The Affinity Collector 2 -- Chapter 3

Chapter 3

While he didn’t have a perfect view of the safe zone from his now-camouflaged hollow, if he moved to the edge of where his new enchantment was hiding him, he could somewhat see into the area – even if he wasn’t quite close enough to see or hear them clearly.  What he could tell, though, was that the individuals who entered the Rift didn’t appear to be looking for him, as they immediately moved toward one of the higher-Level routes.  He had no idea what kinds of monsters were inside the path that the 4-person Defender squad (at least, he assumed they were Defenders) were heading down, but it certainly wasn’t appropriate for Fandermere students.  Based on what he’d been told, the monsters ranged all the way up to Level 60, but he wasn’t told what the others were; he would have to investigate at some point, so that he could at least know what to avoid. 

He didn’t move from his place inside of Field of Concealment, as now that there were people inside the Rift he couldn’t risk them seeing him.  To help reduce the risk of being spotted, however, he spent a few minutes adding yet another Field of Concealment Enchantment to another blank copper piece, while also checking his backpack and seeing that he only had 2 more blanks left.  He had plenty of other enchanted copper pieces that he’d created at the Academy before he left for the Rift, ranging from Mana Enchanted ones that would explode after a short time like delayed grenades, others that would rapidly heat up an area with infrared light, and even simple Light Enchants that were so bright that it could blind him if he wasn’t careful with them.  He’d prepared for a number of eventualities, but none of it was immediately useful. 

When he completed another Field of Concealment Enchant on the copper blank, focusing once again on himself and his backpack, he didn’t attach any extra Mana Enchanted copper pieces to it to make it larger.  Instead, he found that the dome it created was more than large enough to cover his entire body and extended out a few feet in each direction.  It wasn’t quite enough to camouflage his staff if he was extending it to attack something or someone, but otherwise it was good enough for his current purposes.

Jeremy discovered that he could place the enchanted copper piece in his pocket and it would continue to stay active, meaning that he didn’t have to hold it, though if he placed it in his backpack, the spatial enchantment would cut it off – which was pretty much what he expected.  As he began to walk away from the camouflaged hollow, hoping to get slightly closer to see when the new squad of people came back, he noticed something about the Field of Concealment Enchant almost immediately.

It was not meant for movement.  While he couldn’t see what it looked like from the outside of the dome covering him, from the inside it wobbled and seemed distorted unless he moved at a virtual snail’s pace.  He was reminded of some movies and games where characters had some sort of high-tech active camouflage covering them, but when they moved, their shape could be seen as a distortion in the air – but this was even worse.  He had a feeling that the quality of it would improve if he was able to apply any increases in its Tier through the use of Rift Cores and NEPs – after he earned those increases, of course – though it was also obvious that using this method to try to escape the Rift, as well as those guarding it on the outside, would be nearly impossible until it was much more powerful.

Moving as slowly as he could while keeping himself and the concealing dome out of direct sight of the safe zone, Jeremy eventually made it back to the same outcropping of stone that he’d previously used to spy on those coming to kill or take him away, and he laid down again, placing the enchanted copper plate next to him so that he wouldn’t jostle it if he had to shift a little. 

Then he waited.

He expected to have to wait for a while before he saw the group of Defenders come back after clearing the route that they had chosen, but something happened within only a few minutes of him arriving at his current viewing place.  The energy around the Rift entrance spiked again, and he watched as someone else arrived – and they were somewhat familiar.  It only took him a few seconds to recognize the older woman as one of the other Instructors from Fandermere Academy, though she was one for an entirely different Year.  She was followed a few seconds later by a bunch of students dressed in various shades of dark blue, which told him that they were likely Fifth Years, all of them around age 12 or so.  The majority of them were equipped in some sort of basic armor and wielded a variety of weapons; some of them appeared in more mundane clothing, but none of those he caught glimpses of appeared scared or hesitant like the crafters that had originally come with Jeremy.

Wow.  They didn’t even wait a full day after I “died,” did they?

He supposed that he should’ve expected it, though it felt somewhat like a slap in the face from those in charge at Fandermere.  While he couldn’t necessarily blame the Dean for wanting to maintain the normal training schedule for his students, it seemed somewhat insensitive to him to have them arrive only a few hours later after his supposed death.

Now I’m glad I didn’t go back.  I thought I was special, but apparently not special enough to take time to mourn my unfortunate passing.  I guess it’s business as usual at the Academy.

He watched the students assemble quickly into a handful of small groups of 4 or 5, before they dispersed into both the first route filled with [Fire Slimes] and the one next to it, which he was told contained [Flame Sprites] that were a slightly higher Level.  Once they were assembled, the groups rapidly moved into the pathways they’d chosen, the Instructor staying behind in the safe zone while she watched over the entrance to the [Flame Sprites] route.  Standing with her arms crossed over her arms, she seemed slightly bored, but he could tell that she was laser-focused on those making their way through the Rift pathways.  He could only assume that she had a way of observing them from a distance, because it seemed a bit dangerous to let a bunch of kids killing monsters without keeping tabs on them.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much more that Jeremy could observe, so he simply waited longer for something to happen.  Approximately 30 minutes later, the original squad of Defenders he’d seen enter ran quickly up the pathway they had disappeared down earlier, and while he couldn’t see them clearly enough to see their names or Levels, the impression he got from glimpses of them was that they weren’t running from something; instead, they were simply eager to leave after a successful delve through the Rift.  He did catch a glimpse of the Instructor nodding toward one of the Defenders, which was returned with mutual respect, but that was the only interaction as the squad disappeared into the portal leading out of the Rift. 

No more than 5 minutes after that, the students returned from the [Fire Slime] route, and another couple of minutes passed before the rest of the students finished up in the [Flame Sprite] route.  The Instructor clapped to get their attention once they all congregated together, saying something at a low-enough volume that Jeremy couldn’t make it out, before leading them out through the portal. 

Just like that, the Rift was empty again.  A few seconds after they left, there was another rumble that passed through the ground as the enormous dragon in the distance shifted in its sleep, but it once again didn’t do more than that.

Still, Jeremy waited.  He was glad he did, as no more than a half-hour later, another squad of Defenders entered, and this time he could see that they ranged in Level between 35 and 40 – which, from what he’d learned, was quite strong.  The squad of 4 went down a different pathway than the first squad, disappearing through the route within seconds of arriving. 

Almost like clockwork, no more than 15 minutes after the squad arrived, there was another surge from the Rift entrance, and another small set of students from Fandermere arrived, these ones all dressed in various shades of black, meaning that they were around age 14 and were Seventh Years.  There was absolutely no hesitation as they jogged toward the third pathway that Jeremy had been told contained [Burning Goblins] that were a higher Level than even the [Flame Sprites]. 

Over the next 6 hours or so, he watched patiently as one group after another entered and departed the Rift, with the majority of them being students from various Years, following a schedule that seemed designed to take advantage of the times it took for each of the Rift Cores to recharge and the monsters to repopulate.  He knew that the [Fire Slime] route required an hour to recharge and to begin repopulating, but he could only assume that the others were similar in their times, especially based on the frequency of students arriving. 

Eventually, as he watched yet another student group leave, this one being Fourth Years, he wondered when the next group would arrive.  However, after a couple of hours of waiting, some of which he’d spent feeding himself while he sat largely out of sight, nothing came inside the Rift entrance.  He took a few periodic naps that were light enough that he would’ve been alerted if someone came through the Rift entrance, but nothing happened.  By the time he finally felt the Rift entrance come alive again, he estimated that a good 12 hours had passed since he’d been left alone.

Does everything shut down for the night or something?  That’s certainly what it seems like to me.

Moving back to his hollow as slowly as possible, Jeremy settled down in his concealed refuge and slept for real, using his backpack as a pillow.  Thankfully, even without a blanket, he didn’t have to worry about getting cold, as the ambient temperature of the Rift was a bit hot as it was, and there was no obvious day/night cycle to worry about.  It reminded him somewhat of the Ebon Citadel, though in this situation he was better off with what he had stored away.  Eventually, he would run out of food and water, but he hoped that by the time that happened he would be more than capable of leaving on his own terms.

He estimated that he slept around 8 hours, and after eating a breakfast from his stored supplies, he got up and went back to his observation post near the safe zone.  Even though he hadn’t watched the first two-thirds of the incoming Defender squads and students, the remaining groups were pretty much a copy of what he’d seen the day before.  When the last students left, he waited another hour just to make sure that no one else was going to come inside, before he cautiously climbed toward the perimeter of the safe zone and started making his way around to the same route full of [Fire Slimes] that he’d cleared the day before.  His Field of Concealment was still active around him, and while he was sure he stood out while he was moving, he felt somewhat more secure having it on his person rather than leave it behind.

There was absolutely no reason to experiment with any of his Abilities as he made his way through the pathway full of red [Slimes], as his entire goal right now was to clear it as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Therefore, he practically ran through the route as he used his staff to puncture the cores of the multitude of [Slimes] he encountered, killing them so quickly that they barely even noticed he was there before he was gone again.  The fact that they did seem to “see” him before their cores were destroyed was odd to him, as while the distortions in the air around his Field of Concealment was clearly obvious, he was pretty sure the gelatinous blobs had any eyes in which to view it.  Instead, after a brief experiment when he stood completely still and let one of the [Fire Slimes] pass by him, only to somehow still detect his presence, led him to deduce that they were “seeing” him in some other way.  Another quick experiment when he threw out a copper blank with an infrared “heat” enchant on it, only to have the [Slime] completely ignore him and head toward the enchantment, made him conclude that they were detecting the heat inside of his body. 

That could be a problem if someone comes here that can detect my body heat.  Hopefully, there are too many heat sources in the Rift for them to spot me, but I need to be careful.

As he thought about that vulnerability in his Field of Concealment, he realized that there were even more ways that he could be detected.  Sound and smell were obvious, and he could only assume that there were some individuals out there adept at tracking monsters or people through the use of those senses.  But then he thought about someone with an {Air} Affinity somehow detecting his breathing as he disturbed the air, or someone with a {Healing} or {Blood} Affinity sensing his heartbeat from a distance; he wasn’t even sure if all of that was possible, but he’d seen so many things since coming to this world that he wouldn’t doubt it.

There was nothing he could really do about it right now, though, other than to continue being as careful as possible to avoid attention.

When he killed the Level 2 [Fire Slime] that counted as the Rift Overseer guarding the Rift Core, he quickly dispersed the energy inside of it, acquiring another 100 NEPs.

Potential Nexus Energy Points (NEP) available to allocate: 100 NEP

{Fire} Affinity Unlock: 1% per 20 NEP

Applied Experience: 1 Experience per NEP

Applied Affinity Strength Increase: N/A

Applied Ability Tier Increase: 1 Tier per 50 NEP

Applied Attainments: 1 per 1,000,000 NEP

As much as Jeremy wanted to start applying the NEPs he earned toward fully unlocking the {Fire} Affinity, which would take a total of 2,000 NEPs according to the chart, he instead put them toward his Abilities.  He had already thought out what he was going to do with what he acquired, and so he didn’t hesitate to permanently upgrade some of his most-used Abilities – starting with Energy Boost and Regen (Mana), bringing them both to Tier 2.

Nexus energy dispersing. 

Time remaining until this Rift Route is fully functional: 59 minutes, 59 seconds

Ability {Energy}: Energy Boost has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

Ability {Energy}: Regen (Mana) has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

There was a brief flash of energy through his body that made him twitch a little at the changes, but it was nothing like unlocking an entirely new Affinity all at once, and soon enough he could feel the differences in his newly upgraded Abilities.  Without actually testing Energy Boost on something, he wasn’t sure how much it had changed, but when he activated Regen (Mana), he could immediately see that the amount of Mana he was Regening every hour had increased by 10% – which was a fairly large increase, considering what it currently was.  With his current {Energy} Strength at Moderate 4, he was able to push up his Mana Regen up to 200 per hour with the use of his Regen (Mana) Ability, so an extra 20 Mana per hour was quite significant.

He ran back up through the pathway, slowing down as he reached the area around the safe zone, stopping as he peered around a bend in the route, ensuring that no one else had entered while he was killing [Slimes].  When he didn’t see anything, he made his way to the next pathway filled with [Flame Sprites].  Cautiously, since he hadn’t actually faced them before, Jeremy made his way down the new route, encountering his first [Sprite] within the first 50 feet, and the 2-foot tall fairy-like monster hovered about 4 feet above the ground, lazily moving back and forth from one wall of the pathway to the other.  When he was within about 20 feet, the flying monster apparently spotted him – again, despite his Field of Concealment – and a spherical ball of loose flames approximately the size of a baseball appeared in between its hands.  The ball of flames seemed to charge up before it was flung straight at him despite him standing perfectly still and basically invisible, and he instinctively activated Leafy Barrier to block it.     

A large leaf suddenly appeared in front of him and intercepted the projectile, which slammed into the barrier and dispersed into flames – which flowed over the leaf as if it was dry tinder, immediately starting to burn it.  He dismissed the Ability a second later, which caused the flames to sputter out as they had nothing left to fuel their growth.  Jeremy was already on the move, however, as he took off toward the [Flame Sprite], which attempted to fly away to put some distance between them, but he hadn’t been training his physical body over the last year and a half at the Academy for nothing.  He quickly caught up before it could go more than 10 feet, and with a sweeping blow from right to left that cracked against the fragile body of the [Sprite[, he sent it careening into the nearby wall. 

[Flame Sprite – Level 2] killed!

Experience reserved…

These are much easier than I expected.  I guess I’m so used to having to kill monsters so far above my Level that anything even close to it seems too easy.

As he made his way through the route, he encountered more and more [Flame Sprites] until they started to come in pairs and even larger groups – but he was still too quick for them as he tore through them with his staff.  He did end up taking a few hits from their flaming projectiles, and while they did burn him a bit worse than a severe sunburn on the arm and once on his cheek, all he had to do was activate Regen (Mana) with a focus on his Health instead of Mana to start naturally healing them.  Theoretically, he could’ve used some of his Abilities to kill them a lot more safely, or even some of his enchanted copper blanks in his backpack, but there was no reason to waste Mana or his enchantments.  His staff was more than enough to get rid of them all.

Once he killed the Level 3 [Fire Sprite] that acted as the Rift Overseer for the route, which pretty much just as easy as the others, he dispersed the energy within the Rift Core.  Instead of only 100 NEPs like the [Slime] Route, the [Sprite] Core had 150 NEPs – allowing him to upgrade 3 of his Abilities instead of just 2.

Nexus energy dispersing. 

Time remaining until this Rift Route is fully functional: 74 minutes, 59 seconds

Ability {Energy}: Mana Enchant has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

Ability {Light}: Light Enchant has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

Ability {Dark}: Dark Enchant has been permanently increased to Tier 2!

Because he’d been using his enchantments so frequently, especially to create things like Field of Concealment, he figured it would be worth it to start bumping them up.  He was looking forward to experimenting with them later to see what had changed, but he wasn’t quite done yet with his monster-killing and Rift-Core-dispersing objectives.

He hadn’t really been challenged yet, so he figured it was time to fight something a bit more dangerous.