"Y-you are the riftwalker they sent?" William asks in confusion.

  She's visibly tired and beads of sweat roll down on her forehead as she steps closer "Yeah I am , now follow me. There are many things moving around. By the time we get back This place should be publicly available , so there should be a camp around the portal." She says and points into wilderness.

  "Wait, you have to see this" William says as he runs off to find the sword.

  "What do you mean...." She trails off a moment later after she notices the weird sword in William's hand.

  Her eyes widen as he hands it over. She looks up from the sword at him with a worried glance.

  "I will have to report this and you will be interrogated, but we must get you back first." She doesn't seem to know anything

  As they wander back, from time to time she leans against trees or crouches down to touch the ground. After the fifth time William has to ask "Why do you do that?" William points at her as she is doing it again. She raises her eyebrow first at the question but then something clicks "Oh that, its just my ability. Seismic sense. I need it for directions and there is also something weird, too much movement north from here. I'll probably go there after we arrived to the camp"

  No clouds cover the sky and the sun is slowly fading with a blood red hue on the horizon. The monotony of the march towards the portal is proves to be unentertaining and while William's body keeps moving forward his mind wanders off. The pain in his core still lingers and it there is an abundance of the previous energy swirling inside.

  From time to time it starts moving in a direction but it stops and flows back. It moves back and forth like his thoughts, mirroring his emotional state As he relives the scenes his desire to survive keeps getting stronger. In reaction his core pushes the essence upwards swallowing the heart. It slowly fuses and the reserve of energy inside the core is now gone. The essence now one with the blood circulates with each beat, replenishing his stamina.

  The silence is abruptly broken by a buzzing sound in the distance. a chainsaw?

  "That must mean we are here" She claims and increases the pace. Leaving the trees behind they come to a huge circular area that was probably covered with trees a few days ago.

  There are a few agents, but most of the people are equipped with swords, bows or staves.

  The handful of structures are large military tents and surprisingly a Forge. On the anvil lies a blade from which heat spreads outwards while glowing with an orange color. A hammer falls on it repeatedly. Its metallic sound echoing trough the camp. From one of the tents a man walks out. He wears a yellowish armor and wears a crest on his shield that he puts on a table. The crest resembles a blade with an arc over it. I definitely seen that somewhere

  The woman next to William bows slightly and takes her leave.

  "I was told I will be interrogated." The man puts his head on Williams shoulder "Yes, but don't worry. Name's Arthur by the way. Come inside and lets measure your essence levels." William follows him inside without a word. There is a large machine standing there and 2 people wearing lab coats.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  A glass panel reveals an orb like structure made out of 3 separate metal rods bended around each other. Each has 3 small sockets storing one small crystal. on the front of it there is a hole designed for an arm to fit in. William pushes his arm inside without hesitation. There is a sting first and the orb starts spinning not long after. The crystals glow slightly and the machine hums. Then it stops revealing statistics on a screen.

  Name: William Brenn

  Core: Dark E

  Strength: F

  Speed: F

  Constitution E

  William turns his head to one of the scientists "Does it not show abilities?" "No we can't see into your mind but we can make estimates. We could only if you weren't a dark core" As she talks she begins to write on the notebook in her hands. Arthur steps in between them "So I think its time for me to ask some questions, but either we need to go out or the two colleagues need to." He looks at the scientists and gestures them to leave.

  As the two of them step outside Arthur sits down and leans in slightly

  "So, where is the sword from?"

  can i trust them? should i tell the truth? No, what if they are all the same

  The silence between them makes it a bit awkward until William finally speaks "I found it in front of a cave."

  Arthur narrows his eyes a bit "A cave huh? If there was another riftwalker here that means there might be two portals leading to one place. Or..." The words get stuck "No , never mind"

  "Wait you say two portals leading to one place? Is that possible?" William speaks so fast its nearly incomprehensible

  He shudders from the question and murmurs "I might have said too much" as he is holding his face in his palms. He slowly opens his eyes and pulls his hands away "Its just a theory. Nothing is certain as of right now "

  "Listen Although its weird how quickly you awakened, i think i can believe you and I don't want to bother you with this. After all the Blacksmith guy said its definitely made with some kind of metal based creation skill"

  He hands over a silvery card with the a familiar symbol on it. "Your are now a 3rd generation riftwalker. If you want to join my guild then here is the card. Otherwise I highly doubt they would bother you. The association only orders people around from the first generation."

  William's hands tremble as he takes the card away and pushes it inside his pocket.

  Arthur jumps to his feet and leaves in a hurry.

  The only person remaining in the tent is sitting in an awkward position.

  His posture abnormal and he nervously fumbles with his hands they let me go too easily, i am certainly being observed

  Outside a group a riftwalker gather in one spot. Among them is Maya and Arthur. They seem to be discussing something.

  "Our guild has managed to get here before the others. According to the scout there should be something north from here. That is where the 9 of us will go for now." He then slowly raises his sword upwards and points towards the direction they agreed upon.

  seismic sense the roots make their way trough the ground in a spinning motion towards their target. A buzzing sound is emitted and with each passing second it seems to get closer. "Something is coming..." Maya alerts the group

  "What? There is nothing here!" a voice says from behind her which fades to the sound of dozens of roots bursting from the ground. They tangle around some of the party members. Around them the trees start shaking and they slowly raise themselves from the earth. Their structure slowly bends around their middle in a protective manner. Each has a green glowing core partially concealed by the thick bark growing into an armor like shape. Countless branches coil up and prepare to thrust forward

  Spoiler