The Affinity Collector 2 -- Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Cleaning up the last of the blood near the Rift entrance, Jeremy made a deliberate decision to avoid the safe area as much as possible from that point on.  Not because he didn’t believe in being safe, but because the risk of someone else coming into the Rift and finding him there was too great.  Unlike the other 2 Rifts that he’d been trapped inside, The Sleeper’s Lair was open to other Defenders and even more students from Fandermere Academy coming inside to train.  While the impression he received about the Rift was that it was more of a private training facility than something like a public gym, as knowledge about it was supposed to be on a need-to-know basis and for those who earned the privilege, there would still likely be quite a few visitors that he would have to work around if he was going to stay and become stronger.

And unless Fandermere Academy had another equivalent set of Rifts set up for the students, it was almost a guarantee that he’d be seeing more of his fellow students soon.  They might delay a few days after his “death” was reported by Charmaine, or they might not; he didn’t “die” because of a monster, after all, so The Sleeper’s Lair was still technically as safe as ever.  Dean Paxtin would probably be heavily disappointed after learning of his supposed demise, but Jeremy thought he knew the old man well enough after working closely with him over the last couple of school years to know that he wouldn’t let this tragedy hinder the student’s normal Rift training for long.

So, not only would he have to hide his presence from the random Defender squads or other privileged groups that were given permission, but also the Fandermere students that would inevitably appear fairly consistently.  He was fairly certain that he could find a place to stay along the same area he had hid from the groups that had come to kill or take him away, as it was unlikely anyone would be looking in that area – but that was the easy part.

The hard part would be avoiding attention while he killed monsters and dispersed the energy within the partial Rift Cores at the end of the different routes.  Not only would he have to find a way to become invisible, like a ghost, but to also eliminate any suspicion that there was someone secretly staying in the dungeon, which could lead to an investigation that he definitely didn’t need.  No good would come from anyone finding that he was still alive; he no longer trusted anyone in authority at Fandermere, other than perhaps the Dean (though he was still a bit on the fence) and the friends he’d made, and any other group unassociated with the Academy might seek to take advantage of him if they discovered who he was and what he could do.  Based on the fact that a group of assassins had somehow found out about him, even if he was unsure about how much they actually knew, he had no idea how far his information had spread out in the wider world outside of the Academy; everyone was, therefore, suspect.

In short, Jeremy had to become strong enough not to worry about being taken advantage of or even killed outright. 

But first, he had to figure out how to do that safely without being found.  Ideally, he would love to leave the Rift and find another that wasn’t as busy, but he didn’t believe he could leave quite yet without being spotted by those guarding the Rift from the outside, nor did he have any idea of where to go if he did manage to get out.  He needed some serious strength behind him before he ventured out, otherwise he’d just be at risk of falling into the same trap he’d already experienced with the recent pair of Instructors.

As much as he wanted to start slaughtering more [Fire Slimes], as they had started respawning an hour after dispersing the energy from the partial Rift Core at the end of that route, so that he could obtain more Nexus Energy Points, he knew that he had to be a bit more cautious.  Therefore, he moved back toward the spot where he’d hidden from the groups that had come looking for him, taking some time to search for a better area to make a semi-permanent shelter.  If he was going to be living in the Rift for some time, he would rather have somewhere he could call “home”; even if it wasn’t going to be the most comfortable, he’d made do with rough conditions before.

A few minutes of searching over the warm rocky terrain, which was thankfully free of any monsters since they seemed to be contained exclusively along the different routes, he came across something he thought might work for now.  It wasn’t exactly a cave, more like something had taken a scoop out of a stone wall and left behind a hollow that reached 30 feet deep, was a good 10 feet wide, and just over 6 feet tall.  It was dark toward the back of the hollow, and while it wasn’t completely concealed, it was also somewhat facing away from the safe zone near the entrance, so it wouldn’t be immediately visible if someone came looking.  That being said, all it would take was a few curious people climbing up and peering around, especially since it was less than 300 feet away from the safe zone, so he would have to find a way to keep it concealed if that came to pass. 

He journeyed out a little further, hoping to find something better, but without spending a significant amount of time potentially carving his way through the stone with lasers or even blowing some things up, there wasn’t really anything within 1,000 feet of the safe zone – and he didn’t dare venture out further than that.  While he didn’t see any monsters or anything specifically dangerous, there was an unidentifiable threatening feeling the further he ventured out.  He’d somewhat learned to trust that feeling, so he didn’t investigate past the point that he already had.

After establishing that little hollow as his “home base,” he sat down and began thinking about what he needed to do to conceal it from any curious eyes.  He experimented briefly with Bend Light, using it similar to how Instructor Tremic had by creating an illusion of an empty hollow, and while he didn’t exactly have fond memories of the {Light} and {Energy} wielder who had tried to enslave him, he had to admit that the man’s illusions were quite powerful.  Shaping the scene with his intent, he stood outside the hollow and channeled his Mana into the illusion, taking half a minute to copy it as perfectly as he could.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t exactly adept at illusions and his concentration kept wavering slightly, causing the relatively large bending of light to ripple and it seemed almost transparent, like it was see-through.  Not enough power behind it.  Energy Boost helped to firm up the scene he was intending, but even that didn’t make it completely match what he had in mind.  He realized the problem was one of scale, as even his recent increase of Bend Light to Tier 2 thanks to the energy dispersed by the Rift Core wasn’t enough to make an accurate illusion that would cover the entire entrance to the hollow. 

Therefore, he shrunk it down to a more manageable size, keeping it to about a 3-foot by 5-foot rectangle, and it seemed to finally coalesce into an illusion that looked exactly like what was behind it without any distortion, transparency, or waviness that the much larger illusion had possessed. 

Unfortunately, even if he managed to raise his Tier in the Bend Light Ability further to encompass the entire entrance to the hollow, he couldn’t exactly maintain the illusion indefinitely, as it required concentration and a constant drain on his available Mana.  In short, it wasn’t a viable option for him; instead, he needed something more permanent.

Taking one of the few copper blanks that he’d brought along in his spatial storage backpack, he sat down with his back against the inside of the hollow as he considered a new type of enchantment.  Previously, he’d only really altered Light Enchant to create different types of light wavelengths, as well as some reflective mirror-like effects for use in his laser cannon; he’d never made one that created a large illusion before, though he knew it was likely possible based on what he’d learned at the Academy.  The problem was with containment, as the light that emerged from the enchantment would simply spread wherever it could reach; he got away with the mirror-like effect in his cannon because the light was contained within the chitinous tube made from an [Ebon Devourer].  But with any other Light Enchanted effect, there was nothing keeping the light contained within a certain area, unlike when he directly used Bend Light.

Closing his eyes, he did his best to recall some potential options from earth, thinking about TVs and even movie theaters.  For modern TVs, their screens were contained in a clearly defined space based on the housing and their LED technology.  For older TVs, such as CRT and rear projection TVs, as well as in movie theaters, they projected light against a surface, which either was captured and displayed on a defined surface or hit a reflective surface that was then bounced back toward the audience.  As much as he would love to figure out how to produce an LED screen, that seemed a bit beyond what he could do at that point; that left what was likely going to be a projected light, but that still didn’t necessarily help with his ultimate problem.

Containment.

Fortunately, he’d somewhat solved that problem when he was playing around with his {Light} and {Dark} Affinities, and in particular his Equilibrium Ability.  What it did was balance the two opposite energies contained within the Affinities so that they not only worked together, but enhanced the other. 

Opening his eyes, he looked at the copper blank in his lap and started to imagine what it was that he wanted to create.  First, he activated Light Enchant on the blank and imagined the static image of the hollow when seen from the outside, but instead of the light going in all directions, it instead projected into an upright and slightly curved wall that would cover the entire entrance of the hollow.  This was followed by a Mana Enchant with a focus on light energy to help power the size of the Light Enchant – but there was still the issue with containment; as it was, the light would simply continue projecting upwards and to the sides with no clear definition. 

This was where Dark Enchant came in, and instead of simply a large field of darkness floating around the enchanted blank, he activated her Equilibrium Ability to mold the darkness emitted from Dark Enchant to somewhat mimic his Shroud of Darkness Ability.  He imagined it stretched out and fully containing the light being projected upwards and to the sides, enclosing it like a box.  The tricky part was making one side, the side facing outward, essentially transparent, while the other side was reflective and somewhat opaque, which would allow the illusion he was creating to show outwards while keeping any light from behind (or from inside the hollow) from shining through.

He got the idea from how one-way mirrors would work back on Earth, which would reflect back the light from a brightly lit room while the other side of the mirror had a dark room.  Ideally, he would still be able to look out from behind the illusion while no one would see anything but what he wanted them to see. 

Keeping all of these intents in place strained his focus as he applied them all to the copper blank, especially since he was trying to accomplish multiple effects that he had never tried with his Enchants before.  Thankfully, unlike the last time he had strained himself in the Instructor Assessment Rift while developing the Rapid Light Energy Absorption Enchant, he wasn’t starving from lack of food and could devote all of his attention toward his purpose.

And yet, despite all of his focus on creating a unique enchantment, what he ended up creating wasn’t exactly what he had intended.  As he neared the final seconds of his Enchant Abilities, he finally felt all of them click together, relieving the intense strain on his mind.  The enchantment completed, forming on the copper blank, but before he could check to see if it was working, he was bombarded by some notifications. 

Affinity {Light} Strength has increased to Moderate 5!

{Light} Strength increase reser—

Nexus Rift detected!  Absorbing Rift energy for necessary changes!

{Light} Strength increase applied!

Affinity {Energy} Strength has increased to Moderate 5!

{Energy} Strength increase reser—

Nexus Rift detected!  Absorbing Rift energy for necessary changes!

{Energy} Strength increase applied!

Affinity {Dark} Strength has increased to Moderate 3!

{Dark} Strength increase reser—

Nexus Rift detected!  Absorbing Rift energy for necessary changes!

{Dark} Strength increase applied!

Ability {Dark}: Dark Enchant has increased to Tier 9!

Tier increase reserved…

Ability {Light/Dark}: Equilibrium has increased to Tier 4!

Tier increase reserved…

New Ability Unlocked!

{Light/Energy/Dark}: Field of Concealment Enchant Tier 1!

He hadn’t necessarily been trying to unlock a new Ability, but as he looked over his notifications, he wasn’t going to complain.  However, when he delved deeper into the new Field of Concealment Enchant Ability, he was temporarily dismayed as it wasn’t what he had intended to create. 

It was better than what he had imagined.

Almost as if the magic he employed had somehow taken his idea and ran with it, improving it multiple ways, his new Ability had gone above and beyond anything he could’ve wished for.  Instead of a static image that was projected and contained within a set area, what the Field of Concealment Enchant did was essentially create an illusionary dome around the enchantment that didn’t let any light emerge from underneath the dome, while bending the light from outside around the dome.  In other words, from the outside, he would be virtually invisible if he was underneath the dome, while from the inside, he would be able to see outside with absolutely no issues.  It was the one-way mirror idea he had but with stealth capabilities and then ramped up to 11.

He opened Athera’s Blessing and looked at his new Status after all of the changes.

Athera’s Blessing – Status

Name:

Weldin Collsmith

Experience (Applied):

0/1,000

Level:

1

Experience (Reserve):

148,768

Health:

70/70

Mana:

81/110

Stamina:

70/70

Health Regen:

7/hr

Mana Regen:

10/hr

Stamina Regen:

7/hr

Might:

7

Endurance:

7

Speed:

7

Insight:

11

Sagacity:

10

Appeal:

5

Affinities:

Energy

Affinity Strength (Energy):

Moderate 4

Light

Affinity Strength (Light):

Moderate 4

Dark

Affinity Strength (Dark):

Moderate 3

Plant

Affinity Strength (Plant):

Weak 4

Abilities (Energy):

Energy Boost

Manipulation

Tier 1 (Tier 10)

Regen (Mana)

Conversion

Tier 1 (Tier 10)

Mana Enchant

Application

Tier 1 (Tier 10)

Abilities (Light):

Light Orb

Illumination

Tier 1 (Tier 10)

Bend Light

Illusion

Tier 2 (Tier 10)

Light Enchant

Infusion

Tier 1 (Tier 10)

Abilities (Dark):

Shadow Strike

Imbuement

Tier 2 (Tier 7)

Shroud of Darkness

Concealment

Tier 1 (Tier 10)

Dark Enchant

Enchantment

Tier 1 (Tier 9)

Abilities (Plant):

Vine Whip

Restriction

Tier 1 (Tier 5)

Leafy Barrier

Construction

Tier 1 (Tier 5)

Rapid Growth

Production

Tier 1 (Tier 4)

Abilities (Multi):

Light/Dark

Equilibrium

Tier 1 (Tier 4)

Light/Energy

Light Energy Enchant

Tier 1 (Tier 3)

Light/Energy/Dark

Field of Concealment Enchant

Tier 1

Light/Energy/Dark

Rapid Light Energy Absorption Enchant

Tier 1 (Tier 3)

When he closed his Status and looked at the new enchantment and the energy that flowed out from it, it quickly became obvious that his new Ability did one more thing – it kept all of the energy being used to create the Field of Concealment Enchant inside of the dome, as well.  That meant that, unless someone walked through the edge of the Field, they wouldn’t even be able to detect any of the energy. 

Unfortunately, he also saw that – unlike what he was intending – the dome surrounding the enchanted copper blank was just barely large enough to cover himself.  To cover the entire hollow, he would have to add some extra Mana Enchanted copper blanks to extend its range, but that was not that big of a deal.  He now not only had a way to keep his temporary “home” hidden, but himself as well – it wasn’t that much of a tradeoff. 

Over the next hour, he completed the project with some Mana Enchanted blanks, using his laser to melt the edges of the plates together, placing the much larger and finished enchantment near the entrance of the hollow.  When he went outside and looked within, somehow the enchantment knew to exclude his backpack that he’d left inside the hollow, and everything appeared completely normal.  What bothered him a little was that he didn’t know exactly how it knew to exclude his backpack, but as he stared at it a little longer, he began to see how the energies within the enchantment worked.  It all had to do with intent, and since his intent – when he created the enchantment – was to conceal him and everything on or around him, they were excluded; he began to understand how this could be limiting, as anything new added to his person might not be excluded in the same way.  For instance, if he built a chair or a table out of stone or something to be used as furniture and placed inside the hollow, they might show up – the same went for if he was carrying something that wasn’t originally with him.

Hmm… I have to be a bit more precise with my intent, I guess.  I might even have to update it with a new enchantment every time I bring something new to the hollow.  It was annoying, but he supposed it was better than nothing.  He could only hope that it would improve and remove some of those restrictions as the Ability was developed, but he’d have to wait to see if that was true or not. 

For now, he had a relatively safe place to stay that was hidden from the world, and that was worth any annoyances that his new Ability brought with it.  And thankfully, he was fully inside its radius when he felt yet another surge coming from the entrance to the Rift.