The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

46

As she spoke, areas on the planet lit up in a variety of colors. A small minority were red, and Matt understood them to represent the Tier 10 rifts. At a Tier lower than what the planet would naturally birth, they were only kept from advancing with formations. That made them expensive and much less numerous than their naturally occurring Tier 11 counterparts.

Those were the most numerous. The orange highlighted rifts were plentiful, and held a noticeable majority, judging from the half of the planet they could see.

The planet’s infrastructure seemed to be built around each beacon of light and corresponded to the difficulty of the rifts. Yellow and green lit-up areas were lesser still but, apparently, had far more infrastructure dedicated to them.

Giant buildings were spaced out between clear areas that surrounded the Tier 12 and Tier 13 rifts.

There were a few bright green lights showing the location of the Tier 14 rifts. They seemed to be orbited by the lesser rifts colored yellow and orange.

Interestingly enough, the two blue lights he could see were lost in the planning of the other rifts; their locations appearing more random than the others.

It made sense when you considered that no normal Tier 10 could fight in a Tier 13 rift, let alone the Tier 14 rifts. While the Pathers were stronger than average, even a dozen teams couldn’t bridge a five Tier gap in power.

That made the Tier 15 rifts superfluous, and only a byproduct of having the maximum number of Tier 11 rifts available by making the planet Tier 15.

Even still, the Tier 13 rifts would be housing the greatest of single team challenges, with the Tier 14 rifts curated to be weaker than normal and designated for the group battles.

Or at least, that was the historical information that Matt had been able to learn beforehand had suggested.

There was always the chance they had changed things this year.

Tur’stal’s words slithered to his ears once more. “Here we have the stage for our upcoming Pathers. This entire world is dedicated to them for the next year. Here, we will challenge them and push their limits.”

In the sky, a similar apparition to the one that had been used to view the Tier 15 planet appeared.

This time, it was a giant, numbered listing of blank places.

“For everyone who isn’t a participant, we will be able to watch the teams fight in the rifts through the streams. We’ll have a front row seat as they compete in challenges of speed, clearing rifts as fast as possible.”

The view in the sky projection changed to show half a dozen different scenes in a massive grid.

“As the months progress, the challenges will change and be reset, giving opportunity for everyone to grow and learn from past experiences. They will also earn greater rewards as the competition grows.”

Tur’stal paused at that. “With all competition comes betting. People love gambling on their chosen champions and hoping to become rich. While a fun way to participate in the competition, I wish to remind everyone to gamble responsibly, and to use the officially sanctioned brokers. If you choose to use an unlicensed bookie, there is no guarantee for receiving your rewards. Please bet responsibly.”

As if trying to wave that warning away, Tur’stal gestured out, and streamers of light slithered around the Tier 10s standing at the foot of the stage.

“With that final warning, I send off our competitors. I wish all of you the best of luck and remember to stay safe.”

As the two strands of light stretched around the Pathers and finally met at the far end of the stadium, the light extended to the ground. Suddenly, Matt was looking up at East Flower from the surface of the Tier 15 planet.

The gravity felt the same, but he knew that it was a product of enchantments, rather than the mass of the planets being identical.

To his surprise, the royals were still in the same location despite the stage having disappeared.

A more serious Tur’stal called out, “Now that we are here, and away from the crowd, I would like to take the time to go over a few more formalities.”

Her words were accompanied by a gentle smile, but there was a tone that demanded everyone’s attention.

“The Tier 10 rifts are hardly a challenge for anyone here. Even the Tier 11 rifts are hardly a difficult hurdle for any of you. To that end, most Tier 10 rifts are free for anyone to delve for essence or rift rewards at any point. But there are correspondingly no competition rewards for said rifts. There are a few rifts of that Tier that are used for challenges and testing, but little else. Like all rifts that have associated challenges, we will be relying on your taking AI-backed oaths to not spread information about what you learn in those rifts. To assist in that endeavor, the information spread between our little garden planet and the East Flower will be limited in the extreme. So, if you expected to get help from there, you will be sorely disappointed.”

Tur’stal gestured to the crowd, and a massive information packet was downloaded to Matt’s AI.

“This contains all the rewards and current challenges for the first month of games. Even though the rewards are small now, they will increase as each month resets the standings.”

Matt resisted the urge to snort at the comment that the rewards were small.

The smallest reward he saw in his perusal of the list was of a speedrun of a Tier 10 rift, which gave a Tier 12 crafting material. Even if it was just sold on the open market, it was worth quite a bit.

“As was stated earlier, most rifts will be recorded with our drones for entertainment and verification purposes. Some rifts will be exempt from said recordings, and you will be notified if that is the case. Also, for our more interesting challenges, like the endless wave rift, we have direct access to view what happens inside each instance at any time. I remind you of this as all of you have hidden skills and abilities you might not want revealed until the final Big Three competitions.

“Those same videos will be open to the general public, but we will be censoring any information we find too sensitive. Still, remember that the others who actually care about your abilities aren’t stupid, and are perfectly capable of deductive reasoning. Also, note that any location marked with a White Rose means there is no recording allowed from us or you. All of your apartment rooms are included in that. Please, respect your fellow competitors’ privacy as they will respect yours.”