The Path of Ascension

2/2

Matt was surprised that his friends had gotten married, but their clear happiness was enough for him. He was slightly jealous, and had to make a conscious effort not to look at Liz. Marriage was a nice thought, if a little scary.

Melinda stuttered out, “Matt, this is too much. It’s... It’s...”

Her voice trailed off as he shrugged his indifference. It really was nothing to him.

“Guys, take what you want. We already sold a bunch to the auction house. We don’t really need them. These are just the more basic ones that we kept around to perform more rift experiments on when we got the chance.”

Seeing their confusion, he explained. “Rift making isn’t just throwing mana into an area. Well, it is, but we learned that you can put stuff inside and use aspected mana to influence the rift and its rewards.”

Looking for an example, he pointed at Tara’s quiver. “We made that by using wind mana and putting a bow and arrow set into the area where we created the rift.”

Liz poked him and said, “You’re getting a bit loud, Matt.”

Matt grinned in slight embarrassment, and after checking his volume, said, “But yeah, we learned a lot while we were able to experiment. Got a lot of items and money from it. Even skills.”

Liz added with a wry smile as she leaned into him, “And investigated for cheating.”

He enjoyed the little spike of fear that crossed his friends’ faces. It was what he felt in the moment, but now, after everything was fine, it was more funny than scary.

Kyle blurted out, “Wait, what?”

Matt waved it off. “Oh, it was scary as hell at the time, but we got access to the Empire Market. It’s like the contribution point market for the war, but with a seemingly more universal currency. You can buy some amazing things. The investigator was reasonable and heard us out.”

He was going to explain more, but the air bubble popped as their waiter came in with two massive trays of food. He let the matter drop for now.

It smelled divine, and for it’s absurd price it had better taste as good as it smelled. It still stung to spend this much money, but he consoled himself with reminders that it was a special occasion, and kept the pain of his slightly lighter wallet off his face.

As the meal progressed, he started to rehash the adventures that had been through with Liz and Aster. Most were things that they knew already, since he had shared stories in their messages back and forth, but it was more fun to share in person. It was really nice to hear about how simple and calm their lives had been. It was fun to see the other side of being on The Path.

As the dinner wound down, with most of the plates only half-cleared, he suggested they move to a park and continue the talk there. He had seen the waiter pass by twice, and the restaurant was full. He didn’t want to hog the table when they could talk long into the night in the nice city air, without bothering anyone else.

They chatted well into the night, and as it was winding down, Melinda stretched with an exaggerated sigh. Her party seemed to take their cue, as they started getting ready to go.

Matt said, “We should spar tomorrow morning. Like old times. It would be great to see how you have all grown.”

Melinda smiled, “We’ll spank you around like we did at Tier 3.”

He waggled his eyebrows and said, “Ah, but I was only Tier 2 then.” In an overly pompous voice, he said, “We are now the same Tier. Now I have the power to defeat you!”

As they said good night one final time, he smiled while thinking about how good it was to see someone from home. It had been so long, and they had all grown so much.

Aster was nearly asleep when he picked her up, and he walked arm in arm back to their room with Liz. She leaned on his shoulder as they walked back.

When they were halfway there, she said, “Your friends seem really nice.”

Matt resisted the urge to fist pump the air. He had been trying to make sure Liz was included in the conversations throughout dinner, but once he saw her talking to Sam about alchemy, he stopped paying attention.

He was unable to prevent his excitement from coming out in his voice. “You like them? Really?”

He had to make sure, but felt confident that he would get a good answer.

“Yes, they seem kind and intelligent. They also treated me like one of their own, which was AMAZING!”

She shouted the last bit, which caused Aster to kick in her sleep. Matt felt like he was on cloud nine as he floated down the sidewalk. Things were looking up in the best way possible.

***

Liz wasn’t sure that sparring was the best idea for friends that hadn’t seen each other in years, but with how casual they all seemed, she didn’t say anything.

She was just hanging back as they all talked, watching them. They all seemed so happy. Sam even made sure to smile at her as the others got ready to board the fighting platform.

The woman was knowledgeable with alchemy, and Liz wanted to collaborate with her to use the leftovers she had from the herb rift that Matt had made for her to practice with.

She was debating how to best ask the woman, when someone appeared next to the referee and shooed him off.

That oddity caused Liz to instantly go on alert.

The unknown man said, “I’ll be refereeing this match.”

Matt looked irritated when he asked, “And you are?”

His attitude matched Liz’s own. She didn’t like unexpected occurrences like this. Something was off, and she could smell it.

Liz barked out, nearly at the same time, “What authority do you have to do that?”

The man seemed un-bothered and calmly answered, “I’m Baxter. Over Tier 40 and a healer in the employ of the Emperor. I can keep any secrets you might reveal in a fight just that. A secret.”

Liz was about to start screaming and sending messages at the blatant lie. The Emperor had only one personal healer, not the multitudes that this man implied, and she knew the Emperor’s healers. He was her healer growing up.

This young man was not the Harvest Moon. Moon was old and wrinkly. She only knew him from her time in the palace, which wasn't an extensive period of time, but she had spent a few weeks visiting Uncle Manny now and then. She had met and interacted with Moon enough to know that this wasn't him.

As she was creating a message to call for help, she received a message from her Moon, “I’m undercover, so don’t blow it for me.”

Liz paused. It sounded like the Moon she knew, and faking messages was incredibly difficult. A quick check showed that the ID matched her Moon’s old ID, so she sent him a testing question.

“How many times did I break my arm, and how many times did you heal me?.”

The man’s lip twitched as he replied, “You broke your leg twice falling from the same roof trying to fly, once with a bedsheet after the first attempt without one failed. And you landed in my garden in the imperial palace. Twice. Don't try and test me child.”

Liz swore she caught the slightest glimpse of a wink as she finished reading his message.

She smiled at the memory. She’d thought that if mom was a bird, then she should be able to fly as well. When the first attempt hadn’t worked, she realized that she didn't have wings, and that had to be the problem. So, she grabbed a bed sheet to make the jump a second time. Her logic at three years old was flawless.

Moon was one of the few who knew that she had broken her leg trying to fly. Uncle Manny and her parents knew, but no one else. While he could still be a fraud, albeit one with a good information source, she found it highly unlikely.

His voice messages sounded right, and she trusted the little test she had done.

She said out loud for the benefit of the others, “Oh, okay. That’s fine.”

Liz was unable to stop the grin that crept onto her face.

Moon, or Baxter, she corrected herself, glared at her. She sent him on the side, “I’ll have dad flood your garden if you’re mean to me.”

His lip twitched for a second time. But he didn’t rise to the bait and instead asked her, “Now that you know who I am, convince your friend that I need him to do what I asked.”

Matt laughed as he said something to his friends that she missed while talking to Baxter, but Liz messaged her teammate, “You can trust him.”

He paused and looked at Baxter questioningly with a raised eyebrow.

Liz shrugged and sent another message, “Don’t tell anyone else, but that really is one of the Emperor's personal healers undercover, don’t tell anyone else who wasn't here. But you can trust him.”

It was a long moment later that he seemed to reluctantly nod, glancing at Liz.

Taking her spot off to the side with Aster, she waved the fox’s paw at everyone and called out, “Have fun!”

She watched as Matt exploded forward while casting [Hail] and shooting at one of his friends with his crossbow. The crossbow golem arm had taken up Matt’s free time while he tinkered over the last week, and he was as proud as her mother after a molt with his new toy.

They intended to sell them at the auction, but they were going to hold off until after he used them in combat at least once. They wanted to show their creations’ value to the Queendom and start a bidding war as the Kingdom, more specifically Juni and the Prince would already know their potential.

Matt had snatched a few dozen of the arms. But apparently, it wasn’t easy to modify them for human use while keeping their enchantments whole. Still,he had figured it out after some tinkering.

Liz was surprised when her partner ran Mathew through with his sword, and started to shout at Matt for taking it too far, only to find that she was in a bubble of Concept. She raged at Moon through the soundproof wall of will. She tried to resist it with her own Concept, but she only got a headache for her efforts.

If she knew this was what he wanted from Matt, she wouldn’t have agreed to push Matt into it. It also explained why he looked so unsure.

Seeing that she had no way to stop this shit show, she forced herself to calm down, and watched as Matt decimated his friends.

She cursed again at the healing downtime he was causing as he slaughtered his way through them.

Liz would have been impressed with how strong Matt was, but the stomping seemed to be more from a lack of coordination and training on her new friends’ part.

A simple [Hail] was able to shut down their archer, Tara, for nearly the whole fight, and Sam couldn’t even pierce Matt’s armor with her dagger. She knew that [Cracked Phantom Armor] was strong, but that result fell far below her expectations. Matt had talked them and their achievements up all night. She expected to see Matt get slapped around, not to watch him toy with them.

And toy with them he did. She saw it as he fought with Sam and Kyle. Why Kyle used a ridiculous metal slab to fight, she didn’t know. It looked incredibly unwieldy, even though he seemed to handle the weight better than she would have been able to.

She knew of other fighters that used massive swords like that, but not without a flight skill or a Concept to anchor yourself. The counter forces were needed to swing that much weight around, which meant it was an ineffective style until the later Tiers.

Matt took much longer to take down the duo than she expected, going by his earlier performance. He could have ended it with the skills enchanted into his blade with two swipes.

As he chased down Tara, Liz got her first and only surprise. Tara could injure him, which was impressive in and of itself, as he could nearly handle Tier 7 attacks at Tier 5. Now that he was Tier 6, she didn’t expect a Tier 6 to be able to punch through his armor.

She noted Tara as the strongest on the team.

When the fight ended, she ran out and kicked Matt in the butt and Baxter in the shin.

“What the fuck!? You seriously injured them!” The redhead turned to Baxter and yelled, “And you! What the fuck as well!? You shouldn’t have let them get limbs cut off. They’ll be out of commission for weeks with that healing downtime! How amateurish are you? You should know better! Idiot.”

She had already cemented the idea of burning down his garden the first chance she got in her brain. This was incredibly unprofessional of him. Melinda’s entire team would be out of the fight for weeks, even after Baxter healed them.

Melinda stepped forward and placatingly said, “Don’t worry, my Talent gives all healing spells I cast overhealth. We’ll be fine.”

Liz paused and recalled what Matt had said about his friends and Manny. One of them had a Talent that he wanted enough to message them at their PlayPen. She was unable to keep her face straight when thinking over just what that Talent was.

A Talent that gave every healing skill overhealth both explained his personal interest, and explained his sending the top healer for what she assumed was a mentorship for Melinda.

Overhealth was just too useful, and being able to cast every spell with it was unheard of. She was sure Manny was watching Melinda with a hawk’s eye. He probably updated his copy of her Talent every time she Tiered up.

Liz hesitated for a moment after she broke out of her trance. She debated telling them about her parents, but a small part of her was afraid that they would see her differently. She only had a single night of them treating her as a friend, and didn’t want to give that up so soon.

It wasn’t fair to withhold that information after a revelation like Melinda’s, but the fear kept her mouth shut about her parents. She was mad at both herself and Moon. She glared at him- it was a lot easier than self reflection, after all.

He couldn’t have told her about his plan, but he could have told her not to worry.

“Matt’s friends are the perfect team on paper. They have all the traditional rift delving roles, but with Melinda’s Talent, they’ve been coasting and wasting their potential. They needed a wake-up call, which is what I asked Matt to do. I also asked him to play it up. I have to say, you found an amazing friend there. I assumed from the giant ‘Do not touch’ on your profiles that he was strong, but even I’m surprised.”

His message was written in a calming tone that didn’t register with her. Liz also didn’t let Moon’s praise of her Matt distract her.

She could be proud of him later. She snapped back, “What if they hate him now? That’s not ok!”

“They won’t. I made sure to steer the conversation in a way about how they could be better. And from what I overheard, it worked.”

Matt looked hesitant as they asked for a rematch.

Liz moved back to the side and watched a repeat of the last fight. Matt bounced an arrow off the ground to hit Vinnie, who hid behind a raised slab of earth to protect his torso. After the only person who could trap him was gone, this bout was handled as quickly as the previous one.

Baxter then nodded to Liz and sent over a message. “I need you to hammer it home that they need to work hard. One fight, please, and I’ll leave you all to train or do whatever.”

Liz gave Aster to a sheepish Matt and took the field.

Their armor had rents and blood splattered over it, but their flesh was perfectly in tact. Liz understood how they could be so mediocre while staying so far ahead of The Curve.

Melinda’s Talent was absurd on so many levels. She knew all about overhealth and just how rare and powerful the Talent was.

Liz closed her eyes for a moment and calmed her mind. She would repay them for what she was about to do after their fight. She could see the hope in their eyes. They thought Matt was the exception, and the team’s heavy hitter.

They were wrong.

If they were to learn and grow, she needed to show them that there was more power at Tier 6 than they currently possessed.

She opened her eyes as the countdown hit zero and reached into her glove. The well of blood was like a pool, and she withdrew it all in a wave.

The initial surge of liquid deflected the first arrow that Tara launched, and she flowed with it as she pushed the blood and herself forward. She quickly washed over Mathew, and directed the blood to slit his throat with a gentle hand.

He was gone before she cut more than half an inch, which she was grateful for. She would have been pissed at Moon if he forced her to truly hurt them.

More arrows tried to punch through her iron-reinforced blood, but with a thought, she formed her blood into a more humanoid form and cast five [Blood Bullets] at the remaining members of the team. She didn’t hesitate, and followed it up with five [Blood Spear]s aimed where she expected each of them to dodge.

Between the two attacks, they were all ‘dead’ and teleported out less than fifteen seconds after the start of the bout.

She withdrew all of her blood back into her glove and stood there in the silence. No one said anything until Baxter announced that he would let them train privately.

Hopefully that didn’t discourage them.

Melinda called out with what Liz interpreted as grim determination to do something she already knew the outcome of.

“We need to fight Aster as well.”

Aster looked confused, but after Matt whispered something to her, she scampered out onto the field.

When the countdown hit zero, she jumped up and forward, calling ice down in front of her. She was copying Matt’s use of [Hail] to block Tara’s arrows. Taking advantage of her small form and agility, she worked her way into the center of their formation. When she reached the center, there was a flash of frost as the entire team was frozen solid, entombed by the thorny vines. Roses bloomed as life was drained from them. It was a beautiful sight.

They were out of the ice and moping off to the side as Aster ran over and tried to bring their mood up with her usual antics.

Matt joined Liz and quietly asked, “You don’t mind helping them do you?”

She glared at him but softened her gaze. He wasn’t the one who she was angry with, and that particular individual had vanished at the first sight of the fight concluding. She was sure that he was lurking around somewhere, but she would never be able to find him if he wanted to stay hidden.

Liz marched over and was met by a very stern-looking Melinda.

She spoke before Liz could.

“We suck compared to you.”

Liz didn’t want to agree, as that would be in terrible taste, but it was true.

“We got this way by pushing ourselves and training.”

Matt picked up where she ended without a pause. “And we can help. We can spar without worrying about injury or mana cost.”

Liz inspected Melinda’s team’s faces and internally sighed as Mathew stood up first. He said, “This is a good thing. We found a weakness and a perfect opportunity to correct it. This war won’t be short, so as long as we try and get better when we have free time, we can fix it.”

He looked awkward as he asked, “I don’t want to presume, but we can spar after this, right?”

Liz gave him her gentlest smile as she said, “What are friends for if not helping each other?”

***

Luna watched her charges spar with a list of a million suggestions and critiques. She was momentarily impressed with Matt’s use of his Concept. He hadn’t practiced that in combat yet.

But then, the drive to improve her charges took over, and she started noting the flaws in his usage of his abilities. Moonie told him to play with them, so she didn’t note how he extended the fight, but he could have been smoother about it.

Cleaner.

Her other hand wrote down a laundry list of what the other team could work on. They needed help, and the need to help them fulfill their potential ate at her.

It was only her long practice in controlling her compulsions that allowed her to hold herself back from rushing down and forcing them to be better.

As the final fight ended, she paused, hearing what Liz said.

“What good are friends for if not helping each other?”

She paused her pens and stopped writing for a moment. Harvest entered her sphere of influence and sat next to her quietly, letting her enjoy a moment of calm.

They were old friends, and he knew her well enough to enjoy a rare moment of peace together.

She ground out, “Are you going to be taking their manager position?”

“If they make it to Tier 10, maybe. Where's the rest of your team?”

“Kurt and the new girl are taking a break.”

Luna shook her head. She had to resist the urge to change into beast form. The healer next to her radiated the same feeling that moons gave off, and she was named for her love of that feeling.

She had lost her bond, Nora, to old age from not advancing quickly enough and not pushing herself. It was what drove her to make sure others met their potential.

With an effort of will, she stopped herself from retreating to the past and focused forward.

She needed to prevent others from making the same mistake that she and Nora had. That was why she pushed her teams so hard. Nora had died from not having a Concept, and not being able to break into Tier 15. When she first started in this career, it was enough to stay sane. But as she advanced to better teams, it was no longer enough to quiet the caged animal inside that demanded everyone's best efforts.

No, she needed them to push harder and faster. The better they were, the more they could advance, and the stronger they could become.

Seeing wasted potential was like being stabbed, and watching the little healer’s team was like being shredded. The waste of potential was that bad. They had so much to offer, but they threw it away like it was worth nothing.

Little did they know, it was worth everything and more.

She was mollified slightly by the fact that her team was taking the initiative to help, and that the healer's team was also trying to correct their mistake. Friends were the only thing that kept you going after becoming immortal, and too many people lost theirs along the way. Too many were too engrossed with themselves to look outwards. She was happy that her charges were willing to help.

She looked at Harvest and said, “You look stupidly young.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s too much effort to change back and forth. Deal with it.”

It was difficult for him to just change how old he looked? The man was Tier 47! Making cosmetic alterations to his body should have been as easy as breathing. Possibly easier, if he actually breathed anymore. Luna idly contemplated a few body modification exercises that he might benefit from, before settling on a set that the man would most benefit from.

When she handed him the paper he just looked at it for a moment, and in a flash of moonlight it was gone. He gave her the finger and said, “You're obsessive.”

She didn't have a retort for that one.

They watched as the children started to spar while getting corrections from Matt and Liz. Their corrections weren’t perfect, but Melinda’s team didn’t need perfection. She could see the mix of embarrassment and anger driving them, and made a note to check if they continued to push forward. She had to know if they would make the improvements she thought they could.

“She’s going to change warfare for the Empire, isn’t she?”

He sighed next to her. “She has that potential. More than we did.”

Luna thought about that. She had created thousands of powerhouses, and he had forced the other Great Powers into a new agreement about healing stations after his was attacked. He slaughtered the attacking army in a single night during the planet's autumnal equinox. It was where he got his moniker from.

Harvest Moon was more literal than most realized.

“I hope this little wake up call works as intended. She has an incredibly useful Concept that she refuses to use as well. I just hope she can use this to grow.”

Luna moved them forward until she was in the blonde's face. She inspected her with both her spiritual sense and eyes.

“She looks driven. At least right now she does. We’ll see if they can keep it up. War is coming, and she could be of use.”

Harvest looked at her and bumped her shoulder. “Your new ones are just as impressive. Maybe more so. I can see an endless list of things that his Talent could be used for, if it works how I think it does. Even the non-combat potential is wild.”

She ignored his bad attempt at a pun, and moved them back to a higher vantage point.

“He could be great. I intend to make sure he lives up to it.”

“Have you told Mara and Leon that you’re managing their daughter?”

That caused her to laugh. “The airheads have been avoiding me after I critiqued their play fighting when it moved over my house. It covered my sun bathing spot so I went up there and put a stop to it. I made Mara act as my heat lamp for a week. Apparently, it brought back bad memories of their time under my tutelage, and they’ve avoided me ever since.”

She smiled at that. She was proud of her work with the duo. She was proud of what she had molded them into. Their daughter looked to be everything they were and more. Where they had amazing combat potential, despite their conflicting affinities, they had little room in their heads for anything serious.

Their daughter was both strong, and a thinker.

Luna intended to rub that into her once protegees’ and now friends' faces.

She turned into her cat form and curled up under Harvest's aura. Seeing friends help each other was enough to calm the raging desire long enough to get to sleep.

Sleep was so rare for her, but she cherished it. When she slept, she dreamt, and when she had dreams, she had Nora.

***

Matt moved around Kyle’s slash and slapped the flat of his blade into his inner thigh. Kyle didn’t yelp, and instead tried to hit Matt with and aggressive backswing.

They were sparring and working on his style, as Matt was the only one who could match his pure strength.

He still felt bad for what he had done to them and had apologized to each of them. None of them seemed angry at him, but more so with themselves.

It also put their progress in another light for him. They had stalled, and while they were ahead of him in cultivation slightly, they should already be fighting like Tier 7’s with their Talents. He knew it wasn't fair when you considered that they had limited mana to spend on delving, but they should have been able to fight up a Tier if they worked on their combat prowess.

Their fight had opened his eyes to the harsh reality. When he started the duel, he expected a challenging fight where he struggled to hold his own. When his starting crossbow shot and [Hail] took both Vinnie and Tara out of the fight, he was surprised that they didn't expect a quick opening.

When he was able to lift Mathew off his feet to negate the man's Talent and run him through, he was disappointed.

As Melinda stood there frozen, he understood what Baxter wanted from him.

He hadn't really believed the man when he said that they needed a wake up call, and had only done it because Liz had vouched for the man. While Baxter hadn’t said it, Matt expected that he was filling in for the same thing as his own still forming management team, and was trying to push them.

So, he tried to show them exactly how far behind the power curve they truly were. He toyed with Sam, Kyle, and Tara. He hadn't liked playing it up; in fact, he hated it. But he had hoped that it would drive the point home.

He hadn’t even needed to use his AI to predict their moves, as they didn’t vary off of the most obvious choices. After the first few exchanges, he turned it off and found that it didn’t hamper him at all.

Thankfully, they seemed to have learned their lesson, and were trying to improve. The team had taken the initiative to share their Talents and skills with Liz, who did the same. She was as shocked as he was at how well-rounded they were while being so weak.

They agreed that Melinda’s team should, in theory, be beating them more often than not. They had so much utility and damage to leverage. They simply relied too heavily on their cultivation and Melinda's healing. They had the essence, but not the experience.

Matt was determined to help them advance. He contrasted the team that worked so hard in the PlayPen with the team that was unable to do anything against his own. He saw the hurt looks in Sam and Vinnie’s eyes, and anger and pain in the rest of the team’s. There was what he thought was determination, but he wasn’t sure if he was just hoping to see that.

Still, he was determined to help them where he could. He contemplated throwing them into freshly made rifts, to help them get used to fighting without a guide. He understood using it to reduce danger, but apparently they needed guides.

Them being on the other side of the war was suddenly looking like a good thing. He knew their side had some powerhouses, just from the golem war. There were a lot of people on both sides that Matt could see them practicing their abilities and skills on.

He and Liz also decided to try and get the rest of their new war squad to come to a spar or two. It would mean hiding his and Melinda's Talents, but it would be good to show them other strong Pathers.

They sparred for hours, relying on Matt keeping everyone full of mana to burn, and [Endurance] to keep going when exhaustion would have forced them to stop normally.

“Let's go get showered and meet up for the auction. I hear it’s going to be crazy.”

Vinnie said while glaring at the floor, “We don’t even have points to spend. What’s the point?”

Matt didn’t like the defeatist tone his friend had. “Things will be sold for mana stones as well. Also, it’s useful just to see what is for sale. Our point of contact and leader implied that the Kingdom was buying items to exchange for missions that had a high chance of death, as a form of compensation. You might see something you like.”

He bumped Vinnie and grinned at him. “Come on, if nothing else, it should be a nice little party.”

Melinda stood and brushed her armor off. “We only have the skills you’re giving us to trade, and we can do that without being there in person. I think we need the night to ourselves.”

She looked at him, and while she did look sorry, she also looked determined. “Sorry Matt. Next time. And let's plan for some more sparring tomorrow. Okay?”

Matt wanted to say he could buy them whatever they needed, but he was pretty sure that he was running close to what he was allowed to give as a seeker equivalent. He also didn’t think they needed, or even wanted his money. Being there to help them train seemed like the better option.

While he didn’t regret his gifts from the way Tara and Vinnie looked at their items, it seemed to only make them feel worse for not keeping up.

The last thing Matt wanted to do was replace one weakness with a dependency on him to keep them competent. He knew they could be great on their own.

Matt just hoped that he didn’t do more harm than good with his gifts. His friends looked like deflated balloons after their fight, and they only seemed slightly recovered after their sparring.

With that settled, he and Liz quietly went back to their rooms. Their moods were somber as they walked away from where the arena platform dropped them off. Even Aster seemed to sense the mood; she didn’t even beg for ice cream when they passed a shop.

Neither said anything until Liz asked, “Do you think that could happen to us?”

Matt looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean if we didn’t get investigated and we didn’t get the management team. Would we have stagnated?” Liz clarified with a troubled look on her face. Matt wanted to immediately deny it, but he paused.

Would we have?

Because of Melinda’s Talent, they got sloppy. He remembered the time before they had their Tier 3 Talents. They were much more diligent. While Matt’s Talent didn’t make injuries a non-issue, it did allow them to gain a large amount of essence in a very short amount of time, with minimal risk if they only delved at their Tier.

Now that he thought about it, they were already forming bad habits. If the manager hadn’t forced their hands, they would have skipped out on this war. They would have stayed at Tier 5, playing with rifts and delving for growth items, simply for wealth.

Matt slowly replied, “As much as I want to deny it, yes. During our break, I was already beginning to back slide. Without the manager, we would have stayed at Tier 5 longer than we should have. With Melinda’s Talent, they would really benefit from having a manager. Baxter seems like he’s trying to fill that role, but maybe he doesn’t have the authority to tell them what to do? Otherwise why would he be asking for our help?”

After a moment of contemplation, Liz responded, “Yeah. You’re probably right. I felt it too. Getting investigated was more of a blessing than I thought.”

They walked in silence for another moment when Liz said, “You know, I wanted to say something about my parents when Melinda shared her Talent. I just froze up and the moment seemed to pass me by. Sorry.”

He grabbed her hand. He hadn’t expected her to share until she was comfortable and didn't expect it that soon. She was working on it, but it wasn't as if she was cured of her fear just because she told him about them.

“You have nothing to be sorry about, so don't worry about it. It's pretty understandable. When or if you feel ready, that's the best time to tell them. Besides, it's not like they really need to know.”

“I know, but it didn’t seem fair to me. Melinda shared her big secret, and I just couldn’t bring myself to reciprocate. But they’re good people. I can tell that much already. I’ll definitely tell them. I just need to work up the nerve first.” With her mind clearly made up, Liz squeezed his hand and pulled Aster from his arms.

When they arrived at their suite of rooms, they found Emily, Annie, and Conor lounging.

As they walked in, Emily called out, “We’ve been waiting for you. Are you coming to the auction?”

Liz nodded, saying, “We were sparring with some old friends. We’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

Conor checked his watch, “Should be enough time. I hear that it's being held in a special location, and that transports will start moving at the top of the hour. That’s in fifteen minutes, though. I don't want to be the last to arrive.”

Annie popped to her feet and added, “Yes! This is our first auction like this. I hear if you have more than 1000 points you can have a room for yourself. We can pool our points to stay together, right?”

Emily rolled her eyes, and Matt noticed that Annie hadn’t taken her eyes off of Conor, who still had the far off look of someone interacting with their AI.

Matt decided to help her in her ploy for the man's attention.

“I think that's a great idea.”

Annie grinned at him and threw him a thumbs up hidden away from Conor.

“Well hurry up and go shower then. We don't have time!”