The Path of Ascension

Matt paced around in line as they waited for the groups in front of them to get their items identified. Liz wasn't any better,vibrating from repressed energy.

Aster was tired of both of them, and was hiding in her backpack on Matt’s back. The mind enhancing fruit was leaving a lingering headache that was making her groggy. It made sleep impossible.

As the line moved forward one spot, Matt checked the stalls, and wondered when the team was going to stop flirting with the man behind the desk. If they wanted to flirt, they should go to a bar. They needed their weird iron rock inspected, and the party being helped was holding their appraiser hostage.

After what felt like an eternity later, they were the next in line, only waiting for the next table to open. When one did, they moved in unison to sit down, unwilling to let any more delays stop them.

The appraiser, seeing their rush, tried to repress a smirk, but failed miserably. A grin flitted around the edge of his mouth.

"My name is Alfonso, and I’m a Tier 11 appraiser, active for six years with Kas's Auctions. Another four years as a freelancer. Are you aware of our fees and rules?"

They nodded. Kas's Auctions was the reason they flew to the other teleporter city that led to the Tier 20 planet. It was big enough and busy enough that they could be lost in the bustling crowds, if their item was shockingly good.

The rules of Kas's Auctions were standard for most auction houses. They charged an equivalent Tier mana stone for each item check, if it wasn't put up for auction. So, their iron ore was going to cost almost nothing to identify. Most of their money was made with the five percent the auction house took from the sale price.

According to what Matt read on the CityNet, appraisers worked for near peanuts, as they were usually over Tiered. But they needed experience, and a number of items correctly appraised, before they could increase their certification. So, they worked in places like this, where they were a higher Tier than the planet. Appraisal got harder, the higher the Tier of items, and the fees were higher after Tier 15. That was where appraisers made real money.

It was still slightly strange that a Tier 11 was working on a Tier 6 planet, but Matt didn't care. He just wanted to figure out what exactly Malcolm’s Talent had led them to..

Liz plopped down the malleable iron on the tray provided, along with a Tier 5 mana stone.

Alfonso started to inspect the hand-sized piece of ore. Contrary to Matt's expectations and hope, the man finished in just moments, and shoved the ore back to them with a polite grin.

"Sorry, guys. Not the best luck. It's Tier 5 blood iron. Pretty rare, but of debatable usefulness at best. Fighters use it to introduce metal into their blood safely. Gives them a bit more weight and durability. When you Tier up, as long as you add some next Tier metal, your body will start producing that Tier of iron. Crafters do the same, but they use it to bleed themselves, and collect the metal. That way, they can get free iron at their Tier. But it's slow, as you have to naturally regenerate the blood, and can't get a healer to replenish it. Even if a healer regenerates your missing blood, the iron would still take time to grow back naturally."

Alfonso shrugged, "Not terribly useful. However, if you can get a Tier 10 alchemist to refine this, you can make a potion that will massively increase your affinity with metal. That's what most people use it for."

As Liz repressed a scream of excitement, Matt asked, "So if I bring this into my body, as a fighter, it can make me more durable? Anything else? Or maybe a better question is, how does it work?"

The appraiser shrugged, "There are no downsides to using it. From my understanding, it merges with your bone marrow, and somehow modifies its cellular structure to produce both blood and iron. The strengthened bones are especially useful for melee fighters. I personally know of one person who uses the strategy. He’s a pugilist, who concentrates all the iron in his hands. He hits like a runaway train."

"So it doesn't restrict blood flow or anything?"

"Nope, it's a natural treasure. Just cut yourself and cycle it like a skill, and it will be brought into your body. Any other questions?"

Matt was about to say no and thank the man, but then he thought of their plan to soon delve fully charged rifts. He asked, "Can I buy some kind of Tier 5 and below appraiser module for my AI, or anything like that?"

Alfonso laughed at that. "Good luck man. If you find someone willing to sell that, let me know as well. They’re all tightly controlled. I think the only one who has them for sale is the Empire proper. And even then, I don't think it's sold for mana stones. Only contribution points."

The appraiser’s grin was more wistful now.

Matt just thanked him, and pulled the useless Liz away. When they left the auction house, she snatched the iron ore from his hand and squeezed.

"This is so perfect! It can even grow with me. I bought the full report on the item. It can take any iron to upgrade after it's absorbed, but I need to Tier up first."

Liz plopped down on a bench, and started to stroke the little nugget of iron ore. Matt was pretty sure he heard her calling it sweet names.

While Liz absorbed the iron, he looked on the auction house's netsite to see if there was anything worth buying. They had quite a lot of money from their portion of the golem fortress sale, and they would only make more as they delved fully charged rifts.

It didn't take him long to see that the site had nothing interesting to him, so he turned back to Liz. She had a distant look in her eyes, and an orb of blood in her hand. A few moments later, she blinked a few times, and rubbed her now healed hands.

"Oh, that was good. My bones felt uncomfortably warm, but yeah... I can feel it flowing through my veins. This was the perfect item for me. Damn, where’s Malcolm? I want to get him a box that says 'item finder.'"

Rolling his eyes, Matt asked, "Are you ready to head back?"

At her agreement, he added, "Since we’re going to be stationary for a while, let's do some shopping. It’ll be good to do some while we’re in a city that isn't trying to rebuild itself."

Together they went through a few general stores, and got additional comforts for an extended stay. Most of their purchases were perishable foods, and they threw in two nice chairs. They really didn't need to buy much, since they already had most of the items they needed.

When Matt bought a dozen bags of concrete, Liz looked at him weirdly, but didn't question it.

Finally, they took to the skies and flew to their island chain, before finding a smallish island that they hadn’t noticed before. It had sandy beaches instead of rocky ones.

They thoroughly inspected the island for any animals that could be threats, but there were only Tier 2 and 3 animals there. They didn't seem bothered by their presence. Seeing it was safe, Liz stripped her armor off, and flopped under a tree's shade.

She let out a huge sigh and said, “I know we had an easy half-year with my brother, but ugh, the last month sucked. I needed this. No danger. No looking over my shoulder for a golem trying to tear me apart. Ahhhh, this is nice."

She dug her feet into the warm sand and just lay there. As comfortable as it looked, Matt was too excited to set up camp. He was anxious to begin creating and powering a rift. He was sure it would take some experiments, and he was eager to start.

Hearing Matt pulling out the tent, she hopped up.

"Go lay down. You don't have to help."

She just rolled her eyes and helped him set up. Their new tent was much bigger than the one they used on the training world, but it was easy enough to set up. After they were done, Matt set up his portable cooking station, and whipped up a heavy lunch. He was starving, especially after the afternoon's adventure of getting completely purged and refined by the Tree of Perfection’s root.

They ate, and Liz asked if he wanted company when he went to the other island. He declined her offer, and decided to take the rest of the day off, and lounge with her and Aster. As much as he wanted to start now, doing it without someone to pull him out of trouble was a recipe for disaster.

So, he forced himself to relax with Liz and Aster instead. The latter, who had just woken up from her nap, was positively rambunctious. Her increased mental activity led to her wanting to explore the island with new eyes, and ask a million questions of 'What' and 'Why'.

Matt didn't mind, and explained with words and pictures through their now stronger bond. It was really nice to have her as an actual member of the party. Aster even had an opinion of what they should eat for dinner. To no one’s surprise, it was ice cream.

She was even learning to unlock her AI, which led to him and Liz getting flooded with videos and pictures of everything she was seeing. It was adorable.

Currently, she was confused about rocks. "Rock?" She pointed to a chunk of marble and then nosed a bit of something like sandstone, "Rock?". His fox wasn't quite getting how they could both be rock.

"Rock is a catch-all term for all hard inorganics. Aster if you…"

She was distracted by the phrase 'catch-all,' and Matt regretted using those words.

The little arctic fox scampered off into the woods with a mental shout of "Food! Catch!" and she was gone.

Not long later, she came back with a bird-type animal, and dropped it in front of Matt. She looked up at him, and exuberantly commanded, "Caught. Cook!"

Unable to deny the impassioned fox, he plucked and cleaned the bird, before lightly roasting the mighty hunter's catch. Once finished, it was swiftly devoured, and the mighty hunter was soon passing out next to Liz.

The next morning, they were ready to go after a light breakfast, and they flew one island over. They circled the area from overhead, while having their AI measure where the safe area ended. The island was long, rather than circular and wide, and it only reached the ten-mile width they needed in a few spots.

That meant that they didn't have to fight any rift break monsters, but they would have to create the rift from scratch.

After marking a few possible locations, they landed, and Matt gestured to the surrounding trees. He asked Liz, "Want to do the honors to test the new blood?"

"Yes!"

With that, Liz created a whip of blood, after slicing her arm, and swung her creation in a circle.

Matt expected to see the trees tumble down after being smashed through, not clean slices, as if she was wielding a blade.

They both moved to inspect the stump of the trees with wide eyes.

"Welp. That’s impressive." Turning, Matt continued, "What did you actually do?"

"I usually make the blood harder by forming it into a compact tube. But instead, I used the blood as a blade. It was only possible by having the iron lined up on the edge. The more i focus on hardening the edge, the more iron is directed there."

"What about your skills? Does it work there? And your Concept?"

Liz raised her hand, and summoned a trio of [Blood Bullets]. They hovered there for a heartbeat, before they slammed into the felled tree. The impact registered as normal to his AI, just creating a large dent in the Tier 6 wood.

Matt cocked an eyebrow at Liz, who didn't look upset like he expected. Instead, blood from her arm rose up, and the spell was recast. This time, punching completely through the tree.

"Ha!" Liz's exclamation caused Aster to yip in excitement. Liz scooped out the fox and raised her above her head, spinning her around.

"It worked! I knew it! I just need to use my own blood for attacks again."

Not wanting to ruin her excitement, but worried about the implications, Matt asked, "That doesn't seem sustainable. Is it?"

"It's fine. Did you forget that I can absorb my blood?"

As she spoke, a stream of blood floated up and into her body.

"See? Blood and iron back inside. Zero loss."

"That really is impressive."

Matt was jealous. His prize had been traumatizing, more than anything. He knew he would get a lot out of it, but he was jealous of the visible combat effectiveness increase that Liz had gotten.

Not letting it get to him, Matt dragged the tree out of the way of the path deeper into the forest. After Liz cleared the surrounding area, they repeated their actions, until an area large enough was ready.

Rubbing his hands, Matt removed the formation plates he had made at Travis and Keith's place. It felt like years ago.

They were trapezoids of various sizes, that looked like triangles with the tips cut off, and they created a perfect circle when laid out flat. When they were arranged together, the inner diameter was nearly five feet wide.

It took some work with a shovel to level out the ground, but Matt had the plates ready. He was about to start pumping mana in, when Liz asked, "What exactly do these do? I know you made them with my brothers. But this looks, uhhh.... How do I put this nicely? Jury-rigged. Are we going to blow up or something?"

Matt looked from her to his formation plates. They were just concrete, with the runes for mana containment that he had drawn while the concrete was drying.

They didn't look that bad... Did they?

He didn't think so. Travis's versions were much nicer, but they were made from higher Tier metals, and had more functions.

"They’re safe. Nothing can really happen to these. All they do is make a bubble that traps mana in."

After seeing that his explanation didn't seem to work, he tried to explain more. "Travis and Keith's had more functions. Theirs actively drew in mana, since it wasn't supposed to be fed all that much. It let them delve at a faster rate, more than anything else. I was able to strip them down of their other functions, and make them simpler."

"Other functions like what?"

Matt didn't notice that Liz's tone wasn't as pleasant as it had been before, and glibly said, "Oh, the automatic purging function, and defensive runes to contain a rift break. Really it's not that big..."

Before he finished, Liz exploded. "What do you mean you removed the safety features? What the fuck were you thinking? Are you trying to get us killed?"

Matt turned around and tried to explain. Her tone was lighter than it could have been, but she had a point.

"It's not that dangerous. One, I can't enchant any of those, or at least the ones on your brothers’ formation plates. They were all I had to reference."

Seeing that he had only made her angrier, he hurried to get out, "It's not really needed for us. Without the runes to draw in more ambient mana, it acts as a bubble ,so no mana can leave or enter. The safeties are only needed if the rift fills up when you can't get there, and delve immediately. Same with the purging runes. It can't overflow, so it doesn't need to vent mana. Really, it's perfectly safe. I've run the calculations quite a bit in the background."

Trying to ease his clearly unsettled partner, he continued to explain as he put his hand on the formation plates. He was already starting the process as he talked, directing his mana into the formation first, then let it flow out into the inner area.

"The mana will start to condense, and eventually, we’ll see a rift form."

They waited together, as his spiritual sense felt the area’s mana concentration increase well past the ambient mana. It tried to escape, but just roiled against the wall that the formation plates created.

Matt's AI alerted him that there was a leak in the formation, so he paused. After smiling back at Liz and Aster, who were retreating, he found the two plates that weren't perfectly touching, and shoved them together. When they were sealed, he moved back to his spot, and continued to fill the dome with mana. Now, the mana seepage was perfectly in line with his predictions.

As he watched with his spiritual sense, he found the light blue of his unaspected mana filling the area. After a few minutes, there was a ripple, and a rift appeared. Wolves immediately flooded out.

For a moment, Matt was startled, but he instinctively activated [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mage's Retreat]. He retreated while punching out with a spiked gauntlet, and the first wolf exploded in a mess of gore.

It was only a Tier 1 monster, and it crumpled like wet paper under his empowered blows. Standing up, he finished the rest off with kicks that sent the wolves flying. Once the wolves stopped coming out of the rift, Matt turned to Liz, only to get a wolf corpse in the face.

She shouted, "Oh, nooo. You don't need the protective runes! We don't need them, he says."

Another corpse was flung at him, with trails of blood following it.

"Well, that was the rune I couldn't make."

Liz didn't seem to care about his excuse, and chased him around while throwing bodies at him. When she finished venting her faux anger, he sat next to her. She poked his ribs, causing him to reflexively jerk back.

She plopped her head on his shoulders, and asked, "Can I make a suggestion?"

"Of course."

"That was rhetorical. Buy the guide for rift making. I know there’s one for low Tier guilds. Let's buy it, and not kill ourselves. While a Tier 1 rift break isn’t a big deal, a Tier 5 or 6 rift break could be a problem."

Matt really wanted to argue, he had actually expected there to be a rift break when the rift appeared. He just hadn't reacted quickly enough when it formed.. It had been a little too fast for his perception to catch.

Still, he wanted to experiment and learn as he went. He was having fun.

"Can you buy it, and let me know if I'm going to do something dangerous?" Feeling her tense up, he quickly added, "Nothing crazy, but this is kinda fun and exciting. I don't want us to get hurt, but who knows what I can stumble on if I don't know what I'm doing?"

Liz sighed and reluctantly agreed. "Fine. But give me an hour to read it over first!"

She did so, and Matt sat and watched the rift as it shimmered in his formation. It was mind-boggling that he could create a rift. He had hated them for so much of his childhood, but had grown to accept that they were a natural part of the world. He even liked the rewards that they gave out, and his ability to grow stronger from delving them.

Creating a Tier 1 rift wasn't crazy, but it was costly enough that most never bothered. He had done it in minutes. It would take him eleven minutes and fifteen seconds to fill a Tier 5 rift to full. Admittedly, that calculation ignored his formation's runes being pretty bad, and the formation only having an efficiency of about forty percent. But it was something that no guild could compete with. If they wanted to waste 27,000 mana to charge a Tier 5 rift, they could. But that was only if they had perfect efficiency.

Taking into account his formation's own efficiency, Matt would be putting 67,500 mana into the rift to refill it, which would only take about twenty eight minutes. Guilds left training worlds untouched for years, so they would build up enough mana to refill, and make new rifts.

67,500 mana was just a little over a Tier 15 mana stone. That wasn't worth it for most guilds and larger organizations, only to get a single Tier 5 rift out of it. Growth items could make creating a Tier 5 rift profitable, but they were rare enough that it wasn’t worth the cost. Guilds could do it with a team of mages, but crafters also needed mana to create higher Tier items. Then, the mages would either need to delve less than once every three days, or they’d have no mana stones left for their delves.

It was quite possible that most guild elites already had a fitting growth item though.

A quick check, and he realized that if he drained his mana all day, he would put out nearly three and a half million mana. That was an absurd number already, and it would double every Tier. It only reinforced his belief that he couldn't get caught before he had enough backing, to deter anyone from touching him.

Though, Liz's parents wouldn't let anything happen to me, right?

It felt like a dumb thought, but he only had stories about her parents. Maybe they wouldn't care enough to protect him, or maybe they wanted to use him themselves. It was unlikely, but he still feared the possibility.

What if someone just snatches me off my feet or something. If they get an AI blocking band on me that can block The Path procedures, I could be screwed. And if they don't know what happened to me, how would they even find me?

The thought served as more of a reminder to not attract too much attention. At least, not until he was strong enough to do something about it.

What am I supposed to do during the next few Tiers? At Tier 10, I’ll be able to use basic skills like [Fireball] endlessly. No one will be able to tell that, unless I use them out of rifts. But I'm pretty sure there’s a tournament for those at Tier 10 on The Path, and it has amazing rewards. Am I supposed to forget all of that?

He was brought out of his musing when Liz said, "Ok, nothing crazy. Expect rift breaks every Tier up, and when a rift is first created. Nothing else sticks out to me as dangerous. Sorry, you scared me when wolves started to jump on you out of nowhere."

They stood up, and Matt realized that he hadn't seen Aster at all. He felt through their bond, only to find his fox lying on her side with an extended belly. She was surrounded by wolf corpses with mutilated chests.

Apparently, she had been craving hearts.

Letting her nap, he returned to fill his rift. When it reached Tier 2, another break occurred. But Liz just blended the monsters so fast, there was no chance to even see what they were.

When the rift hit Tier 5, and he refilled the rift from the loss after the Tier-up break, they just looked at each other. As the rift thrummed with energy, they continued to stare at each other for a long moment.

It was done.

"So we just... enter?" Liz's question mirrored his own thoughts.

He was hesitant for some reason. It wasn't like the rift would be unstable or anything. At least, he didn't think it was possible.

"I guess so. It's only Tier 5, so it shouldn't pose much of a challenge."

Liz bumped his hip, saying, "You had to jinx us, didn't you?"

"We’ll be fine."

Matt almost believed it.

Together, they entered the rift, only to find a standard Tier 5 goblin rift. Instead of being underground, it was set in a forest, which meant that they simply ran around and killed everything they saw. The only surprise they came across was a contingent of goblins on wargs. They charged at them whenever the trio were spotted, but there was no real danger from the monsters.

Even the boss was quickly and effectively handled. They dispersed the rift reward, and received a dagger.

Hope brimming, he leaned over Liz's shoulder and asked, "Is it a growth item?"

"I don't think so. It feels a little different, but it definitely has an enchantment or something."

Matt took the proffered dagger and scanned it with his spiritual sense. He found that it was far more complicated than a normal rune, and could have some interesting effects. It would sell for more than a Tier 5 mana stone, he was sure.

Liz did a little dance while dropping the dagger into her spatial bag. "Let's refill and run it again."

When they left the rift, Liz turned and asked, "Don't we still have the golem harvesters?"

Matt's eyes winded at the question, and checked his AI.

"Yes, and my AI even thinks it figured out how to take control of them. I completely forgot about them. Let me get them working before we go back in."

Sitting down, Matt fiddled with the drones according to his AI’s instructions. Eventually, he got them to think that his AI was the golem network.

That gave him and Liz full control of the drones. Wanting to test it out, he directed them to search the surroundings. He found that they wanted to harvest everything they came across. They no longer had the greater golem network to learn from, and had no idea of what was valuable.

It wasn't hard to upload the information packet he had with all the Tier 1 through 5 natural treasures, and have them target anything with a high mana or essence concentration. With his minimal testing in their direct area, he discovered that they could find a Tier 6 bar of metal that he threw out. They zoomed over to it as soon as they picked up the bar’s essence concentration. Deciding it was enough of a test, he set the pair to search the island while he recharged the rift.

With little else to do, he watched Liz poke the sleeping Aster, who simply rolled over and started to kick at the air. Liz had to leave her, as she wasn't able to keep in her laughter. Neither was Matt, for that matter. He was able to feel her dreams after all, even if minimally.

Aster was chasing bunnies. For all her mental increases, she was still young, and had simple desires.

When the rift was ready, they delved it again, with the addition of their drones. In the end, they found neither a challenge, nor a growth item. Just a pile of forty three Tier 5 mana stones. It was disappointing to the pair, but they continued to delve, searching for better rewards.

The actual delving took longer than the rift charging, so they started to rush the boss. They wanted to see if the rift had any good rewards, to make it worth keeping around.

Giving in to his impatience, Matt asked, "Is there anything in that fancy guide you bought that says how many times we need to run the rift to get a decent reward spread?"

"Oh, now you want to ask." Liz paused, and he watched her eyes flicker for a moment, before she said, "It says fifteen to twenty."

Matt thought about that. "Let's say it takes us half an hour to charge, and fifteen minutes to speed run the rift. That means we can fully vet the rift in a single day, or close enough. Do we keep delving this rift? Or…" He let the end of his statement draw off.

Liz considered, before she finally said, "We might as well learn as much as we can. With fully charged rifts, we can probably call it in half the time, if we don't get a decent drop table going. Sure, we might miss something, but we’re looking for amazing rifts, not mediocre ones. Ten delves isn't bad for a day's work either."

With that decided, they started to delve into the rifts as quickly as they could. Finally, as the day ended, they decided to dispel the rift tomorrow. It only produced two items with unusual effects, out of the ten delves they had done. The other eight rewards were either nice but mundane items, or mana stones.

The drones pulled out a few interesting plants, but nothing of crazy value.

Matt wasn't disappointed, the rift wasn't a dud at all, by his standards. They got essence, and two items with unusual effects. They were delving and gathering essence while making money, like they were back on the training planet. They hadn't found a growth item every rift when they were there, and to expect the first rift they delved to be a jackpot was naive. Even though he had still hoped for that to be the case.

It wasn't like they weren't getting an absurd amount of essence either. It wasn't quite as much as they had gotten when they were fighting the Tier 6 golems, but it was close. It was far more than anyone only delving a single rift every other day would be able to accumulate. Let alone in just a month.

Matt marked it as a success, even if they hadn't found the perfect rift yet.

Tomorrow, they could try again and see what they found.