The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

1 Tur’stal nodded as she listened to the reports from her various ministers, nobles, and important figures from her Flowers. Even though the Tier 10 Pather tournament was going to happen on a specially prepared planet, all her planets would see an influx of visitors, and her people needed to get ready to bear the brunt of such an influx. Everyone had issues, some real, some imagined, all apparently very important for her to deal with. Still, that was part of her duties as a queen, and she needed to at least hear out her petitioners in open court or there would be no reason for the venue. It was still annoying. As a weaselly looking man came up to her and explained how he needed his entire town’s sewage system replaced for the influx of visitors, Tur’stal checked her own records and agreed with him. His town only housed a few million of her lowest Tier citizens, but that would make it a prime target for people trying to find cheap accommodation for the event. Approving him for access to the funds she had set aside for this, she gestured for the next petitioner to come forward. This woman was clearly just trying to line her own pocket with funds by offering her cousin’s construction crew for assistance with the upcoming work. She was politely declined and sent away just to be replaced by a dozen other petitioners who either exaggerated their problems to try and skip the normal improvement queues or were trying to line their own pockets before the tournament even happened. Two days later, she saw the last of the petitioners and, after changing into something more comfortable, listened to her own staff’s reports about the status of her planets. Most of the issues had already been addressed with the open court, but her people had noticed a hotel company lapsing on their maintenance. Clearly, they were trying to save money for the tournament when housing would be at a premium. Making a note that they needed a surprise inspection, she finally turned her attention to the last-minute preparation for the tournament itself. The reserves were full of mana to fuel rapid delving of the rifts, the safety procedures were working and had been thoroughly tested by her own security teams, the guards she allocated to the event had passed all the checks and tests, and the more standard rewards were already gathered and ready to be given out even with the changes they were making this year. Everything looked perfect. And it needed to be, considering that the Emperor was coming to this event in person and called for all the other royals to arrive as well. Not that she would have slacked if he was only coming as a clone. Rather, she simply wanted her planet to give the best first impression to all the young Pathers who would one day step off and might decide to settle down on her Flowers after seeing how nice they were. Tur’stal looked out at her capital and smiled. This would hopefully be a tournament to remember. 2 As Matt left Lilly, he wanted to look at his parents’ information packet, but despite having fond memories of Lilly now, he couldn’t bring himself to open it. Something inside of him felt that it wasn’t the proper time, and he followed his instincts. He eventually told Liz, “I don’t know why I can’t open it. It feels like I should be able to…but I just can’t hit the button.” “Are you afraid of what you’ll see?” Her question got to the heart of the matter, but Matt shook his head. “Not quite that.” He stared aimlessly ahead, collecting his thoughts until he finally said, “It’s more like if I look at it, everything is real. Despite me knowing they’re long dead and gone, it feels like the weight of it will just…crush something.” Liz nodded, understanding and graceful enough to let the subject drop for the time being. After leaving Lilly, the three of them had started crossing the Empire as fast as they could manage with the normal teleportation schedule. Their destination was the capital of one of the true kingdoms; it was governed directly by a royal in the more distant regions of the Empire. Tur’stal was hosting the Tier 10 tournament this time, and her kingdom was two full kingdoms away from Lilly’s position in the Empire. With little less than a year to reach the capital, they had to rush to move through the dozens of intervening planets if they wanted to arrive early. Most of their travel time was spent sitting around teleportation platforms, which meant Luna was able to hammer in some last-minute magical training. To help counter his mana control problem, Matt broke through to Tier 10 immediately after leaving Lilly. As they expected, the doubling of his mana pool directly reduced his mana control to worrying levels. With 1,280 mana at his disposal, Matt was a force to be reckoned with, but regaining his abilities with his mana required constant training with Luna and Kurt. The exercises started with simple things, like moving a small ball in a controlled pattern, then they slowly evolved into battles of control against Luna. Once his control returned to the minimum acceptable level, they started working on his elemental manipulation skill control. For all her issues, Luna was an excellent teacher and was always able to identify when Matt was consciously or unconsciously using crutches for his abilities. But she always had suggestions on how to improve his skills. Aster joined Matt at Tier 10 with her own breakthrough, but Liz resisted the urge to Tier up as her deal with her parents was only effective until she reached Tier 10. She knew they would flock to her side immediately if she broke through. “It’s better if I wait until we arrive on East Flower to break through. We only have a few more weeks of freedom left.” Liz said it was like there was an executioner’s ax hovering over her head. It was a feeling that Matt understood but for the opposite reasons. While Liz was apprehensive of her parents wild and flamboyant behaviors, he was growing more and more worried about having parents again. In-laws or not, they would still be his parents as well. What if they don’t like me? I know what Keith and Travis said about them, but I don’t know them well enough to predict. Should I bring them a gift? What can I even give a Tier 48 couple? They have literally everything they could ever want, need, or toss away a million times. How could I give them something of any worth or value.