The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure

17

She shook her head. “I doubt it. That would be too noisy and messy. I bet they knew exactly what would happen and made sure they weren’t going to hit you in a lethal spot.”

She didn’t say anything, and they watched as Liz browbeat the two officials.

“Did we ever get our things back?” he asked the question idly as the thought crossed his mind.

“Ah. Yeah. Well, kinda. They’re still trying to collect our things, apparently.”

That didn’t sound good, but he had a record of everything he had. They wouldn’t be able to play any funny games with his belongings.

Finally, Liz came in and said, “These f*****g worthless idiots are useless. First, all they can say is that the assassin was a standard first hitter and wasn’t in any databases. Then they tried to give me s**t about not pressing charges.”

She fumed. “Let’s go. This isn’t over, but we did all we can for now.”

“We still don’t have our stuff back, Liz.”

That caused the redhead to shudder with repressed rage, and she stormed back out. Before the door closed, he heard her shouts.

Camilla looked at him. “And you’re dating her?”

That got Matt to smile, and it took his mind off who was trying to kill him. It was a short list of people he had pissed off after all. It seemed that the i***t from Dual Stars wasn’t happy with letting a broken neck be the only price to pay.

“Well, what can I say? I find strong-willed women attractive.”

For the first time, Camilla laughed. “Yeah, me, too. Me, too.”

5

Matt struck out at the heavy bag in a flurry of blows that sent it swinging before he sidestepped the bag’s return swing. Using the workout as an outlet for his pent-up emotions, he kicked out hard, and the bag flew back to a nearly horizontal position.

The emotions burned hot and deep.

He was mad at the attempt on his life, but what really infuriated him was the fact that the whole thing was treated like it was no big deal.

After Liz stormed back out and started another screaming match, all their belongings were miraculously found and returned in short order. Matt was terrified that someone had drunk his Mana Concentration potions, but they were still sealed, seemingly untouched.

As it turned out, she hadn’t used her family to get them out of this mess, she had said they were on The Path and repeatedly beat the locals over the head with that fact.

That club was apparently much larger and more effective than he expected.

It still didn’t help with the fact he had been so weak in the face of a higher Tier who only had to use their cultivation base was able to squash him like a bug.

There was nothing he could have done at that moment and when that fact settled in it haunted him.

He had attempted to sleep, but only ended up tossing and turning for a few hours. He had actually annoyed Aster into scratching at Liz’s door for some peace and quiet, so he retreated to the training room in their hotel to try and tire himself out.

Lifting hadn’t helped his restlessness very much. He needed more action which was why he moved to the heavy bag.

It still wasn’t enough. The emotions ran just as hot as they had earlier.

Giving up on the bag he moved to the training aids and just beat on them instead. They tried to fight, but his armored form was faster than the base Tier 5 setting, and he had to crank them up to peak Tier 5 to gain anything from the training.

The AIs controlling them were good, but he was simply better.

When they went into an attack pattern, it was easy for him to read their movements, and they offered him no real challenge.

After a few hours of fruitless bouts of fighting, he gave up and went back upstairs. With the steamy water running down his back in the shower, he channeled [Endurance], and felt his fatigue and the detriments from his sleepless night pushed away. It wasn’t ideal to replace sleep with [Endurance], but a single night wouldn’t be the end of the world, and he didn’t think he would be able to sleep no matter what he did.

Seeing that the girls were still asleep, he started cooking. He needed something to clear his mind, so he threw on the heaviest playlist he had, and let the beat of the songs guide his cooking. When he was done, only Camilla was up, so he slipped her a plate of her favorite crepes with all the fixings. Liz was getting cinnamon toast, and Aster got lightly roasted meat mixed with scrambled eggs.

He simply picked at the food as he cooked and toasted a bagel for himself as he couldn’t work up a proper appetite.

Liz shuffled out, with a sleepy Aster swaying back and forth behind her. With their bellies full after their meal, they turned to the news and watched the coverage of the vassal kingdom guild getting busted. Matt expected the news to be rerunning the same clips of the local royal representative decrying the guild’s actions and promising to look into it, but that clip was old news it seemed.

What they found instead was a view of a massive, flying island hovering directly over the palace. The monstrosity was being used to make a statement, which was for sure. The local ruler of this s**t hole had to be quite upset with someone so obviously proclaiming their superiority by parking their land over his own.

The thought of the king having a literal shadow cast over his head was amusing enough to bring a cruel smile to Matt’s face.

The talking head was just starting another rehash of the segment. “Early this morning, Duke Ignite brought his flying island into our kingdom’s air space and started his own investigations. We haven’t heard anything from the kingdom officials except that they are cooperating with the duke.”

A second, much angrier talking head-butted in. “This is a disgrace to the kingdom. How dare a mere duke act so arrogantly to our king? King Albert should demand that they ground themselves immediately and demand compensation.”

Liz snorted and spoke over the ensuing comments, “They’re lucky that it’s only Duke Ignite parking over them.”

Matt understood what she meant. A vassal king was only equivalent to a duke, and from everything he read, they were generally weaker in terms of Tier and combat prowess. It was absurd for the newsman to think that they would get any compensation, but he figured it was mostly an act put on by the station to ensure they catered to their local audience.

The man suddenly stopped complaining when both anchors paused and touched their earpieces, receiving an update from their producer.

“We have a statement by the duke.”

With that, the screen changed to a ‘please hold’ placard. Moments later, a man appeared on the screen. He had brown hair with streaks of red scattered throughout. The best word Matt could describe him with was apathetic. He looked utterly bored with the whole affair.

“I was sent here, as I’m the closest noble to this vassal kingdom. I’m sure most of you have heard of me. Or at least your news anchors will inform you on the back end. The question on most of your minds is probably, why did I come and park my island over the capital?”

His eyes turned from dark brown to bright orange for a brief moment, before settling down.

“We got a report of Empire citizens being captured under false pretenses and forced into what amounts to s*****y with a specific guild. That guild no longer exists and will remain nameless.”