Nico crouched by the outer wall, running a hand along the exposed edge. The concrete was coarse and uneven, older than the steel frame it supported. Where the fire had cleared the brush, layers of weathered stone showed through, streaked with minerals. He brushed aside soot until carvings emerged, running curved and irregular along the stone, but not random. When he squinted, he could see the grammar of inscription logic hiding in them.
The elemental marks were clear enough. Earth formed the base, water paired beside it in a feedback loop, and no thermal buffer linked the two. The lines followed the slope, channeling energy passively along a gradient rather than through pressure. Whoever designed this relied on natural inputs of an open system to operate the inscription, much like how groundwater replenished through rainwater percolation.
He looked around the hill the station rested on. The dip in the terrain looked intentional. The slope converged into a shallow basin, as if the land itself had once been part of the mechanism. Maybe it was something like a water channel or a system meant to cycle mana through the soil.
Above it, the metal panel carried newer work. The script there was standardized, drawn in clean geometry and fixed ratios. It read like a controlled system designed to maintain constant flow: fire mana for power, air for pressure, earth for structure, water for circulation. Each component behaved predictably, every exchange measured.
Comparing the two, the older layer channeled ambient mana and ran dependent on environmental conditions; the newer one ran as long as it was fed mana, presumably from a power grid or generator. Both had eroded with time, losing enough glyphs to leave their systems incomplete.
He traced one of the dulled grooves again, following where the missing connection should have met the circuit. The upper script was still intact and only needed its closing glyphs replaced. While it included several elements, the power source relied solely on fire mana.
The lower carving needed more work. Its earth and water channels depended on feedback, but the bridge between them had crumbled, dispersing energy before the loop could close. He sent a small pulse of mana into the stone. Something flickered beneath the surface, confirming the inscription still held potency.
|| SKILL ACTIVATED || [???? Mana Circuitry (A) | "glyph keyboard"]
A ring of glyphs rotated around his wrist. He selected a few, matching them to those carved into the stone, and linked them one by one between the broken channels. Light spread through the grooves, weaving across the old circuit until the full pattern glowed in quiet rhythm.
The reaction steadied, then dimmed. The structure was sound again, but inert, in need of activation energy. He tested the stability of the upper inscription first with a small pulse of his own fire mana. His gold mana sparked along the lines, causing the inscription to glow a soft orange before fading. That one could run independently.
The lower script required both earth and water mana, neither of which were his affinities. From his inventory, Nico pulled a compact battery imbued with water-elemental mana. The surface was cool and a bit soothing against his palm. After setting it beside the wall, he marked out a line of connector glyphs to link the battery to the lower water channel, deciding to energize one element at a time to limit variables.
Blue light ran down the grooves, pooling where the water line met the dormant earth glyph, unable to progress further without it. As the inscription responded, a low vibration traveled through his palm and along his arm; the hum steady enough to feel in his ribs. He withdrew his hand, deciding that was a sign to take a break and reassess before linking the earth mana battery.
Taking another look around the hill, he realized how strangely quiet it had become. Probably his fault, setting the ring of fire and all. Even the insects had gone silent.
The air around him started thickening with the static of unstable mana. The hum beneath it cycled between rises and falls, until the rises dulled his hearing enough for the world to sound far away. He sat back on his heels, letting the reverberations fade in and out, running through him until they found the ground. As he steadied himself with timed inhaled and exhales, a metallic taste began to creep in with the inhales.
The basin still stretched starkly silent around him, except for that hum, that more and more filled the space between the beats of his heart.
“Hey, good job.”
Nico jolted, pulse snapping back to the present, startled by the voice close behind him. Before he could even process what happened, the inscription in front of him flared with purple light. Mana threaded through the restored earthen glyphs and united with the water elemental, bringing the lower inscription alive all at once. Then a flash of white swallowed everything.
***
The world came back into focus in increments. First the glare thinned, then the dust settled, then the sound of his own breath reached him again. When his vision cleared, a fluorescent screen greeted him.
|| SYSTEM NOTIFICATION||
[Mission: Unravel the core! (,,> ? <,,)]
He swatted the notification away.
Behind where it had floated, a figure stood a few paces away. Light caught along his horns and threaded through silver hair, leaving amethyst eyes bright against the rift’s backdrop.
Zhou tilted his head. “You weren’t at the station last night.”
“…” The fox stayed still, ears up, expression neutral, his mind racing for any sign that someone had arrived at the station before him.
“For the record, I wasn’t either,” Zhou clarified.
“…” Nico’s ears flicked, irritated, as the Sage laughed quietly at his own joke.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
A strange sense of deja vu surfaced in the fox. Like this wasn’t the first shameless guy that expected him to wander through a swamp alone in the middle of the night.
He turned away from the sage in another test of object permanence. Acknowledging him felt like a mistake; if he did, the resentment in his chest might escape as something loud and deeply unprofessional. So he focused instead on the rift— the one he had very clearly taken a moment to prepare for, but was abruptly thrown into.
Wait. That was resentment again. He closed his eyes and gave his ears a small shake to reorient his thoughts.
|| Skill Activated || [ ? Lycanthropy ]
They reopened with newfound focus.
An orchard thrived where the grassy hill overlooking the open field had been. Trees stood in neat rows, bark dark with moisture, leaves stirring in a breeze. From the branches hung clusters of gemstones— quartz, citrine, pale green peridot— each one glowing with mana, their light brightening as the pair walked beneath. Dew slipped down in slow drops from the fruits’ edges, enhancing their shine.
Though the gem-fruits were the only light source, it was enough to see by. They filled the orchard with a steady, gentle radiance that reflected across Zhou’s eyes.
Nico blinked, realizing he’d been staring. He gave his ears a quick shake, which earned a quiet laugh from the sage.
The soil was soft underpaw, damp and springy. Curious, Nico drifted off the trail toward one of the trunks, nose twitching at the mineral scent. The nearest fruit brightened sharply, light blooming through its facets. It felt like a warning, but he kept going.
Roots broke the surface and wove together into a lattice between the trees. He stopped just short of touching it. The living fence stirred, then a single root tendril uncoiled and flicked him squarely on the nose.
He blinked, tail swishing as he stepped back onto the path, paw rubbing his itchy nose. The light dimmed, and the roots sank again. Zhou’s low laugh carried easily through the orchard.
Nico trotted after the Sage, light on his paws and tail flicking behind him, feeling pissed yet behaving cordially because he was now stuck in a rift he knew little about.
Rift work always began outside the threshold, long before anyone entered. Guilds kept extensive catalogs of field reports, each one written to make the next mission less blind. Good practice meant researching the site and its rift history, surveying the perimeter, noting the environment’s mana affinities, logging anomalies, cross-checking the data with the Rift Registry, and drafting an unravel plan. Taking shortcuts risked the nonchalant consequence of death. So the least Zhou could do was lead them to the exit.
The trail bent ahead, then split into several narrow paths that disappeared between identical rows of trees. Nico slowed, ears tilting as he studied the options. Every route looked the same: same trunks, same gem-fruit glowing like suspended lanterns. He made a bit of a show planting into a sit as a silent statement to the sage: it was his job to figure it out. Zhou hummed, amused, tilting his head at the fox.
A pulse spread from under his boots. Lines of violet mana radiated outward from where he stood, threading through the soil. The packed earth began to roll in slow, rhythmic waves, each rise and fall marked by a flare of violet mana. The rumble ran through the fox’s chest, sharp enough to make his fur stand on end before he gave his ears a brisk shake. Zhou’s amethyst eyes and horns caught the same rhythm, glowing with each surge. The resonance moved through the ground like a heartbeat, circulating through the veined fractures and fault lines buried too deep to see before returning back to the Arcanite.
Zhou started toward the middle path, hands folded behind his back, studying the terrain with vague interest. Nico padded after him in blind faith.
Where Lycans relied on scent and sound, Arcanites relied on resonance, a sense tuned to the pulse of mana itself. While human, they were classified as an inorganic species due to the source of their mana—a crystalline organ known as their heart gem. Energy moved outward from that core, carried through veins of mineral lattice that formed their horns, ridges, and gem-set eyes. Those mineral paths let the heart gem register and align with elemental frequencies in the surrounding environment. Much like auditory and olfactory nerves feeding into the brain, resonance linked directly to the heart gem.
Certain patterns were common: aquamarine with water, sunstone with fire. Yet the connection between gem and element was never absolute. Trace minerals, as varied as genetics, shaped each heart’s structure differently, giving rise to unpredictable affinities. Amethyst, Zhou’s kind, usually leaned toward air or water, yet his resonance ran through earth instead. Not as common, but not a stretch of the imagination.
Violet mana rippled again across the soil. Nico sidestepped one line, then another, skipping over each in quick succession like he was playing hopscotch— until he landed closer to Zhou than intended. The Sage tilted his head, amusement in his eyes as he looked down at the fox now standing squarely in his space.
“You’re having fun for someone so intent on sulking.”
Nico’s eyes narrowed as his internal de-escalation session neared its limit.
Hey, fuck you.
He glanced up, just to make sure he hadn’t actually said it out loud. Their eyes met.
“How did you know I was at the station?” The question slipped out more abruptly than he intended. He took a half step aside, tail swishing.
“You summoned me,” Zhou replied easily.
“…?” One ear tilted.
“With your summoning circle of arson,” Zhou added, smiling sweetly.
“So it worked.” Nico replied shamelessly as he pranced ahead, deliberately avoiding eye contact.
Another pulse rolled through the orchard. The violet light slid beneath his feet without resistance, making him realize belatedly that dodging it hadn’t been necessary. Zhou kept walking at a relaxed pace, clearly in a good mood.
***
After a few more turns, several confident trail choices, and a noticeable incline in elevation, Nico still wasn’t sure if Zhou had an actual destination or if he was just winging it. They hadn’t encountered any Riftborn, so they had time to find some rhyme or reason to the place, but he still wanted to get out of it. Surely sages had some kind of special connection with rifts. Surely he would not trap them first and figure it out later.
“…” Nico swatted away the resentment that kept buzzing around in his head, unwilling to let it land on his fresh denial.
Zhou’s resonance faded when they reached what could only be called a dead end: a ring of trees forming a neat cul-de-sac. Nico stopped beside him, unimpressed. After a moment of evaluation, he planted into another sit, deciding against commentary since he wasn’t offering any solutions himself.
The sage stepped closer to the nearest row of trees. Nico watched with baited breath, hoping that the roots would flick him too. The fruit gleamed starkly as Zhou approached. Roots stirred beneath the soil and pushed upward, weaving into a tight lattice between the trees. He stopped in front of one trunk and placed a hand on the bark. The roots didn’t seem to care for that. They surged toward him in a quick, snaking motion.
Violet mana poured from his palm and sank into the trunk. The light ran through the wood, tracing the grain like veins. When the surge reached the fruit, the light ruptured outward in a clean wave, nullifying the mana across the entire line. The glow inside the gem-fruit died instantly. The once luminous cores darkened to dull, lifeless stone. The trees blacked out in perfect unison, leaving only dim afterimages of gems as their collective energy dissolved into the air. The roots froze where they laced, inert, no longer responsive with mana.
Nico’s ears shot upright the moment Zhou sunk mana into the bark, in sudden realization of what he was doing. He bounced a step closer, tail raised, curiosity overwhelming. His paws shifted quick in the dirt as he craned his neck, tilting his head from side to side. His eyes tracked the violet current racing from tree to tree, jumping from one mana source to the next before nullifying them all at once. His tail swayed as the last wisps of residual mana drifted away into the ambiance.
Nico was an alchemy nerd— of course he wanted to see a S-grade skill in action.