Chapter 147: The River of Souls Rift

'...' Stark stood in front of the portal of the [Level 90-100 Rift] hallway, it was orange in color, different from the ones next to it as the one before was purple.

He took a step forward, his aura extremely powerful before he even entered the rift.

There was a sense of urgency in this aura, though, and it was normal as Stark's time was counted.

He couldn't catch up to the others, meaning that he just needed to get as many levels as he could.

His goal was reaching level 40 to get a new skill at least, but it would be hard if the other two classifiers kept going now that they were so close.

[Classifier A: 49/50]

[Classifier B: 48/50]

Classifier B's level went up by one again...

And so, with all his determination focused around him, Stark dashed toward the orange barrier.

[Access Deni-] it tried to deny him access because his level was way too low to pass.

But...

[Huh...] it was almost like the barrier was hesitating.

Stark got pushed back after his first attempt, then just stood there as he saw the barrier have white text appear on it.

[It's weird... your level is low but... hm... I guess...]

'...'

[Access Allowed]

And so Stark passed through the barrier easily, he didn't know how these things worked, but maybe it was a human that controlled them...?

In the end it didn't matter much as he passed the portal like anyone else and walked through the hallway, reaching the giant orange portal at the end of it.

The sight of classifiers happily leaving the rift after a good increase in experience, and the one of nervous classifiers ready to enter and risk their lives was everywhere.

Stark was pretty much the only one that was as cold and neutral as he was.

'Stronger,' he walked through the portal without hesitation, then got transported to the rift after traversing the threshold and undergoing the weird feeling.

But for the first time ever, Stark's expression didn't change, and he wasn't dizzy when the sight of the giant vortex sucking him to the rift appeared.

Stark's only thoughts were focused on one thing: the need to get stronger before the others...

~FWISH, VIOUM~

"INVINCIBLE DODGE," he had calculated it at the microsecond, and anything more than this would have caused his death.

[Perfect Dodge!]

This panel suddenly appeared as the world around him turned gray, at least more than it currently was, and time seemed to slow down.

But before that could happen, he slightly turned his head to be able to see whatever had attacked him.

And it was... a gigantic bear, twice Stark's size, its body completely black, and its figure was weird as its edges flowed likes waves.

The only visible parts were its mouth, eyes, ears and claws as they were completely white.

[Level 93: Shadow Bear]

'...'

Perfect Dodge allowed Stark to think for himself as he analyzed the situation around him and thought of the best plan possible.

'Got it...' he sighed.

And when time resumed back to normal, he fazed right through the bear's attack and kicked it in the face before sending two spears at its head.

"-84982! -47261! -48019!" and so it instantly died as its HP reached zero, its black body falling to the ground before it could even realize what had happened.

'...' Stark didn't even acknowledge the bear, looking at it as if it was an insect, then moving on as he kept walking deeper.

[You have slain "Shadow Bear lv93", gained 112928 EXP!]

[Experience: 600499/769000]

'Need more... much more...' he mumbled.

But then...

~CLING, CLING, CLING~

Dozens of pairs of eyes appeared around him in the mist, all looking at Stark.

'More of those bears...' he sighed as he positioned himself to fight.

Under normal circumstances, Stark would have had no problem showing his emotions and surprise because of all these powerful enemies, but he didn't even feel like it now, his thoughts clouded by the goal of reaching level 40.

Maybe it was a good thing that he temporarily didn't care much about anything other than fighting, and the reason was simple: his aura was extremely powerful.

Being able to control his emotions, and being as calm as he ever was before, made it so that his domination aura flowed around him better, granting him a way better control, which also meant more damage.

Trading your emotions for power was something many classifiers did after all.

Maybe Stark would be one of them...?