The Path of Ascension 4: A LitRPG Adventure

23

He had learned so much about mana types, mana aspects, and subaspects with Kelley. All of which should apply to rift creation.

When Erwin didn’t come out of the rift after fifteen minutes had passed, and the instance would have cycled, Luna waved her hand, dissipating the rift.

Erwin was kneeling like he had been inspecting a plant, and looked quite confused when he suddenly wasn’t where he thought he should be.

Luna said, “You don’t have to inspect everything before you even see him make other rifts.”

“This is important! You never know what sorts of trivial things might end up being the key to some massive new discovery. You can’t just rush this. It’s not some scuffle where every second counts, this is science! Have a bit of patience!”

Luna crossed her arms and set her stance. “I sent you the information that we have on rift building. This shouldn’t be anything new for you.”

Erwin shook his head, tapping out points on his fingers. “First, you sent me the information that you gathered on rift-building, not the sort of information that I can gather. Second, it’s not like we get that many chances to actually study fully charged rifts, let alone artificial ones. Sure, we have detailed information about the first eight Tiers, but that’s pretty much entirely done by guilds. They’re just worried about how dangerous their training rifts are and their rewards. Nothing about the Essence content or…”

Erwin didn’t stop until Matt asked, “Should I make another rift? I learned that mana types matter, and so do items.”

Erwin turned and nodded to Matt, who pulled out a short sword, set it at the center of the formation, and used one of the more neutral metal mana types he had gotten to charge the rune circle. With the lacking efficiency of the ring he stored his mana types in, and similar problems with his shoddy work on the concrete slabs, it took a lot longer to create the rifts.

When the kobolds came out wielding short swords, Erwin asked him to stop and entered the rift. It was only a Tier 1, and he was quickly out of the rift. He returned holding a mirror of the short sword that Matt had used to influence the rift.

“One moment, I want to compare them first.” Erwin then glanced between the swords before pronouncing, “Okay, so not quite a perfect replica. Same appearance, but the internal structures are really different. Interesting.”

After tapping at the air, he said, “Go ahead and Tier it up.”

Matt made it to Tier 4 before the sword was sucked up into the rift and vanished.

He looked to Erwin for guidance as he said, “This usually means I’m screwed on this attempt.” He brought out a pair to the sword he had used earlier and added, “I’ve found that if I use a sword nearly identical to the original, it helps keep the rift from unaspecting. But they need to be rift reward levels of similar.”

Matt’s attempt was unsuccessful, and despite the sword remaining in the center of the circle, horses with silvery hooves exited the freshly Tiered up rift.

He was going to start draining the rift to reset his attempt, but Erwin, contrary to his expectation, wanted to explore the rift. He was gone for close to half an hour but came out with a smile.

“It lost the sword, but there was clearly still some influence from it, and the metal mana you used. Fascinating.”

Erwin rubbed his hands together, narrowing his eyes in thought. “Let’s restrict this rift so it can’t Tier up and then move the formation and experiment with a clean slate. It’s time to start some proper testing.”

5

The first thing Erwin did was have Matt make a series of rifts, starting from Tier 1 to Tier 6. The first set he wanted were just random rifts using only Matt’s mana. The second set he wanted to create were all made with a singular elemental mana type. In this case, he was using earth mana.

Erwin had his own set of formation plates ready, which kept the ambient mana out of the rift, preventing them from Tiering up. The idea wasn’t unknown to Matt, but the way the formation plates did that intrigued him. They didn’t just keep the mana out, but they used the incoming mana to power themselves, which was an interesting application of the rift’s suction ability.

After that, Matt was pulled off by Luna, much to Erwin’s irritation. But he didn’t press after having a few rifts to experiment on.

Luna pointed to a section of land around the house that they stayed in previously.

“I want you to make a few random Tier 1 rifts.”

She tossed him a few bags. “Use what you find in there to make the rifts and use the mana types you think would be best. Use the second bag for Tier 2 rifts.”

Untying the first bag, Matt found a variety of weapons and other odds and ends. He had no idea what a rift built around a spinning top would be, but it was an easy enough order.

After setting the rifts up, Luna called everyone and tossed the dreaded cultivation restriction bands at them.

“Wear these.”

She gestured to the side, and Kurt appeared with a wave and a signboard that said, “Hi!”

Luna continued, “Kurt will be your trainer for the next year or so. He’s a blade mage himself, so don’t doubt that you can learn a thing or two from him.”

With that, Luna was gone, and Kurt pointed at each of the rifts before a pen floated and wrote on his board, “We will be going through the first rift together. Please watch out for your surroundings.”

He stepped forward, then stopped, and his pen moved again. “Also, please shunt the essence you receive. It’s less than ideal for lower Tier essence to be added to your cores.”

Everyone nodded, and with the bands affixed to their wrists, entered the rift. Matt found himself on a forest path. Immediately, he noticed that two or three feet past the edge of the trail, the forest turned blurry and indistinct. It was clearly the edge of the rift, which was normally more hidden.

This rift didn’t have goblins or kobolds like Matt expected, but instead shadow monsters that looked like someone draped a sheet over a void.

He moved forward when Kurt gestured for him to advance, and the monster extended a finger toward him as soon as he took the first step. It shot out a [Fireball] at him once he closed the range. Matt had used a wand and neutral mana to create this rift, and he didn’t expect the normal monster to be able to use a spell.