Dusk hadn’t realized it before, but this floor? Completely covered in the corrupting glassy thorns from the Crystalline Warden. He hadn’t noticed it because it looked nothing like the plant-like glass structures they’d seen near the Gate.

  A thin covering of the thorns on the statue here, a patch of tiny spikes on the ground there, a crystalline rose bush growing near the ceiling… If not for [Iridion’s Shawl] protecting his feet, he would likely have nicked his feet the second he’d stepped into this place.

  Still, this realization didn’t help with the fact that Minn’s arm continued to slowly turn into glass!

  The wolfkin trembled and her breaths came out in ragged gasps. Guilt flooded Dusk as he searched for a spot to safely heal her.

  Seriously, what had they even been doing? One rash action after another! It was a miracle they hadn’t paid the price up until now with how reckless they’d been since entering the other rift.

  Rather, they still hadn’t paid the price for it. Someone else did!

  Was this how the ‘insanity’ of their negative skill manifested? Slowly doing dumber and dumber things until they got themselves killed?

  Dammit!

  As Dusk’s last Terracotta Soldier died, Dusk found an empty room in the maze of hallways. He double-checked to make sure nothing would sneak up on them this time, carefully laid Minn on the ground, whipped out his [Hallowed Embrace], and used it on her cursed elbow.

  The golden light swirled around her and seeped into her glass elbow, pushing the curse back.

  Minn let out a shaky sigh of relief, but unfortunately…

  “It’s not enough,” Dusk said with dread as he watched the glass stop spreading rather than recede altogether.

  Why? Hadn’t this skill healed even their old scars from the orphanage days? Was the curse too powerful? Or was it because they didn’t care as much about Minn as they cared about themselves?!

  Dusk clenched his fists and slowly exhaled.

  No.

  He just needed to combine the skill with Dawn’s. Just like they’d done after falling into underground Anxia. It was going to be fine.

  Fortunately, he’d used his other body to direct everyone toward their location and it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes for the party to reunite. He just had to wait, watch over the wolfkin – who had fainted from the pain at some point – and make sure nothing–

  A shadow leaped from the ground, hovered for a beat, and dropped as it materialized into a person.

  Dusk reacted by tossing his [Terracotta Soldiers] between them and the threat, and covering the defenseless wolfkin with his shawl.

  The person turned around, revealing Jake, Kenn’s party member.

  “”You!”” both the human and the geckin shouted at the same time.

  Sunken eyes, pale skin, torn clothes – the guy looked like he hadn’t slept since they’d last met.

  He growled, eyeing the soldiers as they finished forming out of the glass floor.

  “Whatever! Don’t get in my way! This one is mine!”

  “What are you talk–”

  The ground exploded.

  * * *

  Upon learning Minn’s fate, Tepp urged the party to move as quickly as they could. Though unlike the unfortunate duo, Dawn’s side of the party didn’t blindly rush through the rift and made sure to check for traps and enemies at every corner. It gave Dawn plenty of time to heal herself, but also plenty of time to conjure all the worst case scenarios in her head.

  The explosion in the distance caught them by surprise.

  “What was that?!” Tepp yell-asked.

  “Dawn?”

  “It’s– It’s Jake! The rogue human! He drew the Elite from the lower floor to them!”

  “Shit!”

  “That bastard!”

  The party sped up while Dawn kept them updated on the situation. Still, they had to remain vigilant not to meet the same fate as Minn, which only stressed them even more.

  “Dusk is protecting Minn, but they are backed into the corner! We need to– Argh! The other Elite just showed up! The brine snail!”

  “Seriously?!”

  “It’s completely blocking the hallway! Even if those two weren’t fight– He ran! Phased into a wall! The Elites… are fighting each other now?!” Dawn narrated as her – and everyone else’s – emotions raced through several loops on the entire emotional spectrum.

  “The Elites are ignoring them!”

  Bewildered, but infinitely grateful for this development, the twins’ minds raced to find a way out to not become collateral of this mess.

  “Argh! But there’s too much glass and brine flying around! It’s– Okay! Dusk blew a hole into the wall and snuck out! But he can’t come closer! The fight is still blocking us off!”

  With their teammates’ safety confirmed – for now – the party slowed down to take a moment to come up with a plan.

  “Can we go around?” Tepp asked.

  “Too much rubble. Probably won’t find a way.”

  “Could we defeat the Elites while they are busy with each other?” Oulo mused, his expression set into a deep frown.

  “Two Legendary-tier monsters?” Leejay gaped at him, baffled.

  The kobold shrugged.

  “Just a thought.”

  Dawn pursed her lips as she thought about her options.

  She had wanted to upgrade her [Tricky Trail], but had forgotten about it after yesterday’s spill, dammit! And now, she couldn’t make [Tricky Hail] like she’d wanted, because Dusk still held ◆Snipe◆.

  And using ◆Shatter◆ with ◆Barrage◆ to upgrade it into [Tricky Mael] sounded like an awful idea in this cramped space, considering the way the archivist had described it.

  She mentally catalogued her other high rarity essences.

  ◆Command◆, an Epic.

  ◆Corrosion◆, a Very Rare.

  She hesitated to use the other ◆Command◆. ◆Corrosion◆, on the other hand…

  Their surroundings shook as glass exploded somewhere in the distance.

  “I can get the Warden if I get close enough,” Tepp declared.

  “What?! No! If you get that close, you’ll die!”

  “Then what else can we do?! You have a better idea?!”

  “We can craft something,” Dawn suggested with a definitive tone.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The others paused as they considered it.

  “...The guild would penalize us if they found out.”

  “Better than dying!” Tepp yelled at Leejay, who winced.

  “I don’t think we can be blamed for breaking the rules since the rift itself has broken,” Oulo reminded, causing everyone present to grimace at the reminder. “So, sure. Let’s craft something. What do we have?”

  Having already thought about it, Dawn pulled out her suggestion.

  “I was going to upgrade my [Tricky Trail] with… ◆Shatter◆ and ◆Corrosion◆. Not sure what it will do, but I’m hoping It’ll break through the shell of that snail?”

  The others nodded.

  “Okay, worth a shot. Let’s see…”

  Tepp pulled out ◆Laceration◆ while Leejay held the ◆Flurry◆ – the essences they’d gotten from the glass maids earlier.

  Nobody mentioned the messed up essences they’d gotten after the sun had gone black. Maybe they might turn into something useful, but it could also turn into something even worse than a negative skill. Not worth taking such a huge risk right now.

  “◆Laceration◆ doesn’t feel like something that would be useful against glass enemies… What would work well with ◆Flurry◆?” Oulo thought out loud.

  “I also have ◆Barrage◆,” Dawn reminded. “We could use those two to upgrade something.”

  “Okay, yeah! I’m pretty sure ◆Flurry◆ is just a better version of ◆Barrage◆, so they definitely should work well together!” the avian excitedly agreed. “Now, what about the last one?”

  “Don’t have anything good other than ◆Laceration◆…”

  “How about upgrading something?” Dawn suggested.

  Everyone looked at Tepp, their main damage dealer.

  She hummed and nodded to herself, before pulling out a card.

  [Firebolt Staff] – A Rare skill with the art of the titular staff.

  “I guess this fits the best. I’ll blow them both away!”

  Nobody disagreed.

  With that, the boys positioned themselves around the girls, looking out for threats, while Dawn and Tepp grabbed their skills and essences and slammed them together.

  The headaches hit at once.

  Dawn had made sure her other body lay down Minn and covered them both with [Iridion’s Shawl] for this, but he still fought to keep the dizziniess at bay.

  Still nowhere near as bad as [Soul Split], but definitely the second worst they’d had it after crafting a skill. Tepp didn’t seem to be doing much better either as evident from the pained groans.

  It felt like an eternity, courtesy to Dusk’s anxiety about the fight getting closer to them.

  “...O-Okay! I got it!” the wolfkin shouted as she climbed to her feet.

  Dawn recovered at about the same time and looked at her new skill.

  [Tricky Bale]

  The art had changed from a bright white ball-shaped projectile with a trail, into a jagged ball colored sickly green. The rim–

  “An Epic!” Dawn exclaimed in surprise and joy as she held up the purple-rimmed card.

  She had used an Epic essence in making it, but it still felt strange for the Rare [Tricky Trail] to skip over Very Rare and jump straight to Epic.

  Not that she would complain about it, though.

  Their very first Epic… if they ignored [Soul Split].

  “Me too!” Tepp confirmed, showing off her [Firestorm Staff]. “Time to kick their asses!”

  * * *

  Dusk finally got far enough from the fighting to let out a sigh of relief.

  Though he could hardly call them safe. Minn remained unconscious, but worse than that, her arm continued to slowly turn into glass, despite Dusk using his [Hallowed Embrace] whenever he could.

  He lay down the wolfkin on a space he deemed safe, and covered them both with the shawl in preparation for the headache from crafting a skill.

  He gritted his teeth as it hit, but he forced himself to remain vigilant just in case he needed to move at a moment’s notice.

  Luckily, the fighting seemed to have moved further away from them, not closer.

  His shoulders relaxed as his twin checked out her card. Upon seeing the rarity, his eyebrows raised in surprise in unison with his twin.

  Dusk tensed as a shadow dashed through the corridor in the distance, but slowly relaxed when he realized who that had to be.

  He scowled.

  “Stupid greedy humans. Always screwing everyone else over.”

  If he hadn’t lured the other Elite over, they would have already reunited with the rest of the party. A darker part of him wanted to blow him up with [Tricky Flail] just for that. His empathy for losing his party only went so far, after all.

  He stamped out the morbid feelings, judging them to be unproductive. As long as they can make it out, they didn’t need to care about the rogue human.

  An explosion.

  Dusk flinched as Tepp’s brand new [Firestorm Staff] fired its first salvo, slamming into two Elites.

  Not that this body could see it.

  “Oh, damn…”

  Unfortunately, while the skill managed to melt parts of the Warden, the collossal snail had retreated into its shell, leaving it unscathed. Dawn followed it up with her new skill.

  Naturally, that was when the damn human phased into the room again, yelled something rude, and threw his shadowy dagger at the Warden, drawing its ire.

  Dusk grabbed Minn and rushed away again, since it seemed like that prick was backing off in their direction, taking the Elite with him.

  * * *

  The card left Dawn’s hand and transformed into a mockery of what once was a bright and beautiful skill.

  The green ball of spiky light caneered through the air – leaving a corrosive trail on the ground – and slammed right into the shell of the Brine Collossus. It burst into spikes of acid, carving holes into the Elite and the environment alike.

  The Elite sputtered brine from under its shell and whined in pain, but unfortunately, remained very much alive.

  Normally, this would have been a big problem, since [Tricky Bale] now had to re-spark. Thankfully, Tepp’s new skill didn’t have the same issue and could keep the snail busy. Adding to that, Leejay sent out his yellow lines to further hinder their opponent, while Oulo stood by, ready to shield the party.

  Dawn relaxed as the dumb human finally decided to steer the Warden away from her twin and the incapacitated wolfkin, retreating into a hole in the wall the Elite had made.

  But she couldn’t get distracted. Even with Tepp keeping up the barrage – she already looked strained by it – the Elite was still Legendary-tier and not so easily taken down.

  The Collossus re-emerged from its shell despite the ongoing firestorm, leaned back, and vomitted a pond’s worth of brine at the party.

  “Shi–”

  Thinking on his feet, Leejay grabbed Tepp and flew higher to avoid the corosive liquid. Meanwhile, Oulo – with Dawn still on his back – dashed back and into a side passage. Unfortunately a dead end, but the debris gave them enough elevation to let them avoid the pooling brine.

  Thank god Dawn’s presence barely affected the kobold’s mobility thanks to [Feather’s Grace].

  Still, if they want to keep doing this, they better get some actual equipment for rift hunting. No matter how much it sucks for geckin, good shoes are vital for places like this.

  Yet another blunder on their part, splurging all their money on upgrading their decks while ignoring everything else. They needed to rectify it once they made it out.

  ...If they made it out.

  Finally, [Tricky Bale] re-sparked, and this time, Dawn had a plan.

  She had recalled seeing Slime Queen’s javelin piercing through the shell of the other copy of this boss upstairs. Immediately afterwards, the rest of the creature fell apart.

  Maybe a long shot, but Dawn bet that the creature’s main body was actually the shell rather than the mass of brine. Exactly the opposite of a normal snail.

  In other words, they only had to break the shell to beat it, and from what she’d seen, her new skill had made a decent crack in the snail’s shell already. It only needed a little push.

  An explosion rocked the halls again, indicating that Tepp had resumed her scorching barrage.

  “Oulo,” Dawn called, catching the kobold’s attention. “I need line of sight! We can finish it off!”

  The kobold eyed her over his shoulder, doubt clearly apparent in his expression. Fortunately, he didn’t argue.

  “Fine. But I’m backing off if it gets dangerous.”

  “Of course.”

  The kobold nodded and looked around. His eyes flickered yellow for a second, indicating some kind of skill use, then he marched straight to a specific spot on the wall, and kicked it.

  The wall crumbled, revealing a passage.

  “Why didn’t we go around if you could do that?” Dawn found herself asking.

  The kobold sniffed.

  “It burns my eyes. I would go blind before we made it anywhere.”

  “…Right.”

  Just as the duo walked through the makeshift door in the wall, Dawn activated [Cliffhide Fist] and navigated her other body into position. Meanwhile, the flying artillery of Leejay and Tepp continued to harass the Colossus, though their efforts only slowed it down without dealing any significant damage.

  Unfortunately, the brine splattering the floor made it very difficult to move. Still, Oulo set his jaw, tightened his hold on Dawn’s legs, and stepped into the pool with a grunt – just enough to give the geckin a line of sight to the Elite.

  Barely even trying to aim, Dawn threw her [Tricky Bale], activating [Cliffhide Fist] on it in the process.

  * * *

  Dusk wasn’t entirely comfortable leaving the unconscious wolfkin, but he couldn’t take her with him for this, either. He just had to hope the [Terracotta Soldiers] he’d left with her would protect her if anything were to happen.

  Feeling his other body unleash the skill, he rushed forward, palming [Tricky Flail], and shot it toward the spiky green ball of energy flying in the general direction of the Elite.

  As expected, [Tricky Bale] combined with [Tricky Trail], turning it into a giant spiky ball of corrosive energy on a chain. Dusk gripped it, spun around with it, and just as the snail came out of its shell again, looking confused about where the projectile had gone, he slammed it into its shell.

  The glass popped and burst like a water balloon as the makeshift weapon detonated.