OverXelous
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20. For Narnia!
🕑 Added 2025-01-16 14:00:06 +0000 UTCAlex and Mark stood at the back of his SUV with the door lifted, looking at Sam, who sat with his legs hanging off of the back.
“Alright, you both have everything on the lists in your bags, right?”
Mark and Sam nodded in response, and Mark tapped his hip. “Yep, ready to go.” The large Polish man practically bounced from one foot to the other.
“Good, let’s head down the trail.”
“Why didn’t Olivia come?” Sam asked as he hopped from his perch on the back of the vehicle.
“She and Sarah both have to work.”
“Well, it is Friday.” Mark made a pfft sound and said, “Imagine having a job.”
When Sam snickered, Alex spoke up as he closed the back. “Sam, don’t listen to him. Jobs are good. I’m already on thin ice with your mom for being the one to bring you in another Rift.”
They wore layered clothes, bracing against the January chill, and talked as they walked down the small trail leading toward the Rift. Alex had opted for a dark windbreaker over top of a light-colored hoodie while Mark wore what he claimed was his “lucky” leather jacket. Sam wore his green hoodie under a puffy black jacket, making him look slightly puffy.
The surrounding woods showed the signs of winter with their bare branches. The sunshine was broken by the intricate pattern created by the branches overhead, and the dead leaves across the ground mixed with the fresh air created a natural smell. Recent rains left the dirt trail muddy in spots and caused their boots to leave deep impressions in softer areas.
Highway traffic could be heard from a short distance off, though it quickly faded as they moved down the trail and further from civilization.
“It’s weird not having Val around,” Sam said as he removed his staff from the spatial pouch.
“Yeah, he’s been sleeping a lot more lately. I think it’s a sign that I need to give him the Mana Pearl soon.”
“Do you still feel like you should wait?”
“Eh, I don’t think I can find something better than that. Just that it’s D Rank will make it better for him than almost anything else I could find. I just want to make sure I’m doing what’s best for him. Anyway, the articles said he’ll be sleeping for a while as his body prepares to advance, so I really should make the decision in the next few days.”
“I wonder how he’ll change,” Mark said as he stepped over a root on the trail. Sam saw him and began to try to only step on the roots rather than the dirt of the trail.
Let’s hope it’s not a dragon. I have no idea how I’d handle that. Can’t he just stay small?
Alex’s thoughts couldn’t help but drift back to the moment when Valtherion answered his question on how big he’d get by sending the impression of a city skyscraper.
“Man, it would be cool to get a companion,” Mark said as he poked Sam, attempting to make him miss the next stepping root.
Sam hopped onto the dirt, unbothered. “What if you were a companion? I always thought it would be cool to be a dog.”
“Man, that would be a great life,” Mark said. “No stressors other than when you get your next meal and if you can scare away the birds outside the window.”
The group laughed and Alex knew that they had still another half mile to go in their walk, but he wanted to go over the plan again. “You have any more questions about the Rift?”
“Me? Nah, dude, you’ve been over this with me like five times!”
“Okay, okay. Fine.”
“Also, I don’t care how many times you say it. I’m going to get magic!”
“No one said that you can’t! You’re just doing it wrong, seriously. You can’t just force a skill to manifest by willing the magic to happen. You have to at least try and guide or shape the mana on your own in the right way. Just let us buy you a skill to help with manipulating or using mana at the very least, and then you can work on earning the rest of the magic you want from there.”
“No, no, no. You both got magical skills on your own, I can too!” Mark’s grin was infectious, and despite his boasts, Alex knew his friend wasn’t too bothered by not having magic. It wasn’t how he ever played games.
The trio arrived at the Rift entrance after another ten minutes of walking. There was a large tent set up, similar to one that you might see at an event fair or farmer’s market. Under the tent, was a small space heater and a portable generator, warming two men who sat in foldable chairs.
“Hey,” Alex called while raising his hand. He fished his phone out of his pocket and showed it to the man who stood to talk to him.
“First time in?”
“Yeah, first time in this one. All three of us are awakened and members. We should be on the approved list for the Rift.”
“Alright, let me see your IDs.”
All three of them complied, pulling up the AG app on their phone and clicking into the section that turned their phone into a landscape mode image for their Guild identification.
“Great, one Mana Stone each.”
“You can put it on my Guild tab.”
The man grunted, “Well, you’re all set then. Normal rules apply. Ya can’t close the Rift, but you can do your personal quests and contribute to the Rift quest so that when it does get closed, you’ll get rewards for participating.”
Alex glanced over at Sam and saw him staring wide-eyed at the portal.
Mark must have seen it, too, “You’re gonna watch my back in there, right buddy?” He placed his hand on the teenager's shoulder and gave him a firm pat.
Sam’s jaw clenched, and he nodded several times.
Mark let out a whoop and entered the Rift first; Alex knew his friend’s nonchalance was more exaggerated than normal in an attempt to put Sam at ease.
Alex extended a mana thread.
This is different than the last time. For both of us. We know what we’re walking into and a good group to work around. Even if we didn’t, you and I are so over leveled for this place, I doubt anything in here could pose a threat to us.
“Right.” Sam nodded his head once more with more determination.
Now, let’s get in there before the big idiot does something he shouldn’t.
They grinned at each other and entered the Rift after their tank.
His jacket came down as gravity reasserted itself, and he dismissed the blue windows that appeared in his vision.
Looking around, he saw that the space just within the portal was a grey stone ruin with crumbling walls and green vines growing up the cracked surfaces.
He saw Mark taking his jacket off and kneeling on the ground as he removed the spatial pouch from his waist. It was mind-boggling to see a large shield be pulled out of the small bag’s opening. He set the large hunk of wood and metal to the side and reached back into his bag to remove the sledgehammer he had bought and been practicing with.
Alex kept scanning as Sam also stopped to remove his jacket, and Mark finished stuffing his jacket into the bag.
“Woah,” Alex said, looking past the crumbled walls to the forest beyond. The trees were similar to those they’d just left on Earth, but with subtle differences. The bark patterns didn’t look quite right, and the leaves were mixed between shades of green and purple.
Despite the warmth, Sam shivered and clutched at his staff. “Can we move away from this thing?”
Alex looked back at the portal and nodded. It still made his hair stand up on end when close to one of the Rifts. “Yeah,” Alex followed Mark out of the ruins, followed by Sam, and removed his own jacket while keeping a close eye on the plants nearby.
The forest floor was clear of leaves, though it was covered in moss and twigs fallen from branches. Logs on their side sprouted mushrooms, and Alex could see through his Heavenly Eye that there were little floating bits of mana through the already mana-rich forest.
As he put his own windbreaker into the spatial pouch, he willed his new wand to enter his hand and looked at it closely while smiling.
“No sword today?” Mark asked.
Alex shook his head. “I’m just here to support. You’re doing all of the dirty work today!”
“Yeah!” Mark said energetically. “What are the ones I’m looking for again? Vine Snappers?”
“Snap-Vines,” Sam corrected, reciting the name that they’d read in the article before entering. He walked over to the nearest fallen tree and crouched down low with his staff across his legs. He peered closely at the mushrooms growing on its trunk.
Alex looked around and tried to use his mana sight to spot any difference in the surroundings, but he couldn’t see anything noticeable other than how thick the mana was in the Rift compared to on Earth. The entire forest was swimming with swirls of blue and green mana with the occasional splash of brown or purple. “Not sure I’ll be able to help much with scouting to start. At least not until I can see a bit more of what their mana looks like. You’ll have to lead the way, Mark.”
“Nice, that’s what we’re here for anyway.” He bent down and set the hammer to the side as he scraped away the top layer of moss. Grabbing a large handful of dirt, he threw it on the front of his shield before taking another handful and rubbing it on the surface. Mark muttered to himself, quiet enough that the other two could barely hear what he was saying, “Come onnn, Earthen Shield.”
When he was done, he straightened and rolled his shoulders. The twenty-pound sledgehammer in his right hand swung at his side as if it weighed nothing.
Alex let his focus split with [Parallel Mind]. He bent his arm at the elbow and raised his hand palm up by his side. He took a moment to orient his thoughts and only focus on the mainstream of consciousness, allowing the other to begin focusing on the Gust Ritual in the background. He’d used [Ritual Insight] on it recently and felt that he was close to a breakthrough in his smaller, modified version of the schematic; he was just missing a component somewhere and was determined to figure out what it was. His main attention remained on watching Mark and Sam, cautious of any plant life movement around them.
“Alright, so Snap-Vines for Mark, and I’ll take care of the Poison spitters if we happen to see one, just so you guys aren’t dealing with the poison and Sam isn’t wasting mana on curing it.”
They moved through the forest together, and Alex knew that there were a few other groups within the Rift from the AG app but they couldn’t see any signs of their passing.
There’s the chance that they’ve been in the Rift for a while, killing the monsters or harvesting materials.
He’d been surprised to note the request that came through from the Guild after they’d been accepted into this Rift. They were interested in offering a reward for poison sacs from the Poison Spitter creatures and small creatures that could be found in some trees called Sap Slugs. Alex had accepted, though it wasn’t the group’s focus to come to the Rift.
Realizing that he hadn’t looked since dismissing them, he checked the Personal and Rift Quests.
Personal Quest: Culling the Forest Cull a total of 15 forest creatures.
Rift Quest: Cleansing the Forest Slay a total of 1,000 of any forest creature.
“O-Oh, look! Is that one of them?” Mark asked, pointing.
Alex looked over and could see the brown bulb sticking out of the ground with slightly darker green leaves sprouting around it. He focused his Heavenly Eye and felt a pulse from behind his eyes as he scanned the plant.
Snap-Vine - Level 5
Class: None
Primary Stat: Agility
Secondary Stat: Vitality
Most Used Ability: Lash
<Hostile Flora Creature>
“Yep, that one’s for you. Remember, try and work on getting [Charge], but don’t just rush in. We don’t know-”
Mark called out with a whoop and raised his hammer over his head. He bent his knees and took off at a sprint toward the monster, his shield raised, calling, “For Narnia!”
Alex covered his face with his hand and shook his head. He looked up sharply as Mark yelped, and they heard a body slamming to the ground. His tight grip on the wand relaxed as Sam started laughing, and Mark called out a few more times in panic.
They watched as several vines that had hidden in the mossy underbrush pulled themselves from the dirt and began to wave back and forth. All the while, the one that had wrapped itself around Mark’s ankle slowly pulled him in toward the opening brown bulb.
The blunt impact of the sledgehammer seemed not to bother the vine at all, but despite that, Alex was impressed with Mark’s instincts. Despite being caught off guard, he landed on his hip and was able to keep most of his body protected from the other vines as he did his best to break the ones wrapped around his ankle.
Just as Alex was getting ready to step in, Mark was able to bring the blunt weapon down on the vine in a way that made it loosen its grip. He scrambled backward, and even though he was panting heavily and favoring his other leg, he had a grin on his face.
He raised his shoulder and ducked his head behind the kite shield as a vine slammed into it and then charged forward again. It was clear that he was watching his feet as he approached this time, carefully stepping over anything on the ground that might be a vine.
Alex thought it looked comical and wondered how he must have looked in his early fights if someone had been watching him. He felt some heat rise to his cheeks, as he knew he’d be embarrassed.
Good thing no one saw those fights.
Mark closed the distance with his shield raised, high-stepping and preparing his hammer. When he reached the bulb, he struck down with force, and a satisfying crunch could be heard, similar to a branch snapping over a bed of leaves.
He took one more hit from a stray vine and had to deliver a final blow before the green, whipping vines fell limp to the ground.
Laughing, he held up the hammer and called out to Alex and Sam with a grin before sitting down.
“Man, that was a rush. I’m surprised at how much it hurts to take those hits, even through the shield.”
“Here, let me help,” Sam said. The teen stepped forward and crouched next to Mark while reaching out to hover his hands over his ankle.
“Well, this has gotta be the perfect Rift for you, huh?” Mark said with a chuckle. “Thanks for the heal, bud.”
Sam nodded in response. The Rift was all considered a nature zone, which increased the healing he did within its zone even without him needing {Nature’s Refuge} active.
Alex extended his hand and helped his friend up. “Nice job. These might not be the best monsters to practice getting your [Charge] skill on. But let’s do this a bit differently next time.” He reached into his pouch and removed a sword. “Use this instead of your hammer. I know you want to use it, but the blade will work a lot better against the vines.”
“Do you have a whole armory in there? This isn’t even your sword,” Mark said as he lifted the steel blade and looked at it.
“I have a lot in there; that’s the whole point of a spatial pouch, right?”
“Bag of Holding,” Mark corrected.
Alex rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. It’s just one of the weapons I got while in the Celestial Rift. You can keep it with you in your own pouch from now on. In case you ever need to switch again. Also, I know you want to do some of this on your own to feel like you’re earning it, but I think that Sam or I should start the fight. Then you can come and defend us while pushing forward.”
“Smart, then I’m at least getting the bonus from my trait, right?”
Alex nodded in response, and he felt excitement build as they began to theorize how they could best approach the Rift as a team.
Comments
V L
Yesss omg. 😭 plantcore.
V L
👀📝📝📝
V L
lol not mark correcting him on the name of the spatial pouch. Was he there when Alex got them? 😆
Beeees!
That definitely fits with thier relationship haha
OverXelous
I'm not even joking... I just wrote those exact words (From Alex to Mark) not even 5 minutes ago in the chapter I'm working on. LOL
Beeees!
Ohh mark, never change lol
OverXelous
Yeah, I'd like to think that this is him following up on the thought he had while escaping the Rift when he borrowed the shield from the sect member.
small_brain_boy
Yes! I love the extra weapons. Gotta remember the 6 P's of Success: Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Corwin
Alex and Same should be looking at taking some of the trees and other items back home to work on their garden. Maybe have some planter boxes inside the spatial pouch that will let them take small samples
