The Path of Ascension 4: A LitRPG Adventure

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Oddly enough, women were completely unaffected. The story that the trees got their names from told of widows safely grieving under the trees, and their tears creating a pool where even the most grievous wounds could be healed.

More than a few unwarranted, and probably avoidable deaths proved that the legend wasn’t true, but the name stuck.

The trees actually pulled water from deep underground and secreted it from its branches, only for it to return to the soil and rejuvenate the area that the trees grew in.

The tears were rare and mostly useless, which is why Matt had such trouble finding what his sword wanted. Not to mention that growth objects made of metal typically wanted harder materials, which ended up leading him astray. While it was interesting to see that even metal could take water into itself to grow, Matt found himself wondering if there was more to the byproduct than met the eye.

Was there something else that it could be used with? He noted his thoughts down in case they ran into any other obstinate growth items.

Still, once it was Tiered up, Matt was disappointed. With the sword needing such an odd item for the upgrade, he expected some type of improvement in his weapon’s functions. But the Tier-up only increased the sword’s weight and slightly increased its capacity for enchantments.

As he was still unable to self-cast [Mana s***h] and [Mana Charge], with his maximum mana of 80, he was forced to reinscribe them onto the weapon until he could afford the 100 mana initial cost. It wasn’t a huge problem, as he only put the Tier 7 variants on the Tier 9 blade, which left plenty of room for passive enchantments. It didn’t strain his spirit as when he used a Tier 5 enchantment at Tier 4, so the same logic should apply.

He was much stronger then when he was back on the training world, after all.

For the rune setup, Matt didn’t just stick to his standard repair, durability, and sharpness runes. He doubled up on all of them. It wasn’t some revolutionary new tactic; the effects of the dual sets of runes weren’t just additive, but multiplicative. The problem that usually stopped normal warriors from doing the same was mana cost.

Kurt’s blade mage training had given him the idea. It was apparently common with fighters who used wooden weapons for their higher enchantment capacity and mana throughput.

It took Matt four attempts to enchant the blade, during which he had to dump mana and metals into his blade to repair the damage his missteps caused.

With the new enchantments, Matt was confident that he could cut through the defenses of the heavily armored orcs in the Tier 9 rifts. Not to mention the more defensive monsters that they encountered in the variety of random Tier 8 rifts they delved.

Everyone else upgraded their growth items as well and were all equipped with new weapons and armor.

Aster even took the initiative to get armor that came with a blade for her tail. It wasn’t as effective as she might’ve liked, but she now had a less magical option for dealing damage. Matt couldn’t really argue against it.

His gentle suggestion she get a claw or tooth attachment was shrugged off.

He used a sword, so why couldn’t she?

Matt had no counterpoint, so he just gave up.

Liz, on the other hand, leaned into a much heavier armor set that was built to fuse with her upgraded Blood Iron and [Blood Crystal Armor]. It actually had room for Liz to cycle a layer of blood inside the heavy metal plates. It allowed her to control the armor with [Blood Manipulation], as the armor was built more for defense than movement. When she flooded the armor with Blood Iron, she was able to reinforce it to an insane degree. It was only compounded when she used [Blood Crystal Armor]; she was nearly unkillable when she used both of them in conjunction. The only downside was that the Blood Iron, once used for either purpose, was gone forever.

With Matt to keep her mana full, she didn’t need to worry about the high mana cost for using the skills she needed to move gracefully.

When Liz used [Blood Manipulation] to supplement her movements, she was actually more agile than she was when using her old armor. She even managed to lift herself up and levitate for a short period of time, which let her use the weight of her armor in a devastating downward attack.

Her spear was also built with the newly Tiered up Blood Iron in mind. It could attract part of the Blood Iron and use that to extend the spear or change the shape of the blade. The iron used was consumed by the spear, just as with the armor. However, Liz’s natural treasure would continue to be replenished by the naturally occurring iron in her blood. Since Liz’s growth glove let her store a swimming pool worth of blood, she would always have enough iron to sustain her new equipment.

While they were waiting for their armor and weapons to be crafted, everyone took time to relax and decompress for a change. They were able to breathe for a bit without Luna and Kurt hounding them with lessons constantly.

Matt and Liz even took the time to go on a proper date to one of the newly constructed amusement parks. Everyone else came as well, but they split into smaller groups. Aster joined Sam and Tara, who wanted to ride in all the biggest roller coasters.

They spent the entire day just goofing off and playing various games of chance. They even took their getting banned from the Tier 6 and 7 games as a badge of pride. Their training was so effective, they could easily beat games of skill meant to swindle people out of their money.

As the day settled into evening, they all stood at the edge of the waterfall as the blue-tinged sunset painted a cascade of colors, creating a dazzling rainbow for them to enjoy.

To splurge a bit and repay Matt for treating them to such a nice feast back in the war, Melinda’s team took them to the best restaurant in the city.

Reading the tasting menu that listed out the meals they would be served immediately caused Aster’s tail to start swooshing back and forth, and Matt had to repress a chuckle as he saw why.

There was savory ice cream on the menu for the entree.

Seeing Kyle open his mouth while looking worriedly at Aster, Matt kicked him under the table.

Matt wanted to see Aster’s natural reaction to ice cream that wasn’t a snack.

When the dish came out, Aster’s eyes locked onto the orb of white, and she stretched to get a better look as the waiter brought out the tray.

When the dish was set before her, Aster started to quiver in anticipation as the waiter introduced the plate and the origins and preparation of each ingredient.

Matt was honestly impressed that Aster had remembered the lessons in table etiquette well enough to wait for the waiter to finish.

As soon as the waiter stopped speaking, Aster attacked the ice cream and swallowed it up in a single bite.

Everyone waited as Aster’s energetic movements slowed, then ground to a halt as the flavors she was expecting weren’t what she tasted.

Slowly, Aster started to lap at the air. Through his bond, all Matt felt was a sense of deep confusion.

As Aster came back to life, her disappointment grew until she let out a mournful yowl while her tail and ears drooped.