Chương 27

Alex's first thought was, for whatever reason— this guy's irritatingly good-looking in person. He was a little concerned Beckett might pick up something strange in his face, but the guy's focus was quickly drawn to something else.

"That's the rift?" said Beckett, arms crossed.

"Sure is," said Alex, hopefully in a natural way. Beckett smiled." Alright!"

"Beckett's only been an Awakened for four days," Clarissa said to Alex.

"It's his first rift. He's capable for his Level, but you should know upfront there's aspects of delving he won't understand." She looked Alex in the eyes this time; she'd seemed on the verge of an apology for a bit, but he got the impression she was trying to step right around her embarrassment, and continue onward. Which— sure. He was thinking about something else she'd said. Four days? It was exactly the amount of time Alex had been an Awakened, coincidentally. She'd also said Beckett was a local.

It felt unbelievable that the guy had gone from Awakening ago in Stark City, to being recruited to a top-flight New York City guild, in all of four days, but Alex tabled the thought. He had a more urgent suspicion.

"So what's your—" He almost said, what are your affinities?, but remembered what that Adam had said; apparently asking that was pretty rude. He saved it with—"What build are you working with?"

"I'm not 100% set on it, but I'm liking spear-wielding," said Beckett easily.

"I'm a bit of a hybrid. I like a fair share of pure mage-related stuff." Alex nodded, although he wasn't really paying attention to what Beckett was saying; he'd wanted to ask what Beckett's affinities and talents were, but of course— he listed them on his bio. Very high/exceptional Fire, high lightning, S cultivation. You're kidding. Beckett was giving him a slightly bemused look.

"What's up?" said Alex quickly.

"He asked you a question," said one of the prospects.

"Oh," said Alex.

"What was it?"

"Just, what about you," said Beckett, laughing.

"Swordsman, with some Pure mana and Force mana."

"In F-rank?" said Clarissa; she seemed surprised.

"Yeah?" said Alex. She hesitated.

"Can I Identify you?" she said, and he shrugged.

"Go ahead." She did, and he felt a faint sensation in his soul, like it'd been tapped, lightly, by something external.

"Level 3?" Clarissa seemed even more surprised, and slightly troubled.

"Is there a problem?" said Alex. She gave him a conflicted look.

"It's usually not a good idea to try a mana-plus-weapon build at F-rank," she said.

"Especially this early. Beckett's an exception. That said, it's not an unfixable mistake…" she trailed off; she seemed distracted. Alex recalled kal, his warrior teammate, saying something similar—spellswords were usually pretty hard to pull off, especially early. He declined to explain beyond another shrug, which she didn't see.

"We're digressing. If you're Level 3—I'm assuming you're also new," she said.

"And this is also your first rift?"

"It is." She glanced at him, then at Beckett. She seemed genuinely unsure.

"We'll be fine," said Beckett.

"Worst comes to worst, we'll stay in the starting zone." A silence. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"C'mon, Claire! You can't drag me out of bed for this, and say I can't delve," said the guy.

"That's cruel."

"The fact is you're two Level 3's in your first rift," she said sharply.

"And it's a two-star rift—the average rift creature will be a Level higher than you."

"Yeah, but they've never met the likes of me before," said Beckett. He said it with a grin, less like a brag and more like he was trying to amuse her. It didn't work. She scowled.

"If you can't take this seriously—""I will," Beckett said, sobering up.

"I swear. I really will. As will—as will Alex here, I'm sure."

"For what it's worth," said Alex, shrugging—he sensed a bit of weakness.

"I've invested a lot into this, pretty much all the money I had, like I said. All I'm asking is that you honor the listing your Guild put up. That's all." He wasn't really above using a bit of pity. He really needed that potential rift money. He wasn't sure if that was what did it, but—"Okay," said Clarissa, finally.

"We'll delve." As Beckett's'yes!

'—"But I want to go through a few instructions first," she said.

"First, obviously, stay on your side of the rift as I'm conducting evaluations. The starting zone, like Beckett said, is usually the safest area in the rift. If anything goes wrong, I want you to retreat there and send me distress signals by willing mana into this." She handed the two of them small transparent crystals. Alex put his in the interspatial ring with all his new gear.

"You have two hours, from rift entry, to delve and loot; that's how long the evaluations will take. At the end of those two hours, I'll solo the final Boss and we'll meet back in the starting zone." Beckett saluted her instructions. She gave them one last uncertain glance, before—"Guys," she said, faltering.

"This is on my record, too, so—please, keep your standards high? Especially you." Alex was a little surprised she was actually pleading. She directed the last bit at Beckett.

"You're a representative of Echelon. Please remember that." Beckett assured her he would. She went to address the Aegis prospects. Beckett gave Alex a secret grin, like— it's on. Then she gestured for them to follow, and they all walked into the rift. Alex was so preoccupied with his other thinking that he hadn't really considered the idea that he was actually leaving his dimension until he was seconds away from doing it. He paused for just a second in front of the rift, and he wasn't the only one.

"Insane," whispered Beckett, his face blue with reflected light.

"After you?" Alex went. For a second the world distorted before his eyes; he felt an instant of vertigo. It all stabilized, and his foot crunched into stable ground. It felt like he'd stepped into an icebox. The temperature difference was stark. There was a sun shining bright overhead. He was standing in a clearing in a forest, but it was like a forest in late spring. There was snow on the branches, and icicles here and there, slowly melting. Another icy environment?

This world instantly felt different in a way he would've had difficulty articulating before, but now he knew what it was. This world was filled with mana. He felt it when he focused. The air, the icy patches on the ground—everything. Except it didn't feel exactly like the v-dueling environment. It felt more real, slightly but noticeably, which— of course it does. It is real. You'd also feel everything slightly more in real life versus v-Space, supposedly.

Which included pain from any attacks you'd take, which he wanted to be aware of. So far, zero rift creatures in his line of sight. Zero creatures of any kind besides the other Awakened. He wasn't sure about how he felt about the prevalence of the ice—it wasn't his favorite mana type to deal with. He felt like he was dealing with a lot of coincidences today. Beckett stumbled in after him, and Clarissa gave the two of them a nod.

"Jason, Alice, follow me," she said. She and her prospects left. Which left Alex and the guy he was trying not to think of as tired_killua in the clearing. Alex took a breath, saw it frosting in the air in front of him. His new sword was already at his hip and his Wisdom-boosting ring was on his right hand. Beckett had geared up before he'd entered as well. It was delving time, and they certainly looked the part—well, Beckett, anyway, with that full set of what Alex was sure was very expensive armor.

Alex glanced at Beckett, who was marveling at the world around them, and debated asking. I probably already know the answer to this, he told himself. But he felt he had to ask.

"Before we start," said Alex.

"You didn't happen to Awaken at the Stark City Delver's Association, did you?"

"Yeah, I did. Why do you ask?" Fuck.

"We might've Awakened a few hours apart," said Alex, with his mouth. But in his mind he was saying, fuck me, he's the other Outworlder. I literally heard about him as I was waiting for my Awakening.

"Really?" Beckett beamed.

"Wait, that's actually wild. Did you do yours with this guy in a Green Day T-shirt? He was so nice!"

"I had a bit of a different experience," said Alex.

"Actually, nevermind."

"Is that what you were holding back?" Alex froze.

"What do you mean?" Beckett gave him a guileless smile.

"Just seems like you had something on your mind."

"Yeah, pretty much," said Alex. What he'd had on his mind was really that if he accidentally let slip he was arcstyrion, in a sealed-off pocket dimension, there was a nonzero chance this guy might actually try to kill him. Okay, probably a bit dramatic, but still. No wonder he was acting like he was in that IG reel, Alex realized. The guy woke up one day and had world-class talents, and probably was instantly recruited as a Chosen into one of the best Guilds in the world for it.

Of course he thinks he's the main character. Alex was about to think something along the lines of, I'd be like that too, if I had that happen to me— except for the fact that he did have almost exactly this happen to him. Except for the 'instantly being selected by a top-class Guild, and being showered with gear,' and whatnot. Which also raised several other questions in Alex's mind.

He was almost certain his specific set of talents—borderline exceptional affinity, and borderline very high affinity, were incredibly rare. He was assuming this was still the case, and this Beckett was a coincidence. Feel like I've entered some alternate reality.

"By the way," said Beckett, tilting his head.

"I'm an Outworlder. Just so you know." A silence. Alex's brain took a second to process that the guy actually said that. And then—"... Why tell me that?"

"Oh, y'know," said Beckett. He grinned.

"Feels like you're still holding something back, and now I'm curious. Seems like you really didn't want to share. So I thought I'd share first." His eyes met Alex's.

"Your turn."