Monsters didn’t leave Keynes time to think about the Dominion or the outbreak. They flooded the cave in seconds. Keynes took out his two shortswords boosting his Dexterity and to lesser extent Strength.

The monsters were of many varieties and sizes. And what Keynes found terrifying was that their skills also differed, making them an unpredictable and dangerous combination. The epic rarity gave each monster a spell that was substantially more powerful than the rest of their skillset.

Even though the monsters’ stats were only of Level 3, the inclusion of two passive and two active abilities was a very real threat. After less than a minute, Keynes felt that his body began accumulating damage. While he was faster than these monsters, some possessed passives that boosted their attack speed or evasion. A few had area damage and area debuffs and the numbers quickly stack up.

Not knowing what to do, Keynes activated [Chaos Aura]. Without the spiritual aura added to it, his aura didn’t have any drain on his already low stamina. It worked to some degree as the majority of monsters tried to back away after they’d stepped into the range of [Chaos Aura].

But Keynes knew that idle [Chaos Aura] wasn’t enough to kill Level 3 epic monsters. He needed to kill the boss before the number of the monsters would spiral out of control. Such a rift like this couldn’t be left uncleared…

Unless, I don’t give a crap. The tribesmen betrayed me. I don’t have any obligation toward them.

Keynes used his spiritual aura on top of [Chaos Aure], creating a single pulse that had a noticeable effect on the monsters. To his shock, he could see damage in real time. [Chaos Aura] was doing all sorts of things to the flesh of the monsters and the cave.

The effect of Keynes's auras was gruesome. Some monsters shrivelled and turned into mummies, others puffed and exploded, many looked to be eaten alive by an invisible force or turned to dust.

A few had their bodies taken by overgrowth of crystals, and it didn’t always start outside of their bodies.

The sight made Keynes stop. In barely a moment, he massacred half of the monsters. And those that survived tried to back off from the reach of Keynes’s aura…

If I run straight to the boss and kill it, I’ll stop the rift from spawning the monsters and I should have left enough stamina in the tank to tidy up the rest.

While Keynes wanted to punish the tribesmen, he also wanted to keep this rift hidden. It was the highest rarity and type a Level 3 rift could possess. With the third outbreak, the Level 3 Rift Orbs should be common enough to buy a few.

Deciding to clear the rift, Keynes turned on his heel and shot toward the rift’s entrance. He jumped over a large puddle of goo that had been a monster a moment ago, then dodged a swipe from a panther-like monster with an oversized upper torso and a long whip-like tail. Keynes ignored any monster that was unintimidated and tried to attack him, and a few were. Keynes saw that these monsters had passive skills that allowed them to withstand pain or even enjoy it.

The mayhem type was scary. With so many monsters looking different and wielding different powers, the risk of delving such a rift multiplied to an absurd level.

A sharp bony projectile had hit Keynes a second before he entered the rift. It took 5% of his HP pushing his current health to 16%. Once inside the rift, with a grimace Keynes immediately unfurled his spiritual aura again but kept it at a lighter end. He needed stamina for the boss fight.

The rift was a lava chamber with a river of lava meandering around. Keynes stood at the top of a small volcano that existed inside the chamber. All the monsters came from the lower elevation and Keynes wondered why the rift didn’t stick to monsters that were more suited for this particular environment. Some of the creatures that approached him had long hair or naked skin that seemed strange here.

And there was the heat.

It was almost unbearable. Barely a few seconds inside the rift and Keynes knew that a longer stay here would start damaging him. He forced himself to withstand the heat but there was nothing he could do about the HP drain. He didn’t have fire or heat resistance.

With the auras back in place, all monsters began running from Keynes. Even if they received pleasure from pain, the damage caused by spiritually-augmented [Chaos Aura] was too overwhelming. Actually, Keynes realised while trekking down the volcano’s slope that none of the monsters managed to use their epic skills on him.

Keynes checked the wound, it wasn’t anything serious. Also, the bony projectile had already disintegrated.

I hate this rift.

A trek turned to a walk and the heat took its first 1% of Keynes’s HP. The monsters streamed around Keynes. Some seemed to use magic but none of their spells affected Keynes…

It looks like [Chaos Aura] interferes with the monsters’ magic. That was good news. Without a long-distance defence, Keynes was a sitting duck to a multitude of spells in this rift.

The terrain was very rocky and uneven, forcing Keynes to slow down even more. The heat also increased as Keynes got closer to the lava river.

He badly needed to kill the boss…

A large orange lizard with feather wings appeared out of nowhere. It wasn’t a boss.

A champion?! Are you joking? He didn’t have time to fight it. The champion didn’t use its wings to fly but it moved on the rocky terrain with dangerous grace and swiftness. It approached Keynes a few times but the auras drove it away. Keynes noticed that the champion could withstand the destructive combination of auras for longer than normal mobs. It meant that the boss would be even tougher to kill.

Leaving the champion behind turned out to be impossible. It followed Keynes with eagerness to the bank of the lava river. Keynes lost another 1% due to the heat. Somehow the monster was unbothered and got closer to the river of molten rock than Keynes.

It was a chance for Keynes to get rid of it. Keynes used [Telekinesis] and took hold of a boulder of the size of a few footballs merged together, then smashed it against the monster’s side. The champion lost its footing, and even with his wings flapping in panic it fell into the lava river where it perished.

Keynes sensed two powerful monsters coming his way; one from the up and one from the other side of the river.

Shit, I am almost at the end of my rope. I have to do something.

With two creatures drawing nearer, Keynes began walking away from the bank. He remembered seeing a spot where the boss should be, while he’d been at the top of the volcano.

The two powerful monsters had to be at least champions because they weren’t scared to probe Keynes’s auras the same way other monsters in the rift were. Most of the weaker monsters no longer approached Keynes, seemingly being afraid of his auras.

Keynes continued alongside the river until he reached a stone bridge. The bridge was the only thing in the rift that seemed to be designed and built. Keynes didn’t have time to think about it. This wasn’t the first time Keynes encountered a construction inside a rift.

Barely halfway to the other side, two champions slowly entered the bridge. One was a rocky golem that behaved like a dog. It sniffed the ground. The other monster was a snake with glistening brown skin. Its red eyes watched Keynes with hatred.

“You have to wait for your turn,” Keynes told the monsters. “After I kill the boss, I will take you down too.”

The monsters reacted to his words, the snake hissed and the golem’s body grated as its parts moved. Neither of the monsters approached him though. They stayed at the very edge of his auras reach.

Keynes turned his back on the monsters and waited a couple of seconds wanting to see what the monsters would do.

They waited.

Fine then.

Keynes crossed the rest of the bridge and walked onto a flat circular arena. Jagged rocks surrounded it, leaving only one entrance. The ground was a flattened black gravel that felt too smooth to be natural.

Carefully, Keynes moved to the centre of the arena.

His HP reached 10%, his stamina was similarly low. He had max two minutes before his body would go into overdrive and when that happened, he couldn’t be here. He would be risking falling unconscious at any point. With so many monsters around, it would be a death sentence.

“Where are you?” Keynes asked and then turned his head to see the two champions stay by the entrance, a few metres beyond the range of his auras. It was enough to tell him that they were barring his exit. “Smarties,” he added, then—his auras touched something invisible in front of him.

A creature with rocky tentacles and lava leaking from its maw appeared in the arena. Its one inky eye focused on Keynes and Keynes sensed a surge of spiritual energy from the boss.

Nothing happened.

The boss was as surprised as Keynes. It still stayed inside the range of auras. It was Level 4 after all.

Its rocky tentacles moved without a warning and at the speed that made Keynes start. But both tentacles crashed against the ground a metre from Keynes. The monster froze while Keynes understood what was going on.

[Chaos Aura] wasn’t only messing with spells, it disabled spells. That was why so few monsters seemed to use spells here. With the monster frozen from the shock, Keynes didn’t hesitate and concentrated his auras on the boss. That kind of control was hard. Destructive and powerful but exhausting. The effect was better than anything else Keynes could bring to the table right now though. His shortswords would be laughably ineffective against the rocky boss.

Still, the damage needed a moment to cumulate and the boss wasn’t frozen for long once it realised its position. It charged Keynes, its maws opened showing a pit filled with lava and sharp rocky teeth.

Keynes jumped away at the last moment, allowing the monster to run forward. In its fury, the boss lost its coordination and hit the jagged wall. Keynes attacked it with his auras again, narrowing them as much as he could, which was about a metre wide. That much concentration of [Chaos Aura] proved to be enough to start destroying the boss in real time. Its high-pitched wail didn’t last long as its body crumbled to dust.

The rift’s boss has been killed.

The Overcharge effect is removed.

The monster will no longer spawn.

You gain a single instance of the Explorer buff.

The Explore buff grants +30% to find a higher rarity item or skill from the reward chest.

As the system messages appeared, Keynes realised how insanely powerful [Chaos Aura] was.

This is po—

Keynes collapsed unconscious.

***

Shaper watched Keynes Kid’s fight with the boss and was impressed.

That’s [Chaos Aura], his spiritual companion said, sounding sober and solemn, which rarely happened nowadays. How has he obtained such a spell? It doesn’t drop until Level 45.

I am inclined to believe that our little friend receives favours from the System, Shaper said, expecting an outburst or at least a grumble from Magnalius. His spiritual companion was particularly sensitive about the System.

The System is impartial. It recognises strength and overcoming challenges, the more difficult the better, but giving away a Level 45 drop to a Level 3 ascender? No. There is no challenge that would warrant this. Magnalius said quietly. We should learn how he’s obtained it.

Even though Shaper outwardly showed no signs of surprise or distress, his emotions were plain to his spiritual companion who said nothing to that.

We’ll have a chance to talk to the boy very soon. That’s our cue, Shaper said, seeing Keynes Kid collapse. The two champions that had followed him rushed him in an instant.

Shaper arrived at the arena before either monster could get close to Keynes Kid. Then with millennia-long practised precision, Shaper used his spiritual aura like spears, smashing the champions' spiritual cores. These weren’t normal monsters and so their cores were harder and larger but Shaper was in a Grand stage and he was a Level 10 human ascender. Cores of the Level 3 champions shattered under the power of Shaper’s spirit. Both champions collapsed, dead.