Despite their tough stance, Willow knew the truth and it wasn’t pretty. The World Government owned about fifty times more rifts than the Resistance. Also, the Institute, the science department of the World Government, put tremendous emphasis on learning ins and outs of rifts, while the Resistance sought to profit from the rifts above anything else. Needless to say, Willow disliked that state of things but the people he worked for in the Resistance weren’t interested in his point of view.
Willow’s current circumstances were vastly different from his previous employment. For one, he had far more freedom and he was able to pursue his own ideas. The downside, however, was that his decisions didn’t hold much weight within the organisation. Part of the problem was that Willow’s searched for a bigger picture, while the organisation was in a survival mode. Of course, this wasn’t something he could argue with. After all, they were lost in space, on a planet with air so toxic it would kill a Level 5 like him in seconds.
So, he knew he had to adjust his expectations and put more effort into translating his work to improve the situation in the base rather than pushing his agenda. It was not easy but a compromise was necessary.
That was why he was going to make sure that his future recommendations would involve the best interest of the base rather than searching for a meaning inside the rifts. It felt wrong to him but he feared being sidelined and eventually pushed out of his leadership position. Not that he cared much about it. At this point, they didn’t have a payment system and his only reward was freedom to do whatever he wanted.
“This rift has five rift orbs applied to it,” Willow said. “Three enlargement and two faster recharge orbs.”
Keynes glanced at him questioningly but it was Natalia who supplied the answer.
“This is our major source of food at the base. Larger size and six-hour recharge time strike a good balance between our capacity to harvest food, relocate it here and consume. Our storage is currently limited so we had to adjust to supply food directly from a rift.”
“How safe is it?”
“Safe for anyone under Level 3. It doesn’t harm Level 2s as long as they don’t rely on this food alone, while Level 1s eat food supplied from the spaceship to avoid unnecessary issues with tracking rift food intake.”
In Willow’s mind the orbs had been wasted on this rift as their only function was to increase yield and make it available more frequently. The spaceship had enough food to supply the base but Natalia wanted to have an independent food supply.
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Regardless of his thoughts, Willow voiced nothing and showed no emotions though Kora looked at him as if she could read his mind.
They waited a few minutes for a fresh instance to appear. Natalia made the harvesting team return ten minutes later.
Willow watched Keynes carefully. He expected the young man to touch the rift’s shimmering light with his hand, as the name of the skill suggested, but Keynes did no such thing.
A few seconds after he started, Keynes’s eyes widened in surprise, then he grunted, and looked at them.
“Look at this,” Keynes said, his expression telling Willow that something very unexpected occurred. Willow joined others and approached the rift then placed his hand on the light.
- Positive Mod: All food from this rift has a minor permanent healing property.
- Positive Mod: Reward chest can drop the Seed of Mangala (Exotic).
There were gasps but Willow couldn’t tell if he was the one gasping. Perhaps all of them were. The rift had two positive mods. TWO!
The mods were clearly linked to the biome of the rift, making all apples to have minor healing properties. But what caught Willow’s attention was the second mod, the Seed of Mangala. He knew this. He remembered it from Earth.
“Incredible…” Natalia muttered.
“We have to get the seed,” Rell said, his voice serious and sharp.
“I concur,” Kora added, mimicking his seriousness.
“I know,” Keynes agreed with them. “But don’t forget about the negative mods, okay?”
Oh.
- Negative Mod: All healing spells inside the rift are disabled.
- Negative Mod: All monsters inside the rift are at least Level 2 and of exotic rarity.
“I don’t see any negative mods,” Persephone said. “Just extra essence.”
This was actually true. The four of them were powerhouses who could delve Level 6 rifts. Willow didn’t think he could survive a Level 3 rift by himself. Bah, even a Level 2 rift would be a challenge for him.
“Shall we?” Natalia asked.
“Wait,”Rell stopped her. “Before you go inside, tell us what surprised you, Keynes? The possibility of having a second mod?”
Keynes looked at Rell, then his eyes found Willow.
“The number of mods is limited by the number of rift orbs applied to a rift,” Keynes explained.
Willow’s mind was already spinning with possibilities. What if the mods could be synergistic? How could their synergy compound the rewards? And, oh, could it be?
“We must find the greater rift orb,” Willow muttered.
Despite the discussion picking up, everyone quieted down and turned to him.
“This ability of yours may be related to rift orbs and if that is the case, then we should expect something more substantial from a rift with a greater rift orb applied to it.”
“A greater mod?” Natalia asked.
“Sounds plausible.” Rell nodded. “Worth a shot.”
“We don’t have such orb,” Kora told them. “Yet.”
“I guess, there is never going to be the right time to expand the operations here, so why not push them forward and bring more rifts here,” Keynes said and Natalia smiled.
But in all of this, Willow felt like he was missing something. What exactly was the Seed of Mangala?