As they approached, one of the guards setting up the perimeter stopped them and gave them a slip of paper each.
‘Fresh Rift subjugation helper’
“Here. Show this at the guild to get your rewards.”
“Thanks!”
“Don’t expect much. There were a lot of people this time.”
“Right.”
Finally, they were out of the damp and hot rift’s zone of influence and entered the arid lands of the frontier. Still pretty hot, but getting cooler thanks to the setting Sun.
They let out a sigh of relief as they joined the mass of people trudging toward the Behemoth-turned-city in the distance.
They were exhausted.
After so long of constant excitement, they thought the moment they sat down, they would fall asleep. But they couldn’t afford to do that yet. Not until they made it back to the city. Luckily, with how many people walked in the same direction, they didn’t have to worry too much about sudden attacks from wild beasts.
The Sun gradually set completely and many people brought out their lights.
Some physically lit their lanterns, some pulled out a simple skill, and others used an infused essence to light their way.
They watched a man pull out a piece of chiseled Springsteel with a simple rune on it and hold a ◆Glow◆ card to it. The card shone, turned into light, and promptly got absorbed by the rune, causing the Springsteel to glow with a gentle light. The man then grabbed it by the attached handhold and carried it like a regular lantern.
The twins stared at the thing.
What an appalling waste of money. Just how rich was that guy to be using essences willy-nilly like this?
With a shake of their heads, the twins refocused on walking instead.
Nobody tried striking up a conversation with them on the way, and no monsters appeared to ruin their day either – probably thanks to the sheer number of people present.
In no time at all, they reached the main gate. A long line had already formed due to all the other rift hunters, but the twins found that they didn’t mind too much. They could use an idle moment of silence.
It gave them time to think about everything that had happened and everything they might want to do in the future.
First, the Behemoth in the room – [Soul Split].
They couldn’t show this skill to anyone. The twins didn’t know for sure, but their instinct told them that the skill had been messed up by the corrupted essence. If any half-knowledgeable Archivist saw it, they might figure it out. And if they did, they would ask just where they’d gotten the corrupted essence from, which… would only lead to trouble.
At worst, they might be arrested and then executed for murder.
The twins shuddered and pushed that topic away.
Besides the messed-up skill, they had crafted several new skills as well – two brand new, one upgrade. Luckily, their decks didn’t weigh on them too much just yet, but they had to be careful about crafting any more, since they could clearly tell Dawn’s deck was heavier than Dusk’s.
At the same time, they had all these Rare and Very Rare essences, and it felt wrong to just sell them all after all the trouble they had gone through…
Maybe only sell a few and keep the rest? They would have to visit an Archivist to see which ones were worth selling though.
Other than that…
Should they really keep living here in the frontier city? It had barely been a week and they had already gotten tangled up in a life-threatening situation. Or rather, they didn’t even know whether the other rift had been subjugated yet. For all they knew, the other hunters were still in there, struggling to tame it.
Maybe they should move somewhere else again. But then, what if the cult found them…? Ironically, being this close to the Wild Tear felt like the safest way to hide from the cowardly cultists.
“Next!”
The city gate guard’s voice tore them out of their thoughts and they stepped in front of him.
“Identification, please.”
They grimaced.
“We lost our pack in the rift. It was in there.”
“Hrm, do you have the subjugator tickets then?”
“Um, this?”
They showed the man the paper slips they’d gotten.
“Those are the ones.” A nod. “Go on in. Make sure to get a new ID as soon as you can.”
“Right. Thanks!”
Another nod.
“Next! Identification, please.”
The twins stepped into the city.
“Finally back…”
“Feels like home…?”
“Hardly. We barely spent a week here.”
“Kind of a home, then.”
Even after seeing it a couple of times already, the immensity of the city didn’t fail to impress them.
The deceased beast’s ribs arched over the whole thing protectively, casting large lines of shadows onto the main street, always reminding everyone of what this ‘city’ truly represented. The impenetrable walls hugged the city on all sides, making the twins question just how in the world the beast had died in the first place.
The white marrowstone buildings towered over the people, some even reaching high enough to attach to the beast’s ribs as a support. In fact, the entire city stretched tall rather than wide to fit everything inside the beast’s corpse. To add to that, the various streets were more like bridges connecting the different floors of buildings. Several elevators also connected the ground to higher floors for easier access. It made for a very strange architectural style not seen anywhere else in the world.
“Dunno about that. Maybe we should leave…?”
“Nah… What are the chances more rifts pop up?”
“Don’t jinx it. But… probably not that high, right?”
As they talked to themselves, they climbed the second side-street upward. The city seemed tense. Even this late at night, people rushed from place to place and pretty much every building had a ‘closed’ sign hung up.
The twins tried not to let the atmosphere get to them as they made it to their destination – a large fanciful four-story building. The signpost above the big double door read ‘Hunter’s Guild’.
“Never thought I would go into one of these again.”
“Not like we’re registering though. Just getting the reward.”
“I hope nobody will recognize us there.”
After a short pause, the twins stepped forward and pushed open the door. A familiar sight greeted them.
An open venue separated into five partitions – one for each rift type, plus one for general matters. The Cullwright section – monster rift hunters – already had long lines leading to every teller window, which told the twins where to get their reward.
They stood in line.
“More lines…” Dawn murmured grumpily.
“I’m gonna fall asleep on my feet.”
The tall blond wolfkin in front of them reacted with a snort and turned to them.
“Ain’t that right? You would think the bureaucracy would shove it when it’s an emergency but nooooo! Let’s just ignore that the other rift is still active.”
That woke them up.
“It is?”
“Yuh. Last I heard, the Slime Queen killed one of the Elites.” The man quirked his eyebrow. “Legendary essence.”
“Oh, damn…”
Not going there. No way.
“Mhmm. Means the Boss is at least Mythical. Ain’t no way Slime Queen can solo that, no matter how crazy or strong she is.”
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“But isn’t that bad? Is the city safe?”
“I thought the rift was underground.”
“Mmm, probably. But they culled everything around the Gate, so it shouldn’t be too bad, I think?” The man shrugged, unconcerned. “Still might get overrun, but I heard there was another S-rank running around, so I’m guessing we’re good.”
“Oh, yeah. Lightslinger.”
“We saw him beat the Boss of the other rift.”
“Ah, that guy. Yuh, with two S-ranks in the city, we’re good.” A pause. “Probably.”
“Probably…?”
“Probably! Anywho, name’s Kenn. You two newbies?”
“I’m Dusk! But no, we’re street performers.”
“Dawn. Just wanted to help… nearly kicked it a couple of times.”
The wolfman snorted.
“Welcome to hunter’s life. You not sticking around, I take it?”
“Eh.”
“Probably not.”
He nodded.
“Fair. I’ll see you around then.”
They hadn’t even noticed how much the line had shrunk during the chat. Kenn gave them a two-finger salute and a nod and walked to the teller, the subjugation slip in hand.
Once again, the twins relaxed and thought about the conversation.
“The second rift is still active…”
“We’re not going there. We’ll die.”
“Should we leave the city, after all…?”
“Maybe… We’ll have to think about it.”
“We could try upgrading our decks? If we were stronger, things would have gone differently back there. Maybe we would never get split from our party.”
They paused, realizing that they would have never crafted [Soul Split] if the rift hadn’t separated them.
“Whatever. We’ll think about it later. I’m too tired.”
“Right.”
Soon enough, their turn came.
The lady behind the counter immediately wrinkled her nose at the sight of them.
Rude.
But they ignored her reaction and Dusk stepped forward to show her the ticket. She scanned it with her special infused device and nodded.
“Coins or card?”
The twins paused and fished the money card out of their pockets. Miraculously, they not only hadn’t lost it, but the card had also been duplicated by [Soul Split].
A card resembling skill and essence cards, but with the name ‘Dawn’ at the top, and the text ‘467 Gil’ on its face. Unlike skills and essences, this card was fully physical and not tied to their souls.
Both twins had the card. And both of their cards had the name ‘Dawn’ on it.
Crap.
The receptionist was already reaching for the card, when Dusk pulled it back. She gave him a half-annoyed, half-confused frown.
“…Coins, please.”
The lady narrowed her eyes but didn’t question the odd exchange. She reached out to the side to tap another device, and after a series of clinking sounds, she put the coins into a simple pouch and pushed it toward Dusk.
“Should be three hundred Gil. Please check it right away. There won’t be a refund later.”
“Right.”
After checking it, Dusk stepped aside and let his other body go through the same process. Once done, the twins left the guild with a sigh of relief.
“Less than we hoped.”
“Definitely not worth it.”
“We can still sell the essences.”
“But should we?”
A synchronized yawn tore through their faces.
“We should sleep, that’s what.”
“Top idea.”
Remembering Layna’s invitation, they made a small detour two blocks south and quickly found ‘Layna’s Loaves’. It obviously wasn’t open, so the twins left after committing the location to memory.
Then they trudged to their final stop for the day – the inn.
A modest two-story building made out of stone. The text ‘Behemoth’s rest’ plastered above the door glowed with a soft blue hue, welcoming tired rift hunters and street performers alike.
They approached the door and then froze, realizing that… Well. Only one of them had rented a room here. How were they going to explain this?
“We can say that I got here just before the rift.”
“Won’t they be suspicious? We never mentioned having a twin.”
“Maybe… Got a better idea?”
The twins paused as Dusk frowned and Dawn gave him a look.
“I am you. We have the same ideas.”
“Apparently I gotta remind myself of that. Damn cursed skill…”
A double sigh.
“So…?”
“Can’t think of anything better.”
“Let’s go then.”
The two entered and immediately beelined toward the front desk.
“Hello…?” Dawn asked as they approached the empty counter.
“I’ll be there in a sec!” a female voice replied from somewhere in the back.
“Great, more waiting…”
“At least it’s not another line.”
A minute later, a plump lady with a shiny horn jutting from her forehead emerged.
“Hello! Can I help you?” She paused, looking between the two. “Oh! It’s you! And… Huh, I didn’t know you had a twin.”
“Err, yeah… We didn’t either.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“We both went to help with the rift and met inside by chance.”
Technically true.
“Hmm… And you both just happened to wear the same clothes, have the same hairstyles, and look nearly identical? Truly an incredible coincidence.”
Ah, drat.
“Yup… A very crazy coincidence.”
“It was a very emotional reunion…”
“Hmm, hmm. Well, I’m guessing you need somewhere to sleep as well, miss twin?” the woman asked with a glint in her eye.
“That would be great…”
They abruptly realized that the woman had correctly recognized Dusk as the person who had registered here… who had called themselves Dawn before. Oh, this was going to be even more complicated than they had anticipated.
“Hmmmm, and I assume you want to be in a room together?” They hesitantly nodded. “Well! You’re in luck. We still have a couple of bigger rooms open. I’ll reassign you to one of the two-person rooms. Ah, right. What’s your name, miss twin?”
They paused and looked at each other.
Several people already knew them as Dusk and Dawn.
“…Dawn.”
The woman quirked an eyebrow, unimpressed.
“You’re both Dawn, then?”
“No… I’m Dusk.”
“Oh? Your new twin stole your name, huh?”
“Erm…”
“Well! It’s none of my business. As long as you pay, I care not for whatever curse or blessing you’ve been afflicted with in that rift.” The woman picked up some papers on the desk and leafed through them. “How about this one? If I deduct what you’ve paid me for the single room, it’ll pay for three days of stay. From then on, it will cost you fifty Gil per night for both of you. Bath, dinner, and breakfast included.”
“Deal.”
“Alright then…” The woman wrote something in the papers and then reached down below the counter and fished out a key. “Here you go. Room twenty-three. Second floor, third door to the left. Can’t miss it. Do you want dinner?”
The tension they had been holding finally unfurled.
“Thank you! No, we’ll just go to sleep right away.”
“Suit yourself.”
Dawn grabbed the key and the two scampered toward the staircase. Before they could escape though, the woman spoke again.
“Oh! And one more thing!”
They froze halfway up the staircase and turned back to the innkeeper. The sharp gaze directed their way made them break out in cold sweat and swallow in trepidation.
Was this it? Was she going to blackmail them? Force them to do something? Threaten to expose them?
A moment of eternity passed.
The receptionist smirked.
“Take a bath before you dirty my sheets, will you?”
The twins blinked, then looked down at themselves.
Still covered in mud… Probably the reason why the guild lady scowled at them like that.
“R-Right! Sorry!”
They ran back down the stairs and into the bath in the back, ignoring the lady’s belly laugh.
Thankfully, the baths were unoccupied when the twins entered. They quickly washed their clothes and put them near the public drying relic in the corner.
Then they washed themselves, doing their best to ignore one of the bodies being… different from what they were used to.
Much more importantly, with two bodies, they could now wash their backs without a problem! Super convenient!
Once clean, they took their now dry clothes, put them on, and scuttled to the second floor to their room.
They didn’t even take a look around before collapsing into their beds and letting oblivion take them.
Dawn fell asleep first.
For a brief, uncomfortable moment, there was only one of them again. But before Dusk could think about how unnerving that felt now, he too drifted off.
The twins dreamed of snakes with too many heads chasing them through moving halls, and an elf stabbing them in the back while a catkin laughed at them. Both dreams overlaid one another, mixing into an incoherent mess.
