The Path of Ascension

The loud noise brought a barrage of fire and lightning strikes. Matt was able to roll under most of them. The combination of all those attacks hitting at once could pierce his [Cracked Phantom Armor], so he pushed as much mana into the skill as he safely could.

Rolling with a sword was awkward, but he had practiced for this moment, and with the enchantments off during the roll, he wouldn't accidentally cut himself through his armor.

The large salamander clearly was irritated at the unsuccessful attacks as it whipped its tail around. What was an easily absorbed attack on the lesser, waist-high salamanders was now a brutal blow Matt needed to avoid. He had no confidence in being able to block the gem salamander’s strikes without being sent flying.

The tail was a mass of muscle, and at the size of a horse, it was a danger he wouldn’t willingly tank.

He came out of the next roll in a lunging attack that took a smaller salamander out with a thrust to the head.

His AI warned him that a swipe from the gem salamander was incoming. Having a partner watching his back and sharing AI information made his life so much easier.

Matt dove over the corpse he had just created, and slashed down at the giant, fiery tail coming straight at him.

The tail was two feet shorter after passing over Matt, but the tail’s momentum had slammed his weapon back into his shoulder. Knocked back, Matt was forced into a defensive stance as two of the smaller salamanders approached.

At the same time, he took a massive lighting strike from above. It was so strong it nearly broke through his armor. He was able to feed just enough mana into the skill to block it, but he was hoping Liz would take out the dragonflies faster.

With a slash and body check, one salamander was seriously wounded, and the second was knocked off its feet.

He followed his AI’s warning ping to look up and see the larger salamander bearing down on Liz. Matt disengaged with the remaining smaller monster, and ran up to the gem salamander, landing a massive blow on its leg.

That returned its attention to Matt, and his AI informed him why it had targeted Liz. She had taken out all the smaller flyers, and dragged the other boss to the ground with her blood whip. She was in the process of bashing through its armor when the gem salamander attacked.

He needed to buy her time to finish the gem dragonfly, and the wounded salamander was keen on getting revenge for Matt’s successful slash. Stepping back, Matt avoided the ensuing onslaught of bites and swipes, but took a face full of flames. Like the lighting attack, it was right on the limit of his defensive capabilities, but he was able to withstand it.

Relying on his AI to protect his blind spots, Matt heeded its warning to step left. He heard the charge of the lesser salamander as it tried to tackle him from behind.

Taking advantage of the clear shot presented to him, Matt stabbed with his glowing sword, and caught the eye of the flaming gem salamander.

Then, a spike of blood passed by him, finishing off the remaining lesser salamander. With wounds dripping bright orange blood, the giant salamander was finally alone.

The fight was over quickly, as Liz didn’t hesitate to drive a spike of blood into the salamander’s brain.

She lost blood engaging the hot monsters, but she had drained the dragonflies until they were only shriveled corpses. She had blood to spare.

With heaving breaths, they surveyed the bodies and looked at each other.

Liz was the first to speak up, “That was too easy for a final boss. And no reward distortion.”

Matt agreed with a nod. He looked around and, following his gut, walked over to the dead salamander boss to cut out the crystal in its head. Liz, understanding his idea, did the same with the gem dragonfly.

They brought the gems together, and when they touched, they snapped together into one. As the combined gem began vibrating, a portal appeared on the back wall of the boss cavern.

Exchanging a skeptical glance, they inspected the portal.

“It’s not leading outside.” Matt stated the obvious, and probed with his senses again.

Liz offered, “I can’t reach that far, but I think it’s to the starting area. I’ve heard of rifts like this before. One of my older brothers told me a story of one he found like this.”

Matt looked at her waiting for more of the story.

“In his rift, they had to fight mini-bosses, then got teleported to a random location in a giant dimensional maze. Rinse and repeat until they found an exit.”

Matt considered her words and shrugged. It didn’t feel dangerous, so he raised his sword and stepped through.

He found himself back in the starting cavern, with the portal covering the entrance they had taken.

Liz followed through a moment later. “Oh. Well shit. We’re gonna have to fight six mini-bosses, aren’t we?”

Matt figured she was right. They went down the next path, and this time, they took it at a jog.

They encountered another salamander and dragonfly duo, but this time, the salamander was dripping green liquid. Matt had to assume it was acid, and he had a theory about the dragonfly that was shining with white light.

Matt found both of his guesses to be correct. The salamander spat out a jet of the green liquid that bubbled away at [Cracked Phantom Armor] in futility. When he damaged the poison salamander in response, a ray of light from the dragonfly covered the wound, as it quickly stitched itself together.

Matt quickly put an end to that by tanking a tail sweep and piercing the back of the salamander’s head. Poison again splashed his armor ineffectually, but Matt knew this would be dangerous when facing the salamander mini-boss of this variant.

With a resigned sigh, they began the process of clearing another four pairs of monsters, before coming up to the boss cavern. It was a repeat of the last, with four each of the lesser variants to help the two larger monsters.

The only difference apart from the mini bosses’ affinities were the orange gems lodged in the monsters, instead of red ones.

Matt took the lead and distracted the salamanders, while Liz waited for her chance to cleanly kill the healer bugs.

He didn’t even try to damage the salamanders. Instead, he just retreated while circling, luring the dragonflies hovering above him closer to the hiding Elizabeth.

When she had a clear shot, she sent forth four bullets of blood, and killed the lesser dragonflies, while simultaneously lashing out with whips at the retreating gem dragonfly.

Meanwhile, Matt had to throw himself at the lesser salamanders to keep their attention away from the mage killing their healers.

The poison of the mini-boss was more effective, but it was only strong enough to render [Cracked Phantom Armor] ineffective against other threats. He didn’t dare tank a hit from the enraged monsters. It took everything he had physically, as well as his AI predicting the monsters’ movements and attack patterns, to keep him from getting hit.

When Liz attacked from the rear, Matt went on the offensive, and they quickly ended the fight. The poison salamanders were more of a problem for her, as her armor would quickly degrade. So, Matt was forced to keep their attention with opportunistic stabs and slashes. Some well placed blood shards quickly dispatched the lesser salamanders, and the gem salamander quickly followed with their combined efforts.

When they finished the fight, they connected the orange gems, and walked through the portal they created.

When they went down the third path, they encountered a salamander with porcupine-like spines made of sword aura. They were wispy, but incredibly sharp. His full-strength armor was pierced slightly by a spray of spines from a salamander. He very quickly had a shirt full of little holes.

This variant of dragonfly was also something Matt had only ever heard about in stories of higher Tiered rifts. It was actually living glass.

They quickly dispatched the monsters, and Liz bent to inspect the fallen pair.

“This blows. I lost my bag, and sharpness aura is expensive. Something this weak would sell well to someone trying to cultivate a sword Concept. I’d love to harvest this. At least the living glass is semi-valuable, and easy to collect.” with that, she swept it up and placed the shards of glass into his bag.

That grabbed Matt’s attention, so he asked, “You know about Concepts? I haven't been able to find any solid information about them. What do you know?”

Liz was happy to explain on their walks between fights.

“A Concept is a baby Intent. And a Concept is required to break into Tier 15. You need an Intent to break into Tier 25 and an Aspect to break into Tier 50.”

“A Concept is essentially just understanding something. It can be anything. My sister cultivated a growth Concept. It allows her to grow herbs a little faster, and makes them a little more potent. Sharpness aura is made with sharpness Intent. It empowers any attacks with a sharp weapon. For example, take a Concept of ‘Sword’. It’s defined by the person who cultivates the Concept.”

“If the person can gain a deep connection to what ‘Sword’ means to them in their spirit, they can manifest their ‘Sword’ Concept. With a ‘Sword’ concept one can generate sword aura. Technically it’s all sharpness aura, but it gets broken into subcategories if it only affects a single weapon type. Like battleaxe aura, or in our case, ’Sword’ aura. These salamanders’ sharpness aura can help with cultivating any concept involving a sharp weapon.”

She looked at him and asked, “You following?”

He was impressed she knew this much. She had mentioned that her mother was an evolved companion, so that meant Tier 15 at minimum. It must be nice to have high Tiered parents. She might not have material advantages while on The Path, but her knowledge was enviable to say the least.

At his nod, she asked another question, “You know the potions you have to buy to breakthrough into Tier 5?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of them. They make it possible to break into Tier 5, from my understanding. They are pricey though.”

Liz nodded at that. “They are expensive, that’s true. But what they are is more important. They’re basically prosthetic Concepts for people who can’t cultivate one on their own.”

“A person’s Concept should always involve a core idea that they can identify with, down to their very spirit. As they broaden into Intents and Aspects, it becomes more difficult to find an understanding deep enough to manifest the next level. The potions help the individual create an understanding of the Concept they’re created from.

The potions themselves are essentially distilled Concepts, and the ones on the open market usually are simple physical or magical boosts. They’re much broader in terms of the idea behind the Concept. That’s done intentionally, so they’re easier to make, which is why they’re cheaper and more plentiful. They’re also easier to identify with strongly enough to manifest the actual Concept.”

“The potions are an aid to break through into Tier 5. But because they aren’t self-discovered concepts, they don’t mesh right. So, you have to buy new, stronger ones at Tier 10. And at Tier 15, you have to purge the old ones and create your own.”

“That’s why the salamanders are so valuable. If you have the proper tools, you can harvest the aura. And if you’re a sword user who wants to understand some variation of a sharpness Concept, you can absorb a bit of that aura, and try to create your own Concept. It’s more valuable because it’s only Tier 4 aura, so they could make their own Concept before breaking through to Tier 5, instead of using an artificial one. And it won’t pop their spirit because it’s too strong.”

That gave Matt a lot to think about. It was complicated, and from what he had found, all information about Concepts was gated until after Tier 10.

He did have one question: “You said it’s better to use your own Concept. Why is that?”

“Easy. Imagine fighting someone with the sword Concept we talked about. It would empower every strike and every skill. And it’s a power source completely separate from mana. As long as the fighter could keep his will focused, he could be twice as deadly for free.”

That sounded amazing. Matt looked down at his sword and imagined the advantage he could get with the ability to cut as easily as the salamanders did.

Liz continued after they dispatched the last duo of salamander and dragonfly. “The earlier you can create a Concept, the more it grows with you. So, created ones are always better than buying a Concept potion to break into Tier 5. Developing your own Concept as you advance to Tier 5 lets it grow stronger within you. It’s easiest to grow a Concept while you yourself are advancing as well. So, if you can begin developing your own Concept before Tier 5, you have extra Tiers of growth and practice with it.”

They reached the boss cavern, and the conversation was put on hold as they fought the monsters. This time Elizabeth fought with him, ignoring the attackless dragonflies. Their attack plan against the sharpness salamanders consisted of careful and coordinated attacks. Aster and Liz provided covering fire for Matt as he ducked and rolled out of the way of the sharpness aura.

They created opening after opening, allowing Matt to dispatch each of the salamanders inhabiting the boss cavern with ease. The living glass dragonflies all posed no threat, but their defensive prowess certainly made up for it. Ending the boss encounter proved tedious if not challenging.

When they started down the fourth tunnel, Matt asked, “How do you create a Concept yourself? And what’s the difference between Concepts, Intents, and Aspects? I’ve never even heard of the last two.”

Matt saw her shrug. “From my understanding, the last two are larger, more encompassing versions of the Concept. Something like a longsword Concept, a sword Intent, and then a blade Aspect. Like a reverse pyramid. The scope of the Concept you have power over can grow wider and stronger. From a single type of weapon, to a group of them. And finally, anything with a blade.”

She paused with a, ‘Hmmm.”, “You can get too broad, though. I heard my parents talk about one guy who is... Was, a genius. He started with a blade Concept at Tier 5, then created that into a melee Intent. Apparently, he’s spent the last like, thousand years trying to create a weapons Aspect. If he succeeds, it would be absurd. Can you imagine it? Every weapon is able to be empowered. But he’s completely failed at trying to advance it. He reached too far and got himself stuck.”

“So how did he make the Concept? Did your parents ever mention that?”

Liz shrugged. “Sure. It’s simple in theory, but hard in practice. That's why The Empire doesn’t let too much information out about it. A lot of people would refuse to take the easier path, and never break through to Tier 5 because of their delusions of grandeur. You just need to find a truth about you and your magic. Or...” She hesitated and waved her hands around. “Not your magic, but… I don’t know the best word. It’s your style. If you’re a fire mage, you try to embody fire and heat.”

“It’s personal, and it’s easiest to sense when fighting at the edge of death. When you’re reduced to your smallest part. What’s the essence of that part? What defines your spirit down to the core? That’s the easiest way to find the best Concept for yourself.”

Matt pondered her words, as they killed salamanders with claws of ice, and dragonflies with gales of wind surrounding them. He was fixating on the requirement of creating your own Concept at Tier 15, regardless of Concept potions.

“What about at Tier 14 when creating your own. How does that work?”

“It’s easier and harder. At Tier 14, you have a life expectancy of over a thousand years, so people who reach that point have a lot of time. They either figure out their own Concept or change themselves to fit another Concept. Most of the time, people can fortify the potion Concepts into a true one by Tier 15. But most scrap those all together, and are able to break through with a completely new Concept of their own.”

That surprised Matt. From what she said, he thought they were final once manifested.

“Aren’t they set and permanent for the individual?”

He knew it was a stupid question based on her last statement, but he had to ask anyway.

“Nope. It’s funny, I asked the same thing. Well, they usually are pretty set, depending on the circumstances. If a fire mage gets a fire concept, they’re not going to fight that. But if they get a water concept, they have two options. Change their style to match the Concept, or change the Concept completely. That could potentially mean having to change even your own attitude and disposition. Once you start walking down a path, it’s easier to just continue.”

“That’s why you hear about high Tiered people with weird personalities or quirks. They themselves are manifestations of their Concepts and Intents trying to become Aspects. To create an Aspect of water, you have to be water. It’s not just understanding water. It’s going into a pool and becoming one with it.”

Matt asked the question as it appeared in his mind “Doesn’t that mean that people with less physical concepts have it harder?”

Once again, Liz waved her hand “Eh. I’m not sure, as this is all second-hand, but I think so. I can only think of a few of my parents’ friends who don’t have a physical thing as their Concepts. The ones that do are… hmmm, it’s hard to describe. They are more...”

She huffed, “it’s more a feeling you get when you’re near them. One has a water intent, and you can feel the idea of water if his control slips. When I was younger, he’d let me swim in the air. It felt like swimming in normal water to me, but I could breathe. That was his Intent changing the world around him. It’s concrete and physical.”

“One lady’s Intent was happiness. She was just a joy to be around. Everything was just better. Even something as simple as a nice comment was ecstasy. It wasn’t impossible, but it was hard to be sad near her. She couldn’t spend too much time near people who didn’t have a Concept or Intent of their own. The feelings could become addictive if she slipped.”

“They also have to do with fighting styles and professions. Intents are usually what cultivators do the most, so those styles and professions hold a heavy influence on their being. And both of those things are usually physical.”

Matt was honestly getting in over his head at this point, so he changed the subject. “You could swim in the air? That must have been fun.”

They continued to talk about more casual topics, mostly about her childhood. He answered the reciprocated questions as best he could, but kept away from the time after his parent’s deaths.

The final two side tunnels were easily dealt with, and when they had at last collected the yellow, green, blue, and finally, indigo crystals of the rift, they paused at the portal before them. This boss cavern had two portals. One was clearly an exit portal, with a reward rift next to it. The indigo portal was like the previous colored ones that lead to the center cavern, but it was bursting with essence.

“What are the odds it stops one short of the rainbow?” Liz asked, with arms crossed and foot tapping. Even with her full helm, he could tell she was glaring.

“I’m going to guess, zero.” Matt paused and thought it over. “Either take the indigo one into a fight, or take this portal out.”

The foot-tapping sped up. “Does it matter? Even if we walk back, the portal was covering the other exits. I expect we have to spring the trap if we want whatever these things unlock.” She jiggled the bag of gems they had collected.

Matt agreed with her assessment.

“Screw it. I’ll head in and either clear it, or hold my ground, so you can get a foothold.”

Matt stepped through, and immediately took a blast of arcane energy to the face.

He was grateful it was a large area attack, and not a focused beam. That would have cut him half. He pushed forward through the neutral magic, and the attack eventually ended. Instead of a salamander and a dragonfly, before him was some abomination of the two.

It looked like the salamander had chitin instead of scales, and it was standing up on its hind legs. It had the giant, paneled eyes of a dragonfly, and two massive mandibles protruded from the sides of its maw of serrated teeth. It had translucent, stunted wings that seemed useless for flying, but Matt was sure they had some other purpose.

The figure was at least twenty feet tall, and its head nearly brushed the ceiling. It let out a roar as Matt ran to the side, trying to get its attention away from the portal Liz and Aster would be coming through.

The monster’s wings began to glow with a blinding light that intensified as it reared back, and it let out another breath of powerful, colorless magic. Arcane magic was the opposite of void. They were the only elements that countered each other.

Arcane embodied creation, whereas void was pure destruction. That didn’t mean an arcane attack was any less dangerous for its creation properties. It was a less focused version of all other aspects of mana, while being none. It was great for crafting skills, with all the advantages of having aspected mana, but none of the disadvantages.

A massive whip of blood wrapped around the standing hybrid’s mouth, and cut off the blast of magic. Matt looked back at Liz, with Aster at her feet. She was growling as she created ice shards and froze Liz’s blood globs. The combination attack allowed them to penetrate the hard outer shell of the boss.

When the spears of ice and blood punched through the chitin of the abomination, it whipped its tail in a spinning attack, covering the entire cavernroom. Matt was near the end of the tail, and was slammed into the far wall, only to again get caught and flung by the tail.

His sword was lost during the tumbling, and when he finally gathered himself, he noticed he was right under Liz and Aster. They were standing on a platform of blood Liz had created to dodge the blow.

Matt scanned for his sword, and raced to retrieve it before the next attack came. He found the sword and scrambled to pick it up, as he was nearly crushed by a stomping foot.

He took the opportunity to slash up at the monster’s ascending foot after sidestepping the stomp. His attack sliced through the armor and flesh of the hybrid. He was slightly surprised to feel the resistance of bone as he cut deep into the foot.

The underside of the monster’s foot was unarmored, and the strength and sharpness of the blade left the foot mangled as the hybrid roared.

Elizabeth pulled over the massive amount of blood gushing to the floor in a wave. As the blood continued to leak, the flow of her blood wave increased, growing in size and encompassing her. Soon, the giant sphere of blood enveloping her broke, and she emerged as a ten-foot-tall blood golem.

Matt tried to keep the monster’s attention, but it was becoming increasingly hard. As the blood creation grew, it attracted more of the hybrid’s attention than the diminutive human.

Aster pattered up behind him, and they watched together as the blood golem and monster grappled one another. As Liz punched out at the standing abomination, Aster used her powers to tip the arm with a frozen spike. It skittered off the armor plating that was thicker around the monster’s chest.

When it slashed into the chest of the blood golem in retaliation, the blow simply splashed though ineffectually. The blood was scattered across the cavern, but it quickly returned to the golem’s feet and was absorbed.

Matt saw his chance to take advantage of its fixation on its larger opponent.

He ran to its rear, and with all the power he could muster, chopped into its tail, as its wings began to glow again.

The sword couldn’t cut completely through the chitin and bone, but it opened a vital artery, if the fountain of blood was any indication.

The blood flowed into Liz’s golem, and she grew to match the monster in size.

With her improved leverage, she slammed her ice-spiked right hand into the monster, finally possessing the weight and power to drive it through. Her left hand acted as a muzzle, keeping the monster from using its arcane breath.

After a few moments of pounding, the golem simply fell on top of the monster. Liz fell out the back of her golem while clutching her head, glaring up at the monster.

Despite losing its golem form, the blood was still surrounding the monster’s head. As it struggled and failed to release itself, the Abomination drowned in its own blood.

A few heart beats later, Matt felt the rush of essence, and looked at the kneeling and panting Liz.

“That was fucking incredible.”

His AI had to completely rewrite its portfolio on Liz. She was more of a monster than any of the creatures they had found in the rifts.

If her Talent worked like normal [Blood Manipulation], it should have the mana cost and mental control demands of [Water Manipulation]. The information on the former was more speculative, because of its rarity. But the latter was common enough to have public information.

It took not only a lot of control to manipulate that volume blood, but also a massive amount of mana to animate it. His AI calculated the amount of blood to be equivalent to around nine cubic feet of water.

That was over five hundred pounds of blood she was manipulating. It even pointed out that the golem must have been mostly hollow, or composed of a structural lattice to be that size, with the amount of blood available.

At Liz’s slight whimper, Matt pulled off his spatial bag, and had her pop a painkiller for the massive headache brought on by her efforts. She had clearly overextended her mental capacity with that last engagement.

She took the pill and water with her eyes closed, and drained the canister after swallowing the pill.

Aster, who came to investigate, got pulled over her face as an impromptu ice pack.

Matt quieted the fox who began to protest the rough treatment.

He finally was able to deactivate his armor for the first time today, as he drank from the refilled canteen.

There were no enemies present, and his sword was in reach if one appeared. However, Matt found another encounter unlikely, as the rift was cleared out. They had traveled the entire length of the rift to do so.

Half an hour later, Liz pulled her face from Aster’s fur. She glanced at him, then looked him up and down.

With squinted eyes, she said, “Huh. I was starting to think you were the armor.”

Matt quietly chuckled at her attempt at humor.

“No, just my best way to stay warm between rifts.”

That made her face droop even more.

“You’re telling me you don’t feel the cold out there? Go die in a hole, please. My fingers nearly freeze off, even with the heated gloves.”

With a grunt, she stood and said, “Let’s get that last crystal and open the reward distortion.”

At her words, Matt looked and saw there was a large violet gem in the center of the monster’s head.

When he got close, he had to use the tip of his sword to pry the gem from the monster’s chitin.

Once it was out, the cavern began to rumble. Out of a blank spot of wall, a chest with a huge indent in the middle appeared. Upon closer inspection, they found six indents in a circle around the larger one in the middle.

It was obviously a recreation of the pathways where they had killed each mini-boss and the final boss.

When the last crystal clicked into place, they found a pillow, and a single small gem placed directly on top of it.

A skill shard.

Matt and Liz just look from the skill to each other. If they had any plans to betray one another, now was the time. And she was spent from the last fight.

He backed up a half a step and asked, “Do you want to do the honors of testing it since you got the final kill?”

Liz looked relieved at his non-aggression, and plucked the shard up, staring at it.

“Huh. its [Puddle Jumper]”

Matt looked it up in the low Tiered skill database he had purchased, and found it.

[Puddle Jumper]: a near-flight skill. Cost per cast: 50 mana. Allows the user to jump mid-air. While skill is active, the user will not lose altitude.

Matt whistled. “That’s a pretty valuable skill. I can’t use it. Can you?”

He was offering to allow her to take and bind the skill, at the cost of having to reimburse him for his half. It was fair, and he really couldn’t use it with the mana cost.

Liz shook her head and said, “I could, but it’s not very useful to me, and...” she paused and looked hard into his face and continued, “My Talent affects the skills I bind. So I could completely ruin the skill. I’d rather sell it, and get a skill I know I can make useful. Besides, we should make a killing with a near-flight skill, especially with the Tier 5 guild members.”

Matt was surprised and touched that she had revealed that much about her Talent. Talents were incredibly personal, and usually the cornerstone a fighter’s style was built around. It wasn't something to share lightly.

He turned to the rift’s reward distortion. He had felt it move from the previous mini boss cavern, but hadn't wanted to rush his spent bloodmage. He and Liz walked over, and this time he dispersed the reward. A bar of dark metal fell out with a thud, denting the ground where it landed.

He had his AI analyze it. A Tier 6 iron bar. It was a valuable reward. Very valuable. But it still felt lacking compared to the skill.

With a shrug, he put it in his bag, and the two left the rift.

They chose to set up camp in a nook of the canyon where the wind was unable to assault them.

After setting up the tent, Matt went inside and quickly cleaned himself up, before trading locations with Liz.

He slipped on his boots and activated [Cracked Phantom Armor] while in shorts and a t-shirt.

Now it was Liz’s turn, and Matt waited outside for her to finish her longer ablutions. He had taken the first shift because he didn’t have to clean sweaty armor after cleaning himself.

He played with Aster until he got a ping from Liz’s AI saying she was done.

Once in the tent, he reveled in the warmth of the heater, and saw Liz in some of his underclothes. They were comically big.

She saw the smirk on his face and asked, “What?”

There was a challenge in the statement that he didn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole. He cautiously answered, “You remind me of when we would get the clothes the older kids outgrew, but didn’t fit us yet either. Everyone looked like blobs until we grew into them. A good memory actually, we enjoyed getting the hand-me-downs. It was like an extra New Year’s celebration.”

That got her to smile, and she pointed to the heater changing the subject. “Did you have to skimp on the heater? It’s gotta be the most ineffective model I’ve ever seen.”

Matt laughed, and decided to return some of the trust he had been shown earlier. “No, it’s one of the few heaters that can run on personal mana. I’m sure you’ve done the same calculations I’ve done on you.”

That comment got her to avert her eyes, and added a bit of color to her pale cheeks.

“Part of my Talent allows me to produce a lot of mana, but I have almost no capacity. It’s why I can run my skill all day but can’t use [Puddle Jumper]. I can’t afford the mana cost.”

He didn’t get into specifics, but he touched the heaters inset mana stone, and quickly filled the 200 mana capacity.

Liz looked at him and down to the heater and said, “that’s an interesting limitation and an even more interesting advantage.”

Part of him scoffed at the word advantage, but that was the year and half spent at Benny’s trying to rear its ugly head. He did have an advantage.

“Yeah, it’s got its uses. It will even let me take advantage of less expensive skills.” Matt didn’t mind talking about his intentions to purchase [Mages Retreat]. The purchase was going to be public record, so it was harmless to talk about.

Liz was intrigued at the idea. While they talked, he pulled his pot out of the spatial bag, and started making dinner for the three of them.

“[Mages Retreat]? Huh, an odd choice for most, but with what I’ve been able to calculate, it should be potent. At the upper ends of mana cost, [Mages Retreat] is actually better than [Mana Strength].”

That turned into a conversation about skills and combat styles that lasted through dinner.

They had just finished eating, as Aster went back outside into the cold, and Matt asked, “You said your mom was an evolved companion, right? Do you know why Aster does that when we get to cold places? She doesn’t know why, just that she should. I can’t find anything about it.”

“Yeah, that’s easy. She’s refining her bloodline and mana with cold stronger than her own. Those with bloodlines, normal humans with specific Talents, or those possessing super rare rift rewards, can aspect their mana based on the type. It gives a massive boost to skills and spells of the same type, but at the disadvantage of absurd mana cost for everything else. When Aster begins to absorb other skills, she’s really only gonna be able to use ice skills.”

After a slight pause and bob of her head, she added, “Maybe wind or water as well. All blizzard stuff. But fire? She won’t be able to activate a fire skill if her life depended on it.”

Matt was once again thankful to Liz and her knowledge, and irritated that he couldn’t find any information about this.

Liz clearly saw the irritation on his face, and asked, “You were in a PlayPen, right? Didn’t someone explain this to you? They should have, even if it was some else with a companion.”

Matt looked back at her and answered, “No one had companions. It was a Tier 4 world. Companions were completely unheard of. I even had a healer try to ‘buy’ Asters egg from me.”

He told her the whole story, and at the end, Liz said, “She’s lucky she got such a clean death. If there was an evolved companion or beast in human form present, they would have done far, far worse. It’s one of the tenets of companions; you don’t pressure the one who finds an egg into selling. There’s a bond of fate that’s sacrosanct. And wow, I can’t believe you didn’t know what a rift challenge was. You are a lucky little shit aren't you.”