C4. Grade 6 Rift

Ryan descended the van with an excited smile on his face as he held tightly onto his large duffel bag and walked forward while Ben and Val hurriedly caught up to him.

The other three that came with them also seemed overly excited today as they marveled at the sheer size of a Grade 6 Rift.

This was the first time any of them had been this close to one as the only thing they were allowed to clear were the most common rifts, Grade 7 rifts.

They had only walked a little into the uncompleted apartment complex when two men wearing matching green uniforms walked up to them. One of them was holding a device that resembled a portable Geiger counter and the other was holding a touchpad.

As normal humans could not sense or feel the level of the energy being emitted by a rift, this device was invented to do the job for them and could accurately judge the overall level of the monsters within the rift.

Allowing them to calculate the overall difficulty of clearing the rift. This allows them to assign a grade to the rift based on that as the size of a rift did not reflect the strength of the monsters within it, only their savage size.

"Good morning, you must be Ryan, Ben, and Val, right? The Guild Leaders of Azral Org?"

The uniformed man holding the pad and wearing rounded glasses spoke to them as he stared at the list displayed on his pad.

"That's correct. I'm Val, these are—"

"Excellent, we've taken a second reading of the Rift and have reconfirmed the assigned Grade of 6. Therefore, the Azral Org license to clear the Rift will be accepted, please confirm."

Having been cut off by these guys, Val's face twisted as her eyes narrowed and she balled up a fist. Even though she was classified as an archer and her physical strength was considerably lower than a melee fighter.

She was still an ability holder and her physique was far removed from what could be considered normal. At her rank, a casual punch from her could cleanly remove the jaws of whomever she hit.

However, Ryan quickly held her hand as he knew exactly what these guys were trying to do. This was a big day for his guild and he wouldn't let a minor thing like this ruin it.

After making a confirmation of their license, the uniformed men bowed somewhat politely before they walked out of the building complex, leaving only Ryan and his hundred or so guild members to handle the rest.

They hadn't even bothered having any of their members oversee the operation.

"Ptttf… looks like the association is concerned about us. They normally don't do a confirmation check for only a Grade 6 Rift right?"

Val spoke with a scoff as she walked closer to Ryan and held his arm tightly before a smile finally returned to her face.

"That's true. But we're still only a 1-star Guild so it's understandable for them to be a bit paranoid. Besides, our situation is rather unusual."

Ryan answered casually without putting much thought into his words when Ben suddenly responded with as serious an expression as he always had.

"Well, not for long! We should be able to get promoted after this mission. Isn't that right?"

"Well, that's the plan. Who would've thought a guild of only the lowest-ranked Rifters would ever make it this far without the help of any of the large guilds? That sure must've taken the top brass for a loop don't you think?"

Responding to Ben's seriousness, Ryan patted his shoulder as he spoke and Val happily grabbed onto his arms before speaking in Ben's place.

"Yup. I'm sure we've already revolutionized this world by our lonesome. Other Rifters like us would no longer need to be exploited by those asshats again."

In the entirety of Kaiton City, more than a hundred guilds were operating within the city's limits. These guilds were usually ranked based on their grade and popularity with the civilians.

As Kaiton city was one of the few cities in the world with more than one 5-Star guild, it was easy to guess which guilds would rank amongst the top ten.

However, sitting at the tenth spot in the ranking poll was Azral Org. A 1-Star guild that was considered the largest guild in the city.

With more than 5,000 Rifters under their banner, they surpassed the no. 1 guild in the city by more than a hundred members.

Of course, these were only low-ranked Rifters but such an unprecedented phenomenon had not been experienced before.

Normally a 1-Star guild would limit themselves to less than 200 members as they could only gain access to the lowest ranked rifts which only contained low-quality materials that have already saturated the market and thus, their prices have continued to plummet.

Hence, plundering a Grade 7 rift was not as profitable as it used to be, and with a guild sharing the returns between a hundred or so members, an individual's gain was minuscule.

This was why most 1-star guilds would rather have less than a hundred capable members to improve their profits but Ryan's guild had done the opposite.

Such a thing was incomprehensible, it was something so far removed from the norm that it even threatened the existence of the large guilds.

As truly powerful Rifters were far and few in between, every guild needed the low-ranking Rifters to fill up their ranks for their continuous existence. However, due to the incredible risks involved in exploring high-grade rifts, this only serves to increase the life insurance of these low-ranking Rifters while providing them with more security.

However, in exchange for a safer rifting experience, these low-ranked Rifters were more or less being exploited by these large guilds.

As low-grade rifts could not be easily cleared by only F and G ranked Rifters, these guilds would be sent a single ranked Rifter with them to ensure their safety.

However, with the guild receiving more than 40 percent of the plundering returns and the high-ranked Rifter claiming at least 20 percent, that left less than 40 percent for over a hundred Rifters to share.

This was the true cost of safety.

That was where Ryan's guild came into play ever since they debuted more than 3 years ago. In order to earn enough to take care of his orphan siblings, he had to embrace the risk and his guild had formed without recruiting any high-ranked Rifters to protect them.

The use of creative strategies and careful planning had allowed them to survive in the sea of the oppressive Guilds.

And this was the reward for all their hard work as their guild had grown exponentially over the past year, gaining in popularity amongst the common masses.

They finally garnered enough support to afford enough attribute stones for two of their members to be promoted to D-rank. They had all sacrificed everything just for the opportunity of rising to the top without the help of any guild.

This granted them the requirements for their guild to become a 2-Star guild if they were successful in clearing the weakest Grade 6 rift available.

Hearing Val's words as she scoffs at those large guilds that had tried everything short of threatening them to stop them, Ryan chuckled and scratched his cheeks as he thought of the next step for their success.

The story wasn't over until it was. Or something like that.

He knew the large guilds still believe they would fail even now and that was why they hadn't outright tried to intimidate them into disbanding but that was the opportunity they needed to grow stronger before anyone could stop them.

"Well I wouldn't go as far as that but you're not wrong though. However, if we want that to happen, we'll have to make this job a success no matter what, this is our first time in a Grade 5 Rift after all."

"Ryan's right Val, this job is exceedingly dangerous so let's not get too excited until it's over. There are a lot of variables that will be beyond our expectations in such an unfamiliar territory so let's be extremely careful."

"Dude you sound like my grandma."

Val pouted after her excitement had been mercilessly snuffed out by Ben, who simply disregarded her retort.

"Sure whatever. Hey Ryan, can I speak with you for a moment."

Ryan shifted his gaze to meet the taller Ben and could guess what he wanted to talk about. As it was probably best if the other guild members didn't hear what he wanted to say, he decided it best they moved their conversation somewhere else.

"Sure, alright, Mr. Cam, can you please get the teams ready for the exploration and clearing? We shouldn't be long."

His gaze had fallen on one of the three individuals who had hitched a ride with them. It was an aged man with a buzz cut and an oddly colored yellow eyes, he wore a simple tank top on his muscular frame but heavy metallic armor from his waist down as he was in the middle of putting on his Rifting gear.

"Sure. I'll get right on that boss. Leave it to me."

He replied with a beaming smile as he proceeded to attend to the rest of his guild mates.

"Alright, thanks. Let's go Ben."