Tunde watched as the disciples split themselves among groups, whispers going around as night fully set in, a retrieved Shadowfang strapped to his back, he watched as they prepared for the rift run. Scouts had reported back to Elder Joran that three more rifts had conveniently opened up close to the border of the wastelands itself, the last remaining rift left behind as they rushed back to black rock close to tearing wide open and releasing rift creatures on the land.

  The excitement about Ark still filled the air, people idly staring away into the air as they were no doubt looking at their screens, Tunde sighed, rubbing his hands together to warm them, the chill in the air from the winds, especially harsh that night. His assembled disciples stood before him, all early tier, fresh faces that stared at him with a mixture of hesitation and faux seriousness. He wondered what was going through their minds, perhaps they considered him below them for some reason, he doubted that, the hesitations in their eyes didn’t speak of weakness, it spoke of fear.

  Shifting his gaze to where Elyria stood in light silver robes with a stitching of a metal hand grasping a blade on its back, her yellow her neatly tied together. She glanced at him, half listening to the disciples who were arming themselves around her before a ping startled him, his screen blazing to life in front of him.

  [you look confused] it wrote.

  Tunde scrunched his face together, what did the system mean by that?

  “I’m not” he replied out loud.

  Elyria laughed where she stood.

  [I’m the one talking to you] it wrote again.

  He frowned.

  “I know that, what can I address you as?” he asked.

  [Elyria] it responded.

  Tunde paused, glanced at her where she had an exasperated look on her face, then it dawned on him.

  “Oh,” he said stupidly.

  “Apologies, how is this possible?” he asked.

  Elyria rolled her eyes.

  [how should I know? You simply think of talking to a fellow cultivator you’re aware of and then you can send messages] she wrote back.

  Tunde scrunched his face more, staring at her message before trying it.

  [many thanks] he thought back as he glanced at her, seeing as she seemed to stare off as well.

  [welcome, doesn’t change the question] she replied.

  [I’d prefer running this rift myself] he said.

  He heard her snort.

  [take on a peak tier 2 rift by yourself? Surely you do realize the creatures of the rift would be peak tier 2 as well and the rift guardian, remember that?] she asked.

  Tunde frowned.

  [I was an early tier disciple then, I’m different now] he replied.

  Elyria stared at him in silence before shrugging and turning away, Tunde wondering if he had offended her in some way.

  “High ranker Tunde?” a voice said next to him.

  He turned to stare at a disciple dressed in shoddy metal armor, holding a one-edged blade.

  “We’re ready,” he said.

  Tunde looked over them all, ten in number, more than forty disciples had made it to black rock, Tunde asked the elder what happened to the rest but got no response, merely a smile. He nodded, watching the rest of the teams assemble as well, Harun, Giselle, him, and Elyria. Elder Joran moved like a whisper, no one aware till he spoke right within their midst, next to the burning fire that had been set up.

  “You are about to embark on the first official rift run of house dark fist,” he said as all faces turned to him and then down one knee, Tunde as well.

  “The surge is in the air, expect deviations within the rift, to those that may perish with the rift, I wish you a safe journey to the arms of the hegemons” he finished.

  Tunde typed at Elyria.

  [deviations?] he asked.

  [rifts could sometimes be misleading, the moment the rift core is attacked, you find a higher-tiered guardian protecting it, we call them calamities] she explained.

  Tunde frowned.

  [why?, a team of disciples can take down a tier 3 guardian] Tunde replied.

  [no, they can’t] Elyria simply said.

  Tunde dropped it, whatever a deviation was, it was a topic for another day. Elder Joran stared into the distance in silence as Tunde walked up to him.

  “don’t overextend yourself in there,” the elder said softly.

  “Is there any other way I know how to do it?” Tunde said with a soft smile.

  The elder gave no response, turning before staring at the huge hole in the foundations of the stronghold that was about to become their new home.

  “We leave for the border in a day, whatever we can gather right now would simply be in preparation for the surge proper,” Joran said.

  “you’re a high ranker now, best you start ensuring your long-term advancement, just make sure no rift creature makes it back here, can’t afford to stress myself with what I suspect we’d be facing where we’re going” he completed, turning to leave.

  Tunde watched him go in silence, unstrapping Shadowfang as the blade seemed to melt with the darkness around. His relic hadn’t reacted in a long while, he had almost forgotten he had a very powerful weapon with him. Gripping the blade well, he met up with the other disciples as they began their journey towards the rifts, Ethra sight illuminating the darkness for him despite the pitch-dark moonless land, Tunde ignored the rift finder compasses the other teams used.

  He could see clearly enough, his every step powered by raw Ethra that propelled him forward, cycling continually. A scaly creature shot out of the sands in front of him as Tunde snatched it out of the air before it could do anything, hand snapping its neck before flinging it away. His reaction time was second to none around him, maybe except for Elyria and the elder, it was evident by the way the disciples shifted, eyes wide as if they hadn’t seen the creature.

  [Voidshade Chameleon:

  - Evolution: Adapted to absorb minimal sunlight, becoming active during the cooler night time.

  - Abilities: Possesses an uncanny ability to blend with shadows and darkness, making it an elusive predator.]

  Tunde saw the advantage of Ark for the first time, no longer needing to study entire books on the various creatures of the wastelands and Adamath in general. Feeling the call of the rift, the closer he got the more his body kept absorbing the Ethra that came from it.

  [you’re within proximity of a rift entrance]

  [rift Ethra is reacting to rift Ethra]

  [rift Ethra has temporarily boosted all attributes to peak rank level (50)!]

  [strength & constitution are already at peak rank level, agility boosted to 50!]

  [Rank has been temporarily boosted to peak-tier disciple!]

  While he still considered Ark a distraction, the distinct explanation it once again gave of his cultivation amazed him. Fifty was the highest level for a disciple to attain, Tunde felt a sliver of pride in the fact that he had attained the peak while still a mid-tier disciple, they stopped a few meters from the three rifts that blazed, all in front of another rift that silently hummed behind the three rifts.

  “We left that last one behind when we retreated, it gave off the feeling of a peak tier 3 rift, and now, we can confirm it,” Elyria said as she came up to him, Harun and Giselle in tow.

  “We need to get a message across to the elder, more than we can handle if we’re being frank with each other,” Giselle said.

  “Good thing this Ark came when it did” Harun replied.

  “I wonder if it makes scroll messages obsolete” she asked again.

  Tunde ignored them both, staring at the last rift.

  “Can you three take the new rifts?” he asked.

  Elyria looked at him like he was mad.

  “Can you feel the Ethra in the air?’ she asked.

  Tunde had wanted to comment on it a while back, he did, and it left the air on his skin standing, like the feeling one got before a storm. It felt supercharged, and he could only imagine just how much Ethra ran rampant in the air, was sucked in by the rift, and returned to the entire area in greater quantities. This wasn’t the tainted rifts forcefully summoned by the Corespawns and their revenant collaborators, Tunde idly wondered where the remaining Corespawn hordes promised by Kurl and Jath had disappeared to.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Yes I can” he replied.

  Elyria glanced at the assembled disciples before turning back to him.

  “That rift has had more time to absorb latent Ethra, I really shouldn’t be explaining this to you, you know what that means, right?” she said.

  “Possibility of a stronger rift guardian, yes” he replied.

  “Then why in the hegemon’s name would you want to solo it, and what would happen to your team of disciples?” she asked.

  Tunde chewed on his answer, glancing at the disciples who stared at him expectantly.

  “I need to test myself against whatever’s in there, alone” he replied.

  The disciple shuffled in surprise, Elyria sighing.

  “You know, part of the reason why I was sent along, was to ensure you didn’t do anything stupid,” she said.

  “What?” Tunde asked affronted.

  “Elder Celia believed Elder Joran could possibly fan your ego, which, now that I think of it, I see clearly” she continued.

  Tunde for the first time stared at Elyria in a new light, one he wasn’t comfortable with as it went against everything he had ever thought of her. She was his helper, she had been there when he had been nothing, not even an initiate, he struggled to see where she was coming from.

  “Elyria, I’m going to face a tier 4 rift in a few days,” he said.

  “With an elder by your side,” she retorted.

  “Then I need to see how I fare against a tier 3 rift” he argued.

  “Not alone, that’s my whole point,” she said.

  “You think I can’t do it?” Tunde said, anger finally leaking into his voice.

  “I think you have overestimated yourself to think you can take on an adept ranked rift as a disciple” she replied.

  Tunde said nothing, simply staring at her as she sighed, running her hand through her hair.

  “Um, guys?” Giselle said, drawing their attention away from themselves to the tier 3 rift that seemed to be expanding.

  “The rift’s about to break,” Elyria said horrified.

  Tunde made a split-second decision as a large burning charred hand stretched out of the rift, he threw Shadowfang as the body of the creature passed through, the weapon embedding itself in its chest as the creature shrieked, jumping through with it. One hand grasping Shadowfang’s hilt, he rode the dizzying waves before landing on a burning surface, the creature exploding to ash as a barrage of messages from Ark assaulted his senses.

  [you have left the plane of Adamath through a rift]

  [you’ve arrived in a tier 3 rift space]

  [Warning!, you’re being assaulted by tier 3 flame Ethra!]

  [body tempering is sufficient to withstand tier 3 rift Ethra]

  [you just killed early-tier 3 flame wraith; tier 3 flame core obtained!]

  A small bright orange core dropped from the ashes of what Tunde now knew to be a tier 3 wraith as he grabbed it, instincts screaming at him. They came from every angle as he twisted and turned, Shadowfang deflecting the scorching flames they shot at him before coming to a stop. He stared down his attacks, flame wraiths in their numbers, screeching at him, all early tiered, at least from what Ark told him.

  They rushed him as Tunde released his aura, starry midnight power surrounding him as he coated Shadowfang with it, the creatures giving a terrified shriek as they came close even as he swung his axe repeatedly. Their claws tore at his robes as they left nothing but surface scratches on his bare skin, sweat coating his body. It was a rough mess of hacking and using resonance with his other hand, blowing apart the flame wraiths before being surrounded by ash.

  Panting gently, he turned and stared at the assembled disciples who had been staring at him with wide eyes, Elyria as well who threw him a robe he caught.

  “it’s worse than you thought?” he asked.

  “No, they’re wondering how you don’t have a single scorch mark when they had to drink frozen petal elixirs to stave off the heat” she replied.

  “That and you’re basically stark naked” she added.

  “Oh,” he replied awkwardly as he hurriedly put on the robe, dropping Shadowfang with a noticeable clang on the scorching ground.

  Elyria tossed him a glowing blue bottle that he caught, staring at the glittering white motes that floated around it. Drinking it in one gulp, he shuddered slightly as a chill went through him.

  [you have ingested tier 2 frozen petal elixir; your body temperature is reducing]

  [partial immunity to tier 3 heat and fire has been achieved!]

  “Is it me or does this Ark of a thing seem to repeat the obvious?” he asked.

  “No time to talk” Elyria hissed as shrieks came from afar, followed by a column of burning flames as a large creature with burning wings appeared. It shrieked, its voice echoing around them as Tunde stumbled, his screen fizzling uncontrollably.

  [unknown relic is shielding you from the cry of the flame bird mid-tier 3!]

  Tunde groaned even as Elyria grabbed him and threw him backward, the cultivators charging into battle. Tunde watched as she danced through the early tiered flame wraiths before clashing with the large bird made out of blue and orange flames, eyes watering, he glanced down at his relic to see the band humming, black lines running through his hand and to his head. He felt weak immediately, like all the Ethra in his body was being siphoned towards something, Shadowfang fell from his grasp as he sank to his knees.

  [unknown relic interfering with A.R.K system!]

  What was the relic doing to his system?

  [unknown relic has subtly changed A.R.K protocols]

  [imbuing slight change to protocols, security alert system disabled]

  Then his body started absorbing the flame rift Ethra in copious amounts, his temperature heating up as his body struggled to keep up, burning hot.

  [temperature is reaching tempering point!]

  Groaning slightly, he struggled to rise to his feet, using Shadowfang as leverage.

  [unknown relic has completed changes, recalibrating….]

  [calibration complete!]

  Tunde blinked as power suffused him again, taking a deep breath as he suddenly felt his body seemingly expand before contracting, stumbling slightly. Alarmed, he could only draw his attention away to where a bunch of rock Ethra rankers attacked the flaming bird with various projected attacks, struggling to avoid the sweep of its flame feathers. Right in front of the creature was a struggling Elyria.

  “metal” Tunde grimly thought as he shot forward.

  It was a bad pairing, especially with the strength of the flames he could feel from the creature, running resonance through Shadowfang, Tunde landed on one of its burning wings, hissing as the flames actually burned before clipping one of the wings, the bird shrieking as the offending appendage split in half. He rolled away, watching as Elyria slid behind a rock wall one of the disciples had constructed, body smoking.

  “See why I said you couldn’t go alone?” she screamed.

  Tunde winced, nodding to himself, this was merely a mid-tier 3 rift creature and Tunde could barely catch up, his peak reflexes saving him from death. Ethra sight blazed as Tunde saw what was going on.

  “Run!” he shouted as he vaunted over the rock wall, rolling to a stop close to her.

  The disciples had scattered the moment he shouted, all in various states of injuries from scorch to burn marks on their bodies. The burning skies above them gathered together as a large column of fire Ethra descended in force, scorching the very ground, the bird shrieking.

  [flame bird is enraged!]

  “You think?!” Tunde snarled.

  “What?” Elyria asked.

  “Not you!” he replied, cursing silently.

  Calming himself, he turned his gaze skywards, squinting as Ethra sight showed the flame column receding, its power spent. He was over the wall, making a mad dash at the flame bird that took his attacks as a personal affront to itself, firing fire arrows at him. He was dodging them, parrying what he could and rolling away from the rest till he made it dangerously close to the creature, then he was swinging, resonance on his axe as he threw the weapon, watching it lodge firmly in the creature's head before shooting towards, it, body imbued with raw power.

  His fist slammed into its skull as he felt the force vibrate through his body, gritting his teeth and gripping Shadowfang which unleashed resonance within the skull of the creature. Its eyes exploded out of its skull before the entire skull did as well, Tunde blasted backward to crash on the ground with force. Blinking away the dizzying effect, he managed to struggle to his feet, producing a healing elixir and guzzling it, the grade 2 elixir actively healing him as he stared at the carnage.

  “This is one terrible rift,” Elyria said, watching the remaining disciples pick their way out of the rubble of the blast.

  Tunde watched the body of the flame bird start dissolving as Elyria exclaimed.

  “Quick, store the body!” she said as he moved.

  His void ring was opening, swallowing both body and core as he turned to her puzzled.

  “That was a tier 3 flame bird, its feathers and all parts of its body sell for high prices,” she said.

  Tunde nodded, sighing as he rubbed his head.

  “Elyria, I’m sorry,” he said.

  She raised one finger to hold him, turning to the disciples.

  “Clear out our surroundings of whatever early-tier 3 creatures you find, work in groups, they’re still tier 3’s, whatever you find is yours to keep” she ordered.

  That got the disciples scrambling with excitement, techniques flashing around as they seemed to forget they fought creatures a whole rank above them. Perhaps it was the presence of the second and fifth ranking disciples of the clan that emboldened them but Tunde seemed to think they were too overenthusiastic about it.

  “You were saying?” she asked, turning to him.

  He swallowed nervously.

  “I’m sorry” he replied.

  “Oh, and what for?” she asked.

  He sighed.

  “This, dragging you into this”

  “Oh, you somehow think you have the ability to cause rifts to break open now, do you?” she asked one eyebrow raised.

  “What?, no, I meant I’m sorry for rashly doing things here,” he said.

  She gave a light chuckle.

  “Relax, I know what you meant,” she said.

  Placing one hand on his shoulder, she stared into his eyes.

  “Tunde, believe me when I tell you I know what you’re feeling” she started.

  “You defeated Thalas, albeit, luckily to be honest,” she said as Tunde attempted to protest.

  She raised one finger, shushing him again with a glare.

  “You know it’s true, elder Joran knows it’s true, we all know it’s true” she countered.

  “I suppose it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but anyhow you look at it, you shouldn’t have walked away from that fight the winner, Thalas simply couldn’t help underestimating you subconsciously” she explained.

  Tunde said nothing as she nodded.

  “Good, at least you can listen, I had a suspicion, one elder Celia seemed to agree with” she continued.

  “And that would be?” Tunde asked.

  “That elder Joran could care less what lengths you push yourself to advance, to get stronger” she replied.

  Tunde froze at that.

  “You know it’s true, everything he’s done till date has been tailored towards his own goals, no matter how noble they look,” she said.

  “I informed him of the tier 3 rift, and you know what he said?” she asked.

  “he’ll deal with it” she replied.

  Tunde felt pride at the elder’s words as Elyria shook her head.

  “No, you still don’t understand, not everything is a challenge Tunde,” she said with a sigh.

  A cheer came from the distance where the disciples were still running rampant.

  “He could care less what happens to you, not even within a tier 3 rift, plus I knew you’d be snapping at the leash to test out your perceived strength in a suicidal way, and here we are” she finished.

  “you’re saying I’m simply a puppet to the elder?” Tunde asked, a bit hurt.

  “Yes, and you’d be stupid to think otherwise despite everything Thorne and I explained to you” she replied sternly.

  “The clan doesn’t like the elder” Tunde argued.

  “That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t at least put an effort in, do you know why the clan disciples shun him?” she asked.

  “What?, no, it’s the clan who prevented him from taking one of the Scions of the families as a student,” Tunde said.

  “That's one half of it, the other half is the fact that elder Joran’s teaching style is extremely reckless” she replied.

  “You don’t throw an initiate in a cultivation forest filled with monsters, you don’t force grow them to advance rapidly, and you certainly don’t manipulate a fight to get them in a duel with a high ranker, tell me you at least recognize the last one” she growled.

  Tunde said nothing, gripping Shadowfang in his hand in silence, the one burning skies now calming down.

  “Look, we don’t have a lot of time before they get back, but I want you to realize that advancement isn’t a sprint but a journey of self-reflection.” She spoke.

  “I understand getting to adept or lord, it’s said true advancement starts there, but tell me, what happens when you’re a lord and him a high lord, do you become his killing machine? Without thinking for yourself?” she asked.

  Tunde smiled.

  “You think we’d make it to lord?’ he asked.

  Elyria blinked at him, sighing.

  “I get your point, believe me, I have my own concerns,” Tunde said as she stared at him.

  “But it’s as you’ve always said, you need power to hold our own, and that means getting to adept as soon as possible” he replied.

  “You know, some spend decades, even centuries making their way to adept and beyond, and yet here you are, trying to reach it in your second month as a cultivator,” she said.

  Tunde turned his gaze to the large lava-flowing mountain in the distance.

  “I have bigger dreams than them then” he replied as Elyria snorted.

  “But I will take your words to heart, I promise” he responded.

  “See that you do, I won’t be always around to keep you on track, and Thorne, well,” she said.

  “His fate seems more dubious than ever right now” she finished.

  “Why did he come back, why didn’t he just escape when you two went wherever the clan sent you?” Tunde asked.

  “Believe it or not, he’s actually safer here than in the world, you forget he’s only an adept, it would take next to nothing for a lord to put him down, more incentive seeing as he’s a revenant as well” she explained.

  “Only an adept” Tunde muttered.

  Elyria shrugged.

  “you’re stepping up in the world Tunde, adepts are nothing but the stage where you’re seen as even human” she finished, leaving him with that disturbing thought as the disciples gathered, both teams and they began making their way towards the mountain, hordes of flame wraiths flying out of it.