The Path of Ascension

Matt kicked his way through the debris while holding a tuckered-out Aster. His bond was exhausted from freezing half of the valley during the fight. He mentally reminded himself to thank Emily personally after this was done. She had protected Aster while a number of enemies tried to rush her.

Her protection lasted long enough for Winter’s Embrace to spread and capture a few more enemies, and for Aster to blast away the few that remained free of the ice’s grasp. Emily’s lighting was twice as strong as it should have been, according to his AI’s review of Aster’s recording of the fight. It also picked up that the mage always alternated between her water spells and her lightning spells.

It was an oddity, but nothing a Talent or cracked skill couldn’t account for.

Either way, he was grateful for her help.

He was currently walking through the hidden base with Liz and refilling their mana reserves with his Concept. When anyone else came too close, he turned it off, but he still had them almost full after ten minutes.

Liz was inspecting her handiwork from the battle when he asked, “Was there anything you didn’t wreck?”

She looked profoundly smug when she said, “I didn’t mess up the floor.”

Matt looked at her blankly while he kicked a fallen metal wall to the side. It revealed four scratch marks in a circle.

It made him pause while he questioned what they reminded him of.

When it hit him, he laughed and asked, “Are you getting a little flighty with your golem form?”

She looked confused, which made him laugh harder. “Do you not even realize what you’re doing?”

Liz still looked confused, which pushed him over the edge.

“Liz, your golem form has bird feet.”

She flushed hard as she stared between the floor and her feet.

Her spluttering made him laugh all the harder. “I d- d- do not!. It's ahh… uhh... Someone else! Yeah, it’s someone else. It's a good way to keep a grip on a slippery floor! Yeah, that's it.”

She tried to stop his laughing by covering his mouth, but it was just too funny. For all the bitching she did about her bird-brained mother, she was slipping into the form unconsciously. He couldn’t wait until Tier 15, when she got her beast form. He was already preparing bird jokes to tease her with.

Half an hour later, there was a flurry of activity as forty people descended from the sky in a wave. Juni was one of the first to land. After he saw Matt, he walked over with a sardonic grin and shook Matt’s hand.

“You always surprise me, Matt. The oddest things happen around you.”

He scratched Aster’s head while shaking her paw before moving on to repeat his actions with the rest of Matt’s team. For all that Matt was ambivalent to the Prince, Juni was charismatic, and knew how to integrate into a group.

Matt followed the man into the underground bunker and watched as the people that came with Juni started plugging into various banks of electronics.

Juni kicked a piece of the fake tree exterior over as he asked, “How did you even find this place?”

Liz took that as her cue, and explained everything that happened.

When she was done, he asked, “Can you do an escort mission to the rest of the forts? We need them staffed sooner than later.”

Annie moved forward and spoke for the first time, asking, “What are our rewards looking like for this?”

Laughing lightly, Juni shrugged the question off, “We’ll see when we plunder this place. I have little doubt the teleporter formation will be next to useless. I’m sure they moved any bases this place was linked to, or at least the ones that we could’ve gotten intel from.”

“So we should get credit for all of those things, right?” Conor’s question caught the Prince’s right-hand man off guard for a moment.

“That’s a fair point. The problem is, we don’t know how much that’s worth. I can do 500 points, but in the end, it’s all speculation. Maybe you stopped the great threat that would have led to the collapse of our entire defenses. Maybe this was just an outpost meant for spies to get into our territory easier. I have limited funds that I can spend, and giving your team 3000 points is already pushing my authority. Once we review everything, maybe I can get you more. The Prince has control of the Kingdom’s wallet, not me.”

Matt shrugged; it was a good point. The information was hard to quantify, and they had already made a killing from the points they had earned so far.

Juni continued as he pried open a panel and started shining his light at the innards of the console. “These were your first points earned, right? You should check the marketplace. You should all have at least a thousand points. You can afford some of the cheaper things already, as you’re slightly ahead of the pack when it comes to earnings.”

“Wait, people have done better than us already? How?” Emily’s question mirrored Matt’s own thoughts.

Juni pulled back and gave them a funny look. “Your group is about top thirty at best. There’s some other Pather, a Tier 5, that rushed the Queendom's main city and killed a dozen Tier 7’s before he was driven off. Not killed, mind you. Just driven off. Killing two Tiers up gave him 125 points per person. Matt, Liz, Aster, I know you’re strong as hell, but there are some monsters running around this war.”

He slid back under the console after tossing them a small bag, and dismissed them with a simple, “If you want more points, escort the teams to the other forts in the line, please. There are the crystals you’ll need. It’s the best I can do right now. I wouldn’t worry about it too much though. This war isn’t expected to last a few months, more like a few years.”

They moved out and escorted the teams to the forts throughout the mountain range, and Matt repeated his trick of filling the forts with his mana instead of using the provided mana stones. He always converted one stone so he could scatter some dust around, but that was it.

In between forts, Matt flicked into the Empire War Contribution Points Market.

Now that he had points, he had access to the listings of items in the war version of the Empire Market.

Matt searched through the registry, hoping to get a good feel for what everything was worth. He was surprised to see Tier 8 skills listed for 2500 points a piece. It seemed expensive, but seeing how generously the Empire gave out points for fighting, they were in reach for most people. Even for Tier 6s, skills were still hard to afford otherwise.

Even growth items were available, though admittedly at 25,000 points instead of the normal 5,000 on the regular Empire Market. Still, Matt could see how it wouldn’t be impossible to earn that much over a few months, as the fighting heated up. A single battle had netted them 500 points, and it was a small-scale engagement. If they had to siege a city, Matt could see the numbers increasing massively.

Sorting by cost showed that there were Tier 14 skills available, and Matt contemplated which ones they could use as a team. Liz and Aster were easier to search for than himself, as his mana reserves limited the skills that he could use. The Tier 14 skills mostly had a higher base mana cost that accounted for their greater effects.

He still wanted to get [Flamethrower]. It was a channel spell, and he could imagine just burning everything that came close to him endlessly. Aster would hate it, but he was willing to bribe her to accept it. The Tier 14 skill like most of the higher strata of skills listed were double the points of the Tier 8 skills, which made them expensive but within reach if they did well.

He stumbled upon a seemingly hidden repository of rune crafting made by the Empire crafters for internal use only. It was worth a solid half million points by itself, but it would make his rune-crafting so much easier if he kept it in a partition. It could do anything a Tier 25 enchanter could do with regard to planning rune layouts and utilizing their practical applications. Most guilds had a version of that already, but he expected the Empire’s own to be the best.

The repository was the only way to progress past the Tier 5 level that was commonly available. And from its description it wasn't able to be shared with anyone.

One of the most expensive things for sale was [Side Slide], a Tier 14, short-ranged teleport. The skill was so rare, it was more myth than anything else, which explained its one million point cost. If he and Liz didn’t have their bonded rings, Matt would be tempted to get it, but the skill didn’t do anything that they couldn’t already. If they were willing to expose their trump card, that is.

The second most expensive item was the Tier 20 skill, [Cracked Breach]. The Cracked effect drastically reduced the minimum cost for the skill, making it possible for someone even of Tier 6 to utilize it. But the cracking made it impossible to further lower the cost. The original spell was a siege-level spell intended to attack enemy fortifications and batter down shielding.

Its original 500 mana base cost was reduced to 100, but it could then be charged up a hundredfold for added damage. With the Cracked version, that meant it could take up to 10,000 mana for a devastating long range attack.

Matt salivated at the thought of that skill. It seemed perfect for him. The cost of one and a half million war points was prohibitive, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

Finally, the most expensive item being sold was a void dragon bond egg for a whopping five million points.

The last listing was a shock, as Matt expected something like that to be used, and not up for sale. A bond egg was always received from a rift as a reward, after all. How would you get something so absurdly rare and choose to sell it?

Not to mention that the price was as absurd as the item itself.

“Liz, is selling an egg like this ok? I feel like the beast kingdom wouldn’t like that.” Matt asked his question on a private channel, and caught Liz’s shrug as she flew in front of him.

“Why would we care?”

“There’s a bond in there! What if an asshole gets it? What about the person who found it?”

“An asshole won't get it. I’m sure there’s a high-level beast guarding the egg as well. They will vet the prospective owner, I’m sure. Also, if the person who sold it was actually willing to sell it, that means they weren’t the right person for the bond. If the person meant to bond with the little dragon is here, they will come across the points needed. There is also no rush to hatch the little lizard. Bonds from rifts can stay in their egg indefinitely without issue.”

Matt flew in a daze for a solid minute as he tried to process that ridiculous statement. “Fate? Are you leaving it up to fate? Something that has been proven a million times to not exist?”

“These things work out, Matt. Beasts have been doing this longer than the beast kingdom has been around. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. However, I have no idea why someone wouldn’t want a void dragon as a bond. Can you manage the potential of that little lizard?”

Matt still felt the practice was odd, but couldn't think of anything better. Someone had to bond the egg for it to hatch, but he still felt selling the unhatched dragon wasn’t the most moral thing to do.

He kept quiet as they moved through the forts. It was a small issue, but it bothered him nonetheless. Liz’s blind acceptance of ‘what they always did’ also rubbed him the wrong way.

Liz, who flew next to him and rubbed his shoulder, said, “Matt, you’re thinking about this like a human. I know you care, which is sweet, but think about Aster. What would’ve happened to her if you didn’t advance?”

“She would’ve...” Matt trailed off as he thought of it, “She would have stayed a normal fox.”

“Or she would have left you when her instincts drove her to advance. Giving the egg to someone driven enough to earn such an absurd amount of points will ensure that the dragon has a partner able to keep up with its frankly absurd powers. Void beasts are rare, and aren’t like normally affinitied beasts. Void eats away at everything. When I say everything, I mean it. They need special healing while they’re under Tier 15 to keep themselves from burning out from the inside. As long as they advance quickly, they can keep ahead of it. But more than one void user has developed some questionable personality traits from struggling to find an outlet for the destructive forces inside of them. After Tier 15, it’s not such a problem, but void affinited people and beasts pay for that power.”

“What about healing?”

“Healing works, for sure. And it’s a common enough tactic, but how long can a healer be dedicated to taking care of one person if they refuse to advance and fix their own problem? Maybe the person this little dragon gets paired with is an asshole or something, but at least they’ll be strong, and able to keep up with their bond. If the person who gets them is on The Path, they’ll be given the strongest advantage you can manage.”

Only slightly mollified, Matt continued their job of escorting teams to the forts without further complaint.

After they finished up, they flew back to the army-built city to catch the teleporter back to the neutral city. On the way, Liz privately messaged him. “You heard what Juni said about the Kingdom's war points, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“I think we should try and squeeze both vassals for their points.”

Matt was interested, so he motioned for her to continue.

“We have a few dozen Tier 5 mana cultivation potions left. But I still have a spatial bag full of the dried ingredients, just waiting for me to make them into something useful. We could sell them with Samuel acting as an intermediary. If we sell them in an auction, it will force both sides to bid for them. They’re only good for Tier 5 people, sure, but if one side has them, they would have a stronger base. It would start a bidding war. We could get all the points!”

Matt actually liked the idea. There were quite a few things they could buy that would help their combat effectiveness, if they were clever.

Liz continued, “Did you see the healing skills? There’s like thirty cracked healing spells listed. Some are even pretty good. Think what we could do with a healing spell or three.”

With a quick thought, he was on the page and saw what Liz was talking about. It was frankly absurd how many different cracked skills there were. Matt had a fleeting image of someone with a pile of healing skills, smacking them one at a time with a hammer, then tossing them away. He shook his head to clear the ludicrous thought away, then looked at the options once again.

[Ranged Heal], the most common healing spell, normally had a base cost of 100 mana, which put it just outside Matt’s ability to cast. But at Tier 7, they could have a healing spell in reserve, which would make any future delving much safer. They still had to deal with the healing cooldown from magical healing, but it was better than having to pay for a healer or fighting through injuries in a battle.

Ideally, they would get the less expensive cracked versions, and get a skill shard for each of them, but they were expensive. If they took the [Cracked Ranged Heal] that only healed skin, it would be a waste. Why that was even an option, Matt didn’t know. But he guessed that there was probably someone who could use the skill to great effect, somewhere out there.

With the plan set, Liz went to rent out an alchemy room, and Matt found Samuel at an auction house.

When Matt explained their idea, the man looked hesitant, until he took out a vial of the potion for him to inspect.

The man then turned giddy.

Holding the murky potion up to the light, he said, “The auction houses were already kind of planning something like this. They were going to hold a huge auction of goods for the people coming in this week, right after the second wave of Pathers comes in.”

He winked at Matt. “Speaking of that, I know you kept back some skills in your little bucket. Have any more you want to sell? I expect things will go for a premium in the first auction.”

“We still have some, but I think we want to save them. For now, we’re more interested in potions. What do you expect them to sell for?”

Samuel wiggled his hand back and forth. “I’d bet the starting bid goes for at least 100 war points. I’m not really sure. If they were Tier 6, it would be more, but at Tier 5, they’re for the fodder troops. They might want to buy with money instead of points as well.”

“We don’t need the money. We’d like to only sell for points.”

“Sorry, Matt. If you want to guarantee that they’re sold for points, you need to put them on the market. But there aren’t that many Tier 5’s in the war. If you spread them out, you can probably get a few more points, but the auction house can’t force the vassals to bid with points. A percentage of any bulk items needs to be sold for mana stones.”

Samuel shrugged. “How many are you looking to sell? That’s really what will have the greatest impact.”

Matt wasn’t sure, but tried to give a best guess. “Maybe two hundred-ish.”

“Hmm... Maybe we can work that into an only points sale. If we put a bunch out, maybe fifty, then ration the rest over the next few auctions, we could get them to spend points. You should put at least another fifty on the Empire market itself, though.”

Matt dropped off the five potions Liz had with Samuel, and left to go join in some team training.

During the next week, they took various small missions, but with the reinforcements of Kingdom personnel, the menial tasks like fortifying the thousands of forts had dried up. It was a small income they were sad to see go, but more than one fort had been seized, or at least attempted to be taken, earning points for everyone involved who had survived.

There was more talk of increasing operations, but the news of all the auction houses holding a joint auction derailed any plans that either side had. The leaked items had sent everyone into a tizzy, and no one was willing to risk their points with something like that coming up, so everyone was overly cautious.

Matt and Liz were both peeved that nearly half of the items were ones they had sold to the auction house in bulk previously. They schemed about making their own auction house and putting them all out of business, but their joking quickly fell apart when they started looking into it. There were simply far too many logistical problems to even think about, especially for something so petty as revenge for reselling items that they didn’t even care about.

As he was in the gym getting some solo weight work in, his AI pinged him. He was so surprised, he nearly dropped the weight he was benching.

Melinda and her team had arrived. He hadn’t been sure that they would come, but the thrill of seeing his friends again after so long sent him running to the shower while sending them a message.

“You guys came? I hope you didn’t choose the Queendom! Haha!”

Even if they did choose the Queendom, it wasn’t a big deal, but it would be nice to fight with his friends. Fighting against them could be fun too, but working with them as comrades was clearly the better option. .

***

Liz was mixing a potion when Matt messaged her that his friends had arrived on the planet to participate in the war, and he set up dinner with them.

“Dinner with Melinda’s group. They just arrived. They said they can be ready in half an hour.”

“Fuck!” Her surprise caused her to add too much reagent and ruin the potion. She hardly cared about that, but the fact that it caused a bitterly sweet smell to waft over her and the table was a different story. She knew that she wouldn’t have time to clean up and still join up with them at the time they set to meet.

Cursing, she quickly scrubbed at the table while throwing her borrowed glassware into the cleaning station. She’d pay a premium for the cleaning, but the Tier 7 mana stone meant much less to her than making sure she made a good impression on Matt’s friends.

They were the closest thing to family that he had. They exchanged messages at least once a month, and she was determined to earn their approval.

If they are Matt’s friends, that means they could be my friends.

The thought caused her to stumble into a table. Aster looked up from her cooling bed with a questioning yip.

“New friends! This is exciting, Aster. People that like me for me and not my parents.”

Aster curled back up, but Liz didn’t give her the chance to nap again. Aster had it easy, and only had to nap on the ice blanket to passively increase her ice aspect, but Liz had no time to let the fox continue to lounge around. She had friends to make.

She ran out of the room with Aster in her arms, only to stop when she passed some glass and saw her reflection.

Her hair was a mess, and she had soot around her eyes.

Checking the time, she cursed again. “Fuck! Matt, why didn’t you give me more time?”

She ran to the closest public restroom and scrubbed her face while running wet fingers through her thick unruly hair, before giving up and deciding to braid it when she got in a cab.

Aster just yipped unhelpful advice like, “Relax.” And her ever overused pun, “Chill out.”

Where she learned that one, Liz didn’t know. But anyone who taught the ice fox such a bad joke was on her shit list. The little faker also refused to say it around Matt, which Liz took as a conspiracy against her.

She arrived at their room to catch Matt coming out of the shower and looking at her like she was crazy.

“What’s with the rush?”

Liz wanted to scream. “I have two minutes to get ready! That’s the rush!”

His eyes flicked back and forth in a motion that she recognized as him thinking, and not using his AI.

“No reason to rush,” he carefully replied. “We still have an hour and a half before we meet up with them for dinner. Didn’t you see my second message?”

Liz checked her messages and saw a follow-up that arrived not a minute later, saying he pushed it back so everyone had time to settle down.

She kissed his cheek as she ran past and let the relief flow through her. If she wasn’t so happy about the extra time to get ready, she would’ve been pissed that he didn’t say all of that in a single message. He let her get all worked up for nothing.

Aster started to struggle as she noticed Liz cranked the hot water all the way up. She didn’t have time for a separate bath for the fox, who obviously preferred ice baths.

They were doing this together.

***

Matt sighed as he avoided the latest disaster caused by the hurricane that a nervous Liz became. He assumed that she would want to get ready, which is why he pushed their dinner reservation back. He also assumed that Melinda’s team would need to get settled in with the Queendom. He hadn’t expected Liz to miss his second message and work herself into a worry.

He picked up her discarded armor that was strewn in a line across the room, and started to rub it down. There was a sickly sweet smell coming off of it, and he knew she would hate that. Besides, he had little else to do as he waited.

Ten minutes later, Liz and a pouting and wet Aster came out of the bathroom. Aster ran over to him, projecting mental anguish that she had been forced to take a hot bath instead of a cold one. Activating [Cracked Phantom Armor], he dried off his sulky bond while complimenting her on how nice her fur looked. That instantly turned her mood around, and she preened as he brushed the water out of her fur.

They were ready an hour later, with Liz in the nicest clothes she had, a newer set of her under armor wear. Matt thought she looked fantastic, but she was worried about the slight wear and tear on the stretchy material.

Her armor was in his bag, along with his presents for them, in case he could talk his friends into a spar. He thought it unlikely, but he wanted to show them how much he had grown, and to test them out. He didn’t expect to win, as they had an amazingly balanced team, but it would be like old times, which was enough of a reason for him.

They had chosen to meet up in between the opposing factions’ buildings, at the edge of the landing platform. Aster noticed them first, as she jumped out of Matt’s arms and rushed towards them through the crowd.

Unlike last time she did that, he wasn’t worried. He found her wiggling happily in a tall blonde's arms, while receiving pets from another five people.

He called out, “Hey guys!” and joined the group hug. He noticed Liz was just standing there, nearly wringing her hand and clearly unsure of what she should be doing.

He pulled back and hooked an arm around her waist, and introduced her to everyone present.

“Everyone, this is Liz. Liz, this is Melinda and Mathew.” He pointed at the now older couple. Mathew was nearly his own size, and seemed bulkier. The man was as wide as a door at his shoulders, with large thighs and calves to even him out. Matt made a note to ask for his workout routine. His calves could use a little work after all.

Continuing his introductions, he pointed in turn to the people on Melinda’s right. “This is Sam and Kyle.” Kyle looked lean, but brimmed with strength. Matt wanted to wrestle the man and see how he fared. With [Mage’s Retreat], he thought he might stand a chance, unlike before, when he was turned into a pretzel anytime they fought.

Sam was still shorter than everyone else, and smiled as he pointed at her. Her hair was now a vibrant green and cut in a swoosh, with one side longer than the other.

She interrupted, “Is that Angler’s Reagent I smell?”

Liz flushed red, but before she could say anything, Sam continued, “I hate working with it. One drop spilled, and you smell for days.”

“Oh, you practice alchemy as well? We’ll have to chat about it.” That point of familiarity seemed to set Liz at ease, so he continued to the last two people in Melinda’s team.

“The last two are Tara and Vinnie.” Tara was still as thin and lean as she had been in the PlayPen, but Vinnie had slimmed down a little into a more whipcord build.

They looked good and healthy.

There was a wave of relief that washed over him, as he was able to see that they were ok in person. Just the occasional message wasn’t enough.

“Come on. I reserved a table for us to have dinner. Let’s go.”

He quickly called over a taxi and flew them to one of the nicest restaurants in town that wasn’t catering to the immortals.

When they stepped into the flying car, Melinda said while holding Mathew’s arm, “Matt, you look really good. Too good, really.”

Seeing his confused look, she quickly clarified, “I can see damage done to people with my Concept. It’s like monsters made of dark mist. The only people who don’t have it are those who are Tier 15 or higher. You look like you’re halfway broken through. It's weird. I can’t really explain it.”

Matt laughed. “We met up with a seeker who pointed us to a Tree of Perfection after we helped him out a little. It brings a single aspect of your body to Tier 15, or nearly so. I ate the body root. I guess you’re seeing that.”

“That makes sense. Let me heal all of you, though.”

Liz protested, “Oh, there’s no reason to waste your mana like that.”

Melinda shrugged and cast her spell twice at them, and then onto Aster, who was sprawled over her, Sam, and Tara’s laps. Her thoughts were on her time as a kit and getting pets and affection from them at the PlayPen. She was in a state of mental bliss that bled over into Matt’s own feelings.

“I’m happy to help. It’ll make sure you don’t have anything wrong lingering with you. I don’t see anything, but a heal a day will keep sickness away.”

That caused all the girls to start chatting, so Matt slid over to Mathew and asked, “So what are you doing for your calves? Whatever it is, I need to start doing it too.”

After that, they launched into descriptions of their various workout routines. Their chatting lasted until they reached the restaurant, and Melinda immediately began protesting.

“Matt, we can't afford this place.”

He shrugged her concern off. “I'm paying. And it's only one dinner. We made more in the last few months here than you can imagine.”

When Sam looked to protest, Liz said, “We sold more than one growth item while we were at Tier 5. Let us treat you to a nice dinner. Shame my Aunt isn't here. Now that would be a good dinner.”

Tara seemingly teleported next to Liz and nearly shouted, “I’m gonna marry her!”

While he and Liz looked at her in confusion, the rest of their group groaned. Melinda grabbed the archer’s arm and started to drag her along.

“Ignore her. She's delusional.”

Tara protested as she was dragged to the door. “I’m not! Really, I’m not. She's amazing and I’ll marry her one day!”

Matt thought the idea was ludicrous, but Liz looked amused. “You’re going to have your work cut out for you. Aunt Helen’s list of suitors probably spans the known… well, everywhere. She’s broken a lot of hearts over the ages with unreciprocated feelings, and I’m pretty sure she’s accidentally started a war at least once.”

Hearing Liz’s comment, Tara looked even more determined, and seemed like she wanted to argue her case. Liz continued, “But go ahead and try. Maybe you’ll be the one. How did you guys meet her though?”

That caused their procession to stop again halfway through the door, but Kyle, who was in the front, grabbed Melinda and dragged her forward, bringing in half of their group. When they were seated, Melinda thanked them.

“As I was trying to say. Thank you for the shard. It got everyone else on the right track to discovering their Concepts. I don't know how to repay you.”

When he and Liz went to protest, she held up a hand and stopped them. “This is massive for us. It's not a small trinket, but my family's ticket to immortality. Not everyone can take that first step, and they eventually die. I just fell into mine without knowing what I was doing, and how much it would separate myself from them. Just... Thanks.”

Vinnie smiled and said, “I was the first to get my phrase. These dummies took a lot longer.”

“Its was a day before the rest of us, which was over a year behind Melinda you rube.” Sam’s comment cut Vinnie down, and in the group's usual theatrics, he fell over and started to smother her.

Their waiter came over, and when they didn’t order enough, Matt just ordered the larger party platters in addition to their meals. When they protested, he repeated his earlier statement.

Liz activated her earring, which gave them privacy, and made it so the entire table was covered.

Once they weren’t in danger of being overheard, Matt reached into his bag and withdrew the two growth items he had saved for Melinda’s team.

“I'm glad I didn't send these to you the slow way. Otherwise, they might have missed you.”

Tara looked at the quiver and asked, “I can always use a new quiver, but this feels weird. What does it do? Also, thank you.”

Trying to not let the smugness and pride creep into his voice, he said, “I’m proud to give you both growth items that are perfectly suited to each of you.”

Vinnie nearly dropped his bracelet as Matt said that.

“Man, this is too much. I can't afford this.”

“It's no big deal. I wasn’t joking when I said we pulled more than one growth item.”

He and Tara pushed the items across the table in unison. Tara said, “It's too much, really. You should sell them and propel your team to greater power. Buy some more skills or something.”

Matt rolled his eyes, trying to downplay the gifts. “Guys, at least hear what they do first.”

Tara looked longingly at the quiver and said, “No, don't do that! It will hurt even more knowing.”

“Ok. Think about it for a minute. You guys know what my Tier 1 Talent does. Have you ever checked my Tier 3 Talent?”

The murmur of yes was universal, but no one seemed to understand, and he could see everyone checking their AIs. Mathew whistled, saying, “Same as last time. It’s impressive as all hell, but I don’t get it.”

“How are rifts made and powered?”

It took a moment, and he felt a mix of pride and satisfaction at the looks of incredulity on the group’s faces as they pieced together what he meant.

“So you can just...” Sam waved a hand around, pointing at the pair of growth items.

“Yup!”

“And it's just that easy?” Kyle didn't seem like he believed Matt for a minute.

“Yup!”

“That's amazing...” Melinda trailed off, but it was broken as Tara and Vinnie lunged for their items in unison.

“Ok what do they do? I need to knooow!”

Matt laughed. Giving presents like this was addicting. Seeing how happy they were made him tingle in a way he had never felt before.

He pointed at Vinnie “That bracelet increases the range of all earth skills cast while wearing it.”

Vinnie nearly fumbled it as he slipped the metal and rope band around his hand. It cinched down as it was bound to him with a perfect fit.

Tara was hugging her quiver and giving him puppy dog eyes.

“That-” he pointed to her and as she nodded rapidly. He drew out his silence, and as she looked to be ready to vibrate out of her seat, he finally continued, “-Is a quiver that acts like a spatial item, and it can also create arrows over time. It also enchants them if the arrows remain in the quiver while it gets fed mana. I thought it was perfect for your style.”

Tara started bouncing around and lunged over the table, knocking over two thankfully empty cups in the process.

“Oh thank you! Thank you! It is perfect! I love it.”

The others looked happy for their friends, and didn't have the least bit of displeasure on their faces, which only reaffirmed to Matt that they were good people.

To finish it off, he brought out their bucket of skills.

“We also got a ton of skills if you want something. It's mostly the ordinary ones, but a few might help. Take and trade anything if you want. We already kept what we wanted.”

Mathew smiled and clapped Matt on his shoulder. “You sure know how to give wedding presents!”

“Wait, you guys got married?”