The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

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Five hours into the delve, they started ascending the mountain path. They trekked a mere twenty feet up the stairs when bats appeared and began bombarding them. Faced with a constant barrage, they decided to forgo walking and flew directly into the air to engage the bats.

That tactic only earned a more intense series of attacks, but by keeping their backs close to the cliff wall, they burned through every one of the bats that engaged them.

They culled the winged monsters for half an hour before the stream of aerial attackers finally let up.

With clear skies, they were free to fly directly to the fort, where they found another pack of werewolves. They had seemingly taken the fort over from the animated skeletons if the scattered remains were any indication.

With that, and the skeletons burning the werewolf corpses in the town, the rift’s storyline was obvious. It was a war between werewolves and skeletons, which he suspected symbolized sapient beasts and humans. The bats were seemingly neutral to both parties.

Regardless, it was irrelevant. All that mattered was their objective to kill everything.

After they cleared the fort of every monster, a task that took another grueling two hours, they discovered a narrow stone bridge with no rails spanning a half-mile chasm. To add insult to injury, the bats were back, infesting the chasm in even greater numbers than before. They almost seemed to be daring them to try their luck flying across the divide.

This should have been one of the most difficult portions of the rift, but Torch and Quill simply took to the air and cast their largest area of effect spells, blasting through all the flying enemies that tried to swarm them.

Eventually, as the bats died out, Torch tracked them back where they came from, a cave set deep into the chasm wall.

Inside, they found a bat breeding ground that they proceeded to incinerate from a distance.

Not trusting that alone, they tossed half a dozen [Create Fire] talismans about, and sealed the entrance with a few stone talismans, letting any remaining monsters suffocate with the entrance closed off and the breathable air burning away.

They lazed on the ledge as the rush of essence informed them of each monster’s death.

It made their dinner almost entertaining.

After the bursts of essence halted, they moved to the rift exit, where they were met by a goliath werewolf at the bottom-middle of Tier 13. It was a good bit stronger than the fresh Tier 13 monsters they had faced so far.

Together, the two of them gradually battered it down with fire attacks, followed by strategic removal of its limbs with overcharged wind talismans.

With little fanfare, the boss collapsed dead, and they collected their reward. Thirty-seven Tier 13 mana stones.

They were tired and worn out, but happy to see that they had actually cleared ninety-nine percent of the rift monsters in just nine and a half hours.

The gardener shot them a look of respect as they entered the teleporter back to the safe side of the planet.

They needed to rest before they were going to pick more fights with monsters above their Tier. If they lost a fight, they would lose the thirty-nine points they had gathered so far.

It was better to leave with the cost of their next entrance covered and come back for an extended stay later.

As the pair of them exited the teleporter to return to the safe half of the planet, they were quickly beset by a pair of news reporters.

Under the Quill mask and persona, Matt frowned.

Luna had prepared them for this situation, but a part of that training had been showing him exactly how easily a news channel could twist anything you said and ruin your life.

Neither he nor Liz wanted anything to do with the pair, but from the director and oversized drone following them, he knew that if they refused to play ball, they would be ambushed by reporters.

The greatest advantage for them was the fact that this was an Empire-run event, and the news anchors were invite-only by the grace of a Tier 47. At least they were assured that none of the reporters would treat them too harshly.

The man was fair-skinned and haired, though his five o’clock shadow was noticeably darker. But as the man was over Tier 15, which could have been a personal choice of aesthetic rather than genetics.

Considering the man looked like he spent every waking moment in the gym, with his rippling muscles obvious through his skintight shirt, he very well might. But once again, being over Tier 15, the man could have just morphed his body to achieve the look.

He was only slightly shorter than Matt, at around six feet in height.

His co-reporter was shorter than Liz, and as dark-skinned as she was busty. Considering the fact that she looked like her shirt was one deep breath away from popping open, he expected that she had done as much work to her appearance as her co-anchor had.

The reporters made for an attractive pair with their contrasting light and dark effect, though. Even Matt couldn’t deny that.

The woman briskly asked, “Quill! Torch! Would you two be willing to give us an interview?”

Knowing what he had to do, Matt slipped back into the Quill persona. “But, of course, we are.”

He paired that with an exaggerated wink from his mask.

The man who was directing the drone herded them off to the side, in a clear area where the active teleporter gave them a compelling backdrop to their conversation.

That was actually a good sign that they wouldn’t be trying to edit the video to rearrange their words, but Quill still had a small dot appear on his mask, and had it start moving counterclockwise.

Cutting the video’s timing around was fair game for the news station, but editing someone’s appearance was strictly against the law. This tactic was used in some form or another by anyone who felt the news channel would be less than fair in an interview.

Torch did the same as they were moved into the proper locations for the interview.

It ended up with the woman standing next to Quill, who was next to Torch, who was bracketed by the larger man.

A third person appeared from seemingly nowhere and took all of thirty seconds to pat some makeup on the two news reporter’s foreheads before vanishing just as fast as they arrived.

Quill noticed that the already low-cut dress shirt the woman was wearing had lowered its cut a fraction, while the once X-cut opening flattened at the base into a square cut.

The man’s dress shirt also experienced a similar change, though his was just to tighten the shirt until it clung to him like a second skin.

The man controlling the drone started counting down out loud while lowering his fingers at the same time.

“We are live in…five, four, three…”

For two and one, he only lowered his fingers before pointing at them.

The woman was the first to speak. “This is Page Woodrow with Diego Heart coming at you live from the Tier 10 Pather Breakout Tournament, with the first interview from the hottest duo, Quill and Torch.”

She then shined a megawatt smile at Quill. “Were you aware that the video of you killing the Tier 14 region boss has already hit the top of the charts for most-watched clips?”

A short video played at high speed of Torch standing in a rain of fireballs, then guiding the giant fireball into the snake’s coiled-up body.