The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

31

Emily, with her hands still covering her sister’s mouth, called out, “Yeah, okay, how is that different from fighting in a rift that has monsters with Concepts?”

As if she had expected the rebuttal, Liz countered with, “How often do you actually fight monsters with Concepts? At Tier 5 and 6, rifts have like, what? A three or four percent chance to have monsters with Concepts? Faster to avoid them and fight the easier ones.”

That actually made sense to Matt, who nodded his agreement. During their rapid rift-making months, they had only fought a few rifts that contained monsters with Concepts. But they didn’t have that much issue with those monsters, since they had their own Concepts.

Liz had suggested something similar when they started training Matt for his Concept, letting him feel her own more than once during their training to get a grip on his phrase. Once Connor and the twins got their phrases, it was only a matter of time until they created their images. The hard part would be the first step.

Matt’s attention was brought to the stage as a copper bowl was brought out to be displayed.

“This little beauty will allow you see anything in a mile radius, at the cost of 200 mana per cast.” When people seemed disinterested, Javier added, “It’s better than you might think! It’s incredibly hard to spot by the observed party. If you have this, your scouts will be much more effective.”

For once, the item didn’t go to the prince or the princess. They actually let the bowl go for only 2,000 points. Matt assumed that they didn’t care, as long as the other side didn’t directly get it. Anyone who spent that many points wouldn’t be willing to give it up, and would only use it for themselves, limiting its effect on the war.

Both sides’ leaders had seemed to understand that they were the only ones with any appreciable amount of points, and they started letting the lower floors take an item if they started to bid. Their benevolence didn’t extend to abstaining from raising the price of an item that they figured the other side wanted more.

Not long after, the end of the action came to an explosive end. Streams of fire and multi-colored light burst out from the stage. It startled them enough to stir them from their conversation.

Matt stretched as he stood. “About time for dinner. Ugh. All the snacking just made me hungrier. I heard they have a huge layout planned.”

Annie, finally freed from her sister’s clutches, asked, “What’s a layout?”

Matt was too buzzed to care and shrugged it off. “Layout of food… I can’t think of the word.”

Liz scooped up the still groggy Aster and said, “Who cares what it’s called? I want food.”

As they all stood, Conor muttered, “A menu. It’s called a menu.”

They trooped out of their box to mingle with the crowd. From the loud calls, it seemed that they weren’t the only group that had turned to alcohol when they ran out of points to spend.

As a mass, they trooped down the winding stairs, until they reached the standing room area. Unlike when they entered their boxes, it was now totally clear, with the previous occupants now seated on floating tables that lifted off once they were full.

They got a table for the six of them, which promptly took off into the air once they were all seated. Not long after that, the food was delivered. Everyone got a plate that suited their individual taste. No need for them to order it seemed, as Matt was given a honey roasted lamb haunch. Aster, who had only just now woken up, had a plate of rabbit legs lightly battered.

Liz was face first in a plate of something Matt thought was Alfredo, which was confirmed when he stole a forkful. The twins followed his lead, leaving Conor as the odd man out. Matt cut a few slices off his lamb and shoved it over to him, causing everyone to share choice bits of their plates.

After trying everyone’s food, he had to say that Conor had the best meal. He was served a pressure-cooked bird of some kind that he didn’t recognize but wanted to try again.

All in all, the floating meal turned out amazing. Matt had no problem admitting it. The idea of eating on a flying table sounded cheesy, but it was more fun than he would have thought.

They floated up and down through light constructs that cut through their table as they drifted around. When they finished eating, they talked for a while longer. When the conversation wound down, the table gently lowered itself and landed, as if it knew they were ready to leave.

As a group, they moved to follow the crowd of other exiting diners who had finished their meals. Two bubble changes later, they found themselves in a bubble with recordings of the various fights playing on banners that streamed down from the ceiling.

One banner on a raised platform caught Matt’s eye. It was accompanied by a smiling young man, who couldn’t be more than seventeen, with dusky skin. He looked smug as a recording of his fight played on the banner behind him. On the recording, the young man attacked a city’s walls with blades of wind that cut down a number of people that tried to rush him. As the recording progressed, Matt saw more than four distinct wind spells being used. A quick spiritual glance revealed that the man next to the banner was Tier 5. It told Matt everything he needed to know after hearing Juni talk about a Tier 5 rushing a queendom city.

Annie scoffed. “i***t. He gave away everything he had on day one. Now, if anyone sees him, they’re gonna throw an [Earth Spear] at him, and he’ll be dead. Showing you only use one element is asking to be countered. Better to be subtle about your arsenal, so people can’t counter you so easily.”

They walked around through the sea of banners, separating and rejoining each other as they saw banner recordings that caught their individual eyes. Matt, Emily, and Conor stopped by a woman in studded leather playing an upbeat chorus on her guitar, with an ever-growing crowd around her. She seemed to be able to read the mood of the people surrounding her, as she leaned in to sing to a particular section, which caused more cheers.

She cycled through three popular songs before they moved on to scan some of the other highlight banners.

One that caught Matt’s eye was of a woman who seemed to dance around long range attacks as she defended a fortress wall. As the wall was destroyed in an icy blast, she leapt down in a flash of lightning. She had tossed what looked like electrical grenades that caused sparks to fly across the ground that moved like living spiders as they exploded and spread.

Contrary to what he expected, she dove into the field of electricity and started to dismantle the charging opposition with a metal rod. It seemed to be used as a mix of cudgel and spell amplifier, and she shot what looked like [Bolts] out of it. In under a minute, she had taken out nine attackers on her own, and seemed to absorb the remaining lightning arcing along the ground.

Seeing that she was on the kingdom side, he made a note to try and seek her out. The grenades she used seemed effective, and he wanted a few for his own use. If they worked the way he expected, he could pre-charge them and use them as an area denial tactic while fighting.

Matt commented to Liz, who had joined them, “How do you even counter someone like that?”