The Path of Ascension

Reactions were mixed as they left the challenge room. All of them except Aster had gotten far more Genesis Energy than they’d put in, who only got close to fifty percent extra, and a tea set that allowed everyone drinking from the five cups to share their perceptions of taste. The tea pot itself could store different pots full of tea by twisting the top, which was a fun effect to play around with.

A handful of skill shards also appeared after a few seconds of the crystal pulsing out Genesis Energy, almost like it was reluctant to give them anything more. Susanne identified one as [Broken Ground, Broken Core], a Sect skill which destabilized the earth below a target’s feet.

Liz picked up [Pike Block], a spear skill that made multiple floating mana copies of the user’s weapon that could act in concert for a potent defensive ability. It apparently had some history to it that Liz said she would explain later.

Finally, there was a Tier 20 light aspected skill that no one recognized. It was their second Tier 20 skill drop from Minkalla, about as expected from getting to the sixth floor. Any skill of that Tier would sell well, and if it wasn’t in any of their databases, it had a good chance of being quite valuable.

Matt was slightly unnerved, though more rested than he had felt in weeks. Unending boredom wasn’t pleasant, but it certainly wasn’t that bad. Nowhere close to the vacation he had somewhat hoped for, but it was at least a welcome relief from the tension and soreness he had been feeling.

Susanne was mad about something that she wasn’t talking about, and while Liz definitely looked better, Matt could tell she was still a little shaken about whatever her trial had been. Though, if he hadn’t seen her earlier, he might not be able to tell.

Aster, of course, was ecstatic, having lived out her grandest dream for over a year, but she was at least courteous enough to keep her excitement to herself… mostly. When they exited the now disordered space ruin, they found themselves in the desert, and were immediately attacked by scorpions that burrowed out of the sand.

Matt brought his sword down on the carapace of the first one, and with its newly increased weight, it shattered the hard chitin and cut cleanly through the monster before its large stinger could descend on him.

Susanne appeared next to one of the others and removed its stinger off before slicing through its body in seconds.

Liz, who had finished off two more of the monsters, said, “First actual monsters of the floor. Should mean this ruin is mostly normal, but still, watch out for copies of others.”

She ended up being correct, as the ruin was a standard “kill monsters collect loot” affair.

Though, the boss was a little new.

It was some hybrid of a scorpion and man, with the upper humanoid half seemingly welded onto a scorpion's body.

Armed with a long spear, the boss used its weapon along with pincers to try and pin them down. It also had the ability to control time around it, allowing it to dodge most ranged attacks through a combination of slowing the projectiles down and speeding itself up.

If any of the four of them were alone, they might have struggled, but with their varied skill sets, they were able to take the boss out without much fanfare. And its loot turned out to be quite interesting.

It was a small hourglass that created an area of accelerated time at the cost of spiritual strain for everyone inside it, along with a boatload of mana. Considering Matt, the latter cost might as well not exist, but the former was a fairly harsh condition.

The hourglass only sped up time by a factor of two, so they couldn’t abuse it and completely remove their healing cooldowns, but it did let them rest completely in just an hour of real time, allowing the rest of them to recover mentally, albeit not spiritually, from the challenge they just cleared.

As it turned out, that was a good thing, because just minutes after entering the second level of the sixth floor, they felt a familiar someone else flaring with Genesis Energy not far away.

Despite the signal almost instantly vanishing from their Genesis Energy perception, they were close enough to easily catch up to the lone fighter.

Long Zhiyuan looked almost as surprised to see them as Matt was to see him.

Given their previous enmity, Matt didn’t hesitate to send a burst of [Cracked Mana Spear] at his fleeing back. But just like before, his robes rose up and blocked the neutral mana attack.

Not willing to let such a strong enemy Young Master live if they could help it, the four of them chased him down.

It immediately became obvious that he had already fought his way through this portion of the ruin, as there were no monsters present. He was seemingly intimately familiar with the layout of the ruin and was able to run, fly, and dodge his way through the rocky cavern leading them on a chase to a portion of the ruin he hadn’t cleared trying to lose them on the copies of other delvers still lurking in the forest.

They chased him to the neighboring ruin which turned out to be a winter one, which Long Zhiyuan smartly refused to enter, and forced him to take a [Wind Cutter] to the leg from Susanne after she cut her way closer, reappearing in a different spot while already invisible to land the blow. Blood flew, and the Young Master pulled back for a moment, interposing a physical shield between himself and Susanne. She instantly broke the shield with her next attack, and the man lost what looked like half of his left hand.

He tried to use his Concept to fly away, but Matt threw his own Concept against Long Zhiyuan’s, shattering the working and sending him tumbling to the ground. Aster hit him with [Kar’tan Greets His Foes], which only resisted his movement for a moment before he smartly spent a large chunk of mana on a [Cleanse Corruption] to remove the effect. Before too long, his mana would be exhausted, and he would be easily crushed.

Liz was the closest, and lashed out with [Blood Whip], but Long Zhiyuan sprang back at her with a skill enhanced lunge and slashed out with his trademark flaming claws, catching Liz in the face despite her attempted dodge.

Her helmet crumpled in, and Matt winced as he saw the double break on her jawbone. It was healable, but Liz would be in pain whenever she ate for at least the next week.

Long Zhiyuan took advantage of Liz staggering back to continue his retreat, but Matt cut him off with a [Crescent Sweep] combined with a quick [Mana Charge], throwing the sword with everything he had.

It spun through an arc to blow through the latest shield that Long Zhiyuan had thrown up before biting deeply into his back.

As Matt’s blade completed its arc and returned to him, he caught it and raced forward.

In theory, he could use the skill while moving, but it was his first time casting the skill in true combat, and he didn’t have that level of control yet, forcing him to pause.

Still, Aster was right there and picked up the slack, catching Long Zhiyuan in his good leg with a burst of [Snowbank] to cover him in clinging frost.

Susanne reappeared from somewhere, with her sword inches away from bisecting the Young Master when lightning flashed around the man. He teleported just out of range, and he narrowly avoided falling on his face as he redoubled his speed.

Liz was already back on her feet, and threw her spear at his fleeing form, guiding it with [Blood Manipulation].

Long Zhiyuan proved he was a top-tier Young Master as he dodged the attack at his back, and in his roll, sent out an enlarged claw strike empowered with earth mana at Aster. Matt retrieved and triggered a talisman to block the strike without breaking stride, allowing Aster to land an [Ice Spear] on the Young Master’s chest.

Aster jumped on Susanne's shoulder and started pulling ice and snow from the adjoining ruin, throwing it at the fleeing man and encasing him utterly, literally freezing him in place. It didn’t hold for very long, as Long Zhiyuan erupted from captivity in a burst of flames, using the explosion to boost his speed and further the distance between them. He looked fairly singed and still had some ice clinging to him, but wind and fire whipped around him, lengthening his stride tenfold.

Matt redirected most of his mana to the combination of buffs that boosted his physical speed, sent the rest to [Air Manipulation], and took off after the Young Master. Just as he got close enough for an attack, ten new points of Genesis Energy appeared in the distance.

With the newfound urgency of needing to kill Long Zhiyuan before they entered into a larger melee, Matt swung a glowing sword at the Young Master’s neck, only to have it blocked as he raised his left arm between the blade and his head.

Whatever skills and equipment the man had was enough to stop the strike cold, but given the way his arm fell afterwards, it was at least broken. A good wound, and the man shouted in pain and annoyance as his defensive robe was torn. Then the new team of ten reached them, and Matt lost the opportunity to finish off his opponent.

Between their gear and the way they composed themselves, Matt recognized them as akin to the team of ten they’d encountered in the previous floor. Perhaps they were part of the same training regiment, or some Guild was trying to optimize their participation. In either case, Matt wasn’t too concerned about the risk they posed as they struck.

He was wrong.

Very wrong.

They focused on him, since he was somewhat isolated from his team, but didn’t seem worried about hitting Long Zhiyuan in the crossfire. The Young Master used the opportunity to retreat to the portion of the ruin he had already cleared, scrambling on three limbs- and cradling his mangled arm- to escape.

Matt brought up a [Bulwark] to block the first pair of attacks- a white spear and a tiny fireball that his spiritual sense veritably screamed was dangerous.

The white spear partially penetrated [Bulwark] without breaking the spell, but got stuck before it could pass all the way through. The fireball wasn’t even slowed down by the shield, passing through it as though it were a mirage. It didn’t strike- Matt had already shifted to dodge it- but as it detonated against part of the scenery behind him, it felt less like a [Fireball] and more like a miniature sun flickering into existence.

He responded with a flurry of [Fireball]s himself, like so many glittering stars, but one of the team’s mages deflected them upwards with a dismissive wave of their hand. Given just how quickly they’d been wrenched from his grasp, Matt assessed that mage as a dedicated pyromancer, and a good one at that. They may not have had quite the same finesse that Liz did- Torch could steal a fireball from him without him even noticing- but they had the power to more than make up for it.

He sent his assessment to the rest of his team and started pouring willpower into his AI. Minkalla lifted its restrictions on it, and it sped up accordingly, swiftly creating, discarding, and improving battle plans about as quickly as he could think.

Both attacks showed substantial armor penetration capabilities and were about as strong as he’d seen at his Tier. All of their gear was high quality, but not mastercrafted, and definitely seemed to prioritize some level of visual conformity, favoring a particular shade of royal blue that Matt didn’t recognize as associated with any major factions. However, there were definite concessions made to individual functionality. Four had enchantments that were more mage-like in nature, five were more geared towards physical defense, with heavy armor plates that more than likely indicated warrior combat styles, and the tenth Matt couldn’t quite pin down. His outfit was decorated with more silver buttons than his peers, while the fabric itself shone and shimmered in a way he couldn’t quite follow. Their gear was similarly mismatched- two carried swords, one was unarmed, one had only a shield, one wore spiked gauntlets, and the final attacker carried a glaive with a handle that doubled as a potent staff. The mages also had their own gear- two staves, one wand, and one crystal orb that floated at head height.

Their gear was exceptionally well-maintained in a way that spoke to the degree of reverence they held for their tools, but Matt could pick out the faint traces of blood left on some of their weapons that spun tales of a lot of bloodshed, not that he expected anything else.

He dropped [Bulwark] as he started to fall back to the rest of his team, and the white spear embedded in it vanished in a flurry of sparks, reappearing as a bolt of lightning in the hands of the unarmed warrior, who promptly threw it once more.

Lightning crackled along its length and shot out from the sides, connecting the projectile with its surroundings and its thrower, with each tiny bolt accelerating it more and more. His AI warned him that it was starting to bend mid-flight, but pointed out several safe zones he could escape to, and Matt quickly positioned himself into one of them. True to his AI’s prediction, the spear bent towards him, but it couldn’t redirect itself as much as it needed to strike him, and it obliterated a tree nearby instead.

He had enough of a head start to make it back to the rest of his group before the squad of ten first caught up with him, but as he took the final step to rejoin the circle, Matt found himself going in the wrong direction. He suddenly became very, very disoriented, and crashed to the ground.

He broke out of the dizzy spell in less than a second, but the first thing he could process was a foot mere inches from his face. It smashed into his mouth, and while [Cracked Phantom Armor] stayed firm, the kick’s energy passed straight through it and his mask alike, shattering and caving in several of his teeth.

Matt spat blood and teeth onto the ground, then rolled over to block a punch aimed at his head with [Bulwark]. The spell held firm, but the impact sent reverberations vibrating through his magic, disrupting the spell and giving Matt an odd sort of headache.

Not wanting to take the second hit from the next man thrusting out with his sword, Matt cast [Icicle] at his crotch, causing the man to flinch back.

With that opening, Matt was able to stand and cast [Sword Twin] twice by draining most of his mana stone reserves, and with two copies of his blade floating out and giving him some cover, he cast [Wind Cutter] at the man with the armor bypassing ability.

The man dodged the slash of wind, but before Matt could follow up, one of the swordswomen rushed forward, intercepted one of his blade copies with her shield, and cut out at Matt with her own blade while the other man slashed out with a fire spell.

Matt twisted, dodging and blocking the two attacks, but opened himself up to a rib punch from the gauntleted man, sending painful vibrations through his entire body and disorienting him enough that his counterattack was easily dodged. A high-powered pulse of [Endurance] cleared his head, just in time to take a [Shield Bash] to the face.

It broke [Cracked Phantom Armor] but was stopped by his helm, which still painfully aggravated his unusually empty mouth, knocking his head backwards even as his primary armor reformed around him.

With a flare of his gravity gauntlets, he pulled the man into a pommel strike that should have broken bones, but his attack bounced off with a dull ring and earned him a kick to the knee for his trouble. It didn’t shatter the bone outright, but Matt felt fractures spread across it.

He jumped back, favoring his uninjured knee, and threw out a [Mana Slash] to intercept a dangerous [Fireball] he felt shooting towards his back. It detonated in a way not common to the skill, with a lingering miasmic cloud of violet flames expanding out, connecting with [Cracked Phantom Armor] and setting the skill on fire.

It dealt hefty damage to the defensive skill, but not enough to burn through Matt’s outer layer. [Analyze] revealed that the attack was something optimized for burning out enchantments and skills in part through mana exhaustion, which didn’t bother him.

The spell still clung to him like tar, but he was able to functionally ignore the flames while dealing with the swordswoman, who sent a series of tight cuts at him from behind her shield.

With little exposed to his angle, Matt sent one of his [Sword Twin] copies at the woman while he sent the other at the pugilist, countering his lack of weapon.

It worked. Sort of.

The brawler took a small cut to his shoulder, but retaliated with a punch that shattered the spell. They withdrew to the wanded mage, who started healing them, but that still left Matt in a two versus one, and a quick glance through his AI confirmed that the others weren’t doing much better. As the brawler was replaced by the shield-only fighter, Matt made a decision, one echoed almost immediately by Liz. “Retreat! We’re not winning this fight.”

A [Cracked Mana Spear] pierced the swordswoman’s chest and heart, but the healer, having just finished mending their brawler, had a spell already working on her wound, and the lack of Genesis Energy confirmed that the attack failed.

He recast the spell, but the shield wielder intercepted it, reflecting the beam back at Matt and nearly hitting him in the face, all the while sticking close and preventing him from casting the spell once more.

Matt cursed and struck out at the shield-wielder. They blocked, naturally, but he took the momentary distraction as an opportunity to flee. A teleport brought him above the group, and he used [Air Manipulation] to grab at the winds around him and blow himself away, just behind the rest of his team.

His spiritual perception warned him to dodge as the white spear screamed through where he had been right before his teleportation, and he responded with a [Wind Cutter] at the line of attackers who were already chasing them down.

The fire mage unleashed a river of flame at them, wider than Matt was tall and burning everything in its path to a cinder. As it approached, the heat coming off it felt like standing in front of a blast furnace, and he started summoning some water to protect himself as he used his own fire skills to contest control of the attack. With a wave of her hand, Liz threw half her remaining mana pool to [Fire Manipulation], seizing control over just enough of the onrushing inferno to divert it around them, like water passing around a rock. It had the benefit of concealing their exact position, but the move forced all four of them into tight proximity.

As the flames died down, a small barrage of magical arrows fell from the sky. Aster was able to blow most of the projectiles off-course with [Cross Wind], with Queen cutting down the few that made it through without so much as breaking stride.

A few thousand feet later, the spear shot through their midst with a crack of thunder, but this time, its wielder teleported to it instead, appearing next to Susanne and Aster while trying to skewer the former. The strike connected, and Susanne stumbled and nearly tripped over her own feet. Aster, riding on her shoulder, went flying, but still retaliated with an [Ice Spear] while Matt scooped up Susanne with his [Air Manipulation] until she could regain her footing. By his AI’s reading, she’d used her [Cracked Second Wind] to recover from the injury, and he let her resume her run.

Liz hadn’t been idle, and had simply tripped the spear warrior with a [Blood Whip], making them stumble enough to fall behind their retreat. Matt contributed with an overloaded [Cracked Mana Spear], and while the shield-user reflected much of the attack, he did hit two of the group located more towards the edge of their formation.

That was enough to get their pursuers to slow down as they grabbed their wounded and tightened up ranks against further attacks, but Matt still felt an arrow break both [Cracked Phantom Armor] and his physical armor, leaving a graze against his flank, but otherwise left him no worse for wear. He started pulling out talismans and dumping huge quantities of mana into skills to slow the pursuers down. He produced thousands and thousands of gallons of water appearing in a flood behind him, hail rained down in sheets to block their sight and movement, and the earth heaved itself up to create barricades and pitfalls. Aster sent a [Tornado] into their ranks, which they elected to scatter around rather than directly contest, and a [Wind Lance] knocked one cultivator out of the sky who was trying to fly over Matt’s obstructions.

At the same time, Susanne used [Mana Blade] to lengthen her sword, then felled clusters of trees for Matt to throw at the group chasing them.

Their pursuers proved their prowess by dodging, leaping over, or blasting through everything his team could throw in their way. Against anyone else, he would appreciate the skill they displayed, nearly doing an obstacle course at a dead sprint. But at the moment, all he wanted was for them to find someone easier to chase after.

The next arrow was aimed at Liz, prompting Matt to block the shot with a massive [Bulwark] behind them. His shield virtually exploded as it stopped the blinding arrow from getting any closer to his team, and he heard the splinters of the arrow ping harmlessly off his armor. The skill was thoroughly shattered in his spirit, more than he had felt in years, and it would take a few minutes for it to reform enough to be usable. Minutes which he didn’t have.

The four of them passed through a narrower portion of the ruin with large stone walls that they had chased Long Zhiyuan through not a dozen minutes before. Matt used [Earth Manipulation] to collapse the walls, but that barely slowed their pursuers, who simply blew through the barriers and sent rubble flying.

Of course, that meant they hadn’t seen the minefield of talismans that Matt had dropped when they barreled ahead with the force of a rampaging dragon.

Elemental explosions triggered all around them- clouds of acid, mountains of stone and ice, hurricane-force winds, raw kinetic force, chains of lightning, and flashbangs that rapidly alternated between casting darkness and light. He’d been forced to use nearly all of his remaining proximity-triggered talismans in the maneuver, but it managed to further the gap between them all the more. Most of the group was stopped, and only two of them- the spear warrior and the fire mage- kept pace.

Liz dropped a [Blood Chakram] behind her, paired with a small barrage of [Blood Bullets].

A burst of flame evaporated most of the projectiles, but it critically slowed them down.

Before they were able to capitalize on it, the spear wielder once more threw and then teleported to his weapon, despite Matt and Aster’s spatial lockdown. But this time, he arrived next to Matt, who met the man's thrust with a flare of his repulsion field and a burst of [Cracked Mana Spear] directed at his face.

The man vanished before the attack could land, but Matt didn’t pause in his desperate sprint.

He left a few more [Cracked Mana Trap]s in his wake, and was forced to sweep [Cracked Mana Spear] a couple more times to preserve their lead, but they eventually managed to make it to the blizzard ruin. Susanne fell to her knees and Liz moved to check on her, but Matt and Aster couldn’t afford the luxury of pausing. The two of them worked to create a massive dome of ice around themselves, compacting it and strengthening it as much as possible.

It took what felt like forever for the team to reappear, with all ten having regrouped and unerringly following his own team. Matt tried to resist as the fire mage burned through their icy shelter, but lost the battle within seconds.

Still, that wasn’t his main aim. He’d directed enough mana into the ever-raging blizzard around them that each snowflake was more like a sharpened needle, and they dug at and picked into the group’s skin and eyes.

They staggered back, trying to defend against a hundred thousand insect-sized attackers, and Liz finally managed to drape Susanne’s arm over her shoulders, the two of them continuing the flight deeper into the blizzard ruin.

Matt didn’t relent, instead redoubling the amount of effort he was putting into attacking the team of ten. They struck out at him, but he was never where they expected. He was the Herald of Winter, and that meant something. From needles to mana stones, then mana stones to daggers, the shards of ice kept growing and getting stronger. Aster threw in her own contributions, directing actual skill attacks and her own Concept to further empower the ruin itself.

Eventually, between the ruin’s natural blizzard, Matt and Aster making it so much worse, and a group of reflections that attacked them, the ten broke off their pursuit. After waiting for a few moments to ensure that it wasn’t just a trick, Matt and Aster took off to rejoin the others

Thankfully, they were able to quickly find where the ladies had wound up, and used [Ice Manipulation] to avoid any reflections that might have attacked them.

It took them a little while, but they eventually found their way out of the wintery area, and after running through another two ruins, they found a safe cave to hide in. As an extra precaution, Matt covered the entrance over with [Earth Manipulation].

Dropping their house, Matt and the others could finally relax, and they all collectively dropped.

Aster looked absolutely awful. Half of her fur had been burned off, and her tail had been fully incinerated, but she was still the first to speak. “What was that team? Were they secretly Tier 14s?”

No one had an answer, but Matt crawled to his knees and over to Susanne, who his AI said was in the worst shape. She wasn’t dying, but it seemed like she’d spent most of her [Cracked Second Wind] healing trying to get her back into running shape. The skill could return her to prime health… if she had enough mana reserved in it, and the wounds she’d taken had clearly outstripped it by a large margin.

Most critically, her armor had been damaged enough that it was tearing into her body with every movement. Beyond that, half of her face had been burned off. Her eye was in surprisingly good condition- probably restored by [Cracked Second Wind]- but her ear was a charred, shriveled lump of flesh, most of her hair was gone, and her mask was flickering and nearly failing. It looked like she’d taken a [Flamethrower] to her face while Aster had been on her shoulder. Still, while the burn was perhaps the most visual injury, the fragments of metal cutting into Susanne’s body with every passing second were higher priority.

Not bothering to get her onto the table, Matt started pulling off her armor and said. “Bwe beed bo—”

Pausing as he ran his tongue over his now shattered teeth, he concentrated and carefully enunciated. “We need. To. Get the metal. Out of her wound. Every. Time. Shaeeah- she moves, it ish mahking it worse.”

Despite having a broken jaw and hand, as well as missing massive strips of skin from her forearm, which were temporarily patched up with [Bandage], Liz crawled over and assisted him. In just half an hour of frantic work, they had Susanne closed back up.

He couldn't do much more than dump a healing potion over the charred portions of her head and neck, but it wouldn’t be hard to keep them from getting infected. And with that taken care of, the rest of her burns were fairly superficial.

Aster had gotten it much worse. The only reason she’d been able to keep fighting was a newer use of her Concept that she had developed, which let her ‘freeze’ her sense of pain. It didn’t provide any healing, but it did make cleaning out her newly-textured hide less painful for the both of them. Once she was relaxing in a sink full of ice water after the worst of her burns had been cleaned out, they dug through their supplies for salves to heal burns and delicately applied them to the ravaged skin. Only after she had been properly treated and medicated did Aster release her hold on her Concept, and Matt felt a dull wave of pain through their bond.

With the worst of the injuries taken care of, he turned to Liz and helped her remove her helm and then carefully examined her jaw.

Long Zhiyuan had done a number on her, and had shattered her jaw in two places.

It wasn’t pleasant, but he helped Liz set the bone before casting [Ranged Heal] and [Bandage] on the wound, allowing her to work her own magic with relative ease.

Her hand and arm weren’t quite so bad, but it was unfortunately her left arm, which was still on healing cooldown from when it was regrown just a few weeks earlier. They couldn’t do much more than wrap and splint it to keep it from getting any worse, but Matt was no healer, and he felt like he might have aggravated the entire limb with his clumsy efforts with [Ranged Heal]. Liz was also burning some of her blood to regrow the skin she’d lost, but she simply didn’t have enough to spare to do much more than encourage it to scab over.

After helping her, Matt returned to Aster, who had curled up underwater, licking the stump where her tail once was.

She looked up to him with watery eyes and asked, “Are you ok?”

That caused Matt to choke up, and he forced out a smile- realizing a moment later that the gesture may not have been reassuring- and said, “Ahm fine. How abo’ you?”

He’d adjust to the missing teeth soon, but talking would feel weird until they left the planet and he got them regrown.

Aster shook her head. “They burnt my fur and killed my tail.”

Through their connection, Matt could feel how devastated she really was, and despite her trying to put up a brave front, he could tell this was getting to her. She had been burnt before, with damage worse than this, but they were always near a healer, where they could fix the damage and then Liz could pour a hair growth potion on her to get her good as new.

But inside Minkalla, using a potion like that was both frivolous and dangerous. A hair growth potion was technically a healing potion, and would add some healing cooldown to her already stressed body.

Essentially, Aster was going to have to stay like this.

He reached out to pet her, but she flinched away and said, “I’m not pretty enough to pet.”

Matt ignored her as he scratched the top of her head, careful not to disturb her burns, and pulled her out of the sink to work more healing lotion into her leathery and charred flesh.

While he worked he murmured words of comfort to her, which eventually put her to sleep.

With her taken care of, he got to his feet and stumbled to the bathroom, and proceeded to pull out the remaining lumps of enamel that remained from his front teeth.

It was excruciatingly painful, but he suffered in silence. The others were all passed out and needed their rest.

After downing a healing potion and casting [Bandage] on his ribs, he put his armor back on and stood guard while the others rested.

As he sat there, he meditated on the disastrous fight. Without his AI able to record, he couldn’t review it directly, but Tier 11 memory was essentially flawless for short-term situations.

Long Zhiyuan likely hadn’t meant to lead him into an ambush, but it wasn’t impossible. Meanwhile, the ten were definitely connected to the ones they’d fought earlier and that Claude had warned them about, but they were still substantially superior to the previous group. Any two of them were easily a match for anyone on Matt’s team. In an even fight, Matt felt like his team probably would have a slight edge, but they were outnumbered more than two to one, so they never really stood a chance.

Their coordination and teamwork had been exceptional as well. Not flawless, but for such a large team to perfectly weave spells and attacks without ever once interfering with plans or blocking lines of attack was extraordinary, to say nothing of the gear they’d been using. Their bodies were tougher, their magic was extraordinarily powerful, and they almost seemed to move as a single unit.

He wasn’t sure if it was a new type of death squad, but he shuddered to think of what they could have done if they were Tier 14 instead of alleged Tier 12s.

The four of them would have almost certainly died if that had been the case.

Again, he thought about Tiering up, but he shied away from the idea.

Had they come this far just to fail and Tier up at the last possible moment?

Matt rejected that notion.

It had just been one bad fight, after a long string of victories through Minkalla. There had been setbacks of various degrees, less than total wins, but they had conquered everything set before them until now, and profited enormously from it.

Except… that was how it almost always was, wasn’t it? There was no gradual increase in challenge until someone found their limit, with the option to leave before they got overwhelmed. For fighting other delvers, most people fared just fine, one way or another, until they ran into one of the big fish in this small pond, and were promptly eaten. Matt had personally ended the lives of dozens without giving them any chance to retreat when it became obvious he would overpower them, to speak nothing of the people who had died near instantly to his more powerful abilities.

They had lost this fight, convincingly, and they had come close to losing much more than that. He could prepare, make items or plans to help counter the group, but they could do the same against him. The biggest change in relative power that might occur in the near future was for members of the opposing group to fail their Folded Reflections challenge, and have their Concepts replaced with ones that were worse and unfamiliar to them.

It was something of a distant hope, but always possible.

Better skills and items for escape were feasible though, and that was something he could definitely work on before any more encounters.

Even if it meant they would just run away faster next time, instead of standing their ground. Long Zhiuyan had proved the efficacy of that strategy, and it was something they’d outright practiced for. Minkalla was eminently survivable, so long as you were careful to not overextend. It was a hard thing to balance, since he didn’t want to escape from his fight against his copy at the end of the floor. He needed to win, and without serious injury.

Still, Matt was worried.

They had taken serious injuries during this fight that would take weeks, if not months, to recover from. At least for the injuries they could heal.

Aster’s tail wouldn't be regrowing until they got her to a proper healer, and while Liz’s enhanced healing meant that she’d have basically full functionality within a few days, he wouldn’t be surprised if it would be sore for months, or effectively the entire rest of the time they were in Minkalla. His own teeth were gone as well, but that felt less important for the time they had.

Thinking of time, he pulled out the hourglass from their earlier delve and sent mana into it.

The spiritual strain was instantly noticeable, but he pushed through it and focused on meditating through the growing uncomfortableness. The others would be dealing with the same strain, but he was the only one with a skill that seriously stressed his spirit, which limited how much he could use the item right now.

He wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long, but it allowed his team to recover that bit faster, which might mean the difference between life and death in the next encounter.

Pain was nothing new to Matt.

Discomfort was an old friend.

Seeing his friends so badly hurt was unacceptable.

He was durable and hard to kill; he should have been the one to take those blows.

Despite knowing how unrealistic it was, he wanted to be the center of the battlefield. If everyone was focused on him, they wouldn’t be attacking Liz and Aster.

He hadn’t even seen the attack that had so badly burned Susanne and Aster, and that ate at him.

Matt didn’t have an easy answer, but he was used to working through problems and started figuring out ways to draw all the attention, and therefore attacks, to himself.

His gravity gauntlets were a good start, and with the cultivation core of the black hole, he had a few ideas sparking. He also really needed to improve the second set of enchantments on his sword, and seeing Long Zhiyuan’s armor in action today had given him some interesting prospects.

While the others slept, he started tinkering.