‘…’ Stark stood in front of the portal of the [Level 90-100 Rift] hallway, it was orange in color, different from the ones next to it as the one before was purple.
He took a step forward, his aura extremely powerful before he even entered the rift.
There was a sense of urgency in this aura, though, and it was normal as Stark’s time was counted.
He couldn’t catch up to the others, meaning that he just needed to get as many levels as he could.
His goal was reaching level 40 to get a new skill at least, but it would be hard if the other two classifiers kept going now that they were so close.
[Classifier A: 49/50]
[Classifier B: 48/50]
Classifier B’s level went up by one again…
And so, with all his determination focused around him, Stark dashed toward the orange barrier.
[Access Deni-] it tried to deny him access because his level was way too low to pass.
But…
[Huh…] it was almost like the barrier was hesitating.
Stark got pushed back after his first attempt, then just stood there as he saw the barrier have white text appear on it.
[It’s weird… your level is low but… hm… I guess…]
‘…’
[Access Allowed]
And so Stark passed through the barrier easily, he didn’t know how these things worked, but maybe it was a human that controlled them…?
In the end it didn’t matter much as he passed the portal like anyone else and walked through the hallway, reaching the giant orange portal at the end of it.
The sight of classifiers happily leaving the rift after a good increase in experience, and the one of nervous classifiers ready to enter and risk their lives was everywhere.
Stark was pretty much the only one that was as cold and neutral as he was.
‘Stronger,’ he walked through the portal without hesitation, then got transported to the rift after traversing the threshold and undergoing the weird feeling.
But for the first time ever, Stark’s expression didn’t change, and he wasn’t dizzy when the sight of the giant vortex sucking him to the rift appeared.
Stark’s only thoughts were focused on one thing: the need to get stronger before the others…
~FWISH, VIOUM~
He came out on the other side of the portal and opened his eyes to take his surroundings into account.
He found himself in a vast, desolate landscape with a dark, ominous sky above him, a crimson moon was there too.
As he looked around, he noticed that the terrain was completely dark, barren and inhospitable, with only a few twisted trees and plants to break the monotony.
The air was thick, and the air felt heavy with a sense of dread, plus there was also some sort of mist that stopped people from looking too far ahead of them.
[Level 90-100 Rift: The River of Souls]
He hadn’t seen it because of the mist, but there was indeed some kind of river right next to him as he entered the rift, it was pretty big in size, and seemed to go deeper inside the rift, probably even reaching the boss area.
The ‘water’, if you could even call it that, was completely black, much like the ground, and there were many frightening and scary faces in the reflection of the water.
‘The souls…?’ Stark thought as he looked for a few seconds, it was in the name after all.
[Follow the river.]
“Watch out, don’t go too far…”
“I know, I heard anybody who goes beyond into the mist has never come back before…”
“Haha~ must be some kind of legend the association spread to stop people from risking their lives, but anyway I just don’t want to risk encountering a scary beast, so let’s stay here like everybody else!”
People were fighting the monsters that appeared around them, remaining close to the exit of the rift to be able to leave at any time, and also since this spot was the one where the mist affected them the least.
But safety wasn’t something Stark could seek or afford: he needed to go deeper.
Deep enough for him to see monsters that would allow him to push through further than ever before.
~STEP, STEP~
Ignoring the warning of the people around, and what the association asked for, he went deeper inside the mist, most people too occupied with their fights to realize someone was disappearing.
After only a few seconds, his figure became invisible to those at the entrance, and so he could advance without any worries, staying close to the river as it was his only guidance in this place.
The mist was thick, and the air grew colder as Stark made his way deeper into the rift.
But after a few minutes…
~CLING, FWISH, BANG~
A white glint shone in the mist behind Stark, and then… it jumped toward the boy, trying to slash him in half.
“…” Stark didn’t even look back, [Focus] had already warned him.
But he was waiting for a simple thing: the perfect timing to counter.
And he found it, since before the claws of the unknown beast could reach him…
“INVINCIBLE DODGE,” he had calculated it at the microsecond, and anything more than this would have caused his death.
[Perfect Dodge!]
This panel suddenly appeared as the world around him turned gray, at least more than it currently was, and time seemed to slow down.
But before that could happen, he slightly turned his head to be able to see whatever had attacked him.
And it was… a gigantic bear, twice Stark’s size, its body completely black, and its figure was weird as its edges flowed likes waves.
The only visible parts were its mouth, eyes, ears and claws as they were completely white.
[Level 93: Shadow Bear]
‘…’
Perfect Dodge allowed Stark to think for himself as he analyzed the situation around him and thought of the best plan possible.
‘Got it…’ he sighed.
And when time resumed back to normal, he fazed right through the bear’s attack and kicked it in the face before sending two spears at its head.
“-84982! -47261! -48019!” and so it instantly died as its HP reached zero, its black body falling to the ground before it could even realize what had happened.
‘…’ Stark didn’t even acknowledge the bear, looking at it as if it was an insect, then moving on as he kept walking deeper.
[You have slain “Shadow Bear lv93”, gained 112928 EXP!]
[Experience: 600499/769000]
‘Need more… much more…’ he mumbled.
But then…
~CLING, CLING, CLING~
Dozens of pairs of eyes appeared around him in the mist, all looking at Stark.
‘More of those bears…’ he sighed as he positioned himself to fight.
Under normal circumstances, Stark would have had no problem showing his emotions and surprise because of all these powerful enemies, but he didn’t even feel like it now, his thoughts clouded by the goal of reaching level 40.
Maybe it was a good thing that he temporarily didn’t care much about anything other than fighting, and the reason was simple: his aura was extremely powerful.
Being able to control his emotions, and being as calm as he ever was before, made it so that his domination aura flowed around him better, granting him a way better control, which also meant more damage.
Trading your emotions for power was something many classifiers did after all.
Maybe Stark would be one of them…?
