The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

18

Juni pulled back and gave them a funny look. “Your group is about top thirty at best. There’s some other Pather, a Tier 5, that rushed the queendom’s main city and killed a dozen Tier 7s before he was driven off. Not killed, mind you. Just driven off. Killing two Tiers up gave him 125 points per person. Matt, Liz, Aster, I know you’re strong as hell, but there are some monsters running around this war.”

He slid back under the console after tossing them a small bag, and dismissed them with a simple, “If you want more points, escort the teams to the other forts in the line, please. There are the crystals you’ll need. It’s the best I can do right now. I wouldn’t worry about it too much though. This war isn’t expected to last a few months, more like a few years.”

They moved out and escorted the teams to the forts throughout the mountain range, and Matt repeated his trick of filling the forts with his mana instead of using the provided mana stones. He always converted one stone so he could scatter some dust around, but that was it.

In between forts, Matt flicked into the Empire War Contribution Points Market.

Now that he had points, he had access to the listings of items in the war version of the Empire Market.

Matt searched through the registry, hoping to get a good feel for what everything was worth. He was surprised to see Tier 8 skills listed for 2,500 points apiece. It seemed expensive, but seeing how generously the Empire gave out points for fighting, they were in reach for most people. Even for Tier 6s, skills were still hard to afford otherwise.

Even growth items were available, though admittedly at 25,000 points instead of the normal 5,000 on the regular Empire Market. Still, Matt could see how it wouldn’t be impossible to earn that much over a few months, as the fighting heated up. A single battle had netted them 500 points, and it was a small-scale engagement. If they had to siege a city, Matt could see the numbers increasing massively.

Sorting by cost showed that there were Tier 14 skills available, and Matt contemplated which ones they could use as a team. Liz and Aster were easier to search for than himself, as his mana reserves limited the skills that he could use. The Tier 14 skills mostly had a higher base mana cost that accounted for their greater effects.

He still wanted to get [Flamethrower]. It was a channel spell, and he could imagine just burning everything that came close to him endlessly. Aster would hate it, but he was willing to bribe her to accept it. The Tier 14 skill like most of the higher strata of skills listed were double the points of the Tier 8 skills, which made them expensive but within reach if they did well.

He stumbled upon a seemingly hidden repository of rune crafting made by the Empire crafters for internal use only. It was worth a solid half million points by itself, but it would make his rune-crafting so much easier if he kept it in a partition. It could do anything a Tier 25 enchanter could do with regard to planning rune layouts and utilizing their practical applications. Most guilds had a version of that already, but he expected the Empire’s own to be the best.

The repository was the only way to progress past the Tier 5 level that was commonly available. And from its description it wasn’t able to be shared with anyone.

One of the most expensive things for sale was [Side Slide], a Tier 14, short-ranged teleport. The skill was so rare, it was more myth than anything else, which explained its one million point cost. If he and Liz didn’t have their bonded rings, Matt would be tempted to get it, but the skill didn’t do anything that they couldn’t already. If they were willing to expose their trump card, that is.

The second most expensive item was the Tier 20 skill, [Cracked Breach]. The Cracked effect drastically reduced the minimum cost for the skill, making it possible for someone even of Tier 6 to utilize it. But the cracking made it impossible to further lower the cost. The original spell was a siege-level spell intended to attack enemy fortifications and batter down shielding.

Its original 500 mana base cost was reduced to 100, but it could then be charged up a hundredfold for added damage. With the Cracked version, which meant it could take up to 10,000 mana for a devastating long range attack.

Matt salivated at the thought of that skill. It seemed perfect for him. The cost of one and a half million war points was prohibitive, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

Finally, the most expensive item being sold was a void dragon bond egg for a whopping five million points.

The last listing was a shock, as Matt expected something like that to be used, and not up for sale. A bond egg was always received from a rift as a reward, after all. How would you get something so absurdly rare and choose to sell it?

Not to mention that the price was as absurd as the item itself.

“Liz, is selling an egg like this, okay? I feel like the beast kingdom wouldn’t like that.” Matt asked his question on a private channel and caught Liz’s shrug as she flew in front of him.

“Why would we care?”

“There’s a bond in there! What if an asshole gets it? What about the person who found it?”

“An asshole won’t get it. I’m sure there’s a high-level beast guarding the egg as well. They will vet the prospective owner, I’m sure. Also, if the person who sold it was actually willing to sell it, that means they weren’t the right person for the bond. If the person meant to bond with the little dragon is here, they will come across the points needed. There is also no rush to hatch the little lizard. Bonds from rifts can stay in their egg indefinitely without issue.”

Matt flew in a daze for a solid minute as he tried to process that ridiculous statement. “Fate? Are you leaving it up to fate? Something that has been proven a million times to not exist?”

“These things work out, Matt. Beasts have been doing this longer than the beast kingdom has been around. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. However, I have no idea why someone wouldn’t want a void dragon as a bond. Can you manage the potential of that little lizard?”

Matt still felt the practice was odd but couldn’t think of anything better. Someone had to bond the egg for it to hatch, but he still felt selling the unhatched dragon wasn’t the most moral thing to do.

He kept quiet as they moved through the forts. It was a small issue, but it bothered him, nonetheless. Liz’s blind acceptance of ‘what they always did’ also rubbed him the wrong way.

Liz, who flew next to him and rubbed his shoulder, said, “Matt, you’re thinking about this like a human. I know you care, which is sweet, but think about Aster. What would’ve happened to her if you didn’t advance?”

“She would’ve…” Matt trailed off as he thought of it, “She would have stayed a normal fox.”

“Or she would have left you when her instincts drove her to advance. Giving the egg to someone driven enough to earn such an absurd number of points will ensure that the dragon has a partner able to keep up with its frankly absurd powers. Void beasts are rare and aren’t like normally affinitied beasts. Void eats away at everything. When I say everything, I mean it. They need special healing while they’re under Tier 15 to keep themselves from burning out from the inside. As long as they advance quickly, they can keep ahead of it. But more than one void user has developed some questionable personality traits from struggling to find an outlet for the destructive forces inside of them. After Tier 15, it’s not such a problem, but void affinitied people and beasts pay for that power.”

“What about healing?”

“Healing works, for sure. And it’s a common enough tactic, but how long can a healer be dedicated to taking care of one person if they refuse to advance and fix their own problem? Maybe the person this little dragon gets paired with is an asshole or something, but at least they’ll be strong and able to keep up with their bond. If the person who gets them is on the Path, they’ll be given the strongest advantage you can manage.”