The Path of Ascension 4: A LitRPG Adventure

8

He weighed trying to sneak a use of [Endurance], but Luna would surely be able to tell. Another part of him didn’t want to have an advantage over his friends. But the largest remaining part of him was enjoying the training.

This almost felt like when he was back in Benny’s Inn, working all day while training during any free time he could find.

He enjoyed the challenge despite the pain.

Luna followed them to the start of the obstacle course and met their gazes with a smirk.

When Vinnie silently proffered his arm with his cultivation reducing band, Luna raised an eyebrow in question, daring them to ask.

Liz spoke up as Matt was about to. “Are you going to take them off?”

Luna’s smirk grew into a full-blown grin. “Oh no. I’ll only remove them when you’ve negated the band’s effect. These are staying on until then. For now, start going through the course.”

The short woman floated in the air with a cackle.

“Oh, yes! I almost forgot. Wrangle here will have some ranged summons attacking you as you try to advance. Good luck. This challenge won’t stop until you complete the course twice. Though if I think you’re taking too long, I’ll add some extra incentive to get you really moving.” Luna pulled out the watch and checked the time before slipping it away.

Aster yowled and yipped, and Matt understood. She had struggled with the obstacles when she could use her ice, but now, even that was taken from her.

Mathew pointed to their right. “There seems to be a second path for you, Aster.”

They all crossed the rope, and wobble bridge for Aster, without incident. But as they reached the over-under pillars, they heard a chittering, and found an insect on a post. Once discovered, it shot out a glop of slightly acidic gunk.

To test it, Matt carefully poked the gunk on the ground. It felt like getting hot sauce on his skin. It hurt, but it wasn’t dangerous. Still, that didn’t mean he wanted to get shot with it, particularly when it was already this hot out.

Matt lunged forward. His lack of cultivation made him almost miss his jump, but he managed to save it with a desperate extension to grab the log. He pulled himself up, and immediately needed to jump again to avoid a shot from the insect on the side.

The following bar was situated nearly at his head height. Despite having easily cleared it last time, the distance was now a daunting proposition. Bracing himself, he jumped and wrapped his arms around the log. He was hauling himself up when a caustic glob hit him from another side that he hadn’t seen an insect on.

In surprise, Matt lost his grip and fell into the pit of sludge below.

The substance was like black oil, heavy and sticky. He vomited from the stench as it pervaded his senses. The taste was awful and caused a second retching fit. Luna called out, “Climb out and start over.”

Matt worked his way through the waist-high liquid with slow steps. The only upside was that the stuff seemed to neutralize the goop from the insect’s attacks so his skin no longer burned.

After wiping off as much of the sludge as he could in the sand, Matt rejoined the others. They fared no better.

Aster got the worst of it, as she usually licked herself clean. Even her hatred of her fur being dirty wasn’t enough to overcome the awful smell and taste.

Tara was the luckiest one and made it through the logs without getting hit. But she wasn’t so fortunate on the rope climb and was knocked into the sludge to experience it herself.

They found out that they wouldn’t be attacked on obstacles they’d already completed. So, if they made it to the third obstacle, they wouldn’t be shot at for the first two on the next attempt. But when Vinnie fell at the second one, he was attacked when crossing that one once again. So long as you made it to the same place each time, you didn’t have to deal with the insects. The downside was, with their tired muscles and sludge-covered hands, they hardly were able to make it past the second obstacle more than three times out of five.

The rope climb was impossible with the black sludge covering it, and Luna refused to acknowledge that. No matter their grip strength, they were unable to hold on as they had in their earlier attempts, when they had access to their cultivation.

Eventually, Vinnie had an idea. He ferried over handfuls of sand, which gave them enough of a grip to complete the challenge.

Only three obstacle sets in, they were each incredibly smelly, and not a single one of them had a muscle that wasn’t in pain.

Luna watched as her team struggled.

Harvest Moon’s team was doing just as well, but she didn’t miss the lack of vital drive in them. She might just be able to bring it out of them, as they had a good potential from everything she had seen so far. Even without Melinda’s Talent, she could see them reaching Tier 17 before they fell off The Path. With the girl’s Talent, they had the potential to make it to Tier 20 before quietly being asked to step off, but only if they actually tried.

The only question now was whether they could find that part of themselves that was willing to push forward. And she needed to break them down for better training in the future.

Still, it was different for everyone.

Some, like Matt, liked the challenge. She could see it in everything he did. He cracked poorly hidden smiles more as she pushed him harder. He would continue to delve into stronger Rifts because he enjoyed getting stronger and advancing.

Others were like Liz and drove themselves to prove something. Whether it was to themselves or others didn’t matter, it could be a powerful driving force. That drive was subject to more outside influences than she liked, but Luna could already see Liz transferring that will onto Matt, which would ensure that they motivated each other.

Aster was more an extension of Matt, and also loved to improve, even if the little arctic fox cared more about her looks and ice cream than the actual delving. Luna didn’t think that she would need to do much more than reprimand Aster when she started to flag. Her bond with Matt should be enough to drive her forward, if only to keep up with him.

That was an instinctive aspect of the bonds. Few that weren’t beast bonds understood, but Luna knew it all too well.

That had been her own driving force, but it always came down to what drove you.

Some were pushed from behind, and some ran toward something. But you always needed a goal and the will to push through the monotony.