The twins braced themselves as their mind raced to come up with a good enough lie.

  Too soon, the silver avian and his party reached them, paused, and blinked as they looked between the twins in confusion.

  “Huh? I didn’t know you had a twin brother! Didn’t you say you had no siblings?”

  Then it was the twins’ turn to be confused.

  Brother? Hadn’t they met Dusk before? Shouldn’t they be surprised about a twin sister?

  “Ah, hey! Yeah… Umm, here! This is Dusk! We just happened to meet in the rift. He’s my… long lost twin. Or my doppelganger. Or maybe something entirely different. We’re honestly still not sure which. We’re just pretending to be twins though. It feels the most natural.”

  Half lie, half truth.

  “Whoa! Seriously? That’s wild! Well, nice to meet you too, Dusk! I’m Leejay!”

  “Hello!” Though, we’ve met already.

  The rest of the party followed, giving their names and exchanging pleasantries. The wolfkin twins ate the lie up, one marvelling at the crazy coincidence of meeting a long-lost twin in such a place, the other theorized about one of them being an evil twin – umm, no – one of them secretly being a clone of the other – what the heck? – or a curse being placed on them which split them in two.

  “…No, I think I would remember being cursed like that,” Dawn lied.

  The last member of their party – the kobold – stayed silent for a while with an intense look in his eyes.

  Then he spoke.

  “…Aren’t you Dawn?” he asked, eyes pinned on Dusk.

  “Umm, no?”

  “You… never mind. You two look really similar, you know?” He scratched the back of his head as he looked between the twins. “I could have sworn…”

  He got a whack on his head from Leejay for his troubles.

  “You’re being rude, Oulo!”

  “Ack! Sorry, sorry! My bad, haha! But seriously, the similarity is uncanny!”

  “…It’s fine. We do look almost identical, after all.”

  “Anywho! I’m super glad you’re okay! I’m so sorry for making you scout up at that cliff! I didn’t think the rift would shift at that exact moment!”

  “Eh, I lived. And I got to meet my twin! So all’s good!”

  “Still! We gotta make it to you! How about we grab dinner together? We wanna get to know your twin too!” Leejay beamed.

  “Uh…”

  “We’re sort of busy helping in the medical tent. Not sure if we should…”

  “Ah, right. Makes sense. You sure you can’t spare an afternoon? Healing’s gotta be stressful right? How about a chill dinner?”

  “Err… Sorry, probably not.”

  They wouldn’t mind having dinner with his party, they just feared being asked too many questions about what had happened in the rift.

  “Stop it, Lee. Not everyone is as lazy as you,” one of the wolfkin girls interrupted with a light punch in his shoulder.

  “Hey! I’m not lazy!”

  “Uh huh. Is that why you’re never the one cooking meals or setting up camps in rifts?”

  “Urk… That’s, uh…”

  “Anyway, what are you two doing here?” the other wolfkin asked. “I thought you weren’t a hunter, Dawn. Oh, wait! Are you a hunter, Dusk?”

  “Uh, well… We weren’t before, but we kind of convinced each other to register.”

  Not even a lie.

  “We wanted to get stronger after nearly dying in the rift. Feels like becoming hunters is the best way,” Dawn finished.

  The entire party winced.

  “Ah, yeah. I know that feeling.” Leejay idly scratched his wing. “By the way, why are you in the courtyard? Did you make any new skills?”

  The kobold rolled his eyes.

  “Obviously, they wanted to practice their teamwork. Even if they look similar, they literally met a few days ago.”

  The twins eyed the guy.

  “Well, it’s actually both. We made some new skills and wanted to practice using them as a team.”

  “Neat! What did you make?”

  Seeing no harm in it, Dusk materialized his new [Steel Flail] and swished it in a circle. Then he raised one arm, palm up, while Dawn hopped into the air in a somersault and landed on it with one hand. Her other hand, holding [Feather’s Grace], whipped to the side and, along with her tail, helped her balance in this position.

  “Whoaaa! Nice!”

  “A Very Rare passive?! Damn!”

  “I’ve got one too!” Dusk dismissed the flail and brought out his [Iridion’s Shawl] to show them.

  “Oh, I know that one! It’s the invisible shield based on the titan, right?”

  “Well I don’t know the titan, but I guess?”

  “Heh, you two can’t even be called E-ranks, can you? You’re probably stronger than us!”

  “I wouldn’t say that…”

  They didn’t want to get too cocky, but the avian’s enthusiasm was infectious. They couldn’t help but grin along with him.

  “Say, are you planning on going to the Saltglass fortress?”

  “Maybe?”

  “The lady told us we need to join a party. And a C-rank member to act as the witness if we want the promotion.”

  “Oh, then you can join us again! I’m a C-rank!” Leejay pointed a thumb at himself with a radiant smile.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “Well, I don’t know…”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t let the same thing happen again! I swear to Nix!”

  As much as the twins liked their company, they really didn’t want to join them again. Not just because of prior experience, but also because they feared [Soul Split] being discovered the moment they defeated a monster in front of them.

  But they couldn’t say that out loud.

  “When’s your next expedition?”

  “We planned on going tomorrow morning. Just the first zone. Help clear out the Gate. Nothing too dangerous!” Leejay assured them.

  It sounded harmless enough. And if they were careful about what monsters they beat in front of them, then maybe this could work out?

  “We’ll think about it…?”

  “Great!” He beamed. “Meet us at the Gate in the morning if you decide to join then!”

  “Alright, alright. We still haven’t decided!”

  “And we would also need to tell Alice that–”

  The howl of sirens interrupted Dusk and the twins felt their blood freeze in their veins.

  “Warning: The Saltglass fortress rift has spilled over! I repeat: The Saltglass fortress rift has spilled over!”

  The entire courtyard tensed up before turning into a panicked flurry of movement. Bodies rushed back into the guild, some jumped over the walls, others flew, a few straight up teleported.

  Seeing the motion, the twins and Leejay’s party finally unfroze and began rushing back into the guild as well.

  “Again?!” one of the wolfkin twins choked out. “Why again?!”

  Without saying goodbye, the geckin twins jumped at the wall as soon as they made it back into the guild and scurried their way toward the entrance like all the other geckin in the guild. Once outside, they looked around from their perch above the guild door, but failed to see any monsters wrecking the city.

  Still underground?

  They leaped to the ground and kept going toward the elevator array, thankfully failing to see any death and destruction like last time.

  Unsurprisingly, the elevators were even more overloaded than normal and they simply couldn’t see themselves getting underground quickly enough to matter for the fight against the spill.

  Then they noticed a familiar face off to the side. The Archivist stood on the wooden platform, their branch arms spread in front of them, as a large whirlwind of golden light spawned, pressed against the wood.

  “Fliers! Entrance!” they shouted.

  As soon as the whirlwind appeared, several avians jumped into it and phased straight through the platform, instantly telling the twins its purpose.

  They nearly dismissed this way of getting underground, but then remembered Dawn’s new passive.

  The twins looked at each other.

  “Think it works even if you carry me?”

  “Let’s try.”

  Once again, Dawn found herself grabbing Dusk in a princess carry and tried hopping in place. She still jumped higher than would be normal, but not as high when doing it with no cargo.

  “Good enough.”

  The twins rushed toward the whirlwind, gave Medrelyn a nod, and jumped into the eye of the golden storm. They expected to be sucked into the vortex, similar to a rift’s Gate, but instead, they felt nothing as they passed the spot where the wooden platform lay, as if a temporary hole opened in it.

  With no time to be surprised, they found themselves floating down into Anxia’s underground. They had no time to marvel at the sight of it from this high up. They needed to come up with a plan to land safely. But with their accelerating speed, that would prove to be trickier than expected.

  “Why are you so impulsive…?” Dusk found himself mumbling.

  This would be a very painful landing if they didn’t do anything. But they didn’t have any other skills to help soften it!

  Minds running on overdrive, they came up with perhaps an even stupider idea to save themselves from the consequences of the first one.

  They pulled out a ◆Breeze◆ each. A Basic essence, the lowest rarity. But even a low rarity essence could have significant effects if used correctly.

  Dusk pressed his essence against Dawn’s chest, while Dawn slipped hers against Dusk’s thigh where she held him.

  They grit their teeth in preparation for the pain and then pushed.

  The essences shimmered, turned into wisps of light, and then seared themselves into their flesh. Their limbs trembled, but this being only Basic essences, Dawn managed to keep a hold on her twin.

  A moment later, the wind began blowing. But not at them. From them.

  They had little experience with essence infusion and zero experience with this one in particular, but they still tried to mentally grip this temporary effect and direct it below them. They only half-succeeded and instead of only blowing down to slow their fall, the breeze also came out of their backs, flinging their bodies horizontally through the air.

  They screamed but gripped each other, still trying to get their flight under control. A futile effort.

  Even spinning like this, they could see their stunt would have Anxia’s underground walls hit them with a glancing blow. Not a direct hit, but it would still hurt. Unless…

  Trying to time it as well as she could, Dawn kicked as the wall came closer and scraped the tip of her toes on it. But in exchange, her gambit made the wall ripple and burst out. The wall coiled around and formed a ramp right under the twins, allowing them – with some pain – to shift their trajectory from sideways to up before letting themselves fall again. This time without spinning out of control.

  Better, but the landing would still hurt.

  Seeing a jutting out marrowstone near the ground, Dusk whipped out his [Steel Flail], swung it. Miracle of all miracles, the chain hit the structure and had the flail coil around it, letting the twins swing themselves across the street, before Dusk dismissed his weapon skill and they finally landed in a heap in the middle of the square.

  They bounced, rolled, and then finally stopped with a duet of groans.

  “What in the world are you two doing again?!” a familiar voice shouted from right above them.

  They glanced up and saw Elis with a half-angry, half-exasperated expression.

  “Uh… Getting underground quickly so we can help?”

  The elf somehow turned even more exasperated before sighing.

  “We don’t have time for this. The third Elite is a growth-type and it’s been left alone for too long. I’m going into the rift. Good luck with… whatever it is you’re planning on doing. Please don’t try to get killed again.”

  The twins were torn between feeling alarmed, chagrined, and touched, but quickly pushed that away to try and stand up.

  “Ow! Drat!”

  Naturally, Dawn had sprained her ankle in the fall.

  “Again?”

  Thankfully, they had their new and improved healing skills to help.

  Dawn brought out [Heartseeker] while Dusk brandished [Hallowed Embrace] and, hoping the combo still worked, they put the cards together and activated them. Both cards turned into a brilliant symphony of pink and gold light and enveloped them both.

  In the blink of an eye, all their injuries had disappeared without a trace. From small scrapes to the torn skin on Dawn’s toes, to even the old aching scars from being beaten in the orphanage they had learned to ignore.

  They gasped in unison as the effects washed over them, marvelling at how powerful their healing had gotten.

  Then they realized why – the Compassion essence.

  “I guess we’re narcissitic,” Dawn muttered with a chuckle.

  Dusk was about to reply, when someone rushed past them and they remembered the situation.

  Without any further ado, they got up, brushed themselves off, and rushed toward the medical tents.