The Path of Ascension

Matt took a step and poked the ground in front of him in nine separate places. When nothing tried to spring from the walls or ceiling, he took a small step forward and tapped the next row of bricks.

That was the methodical pace he set while leading the group through the halls. It was slow but steady progress.

They reached an intersection, and after checking it, Matt turned to look at Malcolm. They had tried to be clever and use his Talent to find the traps, but as this was a Tier 6 rift, he finally admitted that he could only find things at his Tier or below.

It was an interesting bit of information, as it confirmed Liz’s guess, but also meant that the Tier 6 rift had produced a Tier 5 growth item. That didn’t seem quite right to Matt, but he did know that rifts could drop lower Tier items. He just had never encountered that before.

Their guide closed his eyes and searched out with his Talent while everyone watched him. Shortly after Malcolm began, Aster started yipping, and Matt felt unease flowing into him from his bond. Spinning, he checked all of the halls, and found nothing out of the ordinary. Still, he trusted his bond’s intuition about something being wrong.

Everyone was on guard, and just in case, Malcolm had moved into the middle of the group for extra protection. He was more vulnerable than usual when in the meditative state that the use of his talent required.

Aster’s yips turned to a growl, and Matt could smell what was grabbing her attention. Metal and mana. He spun and pulled tossable chemical lights out from his pocket. With quick flicks of his wrist, he launched them down the halls in each direction, but he still was unable to see the looming threat.

The smell grew stronger with each second that passed, and everyone huddled with their backs pressed together. The halls began to fill with noise, and eventually Liz shouted over the din, “We need to move! Let’s pick a hall!”

Before they could act on the order, the ceiling dropped.

Or rather, the mass of spider constructs dove down onto their prey.

Matt heard a scream from behind him as he raised his shield and swung his mace, knocking a blade-legged spider out of the air as it fell from the ceiling towards Camilla next to him.

One of the spiders landed on Matt’s shoulders and tried to drive its legs into his body, but [Cracked Phantom Armor] was able to block the sluggish construct’s attacks. The mechanical spiders didn’t have the requisite mass to rely solely on their high Tier material composition to punch through his armor.

A wave of blue light washed over Matt while he stomped a jittery spider that tried to attack his shins.

He whipped his head to see Malcolm in the remnants of a [Mana Bubble]. The shielding spell had two spiders sliding down its sides, but that wasn’t what worried Matt. No, the problem was the pale blue glow that the surroundings began to take on because of the mana expenditure.

The spider golems were no exception.

They went from dark bodies with sluggish movements to formidable metal beasts with glowing thoraxes, capable of movements as smooth as silk.

Liz had two on her, and one more spider had landed in Aster’s backpack.

Matt reached deep inside his spirit to where his Concept resided, and commanded all of the spiders to halt.

They froze for a moment. Even the ones still falling paused in mid air.

The effect from his Concept only lasted a moment, but it was enough for Aster to freeze the spiders with her own, which allowed Liz and Camilla to kill the ones attacking them.

The burst of will was all Matt had, and the world around him faded as the color from the lights of the spiders, the glow sticks on the ground, and runes on the walls dimmed to nothing. He tried to raise his mace to swing down, but his arm just twitched at his side. Struggling to stay conscious, he ended up falling onto the spider in front of him instead of attacking it.

Camilla shoved him off of the insectoid golem underneath him with a foot, and smashed the last remaining spider. She quickly started smashing the metal remains, ensuring that they wouldn’t be ambushed from behind. Matt struggled to his feet and moved to the side, and began channeling [Endurance]. While the skill restored his strength, he dove deep into his Concept and began meditating to regenerate his willpower.

The problem was that was a general ability of all Concepts and was inefficient for anyone. It was like what the troll had done, it just took a lot of willpower.

When he opened his eyes a few minutes later, most of the colors of the world had reappeared, and he was able to stand without any sluggishness.

“What happened while I was out?”

Liz bumped his hip and answered, “It was a good save from the ambush, but we’re partially trapped now.” With that, she pointed to the side, and Matt saw that there were now mana barriers covering the entrances of two of the three halls of the intersection.

Looking at Malcolm, Matt asked, “And I assume that the way we need to go is now blocked off?”

Malcolm nodded, and he turned to Camilla. She had streaks of blood running through her hair from her head, and she was surrounded by a pile of broken spider limbs.

He asked her, “You ok?”

“I don’t like spiders, and being down here in the dark is getting to me. But I’m good.”

Matt didn’t believe that last bit, but he didn’t press either.

Asking the room, he questioned, “Have you guys tried battering down the mana barriers at all?”

Liz walked over to stand next to him. “Yeah, but it didn’t work. Not even a little. We think they’re linked to whatever central power source runs the entire ruin. Camilla took out some frustration on them for a good few minutes, and they never even flickered.”

Matt rubbed his face through [Cracked Phantom Armor].

This was distinctly bad news. It meant that using skills had the potential to trap them if both sides of a tunnel were activated.

“Ok, so we all know to be super careful using skills and mana now… right? Don’t want to get trapped in a hallway.”

Malcolm audibly swallowed, but with the lack of reaction from Liz and Camilla, he assumed that they already had put that together.

Malcolm rubbed his face and said, “Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just reacted when they dropped on me.”

Matt bumped the man with his elbow. “Not a big deal. I would have used a skill in the same situation. No one’s going to blame you for saving your own life. And now we know to watch out for spiders on the ceiling.”

Finding his stick still on his side of the barrier, Matt resumed his duties of trap finding. This time, they also kept a flashlight aimed upwards, to catch any more attacks from above.

Their new path took them on a meandering route. It led to fights with another three humanoid golems, but they were careful not to use any skills that would power them up. The precaution made the fights easy enough, but their winding path led them through long stretches of halls. They were journeying through the veritable labyrinth for so long, they eventually needed to stop and sleep.

Things only got more hectic when they continued. While they were finishing up a fight with a golem, a second one appeared from behind them. Matt had to quickly shift his attention to protect his teammates, and pushed past the retreating Malcolm to assist Liz with her defense of their rear.

It was incredibly frustrating work with the stipulation of being unable to use mana. Most of their heavy damaging abilities were removed from the fights, which dramatically slowed down the process of killing the golems that opposed them. If the mages were able to use their skills effectively, Aster and Liz would be shredding these golems with ease.

As Matt smashed at the newest golem’s swinging arm, he wondered about what the mages could be doing to assist in these fights. Aster’s ice could hit hard, and could get into the gears of the golems. At the very least, it would slow them down and hamper their movements.

At the same time, the golems would absorb some of the mana from the attacks. If the golems were already fully powered, that would be less of a concern, and the decreased mobility will be more of a net gain. If they were willing to empower the golems, the strategy could be somewhat viable, but going from a mid Tier 5 enemy to a peak Tier 6 one was less than desirable.

Hearing rapid light footsteps approach, Matt dodged right, and Camilla came in to cover him with her mace extended to full length. The extra leverage gave her attacks some real power, and the blow absolutely rocked the golem. With it knocked almost completely off its feet, Matt pressed the attack and drove it into the wall.

Trading the golem’s attention and battering its exposed flanks, they beat the Tier 6 metal into scrap.

Looking at Camilla, Matt noticed a large cut in her exposed leg.

“You ok?”

“Yeah, I’m just starting to run low on mana.”

His fellow melee fighter dropped to the floor, and slowly, the large cut in her leg closed. Matt watched the sweat bead on her forehead and grimace on her face grow deeper as she sat.

A wound like that has to hurt pretty badly.

Matt winced internally at the injury. She had a healing skill, sure, but that didn’t mean that her wounds wouldn’t hurt, and that much damage could take its toll on a fighter’s psyche. It was hardly the first injury the woman had taken thus far. She was low on mana for a reason.

After a moment, the woman shuddered hard and opened her eyes.

“I’m good now. Thanks.”

He held out a hand and pulled her to her feet.

“Why don’t we find an area to rest for a bit? We’re all low on mana. We could use a break and some time to regenerate.”

Malcolm cracked a joke, “Oh, you need mana? With how long you keep the armor skill active, I assumed you were a mana absorber like the golems. Either that, or you just never ran out of mana.”

Malcolm laughed at the absurdity of the notion, and Matt just laughed along with him. The man probably assumed that the armor skill was a Talent, or at least modified by one. But he would probably never guess that he was actually right on the money with his last quip.

They pressed on, and kept walking until they found a corner without an intersection. It provided enough cover for them to decide to rest there for a while.

The constant dangers of the darkness and ambushes were wearing on them, but with Matt having checked the surroundings, they were able to decompress for a bit.

While they sat in the corner, Liz asked, after taking a swig of her canteen, “Where are the rooms or anything else? Why have large hallways built with nothing in them? As far as I can tell, they don’t serve a purpose at all.”

Camilla threw out a guess, “Maybe they’re for trapping intruders in a maze or something?”

Matt didn’t think that was likely, but he didn’t have any other answer. His mind and AI had both been working overtime to try and answer that exact question, but he hadn’t made any progress.

They used the corner to stand watch, and spent a fitful night trying to get some sleep. When his watch was over, Matt was only able to get a few hours of broken sleep himself. He couldn’t truly fall asleep, as every noise that echoed through the halls caused him to jolt up and ready his weapons.

When they all had finally given up on sleep, they ate some ration packs that didn’t need reheating, and started to move again. Their break was at least useful for Camilla to regenerate some mana. Matt had used his Concept while the woman slept, and was hoping that she didn't question why her mana regeneration while she was asleep was so much faster than her normal rate.

The long halls started to blur over time, and without their AIs tracking the path they took, they would have wandered in circles for days on end. It also helped that Malcolm’s Talent was able to lead them towards the growth item. It was a frame of reference that allowed them to be sure that their senses and AIs were not being tricked by some spatial shenanigans.

When they found a flight of stairs, they looked to Malcolm for guidance. But after closing his eyes and using his Talent, he simply shrugged.

“I don’t know. Going forward and taking the stairs both feel the same. I’m not sure if that means we could go either way and reach the item, or if that means we won’t reach it no matter which direction we go. Everything feels foggy.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Matt watched Camilla’s grip tighten around her mace. She was slowly losing her temper the longer they remained in the dark tunnels.

Matt looked to the stairs and put out an idea. “We came from one floor down, so let’s take these up. Maybe we can find something different up there.”

Camilla quickly agreed, as he knew she would, but Liz took a long moment of consideration before she finally shrugged in response.

Malcolm closed his eyes for just a moment and said, “It still all feels the same.”

Using his stick, Matt continued to check the stairs as they ascended to the floor above.

The decision turned out to be somewhat fruitful. At first the new level of the maze looked to be the same, but they quickly found actual doors in the halls after proceeding for a bit.

There was a collective sigh of relief at the normality of seeing rooms connected to the hallways.

“Does anyone not want to check out the doors?”

Matt’s question was rhetorical, but he wanted to at least ask.

After checking the floor, they inspected the first door. None of them dared to assume that it wasn’t trapped, so they let Matt poke at it with his stick. When nothing happened, they all looked at each other, as if to ask who would go first.

Sighing, Matt twisted the knob, and when nothing tried to kill him, he shoved the door open and quickly jumped to the side.

With no loud sounds indicating the appearance of a new death machine, he returned to the doorway, and used his stick to check the entrance for tripwires. It was exhausting work, but one mistake meant certain death for him and his teammates. Once the door was clear, he entered, only to find what seemed to be a normal workbench and standard carving tools.

Malcolm picked up a small ingot of something and inspected it.

Camilla looked around and asked, “What is it?”

“I don’t know. But my Talent says it’s the most valuable item here. Or at least the most valuable one it can find. That means it’s only Tier 5, but I don’t know what it is. It looks like metal, but feels squishy.”

After Matt finished poking all the furniture, checking if they were mimics, he walked over to the ingot and had his AI inspect the small chunk of metal.

“It’s not a metal. At least, not really. My AI has most of the common metals listed in a database for Tier 5 crafting materials. It’s some kind of organic alloy, found in certain heavy metal content rifts. Animals are...” He made air quotes with his fingers. “Adapted to the metal and processed with it. This kind has an organic component that allows it to remain malleable, and able to return to its proper shape. I’m assuming this is where they would shape the metal for the golems.”

Liz asked the important question, “But who? Rifts usually mimic life, but these tools look used. Or at least they were when they weren’t covered in dust. Was there a creator race here?”

With no answers, they explored the rest of the room, taking the materials as they went. Most were Tier 6, so Malcolm's Talent was essentially useless, and they simply took what they thought would be worth more.

Each room was a repeat of the first, with the only variance being the different crafting specialties in each hall. They all had different parts spread out across the desks, and no two of the projects were in the same state of manufacture.

As they moved through the rooms, they didn’t come across a single trap. They assumed that there were no wandering guard golems, until they found a pair of them walking through a hall nearby the latest crafting room. They glowed with dim mana light, indicating that they had absorbed it from somewhere.

The duo of golems saw them, and the first rushed at them with bounding strides. Matt centered himself in response to take the charge.

With [Mage’s Retreat] and [Cracked Phantom Armor] both eating most of his mana, he took the golem’s shield charge. When they collided, Matt’s boots struggled to keep a grip on the stone floor. After they came to a halt, and the golem was stopped in its tracks, their shields were pressed together in a shoving match. Suddenly, a crossbow bolt bounced off the wall and punched into his side.

His AI registered that the puncture hadn’t pierced his secondary armor layer, but that was only after it had bounced off a wall.

“Armor-piercing crossbow! Watch it! It’s got good aim.”

A whooshing sound flying over his head indicated that Liz was using her spear to harry the archer. Matt trusted her to keep it busy while he dealt with the golem in front of him.

This one had enough mana absorbed that it was equally matched in strength with him, even with the boost from [Mage’s Retreat]. But as they had discovered before, the quality of the movement controlling runes was the last thing to improve in the golem's.

Matt shoved hard, then sidestepped the golem’s attempt to return to the shoving match. He lashed out with his mace at the back of the stumbling golem’s head.

Camilla had read the flow of combat well enough to swing her mace in a low sweep, and she was able to trip the golem down to the ground. As soon as the monster landed, they both began hammering it with blows from hammer and mace, pulverizing the golem.

Matt turned to the crossbow wielder that was readying its weapon, and with his AI’s help, was able to get his shield into the path of the next bolt.

The monster was trying to use its ability to skip the bolts to attack the backline again. The glow around both the bolt and the crossbow indicated that there was either a skill at play, or more likely, a rune that was making the shots possible.

Before the golem could get a third shot off, Matt ran forward and closed the distance.

With a slight duck, he tackled the metal monster. Taking a mounted position, he rained down spiked blows on the creature’s face. He was careful not to hit the crossbow.

This was a ruin, not a rift after all. Ruins didn’t have the normal oddity that made it impossible to use the enchanted gear from the rifts.

If he got this crossbow intact, he could use it.

Several crunching blows later, the golem twitched, and he felt the essence rush into him.

Turning, he found the others dispatching what remained of the shield golem.

Before he needed to intervene, Camilla landed a blow that broke through the thicker armor of the defensive golem, and more essence rushed into him.

The group moved to Matt, as he was still sitting on the golem and inspecting the crossbow.

This didn’t belong to a human who needed to hold the weapon, and the golem had the crossbow actually grafted onto its wrist. It meant that there was no real way to take it away. That didn’t deter Matt at all. It just meant that he had to be careful where he cut.

Not knowing the structure of the golem’s limbs, he decided to just take the arm off at the shoulder, and err on the side of caution. His spatial bag had room for it.

“So that’s four enemy types so far,” Matt mused out loud.

“Are the shield users a variant? Or are they the same as the shield and sword users? The frames are the same. It’s just which weapon is turned on first.” Liz’s comment forced Matt to reevaluate his conjecture.

Malcolm spoke up, distracting them all. “Do you all smell that?”

Matt sniffed, and so did everyone else.

Aster yipped at them, and he felt her enthusiasm through their bond. She smelled it as well. It was fresh air. She hadn’t taken note of it, as it was a normal smell, just not down here.

They rushed through the halls, following Aster’s keener sense of smell. Two turns later, they turned into what Matt could only call a hangar.

There was a beam of light illuminating the large room from high up in a corner, and fresh air came through the crack in the wall.

The far wall had evenly spaced doors that seemed to roll all the way up to the ceiling. With quick steps, the entire group advanced as far as Matt would allow, and waited as he gripped the bottom of the large door closest to them, then lifted up. It took quite a bit of effort, but the door eventually rose, revealing a dark rock.

Camilla, in a near panic, exclaimed, “What the fuck!? Where’s my outside?”

They looked up to the crack in the wall, but Camilla moved before any of them could. With a flick of her arm, her whip which was embedded into her flesh was digging into the crack in the wall, and she pulled herself up to the crack. A wiggle later, she popped out and shouted back down.

“It’s just a hole to the outside. Ugh. Feels good to be in the sun again.”

Matt helped the others reach the hole, and used Camilla’s whip to pull himself up. The problem was, he was too large to fit through the hole. It was tight for the women, and Malcolm was only able to get through with a large effort and pulling from the outside.

Matt was simply too wide. At almost eighteen years old, he was a big guy for his age. At six foot five and some change, he had the bulk of a man who spent his free time working out and lifting weights as much as he could. His chest was too thick to fit through the small crevice, and he began to give up on seeing the light.

Dropping back down, he shouted back, “It’s ok. I’ll just wait in here and explore a bit.”

He didn’t want to ruin their good mood from finally being able to see outside, especially after all the ambushes and traps.

No reason to depress everyone else.

Matt was inspecting the large room they were in, when a few falling rocks brought his attention back to the hole in the wall.

Liz slid back down and dropped the distance to the ground. Aster threw herself from the crack into Liz’s arms.

“You don’t have to come back into this dark ass maze just for me.”

Matt said it, but he was still touched. She wasn’t out there enjoying the fresh air. He knew that even he wanted to be out there, and he wouldn’t have blamed her for staying out.

“Oh, shut up.” Liz locked arms with him. “I’m not going to leave you behind.”

Matt knew she meant this situation, but he felt the deeper meaning in her comment. No matter the temporary people they added to their team, it was the three of them day in and day out.

It was a comfortable feeling, knowing that he had someone who had his back as much as he had theirs.

The three of them were a family.

Aster made it known that she wanted to be picked up, and Matt didn’t miss her hints that she deserved ice cream either. Not because she came back into the dark, but because she always deserved ice cream.

After making promises that he had no way or intention of keeping, they inspected the rooms. It seemed to be filled with drones of some sort. Four rotating fans were attached to spider constructs. Most of them were in massive racks that took up a large portion of the center of the room.

“I think they’re harvester golems.”

Matt’s statement brought Liz’s attention back to him.

“Oh? Any chance we could get one to work for us?”

“No clue. It’s worth a shot. These types of drones sell for quite a bit. I looked into getting one for this trip, but they’re mostly used after Tier 8, when the rifts get really big. At that point, picking up everything valuable would just take too much time. Even then, the good models, like the ones Travis and Keith have, sell for mana stones a Tier or two above their actual Tier.”

Liz poked the rack. “Are these the good models?”

“I think so. They have the sharp legs of the spider golems, and who knows what they could do when fully powered. Small spatial items are what come with the higher Tier versions, but this is a rift. Well, a ruin. But it’s the same thing. Why would a ruin even need harvesting equipment? The entire rift and everything in it is under its control. Why have the ability to harvest materials?”

They looked from each other, back to the crowded hangar.

A few minutes later, they found Malcolm crawling back in. His feet dangled down, and Matt helped steady him as he dropped the distance.

Looking around, Matt shoved a few carts on their side, and stacked them so that the others could use the impromptu stairs to see the sun without scrambling or being helped.

A few minutes later, Camilla slipped back in and smiled at Matt slightly.

“Sorry, being in cramped quarters brings back memories.”

Before Matt could answer, Malcolm asked, “Oh? I wouldn’t think someone as pretty as you would have many hardships.”

Camilla’s face froze for a moment, but the explosion Matt expected never came.

“Being pretty can sometimes be a curse. But I appreciate the sentiment.”

Malcolm looked awkward and mumbled out a quiet apology, but the mood was ruined, so they prepared to head back into the halls.