The Path of Ascension

Liz, Aster, and Matt sat at a table with Humpty’s group. They had all done well enough to earn a skill, and the club they were celebrating in was wild. The party after the fight was epic. Most of the participants were eagerly waiting for the skills to be assigned tomorrow. Everyone had put in requests for their desired skills, and depending on their individual and team performance, they would earn a slot to pick from the skill pool.

As peak Tier 4’s who fought in the Tier 5 area, they had earned a slot in the top twenty selections. They simply had to wait for the AIs to finish their calculation.

Matt sat and waited for his drink to arrive. His hip had been shattered during his final fight. The Republicans had noticed the limp, and capitalized on his weakness with ruthless efficiency. The hammer that dealt the blow had some armor-piercing effect, and almost completely bypassed [Cracked Phantom Armor].

A good lesson to learn now, in a relatively low stakes environment.

They all chatted and celebrated. The entire bar was lively. Those that didn’t fight directly had still watched and enjoyed the battle. Everyone was buzzing with the excitement from the close win, which was exacerbated with the abundant alcohol.

Matt was skeptical of the ‘close win’, as a quick look across the lake showed the Republican city partying just as hard. He pushed his doubts out of his mind. If the Empire and the Republic wanted to play games, he didn't care. He was getting a skill out of it.

The two teams stayed chatting, until their focus shifted to looking for company for the evening. Matt saw a brunette with short hair that he had caught giving him looks a few times now, so he made his excuses and sauntered over.

***

The next morning, he woke up in a strange bed with a strange woman. Seeing the time, he found most of his clothes, and slipped out before any awkwardness ensued.

He had just returned to his hotel, when he noticed elevator doors opening behind him. He turned, and saw a blot of red exit the elevator. He held the door to their suite open, and grinned at Liz as she slipped in.

“You look as disheveled as hell.”

She looked at him and grinned in return. “You seem to be favoring that hip, there big guy. Need a healer?” She knew that she had correctly identified the weak spot, and she wasted no time in striking.

Matt coughed, “Well, she was, uhh... Enthusiastic.”

It was surprisingly awkward to talk to Liz about his sex life.

They stepped into the common area of their suite, to find a chair had been moved to face the door. It contained a very angry Aster glaring at them.

Matt vaguely remembered dropping her off before he went to Kathy’s. He checked the time again.

It was a little before noon.

Ahh.

Matt tried to explain, but as he opened his mouth, the fox turned her back to them. He circled, but the fox kept spinning in defiance. The duo had to go to each side and trap her, so the fox would be forced to look at one of them. Seeing that she had lost, Aster just hid in her fluffy tail.

Doing the only thing he knew would work, he said, “Ok, I’ll get you some ice cream if you forgive us.”

The fox peeked at him, and buried her face once again.

Liz tried her hand at getting forgiveness, “We’ll get you nice ice cream?”

That got the fox to get out of her ball, and she walked to the door.

“Can we shower first?”

The fox just glared at them. He and Liz shared a look. They’d be getting breakfast dirty.

***

Matt watched people packing items into square boxes. A quick search showed that they were massive spatial items. They were made for moving bulk goods. Even the smallest and cheapest held massive amounts of space inside.

Currently, they were loaded on the first platform to be sent out. Guild VIP privileges were coming in handy one last time. They would be moved into position as soon as the test teleport happened.

They had gotten and bound their skills directly from Driver. Liz had gotten [Water Bullet], which her Talent turned into [Blood Bullet]. It would let her automate ranged attacks.

Aster went with [Ice Spear] for the same reason. It created ice for her and automated the aiming, so she wouldn’t have to solely rely on her manipulation skill.

Matt wanted [Demon Zone], but Driver didn’t have the skill. In the end, he went with a more supportive skill.

[Hail Storm]: Cost. Minimum, 25 mana. Maximum, X mana. Mana upkeep depending on channel duration and size. Minimum MPS 5.

Creates an area of ice that slows and damages anyone in its radius. Duration and intensity dependent on channel cost. Size of affected area dependent on initial cost.

The skill was a rare Tier 8 that Matt had never even hoped to get, but their performance in the battle was good enough to net them the fourteenth pick. The skill would give Aster ice to work with, and could help ward off an area.

The problem was the mana cost. He’d have to wait to use it until Tier 5, when his maximum mana was 40. Then, he could just have a mana stone precharged, and absorb that mana to full so he could start the fight with the skill.

He'd be limited by only being able to use the skill at the start of a fight, but it was a good investment.

Two minutes later, after a gut wrenching teleport, they were back in the Empire proper. Aster squirmed in his arms and tried to get a look over everyone’s head. It was surprisingly nice to see the real worldagain.

Exiting the platform immediately was only possible since he was beyond human. Matt simply activated [Cracked Phantom Armor] for a moment to absorb the landing, and laughed at Liz, who was waiting for the steps to clear.

He waved Aster’s paw at her while Liz glared at him.

Technically, he shouldn’t have used his skill in public like that, but no one was going to complain about the platform emptying faster.

They reunited and walked around. Liz had her head on a swivel, and Matt knew she was looking for her ‘Aunt Helen’. He had no idea what the woman looked like, so he spent the time reading the mail he had received from Melinda’s group while he was away. His return messages were already sent as soon as he got back to the PlanetNet proper.

Before he got more than a few paragraphs into the several messages he had, Liz grabbed him and dragged him forward.

He looked up to see a woman with long flaming feathers for hair, talking to two people. Aunt Helen, the obvious Phoenix in human form, wasn’t what caught his attention. It was the duo she was chatting with.

The guild leaders.

They didn’t have their glow on, and were mostly innocuous, but he recognized them immediately. His AI also had quickly linked their faces to their databases.

He was about to pull Liz back, when she called out in a childish voice, “Aunt Helen!”. The call got the group’s attention, and the mostly serious delver he knew threw herself into the woman’s arms like a small child.

Aunt Helen just smiled. The smile had endless patience and love.

Matt felt like an outsider with Aster in his arms, watching the intimate moment.

“Feather!” Liz reached out to the woman’s head and, with a gentle smile, was given a feather, freshly plucked.

Matt would have thought nothing of it, but the two guild leaders looked like someone hit them with lightning. The slack jaw of the male guild leader clued Matt into the fact that giving a feather wasn’t something that was normally done.

Liz giggled, and ran the few steps to Matt, hooking his arm and pulling him close.

“Aunt Helen. This is Matt and Aster.”

With that, she shook the feather hard, and it expanded to nearly five feet long and two feet wide. She moved it behind them and pulled them onto the now floating feather.

She turned to Matt and said, “Riding on Phoenix feathers is the best. They also make great hammocks to nap on.”

Matt had to agree. It was just like what he imagined sitting on a cloud would be like. Springy, but with enough structure to hold you.

The guild leaders’ faces had shifted from. ‘She just got something rare’ to ‘Why are you wasting that so frivolously’. He knew both looks well. Even scraps could be treasured at the orphanage. If people thought you had wasted something, they would be sure to make their displeasure known.

And I’m pretty sure a phoenix feather is worth more than special candy or toys.

Matt sat and felt slightly awkward.

Helen turned to the guild leaders and said, “Sorry, I can’t help. What’s started is started. If I were you, I’d come clean and do what you can to make amends and move on. The setback won’t be that bad if you don’t fight it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I haven’t seen my Niece in far too long.”

She didn’t wait for their response, and turned to Matt and Liz.

“Come on BethBeth. And introduce me to your friend. Don’t be rude.”

The feather they were sitting on gilded next to the woman as she made her way through the crowd.

Liz hunched down and gave an exaggerated pout.

“Aunt Helennnnnn. I told you not to call me that.”

She accompanied the words with her best impression of puppy dog eyes.

A now taloned hand came and gently scratched Liz’s scalp. The woman went limp and all protest faded away. She lost all bodily control and slumped into the feather slowly, turning boneless like a satisfied kitten. Soft unintelligible sounds escaped her slack jaw.

“Ok, you’ve had your fun and rubbed the guild leaders’ faces in it. Please introduce us now.”

Liz straightened and sighed. “Fine. Matt, this is Aunt Helen. Aunt Helen, this is Matt.”

Aster yipped at her displeasure of being left out.

“Aster, this is Aunt Helen. Aunt Helen, this is Aster.”

The fox was mollified, but Matt still felt awkward sitting on the woman’s feather while she walked next to them.

This was someone close enough to Liz that he didn’t want to mess up the first impression. So he said, “Hello ma’am.” in his best polite tone.

He was cut off with a wave of the now human hand. “Call me Helen. I insist.” Seeing his face, she added, “Aunt Helen, if you have to.”

That was… more palatable. He couldn’t think of being so casual with someone at her Tier.

It just felt wrong.

Liz piped up. “Are we going to walk the whole way?”

Helen looked offended at the suggestion. “Oh, I never get to stroll around. Fine.”

With a wave of her hand, there was a circular portal to a city in front of them. It was far enough away that the sun was appreciably different, and they walked through. There wasn’t even a ripple.

Matt couldn’t help it. He twisted and looked at the closing hole behind them.

Was that a skill? What the fuck?

He was sure that his face looked exactly like the guild leaders’ had not long ago, but he had never even heard of this before.

His AI said that they had moved nearly halfway across the planet.

They came to a building that seemed to be made of silver speckled marble. Gold lined black letters proclaimed it to be ‘Helens Hearth’.

Considering the woman’s name, he assumed that she was the Helen in question. He searched the restaurant name.

What he found was interesting. She had a restaurant on every Tier 10 world and higher. She was known as a recluse who avoided the media and bounced between her various restaurants.

No other chef, even the other celebrity chefs, dared to claim that they were a better cook than she. Even the chef known for yelling and cursing who just reached Tier 40s was adamant that Helen was the best cook in the Empire.

As they closed in, a security guard opened the door for the trio. Entering the opulent restaurant, Matt felt increasingly awkward floating along on the feather.

They entered the building with Liz muttering on how Helen could have opened the portal straight to the restaurant, but had to show off.

Matt decided to try and get in her good books, “It’s a very pretty exterior, only outdone by the interior.”

Aunt Helen had a look that said butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. And Matt was pretty sure that she started to preen her feathered hair with her fingers.

Liz rolled her eyes, and started to poke the woman’s butt with “hurry up” s repeatedly. They entered the seating area, and Matt began to salivate at the scents wafting around the room. It smelled delicious.

Aster almost hopped out of the feather and onto a passing table. She actually jumped out, but was caught and pulled into Aunt Helen’s arms.

Matt was afraid that the woman would be upset, but she just laughed and said, “Patience, little one. I’ll cook you everything you could ever want in a little bit.”

Matt had to resist the urge to do the same. It really smelled that good.

As they walked through the seating area and to the back end of the restaurant, the patrons all looked shocked. One even started to rise, but out of nowhere, what seemed like a clone to the security guard out front appeared, and placed a meaty palm on their shoulder, keeping them seated.

He only knew that they were separate people by their different tie colors. It was almost uncanny.

They passed through the kitchen receiving different looks. Where those outside looked shocked, these people appeared as if they had seen their idol. Some even looked like people who had found out about a surprise test when they had skipped class the day before.

They left the kitchen to find an elevator hidden in the farthest corner.

The feather they rode on shrunk down, and Aunt Helen caught it and with deft fingers, then wove it into Liz’s braided hair.

It looked surprisingly good.

He was about to say as much to his preening teammate, when the elevator opened, and they came to a kitchen much smaller than the one they had just passed through. It was closer to something he remembered from his house growing up.

“Sit. I’ll make some food. You must tell me everything that happened!”

They sat at the half wall and watched the woman start cooking. Liz talked, but Matt simply watched the woman at work. He felt like she was bending reality in some way. Aunt Helen seemed to be everywhere at once in the kitchen, while not moving more than a foot or two from the area next to the stove.

Liz kept talking about their time in the training world. They both tried to include him in the conversation, but he was entranced with the chefs' moments. There was something about her actions in the kitchen that reminded him of his mother doing the same.

It was... Enthralling.

Before he knew it, a small salad and soup were placed in front of the three of them. He looked to Aster, “Umm, Aunt Helen? Aster will probably make a mess with soup.”

She laughed, “Honey. I started out as a bird. I won’t get offended at a young lady using what she has. Now eat.”

Aunt Helen was back behind the dividing wall, and her humming put him in a comfortable head space.

Matt didn’t know if he could go back to eating normal food again.

This is the best thing. I have ever eaten. I need more.

His bowls were empty before he knew what happened, and he was debating copying Aster and licking the bowls clean. In the end, he decided to just mop up what he could with the warm, dark bread.

As he concentrated on the lingering taste on his tongue, he looked up the prices of the restaurant. If her chefs were half as good, he never wanted to eat elsewhere.

He wanted to vomit after seeing the prices.

The menu’s cheapest dishes were priced at Tier 20 mana stones.

Apparently, getting the woman’s own cooking while she was at the restaurant meant fees starting at Tier 30 mana stones.

He looked down at the empty bowls and wished he could sell them.

Matt paused and thought that over. No, he would take the food over the mana stones. It was a priceless experience.

The next dishes came out right at the perfect time. They had a few minutes to savor the last dish before the next would come out.

He didn’t know how the woman knew exactly what he liked, but they all got different plates after the starter salad and soup. They shamelessly stole from each other, none willing to miss out on at least trying each dish.

Getting Aster to part with a bit of her glazed rabbit had nearly cost him a finger, but regrowing it would have been a small price to pay.

Just when he was getting stuffed, Matt found a decorative ice cream bowl set in front of him. He looked to Aster. The fox had love in her eyes.

Traitor.

Matt dipped a spoon in and tasted the fresh ice cream. He started wondering if Aunt Helen needed someone to carry her bags.

He shifted his weight and debated changing into looser pants.

Aunt Helen leaned on the dividing wall and said, “How was it.”

Matt and Aster talked over each other, and Aunt Helen’s smile grew. It was a real one. She clearly loved to have people eat and enjoy her food.

She even started wiggling when they went on.

“Oh, Thank you. I love when new people try my food! It’s the best feeling.”

Liz opened her mouth and was instantly cut off by Helen. “Yes, little chick. I already got the message.”

The woman turned to Matt and looked deep into his eyes.

“Child of the Empire. I, as a representative of the Beast Kingdom under Queen Mara. Royalty under his majesty Emperor Emmanuel, third of his line. Have been given clearance to bestow gifts for meritorious service.”

Matt sat with his mouth open.

Meritorious service? What did I do?

Then he remembered the message Liz told him to send to her mother, to send to Mara when he left the training world. He hadn’t even thought of it after that, and completely forgotten about it until now. It had been months ago.

“I uhh...” he didn’t know what to say.

The solemn air disappeared, and Helen turned back into Aunt Helen.

She waved a hand around. “It’s not a big deal, but they’ve already scouted the rift you informed her about, and Mara is happy. After their quick check, they think they can recreate the rift and bring it away. So even though it won’t be as good as a true rift, in a few decades, we’ll have a source of that dragon’s blood. This is a coup of the highest order.”

“They’re just waiting for the planet to clear out to make their move. If the Republic finds out, they’ll fight for it.”

This was so far out of his depth Matt felt lost. “So uh, what does that mean?”

Liz butt in. “It means you get nice shit.”

Aunt Helen shrugged and agreed with her. “Well, yes. That’s the gist of it. If you want something, go ahead and name it. Most of the rewards will have to wait until you’re off The Path, to keep things mostly fair. But you can ask for a lot.”

He turned to Liz. Matt didn’t even know what to ask for. She saw the look in his eyes, and answered for him.

“He wants Phoenix blood essence for Aster, to bind the dragon’s blood.”

Aunt Helen waved her hand over Liz. “We’d give her that anyway. We can’t let that heart’s blood go to waste. What do you want for yourself.”

Matt had an idea, and shot his shot. “I’d like whatever you recommend that would help me the most now, considering what rewards I can get before I fall off The Path and get the rest.”

She smiled with the approval of a mother whose child did something clever, and she reached out and stroked his cheek. It was strangely comforting, and full of approval.

“You trust me that much?”

Matt swallowed, deciding it would be best to be completely honest.

“No. But I trust Liz, and she trusts you.”

The smile came back with even more intensity. It was so bright, he was pretty sure that some of her fire powers were slipping.

Almost too quiet for him to hear, he heard, “Oh, they are going to love you.”

Before he could ask for clarification, she whirled into her kitchen. Pans and other utensils flying.

Just moments later, three thumb-sized vials were corked and placed in front of him. Alongside them was a cup with the same liquid inside.

“Three unknown and untested vials of strange liquid. Dare you drink?”

Matt wasn’t that stupid. “What are they, and what do they do?”

Aunt Helen’s smile was now evil, “I thought you trusted Liz?”

“I do. And I’ll drink if you say you won’t tell me. But I’d like to know.”

The chef pouted, and tried to give him puppy dog eyes.

Or are they chick eyes? Are baby birds cute?

Matt made a note to look it up later.

“Fine. I can sense your spirit, and have a good guess at what your Talents are.”

Matt scooted back. “How?”

“Honey. I’m older than the unification of the Empire. I’ve been around for a long time. Peeking around a Tier 4’s veil isn’t any harder for me than opening my eyes.”

She poked at his core. “Ahh, now I see. A very interesting Talent. A very powerful one. But there is one aspect of mana cultivation it doesn’t affect.”

The words slipped out, “My mana concentration.”

“Exactly. There are ways to increase all types of cultivation per Tier. Those,” She pointed down at the vials and cup. “Are a concoction that will increase your Mana Concentration naturally.”

“But that’s useless, I already don’t have enough mana as it is. I can’t afford to lose any of it.”

She laughed. She laughed so hard that she had to wipe a tear from her eye.

“Oh. No child. I can feel what your Talent is. I don’t know the words the stupid computer used. But I guarantee that won’t happen. I can feel that your mana pool size is dependent on your Talent, not cultivation. Talents break the rules.”

Matt looked down. The cup was almost scary. He reached out a hand, and was stopped by Aunt Helen.

“Ah, wait. Empty out a mana stone first. If you put less concentrated mana in, you’d undo everything.”

Quickly, he did as suggested and looked to Liz. He got a nod, and, like a shot, downed the liquid.

It was tasteless, and he was about to say something stupid, like he didn’t feel anything, when the fire and ice started rampaging through his mana ‘veins’.

He crumpled to the ground, only to see Aunt Helen scoop up Aster, and feed her a drop of blood. The fox gave him a look, before sitting on the woman’s lap and closing her eyes.

The burning consumed Matt, and all he could do was writhe on the floor. He felt his head being cradled, but his attention was solely on his mana channels. There were like tubes being placed under heavy suction.

His mana decreased, and turned from water to syrup as the moments passed. Each beat of his heart mirrored his mana circulation, and he felt the mana pool in his spirit shrinking. His AI slowed, and stopped altogether, as it didn’t have enough mana to sustain itself.

This was a terrible idea.

He could only wait as the fire and ice chased each other through his body, and his mana pool decreased to under what he had at Tier 1. He was horrified. If this didn’t work, he was finished as a cultivator.

Every time he thought his mana pool couldn’t get any smaller, it shrunk down even further.

Finally, an eternity later, the heat and ice caught each other, and their effects lessened.

With shaking hands, he filled the mana stone.

Nothing happened. His mana pool was so small, there was no appreciable difference in the charge of the mana stone.

Five nervous minutes later, with Liz still holding his prone form, he pulled back what had gathered.

It was minute, but he felt his mana pool’s maximum size increase.

He started laughing.

It had worked.

He looked to thank Aunt Helen, but found that she and Aster were gone. Only Liz remained with him.

The girl had held his head, and he smiled at her.

“It works. But fuck, that was scary.”

“Yeah. It was scary to watch. And, well... Honestly, I wasn’t sure if she had fucked up or not.”

“Do you know what this stuff is?” Matt wanted more. He wanted to down the other three vials, now.

As he talked, he kept filling the mana stone. Once he guessed it was about double, he drained it.

Aunt Helen entered and answered the question. “I’m glad it’s working, but I wasn’t worried. I could tell it would work out.”

“And to answer your question, that little dish is made from the marrow of a Tier 32 beast found only in a single rift. It was the only thing I had on me that would work for concentration increases. And only one of these can be taken per Tier. However, you could use another treasure if you find one. Sadly, no treasure or food would work for your regen or capacity. Talents are jealous mistresses.”

A Tier 32 monster? How was he supposed to afford this going forward? Even if he sold all of his mana, it would still be nearly impossible to afford more marrow from that beast.

He asked the question he feared. “There isn’t a chance that this is a really cheap part others don’t want, is there?”

“Ha! No, sorry dear. Everyone wants it. And you need a higher Tier chef or alchemist to prepare it. Though if you can get more, I’ll happily concoct it for free. You’re family now.”

While the offer was nice, it felt moot, as he had no way to afford it.

I should be happy that there are three more vials. That gives me until Tier 8 to figure something out. One step at a time.

He looked to the sleeping Aster cradled in the woman’s arms.

“Is Aster ok?”

“She’s fine. Just tired. Binding a bloodline is hard work, and not binding it to your primary is harder still. But she did a fine job, and she’ll be better shortly.”

They sat around as Matt finished filling his mana back to its peak. He had 20 mana again, but it felt much thicker than it had before. With his AI, he saw that his Mana Concentration was now at 1.08, slightly above the standard 1.00. Not much, but every bit helped.

Aunt Helen said that the next potions would help more, as they would have more mana to work on. But that would only last for a time. Once his Maximum Mana reached large enough numbers, the amount he could take would be less than the potion would be effective for.

He was still getting more than most would out of it, as he didn’t permanently lose the Maximum Mana or Mana Regeneration like most would.

They spent time just talking. Aunt Helen gushed over their rings and how perfect they were. They were served another scrumptious dinner, and as they settled down, Aunt Helen asked, “What are your next steps?”

Liz answered with closed eyes, “Work on our Concepts a bit. We both need to work on them, so we’ll find a Tier 5 rift we can hole up by and wait a bit, delving as we need to.”

Aunt Helen had a stern look on her face when she said, “You should go visit your brother Travis. He’s on Tintel right now. He and his husband are on some R&R. It would do you well to visit them.”

Liz groaned and tried to whine, but she was cut off by the older woman’s tone.

“Elizabeth Moore! Don’t make me drag you there myself. You three will go visit your brother. And you’ll go straight there. Promise me.”

Liz opened her eyes and looked at Matt. He didn’t mind. Practicing his Concept could be done anywhere.

“Fine, we’ll make our way there.”

“No. BethBeth. Look at me.” The older Phoenix waited until she had both of their attention. “You’ll purchase the tickets for the itinerary I sent you. And you won’t deviate from it. Promise me. Both of you.”

Matt did so. After she had been right about his mana, he would trust her on something small like this.

With that, Aunt Helen ushered them into a suite attached to the kitchen, and bid them a good night. She made sure to let them know that she’d cook them breakfast tomorrow morning.

They stood up for a bit and watched a movie before going to bed. Matt was worn out from the day’s activities. So many emotions packed into a single day had drained him.

After reviewing all that transpired, he decided he liked the old bird.