The mont Creed stepped into the portal, a violent, gut-wrenching force seized his entire body, twisting and yanking him in every possible direction like he had been thrown into a maelstrom of chaos.
His stomach flipped, his vision blurred, and his insides felt like they were being churned into a smoothie.
It wasn’t just teleportation, it was teleportation designed by soone who absolutely hated human comfort!
He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to endure the overwhelming nausea, but he could already hear the others groaning and gagging around him as they were hurled through the dinsional tunnel.
Then—BAM!
Creed’s feet slamd onto solid ground, his body staggering from the disorienting landing.
He bent his knees, adjusting quickly to the sudden shift, but around him, others weren’t so lucky.
A chorus of groans and curses filled the air as people collapsed onto the ground, clutching their stomachs.
So fell onto all fours, trying to steady themselves. But then—
"BLEEEAARGH!"
A wet, disgusting splatter echoed through the cavern.
Creed, moving purely on instinct, sidestepped imdiately and just in ti to dodge a projectile vomit attack from Trent, who had completely lost his battle against nausea.
Creed slowly turned to look at him, his face completely blank. Did this dude seriously just hurl the mont we landed?!
Trent was still hunched over, hacking and spitting, his hands on his knees, his whole body shaking like he had just seen his life flash before his eyes.
"P-Portals... are the worst thing ever..." he croaked.
The three Stage 5 powerhouses arrived right after, landing far more gracefully than the rest, while Creed, thanks to his enhanced physique, had managed to recover far quicker than most.
But as the others stumbled to their feet, groaning, wiping their mouths, and trying not to gag at the sll, Creed finally took in his surroundings.
And froze.
They had landed in a massive underground chamber, but it was unlike anything Creed had ever seen.
It wasn’t just a cave. It was a twisted, unholy fusion of a natural cavern and an ancient temple.
The walls were made of dark stone, towering high above them, yet they were embedded with pulsating red veins that throbbed like they were alive, casting an eerie glow over the entire chamber.
Gigantic stone pillars, cracked and weathered with age, stretched toward the unseen ceiling, each one adorned with strange, glowing symbols that seed to shift and change whenever he tried to focus on them.
The air was thick—oppressively thick—not just with dust but with an overwhelming pressure, like an invisible weight pressing down on his body, making it just a bit harder to breathe.
And then, before anyone could even fully process their eerie surroundings...
The portal behind them flashed red. Then, without warning, it vanished.
The only way out... was gone!
Creed noticed it imdiately. So did the Stage 5s. For a few seconds, there was silence.
Then...
"WHAT THE F—"
Panic erupted as the rest of the group finally realized.
"The portal disappeared?!" soone shouted in disbelief.
"No, no, no! It’s gotta reappear, right?! Right?!"
"We’re trapped?! Are you kidding ?!"
Swearing, shouting, pure chaos.
And then...
"Welp, this is officially the worst-case scenario, folks!"
Axel Storm, the strear, spun dramatically toward his floating drone, grinning shalessly despite the disaster unfolding around them.
"Ladies and gentlen, it looks like this unexplored rift is actually an ACTIVE RIFT! That’s right, you heard it here first! We are officially trapped, and we have no idea how to get out!"
Several people turned to glare at him.
Axel, completely undeterred, clasped his hands together in mock prayer.
"So, uh, chat? This would be a fantastic ti to donate so gifts—y’know, just to boost morale? Nothing motivates more than a few hundred thousand credits rolling in while I’m fighting for my life!"
Creed almost lost it. Is this dude seriously begging for donations while we’re possibly about to die?!
The others were not amused.
One of the Stage 5s, a massive, silver-haired man who clearly also had unresolved romantic tension with Fiona, turned to Axel, his voice low and deadly. "Shut. Up."
Axel put his hands up defensively. "Alright, alright, chill, big guy! Just trying to lighten the mood!"
anwhile, the other two Stage 5s were already discussing in serious, hushed tones, their expressions tense. It was clear they were deeply concerned.
And they had every reason to be. Because this wasn’t just any rift. This was an active rift.
Dinsional rifts were categorized into two types: Dormant and Active.
Dormant Rifts were the safest kind. They were stable, aning the portal remained open indefinitely, allowing anyone to leave whenever they wanted.
While dangerous monsters and threats still existed inside, the death rate was relatively low since escape was always an option.
These were the types of rifts Creed had explored before.
Active Rifts, however... were death traps.
Active rifts sealed themselves upon entry, and the only way to escape was to et a specific condition that would reactivate the exit portal. The problem?
No one ever knew what that condition was before entering. Sotis, it was as simple as reaching a certain location.
Other tis, it involved killing a specific monster, solving an ancient puzzle, or even surviving for a set amount of ti!
And then there were the worst ones; the ones where no one ever figured out the condition at all!
The ones where entire teams vanished without a trace!
Creed felt his soul leave his body.
’...I’m so screwed.’
At first, he had assud his terrible luck had peaked when he got thrown into trouble after trouble. But nope! The universe was clearly still finding new ways to ss with him.
He let out a long, suffering sigh.
’One month. It’s been one freaking month in this world, and I have already been in more life-or-death situations than most people experience in their entire lives!’
He slowly dragged a hand down his face.
’At this point, I don’t even need a danger sense talent. If sothing terrible can happen, it will. Because I, Creed, have officially been cursed with the worst luck in the entire universe. I refuse to believe otherwise!’
And with that, he simply closed his eyes for a mont, took a deep breath and ntally prepared himself for whatever nightmare awaited them in this rift.
The mont the Stage 5s realized they were trapped in an Active Rift, they wasted no ti taking control of the situation.
With the sheer level of deadliness radiating from this underground cavern, their leader which was the massive, broad-shouldered man with silver hair, imdiately barked out orders, his voice booming over the scattered panic.
"Formation! Everyone in a defensive movent formation—Stage 1s and weaker combatants in the center! Shields and tanks at the front, ranged at the back! Move!"
The group quickly snapped into action, and within seconds, they had organized themselves into a tight, strategic formation.
The strongest fighters took the lead while those less capable—including Kent, much to his dismay—were shuffled toward the middle for protection.
Creed, gripping his purple spear tightly, positioned himself sowhere between the mid-front lines, ensuring he wasn’t just dead weight but also not stupidly charging ahead like so brain-dead maniac.
His muscles were tense, his senses hyper-aware of their surroundings, his mind running through a million worst-case scenarios at once.
And right next to him, completely detached from the severity of their situation was of course, the one and only.
Axel Storm, Rift Strear Extraordinaire, was still talking to his damn drone!
"Now, I know a lot of you at ho are wondering—’Axel, how do you stay so cool in such high-tension life-or-death situations?’"
He grinned at the cara, adjusting his collar-mounted mic.
"Well, folks, let tell you about today’s sponsor—CoolCore Underwear! That’s right!
"Whether you’re exploring deadly rifts, dodging monsters, or just chilling at ho, CoolCore Underwear keeps you sweat-free and comfortable all day long! Enter promo code ’RiftKing’ for 15% off your first order!"
Creed nearly lost his grip on his spear.
’...I swear on everything, if we survive this, I’m going to personally throw this guy into a lava pit. Who in their right mind is thinking about underwear when we might literally die at any second?!’
Creed glanced around, hoping—praying—that one of the Stage 5s would knock so sense into this lunatic. But no. Sohow, this absolute madman was just being tolerated.
And then, they saw sothing.
A glowing red crystal was embedded within the fleshy, pulsating walls of the cavern.
It jutted out slightly, gleaming with an unnatural, crimson radiance, like a bloodstained gem fused into the structure of the rift itself.
The mont they spotted it, one of the Stage 4s; a lean, sharp-eyed woman with silver tattoos along her arms froze and pointed.
"Is that... a Pure Crystal?"
The entire group stiffened.
Creed could practically feel the ripple of shock spreading through the team.
Pure Crystals?! Inside a rift?! That doesn’t make sense!
Pure crystals were obviously the valuable, highly sought-after energy cores that could only be obtained from dinsional beasts outside the rift.
The thing was, when fighting a dinsional beast within a rift, if you failed to destroy its core during the fight, the creature would simply resurrect later, as if nothing had happened.
Because of this, Pure crystals never naturally ford inside rifts. It was only in the corpses of beasts that had been fully harvested outside of them!
For one to be just sitting there, exposed, untouched, in the walls of the rift itself, it completely defied what they knew about rift knowledge!
The tall Stage 5 leader narrowed his eyes.
"No one touches it." His voice was calm, but firm.
"It’s an anomaly. Sothing we don’t understand. We don’t know what kind of effect it might have—whether it’s safe, toxic, cursed, or connected to the rift itself. We stick to protocol. No unnecessary risks. Understood?"
Creed nodded to himself, impressed. Finally! A guy with actual sense! This was exactly how a leader should be; decisive, cautious, and most importantly, not a greedy idiot.
Which, unfortunately, could not be said for—
"Oh, c’mon! It’s just a crystal!"
Creed’s stomach dropped.
Axel Storm, certified nace to society, was already walking toward the glowing crystal, talking to his drone, completely ignoring the leader’s warning.
"Chat, you seeing this? This is an actual Pure Crystal just chilling here, unguarded! And you know what that ans?" He grinned mischievously at the cara.
"That ans it belongs to !"
The group imdiately shouted at him.
"DON’T TOUCH IT!"
"GET BACK HERE, YOU MORON!"
"I SWEAR TO GOD, IF YOU GET US ALL KILLED—"
Axel, completely unbothered, turned to the cara and winked.
"Relax, relax! I’m a professional, guys!"
Creed, watching this unfold, felt like he was witnessing a horror movie in slow motion.
Oh my god. This idiot is actually going to get us all killed.
Axel reached out and touched the crystal.
For a brief mont, nothing happened.
Axel smirked, turning back to the group, arms crossed. "See? What’d I tell ya? Just a normal Pure Crystal..."
And then—he yanked it out.
Oh, you absolute moron!
The mont the crystal was fully removed from the wall, a deafening, ear-splitting CRACK ripped through the cavern.
A crimson liquid EXPLODED from the now-empty hole, gushing out violently and coating Axel in a steaming, magma-like substance!
The group staggered back, weapons raised, expecting the worst!
But his clothes didn’t burn.
The substance, despite looking like molten lava, didn’t incinerate his armor or lt his skin.
For a brief mont, everything was still.
Then...
Axel twitched.
He stood there, his body rigid, unmoving, his hands trembling slightly. Then, very slowly, he turned toward them.
His eyes were red.
Then, without warning...
Boom!
He lunged forward at top speed and attacked the closest person near him; a young woman in light armor!
She barely had ti to react before he was on her, his hands gripping her throat, lifting her off the ground with inhuman strength!
The group exploded into chaos!
"HE’S LOST IT!"
"HE’S BEEN CORRUPTED!"
"SUBDUE HIM! NOW!"
There was sothing wrong with the crimson magma!
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