The Path of Ascension

The finals of the mini gauntlet were wrapping up, with Matt as an enthralled onlooker. The top ten in the rankings were mostly made up of Republican delvers and Empire guilders. The lesser guilds and people on The Path were unable to keep up with the gear and skills of those delvers with wealthy backings.

Liz told him that this would change when people on The Path hit Tier 8, and could round out their skill set a bit. Until then, the wealth disparity put them at a pretty substantial disadvantage.

Once the ground was made up, starting around Tier 8, those that remained on The Path were usually able to beat out the common delvers at their own Tier. Matt was looking forward to watching the higher tiered delvers display those rounded out abilities and synergies.

The current fight was a duel between two melee fighters. One had an axe, with a blade that was enlarged with some skill. Maybe [Mana Blade] or some other enlargement variant. The second was a heavy tank, with a massive set of armor on. The tank also had summoned a golden barrier that hugged their form.

Matt didn’t know if it was an enchantment to the armor or a skill, but the barrier was rendering the axe man’s blows ineffective. The axe wielder was using a [Momentum Charge] skill. His weapon was glowing brighter and brighter, absorbing the momentum from each blow.

The axeman also had a movement skill that allowed him massive bursts of speed. With it, he was able to circle the tank with ease, but he was still unable to break the tank’s light barrier.

When the enlarged axe slammed down on the tank’s leg once more, the light in the blade flashed, and golden sparks from the barrier exploded from the impact. The light show was accompanied by the screeching of metal against metal, mixed with screams of agony from the tank. His leg was chopped clean through.

As the tank collapsed from his lack of lower extremity, he brought his mace down with a vicious strike towards the head of the axe wielder. As the heavy weapon approached, it glowed with a skill that radiated intense power. It appeared to be increasing the weight of the mace with the momentum of the wielder's swing. The weapon became a meteor that would annihilate the axe man.

Matt was nearly out of his seat when the referee sprung into action, and was suddenly holding the mace with a glowing, gauntleted fist.

Matt let out a breath once he realized the attempted murder was thwarted. This particular referee was in charge of overseeing each of the top ten matches, and had introduced himself as a Tier 15.

As he held the mace aloft, he called out, “Winner. The Republics Mavuli. As he's going to be healing that leg for a while. He's, unfortunately, unable to continue, and will finish the tournament in third place. Give him a round of applause.”

The republic side’s cheering was loud enough that the floor began to vibrate under Matt’s feet.

“In fourth place, we have Oposio. Give him a cheer for breaking through Mavuli’s defenses.”

Matt, along with everyone on The Empire's side, clapped for their own, but with much less enthusiasm. He had lost after all. A top five finish meant that he would receive a satisfactory reward. Still, it was a cruel twist of fate to lose at the last second, after finally getting through your opponents armor.

The next two fighters were what Matt and the rest of the crowd were truly looking forward to. It was a match between the best of the Republic’s bracket and the best of the Empire’s.

On the Republic's side, a man dressed in only the sheerest cloth bodysuit stood, wielding a thin saber variant. He didn't seem to care all that much about the blade, as he twisted its point into the floor of the hard arena. It made Matt wince. Even with enchantments, it was still a terrible habit for a swordsman to have.

The Empire’s competitor was a tall, thin girl. She had an absolutely massive longbow strapped to her back.

The announcer introduced the combatants as the entire arena, including all seven platforms hosting the previous bouts, slowly merged into one grand stage.

“On The Republic’s side, we have Jay, Tier 4. A genius who only uses a saber with the applicable skills.”

With a point to the tall girl, he directed everyone’s attention to her. “Lilly, Tier 5. A prodigy with the bow. This will be a fight to remember.”

Jay nodded to his competitor, and Lilly returned his goodwill with a wave.

Once the countdown hit zero, Lilly jumped high into the air. At the top of her impressive jump, she jumped again, without descending. Ripples flowed outwards from her footfalls in the air, mimicking a pebble dropped into water.

Matt looked to Liz, “Hey, is that our [Puddle Jumper]?”

Liz never took her eyes off the fight, and Matt returned his attention to the arena as well. “It could be her own. But if it is our skill, she’s doing one of two things. Either she just cycled it right to her outer spirit, and is taking a heavy penalty to the skill, or she used a Tier 20 rift reward that lets skills get absorbed incredibly fast. Problem with that is, you can only use one per Tier, and you can’t absorb any new skills while at that Tier. Not a big deal at lower Tiers where you can advance quickly, but at the higher Tiers it can really hurt.”

The archer was now fifteen feet in the air and gliding horizontally, not losing an inch of altitude. Looking closer, Matt saw that her boots were glowing. They weren't the boots he had sold, but the enchantment seemed similar.

She nocked an arrow with no head, and with a glowing hand, pulled the bowstring back.

Jay hadn’t moved an inch from his starting position. He wasn't even looking up at the archer taking aim at him. His gaze seemed to be focused far beyond the arena.

When the arrow slammed down, he took a casual step to the side, and the arrow impaled the ground where he previously stood.

How did her arrow pierce the ground?

Matt looked away from the catatonic Jay and to the floating Lilly. When she launched the next arrow, he saw a tiny arrowhead appear on the empty shaft. It was the purple-black of void.

Ah. Well, that explains it.

Mystery solved, he watched Jay casually sidestep the next arrow as well.

The third arrow Jay slashed out at with his saber. Instead of blowing a hole through the blade as Matt expected, the arrow was knocked out of the air with the flat of his saber.

Liz let out an audible gasp of approval.

Eyes glued to the stage, he asked, “Explain please?”

“He's feeling out a saber Concept. He's touching upon it. That explains why he's doing so well as a peak Tier 4, even against all these Tier 5’s. He's definitely halted his advancement if he's this close.”

At those words, he looked to the floating platform with the two Tier 25’s. Driver from Dual Stars had a blank face, but the woman from the Republic had a smile so wide, it looked like it hurt.

Matt thought out loud, “So even if he loses this duel, he’s still a better prospect for future growth than Lilly, who’s relying on skills and equipment to advance.”

“Yup. The Republic couldn't care less if he loses this fight. Even against a void archer, the Tier 15 can protect him. The worst case here is that he just doesn’t form the Concept. He needs to break through the moment and crystalize the Concept.” She looked to him for a moment before finishing, “When you’re touching on a Concept, it blurs the mind, until you get a good idea of the Concept that resonates with you.”

“Common practice is to go with a phrase and an image. Once you get one or the other firmly set, the memory problems stop.”

“Did your parents tell you this?” Matt saw it as the only way she should know this.

“Kinda. I knew my Concept from the age of nine. Mine is ‘Rebirth Through Blood.’ It was ‘Rebirth Through Fire’ before my Talent, but that was a pretty easy shift.”

That got Matt’s attention away from the current stalemate, and he shifted in his seat to look at the blood mage next to him.

“I thought you could only get one at peak Tier 4.”

“Na you can get one at any time. I've always identified with that part of my bloodline. My parents picked up on what was happening because of my reactions to any phoenix using fire around me. My Talent changed the image and phrase I use, but it was a small change honestly.”

Matt was surprised, he never would’ve guessed that she was that far ahead of him. “So having a bloodline helps with Concepts...” A small part of him felt bitter about that.

“They can,” Liz shrugged, “For most people, it’s so simple. Even I will have a slight problem with manifesting my Intent. I'm starting really specific, but I have to decide how I’ll grow the concept. Do I go with the rebirth or the blood sides? Or maybe I'll figure out a way to keep them paired.”

“Still better than me. I'll need to use the fake one and purge later.”

Before he could feel sore about that, Liz rolled her eyes. “Matt you're already touching on one. My Concept reacted with yours.”

“Wait what?” He didn't believe it. He didn't feel anything… Then he remembered the talk about memory issues. Did he find something? He went over the fight and didn’t know what his revelation was. Nothing came to mind.

“Don't worry, I'll teach you some meditation techniques that can help. Worst comes to worst, we do what he's doing, and shove you into combat and wait for it to click.”

That only slightly eased his misgivings about his possible Concept. Matt felt for an idea that described his fights. Was it his longsword? He had always felt the sword was a natural extension of himself. The dance it required was so easy to slip into.

But that didn't make sense if it was resonating in the last fight. He was only using his fists.

Armor, maybe? That didn't feel right either. His armor was the core of his fighting style, but he didn’t feel like it defined him.

The fight at the arena heated up, and he threw the Concept thoughts to the back of his mind. Maybe watching this fight would help.

Lilly was still at her twenty-foot floating altitude. There was a blast of pressure from her bow, as a massive arrowhead coalesced, and ripped towards her nonplussed opponent.

As Matt took in the scene, he noticed the referee preparing to intervene, but suddenly, Driver was in front of him with an arm raised.

The Tier 25 Republic woman was next to Jay, who still had his eyes closed. As the arrow approached, a blast of energy exploded outward from the still stoic Jay. The woman deftly hopped back out of the stage with a laugh, as Jay’s breakthrough into Tier 5 started. With a single sword stroke, he sliced the incoming arrow into splinters.

Jay looked up at his adversary and said, “Thank you. I don't think I could've done this without the pressure of an opponent I couldn't hit.”

With that, he slashed out with his sword, and a [Mana Blade] arced out.

The skill screamed with a ferocity it shouldn't be capable of at that Tier. There was even a tinge of silver where the ‘blade’ would be in the light blue arc of unaspected mana.

Lilly jumped again to dodge the attack. Her face was pinched, lips pursed to show her displeasure.

Matt wasn't sure if she was trying to save face when she said “Well now that you’re ready, I can actually bring out my full skill.”

Lilly then drew a familiar rapier from out of nowhere.

Matt looked over at Liz. “How’d she do that?”

“She's using a specialized storage ring. They are custom made to a single weapon, and that’s all they can hold. But they are usable by people below Tier 15. She really is someone's kid to have that kind of equipment.”

With the bow placed over her shoulder, Lilly stabbed out with the void sword.

Nothing happened.

A moment later, she dropped the weapon, and it floated down to the arena floor. Suddenly, it shot towards Jay and started attacking, almost as if by its own accord.

[Animate Weapon] was a Tier 26 skill.

How did she use that skill? It has a multi-thousand mana cost.

Matt checked his AI, and it confirmed what he believed to be true. She must have absorbed a ton of rift mana stones to keep all the skills active.

She is literally burning money.

Matt almost felt bad for Jay. The talented swordsman was having a hard time striking out at the floating girl and fending off her bonded weapon at once. The void was eating at his blade when he didn't reinforce it with his Concept.

When the blade was covered with the silvery light he was able to parry every attack thrown at him. But when the light flickered, his weapon took the brunt of the damage.

Lilly was sweating heavily, and with great heaving breaths, she drew back another arrow and launched it at the dodging Jay.

This time, the Tier 15 was allowed to intervene. He snatched the arrow out of the air and swatted the floating sword down to the floor in one swift motion.

With a booming laugh, he said, “Well done to both competitors.” He turned to the swordsman next to him. “Jay may have lost, but he performed splendidly, and I'm sure he'll have a bright future. Give him a cheer for breaking through in the middle of a fight.”

The referee started giving congratulations to Lilly, who had floated down at this point.

Matt, not caring to see the grandstanding, turned to Liz and asked, “Why didn't they mention his Concept? And why stop the fight so early? He seemed like he had more to give.”

Liz stood and he followed suit. “Nah, his control was shoddy at best, and he finished the hard part. The Republic considers this a win. Lilly will get a slightly better prize, but she has so many skills and items, it won’t mean much to her. The prize will be capped at Tier 14. I’m sure she could buy anything at that Tier.”

Matt's thoughts turned contemplative. The Republic had just acquired a strong competitor. Though they may have lost the tournament, in the end they came out ahead.

Matt and Liz found a platform boat and left the large, joined platforms that made up the arena. They slipped into the boat and were quickly taken to the dock.

Aster did her best impression of a figurehead, trying to catch the breeze.

When they arrived back in the city, they found a sit down diner and ate a hearty meal before they called it a night.

The next day mostly consisted of waiting around for their respective skills to cycle. Matt went to the gym that the guild had set up. He wanted to get a benchmark for all of his lifts and punching power. Liz joined him, but had a smile when he asked why.

He wasn't sure what [Create Blood] could do for her lifting power, but it was nice to have someone to work out with.

As they were exercising, Matt's mind drifted to his time at the orphanage. When they were young they were forced to work out and exercise. When they were 10, minimal lifting was added. The programs were mostly just games that encouraged movement and coordination.

When the combat training started, they were given far stricter training, and he remembered hating every minute spent in the gym. Now, it was a different, better form of progress. Lift heavier things, stretch a little farther.

It was another form of cultivation. A bit slower than allocating essence, but the results were just as tangible.

When they had concluded their workouts, and were finished reviewing their AIs’ recordings of their lifts, they spent the next three hours scouring for crafters and non combatants. They were looking for someone who could find Liz’s bag in the landslide.

It was a slow process, and it wasn’t going well. Even with guild access, they couldn’t find a roster with a list of skills and Talents. The posting they put on the LocalNet was purposely vague, as they didn't want to put out the info that there was a missing spatial bag ready to be stolen.

Liz was talking to an Alchemist, while Matt looked over his potions and pills.

“Well, can you pare down a few dozen meters in the dirt?”

“Well, maybe.”

“That’s a yes or no question. What does ‘maybe’ mean?”

“Well, I would need to know where, and what I'm looking for.”

Matt tuned everything else the man said out. That was a common enough response. Some might actually need the information, but most wanted to see if there was something worth jumping out to steal for themselves.

The alchemist had an interesting variety of wares to look at. Matt was even thinking of buying a potion that increased proprioception and flexibility. It seemed useful. The other potion he wanted was a durability potion that would increase a person's durability by ten percent for an hour. The price of five Tier 5 mana stones was just too high to be worth it, especially for only a temporary boost.

Maybe I'll come back when we decide what rift we'll be delving.

They still hadn't picked a rift, and Liz wanted to focus on getting her bag back this afternoon. It was a slow grind, until they found a carpenter that said he was able to locate an object in a landslide.

After getting confirmation, they were quickly dragged to the teleporter, and traveled to the area they came from. Once there, the man simply sat down and started meditation.

After five minutes of waiting, Matt asked, “You think he's a scam? Or waiting for an ambush?”

Fully armored, and with her new spear at the ready, she said, “He’d better not be, or I'll skewer him.”

It was another twenty minutes later when the man stood up, and sent them an information packet through his AI.

“Found two objects. Here and here. It's up to you to get them out. Payment please.”

He held out his hand, and once the Tier 5 mana stones were given over, he disappeared.

Confirming the man’s abrupt exit through a quick AI scan, the trio started digging. The first item was only fifteen feet down, but it still took them almost five hours of digging to get to it. The rocks were slowing the process down to an unbearable crawl.

In the end, Liz used blood to move most of the earth in their way. The first thing they found was the broken remains of her spear. Tossing the useless bits to the side, they continued to make their way deeper into the slope created from the bomb.

When the sun was nearly down, they found the bag. It was covered in dirt, and the strap was ripped, but Liz hugged it.

“Alright let's get out of here.”

Matt agreed, and after picking up Aster, they activated their teleports.

They made their way back to their rented suite, and Liz started going through her bag. It was slightly bigger than his, and chock full of supplies.

She pulled out a gaudy crown that was made out of a black shiny material, and a bar of whitish gold.

“Ha! let's go sell these babies.”

When they reached the guild's inspectors, they found that neither item was particularly valuable.

The crown only protected against mental attacks up to Tier 6, and a guild was only going to buy it for fifteen Tier 5 mana stones. The golden bar was only slightly better, at twenty five Tier 5 mana stones.

They still had Liz’s newly purchased bag as storage now, and they settled in for the night, deciding on what rift they wanted to delve. They were searching for a decent rift with good rewards. The more small monsters they could get per run, the better.

The only advantage of these last few months was that there was no limit on the amount of delves per day. They could accumulate essence at a greater rate this way, compared to a normal rift schedule of once a week to once every three days.

The only way to bypass that roadblock normally was to provide the mana for your run yourself, and that usually took more mana than a typical delver could provide.

It gave Matt an idea for the future. If he could provide the mana without having to drop mana crystals into the rift, he could keep recharging a rift as much as he wanted.

As the mana cost scaled with rift Tier, he might be able to make a good bit of money recharging rifts to bursting.

Or get better rewards for myself.

The selfish thought crossed his mind, but he didn't feel bad for it. At least not for too long. Taking advantage of his Talent was nothing to be ashamed of.

If he could leverage better rewards with his mana, it seemed a worthwhile ability to look into.

***

The next morning, he felt inwards with his spirit sense and discovered [Mages Retreat] firmly entrenched in his inner spirit.

With a quick roll, he was out of bed and knocking on Liz’s door until she woke up.

A bleary eyed blood mage was glaring at him through a crack in the door.

“Come on, skills are ready! Let's go testing.”

The sleepy look faded, as she searched inwards and came to the same conclusion that he did.

“Five minutes. Be ready.” With that, she slammed the door.

Matt hopped in the shower quickly, and got dressed in his under armor bodysuit.

Not immediately activating the skill took self control he didn't know he had. He wanted so badly to test out the skill, but he also wanted to see his AI’s analysis. Getting hard numbers on how the skill improved his performance would be worth the wait.

His childish side couldn't help but to picture all of the things he would smash and bash with his newfound strength.

After a minute of pacing in the living room, he could no longer hold in his impatience, and approached Liz’s door to knock. As he reached out, the door swung open, and out barged the mage. She was dressed in her own under armor, with her red hair tied up.

Traveling at nearly a sprint, they made their way to the guild’s gym and testing hall.

They entered the room and quickly rented out a full training room. Aster, becoming bored of their antics, curled into a ball in the corner, showing her back in displeasure.

Matt fed mana into his new skill with anticipation.

There was a thrumming in his body. The skill was doing something to enhance the effect of his cultivation. Mana was running through his body and seeping into his muscles and bones.

With a deliberate movement, he closed his hand. It felt different. Stronger.

With [Mages Retreat] at its current 2 mana a second, it was giving him a twenty five percent boost to his stats. After setting his stance, he punched the heavy bag with everything he had.

The blow was night and day from the testing he had done yesterday.

Punching the bag hurt. [Mages Retreat] provided mostly a bonus to strength, but also a small boost to durability. It helped to stop the user from tearing themselves apart, but he was far stronger than the average user.

He was putting all of his essence into his physical cultivation thus far, which meant there was much more physical strength increase than the average mage had. This was a percentage boost. The stronger Matt was the more of a boost the skill gave.

Wanting a full test, Matt activated [Cracked Phantom Armor] at 8 mana. With his AI taking up 2 mana a second, he maxed his generation out by dumping his final ten mana a second into [Mages Retreat].

With careful, conscious movements, he set his stance, and with a fifty percent boost to his physicals, he took aim behind the bag and punched through it.

Matt didn't feel any pain thanks to [Cracked Phantom Armor], but his arm was embedded up to his shoulder in the hanging bag. This was a bag rated for Tier 4’s. And with a single blow, he had punched right through it.

He laughed. Laughed until tears streamed down his face.

That caught Liz’s attention. When she saw the bag with a gaping hole, she just shook her head saying, “We're going to have to pay for that now.”

“I can honestly say it will be money well spent.”

Matt looked around, and the world seemed different. Smaller somehow. Like he was the only real thing, and everything else was made of glass.

Is this how higher Tiered people feel?

Matt's thoughts went to his lifting numbers. Some quick lifts showed he was stronger than he had been yesterday.

Running the numbers through his AI, Matt found that with the fifty percent increase, he was twice as strong as a normal Tier 4 melee fighter. That was assuming they had a seventy thirty physical to mana split.

They may only cultivate thirty percent less into physical, but that disparity was magnified with the extra boost [Mages Retreat] gave him.

In the case of a melee fighter putting seventy five percent of their essence into physical, he was exactly twice as strong as they were when using [Mage’s Retreat]. This was a magical feeling. Most mages could only keep this up for a little more than a minute. He could go endlessly.

With gusto, he started lifting all kinds of heavy things and putting them down. It was exhilarating. At least it was, until a glaring weakness of fifty percent increased strength reared its head. It was exhausting. After only a few moments of strain, he was breathing hard. When he truly pushed himself, he was out of breath and sweating profusely after only a few minutes.

Pulling back his mana down to the twenty five percent boost at 2 mana a second made the strain on his body bearable for an extended period of time.

The standard allocation also allowed him to feel the difference between the spirit structures of [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mages Retreat]. [Mages Retreat] had no issue taking all the mana he could give it. Whereas [Cracked Phantom Armor] would overload if he dumped in too much mana.

[Mages Retreat] let the mana flow without a hitch. It highlighted the difference in mana throughput capabilities between even a cracked version of a non channeling skill like [Phantom Armor], and a true channeling skill like [Mage’s Retreat].

Looking over at Liz, he was surprised at what he saw. Where he expected her to be moving and shaping blood with [Create Blood], she was instead doing deadlifts.

Something was wrong, but it took a moment for him to realize what was off. The normally pale skinned redhead was pink and poofy.

“You ok there? You uhhh... Look a little off.” Matt didn't want to offend her, but if she was about to pass out, he wanted to know.

“All good.” Once she dropped the weights he looked over at her barbell. She was lifting a good ten percent more than she was yesterday.

How?

Not receiving an answer, he probed again. “Sooo. How are you increasing your strength like that? Did you get the wrong skill?”

That got a laugh out of her. “No, not at all. I’m blood doping.”

Seeing his look of bewilderment she elaborated, “I’m using [Create Blood] to give myself a blood transfusion. Increasing my red blood cell count, in turn, increases my oxygen capacity. Which lets me push my muscles a little harder.”

“You aren't gonna pop, are you? I don't want to clean up a burst blood balloon.”

“Pshhh. No. If it gets to be too much I can either drain it with a cut, or burn my bloodline to get rid of some of the created blood. It's one hell of a rush though.”

Matt grinned at her. “Wanna fight?”

“Sure, but only if you don't use [Mages Retreat]. Shit, with how you were boosting yourself, they’ll be changing the name to [Matt’s Got Too Much Fucking Mana].”

At that, the grin he was sporting since they entered the training room got even wider.

“Well, never mind then. This sure forces me to get [Endurance] as the Tier 5 reward. This much of a boost exhausts me. Even if the skill doesn’t work so well when used out of its normal context, I’m gonna need it to get the most out of [Mages Retreat].”

“Think I could punch a hole in that stupid lizard fly chimera monster?”

That brought his thoughts to his sword. Maybe he should have gotten it to be even heavier.

Matt had to have his sword. It was Tier 5, and unless some other idiot twisted this one out of shape too, he'd have it for a long while. He wanted to get a feel for the flow of combat with his new weapon. It would take practice to fight with the grace he was accustomed to.

Thinking of the guilder who broke his sword, he smiled. If they fought again, it would look completely different. He could probably punch through the idiot like he had the punching bag.

It was a comforting thought to Matt, as he sucked in breaths in a corner, utterly spent. His heart was still trying to beat itself out of his chest.

“So with all of these new abilities, think we can try for a Tier 5 rift?” Matt wanted to push their limits. They were stronger and more versatile. He was no longer mostly defensive, and Liz wouldn't need to cut herself, or wait for him to kill the first monsters, in order to get rolling.

She scoffed at the idea. “Yeah, no. Tier 4 to Tier 5 is a large jump in difficulty. Most of the rift monsters will have skills, and they’ll have Concepts too. Just because most of The Empire needs prosthetic Concepts, doesn't mean rifts have such limitations. Everything in there will have Concepts that match the type of monster they are.”

Liz flopped down and seemed to deflate a bit. Matt figured she had removed the extra blood running through her veins.

“What we need to do is work on finding out what your Concept is, and then delve ourselves to bursting. It’d be great if we can do so without having to pay for multiple rifts.”

“We still haven't picked out a rift yet. What type are you thinking?”

Liz thought for a moment before saying, “Something with mammals, so I can use their blood.”

“Obviously.”

Liz, from her prone position, flipped him off and continued.

“Second, we need larger, non swarm monsters. More essence per delve that way.”

“Ok. That all makes sense.” Matt mollified her.

“Finally, we need to find one away from the normal clusters of rifts. Finding one in the middle of nowhere would be ideal.”

“Hmm... Why's that?” Liz’s statement took Matt by surprise. He would have thought she'd want to be in the center of things.

“The rift concentrations like the canyon will be hot spots for fights and theft. They’re not what we need to find your revelation. I know some meditations that will help, but time and solitude is really what we need. And besides, we’re in no rush. We’re only 17 and 16.”

“We do have until 21 to hit Tier 5. Oh, That reminds me,” Matt sat up slightly and asked, “How does the essence distribution really work? I thought I'd lose essence delving with you. But it doesn't seem like I do. At least, it doesn't feel like it to me.”

“Think of it like a shovel and bucket. The bucket is your spirit where you store unallocated essence. The shovel is what you can take from any monsters in a rift. You only get one chance to get a shovel full. Each monster has only so much essence. When they die, everyone goes for their own shovel full.”

“There’s too many people, everyone takes the hit. Some monsters have more essence. For example, insects and other swarm monsters have less compared to giant salamanders, but the rift compensates for that lack of essence with numbers. At Tier 4, there’s enough essence for two’ish people. Aster is taking a lot from the bits that she eats, so we really don't feel it.”

Liz finished, “Oh, and bosses always have more essence, and for whatever reason, your ‘shovel’ is able to extract a higher percentage from them.”

Interesting as her little spiel was, it didn’t give Matt the answer he was looking for. “Well that doesn't help us pick a rift.”