Cyril Sarnath
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Chapter 204 Alien Effect
🕑 Added 2024-03-01 19:08:35 +0000 UTCKilling the rock serpent didn’t clear the rift, which confirmed the obvious: there were more of them. Keynes considered bringing either Persephone or Natalia inside.
The risk factor for Natalia Kowalska and Persephone inside this rift is 0.
The AI informed him.
The risk factor of Willow Croft is 0.1%.
The risk factor for Ul is 0.3%.
It is advised to bring them inside as the environmental protection of their spacesuits outside the rift costs more than here.
Keynes noticed an issue with calling everyone inside. They would lose communication with Kora and others. He didn’t want to risk their lives because of efficiency.
Keynes stepped outside the rift.
“I won’t let you boss me around,” Persephone said to Natalia on their private channel and Natalia relayed it to Keynes. “You don’t have any real authority here except for the boy.”
A surprise in the form of a soft spiritual shock came from Persephone. She didn’t expect Keynes to leave the rift so soon. Still, she recovered nearly instantly.
“What’s going on?” Natalia and Persephone asked simultaneously. “Is there meat inside?”
What should he do here? Pretend that these two didn’t butt their heads each time Natalia asked Persephone to do something? Would Natalia appreciate his support or would she be pissed by his interference?
Eventually, he decided to ask her on their private channel, ignoring their questions about meat.
“Is everything alright?”
“Yes, all is good.”
Keynes put it out of his mind. If Natalia didn’t wish to make an issue out of this, he would respect it. At the same time, his dislike of Persephone grew. What had Lem Solaris thought about when she’d brought her here? Persephone’s presence unsettled him, despite her strong Talent.
“What’s the rift inside like?” Willow asked, agitated and curious. The ex-researcher seemed oblivious to the conflict between two women or chose to ignore it completely.
The question brought Keynes back to the task at hand. He replied, highlighting the most important information the AI had given him.
“The rift has breathable air but it is heavily polluted and so we still need our spacesuits inside. The rift appears to be a single, very long, narrow and uneven cave. I encountered only one monster: a rock serpent. Despite its nature, it has meat under its rocky exterior.”
This opened a floodgate of questions. Keynes was not going to answer them though. Instead, he used the spacesuit’s internal network and transferred the information to the group.
“It appears to be Level 1 granite. Far more durable than the Level 0 stone here,” Willow said. “The air inside could be easily purified with a glyph supported by runes until we can create a proper formation.”
“Do we have a blueprint of a purifying formation?” Natalia asked.
“We do,” Jedd said, observing the whole mission from orbit. “We also have a catalogue of blueprints for a space base and tools necessary to survive in a hostile environment. As for the granite, we would need to create an earth-affinity matter transformer to make better use of granite from the rift. Doable.”
In the pre-outbreak world, this wouldn’t be enough. Keynes had a very brief understanding of how space bases functioned. They were technological marvels with many intricate systems and materials. Building a space base the old way was beyond Keynes and his crew’s capabilities and skill.
Luckily, things had changed. Most systems could be replaced with formations and runes now. It wouldn’t be anything sophisticated but they could do the job just fine, according to a presentation Jedd had given him during one of their conversations. Jedd had surprisingly good insight into building a space base. It didn’t make him an expert but his knowledge was sufficient for their needs.
“I am aware of the catalogue,” Natalia said. “Although I didn’t have time to review it yet. I will make sure to read it thoroughly when I am back.”
Their first mission’s goal was to open all Level 1 rifts in this cluster, gather vital information, prepare a landing zone and safe access to these rifts. Only then they would be able to start making decisions about establishing a base on the surface. So, in the way, they were getting ahead of themselves.
“We don’t have time for that,” Keynes said. There were 27 rifts in the cluster. If they wished to have a complete overview of them, they needed to hurry up. “I need Ul inside to assess the meat.”
Through his spiritual aura he sensed hesitation from Ul. He couldn’t blame the chief. As far as Keynes knew, Ul hadn’t ever been inside a rift. Not to mention an extraterrestrial rift.
Nevertheless, the stake was too high to accommodate Ul’s or anyone’s discomfort.
“Natalia, we’ll also need Trisk to get the rock serpent out of the stone.”
“I will bring him,” Natalia said and set off toward the landing zone.
Keynes acknowledged, then glanced at Persephone and Willow. The former observed him, waiting most likely for his command, while the latter was staring at the rift’s parameters on a monitor on his forearm.
He was about to say to her to stay with Willow, but reconsidered. Willow was Level 4 now and while he was only a mixed essence ascender, he should be fine until Natalia was back with Trisk. On the other hand, the rift still had a boss and an unknown number of monsters.
They can wait until you clear the rift… Alice trailed off.
Keynes felt it too.
One of the rock serpents just emerged from the rift but instead of attacking them. It dived into the wall. Without thinking, Keynes cut it in half with [Chaos Aura]. A part of the monster was still stuck out of the rift, the other one bounced off the shelf and fell into darkness below.
“Did you just cut a monster with an aura?”Persephone asked, her voice and her aura betraying astonishment.
“The hell is this…” Ul muttered.
“Why now?” Willow asked.
“Change of plans, stay here. Persephone, watch the rift’s exit. Ul.” Keynes grabbed the remaining part of the rock serpent and pulled it out of the rift, which ended with tearing the monster apart as some of it must have been inside the rock. There was no space to place the corpse so he once more used [Chaos Aura] on the recess containing the rift, turning a part of the stone into dust or gas.
He didn’t need to hear gasps to know the shock the small display of power made on Ul, Willow and even Persephone.
He placed the serpent’s corpse in the newly created space and entered the rift.
Spiritual signatures of rock serpents were all around him.
Seventeen rock serpents, Alice said. But there is something else here.
He sensed it too, although it was weak in comparison to the rock serpents and not worth his attention for now. Not bothering with [Spiritual Wraith], Keynes waited by the rift’s exit for the monsters to come at him.
They came slowly but inevitably, uncaring about the fate of their predecessors. He used [Chaos Aura] bluntly, melting heads of the monsters. Despite the difference in Levels between him and the monsters, using [Chaos Aura] with precision was mana-draining and exhausting. For a similar reason, Keynes dismissed an idea of using [Purify] to clean the air in the rift. He wouldn’t have enough mana and time to finish it.
After a while, when the entire first segment of the cave was turned into a gruesome spectacle of headless serpents hanging out of walls and ceiling, Keynes realised his blunder. The monsters would not stop coming until the boss was killed. This shouldn’t be a surprise but somehow Keynes missed it.
He briefly considered informing the rest of the crew outside, but decided it was redundant. Persephone and Natalia would have to stop any escaping monster without his warning.
Not wasting time, Keynes surged forward. The cave narrowed and expanded without any pattern or logic, moving in various directions, including up and down. On the bright side, the rift had a single tunnel that didn’t fork. The weak spiritual signature Keynes and Alice had sensed in the beginning belonged to a glowing moss.
It was not a monster
- Deep Cave Moss (Common)
- -
- Minor Purifying Ability
- -
- [Plant]
- Level 1
“Minor Purifying Ability?” Keynes said aloud, wondering how they could use the moss. Before the challenge in the second dominion, his first instinct would be to take the moss and replant it outside the rift, but his trait and knowledge of plants was much more extended and deep and it whispered to him that replanting the moss out of this cave would kill it.
I can undergo an in depth analysis of Deep Cave Moss. However, this is outside of the mission cost and so it would require you to pay an additional 500 mana. Would you like to proceed?
“No thanks.” Keynes didn’t have 500 mana and was not going to have it until he hit Level 8. Obviously, they could get that much mana in a mana container but they only had blueprints to construct them, not the materials themselves, yet.
It was a steep price for a scan of a Level 1 plant, and yet, it sounded enticing to just whip out 500 mana and get a full report on the plant. The spaceship’s capabilities weren’t trivial and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. The rift scan accuracy was outstanding. Willow had praised it to no end. According to him, the Institute’s rift scanner was a pale shadow of what they had access to here.
The whole thing was more impressive because the spaceship’s rift scanner didn’t include many details they simply couldn’t afford due to the steep increase in price.
Lem Solaris had left them a masterpiece but the System didn’t plan to make it easy for them.
Moving past the first patch of the moss, Keynes checked on the air quality and found it much better, nearly breathable… It gave him an idea.
Alice, check the spiritual realm here. I wonder if we could recreate the condition of the rift’s spiritual realm outside of this rift.
I’ve already done it. It is possible but not in the current form. Even if we terraform the spiritual realm outside the rift to resemble this one, the spiritual monsters might unravel it. I do not know how to permanently change a landscape of the spiritual realm.
So, what can we do? Keynes asked as he brushed the moss with his gloved-hand.
Modify the moss itself or move ‘part’ of this rift outside, recreating the environment, Alice replied, stunning Keynes with the insight.
This is an amazing idea, thanks.
The moss spread from there to the end of the cave. It covered the entire boss room, making the air fully breathable there. With a thought, Keynes dismissed the spacesuit, which was based on some nano-spatial technology. It felt weird to be outside the spaceship without a spacesuit, but Keynes didn’t complain, instead he revelled in the moment.
Until the boss attacked him at least.
The Level 2 monster turned out to be a rock golem instead of the expected rock serpent. Its attack didn’t even reach Keynes who whipped [Chaos Aura] melting the boss’ head with little effort.
The rift’s boss has been killed.
The Overcharge Effect has been removed.
The monster will no longer spawn.
You have gained a single instance of the Explorer buff.
(This is a rift-only buff and will be spent upon entering an uncleared rift).
(The Explore buff grants +100% to find a higher rarity item or skill from the reward chest).
The rift has the Alien Modifier.
(No ascender colony present on the planet)
The Alien Effect:
A guaranteed additional item from the reward chest.
The System message gave Keynes pause. It was the same as Earth's except for the Alien modifier and its effect. Having an additional item from the reward chest sounded incredible but the condition seemed unclear, at least in terms of what the System considered an ascender colony. He would need to discuss this with the rest of his crew on the spaceship.
If by colony the System considered a mere base, then they would not reap much of benefit from the modifier. However if a colony was something more substantial… it would be massive.
Time would tell though.
The reward chest awaited for him at the back of the chamber. It was identical to all other reward chests from Earth.
- Spear (Uncommon)
- -
- ???
- -
- [Spear]
- Level 1
- Skill Shard
- ???
- Level 1
Uncommon spear and a skill shard but no scroll of identification. Keynes grabbed the items and instinctively tried to put them into his spatial bag but it wasn’t there of course. They had lost all their items in exchange for the spaceship.
Wait a second…
He checked for the hidden compartment. He smiled, feeling the familiar sensation. The hidden compartment was there.
