The Path of Ascension 5: A LitRPG Adventure

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Matt’s next few days were a combination of hectic work and leisure time.

The morning after their arrival, the first thing they did was register for their slots in the tournament with their real identities.

It was an easy process that consisted of a simple examination and demonstration of their skills. At least the ones they were willing to show.

An hour later, they were finished and able to return to their room, only for Mara and Leon to teleport them to one of the nine planets that were linked to East Flower. From there, they would then hop on a quick teleport back using their false identities.

With their first layer of masks on, they were able to change into their false personas. But with the second, they could create true anonymity.

Matt’s mask was a pitch-black, hard shell with a stylized silver feather on the left half of his face.

Liz had a pale mask that was always flickering with a flame where her hair would have been, giving her a radiant back glow that cast her face in shadows. It gave her an intimidating appearance she could thankfully turn off if she needed to. Having a glowing light on your head made for an impressive sight but also told every enemy where to aim.

He quite liked it for its aesthetic purpose, but its secondary function was far more useful. When Luna had delivered the mask, she had explained that it had a false center of power that would make them appear to be the peak of Tier 10.

It wouldn’t pass a close inspection by anyone over Tier 25, but that was why she would be personally keeping her spiritual sense concentrated on them when they were wearing their masks.

Someone would have to be vastly stronger than her to pass both layers of protection and see their real cultivation. Although she wouldn’t tell them the exact number, her cultivation was somewhere around Tier 45. It wasn’t likely that a spy would be able to see through their identities.

Matt had been surprised that she expected spies watching the tournament. Not that he didn’t expect there to be any at all. He was surprised that they would be willing to show themselves somewhere that the highest echelons of the Empire were residing. That seemed incredibly risky, and for little gain.

His manager had explained that the place would be crawling with every spy the other Great Powers could get in. When she added that some of the lower ranks of the nobility had been known to accept bribes for information, he was glad for the multilayered defense.

Unlike their first time registering for the tournament, their cover identities were put under far more scrutiny. With the masks on, they weren’t asked or able to provide an easy information packet of their abilities, which meant they needed a far more intensive screening.

They were quickly brought into a private meeting room, where an unassuming man sat them down and told them that someone would be there to interview them shortly. Matt had to resist smirking under his mask as Mara and Leon invisibly mimed playing with the man’s suit. The duo had such a crazy control of their powers that they were perfectly visible to Matt and Liz but seemingly intangible to everyone else around them as they tagged along.

It only took half an hour before a woman in a smart suit came in and set a pad down in front of each of them.

“Please, fill out as much information as you feel comfortable giving.” Her statement was met with raspberries from the invisible Mara and Leon.

The forms were easy enough to fill out and, less than five minutes later, Matt was done. As he waited for the woman to finish whatever she was doing, he perused the first events that would be hosted during the Tier 10 tournament.

While the solo fights and team fights would only start at the beginning of the third month, the first three weren’t empty by any metric. Everything from speed-delving specific rifts to finding and completing trap and puzzle rifts was available, but Matt was more interested in the other challenges.

There purportedly was a rift containing three bosses that were hard to find and harder to kill. Rewards were given based on how fast the delving team could come back with the respective remains and how many of the bosses they had killed. The point structure made it a balancing act where teams needed to manage their time spent finding and killing said monsters. It could pay off to simply kill one quickly and leave rather than flounder through the rift and waste time.

The next entry that piqued his interest was the endless rifts. They were a subset of wave rifts that had no limit on the number of combat waves. They were incredibly rare, but they gave no essence during the fights, which prevented skills like [Lesser Sacrifice] from helping delvers endure countless waves. The essence given was limited to the same amount as a standard rift delve, which made the rifts unpopular for the general public.

It wasn’t just his interest as an aperologist that made him want to look at the rift. The rewards were doled out each month, and increased as the tournament went on. While the prizes during the first few months were decent, by the end of the tournament, they were beneficial to the extreme.

There was everything from special weapons and armors created by Tier 35s to greater rewards like true, low Tier spatial rings for the top five finishers. He even saw a portable house listed for the top three finalists.

Matt wanted that house.

He was tired of mooching off of others when they stopped somewhere or having to rent a new apartment. If they had their own place, they could have home wherever they went. Including when they delved rifts.

Before he was able to see the rest of the challenges and rewards, they were escorted to a training room with two instructors waiting for them.

The still unnamed woman gestured and said, “We need to ensure that you have a minimum level of ability in your chosen skills.”

She looked at the pad Matt had filled out and said, “Quill, you indicated that you are a talisman user. We will need you to create a series of talismans in front of us so we can ensure that you’re making your own consumables. Same with you and your potions, Torch.”

Quill nodded as one of the men separated and asked, “Who’s the mage?”

Torch spoke up first, “Him.”

Quill expanded, “Torch still utilizes a fair few fire skills but is ultimately a melee hybrid.”

The man gestured toward Quill, “I’ll start with you, then.”

As they moved to the second half of the room, a barrier of light separated the room into halves, and the man said, “Ok, please attack me as you would in a duel. Feel free to go as hard as you wish. I will be reactive for the second half. I will warn you before I start my offensive. We need to see where you will be placed for the seeded slots in the solo duels. If you want a good seed, show more of your skills. If you want to hide some of them, feel free. I’ll let you know if you don’t hit the minimum threshold for competing here.”

Withdrawing his staff from a second copy of his weapon storing spatial ring, Quill pointed his staff at the man and cast [Ice Spear].

The staff was one of his creations, and it took full advantage of his massive regeneration with a series of inscribed spells to add to his skill set. There were even a few tricks that he had added with Erwin’s expertise, but he had no intention to show those skills off here.

This was just to test their competency; showing off trump cards would be stupid.

The tester smacked away the shard of ice, but Matt had already moved to the left and cast a second [Ice Spear] and followed it up with a [Fireball].

As the pair of projectiles raced out, Matt used the new spatial bracelet that Jamie had started selling in the last few years to remove a talisman. He had balked at buying a second set of the enchanted items but had doled out the price to keep his cover identity a little more secure.

The bracelets were produced by the hundreds and were less conspicuous than the vests they had ordered despite being much smaller.

With a tiny amount of mana, he activated the talisman and felt a rush of energy course into his limbs. He raced forward, covering the twenty feet to his opponent in an instant.

The effect faded, and Matt drew a second talisman that created a massive burst of mana that shoved the Tier 25 back.

He knew the man had allowed that spell to push him back, but he was happy to see the effect was working as intended.

With two more sheets of parchment pulled from his spatial bracelet, Matt increased his speed and raced away as the second parchment started launching a stream of [Fireball]s.