Chapter 68: Inside

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Inside

The Gate opened into a stretch of rocky wilderness, jagged outcroppings rising out of pale, cracked earth, vegetation clinging to the gaps between stone in shapes Jason didn’t recognize.

The mana density hit Jason immediately, quite a bit heavier than a standard D-Rank reading should have been, though not dramatically so.

It was close enough to the Association’s prediction that nobody seemed particularly alarmed.

Skyler circled the immediate area, bow loose in her hands, while Reeve studied the natural passages branching off in three directions.

Jason used the pause to study the others instead.

’At this point I’m definitely the strongest one here, and none of them know it.’

The thought sat strange in his chest, not quite pride. But dangerously close to it.

---

The first real encounter came quickly, a cluster of ant-like monsters tunneling up through the cracked stone, mandibles clicking as they emerged.

Jason drew his spear and moved into the fight without hesitation.

Months of real training showed immediately, footwork clean, strikes economical, the spear answering him with a fluency that would have been unthinkable back when Darius first corrected his stance.

He dropped three of the creatures in the time it took Cassius to handle one, his Wind-wrapped blade flashing beside him.

"Alright," Cassius said, breathing hard once the last one dropped, "Just when exactly did you get this good?"

"You could say I’ve been practicing."

"What the heck kind of practice have you been putting yourself through man?"

Reeve watched the exchange with something unreadable behind his eyes, a quiet, assessing look that lingered a beat longer than casual interest would explain.

’I’ve come a long way from our first raid to now.

Should probably be more careful about how fast this looks.’

Jason hid the thought away and said nothing, resetting his stance as the group prepared to move on.

He caught himself missing the Stoneborn Spear mid-motion, the plain weapon in his hands answering well enough but never with quite the same effortless flow, essence threading through it with a faint resistance he’d stopped noticing until the contrast reminded him.

’Spoiled myself with the good spear. This one still works fine.’

---

Something else caught his attention as the fight wound down.

Wen.

Her essence had always carried a particular texture to his senses, something close to a steady, flowing current, water-bright even with the Fire tint running through it.

Today that current felt thinner and weaker, the usual steady push behind her healing had diminished. This change was subtle.

Jason himself would’ve missed it were his senses not so abnormally powerful.

He watched her work through the rest of the fight, closing a scrape on Skyler’s arm with the same competence as always, but the effort behind it cost her more than it should have.

’Is there something’s actually wrong with her reserves?’

’Is that why she skipped the last raid?’

He didn’t ask. Not yet. Whatever it was, it wasn’t his business to pry into uninvited, though he kept half his attention on her for the rest of the fight anyway, old habits refusing to fully let go.

---

The deeper they moved into the Gate, the more the terrain started to feel subtly wrong.

Monster density swung wildly from one stretch to the next, dense clusters giving way to long, empty stretches that felt almost deliberately hollowed out.

"That’s odd," Skyler said, glancing around one particularly empty passage.

"The mana readings keep spiking and dropping. Shouldn’t be this inconsistent."

Reeve said, barely looking up from the path ahead. "Gates aren’t always uniform. Keep moving."

Jason noted the speed of the answer more than the answer itself.

’That came suspiciously fast.

The unsettling feeling in Jason’s chest became even stronger.

He said nothing, shelving the observation alongside the rest, and followed the group deeper.

---

They found a dead monster a short while later, a mid-sized creature slumped against a rock outcropping, it’s body intact on the surface but clearly disturbed underneath, it’s flesh collapsed inward in a way no external wound could explain.

"This looks like an abnormal mana reaction," Reeve said, crouching beside it.

"Happens sometimes in unstable environments. Not our concern."

Jason extended his Perception toward the body anyway, curiosity outweighing caution, and found a faint, lingering residue clinging to the corpse, almost imperceptible.

Jason recognized it though

’That’s the same feeling from right after we stepped through the entrance. The one I couldn’t place.’

"Reeve." Jason kept his voice level. "There’s a residue on this thing. Feels like something I sensed when we first came through."

Something flickered across Reeve’s face.

Brief. Controlled. Gone almost as fast as it appeared.

But Jason caught it.

"Could be related," Reeve said, standing, voice carefully even again. "Keep that in mind. Let’s keep moving, we’re losing daylight on this section."

Jason didn’t push further, though the moment settled uneasily in his thoughts as the group continued on.

’He knows something. Or suspects something. Either way, he’s not saying it.’

Jason had begun to reevaluate the trust he put in Reeve. And from the looks on his teammates’ faces, he wasn’t alone.

---

The passage narrowed as they approached what the Association’s notes marked as a cluster of monster nests, walls pressing closer on either side, the light dimming further the deeper they went.

Jason spotted the markings first, faint lines carved into the stone, half obscured beneath layers of pale mineral deposit, far too regular and deliberate to have formed naturally.

"Hold up," he said, crouching to study them closer.

Skyler leaned in beside him, frowning. "Those aren’t natural."

"No," Jason agreed. "They’re not."

Reeve examined the markings briefly, something tight in his expression that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

"Stay sharp, everyone. Keep moving, carefully."

Jason took one last look at the carved lines before following the rest of the group deeper into the passage, the strange symmetry of them sticking uncomfortably in his mind.

Behind them, a faint vibration passed through the stone, barely perceptible, more felt than heard.

The markings flickered, a dim, pale glow tracing briefly along their carved lines.

Then, just as quickly, they went dark again.