Chapter 178 - Materializing Rift

Even though it was still morning, Jason wanted to go into the forging room to perfectly purify as many jade iron bars as possible in order to craft a dagger, only to make some inscription solutions as soon as possible.
However, before he could do so, the ground below them shook violently, while the lake above them became restless.
His view blurred by the sudden appearance of high-density mana fluctuation that came out of nowhere from further away, as he looked up to Shane and Dalia, who seemed to be as shocked as he was.
The fluctuation increased, even more, causing an indestructible pressure and Jason was barely able to turn towards the direction he sensed the fluctuations, as his mana eyes detected something extremely weird dozens of kilometers far away.
Normally, he could barely see mana fluctuation one kilometer away from him and the only exception was the mana vein below Cyro-City as it was hundreds of kilometers below the city, while Jason could still see it.
This was solely thanks to the massive amount of pure and compressed mana which shocked him initially.
However, the bigger issue right now was, that Jason saw a small dot, dozen of kilometers away from his current position, enlarging, while the density he perceived seemed to grow thicker and thicker.
"F**k" Jason blurted out and his masters noticed him looking straight towards the direction they discerned the mana fluctuations, as Shane sighed deeply before asking.
"Can you see a ^blueish-black dot with an extremely thick mana density and high purity?"
Jason wanted to answer and turn around but he was unable to look away from the current scenario that happened far away, as he only said "Yes...This dot is also enlarging", before he could once again hear a deep sigh.
However, now both Shane and Dalia were sighing, which made Jason curious as he was about to ask when Shane said.
"If my senses are not rusted due to my old age, these fluctuations and the black dot you can see is the manifestation of a temporary rift.
Weird is only the position of the rift….It's in the central area of the outer district, exactly where the Goblins destroyed everything…."
Hearing what Shane said, Jason was shocked, but his gaze was still drawn to the enlarging dot, which′s inner part seemed to contain a complex but bewitching effect.
If this rift was above the five-star rating and a Hell-rated rift, Cyro-City might even face annihilation.
As far as Jason knew, one-star rifts could only connect planes with an average combat prowess of wild stage beasts with many unranked and awakened beasts to Argos.
In the end, the ratings from one- to four-star were exactly the same for both rifts and wild zones, while five-star rifts had magical ranked beasts as an average combat prowess with many unblemished and guardian ranked beasts habituating the planes, world, or whatever they were connected to.
The main problem for Astrix′s overall situation would only appear, once a Hell-ranked temporary rift appeared.
As for the highest-ranking for rifts, called abyss, Jason didn't even want to imagine what kind of terrifying existences could habitat the other side of the rift.
Hell-ranked rifts were innate different to the star ranks, as the average combat prowess was unknown, due to an equal number of Guardian- and Lord-ranked beings inside.
If that was everything, humanity's most promising prodigies could venture inside to make a huge fortune, but there was a certain problem.
Within Hell-ranked rifts, there were even Monarch-ranked beings, that were equal or rather stronger than Sovereign-ranked humans, who solidified a prismarine crystal within their mana core.
Jason only found out what the rank after the Lord-rank was after pestering his master for a long time.
Additionally, he figured out that Shane was one of the most powerful beings, humanity had, while only a small number was more powerful than him several dozen years ago, before he had to flee.
He was also not sure what the next rank could be called, but Shane was relatively sure that there has yet to be a new rank to be discovered with the construction of multiple prismarine crystals within the mana core.
If even Hell-ranked rifts had Monarch-ranked beasts, what about Abyss-ranked rifts?
Even Monarch-ranked beasts might as well be stronger than the most powerful humans due to the increasing gap in human's innate strength to beast′s that naturally happened with the increase of one's strength
He didn't even want to imagine what Abyss-ranked rifts could bring to humanity if such a rift appeared on Canir or on the Archipelago.
As long as humans didn't have multiple Lord or one Monarch ranked beast, their strength would remain weaker than the opposite beast.
Shane also told him that there was one time a Monarch-ranked beast wreaked havoc on Canir and only thanks to the collaboration of multiple big families was it possible to force the Monarch-ranked individual to retreat.
Jason was shocked when he heard this, but it was not difficult to understand that humanity was at the bottom of the food chain after the foreign intelligent races emerged, due to humanity's inability to wield mana at that time.
Thinking about the foreign intelligent races, Jason wondered how strong they truly were, as only a few individuals of several races invaded humanity at once, while he himself had never seen any of them in person.
Due to his knowledge, Jason felt an unknown fear spreading through every cell in his body, as he noticed Shane calming down, which could only be advantageous for Astrix′s citizens.
Hearing him sight in relief, Jason decided to avert his gaze from the materializing rift.
Noticing his disciple looking at him, Shane began to explain.
"The rift you can see is most likely only a four-star rift with unblemished beasts as its main combat prowess.
However, I can′t be sure of that for now, because I'm too far away for me to perceive minute details. Let's just hope I'm right, otherwise, Cyro-city will suffer too many casualties if the rift is a five-star
At least Astrix will survive, as long as there won't be a Hell-ranked temporary rift."
Looking him straight into the eyes, Shane seemed curious about the temporary rift, as he announced
"Let's take a look. I can transport all of us there…" He didn't even finish his words, as a large spatial portal appeared in front of them, with Shane grabbing Jason and Artemis with his released mana, while he coiled his arm around Dalia′s waist.
"Let′s go!!"