CHAPTER 354: RIFT OPENING

The sound of footsteps shifting broke the silence.

The burly man at Harry’s side slowly turned to him, his figure casting a long shadow on the road.

His eyes seemed to study Harry for a few seconds before he finally spoke.

"The rift will open anytime now..." he said, his grip tightening on the massive spiked club in his hands.

The weapon gave a low creak, the steel shifting slightly under the force of his strength. "...Be careful."

Harry’s head turned slowly toward him. The faint ripple of transparent waves distorted the lines of his face for a moment, but his expression was perfectly calm.

"Sure," Harry said simply, his voice quiet, casual—almost dismissive.

The response earned him a small reaction.

The man’s eyes narrowed slightly, his brows knitting together just faintly.

He couldn’t help but feel a bit surprised at

He hadn’t expected such a casual, almost indifferent answer in the face of what was to come.

But Harry didn’t bother explaining, and instead remained calm even as the strong winds blew around him.

Usually, in a moment like this, the atmosphere would be drenched in tension.

For most newbie adventurers, standing on the edge of a rift was the kind of experience that made their blood run cold.

Their hearts would usually race uncontrollably, palms damp with sweat, their breaths erratic, as fear would always find a way to settle in their minds.

Usually, the more experienced adventurers would be the ones to step in and try to calm their nerves down.

And it wasn’t hard to see why.

A rift wasn’t a playground, neither was it was casual stroll through a forest or an ordinary mission that demanded only vigilance.

A rift was another world entirely—a place ruled by chaos, beasts, and anomalies that tore apart the ordinary rules of nature. It was an unstable scar in reality itself.

So, for those stepping into one for the first time, their nerves usually betrayed them. Some even froze entirely, their bodies refusing to move despite the desperate urging of their minds.

After all, they were about to gamble with their lives.

And now, standing here on this road, surrounded by nothing but the ominous silence of a world about to change, that same suffocating tension should have been thick in the air.

Miranda’s gaze flicked sideways for just a moment, her green eyes flickering faintly as they landed on Harry.

Her lips pressed together lightly, and her eyes flashed with a strange glint.

’He’s really here... in the same team with me...’ the thought alone caused a strange stir within her, her heartbeat pounding faster against her ribcage.

Though there was a rift opening up in front of her, the reason she was feeling a bit tense was Harry.

The same youth who had carved himself into her memory in ways she couldn’t quite untangle. The one who had appeared in her most vulnerable moment during the tournament and shifted everything with nothing more than his strength and composure.

And now... he was standing right here, not as a distant figure on a battlefield, but as someone beside her, as part of the same team.

Miranda’s lips parted faintly, but she quickly closed them again, forcing her gaze forward as though nothing had happened.

Still, she couldn’t ignore the quick rhythm of her heartbeat.

Her hands clenched lightly at her sides.

Beside her, Harry looked like the complete opposite.

Calm. Silent. Eyes sharp yet relaxed. His breathing steady, his posture straight, not the slightest tremor of hesitation showing through his body.

For most, this was the beginning of the unknown—the first step into terror. For Harry, however, it was familiar ground.

This was the first time he was actually entering a rift, but it wasn’t his first in experience.

He had already seen and felt the depths of rifts countless times in Leon’s memories. He had fought within them, survived their dangers, and witnessed the unspeakable horrors they concealed.

The sensation of stepping into one didn’t rattle him now. If anything, it almost felt overdue.

Another gust of wind tore through the road, sharper this time, laced with a strange energy.

Dust and debris scattered violently, scraping against the waves of protection cloaking their bodies.

The air seemed to hum, resonating with a pulse that came from a single point ahead.

All eyes turned forward.

Cracks began to bloom in the empty air only a few meters away, jagged and violent like shattered glass breaking through invisible space.

Each fracture sparked faint light, and with every new fissure, an aura seeped out—a thick, ominous pressure that crawled into the skin like icy fingers.

It wasn’t overwhelming. Not strong enough to suffocate.

But it was enough to stir an instinctive chill, the kind of primal warning that whispered of danger waiting just beyond.

Harry’s eyes fixed firmly on the cracks, his pupils narrowing with sharp focus.

The faint transparent waves coating his body rippled as if resonating with his anticipation. His lips tugged upward slightly, curving into a faint curl of a smile.

He couldn’t help but feel the stir of excitement in his chest, subtle yet undeniable.

His first rift adventure.

The real beginning of a new path.

The guild had already gotten word about the rift hours before it began to fully manifest.

The news hadn’t come out of nowhere—no, it was the result of the guild’s constant surveillance and tracking of unstable mana fluctuations in the city.

Once the readings had started to spike, alarms had been raised within the guild headquarters.

Rifts always carried with them an ominous, unstable energy that bent and warped the very fabric of mana in the air, and even those without strong mana sensitivity could sometimes feel it.

For those properly trained, it was as clear as night and day.

Harry remembered when the guild officer had approached him with the news earlier that day, his tone calm but laced with that sense of gravity that never failed to accompany talk of rifts.

It wasn’t only the adventurers who had to prepare—protocol demanded that once a rift’s location was identified, nearby civilians had to be moved to safety immediately.