The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure

32

“Left.”

With that, they started walking down the corridor. Matt was wary of traps, and that proved to be for good reason when he stepped on a pressure plate. A log lined with spikes dropped from the ceiling a split second after his foot sunk into the ground. It was connected to an arm so that the log would spin at chest height.

Matt caught the swinging log, with his longsword acting as a bar. It only took a moment for the energy to be spent, and he carefully lowered the log, its momentum gone.

With the trap disarmed, they inspected it for clues of what this rift would have been like before it came to the real world.

Liz pondered the spikes and connecting arms. “It’s not amazing craftsmanship, but it’s all uniform, and the spikes all appear to be well crafted. I don’t think it’s goblins. It would be cruder.” She tapped her helmet where her chin would be. “Maybe an entire trap rift?”

Camilla brought out a piece of paper and checked the sharpness of the spikes. The paper was easily punctured when she laid the paper on the tip of the spike.

With a sigh, Matt inspected a spike, before wiping it off in case this didn’t work. It didn’t look poisoned, but he could never be too sure.

They weren’t sure of the Tier of rift this ruin had been before it inverted and became real, but the easiest way to check was with [Cracked Phantom Armor]. Pressing a forearm to the spike, Matt increased the pressure. Higher Tier metals were harder, stronger, and held edges better. With the feedback of his armor skill, Matt could get a pretty accurate guesstimation of its Tier.

As the pressure he applied increased, the strain on his skill structure rose. Finally, just as he was about to break through, he stopped and shrugged at the rest of the group.

“Tier 6.”

Malcolm swallowed audibly and asked, “Any chance you are wrong? I-I don’t have that good of a defensive skill.”

Camilla shrugged next to him and said with a little too much ice in her voice, “Then don’t get hit.”

The man wasn’t wrong, this was getting dangerous, but Matt ignored them, and met Liz’s eyes through her helmet. She didn’t need to hear the request, as she immediately scooped Aster up and deposited her into the backpack. Aster grumbled slightly. She liked being held just as much as she did before her increased intelligence, but there was something about being held through a rift that irritated the fox.

Matt reached over and gave her a good scratching, while pushing thoughts of comfort at the fox. They didn’t know what traps would appear, and anything that was aimed at their ankles would be deadly to her, since she was so much closer to the ground.

Ducking under the log trap, Matt inspected the floor for a second, follow-up trap. When he found nothing, he walked a few steps down the hall, then returned to his team and lifted the log so they could step under.

They continued down the hall at a much slower pace. Every step Matt took was carefully considered, and only taken after he poked the space in front of him with a large stick. He had stored one in his spatial bag for just such an occasion.

Their pace slowed down to a near crawl, but no one suggested that Matt hurry. He would have offered to let them try and find the Tier 6 traps with their bodies if they had.

Without a second incident, they came to another intersection, and Matt looked to Malcolm for which of the four directions they should head in. After what felt like an eternity, their guide told them to go straight.

Matt made sure that his AI was tracking their progress through the ruin and building a map of their route. As they continued through the hall, they found a stairwell that gave Matt the shivers. He wasn’t sure what it was, but after the trap in the hall, he was sure that they would find something troubling on the stairs.

“Wait here. Let me check it out.” While Matt put on a brave face, he was cursing this lack of an actual tank and front line. He was, at best, a hybrid with a good defensive skill.

He ignored his AI. It had responded to his griping by showing him how [Cracked Phantom Armor] was better for its Tier than most skills used by defensive frontline melee fighters.

Matt didn’t care about the facts. Walking face-first into a spinning log of death wasn’t on his list of things to do for the day. If it wasn’t to protect his friends, he would gladly let someone else take the lead position.

Climbing up the stairs was a slow procedure, as he used his stick to tap at each stair before he dared to step on it. The simple switchback staircase was fully checked over before he called up his team to follow in his wake.

At the top, Malcolm pointed them back in the direction from where they came. It wasn’t even twenty steps into the dark hallway when they encountered their first opponent.

The golem was surprisingly quiet for its bulky form and lumbering steps.

Matt was the first to strike out, using [Mana Charge]. The attack didn’t shred the humanoid figure of metal, but instead washed over it and was absorbed. The golem started to glow with a blue-tinged light, and its sluggish movements sped up.

“s**t, it’s a mana absorber!”

Having called out to his teammates, he tossed his longsword to the side and rear. Matt lashed out and rotated to the side. His vambraces increased his melee damage, and with [Mage’s Retreat] active, he slammed a fist into the creature.

Instead of absorbing the blow and becoming stronger, the golem’s chest dented in, and sparks of mana flew out from some part of the creature that was cracked.

Camilla’s distinctive extending mace whooshed forward from behind him and smashed the monster’s head. The blow caused some severe damage and rocked the creature back. As it tried to turn, Matt drove a spike-covered gauntlet into its head, regaining its attention.

A [Mana Bolt] flew over from the backline and missed completely. The skill splashed along the wall and lit up a series of lights.

Liz shouted something at Malcolm, but Matt was far too occupied to hear it. The golem’s head and chest were heavily dented, but it kept trying to lash out with its long arms.

Two long minutes later, with him and Camilla battering at the metal golem, they eventually broke something critical, and the monster’s glow dispersed as it slumped to the ground.

Matt gave it a heavy stomp to make sure that it was really dead. When it didn’t move, he turned to Liz and Aster, who were glaring at Malcolm. He wasn’t even mad. The man was so clearly an amateur that he didn’t even know what a mana absorber was.

Shaking his head, he knelt next to Camilla, and they inspected the golem. It was a creature made of steel and some other alloy. The mystery metal was flexible enough to give the creature a bit more mobility than a typical golem should have.

Camilla looked at the creature and the still glowing wall. Matt followed her gaze and made the same connection. This entire ruin was a mage’s worst nightmare.

Trying to be optimistic, he said, “Maybe it’s only pure mana that it can absorb.”

That wouldn’t be an unheard-of restriction. Just a rare one.

Liz and Aster had stopped yelling at Malcolm and joined Matt and Camilla. Malcolm stood off to the side while looking scared and apologetic.

Before the man could speak, Matt clapped him on the shoulder and said, “It’s all good. Lesson learned. Right?”