Chapter 298: Something Is Off

Julius found himself impressed by the efficiency of their teamwork. Tia had gotten even better at restricting monsters with her plant magic, and James had gotten a new skill, or at least evolved one of his old skills. His fellow first-year was now able to pack a much larger punch into his fire magic.

The damage was similar to Julius’s previous fire constructs, making him think it was a pretty good rare skill.

Polux was a demon in close combat like usual, but he had tempered his aggression, something that had been an issue several months ago when Julius had been delving with them. Instead of always being in the monster’s face and sometimes getting in the way of his teammates’ attacks, he had learned how to create separation to allow them to throw in an attack or two.

This helped Polux recover some of his stamina and charge his new mana-based skill.

Nessa helped keep everyone protected at all times, never wasting mana and constantly monitoring their flank.

Joshua was truly impressive, though. While he didn’t defeat the most monsters, he commanded the rest of them with such precision. He always knew the correct time to push the aggression and when they needed to just be patient.

He ensured that nobody overextended and used the most optimal amounts of mana to help the others take down their opponents with minimal effort.

While the boy hadn’t made that many large increases in pure power, he had, without a doubt, improved his skills as a leader and as a director of the battlefield.

Julius wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Joshua had acquired some skills that helped him with this.

After he watched the team slaughter the last group of wolves, he looked at Professor Rowe, who had a weird expression on his face.

“Is something wrong?” He asked the man.

“I’m not sure. But I spotted a couple of unique variants in that last group. Usually, they spawn pretty rarely, and I haven’t ever seen more than two of them in a single pack before,” Professor Rowe said with a frown on his face.

“Is that a bad thing?” Reinera asked. The three of them were standing a bit away from the others who were actually fighting. Since they were mainly here as supervisors, they gave them some space, which also allowed them to speak amongst each other without anyone overhearing.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly bad thing. But it is somewhat odd to see. That usually means something within the rift has changed,” Professor Rowe explained to her.

“Aren’t the rifts heavily regulated, though, so that doesn’t happen?” Reinera asked.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t always work. The issue with regulating a rift that has hundreds of students delving into it is that you can’t predict how much mana or other kinds of energy the rift will absorb. We do our best to estimate how many groups need to be killed in order to keep the balance, but it’s still difficult.”

“So why is the appearance of multiple variants a weird thing?”

Professor Rowe scratched his chin. “Because it’s likely something else more drastic has occurred within the rift, and the variants are just the symptom of it.”

“What are we going to do then?” Julius asked after he glanced over at the others, who were in the middle of reviewing their fight and making adjustments.

“The safe thing would be to leave and then come back to investigate further,” Professor Rowe said softly.

Julius nodded his head. He agreed with the professor, if there was anything wrong with the rift, he didn’t feel good about them all staying in there. He thought that the three of them would be fine, but the others were still Tier 2 and if something happened, it was hard to predict how well they would fare.

***

The others weren’t so happy when they found out that their delve would be cut short. However, after Professor Rowe gave them a quick explanation of why he made that choice, they quieted down.

Additionally, Julius found himself being surprised by Professor Rowe’s next words to him.

“Would you two like to join me?” He asked.

Reinera looked surprised. “You want us to join you? Are you planning to head back in right now?”

“I don’t see a reason to wait any further. If something is happening, I would much rather find out now than later,” Professor Rowe explained to her.

“And you’re okay with us coming with you?” Reinera asked hesitantly.

“We left mainly for their benefit,” he said while pointing at the others. “You both are Tier 3 and should be able to handle anything that the rift might throw at us if there is something wrong. Another set of eyes never hurt anyone when investigating rifts. I also think this could be a good opportunity for me to do a quick examination and see if you are ready for Tier 3 rifts. ”

Julius perked up upon hearing that.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“You mean if we come along, then you will give us approval to enter higher-ranked rifts?”

“Well, it depends on what we find in there. But yes, if there is a problem in there and you two handle it appropriately, I will give you both permission.”

“We accept!” Reinera exclaimed instantly, not even asking about Julius’s opinion. Although he would have said yes, too, so she wasn’t exactly wrong.

Professor Rowe grinned. “I had a feeling you might feel that way. Let’s head in and take a closer look, huh?”

***

When they re-entered the rift, Julius made sure to take a closer look around. It was the same forest environment as usual, and he didn’t detect anything approaching them.

Professor Rowe spoke up. “If there is anything wrong with the rift, it is going to be closer to the center. We should head there first.”

Julius and Reinera nodded at the man and followed him as he headed deeper into the forest.

They quickly passed the area that they had been around before and walked by several signs that said ‘restricted area’.

On their way, they came across several wolf monsters, and unlike scaring them off like Julius expected Professor Rowe to do, the man gestured them toward the monsters.