The light reached a point directly in front of the approaching creatures and sharp spear-like roots shot up through the soil. Each root pierced all the way through a rodent, halting its momentum. They were left slightly suspended in the air like disgusting rodent skewers.

  Jack stared in shock as he looked between the rodents and Monty, the man wasn’t even looking at them as he stared out in a different direction. Monty reached over and grabbed one of the spears he had stuck in the dirt. He held it with one hand on each end and snapped it in half.

  Each half started to glow, the one in his left hand reformed into its original shape and Monty stabbed it back into the soil. The one in his right grew thicker, it grew large enough that Jack was sure Monty wouldn’t be able to hold it in his hand anymore. He hefted the now barrel-sized log up and balanced it with one hand, rocking it back and forwards as it glowed. This time the glow seemed to intensify as if Monty was pushing more and more mana into it.

  There was another howl from the right and then another group of horror rats burst into the cleared area. This group was larger than the last but before Jack could count them, Monty lazily pressed the log in their direction.

  It sailed through the air, arcing towards them as they raced towards Monty. When the log hit the ground it exploded outwards, breaking into thousands of sharp splinters that rocketed forward. Monty’s wood shotgun decimated the death wombats, some of them had been reduced to little more than a smear as they were shredded by the exploding log.

  Monty’s head turned as he scanned the area around them, he picked the wooden spear next to him up and launched it forward. The spear whistled slightly as it sped forward into the silent darkness. The silence was broken by a loud whimper and the sound of something large hitting ground.

  Monty stepped back and grabbed the last spear he had prepared, he looked around him and then pointed with the spear to the right.

  “Jack, shockwave right, go” Monty ordered as he turned to the left and launched his last spear into the dark.

  Jack felt panic rush through him for a moment, but the directness and strength of Monty’s order pushed through. He struggled to gather his mana together as his heart raced, he closed his eyes and focused internally. He held his right hand out and pulled the mana through his body preparing to activate his skill. He shaped it the best he could without knowing where to aim and simply opted for a wide cone.

  The mana pulsed through his system as another wave of amplification completed. It was more than he had been practicing with but the combination of speed and fear drove him to think more was better. He pulled that into his palm as well and activated his [Shockwave].

  A wave of force stronger than anything he had produced before exploded from Jack’s palm, the recoil sending him stumbling backwards into the tree next to him. Similar to Monty’s earlier blast some of the dead trees were blasted out of the ground and sent out into the area Jack couldn’t see.

  He heard some of the stumps colliding along with a high-pitched yelp as things tumbled backwards. Adrenaline started to pulse through his body, urging him to move. He looked around and saw Monty repositioning in the center of their little clearing right in front of Jack, keeping himself between any danger and Jack.

  Jack focused on his own body and started to get his mana back under control and began to purge into the area again. Monty was the fighter here, his job was to be the battery so Monty could fight. He stepped back to let Monty do his job while Jack focused on his own.

  Monty took a step back and started to hop from foot to foot. He then took a stance that reminded Jack of some sort of martial arts pose. He held his stance and waited.

  The darkness and silence around them gave a misleading aura of stillness, betrayed only by the destruction that was visible in their dim light. A low growl sounded from directly in front of Monty, the hairs on Jack's neck stood up and a chill ran down his spine.

  From the dark a massive four legged creature stepped forward slowly, one massive paw slowly entering their light. That one paw was bigger than Jack’s head, and as it slowly prowled forward Jack held in a gasp at the creature's full size.

  Even crouched low to the ground as it stalked forward eyes locked on Monty, it was still almost as tall as the man. Its fur was matted and torn, chunks missing with scarred claw marks showing beneath. The remaining fur was a dirty brown with chunks of rotted vegetation mixed throughout.

  It slightly resembled the lupine creature from the briefing that they had referred to but this was less animal and more monster. Its snout seemed stretched, and was filled with dirty decaying fangs that dripped a black saliva.

  Its body was lean but powerful, each step it took forward exposed the rippling muscles across its body. The monster's eyes were terrifying, Jack had to look away as he felt his body start to freeze up as he stared. He almost thought they might have a paralysing effect. The eyes were wolf like, there was no white, instead a dark black filled the space around a bright orange glowing iris and a blood red pupil.

  Monty remained still, not moving his eyes away from the creature as it approached. Jack believed in Monty, he had to after all. If Monty didn’t win Jack was dead, it was hard to imagine anyone being able to defeat this massive beast, especially without any weapons.

  The monster tensed, looking as if it was about to pounce and Jack felt Monty pull on the mana surrounding them. Normally it felt like there was a breeze flowing towards Monty when he absorbed mana in the past, now it felt like gale.

  All of the mana that Jack had been generating for the last few hours was pulled towards Monty all at once, so much so that he started to glow.

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  With one simple but powerful movement, he pivoted, twisting his whole body forward as he threw a fist forward. From the end of his fist as it snapped to a stop, a massively compressed shockwave was shot forward. All of the mana he had absorbed had been pushed through and turned into a blast that was so controlled it matched the size of his fist exactly.

  Jack looked at the giant lupine horror, or what remained of it. Monty’s shockwave had left a perfect hole bored directly through it, from snout to tail. The creature's tensed body had no time to react and simply collapsed to the ground.

  Monty turned to Jack and winked.

  “He was pretty big wasn’t he? Haha. You did well, Jack.” Monty said as he scanned the area.

  “Sit down and take a breath, we should be ok here for a little bit. Just give me a second.” Monty walked off to the right, in the direction that Jack had sent his own shockwave earlier. Jack waited and a few moments later he heard a whine and then Monty returned to the clearing and sat down next to him.

  “What the hell was that thing? Was it the boss?” Jack asked.

  Monty took a deep breath and leaned back a little, stretching out his body.

  “No, that wasn’t the Rift Guardian. He is likely a similar size though. I would hazard a guess that it was a mutated version of the normal rift creatures. Rare and much more powerful than the normal creatures but still not on the level of a Rift Guardian, I probably went a little overboard. You have to be careful with mutated creatures, they have abilities and that black stuff on his fangs was likely very bad news.”

  “Wait… You mean the Rift Guardian is going to be bigger? And stronger than that thing? Isn't this meant to be like the lowest tier rift? That thing was a monster.” Jack said. He could feel the absence of life mana in the air and tried to make sure he was still purging to replenish the mana Monty used.

  “The Rift Guardian will be different to that thing but yes likely. This is a low ranked rift, but even then rifts are normally closed with groups of at least ten members. Ahh now here we go Jack, watch.” Monty said as he pointed at the corpse of the large beast.

  Jack’s mind was still reeling with how nonchalantly Monty had handled the creature. In his old life if a wolf of that size had been seen anywhere people would have been worshipping it, the thing could have eaten him in two bites.

  Monty had punched in its general direction and blown a hole through its entire body, then sat down and started to chat as if it was a normal occurrence for him. Jack had underestimated how strong Monty was, severely but he would not do that again.

  Jack shook his head as he looked at the corpse that Monty pointed at, as he stared it started to almost dissolve as it seemed to turn into a mist. As it did he noticed the other bodies around him doing the same thing, and the concentration of death mana in the area increased.

  As the large beast's body finally faded away fully, there was a bright light and a popping sound as something appeared in the air and fell to the ground.

  “Go on Jack, go and get your first piece of ‘Loot’.” Monty smiled at Jack.

  Jack however was not moving from his safe comfortable spot, a massacre had just taken place and he could barely see more than a ten meter radius around him.

  “I’m good. It’s yours anyway I didn't do anything.” Jack replied. The thought of ‘Loot’ was pretty enticing but not worth risking his safety for.

  Monty laughed and stood up, walking over and picking up the object. He turned back and looked at it before dropping it in Jack’s lap.

  “Pick it up and think about connecting it to the Origin, like when you bring up your stats. Sometimes when creatures have come into contact with Origin essence somehow, they will mutate or evolve. If they do then there is a chance that when they are defeated a relic will be formed using that essence. I would assume the Origin wants you to have this, I have no use for it.” Monty said.

  Jack looked down at the ring that was dropped into his lap. It was a simple thick black band. There were engravings all over the inner side of the ring, while the exterior was a smooth polished finish. He did as Monty said and felt a flood of information enter his mind.

  [Mana Infused Ring of Soothing (Death)]

  The wearer gains a Minor Resistance to mental status effects derived from the infused mana type (Death). This creates a mental buffer against skill-based psychic attacks and passive environmental effects.

  Jack looked up at Monty with a shocked look on his face but Monty simply motioned for him to put it on. Jack slid the ring onto the pointer finger on his left hand. He waited for a moment, expecting some sort of binding or feedback from the ring, he felt nothing physical.

  He did notice that the environment around him no longer felt as dark, as if his eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could start making out shapes in the distance. The oppressive tickle of fear he had felt since arriving here also faded from his mind.

  “Huh… that is… strange. Why don’t you need this?” Jack asked.

  “Jack. I am very very well off. I have had custom relics crafted specifically for me. I would have to forgo one of them to utilise that one. It should be useful for you. Relics are fairly rare, more so because groups that obtain them are much larger than ours and there is competition for them. The essence can be extracted from them by a skilled craftsman and they can be reused or moulded to fit another purpose if they do not suit the owner.” Monty slid down the tree next to Jack and leaned back again.

  “Regardless, this one is yours for now. You said you did nothing but that is not true. I could probably have defeated all of the creatures we encountered with just the gems I had on me. But It would have been riskier and I would have had to have held back. We would also have to leave the rift right now to recharge. With you here, I didn't have to hold back at all. It was much safer for all of us, and I still have my gems as a fall back while we wait for your mana to build up again.” He patted Jack on the shoulder.

  “Do not underestimate your role in this. It may seem passive, but you are empowering me while we are here and without you I couldn’t hope to clear this rift alone, not even with a full crew. If we have the chance I will let you gain some real experience as well. Your shockwave before was good, it was powerful considering it is still Tier 0. You will need to work on your shape though, the spread was too wide to utilise the power efficiently.”

  Jack wanted to respond and complain about being put on the spot, but that was the whole point of training in the first place wasn't it. He nodded along, knowing he would have to work on his shape but now was not the time for internal revelations.

  “Let’s have a little food, rest up and get some more mana flowing here. Then I think we can say phase one of this expedition is completed and a success. Then we can move on to phase two. Hunting down the Rift Guardian and getting you a riftshard.” Monty said as he leaned back and opened his pack.