The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

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Another scream came from inside the fort, and after charging his sword once again, Matt jumped through the now broken down door. He was immediately met by another [Fireball] to the face. It washed over [Cracked Phantom Armor], but wasn’t able to break through, only straining his control over the skill. From the feedback his skill gave him, he guessed that the mage was a peak Tier 6, or a weak Tier 7.

He landed with a skid, as the floor was slick with something, and he tumbled across the room as another wash of flame hit him. The oil he slipped in caught fire with him, but its slower damage was far easier for [Cracked Phantom Armor] to handle. The flames from the oil were nothing compared to the skills that ate through the mana flowing through [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s structure.

He stood, and with the fire blocking his vision, relied on his spiritual sense to find his nearest enemy. His AI indicated that it was the mage who had lit him on fire, so he decided to return their gift and tackled them into the still burning oil. With a thought, he created spikes on his armored fists.

It took three blows for the person under him to vanish, and Matt was quickly running low on air. His armor would block the flame, but the fire was burning all of the oxygen around his face, and his already taxed muscles were growing desperate for air. If he had known this would happen, he would have taken their underwater breathing broach. He could have used it to expand his breath-holding abilities.

Drawing from his rechargeable mana stone for a full mana pool, he quickly cast [Create Water] over his head before his active skills drained him down to one percent of his maximum mana. There, his regeneration could handle the costs of his core skills that were constantly running.

With the fire extinguished, Matt let the water skill run, as the mana cost to continue was nothing to him. The first breath was sweet as his armor filtered out the smoke, and he finally saw a burnt-out bottom floor of the fortress.

Matt went to move up the stairs, only to get messages from Liz and Annie in almost unison, causing him to pause.

“Top floor is clear.”

“Conor and I cleared the middle floor.”

Matt sent back, “Bottom floor burnt out but clear. That leaves a floor between each of us.” He thought for a second before asking, “Anyone kill the Tier 7?”

At the chorus of no’s, he said, “Annie and Liz, clear the floor between you two. Emily and I will clear the floor between you and us. I expect Tier 7 to be between the top floor and the middle one.”

Emily was now in the room, with a wet cloth wrapped over her mouth and nose.

She private messaged him, “The f**k are you made out of? I saw you burning.”

Out loud, he responded, “My armor is great for low damage over a long time. What it can’t handle are single big hits.”

She nodded at that and turned to the stairs leading to the second floor.

“Ready?”

Matt didn’t verbally respond, he just moved forward after finding his blade along the far wall. The staircase ran along the outer wall, and they rushed up the stairs and to the door, only to find it unlocked and unbarred. He burst through and found not a single person inside. From the fighting he could hear from above, he assumed that Liz, Conor, and Annie were fighting the remaining defenders.

He and Emily ran up the stairs, but the fighting was already over when they arrived. Their team was simply standing around, while the floor was covered in blood and debris.

Matt went over to Liz and Aster and asked, “What happened?”

As he approached them under the pretense of scratching his bond, he activated his Concept, but Liz grabbed his wrist and privately messaged him.

“No. Don’t do that. It’s too obvious right now.”

He did as she asked. She was right, the others could see her mana pool’s percentage, and if it rapidly filled, it would be far too obvious. He sighed as Liz explained what she and Aster had gotten up to.

“Aster and I fought our way along the wall, then climbed to the roof where we could fight the other two archers. Good call on the shield skill. The archer was on the roof and got a good, skill enhanced shot off, but with my Concept reinforcing the spell it blocked the arrow. After that, I cleared the roof, then Annie, Conor, and I fought nearly a dozen people in this room. The Tier 7 was a melee fighter, so it wasn’t that bad. I just flooded the area of the room he was in.”

He looked to Annie and Conor to hear about their floor.

“We had a few people in the middle floor, since it had a door leading to the wall, but nothing crazy. Easy enough that there’s nothing to report.”

Matt nodded. “Liz, report in for us while Annie gets her hip looked at. Conor and I will go repair what defenses we can. I think we’ll be told to hold this location, so let’s prepare for that.”

Emily was already looking at her sister’s wound, and he and Conor moved to the bottom floor, while Liz and Aster moved to the roof to message someone back at headquarters.

Matt couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. They had only been expected to harass the fort, but they had managed to take it.

As he and Conor boarded the gatehouse back up, they discovered that the door was cracked and didn’t sit right in its frame. Neither of them knew how it happened. They could only speculate that it was when Annie managed to get the door open for them. Breaking the door wouldn’t have been a bad move for the defenders if it kept them out.

After that was taken care of to the best of their ability, Matt left Conor to go charge the base’s mana stone located on the second floor. It still had half a charge, but he topped it off with his own mana. Meanwhile, he drained a single mana stone to spread some dust around the crystal and hide the fact he filled the fort’s power reserves himself. It was some plausible deniability, at least.

Liz messaged everyone while he stood around the fort’s mana stone. “They want us to hold the fort. They didn’t expect us to take it and are scrambling to get us reinforcements.”

“Did they have an estimated time?”

“Three hours at the earliest.”

That wasn’t that bad, and Matt moved back outside to join Conor and watch their surroundings.

While keeping watch, he checked his messages from the army AI, and smiled at the points he had earned.

Prior Total (last updated 3 days ago): 537 points.

TEAM MERITS:

(Calculated for Tier 6 Combatant).

· Enemy vassal killed, Tier 5. Worth 1 point. Performed 40 times.

· Enemy vassal killed, Tier 6. Worth 5 points. Performed 11 times.

· Enemy vassal killed, Tier 7. Worth 25 points. Performed 1 times.

· Mining site captured. 500 points.

· Medium fort captured. 5,000 points. Two times normal points are awarded for solo team capture. 10,000 points.

PERSONAL MERITS:

(Calculated for Tier 6 Combatant).

· Enemy vassal killed, Tier 5. Worth 1 point. Performed 19 times.

· Enemy vassal killed, Tier 6. Worth 5 points. Performed 7 times.