(The Next Day)
"I'm going to go outside now!" I shouted in front of our door while wearing a white shirt and black pants while my parents watch the television.
"Take care of yourself, remember to come home before 5 pm," said my father as I nodded in response and opened the door and head out while closing it on the way outside.
As I went to walked out of the gate, the area I was in rapidly changed with me appearing in front of a blue portal along with people wearing combat-oriented armor beside me with my appearance being that of a battle-hardened warrior.
"Danger level of the portal?" I asked while my whole body got covered in a suit of white armor as I felt my body rapidly getting stronger.
"Sir, it's approximately rank B to A," said the man wearing the Hunter Agency uniform while holding a tablet that shows a rapidly changing letter that switches between both B and A.
"Mmm, I'll go first in alone and you guys go inside after my signal," I said while I put on my helmet and walk through the portal without hesitation and felt my body going through a weird membrane of sorts and got greeted by the sight of a wide-open jungle.
As I look around the place in wonder, I remembered the basics of how the dungeon works, you just basically need to kill a certain number of monsters along with a boss monster and the rift will open again, but there were some exceptions like Alpha monsters.
With a grin behind my mask, my whole vision changed to heat and x-ray vision to hurriedly look around the relatively large forest and saw a horde of Giants in the distance walking around with gigantic clubs.
"Giants, an A rank monster normally the size of 10 meters and sometimes even more, with the Boss ranging from 20 – 50 meters. They are physically strong beings but very weak to elemental attacks such as fire" I muttered while I pointed my finger toward the group of Giants in the distance.
"Ha!" I shouted as a beam of fire shot from my hand towards the giants and with one hit, 3 of them were beheaded while the other 5 managed to dodge the beam.
But that wasn't the end as the beam changed in direction and shot towards their heads once more and in the end, the other five were beheaded just like that with the only one left being the Boss monster who wasn't with the group.
"Hup," I said and hop towards the air with a single kick to look around for the Boss giant and saw its head sticking out from the forest of trees.
With a grin, flames started to gather at the palm of my hands like a blazing inferno with the Giant noticing the temperature rapidly rising, but in the end, it is still futile as with a single flick, the beam of blazing hot flames shot towards the monster as it got beheaded like the others.
And with the Boss monster now dead, a rift appeared in the center of this small forest with my team coming in with tons of equipment as they went towards the Giants and retrieved their corpses and skill books for us to inspect along with them extracting the magical plants around us with the whole forest being exploited out of its natural resources.
"Hurry up, we still have other rifts to go to," I said while I landed in front of the portal and walked through it as my voice was distorted from the helmet I was wearing.
As we went inside a giant truck, I grab a tablet lying inside it to look at the recent data we found regarding the rifts and try to predict where they may appear.
From recent data, it usually appears in a barren area with fewer people, usually in the forest, outskirts of cities, in the sea, and more.
The only exception was the day when rifts first appeared with the rifts sporadically appearing everywhere and all of them instantly spewing out monsters, unlike today where we can go inside the rifts to take care of them before they let the monsters go out.
As I look at the map of the surrounding area, it seems like our theories were starting to get proven true regarding the placement of rifts and with that, we can start to prepare outposts for areas of similar properties to get dominance regarding rifts.
While I was looking at the map, I felt the truck stopping in its tracks as the giant door beside us got opened.
"There are two rifts near this area, you guys go towards the B rank one while I go to the A rank one, the rendezvous point will be here," I said as the group of five that was sitting in the same truck as me nodded and with that, we got out of the back of the truck with the five getting on another vehicle while I look at the rift beside us that spawned near a river inside the forest while a base was already set up near the rift.
"Another A rank one, they only appear at a very rare rate so it was a surprise we got two in the same day," said the man standing beside the portal who gave me a tablet to see that it was indeed an A rank rift and gave it back to the man.
"Get ready for the reopening of the rift," I said with the man nodding in response, and with that, I walk through the portal with a confident stride as before and was greeted by the sight of a sea with no land in sight with me falling to the water.
But with a single thought, my body floated to the air as I got out of the open sea that seems to not end in sight but it does end as this place is a sub-dimension from our findings.
With a single glance around the area, I saw that the waters were teeming with sea monsters that seem to be the A rank variant of Sea Serpents with the average size being 10 meters in length.
"This will be simple" I muttered as I slowly lowered my body so that my hand was just above the surface of the water and with that, electricity crackled around me with dangerous yellow light, and with a single release, volts of dangerous electricity spread throughout the whole sea and I felt my energy being rapidly drained but I kept expending it to dangerous levels as all the sea serpents were finally killed including the boss as I showed an efficiency of finishing rifts on an unparalleled level due to the amount of versatility I hold.
And with all of them now dead, another rift opened in the middle of the sea as I went through it.
"Inside it is the sea, I'll drain the water first and you guys can go grab the sea serpents, and give the skill books to the team I was with," I said as the man nodded, and with that, I went back inside the rift and plunge my hand directly to the water and activated one of my Gifts.
"HA!" I shouted with all my might as I rapidly suck in a gigantic sea of water with the sea level getting lower and lower, it took me a few minutes but in the end, most of the water was gone and the only thing left was the ground of sand meters below me.
"Hup," I said and saw the ground of sand creating a slope towards the portal that directly went towards the ground of sand, and with that, I finally finished preparing the place so that the porters can safely secure the spoils of this rift.
"You can go now," I said while walking through the portal as vehicles of gigantic size rapidly entered the rift one by one to retrieve the corpses and skill books of the Sea Serpents.
"Any more A rank rifts nearby?" I asked the man as I look at the long trail of giant tricks going through the large portal beside us.
"No sir," said the man as I nodded and patted him on the back.
"Well I'll be off then, remember to distribute the skill books to the other team after they get back," I said and with that, I disappeared from that place with a single teleport and appeared back outside our house while my armor receded into my body with my body shrinking down into my real form.
"That's a great haul for today" I muttered while rubbing my head and walking through the gate in front of our house as the sound of metal moving was heard alerting my family that I was back home.
With slow steady steps, I went towards the entrance of our house and opened the grand fancy wooden door while my parents were still watching TV.
"Welcome back Aki," said my father as I nodded with a grunt and walk back to my room upstairs and lock the door once I was inside it, and put on my glasses while I plopped down on my bed with a sigh.
AN: This is 1562 words, you're welcome.
The Sword of Damocles hangs above each and everyone one of you with its ever present threat of despair, so send me some power stones with your power of friendship and save the thousands perhaps even millions to come who will read this masterpiece immortalized in the tunnels of time.
(April 7, 2022 – 134th day of writing)