Alex has to admit that the brief notes they added, especially the ones going into future details on some of the monsters, were nice, even if he already knew all of it. They could have easily just given him a list of the Rifts and have him research them himself, but instead, they went the extra mile to provide a detailed report on the Rifts. This either shows how much of a handicap they think they are giving him by restricting the use of his regeneration, or that they deem this amount of information is required to make things fair for him. It could also mean that they care a lot about their students, and this is their way of making things right in their eyes. A part of Alex wants to see how he could take advantage of the situation, while another part of him is happy to have teachers who care about him.

  "Hmm, I do notice some info missing. I wonder if that was intentional or if they truly didn't know?" Setting down his phone, Alex picked up a notepad with the extra notable information he remembered about each of the Rifts, along with a pencil from the table. "Hmm, I don't really have much to gain from going to the Firey Tundra. I might be able to acquire some useful artifacts using the cores of the Firestorm and Bliazzad twin elementals. Maybe a pair of gauntlets or knuckle dusters? Though I always have the option of buying the cores from another student." Alex squinted at his notes, racking his brain for anything he might have missed. Eventually, Alex shook his head and crossed out the Firey Tundra.

  "I'm honestly surprised to see the Living Islands here. It's usually a Rift that higher-level players encounter later in a campaign."

  -Scri Scir Scra-

  "You do have a point. The Rift itself is pretty safe compared to others of its level, with only the Living Island boss posing any major danger. Now the question is, is it worth choosing this Rift?"

  -Scra-

  "Yeah, that is an issue," Alex admitted with a sigh. The biggest problem with the Living Islands is that Alex has no easy way to travel across the water. He could always swim to each island, but that presents a problem because his fighting style is heavily restricted in the water. Not only is it difficult to swim while weaving spells, but punching a monster in the water isn't something Alex really wants to do. "It's a shame, really. This Rift has a lot of rare materials. But there’s nothing I can do about it at this point." Alex crossed off the Living Islands from his list.

  "GEN," He said with a grimace. Graveyard of the Eternal Night, or what most players knew as GEN, is a Rift that most GMs know as the punishment Rift and one that Alex loved to place particularly annoying players in. Not only does the tight and narrow layout of the graveyard make it easy for monsters to ambush players. But it is also filled with types of monsters that, if players aren't prepared, will quickly overwhelm them. Vampiric monsters are strong and can heal themselves by drinking blood. Spectral monsters are resistant if not immune to physical attacks, making them almost impossible to deal with for some character builds. While Undead monsters are naturally hard to kill, and fire, which is the easiest way to kill them, is weakened in GEN due to the properties of the thick fog that fills the graveyard. A fact that Alex noticed isn't mentioned in the provided notes. "I wonder if they didn't know the fog weakens all kinds of fire, or if the academy just didn't want to give me too much information. Most likely the latter." Alex glanced at the other notes he had written about GEN.

  "I'm not sure how Blood Rage Leeches's Blood Craving and Strong Blood Sensing Trait will interact with my Deliction Trait. Would I be constantly hounded by Blood Rage Leeches? Would they detach themselves from their hosts to get to me? Or would I be hunted down by empowered monsters so the parasites can get to my blood? No matter which happens, I'll doubt will have much time to rest while in the Rift."

  -Scra Srci Scara-

  Alex nodded at Silk's comment. "True, I can use my blood as a lure and an easy way to get a temporary boost of power when needed. How many Blood Rage Leeches do you think my body can handle before I go berserk?"

  -Scra Src Screa-

  "Five to eight? Hmm, not much, but I can work with that." Alex drew a star next to his notes on the Blood Rage Leeches. "Hmm, Graveyard Council."

  -Scra Scri?-

  "No, it's not the five council members I'm worried about. It's the secret boss you can summon by sacrificing the bodies of the five Bosses in the manor's ritual room."

  -Shri?-

  "Yeah, Dimn'Nisn possessed Screaming Abomination." The Screaming Abomination, or for players who investigated the manor's library and rolled high enough, Dimn'Nisn, possessed Screaming Abomination, is a secret boss designed as an Easter egg for players to find and for DMs to use as an extra-difficult fight. Dimn'Nisn, within the lore, is a thought demon that does not have a physical form and must take over a body to interact with reality. Upon placing sufficient body parts of the bosses, along with their cores, in the required location, the ritual room will activate, summoning Dimn'Nisn and fusing the bodies of the sacrificed council members into one large disgusting abomination for them to possess, with its overall power and quality of look it drops, scaling with the number of council members you provided.

  Not only does the Screaming Abomination have the combined strengths, weaknesses and powers of the bosses you provided. It can also endlessly create clones of the council members, using chunks of its own body to fight alongside them. The Screaming Abomination isn't even limited to creating unique copies, as the boss can have multiple clones of the same council member at the same time. It is only because the Screaming Abomination is limited to having five council members alive at a time, and that the created Bosses are only half as strong as the original, that the fight is even possible to beat.

  -Scri? Scria?-

  "Yeah, I am considering it."

  -Scria!? Schir!-

  Alex let out an annoyed sigh. "I know, but this might be my only chance to acquire such a high-quality named Boss core in a while. With it, I can get one of many powerful Traits like High Physical and Magical Resistance, Arcane Heart, or even Parallel Thoughts."

  -Scra Schri-

  "You have a point." Putting a maybe next to GEN in his notes, Alex continued reading. "Crystal Caverns." He muttered while tapping his pencil against the side of his notepad.

  -Scri! SCRI!-

  Alex let out a chuckle. "Silk, we can't choose Crystal Caverns just because it's filled with Mana." One piece of information Alex was surprised was left out was that Crystal Caverns is very saturated with Mana. That, along with the fact that the Mana in the Crystal Caverns is very thin, meaning you only absorb Mana when your body is running low, makes the Crystal Caverns an ideal Rift for Spell casters.

  -Scri Scra Shri Sca Sri Shra-

  "You do make some good points. Especially the one about being able to improve my spell casting skills with how long I can practice."

  -Scri Scir Scra-

  "Eh, those points are a bit weak. But I get what you're trying to say." Alex could tell Silk was pleased when he put a maybe next to the Crystal Caverns. "Ugh, the Fungal Forest." He groaned in disgust before immediately crossing it out. "I think it's a bit cruel for them not to add how disgusting the Rift is. Everything from the ground you walk on, to the smell, to the water you can drink and the food you can eat is foul."

  -Scri-

  "Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if even the Mana in the air is disgusting." Shivering at the thought, Alex shook his head, rid of the mental image, before continuing. "Red Dust Metal Rust Dessert, ugh, that's a mouthful. I'll call it RD for short." Looking over his notes, Alex paused, set down his notepad, and read the information the acadamy had given him before setting his phone down again. "Why would anyone eat the metallic dust?" He asked out loud as he picked up his notepad again.

  -Scri Scri?-

  "No, I have nothing. My older self doesn't remember reading anything that might suggest that eating small particles of metal would be a good idea."

  -Scra?-

  "No, I doubt they wrote it as a joke. It's more believable that there were enough idiotic students in the past who ate metallic dust that it became a real concern for them. It's just. -Sigh- I can't for the life of me think of a reason why."

  -Src Shri-

  "-Sigh- You're right, there's no point in stressing myself out over this."

  -Scra Scra Srhr. Schr Sri?-

  "Eh, it's meh at most. Yes, I might not struggle in RD, but I also won't be gaining much for choosing it."

  -Scra-

  Alex nodded. "My thoughts, exactly. What I need isn't a safe Rift but a rewarding one." Alex crossed Red Dust Metal Rust Desert off his list. "Next is Vibrant Jungle."

  -Scra?-

  "I have the Iron Stomach Trait, remember? The Vibrant Jungle doesn't have many venomous monsters, so it's most likely that someone gets poisoned because of something they ate, more than anything. An issue that I don't have to worry about."

  -Scra Scra?-

  "The River Siren Queen?"

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  -Scra?-

  "No, she's not the real Lilial. The one in the Rift is like Alice, just a reflection of the real one."

  -Scra Schi?-

  "Yeah, being a named Boss would do that to a reflection. Though I am surprised she would be willing to barter with outsiders." A piece of information about said Boss popped into his mind. "Well, unless they were very beautiful or handsome in some way. The books do emphasize her love of aesthetically pleasing things, so it is a possibility. Especially if what they are giving her are things like beautiful jewelry, cute fish or pretty Boss cores."

  -Scra Sce?

  "Can't really say if she would notice if she isn't the original or not. That kind thing is usually up to the DM to decide." None of the books nor the game guides mentioned how or what causes a named Boss to gain awareness of what they are. Typically, whether or not a named Boss knows that they are a copy or not is left up to the DM, which they do mostly for narrative reasons. "A self-aware named Boss acts differently than one that's not."

  -Scra Shr-

  "Yeah, makes it difficult to come up with a concrete plan."

  -Scra Sche Sca-

  "There is too much to gain in the Vibrant Jungle to rule it out because of that completely. I'll mark it with the others." Alex wrote maybe and continued down the list. "Breathing Mountain." He muttered softly.

  -Scra Sre?-

  "It's not the actual Rift or the main Boss monster I'm worried about."

  -Scra?-

  "Yeah, I'm torn if I should use what I know or not." The Breathing Mountain Rift is a unique Rift designed for multi-group one-shots or short campaigns. It's especially popular to run the Rift during events or conventions due to its larger size, varied areas, and the potential colossus Boss fight. It's that last point that Alex is thinking about. "Do I wake up the mountain or not?"

  Campaigns in the Breathing Mountain Rift usually end in one of three ways. The players don't wake the giant Boss up and explore the Rift normally before finding an exit. They wake up the Boss and have to scramble to find an exit and leave before it's too late. Or they wake up the Boss and fight them until only one is left standing. Typically, only higher-level groups attempt the last one due to how strong the Boss is. Of course, to have waking the Boss be a possibility, DM's would need to know how to do so in the first place. And that's the crux of the problem that Alex is currently facing.

  -Schra Shr?-

  "That's the thing, it isn't hard to wake up the slumbering monster." There are three methods to wake up the Breathing Mountain. The first is to damage the monster's core. That might sound simple enough, but in reality, it's almost impossible. This is mainly due to three of the Boss's Traits. The first is Slumbering Empowerment, a legendary Trait that strengthens all of the Boss's other Traits as long as they are dormant. Then there is Major Magical Resistance, which gets empowered into Near-Magic Immunity. Lastly, there is Major Physical Resistance, which, like the previous Trait, gets empowered into Near-Physical Immunity. Together, the Traits make it so that only the strongest characters who min-maxed for damage can even begin to scratch the monster's core.

  Obviously, the first method isn't the one Alex is thinking of using. The second way to wake up the slumbering Boss is to melt the top layer of the mountain. That might seem impossible for Alex to do, especially by himself, if it weren't for the fact that he knows the location of a large cavern of fire crystals. All Alex would need to do is find the cavern and rig up a small catalyst, which will cause the whole thing to blow up in a large, fiery explosion strong enough to melt the top layer for him. As for why doing that would wake up the Boss, well, it's all that Mana-saturated ice in the top layer that is keeping the giant monster asleep. So once you remove that, nothing would be keeping the slumbering monster asleep. As a bonus, all that warmed-up water from the melting ice would speed up the rate at which the Brething Mountain becomes active. Alex doesn't even need to be anywhere near the explosion to pull it off, as he could easily set it up so that he can trigger the catalyst to activate remotely anywhere on the mountain. "Though if I do this, I should probably set something up to catch the melting avalanche so no one gets swept away by it."

  The third method of awakening the Breathing Mountain is by far the simplest, and one that a group of players might stumble upon by accident. In each layer of the mountain lives a single dragon. The dragons and the Breathing Mountain have a symbiotic relationship. The dragons keep the layer they live in in balance. In exchange, the Breathing Mountain allows them to siphon some of their Mana to help the dragon's growth. If something major that could disrupt the balance of all four ecosystems were to occur, the four dragons would work together to remove the threat. To awaken the Breathing Mountain, all you would need to do is either kill the four dragons or disrupt their connection to the slumbering giant.

  Of the three ways of awakening the Breathing Mountain, the only feasible method Alex can realistically rely on is the second one. He isn't strong enough to damage the Boss's core, nor would he have enough time to explore all layers of the mountain and hunt down the four dragons.

  -Scra Shr?-

  "What's the problem if waking up the Boss isn't the issue? The issue is that if I do select this Rift, should I awaken the Boss or not? I could easily gather the loot I'm looking for, wake the Breathing Mountain up and then continue harvesting resources in another Rift they assign me to. If I'm lucky, I might be allowed to select the second Rift they send me to. But are the potential gains large enough to warrant possibly ruining one of the few stable Rifts Starage Academy has access to?"

  Despite how strong Alex knows the staff are and how many powerful people the headmaster knows, he can't say for certain if they are enough to take down the Breathing Mountain. So the most likely scenario in which Alex wakes the Boss up is that they would evacuate everyone in the Rift, he would be placed into another one where he can gather more loot, and the academy would seal the Breathing Mountain Rift for the foreseeable future, if not permanently. And even if they did manage to kill the giant monster, compared to the amount of resources a stable Rift provides, the materials they would be able to harvest from the dead Boss wouldn't even come close to making up the losses.

  "Am I really that greedy?" One part of Alex is telling him that he isn't being greedy and that he should use every available resource he can get to better prepare for what's to come. Another part of Alex is telling him that he shouldn't abuse what he knows and possibly ruin things for others. "What do you think, Silk?"

  -Sch Shca?-

  "No, that was never an option in the books. So once awakened, I'm not even sure it's possible to put the Boss back to sleep."

  -Sa Shr Shar-

  "Anything I can give the acadamy that's even close to the value of a stable Rift won't be available until at least my third year."

  -Schra Sha Shri Sca Shra Sar-

  Alex let out a soft chuckle. "Thanks, Silk, I appreciate the confidence you have in me." He wrote maybe beside the Breathing Mountain in his notes. "So which Rift do you think would be the best to pick?"

  -Scri! SCRI!-

  He rolled his eyes. "Besides the Crystal Caverns, I mean."

  -Scra Srha?-

  "What do I want to focus on? That's hard to say right now. I'm already planning to increase my regeneration once I reach the next chapter, but besides that, I'm not really sure."

  -Shc Shra Shri-

  Alex looked over his options. "No matter which one I select, I'll be able to get at least one Boss core with worthwhile Traits."

  -Srh Scra Shi?-

  "Other worthwhile loot besides Boss cores? Hmm, yeah, I'll be able to get a few decent things in each of them."

  -Shr Shra Sra?-

  "Which ones would be the most useful for the upcoming challenges?"

  -Sra-

  Alex sat in silence, thinking it over. "All of them can provide something that can help me in the near future." He finally answered. "GEN has a few things that I can get that would be able to give me a temporary power boost. I won't even need to worry about the side effects due to my regeneration. Crystal Caverns would be a great place to practice and improve my casting, along with having mana-related items. I could meet Lilial in the Vibrant Jungle and trade for some useful items with her. It helps that I know what items I can give her to get the best deals. As for the Breathing Mountain, even if I don't awaken the big Boss, there is still a wide range of things I can get due to the various areas."

  -Shr Sha-

  "Yeah, all four have their pros and cons."

  -Sca Scr?-

  "How can I use a coin to choose from four options?"

  -Sra?-

  "Hmm, that can work. I think I had one here somewhere." Setting the notepad and pencil down, Alex got up from the dining room table and looked around his house. After roughly ten minutes of searching, Alex set the item down on the table and then sat back down. "Here it is, a set of seven dice."

  A few months ago, Alex saw this set of dice being sold at the market while he was buying groceries. Curious, he took them off the shelf and inspected them. Looking over the set of seven space-theme dice, Alex wondered what people in this Realm would use them for before recalling his younger self seeing people use them in some capitalist-theme board game. With his own question answered, Alex was about to put them back and continue on his shopping before deciding to put the set of dice in his cart. In the end, feeling nostalgic, Alex bought them so he could reminisce over some of his older self's memories of more carefree days.

  Removing the plastic wrapper, Alex opened the box and took out an eight-sided die. "One, two for GEN. Three, four for Crystal Caverns. Five, six for Vibrant Jungle and seven, eight for Breathing Mountain." Shaking the dice in his palms, Alex softly tossed them onto the table. Alex watched it roll across the table before stopping. "I see, looks like we have our choice."

  -Sha-

  "Indeed." With his choice finalized, Alex tore out his notes from his notepad and was about to cast a Flame spell before a thought popped into his mind. "Anything else before I get rid of this?" Alex asked while waving the piece of paper in his hand.

  -Scra? Shr?-

  Silk replied after a moment of silence.

  "Hmm, oh that? Any reason for your curiosity?"

  -Scra Shr Sha-

  "You couldn't find it in my memories?"

  -Srcra...-

  Alex nodded. "Yeah, it can be quite tedious to find one specific piece of information buried within all those books." One thing about his Inner Library Trait that Alex is simultaneously annoyed and grateful for is the fact that he doesn't have access to all of his memories at all times. Annoying because, depending on how old or obscure the info he is looking for, it would take some time for him to browse through his memories to find it. Grateful because there are some memories that Alex really doesn't want constantly on his mind.

  "Ah, here it is." It took some time, but Alex managed to find what Silk was looking for. It didn't help that it was a piece of information he only read over once when his older self was casually reading over the lore of some Boss monsters. "Huh, interesting."

  -Scr-

  "Yeah, now that I'm recalling it, it is fascinating that a person was able to make a golem that large." The book Alex's older self read didn't go into much detail about the Breathing Mountain; however, it did mention that the monster was a golem created by a powerful mage from an ancient civilization originating from a long-gone Realm. "It might be a bit cliché, but eh," He shrugged his shoulders. "But I guess it just makes it easier for DMs to integrate its origins into their own campaigns."

  -...Srcr-

  Alex paused to think about what Silk said. "Oh, yeah, sorry. This is reality, and thinking like that can easily screw me over."

  -Scra-

  "-Sigh- I'm trying, believe me, Silk, I really am."

  -Scra?-

  "No, even if the name of the civilization or the Realm was never mentioned, it doesn't change the fact that both would be long gone. I doubt they would have stayed nameless if they still had any remnants left."

  -Sha Sca?-

  "Yeah, I think the Breathing Mountain is all that's left. There might still be something hinting at its origins inside the mountain, but at this point, I don't think we'll find anything worth the effort."

  -Sra-

  Alex nodded. "Good. So anything else?"

  -Sra-

  Hearing her reply, Alex clutched the piece of paper in his hand and activated a pre-weaved Flam spell, burning his notes to ashes. "No need to leave anything behind that might complicate things in the future." Cutting the flow of Mana to the spell, Alex dusted his hands before stretching his arms.

  -Sca?-

  Freezing, Alex looked down at the table and towards the pile of ash. Letting out a tired sigh, he got up from his chair, grabbed the notepad and pencil and put them away. Coming back with a garbage bin, Alex slid the pile of ash off the table and into the bin before leaving the room once more. Coming back again, this time with a wet towel, Alex picked up his phone and cleaned up the mess he had made.

  -Sca Sa?-

  Silk asked once he was done. "Yeah, I am getting hungry."

  -Sra Sha-

  "Hmm, sure. We might as well treat ourselves before the big test. Do you have anything in mind?"

  -Sra-

  "Yeah, I can go for some take-out." With that decided, Alex grabbed a coat and walked out his front door, making sure to lock the door behind him.