Three days after the wyvern nest, Jak took a contract that looked simple.
Livestock disappearing near the forest edge. Eastern farmlands. Probably dire wolves or a rogue beast. Standard C-rank investigation.
Pay was one gold. Less than combat contracts but easier work. Just find the problem. Report back. Let someone else handle elimination if needed.
Jak walked the farmlands with Shade. Talking to farmers. Examining kill sites.
The pattern was wrong.
Livestock weren't being eaten. They were being killed and left. Torn apart but not consumed.
"Dire wolves eat their kills," one farmer said. "This is something else."
Jak examined the most recent kill site. A cow. Three days dead. Throat torn out. Claw marks that didn't match any known predator.
Shade's ears flattened. Through the bond, warning.
"What do you sense?" Jak asked.
The fox moved toward the forest edge. Nose to the ground. Tracking something.
Jak followed.
They found the source a mile into the forest. A clearing. And in the center, a tear.
Not large. Maybe three feet across. But definitely a rift. Purple-blue light spilling from the edges. The air around it felt wrong. Thin. Like reality was stretched too tight.
Rift spawns. Four of them. Small ones. Clustered around the tear.
They'd been coming through. Killing livestock. Returning to the void.
Standard rift spawn behavior. Except rifts this far from the city were rare. The old wars had been fought in the northern wastes. This area should be stable.
Jak drew his blade. "Clear them. Then I'll report the rift location."
Shade moved first.
The rift spawns noticed immediately. Turned toward the fox. That clicking sound they made. Glass shards scraping.
Shade killed the first two before they could react. Fast. Efficient.
The third one lunged at Jak. He sidestepped. Blade catching it across what might have been its throat. It dissolved.
The fourth spawn retreated. Back toward the rift.
Shade pursued. Appeared from shadow behind it. Jaws closing. The spawn died.
Silence.
Jak approached the rift carefully. Close enough to see but not close enough to touch.
The tear pulsed. Slow rhythm. Like breathing.
And Jak felt something.
Not through the bond. Through his own senses.
The air near the rift was different. Wrong. He could perceive the wrongness now. Not just feel it. Actually see it.
Purple-blue energy. Faint. Almost invisible. But present. Leaking from the tear. Spreading into the surrounding area.
Void energy.
Jak had read about it in guild archives. Rifts leaked void energy. Most people couldn't perceive it. Only specialized detection equipment could measure it.
But Jak could see it.
When had that started?
He thought back. The rift spawn investigation three days ago. He'd felt wrongness then. But not seen it.
Now he could see it.
Through the bond, Shade's presence. The fox was... absorbing something. The void energy leaking from the rift. Drawing it in.
"You're eating it," Jak said. Not a question.
Shade's tail flicked once.
The fox had been doing this since they bonded. Every rift encounter. Every rift spawn kill. Absorbing trace amounts of void energy.
And somehow, through the bond, that was changing Jak too.
Giving him the ability to perceive what he shouldn't be able to perceive.
Jak stepped back from the rift. Marked the location on his map. He'd report this. Guild would send a sealing team.
But first, he let Shade absorb more void energy. Just a few minutes. The fox circled the rift. Drawing in the leaking energy.
Through the bond, Jak felt the fox's satisfaction. This was food. Nourishment. Growth.
When Shade was done, they headed back to the farmlands.
Jak reported the rift location to the farmers. Told them guild would handle sealing. Collected his payment.
One gold. Plus the understanding that something fundamental had changed.
He could perceive void energy now.
That wasn't normal. Wasn't documented in any guild manual.
That was new.
♢♢♢♢
Back at the guild, Jak reported the rift location.
The clerk marked it on the city's rift map. "Fourth one this month in that sector. Pattern's unusual."
"Unusual how?"
"Rifts don't normally cluster like this. Not this far from the northern wastes." The clerk made notes. "Sealing team will investigate tomorrow. Might be connected to something larger."
Jak filed that away. Rift activity increasing. Patterns emerging. That meant opportunities.
More rifts meant more void energy. More cultivation resources.
He checked the contract board. Looking for rift-related work.
Found one immediately. Rift spawn surge in the lower quarter. Recurring problem. Multiple small tears opening and closing. Pay was three silver per shift. Not great. But access to concentrated void energy.
Jak took the contract.
Started that night.
♢♢♢♢
The lower quarter was where Jak had grown up. Poor district. Slums. Buildings that should have been condemned decades ago.
Rift spawns had been appearing here for weeks. Small ones. Nuisance level. But frequent enough that guards couldn't keep up.
Jak patrolled the assigned route. Three miles. Looping through the worst areas.
Shade scouted ahead. Through the bond, Jak felt each time the fox encountered a rift spawn. Felt the kills. Felt the fox absorbing void energy after each one.
And Jak could see them now. The spawns. The rifts. The void energy.
Purple-blue light in the darkness. Invisible to everyone else. Clear to him.
He saw a tear forming before it opened. Watched void energy concentrate. Watched reality stretch and break.
A rift spawn came through.
Shade killed it before it took three steps.
The tear sealed itself. Too small to stay open long.
But Jak had seen the process. Beginning to end.
That was valuable information. Understanding how rifts formed. How they behaved.
The guild's detection equipment measured rifts after they opened. Jak could see them forming.
That was advantage.
By the end of his shift, Jak had encountered eleven rift spawns. Shade had killed all of them. And Jak's void sense had sharpened.
He could perceive energy concentrations more clearly now. Could distinguish between stable rifts and unstable ones. Could predict roughly where tears would form based on energy patterns.
Three silver for the shift. But the real payment was the cultivation opportunity.
Jak took the same contract the next night. And the night after.
By the fourth night, his void sense was active constantly. He didn't have to focus to perceive energy anymore. It was just there. Always present. Like gaining a new sense organ.
The guild noticed his efficiency.
"You're finding rifts faster than our equipment," the contract supervisor said. "How?"
"My beast has void affinity," Jak said. Which was true. Just not the complete truth. "Shadow foxes can sense tears naturally."
"That explains it." The supervisor marked something in his ledger. "We're adding you to the specialist rotation. Rift investigation and elimination. Higher priority than standard contracts."
"What's the pay?"
"Varies. But access to restricted rift zones. Areas we don't let most adventurers enter." The supervisor looked at Shade. "Your beast's abilities are valuable. We'll use them."
Jak nodded. Perfect.
Restricted zones meant stronger rifts. More void energy. Better cultivation opportunities.
The guild was giving him exactly what he needed.
And they thought they were just using his beast's natural abilities.
They didn't understand that Jak was changing. That his perception was evolving.
That void sense was permanent.
A technique he'd gained. One that would never go away.
The first of many.