The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

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“Now, I must be off. I’m sure poor little Albie will want to have some words with me and it’s best if I can make some plans before that happens.” The woman spun away while waving her hand at the rest of them in obvious dismissal.

Ash looked at the hulking man behind the woman as he gently touched a sword to Ash’s chest, and they were gone. The last thing they heard was the snap of a parasol.

Luna watched the show that her little Pathers put on. She was impressed.

Other managers were more or less hands-on than her, depending on their ideals, but her approach was always to stay in the shadows until she thoroughly understood her subjects. No two teams were the same. She had learned that lesson millennia ago.

She watched. She evaluated. She planned.

Once all that was done, she made suggestions on essentially everything for the children placed under her care. In her early years she’d had plenty of teams that wouldn’t follow her advice and would simply leave most of the time. It was where she learned to be selective and more stringent with her team choices.

But some teams could take it, and she would push harder and harder until she squeezed every ounce of potential out of them.

It was so rare for her to find the true gems these days. It was the reason she had stopped taking children under her paw.

For all she had watched, Luna had to admit. She was impressed.

The three were strong and had fought well for being unaware of the treachery at play. Combat between intelligent combatants was always a shock to people only used to rift delving.

They were falling prey to the normal machinations that these little wars brought out. She had watched these skirmishes time and time again. More often than not, betrayals like the one the little Rainbow Peacock Alyssa was cooking up were a middle-level commanders’ first moves.

The girl thought she was clever for her ploy when it had been done millions of times before her. It had already happened five times on this very planet and was currently happening on another three battlefields.

She made a note to watch out for Alyssa and Liz’s first meeting. It would be the first time she would meet someone with a purer bloodline than her, outside of her parent’s protection. Not many could claim that, but there certainly were a few out there. High-purity, high-existence, like dragons and phoenixes, cultivators born of dual beast parents were rare, but they existed.

Luna’s senses easily stretched across the entire planet, so she could see everything going on in this…game.

Would Liz back down? Or stand and fight? Could Liz handle not being the best at something as intrinsic as bloodline purity?

Her claws tried to stretch out of her humanoid fingers as she thought of the coming drama.

What direction would the young Pathers take with the ill-treatment of the two vassal states?

Her favorite was when the Pathers created a third faction and started wreaking havoc. It was always so very fun to watch those wars unfold. Sadly, she doubted that would be the outcome this time. Both of the royal brats were taking steps to prevent that exact scenario, but Luna could hope.

She sent a message through her hated AI to April and Kurt. She had both of them getting the various materials and training facilities ready. Or, in Kurt’s case, tracking down the people Luna felt could best train the trio. Her mute protege was making a list of where they were, and the best order to have the children visit them in.

Luna had to resist forming a tail to swish as she thought of the kids’ faces when the prices of those facilities were revealed to them.

When she was a young liaison, she thought it was dumb to make the Pather kids with management teams pay for everything they were to use. But after a time, she came to understand.

The resources at her and her fellow managers’ disposal could turn a turd into a diamond if given the proper guiding hand. Competent strength was expected of anyone able to successfully complete their training. Success in the challenges they would face while on the Path would hardly be impressive if everything was given to them.

The real monsters came out when the added incentives a management team could provide were acted upon. They drove the children harder and helped to advance faster. It pulled the best out of them.

She had one young woman who slept outside to save on even that little expense. Annabelle had done well for herself and already ascended. She hadn’t completed the Path, but she had gotten close and gone on to make a name for herself in the exploration communities.

One of Luna’s earliest works. One of her best.

She was already calculating cost to account for Matt’s Talent, but it would just inflate prices. It wouldn’t change the relative timeline that they were expected to maintain. Keep them mostly in line with the other Pathers. The help was meant to be earned with effort. Even with her increasing the price they would be paying less than it would normally cost to hire Tier 25s or higher for personal training. The Empire gave tax breaks for those who helped Path teams after all. That was worth far more than the paltry sum the teams paid.

Luna’s major restrictions were items and skills. She couldn’t give them either. They had to earn those themselves.

It shouldn’t be a problem with Matt’s abilities, but their earning potential was greatly lessened with them now being Tier 6. She would recommend that they sell full Tier 5 rifts to a few select guilds for first dibs on growth items once they hit Tier 10 or 15.

She wasn’t sure which. It would depend on them.

Luna floated around the fort for another moment, rewatching the battle from memory.

Watching Liz shred thirteen people on the bottom floor had been a special treat. A well-laid trap was always a joy to watch. The damage her little blood mage had put out was well beyond her Tier.

It was also the first time she had been forced to help the army personnel assigned to the battle. They were overwhelmed by the sheer number of casualties her team had inflicted. Liz’s slaughter of over a dozen people at once was more than they could handle. A Tier 15 could handle at most two people, and with the rate her team had been killing people…

If Luna hadn’t stepped in, someone could have actually died.

The blender of blood wasn’t a bad trap at all, and Liz used it to…decent effect.

She made a note to remind Liz that she could’ve ensnared fourteen people with a little more patience. Letting the first person come up the stairs would’ve allowed two more to enter the bottom floor. After killing everyone on the first floor, she could have easily handled the remaining person from the higher steps.

Her plan hadn’t been bad, but it wasn’t perfect either. Little Liz had room to grow, but Luna could see the gem waiting to be polished up. She just needed time, and a little pressure.

Matt had surprised her. She hadn’t expected him to tell his team about his Concept, while still hiding his Talent. It was a surprising move, from what she had seen of him so far.

She made a note that he was more devious than her first impressions had indicated. It was good. She hated the blockhead melee fighter stereotype that too many let themselves fall into.

After watching him savage nearly thirty people on the third floor, she was afraid that might be the case.

He had failed to use his [Hail] skill as she expected. He could have used it to fill an entire room with ice, and effectively block it off. Or he could’ve used the skill during his melee, when he was forced back into a wall.

Either use could have been explained away by the reveal of his Concept. He already said that it mostly affected himself.

She sent another note to Kurt to find a few spy specialists. They could be useful for all three, but getting Matt to use a bit more lateral thinking would be their top priority. His mana situation gave him too much variety and that could be a problem in the future if he didn’t learn to use more than a handful of spells.