The Path of Ascension

Matt, Liz, and a still-groggy Aster made their way to one of the rebuilt hotels. It seemed like everyone else from the fortress had the same idea. The hotel was almost completely full, there was only a small, one-bedroom room left. He was going to suggest they try and find another hotel, when Liz accepted the room on their behalf, despite being gouged for a Tier 6 mana stone.

He didn’t care much about the price; he was way more nervous about them only having a single bed to sleep on. They’d never slept together in the same bed before. Intellectually, he knew it was a stupid distinction, given that they had been using sleeping bags next to each other for months on end. Still, this was somehow different.

Pushing the thoughts of what he usually did with a woman on a bed away, he reaffirmed their decision to not have sex until Tier 15.

Suddenly, that decision felt extremely stupid.

Am I going to go years without sex?

With a thought, he brought up the age restriction for Tier 15 on The Path and sighed.

Are we supposed to not have sex until we’re sixty-nine years old? That’s forever. It seems like such a stupid rule in the first place.

Matt debated asking why they had to wait. He knew Liz had said the higher Tiers didn’t like their children to get into committed relationships before Tier 15, but the reasons why had never come up.

While he was trying to figure out how to breach the topic without sounding like he was pressuring her to change her mind, Matt very nearly missed when they reached their room.

When Liz flung open the door, he was surprised at the quality of the room. The entire city had been leveled just a few weeks ago, but this was posh. A massive bed took up the majority of the room, but there was still a cozy table set next to the kitchenette.

Dropping his spatial backpack next to the dresser, Matt set Aster down on the bed, and peered over Liz’s head to inspect the bathroom. It was as nice as the rest of the rented room, even having a shower in addition to a large tub. It was so large, he was pretty sure that even he would be able to stretch out in it.

Matt could feel Liz practically drooling, so it wasn’t a surprise when she said, “Get a bath going. I’ll go get some drinks.”

Flipping the shower on, he let the scorching water batter at his sore back for a long moment, before stepping over to the tub and flipping the faucet on. Despite their best efforts, bathing in rivers wasn’t as nice as a hot shower, and he reveled in it.

It wasn’t long after he finally felt clean that Liz opened the door, and a wave of colder air woke Matt from his stupor. Turning, he saw her with a stool from their camping supplies. She winked at him after he caught her ogling him, not embarrassed in the least. She squeezed what seemed like half a bottle of bubble bath into the filling tub as he admired her form in return.

Seeing how everything was sudsing up, she pulled out a case of beer, along with a platter of cheese and crackers.

Matt had to laugh at that, asking while he washed the remnants of soap out of his hair, “Isn’t it supposed to be wine that goes with cheese and crackers.”

Even with his eyes closed under the water, he heard Liz’s pouting tone. “They only had two types of shit wine. This was the best I could do. Stop hogging the water.”

With that, he was guided out of the shower, despite his protests. But he took the naked form of his girlfriend as compensation. Checking his AI, he started playing some music from the small speaker Liz had brought in with her haul of food.

As he slipped into the bath, he enjoyed the view while he sipped his beer. He assumed it was a local brand, as he had never heard of it before. But while the aftertaste was a little stronger than he preferred, it was the only option available, so he drank.

Not long after Liz finished scrubbing herself, she turned off the shower and slipped into the bath with him.

Matt wanted to think of it as erotic with their legs intertwined, but he was so tired, he didn’t have the energy to make a move on her. It was a struggle to even keep his eyes open with the heat seeming into his muscles.

He started to smile as Liz slowly sank into the tub, the hot water seeping into her bones, her cheese and beer forgotten to the side.

As he was about to wake her up before her nose dipped under, she reached over and took the straw out of her drink, and used it as a makeshift snorkel. Feeling her feet brushing his stomach, Matt grabbed one and started to rub the calloused appendage.

There was a shudder as he hit a sore spot, and Matt had to repress the instinct to tickle her. He didn’t want to kill her; she was only breathing through a straw after all.

After he swapped feet, Liz pulled her feet back and flipped over, crawling up his chest and trailing kisses up to his neck, finally ending with a hug. Matt wanted to reciprocate the affection, and see if it turned into something more.

He went in for a kiss, but he heard her already snoring next to him. He was so tired, he finally stopped resisting the siren’s call and passed out as well.

***

Waking up, Matt felt a kink in his back and heard sloshing. He was confused for a moment, before he realized they had fallen asleep in the tub. A quick check of his AI showed that they had been in there for nearly four hours. It explained why he felt so pruney.

Gently shaking Liz didn’t get anywhere, so with his toes he felt around for the lever that would drain the water. His movements finally earned a groggy response from Liz, and he was able to get her out of the tub and toweling off.

They were wrinkled all over after their soak, and the heat had leached out of the water, leaving them quite cold. Once dry, they fell into the bed with Aster, still curled in a ball where Matt had put her earlier.

With Liz next to him, Matt fell back to sleep after mere moments. He was pretty sure it was the exhaustion talking, but this was the softest bed he had ever slept in.

***

The next day, they were eating breakfast at another overpriced place, and watching a local newscaster report on the situation of the ruin.

Matt mostly ignored the feel-good story they were spouting about the restoration, and focused on the hard numbers. They had given the number of people who remained in the rifts to the Prince, who then passed them to the local government. But there were still around five hundred people missing or confirmed dead.

It was a sobering number, but Matt tried not to dwell on it.

While the reporter droned on about how the Prince had saved everyone, Matt caught that the satellite infrastructure was nearly fully replaced at this point. The reporter stated that coverage was steadily increasing for rudimentary communications.

The information was welcome, and gave them a measure of security. People like the bandits, who had been selling their fellow humans to the golems, would be less likely to engage in that type of action with adequate oversight.

After they finished their breakfast, they walked to the expanding border of the city, and flew to the location of the first item that Malcolm had said would be good for them. They decided to retrieve Matt and Aster’s ‘best suited’ items last, as Liz’s was closer to the city. They were afraid it would be found by someone.

The problem with Malcolm’s Talent, Matt decided, was that they were only given a location and not the actual identity of the item. With the long travel, Malcolm was able to get a fairly accurate location by triangulating the feelings his Talent gave him. Unfortunately, the location was damn near the center of a large mountain.

“Are we meant to dig up the entire mountain?”

Liz sounded as mystified as Matt felt. They had shovels, sure, but this was a thick mountain of what appeared to be solid rock.

They inspected the surroundings carefully, and found a deep crack in a cliff near the expected location that nearly split the mountain in half. Far inside, they could see a lump of what looked like standard iron, but was absolutely stuffed with essence. It took Liz using her [Blood Manipulation] along with [Create Blood] to fish it out.

After she retrieved it, they both inspected the hunk of metal with their spiritual senses and AIs. The compendium of Tier 5 and lower natural treasures they had bought had nothing recorded that matched it. Liz couldn’t recognize the material either.

Still, it was apparently the best natural treasure for Liz on the planet.

Matt was more shocked by Malcolm’s Talent’s ability than anything else. This was a random mountain in the middle of a mountain range, not to mention that the metal was buried two hundred feet up a sheer cliff. But he had been able to find it with ease. The only limiter was the man’s own Tier, and this being a Tier 6 planet meant some things could have slipped by him. But this was so hidden, Matt wouldn’t be surprised if the metal had remained here for decades, without Malcolm leading them to it.

Liz was inspecting it, along with Aster sniffing it over her shoulder. “It feels way softer than it should.”

She squeezed it, and the imprint of her fingers were indented in the metal for a moment, before the lump of ore returned to its original shape.

Matt tossed an idea out, “Maybe you’re meant to refine it into your weapon?”

Most natural treasures were meant to be eaten, cycled into your spirit, or refined. But he couldn’t imagine what the metal could be used for. Liz wasn’t a crafter, who would value a rare metal, but his guess was that it could enhance her weapon.

From what Matt understood of Malcolm’s Talent, it would give the best answer it could, even if it wasn’t that great of a fit.

Liz didn’t seem bothered and said, “Let’s go get you and Aster’s items.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to look around for another item? Maybe this isn’t the one we were meant to find.” Matt didn’t want to let Liz get screwed over because they were in a rush.

“Nah. Either this is the item we were meant to get, or it’s so hidden we won’t find it without destroying the entire mountain.” She paused before adding, “I guess someone else could have found it, but this is kinda out of the way. We’ll know when we get this thing inspected.”

With Liz happy enough with her find, they started to move to the other two markers. They were actually off the continent, and in a mountainous archipelago that stretched off into the distance, covered in a tropic beauty. The view as they passed the island was a sight to behold. The islands looked to be composed mostly of pure marble Most of the islands were even small enough that rifts couldn’t spawn there, making them amazing retreat spots. They each came with spectacular views, without the possibility of danger from rift breaks.

As they hovered, Matt called out, “We should build my test rift on one of the larger islands here. I think that one would work.” He pointed at a larger island separate from the others.

“We could, but we should set up camp on one of the smaller ones. Then we don’t have to worry about anything going wrong. Worst case, we just leave the island we play rift maker on.”

They coasted around the islands, distracted for a long while. Liz called out when she spotted an odd island off in the distance.

“Oh, check out the map. That looks like our spot, and the island looks... wrong.”

Flying over, he immediately saw what she meant. Where the other islands were green, interspersed with white marble sticking out, this small island had not a speck of life on it.

“Not seeing any plant life doesn’t give me a good feeling.”

Liz scoffed at him. “Obviously don’t land, but weird stuff is always a good sign for natural treasures.”

Not able to counter her logic, Matt hovered around the dead island, while Liz pulled out binoculars and inspected the landmass.

She was so quiet, Matt nearly tipped them off the flying sword after her exclamation, “Oh! Hurry! Go land!”

Flying down, he followed the marker she set. Off to one side of the island, he found a pair of boulders sheltering the scraggliest looking tree he had ever seen.

He was about to crack a joke, when his AI pinged him a match from the compendium. It caused him to land with half a mind as he read further.

The tree, and he used the term loosely, was called the Tree of Perfection. The pretentious name was… misleading to say the least.

It was only about three feet tall, and had a single multicolored leaf that looked like a muted rainbow. Hanging underneath the single leaf was a fruit that looked like a ripe mango. If mango's were striped with alternating colors of purple, red and yellow, that is.

The tree had a single root poking out of the ground, that was more an extension of the trunk than a proper root. But its odd appearance was betrayed by the tree’s properties.

If the description Matt was reading was right, it was perfect for him and Aster.

Reading the description out loud, he wanted to confirm he wasn’t going crazy. “The Tree of Perfection is able to raise mind, body, or spirit to perfection, like that achieved after Tier 15. Only one aspect can be improved per person, and although all three can be harvested, they must be eaten within minutes of being picked. The effects will last for roughly one standard year, and improvement will be steady, after an initial burst.”

Liz nodded at him, repeatedly bouncing slightly with exuberance.

“Yes! It’s perfect for you and Aster. If you eat the body root, and Aster the mind fruit, we can sell the spirit leaf. We can make a fortune.”

That gave Matt pause, “Why won’t you eat it?”

Liz looked at him like he was forgetting something obvious. “I already have a near-perfect mind, body, and spirit from having Tier 48 parents. I’m pretty sure I’m close to what Tier 15’s have already. I doubt it would do anything for me. Even if it did, it would be minimal. Better to sell it in an auction.”

Matt reread the description. It discussed in great detail how even if someone found a second tree, and ate a different aspect, they would get nothing. It didn’t mention anything about whether or not it was useless to the children of Tier 15’s or higher.

Using the rudimentary connection he had to the still building PlanetNet, he looked up what perfection really was.

It was more and less than he thought at the same time. At Tier 15, you had the ability to change your body at will, but as you progressed through Tiers, any flaws were corrected. The example given was missing potential growth markers from malnutrition while growing up, or even genetic mutations. While they would be naturally fixed upon reaching Tier 15, there were even greater changes that happened as one progressed through the higher Tiers. Those changes were believed to be the primary reason it grew harder and harder for people above Tier 15 to conceive children.

Their changed genetics made it hard to conceive, even with others at their own Tier. The article repeated multiple times that it was still only a theory, but it was a well documented and supported one. Matt took it as a near guarantee, as it was more than he could speculate.

“So you would have a hard time having a kid, even now?”

Liz smirked at him, wiggled her eyebrows at him. “Wanting to knock me up? You beast.”

Matt spluttered back at her, “No! No, I just read up on perfection a little bit. It seems like unless you aren’t really able to have a kid, you can’t really be that ‘perfect’, and can therefore use the other aspect. I don’t want you to lose an advantage just for some money.”

Money, while useful at your own Tier, would mean nothing when they advanced. It wasn’t worth it to pass up an item for money that they would eventually outgrow.

Liz rubbed his arm, and her teasing countenance softened. “Thanks for looking out, but we can probably sell the location of the last spirit aspect for a Tier 10 mana stone, or even higher. If we go for a trade, we could probably get quite a few skills.”

Matt thought about it and shook his head. “Sure, that would be amazing if we weren’t us. But Liz, we want to take a break and delve fully-charged Tier 5 rifts. If we pull one growth item, we can make the same money as selling this. More if it’s a useful one. It’s not like we can’t make and fully charge a Tier 6 rift either. We could pull more than one skill out of that. Money isn’t an issue for us.”

As he spoke, Matt grew more confident in his stance. The money was nice, but it would come. Even if they just delved rifts at their own Tier, they would advance and progress while accumulating money.

They were both eighteen years old, already at Tier 5, and only needed to reach Tier 6 by twenty-four. There was no rush for them to advance yet. Besides, fighting the golems, which were a Tier above them, meant that they had advanced even faster. They were nearly a third of the way through Tier 5, and unlike most teams, they weren’t limited by delve slots or mana regeneration.

No, there was no reason to even consider money as a factor. In fact, Matt made a note to look for growth items that suited them going up for auction. They could probably delve a Tier 5 rift four or five times a day if they pushed, and with them being fully charged, their odds of getting good loot was essentially a certainty.

It wasn’t a question of if, but when. Fully charged rifts always gave good loot, and being Tier 5, they could still get full rewards from Tier 5 rifts. And they were the last Tier with any conceivable chance of dropping a growth item.

“No, Liz. I think money is useless to us when we’re going to delve into a fully charged Tier 5 rifts for more than a day or two. Think about how much wealth we pulled out of the training planet in the first week. We can do that every. Single. Day. More than once a day. Even if it only improves your spirit by one percent, it’s still more than we had. We can always get money. Where can we find something like this?”

Liz didn’t look convinced, but was clearly thinking it over.

Finally, she shrugged, “You’re not wrong, but I don’t think this will do anything for me at all. And that’s basically throwing money away.” Seeing him open his mouth to protest, she hurriedly added, “Even if you’re Tier 50, throwing away money is still bad. We aren’t held by the same restrictions that others have to deal with, but using an item that I’m pretty sure won’t work on me feels dirty and wasteful. Also, there must be a reason that Malcolm’s Talent didn’t bring me to this.”

“But you don’t know for sure that you’ll get nothing out of it. It says ‘improve to Tier 15 perfection,’ and you even admitted that you aren’t quite the same as a Tier 15. I don’t want you to miss something, even if it’s a tiny improvement. And Malcolm’s Talent just got the best thing for you. If this is near perfect, the iron must be even better. Ninety-nine versus a hundred.”

Liz still looked unconvinced, but stopped protesting. He understood the idea of not wanting to waste something this rare, but he would rather she got even the smallest advantage, rather than others getting a massive one.

Helping others would be good for society as a whole, but Matt couldn’t worry about things on such a large scale.

Liz and Aster will get anything before I give to others. Maybe when I’m stronger, I’ll change my opinion, but I don’t want to pass up anything that can help the people close to me. Even if this is only an advantage until Tier 15, that’s ten Tiers where we can be better than our peers. And it will help me catch up to Liz.

Matt read the guide for how to harvest the Tree of Perfection, and frowned at his poor luck. The leaf and fruit were easy to use, someone just had to eat them, but the same was true for the root. Of course, that was the part of the tree that corresponded to the body.

If Aster ate the fruit, she would improve her mind to perfection over the next year. For a bond, that meant she would hit full sapience well before Tier 10. It would also give her near-perfect natural memory, and increase her mental acumen.

Matt, being born of two people less than Tier 15, and being the dedicated melee fighter, was best suited to the root. It improved the physical body to great effect. It would act as a bonus to his physical cultivation, as that was based on his physical body, and was the reason why he worked out to increase his strength the mundane way.

The leaf increased the spirit’s ability to handle large mana channeling. Honestly, Matt would’ve liked to use that as well, if it were possible. He would start being able to handle massive amounts of mana, but that was only a real problem after Tier 15. Then, he would have 100’s of mana, when under 1% of his Maximum Mana, and could cast more expensive spells on cooldown. Only then would his spirit limit how fast he could cast spells.

Still, as someone who mainly channeled spells with [Blood Manipulation], it would be useful for Liz too. Perhaps it wasn’t as perfect a fit as with Matt and Aster, but it would help her nonetheless.

All of that meant that Matt had to chew on the dirty root of a tree, while Liz got a one-leaf salad, and Aster an actual fruit.

Matt looked around and wondered if someone was playing a joke on him. It was a root. Not even a tuber, like a potato, but just a straight wooden root.

“So, are you all ready?” Matt decided to stop delaying, and pulled out his canteen. According to the harvesting guide, they only had about five minutes from the first thing being taken, before the others started to lose their effectiveness.

Liz looked hesitant, and Aster disinterested, but Matt forged ahead. “So how should we do this?”

Liz shrugged. “I have a leaf and Aster a fruit, so I’ll stuff the leaf in my mouth and feed Aster the fruit while you chew on the root.”

Without a better plan, Matt watched as Liz plucked and shoved the leaf into her mouth, then picked the fruit as well. She cut it up for Aster, who was still a little too small to eat something that large.

Matt pulled the entire tree out of its stony soil, and to his surprise, effortlessly pulled the distinct and stripped root off the tree. He tossed the swiftly withering trunk to the side.

Quickly rinsing off the dirt, he wiped it clean on his sleeve, and shoved the whole root into his mouth. Matt had been hoping it would be softer than he expected, but it was just as hard as any other tree root. However, unlike the texture, the released juice was actually pretty good, reminiscent of a nutty honey.

Before he could delve more into that, he felt something happening. The root’s accumulated essence started to seep into him. But unlike with a killed monster, where the essence went to his spirit for storage until he distributed it, this essence seeped into his muscles and bones. It felt like a fire made of ants was burning through his body.

With a final burst, he swallowed the remaining root. As he did, the essence seemed to make its way through each and every muscle fiber.

From head to toe, he became hyper-sensitive, and he didn’t know how to stop it. As the itching and crawling sensation rapidly ramped up, and started to overwhelm him, he stripped off his armor and clothes. He was desperately trying to lessen the amount of things touching him. When that didn't work, he threw himself into the nearby ocean.

It didn’t help the ever-increasing hypersensitivity, but when the fire hit his intestines, he was grateful for his plunge.

The fire caused him to vacate everything he had eaten in the last two days from both ends, in a squall of vomit and diarrhea. After what felt like a decade, the torrent of filth ended when he had nothing left, and he finally crawled out of the water and onto the rocky beach.

That was when the smell hit him. It was in addition to the cocktail of vomit and excrement that was slowly dispersing in the water, and permeating the air with an acidic rotten egg smell. Matt was also sweating out what seemed to be fleshy colored sludge. It adhered to his skin like tar. The smell was so bad, he would've immediately vomited if he wasn’t already running on empty. It smelled like a dead, decaying, rotting corpse, along with a hint of fish and sweaty socks that lingered on his tongue.

There was something decidedly unnerving about watching something vacate your body that shouldn’t be there to begin with. As much as he hoped it was the end, Matt watched as his skin started to slough off, as if he was peeling after a bad sunburn. Underneath was fresh and tender skin.

“Are you fucking kidding me? I worked hard on those callouses!”

Matt cursed as the callouses that protected him from blisters fell away. Even the rounded stones of the beach felt like daggers to his overly sensitive skin, and he struggled to find a comfortable position.

There was an itching in the back of his neck that increased to actual pain. When he carefully felt around, he found a sticky glob of dark blood. He tried to wipe his hands on the rocks, but paused when he felt something in the blood.

Letting the distraction take him, Matt crawled back to the water’s edge, and washed the blood away. In his hand, he found the AI chip that he had installed on the PlayPen, which most certainly should not have been outside of his body.

Matt only held back a panic attack at the thought of his AI being ruined, because his HUD never even flickered. He still ran a full diagnostic to make sure everything was working properly.

As the test ran, and more and more systems came back fine, he inspected the tiny chip that used to house his AI, and give it extra processing power.

The worst of the hypersensitivity was gone, so Matt put the AI chip on a larger rock and jumped into the water, far away from where he had vacated his bowls. He wanted to clean off, not get his own filth back on him. His arm hurt for a reason he couldn't pinpoint, but when he inspected the location, he found nothing wrong.

By the time he finished scrubbing himself down with his hands, he found Liz and Aster on the beach next to him, with his clothes in a pile.

Both Liz and Aster wrinkled their noses at the smell that still lingered in the air, near the black sludge he had excreted from his pores. It was still on the rocks, and smelled as bad as it looked.

When he moved to leave the water, Liz and Aster backed up. The latter yipped at him, with a mental projection of, “Stay back. Smell bad.”

Along with the actual words, his bond sent him a far too detailed memory of how he smelled to her. He was more shocked by the actual words and detailed thoughts from his bond, who usually communicated with feelings.

Following the connection, he tried sending, “Aster?”

His bond shook her head and shot back, “Clean now. Pet later.”

Liz clearly agreed, as she threw him a bar of soap and called out, “For Ascender’s sake, please scrub yourself off before you come off! We’re going to wait farther down the beach. Upwind.”

She looked ready to vomit, and hurried away with Aster racing ahead of her.

With the ability to actually clean himself, he scrubbed his baby-soft skin, wishing that nose soap had been invented, as the foul scent lingered.

When he approached his companions, Matt called out, “Can I come over now? Or do I still stink?”

Aster sniffed carefully, stretching out as if the extra two inches would make a difference. Finally, he was given the all-clear with a mental demand of, “Pet now.”

Quickly dressing, Matt sat down and shifted uncomfortably, as his clothes seemed to sit wrong.

“That looked fun. I didn’t think it was possible for the human body to contain that much junk. Is there even anything left of you?”

Matt ignored his human companion, and asked his own question. “I can see, or rather hear Aster’s transformation. What about you?”

Liz had a ribbon of blood swirl and weave in on itself, in a dizzying display of mana control.

She glared at Matt before smiling. “I was wrong, and it had quite a bit of an effect. Not quite as much as you and Aster, but still more than one percent. Maybe closer to twenty percent. I guess I’m not so perfect.”

Matt elbowed her in the side, and with his best impersonation of Prince Albert said, “I’ll allow you to remain by my side.”

She returned the elbow with greater strength, and they wrestled for a minute, before their shenanigans disturbed Aster. She yipped in clear annoyance, and projected a simple demand, “No. Pet.”

Liz looked at the fox and rolled her eyes. She said, “While you pet her highness, we should decide on our next course of action. I vote we move to the smaller island, set up our camp, and relax for the rest of the day. We can start delving tomorrow. Even if my transformation wasn’t as bad as yours, I could use some sleep to get used to the changes. My spirit feels like someone wrung it out.”

Matt stood and cradled the sleepy Aster, before summoning his sword to float next to him. As he did, he had a thought, and spoke as it came to him.

“You know what this means, right?”

Liz looked at him like he was setting a trap, and carefully answered him, “No?”

“If this leaf still helped you, and Malcolm’s Talent didn’t pinpoint it, that means the rock must be fucking amazing.”