The Path of Ascension

Conor had been right about the area being packed. The entirety of the massive landing area where the Pathers’ shuttles came down was chock full of people.

There were easily tens of thousands of people waiting. Matt took a quick glance down the streets and couldn’t see anything but more people standing around. Considering they had just walked those streets, he was flabbergasted at the sudden appearance of the crowd.

They moved down the steps and fought their way to the edge of the grass platform. Annie tried to say something, but the noise of the mob around them was too loud to overcome.

Giving up, she shrugged and swallowed what she wanted to say. Apparently it wasn’t important enough to message their AIs for.

They waited for nearly ten minutes before everyone started to look up, drawing Matt’s gaze along with them. They watched as a swarm of flat shuttles flew through the air. They looked like flying stone platforms with railings.

The stone platforms hovered over the crowd, and ladders extended out of them, allowing people to start climbing up. Matt felt for the platforms with his spiritual sense and found that each platform’s aura felt as dense as a Tier 15’s. These things were spiritually heavy.

He and his team were near the last of the people to get on the platform, and they were pressed up against the outer railing. The flying platform took off with a smoothness that surprised Matt. There was a shield that seemed to stop the turbulent wind, but it also removed drag somehow. It was an interesting formation. Matt was trying to find where the runes were, wanting to see if he could make heads or tails of them.

To his surprise, he actually found them, but they were obfuscated with some kind of security formation that seemed to make their forms change every time he looked at them. As he tried to peer through the obscuring layer, he was immediately hit with a headache and a roiling stomach.

Realizing it was futile to continue, he pulled his attention back to looking over the edge of the platform, and enjoying the view of the ocean flashing by.

He called out, “I grew up in a city by the coast. My parents’ apartment was facing the waterfront. I loved watching the waves pass by. It was always soothing.”

The rest of his team didn’t take much notice of his sharing that, but he didn’t miss the look of surprise from Liz. He never talked about his parents. He just smiled at her and went back to looking at the water whipping by. His time on the islands had given him a renewed appreciation of the view that he hadn’t known he missed until it was gone.

Emily added while following Matt’s gaze, “We went to play at the beach quite a lot. We grew up on a planet with more islands than anything else. Kinda like a resort planet, but not quite. Water is as peaceful as anything. Most nights, we’d fall asleep while listening to the water running over the rocky beaches.”

Annie looked to Conor, who added after a moment, “I grew up on a Tier 25 planet, so I lived in an inland city. I didn’t really ever see the ocean until I joined The Path, after I went to a world without the ability to defend the cities. I spent a half year delving a water rift with lots of little attacking fish. They had an amazing fish soup thing, though. I think I ate it every day for a month.”

The large front liner sighed, and everyone looked at Liz. Matt did as well. He was interested in what she would say.

“I grew up in the capital.”

Annie and Emily’s eyes went big as they interrupted her in near unison.

“The Capital capital? Like of the Empire?”

“Wow. That’s a Tier 47 world.”

Conor just raised an eyebrow, asking the same question. Matt was interested in how she would play it. He didn’t think that she would tell them about her heritage.He was surprised she had even shared this much.

Liz shrugged like it didn’t matter.

“If you’re not the child of a powerhouse, most of the planet is played out and locked down.”

Conor nodded like he understood that, but Annie and Emily looked interested, so Liz explained. “There are the three great guilds, who each have two Tier 47 rifts. The Empire controls the rest, with six for the independents who refuse to take part in worldly affairs, and the rest under their direct control. Even then, it’s still a Tier 47 planet. There just aren’t any rifts below Tier 40. It’s too hard to keep the mana and essence out of them, so you can’t really advance if you’re young and don’t want to absorb ambient essence. Most of the kids are taken to another planet in the Soren star system.”

She waved her hands around and had them orbit in a circle, as if they didn't know how planets orbited.

“The capital has a dozen planets orbiting it, each trying to Tier up to Tier 47 by using the essence that radiates off the capital itself. One of them is still only Tier 15, which lets them use in-system teleporters, and that provides the kids rifts to delve. But even then, it’s not really accessible for most. There’s just too many people and a limited number of rifts, so most get sent off-world to nearby lower Tier planets. I was lucky enough to be offered a spot on the Path, and got a place to delve. Once I was Tier 3, I got out as fast as I could.”

Annie said, “It must be amazing, though. Have you ever seen the Emperor, or one of the royals?”

Matt had to stifle a grin at that. Liz didn’t so much as give anything away, but she froze for a moment before saying, “Once or twice. It’s not that special. I’ve found the planets that aren’t just giant cities way more impressive. Or at least, more varied. It can be lonely being a child surrounded by people thirty Tiers or more higher than you. I didn’t really have many people near my age to play with.”

He reached over and rubbed her back. Matt was proud of her for sharing that much.

Before they could say more, their flying platform angled downward, and they smoothly submerged beneath the waves. Matt was surprised because if he hadn’t seen the change, he would have had no idea when they moved from air to water. The flying platform didn’t change its pace at all.

He reached out to touch the rushing water, but Liz pulled his hand back and with a mischievous smile and said, “Watch.”

He and his team did so. Not ten seconds later, someone else reached out and put their hand through the barrier, just to be sucked out violently.

Liz giggled, and when she saw the looks of shock, she pointed at the dozen or so people who repeated the same action. “I’ve used these types of shuttles before when I visited my Uncle. There were always a few tourists who got dragged out. The shuttle pilots even made a bit of a competition out of it. They would deliberately fly near schools of fish to tempt people to reach out.”

Seeing their looks of shock, she rolled her eyes, “They’ll be fine. Really, if they’re taking us underwater, they expected this. There, look. The collection team.”

As the people were fading from view, they saw another platform scoping them up and bringing them to safety.

Now that their lives weren’t at risk, it was actually kind of funny. Matt laughed while also looking at his own fingers. He would have tested it without hesitation. It just would have been embarrassing to arrive soaking wet at the auction.

Before long, Matt saw a massive dome surrounded by a few dozen smaller ones branching off, connected by clear tunnels. It was a shining beacon of light in the inky waters.

Their platform passed through a shimmering barrier, and they were in dry air once again. Matt should have expected the area to be spatially expanded, but he hadn’t. When they arrived in one of the smaller edge bubbles, its outer dimensions had only seemed to be that of a large building. The inside was actually a huge expanse dripping in luxury.

The edges were lined with balconies that wrapped the entire sphere. There was a circular area in the center that held a floating statue, seemingly made of light. It was sculpted into the shape of a ballerina, frozen in a moment of their dance.

Matt was mesmerized for a moment until the bustling crowd bumped into his back. They didn’t have to climb down the ladders this time, as the bubble had dedicated moorings for the shuttles. With the exit made apparent, the passengers poured down the ramp in a wave.

The signs bombarded him with advertisements for all kinds of extravagant goods and experiences. There was everything from rare wine tastings to specialty cheese shops.

“Wow.”

Conor’s exclamation matched Matt’s own thoughts. Annie broke him out of his stupor with a poke to his side.

He looked at her in confusion, before she pressed her hands together with three fingers each and split them off.

Matt grinned at her. He decided to throw her a bone after noticing the eye roll from her sister.

“This place looks amazing. We should split up so we can cover more of it. The main auction starts in three hours, so we have time. I’ll make sure we get a box like we said earlier. Why don’t Conor, Annie, and Aster go together, and the rest of us will do our own thing. We can message each other about anything amazing we might find.”

Aster jumped up into Annie’s arms and yipped a yip Matt knew all too well, so he headed that off with, “Only give her a small bowl of ice cream. I’m sure she’ll want more at the banquet that they’re holding after the auction.”

His fox’s ears dropped, but Annie kissed her in between the ears and said something that caused them to perk back up.

Matt ignored the foreboding implications and turned to leave with Liz and Emily. Before they left, he made sure he put the Kingdom’s colors armband on Aster, which she refused to wear as a headband, so he had to settle for a scarf.

They all had their own on as well. While it hadn’t been a hard rule, it had been suggested strongly for anyone attending the auction.

Annie’s sister scoffed when they were out of range of her sister, leading Liz to ask, “Do you not like Conor?”

Emily sighed. “No, it’s not that. Conor is actually much better than the last few crushes Annie’s picked up. One tried to get us to have a threesome with him. Like, come on.”

Matt’s face scrunched up at that.

Liz threw an arm around the shorter woman and said, “Then isn’t it a good thing Conor doesn’t seem to be that type?”

Emily nodded at that but accompanied it with a shrug. “I guess, but none of them started out being weird. Just call me a pessimist. I haven’t seen him checking me out when he thinks I’m not looking, at least. That’s something more than I could say about most of her crushes.”

The brown-haired woman perked up and changed the topic. “What are you guys interested in checking out? I looked up some of the amenities, and there’s a spa section that has a massage parlor. We don’t have enough time to really enjoy it, but we have enough time for a half-hour massages and mani-pedi.”

Liz jumped at the idea. “Yes! My feet are always in boots. I’d love that.”

Matt agreed. “It won’t hurt, that’s for sure. But I’ll skip out of the mani-pedi. I would rather have a longer massage.”

They moved through the bubble, down toward the center of the concourse. They made their way down a tunnel set at a declining angle, with a gravity nullifier that allowed for faster transport. It was fun to throw himself down the tube and catch himself at the end with a flip that let him land with a solid thunk.

He was tempted to go back just to experience the weightlessness once again. It was exhilarating.

Seeing that the women wanted to move on, Matt shrugged it off. They were in the central bubble, and the sheer size of the area boggled his mind. The entire center was carved out, so that the balconies had a clear view along with the progressively larger boxes that trailed up the side of the inner area. Near the bottom, there was a section of what looked like standing platforms that Matt wanted to avoid being placed in.

They found a booth to reserve a private auction box, only to find out that they already had one set aside for them. Or at least, Matt and Liz did. Emily didn’t, which they found odd.

Guessing what happened, Matt sent a message to Juni asking if he did that, and almost immediately received a response with a laughing face and ‘You’ll see.’

He and Liz didn’t think they were being set up in a bad way, so they decided not to push for more information. They reached their reserved massage appointment after three more transfers through the weightless tunnels.

The massage was everything Matt had thought it would be and more. The worker dug into his back with fingers of soft steel, while two others attacked his hands and feet at the same time.

He was glad that he had a towel covering his face, because he was pretty sure he was drooling by the end of his appointment.

The three of them bonelessly moved to a bench near a wall to watch the fish and other underwater creatures slither and swim by.

“Do I still have feet?” Matt lifted his now rebooted feet to the giggles of the two women.

He went along with it. “I’m just pissed that I've never done this before. I always figured that it couldn’t be worth the money. Damn, was I wrong.”

Seeing something in the reflection of the wall, Matt turned in confusion as he noticed a massive turtle walking up behind him. Upon further inspection, he was taken aback a second time from the discovery that the approaching figure really was a turtle.

Standing around four feet tall from floor to shell, the turtle was short but stocky. The sections of his shell were more spiky than normal, appearing like small, sharp hills on its back, instead of the smooth humps he had seen before on the mundane variants. The turtle’s exposed skin looked more scale-like, reminding Matt more of a lizard than of a turtle. As the light played over his shell and scales, it reflected like dull metal.

Liz noticed him looking and turned to glance as well, saying, “Ah, a Mountain Metal Tortoise. Poor guy was born in beast form, which kinda sucks. At least he seems to have a friend.”

Matt looked and saw that there was a woman with purple hair and a wide-brimmed hat talking with the tortoise. How Liz knew it was a male, he had no idea, but he went with it. It was a good reminder that the Empire was wider than he really knew.

“Why do they do that? It seems cruel.”

Liz sighed. “I'd agree personally, but there are advantages. One is litter births. You can have more children if done in beast form. Tying in with that, there’s an increased fertility that comes with both parents being of the same species and both in beast form. Also, there’s the belief that children born like this are stronger, or have better Talents. It's not really confirmable, but there is enough anecdotal evidence to make something of the rumor.”

Seeing the Queendom’s colors on both, Matt sighed in annoyance. He had no idea how to fight a turtle. His shell looked to be thick and made from metal. He was glad that he had a blunt weapon at his Tier, but he honestly doubted that it would do him any good against a shell made for defense.

“Wouldn’t their Talents be set by their species? Like Aster?”

Liz rotated her hand back and forth and said, “Yes and no. They have human minds, so they have unique Talents, but they tend to be somewhat related to their racial Talents. Although, completely different Talents have been known to show up. It's a practice that's become somewhat taboo, but it still happens.”

After they recovered from their massages, the three of them wandered around and snacked on the various samples of food that the shops were offering. After an hour or two of eating, drinking and lounging, they moved to their assigned auction box, and Matt realized why they had one already set aside for them.

As he leaned out of the box to inspect their surroundings, he saw that their box and all of the surrounding ones were covered in screens showing highlights of the golem war’s battles. He and Liz were featured on their box, with clips of them shredding golems cycling on the screens in a short, repeating scene.

Matt was profoundly embarrassed by the display, but had to admit that the entire stretch of boxes decked out and displaying the Kingdom’s top fighters from the golem fight gave off an imposing air.

He retreated into the box and activated the privacy barrier that the area was equipped with.

Emily gave them shit for nearly five minutes, until Liz flicked water at her and started a mini-war, with the plate of hors d'oeuvres serving as ammunition.

Conor, Annie, and Aster came in shortly before the starting time. As they entered, Annie looked at Matt and grinned at him, which he reciprocated. He didn’t think Conor was a creep, and Annie seemed to like him, so he moved seats so they could sit next to each other.

As the time ticked down, a man with a magnificent beard came on to the stage.

His appearance was projected to a smaller pad in their room, but they had an unobstructed view from their box.

“Good afternoon, my young friends. I am Javier, Tier 29, representative of the Empire auction house, Deep Sky Auctions. We are the ones who provided the structure you are in now.”

There was a clatter of applause, which he smiled through. Once it died down, he said, “We could not do this alone. We are partnered with a number of local auction houses from the Kingdom, and one from the Queendom. Please give them your thanks when you see the number of smaller auctions after the main event. They were gracious enough to provide those items, and have each broken into their own vaults to bring out some truly scintillating prizes.”

The cheering was much louder after that proclamation.

“Ah, but let me also thank the King and Queen for attending at my humble request.”

The view on their pad transferred to a shot of a man in expensive-looking fabric sitting with Prince Albert. The man looked like an older version of the Prince, with the same eyes and hair color, and similar shapes to their faces.

The Queen was a woman with silver and pink hair, surrounded by four other women sitting slightly behind her. Princess Sara was next to her, clearly indicating her status as the heir.

Javier continued, “Many wonder why the vassal countries are going to such lengths for this small Tier 6 planet. Perhaps this will serve as an answer.”

Two cases were brought to the stage, both covered in a blanket of each county’s colors.

“The Emperor, in his wisdom, had these items custom made for each respective ruler if their side earned enough points during the war. He wished these to serve as an incentive for preventing the war from stalling out or becoming stagnant.”

With a motion of Javier’s fingers, the first cover was knocked off.

“First up is the Kingdoms item; a staff of Tier 37 make. It will multiply all manipulation skills’ effects in both a damage boost and an equal reduction of mana cost. It also acts as a storage device for materials of the wielders choosing.”

The staff was made from metal and what looked like liquid darkness in a swirling pattern that made Matt’s gaze slide off the weapon.

The announcer tapped his nose and added with a wink, “It does a few other things, but I won’t spoil them. Let’s just say, the good King should enjoy them.”

The King in question had leaned forward as if to get a better look at the staff, and had a smile on his face that appeared chiseled on. He glanced at his son, who nodded at his fathers look. It was apparent that he wanted the item, and was making sure that the Prince knew it.

“The Queendom’s item is no less impressive.”

A repeated flick of his fingers caused the other cover to go flying.

Under the cloth was a gauntlet made from what looked like forged and solidified light.

“We have here a Tier 37 sun gauntlet. It was forged from the remnants of a dying sun. This little gauntlet will condense and store light for future use. Along with the amplification of all light-based skills and spells channeled through it. As with the King’s weapon, it has a few more functions, but we’ll let the Queen figure them out.”

Princess Sara’s mother licked her lips and flexed her right hand as if she was already wearing the gauntlet. The naked desire on her face was a clear indication that she was just as interested as the King had been.

Both items vanished with a wave of Javier’s hand.

“Finally, the reward for winning the war.”

The clamor of the previous items vanished, as a heavy weight seemed to press on everyone at the auction. Both vassals’ rulers were intently watching the auctioneer, who seemed unbothered by the Tier 35s’ scrutiny.

With a wry smile, the man said, “As you can see, they haven’t seen the rewards yet either.”

When no one laughed, he continued on. “Unlike the other two weapons, this reward is slightly different. It has not been made yet. No, no. The reward for this war’s winner is an item crafted to the exact specifications of the victorious ruler, fully financed by the empire and expertly fabricated by none other than Madam Renaissance herself!”

Matt didn’t know what that meant, but by the changes in the King’s and the Queen’s faces, it seemed important.

Javier laughed at their expressions. “For my friends under Tier 25 or so, Madam Renaissance is the Empire’s best crafter. Her detractors say she is only the best-known crafter, but do not let those criticisms distract you. Hidden masters aren’t making items for anyone. Madam Renaissance is a Tier 48 crafter, proficient in everything from smithing, to tailoring, and enchanting. She can do it all. Her items have massive markups, and the wait time to even get on her list is counted in thousands of years.”

Matt whistled. That sounded impressive.

“To prove her skill, allow me to say just this. She has Tiered up through crafting seven times. Yes, I said seven. Seven times she has Tiered up through inspiration. That includes her last two Tiers. All achieved through her crafting. She is a woman of prodigious ability!”

On the pad, both rulers looked to their heirs with naked command. They both needed to win the war, and Matt could see that neither would accept a loss, especially with the rewards now revealed.

Matt turned to Liz and asked, “Is all of this as impressive as I think it is?”

Everyone turned to Liz, and she laughed. “More, probably. Madam Renaissance is more of a crafting legend than anything else in the capital. I’ve heard rumors of her crashing classes and giving impromptu lectures. Rumor has it when she did it last, half the class had inspirations during it. The other half had one within a year. When Javier said that the wait to get on the waiting list is measured in thousands of years, he wasn’t joking. I heard they actually need to stand around and wait in a line. They do it happily! Even though the cost is said to be an arm and a leg, sometimes literally.”

Matt tried to picture that. If the woman was that good of an all-around crafter, it didn’t surprise him that her time was so valued. He tried to think what it would be like to wait in line for thousands of years, but he just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

After a long pause, Javier smiled at both rulers and said, “With appetites and desires aflame, let the auction begin!”

A woman brought out a flower of purple and yellows, and Javier kicked off the auction. “Our first item! The Tier 8 Flower of Miraculous Life. Anyone who eats this little beauty will aspect their mana into a nature aspect. If you can find a skilled alchemist, you can have them add a few other ingredients and modify the flower to bestow the much rarer life aspected mana. The aspect is desired by healer and growth specialists everywhere. We’ll start the bidding at 200 war contribution points.”

The bid quickly shot up to 920 points before the item was sold. Matt wanted to buy it for Melinda, but he would have burned through all of his points while also doing exactly what he decided not to; give them another crutch. He did send her a message with the item and its purported abilities, so she at least knew that it existed.

The next item was one that Matt recognized from the batch of items they sold to Samuel at the auction house. “This is a Tier 5 rift made sword that increases swing speed and damage massively when mana is run through it. The sword is rated to Tier 7 strength. Bidding starts at 50 war contribution points.”

Matt looked at Liz, and they smiled at each other, seeing where this was going. A lot of the items they pulled were like that one. They were useful, but not what they wanted, so they sold them in bulk to the auction house. It was slightly painful, as they had gotten mana stones out of it, which were much less valuable than the war contribution points they were selling for now.

More items flew by, with nearly a quarter of them being ones that they had sold. Matt reaffirmed his intention to only sell through the Empire Market to avoid something like this. It twisted the knife to see his items go for so much higher than they had sold them for.

They watched in disinterest until their first mana cultivation potion went up for sale.

“This pretty little thing is a potion that our alchemist confirmed will increase each of the consumer’s three mana cultivation aspects. It’s balanced to give a slight increase to both Mana Regeneration and Maximum Mana. That’s not all, it uses most of the potion’s effect to give a Mana Concentration of 0.1. This is the first batch up for auction, and it contains 10 potions. Like all of the following ones, they are for Tier 5. Fighters, f you want to firm up your base, these little beauties are the way to do it. Starting price of 100 war contribution points.”

There was a buzz that ran through the audience.

Someone called out, “Are you selling any singles?”

Javier pointed into the standing crowd and answered the question. “Yes. The final and best ten will be sold in single lots at the end. If you don’t get one here, I believe the war market will have some of them for sale as well, but their price will be set according to the final bidding price”

Matt leaned forward in his chair in anticipation. They would be getting these points, so he crossed his fingers and hoped their price rose to the sky.

“125.”

“150.”

“180.”

“210.”

“250.”

“300.” The final price was called out by the Prince, and Princess Sara immediately snapped out a counter.

“350.”

Matt wiggled in his seat.

Finally, after a long moment of deliberation, the Prince called out, “400.”

“500!” The Princess didn’t hesitate in the slightest when she raised the bid again.

Matt didn’t think 50 points apiece was bad for the worst potions that Liz had made. While the others’ attention was all on the unfolding drama, he smiled at Liz, who looked to be on cloud nine.

He was proud of his partner and all of her accomplishments.

Looking across the stage, he saw Sara smiling and getting a pat on her arm by her mother.

Sara was nearly out of her seat, while the Prince was more collected and calm, as if none of this bothered him in the slightest.

Their third batch of potions, with a Mana Concentration of 0.12, had just sold for 600 war points, when a skill shard was brought out.

Javier stroked the case holding the skill and called out in his sonorous voice, “This beauty is [Cracked Mana Bolt].” At the murmur, Javier laughed and spoke over the crowd. “This is a marvelous cracked skill. Unlike most mana bolt skills that are neutral in their attack, this one randomly changes its aspect to anything. Shoot it enough times, and you punch through any armor type.”

Emily was out of her seat and had her face pressed against the privacy formation.

“The starting bid is 200 is points.”

She immediately shouted, “1000!”

Matt was shocked by her spending nearly all her points, but he was blown away by someone else immediately bidding higher.

In just a moment, the price was at 2500 points, with smaller and smaller bids being placed.

Emily looked at them, and after a brief internal struggle, said, “I need to get this skill. I’ll pay you back with interest, but please.”

Seeing their hesitation, she blurted, “Look, long story short, my Talent basically lets me repeatedly double the effect of any skill, as long as it’s a different aspect than one I used in the same chain of spells. Once I repeat anything, it resets. This is perfect for me. I need it.”

Matt looked at Liz, and they nodded.

At nearly the same time as Conor, he said, “We have 3000 you can use. No interest needed.”

“I have 1000.”

Annie looked at her crush with doe eyes, and Emily turned and shouted, “3000.”

Someone else called out when the countdown was at one, “4000.”

“Fucking fucker. I need this. You brain-dead idiot.”

“5000!” Her voice was overly controlled when she spoke through the screen.

Matt leaned forward with anticipation as the countdown reached two, then one. It felt like an eternity when it finally clicked to zero, and Emily was the winner of the auction.

She dropped to her butt at the edge of their box. “I think I’m going to vomit.”

Matt patted the woman’s arm and pulled her up to her chair, where she bonelessly sat.

“Thanks, guys. I really owe you for that one.”

Matt was interested in her Talent, but didn’t want to press. He carefully asked, “Don’t answer this if you don’t want to, but if you can double the effect of a skill if it’s a different element, why don’t you have something common like [Fireball]?”

She stretched and sighed. “We grew up on a water world, and it didn’t have a lot of fire skills. It’s why I have two water skills and a lighting skill that we were able to trade for. I intended to buy a [Fireball] here with some points, but that’s kinda shot for now. Thankfully, it’s pretty common, so I should be able to get it in a few weeks. Well, after I pay you all back, of course. I really appreciate it guys.”

Matt looked at Liz and raised an eyebrow. He was leery of giving more help after seeing what happened to Melinda’s team, but he had an extra [Fireball] that wasn’t reserved for himself.

Liz shrugged, putting the ball back in his court, but nodded slightly as well.

He thought over her suggestion. She was ok with it, and the more he thought, the more he had to agree it was different from Melinda’s party. Annie and Emily were strong in their own right. They held their own in their fight. And one extra skill would, if he understood her Talent right, take her from a four times multiplier to an eight times multiplier. That was massive, if paired with her [Bolt] skill as a finisher.

Hoping he wasn’t making a mistake, he withdrew and tossed the still boneless Emily a [Fireball] skill. “Here’s a [Fireball]. No reason to wait. Just giving us the standard value in mana stones or points is fine. Better to have it now if I understand your Talent right. An eight times stronger [Bolt] would be devastating in a fight, and it’ll help our team build up points faster.”

She looked up from the skill shard that scrambled for, and with a hard look in her eyes, said, “I won’t take it if you wanted to sell or trade it. Even if it would help me, I won't slow you down to do it.”

Matt debated taking out his bucket of skills to shock her, but only brought out his other [Fireball]. “I have my own. We were going to sell it, but we’d rather sell it to you instead of someone else. In the end, we get the same payment, just a little later.”

Emily didn’t protest further, simply nodding to him and then to Liz and Aster. “Thank you. This really does help, and your math was right. With the [Cracked Mana Bolt], as long as I don’t get fire, water, or lighting, I can pretty much get an eight times damage bonus; possibly more if my luck is good.”

Matt shuddered at that thought. It would undoubtedly rip right through [Cracked Phantom Armor] at that high of an increase in power. He looked at Annie and Conor and said, “If either of you are looking for specific skills, let us know. We can help you try and get it.”

Conor raised his drink and said, “To new friends and growing stronger.”

They all drank to that.