The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

55

The boy was another question entirely. A tragic personal history with a detrimental Talent that was rated as corrected at Tier 3. It made for the possibility of explosive growth and meant that he was the largest unknown. Still, she had some guesses. From everything she had seen, he was the driving force behind the team, which surprised her.

Liz didn’t have a small personality, so most people would be overwhelmed by her, and ultimately submit to her lead. Instead, the pair seemed to be actual equals.

Emmanuel had hinted that he would have a talk with the pair, and if they agreed, he would read them all in on whatever he was planning. But so far, there was nothing set in stone. It was actually standard practice for Pathers slated to complete The Path, but the meeting could theoretically happen at any time despite a precedent having been long set for it to happen here, at the Tier 10 tournament.

With Emmanuel leaving in a few days, that could change.

But she was patient.

Moving first in politics usually had greater risks when you weren’t assured of the results. It was better to take a roundabout approach to the topic.

Turning to look at the Emperor, she asked, “And you believe that they have what it takes to complete The Path?”

The Tier 50 just nodded while he chewed on some of the finger food she had prepared for everyone.

Frederic took the opportunity to lean in and asked, “What are their real styles and needs?” He quickly waved his hand as he hurriedly added, “Not the gimped versions they show in each persona. If I knew that about them, I’d be happy to check my vault and see what I have to offer. No strings attached, of course.”

Tur’stal pursed her lips at the new royal. His little recruitment stunt had pissed her off enough that she was debating taking the man out for a little duel.

She had not appreciated her Tier 10 Pather tournament being used as a recruitment tool. And from the way the Emperor was treating the Tier 46, he wasn’t particularly happy either. But he hadn’t said anything in front of the other royals.

Still, Emmanuel was the type to praise in public and punish in private, so she was sure that the man had already been dealt with.

That didn’t mean she was satisfied.

His giving the kids a few of his extra-special skills actually wasn’t a bad idea. He hated the loss of his precious treasures, and she decided to pressure him, just to see how much she could make him squirm.

“The top twenty-five teams of the Big Three and the Points ranking get the best matching skill from your vault, and I will forget your little stunt.” Her words cracked the man’s easygoing mask for the first time since she met him.

The shameless man finally had his calm persona shatter and seeing that was almost worth the earlier anger. As she watched the frown that replaced the smile, Frederic calculated the potential net loss if he agreed, and the possible ramifications of denying her in front of the Emperor. After all, he had just been so eager to be generous.

Still, she looked over at Emmanuel, who didn’t bother to keep the grin off his face at her words.

While they disagreed on general political policy, she actually liked the man personally, and returned the smile.

Frederic tried to weasel out of the deal. “You see, with the vast state of my vault being as it is, taking the time to find the right fits for twenty-five teams would be easily done, but…”

Before he could finish the excuse, Tur’stal grimaced and lowered her tone. “Ah, so then it really should be the top fifty, right? That would make the vastness a little more manageable, no?”

Frederic cleared his throat and rebuilt his smile. “No, no, Tur’stal, that’s quite all right. I think your earlier offer was much better. We wouldn’t want to dilute the grandeur of winning such a well-run tournament. Besides, placing so highly shouldn’t be rewarded with tertiary, and seemingly token gifts, should it? Excuse me, I shall see to it that my people are prepared for this.”

He had agreed to that too quickly. Suspiciously quickly.

Looking to the Emperor as Frederic got up in a hurry, she raised an eyebrow in silent question.

Emmanuel smiled as he revealed what he had done. “I told him that his punishment was yours to decide. It was your time to shine, and he stepped in, so I felt it was appropriate.”

Tur’stal returned her smile to the video of Matthew and Liz. No, Quill and Torch, she mentally corrected herself. They were slaughtering their way through a pack of Tier 11 earth aligned scorpion-lions with laughable ease.

If she had known that was the deal, she would have pushed harder. But the man hadn’t pushed the line far enough for her to feel the need to truly hurt him. Losing a few hundred skills was a fair trade for his calculated slight.

Hearing someone call out her name, she focused on her spiritual sense and watched as a team tried to worm their way out of the crime they had been about to commit by saying her guards were fabricating evidence.

Sending her gardeners a message, she rejoined the conversation with her fellow royals.

This was a rare time when they were all together, and it wouldn’t last long before Emmanuel had to leave.

She had a few positions she wanted to feel everyone out on, and there were few better chances than the one she had now.

Still, she kept a portion of her spiritual perception on the two kids as they fought their way through her Jungle.

13

Quill sidestepped the bear’s raking claw and shot a [Jolt] at the raging monster.

The bear shrugged off the attack with an annoying resistance that it had exhibited with all his attacks so far.

If he had his sword, he could have made short work of the monster, but at Tier 13, it was just too strong for the average spell.

Torch was fighting a second bear and was having the same problem.

What the bears had in defensive power, they lacked in offensive power, so they were forced to slowly whittle the monsters down. It was in stark contrast to overwhelming the first two bears they came across with a few talismans.

Still, this was good training that the two of them didn’t want to pass up. He added the personal restriction of killing the monster without resorting to talismans, but that decision was putting him in a pickle.

The bears had too much defensive power for Quill’s spells.

Most skills he sent out were dissipated by the bear’s thick fur and hide, so he gave up on the normal spells, and decided to use one of his anti-monster skills.

Quill backstepped a lunging bite that was empowered with mana as he started to charge one of the few spells built into his staff.

A small marble-sized orb of fire lit up, then started to absorb all the heat from their surroundings as it accumulated power.

The attack took up to a whole minute to charge, but Quill focused on keeping his distance and using his off-hand to send attack after attack into the monster’s face. It wasn’t meant for solo fights; he usually only relied on it when Torch was protecting him. But against one bear, he would be fine.

He cast a few spells from Quill’s limited non-talisman arsenal, but they didn’t do more than piss the monster off for the few seconds that it was blinded. It was still more than enough to help Quill keep his distance.

When the skill was finally done drawing in the energy it needed, he twirled his staff to have the orb facing the monster. When the bear lunged once again, he pushed the orb of concentrated fire into the monster’s skull.

The marble-sized orb of fire punched right through the monster’s thick head and kept moving.

The spell wasn’t meant to explode, it would just keep moving forward at a slow and steady pace.

As it bore a hole through the monster, the orb of fire kept its momentum and began searing a hole through the ground at a constant rate.

As he watched the orb continue, Quill did some quick calculations with his AI, and realized that he’d gone a bit overboard with the attack.

He had been forced to stab the orb downward as he sidestepped the bear’s mana empowered jaws, but his miscalculation meant that the orb would burrow through the ground for at least a few hundred feet. He intended to have the orb carve out a shallow rut in the surface of the earth but had to change his attack angle to avoid injury.