The energy felt like I jumped head first into a waterfall, like a curtain of sharpened shrapnel rained down on my entire being. The smell of burning wood assaulted my nostrils. My eyes felt like they were being popped out and twisted by invasive hands.

  The only thing that I, being thrown into this chaos, could do is mentally swear up and down at everything I could. As if venting out my frustration and anxiety could build imaginary scaffolding to climb out of this mess. As if this fuming could stop me from being a baby bitch! A girl like me has got to find an outlet somewhere! So I—

  Before I could open my mouth to scream, my boots had already landed on what I presumed was the other side. The caterwauling of the Rift’s portal had ceased abruptly. Cold earth and a corridor of bluish bricks greeted my recovering vision, ferrying my tantrums away into oblivion. If it weren’t for my staff, I would have probably fallen into the dirt.

  The forms of three figures awaited me, silently. Whether they heard me or not, no one showed a reaction. I checked behind me, and sure enough, a dark tunnel was all I could see. The walls emitted a faint, unnatural light from between their cracks. These shadowy halls and dirt pathways occasionally crisscrossed by wooden beams for support resembled some type of ancient mine shaft.

  Regis and Kieron were staring at me like I was an alien, also holding a hint of impatience on their faces. Before I could ask what their problem was, I felt a slight discomfort in my coat’s inner pocket. Right, they were expecting the map.

  Leah materialized next to me, urging me with her eyes to go on with it. I could guess that the Rift could sense who was in a party somehow and place us in the same spots accordingly. I pulled it out, only half-pretending to be shaken up by the new environment. A pair of angry hands snatched it out of my shaky grip, accompanied by a loud exaggerated scoff.

  “Useless,” Kieron growled. “I’ll lead the way. I’m not stopping even if you get lost.”

  He spun on his heels and strode away in a particular direction of this new area. How typical of a man like that, I laughed inwardly. There was nothing in this place that allowed him to be brave. Who was he putting on a strong show for? My hands had already relaxed back down to my side, and I looked towards the other one. The men had moved ahead side by side, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Not cautious enough, I mused.

  Before I could reluctantly follow them, another pair of hands tugged my arm. The innocent praying eyes that Leah had on were gone, replaced by a cold and calculating look. Not a bad improvement, I supposed. But I gave her a questioning look.

  “You’re not like them,” she hissed, keeping her voice low. “So you’ll help me, right?”

  Oh? Now, this was interesting. There was not a single soul in the Ravenclast clan that wasn't ruthless, huh? I kept my mouth shut, but waited for her to hatch her plan. Leah glanced over my shoulder, then practically dragged me along to follow slowly behind them.

  “You saw it yourself, right?” She said bitterly. “That man is from my batch, yet he sided with that bastard, Kevin. It’ll be us versus them soon. Be with me and help me.”

  The Rogue, Kieron, was checking for traps as we moved along. It was odd how composed he was in a dangerous place like this. Was he privy to insider information prior to this whole charade? I turned back and finally spoke, my voice shaking.

  “Are you sure?”

  Leah closed her eyes and then opened them. The coldness in them shook me to my core. She looked like she was making a momentous decision.

  “The Bearer is our Lifeforce. Do you understand? Not even my… Not even my brother must interfere with the Hunter’s work. My sword is for Our Family.”

  Heh, the lady was insane. I felt a bit taken aback by her fanaticism. It even stretched to killing her own brothers. Once again, that evil thought sprouted in my mind. Could I do it? I wasn’t so sure myself. But seeing she had a vague plan and that those two guys were clearly up to no good, I agreed by nodding after thinking over it for all of three seconds. I still had status points in my bag as a final trump card against this alien place.

  “The ones who were with that Kevin guy are from my batch, too,” I whispered back to Leah. They weren’t going to let me go so easily either. I hoped I was using the terminology correctly, but thankfully, she nodded. “Tell me what we have to do.”

  “We’ll have to find a way to split them up,” Leah hesitated, but her determination reignited. “This is a Labyrinth Rift. There’s no way the Hero’s Hunter Parties have cleared all of the goblins out of here. Trouble will come soon, that’s when we’ll strike.”

  So, no concrete plan. I suppressed a sigh, glancing at the flood of new notifications that had pinged me in my Plus Menu. Most notably, the information about this Rift. I was still getting used to the strange new sensation of being in this Rift, and now we had a full blown conspiracy against our supposed allies.

  ———————————————

  Notifications.

  > Host has entered the Rift!

  Rift Identification:

  Tenaebrus, Trampled Underfoot by the Armoured One

  — Long May He Reign —

  [Worldline Coordinates: E|E|L|A|N1048AB]

  Biome: Goblin Labyrinth

  Warning: ON THE VERGE OF MUTATION.

  ———————————————

  Mutation? I pondered the meaning of that warning. Glancing at the silly Knight next to me, it became apparent to me that she couldn’t see the window in front of me revealing this pertinent information. It sounded like the trouble Leah mentioned was much more than we bargained for. We were closer to the two others in our party, so our conspiratorial tone had shifted to mere camaraderie.

  Kieron scoffed. “'Bout time you two caught up. We’re not slowing down for you, just so you know.”

  “Don’t worry about us,” I shot back.

  “I know you are a Healer, but no one in the Family has taught you the arts of magic,” Leah said in a soothing tone. Her eyes darted away from me to the men ahead of us, and she whispered to me. “I’ll protect you, we can make it through this and get rid of these bands once and for all.”

  Protect me, huh? I supposed healers in videogames usually did not possess any offensive capabilities, and I haven’t been in combat in either of my lives. Besides getting slapped and bonking someone a few hours ago, I had come to the realization that I most certainly could use the protection. But Leah, I thought at her. You’re level 2, around my age, and too faithful to a cause we don’t know anything about. I scratched the skin under my Cadet family wristband It wasn’t exactly pragmatic to think we’ve earned a right to any sort of longevity in or out of here.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Not that I’m an ingrate or anything,” I started. Somebody had the right words to go about asking the stupid questions, but not me. Even the bricks and earthy dampness in the air seemed to make my voice even softer. “But why can’t they send the guards in here? Must we be the ones to run around in this pen?”

  “Those not of Bearer blood can't enter Rifts,” Leah explained. She ignored my snarky remark and responded with no condescension in her voice, which was quite refreshing to me. Though, it was a rather inconvenient answer. “It is— Our duty. To our Family. To ourselves.”

  “Damn right,” a man’s voice inserted himself in the conversation, before I could even be impressed with Leah’s ability to cope with that Ravenclast Family rhetoric. It was Regis’s, surprising both of us. “Now, be quiet and focus. Trouble’s coming soon.”

  I shivered as I heard strange squelching noises coming from behind the brick walls of the corridor. No wonder why it felt like a thousand tiny insect legs were tap dancing up and down my spine. It wasn’t just uncomfortable, it was downright alien even walking in this Labyrinth. As we passed by a door, Regis stopped me from approaching it.

  “Never know what is left inside this Labyrinth, best leave it,” he warned.

  Right, doors equal bad, I glanced at the darkness behind the metal barred window in the door, but couldn’t make out anything. Who built it? This whole place existed in another dimension as suggested by the notification. I didn’t have the slightest idea of what the name “Tenaebrus” could be or what a worldline coordinate was, but I recognized the moniker “Armoured One” from the Laboratory. Was this Its creation, or a world that It owned?

  I had just swallowed the feeling of being in a simulation down a day ago when I first transmigrated here, but now its ugly head shot back out and caught in my throat the moment I stepped into the Rift. How were these party members used to this crawling feeling? It was an all-encroaching feeling, constricting my breath.

  We found ourselves at a forked path, when Kieron inspected the map. I gave Leah a secretive look, but she shook her head when the two of them weren’t looking. I wondered if Regis was an ally of the Rogue, since he didn’t seem hostile to us now. Then I remembered he called me an idiot.

  But the more pressing matter was, I worried if I really could kill someone if I needed to. Every part of me told me it was wrong, but what moral was I ready to lose for the sake of survival? That tiny bit of sympathy and conscience had to be let go of first in the face of those who didn’t have it, didn’t it? The dagger on my side suddenly felt like it weighed my leg down and made me feel shaky.

  No, I felt the ground was actually quaking beneath me. It wasn’t my nerves. Everyone else did too, exchanging weary looks. Things had been peaceful until now, and I had a sinking feeling that it was about to all go to hell.

  “They’re fighting the boss,” Kieron remarked. “Shrine’s ahead to the left.”

  Now what does a Shrine do for the Rift Closing Rite? And how exactly do we keep them lit? The questions did not have time to escape my mouth when the rumbling grew more intense. A cloud of dust began to flood in from the right side of the fork, rushing towards us like a tide. It was then when I remembered what Leah said about what exists inside this Labyrinth. Goblins.

  The schwing of a sword being drawn pulled me out of my panic. I looked at Leah, the culprit responsible for the noise, like she was crazy. This isn’t the time to fight a mob, we’ve got to run back! But the other two were preparing their weapons as well.

  “For the love of-” Kieron swore, but his daggers were drawn. He was facing away from us at another emerging cloud of pale green limbs and dust from the left fork. Regis had drawn his sword as well, backing up the Rogue.

  “Stay close behind me,” Leah commanded. “Do not let your guard down. Other Parties might be behind those monsters’ retreat.”

  Before I could say anything, I saw them. Ugly faces, with aquiline noses and horrible shades of green, wriggling through the dust and shaking catacombs. I could sense the malevolence emanating from them, not fear or sign of retreat. They had locked onto us. Fear gripped my legs, threatening to tie me down to the dirt on the spot. I leaned against my staff for support, feeling as if I entered the Rift all over again.

  Leah remained focused, chanting something beneath her breath. The Plus Menu’s notification dinged over the chittering and sniveling, snapping me out of it. Keep the guard up, Kathleen, I looked behind me and saw that the other half of the party had charged. A surge of energy filled me. The corridor became alight with dancing orbs of lights, illuminating the ground in a strange pattern.

  ———————————————

  — Host has acquired the effects of a friendly Fortress Ground [Tier 1] Knight Skill.

  ———————————————

  A Skill? Whatever, I guess they had those. The effect did calm my nerves enough for me to straighten up. I redirected the newly recovered reserve of focus into myself again. Magic, Plus Menu status points, I needed something to contribute to this fight. The vision of the ball nearly petrified me, and the sight of ugly faces rushing towards me through the translucent windows made me flinch too hard to focus on it.

  In stark contrast to my blubbering state, Leah remained steadfast in the holy seal, even letting out a battle cry as she thrust her glowing sword out. It connected with the nearest goblin that leaped ahead of his friends, eager to deliver a first strike. Unfortunately for him, the Fortress Ground blocked his flight as if he had struck a wall, right as Leah pierced his flesh.

  The goblin fell apart like a stripped onion as the golden light of her sword lanced out, its own club too slow on the draw. The smell and visceral spectacle— that disgusting pungent slop and explosion of gore pelting the ground— made me wince. Ugh! That was going to take a tremendous amount of effort to become inured to. The goblins that surrounded their unfortunate friend paused for only a moment, before immediately charging again.

  As a sea of green threatened to spill over us, I clutched my staff and prepared to smack anything that came near me. I’ve done it to a man twice their size already, I rallied myself. Bring it!

  A green head got too close. I brought the staff down, hardly registering the rattling as I heard a crack. It wasn’t my staff. Something squishy and smelly gushed out of it, staining my boots. My throat tightened, as if its gangling hand had managed to squeeze it. Leah stabbed another. Taking another life for survival was no longer questionable anymore. I backed off for a moment. My head spun and my breath was ragged.

  Then the corridor began to flicker, as if someone was flicking off and on a light switch. The Fortress Ground was fading. Then it was gone. A claw managed to get through to Leah’s shoulder, and she barely had time to let out a pained grunt before another grabbed at her coat, shredding cloth and skin. The waves were thinning, but the Knight was hurt. Come on, Kathleen, you’re a healer! Do something.

  They tumbled and screeched, we fell back into the dimly lit corridor where we first arrived. I strained my blurry vision to the limit, but couldn’t even see if that Rogue or Fighter were still alive. For now, it was only us.

  In the midst of the fight, something happened in my blurry vision. Leah’s wounds were glowing white, like someone cast a black light over them. Could that be my magic at work? I focused inward, accessing the giant blue ball roiling inside of me. Through the white cloudy haze of this void, I could see Leah fighting off another biting goblin desperately. She was using another Knight Skill to repel them, while I mentally reached out to the Core again.

  The tendrils were threatening to spill out. All I had to do was figure out how to guide it directly to Leah’s glowing wounds. I raised my staff, feeling the energy rippling through my arm holding it. Sickening grunts flashed in my ears. Ah, I opened my eyes. My Core was shining, white hot, managing to blind them temporarily. Go, I tilted my staff in a line to Leah’s sword arm where her wound glowed like a sparkling flare. And once again, I was struck with bad news.

  ———————————————

  — Basic Healing [Tier 1] Spell failed. Invalid target!

  ———————————————

  What in the hell do you mean? She’s glowing! I supposed that was it, then. I could not heal my own teammates. Leah had taken this brief window of time to chug the rest of that [Lesser Potion] she had, healing herself. Of course, I was too slow this time to be useful, and too afraid. I didn’t have time to dwell on it. She threw the glass bottle in the face of a stunned goblin, before opening her eyes again. Instead of those peach-coloured irises, they became wrapped in a golden aura.

  “[Ravenclast Slash]!” She screamed the Knight Skill’s name out with righteous fury.

  The Labyrinth corridor became coated in green blood and falling limbs after she unleashed that incredible strike. I plugged my nose, but still couldn’t hold it inside anymore. Leah let out a sigh of relief. There weren’t any goblins standing before us. Only the distant clashing of sword and rumbling lay ahead.