Chapter 610: First Tier 4 Rift

Julius didn’t wait and immediately went over to the rift. Cassandra was right behind him as well. She must have spotted it before he had.

As Julius inspected the rift, she spoke to him. “If you want to enter it, feel free. It should be a Tier 4 rift and might be a good opportunity for you. I know you already have some nice treasures from the tournament, but you might get something good out of this rift due to its location inside a heavily condensed life mana area.”

Julius agreed with her. He hadn’t really examined the treasures he got from Reinera so far. To be fair, he was waiting until he was settled down in Corvus before he did so, and not looking at them every day was a good way to control his impulse to shove said treasures down his throat.

But a rift inside such an environment likely had some nice things inside, and since it was a Tier 4 rift, it would be even better than the rifts he normally delved. Tier 4 rifts were known for their better rewards and higher rate of treasures. Not surprising since the risk was also higher.

Still, if he cleared it, he might get something useful to him. Even if it didn’t have anything fantastic, it would still be a good experience since he hadn’t delved into a Tier 4 rift yet.

“You don’t mind? It might take some time.”

“I mean, you can always catch up with us later. I’m not too worried about you and your survivability. Just take this,” Cassandra said to him while handing him a small metal plate. “It is enchanted so that I can find you and you can find us.”

“You sure?”

She laughed. “Yeah, you have been babysitting these two for the past couple of weeks. You deserve some time to yourself.”

“Babysitting?” Maya muttered with an offended frown.

Julius shrugged. “So what? Just meet you guys later? What if I take too long?”

“I’ll wait for you. I don’t think it will take you very long to clear the rift. Not with your current abilities. But if it does, I will come back and help you. I know that Caldrus talked with you, but are you still interested in coming back to the sect with us?”

Julius nodded. He had been thinking about it for the past week or so and came to the conclusion that it was the best decision for him. Caldrus made a good point, he didn’t really know how to navigate Corvus. He just didn’t know enough about the country to do so. Plus, the promise to access the Scorched Wastelands was too tempting to give up.

“Okay, then, in that case, we will take our time and give you time to catch up. If you can’t, then I will come and get you. In the meantime, I will make sure that these two continue training. As for you, just enjoy the rift and see if you can get anything of use,” she said to him with a knowing smile.

Julius grinned back, and before he could waste any more time, he walked over to the hidden rift and touched the swirling blue portal.

Would you like to enter the Rift?

He accepted it and felt himself get dragged into its depths.

***

When he appeared inside the rift, he couldn’t help but observe that it was very similar to the forest he had just been in. There were a few key differences, though. For one, the sun above was massive. It was at least twice, maybe even three times as large as the sun outside the rift. That also meant the heat coming from it was intense.

However, it wasn’t necessarily painful. If anything, the sun almost healed him with its contact, as if it were infusing his skin with pure life mana. He hadn’t come across anything like it before.

The other thing that he took note of was the potency of the life mana in the air. The Brightwood Forest had already been densely filled with life mana, but this life mana felt different. It felt… dangerous.

As he walked around and explored the nearby area, he allowed the sun to illuminate his skin and tried to analyse how it was affecting his body. He was fascinated by how pure and clean the life mana was. It made his own life mana feel dirty in comparison.

He wondered if that cleanliness had any impact on the effectiveness of his life-based skills.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t left alone in peace for very long. As he was walking past a particularly massive tree, he felt something ping his senses. He didn’t sense any monsters approaching him, but that was where he was wrong. Out of nowhere, a vine lashed out at him.

He sent out a pulse of kinetic energy and aura at the vine, intercepting it before it smacked him in the face. The kinetic energy was enough to halt its momentum, and his aura tore into it. The vine fell limp and hit the forest floor.

He frowned and started to understand what was going on. He quickly made some adjustments to his spatial perception and shook his head with an amused smile. Initially, he thought there weren’t any living creatures around him. But that was a hasty and incorrect assumption. Now that he shifted his senses a little, he realized that the entire forest was alive.

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