Chapter 2: Portal, Vortex, and Crack.

Alseace was surrounded by rankers since he just got out of the portal and those people wanted him to join a raid. He declined them since he had enough for that day, and decided to rest on the bench.

"What are you doing here, Al? Are you not going in today?" A man with messy blonde hair sat down next to Alseace with his heavy backpack on his back. His name was Martin Orschot, a porter and an F-Rank Candidate like Alseace. "Those people are looking for a porter and you should join them because they're going to explore the E-Rank dungeon," he continued as he opened a canned black coffee.

"I'm trying to clear my head right now, and I already explored that dungeon this morning," Alseace looked at Candidates waiting in front of a blue portal.

There were 3 types of dimensions that existed in the world. The first one was a Dimensional Portal where people could enter and leave as they pleased. The monsters kept spawning and the place could be a dungeon or a plain field. Usually, Dimensional Portal's rank would be for F-Rank up to C-Rank Candidates because there were only weak monsters. But if the portal was left alone, the monsters could break through the portal and invade the world, so it was either to clear it or reduce the population if they still wanted to use it.

The second one was a Dimensional Vortex where people could enter with an objective. Candidates couldn't leave until they cleared the objective, and usually, there were powerful monsters or demons inside, and there were rewards for clearing the vortex. The Dimensional Vortex's rank would be B-Rank up to S-Rank because of how dangerous it was and depended on the color of the vortex. Blue, green, orange, red, Purple, and black colors. Those were the order of the difficulty. On the 7th day, if the vortex was still up, the monsters inside would invade the world.

The third one was a Dimensional Crack where people could enter without an objective. A Dimensional Crack was a way to enter another world, and that was what happened to Alseace. There was no rank, but a Dimensional Crack was the rarest and only opened once in a few years. It would disappear in an hour, a day, a week, or a month. In Dasmein, there was only one Dimensional Crack, and it happened thirty years ago when everything started. It was when Sierra came to Dasmein.

Sierra couldn't believe it when Alseace told her that in his original world, Crioseran, there were 6 Dimensional Cracks that lasted 8 years. She looked thrilled and somehow her reaction made him a bit uneasy. Whenever he tried to recall that moment, it always gave him a chill down his spine.

"By the way, I heard a rumor about what happened with those High-Rankers that tried to do an Atonement. Don't you think it's scary?" Martin stared blankly at the portal.

"Yeah, it is," Alseace nodded because he was there when almost half the candidates died or went insane.

Alseace heard stories from Sierra about why some Candidates prefer to kill human beings compared to monsters. There were two reasons, the first one would be the EXP was so juicy that it couldn't be compared to killing dozens of strong monsters, and the amount of [Karma] that got decreased was similar to killing a single monster. The second one would be if they killed other Candidates, they would have a chance to gain their skills.

Alseace understood why the townspeople were attacked after thinking about it again. Knowing he couldn't go back to his world made his days restless for the past 5 years.

"Hey, Al! Are you interested in joining the D-Rank portal?" A man in armor with a sword on his back asked. His name was Richard and a friend of Alseace. "We rent a D-Rank portal for three hours from the Noble Guild, it's a dungeon, and said there are still a few Mana Crystals left and we are planning to level up there and find them," he continued as he pointed his thumb to his back.

Mana Crystal was an item that was a forging material that would make the armor or weapon stronger. Not only that, if the Mana Crystal was so dense, once used to create a piece of equipment, it would give a skill. Candidates with [Appraisal] skill could tell if the Mana Crystal was worth a dime or not, and those Candidates with [Appraisal] skill would guarantee to be rich for giving appraisal service.

Almost all Candidates that had [Appraisal] skills worked for the Emissary. The reason was that people would rather trust those Candidates with that skill if they were from the Emissary. They didn't want to get scammed, and if something happened, the Emissary would always take responsibility for the error.

"Yeah, sure. I don't need a share, I'm fine with just tagging along and carrying the loots," Alseace nodded his head as he stood up.

"Sweet! Don't worry! We promise you that we will give 5% of the profit as always," Richard smiled and he looked so happy. "Let's go, the others are already on the site," he continued.

Martin was jealous, but he already had the plan to raid an F-Rank with his friends. Alseace then followed the man and rode a bus with the man since the location was quite far away.

Alseace was introduced by him to his friends, and most of them were from the Noble Guild. There was a total of 20 people on the team. It was no wonder he could rent a D-Rank portal, and be allowed to mine the crystals.

"With whom we are dealing inside?" Alseace asked.

"Orcs, but you don't have to worry. The high orcs have been killed by the Noble Guild two days ago. There are only normal orcs inside, and this morning they rechecked the dungeon, and nothing odd inside," Richard explained as they entered the portal.

The cave had been lightened up with lamps that were powered with batteries. They could wander around without worries since it looked like a normal cave even though the ceiling was really high.

Alseace followed them from behind and everything seemed normal and not out of the ordinary. They encountered a few orcs, but it wasn't a problem for them since most of them were C-Rank Candidates. They killed the orcs with just a few attacks.

[0.000092% EXP gained]

He was thinking about when he would be able to do that, knowing he had been trying his best to gain level for the past 5 years. He hadn't given up and would do his best because he believed a miracle existed since it happened to him once.

"Alright! It's mining time!" The team leader said as he looked at the unfinished mining site.

Alseace helped them mine, and it was as Richard said, there were still a lot of them buried on the wall. They were so happy when they found a lot of them, and those amount of crystals were worth at least $300,000.

They were happily mining until suddenly one of them got buried by the debris since the ceiling collapsed. They helped the man out of the debris, and then they looked at the ceiling.

"It's hollow," The team leader pointed his flashlight at the hole. "Let me check what's in there. Give me a boost," he said as he looked at his friend.

The team leader stepped on his friend's hands he rested on his right knee. His friend then threw him up as the team leader jumped at the same time. He managed to reach the ceiling which was 10 meters high from the ground.

Everyone looked up and waited for the team leader to come, but they didn't hear or see anything. The team leader suddenly jumped down from the hole, and he looked a bit pale.

"What's wrong?" His friend asked.

"There's a second floor... this dungeon has a second floor," The team leader answered as he gulped. "It's totally different up there, you can feel the pressure is overwhelming when you set your foot up there," he pointed out as he pointed his flashlight at the hole.

"Should we leave then? I don't like the idea of staying after knowing there's something beyond the ceiling. Especially after we made a loud noise like that," Richard said nervously.

"Yes, we should hurry and report it. Who knows what kind of monster resides on the second floor," The team leader nodded his head in agreement.

They all grabbed all the crystals and left the dungeon safely. The team leader immediately reported it to the Noble Guild secretary since they were the ones who dealt with that kind of thing.

"I have reported the dungeon, now we can go to Emissary headquarters to sell the Mana Crystals," The team leader said to Richard and Alseace.

When they were about to leave, the portal to the dungeon suddenly got distorted and took everyone's attention.

"It's an outbreak! Everyone leave the area immediately!" Richard shouted to the pedestrians around the area.

All the pedestrians ran as fast as they could while all the present Candidates were standing by near the portal. They had their weapons and their guns ready. They weren't sure if they could handle a lot of orcs, and the worst part was that there was a chance a high orc would come out of the portal. If high orcs came out, D-Rank Candidates wouldn't be able to handle them, even C-Rank Candidates had to be in a full team to deal with one of them.

"Al, you have to leave. This place is dangerous," Richard looked at Alseace anxiously.

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on staying anyway," Alseace answered and put down the bag filled with Mana Crystals. "Be safe, Rich," Alseace patted Richard's back and then left.

Alseace went far enough and hid in the alley since he wanted to get the EXPs. It was rare for a D-Rank portal to have an outbreak since it never overpopulated because Candidates were hunting them for drops and Mana Crystals.

"It's coming," Richard looked at the distorted portal and became fiercer and wilder.