Chapter 45: Book 2 Chapter 4 – Rifts

Jake sat in Berri’s backpack facing backwards, watching in awe as the girl’s tail undulated rapidly back and forth, propelling them forward at a prodigious pace. Jake had learned from watching that parts of her armor did cover the underside of the tail, and while most of it was less smooth than snake scales for example, some of it was made to be even smoother. Some areas were also made to provide traction, and Berri effectively slid on the smooth parts and grabbed with the rough parts to propel her forward.

It was mesmerizing for Jake to watch as she overcame obstacles and used each section of her tail effectively. Jake thought her ability to use different sections of her tail and not get her armor caught on things was nothing short of a major accomplishment. Jake had worn baggy shirts or pants and got them caught on door handles and knocked things over in his house, but Berri here was like a giant coatrack of things jutting out of her armor and not touching anything not meant to be. Her proprioception must be supernatural, Jake realized.

“You’re really amazing, Berri.”

Berri blushed at Jake’s genuine praise, feeling Jake’s emotions through their bond. She laughed, “I had to practice a lot! I didn’t want to hurt any of the kids with my armor…” 

Their trip was mostly uneventful until they got close; them taking a break for lunch about halfway to their destination. The ride with Berri, Jake had to admit, was quite comfortable. While her snake tail undulated quite rapidly and moved them both quite fast, her upper body was quite stable. In a way, it was a little unnerving…Jake felt the ride was less bumpy than riding a car or motorcycle, and probably at a similar pace, even through the forest. Between her monstrous strength, divine reinforcement, and Jake’s stamina regeneration, she was way faster than she had any business being.

Her upper body was raised, and it was almost like it was stabilized, like how you could hold a chicken and the head stay positioned in one place as you moved the body. At the same time, she was like how a duck floated over water showing no effort, but their feet were kicking furiously under the water; her tail undulating furiously behind her as her humanoid body ‘floated’ forward rapidly showing no effort, along with Jake. Jake was also surprised at how little sound she made, and how easily she went over all terrain. 

Jake could easily face himself either way in the basket, sitting or standing, and he realized he had room for more people in it, but Ophelia and Fhesiah flew in the sky watching for threats. Maybe it wasn’t so bad?

Jake could feel Berri’s emotions, and she had a feeling of satisfaction with a smile on her face. She said, “I did enjoy having you so close, Milord. It felt like I was really serving you, and the stamina regeneration spell made it feel like I could travel forever. It feels really good to have the wind in my face now that I can  remove my mask out of combat. I imagined that instead of the backpack, it was you hugging me. I don’t mind you riding my back at all, Milord.”

“You hear that Jake? She enjoyed you riding her in front of us, and she wants you to mount up and ride her once again. So shameless, that snake.”

Jake still couldn’t help but be embarrassed at her needling, but perhaps the benefits did outweigh the shaming that the demoness was doing. 

As they got close to their destination,  they did end up passing other adventurers and fighting some patrols of orcs. While there were intelligent orcs in the multiverse, these were of the dungeon spawn variety. They would not speak with them, and they would give no quarter. The flying women both took them out from afar defeating the small patrols with ease. Jake guessed they were at best level 11 or 12.

Eventually, they arrived at a village that housed a few hundred people. The protection was a wooden stake fence that was already damaged in several areas. Outside, there was already a gathering of adventurers. 

Jake had already talked with the girls and had decided that this would be a dry run. While the game he had played also had a sort of rift mechanic in it as well, and he already read and learned what he could expect from these threats, he wanted to see how others led the assault and if there was anything to be learned. For at least one time, unless nobody competent was leading, he would act as a regular adventurer and not a Champion of Hestia. 

Once he learned what to expect, he would likely lead many of these minor raids to close rifts all over the world, wherever it was they decided to go. Jake could tell his party's ability to travel far surpassed other parties, as he found that many that had arrived had left hours earlier, and only just arrived as well. Some had ridden in on horses or similar creatures, but Berri was somehow a cut way above that. There was a man dressed like a roman legionnaire, who looked to be in charge. Jake thought he looked strong for a human, and had a crew style military cut of hair, holding his helmet in one of his arms. He looked like he was born in the military.

They approached Jake’s party as they got near, and he spoke, “Greetings, I am Antonius of the [Sons of Rome] guild. You’re here to help with the rift, I take it? What are your classes and levels?”

Jake had inspected Antonius with his [Arcane Eye], and while he looked strong in his non-magical sight, he was not impressed with his magical one. While there was no “identify” or “scan” type spell available for non-scouting classes that could tell someone’s level, Jake thought he could get an accurate measurement using this summon and comparing their magical energy, even melee classes would use mana to a certain extent, or have enchanted equipment. There were a few among the crowd that had a decent level of magical power and otherwise, but Antonius and his equipment didn’t seem much to write home about. Still, he’d humor the guy.

Jake motioned to each member as he brought them up, “Yes, we’re here to help with closing this rift. I’m Jake, a level 10 Summoner. Ophelia is a 10 Valkyrie, Fhesiah a 10 Cultivator, and Berri here is a 12 Priestess.” By the third member the man already looked disinterested, Jake guessed due to his level. 

Antonius had a patronizing look on his face and said, “Rifts are very dangerous, you shouldn’t be out here at only level 10. A few of you can at least heal, yes? If not, I’d recommend you take on incursions until your level is more appropriate. Even with just healing, that makes me a bit worried for you.”

Fhesiah bristled at this, but Jake mentally communicated with her, depending on the man’s answer he would either take out his staff and use his status of [Knight] or go along with his leadership. They could always feign compliance and then change things up as the rift progressed, after all. “We all can heal in combat except for Fhesiah here. How many Rift closures have you personally led, and been a part of?”

Antonius smiled and took on a proud look as he said, “I’ve personally led 4 closures, and been a part of eight other Rift closures. I’m a level 16 Legionnaire.” Jake could hardly believe that this man was level 16. He had looked at the energy within many creatures, including the orcs that they had just fought. While this man’s energy or aura was higher, it wasn’t by very much. Ophelia’s for example was way higher than even that, level 10 that she was. At any rate, he had experience leading and even witnessing other people leading rift closures, so he would allow him to remain as the leader for the time being. 

Jake said, “How long until we move out? We saw two other groups of five on the way; the others should arrive within the hour on horseback. My party is ready to move out at any time.” Antonius rubbed his chin and looked over at the group that had gathered. There were about twenty people total not including Jake’s party, Jake guessed. 

Antonius said, “Let’s wait until the other two groups arrive, and give them a period to rest up before we move out. I’ve already met with the village head, so I know what to expect from this Rift and the surrounding area. I’ll give the plan of action to everyone once they arrive.” Jake nodded, and Antonius went back to where he was before he originally approached. 

Fhesiah scoffed, “That man is just a human, and is not powerful enough to lead us, Jake. I am sure you could beat him without your spells.” 

Jake scoffed and shook his head, “What? I’m a human too though? Leadership is–”

But Jake stopped himself mid sentence because Fhesiah giggled, starting from when he said he’s a human too. He looked at her in question, why was that funny to her? Her thoughts were cut off, but she just gave him an enigmatic smile.  Jake thought about why she would laugh at that? And remembered a dream he had even before their Trial, where he woke up with six fingers on one hand, with Fhesiah hovering over him. But then–

“That’s a crazy dream, husband. Clearly you have five fingers? Anyway, you were talking about leadership?”

Jake was unnerved, but he decided to continue. “Leadership is a different strength. You had agreed with this plan, let us continue with it until it no longer serves us. We’ll learn what we can from him and move on; this is only one rift, after all. There are four others within a day of here. I’m not confident we can close a level 15 Rift on our own, but we should learn that from this one.” 

Fhesiah still wasn’t happy with it, and it felt like Ophelia was a little disappointed herself. Berri looked like she hadn’t a care in the world, just looking all over. She had not spent a lot of time on the surface in her last world before she had died, so she was very interested in everything that she saw. 

While Berri was a very powerful warrior, he could see what Hestia meant in regards to her Priestesses not being a good choice for a champion. If Jake wasn’t guiding her and having her fight, she would probably have ended up in a cave building her own family, abducting men or something like this, not a care in the world.

Jake felt they were making a big deal out of nothing; Jake was just picking the path of least resistance here. He was confident enough to lead, but it wasn’t as if he knew everything. Risking himself and his party was one thing, but this was a large group of people in which he had zero understanding of their capabilities. While he might think his own party would be capable of handling something, he could easily overestimate or underestimate others, greatly increasing their risk.

At any rate, they would need to wait an hour and then some, so he would let his party recuperate from their travel. He pulled out his canopy tent and some chairs, a table, and set out a snack for himself and the girls. 

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Jake summoned a dog to keep watch and had his [Arcane Eye] outside the tent, so they would not need to worry about being attacked by some Orcs while they were inside without warning. With that, they had an uneventful half hour or so until the first group arrived. 

Surprisingly enough, the arriving group actually approached Jake’s tent like he was in charge, but Antonius intercepted them. Jake had noticed that the gathered parties looked envious at Jake’s tent. Why didn’t they have their own storage bracelets? It is not as if they were expensive, in fact, they were crazy cheap. 

Jake could buy a wagon full of them now with just what he earned from his [Trial]; each of his girls had several to store random things as they looted. While they could only wear one on each wrist, they would still store things when removed and unworn. They had several in their pouches that stored various things.

The final group arrived, and Antonius came near Jake’s tent and shouted “Lord Jake? If you’ll join us?`` Their words were met with laughter and jeers from the crowd. Jake and the rest of his party frowned. They would wonder if they found out that Jake really was a lord, but their tone was filled with sarcasm. They quickly packed their things into their storage bracelets, making the tent disappear. 

Jake filled his body with mana and spoke with a commanding tone back to him, “What is it, Antonius, and what is with that tone? Is there something wrong with resting while we wait on others? We were ready to go when we arrived.”

Jake was utilizing a factor that was a result of his Wisdom and Charisma, [Presence]. This same factor is what made summoners connect with other creatures through the void, and why summoners focused on it. It also had usage such as this one, as Antonius took a step back in surprise, Jake’s Presence one that couldn’t be ignored.

It took Antonius a moment, but he settled on being a little apologetic, “Er…sorry about that, I guess that wasn’t exactly fair of me. It’s just, [Storage Rings] that anyone can use are just beyond expensive. Nobody of our Tier uses them for fear of losing them upon their death, even if they could afford them while maintaining the [Law of Balance].” Jake looked at Antonius in confusion. “Huh? These are just [Storage Bracelets]. They only cost Tier 0 credits. All of my party has them, except Berri; we hadn’t gotten around to setting her up with one yet.”

It was a caster type that spoke, dressed in robes and carrying a staff “What? you can’t expect us to believe you all have [Mana Control] level 5 at level 10. I don’t have that and I’m level 15.” Jake was surprised at this revelation. Most likely, Jake had seen the requirements when purchasing the bracelets, but they hardly registered in his mind as they were simply not a problem for him and his group. Jake guessed that the bracelets must have been some sort of semi-common dungeon reward, but few could actually use it before they could simply afford the better item, the [Storage Ring]. Jake now realized that Berri did not yet meet the prerequisite. 

Jake could just feel the smug satisfaction wafting off the demoness and the pride of the valkyrie over his bond. This was like validation for both of them, as Jake very much exceeded his peers. Berri…a bird had landed on her hand, and she was not paying any attention to the proceedings at all. Jake had guessed that he was somewhat talented, but at the same time, Ophelia had reached level 5 mana control quite early too. 

This meant that a good portion of his talent was most likely his [Mana Core], or Ophelia really short-changed herself while she was growing up, though, his bond had some sort of strengthening effect to improve their talent. Jake did know that in general valkyries were better at using mana than humans, so perhaps his exceeding even that showed that he was talented, at least for a human.

At any rate, Antonius at least apologized for his rudeness, perhaps just following a little bit of mob mentality and a misunderstanding originally, but Jake’s [Presence] shocked him out of it. He would give him one more chance and one more chance only before he took over this run against the [Rift]. 

Jake said, “We do, but we’re not here to argue about each other’s skill levels, are we? We’re here to unite against the outsiders and protect this village. Antonius can confirm we don’t even have any rings, if you’re so concerned about us increasing the difficulty. Antonius, I believe you were about to discuss our plan of action?”

“That’s right, I can clearly see you don’t have any rings on you, I do apologize for that...Now that everyone is here, we can talk about our assault on the rift. If you look at your synchronized maps, to the north…”

Antonius went on to explain their plan of attack. They would split into 3 groups and clear three known areas where the orcs congregated after their emergence from the portal, and then they would meet up and assault the rift proper. Attacking the rift without clearing these groups could result in a failure, as the units would pincer them. They didn’t preemptively clear these groups while waiting, because often it would not take long for them to re-emerge from the portal and be reinforced, resulting in them needing to fight once more.

Jake’s group was teamed up with two other groups of five. They headed to their destination, Jake once again rode on Berri’s backpack, and their other groups rode on horseback. When they arrived, they found it to be a war camp of orcs. There were about forty of them, and they were of various types. 

They had minor fortifications around the camp that more or less matched the village they had been to; it was a palisade type fence, the tops sharpened into points to prevent mounts from charging or otherwise assaulting it. There were eight archers up in a large watch tower, and the unit of Orcs was clearly aware of their presence as they approached.

Jake’s party’s task was simple. Protect and heal the others while they assault the Orc camp. It was somewhat demeaning to the girls, but it would give Jake and the others a front-row seat at how other people in the multiverse fought. They looked to have mostly balanced groups but did in fact only have one healer to spread across the two groups, if not for Jake’s group. They each had two shield-wielding types for a total of four, and one archer. The last classes were mage types, and some of them began casting.

They didn’t use system casting, but some form of chant-based casting. It took almost as long as Jake used to take to cast his [Mana Bolt] at level 1, but once they were done chanting, they launched respectable, equal-sized fireballs and shards of ice at the watchtower.

One directly struck and blew one of the orcs out of the tower and harmed the others nearby, but the other two missed direct hits and instead struck within the tower, lighting it aflame or spreading frost and harming the orcs shooting out of it. The orcs started firing arrows high from within the camp, and the warrior types of the battlegroup formed a shield wall to protect their own casters. The battlegroup’s archers returned fire and killed off the other orcs in the tower, and they began moving forward while protected by the shield wall. 

Fhesiah walked in behind Ophelia and Jake did similarly, and Berri just walked through the arrows pinging off her thick armor. Between Jake’s [Divine Reinforcement], her own [Armor of Faith], and her thick, enchanted plated armor, anything but a direct shot from a high-powered bow, perhaps enhanced by magic or a special skill was no danger to her. Shots aimed high would not hit straight on enough to provide enough penetrating power against this undulating tank.

It was once they entered the camp that the fighting got quite hectic. Jake spammed the [Cure Wounds] spell in an effort to get it to Advanced, being stuck at level 4 like it was. Ophelia focused on runic barriers, and Berri just watched over the battle impassively. 

In Jake’s mind, he felt like he knew what she was thinking without being able to hear her thoughts: that she could take out this entire encampment by herself. Just why were these people trying so hard? Why don’t they just smash the little green men with their mace? Fhesiah was acting like she was just on a stroll behind Jake and Ophelia’s shield wall, and was bored. She now had her fan out as she walked.

Emboldened by Jake and Ophelia’s support, the two parties were able to work through defeating all of the orcs. While the orcs were much tougher than the Gnolls Jake and Ophelia originally fought, it didn’t feel like it was by that much, and yet most of those involved in the melee were not much better than she was at that time. 

The battlegroup had to use superior tactics to defeat each orc in melee, as one on one they would not do very well, and they were outnumbered. The mages also looked a bit tired after firing six or seven fireballs or ice shard spells each, and these spells were not enough to kill an orc outright, at least when they were not flung out of a tower to fall to their deaths.

Jake was quite glad for this foray. He really would have severely overestimated the battlegroup’s capabilities, though he knew these two groups were weaker than some of the others. Apparently, this camp was one of the smaller ones, and their party was more numerous.

One of the party leaders addressed everyone, “That was some good work, everyone. We should have fifteen minutes to rest up before heading to the rendezvous point.” Jake saw the mages take out some drinks that were laced with mana to help restore their reserves over time. They were not exactly mana potions but would have a much slower-acting and longer-lasting effect. 

Jake had such things but had never felt a need to use them. His mana regeneration was already absurd as it was, and despite how large his mana pool was, it only took less than an hour to get full from empty. At the same time, the dungeons they faced were usually of the travel to a single powerful encounter type, where they would either easily regenerate all his mana between fights, or he would need a mana potion instead.  His ruminations were interrupted by Fhesiah closing her fan with a snap, “Hey Berri, come here.” Her thoughts were closed off, and he thought she might be up to no good. 

Jake got up from where he was sitting to try to stop whatever it was that she was about to do, but some guy with a few others approached him and started to talk to him. “Jake, was it? I wanted to say that we’re sorry for how we acted. It’s clear that you and your party are quite strong; you really covered for us all with the amount of healing and shields you and the valkyrie put out. We might have even had deaths if-“

His speech was interrupted by a large crash, followed by the giant watchtower creaking and tilting, slowly falling over where it made another loud crash. Thankfully it fell in another direction from where everyone was congregated. Jake could hear Berri taunting the demoness, “See, Fhesiah! I told you I could knock it down in one blow. Did Jake really doubt I could do it?”

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