The Path of Ascension

Chapter 25

Get over here when you see this.

Matt decided that he didnt appreciate the tone of the message he woke up to. His blacksmith could have been a little more cordial, considering the amount of cash Matt was about to hand over to him.

Only stopping to throw Aster in Lizs room, so the mewling fox could go back to sleep, Matt was out the door and in the brightness of morning.

By standard time it should be predawn, but with this planet having never been adjusted, it was midday going by the sun's movement. It was so early, Matt only saw a group of three stumbling to a different apartment block, and a group of guards smirking at them. Despite his rude awakening, Matt was also amused at the trio struggling to get the door to open, and hide from the light of day.

Matt looked at the overlay his AI was projecting, and headed over to the smiths workshop. When he arrived, he was slightly surprised to find what looked like an open sided apartment building.

There were only a few active smithies, but when he climbed to the seventh floor of the structure, he found the smith. His back was to the interior wall as he stood next to the lightly glowing forge.

Matt paused, he didn't remember the man's name.

Maybe I can get him to say it?

With only a single eye cracked open for a moment, the smith said, Go check it out.

Looking around, he only found one blade sitting on the bench, and it was a beauty. Instead of the shiny silver of polished steel, it had a darker gray color with hints of green.

As Matt marveled, he heard from behind him, I had to use a Tier 5 plant monster to get the conductivity for mana up. If you don't like the color, I can't help you.

Matt picked the sword up, and nearly lost his balance. He knew it would be heavy, even for a Tier 5 sword. But this was heavy enough to make wielding the blade almost uncomfortable, at least without [Mages Retreat] active.

Stepping to a clear area, he tested the heft and balance of the sword. It was clearly well made if not a little unwieldy. But once he activated [Mages Retreat], using 2 mana per second, the sword was light enough to be usable. It was a Tier 5 sword with a bit of Tier 6 tungsten, which really weighed it down.

At 10 mana a second, the weight wasn't an issue at all, but that cost would go down. Advancing through Tier 4 and allocating more essence would give more for the skill to enhance making it more efficient. With an effort of his spirit, he pushed mana into the blade, and sprung into a slashing form.

This blade was a bit longer than his last one. It straddled the line between longsword and greatsword. If Matt was any shorter, he would be unable to use longsword techniques with this hefty weapon, and would have to transition to pure greatsword patterns instead.

But at sixteen and a half, he was expecting a few more inches on his 62 frame. As he finished his growth, the blade would allow him an extensive reach advantage on most opponents. But now, the sheer size of the weapon pushed the limits of his control of the blade.

With his spiritual sense, he found the durability, sharpness, and repair runes. Even though they were lesser runes, he found them to be a little heavy, and they ate quite a bit of his mana when active. Each required about a quarter of 1 mana per second for normal operations. That was a problem, as it would cut into what he could give to [Mages Retreat].

[Cracked Phantom Armor] took priority, as it kept him alive. But for the first time in his time on The Path, he had less mana than he needed.

He tried to push some mana into the last structure in the sword. This one was not the same shape as the runes, but was a more complex, three dimensional structure. To his spirit sense, it felt similar to the structure of his skill.

This was clearly [Mana Charge], and when there was a small amount of mana deposited, he tried to trigger the skill. It was like trying to lift a boulder with his spirit, while underwater and already out of breath.

Despite the somewhat startling strain it took, he was able to release a small gust of mana from the blade. His spirit was sore afterwards, so sore that even having [Mages Retreat] active was irritating.

Satisfied after a few more appraising movements, he slipped the sword into his spatial bag.

It seems good. After a pause, Matt found the smith still had their eyes closed and asked, You ok?

He barely got out an mhmm, and thought that would be all, but the smith responded, Ive been up all night. Getting the Tier 6 tungsten to merge properly was a pain in the ass. And having to use city mana to get the runes embedded into the sword is an even bigger pain in the ass. Using unaspected mana is far more taxing on the spirit when dealing with the fine control necessary for enchantment work.

The smith spat at the ground, in what Matt didnt quite interpret as disgust, but was definitely more than displeasure. Besides I burnt nearly twenty thousand mana making the alloys merge properly. I'll be paying back the city for weeks.

Matt felt a little awkward that the smith was in this state because of him. Umm, well thanks.

He turned, and was halfway out the door when he heard, Yeah, and theres the leftover metal, over on the other counter. Use that if you need to repair the weapon with the rune. Its the same stock, so itll make sure there are no compatibility issues. I'll send you the exact formula.

After thanking the man again, Matt left. As he was exiting the building, he passed a smith with a giant hammer symbol. Quickly stepping over, he asked,

Hey, do you have any hammers or maces in the Tier 4 range already made?

The tall woman turned and answered, Yeah, anything on the bottom shelf there. One Tier 5 mana stone if you don't want anything custom.

Matt walked to the indicated area, and found a shelf full of blunt weapons. After perusing for a moment, he found a large war hammer. It even had a spike on the back end, making it an excellent option for heavily armored opponents.

The weapon only had a durability rune, to help prevent it from crumbling if it hit something too hard.

Dropping the requested mana stone off, he left with his new crystal golem crusher.

When he arrived at their shared suite, he found Liz and Aster eating breakfast on the couch. The foxs bowl of food had the kibble that he had brought with him. Mostly, it acted as a supplement to the monsters she ate. Matt wanted to make sure that she had everything her body needed. To that effect, Liz had mixed it with some mystery meat they had gotten at the general store.

Flopping down and stealing one of the blood mages hashbrowns, he asked, You decide on a rift you like?

Matt had one area in mind, but he wanted to see where her head was at.

Yeah, I think we should go to this rift. It's away from the clusters, so we should be able to remain undisturbed. That'll let me teach you the meditation techniques for when we get [Endurance], and help with finding your Concept.

Matt was surprised that she stuck with that plan, instead of being lured by the potential spoils of the central rifts and the delvers they drew in.

I thought wed go for a slightly more aggressive area. Here, look. He sent her a rift location. This is a mixed area of Tier 4 and a few Tier 5. Theres even a rift thats perfect for us. Its a swarm type, so you can rampage, and the boss shouldnt put up much of a fight. I can't kill very well in a swarm, but I cant really be hurt by them either. If we backpack Aster shell be fine.

Liz bobbed her head back and forth. I wouldn't have thought you'd want to fight for rewards. And with even one Tier 5 rift, we won't be the strongest people there. We can probably take a standard Tier 5, but anyone who has their Concept will kick our ass.

Whats the difference?

Well the big one is when you make your own Concept you get just that. Self made Concepts are always stronger. With them, you can also manipulate the area around yourself a bit. You can firm the ground around you and anchor yourself for better heavy weapons footing for example. You can even move faster by moving the air around you as you go. That's a lot harder, but it's how the Tier 15s can move without shockwaves all the time. They use their Concept like a zipper.

The point is, a Tier 5 rift boss will have these abilities for sure, and some rifts will have lesser monsters with them as well. Thats really the main reason why Tier 5 rifts carry such a jump in difficulty. Almost as an afterthought, she added, And all the common monsters will have skills as well.

Matt knew most of that. At least about the common monsters having skills. The ways a rift grew in power were well established and circulated, even to the lower tiers like him.

He had even done his research with his guild VIP access. There was more to it than he had previously thought. He had even discovered how skill shards appeared in rifts.

At Tier 8, there was a twenty five percent chance that a skill dropped. Each rift had an eighty five percent chance to drop one of any three common skills. It was only a ten percent chance to drop a rare skill shard of that Tier. Those four skills were set for each rift at creation, or at each Tier increase in the rift itself.

The remaining five percent was a chance to drop any skill, but the common skills usually were the safe bet.

The lower tier rifts on this training world would work under the same rules, but with closer to a three percent chance to get a skill on initial delves. Now that the most abundant essence was used up, it was less than a one percent chance.

It's a solid idea, but well be at a disadvantage against even a team with standard battle Concepts. Most get strength or regeneration, so theyll be five percent stronger for their essence at most. So while you might be able to match up with [Mages Retreat], it's going to be a while before you can take anyone stronger than a fledgling Tier 5.

Matt paused. Honestly, his idea was initially just a small attempt to please her by not going into a heavy cluster of rifts. When he found this cluster, he was ready and willing to fight for the potential spoils. But now the usual roles were reversed, and Liz was the one urging caution.

Liz, can we go to a riskier area and still have me learn everything we need? Im fine with not pushing our luck, but I feel like it won't be that hard to learn the meditations.

I don't know. I didnt struggle when I was taught them, but this stuff can be hard to learn. And umm, Ive never taught anyone about it. Maybe I'll suck at teaching it.

Matt mulled that over. How bad could it be if he put off learning the meditation skills? It would definitely set him back, but he was already Tier 4 at only sixteen and a half. He had until twenty one to get to Tier 5.

More loot seems better now. Were both ahead of the curve, so the meditation can wait until were off the training planet. The more we can delve now, the more essence we can accumulate. The more essence we accumulate now, the faster we approach Tier 5. And you said we cant even manifest the Concept until the peak of Tier 4 anyway.

Liz just looked at him before her eyes unfocused. She was doing something with her AI.

We can do that, but I think youre underestimating how hard these meditations are.

Matt believed her, but he felt the essence was more valuable than the time they would waste with only one nearby rift.

Delving schedules on the outside were once a week for most slots not on a PlayPen, and that really slowed down the essence accumulation. Here and now, it was time to push his advancement.

After hashing out the details, they prepared for a party hosted by the guild, as most of the stronger people were just now starting to head out. Most had gotten skill they wanted to practice, or had commissioned new weapons like Matt had.

This was one last time to blow off some steam before everyone would be focused on delving for the final five months.

***

Matt, Liz, and Aster stood in line by the teleporter. There had only been half a dozen parties heading out, and they didnt feel the need to skip so few people.

When their turn came, they appeared in the cold, barren landscapes. They found a few tents in the distance, near various rifts or clusters. The wind was cutting here, without the canyon to shield them from the harshest of the conditions.

It was just as bitterly cold here as it was in the canyon. They were deep in the southern hemisphere, even though it was technically summer on the planet, it was still bitterly cold.

The trio set up their tent after finding the rift they wanted. Lizs tent was a larger model, and they would be using it as their home base for the next few months. All of her gear was top of the line, so a lot of Matts gear was rendered obsolete. He hardly minded, considering the improvement in accommodations across the board.

Even her perimeter security was better than his. The little bot was not only able to link to their AIs for status reports, but even could be controlled by their AIs if necessary. His perimeter guard was reliant on only its limited programming.

He had never seen the model she had, or even one with remotely similar capabilities for that matter. It was mind blowing that his planet didnt even rate the model.

With their tent set up and marker claiming the rift, they entered, with the rest of their belongings in their spatial bags. At worst, someone would break into empty tents and steal nothing of value.

The rift they entered was one that the guilds records had information on, a peak Tier 4. As a VIP, Matt was able to access their data on it. He had even sold most of the information on the rifts they had delved so far to the guild. Everything except the information about the larger dragon. He intended to send the information to Lizs mother, so she could forward it to Mara.

He mentally rubbed his hand together, thinking of what prizes a Tier 48 royal could provide.

The other side of the rift was warm, almost pleasant. The area was a sparse woodland, with rolling hills.

Aster sniffed around, and they traveled to the top of a hill, looking around with their eyes and spiritual sense. The exit was far to the north, beyond several miles of lightly wooded hills and valleys.

The vast landscape was why they had chosen this rift. It contained lots of larger monsters. The second rift in the area was a swarm type. The two rifts together would let them practice their fighting skill against a variety of opponents.

They were walking for only a few minutes when they encountered their first monster of the rift.

The bear was an intimidating size, at around five feet tall at the shoulder, when standing on all fours. It moved stealthily for such a large monster. Aster didnt even smell it until it was within fifteen feet of the trio. As soon as they were alerted to its presence, the bear charged at them through the trees with a savage roar.

The beast felled the trees obstructing its path by simply barreling through with brute strength. Falling debris and charging beasts were Matts cue to get serious. With [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mages Retreat] at 8 and 2 mana respectively, he swung his new Tier 5 sword at the bear.

He and Liz had discussed this. They were each going to solo a bear while watching the others back. Testing oneself was one thing, but they werent going to be stupid about it.

The new green tinged sword felt comfortable with the twenty five percent strength boost he was getting from [Mages Retreat]. With his first swing, he slammed its edge into the shoulder of the charging bear. He wanted to test the blades cutting power and its material properties, so he kept the embedded Tier 5 runes inactive. He didnt want to solely rely on the enchantments. He would test the blades full potential soon enough.

The blade sunk deep into the beasts shoulder, and with a roar, it lunged in retaliation with glowing jaws. The skill the bears used was [Crushing Bite]. It was a standard monster skill that enhanced the power of their bite. There was a second variant that enhanced the sharpness of their teeth, but that was more common on ambush predators.

The two ton bear towered over Matt when rearing back on its hind legs, reaching a height of nearly eleven feet. It swiped at him with paws the size of dinner plates. For all its size, it was still quick, and Matt barely was able to dodge with his enhanced strength.

[Mages Retreat] allowed Matt to keep the bear at a distance. With each missed swipe, he was able to get a better feel for the power and attributes of the beast in front of him.

As the next blow came, Matt intercepted it with his sword instead of dodging. He smiled under the ghostly armor as claws and blade became deadlocked. He was stronger than the bear, and was able to knock it back with a disengaging shove.

It was good enough for him. The monster had five feet on him, and was twenty times his weight. It was amazing that he could even outmuscle the bear at all. This was a beast built for strength, and with his new skill, Matt was up to the challenge.

He stepped in, sword humming with enchantments, and swung with all his power. The slash cleaved clean through the monster's arm, and the blade caught in the bears hip as the blow came down.

Quickly pulling the blade free, he ducked a heavy blow from the wounded bear, before being caught by a backhanded swipe from the other paw.

It sent him spinning. While he had the strength to match the bear, he didn't exactly have the mass to hold his ground against direct hits. Slamming into a tree stopped his momentum, but [Cracked Phantom Armor] prevented any meaningful damage from the claws or subsequent impact.

Still, the hit was enough to cause the structure in Matts spirit to waver. It was only for a moment, but he took it as a sign to be more careful. After all, he wouldnt be satisfied with bumbling through his kill, just to have Liz finish hers off quickly and cleanly.

With the one-armed bear limping towards him, Matt readied his sword and charged forward. With the durability and sharpness runes blazing, he slammed into the bears belly, blade leading the charge. His empowered movement was enough to completely impale the standing giant.

With a roar of effort to match the bears howls of agony, Matt ripped his longsword free from the monsters guts. Stepping and spinning, he sliced through its uninjured leg. Nothing but a gory mess was left as the bear tumbled down. Most of the bears insides had become outsides by the time the fight was finished.

With its last struggles, it looked at Matt with madness in its eyes. Even after he had all but killed it, the bear was still filled with the rage that rift denizens were known for.

With a final slice of his blade, he decapitated the monster, putting it out of its misery. As he felt the essence rush into him, he turned and smiled to Liz and Aster, who were standing back on lookout.

That went well. He rested his sword over his shoulder with all enchantments deactivated, striking a cool pose for his lady companions.

Liz just shook her armored head. Aster yipped for him, which he took as encouragement, and returned with a big grin. It quickly turned into a scowl as Aster batted at the monster corpse, continuing to voice her impatience.

With a sigh, he chopped into the monster's chest, so the little fox had a clear path to its heart.

With a methodical approach, she got the large lump of organ into her mouth, delicately liberated it from its previous owner. She came out as clean as she entered, careful not to soil her immaculate fur.

You next? Matt asked the blood mage, who was draining the monster like a juice box now that Aster had finished her snack.

With a wave of blood she said, Let me show you how it's done.

Liz took the lead, and when they stumbled into the next bear, she dodged the initial charge while dragging her rift blade along the flank of the monster. It was a Tier 4 rift made weapon, so it was better than what most smiths of that Tier could make. It sliced through the fur and a veritable fountain of blood gushed out.

The bear quickly turned and tried to lunge at the mage. She slipped the attack by wrapping her legs in blood, using it to quickly slide to the beasts right.

Using the blood she had taken from Matts kill, Liz lashed out with a blood whip, and mirrored the attack with a swipe of her spear. The pincer attack was extremely effective, cutting deeply into the bears open mouth and face and rendering its jaws useless.

While the monster's skill and fangs out of the equation, it resorted to a flurry of swipes at the mage, who was testing her strength by blocking the blows with blood. She used less and less with each parry, until she discovered the smallest amount required to block the large monster's attacks.

When presented with an opening between swipes, she threw her spear at the monsters exposed flank. It flew far faster than her sixty-forty essence allocation should have allowed. The capsule of blood in the butt of the spear acted like a rocket booster thanks to Lizs [Blood Manipulation].

A quick scan with his AI showed that his partner was also using her new blood doping method to push her physical prowess even higher.

With an agitated roar, the bear turned and bit at the spear now protruding from its side. Before the bear could twist enough to get at the spear, it removed itself from its newest resting place, with gushes of blood following its retreat.

Now armed with two bears worth of blood, Liz gathered it into a sphere, and used it to crush the weakened bears head.

The pop of the monsters skull was lost in the din from the rushing waves of blood released from Lizs control. Aster saw the incoming wave of evil, fur staining blood, and jumped into Matts arms with mental pleas for protection.

With the fox in one arm, Matt walked over to the newest corpse, and dug out the bears heart, handing it to the squirming fox.

As the third bear approached, Aster hopped down, defiance and anticipation radiating across their bond. Matt wasn't thrilled with the idea of the ten pound fox taking on the massive bear, but she and Liz assured him that it would be fine.

Aster didnt charge in like Matt, but instead fought like the mage she was. Her first attack was a spray of small shards of ice. They got directly into the lunging bears eyes, effectively ending the fight.

It wasnt that the single blow had killed the beast, but the fox was three feet long and ten pounds. While the size of a male of her mundane counterparts, she was still much smaller than the bear who was two tons and blind. It had no chance of winning as the fox flitted through the trees while yipping. The clever fox was luring the bear directly into the trees, peppering the monster with ice shards as it crashed into each trunk.

It took a few minutes for the bear to go down, and Matt had the full 10 mana coursing through [Mages Retreat] for each agonizing minute. He was ready to get in between the bear and his bond at a seconds notice.

He wasn't blind to Liz, who had a mass of blood behind the fox as well. But he was damn sure to take every precaution for the sake of his bond. He didn't even want to think of what would happen if the bear fell on top of the little fox.

When the fight finally ended, he felt as if his heart was going to pop out of his chest.

He checked his AI, and found that the fox had used a little more than an eighth of her mana. She didn't have the penetrating power to punch through the bears mass, and had to whittle it down instead, which burnt mana.

Still, the fox was happy with her performance, and prancing around the corpse of the monster she had slain.

With a cute flip of her tail, she sat and looked at the duo of humans. She yipped at them, which Matt interpreted as, Are you gonna get my heart or what? Liz actually understood the words, and said, It's not a can of meat, it doesnt work like that.

Aster yipped in response and pawed at the monster. Laughing at her antics, Matt cut the monsters chest open and yanked the heart out, letting the fox savor the spoils of her solo kill.

They repeated this routine, with Aster sitting out every other rotation to conserve mana. She was also getting full quickly from the size of the hearts. They ended up backpacking the fox, so she could sit with the non fighter and not take up an arm.

The rift was massive, and instead of going straight to the exit, they zig zagged through the forest, trying to find as many bears to kill as possible. They found almost forty bears on their roundabout path to the exit. They provided a lot of essence. So much, in fact, Matt decided to allocate it before they left to delve the second rift.

As they approached the exit, they found a clearing with a house. Lounging around the house were three massive variants of the bears they had been slaughtering all day. Each was nearly as tall as the normal ones while lying down flat on their bellies.

They sat and watched the house, until a lizard humanoid came out, wearing a feathered crown. It tossed massive chunks of meat at the dozing monsters. It was too far away to be sure, but the lizardman seemed to be wearing a ring of sorts on one of its fingers.

Please be a spatial ring I can use. Please be a spatial ring I can use. Please be a spatial ring I can use.

Matts pleas continued in his head, as Liz launched her spear at the lizardman while its back was turned.

The throw needed to cover the sixty feet, which was a breeze for Tier 4s like Liz. If they could take out the leader first, this fight would be worlds easier. The lizardman was a debuffer, and would slow and blind them, making them easy targets for the bears to maul.

As the spear flew, Matt started sprinting, with 7 mana a second pouring into [Mages Retreat]. That resulted in a forty four percent increase in his strength. Hed be able to keep it up for a while, but he wanted to conserve enough mana for his weapons enchantments.

As his feet dug into the ground, his AI calculated the path of the spear. The stupid bloodmage was going to miss.

This fight was about to get a lot harder. With his enhanced speed, he was nearly half way across the clearing, and two of the three bears looked up at him. They charged him, determined to keep him away from their master.

With an empowered jump, Matt tried to leap over the bears. He made it halfway, and was still flying through the air when a paw nearly the size of his chest smacked him across the clearing. The blow threw him towards a tree and stressed [Cracked Phantom Armor]. If he had been brazen enough to try to tank the blow, it might have completely broken through, instead of just sending him on a slight detour.

With 9 mana a second flowing through the armor to cushion himself, he slammed into the tree and wrapped around it, before falling down.

Standing up with a crack of his back and a grunt of displeasure, he ran back into the fray. Liz was moving massive amounts of blood and holding off two of the bears. The third was staying close by the lizardman, who was waving its arms to cast something.

Red lights surrounded all three bears, and they each became faster. Matt left Liz to fend off the [Enraged] bears, and rushed the backline. It wasn't ideal, but he needed to stop the shaman before it could get a slowing skill on either of them.

The last bear was smaller than the other two but, what it lacked in size it made up for in pure speed. Its claws and teeth lashed out like the daggers of an experienced assassin. It took everything Matt had to keep away from its jaws. His AI was eating every drop of mana he could spare to generate countermeasures. Its predictive capabilities were helping him avoid the bear's quick strikes, but he disengaged after seeing the shaman point at him.

Matt vaulted over the bear, putting it between himself and the shaman. The stun struck the bear just as he slid down its other side. The bear became cloaked in black, swirling wisps of smoke from the binding spell. Matt took the chance to vault back over the locked down bear and charged the lizardman.

The shaman quickly dispelled the stun, but Matt was already past the bear, which spelled the end of the debuffer. Matt closed in, and cleaved him two with a single blow. This boss had a load of mana, but no physical stats.

Turning away from the defeated shaman, Matt slashed out, and caught the attacking bear's skill empowered bite with his blade. As strong as the bear was, the sword was still composed of Tier 5 and 6 materials. Powering through the empowered bite, he sliced right through its head with spray of blood, bone, and fur.

The momentum of the lunging bear sent him tumbling through the wall of the hut. Pausing to catch his breath, he got back up and checked the information his AI was sending him.

Liz's fight had moved up the hill, in range for a maximum distance swap of twenty feet but it would burn all 2000 mana stored in the ring. Matt was just grateful the swapping function of the ring did not scale in cost like the teleportation function. Focusing his spirit, he took his stance, and swung his sword while activating his ring around his finger.

Suddenly, he was teleported between two bloody bears. His swing was already in motion, and cut deep into the rightmost bear as soon as he materialized. He left the blade lodged in its chest, as the second was on him fast.

Matt turned, and put everything into [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mages Retreat]. He wasn't in danger of being bitten, as Liz had shattered this one's jaw. It was why he had taken the rightmost one out first.

With a hand gripping the large monster's arms, he grappled with the bear, holding it from pressing down on him.

At his highest boost, he was nearly its equal in strength. But if the bear was smart enough to yank back, he'd be taking another flying lesson. He barely weighed in at two hundred pounds, so he was vulnerable to the bear using leverage.

This bear wasn't that smart. It was just trying to grind him down with brute force, and all Matt needed to do was resist. [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mages Retreat] gave him the strength to shove back. After knocking the bear off balance, he stepped back and pulled the beast forward and down to the ground. Reaching back for the finishing blow, he found an arm length shard of frozen blood already sticking out from between the bears ribs.

WIth deep breaths, he lowered [Mages Retreat]s draw, and called out, At least you can hit a throw with Aster's help!

Liz just scuffed the ground before giving him the middle finger. She murmured something he couldnt hear, and as she removed her helmet, he found her face flushed with embarrassment.

Or maybe she was just still blood doping.

Whats that you said? He wanted to needle her a bit

I said fuck you. I'll practice the throw. She kicked the ground as Aster yipped in the backpack on her back.

Yeah, yeah Ill get the heart you little scamp.