The Path of Ascension

Matt felt for his mana cultivation and felt it still completely blocked.

It made him panic.

Eric and Dena had told him that they believed his Tier 3 Talent would fix his problem. The scanner didn't unlock the Talent, it just analyzed the spirit and deduced what the unique change in the spirit did for the cultivator.

Matt felt at his mana levels and only observed it nearing the ten percent mark it usually sat at.

Nothing unusual.

He was tempted to get off the bus and run the way back. The knowledge that it would be slower was the only thing that stopped him, but he had to get to the scanner.

The next fifteen minutes felt like decades. He watched each tree passing and urged the driver to just go a little faster. The driver ignored his internal pleading.

Matt did the only thing he could do and moved to a seat right by the middle doors. They would be slightly closer to the training facilities, and he was going to run for it as soon as the bus opened its doors.

Aster didn’t care for his impatience, she pushed thoughts that he interpreted as ‘what’s done is done. You can't change your Talent so calm down’. Matt knew she was right, but he had been looking forward to this moment since Miles had given him hope the day of his Tier 1 Awakening.

The bus stopped and Matt ran.

Once inside the testing room, he quickly sat down and placed his arm into the tube and tapped on the pad to start the Tier 3 Talent scan.

Time seemed to slow as the machine whirled and hummed. As the moments passed, he was hyper aware of a bead of sweat that wandered its way down his back. Any movement was impossible. He had to remain still for the machine to get a good scan of his spirit, and if...

  Tier 3 Talent determined.

    Primary effect: Any mana over the maximum will increase Maximum Mana.

    Secondary effect: Maximum Mana doubles from the previous max per Tier.

Matt stared and laughed. It was useless, he couldn’t regen any mana over ten percent without decades of time...

He shot out of his chair and started running to the general store. Aster sent confused thoughts and yips as she followed him.

A small kernel of hope bloomed in his chest. He wanted to smack himself, he might not be able to regen to full, but he could store mana. Then he just had to draw it back into himself to fill his mana over his usual max.

He had done so for Melinda. Their group had bought their healer twenty rechargeable mana stones. They had gotten the expensive ones that allowed the user to inject a core of their own mana, and the stone would slowly convert any mana into mana with the user’s aspect.

They had done it so Melinda wouldn’t run out of mana in a rift. As long as she had mana, she could make them effectively immortal, so keeping her topped off was their priority.

The problem was, even with all of their Mana Regeneration stats it would take days of putting all of their mana into the stones to fill them. Each stone could hold 200 mana, with twenty stones they would need 4,000 mana. So, they had decided to wait before delving new rifts without the mana stones full.

If Melinda didn’t fill the rechargeable mana stones herself, she would need to wait for the mana to un-aspect into ambient mana, then aspect to match her mana. It would take a week per cycle and using the mana from low Tier mana stones was just too expensive to justify.

There were better stones that let you spend more mana to speed the process up, but their price started at Tier 15 mana stones. For the largest capacity of two hundred mana, it was a Tier 25 mana stone. The group had no way to borrow that amount of money.

Matt had offered to fill them for the group, and what would have taken them days had taken him a little over an hour.

As he arrived at the general store, he ran to the wall that held the rechargeable mana stones and the chargers. The middling grade ones like Melinda’s group had bought were nearly a million credits. That was mostly because of their aspectingability, and because the efficiency ratio was over ninety percent.

Matt didn’t need either of those features. He found the cheapest model for just ten thousand credits and checked the back of the packaging information.

It was a pretty crappy model, with an efficiency ratio of barely twenty percent, but Matt had mana to spare. He didn’t mind if he lost mana while charging the stone.

He scoured the back of the box for information about the mana stone sold with the charger. He found it. It was a cheap mana stone that only had a max capacity of 50 mana and couldn’t aspect the mana inside.

It was perfect.

On his way to the counter, he grabbed a cheap handheld scanner that would allow him to check his maximum mana and current mana. He had never bothered before because all cultivators could feel how full their mana pool was at any time.

He couldn’t increase his mana so why get something to show him a number less than one?

After checking out, Matt found a tree outside, sat down, and tore into his purchases.

The scanner went on his wrist and he checked the display.

  Mana: 0.1/1.

Matt picked up the charging system for the rechargeable mana stone and slotted it. He directed mana into the device and could feel the waste of mana caused by the twenty percent efficiency. Most of the mana dissipated into the air, lost to the planet.

He waited. Watching the number climb.

  Current Mana: 1.

  Current Mana: 2.

Shaky hands pulled the stone out and absorbed the mana.

  Mana: 2/2.

Matt laughed. He laughed till tears streamed down his face.

He had done it. He had made it to Tier 3, and his Talent did what Dena and Eric had predicted it would.

Finally, he could increase his mana. It wasn't perfect like cultivation of mana would have been, but it was a start. He could make this work.

Matt pulled the worried Aster into a hug and sent happy thoughts through their bond. She responded by cleaning the salt off his face.

After he collected himself, he filled the mana stone to five mana. It was amazing to feel the stone fill even faster. With his under 1% Mana Regeneration being equal to his Maximum Mana, he could now output double the mana he had a moment ago.

  Mana: 5/5.

Matt repeated the process again, giddy with anticipation.

  Mana: 10/10.

Repeating the process for a fourth time, he charged the stone to twenty mana, but this time nothing happened. The mana over ten just refused to expand his Maximum Mana.

He sent his awareness into his mana cultivation side and looked at the once dark core. It was now vibrant, not as large or bright as his physical core, but alive. A quick test showed he still couldn't add essence, but he hadn't expected it to work.

Neither thing bothered him, he felt like he'd float off if he got any happier. He pulled out his pad and did some math. The Talent reader said it would double each Tier. He wanted to visualize what his projected Maximum Mana would be, and what he could expect to regen in between fights.

His Mana Regeneration under 1% of his total mana was equal to his Maximum Mana, that was important, so he made a column for that. His regeneration rate fell off quickly after passing the 1% mark, but he could accumulate 10% of his maximum mana in ten minutes, if he accounted for the decrease in his regeneration.

That was a reasonable timeframe in between fights, and with that small reserve, he'd be able to get a spell of at the start of a fight. He made a column for that as well.

His current mana at 1% would be important in the higher Tiers. He would always have that much mana, so it was good to at least figure out what his numbers would be.

Setting up the formulas he made a chart to Tier 25.

Double at 10 10% 1% Tier 1 1 0 0.0 Tier 2 1 0 0.0 Tier 3 10 1 0.1 Tier 4 20 2 0.2 Tier 5 40 4 0.4 Tier 6 80 8 1 Tier 7 160 16 2 Tier 8 320 32 3 Tier 9 640 64 6 Tier 10 1,280 128 13 Tier 11 2,560 256 26 Tier 12 5,120 512 51 Tier 13 10,240 1,024 102 Tier 14 20,480 2,048 205 Tier 15 40,960 4,096 410 Tier 16 81,920 8,192 819 Tier 17 163,840 16,384 1,638 Tier 18 327,680 32,768 3,277 Tier 19 655,360 65,536 6,554 Tier 20 1,310,720 131,072 13,107 Tier 21 2,621,440 262,144 26,214 Tier 22 5,242,880 524,288 52,429 Tier 23 10,485,760 1,048,576 104,858 Tier 24 20,971,520 2,097,152 209,715 Tier 25 41,943,040 4,194,304 419,430

Matt looked at the numbers in disbelief, then checked his math for a second, then a third time.

His stomach churned. He wanted to vomit. These numbers were absurd. At Tier 25 he would have a reserve of 400,000 mana to cast spells from.

There wasn’t public information for high Tier mages, but Matt didn’t think that most of them would have a Maximum Mana of 40 million at Tier 25.

With trepidation, he continued the graph for the next twenty-five Tiers. Looking at the Tier 50 numbers Matt could taste the bile in his throat.

He was suddenly glad that he had gotten confirmation from the Emperor himself that no one could see Talents.

Tier 50 1,407,374,883,553,280 140,737,488,355,328 14,073,748,835,533

He would be generating 14 quadrillion mana a second. Matt looked up the mana numbers for higher tier mana stones. That was a Tier 40 mana stone per second.

At least at Tier 25, I’ll onlyhave a reserve of aTier 18 mana stone a second.

The panic peaked, quickly he erased the chart and then deleted the application he had used to make it. He didn’t need anyone to know how stupid his mana generation would become. It would be a good way to end up a slave to some Tier 40 plus superpower.

Matt decided right then and there that if his secret ever got out, and he wasn’t strong enough to protect himself, he’d throw himself to the Emperor’s mercy before submitting to an unknown. He wasn’t naive enough to believe the Emperor was a benevolent person, you couldn’t rule thousands of worlds, reach Tier 50, and be soft.

But he had met the man, even if briefly.

If he could treat a lowly Tier 1 with a detrimental Talent with kindness, he probably wouldn’t throw Matt into a hole in the ground to charge mana batteries by the millions.

What shocked Matt was how innocently it all started. He understood how doubling worked, but he wouldn’t even reach what a normal Tier 1 had in Maximum Mana until Tier 6. By Tier 15, he was pretty sure he’d be caught up with most mages of the Tier, and after that, he’d blow them out of the water.

It gave Matt a lot to think about, he was a melee fighter out of necessity. The minuscule amount of mana he had, and his only skill shard forced his style. Should he consider changing his fighting style to a magic-based one?

As he thought it over, he decided no. At least not until Tier 8, when skill shards started commonly dropping in rifts. Then he could collect more skills and diversify his combat methods.

Matt thought of the graph. Even then, he would not have enough mana to cast any skill that didn’t allow charging.

It wouldn’t be until Tier 10 that he could constantly throw out low-cost spells. That meant he would be a melee fighter for the foreseeable future, but over time, he could slowly transition into a true blade mage in the higher Tiers.

Sitting there under the tree he imagined it. He would be stronger than most at any given tier, at least physically. Even the craziest melee fighter put at least fifteen percent of their essence into mana cultivation so they could use skills. The fact that he could dump all of his essence at each tier into physical cultivation gave him an advantage that would only keep growing as time went on.

A future blossomed in front of Matt. He would be an unkillable tank with [Cracked Phantom Armor], and could throw out siege level skills without rest.

The fantasy was cut short by Aster's cold nose poking him. She sent over her feelings of hunger, and a desire to be brushed as compensation for him ruining her delve today.

He just smiled and picked the large fox up. She struggled, but Matt could feel through the bond how much she loved to be carried.

As they ate, Matt browsed the classes he’d need to take. One was directed physical cultivation, and the other was called “Tier 3 and Beyond Planning for The Path and After”. He looked for the next available slots and found that they were held once a week and back to back.

Looking deeper, Matt saw they were taught by Griff and Helen on alternating weeks. Helen, he learned, was the director of this PlayPen. He assumed she was the woman Griff had been standing behind when Melinda’s group found themselves the center of attention.

Quickly, he signed up for this week’s upcoming class. When he went to request a Tier 3 rift slot as well, he was unable to. He received an error message stating slots would be provided only after the Tier 3 classes were taken.

Matt went back to his room. It felt lonely. The cheer from his Talent and advancement lessened a little.

It still smelled like Jasmine.

Another person who left him. It was hard not to be resentful at the world. It would have been so much better if he was able to celebrate with her. He knew it wasn't either of their faults, but the empty room almost seemed to mock him.

Their relationship had started as a physical fling when they encountered each other at the nightly parties’ various groups held. That repeated a few times until they had decided they were a good enough match to make it exclusive while they were at the PlayPen. Neither of them wanted to get tied down with commitment, but the timing of her leaving stung.

Curling up with Aster, they watched a movie. Matt pretended he didn’t notice her stealing popcorn, while she pretended to care about the movie. He was at least entertained; it was the newest movie about Duke Water’s time on The Path.

This movie covered his time as a Tier 15, when he was just becoming famous, and how a guild tried to trap him into a binding contract.

Duke Waters had been chased down, and when he escaped pursuit, he circled around and started killing everyone from the guild responsible for the attack. It took him almost a year, but after that time the guild was disbanded. Even with a Tier 25 leading the guild, people had been afraid Waters would come for them next.

Matt wasn’t sure how much of the movie was real, but it was interesting to see higher Tier combat. The Duke got his name for the very element he had dominion over, and it was justly earned.

His ability to summon absurd quantities of water meant that he could simply drown his enemies. He, at least in the movie, could breathe underwater, and had achieved several kills by hiding in the swampy area the guild was based out of.

Matt almost felt bad for the guild members Waters killed, their deaths were brutal and slow. More than one person had been pulled underwater and drowned. Waters locked the water around them, so they could only look back at him while they struggled their last. Drowning with the surface inches above you felt like a special torture to him.

In the movie, he had only killed those who had directly wronged him, but Matt well knew that history was only written by the survivors. If the movie was only half accurate, Matt could understand how the Duke alone could hold off the other Tier 50 powers.

The man was as cold as his namesake, and as unforgiving. Matt could easily imagine the Duke biding his time until drowning entire planets of any enemy dumb enough to attack the Empire.

Matt wasn’t sure how much was propaganda, but in the movie, Waters had repeatedly expressed loyalty to the Empire.

Could the Emperor even stop the Duke if he wasn’t loyal?

Matt wasn’t sure, the Emperor was a Tier 50 powerhouse, but Duke Waters was a known monster. How long until the Duke was Tier 50, or even Tier 45? It wouldn’t be the first time the Duke had killed someone five Tiers above himself.

Could they even make this movie if the Duke didn’t approve of it?

From what he could find on the EmpireNet about him, the Duke was cold, but he upheld the laws of the Empire above all else. The man didn’t tolerate people of higher Tiers taking advantage of lower Tiers. Matt wasn't sure if it was a vendetta or a crusade against a past wrong, but the man was brutal to anyone he found.

As he found more information, he began to see the Duke as more of a protective figure than a monster.

He had recently killed a fellow Duke, Duke Cumulus, when it came to light that Cumulus had captured several young women and had kept them in what was described as a “sex and torture chamber”.

Waters had killed Duke Cumulus and proceeded to block all attempts of the media from finding the identity of the women involved.

The only information the media had obtained was that they were all under Tier 5. The Duke had killed a fellow noble, a Tier 35 noble, over a couple of Tier 5’s.

How many people would value a few Tier 5’s over a Tier 35?

He wasn’t sure many would, a Tier 35 was a strategic weapon. How many were there in The Empire? It couldn’t be that many, maybe a few thousand. Matt thought about that again and changed his mind, there could be a ton. The only way to die after Tier 15 was getting killed after all.

The only thing slowing down growth after Tier 25 was the lack of rifts available. There were only a hundred or so worlds in The Empire that were over Tier 30. With the capital being the only Tier 47 world in The Empire, the top powerhouses had to share the few Tier 47 rifts.

That made it even more impressive that the Emperor was Tier 50. How long must it take to advance when the essence requirements were that high, and there wasn't even a rift of your Tier to delve?

Matt stopped thinking of things far beyond his own level and cuddled the block of ice also known as Aster.

***

The next morning Matt went and trained with his newly increased production of available mana. He went to the skill-testing room and performed the same series of tests he had done when he was a Tier 1.

The results were slightly worrying. He could only put about 3 mana a second into [Cracked Phantom Armor] before the pure amount of mana overwhelmed the structure in his spirit. He had hoped to be able to shove all ten mana a second into the skill and become an unkillable wall, but the skill couldn't handle that kind of mana input yet.

Tripling the mana did give increased results, and Matt was positive he could slowly train the skill to accept more mana. That flexibility and malleability were the benefits of having the skill in his core spirit.

He just needed time.

The results were promising for the mana he put into the skill. At three mana a second, he was completely impervious to Tier 2 attacks, and Tier 3 attacks needed a few seconds to break through. Only multiple direct attacks to the same location in a short amount of time were an actual threat.

He could advance either by increasing his mastery with the skill or getting it to accept more mana per second.

The mastery would happen naturally as the skill burned into his spirit. The longer it was nourished by his spirit, the more it would strengthen, and the more power he would get out of the skill for the same cost.

Either way Matt was happy. He could delve Tier 3 rifts with a level of safety most other delvers without expensive armor couldn’t hope to match.

The duo went to the gym. He had nothing to do until Friday, when he could take the class with Helen and get his Tier 3 rift slot. He wanted to see what he could buy now. He was Tier 3, but the sign up details of the classes had recommended holding off on any big purchase until after the classes.

Matt really wanted to check out the enchanted swords he now had access to, but he knew the Empire had to have its reasons for its recommendations. It had nurtured billions of Tier 3’s in PlayPens, so he trusted their regulations, he just wanted to see the new toys he could play with.

***

The class was in a small room, with only enough seats for ten. When Matt arrived, there was no one else in the room. Checking his pad to make sure that he had the time and location right, he sat down after confirming he was in the right spot.

Five minutes before the class was supposed to start, another party of four came in and nodded to Matt before sitting down.

At 9:00 am on the dot Griff walked in.

“Hello, I’m going to be the instructor today. Director Helen had other matters that demanded her attention and could not be pushed off.”

He placed his bag next to the desk he sat at and continued, “If you would like to wait and take the class with Director Helen next week, feel free to leave.” No one moved. “Well, let's get started.”

“We’ll start with directed physical cultivation, it's hidden before Tier 3. If a cultivator allocates their essence wrong, they can cripple themselves, so it’s better to gain some experience with cultivation first. You can allocate into the seven main categories. They are strength, durability, proprioception, which is sometimes called dexterity, flexibility, senses, mind, and regeneration.”

Behind Griff the large screen showed the categories he listed.

“That’s the most basic level of directed cultivation, at Tier 5 you can go one level deeper. For example, in strength you can focus on particular muscle groups or types of muscles. In senses, you can increase smell over vision, or vice versa.”

“It's not recommended to try and reach for that layer yet. It's dangerous because without the foundation, you can get your abilities out of whack and not be able to function.”

One of the girls in the party had a hand raised.

“Just hold the questions for now. I'll probably cover it. If I don’t, I’ll take all the time we need after to explain. Write it down if you think you'll forget.”

He cleared his throat.

“You should never direct cultivate more than fifty percent of the essence you are going to allocate into physical. If you have too much strength, you can hit hard, sure, but without the proprioception, you won’t hit what you’re aiming at. Or without the flexibility, you'll pull a muscle every time you reach for something. Without durability, you’ll break a bone punching something, and so on.”

“Fifty percent is a nice, safe margin. Also, if you are going to direct cultivate, it's better to do that after undirected cultivation. Undirected cultivation will try to fill in the areas with the least amount of essence allocated before anything else, so it's better to direct cultivate afterwards. A good way to picture it is snow filling valleys more than building up the peaks of mountains even higher.”

“Questions before I move on?”

The girl from earlier raised her hand. “What about mind and regeneration?”

“What about them?” Griff didn't seem to hear a question in the girl’s question.

“Well, how do they work? Does mind make you smarter than? Does regeneration work like the skill?”

“Ah, good question. No and no. Mind will make you think faster, but you won't be ‘smarter’. It will just let you process information a little faster. Any ideas are on you. If you want to get smarter, take classes and learn new stuff.”

“Regeneration is just boosting the body's natural recovery. You won't be growing back limbs or anything, but it will let your body adapt to heavy healing better. Also, if you get rich enough to buy [Regeneration], it will multiply the effect of the skill a bit.”

“Regeneration is also good for increasing endurance. It will help the muscles recover faster. It's not a replacement for working out and increasing endurance that way, but it does help prevent getting tired in a fight.”

“Did that answer your question?” the girl nodded.

“Good. Directed cultivation is really useful when you need more of a particular ability for your fighting style. An archer will still want strength to pull a bow, but proprioception and flexibility will be higher priorities. Even senses are useful. Mind and regeneration as well. But that's why I'm telling you not to direct cultivate more than fifty percent of your allocation. You should only be multiplying your strongest aspects, not neglecting the other.”

A thought came over Griff and he added, “Mind is needed as you get into higher Tiered combat. Monsters will be faster because of their strength, and mind will let you actually process the attacks. I knew a guy who didn't want to ‘waste essence in mind’. His logic was that it doesn’t help you be smarter so why invest in it? He got his throat slit from an attack he couldn't even react to. He could have defended against it, but he couldn’t process the information and react in time.”

One of the guys asked, “What about strength? Why work out at all if a cultivator could just focus on strength some.”

“That's a good question actually. Strength and all physical cultivation multiply what's there. One multiplied by five is just five, but two multiplied by five is ten. Your physical body will allow you to get more power for your essence expenditure.”

“If you train proprioception with hand-eye coordination games, you'll see more improvement with the essence you put in. But if you don't train at all, you'll see only minimal benefits.”

“That's another benefit of regeneration. It will, around Tier 8, be high enough that you won't lose muscle mass by not working out. A nice side benefit.”

The last guy in the party spoke up “But how do you have the time to train all of that?”

“You don't, not really. It's part of the reason The Path is so hard. Most people hit Tier 15 and spend a few years just training and shoring up their weakest points. If you are still on The Path, you don't really have time for that.”

Griff looked off into the distance and said, “That's about it for physical cultivation. Questions before we move on? Information packets will be made available to you on the PlayPenNet after this. They go into more detail if you want to check specific ratios or interactions between aspects.”

No one had any so Griff continued.

“Ok, next is what to do now that you’re Tier 3, and only have six months left in the PlayPen.”

“First thing is planning for when you leave the PlayPen. There is a priority for people on The Path concerning rift slots, and we have a list of all the Tier 3 and 4 rifts on the nearest couple planets.”

“Speaking of rifts on other planets, the Tier of the planet shows the highest Tier rift that will form stably on the planet. Usually, a planet will have stable rifts at the Tier of the planet minus five. So, a Tier 10 planet will have five through ten.”

“Any lower means someone is preventing it from growing stronger, or its brand new and still growing. It's expensive to prevent the growth of a rift but, you'll find it on stronger worlds with developed noble families or strong guilds. They’re used for training their own people and aren't usually available for public use.”

“But you all have three big purchases in front of you. And they’re expensive enough that you'll want to choose at least one while in the PlayPen for the discounts.”

“First is an enchanted weapon. Getting something with a sharpness and durability enchantment is pretty much all your spirits can handle at this Tier. Well, you can get any one major enchantment and one minor, unless you have an exceptionally strong spirit. Those are the recommended runes to put on bladed weapons anyway.”

“Second is a personal AI. It takes a core skill slot, but the sooner you get one the better because it grows with you. They are great for everyday general use, but in combat they are invaluable. They can provide a HUD, and if you have a party, they can get information from the other AIs about your teammates’ physical condition. So, you can know if they are low on mana or get injured. They will save your asses more often than you can possibly imagine.”

“They come with preset builds for the basic types of combat. For the melee versions, they can run predictive algorithms on your opponent. For ranged combat, it can do the same thing, just not as well. Showing wind speed for an archer or tracking opponents is their main job. For mages, it can help spell cost by assisting casting.”

“The AI’s start as a base template and will improve in its specialized aspects over time. You can also get the software for the other versions, so you won’t lock yourself out of any capabilities in the future. But the ones you get first will improve more.”

“The downsides are, they’re expensive, they reserve more mana with each software running and...”

That sent Matt's hopes crashing down. The AI seemed perfect to him, the predictive capabilities seemed amazing, and that also meant he could use the information gathered for the training rooms instead of paying for the premade versions.

He just didn't have mana to reserve.

“They can eat into your regular mana pool if you make them compute too much. It's mana expensive, and at low Tiers it can hurt you if you buy too many modules.”

“Finally, is a spatial bag.” Griff pulled a backpack from his ring with a flick of his wrist.

“They’re lesser versions of spatial rings. They can hold stuff, but don’t reduce the weight much. And they don't have the effect of slowing time on the items placed inside. They’re still useful though, don't think otherwise.”

“Your spirit won't be able to support a spatial ring until Tier 15, and these are the next best thing. Most of the time it's not the weight of what you are carrying that makes it awkward, it's the size of the items. At this point, each of you can carry a few hundred pounds, but good luck trying to hold that much crap.”

“The price is an issue for all of them, the enchanted weapons are expensive too. Go check with the blacksmiths and enhancers for prices. The AIs are usually near 3 million credits and the extra software is half that.”

That was thirty Tier 4 mana stones or three hundred Tier 3 mana stones.

“The Spatial bags are also around the same price. Also, those prices are with the fifty percent off you get for being in the PlayPen.”

Matt blanched, getting three hundred Tier 3 mana stones wasn't impossible in six months, but double that would require some good luck.

“So that's all from me. The general store has the last two items, and no I won't give you suggestions on what you should get. It's dependent on what you think you need.”

The others quickly thanked Griff and left. Matt waited until they out the door and asked, “You said the AI’s reserve mana, but can eat into non-reserved mana if it was computing too much. Is there an AI that doesn't reserve mana?”

Griff looked at him with pursed lips before saying, “Yeah there is, but it's the researcher’s version. The normal AIs are all the same base but specialized. They reserve mana because they are hyper-efficient at their one task. The other software lets the AI do other things, but the core of the machine is built to do one of the tasks incredibly well. They’ll never be as efficient at the others.”

“It doesn't mean it won't be as good, just that it cost more mana.”

Griff started packing his stuff back up.

“I know what you are thinking, and yes the researcher AI would be perfect for you. They eat dozens of mana per minute. Most researchers are pure mana cultivators, nearly ninety percent allocation, just so they can run the simulations and computations needed for their jobs.”

Matt was shocked, how had Griff guessed why he couldn't use the normal AI’s?

“Don't look so shocked; take an acting class kid. Or play some poker. You show every thought on your face.”

“I figured it out when I saw you with your skill active. One, you didn’t and still don't have a veil up to hide your cultivations. And two, I could feel the absurd amount of mana you were generating while it was active. Then, after the skill stopped your mana generation stopped. I can make some guesses.”

Matt didn't know what to say. He was fearful that Griff might do something but realized it was stupid when he thought of how much the man had done for him.

“I ugh...”

“Cut it, I don't care to look into it. You keep your own secrets. I’d suggest you take the veil course as soon as possible though.”

Griff gave him a hard look. It worried Matt.

“This is NOT a recommendation. I am not legally allowed to give recommendations during this class. But, if I had your mana problems, I would contact the manufacturer of the AI’s. They have a location on most every world.”

“They pay handsomely for high Tier cultivator’s AI scans. That's how the new generations are made. They see how the older AI’s process information, and they build better base models around that. The AIs grow with use and everyone uses them differently after all.”

“My AI is old. Old enough that it's two generations behind the current models. I have a DK model when the newest ones are DM models. They start out a bit better. It's no substitute for time in the field and learning on its own, but it's a better starting point.”

“Now I know they love unique Talents that produce mana, and they pay handsomely for the privilege to test odd configurations of skills or Talents. That's where the best breakthroughs come from. The normal folks are good for testing baselines, but the odd Talents interacting with the AIs are how interesting advancements are made.”

“If I had a talent that produced a lot of mana, I’d contact them and see if I could work out a deal.”

“Won't they be able to know everything about someone if they get a scan of the AI in the future?” Matt couldn't let that happen at any cost.

“No, they scan the structure the AI becomes in your spirit, then run the AI through testing and benchmark the results. They don't get any personal information. They'd piss off far too many high Tiered people if it came to light. And well, that's a good way to end up dead.”

“But I. Did. Not. Recommend. Anything to you.” With a hard look, Griff hurried out of the room.