I need something better.

  Right. But a genuine question was, was there anything that would work? He could Level up past Level 10. By Level 12 he would almost catch up with her, assuming she stayed at Level 10. If he reached Level 13 then his attributes would exceed hers fully boosted by her Talent.

  Hell, thinking about Twelfth Degree felt unreal. Each degree was substantially harder than the previous one, and he fully expected the difficulty to jump after Level 10. There seemed to be something special about that threshold. And given the power boost from ascension to Level 5, he might get something ridiculous.

  It sounds too much like wishful thinking. The last thing he needed right now was to rely on some unknown future power ups. There surely was something quite broken he’d get but that not only was unreliable, it also was dangerous. The Representative of the Greater System made it clear that the skill Keynes received put him in mortal danger.

  It also might be too late by the time he would reach the Ninth or beyond Degree. The alien invasion from the vision hadn’t shown him a date but he was convinced that Lem Solaris knew when it was going to happen, and if she knew then the visage knew.

  I should start fishing for information. With a timeframe at least, I would be able to figure something out.

  As he continued his flight toward the last detected Level 6 rift, Keynes mused over some other options like the Greater System’s shop or finding a solution in the spiritual realm.

  There was also gardening. Keynes had a brief understanding of most projects pursued by Pucci. Some of them were promising like boosting attributes, skills, mana, health by a huge margin, while others were on the verge of something groundbreaking like an elixir that modified skills.

  And these projects represented a fraction of what plants were capable of.

  Hm. But maybe he approached this problem from a wrong angle. Maybe, instead of searching for a way to make himself stronger than Vivena, he should find a way to disable her Talent?

  No. That doesn’t make sense. Vivena isn’t the end goal here. She’s only there to figure out if I’m ready to return to Earth with all its powerhouses and the looming invasion.

  So yeah, the issue remained.

  ***

  An uncommon variable rift. A bother. Variable rifts were dangerous due to their unknown nature. Of course, he could ask Alice to scout it out but when he checked on their bond, he found her deeply immersed in the spiritual realm. What the hell was she doing out there? It was a question for another day.

  Just in case, he warned the AI about an unexpected hazard. Then he entered the shimmering light.

  The world around him changed. An ordinary summer day welcomed him on the other side with a few solitary clouds scattered here and there. The scenery below looked nearly idyllic. A quiet forest populated by a soothing sound of a stream, singing birds and whisper of a wind. It reminded him of France after he’d fled from Freeman. But this was a rift. This place was designed literally to kill him. Even harmless stuff was potentially deadly like the calming air from the first Level 6 rift he’d encountered.

  “The air is safe to breathe and has no properties of any kind.”

  So far, except for the first rift, all other Level 6 rifts had normal air.

  Keynes dismissed the spacesuit and took a lungful of air. It felt good. The sunlight on his face was pleasant and the smell of the forest and adjacent field strong.

  But then he sniffed, smelling something else. A smoke. Was the forest on fire? He jumped into the air and flew a hundred metres up. His eyes nearly bulged. There, behind the forest, was a medieval town, surrounded by a stone wall.

  The town lay on the gentle slope that eventually morphed into a canyon after a kilometre.

  Keynes counted 22 buildings of varied size. From the chimneys of one-third of them came out smoke and he saw humanoid figures move one the cobbled streets.

  This was new. He’d never encountered anything remotely resembling a human dwelling inside a rift. The closest was the castle from the blood rift.

  It naturally made him wonder if he’d find a rift quest here. Would he want that? Why not? Rewards were always welcomed, even though he had little use of them.

  Only because I’m mastering my attributes. Otherwise, disregarding items is dumb. Yeah, I have to stop being dumb. However, most of the items he found so far in Level 6 rifts were unidentified. Strangely enough, none of the rifts had a hidden room or whatever the Higher Level rifts had.

  Slowly, he began flying toward the town. An approach from the sky wasn’t the most sound idea but he wanted to see the reaction of whoever lived in the town. It was odd to think of them as monsters, though that was what they were. Unless, this was some kind of peaceful rift. Was this possible?

  Shit. He hoped this wasn’t the case.

  As he neared the town, bells rang and frantic motion on the streets told him that he was spotted. But he was yet to be attacked. Not a single soldier appeared on the walls either. What a weird rift. He wasn’t sure he liked that.

  Eventually, bells stopped ringing and all the people vanished from the streets. Even smoke stopped coming out of chimneys. Just like that the town appeared abandoned but he knew it wasn’t the case.

  Keynes descended to about twenty metres from the roofs of the nearest building, then spread his spiritual senses around and found…

  Nothing.

  He sensed not a living being.

  What the hell is going on here?