The Path of Ascension

Matt readied his sword and his buffs. [Mage's Retreat] was the one he was most familiar with, having had outright decades to get used to the Tier 8 strength-boosting skill. It wasn’t the only channeled physical-cultivation skill, but all the others were Tier 14. For a normal Tier 11 delver that would make them fairly rare, but he’d been delving Tier 15 rifts for so long, he possessed Tier 14 skills by the bucketful.

Matt hadn’t gotten any of the others as drops himself, he had actually traded for them. Regardless, with the full suite of Tier 14 skills in his possession, his fights had become substantially more complex.

Gone were the days of throwing as much mana as possible into [Cracked Phantom Armor] for defense, a bit into [Endurance] for stamina, and the rest into [Mage’s Retreat] for strength… Well, mostly. It was still his favorite way to fight, for all that Luna kept pushing for him to expand his horizons. But for this fight he wanted to beat Queen as Matt the swordsman not Matt the mage.

Still, these days he needed to balance [Acrobat’s Finesse] for proprioception, [Ranger’s Sight] for his visual perception, [Barbarian’s Hide] for durability, [Sharp Mind] for mental acumen and reaction time, [Willow in the Wind] for flexibility, and [Lesser Regeneration] for healing.

All six scaled at the same basic rate as [Mage’s Retreat], but he’d never truly re-mapped how much of a boost he got per second with his well modified skill. His old chart didn’t account for his mana concentration or the armor he’d gotten that enhanced self-buffs, let alone all of the changes he’d made to [Mage’s Retreat] to make it more efficient and powerful. But his estimates were accurate enough for the newer skills that he hadn’t been able to cycle into his core spirit and manipulate.

2 25%

10 50%

50 75%

250 100%

1250 125%

These days, 50 MPS provided at least a 100% boost to his new skills thanks to his underarmor, let alone to the well-loved and well-modified [Mage’s Retreat], but the table still served as an excellent base while he figured out what tactics he wanted to use in any given fight. As he was fighting Queen, and wanted a good, fun, sword duel, he probably wouldn’t push too far from his normal role of a strength-based juggernaut. At 50 MPS across seven skills, he was spending a baseline of 350 mana each second, which would drain most mages of his tier completely dry two times over in less than a minute.

But for Matt?

He barely even noticed it next to the 2,560 mana that he generated every second.

Still, even after experiencing it so many times, the rush of power that washed over him as he activated his baseline buff was like the best drug, hitting him almost like a Tier-up.

Everything was so much clearer and sharper, and his body almost felt like it moved before he gave it a directive.

When Queen dropped from her en garde position to a slash, he felt like he could see the mana build on her blade before it spat out in a crescent wave.

He slid to the side and dodged the first attack as he flooded his own blade with mana to return the [Mana Slash]. Queen didn’t let him attack without responding, and slashed her blade upward, sending her own spell into his.

Their skills exploded in a wave of energy.

Susanne flew out of the mass of energy like a loosed arrow, and Matt readied to block her thrust, but he noticed the mana building in her blade and activated [Cracked Phantom Armor] to block her [Mana Thrust]. Instantly, blue armor materialized and covered his entire body, with filigree building itself in seemingly-decorative swirls and patterns. In truth, they were carefully designed to concentrate the armor’s second layer as much as possible, while still protecting his entire body. The more his original armor skill grew the simpler it became but at the same time the second layer grew even more ornate.

While the thin beam of energy that Queen shot at him didn’t look like much, it hit as hard as some of the Tier 15 monsters he’d gotten used to fighting. Still, he could and did dump a lot of his mana generation into his armor. He’d maxed the skill’s mana throughput with a bit above 2,400 MPS in total these days, half to the first layer and half to the mutable second layer, and it handled Queen’s attack without much trouble. It was second nature for him to flick his boosts down for a heart beat to take the hit, then increase his physical buffs once again.

He still made sure to block her actual sword with his own, though. He was far less confident at taking the woman’s full Concept-powered attacks than her standard skills. Their first impact showed Matt what he expected; he was physically stronger than Susanne. Between directing all of his cultivation to the physical side, and getting an additional 75% boost on top of that, he didn’t really expect anything else. Especially now that he knew for a fact that her Talent didn’t help out in that regard. But it was impossible to truly know what other tricks she might have up her sleeve.

He deflected her blade to the side and was moving in to kick her knee when a second version of her weapon chopped out at his leg.

Reflexively, Matt shifted all the filigree that made up [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s second layer to reinforce the exact area that the attack was about to strike. Queen may have been fast, but he’d been fighting faster foes than himself since even before he could double the potency of his perceptions on command. Her attack rebounded off of 1,200 mana perfectly positioned to block it, though even then it very nearly broke through his primary defensive ability. In retaliation, Matt brought his own sword down on the smaller woman after stepping forward to close the distance.

Queen slipped to the side as if the ground was ice while chopping upward at his extended arm.

Matt was forced to retreat, cutting off his armor’s second layer and redistributing its mana to [Mage’s Retreat] and [Sharp Mind] for maximum speed, and he didn’t stop until he was out of her reach and had a moment to recuperate. [Lesser Regeneration] and [Endurance] both flared up, relieving his physical strain and refreshing his mind, allowing him to consider his options.

He cursed internally.

Queen was still a better warrior than he was.

But he wasn't just a warrior.

He was so, so much more.

***

Susanne swore internally as Quill retreated.

After hearing his Talent, she hadn’t expected to beat him in a battle of strength, but she hadn’t expected to be so substantially outmuscled, even with [Mana Strength] reserving a fair portion of her mana.

Her AI did the math for her, and she realized she had to adjust her battle strategy to treat Quill like a Tier 13 swordsman.

As he retreated, he started throwing [Mana Slash]es as if they were going out of style. It reminded her of Quill’s endless fireballs when she was fighting him in the tournament.

Knowing his Talent explained how the man was able to cast so many spells and make so many talismans, but the endless waves of attacks still stood out to her as just unfair.

She blocked, dodged, or cut each of them apart as she raced after Matt trying to force him into a standing battle. But he kept retreating, and was just so stupidly fast. She had to bend space to just barely keep up with him, and even when she matched him using [Dash], he just sped up even further, forcing her to drop her skill to avoid draining all of her mana only a minute into the fight.

She noted that he was very good with his Concept, able to hover just half an inch over the ground and speed himself up, even in retreat. Not a lot of people below Tier 15 could do that. While there was no technical restriction on moving in any direction with a Concept, humans’ natural instinct was to move slower in a direction that they normally couldn't.

But she was better, she could already tell. Matt used his body and mana well, but for all his skill, she had just spent the last three years learning all the tricks she could pull with her Concept from Carol.

She’d been taught by the best, and it showed. And for this fight, she’d need to go all-out.

She used her Concept to compress space and shortened the distance between Matt and herself, skipping and dodging the final few [Mana Slash]es.

Susanne brought her blade down on Matt and tried to cut through his incredibly hard armor, but found that he had cast [Sword Doppelganger], and a mana version of his longsword blocked her attack.

She remembered how the skill had felt three years ago, and was once again surprised, but this time by how much more solid and durable it was now. As she focused on making her manifestation sharper, she brought her main blade around while creating a second copy to strike out at Matt's true blade as it descended.

Before she had met Carol, creating the second copy of her blade was all done on instinct, and difficult to keep active. But now, it was second nature, albeit only for a few seconds at a time. Her Concept was meant to empower a single sword that she always had active, so pushing it to create two blades felt… odd.

She activated the enchantment on her bracer and a blast of air surged out to strike Matt, sending him flying, but he was only knocked back a few feet before his Concept began halting his movement.

She felt where his Concept tried to affect reality and struck out at it with her greatsword.

Carol had explained it to her in simple terms when she asked why stabbing one of Adam’s illusions had hurt him, and it all came down to her Concept.

Any weapon Concept could make a weapon manifestation, but in the end, they weren't real blades. That came with a few drawbacks, like the fact they couldn't be enchanted or over-Tiered, but they had their own advantages.

Concept manifestations weren't real. That meant they could strike out at things that a normal blade couldn't hit.

Like illusions.

Or someone else's Concept and its workings.

When she cut the edge of his Concept as it was trying to stop his momentum, Matt was again sent flying as all the force he was resisting hit him at once.

She was already closing the gap as he slammed into a wall, and she pushed her second sword to cast [Mana Slash] in the last moment before it vanished again, while her main blade cast [Wind Cutter]. The air spell was incredibly sharp, and was perfect for bypassing hard armors.

Susanne was almost on him when her spiritual sense felt something wrong, and she retreated out of instinct.

Matt was standing there with his blue sleek armor as if nothing was wrong, even without the more ornate portions that seemed to reinforce the skill.

Instead, between them was a five-foot-wide and seven-foot tall wall of mana.

Her AI recognized it before she did. [Bulwark].

A Tier 20 skill.

After a moment, she caught herself. It synergized with his Talent well enough that it probably was one of his tournament rewards, if not one of the Cracked skills that he’d likely gotten as a reward from King Frederic. She’d gotten two herself, after all. Still, that meant he potentially had one more Tier 20 skill on-call, though she was confident that he wouldn’t have any more than that.

After all, she had needed to put every mana stone that she’d pulled out of her rifts into buying more delving slots and essence stones to complete Tier 11 in such a short time. And he had two other people to share essence with. They would’ve been incredibly lucky to find an extra Tier 20 skill on their own, let alone one that they could trade for Bulwark instead of selling it for rifts or essence stones.

She had been fortunate beyond anything she’d hoped for to get a second Tier 20 skill that perfectly fit her. It would be absurd for them to be so lucky as well.

Quill stepped forward, and the shield of mana moved with him, brightening as more mana flooded the skill. As the skill was becoming opaque thanks to the sheer amount of mana, he slashed his longsword, and a [Mana Slash] cut out at her through the shield.

Susanne cut it in half, but while her return [Mana Thrust] made the shield dim a little, it quickly restored itself and grew even brighter.

She’d been eyeing [Bulwark] for herself eventually, so she knew that it needed a set amount of mana to cast, which was what dictated the size and strength of the shield. But it needed mana channeled into it to work as anything more than a temporary block. Every attack that landed on it drained some of the stored mana, and battering through it was normally a perfectly viable option.

But when Quill used the skill, that weakness was completely covered, thanks to whatever crazy cracked effect it possessed to make it even better for him.

Still, she had to try.

It wasn’t in her nature to not batter through any obstacle in her way.

Using her own new skill, Susanne sent mana into [Hypersonic Edge] before linking it with [Wind Cutter], then doubling it to cast with both her main and secondary blade.

Unleashing both empowered [Wind Cutter]s, her mana dipped noticeably, but she rushed forward to capitalize on the destruction of [Bulwark].

[Hypersonic Edge] increased the cutting power of any weapon or skill that it was cast with, but if cast with another skill, it acted as a multiplier of the mana cost, which made it difficult to use too often.

Still, its negative effect was well warranted as she saw [Bulwark] explode, and the skills continue onward to hit Matt.

Susanne expected him to be heavily wounded, but exactly where the attacks landed, his armor instantly grew ornamentation.

When the metaphorical dust settled, the ornamentation was gone, along with her attacks, but she had closed the distance, and started battering away at him with her sword skills.

A small part of her was grateful that she was still better than him in blade skills, and she kept on him to press that advantage.

He was stronger than her, yes, but she fought opponents even stronger than him on a regular basis. His attacks were heavy, but they were still less than a Tier 15 wyvern or giant’s would be. Skill could close that gap.

So many people only relied on magical skills, but neglected the mundane. She wanted both.

Matt was better than most, and as they exchanged blows, she found herself enjoying the fight, but it was only his superior physical cultivation that allowed him to keep up with her.

At one point in their fight, his entire style changed. He stopped smothering her with his heavy attacks and moved to a faster, more fluid style, but she was more than used to fighting faster opponents. A single, powerful blow countered Matt’s new tactic, pushing him back far enough for her to pick up her offensive. He seemed to give up on speed after that, returning to his normal, heavy attack style.

He tried to gain distance between them more than once to presumably use more spells, but with her Concept’s ability to warp space and careful applications of her mobility skills, she was more than able to keep up with him and force him into a melee, where she had the advantage.

When she used her second sword, he always blocked it with [Sword Doppelganger], and as they settled into a stalemate, she decided to show some more of what her Concept could do.

Instead of just creating a sword and arms, she created a full second version of herself.

The other Susanne kicked at Matt’s knee while she pressed the attack.

She could only get about a few feet away from her Concept self, but it was still on track to be her greatest trump card, though it was one she had only just started to get a handle on.

Carol had said that Susanne was one of the few warriors she knew of who had been able to use that ability before Tier 15, especially without a Concept outright dedicated to the ability. It was truly an amazing achievement, worthy of a true Ascender. Her manager had splashed cold water on her exuberance when she told her that Duke Waters had managed the equivalent with a Water Concept, and in less than a year of her tutelage. He was even able to make three doubles at the same time within five years. He was the benchmark they were striving for, after all.

It was a fair rebuke, as Susanne had been getting a large head, but it stung a little to hear how far ahead of everyone the legend was, including her. At least it wasn’t quite the same- the copies were apparently harder to manifest with a weapon Concept than with a magical one- but it was hardly three times as easy.

Carol had promised her a meeting with the legendary Ascender when he was off the frontlines, but apparently, he was sent there as a punishment, and he just hadn’t left once his time was over.

Still, the ability was able to send Matt back with first blood drawn in the fight.

Her blade had punched through his magical and physical armor and came back red.

She smiled.

Susanne could win this.

***

Carol looked at Luna and shot her the most fiendish smirk she could muster.

Her charge had drawn first blood, and had managed to punch through Quill’s ridiculous armor skill.

She corrected herself. Both of the skills. That [Bulwark] was just as incredible, and she couldn’t help but wonder what exactly its crack did. She hadn’t seen anything unusual about it, which was almost strange in and of itself, but King Frederic’s cracked skill collected was well known in higher Tier circles. If it was in his possession, the skill would have cracked effects so rare, they would be essentially unheard of. And with three people on their team, it was unlikely that they could afford to buy the skill unless they got incredibly lucky.

Still, she had personally taught Queen the modifications to [Hypersonic Edge] so it was even stronger.

The girl had cut through a Tier 15 Earth Rhino with that skill, but it hadn’t managed to break through Matt’s skills.

Luna ignored the smirk she had shot at her, so Carol spoke. “Unlimited mana doesn't mean much when the fight ends so quickly.”

Luna turned to her and smiled. “Queen is exceptional for learning how to use that Concept ability so early, no doubt. But Matt has all the channeled Tier 14 physical cultivation skills, and [Endurance], which has been modified for healing. Even just [Lesser Regeneration] is a great boon, but when the two are paired… unless she can cut off his head…”

Luna let the statement speak for itself.

Quill was a monster, that wasn’t even a question in Carol’s mind. The boy would only get stronger with each Tier up, and his foundation was rock solid. But she still believed in Susanne.

And she had barely used her Legacy's spatial abilities yet, let alone touched the two cracked skills King Frederic had given her.

Susanne had a fire under her ass and a goal she burned with desire to achieve.

Carol thought she had a good chance at winning, but seeing the legendary manager so calm, she wasn't so sure.

Still, she wanted to make a bet.

“Winner gets to make the initial training plan for the kids to get used to each other.”

Luna didn’t take her eyes off the fight, but the smile that spread across her face reminded Carol that Luna never stopped being a cat.

***

Matt lashed out to block the side sweep attack and sighed internally.

He’d wanted to beat Queen as a swordsman. She’d wanted a rematch against Matt, after all, not Quill, and Matt was very prideful about his skills as a swordsman. The problem was, while she was better with a sword than he was, she wasn’t better enough to actually beat him. At the same time, each time they engaged, he’d make a couple attempted attacks, Queen would block him and strike back, then he’d pull back to recover and plan out his next move. It was a strategy he’d used many, many times before, and he knew how it would end. Eventually, she’d tire out, and he’d win by default, but they’d already been going back and forth for ten minutes.

That was an eternity at their Tier, and he was getting bored. This was meant to be an entertaining spar, after all, but neither of them had done anything new in ages.

So, it was time to change that.

He called on [Cracked Mana Trap], setting it at his own feet before channeling mana through his ring, changing it to a particular brand of holding sub-aspected ice mana as it entered the trap.

Using his other ring, he teleported a few feet back the same instant he armed the [Cracked Mana Trap]. Since he had cast it under their feet, it went off concurrently with his movement.

He was prepared to immediately follow it up, and was already casting a [Mana Slash] to catch Queen off guard.

Even then, Queen re-materialized her secondary sword and positioned it between her chest and the trap explosion, while her main blade blocked the [Mana Slash]. Still, even with blocking the rune, the trap was able to freeze her long enough for his purposes. He rushed back in, cutting down at Queen’s frozen body as he pulled out another skill from his new-ish kit.

Liz had been given three upgrade orbs as the first place winner of the solo and team tournaments. Matt and Aster hadn't wanted to take any of them, but she insisted on only using one, and Matt had used his on [Sword Twin], it being his strongest Tier 14 skill.

As the skill was already at the Tier of the upgrade orb, it was less effective than he had hoped for, but it did let him accomplish the one thing he’d wanted out of it.He was now able to summon two copies of his blade while one was already infused, though at a higher spiritual strain.

Matt summoned a second twin, and then immediately absorbed it into his original blade, empowering it.

When he hit Queen’s second Concept manifestation sword, he shattered it and cut deep into her chest.

Blood splattered, but Susanne seemed unfazed. She landed a hit on his hip that slipped through [Cracked Phantom Armor] and his physical armor. He could feel that there was a skill at play, but he wasn't sure exactly what skill it was.

If he found a monster able to punch through Cracked Phantom armor in a rift, he’d carry on as he had been doing, divesting most of his resources to defense while Liz and Aster dealt most of the damage. But he was fighting solo now… and besides, he was fighting Queen for fun.

May as well lean into it, and take the small damage to dish out even more in return.

He kept his armor going, but siphoned most of its mana into his other ongoing boosts, bringing them all up to a full 250 MPS.

Susanne looked up to him and started to glow a dangerous-feeling silver color, with the aura rolling off her and her sword like smoke.

For the first time in the fight, Susanne spoke, “Your rewards from the tournament are pretty great. But so are mine. Like this very special [Cracked Berserker's Rage].” Her smile turned feral as she launched herself forward. “Careful, or this will end too quickly.”

Matt blocked the first attack, but the silver energy rolling off Queen felt like tiny swords that were cutting him all over.

The longer the [Cracked Berserker's Rage] effect was in contact with his armor, the greater the damage ramped up, forcing him to spend more and more mana on his armor to keep it from affecting him.

Normal [Berserker’s Rage] just increased strength, speed, and durability corresponding to how injured the person was, but this version seemed to have some kind of weird lingering effect that attacked him.

Sensing how quickly the damage increased, he used his ring to teleport away again, but the silver aura lingered on his person fading showily. Queen blurred and seemed to cut through space to reach him in a single swing of her blade.

Blocking her second sword, he punched her in the already wounded chest with a spiked gauntlet of [Cracked Phantom Armor] after deflecting her greatsword. But wounding her further only created more of the silver aura, and it was stronger.

Cursing, Matt parried two attacks with his sword and [Sword Twin], but took a blow in the collarbone, with the attack effortlessly bypassing his already-strained armor and shattering the bone.

In response, he moved most of his mana back from his physical boosts into [Lesser Regeneration] and [Endurance], fighting through the pain to use his Concept to set the bone in a well-practiced move.

At the same time, he was forced to block with a one handed grip and nearly lost his blade as Queen tried to disarm him. He hadn’t divested enough mana from [Mage’s Retreat] to be weaker than her boosted state, however, so he was more than able to resist the forced bending of his wrist long enough to get his off hand back in action.

Susanne seemed intent to finish the fight immediately, so he mentally shrugged. He still had so many tricks he could pull out, but if the fight was about to end, he may as well end it. With a twist of his left hand and a mental nudge, he unleashed his greatest trump card.

A whopping 1,000 MPS of pure piercing power in the form of [Cracked Mana Spear] lanced from Matt’s fingertips to Queen’s chest, faster than the woman could even react, causing her to vanish as one of their managers pulled her out of the fight. The spiritual backlash of using the skill that was almost twice his Tier stung Matt as if he’d been slapped, but he was long since used to it. There was no real limit to how high a Tier skill you could use, but the larger the gap, the more the spirit was strained. In theory, a Tier 1 could use a Tier 44 skill as said strain was well within the spirits normal limits, so if they had the mana for it was no issue. But using a high-Tier skill with an already strained spirit was like trying to fight with a broken arm. [Cracked Mana Spear] was especially egregious in that way, as it required his active focus to prevent it from destabilizing and put enough strain on his spirit to injure him.

Still, with the last three years spent practicing and modifying the skill, not only was the spiritual strain from repeated use much more manageable, but he could also keep the beam going for about thirty seconds at his current rate before it destabilized. Though, that was hard on his spirit in its own way. But the important fact remained; they had yet to find a single thing from Tier 16 or below that could survive the full 2,500 that mana he could put into it, given enough time. And 1,000 MPS was more than enough to kill anything within a few Tiers of himself.

Really, the limiter tended to be hitting a target long enough for the spear to break their defenses. Some of the faster Tier 15 monsters could move fast enough that he couldn’t keep the beam trained on them for more than a fraction of a second, and by Tier 16, it was a toss-up whether or not he was able to hit them in the first place. Let alone stay on target long enough to burn through their defenses. It made a fantastic finisher for once a target was immobilized, but they couldn’t use it to solo rifts five tiers above them, not that they needed Luna to lecture them on why over-reliance on a single skill was a bad idea.

Seeing Susanne off to the side of the ring, Matt dismissed his armor and cast [Bandage] on his wounds while sending all of his mana generation into [Lesser Regeneration]. It was better for actual healing when compared to [Endurance], and if he had time, it created less of a healing cooldown than [Ranged Heal], so it was their preferred healing method for moderate wounds.

Queen looked up to Matt and asked, “What was that?”

Matt shrugged as Liz and Aster reached them. “One of my skills from King Frederic. It's a [Cracked Mana Spear] that turns it into a channel spell. I’d hoped to beat you before needing to use it, but…”

He ended with a shrug.

Queen nodded, and her wounds vanished as though they had never been there.

Susanne grunted seeing her now fine chest. “Ugh. If you hadn’t ended it so quickly, I might have pulled that off in the fight. I need to prepare it ahead of time, but it’s the cheapest healing skill I have, and getting it instantly is pretty useful.”

Matt and Liz nodded, “Not bad at all. Cracked skill from King Frederic to pair with the [Cracked Berserker's Rage]?”

Susanne nodded. “Yes, [Cracked Second Wind], it restores health rather than stamina. Useful, but it requires me to figure out how badly I’m probably getting hurt before I start a fight. I’m just glad I had enough in it for everything I just took, but it was closer than I’d like.”

Matt could see how the skill would be useful for a solo melee fighter. Less potent over time than his constantly-running [Lesser Regeneration] and [Endurance], sure, but a way to instantly mend all wounds taken would be worth its weight in Tier 40 mana stones. Especially to anyone without a healer on their team. As Liz used her skills to bring the blood off both of them, Matt flexed his Concept and focused on Susanne, adding her to his mental whitelist.

She jerked slightly before looking at him. “You give that much mana? Hot damn!”

Matt laughed at the reaction. His Concept currently gave around 40 MPS to anyone he chose, as long as he wasn’t low on willpower or trying to feed more than six people.

Queen, as a melee fighter at Tier 11, if she followed the normal distribution, would have around 4000 mana. In other words, he’d be able to bring her to full in about one and a half minutes. It used to take him ten plus minutes to fill Liz, but his increasing proficiency had made his Concept’s ability much stronger.

“It's quite handy.” Matt tried to be modest, but the look Liz shot him told him that he had failed.

Aster wiggled out of Liz’s arms and jumped into Matt’s before congratulating him. “That was so impressive! But didn’t Luna say that you shouldn't rely on that skill?”

Matt blew air into her face in retaliation.

He could feel the mischievous feeling in her spirit as she tried to get him in trouble, but he allowed it. It would probably make Queen feel better about her loss, if she was feeling bitter about it.

Thankfully, Susanne just laughed. “A win is a win. Rematch, though?”

Luna appeared next to them and gave Queen a narrow look. “Do you know why you lost?”

Susanne seemed unphased by the other manager. “Shouldn't have dragged the fight out so long. If I had gone all out from the start, I might have won by taking him off guard.”

Luna nodded. “That could have worked, but maybe not. What you need is to finish modifying your skills and get used to casting them. I also need you to integrate with the team, so we will start you on training scenarios.”

She looked to the side and Kurt appeared with his blade at the ready. “The four of you will start fighting Kurt. Do your best to kill him.”

Kurt must have seen something on Susanne's face as he wrote, “Worry not. I’m Tier 35.”

Susanne hopped to her feet, and her sword sprang to her hand.

She didn’t rush into the fight, though, and instead looked at Matt and Liz, asking, “Battle plan?”

Matt smiled.

This was going to work well.

***

Luna watched as the children threw themselves at the wall that was Kurt.

They had been fighting for two hours now, and had still not managed to land a single attack on the Trainer's form.

In the beginning, she could see Susanne starting to get frustrated at their inability to touch him, but the girl had quickly discarded that useless emotion, and focused on finding her place in a team battle.

Aster kept to the backline and near one of the others, usually Liz when she was acting as a mid-range mage, or Matt when he took his turn as spell support.

Those three had long learned to read each other and react immediately, and while Susanne was a new addition, she was a good one who thrived in a fully offensive role.

Luna found it interesting how quickly the girl adapted to Matt and his Concept, as it had only taken her a few rounds of Kurt knocking her around until she started using all of her skills as fast as she could.

They finally were able to see some more of her skills, like [Sword Gale], which sent dozens of small wind blades out from her attacks. It wasn't a particularly strong skill, but it could do serious damage to weaker enemies, or otherwise serve as a distraction.

Kurt's skill blocked or dodged all of the attacks, but it was good to see Susanne had more in her arsenal than she showed.

The girl had most of the skills she would have expected, and a few that she didn’t, which was good. Well rounded kits were always important, even beyond Minkalla. They were the defining feature of Ascenders, and doubly so for solo ones.

After fighting Kurt, Susanne took turns fighting each of her proteges, and while she still lost most of the time, struggling to keep up with the group’s incredible array of skills and powerful items, still managed to eke out wins more and more regularly as she caught onto their tricks and favored tactics. In one particularly notable instance, she’d learned to cut through Matt’s [Cracked Mana Spear] beam.

At first, it was only for a fraction of a second, but a week later, she was going for nearly ten whole seconds. Two weeks after that, it was twenty. A month later, she wasn’t quite able to go for thirty seconds, but with dedicated practice, she was getting better and better at resisting the beam with her Concept and parting the attack around her until her sword outright broke under the strain. It was the only time Luna ever saw the girl without her Manifestation, but it never seemed worse for wear whenever she re-summoned it afterwards, which meant that she had an impressive level of control and abundant willpower.

Because of their bet, Carol was taking a back seat. But as the days passed, Luna let the other manager give a few Concept lessons to Matt, Liz, and Aster.

They were learning well under her tutelage, as sometimes an outside perspective could have unexpected benefits, and Carol was good at figuring out how each Concept worked and how to improve them. Matt’s flight had already sped up by three point two percent, and his whitelist ability was stronger. Liz’s blood was six percent stronger when empowered, and Aster’s ice was a full four percent colder than before.

The next few weeks, she spent time drilling the kids for fighting other cultivators before switching to simulated monsters that had appeared in Minkalla in the past.

For all that most people died to the other humans inside the Forge, the monsters and traps were still quite dangerous.

Changing up the lessons ensured that they had no obvious weaknesses, and Luna was more and more confident as the time to enter Minkalla closed in.

During the first two weeks, she pushed them hard before easing up and then forcing them to take some down time as a collective.

That was the best way to ensure that they bonded well in the short amount of time.

Luna looked up and to the planet that loomed over them.

Minkalla seemed to be on track, but even her cultivation was unable to pass the barrier that surrounded the planet. If she tried to enter, she would just appear on the other side, as if it didn’t exist.

But the walls between them were easy to see through, and she could see the Minkalla tracking station and their readouts. Everything was right on time.

Two weeks left.

Next week, she would stop drilling the kids beyond two hours a day, and start beating all the rewards she had hidden from them so far into their heads. She would let that excitement drive them forward with their team-building exercises.

She just hoped they would all come out alive.

It would be even better if they came out at Tier 11.

***

Susanne enjoyed her time with Matt, Liz, and especially Aster. They were good people, and were fun to be around.

Having unlimited mana to spar with competent fighters and practice her skills had also been a boon she had never expected.

The last few weeks would have been perfect… Would have been.

But the fact was, while she could fight Matt to a standstill in melee, and even win sometimes, she lost as soon as he transitioned to a mage style. She did win against his mage style sometimes, but her victories were few and far between. Each time it happened, she learned how to counter him just a little bit better, but it was irritating nonetheless.

Liz, she fared better against. It still stung every time she lost, but the woman seemed to have a bag of tricks as deep as her ocean of blood, and couldn’t be simply overpowered or outlasted, which were the normal ways to beat mages.

Beating Aster just felt like bullying with her more support oriented style, but the fox had caught her off guard and stolen a few wins against her. But that hardly counted, and didn’t serve to bolster her mood at all.

The three of them never rubbed it in, and were happy to help her learn how to counter their tricks, which was dramatically different from most of her training partners. But it still only showed the difference between them. It wasn’t like they weren’t getting better against her, after all, and it felt almost like as soon as she made any progress, they’d move even further away.

Currently, she was still trying to counter Matt when he used [Create Water] to flood the area, a talisman to flash freeze the ice, and finally [Ice Manipulation] to entomb and crush her.

Susanne’s spatial abilities had gotten a workout, but they weren't a natural part of her Concept, so her growth in that area was slow, which forced her to think about other options.

Nothing in life was fair, but with Matt’s Talent, they had earned themselves more items, growth items, and even skills for themselves and that helped keep them ahead of her.

Thankfully, Carol and Luna both mentioned that Minkalla would be a blessing for her. At least they had indirectly hinted at it.

They said if she really wanted to win, challenge the trio after Minkalla.

So that was her goal.

Minkalla.

The Forge.

Her forge.

***

Matt kicked his feet up and watched as people rushed to and fro from his spot near the bay window in their portable house. He’d finished tidying up the place already, and they had a nice view from Luna’s front yard. Tomorrow, he’d keep expanding the enchantments to enable hanging paintings on the walls with no fasteners, but right now, he just enjoyed some of the most enjoyable people-watching he’d ever experienced.

Liz was more interested in the pad she was reviewing news in, but Susanne was also watching the crowds along with himself and Aster.

As if reading his mind, Aster said aloud what he’d been thinking. “So many old people...”

And she was right. Around fifteen percent of the cultivators who had arrived on the moon were old. White and gray hair abounded, all of them peak Tier 14 cultivators pushing to enter the planet.

They had managed to overhear a conversation that Luna hadn’t blocked, which gave them their only hint about a reward of Minkalla.

If the old cultivators reached the fourth floor, they would almost certainly be able to form a Concept.

A cultivator at the peak of Tier 14 was able to live for a little more than a thousand years, but after that, if they weren't able to form their Concept and reach Tier 15, they would eventually die. Physical immortality only truly started at Tier 15, when the body was able to wholly run on essence, regardless of food, water, air, or age.

But the problem was, the bottled Concepts which so many people used to reach Tier 5 and Tier 10, only existed at those Tiers. They were perfectly useful at that point in a cultivator’s life, but eventually, they would find themselves lacking a T15 potion that just didn't exist. So, the cultivators who hadn’t formed their own Concepts beforehand had no other choice but to do it the hard way. Overly long-term reliance on the bottled versions tended to make that even harder than normal, but it bought them so much more time that it was generally a net benefit. Still, there were always those that just couldn't figure it out for themselves, no matter how much they worked.

If they knew where an Ascension was going to happen, they could go and use that to kickstart their own Concept, but they were rare, and usually came with so little warning that most people couldn't reach the planet in time.

That left a sizable portion of cultivators just one step from reaching Tier 15, and Minkalla seemed to have its version of an Ascension buried in its depths.

Considering that was the reward for floor four out of seven... Matt was giddy to learn exactly what was in store for them beyond that.

Nothing they had done had gotten around the cat's restrictions, but it didn’t mean that they couldn't do their own research on the other Great Powers' competitors.

The Sects as always, tried to hype up each and every one of their Young Masters, but there were a few who were notable enough to reach the Empire’s ears, and the information brokers had gathered that information and sold it.

They spent a lot of their break times looking at their greatest competitors and trying to plan out fights with them based on their reported skills.

They had done it for all the other Great Powers when they realized their oversight.

The four of them had effectively jumped generations, and all of the other Pathers who were going into Minkalla this time were from the Tier 10 tournament before theirs.

It left them with a massive blind spot where their own side was considered, and they were taking this break to go over the past records of the Tier 10 tournament.

Or rather, Liz was.

She hadn’t been happy with how the three of them compiled their parts of the information, and had taken over. Most of the information was bought from the various information brokers, but they all had different ways of rating everyone, and different criteria for said ratings.

Liz was trying to aggregate it all and unify the formatting before organizing it herself, then briefing the rest of them on her findings.

They had tried to help her, only to be turned down at first politely, then sternly.

Once Liz set her mind on something, it was better to let her have the reins, so the others were left at odds.

Liz raised her head and said, “Ok, done. First, let's grab —”

Luna appeared next to them and interrupted her. “You can do that at my place. It's time to learn just what you’re trying to find.”

All of them hopped to their feet as Luna brought them to her living room.

Carol and Kurt were there, and a screen was illuminated on the far wall with a title card reading, “Bounty of the Forge: A Comprehensive List of Minkalla’s Rewards.”