My Roleplay System

Chapter 241: Chapter 241: Overgrown Rift

The moment Lake stepped through the portal, he felt a wave of nausea as he noticed the difference in the air.

It was heavier here. Thick with moisture and the smell of living things—wet earth, flowering rot, the green sweetness of chlorophyll so dense it almost choked. The mana saturation was noticeably higher than the outside world, even more so than some highly contaminated hunting fields.

Raising his hand, he tried to activate his wristband. Thankfully, it still seemed to be functional despite the high mana density.

Behind him, the others emerged one by one. Hana first, her bow already half-drawn as her eyes swept the environment. Then Landur, who let out a low whistle. Jayce followed, rolling his shoulders like he was warming up for a workout. Gwen came last, her sword held loose at her side, her sharp eyes already scanning her surroundings.

The city stretched before them, or at least, the remnants of one.

The bones of it were still visible—buildings of pale stone and rusted metal. Streets were laid out in a grid that spoke of planning and civilization, but nature had long since reclaimed it. Vines as thick as arms crawled up the sides of towers, and moss blanketed the streets in a carpet of emerald. Trees had burst through windows and balconies, their canopies merging overhead to form a patchwork ceiling that filtered the rift’s strange, sourceless light into shifting green patterns.

When the third years saw the overgrown nature, they couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable as they recalled the last rift.

"Well." Landur broke the silence first. "This is unpleasant."

"I’ve never heard of a rift like this before." Hana lowered her bow slightly, craning her neck to take in the canopy above. "The mana density is so thick here!"

"Looks like the plants took over the city." Gwen’s voice was quiet. "Probably because of the mana density propelling their growth."

"Uhh," Jayce grimaced. "I hate overgrown plants."

Lake said nothing, his senses spreading out and picking up the various lifeforms within range before his eyes settled on a small bird flying overhead. After one glance, his gaze shifted, becoming exceedingly distant.

The subtle change in Lake was instantly picked up by Gwen, who was already focused on him. She had learned to watch for it. The way his focus seemed to sharpen without any visible movement. She’d seen it before—during the hunting expedition, during the ent horde. It was the look of someone observing what no one else could see.

She didn’t know what he was seeing, but she knew that once he was done, it was as if he had seen through everything, certainty replacing any earlier wariness or confusion. It was one of the mysteries she was dead set on finding out. And as expected, not long after Lake’s gaze turned distant, a sharpness replaced it.

"There’s a cluster of something three blocks northeast." Lake’s voice cut through the quiet. "High-grade Rank Two. Moving in a patrol pattern."

Jayce blinked. "You can sense that already? We’ve been here less than a minute."

"I have good instincts."

"As expected of our master scout!" Hana playfully mused.

"Moving in a patrol pattern suggests intelligence," Gwen noted. "Or at least trained behavior. Any idea what we’re dealing with?"

"Fast and strong. That’s as much as I can tell you from this distance." Lake started walking before he finished speaking, his footsteps silent on the moss-covered stone. "Let’s go. We have to clear out as much as we can before the extraction team arrives."

The others fell in behind him without discussion.

The first encounter came twelve minutes later.

The creatures he had sensed were a pack of dogs, or at least that was the thing they could compare them to. They stood chest-high to a full-grown man, their fur the color of old rust, their eyes burning with the dull amber glow of mana-dense predators. Two tail-like appendages extended from their shoulders with sharp, blade-like bones at their ends. Six of them, moving in the loose diamond formation of a pack that had hunted together for years.

The group had made an effort to sneak up on them, but it seemed they were noticed fairly easily by the pack.

Their steps were light, barely making a sound, and they neither growled nor howled once as they spread out around them.

Gwen’s hand found her sword hilt.

"Jayce, left flank. Landur, right. Hana—"

Gwen was about to finish giving orders, but before she could finish, a brilliant flash of light shot out from beside her.

Bzzt! Bzzt!

A sound like static electricity crackled across the air as all six dogs dropped with a short cry.

Her eyes turned to the source of the blast and saw Lake lowering his raised hand.

"We don’t have time to waste. Let’s split up and begin clearing out the threats. We’ll stay in touch using the local communication function of our wristbands."

Everyone was left too stunned to speak by Lake’s efficient actions.

He didn’t even wait for them to reply before running off deeper into the city, disappearing behind the gap between buildings.

"Wait!"

Gwen tried to call out, but he was already gone. Everyone looked in the direction Lake had vanished before glancing back at her, at a loss for what to do.

"...Did he really just abandon us?"

"What happened to working as a team?"

"Not cool, Junior."

Everyone was noticeably unhappy about Lake suddenly running off, but there was nothing they could do to stop him. He was far stronger and far faster than any of them, so they did not have to worry about his safety.

On the contrary, with him gone, they had to now pay extra attention to their surroundings.

Gwen gritted her teeth and held her hair in frustration as she turned to reassure everyone.

"Hana, you’ll take over scouting from now on. We’ll move north from here and circle around back. Our goal is to clear the landing zone for the extraction team. Jayce, Landur, we’ll use the usual formation and face off against any monsters we come across."

"Yes!"

Hana, Landur, and Jayce all nodded in agreement, already beginning to shuffle themselves into position with Hana taking the lead to scout ahead.

However, just before everyone left, a notification rang out from their wristbands. Knowing that the only other person who could communicate with them within the rift was Lake, they opened their interface to see what their runaway junior had sent them now.

[Lake - I’ve roughly mapped out the area and marked major threats along your path. I’ll leave it to you to finish them off.]

Opening the image Lake had sent, they saw a top-down overview of the area. Although most of it was covered by foliage, there were certain landmarks and even red and yellow markers drawn all over it with notes and warnings detailing threats and hazards to watch out for.

Looking at the detailed map their junior had provided them, the group of third years was completely stunned.

Where did he get that map in such a short time? And how did he get so much information already?

Confused and uncertain, they wondered if they could trust the information.

Although they believed in and trusted their junior, the level of detail and thought behind the map was just too much for them to believe he had obtained it in the less than three minutes since he had left them.

Everyone turned to Gwen once more, who quickly gave the order after staring in deep contemplation for a few moments.

"Proceed using the map as a guide. Since our junior sent it, I doubt he would actively send us false information, but still, remain vigilant."

After hearing her instructions, everyone nodded before setting off toward the nearest marked icon on the map: a serpentine pit.