The Path of Ascension

Matt struck out at the heavy bag in a flurry of blows that sent it swinging. He sidestepped the bag’s return swing. Using the workout as an outlet for his pent-up emotions, he kicked out hard, and the bag flew back to a nearly horizontal position.

The emotions burned hot and deep.

He was mad at the attempt on his life, but what really infuriated him was the fact that the whole thing was treated like it was no big deal.

After Liz stormed back out and started another screaming match, all of their belongings were miraculously found and returned. Matt was terrified that someone had drunk his Mana Concentration potions, but they were still sealed seemingly untouched.

She hadn't used her family to get them out of this mess, no she used the fact they were on The Path and repeatedly beat the locals over the head with that fact.

He had been so weak. A higher Tier had used their cultivation base and simply squashed him like a bug. There was nothing he could have done at that moment. He had attempted to sleep, but only ended up tossing and turning for a few hours. He had annoyed Aster into scratching at Liz’s door for some peace and quiet, so he retreated to the training room in their hotel to try and tire himself out.

Lifting hadn’t helped his restlessness very much. He needed more action, so he moved to the heavy bag.

It still wasn’t enough. Beating the heavy bag wasn’t cutting it, so he moved to the training aids and just beat on them instead. They tried to fight, but his armored form was faster than the base Tier 5 model. He had to crank them up to peak Tier 5 to be able to actually gain anything out of the training. The AIs controlling them were good, but he was simply better. When they went into an attack pattern, it was easy for him to read their movements. They offered him no real challenge.

After a few hours of fruitless bouts of fighting, he gave up and went back upstairs. With the steamy water running down his back in the shower, he channeled [Endurance], and felt his fatigue and the detriments from his sleepless night pushed away. It wasn’t ideal to replace sleep with [Endurance], but a single night wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Seeing that the girls were still asleep, he started cooking. He needed something to clear his mind, so he threw on the heaviest playlist he had, and let the beat of the songs guide his cooking. When he was done, only Camilla was up, so he slipped her a plate of her favorite crepes with all the fixings. Liz was getting cinnamon toast, and Aster got lightly roasted meat mixed with scrambled eggs.

He simply picked at the food as he cooked, and toasted a bagel for himself.

Liz shuffled out, with a sleepy Aster swaying back and forth behind her. With their bellies full after their meal, they turned to the news and watched the coverage of the vassal kingdom guild getting busted. Matt expected the news to be rerunning the same clips of the local royal representative decrying the guild’s actions, and promising to look into it.

What they found instead was a view of a massive, flying island hovering directly over the palace. The monstrosity was being used to make a statement, that was for sure. The local ruler of this shit hole had to be quite upset with someone so obviously proclaiming their superiority by parking their land over his own.

The thought of the king having a literal shadow cast over his head was amusing enough to bring a cruel smile to Matt’s face.

The talking head was just starting another rehash of the segment. “Early this morning, Duke Ignite brought his flying island into our kingdoms air space, and started his own investigations. We haven’t heard anything from the kingdom officials, except that they are cooperating with the Duke.”

A second, much angrier talking head-butted in. “This is a disgrace to the kingdom. How dare a mere Duke act so arrogantly to our king? King Albert should demand that they ground themselves immediately and demand compensation.”

Liz snorted and spoke over the ensuing comments. “They’re lucky that it’s only Duke Ignite parking over them.”

Matt understood what she meant. A vassal king was only equivalent to a duke, and from everything he read, they were generally weaker in terms of Tier and combat prowess. It was absurd for the newsman to think that they would get any compensation, but he figured it was mostly an act put on by the station to ensure they catered to their audience.

The man suddenly stopped complaining when both anchors paused and touched their earpieces, receiving an update from their producer.

“We have a statement by the Duke.”

With that, the screen changed to a ‘please hold’ placard. Moments later, a man appeared on the screen. He had brown hair with streaks of red scattered throughout. The best word Matt could describe him with was apathetic. He looked utterly bored with the whole affair.

“I was sent here, as I’m the closest noble to this vassal kingdom. I’m sure most of you have heard of me. Or at least your news anchors will inform you on the back end. The question on most of your minds is probably, why did I come and park my island over the capital?”

His eyes turned from dark brown to bright orange for a brief moment, before settling down.

“We got a report of Empire citizens being captured under false pretenses, and forced to sign illegal contracts with a specific guild. The organization no longer exists, and will remain nameless.”

The bored look returned, and he idly scratched his cheek as he finished talking. His hand was dark, like freshly cooled lava. It was even roughly textured.

“We only found out because they apprehended someone on The Path of Ascension. Most restrictions that can block AI communication don’t work on their AI for a reason. This guild was staging assassinations on Tier 4 and Tier 5 people who were here to join in on the exploration of the new worlds. Their modus operandi was to target the less wealthy. They had a mole in the bureau of rift affairs located in the capital city, and targeted those that attempted to buy out rifts, but couldn’t afford it.”

“Then they filtered those targets down to the people who weren’t spending too much through the city, using complicit businesses’ financial records. After that, they apparently enlisted the aid of a corrupt judge or eight, who would back up any charges that were levied on the victims. So far, we’ve identified nearly twenty thousand victims of this scam through our investigation.”

Matt was shocked. He had only assumed that they were unlucky. Being targeted because they didn’t want to pay the absurd prices for a rift, was a horribly corrupt tactic. He almost felt bad for thinking it was the Dual Stars guild.

This hadn’t been about him at all. Twenty thousand people sounded like a lot, but millions of people were flooding in to participate in the exploration. It was like a training world, but not limited or presided over as much.

A part of him cursed the fact they were acting frugally. Saving money shouldn't get you targeted. The fury built up in his chest at the injustice at it all.

That flicker of fire in the Duke’s eyes started cracking through again, and the general apathy slowly vanished with the change in color.

“My question was, why were they in need of so many people in the Tier 4 and 5 range? Well, to answer that, we need to look at the guild leader. That leads me to the most egregious offense. The leader of said guild was actually a member of the local royal family. A distant cousin, to be fair, but a member nonetheless. The guild had recently bought a continent in the Tier 6 world, and intended to use free labor to subjugate the land and claim it. That’s two offenses right there. Firstly, the Empire doesn’t allow guilds to purchase land of that quantity. And secondly, a member of a noble house leveraged his connections to do it.”

Duke Ignite’s pupils were now so bright, the camera had to dim the picture to compensate. It only lasted for a moment, before the Duke gestured to the side, and the screen paned to the courtyard next to him. There, dozens of people were bound and kneeling. At their front was a man who was starting to grey at the temples. The resemblance to the statues and paintings they had seen in the capital was apparent. This was obviously the guild leader and royal cousin.

With the pan of the camera, they zoomed out, and Matt saw the king, who was off to the side dressed in fancy clothes that contrasted to the Duke’s plain, baggy attire.

The Duke raised a hand, and his moniker became obvious when his hand came into view. It looked like his arm from mid-forearm down was replaced with glowing lava that was breaching the surface of his ‘skin’. His fist radiated light and energy through the cracks of his earth-like dermis. It looked just like molten rock escaping the confines of a planet’s crust. Near his fingertips, the color was bright orange, and Matt could only imagine what kind of power it took to restrain that heat.

“Before anyone questions the thoroughness of our investigation, we’ve received permission for an AI scan, and have confirmed that these seventy-two people were the ringleaders. Most of the remaining guild members will be receiving fines and some jail time. These...” Duke Ignite gestured once again, “We found to be much too complicit in such heinous crimes. Their punishment is death.”

At the completion of his statement, there was a blinding heatwave that completely whited out the picture, and the kneeling people disappeared. There wasn’t even a speck of ash or any soot stains left. They were utterly vaporized. Just before the wave of heat killed the offenders, Matt saw a figure with one arm, and hoped it was the man who attacked them.

The Duke didn’t seem at all bothered at the deaths he had caused, but he looked to the camera for a moment. His eyes were so bright, the entire screen was nearly black, and his pupils were all that could be seen.

There were visible shimmers of heat that matched the intensity of his eyes when he looked to the king off to the side. “I suggest you look into the corruption we found today. Imperial law forbids me from investigating further myself. But corruption is like lice. If you leave it unchecked, it spreads everywhere. You might want to go through your kingdom with a very fine comb. Because if the Empire comes back, we’ll come back with a razor, and a fresh start.”

The statement was an ominous end to the video. It was a very poignant threat to level at a king during a live presentation, especially after vaporizing nearly a hundred people.

When the image went back to the newsroom, the man was pale and sweating, while the woman’s mouth was just hanging open.

Matt turned to Liz and Camilla. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Liz didn’t look that shocked, but Camilla looked like she had just swallowed an egg.

With less heat, Matt finished, “I can’t believe it wasn’t even a real assassination attempt. I thought I was going to die for sure.”

They ended up chatting for a while with the backdrop of the news anchors. Their tone had shifted after the Duke’s proclamation, and they decried anything resembling corruption. They were clearly shaken, and were sure to state and re-state how they had never dealt with corruption themselves.

Matt put them out of his mind.

Camilla asked Liz, “Do you know Duke Ignite?”

“Not personally. I think I was introduced once or twice, but he’s a part of a different faction than my parents.”

Matt had to clarify that statement. “Wait, factions? I kind of assumed that everyone marched to the Emperor’s drum. What factions are there?”

Liz scoffed at that, and fell backward into the couch. “Pshh. There are a very limited number of resources at the highest Tiers. That’s why everyone leaves as soon as they can. It’s better to get out to the higher realms, where Tier 50 planets are more common. But you’re not wrong. No one is advocating for a new Emperor or something. It’s all about who should get access to this rift or that rift. It leads to groups advocating for their own benefits, and Uncle Manny has to balance it all. But Duke Ignite is from a separate faction, so I don’t know much about him.”

Camilla looked at Liz like she had grown two heads. “Wait, who are your parents? I know you call Aiden Uncle, but now you’re calling the Emperor Uncle?”

Matt had to chuckle at the look on her face. They hadn’t deliberately kept her in the dark, but it wasn’t something either of them mentioned to her.

Liz flipped her hair and looked imperious. “You have the honor to be in the presence of the daughter of Leon and Mara. The two royals. You may now pay obeisance.”

Her demeanor dissolved into a giggle, and she lightly punched the gobsmacked woman. “Relax. I’m just fucking with you. I’m just me.”

Camilla rolled her eyes. “So who are your actual parents then?”

Liz cocked her head. “Oh. No. I was joking about the obeisance. Not who my parents were. I’m on The Path to get out of their clutches.”

The wide-eyed look from the dark-haired woman was enough to lighten the mood.

Matt was still shocked that they, or rather he, wasn’t the reason they got attacked. It was that they were frugal, and didn’t want to waste their mana stones that made them a target.

I guess I’m not the center of the universe after all.

It was slightly humbling in a way, but he had to laugh. Matt wasn’t someone special, just someone they thought was an easy mark.

Any more conversation was interrupted with Liz jerking slightly. “Oh, I’m getting a call from the Duke.”

With a flick of her finger, the screen lit up, and Duke Ignite was sitting down in a room that looked more like an office.

“Good day Miss Moore.”

“Hello, Duke.” Liz’s demeanor and tone changed, she even had an expression he had never seen before.

“I just wanted to inform you as the person involved in this scandal that it’s been taken care of. Mostly.”

“I don’t like the sound of mostly. Please elaborate.”

“The idiot leading that little operation was a royal, and like all of his family members, was involved in a family meeting about five months before he started this idea. Like all of those that attended, they wore items that could suppress their AIs. The king was obviously there as well, and I can’t be sure that he wasn’t involved. I wanted to warn you. I doubt that he will try anything, but I wanted to be sure that you were aware.”

“Thank you. I will inform my parents of your excellent service.”

The Duke waved that off. “I won’t say no to a favor from them, but don’t think I wouldn’t do it for anyone I found in this situation. I dropped a hint that there were VIPs involved in this little debacle, and that the king might want to be incredibly careful with his actions. But I’ll be gone in a few hours. I’m only staying around to finish the checks of the other victims.”

His eyes and arms flared with orange light, but they quickly cooled, and the apathetic look returned.

“I pushed for the maximum reimbursement from the king, so you will each be getting a Tier 7 mana stone. I wish it was more, but the restrictions of The Path are limiting me here.”

“What about the others? Will they be made whole?” Liz’s question made Matt think to all the others as well. Twenty thousand was a huge amount of people to reimburse.

Duke Ignite nodded at the question. “I’m offering transport back to The Empire proper, and citizenship to any who want it. It’s all that I can personally do, but with the compensation from the king for their rough treatment, it should be enough to set most up nicely for the future. If they so wish.”

“I thank you for taking the time out of your day to inform me.”

The Duke said nothing else, and the transmission ended.

Before anyone else could say something, Camilla blurted out, “Fuck! I wasn’t sure you were serious.”

Liz just shrugged. “He’s only a Duke. It’s not a big deal.”

Matt and Camilla both gave the blood mage a look, before shaking their heads at each other. Liz had a different outlook on some things.

***

Two days later, they were preparing to leave the planet, and were waiting their turn to board the teleporter platform. It would send them to the Tier 4 planet that was the first stop on their journey.

When they finally reached the new world, they found themselves on a plain of grass. The world was fairly weak at Tier 4, but the surroundings had been leveled with magic of some type, as the ground was scorched for nearly a mile out. The rudimentary buildings of a temporary settlement were already going up. A teleportation city was always a busy place, especially one that linked directly to the capital of a kingdom.

Anyone who had landed here was planning for the long haul, and some had already gotten the first few jumps in. Some people were already heading to the surroundings, and scouting out fresh areas to subjugate on the new world. Matt and the other three headed to the edge of the city perimeter, and found other groups who were boarding a large flying ship.

For the price of a Tier 4 mana stone, they would take people to the next teleporter. Matt pulled out his flying sword, and while three people and a fox would be a little cramped, it was faster and cheaper for them to fly themselves. Still, it wasn’t the price of the ride that was the issue, it was the speed.

The company running the ships was relying on people wanting comfort out of their ride on the ship, so it would take a slow and steady pace. That meant it would take the flying ship nearly three times as long as the flying sword to cover the roughly three thousand miles they needed to traverse.

Liz and Camilla had bundled up. Despite the general heat of this planet, it would be cold at the height and speeds they would be traveling. Matt simply activated [Cracked Phantom Armor], and Aster wouldn’t be affected by the cold in the least. She was already hiding in her backpack. The idea of flying wasn’t exactly her definition of a good time.

With Matt taking the first spot, they all held on. With a mental effort, the sword rose. Matt had to spend a bit more mana to counteract the added weight, but this was a Tier 7 model. It was fast. While the top speed would cost 30 MPS, his mana regeneration was 40 MPS. And even with his AI draining 2 MPS, he still had enough to keep his armor activated, and protect himself from the wind and cold.

If they got there fast enough, they could catch up with the flying ship two departures ahead, and get the jump to get through the next planet. To that end, Matt was determined to maintain the sword’s top speed for their entire trip. At 150 mph, it would be cold and bitter for the girls, but reaching their destination as quickly as possible was worth the twenty-hour long journey.

With everyone on the sword, Matt made sure they were ready, and they took off.

Hours later, Matt and his human passengers were watching a movie in a conference call with their AI’s. They were relying on Matt’s AI to guide them. He had manually flown for hours, but after the novelty of going full speed had worn off, his attention wavered, and he knew that his AI could handle the navigation easily.

They were all jolted out of the movie while flying through a medium-sized mountain range, when a massive bird rose from a cavern, and started closing in on them from directly ahead. The beast had silvery wings and was at the peak of Tier 4. It’s power caused the [Wind Blade]s it fired out at them to be quite a shock.

Matt assumed that it was a rift creature that had escaped and reproduced outside of the rift. Its massive size gave it an advantage through its physical abilities. The attacks were easy enough to dodge, but with the mountain range, he had to slow down to avoid slamming into the sides of the peaks. Their speed was reduced to the point that the creature was able to keep up and intercept them.

Taking manual control, Matt flew higher to avoid the hazardous terrain, and cranked up the speed. It was dangerous, as they were reaching heights where breathable air was scarce. But after a few frantic moments, they were past the creature. It didn’t bother to chase them.

“Fuck!”

Matt wholeheartedly agreed with Camilla’s statement. That wasn’t a monster that he wanted to tangle with three passengers on his blade.

The rest of their travel was uneventful, and they reached the teleporter city to find they were just in time to catch the next port out. At this point, they were caught up with the first groups of lower Tiers. The higher Tiers had been much faster to get to the fourth planet, and thus to their goal, the Tier 20 planet. That was a prize most just traveled through chaotic space to reach. The first to arrive would be the first to reap the rewards.

After reaching the second planet, they had to travel a much shorter distance, and soon reached their own goal of the Tier 6 planet.

They all had [Endurance], and were using it to push off sleep. They were caught up to the most connected groups, who had had top priority in leaving the planet, so their harsh travel methods had been worth it.

The Tier 6 planet was still getting satellite coverage. It was spotty at best, so they relied on purchasing the initial survey from an information broker who was working out of a collapsible table near the teleporter platform.

The information cost them five Tier 6 mana stones, but it was an acceptable expense to try and get to valuable spots early. Sadly, the details were as spotty as the coverage, and they didn’t show any obvious locations of hotspots.

Just when they were exiting the tent, a young man came up to them. “Hey. Are you looking for rifts or...” He looked around and said, “Better locations?”

Matt checked their backs, while Liz asked her own questions. “And what’s it to you? And who are you?”

Seeing no one behind them preparing an ambush, Matt turned back to the man.

“Ah. Sorry. My name is Malcolm. Wannabe explorer and adventurer. I, uhh... spent all my money on getting to be one of the first people here, and I never thought ahead about the monsters.”

Malcolm laughed good-naturedly, and looked over their group again. They didn’t join in his good humor.

“So I have a Talent that leads me to what I want, and I wanted a team that might be able to help me. My Talent gave me good feelings about you all.”

Matt wasn’t buying what this guy was selling. This was a trap of some sort. He was sure of it.

Liz opened her mouth to deliver what he was sure would be a rejection, and Malcolm clearly also saw the same thing, so he hurried to add, “Look. My Talent works on more than just people.”

He leaned in closer and whispered, “It’s telling me there are at least five hidden ruins on this world. I’ll give you directions to a second one after you escort me through the one I want.”

That shocked Matt enough to consider it. Ruins were incredibly rare versions on rift breaks. Normally, a rift break just dumped out monsters, and once its energy was neutralized, went back to normal. But a ruin was where the entire rift inverted, and came out to reality. It also caused any items within to become unbound and usable.

They were incredibly rare, but over a long enough time frame, they would appear on some planets. Most were obvious, with structures where there should be none, but those were always the worst versions. The best ones were usually in hard-to-reach locations, or underground. When the rifts inverted, it could put an entire city in the mantle of the planet with zero issues. They were also known to be larger on the inside than the outside, and the rift never died when the inversion happened.

No, it kept producing monsters and items. The only difference was that they weren’t instanced, so they always built up and turned into treasure troves of materials and items.

All of this was just too good to be true. Why would a random stranger tell them that, and not seek to profit from the valuable information?

Matt asked just that. “Why tell us, and not sell the information? The finder’s fee would be amazing.”

Malcolm shook his head. “I don’t want the finders fee. I want the treasures inside. If we’re the first ones there, we can take what we want. I just have two conditions.”

That was more like what he was expecting. They would probably be incredibly restrictive, with promises involving their AIs or something.

“I just want a fair split of the treasures, and there is one growth item that my Talent’s screaming is perfect for me. I just need help getting in and killing all the beasties.”

Camilla asked, “Why not get a team of Tier 6’s. There’s some around.”

She was right. The place wasn’t crowded yet, but they were one of the few Tier 5 teams. It would have been safer for the man to get one of the stronger Tier 6 groups.

Malcolm shook his head once again. “My Talent is saying that would backfire on me. Either they would rob me, or just give me nothing. You’re the third Tier 5 team to come through since I’ve been waiting, and the first one I got a good feeling for. I don’t need much, just a quarter of the loot and that one growth item.”

“Let us talk it over.”

With Liz’s proclamation, they huddled up and quickly chatted.

Camilla was the first to speak. “I don’t trust this.”

Matt nodded, and Liz added, “It’s fishy by every ascender's sweaty balls. But a ruin...”

She let that trail off, and it spoke on its own.

Even Camilla agreed. It was a good point.

Matt wasn’t going to say it out loud, but he wasn’t keen on bringing another person into their party. He was friendly with Camilla, but he didn’t think the explorer would be anything other than dead weight on this trip.

He corrected himself. If he was being honest, he just didn’t have a good feeling about this. A fifth party member was out of his comfort zone.

But the rewards.

Matt could hardly imagine the rewards in a Tier 6 ruin. Rifts got larger the higher the Tier, and a Tier 6 that had spent however many years producing items and monsters would be amazing for advancement.

While Camilla was able to hold her own now, he and Liz were hitting well above their Tier, and a Tier 6 rift would be easy pickings for them.

Finally, with the others looking at him, he spoke against his better judgment. “I didn’t see any obvious ruins on the satellite imagery. If he’s not full of it, this is too good to pass up. I just don’t like it. This is way too sketchy for my blood.”

Both women nodded at him.

Liz looked to Camilla and said, “We’re in this together. Are you up for it? This is the point of exploring new worlds, after all. Finding treasures in the open is luck-based more than anything.”

Camilla chewed her lip and nodded. “I don’t think he can kill us or anything, so if we’re careful, we can mitigate a lot of the risk. I agree. We just can’t pass this up. Finding it on our own will negate the advantage we got by coming early. If we end up chasing the first wave, the best of the loot will be taken away. I don’t want other people’s scraps.”

Matt added his final thought. “I don’t think he’s telling us everything, but his logic is reasonable enough. I wouldn’t trust people a Tier above mine to not overpower me either.”

With nods, they turned back to Malcolm, who was pacing back and forth impatiently.

“What’s the answer? Good news, I hope?”

Camilla asked the first question, “How far away is it?”

“I don’t know. I just know the direction, and it’ll get stronger the closer I get.”

Matt asked the second one, “How do you know there are five ruins?”

“My Talent works on the question I ask, and five ruins on an untouched planet isn’t a crazy number. This is a Tier 6 world, and the higher the Tier, the more likely there are ruins.”

Liz finally asked, “Well, what direction? We don’t have time to waste after all.”

Matt held up his hand, he wanted an AI promise before they walked into a trap.