The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

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Emmanuel sipped at his beer while giving him such a tired look, Matt almost felt bad.

“Do you know how much trouble you dropped on my lap with that?” Emmanuel pointed at Matt with his bottle as he added, “Never mind, you have no idea. While I’ve kept it quiet, there are a few people in various guilds and corporations who would love to shake you until you drop all your secrets. Ugh. Anyway, long story short is I showed a few of the samples of the Aura you made to people I trust, and they are salivating to get your mana sample. As we suspected, your mana is acting like glue for the Aura to form when it normally wouldn’t. The Aura your mana makes is noticeably different in how it’s composed despite working the exact way normal Aura works. They have a million ideas they want to test it with, and when you eventually start your own guild, they’re going to be kicking your door down to partner up with you.”

Matt smiled at that. They had suspected his mana acted in that way, but it was nice to get confirmation. It was nicer still that Emmanuel knew of his fledgling plan to start a guild and tacitly approved of it.

“What about the other rifts?”

Emmanuel looked off to the side for an instant before he said, “The [Endurance] rift was nice, and is well under control. We have a standard operating procedure in place for it, and we let everything play out without interference. Thankfully, the guild that found it reported it up as they should have. So, they got rewarded, and now everyone is delving the rift as fast as the instance can cycle. The [Bandage] rift was more interesting. We kept our eyes on it but didn’t move it at all. At first, the skill was well received by the local guilds and nobles, but they didn’t think the skill was all that good until a few teams actually started using it. Eventually, the practical uses were noticed by the local hospital. Now, the skills are being sold for a Tier 20 skill to any healer who can get in line.

“Harvest Moon pointed one of his subordinates to go check out the new skill and test it, now those healers with it are using the skill to stop people from dying when they need healing beyond their healing limits. With enough mana to throw at the skill and constant reapplication, they can keep people alive who would have otherwise died. We are already acquiring all we can for our combat healers in the army. It’s a useful skill despite its Tier 8 rank. It’s a wonder how it never appeared before, though healing mana isn’t the most common.”

He tipped his bottle to Matt and said, “Thank you for that. When we go public with your contributions, you will be rewarded for what you have done. Or when you fall off The Path. It makes me eager for when you can fuel a team of people like Erwin to push past Tier 8 rifts.”

The Tier 50 smiled. “Can you imagine the other skills and items we haven’t been able to find? Though, if I’m being honest, what I’m really looking forward to seeing is what items, skills, and rewards a true Tier 50 rift drops.”

Emmanuel had a look in his eye Matt resonated with. One of adventure and exploration of the unknown.

A wicked grin spread across Matt’s face as he asked, “Is there any chance you would be willing to throw a couple thousand upgrade orbs at us when we do? I’d love to make a rift that constantly drops them so I can really see what happens to skills when they’re upgraded. The whole different upgrade thing for the same skill has been bothering me, and I want to test it more before I push [Cracked Phantom Armor] up again. Maybe there’s a way to control it? But if I want to do any serious testing, I need to have a steady source of them and making a rift that drops them should be possible even if it’s like skill rifts and counter intuitive and hard. Eventually we could figure it out.”

Emmanuel laughed hard enough that he snorted slightly. “Now that’s ambitious, and the Empire supports anyone trying to learn if possible. To be honest, the items at that Tier aren’t that hard to find, it’s the mana to run the experiments that’s the issue. I have a thousand interest groups who are all sucking my mana budget dry. If you’re providing the mana yourself, who’s to say what you can spend it on? No one, that’s who. That’s why I love the idea of you making a guild around aperology.”

As his laughter died down, he winked at Matt as he added, “Though, after Tier 30, you’ll have to start dealing with the guilds and get them to break open their treasuries. It’ll be the only way to get enough seed items to test at that high of a Tier. Good luck with that,” he snorted out. “You’ll need it. Stingy bastards.”

Their conversation was interrupted as Liz pulled Emmanuel into a card game as Leah had given up after losing three times in a row and they needed a fourth. She was taking everyone for their shirts as they lost round after round of every game they played.

Matt was moved to help Leah and Keith stack bottles around the passed-out Aster when Emmanuel started to make his goodbyes. He was heading off to deal with official details for the start of the Tier 10 tournament.

They also found out that he wouldn’t be attending the actual tournament.

“Dicomaty, the leader of the Republic, is going to ascend, and that celebration takes a few years normally. Then, Hastor is going to ascend directly after him. So, I’ll be gone for the next decade or so.”

Liz pursed her lips and sighed. “I was hoping you would be able to see our victory.”

Despite sometimes acting like a kid around her older siblings for humor, she seemed actually disappointed at the revelation.

Emmanuel ruffled her hair, to Liz’s annoyance, and dodged the [Fireball] she launched at him. “All the Tier 50s are expected to be there to watch the Ascension, to ensure no shenanigans happen, and watch their heir reach Tier 50. We can all feel when a Tier 48 becomes a Tier 49, and becoming a Tier 50 is an even bigger shock. There have been people who tried to time their own breakthroughs in conjunction with the raising of a new Tier 50, or do so within a rift, to hide their advancement. But with all the current Tier 50s located together, they can’t hide so easily. And, honestly, we like to make sure that one of the rulers doesn’t try to do anything like remain behind and start playing shadow games.”

He shook his head. “You’ll understand when you advance in Tier. For now, don’t worry about that. Just do your best in the fights and have some fun. I know I enjoyed all the twists and turns in my Tier 10 tourney. And I’ll be sure to see you before I leave.”

And just like that, Matt’s second meeting with the Emperor ended as suddenly as it started.

With his official arrival on the planet, the starting ceremonies for the Tier 10 Pather Tournament began.