The Affinity Collector 2 -- Recap/Chapter 1

Recap

Weldin Collsmith had just received his Goddess-given Affinities after turning 8 years old, when the celebration was interrupted by a mysterious, homicidal figure that attacked the other children and sent Weldin flying through a destabilized portal.  Ending up in a Rift which was far above his own Level and extraordinarily dangerous, the scared-but-resourceful 8-year-old used the sword and knife his blacksmith father had given him to survive against the Dark-aligned monsters within the Rift – but it wasn’t enough.  After an unfortunate meeting with a Level 25 Ebon Devourer, Weldin bled out as he fled back to the cave in which he originally appeared, dying before he could escape and explore the new {Light} and {Energy} Affinities he had just recently acquired.

But Weldin’s story didn’t completely end there.  His body lived on as a soul from another world suddenly and unexpectedly took control, bringing him back from the dead through some unknown power.  Coming from Earth, Jeremy had knowledge of many subjects, and while he wasn’t a particular expert in any of them, he knew enough about almost everything to help him in this new world.  Using scientific principles to manipulate his {Light} and {Energy} Affinities, he discovered how to create a magically powered laser to kill the monsters within the Ebon Citadel Rift, eventually escaping after he accidentally blew up the Rift Overseer with an overloading laser cannon.  Upon completing the Rift, however, he ended up unlocking the {Dark} Affinity, given him access to yet another series of spells and abilities.

Discovered by a squad of Defenders after he exited the Rift, they bring him to the nearest city so that he can be sent to an academy; all 8-year-olds are required to attend them to learn about their Affinities and the world, so that they can become valued members of their communities.  When he arrived, Jeremy learned that having opposing Affinities – such as {Light} and {Dark} – was not only rare, it was thought to be impossible; as a result of his uniqueness, the Academy Registrar sends him to the preeminent Academy available to him, Fandermere, but something goes wrong as he attempts to enter the Academy.

Because of his foreign soul, Jeremy was sent to an Instructor Assessment Rift for incoming Instructors, where he is forced not only to survive, but to prove that he had what it took to become an Academy Instructor.  He hadn’t cared about the latter, but survival against the Plant-based monsters he’d been forced to face were much more difficult than his previous experience in a Rift.  Fortunately, he learned how to embrace his newest Affinity, {Dark}, as a source of offensive capabilities, and even discovered how to create an equilibrium between his opposite Affinities, using them in tandem to enhance his capabilities.

Barely surviving the Rift, as well as unlocking a new {Plant} Affinity, Jeremy ends up in Fandermere as a “Provisional Instructor,” which no one had ever seen before.  Dean Paxtin soon learned of his multiple Affinities and thought it prudent to keep it a secret from the rest of the world, though he employed a few specific Instructors, Charmain and Tremic, to help him train in private.

At Fandermere Academy, Jeremy learns a lot more about the world and about the different kinds of Affinities available, making him more eager to collect more in the future, but he is fairly stymied in his development – at least compared to his experiences in the pair of Rifts he had been forced to fight through.  Fortunately, his lack of advancement was hopefully going to come to an end as, in his third year at Fandermere, all students were to be accompanied by Instructors into a Rift to experience what it was like, as well as start applying any of the advancements that they’d achieved by that point through the use of a Rift Core’s energy.

Jeremy’s trip to The Sleeper’s Lair Rift, despite worries that something else would go wrong and he would end up being transported somewhere else, went off without a hitch, and he was able to fight through a portion of the unique Rift by himself, killing [Fire Slimes] without any trouble.  The trouble only began when Instructor Tremic slipped an Obedience Collar, which was designed to enslave people, around Jeremy’s neck and forced him to explain the secret behind his successes, and his lasers in particular.  While the Collar didn’t actually work against him, Jeremy pretended to go along with it, as he looked for a way to escape.  That escape, or so he thought, came in the form of Instructor Charmaine killing Tremic for using an Obedience Collar on a student.  Sadly, shortly afterwards, he learned that this whole situation was exactly what she wanted, as she was paid by her powerful non-Academy employers to capture him so that they could take him away for their own experiments or other shady purposes.

Fortunately, he was still unaffected by the Collar, and while he followed her instructions to stand still in the Rift’s safe zone near the entrance for a minute or so after she left him behind, telling him that her employers would be picking him up in a few hours, he was able to remove the Collar by himself and threw it away.  After that, he finally dispersed the energy within the small Rift Core that he’d fought to get to earlier, finding that he could direct the Nexus Energy Points (NEPs) he gained from the Core’s energy dispersion to advance specific portions of his development – including unlocking a new {Fire} Affinity, though that would take many more NEPs to fully unlock it. 

Now, after the betrayal of not just one but two Instructors and escaping their immediate clutches, Jeremy had a choice to make while he was still inside the Rift.  Should he try to escape and make a run for it?  Should he pretend to still be a captive and escape later, once he’d been freed of the Rift?  Or was there, perhaps, a third choice…?

Chapter 1

Nearly tripping over a rock as he backed up, his entire attention on the enormous monster called [Flametrix, the Sleeping Dragon] wrapped around the volcano in the distance, Jeremy managed to catch himself as he tore his gaze away from the Level 300 Final Rift Overseer.  As he’d made his way back up the pathway toward the Rift entrance, a rumble that shook the ground had brought his attention to the figurative “elephant in the room” that was the dragon, but while there were a few signs that it had slightly moved – seen in some falling stones along the volcano’s exterior – the monster thankfully still seemed to be asleep.

Is my presence inside the Rift causing it to wake up?  I certainly hope not.

Shortly after Jeremy arrived with the other students, along with the treacherous Instructors Tremic and Charmaine, some sort of “privacy geas” had attempted to affect him and had been rejected by his soul, which had caused the dragon to shift slightly in its sleep – but he had hoped that that had been all after it seemed to calm down.  Now, though, he worried that it was slowly waking up, which would be a disaster of epic proportions if it was able to escape the Rift.  While his Instructors had ended up betraying him in the end, with Tremic attempting to temporarily enslave him in order to obtain some of the secrets that Jeremy was hiding, and Charmaine essentially selling him out to her non-Academy employers (whoever they were, he didn’t relish the thought of falling into their hands), he didn’t doubt that they had been truthful about the last time Flametrix had awoken.

Millions of deaths on his conscience wasn’t something that he wanted to contemplate – if he even survived long enough to learn about it happening.

Fortunately, it seemed to have settled down again, and there didn’t seem to be any other indication that it was waking up any further.  For all he knew, the Final Rift Overseer frequently shifted in its sleep, so everything he’d experienced thus far could be normal.

As he arrived at the entrance once again, he felt the “safe zone” around him fall into place, where he knew he would be safe from pretty much anything in the Rift; he was fairly certain that if [Flametrix] woke up, it could tear apart what little safety Athera seemed to control around the entrance, but if that happened, he was confident that it would be too late to even worry about it.

Putting that thought out of his mind, as it didn’t help him to worry about the sleeping dragon, he instead turned his attention to his current situation.  It wasn’t monsters that he was worried about, after all; it was another threat entirely that contributed to his worries.  While he didn’t know exactly how long he had until Charmaine’s employers came to fetch him, thinking that he would be standing obediently next to the Rift entrance for their arrival, he was under the assumption that he had at least an hour or slightly more.  He’d spent a little of that time dispersing the energy from the Rift Core at the end of the first pathway filled with [Fire Slimes], but he estimated that he had at least a large portion of an hour left before they arrived – even if it was probably more than that.

Jeremy had already spent some time after Charmaine had left him behind to be picked up thinking about what he was going to do now.  He had briefly considered pretending that he was still under their control and then escape later, but he had worried that he might be brought somewhere that he couldn’t escape from – Obedient Collar around his neck or not – so he discarded it almost as quickly as the thought occurred to him.  That left two options: Fight or flight. 

The first option was to set some things up in his favor so that he could kill whoever came looking for him.  There were multiple issues with that option, however, as he had no idea who would be coming to fetch him; they might be too powerful to kill with what he could put together in such a short time, or they might be fast enough to react to an attack and could negate whatever he attempted to do to them.  Even if he managed to get lucky and wipe them out, it was entirely possible that more of these people from Charmaine’s “employer” would be sent out to capture him when they didn’t return.  Those people might end up being much stronger, to the point where he couldn’t kill them – and he’d wind up in the same position as he was right now.

The second option was to flee, to head back out of the Rift and attempt to sneak by everyone outside, including the noble in charge of keeping the Rift protected and relatively private.  He highly doubted his abilities were strong enough to get him far, and once he was discovered, he might be dragged back to the Academy – or possibly held captive by the noble or some other powerful organization.  Neither prospect was great, as Charmaine had said she was returning to the Academy and would likely kill him so that he couldn’t reveal her betrayal, and being held by a powerful organization was what he trying to avoid.

But there was third another option that Jeremy had eventually decided upon.  He wouldn’t fight those who came, nor would he flee – at least, not immediately.  Instead, he would stay…

…and use the Rift as an opportunity to get stronger.

He had enough food and water in his spacial storage bag to keep him alive for 6 months, which he was hopeful was enough time to become proficient enough in his abilities to leave without being detected.  He didn’t actually know for sure if that was true, but he was more than willing to see what happened and give it a try.  By that time, he also figured that, with no sign of him, Charmaine’s employers would figure he was dead – which brought him to his next conundrum.

How do I convince them I’m dead?

He knew it was highly unlikely that the people coming to fetch him in his obedient state would simply walk inside the Rift, see that he wasn’t there, and then immediately turn around and leave.  They would search for him, likely thinking that he had wandered off somewhere despite orders to the contrary, and would probably find him no matter what he did to hide.  He didn’t know even a fraction of what Affinities could do, but he figured that a team sent to acquire a person likely had a way of tracking people down. 

Jeremy considered and discarded multiple ideas on how he could convince someone that he was dead.  Thoughts of elaborate illusions created by his Bend Light combined with the physical aspect of Shroud of Darkness as a way to create a realistic-looking body flowed through his mind, but he knew that he didn’t have the kind of power to get away with something that elaborate.  Sure, perhaps he could fool someone from a distance, but they would likely check it up close and personal; he doubted he could keep something together like that under close scrutiny.  That didn’t even consider that he would have to be fairly close in order to maintain those spells, and he wasn’t going take the chance that someone would be able to feel his energy use at such close quarters. 

No, none of that would work – at least not without a lot of practice and a lot of luck.  And if they decided that they wanted to take the body back with them, the jig would be up almost immediately even if he managed to maintain the illusion until they left the Rift – though he wasn’t even sure if they could remove his “body” or not.  Regardless, there were too many variables that would go wrong with a plan like that.

In other words, the more complicated and complex the plan, the more likelihood it had of failing.  Which meant he needed to fall back on something he’d learned back on Earth.

KISS.  Exactly; Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Rather than try to convince his upcoming captors that he was dead with some elaborate visual or complicated story, all he needed to do was to give them a hint of what might have occurred and let them dictate what happened.  With that in mind, he quickly located the previously discarded Obedience Collar he’d pulled off his neck, walked next to the Rift entrance, and then snapped the circular piece of metal together so that it appeared whole and unbroken.  Even the feel of it in his hands kind of creeped him out, so he dropped it on the dark stone under his feet exactly where he’d been standing when Charmaine had left.  Taking a deep breath, he pulled out his knife, the same one that had survived with him throughout the Ebon Citadel Rift, and cut the palm of his hand while he activated Regen (Mana) with Health as its focus.

Blood dripping from his palm splattered across the stone beneath his feet, creating scattered pools as he squeezed his hand to force even more out from his body, and he made sure to cover the Obedience Collar liberally with his vital fluid.  His Health Regen was already working overtime to heal his cut, so he was forced to cut it again after a few minutes in order to keep the blood flowing.  After about 10 minutes, he started to became lightheaded, so he stopped and began let his wound heal enough to clot, before breaking out some dried meat and a capped bottle of water from his spatial storage backpack.  He ate it right there, feeling better after about 20 minutes as the magical nature of Health Regen replenished his blood – and then started another round of blood-letting around the entrance, sending it flinging out in a few directions, but keeping it largely focused on the one spot near the Collar.  When he was satisfied at the macabre display, he let his wound heal up again before leaving the area, pulling even more food and water from his backpack to alleviate his hunger and his headache.  He looked back to ensure he wasn’t tracking any of the blood behind him, and while he didn’t see anything, he worried that someone would still be able to track any minute traces he might be leaving behind.

To alleviate this, he quickly formed a laser with an Energy Boost that had a wider aperture, using it to sweep the stone behind him, which he hoped would eliminate any trace of bodily fluids he left behind on the material.  He’d done the same thing in the Ebon Citadel when his private cave had begun to stink from waste and dried blood; the wider laser was capable of disintegrating the smaller particulates and sterilizing the area. 

Of course, when he finished doing that as he reached the edge of the safe zone, opposite of where the pathways leading to separate Rift Cores were located, he realized that the use of {Light} and {Energy} could potentially lead someone to him if they were able to track the energy use.  What I need a way to absorb the energy—

He nearly smacked his forehead with his still-healing hand, but he managed to stop himself before he could hurt himself again.  While he didn’t have a perfect solution already custom-made, he knew the principles behind the Rapid Light Energy Absorption Enchant Ability he’d developed in the Instructor Assessment Rift well enough that he thought he could somewhat apply it to the situation.  With that Ability, he had used the {Dark} portion of the enchantment to absorb the light energy from the sun to power a laser, but that wasn’t what he needed now.

Instead of an enchantment that would consistently reinforce itself and build up to the point where it might explode, all he needed to do was absorb energy.  Starting with Shroud of Darkness, his intent formed it around him before he sent it outward toward his lingering traces of energy he could vaguely see in the path he’d taken away from the Rift entrance.  Shifting his intent, he had the Shroud absorb first {Light} energy and then everything leftover from his use of his {Energy} Ability, using it to fuel itself and grow larger, reaching all the way back to the Rift entrance before he canceled it.  He had successfully eliminated all traces of his {Light} and {Energy} Affinities… and left his {Dark} energy behind from his use of Shroud of Darkness.

Should’ve thought this through. 

Fortunately, because there was still quite a bit of visible light coming from the environment of the Rift, both from the stormy-looking sky above and the light from fires and lava everywhere, the {Dark} energy dispersed much faster than the other energy would have, so he had to settle for simply waiting for it to disappear.  Turning his attention back to the broken-up ring of stone that seemed to encompass the perimeter of the safe zone, he started to climb while protecting his still-healing hand, until he finally reached the top.  With a better view up above, he could see that the rear portion of the safe zone was essentially just a bunch of jagged stone with scattered pools of lava bubbling here and there, though fortunately the extremely hot molten liquid was far enough away that it wasn’t a direct threat to him.

Also fortunately, the jagged rocks seemed to form multiple pockets where he thought he might be able to hide, at least temporarily, and while they weren’t exactly caves where he could fully conceal himself, they were at least better than nothing.  He carefully made his way toward one that was far enough away from the entrance that he didn’t think he would be seen right away, while also being close enough to observe the entrance from his position.

He laid stomach-down on the hard, warm stone and adjusted himself so that he could view only a sliver of the safe zone, which he also thought would keep him mostly concealed from that area, as well.  He found that he could shift himself quickly to be completely out of sight if he needed to, though if someone was able to track him without sight, then he wouldn’t be able to hide from them long.  He briefly considered getting up and moving further back, or perhaps attempting to hide halfway down one of the Rift Core pathways, but before he could make up his mind, his options were eliminated when he could feel a surge of energy coming from the safe zone.

They’re early.  Extremely early.

The next moment, Jeremy watched as a group of Defenders entered the Rift, their weapons drawn and clearly on edge by the way they moved. 

Marshell Gharmin

Developmental Period: Adult Cycle 46

Defender Designation: Striker

Level: 28

His view of the area was narrow enough that he could only clearly see one of the people who came through the Rift entrance, but that was enough to convince him that he made a good decision not to try to kill them.  He counted 5 of them that had come out and spread out faster than he could see their names, and if they were all around the same Level as the scale-armored Marshell, then he probably wouldn’t have succeeded in harming them much – if he could even hit them with how fast they seemed to be. 

Fortunately, he was close enough to hear their conversation, even if he couldn’t see all the speakers.  “Hurry, eliminate the package before those from Velipath House arrive later.”

“Where are they?  Didn’t your informant tell us that someone Velipath wanted was supposed to be here?”

“Look around, they couldn’t have gone far—”  The female voice cut off, and Jeremy could see Marshell and the edge of some others approaching his bloody display.  He still couldn’t see the others properly, but he saw and heard enough to know that he had no intention of moving to view them better.  Instead, he was frozen in place as they stared at the blood and Obedience Collar on the ground.

“Did someone get here before us?  I thought we were given priority to eliminate the package before Velipath could get their hands on it?”

“It’s fresh, so it had to have happened very recently.  But how did they find out before we did?”

“I have no idea, but it’s obvious that we’re too late.  Let’s get out of here before our window closes.”

In less than a second, the squad of Defenders that had been looking at the bloody scene he’d left behind disappeared back through the Rift entrance, and Jeremy let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. 

They… came here to kill me?  Does that mean they’re not from Charmaine’s employers? 

He could only assume so, because if they wanted him dead, it would’ve been easy enough for his treacherous Instructor to commit the deed. 

Jeremy didn’t move for hours as he contemplated the fact that someone wanted him dead enough to send a squad of Defenders to kill him.  Why?  From what he could tell from the conversation he overheard, the assassins had been instructed to do it to keep him from falling into the hands of Velipath House.  Is that the name of her employers?  He could only assume so, at least until he had more information.

He was frozen in place for so long that he was startled when there was another activation of the Rift entrance, and this time he saw another squad of Defenders enter – though they moved out of his sightline fast enough that he couldn’t see them clearly.

But he could hear them.

“Where is—?”

“Damn it!  Those bastards got to him!  How did they even know?”

“That’s not important right now.  What matters is that our package is gone; based on the blood and the completely intact Obedience Collar, I can only assume he was eliminated entirely and the corpse thrown down one of the routes.”  There was silence for a moment as something happened, which he couldn’t see from his position, but he felt a burst of some sort of energy disperse through the area.  He was a little worried when it got close to his position, but it disappeared before it touched him.  “I can’t detect any trace of him anywhere close for proof of death.  Grab the Collar and let’s get out of here.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t look around in case he’s—”

“No.  We have our orders, and we need to report this as soon as possible.  It looks like Velipath is going to have to take some time to clean house; there are obviously a couple of rats lurking around, so we’ll probably be quite busy over the next few weeks.”  There was another pause, as Jeremy saw someone reach down and pick the Collar up from the ground so fast that it was basically a blur.  “Alright, let’s go.”

And before he could even think about breathing again, they were gone.

Jeremy’s head collapsed onto the warm stone as the extreme tension left his body and he exhaled loudly in relief.  It worked.  At least as far as I can tell. 

He wasn’t sure how long he laid there, exhausted beyond the physical exertion he’d been forced to participate in through the day.  He might have even slept a little as he recovered, though he couldn’t remember doing so; regardless of whether or not a nap had overtaken him, once he recovered enough from the stress of the last few hours, Jeremy pushed himself up and looked around.

It was then that he started to make some plans.