A woman sat perfectly still in a lotus posture.
Eyes closed and her breath steady.
She had long black hair and striking features.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open.
"It's time."
She reached for the sword lying beside her and held it horizontally before her.
Slowly, she unsheathed it - just slightly, revealing the darkness within.
Not steel, but pure black, as if the blade swallowed light itself.
Ten meters ahead, a blue portal tore open.
Dark light flickered from the blade, and the portal split in two.
The resulting explosion caused monsters to come flying out - dozens of twisted creatures surging toward her.
The woman exhaled softly.
She sheathed the sword and set it back down.
The monsters froze mid-air.
Then millions of cuts appeared across their bodies. They shimmered, fragmenting like shattered glass, and vanished. Gone completely.
The woman settled back into her position.
"They still managed to break through. My sword's getting dull."
At that moment, she heard footsteps behind her.
"Cult Leader."
"What is it?" She didn't turn.
"The heroes have arrived."
"I see." She responded without a hint of surprise in her voice. "Handle them as I taught you."
The man bowed and left.
The Cult Leader reached for her sword again and rose to her feet.
She looked toward the darkness in the horizon that seemed to be devouring the world.
A faint smile crossed her lips.
"This time, I'm breaking ten days."
…
Dante pushed the door open.
The four of them found themselves staring at a group of people dressed in dark robes.
"They don't seem friendly. Should we go back into the safe zone?" Cipher asked.
Ryker reassured them that everything was fine - he'd experienced this before.
As if on cue, one of the dark-robed figures approached them.
"Follow me," the figure said after a slight bow.
Ryker followed the man and gestured for the others to do the same. Cipher and the rest exchanged glances before trailing behind.
They walked between rows of dark-robed figures whose expressions were cold and intimidating.
After some time, they were led to the edge of a huge forest.
The man who had been leading them stopped and turned. "This is the forest infected with demons." He paused, then added, "I apologize for my companions' attitude. They're quite wary of outsiders."
Ryker smiled. "It's fine. We understand."
The man bowed once more and left.
Now only the four of them remained.
Cipher watched the man's retreating figure, unease settling in his chest. Something felt wrong. Those people had been far too calm - not at all like people experiencing an apocalypse. And he'd used Mana Sense on them. Most were at least as strong as Ryker, and some were even stronger.
"Vice Captain," Cipher called out, his tone serious.
The others turned, surprised by the shift in his voice.
"Brother Cipher, is something wrong?" Ryker asked.
"Don't you think those people are suspicious?"
Maya and Dante nodded immediately.
"Yes, they're way too suspicious," Maya agreed.
Ryker sighed. "I thought so too when I first came here, but nothing ever happened, so…"
Cipher nodded. According to the handbook, every time you entered an apocalypse world, you always entered at the same point in time. That meant things couldn't change much from the last visit - it wasn't like the people inside kept their memories anyway.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was incredibly wrong.
"I have a Mana Sense skill," Cipher explained. "Those guys are at least D-rank. Like you."
Ryker fell into thought.
"This is definitely strange," he said after a moment. "The rank of a Gate is determined by hostile monsters or natives - when they fight us, we can determine their rank and record it. As for non-hostile ones, we don't know their ranks since we don't provoke them."
He looked at Cipher with a serious expression. "This is valuable information. We'll report it to the Association once we're out, and you'll receive an award for your contribution."
"Brother, I didn't know you were a scout," Dante said, placing his huge arm on Cipher's shoulder. "Just point out the monsters and I'll deal with them."
Cipher sighed. Since the world always restarted at this point in time and they'd done this before, maybe nothing bad would happen. Anyway, if something dangerous was going to occur, it would definitely happen when they tried to go back. Staying here was actually the safest option - they could kill monsters and level up.
Speaking of monsters…
"Alright, I'll go scout for monsters. What do you think, Vice Captain?" Cipher asked.
"Alright, but don't engage in battle alone," Ryker said. "Since you're a scout, you should know which battles you can win, right?"
"Don't worry, Vice Captain. I know my own limits." Cipher made a salute.
"Good. You can go scout the area. The rest of us will set up a base."
With that, Cipher left.
…
Cipher landed atop a tree branch, watching a dark monster below.
"Is that the so-called demon?" he wondered.
He could sense the mana in the creature - it was about the same as his. Either an E-rank mage type, an all-rounder, or maybe a D-rank with E-rank mana. He hadn't fought monsters before, so he didn't know exactly how their specializations worked.
He retrieved his knife, gripping it tightly.
This was one of the reasons he'd decided to scout - he needed to get stronger.
If he fought with the others, they would share EXP according to contribution.
If he contributed twenty-five percent and they killed a D-rank monster, his EXP would be calculated as usual according to his True Rank. Since he was E-rank, he'd gain double for the level - which at the moment was 5,000 for level five, meaning 10,000 EXP.
But that was just the base.
In reality, he'd only gain twenty-five percent of that due to his contribution.
Meaning he'd get just 2,500 EXP.
This contribution system was mostly useful for low-level support. Like if an E-rank healer contributed to healing a squad fighting a C-rank monster, they'd get quite a bit of EXP, allowing them to level up quickly.
But for him, someone who needed to level up fast, that wasn't efficient at all.
He decided to kill a few monsters while scouting. Once he reached Level 10, he'd go back and report to the others.
To reach Level 10, he needed to kill five E-rank monsters.
Seems easy enough.
All he needed to do was avoid monsters in groups or high-level ones.
"Alright then, let's begin," he thought as he activated Assassinate and jumped toward the demon below.
…
Author's Corner
"My sword's getting dull." - Not like literally but like "my sword skills are getting dull"