The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

62

Steam, cloud, iron, tree, plant, and finally ice were the aspects of mana that he added to his collection. He was about to refuse the ice person but decided to take it anyway. The young man was Tier 5, and had a scraggly look about him that Matt recognized from his days in the orphanage. It reminded him of the kids who were falling into depression. That haunted look along with the young man trying, and failing, to hide his eagerness caused Matt to ignore the fact he had Aster’s ice mana.

“Thank you all. If you know anyone who has unique mana, please let them know that I’ll take a copy.”

The cloud mana woman was the only one to stick around and asked, “I assume that you’re a crafter?”

Matt just nodded to her question. He did craft things, after all.

“If you have anything that reduces weight, I’d love to buy it. No one else has it at a reasonable price.”

“Head over to Kelley’s enchanting shop. He has a Tier 7 earring that does that. Price is seven Tier 7 mana stones. At a thirty percent reduction, it’s well worth the price.” Matt only knew of it because he had helped Kelley create an earring last night once they moved on from the light rune. The earring they had made wasn’t the same one he was telling her to buy, but Kelley had shown him the weight reduction one as a reference. The one they made was a custom job to reduce wind resistance but crafted in the same shape and style.

The woman winced but nodded. “Better than most others I saw. It’s even better if it’s Tier 7. It’s just expensive. Do you know what the price is in points?”

Matt paused. Kelley didn’t actually have points listed in his store, so he wasn’t sure if the man even accepted points. But considering that the only reason he was on the planet was for the contribution points, he would surely take them.

“I think so, but I don’t know the cost in points, sorry. I don’t think it would be more than a few hundred. But I really don’t know.”

With that, they went their separate ways, and Matt pulled out the nearly empty mana stones.

The first five were quickly absorbed into his ring, and he cleaned off the old mana signatures by ensuring that the stones were fully drained.

Matt was about to just empty the ice one, but he decided to try absorbing that one as well.

It was worth the points to see how repeated mana aspects would be handled by his ring.

To his surprise, his ring absorbed it without a problem, and didn’t overwrite Aster’s ice aspected mana. They sat next to each other as near twins, but with a subtle difference between the mana types.

Aster’s ice mana was a more cold ice, whereas the young man’s mana was more of a slow ice. Or at least, that was the fuzzy interpretation he came up with from comparing the two.

He immediately edited his posting about asking for anyone with aspected mana to come and visit him, no matter the type.

Spending ten points was nothing to get extra unique mana types. He wasn’t sure if that type of difference in mana aspects could make unique rifts, but he was itching to find a secluded place and test his theories.

For now, he intended to try and make a new item with a slowing ice effect, instead of increasing the cold damage. Kelley was Tier 10, and probably could go for another all-nighter.

Probably…

15

Matt and Kelley were sitting around two pairs of gauntlets, one with a cold rune etched into the back of the hand, the other with a slowing rune.

They just sat there and stared at them together. Their half a day of testing had finally paid off.

The same mana aspect could be subtly different, which led to subtly different results. With some manipulation of the standard cold rune, they had created a rune that, when cold-based skills were cast through, created a slowing effect. The effect wasn’t minor either, with a near thirty percent effect.

All from creating the rune with the cold aspected mana.

The second pair of gauntlets with a slowing rune were designed to slow anyone struck with them. With the slowing cold mana, it was nearly twice as effective as the base, though it was still limited to melee attacks.

“Hit me again.”

Matt did as instructed and lightly backhanded the Tier 10 enchanter.

The man dropped an apple with his off-hand and drove to catch it with his other hand. It was like he was moving through honey for about half a second, then the effect stopped, and his hand shot forward like a snake, catching the apple.

It would have lasted longer if the man’s Tier wasn’t so much higher than the rune.

Inspecting the apple, Kelley repeated himself for the sixth or seventh time. “I can’t believe we got it to work.”

Matt looked at the floor covered in ice from their test with [Hail], the only cold skill between the pair, and the cold slow enchanted gauntlet. He repeated himself as well. “Neither can I.”

Kelley kicked his way through the ice, over to his workbench, and pulled out a bottle and two glasses.

“Careful with this. It’s Tier 10 liquor and will put you on your ass before you know it.”

He poured them each a drink. Matt’s was noticeably smaller, more so a shot compared to Kelley’s nearly full glass. The enchanter raised his drink and said, “To learning something new.”

“To getting an edge on the competition.” Matt knew what Kelley really cared about and couldn’t resist teasing the man. He would work for free if everything was provided for him. Selling his wares was just a means to buy more things and fund his projects.

They both downed their glasses. Matt nearly died as the potent alcohol kicked him so hard, his teeth hurt. He had to brace himself against the table while the fire burnt its way down.

Kelley’s two fingers of liquor went down much easier than Matt’s, if his lack of reaction was to judge.

“s**t, this changes everything. I mean, I knew using aspected mana can improve certain runes, every crafter worth a damn figures it out, but…”

He was about to curse the man out a little for not warning him more when he noticed the man staring at his glass with a thousand-yard stare.

Matt’s Tier 10 friend started rolling his glass around idly. “Aspected mana comes from five places. Innate bloodlines, Talents, carefully cycling ambient mana, special techniques involving cycling essence and mana through materials, and finally, natural treasures. The main aspects are easy to find: air, water, ice, fire and so on. It’s that secondary property that’s hard to capture. It’s more unique to how each person views their aspected mana. An abstract idea like ‘slow’ doesn’t exist outside of Talents as a full aspect of mana. These extra layers are essentially ‘understanding’ made real. It’s like a concept. No, a Concept…”