Chapter 386 - Defend the Fort

Thankfully, all of Julius's practice with way too complicated constructs came in handy. He was able to transfer his amazing chair-making skills to constructing a pair of wings behind his back, which he modeled after eagle wings.

He even did his best to individually create feathers of the wings. He honestly had no idea if this would impact their effectiveness but he was quite happy with his work. They weren't the most pretty wings he could have created. He expected that practice would only improve the later versions.

However, they looked to be serviceable and most importantly, he was able to manipulate them much like wings. They wouldn't be able to give him enough power to flap his way off of the ground, but they should be enough to allow him to maneuver through the air like a glider.

He was too excited to wait and immediately shot himself up into a tree. Then, before his mind could give him any reason to hesitate, he leapt off and boosted himself into the air once again.

He was able to immediately feel the difference this time around. He didn't have to pay so much attention to keeping his kinetic energy balanced. The wings did so much of the work to keep his body in the proper position.

While it was hard to get used to controlling the wings, it was much more instinctual and simpler than using kinetic energy to nudge himself in the right direction. The wings also lowered his speed slightly, but he could fix that by making adjustments to their general shape.

He slowly gained more confidence with the wings, and once he felt comfortable enough, he started to play around. He would start twisting, turning, and even doing barrel rolls.

He felt so confident that he barely recognized it when he purposefully spiraled downward toward the ground. He boosted his speed much like the previous attempt, but this time, he used his wings to catch the wind underneath the structures.

Amazingly, this created just enough lift that he found himself whipping back toward the sky with barely any effort. He let out a loud whoop and cackled like a madman as he continued to play around in the sky.

He didn't even allow the attacking monster to interrupt his fun. He sensed it and distractedly sent a little spike of mana at it, blowing it out of the sky before continuing his flying experience. This had been one of the things he had always wanted to do since he arrived in this world, and he wasn't about to allow a rift monster to keep him from that.

He kept on making his way to the fort, but he wasn't in that much of a rush. He needed to get some 'practice' in.

Once he finally had his fill of fun… correction… practice. He actually started to make his way to the fort.

He was met by several flying monsters, but with the addition of wings, he found it much easier to maneuver and attack the monsters without having to place too much of his focus on flying. This meant he didn't fall back into the trees a single time, which was an achievement considering everything.

When he approached the fort though he frowned when he spotted several figures sitting on top of the ramparts. He hadn't expected to see any monsters roaming this fort. He also hadn't been expecting anything in the first place so anything was a surprise.

However, just as he was wondering to himself what kind of monsters or creatures were occupying this fortress, he halted mid-air when he noticed the distinctive humanoid features. He was still a little ways out, but he could have sworn that the people on top of the ramparts were humans.

This was weird for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason was that he had never come across a human in a rift before. At least not a human that was native to the rift, at least. Every time he had seen a human while delving, it was either someone who was similarly delving independently or someone who was there with him.

His confusion wasn't able to last very long because the people on the walls quickly spotted him flying closer to the fortress. They turned to one another and were pointing at him as they talked. Then he saw some type of armaments being prepared by these people and he made the smart decision to raise his arms in the air while lowering himself to the ground.

Since he was already so close to the fort, the forest had flattened out and there were just empty grass plains in front of the fortress. All around the fort was a moat, along with a single massive bridge leading to the equally large gates.

When he landed, he dissipated the wings on his back and formed them into thick armbands around his wrist. He didn't see a reason to waste mana, and he might need them later on.

Just because they were seemingly human didn't mean they were friendlies. For all he knew, they would attack him before he could walk up to the bridge. So with a cautious eye, he slowly made his way to the bridge as the people on the walls pointed the large cannons pulsing with mana at him.

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These cannons had enough mana being charged in them that he needed to be worried about them. He didn't know how powerful they were, but he suspected anything that used that much mana to power it wouldn't feel nice to be hit with.

Now that he was up close and personal to the fort, he could truly appreciate the sheer size of it. It was very similar in size to Peralt. The walls were over fifty feet tall and were made of a dense black stone. He also noticed that there were no people walking in or out of the fort.

When he got to the bridge and started to make his way across, he noticed that a man in a black uniform came out of the front gates along with a dozen or more guards. The man was holding a spear low at his hip, but Julius could tell that the man was prepared to react at any second.

He and all of the guards were Tier 3 as well. As far as Julius could sense, there weren't any Tier 4s among them, which made sense since he was still in a Tier 3 rift.

He was still a little alarmed that there were humans present in this rift. While he had heard of really odd scenarios from the books he read at Goldencrest, he hadn't quite heard of one like this.

A part of him was wary, while another part was extremely interested.

Seeing that he had nothing to lose, he waved his hand with a bright smile toward the man with the spear.

"Hello," he greeted.

"What is your business here?" The man demanded in a stern tone.

Once again, Julius was surprised. The man sounded very real, almost like he was a real person. However, considering that he was inside a rift that created an individual instance for each participant, he was doubtful that this man was real. It was more than likely that he was a creation of the rift.

Still, the man and the guards behind him felt very real. Thus, he didn't see the harm in treating all of them as such.

"I'm just trying to get out of the forest," he said honestly.

"Where did you come from?" The man asked and there was a wary look on his face.

"From the forest?" Julius said confusedly.

"I don't recognize him, Captain," one of the guards pointed out to the man with the spear. He had a thick scar on his left cheekbone and it gave him quite the scary look.

"He could be a refugee," another guard offered.

"Yeah, but what was with those wings we saw on his back? He could be a monster in disguise," the scarred guard said with a skeptical look at Julius.

As this was going on, Julius was able to feel the captain's aura extend out toward him. It was actually quite delicate and had some signs of impressive control. In a way, it reminded him of Declan and how he used his aura.

It wasn't too intrusive, and Julius even played along, allowing the man to get a deeper look into Julius's intentions. He hid a grin when the captain paused for a moment, when he felt Julius open up his aura to him. The captain looked over at Julius with curious eyes, but whatever check he was doing must have finished because the man held up a hand to the scarred guard who was still pointing out the dangers that Julius might represent.

"Calm down, Blake, he's fine."

The scarred man, named Blake must have heard something in the captain's tone because as if nothing happened, he backed off.

"Come along now, you must be tired. Let's get you something to eat and a place to rest. You are going to need it."

Julius frowned when he heard that, but followed along as the man took him through the gates.

The moment he took a step inside the fortress, he got a notification.

Congratulations, Sixth Floor Cleared.

However, unlike the previous floors, there weren't any other details attached to it. He also didn't feel the rift attempting to transport him away like he expected. Instead, he was still walking beside the guards as he entered deeper into the fortress.

His confusion only grew when an additional notification popped up.

Seventh Floor Clear Condition: Defend the fort.

It would appear that he wouldn't be getting taken to a different floor, and that this floor would be a continuation of the previous one. It was contradictory to what he had experienced so far, but it was also much more interesting. He had a feeling that this was where the rift would truly start to show its real colors and exhibit why nobody had been able to clear it up until now.

And before he knew it, something changed within the atmosphere. The previously quiet air got quite loud as he heard many people around him start to run around. The captain, who was walking ahead of him, pulled out a communication orb and got some kind of message on it.

The look on his face got progressively darker and more serious as he listened to whatever the person was saying on the other side. The moment he was done, he turned to his subordinates and gave them orders. They didn't muck around and quickly sped off to do as they were told.

He turned to Julius, who was calmly looking at the captain with bewilderment.

"Can you fight?" He asked.

Julius nodded softly. "Yes, but why are you asking that? Does it perhaps have something to do with the condition of this floor?"

He had decided to ask a question of his own and simultaneously test the reaction of the captain when he mentioned the rift.

He didn't have to wait very long to get his answer. The moment he mentioned the condition of the floor, he saw the man freeze in place with his mouth open. A blank look clouded the man's eyes, and Julius waved his arm in front of him.

The man unfroze and repeated his previous question as if nothing had happened. "Can you fight?"

Julius nodded, but this time he did so for a different reason. He realized that although the people in this rift acted very much like humans, there was indeed something wrong. He had a feeling that these weren't people at all, but most likely a part of a simulation that the rift created for this floor's purpose.

He frowned as he thought about how this new revelation would impact his time on this floor.