Tunde watched as the disciples split themselves among groups, whispers going around as night fully set in. A retrieved Shadowfang was strapped to his back as he watched them prepare 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 during the retreat to Black Rock close to tearing wide open and releasing rift creatures onto the land.

  The excitement about Ark still filled the air, people idly staring off into nothing as they looked at their screens. Tunde sighed, rubbing his hands together to warm them against the chill, 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 beneath them for some reason. He doubted that. The hesitation in their eyes didn't speak of arrogance, it spoke of fear.

  He shifted his gaze to where Elyria stood in light silver robes with a stitching of a metal hand grasping a blade across its back, her yellow hair neatly tied together. She glanced at him, half listening to the disciples arming themselves around her, before a ping startled him and his screen blazed to life.

  [You look confused] it wrote.

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

  [Many thanks] he thought back, glancing at her 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 two rift by yourself? Surely you realize the creatures inside would be peak tier two 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 wondered 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 single-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, and Tunde had 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 of his presence until he spoke from right within their midst, standing beside 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, dropping to one knee. Tunde followed.

  "The surge is in the air. Expect deviations within the rift. To those that may perish within, I wish you a safe journey to the arms of the Hegemons," he finished.

  Tunde typed to Elyria.

  [Deviations?] he asked.

  [Rifts can sometimes be misleading. The moment the rift core is attacked, you can 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 three guardian] he 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 to stare 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, I 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 into the darkness around him. His relic hadn't reacted in a long while, he had almost forgotten he carried one of the most powerful weapons on the continent. Gripping the blade firmly, he fell in with the other disciples as they began their journey toward the rifts, Ethra sight illuminating the darkness despite the pitch-black moonless night. Tunde ignored the rift finder compasses the other teams used.

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

  [Voidshade Chameleon: Evolution: Adapted to absorb minimal sunlight, becoming active during the cooler night hours. 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. Feeling the call of the rift, the closer he got the more his body kept absorbing the Ethra pouring from it.

  [You are 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 and 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 clarity it brought to his cultivation continued to amaze him. Fifty was the highest level a disciple could attain, and Tunde felt a sliver of pride knowing he had reached it while still a mid-tier disciple. They stopped a few meters from the three rifts that blazed openly, all of them sitting in front of a fourth rift that hummed silently behind the rest.

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

  "We need to get a message to the elder. More than we can handle, if we're being honest with each other," Giselle said.

  "Good thing this Ark came when it did," Harun replied.

  "I wonder if it makes scroll messages obsolete," she mused.

  Tunde ignored them both, staring at the last rift.

  "Can you three take the new rifts?" he asked.

  Elyria looked at him like he had lost his mind.

  "Can you feel the Ethra in the air?" she asked.

  Tunde had wanted to comment on it for a while. He could, and it left the hairs on his skin standing, like the feeling before a storm. The air felt supercharged, and he could only imagine how much Ethra ran rampant out here, drawn into the rift and returned to the area in greater quantities. This wasn't the tainted kind forcefully summoned by Corespawns and their revenant collaborators. Tunde idly wondered where the remaining Corespawn hordes promised by Kurl and Jath had disappeared to.

  "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 need to be explaining this to you. You know what that means, right?" she said.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "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 disciples shuffled in surprise. Elyria sighed.

  "You know, part of the reason 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.

  For the first time Tunde 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 had been there when he was nothing, not even an initiate. He struggled to see where she was coming from.

  "Elyria, I'm going to face a tier four 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 three 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 believe you can take on an adept-ranked rift as a disciple," she replied.

  Tunde said nothing, simply staring at her as she sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

  "Um, guys?" Giselle said, drawing their attention away to the tier three rift, which seemed to be expanding.

  "The rift's about to break," Elyria said, horrified.

  Tunde made a split-second decision. A large burning charred hand stretched out of the rift and he threw Shadowfang as the body of the creature passed through, the weapon embedding itself in its chest as the creature shrieked. He seized the hilt and rode the dizzying waves through the tear, landing on a burning surface as the creature exploded to ash and a barrage of messages from Ark assaulted his senses.

  [You have left the plane of Adamath through a rift.] [You have arrived in a tier three rift space.] [Warning: you are being assaulted by tier three Flame Ethra!] [Body tempering is sufficient to withstand tier three rift Ethra.] [You have killed an early-tier three Flame Wraith. Tier three flame core obtained!]

  A small bright orange core dropped from the ashes as Tunde grabbed it, instincts screaming. They came from every angle as he twisted and turned, Shadowfang deflecting the scorching flames they hurled at him before he came to a stop. He stared down his attackers, Flame Wraiths in their numbers, screeching at him, all early tiered according to Ark.

  They rushed him as Tunde released his aura, starry midnight power surrounding him as he coated Shadowfang with it. The creatures gave a terrified shriek even as they closed in and he swung his axe in wide arcs. Their claws tore at his robes but left nothing but surface scratches on his bare skin, sweat coating his body. It was a rough mess of hacking and resonance, his free hand blowing apart Flame Wraiths until nothing but ash surrounded him.

  Panting gently, he turned to find the assembled disciples staring at him with wide eyes. Elyria was among them. She threw him a robe which 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 essentially stark naked," she added.

  "Oh," he replied awkwardly, hurriedly pulling on the robe and setting Shadowfang down with a noticeable clang on the scorching ground.

  Elyria tossed him a glowing blue bottle that he caught, staring at the glittering white motes floating within it. He drank it in one gulp and shuddered slightly as a chill moved through him.

  [You have ingested a tier two Frozen Petal Elixir. Your body temperature is reducing.] [Partial immunity to tier three heat and fire has been achieved!]

  "Is it me or does this Ark seem to constantly repeat the obvious?" he asked.

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

  [Unknown relic is shielding you from the cry of the Flame Bird, mid-tier three!]

  Tunde groaned even as Elyria grabbed him and threw him backward, the cultivators charging into battle. He watched her dance through the early-tiered Flame Wraiths before clashing with the large bird made of blue and orange fire, his eyes watering. He glanced down at his relic to see the band humming, black lines running through his hand and up to his head. Weakness hit him immediately, like all the Ethra in his body was being siphoned toward something. Shadowfang fell from his grasp as he sank to his knees.

  [Unknown relic is interfering with A.R.K system!]

  What was the relic doing to his system?

  [Unknown relic has subtly altered 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 surging as his body struggled to keep up, burning from within.

  [Temperature is reaching tempering point!]

  Groaning, 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. He took a deep breath, his body seeming to expand and then contract sharply, leaving him stumbling. Alarmed, he drew his attention to where a group of rock Ethra rankers attacked the flaming bird with projected techniques, 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 terrible pairing, especially with the heat radiating off the creature. Running resonance through Shadowfang, Tunde landed on one of its burning wings, hissing as the flames actually bit into him before he clipped the appendage, the bird shrieking as the wing 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 three rift creature and he could barely keep up, his peak reflexes the only thing keeping him alive. Ethra sight blazed as he saw what was coming.

  "Run!" he shouted, vaulting over the rock wall and rolling to a stop beside her.

  The disciples scattered the moment he shouted, all in various states of injury from scorch and burn marks. The burning skies above gathered together as a large column of fire Ethra descended with force, scorching the very ground, the bird shrieking at the heart of it.

  [Flame Bird is enraged!]

  "You think?!" Tunde snarled.

  "What?" Elyria asked.

  "Not you!" he replied, cursing silently.

  He calmed himself and turned his gaze skyward, squinting as Ethra sight showed the flame column receding, its power spent. He was over the wall in an instant, making a mad dash at the Flame Bird, which took his assault as a personal affront, firing volleys of fire arrows at him. He dodged, parried what he could, and rolled away from the rest until he was dangerously close to the creature, then he was swinging, resonance running through his axe as he threw it and watched it lodge firmly in the creature's head. He shot forward after it, body imbued with raw power.

  His fist slammed into the creature's skull and he felt the force vibrate through his entire body. Gritting his teeth, he kept his grip on Shadowfang and unleashed resonance within the skull itself. The creature's eyes exploded out before the skull followed, and Tunde was blasted backward, crashing into the ground with force. Blinking away the dizzying effect, he struggled to his feet, produced a healing elixir, and guzzled it, the grade two elixir actively knitting him back together as he surveyed the carnage.

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

  Tunde watched the body of the Flame Bird begin dissolving as Elyria exclaimed.

  "Quick, store the body!" she said.

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

  "That was a tier three Flame Bird. Its feathers and every part 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 our surroundings of whatever early-tier three creatures you find. Work in groups, they're still tier threes. Whatever you find is yours to keep," she ordered.

  That got the disciples scrambling with excitement, techniques flashing as they seemed to forget entirely that the creatures outranked them. Perhaps it was the presence of the second and fifth-ranked disciples of the clan that emboldened them, but Tunde thought they were simply too overenthusiastic for their own good.

  "You were saying?" she asked, turning to him.

  He swallowed.

  "I'm sorry," he replied.

  "Oh? And what for?" she asked.

  He sighed. "This. Dragging you into this."

  "Oh, so 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 acting rashly," 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 understand what you're feeling," she started. "You defeated Thalas, albeit luckily, to be honest," she said as Tunde moved to protest.

  She raised one finger and silenced him with a glare.

  "You know it's true. Elder Joran knows it's true. We all know it's true," she countered. "It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but no matter how you look at it, you shouldn't have walked away from that fight the winner. Thalas simply couldn't help underestimating you," she explained.

  Tunde said nothing and 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 in order to advance," she replied.

  Tunde froze at that.

  "You know it's true. Everything he's done up to this point has been tailored toward his own goals, no matter how noble they appear," she said. "I informed him of the tier three rift. You know what he said?"

  She paused.

  "He'll deal with it," she replied.

  Tunde felt a flicker of 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, even within a tier three rift. I knew you'd be snapping at the leash to test yourself 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 foolish to think otherwise despite everything Thorne and I have told you," she replied sternly.

  "The clan doesn't like the elder," Tunde argued.

  "That doesn't mean he shouldn't put in the effort. Do you know why the clan disciples shun him?" she asked.

  "It's the clan who prevented him from taking one of the Scions as a student," Tunde said.

  "That's one half of it. The other half is that Elder Joran's teaching style is extremely reckless," she replied. "You don't throw an initiate into a cultivation forest filled with monsters. You don't force-grow them to advance rapidly. And you certainly don't manipulate a fight to place them in a duel with a high ranker. Tell me you at least recognize the last one," she said.

  Tunde said nothing, gripping Shadowfang in silence as the burning sky above began to calm.

  "Look, we don't have long before they get back, but I want you to understand that advancement isn't a sprint, it's a journey of self-reflection," she said. "I understand wanting to reach adept or lord, it's said true advancement begins there, but tell me, what happens when you're a lord and he's a high lord? Do you become his weapon, without a thought of your own?" 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 your own, and that means reaching 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 added.

  "See that you do. I won't always be around to keep you on track. And Thorne, well," she said, pausing. "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 out in the world. You forget he's only an adept. It would take next to nothing for a lord to put him down, more so 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 first seen as even human," she finished, leaving him with that disturbing thought as the disciples gathered and both teams began making their way toward the mountain, hordes of Flame Wraiths pouring out of it.