The Path of Ascension

Matt sat in the central gathering area. In the last week of delving, someone had created stone tables and chairs. Their creation was a source of entertainment, or problems, depending on how you looked at it.

The raised platform had turned into a debate stage. Currently, there was an incredibly pale man standing across from a magic archer. Matt hadn't caught the archer's name, but the pale man was Brent Corosi.

In theory, the debates were a friendly way to share knowledge and different perspectives. In practice, the platform had been taken over by people debating mana cultivation for the last three hours.

The only thing keeping physical fights from breaking out was that the stage was hardly ever shared by a Republican and an Empire citizen at the same time.

Currently, the archer was trying to say that the standard 1000 mana by Tier 3 was better. He had been repeating the same few points at least half a dozen times now.

"The slight loss to the mana soft cap isn't that bad in the first three Tiers. It's worth the gains in maximum mana to take the mana concentration hit. The loss can be made up for at later Tiers."

Brent refuted the assertion before the archer could meander through the same few talking points again. "No, only getting 800 mana at Tier 3 is far better. Your mana will be a little more concentrated, and then you won't have any loss. Even a few percent of waste per Tier can add up quickly."

"If you used a real weapon and not magic, it wouldn't matter." The archer snapped at the mage, picking on his lack of visible weapons.

"Yeah, well I’m not going to take the word of an idiot archer. Who would choose a bow?"

Matt looked to the only other person on his team that could actually cultivate mana.

"What's your opinion?"

Liz jerked when he asked the question a second time.

"Uhh... What? Sorry I was completely zoned out."

Matt repeated himself, "You know me. What's your take on mana cultivation. Which is right? The guide I read on my home planet went with the archer's strategy."

Liz scoffed at that, "Pshhhhhhh. No. Just no. That strategy gives you a slight advantage in the first five Tiers, sure. But then it corrects itself around Tier 5 or 6, and says to invest heavily in mana concentration to correct the issue. The spirit can only expand so much per Tier. The mage is closer to being right in my opinion. You’re a little weaker in the early stages, but there aren’t any peaks or valleys in strength to work around."

As soon as she finished speaking, she sent a message to him through his AI. 'You probably won't have that issue. You aren't increasing your maximum mana or mana regen the conventional way. Talents are always able to break the conventional rules.'

"Really?" Matt asked out loud. He didn't mind if people knew that they were conversing with AI messages.

'You wouldn't be the first to have a Talent that does something to your cultivation. Look up Taki… I don't remember his last name. But he ascended a few millennia ago, and he left a full AI verified record of his Talents and skills. His Tier 3 Talent made it so his maximum mana didn't have a cap. He could regen to a bajillion mana if he waited long enough. Completely impossible for most to have that kinda max mana. But Talents are unique, and don't follow the rules.’

That gave Matt more to think on.

'What’s a normal mage’s mana at around… Let's say Tier 5?' He asked, hoping Liz would know.

'That's really an impossible question to answer. It depends on how much they push the diminishing returns before they go into mana concentration, and if they cultivate to have more mana regen or max mana.'

Matt went to open his mouth, but another message came through.

'I know what you want. Here’s the standard maximum mana chart for Tier 25 if the cultivator in question doesn't hit the diminishing returns of growth. But remember that this is deceptive, as it doesn't account for mana concentration. At Tier 8 or 9, most will have nearly fifty percent denser mana. At Tier 10 or 11, they’ll have seventy five percent. That makes a huge difference.'

As the graph arrived, he looked it over and was still surprised, despite Liz’s qualifiers.

Tier

Maximum Mana

Tier 1

100

Tier 2

400

Tier 3

800

Tier 4

1000

Tier 5

1500

Tier 6

2000

Tier 7

2500

Tier 8

3000

Tier 9

3500

Tier 10

4000

Tier 11

4500

Tier 12

5000

Tier 13

5500

Tier 14

6000

Tier 15

7000

Tier 16

8000

Tier 17

9500

Tier 18

12000

Tier 19

15000

Tier 20

17000

Tier 21

20000

Tier 22

25000

Tier 23

30000

Tier 24

40000

Tier 25

50000

At Tier 12, he could have more maximum mana than a standard mage, at 5120 total mana. It would translate to 5120 mana regeneration a second if he was under one percent of his max. That one percent would also mean that he would always have 51 mana to use for non channeled spells.

He could cast a [Fireball], or another lower-cost standard spell at that Tier. It made him giddy.

'Still, even if they have more mana concentration, it won't mean much when I can beat them in output.'

'If you can find something with enough mana storage to hold your mana, sure. 5000 mana is doable, but you'll need a lot more very quickly. And if you miss a doubling, I don't see your talent letting you make it up. It’ll just be lost.'

Matt waved off her concern. 'I intend to use rift mana stones. They always have more mana than I have.'

"No. no no no no no no. No. No!"

Her message came through with the words spoken out loud as well. 'That would be incredibly stupid. Rift mana stones have an even less dense mana concentration than your starting level. It would dilute your mana concentration even more. By like, a lot. You should NEVER do that. Even I wouldn't do it. Its short term power at the expanse of crippling yourself. Power weapons or armor with rift mana stones, that's fine. But never bring that mana into yourself.'

Liz was giving him puppy eyes, and even lifted Aster to cover her face with an even more effective version of the look.

He would have researched it before doing anything with outside mana, but it was good to know.

Out loud, she said, "Promise me, or better yet, promise Aster. That's stupid and shortsighted."

She peeked around Aster and pouted. Aster laid her ears back and widened her eyes.

"I knew I'd regret teaching that to you, Aster." After a mock glare of his own, he agreed. "Sure, I'm not one to intentionally cripple myself. But damn, that really puts a kink in my plans."

The blood mage shrugged and said, "We'll figure it out. Who knows. The problem is years away, so no need to worry too much right now. And we'll deal." She left it at that, and he understood.

A deal could be worked out. He might end up owing a favor or two of about a city’s worth of mana, but he was pretty sure that this training world had a storage bunker for several million mana. That might be an expensive construct for a single person, but most cities would have something comparable.

I wouldn't mind refilling a city's reserves to double my own mana.

It seemed doable. Eventually, even that would be insufficient. When he needed billions of mana storage capacity, he could probably afford to build his own storage facility.

Maybe I can hollow out a moon to use. Would That make me a bad guy?

He got the idea from the last movie he had seen. Besides, a moon base sounded really cool.

Matt ignored the new Republican delvers on the stage, also arguing about mana concentration. Their debate was more so centered around what the Empire delvers had said, instead of each other’s takes on the matter.

He ignored them; let them just be background noise. He was using the small ball Eric had given him, engrossed in the task. It was whirling in between his fingers in the simplest of patterns. It was his out of rift homework from Liz to get to a more complex pattern. The control would allow him to feel at the facets of his skill structures more efficiently.

Liz had helped him to isolate what she thought was the area of [Cracked Phantom Armor] that decided on its shape. If he could make spikes appear, the armor could turn into a backup weapon.

She was clueless with [Mages Retreat], as it wasn't in his core spirit and harder to see and manipulate. Her peering into his spirit and monitoring his inward reflections was a boon to him, but her view from the outside was limited.

He was ok with that for the moment. [Mages Retreat] was performing perfectly. [Cracked Phantom Armor] on the other hand, was not.

Most of the increase in his mana throughput capability was only through breakthroughs into higher Tiers, strengthening the skill’s structure. He now spent an hour in the rifts after delves, pulsing his mana to help the skill widen its metaphorical 'channels'. His control wasn't good enough yet to perfectly ride the line between stressing the skill and destabilizing it.

But there was slow and steady improvement. Matt had no problems with grinding away at a problem.

The other part of [Cracked Phantom Armor] they were training was its ability to stay active when a single portion of the armor was broken through. That training was far less fun.

It mostly consisted of Liz crushing the skill at various body parts. Her control was good enough that she never hurt him, but he was always covered in blood after. It had ruined one of his body suits. The once black material was now stained reddish-brown.

A loud noise brought him out of his thoughts. There was a duel in full swing at the side of the common area. The mage from the earlier debate was chasing around the archer he had been across from. The archer was busy trying to avoid being swallowed up by a large sphere of darkness that completely obscured him from view.

The archer also had some interesting scratch marks on his face and neck. Matt’s AI reported that there was a large bird hiding in the darkness.

Trying to catch a glimpse of the bird was futile. The darkness completely shielded the bird and the mage from view. It was only visible when the darkness was dispelled, in order to be recast in another location. And even then, the bird was still hard to focus on. It seemed to dissipate into the air whenever Matt was able to lay eyes on it. He could only conclude that it was a phantom of some sort summoned by the darkness.

The spell Brent was using was an interesting force projecting skill. Matt noted that it could have some interesting synergies with his own melee style. He couldn’t figure out a polite way of asking the man what skill he used, but he noted it down. He was definitely going to look it up with Madam Delver’s Guide to Skills.

He walked around to the small barter and service area that had sprung up around the cooking station. The mage who created the stone furniture had made a stand for the cooks to better prepare the meals on. In return, they had started taking and cooking other animals from the surrounding rifts.

Matt had paid for a cooked bear flank out of curiosity, and for some petty revenge for sending him flying so many times. It was slightly sweeter than he had expected. The cook thought so too, and had asked him to bring a bear out once every few days, to give some variety to the communal food.

There was even a smith who did small repair jobs for people's items. It was hard to trust anyone but a pure crafter for anything important, but it was a good alternative to paying the mana cost of teleporting back and forth. Especially for simple repairs.

An alchemist was busy mixing up some of the rage potions that they were using to attract the rift bears during their delves. At least, Matt assumed that’s what it was, as the rage potions were the only thing displayed on their small table. He was glad Liz had purchased hers off-world, since these were nearly twice as expensive as the ones Liz bought.

Still, the effect was truly worth it. The three of them were progressing quickly, and Aster was now only a small percentage behind Matt. That difference would shrink even more as they approached the peak of Tier 4. Liz was slightly ahead of him, but not so much that it would cause issues. She was funneling a little more of her essence into him and Aster to even everyone out.

He thought there was still some residual guilt there. She had made a few remarks that he interpreted as her trying to make up for getting the heart, rings, and a skill. His partner hadn't come out and said it, but she clearly felt bad.

Matt understood, but really didn't care. If they were going to be a team, they had to share. But on a deeper level, the rings were useless without someone else to put them on. And after giving her the heart, it felt like a good idea to not let the value leave his team. Even if he couldn't keep it himself.

Shaking himself, Matt stood and walked over the edge of the formation and into the bitter cold. He didn't activate any skills, and let the cold rip the warmth away until his limbs were tingling. Stepping back into the warmth of the common area, he felt refreshed from the cold.

He didn't like that thought process. He didn't want to calculate everything and everyone's value. Even retroactively. Besides, he had grown to truly trust and respect Liz. He would always have her back. When he thought about it, he really had given her the heart as thanks for saving Aster, and she had earned the skill by killing the monster from the labyrinth rift.

The rings were trickier, but he was unable to give the other to a fox, especially with the whole no fingers thing. The binding process had fitted the rings to their fingers, but wouldn't have worked for a fox's leg.

Selling them had been an option, but that felt temporary. The rings had proved their use on many of their delves. The short range teleport, expensive as it was, made combat a far safer endeavor. The swapping was great for surprising opponents, and he had used his AIs downtime to craft combat plans against other humans.

The ring's abilities were invaluable in formulating surprise attacks against any opponent, and it often meant the difference between a hard fought battle and a clean sweep. If Liz could get to an enemy party’s backline, it meant an easy cascade to victory.

While Matt could tie up a backline for a while, he was vulnerable to fast and mobile opponents that had some movement skill or the like. His defense was amazing at his Tier, but his attack power was limited to whatever his sword could produce. Even [Mana Charge] was a closer ranged skill, and he could at best use the skill as a finisher in a fight. He was in no condition to do anything but stand after using the skill, as he was barely left with enough mana to make an attack practical.

While Liz had to rely on her physical armor, she could deal much greater damage at longer ranges than he could. So with the swapping feature, she could be a terror to the non melee fighters of any group they fought.

It was still mostly academics, as the AI was only familiar with Tier 8 skills, and most of them weren't combat orientated.

As he debated if he could justify another plate of food, Matt saw a group of Tier 5 delvers come into the communal area. There were only a few Tier 5 rifts in this cluster, but they had attracted a few Tier 5 groups.

This one was weak, but acted so arrogant that he and Liz had bet going on how long it would take for them to piss off the far more numerous Tier 4's. They were already speeding to the point of getting their asses beat. It was only a matter of time, and numbers could easily overcome a Tier or two at the lower ranks.

The group sauntered into the mass of Tier 4's. Any who didn’t move out of their path in time got violently shoved out of the way. Their apparent frontliner was a short woman bursting with strength allocation. She wasn't bothering with even a rudimentary veil, and everyone could feel her essence.

They felt like mid Tier 5's, and Liz had pointed out the center of their cores to Matt. It was subtle, to the point that he might have missed it without her pointing it out. At the center of each cloud of essence was a hard rock of something. He didn't need Liz to tell him that it was a bottled Concept they used to break into Tier 5. It felt like an out of place boulder in a grassland, it just didn’t feel like it belonged in their cores.

Liz said a true one would be alive, and seamless with the individual’s cores. Not… dead. Matt didn't know what word he would use to describe the sensation, but inert was the best thing that came to mind. It did boost their respective styles, though. The girl shoving people had a strength boosting effect with her Concept.

It was like [Mages Retreat], in that it amplified the allocated essence to its respective physical category. Unlike his own skill, it didn't do any more, or have the ability to grow.

At least [Mages Retreat] increases my durability as well.

Matt didn't want to look down on the bottled Concepts. He would happily use one if he couldn't create his own within a reasonable time. It was the way this group acted that created the contempt.

He was fairly confident in beating the Tier 5 frontliner. With [Mages Retreat] at 10 mana, he would be close to a new Tier 5 in strength, closing the gap significantly.

The problem that brought him back to reality was the rest of her four person team. She was the dedicated front line. Whether she was purely defensive or a more balanced hybrid didn't matter much, especially when she was backed up by a mage of some type and an archer with some magic bow strapped to their back. She even had a massive tiger with green and gold stripes.

The angry beast was the friendliest of the group, and hadn't minded the attention it got one bit. The archer was either its bond or handler, Matt couldn't quite tell from their interactions. Liz had even talked to the beast, and it said it was fine as it was. No rescue needed.

Despite its kind disposition, the beast had just snapped a boy's arm with a swipe for trying to yank its tail.

Matt had watched with disbelief. Even if the rest of the Tier 5 team hadn't proceeded to beat the kid until he teleported out, it was a monumentally stupid decision. The tiger had to weigh at least eight hundred pounds. How dumb did you have to be to try and mess with it?

Matt kept an eye out as the stronger group got food, and cleared a table of the previous inhabitants.

It was a good reminder not to be an asshole if he was surrounded by people weaker than him.

***

The trio was at the final clearing of the bear rift. Matt stood with his sword at the ready, waiting for Liz's throw. She had only missed once more in the week they had been delving this rift.

Today, they were going to start soloing the final fight. The other two would be at the ready, but they wanted to push their capabilities.

Watching the trajectory of the spear, he started running. It would hit. He made a note to suggest that Liz get a ring attached to it, near the head of the spear. It would help to negate her disadvantage of only being able to move the spear where blood was connected.

As he reached the clearing and the three massive bears noticed him, the lizardman was already being skewered by the spear. It quickly ripped its way back to the woman behind him.

He sprinted ahead and was on the first bear in two [Mages Retreat] empowered steps. Matt's longsword bit deep into the bear's neck and shoulders.

Stepping back to avoid the skill enhanced bite of the giant bear, he lunged, with his blade tip leading the charge. As the blade was bitten, it sliced into the bear's brain. The durability and sharpness runes made it a suicidal action, thus ending one of the trio.

The second bear was on him before he could withdraw his blade, and it slammed into him. His AI had given him enough warning. He made sure his grip on his weapon was firm, and while he was sent sliding, the momentum of the attack actually pulled the blade out for him.

As he rolled, the bear continued to rush him. It was not willing to use its maw as a weapon, wary of befalling the same fate as its fellow beast.

Matt used the last of the momentum to spring to his feet, and chopped at the bear. It was an awkward blow that the bear decided it could tank. Since he was still disorientated, the blade wasn't enhanced with the sharpness or durability rune when he brought it down.

Still, the weapon was made with Tier 5 materials, and it sliced through the fur and muscle of the beast. Before Matt could take advantage and finish off the recoiling beast, he was swiped at by the third bear.

The fight was slightly hectic for the lone fighter. He was able to take at least one more blow with his armor, before the massive bears were able to reach his weaker flesh. The two didn't give Matt a moment to catch his breath before trying to run him down, and crush him with their weight advantage.

Ducking a swipe, Matt advanced with a [Mages Retreat] empowered bound, slipped under the blow, and cut deeply into the bear's back leg.

The crippling slash allowed Matt to force the bears into a stalemate. They were unwilling to fight him without the others' support, but he had forced one to a much slower limp. With the unhobbled bear unsure of what to do, Matt got within striking range and tried to bait it out. The tactic eventually worked, as Matt took an overreaching swipe as an invitation to thrust at the wounded bear.

Either enraged or seeing its position was unsustainable, the unhobbled bear charged him. He dodged or deflected each wide swipe while pushing mana into his finishing skill embedded in the blade.

The strain on his spirit built quickly. As he carefully watched his AI readout, he counted the mana he was sending the blade.

The green tinged blade started glowing blue as the mana built up. As he deflected blows, Matt started to tire at an alarming rate from the charging skill. At the moment he felt the strain building to dangerous levels, he met the paw with a parry and unleashed his finisher.

After the massive release of mana, Matt's spirit felt like a deflated balloon. He wanted to drop to his knees and sleep for a few hours.

Unable to give in to that impulse, he checked to see where the bear was, as the resistance had vanished.

The top half of the beast was completely stripped of skin, and bone was missing in places. The only thing remaining was a mangled clump of exposed, bleeding flesh.

Quickly, he turned to the final, crippled bear, wanting the fight over. He steeled himself, and charged at the bear with every ounce of energy he had left, sword trailing behind him. [Mage’s Retreat] gave him the dexterity to sidestep the beast’s attack, and cleanly impale the bear through its exposed flank.

As he lay crumpled against the third and final corpse, he let his sword go and rolled onto the soft grass covering the hill.

Releasing all of his skills felt like cold water on a burn. It hurt, but as the strain of keeping the skills active disappeared, he gasped and went numb.

He heard Aster and Liz approaching, but was unable to muster the effort to care. When the fox sniffed him, he snagged her with an effort of will, and pulled her into a cuddle.

It wasn't like a headache so the cold didn't help relieve him, but holding his bond was comforting.

Testing to see if speaking would hurt, he said, "Well, that was worse than I hoped, but better than I feared. I feel like a wrung out dishrag."

Liz laughed and sat next to him.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Her question wasn't welcome, and he told her so with a raised finger.

"Ok, bad news first. That won't get any better the more you do it. The only thing that will help will be advancing beyond Tier 4. The good news is, this is a great time to work on your sensitivity training with the skills in your spirit."

With his face in the blue-white coat of Aster, he murmured, "Yay for me."

Sitting up, he delved into his spirit. Everything looked fine, but each brush of his spiritual sense felt like brain freeze. If his spirit could vomit, it would. Trying to identify each part of their structure was already difficult, doing it in this state was almost impossible. Still, Liz knew what she was doing, and the training would only serve to help him, no matter his condition.

Matt's mind wandered to his Concept as he ran mental fingers over his skills.

What do I want? A blade Concept seems fitting, and it would be useful. But I know it's not, since I was touching on it without my blade in hand. And well, they are just weapons after all. I'd transition to a mage style in a moment and not shed a tear. What good would a blade concept do me then?

He pondered that last thought. No, even if he went full mage tomorrow, he'd use the longsword as a backup. He liked the weapon and the dance he fell into when in combat. He was also self aware enough to know it wasn't a perfect fit with who he was at his core either.

The image of him blasting spells was just as prevalent in his imagination as slicing giant monsters.

He next thought went to his armor and its defensive capabilities. [Cracked Phantom Armor] was his lifeline, and it was what had gotten him to this point. It was a core skill in every possible future he could think of. Even as a pure mage, being able to stay that safe was of vital interest. He would never need to copy Liz and wear bulky armor.

Though, physical armor might be a nice addition to enhance my combat abilities. Even some thin armor could be a good second chance in case something broke through [Cracked Phantom Armor].

Making a note with his AI, he forced his thoughts back to his Concept. The final idea he had about his Concept was his mana pool. It was unlimited and never ending.

He popped open an eye, and looked to the mage, who was drawing in the dirt with a bear's claw.

"How will I know if I'm close to a Concept or not?"

Without looking up, she responded, "Easy. You won't. You might get really close, and that will resonate with you, and it's possible you might feel that. That's why I told you to list everything you’ve thought of so far. If you can't remember thinking of one, there’s a good chance of that being your Concept. "

Matt gave his thanks, and pushed his thoughts back to his mana.

He pushed a bit into his hands, and watched it dissipate. It looked like blue smoke, only less substantial. Like the reflection of smoke.

He revised his thoughts regarding his mana being unlimited. That wasn't true. Right now, he was at 2 mana, indicating he had been pondering for a good while. At least, more than the ten minutes it would take for him to reach ten percent of his maximum mana capacity.

If it wasn't his mana, was it his physical cultivation? He chewed on the new idea. Could he resonate with the physical growth his Tier 1 Talent enforced on him?

Pushing the thought was fruitful. He was large for his age, at sixteen and a half and six foot three. His memories of his parents were hazy, but he remembered them both being on the taller side, though his father was only around six-two.

Deciding to forgo the Concept search, he kept his mental fingers exploring both of the skills in his spirit, and let his mind wander.

His parents were just foggy memories at this point. He had a file of pictures and recordings of them in his AI. The orphanage had provided them, and all these years later, he had still been unable to open the file.

There had been more than a few sleepless nights of him crying for them to come back, but somehow opening the file felt definitive. It would be truly accepting that they only lived in those files, and his every blurring memories.

He tried to picture his mother's face. He knew he had inherited his sandy blond hair from her.

While her features were blurry, he could clearly remember sitting on her lap at the salon. She had gone from shoulder blade length hair to a shorter, chin-length cut.

They had draped the cut locks over his head and pretended he was wearing a wig.

He could distinctly remember looking into the mirror and meeting her eyes.

But what color were her eyes? Matt couldn't remember. It was a blurry, wet paint memory.

He turned to his father. The man had worked as a construction foreman, overseeing a group of specialty finishers for nicer, upscale housing. It was the work the rare AI ran machines didn't do, nor the more common general laborers.

Matt's memories of him were even dimmer. He worked long hours,but still tried to make time for the young Matt. He and his father had spent a day together when an out of season hurricane hit the coast, and he didn't have to work.

He couldn't remember why his father wasn't working on the more finished and protected buildings. But as he had the day off, his parents had let him stay home from school and spend the time with his father.

After having worked at Benny's and done hard labor day in and day out, he was surprised his father hadn't just passed out on an unexpected free day. He instead took Matt to an aquarium and museum.

The aquatic creatures had scared him at the time, and it took coaxing from his father to touch the glass.

The museum, on the other hand, had been far more interesting to the younger Matt. He was able to touch the stuffed remains of higher Tiered monsters. The ones shown were mostly the animal types, either for their fierceness or their cuteness.

Matt could see his father's eyes, a hazel leaning heavily to green. They were darker than his own, a shaded forest compared to his brighter shade of grass in the sun.

But what did his nose look like?

Unable to dredge the memory up, he looked at the blinking folder at the corner of his eye.

Focusing, he asked Liz. "You ready? I need to fight things."

He stood up quickly, shoving the thoughts of the past where they belonged. The past.