The twins sighed as they moved past a tent where they heard someone – likely a Golden Oath representative – yelling about the hunters killing the third Elite. They pushed down the anger they felt at the thought of more people dying because someone kept delaying the subjugation to farm essences.

  Still, they were grateful that they hadn’t lost anyone in yesterday’s rush, though that hardly made up for all the deaths in the rift itself…

  Kenn’s mournful face and Jake’s eyes filled with rage flashed in their minds. They pushed them away, continuing to walk toward the Gate, past the trio of medical tents they had become oh so familiar with at this point.

  Despite the Gate being clearly visible even from this far away, that still didn’t make the path there straightforward. With the convoluted architecture of underground Anxia, it still took close to an hour of wading through the labyrinthine streets, listening to all the hunters bragging about snagging this or that essence, while others cried about their fallen comrades or cursed the rift and its shepherd, swearing to never enter a rift again.

  Of course, after yesterday, they’d had second thoughts about going inside themselves. They’d thought long and hard about whether they should just leave the city and try to fulfill the requirement of twenty Rare essences elsewhere.

  But they also knew that most conquered rifts only gave out up to Uncommon essences, and those that gave Rare were disproportionaly more difficult than the frogs and lizards they’d had to fight in the Bellowing Jungle rift. So ironically, going to conquered rifts for their rank up might not only take much longer but also end up being more dangerous than just taking their chances right now.

  At least, that was what they told themselves when deciding to go through with the expedition into the rift. Frankly speaking, they just saw this as too great an opportunity to ditch their lives of dirt-poor street performers and make a name for themselves.

  And, well, they also didn’t want to abandon this city after everything.

  Despite a full day passing since the third Elite’s breakout had been contained, they could still feel the tension in the air as they made their way to the cordoned-off zone and began looking for familiar faces in the groups of hunters.

  It didn’t take long to spot the distinct visage of a silver avian and the blue wolfkin twins. The kobold guy was there too, but he didn’t stand out as much.

  Nonetheless, they headed straight for the party with a wave of their hands to catch their attention. Being the scout and an avian, Leejay quickly noticed them and waved back as his serious frown turned into a radiant smile.

  “Leejay! Everyone!”

  “Dawn! Dusk! You made it! We thought you wouldn’t come!”

  “Nope, we’re here! Just as promised.”

  They didn’t mention being relieved to see them – both in terms of keeping their word and, well, still being alive after yesterday.

  “Hey again!” “Hi!” “Hello.”

  “So… Does the invitation still stand?”

  “Of course!” Leejay beamed at them. “The rift changed again, but our plan didn’t. Not much anyway. We’re still planning on staying near the Gate and picking off weaker monsters so that they don’t spill over again.”

  The twins glanced at the Gate and saw the branching glass structures poking out of it. Several guild personnel surrounded it, prodding it with tools or chipping away at it.

  “Right. Gotcha. Not going after the Boss.”

  Oulo, the kobold guy, snorted.

  “Yeah, no way. We’d die. Also, Golden Oath would probably choke us with fines if we somehow succeeded.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re rearing to go right after the Boss,” one of the wolfkin girls asked with furrowed brows.

  “Eh, not us.”

  “One guy yesterday, who lost his party tried to threaten us to join him to go on a crusade against the Boss…”

  Leejay’s friendly smile turned into a serious frown in a snap.

  “What? Who was it? Are you okay?”

  “We’re fine. He backed off pretty quickly. Don’t worry about it.”

  Though, despite their words, reminding themselves of the guy now had them worried they would meet him inside the rift.

  The avian relaxed but his frown didn’t disappear just yet.

  “If you say so… Well, if anyone tries to coerce you again, just tell us and we’ll kick their butts! Right, everyone?”

  “Yeah!” “Of course!” “Mhmm.”

  Dawn snorted and Dusk smiled.

  “Thanks.”

  “Anyway! Enough stalling! How are we doing this then?” Dawn asked, wanting to steer the conversation from the awkward touchy-feely stuff.

  The party leader obliged with a nod.

  “Alright, so as I said, our job will be to stick around the Gate and pick off stragglers. Be careful though, even the weakest monsters in the rift are still almost all Very Rare-tier and some might even be Epic-tier. Don’t underestimate them!” Leejay professionally summarized. “Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  “Good.” The avian nodded. “Before we go over the various monsters we might encounter, let’s cement our formation first.”

  He looked at Dusk.

  “So, Dawn already knows, but just so you know – I’m the scout and technically the guy who calls the shots, but don’t be afraid to chime in with your own suggestions. I’m not a dictator!”

  Dusk nodded along.

  “Minn and Tepp here–” He gestured to the wolfkin twins, but before he could finish his sentence, Minn interrupted him.

  “We’re the backline support! I’m usually on the defence and Tepp on offence, but we can swap in a pinch!”

  True to his word, the not-a-dictator leader merely nodded his head at the interruption and then turned to the last member.

  “Finally, Oulo is our bruiser and tank. He can take quite a bit of beating, so don’t be afraid to use him as a meat shield!” Leejay introduced his kobold teammate with a shit-eating grin.

  Said meat shield gave his leader a very unimpressed look, rolled his eyes, then turned back to the twins.

  “So, what about you guys? We know that Dawn is a healer with a long-ranged attack. And she made that Very Rare passive, I recall?”

  “Oh, about that! We– I actually have more new cards than just the passive! I’m not just a healer now!”

  “Yeah? What do you got, then?”

  “I’m a– the Archivist called it a ‘Skirmisher’. I can turn invisible, create barricades, and have that passive I showed you yesterday. Oh, also, I upgraded my healing skill to be long-ranged as well!”

  “Damn! That’s a lot of new cards! I guess you’re taking this rift hunter life seriously, eh?”

  Leejay grinned, probably happy that their healer wouldn’t be completely useless besides one heal and one nuke.

  “What about you, Dusk? What do you have?”

  “I’m like Oulo, I guess? Got a passive that makes me durable and two flail skills. Also got a heal. Stronger than Dawn’s but I have to touch you.”

  “Awesome! You two fit perfectly into our formation then! Let’s see… how about this – Oulo will still be our frontline and Dusk will protect our rear. Then I’ll take the left, Dawn the right, and Minn with Tepp will be in the middle?”

  The other three nodded in agreement. And since the twins didn’t know much about optimal party formations, they agreed as well.

  They spent a couple of minutes going over the common monsters in the rift and their strategy for dealing with each one of them. Leejay also took the time to warn them about the ‘glass trees’ – the residue of the third Elite’s corruption effect. The same ones being mined and researched just outside of the Gate.

  “That’s nasty… Just one touch and you turn into glass?”

  “Yeah… ‘Prismatic warden’ honestly doesn’t fit that thing at all. Should be ‘Glass cancer’ or something.”

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  Also, unlike the Bellowing jungle rift where they’d had to go in blind, the rift cartographers had plenty of time to map out the early areas of the Saltglass fortress rift.

  All in all, it made the twins feel less like blindly going into their deaths, though obviously, they could still very well die in there.

  Once again, Kenn’s sorrowful expression and Jake’s mask of rage flashed in their minds and they clenched their fists.

  They had to make sure that this party wouldn’t meet the same fate.

  With everyone ready, the party finally approached the cordoned-off area surrounding the looming gash in reality. Like everyone else, they had to pass through the little checkpoint where guild employees stood around, monitoring anyone entering or exiting the rift. Unlike the other rift, though, a Golden Oath representative also stood with them, likely trying to extract some kind of tax from hunters.

  The twins grimaced as the party got closer, but before they could reach the checkpoint, another party arrived – three people of varying genders and body shapes dressed in otherwise identical white robes with golden accents that covered them from head to toe. The golden symbol of a featureless person with its hands spread – as if offering something – on their back gave away their affiliation, making the twins freeze in their tracks.

  “Dawn? What’s–”

  “Shh!” Dawn shushed Leejay’s inquiry, grabbed his shirt, and dragged him off to the side, prompting the rest of the party to follow them.

  Thankfully, nobody raised their voice in surprise, though from the look on their faces, it was clear they expected an explanation for this.

  Once out of sight, hidden behind one of the tents scattered around the area, the twins peeked out to watch the three war priests of Oln discussing something with the checkpoint crew before being let into the rift.

  The twins sighed in relief as the trio of robed extremists disappeared into the Gate.

  “You guys… Did you do something heretical?” Oulo, the kobold, asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “What?”

  “Well, why else would you hide from Oln’s priests?”

  The twins grimaced and looked away.

  They never felt comfortable talking about this, but they had to say something. Might as well give them the short version.

  “We have a… history with a certain cult worshipping Oln.”

  “They pretty much enslaved us, forcing us to be their pet healers.”

  The wolfkin girls and Leejay gaped at them, appalled.

  “Wait. Both of you? I thought you met just a few days ago?” the kobold asked, his brow furrowing in suspicion.

  Shit.

  “It happened to both of us. Separately.”

  “That’s why we thought of each other as doppelgangers, you know? We have very similar experiences despite only meeting recently, somehow,” Dusk lied without missing a beat.

  “That’s…” Oulo’s frown deepened.

  “Weird! Very weird, really. But none of our business,” Leejay finished, giving the kobold a warning look.

  “It might be our business if it gets us killed in the rift, you know?” Oulo countered, his tone drier than the air wafting from the Gate. “If it’s a curse or worse, a dark sign, we might be marching to our doom.”

  Even Leejay hesitated at the mention of a dark sign, prompting the rest of the party to stare at the twins, hoping for answers.

  “It’s…”

  “Definitely a sign. But not a dark sign,” Dawn said, despite knowing what the archivist had said about negative skills.

  They hesitated, still not wanting to reveal the skill, but felt like they had to give them something if they wanted to be part of the expedition.

  “Promise you’ll stay quiet if we tell you.”

  Their turn to give the party an intense stare to relay the seriousness of the request.

  “You have my word!” the avian declared without missing a beat.

  “Yeah, of course!” Tepp agreed, following his lead.

  “I promise,” Minn chimed in.

  Oulo crossed his arms and pursed his lips.

  “Unless it’s something actually dangerous, I promise too.”

  “Right.”

  The twins looked at each other – more just to stall the inevitable than to communicate – and after a moment of silence, they turned back.

  After all, if these people were to accompany them into a place where they could very well all die, they deserved to know at least this much.

  “Alright,” Dusk whispered. “The truth is… we used to be one person – Dawn.”

  “But in that rift, we panicked and made a new skill. We didn’t know what we were doing, so we just mashed the best essences we had together.”

  “And then – poof. One became two.”

  Even without mentioning the shared mind thing, this reveal seemed to be a bit too much, since the immediate reaction was a stunned silence.

  “Oh. Huh, didn’t expect that,” Minn murmured.

  “But it makes sense. You two have very similar skills. Both of you even have healing skills… I bet you both upgraded the skill you had before, right? But with different essences?” Oulo asked, keeping his appraising gaze on the twins.

  “…Yeah.”

  “But here’s the kicker, the reason why we want you to stay quiet about this – whenever one of us kills a monster, both of us get the essence.”

  “Oh shit. That’s…”

  “Extremely abusable. Golden Oath would want you no matter what,” Oulo concluded with a shudder. “Yeah, okay. I get it. I’ll stay quiet.”

  The twins allowed themselves to relax just a tad at that.

  “Yeah, you don’t have to worry about a thing! We’ll protect you from cultists and the Golden Oath! You can count on us!”

  “Thanks.” They forced a smile.

  As much as they appreciated him trying to comfort them, it didn’t make them feel better. After all, they knew how vicious the cultists could be. And sure, the war priests were likely different from the cultists that they had known, but they still couldn’t help but be wary around anyone affiliated with the human god or humans in general.

  Dawn forced herself to look at the disconcerting sight of the Gate, wondering whether they would run into those war priests if they were to go now.

  Surely they wouldn’t bother with some random geckin kids they probably didn’t even know, right? Even if one of them had known them back in the day, they likely wouldn’t recognize them since not only had they changed since then, they had also put in some effort to disguise themselves to avoid them.

  Not to mention, there were two of them now.

  “Look, if you don’t want to go, we can go tomorrow instead…?” Leejay offered, seeing their discomfort.

  The twins paused, then shook their heads.

  “No. Let’s go today. We don’t know when there might be another emergency.”

  “Every little bit of help counts, right?”

  The avian gave them a proud smile.

  “Alright. Let’s go then. And don’t worry! Like I said – if anyone tries to bother you, they’ll have to go through me!”

  With that, the party finally approached the checkpoint. For this part, the twins were glad to be in a party, since Leejay handled the communication with the staff there – including the Golden Oath representative – and they only had to flash their badges and state that they were newly registered hunters, joining an established party to have witnesses.

  They felt bad for having Leejay pay the tax for them – since they still lacked the money because of their splurging yesterday – and swore to themselves they would repay him as soon as they could.

  With that out of the way, the avian took the ‘Clean-up party’ badge, and the whole crew finally moved past the checkpoint and toward the Gate proper, careful to avoid the glass branches menacingly jutting out of its side.

  “Alright, everyone ready?”

  One last time, Dusk checked his pack – Dawn didn’t carry as much because of her party role – and voiced his agreement along with everyone else.

  “Then, let’s go! Remember what we went over and stick to the formation!”

  With these last words, Leejay gestured toward Oulo, who gave him a nod and entered the Gate. Leejay, Minn, and Tepp followed right after him.

  The twins paused for a moment as a memory of yesterday came to them unbidden.

  Why had the others thought they’d met Dawn and not Dusk? Had they been wrong about who the original body was? How could they even tell at this point?

  “What did we look like… before?”

  “I… don’t remember.”

  It had been too long since they had looked at themselves in the mirror. Last time would have been with the troupe, when they had to put on make-up, right?

  What gender had they been back then?

  “We’re going insane, aren’t we? This is what the negative skill is doing to us.”

  “You don’t know that! Maybe we’re just very forgetful…”

  But even Dawn didn’t believe her own words.

  “But the inn lady recognized us correctly, right? That’s gotta mean something.”

  “Aren’t Unicals supposed to be good at seeing through lies though? Maybe it was just her.”

  The twins clenched their fists and their thoughts spiraled deeper and deeper, until Dawn harumphed, shook her head, and grabbed Dusk’s hand.

  “Whatever! Doesn’t matter! Who cares who the ‘original’ was anyway? Let’s just get into the rift already! They are waiting for us!”

  “Yeah, if we can’t remember, it doesn’t matter! Let’s go!”

  With these words, the twins finally stepped into the nausea-inducing tear in reality and let it wash them away into the rift.