Chương 20: The Elgon Range

Kayzen raised his palm to block the glare from the setting suns. It felt jarring yet pleasant after coming from the rift which had nothing but grey skies.

"That was exciting, wasn't it? Glad it's all over though," Vasser clenched her fists, still brimming with energy. Before Kayzen could reply the rift behind them shattered with a bang. Fiends and the rift knight which they had fought descended from the air. Tumbling behind them were Derrick, the soldiers, and mercenaries. Well, soldier and mercenary. Only two of them were left.

"Help-" Derrick keeled over and spat a mouthful of blood. The proud and upright man had been reduced to such a broken state. Kayzen rushed to his side and applied the dragon's blood sap over his torn-open lungs. As for the arm that was crushed to paste… there was nothing he could do. On the other side Vasser had already charged at the ghoul. The monster couldn't even react before her gauntlet was on its face.

Just a few hours ago the ghoul with tentacled arms and claw-like hand was a bit of a trouble, but now, it could do nothing but be incinerated under the divine law. Seeing that she was taking her sweet time checking out her new powers, Kayzen decided to work out the loot first. Saving the rift lord's reward when they were together, what remained were the shard fragments. Kayzen looked at the grey fragment in his hand and pondered on how to use it.

Across Erde there should be many like him who were in a similar situation. Unless a sage or someone on the same level figured out a complete operation procedure, they had to stumble around and find whatever use they could from these shard fragments. In Kayzen's case, what he could do was pretty straightforward: Extract records, store records, make hex, and store hex.

He knew that if he searched a bit more it wouldn't be that far-fetched to completely deconstruct the shards, and perhaps even extract new records from within. Records from a different dimension. But all things considered, such a task was too much for the current him. The most he could do right now was to use these shards as portable containers of records. He unceremoniously decided to keep two-thirds of the total for himself.

Not that the shards weren't useful to crusaders, but knowing Vasser, there was no way that she was going to experiment with them. It was better to use them for now in order to increase his arsenal.

'Well, better get started.' Kayzen stood up and walked towards the cracked land. Wasn't there a best target to start the experiments with? The half body of the rift knight was embedded deep within the crater. The creature hadn't turned into grey motes of dust since there was no interference from the rift. There was all the blood he needed to collect and experiment with. He sat down and took out a set of glassware from his Hemogaster backpack.

There wasn't much left since Vasser wasn't exactly gentle with her fists, but fortunately, he managed to scavenge what he was most interested in: Its arms. One of its arms that had three tentacles was in no shape to be used for pretty much anything. So, he looked at the other one, or more specifically, the claw. Its metallic surface was still shining despite the soil and gore around it. Kayzen picked up the meter-long claw and observed its edges.

It wasn't as sharp as he had expected, but the material was hard enough. None of that mattered though since what he wanted to make with them wasn't a weapon, but a hex. Kayzen knelt down beside the corpse and placed the claw above it. With his right hand teeming with the glow of pentagonal hex, he pressed down on the dead rift knight and focused his perception inside its body. Just like many times before, he saw the fuzzy fragments of its records.

The DNA was hard to recognize, but still, it didn't differ that much from those on Erde. Focusing his attention back to the records, Kayzen tried to identify them, and failed. It wasn't unexpected Kayzen didn't get demoralized and instead took out one of the smaller shards they had acquired from the rift. He wanted to use the shard as a container and merge it with the claw. Theoretically, it should be possible to store most of the fiend's records inside the shard and then use it to enhance the claw.

He didn't know much about forging, but smashing a shard fragment against a claw wasn't that hard to accomplish. He placed both objects above the rift knight's corpse and once again tapped into the ever flowing Ether, this time along with the record extraction ability. Like rivers returning to the ocean, the records of the dead fiend flowed back into the shard. Kayzen guessed that this wasn't something unique to him. Anyone who had something similar to a creation-type ability should be able to do it.

The process became much easier after this. The shard now filled with the records of the rift knight became the source. Its claw, the medium. Kayzen used the same method as before and created a new container for his hex. With a dim glow of crimson and green, the claw floated up a foot from the ground level and fell back right after. There wasn't much difference on it compared to before; except that now each of its blades were engraved with a gray pentagonal mark.

With this, he had acquired another card up his sleeve.

"What's that?" Vasser asked as she squatted down beside him. Kayzen wasn't surprised that she was done with the remaining monsters.

"It's a new container for hex. Having the shards makes it easier to experiment on. I'm going to keep most of them if you don't mind." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Yeah, go ahead. I don't want to meddle with these things either way," Vasser shrugged in nonchalance.

"All I need to do is meditate and become a Xin."

"Indeed. I have to absorb the core and become a warden as well. Let's break through together."

"Sounds perfect. Let's get moving!" Vasser stood up and was about to walk away when Kayzen stopped her.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" He showed her the three objects they had gotten after defeating the rift lord. One of them was a bigger rift fragment glowing with brown light, while the other two were a gem and a syringe. The two stood side by side and read the descriptions of the rift artifacts. Gem of Snelheid A natural treasure stolen from the imperial research bureau. Effect: Can be embedded into any item to make it an artifact. Enhances agility and reaction speed.

Use it before it returns to nature once again Gene break Serum An experimental product born from the rebellion. Effect: Upon consumption, 100% chance of random biological mutation. A chimera's favourite food Vasser picked up the green gem while Kayzen stored the syringe and shard in his backpack. Finally, the duo walked towards the fainted Derrick and the other two who were looking at them with nervousness.

"We apologize."

"Yeah, we should have listened to you." The soldier and the mercenary spoke one after another. They had learned, but for most it was too late.

"Never mind that. Can you carry him along? He needs some treatment." Kayzen pointed at Derrick who had fainted due to the blood loss. Seeing the two nod, Vasser and Kayzen took the lead and trekked towards the Elgon range. The path ahead should be safe due to the presence of the rift and the terror of the Angelica. However, one could never be too cautious when out in the wild. … The roar of howling winds echoed off the stone cliffs.

The water of Sambia crashed down into a deep chasm, filling the area with a cool mist. This was the sole passageway that allowed one to cross the Elgon range.

"It's gotten quieter compared to a couple days ago," Vasser spoke as she inhaled the cold wind. She had taken the same route when she came from the oakwood grove in the west.

"Not surprising considering that the rift isn't that far from here. Still, we'd better be cautious." Kayzen added. The two then picked up a good place to drop their supplies while the soldier carried Derrick to a good place to rest. Kayzen sat down on the sleek stone and spread his perception as far as he could. He ignored the sound of crashing water and biting wind and focused on the marks left behind by the living. Breathing, fur, feathers, anything.

He stretched out his perception all the way to 300 meters and scanned the crossing in a fan-shaped arc. It was suspiciously clean. Not a trace of any biological activity was found on the stony cliffs. Kayzen didn't think much deeper on this since there were other immediate concerns, such as his grumbling stomach. He had spent the last day on some guavas and a bunch of candies, and now his body was demanding more nutrients. Fortunately, as his perception went down on the pool he caught the sight of a school of fish.

"Found something?" Vasser asked.

"Nothing that's threatening. There are fish which would make a fine dinner."

"That they would," Vasser grinned and ran to the edge of the cliff. The flow of Sambia had carved the mountain in half and created a hundred-foot-deep chasm below. She took a deep breath and punched down the air. Accompanied by a golden pillar of light the sound akin to a cannon blast echoed through the mountain range, hurling the fish skyward. The fact that they weren't turned into paste proved just how much control she had over the divine laws.

Most of the fish fell back down in the river while a few landed on the cliff. Indeed, this was one way of fishing. The group had already gathered some dried branches along the way, so it didn't take them long to get a bonfire started. Kayzen and Vasser sat close together while the soldier and mercenary sat opposite, fueling the yellow flames from time to time. Vasser cocked her head in curiosity.

"Why did you pack skewers and spices?"

"Bought them all from an expedition team. Even I was surprised by all the things they'd brought along. In a way I guess it was a good decision, might as well enjoy a good meal with all that's going down." Soon the aroma of roasted meat spread across the area. Kayzen handed everyone a skewer and took one himself as well. The taste wasn't exceptional, but he was the best cook among those present.

"How are things in the Ironheart town?"

"It's alright since we had a lot of weapons." The soldier spoke after biting down on the fish.

"Heard there was another rift," added the mercenary.

"Hmm... must have been a new one. There was no news about it back at the castle Qmarz. Is the army there?" Vasser joined the conversation.

"Yeah, we heard about it. Some military folks were camping at our town. Ate half of our supplies, the Baron was grumbling all day until they left." Kayzen chuckled at the remark. That was definitely something Baron Huiyan would do. The man was known for his stinginess across the entire region. The group chatted over the meal and shared what they knew. The name of the soldier and mercenary were Leon and Enrik respectively.

It turned out that Ironheart town was lucky at the start due to it being a local hub of mining and forging weapons. The mutated creatures were killed without much trouble. The real danger came when they discovered two rifts not far from the town. They also talked about what happened inside the rift. The question of how the rift closed or how the monsters crossed over from another dimension remained unanswered. But as he had said, they needed to hurry. By the time the suns set they had decided their next route.

They would cross the Elgon pass and make a beeline for the Ironheart town. It wasn't the best idea to travel at night, especially with the wounded Derrick. Thus, they planned to take a rest for the night resume their journey tomorrow. This place was high enough to be safe from most animals, and the weather was cozy as well. However, there was just a tiny little problem. They weren't the only ones who thought that way. *Caw*Caw*Caw* Rising from the orange horizon a murder of crows flew over the mountain range.

Their red eyes had already caught the sight of the bonfire.