The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

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Liz jumped on their hesitation. “Don’t think we didn’t notice that not all of us have been reimbursed. More than one team was simply told to go pound sand. This isn’t okay. We, right here, are a pretty good representation of the best that the Path has to offer. If we don’t look out for everyone else now, we’ll all be screwed over sooner or later. And in two weeks, we can have everyone on The Path refusing orders. If you’re willing to treat us like this, how much worse will it be for the lesser Pathers?”

The princess finally said, “We can’t do that. It would disrupt our plans too much, and I don’t believe that you can get enough of a faction together to force our hands. That would cripple our point production and slow down every decision to a crawl. It’s an outlandish, childish desire.”

Liz was about to speak up when, suddenly, Alyssa’s voice rang out from a corner as she walked to the edge of the stage. She sat on the edge and said, “I and the people I represent agree to this, but we want in on it as well. And I want a seat on any decision making council.”

She looked at the prince while twirling her obnoxious parasol. “I’ve been talking to the crafters in our outlying cities, and they aren’t happy with how things are being handled. I’ll be taking over as a voice for them.” She waved a hand around and nearly took out someone’s head with her parasol. “Mana shortages and such. I can solve them, if given the right incentive.”

Albert didn’t look happy, but after a brief whisper with Juni he nodded. “I see you had your fingers in that pie already.”

Alyssa beamed at him. “Oh, I knew you would try to freeze me out Albie. I took my own measures. But remember that I didn’t cause the mana problems. You shouldn’t have only spent your points for mana for the defensive formations. You know how much mana the crafters use, and how they can get when there isn’t enough of it. That was your lack of foresight. I just strolled around and heard oh so much juicy gossip. Same with your cities, Sara. I have agreements with both sides’ poor, forgotten crafters to negotiate on their behalf.”

Liz looked like she was about to spit fire at the other woman, but she didn’t let it show as more than a clenching of her fist. Still, she didn’t look half as mad as Sara, who realized that a kingdom representative had the ability to speak for her crafters.

Princess Sara spat out, “It’s Princess Sara to you, and I’ll see your hold over my people broken the second I leave here you venomous, slithering, snake.”

Alyssa seemed unruffled by the threat and just smiled demurely. “I’m sure you will. I look forward to meeting them, Princess Sara.”

Liz was perfectly calm and collected, and she took advantage of the change in conversation to agree with Alyssa’s counter offer. She replied with a clear voice, “If we’re going to split the points over such a large population, we need a larger percentage. Five percent minimum.”

Matt’s currently most hated person leaned forward on her parasol with a genuine smile and added, “One percent of that five to be spread equally to everyone. The poor crafters don’t get out much. Hard to earn points inside a city. The other four are to be spread to those that earn it.”

Liz nearly growled out, “To those that earn it.”

With the two of them in agreement, the entire room’s focus shifted to the two faction leaders on the stage. Somehow, the argument had turned from the two vassal leaders, to an argument between Liz and Alyssa, then back to the royals just as quickly.

Albert and Sara leaned in and conversed in whispers for what felt like an eternity. The crowd started to murmur after the first minute and, after the fifth, there was an audible growl in the air.

The discussion between the two leaders turned quite heated, and they took turns glaring at both Liz and Alyssa, before they removed their privacy barrier and came up from their huddle.

Sara spoke for both of them. “We can agree to these terms, with the added stipulation that there be no more hesitation or backstabbing on either side. If there is, the offending party will go on a planet-wide blacklist and be given no help from their own side. A higher reward will also be paid out to those that kill them.”

Albert, who had been glaring at Alyssa the entire time Sara spoke, finally looked away and added, “Speaking of prizes, we’re both creating a leaderboard. Or rather, we’re using the Empire’s rankings, and we’ll be giving out rewards to anyone able to take out the highest impact people on either side.”

Liz just smiled at the royals and said, “The Pathers agree. We don’t mind a challenge. We mind being betrayed for personal gain.” She ended her statement with a glare to Alyssa, who just beamed back at Liz.

Out of nowhere, a man appeared, hovering in the air between the two sides. It was the army leader Colonel Thorne.

His voice boomed around the small building as he said, “The army has seen and heard the agreement. It shall be put in place effective immediately. Any further arbitration will have to be agreed upon by the three sides comprising the agreement.”

As suddenly as he appeared, he was gone.

The two royals quickly left following the pronouncement. Their act was mirrored by everyone else remaining in the hall.

Matt figured that everyone was trying to leave before the deal changed further.

Annie looked around and said, “I don’t get what happened.”

Liz stomped lightly and responded, “We got helped by that b***h is what happened.”

Emily scrunched up her face and said, “I don’t follow. What does that mean for our idea? Seems like we did better than the original offer. Or am I wrong?”

Liz seemed unconcerned about the points and was still glaring at the door Alyssa had used to leave the building. “Now, we get a percentage, which should help us in the long run. It’s split more, but with four percent going to the top earners, we shouldn’t see much of a difference. At least by rough calculations from the official totals. Overall, we, the Pathers’ Union, did fine. I’m more mad about that woman stepping in to help me. To make matters worse, she somehow seemed to know about our idea, and used it for her own benefit. f**k! I hate that b***h!”

They filed out of the stuffy meeting hall with the rest of the Pathers, into the cool city air. Most were happy, but Matt heard more than a few people plotting revenge against their betrayers.

Matt didn’t really care about looking like an asshole, and was trying to figure out how to pin down the clearly crafty woman, and get her to agree to a duel. No matter what Annie did to her, or how much Alyssa helped their cause, he was going to break something inside of her before the war was out.

He did take Conor’s warning to heart though, and would keep his revenge from turning into torture.

Sara looked over the retreating audience from the side door. Today, despite the tense atmosphere, had been very beneficial, and she was quite pleased with the result. That redheaded Pather’s little ploy had worked quite well. Her profit sharing point system effectively removed the incentives for her commanders to be greedy little shits.