Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Ally

The rest of the way back to the entrance of the Gate was significantly easier to clear. They’d killed all of the monsters on their way in, and no more revealed themselves. Hal had to admit that he was a little disappointed—he’d wanted to make more use of the Icejade Dagger.

For now, he kept it in his inventory. He was still riding the high of having a Silver-tier item, but he knew that an F-class gate like this should never have something on that level. Unsanctioned runs into Gates were technically legal so long as the Hunter’s Association hadn’t already set up shop around them, but he would absolutely raise questions if he was found with an item that shouldn’t have come from this gate.

Nobody looked liable to join him, at least. This Gate was extremely out of the way—apparently, Gavin had found it when it was no wider than a fist, and Hal had contacted the man just in time to get in on the new Gate. Given time, it would’ve expanded. With such a small initial size, it would never make it above F or maybe D-class, but they’d attacked while it was half-formed. It had been a stroke of luck that they’d even found it.

So he used Alia’s phone, browsing it to see if he could find anything else that was useful. It’d carried the Ascended Sign-In System with it, after all—was there a possibility that it had more?

As it turned out, there was. There were normal functions on it, of course, which included a phone app with no contacts saved. He couldn’t find where the Ascended Sign-In System was hosted, but he supposed that made sense. Somehow, it was directly interfacing with his system interface, which must’ve required an insane amount of power. Hiding an app would be fine.

There was, however, an app that he’d never seen before. Its icon was pure black with a single white circle bisected by a thin white line.

Hal tapped on it, and the screen turned black.

The logo reappeared, and text faded into view.

Advance.

“Hi there!” Alia’s voice ringing out from the phone startled him, almost making him drop it. He caught it. “This is, unfortunately, not the entirety of the gracious, glorious being known as Alia! This is a fragment of my mana embedded in the smartphone I gave to you, animating it with an independent intelligence! My existence here is pretty much to fix whatever mess my main body’s left behind this time!”

This time. That was a scary phrase. Alia had intervened to fight the titan that had crushed seven good men and women like they were nothing more than dandelion fluff blowing in the air, and that was… a mess she’d left behind? The type of mess she’d left behind on multiple occasions?

Had he not been meant to survive?

Well, he was still here, and he was going to make the most out of that.

“If you’re listening to me, I probably saved your life. I? Alia, I guess. It’s all the same. Anyway, I’m here to help! Aaaand also to keep you from blabbing about me. Her. Us.”

Hal was half tempted to turn the phone off, but he kept listening. This was too important to miss.

“Don’t worry about other people hearing this, by the way. Alia knows enough to keep my existence a secret. As I was saying, I’m here to be a guide. You’re weak, but Alia sees potential in you. She thinks you may grow to be one of the greats one day.”

Hal snorted. The greats? He’d be happy enough if he could somehow get to C-rank within the next dozen years. D-rank would be more than enough to pay the bills.

“I’m serious!” the not-Alia said. “Here, check this out.”

The logo and the text disappeared, replaced with others. Simple text, white on black, and the contents made Hal stop in its tracks.

Current Stage: Bronze

Next Stage: Silver

Instructions: Advance to level 10 in Bronze, then push yourself over the edge through four hours of intense, uninterrupted cultivation while on the brink of another level-up. Further details to come.

Path-Specific Instructions: No Path available. Advance to Silver to gain access to Paths.

“See?” the voice in the phone said. “It’ll take you all the way to Archon and… well, I’m not really cleared to say what’s past that.”

There were ranks beyond Archon?

This was too much. Hal didn’t want to believe this, but his eyes weren’t lying to him.

He could get a Path. He’d been Pathless his whole life, but this… this could be what he needed.

“I can help guide you towards Gates, too,” not-Alia said.

If Hal’s eyes had been bulging before, they practically jumped out of their sockets now.

That, more than anything else, was more than enough motivation for him to put up with the voice. Finding new Gates on his own would be an incredible boon, especially if not-Alia could identify the class of the Gate.

“Thank you,” he said, meaning it.

“Of course! It looks like you don’t need anymore, so I think I’ll conserve my mana for now. If you need me again, just call out for Alia!”

“Not Alia,” Hal said, shaking his head. “You’re a piece of her, not the real thing, right? A fragment.”

“Fair. How about… Ally?”

Hal shrugged. That wasn’t the worst name he’d heard. “Works for me. Ally it is, then. With a Y?”

Instead of an answer, the phone went silent. When he tapped it again, new text appeared in a corner.

Ally’s home—just ask for help!

Hal shook his head, chuckling. So much of the last two days had been confusing, life-threatening, terrifying—he could take this. Magic had been a daily part of human life for nearly fifty years, now. He was too used to his sister’s continent-shattering shenanigans to be surprised by something crazy like this.

He continued outwards, and he made his way out of the Gate without any issues.

Only to be greeted by sirens.

They were outside. Nobody had made their way into the rickety building where he’d come from, but those were Hunter’s Association vehicles outside. He would’ve recognized the yellow-and-orange sirens anywhere.

“I wonder if Gavin got out,” he muttered.

“I can’t tell you that, sorry! I don’t have detection magic yet. Once you level up, I might!”

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“Shh!”

“They wouldn’t be able to hear me even if I screamed! It’s fine, really!”

He stared. It wasn’t unheard of.

“Fine,” Hal muttered, backing away.

They weren’t here for him. If they were, they would’ve been waiting right outside the Gate, the house torn down around him. The Hunter’s Association had more than enough power to do that.

No, they were here to classify the Gate. To take the portal and make it their own, to open it up to miner groups. Every minute that there were no humans inside the Gate was a minute in which the monsters within were regenerating. They would open it for mining as soon as they confirmed it wouldn’t immediately kill the F-ranks that entered. Or D-ranks. Who knew what the Gate would end up being classed as.

For him, though, he had no interest in sticking around. He knew for a fact that the Hunter’s Association didn’t track down unsanctioned Gate clearers if they hadn’t set up an operation aroudn it. He’d been ordered to let Gavin go before.

On the other hand, he didn’t want to see what happened if he stuck around here for too long.

A minute of searching around the house revealed that there was a back door. It opened into a tiny backyard barely big enough for a dog to play in. A short fence hop later, Hal was in an alleyway that smelled just like the worst parts of San Francisco—the acrid sweet scent of weed tinged with the hint of a stench of shit.

But he was out.

And he was angry. He had been pissed earlier, but he surprised himself with how mad he was now.

He’d trusted Gavin. Not much, but he’d put his trust in the other man.

The faux-British man had turned around and violated it.

Hal stalked off, opening the phone.

No GPS app.

Fucking figures.

---

Hal tapped through his computer, searching through the forums that he’d been merrily trawling just the day before.

He wanted to find Gavin. Hal wasn’t sure what he wanted to do to the man—while he had found himself more than willing to kill, he also wasn’t sure that he wanted to murder someone in cold blood when Gavin wasn’t already trying to do the same.

Still, Gavin needed to see some sort of retribution.

Oh. Hal had an idea. Gavin had taken the core of the boss monster from the unnamed Gate and he’d run away with it.

That was worth money. And money wasn’t the only thing it was worth. Now that his Pathless soul had somehow managed to advance, Hal knew he had potential to grow more powerful. That monster shard could go into elixir, go into something that could empower himself to a level that allowed him to clear greater Gates.

Realistic goals, Hal. For the time being, he needed to grow stronger. He’d managed to kill Yancy, but he’d gotten the drop on him. Yancy hadn’t expected him to attack, nor had he been at the peak of his form. If Gavin saw him trying to backstab him, the D-ranker wouldn’t hold back. Hal would die.

With a sigh, he closed the tab. He’d find Gavin later. If he was lucky, he’d still have the Core.

For now, he was going to go Hunting.

He tapped his phone screen. “Ally, I need you.”

“I’ve been waiting!” The chipper voice blasted out of the phone with such intensity that Hal wanted to throw it at a wall. “There’s an F-class Gate seven minutes from here!”

He clutched the phone closer to his chest, unwilling to ever let it go. “Where is it?”

“Just follow the indicator.” The darkness of the screen disappeared, replaced by a simple compass graphic. A single arrow pointed towards the… southeast.

Hal rose, and he followed.

Seven minutes, as it turned out, actually meant twenty-four. Part of it was that there were buildings in the way. He had to take the subway to make progress at one point since the path he’d gotten would’ve taken him through a subterranean car tunnel.

But he’d made it in the end.

This time, it was a trapdoor. A simple hole in the ground hidden away in an alleyway, rippling with purple power.

“Stronger than the last one,” Ally chirped from his phone. “Still F-rank, though.”

Hal readied himself, checking his watch. “Show me the system again.”

Ascended Sign-In System

Credits: 0

Time Until Next Credit: 0:05:49

[Sign in?]

He was going to sign in. He was going to level up. He had to.

Hal had to ascend to Silver. He needed a Path.

Gavin was going to pay, no matter what.

This time, when he entered the Gate, there were no potential traitors with him.

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