The Path of Ascension 4: A LitRPG Adventure

19

She tapped the train’s floor as she said, “We don’t lack for food and such, but we are a mana-starved society. All the Great Powers are.”

This time Tara opened her mouth, but Luna continued, “It doesn’t seem that way because you haven’t spent much time on higher Tier worlds. The capital is at a mana deficit even being fed mana of a thousand other worlds’ citizens. There are too many people with too many enchantments for the planet. It’s essence rich, but not mana rich. Think about crafters. They burn tens of thousands of mana to make a single item at the lowest Tiers. That applies to every craft. The higher the Tier, the more we need mana. We hoard our mana stones from rifts to spend when we need an item crafted, or a sudden rift to delve. That doesn’t even account for the mana we need to spend actually delving a rift which drains more mana stones.”

Luna pointed at them. “Think about immortals. It’s only Tier 15, and bam! You never die. Unless you do something stupid, or just get tired of living. Tier 15 isn’t that hard to reach, and it’s where the resource scarcity starts to hit. Every five Tiers, the amount of essence needed to Tier up again spikes, and that’s beyond the normal increased essence requirements between Tiers. Meanwhile, the rifts take longer to naturally recharge, even on a mana-rich world. Time isn’t the issue, but there are so many mortals having children that there are more and more immortals every year. Add the invention of bottled Concepts giving people longer to find their Concepts and it’s a growing problem. All of that is increasing the demand much faster than the supply. Consequently, it’s becoming harder and harder to advance. People are spending more and more time waiting around, saving their mana to buy items or rift slots. Sadly, wars are a common way to cull the immortal population and remove some of that burden from society. It’s also how Tier 15 through Tier 35s are incentivized to fight. More resources.”

When Matt opened his mouth to speak, Luna brought up a hand to silence him, but he ignored it and pressed on. “But that’s even worse! There are unlimited worlds out there. We can expand…”

Matt noticed that he was looming over his trainer, so he took a step back and started pacing behind the space where his friends sat.

Luna’s next words didn’t help his mood. “It’s human nature to want to expand and help the people near you. And we do expand all the time, Matt. It’s one way to relieve the pressure of more and more immortals. If you aren’t actively advancing or rich, Tier 15s and above are asked to move to outlying worlds that are under Tier 5. Their greater mana generation helps Tier up worlds safely, without crashing mortal economies. And if rift breaks do occur, they are hardly of any consequence. What else would you have the Empire do? Is it better to prevent people from becoming immortals? Only give bottled Concepts to a chosen few? That was done by all the political entities right after the Shattering, and before the political unification wars, when everyone was just licking their wounds. No one was finding new worlds, and the mortals were prevented from cultivation at all.”

Sam raised a finger. “I hadn’t heard of that. What happened? What was the Shattering?”

Luna nodded. “The Shattering was what happened when there was only one Great Power, and they didn’t have a sufficiently strong Tier 50. They were the only political entity around and had a firm grip on their people. Things were apparently pretty good despite the lack of some modern solutions such as bottled Concepts. They had enough planets, and their slow and steady expansion ensured that more room and high Tier worlds were found. But their Tier 50 was a weak coward, only put on the throne as a puppet. However, the factions in opposition to him were far too strong to be held at bay. This original Great Power had seven Tier 47 worlds. You understand what that means?”

Kyle learned forward. “Those are the capitals of the current Great Powers? Wait, but there are eight Great Powers now?”

Luna flicked her hand in a dismissive gesture. “I’ll explain that later. Now yes, most of the developed sections of space near these planets were heavily populated, and there was strength in that. But you need to understand how the wars started. Everyone thought that they could take over the throne, and with their planets being so strong, they created alliances and started declaring wars. Not our play wars, but legions of Tier 40s fighting. It ruined planets and destroyed spatial connections. Entire regions of space were broken off and drifted off into the reaches of chaotic space, never to be seen again. Even more planets were directly destroyed or rendered useless.”

She sighed in an almost disgusted way. “When the dust settled, everyone over Tier 20 was pretty much dead, and those who were left kept to their corners to rebuild their strength. Eventually, that led to the unification wars, and the various powers with similar political entities banded together. These entities are what make up the current Great Powers.”

Matt thought that was interesting but wanted to return to his original point. “But why war?” Seeing Luna narrow her eyes, he added, “I mean, why are the other Great Powers going to attack us? Shouldn’t the follies of the past show them that it can’t possibly be worth what they think?”

Luna’s apparent irritation vanished. “Now that’s a good question. What do you know about the other Great Powers? The current ones, I mean.”

Matt shrugged. “What I found on the EmpireNet. We’re the second-place Great Power behind The Unification of Clans, and just ahead of The Republic.” Seeing Luna nodding, he added, “After that, in order of power, it’s The Sects, The Conglomerate Guilds, The Monster Collective, The Corporations, and The Federation.”

He quickly checked his AI to make sure he didn’t miss anything. Seeing Luna narrow her eyes at his use of the AI, he hurried to ask, “I couldn’t find out much about them. What are they like? I know The Conglomerate Guilds are our ally, and that they use a, well, conglomeration of guilds to govern things. But that’s pretty much it.”

Seeing that Matt was done, Luna said, “That’s about all you’ll find on public information channels. No one wants anyone thinking the grass is greener because of some propaganda. The reasons why we will have a war on our hands are manyfold, but the short of it is that we are about to overtake The Unification of Clans and become the first ranked Great Power.”