Extra's Path To Main Character-Chapter 53 - 52 - First Deployment

The western territories were three days’ travel from Valdenmere by standard carriage, or one day if you paid for expedited transport through the Guild’s priority deployment system.

Amaron paid for expedited transport.

He arrived in the western regional capital — a city called Thornhearth that served as the Guild’s operational hub for the territories — at the fourteenth hour on day two hundred and sixty. His deployment orders directed him to report to Senior Coordinator Draveth, who was managing the cascading rift investigation from the regional Guild hall.

Draveth was a man in his fifties with the weathered appearance of someone who’d spent decades doing field work and had only recently transitioned to coordination roles. He looked at Amaron’s credentials, then at Amaron himself, and raised an eyebrow.

"S-rank. Age sixteen. Credentials issued six weeks ago." Draveth said this as observation rather than question. "You’re the Hunter from Valdenmere who completed the Kell program and achieved S-rank threshold through the Threshold Trial."

"Yes," Amaron confirmed.

"Impressive. Also concerning, given how many people attempt that trial and fail. But your credentials are legitimate and your capacity assessment shows operational S-rank capability. So you’re cleared for deployment." Draveth pulled up a detailed map of the western territories. "Here’s the situation."

He marked five locations on the map. "Five Grade 5 manifestations in the past three weeks. All within a hundred-kilometer radius. All showing similar structural characteristics that suggest they’re connected rather than independent occurrences. Preliminary analysis indicates potential rift network development — which means these manifestations might be nodes in a larger system that’s forming beneath the surface."

"Rift networks form naturally?" Amaron asked, even though his Memory Index told him the answer.

"No," Draveth said flatly. "Natural rift formation is random and independent. Networks require deliberate construction or external influence. Which means either someone is building this intentionally, or there’s a phenomenon we don’t understand creating coordinated manifestation patterns."

He zoomed in on one location. "Your assignment: investigate manifestation site three. It’s the most recent, manifested four days ago. We’ve stabilized it with temporary containment, but we need detailed structural analysis to determine if it’s actually connected to the other sites and what that connection means."

"Solo investigation?" Amaron asked.

"You’ll have support staff for equipment and documentation. But the actual structural analysis requires S-rank capacity to penetrate the deeper layers safely. The other S-rank assigned to this operation is investigating site one. You get site three."

Draveth handed him the investigation parameters. "Two weeks maximum. We need comprehensive data: rift structure, mana flow patterns, any evidence of connection to other manifestations, and threat assessment for what happens if this actually is a developing network. Questions?"

"Who’s the other S-rank?" Amaron asked.

"Mordain Kell," Draveth said. "Your former instructor volunteered for this investigation when the network pattern was identified. He’s at site one conducting the same analysis you’ll be doing at site three."

— ◆ —

Manifestation site three was located sixty kilometers west of Thornhearth, in a region that had been primarily agricultural land before the rift appeared four days ago. The Guild had evacuated civilians within a five-kilometer radius and established a perimeter with standard monitoring equipment.

Amaron arrived at the site on day two hundred and sixty-one with his support team — two B-rank Hunters who specialized in rift documentation and a mana flow specialist who handled the technical equipment. They’d been briefed on the investigation parameters and understood their role: support Amaron’s structural analysis while staying clear of any dangerous penetration work that required S-rank capacity.

The rift itself was exactly what a Grade 5 manifestation should look like — stable fracture point, high ambient mana density, entrance that led to an internal structure of worked stone and crystal formations. Standard parameters. Nothing immediately unusual.

But when Amaron extended his mana sense into the deeper structure, he found what the preliminary assessment had flagged: irregular flow patterns that suggested this rift wasn’t drawing mana from the ambient environment like normal formations did. It was receiving mana from somewhere else. Somewhere below the surface manifestation. Through channels that shouldn’t exist in natural rift structure.

"There’s a connection," he told his support team after the first hour of analysis. "This rift is being fed by an external source. The mana isn’t generating locally. It’s flowing through established channels from a central node."

The mana specialist — a woman named Enna — checked her equipment. "Can you trace the flow to the source?"

"Possibly," Amaron said. "But it’ll require deeper penetration than we can do from the surface. I’ll need to enter the rift and follow the flow patterns directly."

"Alone?" one of the B-rank documentation specialists asked.

"The deeper structure will be hostile," Amaron said. "Grade 5 at minimum, possibly higher if I’m actually approaching the central node. You’re all B-rank. Coming with me would be dangerous."

"You’re S-rank," Enna observed. "But you’re also sixteen and this is your first solo S-rank deployment. Are you certain you can handle deep rift penetration alone?"

Amaron thought about the Threshold Trial. About maintaining S-rank output for ten hours while his body broke itself. About the capacity he’d achieved and the eleven weeks of recovery it had cost him. About the fact that he’d done all of that specifically so he could handle situations like this.

"Yes," he said. "I’m certain. Set up monitoring equipment at the entrance. Track my mana signature. If I’m not back in six hours or if my signature disappears completely, report to Coordinator Draveth and request S-rank extraction."

He entered the rift before anyone could argue with the plan.

— ◆ —

The rift’s internal structure matched the preliminary survey for the first three levels — standard Grade 5 layout with predictable threat patterns and normal mana density. But when Amaron descended past level three, following the irregular flow patterns he’d detected from the surface, the structure changed.

The passages became less worked stone and more natural cave formation. The ambient mana increased beyond Grade 5 parameters. And the flow patterns intensified, suggesting he was getting closer to whatever was feeding this manifestation.

Level five was where he encountered the first real threat.

Not a standard rift entity. Something constructed. Artificial. A mana-formed guardian that registered at high Grade 6 intensity and moved with the coordinated intelligence of something designed rather than naturally manifested.

Amaron engaged it with S-rank combat technique — the kind he’d developed during the Kell program and hadn’t been able to use operationally until now. The guardian was strong. Fast. Adaptive in ways that suggested sophisticated design. But it was still Grade 6, and he was S-rank with eleven weeks of pent-up capacity finally deployed without restriction.

The fight lasted four minutes. When it was done, the guardian was dispersed and Amaron was standing in a chamber that absolutely should not exist in a four-day-old rift manifestation.

The chamber was large. Perfectly circular. With walls that showed clear evidence of deliberate construction rather than natural formation. And in the center was exactly what he’d been tracking: a rift node. An artificial construct designed to channel mana from a distant source and distribute it to surface manifestations.

This wasn’t natural rift formation. This was engineered. Someone had built this. Someone with significant resources, advanced knowledge of rift mechanics, and unclear intentions.

Amaron documented everything. The node’s structure. The mana flow patterns. The evidence of artificial construction. The destroyed guardian and its design characteristics. All of it went into his field report with the understanding that this was significantly more serious than a natural phenomenon.

He was about to begin his return to the surface when his mana sense detected something new. Another presence. Not a construct. A person. S-rank capacity signature. Moving through the rift structure from a different entry point.

Mordain Kell appeared in the chamber thirty seconds later, looking entirely unsurprised to find Amaron there.

"Hunter Volg," Mordain said. "Following mana flow patterns to the central node. Encountering artificial guardians. Finding evidence of deliberate construction."

"Yes," Amaron confirmed. "Site three is fed by this node. I’m documenting for the investigation report."

"Site one has an identical node," Mordain said. "Same structure. Same flow patterns. Same artificial guardian design. Which suggests whoever built these is operating at scale. Multiple manifestations. Coordinated development. Strategic placement." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He examined the node with the focused attention of someone who knew exactly what they were looking at and didn’t like the conclusion they were reaching. "This is the beginning of something significantly worse than five isolated manifestations. Someone is building a rift network. Deliberately. For purposes we don’t understand yet."

"Do we know who?" Amaron asked.

"No," Mordain said. "But whoever they are, they have S-rank level resources and knowledge. These nodes aren’t something a random Hunter could construct. This requires expertise, funding, and access to rare materials. Which means we’re dealing with either a rogue organization or someone with significant backing."

He turned to face Amaron directly. "Your first S-rank deployment and you’ve walked into what’s probably going to become a major Guild investigation. How does that feel?"

"Like the timeline breaking in exactly the way I expected," Amaron said quietly.

Mordain gave him a sharp look. "Explain that."

Amaron hesitated. Then he made a choice about how much truth to give to someone who’d just spent eight weeks training him and had probably earned some degree of honesty.

"I have knowledge that suggests certain threats will appear at certain times," he said carefully. "Rift networks were one of those threats. But they were supposed to appear two years from now in the eastern territories. Finding them now, here, in the west — that’s a significant deviation from what I expected. Which means either my information was incomplete or the timeline is accelerating faster than I predicted."

"Interesting choice of words," Mordain said. "’Timeline.’ ’Predicted.’ You talk like someone who’s seen this before."

"I have," Amaron said. "In a sense."

Mordain studied him. "We’ll discuss that later. For now, finish your documentation. Meet me at the surface in thirty minutes. We’re reporting this to Draveth together and recommending immediate escalation to Guild central authority. This isn’t a regional problem anymore. This is something that requires coordinated S-rank response."