Weight returned to Alex as he stepped through the Rift portal. The process to check in didn’t take long, and both he and Olivia returned their temporary passes to the administrators, letting them know that they’d returned and their slots shouldn’t be filled.

On the other side of the checkpoint, Sam leaned against the inside of the wall. He stood and waved as the duo came into view.

“Right on time,” Sam said with a smile on his face.

“How’s it going?” Alex asked, surveying their surroundings. Edwin’s news about the government responding with a heavy hand made him a bit more wary about being in the camp.

“Everything’s good. We got set up with one of the small single-story spaces. It’s way smaller than the cavern, but man, having an actual mattress felt amazing. Come on, Sarah and Mark are in the common area.”

“Have people been treating you guys okay? Everything all right with the paperwork that needed to get done?”

Sam shrugged. “Yeah, it was fine. People have been really nice to us. I don’t think they’ve seen many people as high-level as we are. Also, the paperwork was fine. They only asked for our names, classes, and overall levels.” He reached into the spatial pouch, strapped to his lower back. “They gave us each one of these. I guess it’s the new fancy ID they’re using now.”

Alex took the ID, following Sam down a paved section of the camp that had a fair bit of other foot traffic. Most people made way for them, though some were so focused on their own thoughts or clipboards that their group needed to step to the side.

The ID card had a picture of Sam in the top left, and a small clear plastic copy of the picture in the bottom right. The Hunters Association logo was watermarked across the entire background of the white surface and most interestingly, Alex detected a mana signature on the card. It was faint, but when he flipped it over, he saw a small purple stamp of mana.

Any idea what that is?

The spirit in his head grunted. “Never seen it before.”

A lot of help you are. Aren’t you supposed to be some sort of powerful, ancient spirit?

Alex tuned out his grumbling with a small smile and handed the card back to Sam. “That’s interesting. There is a mana signature on it.” He looked at Olivia. “Remind me to ask them about it when we go to get our own made.”

“Here it is,” Sam said, drawing their attention.

The building looked the same as all of the others around. It was a grey, one story, stone building, with no windows. One thing made it stand out however, the sound of music playing on the other side. A guitar could be heard clearly as Sam pushed the door open for the two of them and they stepped into the designated common area.

Inside was completely different from what he would have imagined. The floor was also made of stone, but it sank several feet into the ground, making the entire space feel significantly larger.

Descending the stairs, he took in the warm light and sparse furnishings, and couldn’t help but feel a sense of relaxation wash over him. It was such a drastic change from the bleak, dangerous environment outside that he wondered if there wasn’t some magic at play in how easily he wanted to enjoy himself.

Loud conversations, smiling faces, and the scent of beer assaulted his senses. Many of the tables were filled with rough-looking individuals, clearly marking them as combat personnel. This created a contrast with a larger section of the space occupied by a more respectable bunch. Both groups had people laughing and chatting loudly, but the atmosphere was cheerful and friendly rather than rowdy.

Mark stood and waved at them, standing a head taller than anyone else around. His waving arms and beaming smile made Alex relax further. “Welcome to heaven,” his burly friend said with open arms as they stepped up to the table.

“Thanks,” Alex laughed while bumping his fist. He noticed a different face and greeted the warrior. “Jonathan, it’s good to see you,” he said with mild surprise. The muscular veteran sat at their table, calmly observing the exchange.

He raised his cup in a response greeting as they took seats around the circular table. “I was glad to see your group in the encampment,” he said.

“Hey,” Olivia said as she took the chair between Alex and the berserker.

Jonathan’s eyebrow rose slightly, but he mirrored her short greeting. “Hey. No hard feelings?”

“No hard feelings,” she agreed, leaning back into her chair. “What’s in the cups?” she asked, looking at the four mugs on the table.

“Beer!” Sam said excitedly. “I was going to get another cup. Do you guys want one?”

Alex and Olivia looked at each other, then at Sam in surprise. Looking at the others’ facial expressions, he could tell that they were expecting a reaction, so he didn’t give it to them. Olivia began to ask a question, but he cut her off. “Yeah, one for each of us.”

Sam’s smile grew, and he looked at the rest of the group. “Ha! Told you he wouldn’t care.” He moved away, weaving carefully between tables toward the plywood bar that had been constructed in the room’s far corner.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Alex turned to them. “What the hell?”

Mark laughed, and Jonathan covered his smile by taking another sip from his cup. “They said that if he’s old enough to be here, fighting monsters and saving lives with his magic, he should be old enough to drink. The bartender practically forced the first drink on him. Said he had a nephew who was healed by a skilled healer at Memorial Hospital, and seemed to know it was Sam.”

“He does have something of a reputation,” Jonathan confirmed. “Most people in the North East Safe Zones know of Sam the Healer.”

Sarah snorted. “The Guild was pushing his story pretty hard.”

“I wonder if they know of Alex’s heroic adventure to save the talented healer,” Mark added, nudging him in the side with his elbow.

Alex rolled his eyes, but Sarah spoke up again. “Don’t worry about the drinks. Apparently, it’s really hard for him to get drunk anyway. Remember the passive he got after healing Mark? Between that and his Vitality, his body and mana will naturally fight off the alcohol in his body. He just thinks it’s cool to be able to get drinks.”

When Sam returned, they all took some time to relax and chat around the table. Alex let out a deep breath and looked at his closest friends.

It felt a bit odd to have Jonathan there, but seeing how at ease the team was with his presence, he didn’t push the issue. The older man seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself.

He observed the berserker. Even though Jonathan’s eyes kept flicking to any movement near the entrance, noting who entered or left, the rest of his body was relaxed. He leaned back in his chair, cup resting on his thigh, as he listened to the conversation at the table, only occasionally chiming in or speaking up when addressed with a specific question.

It wasn’t just Jonathan; the rest of the team seemed to be shedding their layers of seriousness. While his friends hadn’t necessarily been subdued in the field, much of their normal lively energy had been replaced by an intense and relentless desire to train. Seeing all of them, here, laughing, and telling stories from the last few months, made a part of him relax that he hadn’t known was tense.

They all made it back, don’t hate me, and don’t hate each other. I didn’t ruin any of them.

He expected Maelis to chime in, but the grumpy spirit stayed quiet.

When he finished his drink, Alex set the mug down and looked at Sarah. “Can you walk us to get our IDs? Also, I need to go to the research building, or wherever the main HA scientists are.”

She agreed easily, but Jonathan set his cup down and offered to go in her stead. “I need to head to the admin building anyway, and it’s an easy way to excuse myself without being rude.”

The group laughed. It only took about an hour for Alex and Olivia to finish their paperwork and get new identification cards. When he’d asked about the mana signature, they’d remained tight-lipped about its purpose. However, as he went through the process himself, he and Maelis could figure out what it did from the process of setting the mana.

A thin, elderly woman had appeared for that one part of the process, likely using a unique skill. He’d scanned her, and despite an item she wore to hide her status, his Willpower was so much greater that the item did little to inhibit what he saw. She had a skill called [Mana Signature Imprint]. It essentially worked like a fingerprint with ink on paper in the normal world, except with mana.

From there, he could easily assume that they had some sort of corresponding skill that they could teach, or an enchanted item, that would check the ID against the carrier’s mana to see if they were a match. He had to admit that it was a simple and clever solution for identification in this new world.

“Well, that didn’t hurt nearly as bad as the DMV,” Olivia said as she stretched both arms over her head.

“Yeah, pretty painless. Guess it helps that there weren’t a bunch of people in line. You heading back to the group?” Alex asked.

Olivia nodded and held in a yawn. “I was gonna see if Sarah could show me where our place was. I need some sleep. Are you going to go do your research-y stuff?”

He grinned. “Research-y stuff?” Alex echoed. “Yes, I need to go give them my notes. I owe it to Director Matthews. Hey… come here a sec.” He grabbed her hand lightly and moved them to a small area between two buildings.

“Oh,” she said in a playful voice.

“Hush,” Alex said, rolling his eyes. He activated his [Mirage] skill and pushed his second consciousness into the illusion.

“Okay,” the illusion said. “I’m going with you.”

The original Alex spoke up, and her head turned back to him. “I want you to go back with the mirage so I can talk with the group and see where the rooms are. I wanted to wait until Jonathan was gone to bring some of this up, so at least now I can have the conversation and go turn in my notes at the same time.”

“Why not just activate it out there?” She raised an eyebrow and looked around the small space between buildings.

“The fewer people who know about this, the better,” he said simply.

She accepted the answer, but retorted with, “All right, that’s fair. But you owe me a date while we’re here in town,” she pouted.

“I’d love to.” He planted a kiss on her forehead and ushered her out of the alleyway with the mirage. “Give Val a scratch for me, will you?” he called after her.

He waited a few minutes and stepped from the alleyway, reorienting himself. The directions that Jonathan had left them with were easy to follow, and it took him a five-minute walk to reach the proper building.

Compared to the others in the area, it was two or three times the size, but looked almost identical. All of the buildings were so uniform, he guessed that they had to be created with a skill.

Well, that and the speed that they were put together.

“Hey, kid. I can feel my consciousness pulling.”

Fuck. Okay, hold on.

He looked from left to right. There were half a dozen people in sight. None of them were focused on Alex or what he was doing, but he didn’t want to sit anywhere near other people and direct his attention to Maelis. The space near the buildings didn’t have any furnishings. There weren’t benches or chairs, not even curbs for him to sit on, so instead, Alex looked up.

Finding a vantage point that he liked, Alex used his movement skill to lightly hop up to the ledge of the building before sitting with his legs hanging over the side. A few people gave him odd looks, but when he just waved at them, they continued on with their own business.

I want to talk with you about those two new runes first. We still have more to talk about with the titles and swearing and all that. So I’m going to start charging the amulet as soon as you doze off.

This content has been misappropriated from NovelBin; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Maelis sighed wearily in his mind. “Fine. At least try to make some progress with the runes before you do. That way, I can fix any mistakes you’re making.”

He wanted to deliver a witty reply, but didn’t want to waste what time they had.

I have five runes I can use now. Activation, Spark, Barrier, Breeze, and Anchor. Breeze was pretty easy to work into my kit, but I need to work more with Anchor. Setting that aside, I want to keep expanding on my available runes. I should be working on one or two at all times. For the next set, I want to learn Cleanse and Empower.

We talked about Cleanse before, and I like the idea of being able to cleanse poisons at some point. Even if, in the meantime, it only cleans things, I’m okay with that, too. This entire Rift seems to leak or ooze something black. I’m tired of washing my clothes twice a day in the creeks or boiling water. I also remember seeing Empower in one of the books Evan was showing me. That should be one I can learn, right?

“Yes, both of those are decent options. Though I’m not sure what you’ll use Empower for, other than strengthening your wards.”

I have an idea for that. I’ll tell you more when we get out of here and I can do some real testing. It’ll take some work, but as long as I learn the rune now, I can always come back to it later.

They spent the next half hour reviewing the runes’ most basic shapes. Their session was cut short, but he’d gotten enough of the setting pattern copied into his notebook that he could start practicing with it over the next few days.

Storing the notebook back in his ring, he hopped from the building and landed on the ground. Glancing over his shoulder, he checked the height of the jump he’d just made and shook his head.

Before entering the large research building, he went through his memories, interested to see how the conversation had gone with the team. Filtering through his thoughts, he got an answer for why Jonathan had been with the group rather than out in the real world assisting the other powerful Hunters.

“Isn’t he supposed to be like the hero of the HA?” he’d asked Sarah.

“He said that they had him go out there to help. At first, the appearance of the Crimson Warrior had done a lot of good to help. But as things ramped up and protests became riots, common sense left people. They saw that Jon wasn’t willing to act or quell the riot, which emboldened them to pick, poke, and prod at him. Whoever his handler is apparently got worried that he’d lose control…”

Alex winced internally.

“Obviously, they want to quell the unrest, but letting a berserker loose on a bunch of innocent, unawakened, or low-level civilians would be a disaster. Jon swears he was still fully under control, but once leadership got it in their heads that it could happen, they seemed to think that it would eventually happen. So, instead of keeping him out there, they sent him back to continue training for the impending threat.”

“What about his team?” he’d asked.

“They are still some of the best they have on this coast, so they were asked to stay. Apparently, Greg and Teresa’s skill sets are too valuable to be kept in the Rift when there’s that much going on out there.”

“Does he want to join us?”

“I don’t think so. From my understanding, he doesn’t work well with others.”

“All right. Remember, he doesn’t need to know what our plans are. I don't think he’d be an issue, but the HA doesn’t want us killing the Aspects. Closing the Rift would really piss some people off…”

Sarah had agreed, though she seemed conflicted about doing something so explicitly against the rules set by her own organization. She agreed in the end that it was the best chance they had to heal Nox and Olivia.

His memories ended as they were leaving to find the group’s rooms so Olivia could get some sleep, meaning that they were currently in the middle of that. Satisfied with how the conversation went, he entered the research building.

The sheer number of people bustling about inside startled him. After months of seeing only his team and the mana spinners, he had already found the crowd in the common area overwhelming—but the research building held more than twice as many people.

His boots squeaked on the polished and rubberized concrete flooring. He looked down, finding it a mundane quality of life that he hadn’t seen in any of the other buildings so far.

“Yes? Sir, can I help you?”

The voice drew his attention. He approached the man behind the counter and looked around at entry area again. There were three doors leading further back into the building, with people constantly going in and out of them.

“I, uh— I’m here to drop off some of my research notes.”

“You are?” the man asked, a hint of skepticism in his voice.

“Yes?” Alex dragged out the word, and his eyebrows came together in confusion. The younger man’s tone made it sound like he thought Alex was lying.

“Is this another prank? I told you guys that this isn’t funny. I’m not taking my boss more bogus field notes with hidden penis drawings, seriously. Grow up.”

Alex’s face relaxed as he realized the other man wasn’t being hostile, just frustrated at others. He scanned the worker and saw his name, level, and class. “Look, Darnell, right?” The use of his name surprised him, and he sat up again. “I’m not here to make your day harder, but I’ve got notes that were specifically requested from me. I took the time to write them out, so I want to drop them off. But, without sounding too rude, I won’t leave them with you, either. I’d like for you to get your boss, or manager, or even better yet, whoever is in charge of this stuff for the Rift.”

He regretted the fact that he hadn’t coordinated a timeline with the director for when they expected his prepared notes.

Nothing to do about it now.

“I don’t know,” he eyed Alex skeptically again. “No offense, but you warrior types have been a huge pain in my ass since we came into the rotation late.”

Alex laughed, which seemed to catch the man off guard. He shook his head and adjusted the hat on his head. “Sorry. I just think it’s funny how I said ‘not to be rude’ and then said something kinda rude… then you said ‘no offense’ and said something sort of offensive. Look, I know it’s such a stupid thing to say, and I don’t want to cause you issues or anything, can’t you just get your manager? I get you’re doing your job, and it sounds like some people have given you a hard time. I’m not like that. Just need to drop this off and I’ll be on my way. Seriously. I’m not even a warrior. I’m a mage,” he pointed at his hat as if to say, ‘see.’

Darnell looked at him suspiciously, taking in his stat-enhanced broad shoulders, lean face, and clearly enchanted gear. “I can ask the manager on shift. Can I see your ID, sir?” he asked while tearing a piece of paper from the pad and clicking his pen.

Alex handed it over, happy that he was willing to at least do this much.

The Clerk’s pen moved as he read the ID tag and copied his name. He stopped before the first word was even finished, his body stiffened, and he looked up wide-eyed. He looked at Alex’s hat and clothes, taking in the scar on his face and his eye. “You’re him?”

“Who?”

“That guy from the video. The lightning mage?”

Hmm, lightning mage? Sounds cool as hell at least.

“Oh, the video,” he sighed, realizing that he must’ve been referring to the video taken at the sun elf camp. “Yes, that was me.”

The man stuttered, nodded his head, and immediately walked away. He paused at the door to apologize once before hurrying out of the reception area. Alex scratched his head and looked around the room. Everyone continued to move and bustle around, oblivious to the heat rising to his cheeks and odd sensation he felt in his stomach.

A full two minutes passed before the door behind the counter reopened, and Darnell emerged, followed by a familiar face.

“Holy shit. It is you!” Evan said, grinning from ear to ear. “What’s up with that hat?”

“Evan? Ha!” Alex laughed, scratching his forehead under the hat’s brim. They shook hands as the Enchanter rounded the barrier. “It’s good to see you. I didn’t think you’d be here.”

“I wasn’t supposed to be on the first rotation, but with a lot of the combat guys getting pulled out, I got bumped up. When we started to make some progress on the magitech, they promoted me.”

“Wait, you’re the manager on shift?” he repeated Darnell’s words and glanced at the younger man.

“No, no. But when Darnell came back looking for Rachael, saying your name over and over, I thought I’d come out.

“Ha, such a small world… well, I guess it actually is.” They both laughed again, thinking of the broken world that they were in. “Well, can you help me get my notes to whoever they’re supposed to go to?”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course. If you’ve got time, come look at what I’ve been working on. I’ll take care of your notes and get them to my boss when he comes in tomorrow morning.”

“Sure.” Alex shrugged, happy to see his friend for the first time in what felt like months. He removed the notebook from his ring and handed it over to Evan, hiding his surprise as the enchanter put it into his own spatial item. He didn’t bring attention to it, but just clarified a point on the notes, “The notes are a bit light. But it should be enough for people to start understanding how magic works while I keep developing it. It’s really more of an organized primer on the topic up front, and then some scattered notes and examples in the back.”

Evan nodded and waved for him to follow as they made their way to one of the three doors at the back of the reception area. “No worries. Some people were a little upset that you didn’t bring them in sooner, but everyone has been super busy since we’ve learned more about the electronic and magitech situations.”

“Yeah, we ran into a team on our way back to the camp. They were carrying around an antenna and a huge pack. What’s that about?”

"They're mapping areas in the Rift where the mana density is low enough for our existing technology to work reliably." Evan led him through two more sets of double doors and into a small room that had five people in it, all busily clicking away on keyboards.

“Wait… you can use it here?” Alex said, disbelief clear in his voice. The mana was thick enough in the air around the Rift portal that he could see it clearly with his Heavenly Eye. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Evan smiled at his reaction. “No, this is some of our newest work. Come look, here,” he said. They went through the back door and pushed through hanging rubber strips into a cool back room. Against the back wall, he saw four tubes filled with liquid. What was more interesting, though, was what they held.

“What is this?” he breathed.

“This is where the large majority of the HA’s resources are being funneled. We’re doing two bits of work here. The first is monster testing and research,” he tilted his head toward the tubes. “Our goal lately has been testing the Night creatures. These are some of the most common specimens in the area. Based on the items that we brought back from the ruined city, we have started to test the effects of Celestial magic and skills on them in a controlled environment.”

Alex nodded in understanding, walking closer to the tube to gently place his hand against the glass. It was cool to the touch, and the lightly tinted, yellow liquid that kept the monster suspended contrasted with the deep black of its fur.

“It’s at the very bottom of D rank,” Alex noted.

“Yeah, keeping them subdued has been a challenge. The logic is that what works against this monster should work as well against the higher-level ones.”

“Makes sense. How is the Celestial magic working?” He couldn’t help but think of the powerful magic he’d seen come from Eura when he wiped the traitors from the city.

“It’s effective, but only to a point. We’ve tested some other elements, and fire seems to work the best.”

“We’ve noticed the same in our fighting. Most of the Night creatures seem to be weak to fire.” A thought occurred to him then. “You should try Sun magic if you have anything that you could use from the sun elf camp.”

Evan turned his head to the side. “Sun magic? Like the elves?”

“I saw a mural carved into some old ruins that showed the Night and the Sun opposing each other with a Celestial being in between the two. You might not be seeing a ton of results with the celestial magic, because it’s not the opposite of Night.”

Evan laughed, “Damn, Tommy was right. Son of a bitch.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“Right about what?”

“He just kept comparing things to a video game and type-monsters or something. He was so insistent that we try light magic against the Night creatures. No one wanted to do it at first, but when we saw how effective fire was, we tried it. But the light was less effective than fire, so the theory sort of fell to the side.”

“Well, sort of makes sense that fire and light do work, though. They seem like sub-elements to ‘sun,’ right?”

“Yeah, that’s why he’s right. We just had the wrong opposite ‘type.’”

Alex scratched his cheek. “I wonder if that applies the other way around, too?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we’re only here temporarily. Our real problem is the Sun elves. What if the Night is a weapon that we can use against the sun elves when the Continental Event starts?”

Evan’s eyes went wide and he ran his hands through his hair. “Of course.” He stared at the captive monsters for a long moment before going to one of the computers and typing rapidly. Alex watched him for a bit, thinking that he’d finish and return to the conversation. It did happen, but not for a full ten minutes.

When Evan straightened, he looked anxious and only then seemed to remember Alex was there.

“What was the second thing?”

“Huh?” his friend asked, thoughts clearly somewhere else.

“You said that there were two things you were doing here. One was the monster research… the other was…?” Alex wanted to leave and let Evan get to whatever idea had clearly latched onto his mind, but he was curious what the HA was up to.

“Oh, magitech. We talked about it once before… but uh, I was sort of the one who got it started. Turns out that the studying I did with you on runes helped a lot, and using partially enchanted components was a key piece to the puzzle. But, the biggest find was the white metal that was removed from the sun elf encampment.

We were able to melt it down and combine it with some metals from Earth to form an alloy that is mana conductive. So rather than mana disrupting the flow of electricity, mana runs cleanly through the new wiring and is able to take the place in most existing technology as a power source. Again, it takes a bit of enchanting, using mana, capacity, and energy runes, but once things are set up, we can still use some modern tech in a mana-rich environment.”

“That’s amazing,” Alex said, taking in the row of modern equipment against the right wall. “It seems to be out of place in a Rift, though. Just from the last several months and all of the Rifts, going in there and knowing that none of our stuff will work. Can you communicate with people outside of the Rift? How does that even work with the time dilation?” He had so many questions.

Evan raised his hand and gave a guilty smile. “No, we can’t communicate outside Rift. There is a team working on it, and in theory, it might work, but for now, the biggest barrier is the Rift portal. It’s so dense with mana that even the tech we have now is interrupted. No idea if that’s just from the mana, or the time adjustment, or what’s causing it. There are a lot of questions to answer, but this Rift just became even more valuable with the ability to bring equipment in and run more tests. The value of time just continues to increase,” he said, the last bit like he was repeating a phrase commonly said.

“Well, that’s really wild. Can’t imagine having my phone ring in a Rift.” The thought actually horrified him a bit. The mental image of stalking a group of monsters filled his mind, only to have his position given away by his family calling him for dinner. He shivered at the thought. “Let me get out of your hair. It was really great to see you, but I’ve got to get some sleep, and you look so antsy right now, it looks like you’ve got to pee.”

Evan laughed in response and walked with him back to the front of the building. Alex said goodbye to him and Darnell before heading back through the camp. He followed his mirage’s memories to where their group was set up to stay during the rest of their rotation.

When he entered the building after leaving the research center, everyone was asleep. The small room he shared with Olivia contained only the basics: a bed, a single desk, and a single chair.

A shower was in the back of the building, shared by the six assigned rooms and everyone who occupied them. It was empty, so Alex took his first hot shower in months and stood under the falling water for what felt like an hour.

He ran his hands through his hair, water and soap spilling onto the slanted concrete floor. Wearing the bracer in the shower felt strange, but he had sworn never to let his spatial item leave his reach again.

He took the peace and quiet to think through their coming days. It would be important to relax in the time that they had, but it would be just as critical to begin planning their next steps. The sun elf magic had steadily spread through Nox’s body again, and using [Consume] on his kin was becoming less and less effective. They were on a clock, and the next steps would be crucial to the success of their mission.

He had a lot to think through. In just a few days, the team would be back in the field, fighting not only for their lives, but for the strength to protect one another.

Next step is just to kill one of the seven aspects in the middle of Night infested territory and let Olivia's cat consume its essence to rid itself of an elven curse…

If it weren't for the fact that it was all true, he'd find their current situation immensely amusing.