Inside The Rift II

Noir said he hoped there were candies in the rift, right? Well, lucky him, they existed.

It was just that it was not the candy he knew. It was not a sweat. But a monster. Candy monster.

Crushing the last monster, Noir threw a jab at the sky.

"What a fvcking wonderland!"

50 minutes ago...

As soon Noir teleported inside the rift, he ran to a secluded spot.

Finding a quiet, secluded area in the rift, he threw his identification items that he transformed using the elixir.

"Right on time."

Shortly after they dropped to the ground, they returned to their original forms.

Looking around, he inspected the area, trying to locate where he was using the map.

Tall, thin, like-a-stick trees surrounded him. It had a pattern of black and white like a wafer roll. The leaves it got looked like jelly. A brown jelly.

"Hmm..."

After a while, he found the location where he was on the map.

'The southwest, Wafer Roll Forest...?'

Noir adjusted his mask.

"Looks like the information about you being teleported to a random place is true."

The rift had a mysterious mechanism that occasionally changed the coordinate of where someone would be teleported upon entering. It happened every three minutes.

That was why Noir had to wait for his turn back then. Also, why the students had to split into a group. And why a map was a necessary item to bring if someone wanted to enter the rift.

As Noir had just started searching for monsters, the bushes suddenly squished to his right. Turning in that direction, he found a bouncing sapphire-looking candy approaching him.

"Oh damn! Just as my stomach began rumbling, a candy appeared."

Spreading his arm, Noir invited the sentient candy for a hug.

Carefully, the candy bounced towards Noir. The closer it got, the more hasty its movements became.

Then, as it bounced at an arm's distance, its form cracked and split in half, transforming into a mouth-like shape with sharp, jagged teeth like stalactites.

Smirking, Noir clenched his fist. Blue electricity sparked around his right arm, forming a lightning gauntlet.

In the moment the Candy Monster was about to eat him, its movement slowed down in Noir's eyes. Meanwhile, Noir could still move at natural speed. Maybe slightly faster.

The disparity between their speed wasn't caused by a time control power. Because neither of them possessed that broken ability.

It was because Noir moved too fast.

'It's still too slow!'

Even so, Noir felt it was slow because he could move faster than that in his previous world when using his lightning power to enhance his speed.

Nevertheless, with one decisive move, Noir crushed the Candy Monster.

With the monster gone, a marble-sized white orb dropped to the ground.

Picking it up, Noir could feel its soft-like-jelly surface against his skin.

"Finally, the material needed to become stronger! One soft essence has been acquired!"

Boing! Boing!

Noir's ears twitched. He looked around his surroundings, finding himself surrounded by a dozen Candy Monsters.

Discharging his Azure Lightning, Noir grinned creepily.

"Come to me, candies!!"

***

After cleaning all the monsters in one spot in the Wafer Roll Forest, Noir collected the orbs, items, and materials that dropped from them.

"It's fewer than I thought..."

Noir's face dropped. He had hunted for almost an hour but only got 78 orbs, with 60 being a soft essence and the rest being solid essences.

With that much, he would have to hunt all day long to advance to the next Class and a few days for the Soul Depth's expansion.

That was if the monster's spawn time was in its original condition.

Before the Dimension Rift's appearance rate dropped to one to three rifts each month a lustrum ago, the monster's regeneration time was shorter, around 15 minutes for a dozen Candy Monsters or the other white-essence monsters.

But after the decline in appearance rate, they regenerated every six hours.

Moreover, if someone somehow managed to collect hundreds of essences or at least more than their given quota, they needed to return them after they left the rift.

Unsurprisingly, the League's members had a way to check how many essences someone got in the rift. And if they were caught absorbing or collecting more than their quota, they would have to pay the fine.

'Fvcking capitalism! They used the Dimensional Rift's scarcity to get money! Just to get stronger, I had to spend money to get the 300 orbs quota ticket!'

For the record, the price per orb for the Dimensional Rift Noir entered was 200 LC. That meant he had to pay 60000 LC for his ticket. It may not be much for him, but for the economically poor and less skillful Resonant, that was equal to their monthly minimum incomes.

Noir sighed.

"Unless I travel to another area, I'll not progress much today."

Noir opened the map, thinking where he should go.

The Wafer Roll Forest was in the southwest, and looking at Noir's map, its area was a crescent connecting two larger areas near the west return point and the south.

"If I go north, I'll arrive at the Sprinkle Stream. And if I go east, it will be the Great Mushroom Forest that waited for me."

Noir contemplated his choice for a while.

The Sprinkle Stream was an area filled with white-essence monsters. Naturally, that would be the best choice for a newbie who just stepped into the rift.

'That also means there's a high chance that the area is filled with students.'

For most students and economically poor licensed Resonants, who could only afford a hundred orb or less ticket, it wouldn't be a problem if they shared monsters.

But Noir was the person who bought the 300-orb ticket. It would take him more time to collect them if he were to go there.

With that being said, Noir decided to set to the Great Mushroom Forest.

"It's the best choice since that area is filled with the green-essence monsters."

Indeed. If Noir were to go to the Great Mushroom Forest, it wouldn't waste his 300-orb ticket. Instead, it would profit him in various ways.