Tier rifts, they might reach the twenty percent mark of progression through Tier 10 before the year was out. A feat which was only possible with the abundance of higher Tier rifts that they would have access to.
The days of blowing through a Tier in a year were long gone. To pass through Tier 10, they needed more than the normal ten times amount of essence, as it was one of the five and ten breakpoints in cultivation. At this Tier, they needed one hundred times the normal essence to advance.
Still, even slight advancement beyond the bottom of Tier 10 would give them a small increase in power, considering the massive amount of essence they would’ve accumulated to progress.
Even that small increase in power would help them when the Pather vs Pather fights started for real, in six months. The rift monsters were dangerous, but they were, in the end, mindless meat machines of rage that had a handful of skills at best, even at Tier 15.
Most cultivators were more dangerous than a monster at a similar Tier, just for the variety of skills they would possess. When they considered the fact that their opponents would be the best Tier 10s that the Empire had to offer, who could also jump Tiers and kill Tier 13 and 14 monsters, they wanted every advantage.
They were only a mile deeper into the forest when they discovered what the at Tier monster in the rift was.
A howl resonated in the night air, attempting to send Quill into a panic.
The skill was too weak to break through his Concept and spirit, but it alerted him and Torch that they had been spotted by the beasts first.
They didn’t have to wait long for the first lycanthrope to charge at them.
This variant leaned more toward wolf than man, with a distinctive wolf’s head, and fur covering its entire body. But it seamlessly moved from running on all fours to running at them on two digitigrade hind legs.
As the monster rushed at them, its claws glowed with the power of a skill. Quill readied himself as Torch stepped forward and prepared to take the attack head-on.
First encounters were always the most dangerous, as they had yet to learn exactly what the rift had created.
When the monster was fifty feet away, it lunged. It was an impossible distance, even for a Tier 13 to cover, but it jumped a second time, using all four of its limbs to propel itself faster and farther.
Seeing [Puddle Jump] used by a rift monster was a surprise, but one Torch was ready for. She sidestepped and sent a lance of fire at the descending monster.
As the beast saw the flames, it tried to jump in the air for a third time, but the spell still smote it in the chest, sending it tumbling to the ground.
Giving up on its acrobatics, the monster tore into the forest floor as it got the purchase to throw itself at Torch.
Quill turned from that fight as he noticed a second werewolf approaching them from the woods, slightly to the right of where the last one came from.
He immediately threw out a talisman while slapping a second on himself.
That second talisman was a fake to cover the fact he was using [Mage’s Retreat] to help him battle the higher Tier monster on a more even footing.
But the first talisman that he threw out wasn’t for show. A [Fire Bolt] carved a stream of light through the night air and punched through the tree that the wolf tried to use as cover.
The tree still slowed the bolt enough for it to miss the monster.
As the wolf launched itself at Quill with glowing teeth and claws, he rolled under the attack and used a [Wind Blade] talisman at the exposed belly of the beast.
The attack cut through the bone of the monster, and its guts rained down in a gory mess. But by the time Quill hopped back to his feet, the monster already had large chunks of its flesh pulling back together at a rapid pace.
Cursing mentally, he changed his attacks. Some rare lycanthropes had increased regeneration that rivaled a troll’s, which meant that only attacks from silver weapons, or attacks that cauterized the inflicted wounds would be effective.
Even cauterized wounds would heal, but at least they took longer. Only wounds inflicted by silver wouldn’t heal at all.
Quill mentally paused for a second as he corrected himself. Technically, inflicting enough damage to drain the monster’s mana pool would also stop the regeneration, and poisons would slow the healing. But those were less than ideal methods for dealing with this type of lycanthrope.
Essentially, this rift would be an absolute pain in the ass as it removed more than three-quarters of his arsenal. Though, Torch would fare better with her fire-based fighting style.
Cursing the gardener who mentioned them getting chewed on, he cast [Jolt] at the monster while throwing out a second [Fire Bolt] talisman.
Both spells impacted with small explosions, and he was glad to see that those wounds were taking far longer to heal than the [Wind Blade] wound that had already closed.
As the monster lunged a second time, a larger, mana constructed version of its maw appeared and extended out nearly five feet, slamming down with a crack.
Quill backpedaled, tossed out a [Fireball] talisman, and cast a second [Jolt].
The [Fireball] would cause explosion damage that was only moderately effective against the monster type, but he had far, far more of those talismans than the Tier 14 [Firebolt]s.
- Writer
