However, what greeted them was… silence?
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Nothing came from the cave but the sound of dripping water.
No monster. No hiss. No snarl. No writhing abomination.
Just…
A tiny breeze and occasional drip.
A whisper of stale air being sucked from the cave, like someone slurping the last bit of juice through a straw at the bottom of a cup.
"…huh?" Shiro blinked.
The shadow clone vanished with a puff.
Ron turned his raptor head to the side, his slit-pupiled eyes narrowing.
"I—uh," Klee looked around. "Did… did we win?"
Silence again.
Nothing emerged. Not a single creature. Not a whisper of threat. Just a gust of wind lazily drifting past their boots.
"WHERE ARE THE MONSTERS!?" Ron roared, stomping in confusion. "I roared! I prepped! I TASTED THE AIR!"
Klee blinked. "I released, like, a month of healing energy just now…"
Shiro slowly stood up, lowering his shuriken. "It… it was just air. Just… just really old air."
They all turned in slow unison toward Elius.
The swords circled him still, but now, even his glowing eyes looked… awkward.
A faint muscle in his cheek twitched. He turned his face slightly away from them, eyes narrowing through the distant part of the cave wall?
"Well," he muttered, "it's better than not being prepared."
"…Huh?" Ron blinked, tail twitching.
Klee tilted her head. "Wait, what?"
Elius didn't look at them. "The moment you start expecting peace, that's when death finds you. Always be prepared."
"…Are you saying you knew there was nothing inside?" Shiro asked slowly.
Elius shrugged. "Didn't know. That's why we prepared."
There was a long pause. Like their brains had to catch up to how unnecessary their ultra-glorious prep sequence had been.
"…You could've said it might be a false alarm," Klee grumbled, her crystal aura flickering uncertainly.
"I wanted to test your response time," Elius said without missing a beat. "You passed."
All three of them stared at him.
Then at each other.
Then back at him.
Then at each other again.
This guy—isn't he shameless.
Anyone could see the surprised look on his face earlier!
Then, suddenly—
"…Wait," Shiro said, frowning. "Where's Lina?"
Instant silence.
Their heads whipped around.
Nothing.
No misty footsteps. No ghostly flicker. No pale trail.
"LINA?" Klee called, spinning around in place.
"LINA!" Ron roared, sniffing the air furiously. "I swear I'll kill a tree if you get eaten!"
They ran around the area—behind rocks, into bushes, looking up at trees. Nothing. Not even a ghostly shimmer.
"Did we… leave her in the rift?" Shiro said in horror. "Can ghosts get left behind?!"
"I KNEW she was too quiet," Ron growled. "I knew it! Ghosts always do this—vanishing when nobody's lookin'!"
Suddenly—
"WOAH!"
A head popped out of the ground between them.
"AHHH!" Shiro screamed.
Ron jumped back, claws raised.
It was Lina.
Floating half-out of the stone like a poltergeist in mid-spasm.
"HELLO?" she shouted, her ghostly head spinning around, upside down. "I—uh—don't know where my legs are!"
"…Why are you in the ground?" Klee asked, squinting.
"I was scouting below for root beasts," Lina said proudly. "Forgot I can't see when I phase too deep."
"Can you come out now?" Shiro asked warily.
"I… I think I'm stuck again. One sec."
BLOOP.
She popped out entirely, then sank back in like a broken elevator.
BLOOP.
Down.
BLOOP.
Up.
BLOOP.
Down.
"STOP DOING THAT!" Ron cried. "You look like a haunted Whack-a-Mole!"
"Sorry!" Lina said, trying to pull her ghost legs into alignment. "I—my phase is, like, lagging!"
"You're GIVING ME MOTION SICKNESS," Klee moaned, covering her mouth.
After what felt like an eternity, Lina finally stabilized.
She floated gently above the ground, her form flickering like a candle.
Elius turned.
"You almost died."
Lina blinked. "Wait, what?!"
Elius nodded. "You dropped below phase-depth zero. If your soul lost anchor, your body would have disintegrated."
Lina went pale.
"…How long do I have?"
Elius glanced at his system.
"Four minutes. Then you become flesh again."
She stared at him.
He stared back.
Shiro, Ron, and Klee looked between them.
They all opened their mouths at once.
"HUH!?"
Not long, they would see a wide, black mouth upon the jagged cliff, surrounded by dead vines and half-melted toadstools.
The air around it was cold—not the kind of chill that tickled the skin, but the kind that crept into bone marrow and whispered secrets.
A few strange moths drifted around the entrance, their wings pulsing in unnatural rhythm, glowing faintly with sickly green light.
Shiro stepped forward and narrowed his eyes. "Should we go in?"
Ron, still in his full Velociraptor form, snorted. "I vote yes. My claws are tingling. That means something inside's ready to die."
Klee, her crystal-laced aura dimming to standby, glanced at Elius. "It's dangerous, right?"
Elius didn't move at first. Then, with the smooth detachment of someone who already knew the answer, he said, "No."
"No?" Lina floated beside them, eyes blinking curiously. "But isn't this a dimensional rift? Aren't we supposed to do a raid?"
"The time in dimensional rifts flows differently," Elius said, voice as cool as glass. "One hour here could be one second back on Earth. You could grow old here… die here… and still return young and untouched."
The four of them stared at him.
"…Wait," Klee tilted her head. "How do you know that?"
Elius blinked.
Then his eyes moved.
He wasn't looking at them anymore. His gaze floated up and slightly to the side—right where the others couldn't see what he saw.
The system screen flickered open.
—
[DIMENSIONAL RIFT RECORD ACCESS GRANTED]
Name: Goblin Nest – Unclassified Dimensional Rift
Type: Beginner Training Zone – Modified
Time Displacement: 1:10,000 (Ten thousand seconds in-dimensional rift equals one second in real-world Earth time)
Primary Species: Goblin (Subsentient, Tier I)
Classification: Low-threat, high-population
Mana Density: 24% (Above Average)
Notes:
The dimensional rift has been repurposed by the Academy for Initiation.
Entry is safe. Survival is not guaranteed.
No exit portal exists until dimensional rift core is broken.
Students are expected to adapt or die.
Individual growth parameters unlocked during this mission will remain even upon exit.
All biological time is suspended upon exit.
Rewards increase proportionally to effort and exploration.
Warning: Goblins may mutate if too much time passes. Do not linger for at least more than an hour.
System Tip: Cultivators will find abundant spiritual energy in rift dimensions and if a cultivator absorbs these energies, the goblins would have slower rate of mutation. Consider using this opportunity to meditate.
—
Elius flicked the screen closed with a thought.
He turned back to the group.
"Just trust me," he said simply, "I'm an expert when it comes to this."
The four of them exchanged glances.
Shiro rubbed the back of his neck.
Klee's expression scrunched up in confusion.
Ron tilted his giant raptor head sideways. "Since when?"
"Since always," Elius said without looking at them. "You just weren't paying attention."
And then, without any more words, he sat down.
Right there.
On the dirt.
In lotus position.
Lina blinked. "Uh… what are you doing?"
Shiro stepped closer. "Wait, shouldn't we raid? Like… now?"
Klee's brows knit. "Yeah, you were all like 'prepare for battle' earlier. And now you're sitting down?!"
Elius opened one eye, just a slit.
"I'm tired," he said. "Upgrading you four took more energy than I thought. I need to rest."
All four of them froze.
"…You upgraded us?" Shiro asked slowly.
Klee's mouth opened slightly. "Wait. You did that?"
Ron, blinking his big yellow eyes, lifted his claws and looked at them. "That's why I'm not a chicken anymore!?"
Lina gasped. "Is that why I can go full ghost now!?"
They began piecing it together.
Shiro's clone had become faster, almost eerily so.
Ron's transformation had finally hit full Velociraptor.
Klee's healing aura had reached unprecedented radius and clarity.
Even Lina, who'd once only been able to flicker between dimensions for a second, could now swim through the ground like a specter.
Elius didn't even respond.
He just exhaled softly and said, "I know. Don't talk. Let me rest."
They went quiet.
But as they watched, they realized—he wasn't actually resting.
Elius's entire posture began to subtly change. His breathing slowed. The air around him seemed to still.
The energy shifted.
Suddenly—
Ding! Too much spiritual energy detected. Initiate Cultivation Mode?
Elius thought: Yes.
Instantly, something bloomed within his chest.
Cultivation began.
The world around him seemed to retreat into silence. His body grew lighter. His mind expanded outward. Invisible rivers of spiritual energy drifted toward him like lazy clouds, drawn in by his breath.
Each inhale pulled in a swirl of shimmering blue and green mist. It entered through his nose, slipped through his veins, coiled in his dantian.
The others just watched.
It wasn't boring.
It was mesmerizing.
Even Ron—who normally scratched the ground impatiently when standing still for more than ten seconds—found himself rooted in place, eyes wide.
The wind shifted. The moss under Elius's feet curled toward him, as if recognizing a superior force. The crystal particles left behind by Klee's aura began to vibrate, pulled gently toward him like iron to a magnet.
Then came the whispers.
Lina froze. "Did you hear that?"
Shiro looked around, kunai in hand.
"No voices," Elius murmured softly. "Just the world breathing."
Around him, petals formed from nothing. Transparent lotus-shaped sigils rotated around his body. Light bent. Space trembled. A faint gold shimmer encased his spine. His three swords stopped orbiting and floated around him like a protective cage.
The others said nothing.
They couldn't.
This wasn't training.
This was something ancient.
Older than heroes.
Older than powers.
Cultivation.
The spiritual energy kept flooding in.
Tendrils of invisible power stretched from every direction—up from the ground, down from the clouds, from deep within the dimensional rift itself. All of it flowed into him. Into Elius.
Sweat beaded on his brow.
Not from pain.
From growth.
From transcendence.
And just when the air became so thick it felt like they couldn't breathe—
DING!
Congratulations. You have broken through.
Qi Condensation – Level Seven Achieved.
In that moment, the petals shattered around him like glass.
Light burst out in a wave—warm, fierce, and beautiful.
The others staggered back.
Ron shielded his eyes with his claws.
Klee gasped.
Lina stopped mid-phase and went solid.
Shiro squinted through his fingers.
And Elius?
He opened his eyes.
They were glowing.
Not just with energy.
But with the undeniable certainty of one who had just taken another step on a path only he could walk.