Chương 227: Realm Breach Part 1

"Finally," Inara Tynan said as she caught her breath after running out of the forest into Damion's camp.

"I really thought you would have been closer. We searched all night."

"Why?" Damion and Thomas said in unison, causing the two of them to glare at each other.

"I told you he would be the one setting a fire. We should have come straight to the smoke, but no, you said he was smarter than that. He's C Rank, he doesn't need to worry about…"

"Enough Ronald," Inara cut the Wood mage off before continuing.

"We found something and would like your help with it."

"He'll just steal all the credit. Why don't you let me, Yuri and Geoffrey help you instead," Thomas cut in before Damion could respond.

"I think there might be plenty to go around. I have no qualms about anyone helping that wants to help," Inara said, though inwardly she was cursing that Thomas Sorin, and his pinheaded followers were at Damion's camp. She wanted to work with them about as much as she wanted a hit in the head. Unfortunately, since the three of them were already here, all they had to do was follow them to find out what was going on.

'Perhaps, Mage Sorin and his pinheads will want to outdo Damion and jump into the Breach and rid us of their stupidity,' Inara thought as she waited for Damion to respond.

"Sounds like you have something quite challenging in mind," Damion said.

"What is it that you and Mage Anderson found?"

"A Realm Breach." The declaration startled Damion and for a brief moment, he did not want to believe it, but a quick look at Ronald, who was nodding his head, told him they were telling the truth.

"You seemed in a hurry to find me, is it an Unstable Breach?"

"We don't know," Ronald blurted.

"There weren't any signs of Demonic Beasts in the area, but maybe they hadn't come out yet."

"More likely, when the school cleared out all the high Rank creatures from the area for our test, they cleared out the Demonic Beasts too, but did not bother to find the Breach," Thomas scoffed.

"Or maybe they did, and it was low Rank, so they left it for us," Inara offered, before Ronald could inform everyone that the Breach had appeared after the first day.

"Well, if it is low Rank, I won't be able to help you. I can't go into a low Rank Breach and if it is a C Rank or higher, while I could go in, would you all really want to go in there with me?"

"Saying you can't protect anyone in a C Rank Breach?" Thomas japed.

"I'm saying it will depend on the Rank of the Breach if I will be of any help."

"Sure," Thomas' one word response was filled with sarcasm, but Damion did not rise to the bait.

"Inara, show me the way and we'll split all the rewards fifty/fifty." If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Inara ignored Thomas and looked to Damion for an answer to her request.

"Show me the way. We can negotiate terms once we figure out if I can help or not," Damion told her. As much as he would like to go into a Breach, he doubted he would be able to enter it. If Inara was right, and the Breach was intentionally left uncleared by the school, it meant it was probably only E Rank or at best D Rank. Damion could not see the school leaving a Breach in the area that was C Rank or higher, especially not if it was a Stable Breach.

"It will take around two hours to walk there," Inara told Damion.

"Do you mind if we have a bit of a rest first?"

"Go ahead," Damion said motioning towards his campfire.

"I'll just pack up my things. Once you are ready just say the word." Damion started pulling his gear and other items around his camp into his personal spatial storage, but when Thomas and his cronies saw him pulling everything in they were incredibly jealous. In all the talk about a Breach being found, the three of them had forgotten he had a spatial artifact, and he was wasting its potential by storing his camping supplies.

After a quick huddle among the three of them, Yuri, being the one with the least reason to hate him, approached Damion with a proposition.

"Mage Wells, would it be um, possible to maybe rent some space in your storage artifact?" Damion looked at Yuri with genuine confusion. It was a big ask, after all, Damion and Yuri's group had disagreed since day one of the school year. On one hand, Damion considered himself a nice guy, but on the other, he really wanted to be a jerk back to them. However, he thought there might be a different solution.

"I'll store as much as you want, but I get half," Damion told Yuri, while looking at Thomas.

"Half is too much," Thomas responded.

"A quarter. That way it is split between the four of us evenly." Damion thought about it for a moment. The terms were acceptable, but he wanted to make sure Thomas was not trying to sneak one past him.

"I get a quarter of whatever you three kill to keep for myself. If any Ice affinity, Light or Holy affinity beasts are killed, those automatically go towards my share. And," Damion added before Thomas could agree, "anything I kill, is mine alone." The troublemaking trio looked at each other, they wanted to argue, but they knew they were unlikely to be able to negotiate better terms.

Worse, if Damion really wanted to be a jerk, he could just follow them around and kill anything they encountered before they had a chance.

"Agreed," Thomas said. Yuri and Geoffrey both nodded their heads as well.

"Great," Damion said happily. Now he had a method to get some resources for his planned artifact. The materials he needed did not have to be from high Rank Ferocious or Demonic Beasts. The testing crystals showed that as long as the enchantments were carefully laid out, he did not need to fear overloading the artifact and causing it to self-destruct.

He was designing a scanning device, it would not be used in combat, so E Rank or D Rank materials would more than suffice, even F Rank would probably be useable, the key was making sure he designed the enchantments properly so the mana could flow through without overwhelming the materials.

"Great. Now that we are all friends, would you mind sharing a ration pack with me?" Ronald asked.

"Where is your kit?" Damion asked the Wood mage.

"I, ah, lost it." Thomas and his group burst out laughing at Ronald's misfortune, but a glare from Damion shut them up.

"How did you manage that?"

"I was trying to set up camp and had to run away from bees."

"And you left your pack behind?"

"We tried to go back to find it, but then…"

"Then we found the Breach," Inara cut in.

"And we did not want to spend too much time around it, so we headed in search of you."

"Is your pack near around the area where the Breach is?" Damion asked.

"Yes. Maybe a hundred or so yards away. In a tree."

"Phil. Go look for a Breach. Once you find the Breach, look for Ronald's pack." The Snow Hawk chirped an affirmative and was about to set off when Ronald spoke up.

"It should be not far from where you saved me from that big green snake Ferocious Beast."