The Path of Ascension: A LitRPG Adventure, page 55
It felt like a stretch, but Matt tried for endless power and only heard the burning wood of the bonfire lure popping from the flames.
Liz must have felt something because she squeezed his shoulder and said, “We’ll figure things out. Worse comes to worst, I beg my parents or an aunt or uncle for help with your Image.”
She shifted around a bit. Something made her uncomfortable. “I will say that I already contacted one of my aunts. She owes me a favor, and I want to get Aster a bit of phoenix bloodline. She’ll be able to bind the dragon bloodline to it, so the benefits of the dragon will be permanent.”
“I thought you didn’t want to get your family’s help? Also, how strong are they?”
The squirming increased. “Aunt Helen isn’t super strong, but she’s really old. Like saw the unification of the Empire old. I was going to play it as if it was an accident we met up with her, but…but that didn’t feel right.”
Matt was surprisingly touched. He knew how much the girl avoided leaning on her family.
“What did you do to earn a favor from someone that old? And what does ‘isn't super strong’ mean exactly? Is that Tier 15 or…” He let the end taper off and gave her a raised eyebrow.
“She’s only Tier 24. She’s been stuck there pretty much forever. She has a family Concept, and her son died in a rift eons ago. That broke her husband, who dissipated his own spirit. She’s been unable to form an Intent ever since.”
That hit Matt like a fist in the gut. How bad must it be for someone older than the Empire to be stuck at a Tier and unable to advance? He shuddered at the thought of it.
Maybe I was a little too cavalier about reaching as far as possible earlier.
“Okay, so how did you earn a favor from someone that old? Even if they never delve or advance, they must have everything they could ever need. Was it an, ‘I’ll owe you a favor so you get some protection while on The Path’ kind of thing?”
Liz just laughed. “Nope! She’s really bad at poker. Her feathers are a dead tell, and she was out of chips. So, when she wanted to keep playing, that was all she had to offer. I was six, I think. Well before I thought about The Path. I don’t mind using it to get Aster a little phoenix blood essence. Honestly, you could probably get that with the dragon info alone. Once you send it to my mom, she’ll get it to Mara, and you could get a lot in return. But that will take a while. Tier 40s don’t view time in the same frame as us. A few decades of sleeping isn’t crazy.”
That unsettled Matt’s understanding of the world. Sure, he had seen movies with a high-Tier dragon who napped for a few centuries, but Liz was talking about real people.
“What will the phoenix bloodline do for her?” He still wasn’t entirely sure about that.
“Blood essence. It comes from bloodlines. An older term for it is ‘heart’s blood.’ It’s the source of a bloodline’s power. I’d need to hit Tier 15 to be able to give any away without crippling myself. Phoenix blood essence will let Aster create a regenerating source of the dragon blood essence once they’re bound together. Phoenix bloodlines are all about rebirth and renewal. With it, she can get more out of that dragon’s blood. It won’t peter out by Tier 20.”
That gave Matt ideas. “So, can we like, collect bloodlines for you two?”
“Nope, the body can really only handle one extra. The phoenix bloodline doesn’t really count if it’s bound to either the main blood essence or a secondary one. Most will get a second bloodline and have it shore up a weakness, so if someone comes to kill them with a power that counters them, they can stop it. Think of a fire creature getting a water bloodline to control a bit of water in a last-ditch effort to survive.”
That logic seemed sound to him, and he followed it out. “You said before only the main blood essence regenerates. Does that mean a phoenix’s blood essence is super valuable?”
“Yeah, but mom’s a phoenix, and so are a lot of her friends. Dad’s mostly friends with the water and air monsters. The phoenix population would get wrung dry if everyone could get blood essence, but for friends, there’s more than enough.”
The gift seemed far more generous as he learned more. He opened his mouth to thank her on the fox’s behalf, but Liz punched his shoulder, saying, “We are friends, and friends help each other. Besides,” she wiggled the hand the ring was on, “it’s not like we’re going to be separated from each other.”
Matt looked at the snoozing fox, who had eaten all the hearts from the bears and was currently plopped over with an extended belly.
They were a team.
The pyramid rift seemed more ominous the second time they entered. The empty forest was a different place when he knew that waves of monsters would appear shortly.
Reaching the steps of the great structure, Matt viewed each carving of sacrifice with new eyes. This rift had a sick and twisted sense of humor.
After binding their blood to the bowls once again, they started the rift.
The feathered raptors were again the first monsters, and with the downtime in between rifts, Matt had his AI analyze the information from the entirety of the last delve of the rift.
Now, the ghostly images of the AI’s predictions allowed him to dance through the onslaught of monsters. Each movement of his sword resulted in a clean blow. Not every strike was a killing one, but the damage allowed Liz to take blood from the monsters and set up her own killing station in the far corner.
They each worked their areas, and Aster waited to use upgraded [Heart of Power] to supercharge her attacks. The ice mage was better served by conserving mana until her ice spells packed more punch, so she bided her time. She kept involved in the action by protecting Liz’s blind spots from her perch in the backpack.
Matt settled. This rift should be much easier without Liz empowering the boss with created blood.
The rhythm of his falling sword calmed him. Each attack had its purpose and consequence.
The raptors’ chaos in numbers was child’s play with the help of his AI. They used pretty standard group hunter tactics; a lot of feints and attention-grabbing, so the ones behind could deal a critical blow. Even the extra aggression instilled by the rift did not change the monsters’ true nature.
Matt was amazed, his AI’s predictive measures were nearly perfect, but Liz’s lagged slightly. He had, of course, shared his AI’s findings with his partner, but it didn’t seem to help her make any headway with improving her AI’s combat analytics.
Some of it had to do with the absurd amount of mana he could devote to the task but, overall, his AI just seemed to be better at modeling attack patterns. He was grateful to Griff for suggesting he get a researcher model. He made a note to ask for a comparison against a standard model when he went for a checkup at the end of this training world.
Matt finished off a twitching raptor and paused.
“Fuck. I’m so dumb.”
That caught Liz’s attention, and she shrugged a shoulder at him in question of his statement.
“I’m so stupid. I could have my AI show people’s names and such.”
Matt berated himself. He might not have a module for the AI, but how hard would it be to train the AI to note down and display an overlay when someone said their name? He could probably even access the public database for people, at least to get their names.
Sitting down, he allocated his essence. As he did so, he clasped Liz’s wristband that held one of her rechargeable mana stones and dumped 9 MPS into it. He did the same with the one in Aster’s collar. Liz had two rechargeable stones, so she had given one to the fox, that way both mages could take advantage of Matt’s mana in between rifts.
The two humans were embarrassed it had taken them this long to think of it. With mana no longer being the limiter for how many delves they could do, they intended to try and delve a third or fourth rift each day.
This ability to delve all the rifts you wanted was a rare opportunity, and not one they wanted to pass up. With the five minutes in between waves, Matt was able to give the others the 2,000 mana necessary for their stones to convert 200 mana to their respective aspects.
According to Matt’s HUD, they were nearly back to full mana, and the stones were once again filled to capacity. With the extra 200 mana, they could cast without hesitation, and push their respective manipulation skills to the max.
Unlike standard skills, the manipulation family was a mana control burden. The skill itself needed little in the way of expanded capabilities or training, unlike his [Cracked Phantom Armor]. No, they needed to use the skill constantly to get better control of it.
Liz could use the skill for blood whips and the blender ball, but they were easier for her. The floating and circling streams of blood were much harder on her control, but they had versatility. The golem form she used both burned mana at a prodigious rate and demanded a crushing level of control.
Aster’s problem was that her innate skill was [Ice Manipulation] not [Create Ice]. Her bloodline let her do the latter, but it was expensive. It was why she favored smaller shards of ice. They could usually be regathered and reforged if they broke. She also could push ice aura out to slow and freeze enemies, but as an area attack, it was much harder to differentiate friends from foe when using it. It also was somewhat wasteful to use so much mana on single monsters.
Matt wanted to get a cold aura or ice aura skill for himself, to give the fox something to work with. But he wondered if it would be better to get her an [Ice Spear] spell or something along those lines. It would automate the creation of ice and the launching of the projectile. No manipulation needed. It would greatly increase her combat prowess.
Liz wanted a [Water Whip] or [Water Bullet] for the same reasons.
They were just too poor.
Matt also pondered what skill he wanted after [Endurance], and his current choice was [Demon Zone].
[Demon Zone]: 5 MPS base cost. A portion of all damage dealt while in the area of effect is reflected back to the damage dealer as physical damage. Percent chance for any damage dealt in the area to affect all occupants in the area. No designation of friend or foe. User takes 50% damage from all reflected damage. Cannot be recast for two hours. Channeling time does not count toward cooldown.
It was a rarer Tier 8 skill with some serious drawbacks, but Matt had weighed the pros and cons. Most melee fighters avoided it altogether. Even with a mage’s mana cultivation, it was only usable for five minutes at Tier 5 and 1,500 mana.
Melee fighters wouldn’t have that much mana, and they wouldn’t be able to use the skill for half as long. If they could flick the skill on and off, it could be halfway decent, even with the damage reflection. But with the long cooldown, it was a skill most found unusable at this low a Tier.
That also didn't account for other melee fighters taking full reflect damage. It would kill your teammates as fast as the enemies. The skill was mostly used by melee defensive fighters who rarely attacked and had a lot of mana for whatever reason.
[Cracked Phantom Armor] should be able to completely negate the reduced reflect damage, and it would allow Matt to strike back at his foes with both his attacks and their own. With each swing of his sword, he had a chance to damage everything around him. And with each of their attacks on him, they would slowly be bled down.
It wasn’t a lot of damage, as it was only a Tier 8 skill, but it would help Matt punish anyone that came in too close.
He really wanted a ranged skill, but anything at Tier 8 had a mana cost higher than 1% of his max. He thought about just using a rechargeable mana stone, filling it, then pulling the mana over to cast a normal [Fireball] or something. But that was slow, and pretty redundant with Liz and Aster already having plenty of ranged attacks.
Speaking of [Fireball], I’d love to get [Flamethrower]. It may be a Tier 14 skill, but it only has a 30 mana initial cost, then it’s just a mana per second upkeep. I could cast it at the beginning of a rift and keep it active the whole time.
Matt stood and reactivated his sword. His thoughts and daydreams took up all the time he had to charge the girls’ mana stones. He’d need to get the first kill so Liz could get her blood going.
They murdered the inhabitants of the rift until they were at the last wave. Matt was ready. He had been channeling [Mana Charge] and was storing 1,000 mana in the blade’s skill. As soon as the statue turned into the boss dragon, he brought the blade down on its expanding head. Instantly killing the peak Tier 4 boss.
He looked to Liz. “Well, that worked better than I hoped. Almost anti-climactic, really.”
“I won’t complain. I love this rift. A shit load of essence and a reward per person if we finish all ten waves.”
They opened the rift rewards, Matt and Liz each received a half-dozen Tier 4 mana stones, while Aster had a bottle drop on her. The fox scampered away from the object that tried to brain her, yipping her displeasure.
Liz scooped it up before whistling. “Damn, girl. Did you seduce the rift or something? That’s two for two. Maybe this rift likes fluffy things?”
Matt pushed out with his spiritual sense but didn’t find the reward to be very strong.
“What is it?”
Aster sniffed at it before losing interest and going over to the dead boss, using [Heart of Power] on the large corpse.
“It’s a really nice base for a Tier 4 potion. If you use this to make something, all the ingredients will be used to their fullest extent. So, it’s a perfect potion. Or at least one potion’s worth. Not enough for an entire batch.”
Matt knew the mage liked to dabble in alchemy, so he asked, “If you want it to keep it, it’s—”
“No. No. As much as I’d love to, it’s better if we sell it. The value is better in a more skilled alchemist’s hands. I like the science, but I’m no expert, and we might be able to get something good in a trade. At the very least, we would get a good price for it. Everyone wants one of these to make a superb potion and have a breakthrough.”
“One of the breakthroughs that give essence? How do they even work?”
“Yeah, one of those. The theory I heard is that there’s a resonance with the world, the item, and the crafter. The three of them being in harmony creates essence, and it’s perfectly matched to the person. That essence gets bestowed to the person, and I’ve heard rumors it can even fix foundations if they weren’t perfect.”
“Your parents didn’t tell you?” That surprised Matt. She knew nearly everything else after all.
“It’s very rare and, honestly, I never really asked. I only got into alchemy when I was at the PlayPen.”
“Ahh, that makes more sense. I was wondering if my walking encyclopedia needed an update.”
Liz rapped his shin with the butt of her spear in retaliation.
“Come on, smartass. Let’s go sell this.”
32
Their remaining time on the training planet passed without any hiccups. They delved five rifts a day, made possible by Matt refilling the girls’ mana pools. The increased rate of delving allowed them to rush through Tier 4. In just five short months their spirits were nearly at the peak of what they could handle.
This being their second to last week on the training planet, they searched the list of weak Tier 5 rifts, looking for a rift they could counter. After some browsing through reports, they found only one option they were confident in delving. In a poetic turn of events, in Matt’s opinion, the Tier 5 rift they decided on was a rift full of goblins.
The rift monsters he had battled to begin his journey were the same he would be finishing the final steps of Tier 4 against. It was fitting. As they entered the rift, Matt saw the same cave system he was so used to seeing at the PlayPen. He had pushed through tunnels like these so many times.
Then he was alone, but here, he had Aster and Liz by his side.
Pushing the nostalgia away, Matt analyzed his surroundings. This cave system was much danker than the one he was thinking of. The rock was also much darker, a deep brown that bordered on black.
“You sure we're ready for this?” Matt asked but was only trying to give his partner a way out. He was ready for this; he wanted this.
Liz's armored head nodded. “Now's the time. If we don't do it now, we won’t get the chance. We've grown a lot from the pyramid rift and its Tier 5 boss.”
He agreed. “If we never push forward, we'll never advance along The Path.”
With a shrug, he tacked on, “Nothing is reported to have a Concept. This is one of the weakest Tier 5 rifts on the planet.”
Liz glared. “If you jinxed it, I'm going to beat you.”
Matt led the way. Each step was cautious. This was the strongest rift they had delved, and he didn’t have much confidence in [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s ability to protect him fully. He had it active, but he wasn’t relying on it. The last months of training had gotten the skill to accept 10 MPS. But while that was enough to be invulnerable to Tier 4 rift monsters, Tier 5 monsters would be much stronger than even Tier 4 bosses. The skill would prevent death, but he could easily lose a limb again if he wasn’t careful.
The rift wasn’t set up as a straight tunnel like it had been in the Tier 1 version. No, this entrance was in the center of a long tunnel that branched off to each side.
The exit rift was parallel to the tunnel they appeared in. Matt looked to Liz, and they both shrugged, then looked to Aster. The fox sniffed and turned around, heading behind them.
Matt quickly stepped back into the lead position, with his sword at the ready. They followed the tunnel for a minute before they found a small glow around a gentle bend of the tunnel.
They snuck up and found a group of three goblins huddled around a mushroom fire. The glow of the flames overpowered the luminous lichen growing along the walls.
Matt analyzed the goblins, and found they wore only simple loincloths. They carried metal shards with cloth wrapped around one end, forming crude daggers. With a nod from Aster and Liz, he rounded the corner at a run, with [Mage’s Retreat] active at 2 MPS for the 25% boost. That put his near peak Tier 4 strength at lower Tier 5 strength.
