As the two Fujino sisters neared their childhood hideaway for the first time since Gairma had snuck back home, they caught sight of a crack that was poking out just above the treetops; and had it not been for the two heading towards it with a purpose, it would've been more than easy to miss because of the trees hiding nearly the entire slit. The duo stopped dead in their tracks, frozen in disbelief at the unbelievable sight. "Wha-what?" Mana managed to stagger out. The wall was supposed to be impenetrable, yet it appeared to be breaking effortlessly like the fragileness of an egg.
Gairma and Mana both simultaneously took off in a mad dash and started heading towards it with the urgency of an emergency. They needed to know what was happening. No alarms had ever sounded, despite the force that would be needed to create such damage. They were always taught that damage to the wall, such as before them, was to be considered crucial enough to start a state of emergency until it was fixed. How were the guards not aware? Mana wondered.
Their soles hit the sidewalk hard with each step in their dash, their eyes fixated on the damage, while others were oblivious to it. The section of wall was one of the least guarded parts of the entire barrier due to not having more than 1 rotted sighting per month in the general area due to the denseness of Korokin Forest on the other side. It was just too hard for the rotted to hunt with so much natural clutter in the way.
As the sisters grew closer to the small group of giant trees at the base of the wall, they realized the damage they happened upon was more extensive than what they originally thought. The crack they saw above the tree line, lowered into a wide, open gash near the bottom, and it was obvious no one else knew about it, not even the guards who vowed to protect the city. The wall had dropped boulders that sat at the base of the barrier, caused by the debris that fell from the cement splitting, appearing as rocks to the uneducated eye.
Upon reaching the base of the towering barrier, the two women stopped simultaneously, unable to speak though both seemed to have the same racing thoughts crowding their mind. Gairma, being the higher level between the two, decided to creep closer to inspect the makeshift door, with Mana close behind her like a lost dog. Gairma feigned confidence, though her shaking hands, and her constant stumbling made it more than obvious to her lower leveled sister that she was petrified. Mana refused to acknowledge it; if her sister, who was 5 levels higher, was as scared as this, it meant that she had to be even more so because there was no way she would be able to do anything if something went wrong. She felt useless, and she hated it. She wanted to be able to back her sister up if she was needed, but instead she felt like she was more of an anchor.
"What caused this?" Mana asked, her voice shaky as tears began to fall from her eyes with the rapidly increasing anxiety and fear that was building up inside of her. She knew Gairma had no idea, but she was lost, not only in thought, but physically as well. The idea of danger being only a few steps away terrified Mana and disrupted her logic as she forgot how to act accordingly.
Gairma halted their traverse at the opening of the gap, placing her hands on either side of the new, uncovered door as she stuck her head into the giant crevice like the extension of her neck would help her see the other side. "Whatever it was, it had to have been extremely strong. There is absolutely no way this was done by anything other than something ungodly," she finally answered, pulling her head back. She had never been outside the walls, nor had anyone in their family in the past 15 years; she couldn't remember hardly anything from when her biological parents were still alive. It was just a vague nightmare she wished to forget completely; she'd rather not remember her parents at all than have to remember their demise. The only ones allowed on the other side were the ones authorized to, or the ones that have never lived in a city and were able to do as they pleased.
Mana and Gairma were beyond curious what it was like on the outside, but they were also beyond fearful. They didn't carry weapons, they had no need to, and no one was aware of this even being here, so if something did happen there was no one that would know. "We should report this, Gairma," Mana began, though she knew it was a wasted effort, "it's unsafe for everyone inside to be exposed like this." Mana grabbed one of Gairma's soft hands in hers and tugged gently on it to try and get her to follow and to get far away from the dangers the damage possessed.
"This is my first discovery as a novice," Gairma suddenly blurted, her upifted eyebrows shifting from petrification to excitement as the idea of her first discovery being something so major. "You know I need to do this, Mana," she said, ripping her hand from her sister's as she turned back towards the gap, letting out a loud exhale as if a new person had taken over her psyche. "You don't need to follow me if you don't want to," she said, peering over her shoulder and back at her sister who trembled in place behind her, "but this is what I just got accepted into, and I can't forget that," Gairma tapped behind one of her ears lightly, before squeezing herself through the tunnel that connected the city and the Rotted world.
Mana huffed, she wasn't about to abandon her sister, even if she was unable to do anything if they were to get into trouble on the other side. She too tapped lightly behind her ear, triggering her body to enter stat mode like her sister had, before she quickly dashed towards the tunnel, forcing herself to contort to the edges and grooves of the oddly shaped path.
She read her stats that popped into her lower vision; Health or Hp: Full, Magika or MP: null, and Stamina or SP, full. Level: 5. It had been years since she last used her stat mode; living within the walls it's not needed as there are no enemies to steer away from, and having the level and HP bar of everyone floating above their head would quickly become overwhelming, not just to Mana, but anyone using the traditional mode.
Everyone is born with Stat Mode, a small pressure point behind each ear that triggers a special screen in the eyes of the user. Even though it's behind each ear, it only needs to be triggered once to work. In stat mode, on oneself, they can see their own stats, including buffs and debuffs, as well as their own level, while on others they can only see the level and HP.
Mana read her sister's stats to be sure she was at least basically prepared for what could be on the other side. Gairma's Hp was full and her level was indeed 10, but she had no reason to doubt it. She watched on as her sister seemed to have changed drastically in only a matter of minutes. The once petrified woman that had led her to the entrance was no more; she was now acting as a novice member of the adventurer's guild taking her sister on a quest. She gulped; no number of redeeming thoughts could shake the idea of being slaughtered in an instant.
"Are you sure you want to do this!?" Mana shouted towards her sister's back, who had managed to create a large, gaping distance between the two. "We don't know what's over there!" As her sister kept expanding the distance between them, their words started to echo more than before.
"That's the exact reason why I want to do this," Gairma laughed back, "when I must go to the guild to start training, how cool will it be to be able to tell them of this? That I've already been on the outside!" It was obvious her temporarily deranged mind was not going to be changed. Mana picked up her pace to try and catch up with her sister, but the curves of the uneven cut in the cement was scrapping Mana up, causing superficial injuries and light draws of blood, delaying her progression. She watched on helplessly as she noticed Gairma disappear around the exit of the tunnel without a word, and not as much as a look back. Her sister was hypnotized by her surroundings, and unaware of them at the same time.