"Doesn't that seem strange to you?" asked Lynn as she looked around curiously as if she were taking a morning stroll.
Nathan was silent for a couple of seconds hesitating whether or not to answer, but simply gave up shortly after.
"What?"
Lynn tilted her head and looked up at the ceiling.
"I've never heard of a rift sucking people in before. I knew upper rifts destroyed everything around them when they appeared, like a bomb... but it's pretty peculiar if you ask me"
Nathan sighed when Lynn confirmed his doubts.
During the months he had been recovering and training, Nathan had also read a lot about rifts, calamities, and techniques.
About the rifts, there really wasn't much more to say. They were doors to another world, well, fragments of what was once a world. After many years and much study, it was determined that each realm was a part of the same world.
Then there was what Lynn had said. When an upper rift appears, it destroys everything around it... but there had never been a record of a rift absorbing people nearby.
In less than a year he had gone from entering an intermediate rift with three special categories to an upper rift.
Shortly after Nathan woke up in the hospital months ago, Syril told him that when the tribal calamities had captured her it was because she had encountered the tribal priest who had offered himself as a sacrifice to summon the blood ogre and also a calamity who could control the snakes.
It was then that he understood the ambush of the first day and blanched when he realized that the flautist and the snake controller knew they had entered the realm the first day they arrived. They only waited for them to separate so that it would be easier to catch them. But the plan went wrong when Nathan killed the flautist.
While he was fighting the blood ogre together with Maya, the soldier and the other cadets had confronted the snake controller and successfully defeated him, although Nathan couldn't see it as he was too busy trying not to die... although it didn't work out so well in the end.
Nathan didn't know why his luck was so bad, he always ended up in precarious and dangerous situations. But so far in the upper realm there had not really been anything dangerous enough to threaten his life. But he knew that peace wouldn't last for long, it was an upper rift after all.
The two continued to walk in silence for a while before the gravity changed again. Nathan took the time again, noticing that the gravity changed from 10 minutes to half an hour. He could not predict it, but he could feel it several seconds before it happened.
Besides, it was thanks to the confusing corridors of the castle that he had completely lost the creatures. He couldn't let his guard down, though, so Nathan continued to use essence to strengthen his senses to pick up anything strange around him.
A few minutes later Nathan finally sensed something, so he stopped Lynn with his hand and motioned her to be quiet.
The young woman had also seemed to sense the presence of several people, so she frowned slightly and drew her pistols.
Nathan closed his eyes and focused on listening.
"I've never been in such a fruitful realm before!" said an unknown man.
Nathan heard a metallic sound as if something was being moved in a bag.
"Everything is full of luxurious and expensive things!" said another man with an excess of greed in his voice.
The man's words were true. The corridors of the castle were full of decorative objects of silver and gold, which would cost a fortune if they were sold once they left the realm. However, Nathan did not worry at all about looting, instead he was more concerned about escaping.
Nathan had heard of people like these men. They were mercenaries who used to smuggle into the realms to plunder them out of sight of the government.
While he was thinking about that, he didn't notice that Lynn was no longer at his side.
"Hey you! According to law number 1432 of the new world constitution, it's illegal to loot the interior of the realms!"
Nathan stood still as he listened to Lynn without peeking out.
'Really...?'
Sighing, Nathan stayed hidden and continued to listen to the conversation.
"Huh? …A government agent?"
Lynn lifted her chest in pride expecting the men to surrender peacefully. However, contrary to her expectations, the men simply scoffed.
"Girl, get out of here"
"Huh?" Lynn's faint smile vanished in an instant.
The men lost their tempers and turned to leave, then Lynn shouted again:
"Stop! By my power as an agent, I have an obligation of stopping you!"
"Tch, you fucking lap dog" One of the men clicked his tongue and turned in disgust as he pulled out a knife he concealed in his trousers.
"I warned you"
Without hesitation, the man lunged towards Lynn who barely managed to dodge aside the slash. Then she raised her pistols and fired two electric shots.
The man blocked one of the shots with his knife and dodged the other.
Nathan whistled silently.
'He's better than I thought'
From the man's fluid movements and the essence overflowing from his body, Nathan guessed he was a first rank third category. But nothing out of this world, not compared to the third rank cadets he knew.
Lynn was momentarily outmatched with no choice but to retreat.
She had the advantage in a long-range engagement, but the man knew this all too well, so he took advantage of his limited surroundings to close in quickly.
Every shot Lynn fired, Nathan felt a slight amount of essence on the bullets. In addition, he watched the bullets fall to the ground and noticed how they disappeared soon after.
'The bullets are made of essence'
It wasn't difficult to understand Lynn's technique, though he didn't know if she could only create essence bullets or if she needed a gun to do so.
Nathan remained a simple observer, then noticed the other two men draw their own weapons and approach Lynn.
If she was already having a hard enough time taking on a single mercenary, three were simply impossible. But Nathan had no intention of helping her... at least not yet.
She'd gotten herself into this trouble thinking that her status as an agent would instantly solve her problem.
But they were in a realm without government supervision, where there were no rules or laws and only the strongest could survive.
Nathan thought he could use this as an opportunity to teach her a simple but valuable lesson so that she wouldn't give him any more trouble later on.