The Path of Ascension

The next morning, Matt woke to find that breakfast was ready, and that there were two odd corpses of what seemed like badger-lizard hybrids off to the side. That he had slept through the noise that such a fight must have caused was slightly worrying. Using one’s Concept would wear anyone out, and battling others' wills was distinctly different from using your Concept for its intended purpose. It was no wonder that he was exhausted.

He made a note that he, Liz, and Aster needed to practice that, and work on more than just using their actual Concepts.

With a mental query, he found that Aster was off somewhere in the forest. She had found a scent similar to rabbit, and was searching for its burrow. He wasn't too concerned. Aster could take care of herself against even a Tier 6 rabbit. At worst, she would run back to them.

Liz was sitting on a chair she had pulled out of her spatial bag. She was watching Camilla spin a chunk of meat on a stick. One side was noticeably burnt, and the other looked raw.

Looking to the other tent, Matt found Malcolm, who was still out cold in his tent. He didn't seem to have moved from where he had collapsed last night, when Matt turned over the watch to Liz and Camilla. With a burst of [Endurance], Matt stretched, and was handed a steaming mug by Liz.

After taking a long sip, he asked, "How did that piece of meat offend you, Camilla?"

The dark-haired woman shifted her glare between the attempt at cooking and Matt, before saying, "It's not as easy as you make it look." She threw up her free hand. "I only walked away for a minute, and it burned."

It had to be longer than a minute. It's charcoal.

"Do you want me to make something?"

Dumping her attempt at breakfast into the fire, Matt snagged his bag, and pulled out all of his items related to cooking. With a quick appraisal, he carved up a bit of the lizard, and used some of their personals to make breakfast. It smelled so good, the wafting fumes carried over to Malcolm's tent, and woke the slumbering man out of his stupor.

After they ate Matt's breakfast, they all looked at their tagalong expectantly.

"I'm close to finding the entrance. It's nearby, and I can feel it."

With that as encouragement, they walked around the mountains for hours. Their wandering led them in circles, and crossed the path of more than one beast, but none that put up any real resistance.

That was, until Malcolm's meandering took them into an area that had active rift breaks, and was swarming with boars. They tried to circle around the dangerous terrain, but Malcolm’s Talent kept leading them into the fray.

The area they were circling contained a rift that was prone to rift breaks. It had turned the surroundings into the domain of these boars, and there wasn’t much the group could do to avoid them. The boars were not normal animals of course, but were the descendants of the rift creatures that had been produced by this rift’s many breaks. The farthest out sections of the area were teeming with relatively normal monsters, while the third or fourth generations of the boars ruled over the central portion of their new domain.

It made sense, as the center of the swath of land contained the rift itself.

Judging from the directions given by Malcolm’s Talent, they essentially needed to get into the center of the area, near the rift. The destination wasn’t the rift itself, as they weren’t being led to the dead center of the area but it was so close, it wouldn’t make much of a difference for the monsters. They would be seen as intruders upon the boar’s territory, and would have to wipe out all of the boars in the area for safe passage.

This was the true essence of exploring new worlds.

They would indiscriminately slaughter everything in their path to achieve their goals.

Malcolm, already daunted at the prospect of pushing through the boars, voiced his opinion on the idea of clearing the rift as well. "We may need to clear out the surroundings, but that doesn't mean we need to clear the rift as well. That's too much time wasted."

Matt kept watch with Aster, while Camilla and Liz tried to talk sense into man. "If we’re going to kill all the boars around the rift, we might as well clear the rift too. That's a rift bursting with rewards." Camilla shook her hands around in frustration. "It's like leaving money on the ground! It's a peak Tier 5 rift..."

Malcolm cut her off, "Exactly! and we’re just low Tier 5 cultivators. The rift is simply too strong for us!"

Liz rolled her eyes, or at least her tone indicated so to Matt. "Look... that's an easy jump for just Matt, Aster, and myself. With Camilla there to help, this won't be much harder than any other rift. Besides, you wanted to go into a ruin. They are rifts."

"It's different. I just want an item somewhere in the ruins. You want to clear the entire rift. It’ll take too much time. What if someone else finds another entrance? Then what would we do?"

Matt understood, but disagreed. "Rifts will guarantee both essence and a reward. With the rift about to break again, it’ll be sure to have amazing rewards. Besides, delving it will push us further into Tier 5. And we know the enemy type already. I vote we go."

"Agreed."

"Agreed."

"I disagree."

Aster yipped.

Liz shrugged. "Four to one. Sorry, but we want to get guaranteed rewards. The ruin won't go anywhere. If it's this hard for us to get in, then it'll be that much harder for others to find an entrance. You’re bringing us right to the entrance, but it's still not visible. That means that it's pretty much guaranteed to be underground."

Malcolm muttered a retort, "Or it's a shrunken space."

Camilla stood and turned, shaking her head. Matt noticed Malcolm's eyes following her.

He just hoped that Camilla didn't notice. The man wasn't subtle in his gaze, and if it continued, Matt felt as if he would need to pull the man to the side, and tell him to cool it. He wasn't sure how Camilla would react, and wanted to avoid the whole situation if at all possible.

The area dominated by the boars was essentially an entire valley. It was situated in between the mountains, and was sheltered on all sides by the tall peaks. They seemed to be pretty old, as they had smoother edges and slopes compared to the hard edges of a more recently raised mountain range.

Oddly enough, the foliage wasn't completely eaten away, considering the denizens of the valley. With the number of hogs they could see, a group that size normally would have stripped the area clean by now, and would have already moved on if they weren't rift creatures. Even these far-removed descendants had a connection to the rift that sustained them. At least partially.

With Matt in the lead, they pressed forward into the valley. Camilla was covering Matt's left side, with Liz and Aster covering the rear and right flank respectively.

Malcolm was with the two mages, but he was more escort than mage. His [Mana Bolt]s had not been well-practiced, but at least he had the ability to deal some damage, small as it was.

The first pack of beasts they encountered quickly demonstrated how strong the monsters were. There were four of them, and they charged in what resembled a wedge formation. The biggest beast led the charge, with tusks ready to gore the intruding humans’ flesh.

Camilla took the left most boar's attention by wrapping her bladed whip around its head, and using a tree to brace her weapon. Matt stepped to the side and slammed his sword into the largest monster's skull while the beast was restrained.

Even without using [Mana charge], his heavy longsword dealt serious damage. The beast's skull was incredibly hard, but its head was cleaved in two with the force of his blow.

Liz had used her floating spear to take out the rightmost boar by letting the boar charge straight through the spear, impaling itself. That caused enough damage to render it unable to fight. Aster used a [Ice Spear] to penetrate the heart of the last boar, just as it tried to turn and flee into the forest covering the valley.

After Aster ate the heart out of the largest boar, they pushed slightly deeper into the forest.

Their methodical advance continued for hours, slaying beast after beast. The outer portion of the central landscape was comprised of low Tier 5 boars, with the occasional mid-Tier 5 popping up. Still, the difference in cultivation didn't cause them any real problems.

They took breaks once in a while, so that everyone could recharge their mana to a degree. It would take a full day to go from empty to full for most mages, but Matt was subtly using his Concept to increase the rate. It mostly affected Camilla, as Malcolm was hardly using any mana, but most of her fighting style was physical, so she didn't use a lot of mana.

With careful swaps and feigning, Matt charged Liz and Aster’s mana stones. They put up the illusion that they had stockpiles of the stones ready for the excursion. Camilla had stocked up, and most any other delver would as well. Liz and Aster didn't need to do that with Matt there, but the illusion was useful to stay any questions from Malcolm.

Thankfully, the man seemed more worried about getting ambushed and gored than the finer points of their mana regeneration. They had protected him well, but he was still skittish, and jumped at the slightest sound.

The boars weren't that smart, and relied more on their size and the momentum they could build up while charging to devastate whatever came close. Their true threat came from their tusks. They were powerful enough to tear chunks out of the ground and trees alike, let alone their intended targets.

The group attracted more and more attention as they advanced, and had to retreat more than once to avoid being overwhelmed. The closer to the center they traveled, the more concentrated the amount of boars got. No one wanted to risk getting knocked to the ground and trampled, or get gored by the tusks, so they proceeded methodically to stay safe.

With the weakest of the beasts being culled, the larger monsters in the center of the area took note, and charged out to meet the threat.

Two mid Tier 5 boars came at them. These particular beasts were the first they had encountered that were capable of using skills. Their hooves glowed with translucent red energy that also surrounded their heads. The skill created a large cap of energy that bristled with spikes.

Matt met one with a blow from [Mana Charge], but for the first time during their trek through the valley, it didn't instantly kill the beast. The skill seemed to do more than just add spikes. It clearly had a defensive component as well. Matt used the rebound of his blade to bring his longsword up and around in a spinning slash, using the momentum to cleave the boar’s spine from above.

The blow sent the beast tumbling into a tree, and Matt quickly glanced over to see Camilla holding the attention of the other monster. With a lunge and thrust, he pierced the heart of his boar while it was struggling to stand on its remaining two front legs.

Turning, he watched as Camilla's whip twirled around her boar's throat and tightened down. Each turn and struggle opened more and more wounds on its delicate throat. She was careful to not get pulled off her feet, but the damage from her whip enraged the boar, which Liz was also attacking with the blood of its comrades and cousins.

Finally, the boar was dispatched when Camilla used her mace to crack its skull. With the finishing blow delivered, the beast dropped.

Aster glared at Matt. She went over to his defeated adversary, only to find that the heart had been pierced. She still ate the heart, but she pushed discontent through their bond, as she swore that she could taste the difference.

Matt just leaned down and scratched the fox, who begrudgingly accepted the pampering.

Malcolm looked to the dimming sky and asked a good question, "Do you think it's time to call it quits for the night?"

Liz agreed. "We all need to distribute the essence we got today too. This was better than a rift, really. The five way split meant that Matt, Aster, and I were all getting less essence than normal, but we had so many boars to kill, it didn’t make much of a difference. We all made out well here today."

Before the sun dipped below the mountain tops, they retreated out of the valley and set up camp. Matt had thrown a few choice cuts of the last boar they killed on the fire for their dinner. Even with all the fighting, they were still in good spirits as they sat around and watched Matt cook.

Matt took the first watch, with Malcolm actually joining him and not stealing extra sleep this time. They were posted near the top of a mountain ridge, where they had an amazing view of the stars. Matt felt his mind wander, until their sentry bot pinged his AI that something was approaching.

A rush of something flew across the stars, and the flapping of wings suddenly became so loud, even his AI couldn't guess at the numbers of bats that flew through the night sky.

Matt threw Malcolm into the corner of the wall, and put his armored form over the man's fleshy body.

With a thought, he activated [Hail] right in front of the girl's tent to discourage any beast from trying to investigate. The tent was reinforced to protect from attacks, but with so many bats, he wasn't confident that the material would hold up to such an onslaught.

Blows and claws scratched at Matt's armored back, and the Tier 6 beasts broke through [Cracked Phantom Armor] more than once. They cut deep wounds into his back. He regretted taking off his secondary armor, and resolved to wear it even while guarding the camp at night.

He took the time to cast another [Hail] right in front of himself and Malcolm. It drained his mana stone, but Matt found that the bats started to avoid him and the blows lessened once he cast the skill.

What felt like an eternity later, the wave of monsters passed, and Matt got up off the pale and shaking Malcolm.

"What the fuck was that!?" The panicked man was patting himself down, and when he found a scratch on his leg, started gasping for air. His voice got thick with tears and snot as he choked out, "Oh, Ascenders! How bad is it?"

The girls came out of their tent in full battle gear, and Matt stopped channeling the two instances of [Hail]. Liz and Aster rushed over to him while keeping their heads on a swivel.

"Let me see your back. Your AI is reporting quite a bit of damage."

Matt had very deliberately not looked at his HUD to avoid that reality. Even so, he was aware of the flashing red that covered the depiction of his back.

With Liz's help, he laid back down, and she pulled his shirt back. Matt had to grit his teeth at the ripping sensation of his undershirt sticking to torn flesh and muscles as it came off. His back was carved up in rows of lines from their claws, and covered in circle shaped puncture wounds from the bats’ teeth.

Peak Tier 6 monsters were still outside of his ability to block reliability.

From his other side, Aster nudged his cheek with her snout, and he reached around to kiss the fox on the head. "It's ok, Aster. Just a few scratches."

The fox whined and whimpered. He was careful not to let the burning pain leak through their bond, while Liz washed his wounds with a potion from their medical kit. The expanded [Endurance] did an amazing job at boosting the body's natural healing, but it was still better to use the potions to prevent any potential infection.

Camilla came over and watched Liz, and smirked at the prone Matt. "Bet that feels great."

Matt laughed at her attempt at humor. "Actually, yes. Little did you know, this is exactly my definition of a good time. You should see me on the weekends."

Camilla laughed and continued to banter with him while the cooling potion was spread over his back.

Malcolm came over, and Matt watched as he saw the state of Matt's back. The shining example of a perfect adventurer immediately turned and vomited at the sight of his wounds.

Camilla didn't bother to turn, and rolled her eyes.

While the man was retching, she whispered, "Look at the bandage he wrapped his leg in."

Matt did as she suggested, and saw that the man's entire leg from ankle to knee was wrapped in what looked to be an entire roll of bandages. The wound wasn't nearly large enough to require that kind of wrapping. Matt had seen it. It was two inches long if you were generous.

Camilla stifled a laugh, but now it was Matt’s turn to roll his eyes. The man was so pathetically inexperienced, it was almost unbelievable.

"Hey, Liz? Is this how other kids that come from higher Tier backgrounds are?" There was little reason to embarrass the man, so he whispered the question.

Liz scoffed and pushed a little too hard on Matt’s back, causing him to wince. "No, not at all. This is the type of drivel you’d expect from more upper-middle, Tier 20 parents or so. The truly strong make sure their children are ready to go out into the real world, or simply won't let them come to places like this. If I had to guess, he was born on a higher Tier world, and cultivated ambient essence. If he had been carried through a rift, he would have at least seen blood and killing before. My best guess is that he struck out on his own after using his Talent to find whatever item was best for his advancement."

Matt thought that over. It seemed like a reasonable explanation. Before he could put his two cents in, Malcolm came over and held a hand over his eyes, so he wouldn’t have to look at Matt's back.

Using his access to Liz's AI, he checked his back from her view, and didn't even think the wounds were that bad. None of them were very deep, just numerous.

"Are you two..." Malcolm swallowed hard. "Ready to take over the watch?"

Camilla nodded, and the man fled to his tent.

"His Talent is weird, though. Strong as hell. I'm surprised he wasn't snatched up by a guild. He can find the entrance to a ruin by Talent alone. That's gotta be rare as hell."

The two of his friends nodded at that. The man's Talent was absurd.

Liz mused, "It could be incredibly strong with the right questions. I'm assuming that it doesn't work on anything higher than his Tier, though. And those seeking Talents all have limitations. I know of one that can’t find anything with a certain shade of blue. They aren’t perfect in their finding, or they aren’t perfect in their directions. Something is always given up for their ability."

Camilla cocked her head. "Oh? What gives you that impression?"

While Matt couldn't see it, he knew that Liz had gone into lecture mode, and already had a finger raised. "Well first off, any finding Talent usually has that restriction. At most, they can jump up a Tier. Second, he picked us, one of the first Tier 5 teams. He said he got bad feelings from the others, and mentioned Tier 6 teams. He probably can't get a read on anything above his Tier, since he didn’t mention anyone higher than that. It could be more restrictive, and he might only be able to see at his own Tier as distance increases."

Matt had a thought, and messaged his interim nurse, 'Did you happen to message you know who?'

'Of course, he'd love a Talent like that. Sadly he won't tell us anything, even if he already came over and snagged it. I don't know. He might already have something better, but Talents all work differently, even if the AI says they work the same. There can always be little differences.'

It was weird that the Emperor could have been inches away, and they would have never even noticed his presence.

Matt wasn't sure how Liz dealt with the lack of privacy.

Are her parents watching us right now?

From all the stories he heard of her and Travis, it was a distinct possibility.

No, wait. They’re probably still dealing with the dragon blood rift.

Travis had been ecstatic that his parents would be occupied, and Matt finally understood why.

He laid there in contemplation as Liz put a few bandages on his back.

She's probably using less than Malcolm used.

The thought made him chuckle slightly, which caused pain to radiate down his spine.

Liz ran her hands through his hair and said, "Ok, you're good to start channeling [Endurance] now."

She then flicked his forehead. "Next time, put the [Hail] in front of yourself first."

With a gentle effort, he pushed himself up and slipped into his tent. Even with [Endurance] banishing his fatigue, he quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, Matt slowly stretched, and felt the scabs on his back crack slightly. The pain was a reminder that he needed to actually wear his under armor.

Murmuring to himself, he said, “The best lessons are the ones learned with blood.”

It was odd, as it had been so long since he had been injured. He always had information about rifts, and chose his targets carefully. He only suffered injuries if something went wrong.

That essentially was exactly what happened last night. He hadn’t expected a flock of bats.

Wait, what’s a bunch of bats called? Ravens are conspiracies and crows murders... but bats?

Putting a note in his AI, Matt left the tent and started stretching. The gentle movements opened up some of the scabs, but [Endurance] was doing its job now that he was awake and could channel his mana into it.

It was odd. Matt could feel the skill’s effect speeding up the healing process. He was putting all of his available mana into the skill, which meant almost 35 MPS. It was an amount of mana that most couldn’t sustain for long.

After breakfast, they returned to the arduous task of killing boars. By mid-day, they had cleared the soundings of boars, and were prepared to push into the clearing where the rift resided. As they came to it, a massive boar that was nearly the size of a small vehicle accosted them. It was clearly the boss of the rift.

Matt tightened his grip around his blade, and checked his AI for everyone else’s signals. When he got them, he charged into the clearing around the flickering tear in reality responsible for the boars that dominated the valley. The boss immediately saw him, and activated a skill they hadn’t yet seen or accounted for.

The beast charged, and nearly teleported with its sudden burst of speed. It was so unexpected that Matt was unable to block or defend himself, and was instantly sent flying. [Cracked Phantom Armor] was able to hold out, and protected him from taking more damage.

Matt curled up while tumbling to a halt, and scrambled to regain his feet as the boar continued its charge. It was either trying to trample or gore him, and he wasn’t keen on either option.

Pulling mana from his mana stone, he filled his mana pool, and before his channeling skills drained his current mana, cast [Hail]. He used the skill to buy himself enough time to roll out of the way.

[Mage’s Retreat] empowered his body to the point that he was able to circle around the beast, and he sprinted over to the spot he had dropped his sword.

With his longsword back in hand, he cut a deep furrow in the large monster’s flank. That was when Liz, Aster, Camilla, and Malcolm unleashed their attacks from the monster’s rear.

The boar tried to turn away from the sudden pain, but Matt lunged forward and dug his blade into the beast’s face. A small burst from [Mana Charge] went off as the blade scraped along the beast’s face. It blew away a chunk of flesh from the monster’s jaw.

Then, the beast activated the same charging skill from before, and blew right past Matt mid blow. When he rolled back to his feet after the shock from the charge, he quickly discovered that his blade was wrenched from his hands. He scanned the area for it, but was unable to find it anywhere on the ground nearby.

When he looked back to the giant boar, he found it. The charge skill had driven the blade all the way through its cheek, and out of the back of its head.

It squealed in pain and shook its head as hard as it could to remove the pain, but that moment of confusion allowed Liz to guide her spear into the beast’s eye. Contrary to Matt’s expectation, and their plan, the beast didn’t go down with the second impaling blow.

Instead, its cries of pain increased, and it started to glow with the telltale signs of [Berserkers Rage]. With heavy, clomping steps, it rushed the mages at the edge of the treeline.

Camilla ran forward towards the threat with her weapons at the ready. Aster quickly hopped to the side, and sent a wave of redirected ice from Matt’s [Hail] at the boar’s hooves, trying to disrupt its footing.

Liz followed up their attacks, and sent slashing whips of blood forward, cutting at the beast’s face.

Malcolm shot one last [Mana Bolt], and turned and fled deeper in the woods.

Camilla took the charge from the boar by distracting the beast with her extendable mace, while using her whip to wrap around its neck. With a firm anchor, she launched herself onto the back of the charging monster.

While the maneuver looked cool, Matt cursed the impulsive move. She was preventing Aster and Liz from attacking, for fear of hurting their teammate.

Camilla stored her mace, and used her control over her whip to bring the tip to her right arm. She used the bladed whip like a saw, and cut through the monster’s massive throat.

When it crashed to the ground, she somehow managed to keep her balance, and stepped off the corpse with a flourish.

Matt cried out, “No essence!”

That caused the triumphant look on her face to quickly fade, while the beast tried to stand and get one last charge in. Camilla kicked the hilt of Matt’s blade while it was still embedded in the boar’s head, causing the blade to twist. The bite of the sword finally ended the monster’s life as it drove further into its head.

Then, the essence poured into him, and he slowed his sprint towards Camilla and the boss monster into a jog.

Camilla’s torn-up arms quickly knitted themselves together, and she called out, “Hey Malcolm, you can come back now.”

Matt ignored him. He hadn’t expected the man to do as much as he had.

“You good?” While his teammate was healing from the self-inflicted wounds, he was worried that she had taken another hit that he didn’t see.

“I’m good. Aidan gave me good armor.”

She accompanied the statement with a tap at the place where her armor had a streak in it. A tusk had scraped along her well-protected torso, but was unable to break through. That brought his attention to the armor that he hadn’t really examined until now. It only covered the woman’s vitals, and left her extremities otherwise exposed. She had a dangerous fighting style that he didn’t exactly envy.

He withdrew his blade with a heavy pull, and looked to the rift after checking the blade for damage. A slight draw on the repair rune fixed some problems that he couldn’t see with his eyes.

Liz and Aster caught up with them shortly afterwards, and they waited for another few minutes before Malcolm finally came back into the clearing.

“Hey, good news! I found the entrance to the ruin.”

Under his breath, Matt muttered, “At least you did something useful while running away.”

The women next to him chuckled at his barb.

They followed the excited explorer to find a tiny cave that was only wide enough for one person. With Matt’s size, it would be extremely cramped in height and width. He wasn’t looking forward to this ruin if the whole thing was a tunnel system this small.

Malcolm brought out a light and said, “Alright, let’s get in there.”

Liz and Matt met each other’s eyes.

She said, “Nope. We’re gonna rest up, then delve the boar rift. After, we’ll call it a night and come back to the ruin in the morning with full mana.”

When Malcolm opened his mouth, Camilla interjected. “Look. We want to delve the rift. There’s good essence and better rewards in there. I’m not passing them up. Who’s going to find this tiny ass hole in the ground hidden behind a boulder anyway?”

Malcolm acquiesced after a moment. It wasn’t like he was about to go in by himself.