Henrik Saetre
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Riftside - chapter 1
🕑 Added 2025-02-16 20:45:55 +0000 UTC“Today we are fielding three adventuring parties and three scavenger groups,” a commanding voice said, speaking over the hushed whispers. It belonged to a man who had dedicated all of his life to adventuring and keeping people safe: Commander Edwin Rothers. “This afternoon, I expect to see the same number return home from the dungeon. Remember, this run isn't about glory or loot.”
It kind of is, though. Loot, that is. At least for me.
I shifted on my feet, excited to go out on my first dungeon run.
“The Twisted Titan's spawn rates are threatening to overwhelm the rift staging base. Our mission is simple: cull the numbers to reduce the pressure on our walls, and return home alive and well. And no, don't even try going after any variants. I'm looking at you, Richard. You and your group especially.”
The group chuckled, and so did the rest of those present. It was important to stress the danger but also keep the mood light whenever possible. The commander’s voice carried across Sentinel Station's gathering yard, his words as crisp as the morning air. He was a broad-shouldered man wearing stone-grey plate armor that encased his whole body. The man stood ramrod straight atop a steelhusk tree stump, both hands leaning on his massive tower shield. His tone was as grave as the heavy scarring running down the left side of his face.
A larger than life warrior.
I'd love to get a closer look at the riveting on his chest plate. If Pa could make that in the forge, we'd make a fortune. Wonder what monster material it's made out of…
His sharp gaze swept over us—thirty faces in total, fifteen adventurers and fifteen scavengers. One day I'd be among the adventurers, not relegated to scavenging duties, but that day was still a ways out.
My gaze drifted past him to the massive shape dominating the horizon as he continued. The Twisted Titan was truly massive and spawned more monsters than any other dungeon within the rift. It was a colossal steelhusk tree that stretched up into the clouds, its bulk somehow both magnificent and wrong at the same time. The right side looked dead, massive sheets of bark peeling away like rust on plate mail while the left writhed with life and purpose. Purple-black veins of corruption ran across both sides.
“We'll move in formation: the three adventurer groups take point, creating a forward triangle. Scavenger teams will maintain a minimum fifty-yard distance behind us and focus on their designated groups. Your job is resource gathering and trash mob cleanup only. Do not—I repeat—do not engage primary targets or attempt to assist in main combat scenarios. Greed and glory are your two worst enemies out here, not the monsters. Got it?”
My heart hammered against my ribs in excitement, and I nodded with a smile.
Ten good carcasses is all I'm asking for. Just enough to fill my spatial storage and get out alive.
I scratched the magical tattoo on my left wrist as Edwin droned on about positioning and allocation. Maybe it was just my imagination, but an empty storage always felt off when I was riftside, and now, more so than ever.
Only dungeon runs I'd been to were those already cleared and mapped-out. It was as exciting and profitable as forging horseshoes, but this? This was the real deal.
Ma thought I was crazy, but I knew Pa understood. He got the same way if too much time passed without him hammering metal, and since we were just starting out in a new place, we needed all the work we could get.
I looked back at the Branchway rift, set in the center of the base camp. Six months ago it had appeared, and all kinds of monsters poured into our world. After the adventuring guild and the royal army dealt with the initial surge, the king had sent out a call for pioneers to settle, defend, and explore the new rift. Couldn't have been better timed for us after what happened with the old forge.
But now we were here and ready to start a new life.
A barely touched rift, unexplored and waiting to be looted. I frowned at the forty-foot-wide circle standing straight. More perfectly round than anything forged. And damn, the thing was so thin from the side it could cut like nothing's business.
If only they'd let me use it to trim steel, we could quadruple production. But they wouldn't let anyone mess with the rift. The liquid-like green surface was off-limits for anything but passing through.
I took a deep breath of the riftside forest air. The steelhusk trees made it taste differently. Metallic and sharp, a bit like the forge. It was an acquired taste, one that I’d learned to enjoy.
“If there are no more questions, we leave by the west gate in five minutes. Gear up.”
Edwin's words snapped me back to attention as the various groups dissolved to make final preparations before we headed out.
I wandered towards one of Sentinel Station's two heavy gates, set in the palisade anchored between massive steelhusks. Every day monsters attacked the camp's defenses, seeking to enter our world, but so far they never managed to get through but for the initial surge. There were never many of them, but day in day out the numbers steadily grew.
Next to the gate stood the Soul Tablet, and I joined the line of scavengers slowly passing it by taking the chance to glance at their statistics before heading out. Some hid it from view, keeping their details a secret, while some bragged.
When it was my turn, I touched my palm to the black surface, and my information appeared on the tablet.
NAME: Ash Aldrich
LEVEL: 3 (1/4)
STRENGTH: 14
AGILITY: 11
VITALITY: 12
MIND: 11
TOTAL STATS: 48
The work in the smithy had paid of, and with eight points above the average guy my age, I had nothing to be ashamed of.
Not caring if the next in line saw, I passed through the gate and stared across the killing field, the others milling around me. Two hundred yards of cleared ground dotted with steelhusk stumps, followed by the beautiful and thick forest. One that was hiding untold riches. The metallic ring of steelhusk breakers sounded from the two logging teams working under heavy guard to expand the wide open space, and to bring the valuable material back through the rift to Dawnwatch.
“Stand firm until we're back, baby,” Garrett said and demonstrably kissed the scarred palisade, drawing laughs from both Finn and Nina. I shook my head at the leader of our scavenger group but couldn't quite hide a grin.
Silly bastard.
“Don't you judge me,” he said, hefting his shield and spear. “Twenty years as a city guard and nine times out of ten it got me safely home to my wife, every time.”
“And the other?” Finn asked, tapping his brass knuckles on his short sword.
“Only right for a man to visit a tavern now and then, ain't it?”
Eryn, our fifth member, rolled her eyes at me as Finn laughed.
“Yes, but—” Nina's comment was interrupted by the clang of a bell and everyone stopped.
Once.
My stomach tensed and I reached across my shoulder, grabbing the haft of my two-handed axe. Then the bell rang again.
Twice.
We waited for a long moment, but the third clang never came.
“That's for us! Head out!” Edwin called out, and I relaxed.
The scouts that had gone to the Twisted Titan had returned, giving our group the all clear that we could head out.
“You all ready for today?” Garrett said, growing serious as we left the camp's safety behind.
“Ready and eager,” I said. “We'll finally get a chance at proper loot.”
“You heard the commander,” Nina chided. “Don't take any—”
“I know, I know. Our goal is to reduce the attacks on the camp and risk of them breaking through to the village. But be honest, Nina. Aren't you a little excited for some proper loot?”
“Sure, but it won't do us no good if we die,” she replied and nudged me with her shoulder.
“Don't talk like that,” Eryn said, tapping Nina's back with her composite shortbow. “Nobody dies on my watch, alright? I’ll wrap you all up in bandage and make mummies out of you.”
“No offense, but until you get a healing class all I see is an archer, and not a good one at that,” Nina laughed.
“Hey, hey!” Garrett said. “Ladies. Teammates.” He interlaced his fingers. “Strong together, yeah?”
“Yes, Garrett,” the two said in unison, and I swear they both rolled their eyes even though I couldn’t see their faces.
“Now, when we get back, fight all you like. But out here?”
“We all pull in the same direction,” Nina said, exasperated, tapping her spear.
It was an old repurposed lance that had seen better days, but it was good enough to ram through most enemies.
“That's right,” Garrett said and smiled at our 'healer'.
“So,” Eryn said, falling into step beside me, adjusting her blonde ponytail. “What's the blacksmith's apprentice looking for today?”
“Materials. Always materials,” I replied and smiled up at the distant dungeon barely visible through the foliage. “This is my chance to get something good. Something to get our head above the water on the payments for the smithy. Maybe even a mind gem for myself.”
“Just one?”
“I'm one away from level four now.”
“Ahh, I see.” A knowing smile tugged at her lips. “You are such a rifthead.”
Despite how comfortable I felt around Eryn, heat still crept up my neck and I chuckled. We hadn’t pushed it further than going out for a drink a few times, but there was definitely something. I may be young, but I wasn’t blind.
“Aren't we all in a way?”
“True.”
“What about you?”
Eryn sighed, gazing in among the thick trees flanking the path.
“Don't tell Nina, but she's not wrong.”
“Bet that hurts.”
“You have no idea.” Eryn bounced me with her elbow, grumbling as all she did was send herself stumbling. “Damn you and your muscles,” she grumbled.
“Don't damn the thing potentially standing between you and a bunch of ravaging monsters. Especially when it's this amazing,” I said and grinned at her.
She huffed, but I knew it was good-natured.
“So, how many do you need?” I asked, relaxed, knowing the adventurers were spread out in a wide V formation out front.
“Too many. Three more to level five, and then, you know, another forty until I get to level ten.”
“Not to mention the class gem,” Finn said, falling back to join us. “We talking gems, right?”
I nodded.
He held up two fingers.
“Then I'll hit level six. What about you guys? Garrett? Nina?”
“Only one little sweet gem away from nine!” Garrett said proudly.
“Oh! I hadn't heard,” Nina said. “Congratulations.”
Garrett held up his hand.
“No. Don't jinx me. Nothing's done until it's done. And as Finn said, I'll still need the class gem.”
“Better than me at least,” Nina said. “I just hit level five.”
“Then you're only three gems ahead,” Eryn said. “I'll be a proper healer before you, just wait and see.”
“Difference is I can fight, now. I don't need to wait for my class to be useful,” Nina muttered as she glared at Eryn.
“You're such a bitch,” Eryn said, and they both broke into laughter.
I shared a glance with Finn and just shrugged.
“So, what'll you do when you get your class?” he asked me.
“I'm going all the way up to sixty,” I said without a hint of hesitation.
And I'm going to get there before any of you even get to thirty. Just watch me.
“Oh?” Eryn raised an eyebrow. “Didn't know you were that ambitious.”
Finn chuckled.
“What are you, some secret noble? No way some blacksmith can afford enough mind gems to hit sixty. Let alone all the class gems for the breakthroughs.”
I just smiled at him. It didn't matter what people thought. I would get there through sheer will and tenacity. Unless a giant monster stepped on me or something, but I pushed that thought away as I didn't want to jinx myself.
“What else? Might as well get yourself a soulforged weapon, set up a new guild, and carve out a rift for yourself!”
Nina laughed at how ridiculous her words sounded, but it didn't matter.
They didn't know Ma had bought a tenth mind gem yesterday, from Victor, the alchemist. Nor how I had used it to upgrade my spatial storage. I'd be higher level than Finn if I'd used the gems for level ups instead. But now? With twice the storage capacity I would hopefully blaze ahead.
Wonder who will notice my new eye sigil first.
Soon I'd leave the scavengers and join those up ahead.
The adventurers.
I looked at them, the ones who would slay the monsters, and thought of the looks they got. How people treated them. And the gear they wore. Brilliant. I wanted that, too. Yearned for it. Then I could truly help my family. Change their lives forever, and nobody would force us out again.
As Garrett launched into another of his tales, something about a drunk noble and a chicken, Eryn bumped me again.
“Are you scared?” she whispered with a wink.
“Not really.” I shook my head, lying. “This close to a rift, the dungeon should be well within the level requirements for the adventurers. I think today is going to be one of the best and most profitable days of our lives.”
Any new monster we managed to bring back home would pay multiples. Not all types of monsters made a run on the rifts, and any new discoveries were highly valuable.
The Twisted Titan loomed closer with every step, and somewhere in its depths, gold in the shape of monsters waited.
A while later, we stood at the base of the Twisted Titan. My head was tilted back until my neck hurt.
There at its feet, the sheer wrongness of it hit harder than from the distance. All thirty of us gathered in loose clusters, our boots crunching on the dead-looking soil, mist curling around our feet.
Of course it smells of mold and death. Why wouldn't it? Eww.
Nothing grew within fifty yards of the trunk as if the tree itself was sapping all life away. If one of its gigantic branches broke off, it'd probably squash us all.
Gods. Wouldn't that be a way to go out, huh? Killed by a tree.
“Tall son of a bitch, ain't it?” Garrett said.
“About the size of my—” Finn started.
“Shortsword?” Nina finished for him, and Eryn chuckled as she checked her bow's string for the umpteenth time.
I spit into the palms of my gloves and ran them along the haft of my axe, preparing for whatever was to come. We'd only encountered several small groups of monsters on our way to the dungeon, and they’d been easily taken care of and looted by the adventurers. Two of the monsters managed to get through, but none had gone for our party. That only left more room in our storage for any new type of monster.
Garrett shifted beside me, his speartip tracking up along the tree.
“Quiet morning.”
“Seems the scouts spoke true,” Eryn said. “As long as we head back before a new wave can form, then we’re—”
“Gather,” Commander Edwin's voice resounded. “Form up by the portal.”
The gateway looked tiny against the Titan's base, but it still had to be at least the size of the Branchway. Though this was a swirling darkness shot through with purple lightning, there was no green in sight. The corruption veins in the bark all seemed to flow toward it, like rivers of poison feeding a blackened sea.
I suppressed a shiver, but a bit of fear was always good. Made us think twice before we did anything stupid.
The Commander raised his tower shield.
“Adventurers, triangle formation. Since this is our first time in this dungeon, we stick to the basics. Watch your backs, call your targets, maintain sight lines. Now, let's show them what the people of Noros do to monsters!”
With a cheer, the fifteen adventurers stepped forward, spreading into their three groups of five. Heavy infantry in front, ranged support behind, the practiced formations of people who knew their business. Their gear was solid—a few pieces forged by Pa's hands, and some even aided by my own. A sense of pride washed over me, and I smiled inwardly.
“Scavengers,” Edwin continued, “Minimum safe distance. Portal defence and looting are your priorities. If anything above a trash mob makes it past us, do not throw your lives away. Are we clear?”
“Clear,” Garrett answered for our group. The other scavenger team-leaders replied as well.
Edwin nodded and stepped through the portal, the darkness swallowing him soundlessly.
One by one, the adventurers followed. My heart hammered in my chest as our turn came. Finn went first, then Nina, Garrett, and Eryn.
I stepped into blackness last and my world twisted.
