The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

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Apparently, the pigeon was actually alive, and the poor bird erupted into a shower of viscera, revealing a prismatic marble that had previously been hidden within it. As they continued to watch, the marble cracked and then split apart in slow motion.

A base not unlike their own became recognizable as it expanded to its normal size, now that the formations and runes containing it were broken.

Before the space ballooned to larger than the size of Allie’s hand, everything vanished. Even the pigeon’s splattered remains had been wiped away.

“That’s it? They didn’t even bother to appear themselves? f**k me sideways. No, f**k them sideways!” Allie kicked away from the screens and spun her chair in a huff.

Zack frowned. He concurred with his teammate. It had always been a longshot, but this outcome was more than a little disappointing.

That was the life of undercover and spy work, though. That same life also meant no protection from a Tier 50 snatching you if they stumbled upon your base.

The normal rules of war did not cover spies for a reason.

And one could argue that the international treaties on not attacking down were never even broken.

He was sure the other operatives were still alive. At least, for now.

What tomorrow brought them was best left unthought of. The fate of unsuccessful spies was never clean.

“Well, let’s get to work and dissect the information we can glean from the few frames of their safe room that we have from before it was pulled away. We might be able to identify which other Great Power they hailed from.”

Allie grumbled but set to the task with him.

Matt and Liz took off with his best Concept flying speed.

Sadly, they were in the middle of the group of other Pathers, which put them in one of the worst positions possible.

Still, not many others could fly without a flying device.

That didn’t stop everyone else from getting on their flying devices, but the time it took them to remove them from their spatial bags slowed them down a little.

That delay let the two of them catch up to the leading edge of the Pathers, who were rushing out in a wave of flesh and steel.

Liz called through their AI, “Forward to the left and up is a Tier 12 rift with a challenge to kill three hidden bosses. Five points a pop if we take off their heads.”

That was more than good enough to get Matt to head in that direction. Even still, others were faster.

One by one, others passed them and headed to various rifts.

Not wanting to give away exactly how fast he could fly with his Concept, but unwilling to be more than second in line, Matt increased their speed by a small degree.

The rate at which people passed them slowed to an acceptable level, and they quickly flew the few miles to their target.

They were the second team to arrive, which put them first in line to wait out the fifteen-minute reset time.

At the entrance to the tear in reality was an attractive man in the same guard’s uniform that they had seen earlier.

As they approached, the man adopted an easygoing air and simply asked, “Would you like the information I can provide about the rifts in this area, and this one in particular?”

Matt nodded, but Liz actually spoke up, “If you could tell us what you can while we have the fifteen minutes to burn, we’d be grateful.”

The man nodded back politely and started what seemed to be a well-rehearsed spiel. “Let us start with what applies to every rift. You may queue up for any rift and enter as soon as the fifteen-minute cycle time is up. To keep everyone moving through as quickly as possible, participants are allowed to reserve rift time, but we’re requiring that anyone with an appointment is in line at least twenty minutes before their scheduled time. Additionally, rifts may not be scheduled for more than a day in advance.”

As another two teams landed behind them, the guard nodded to them and said, “If you wish to delve this rift, please form an orderly line. First come first serve rules apply. Any timing disputes will be handled by us gardeners.”

That the local guards were called gardeners seemed amusing until Matt realized the darker implications about what a gardener did. Sometimes you needed to cut a branch to let the tree grow healthy. Not that he expected them to be attacking people left and right, but Matt took note of the implication all the same.

With their new audience listening, the gardener continued, “If you wish to schedule a rift, you simply must go to the rift and register. A separate line for the scheduling can be formed if needed.”

Matt felt that would be a line they frequented more often than not.

The gardener smiled as he gave the line a saucy wink, “This half of the garden is kept civilized. The other half, not so much.”

Matt c****d his head as he narrowed his eyes at that hint.

A quick search of the information he had made no hint or reference to a different rule set or any kind of ‘other half’ of the planet that the gardener had mentioned. No one had shared anything on the PlanetNet yet about such a thing, and that it hadn’t happened instantly showed just how important these initial waves of rift rushes would be.

Liz caught his eyes, and they made a note to find out what he meant when they exited the rift.

The gardener moved on quickly as if he hadn’t said anything of import. “Now about this rift here. It always has three hidden bosses, and each has unique features that are always the same. The ranking is based on how many of the bosses you kill and how fast you do it. At the end of the month, the person in first place will earn an extra twenty points, second place will earn twelve, and third place gets an extra five points. If you are in fourth or fifth, you will earn three extra points, and sixth through tenth will net you one extra point. Anything below that will not earn any additional points. Please note that clearing the rift doesn’t give any points—only by killing the extra bosses will you earn anything. As a final note, each team is only able to run this rift twice a month, and if you are the victor in first place, you are unable to challenge the rift again for at least two months.”

He pointed to a small stack of drones next to him, and one rose at his gesture before floating behind Matt and Liz.