The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure

20

For the price of a Tier 4 mana stone, they would take people to the next teleporter. Matt pulled out his flying sword, and while three people and a fox would be a little cramped, it was faster and cheaper for them to fly themselves. Still, it wasn’t the price of the ride that was the issue, it was the speed.

The company running the ships was relying on people wanting comfort out of their ride on the ship, so it would take a slow and steady pace. That meant it would take the flying ship nearly three times as long as the flying sword to cover the roughly three thousand miles they needed to traverse.

Liz and Camilla had bundled up because despite the general heat of this planet, it would be cold at the height and speeds they would be traveling. Matt simply activated [Cracked Phantom Armor], and Aster wouldn’t be bothered by the cold in the least. She was already hiding in her backpack, not because of the cold but because the idea of flying wasn’t exactly her definition of a good time.

With Matt taking the first spot, they all held on. With a mental effort, the sword rose.

Matt had to spend a bit more mana to counteract the added weight, but this was a Tier 7 model, and it was fast. While the top speed would cost 30 MPS, his mana regeneration was 40 MPS meaning it was completely possible for them to fly at max speed the entire time. The best part with the swords coast was that even with his AI draining 2 MPS, he still had enough to keep his armor activated to protect himself from the wind and cold.

They hoped that if they got there fast enough, they could catch up with the flying ship two departures ahead and get on that jump to get through the next planet. To that end, Matt was determined to maintain the sword’s top speed for their entire trip. At 150 mph, it would be cold and bitter for the girls, but reaching their destination as quickly as possible was worth the twenty-hour long journey. They were Tier 5 and not normal mortals anymore so standing that long wasn’t really an issue.

With everyone on the sword, Matt made sure they were ready, and they took off.

Hours later, Matt and his human passengers were watching a movie in a conference call with their AIs for something to do. They were relying on Matt’s AI to guide them as after he had manually flown for hours the novelty of going full speed had worn off, his attention wavered. So, they decided to watch a movie as his AI could handle the navigation itself.

But they were all jolted out of the movie while flying through a medium-sized mountain range, when a massive bird rose from a ravine, and started closing in on them from directly ahead. The beast had silvery wings and was at the peak of Tier 4 and immediately attacked them. Its power caused the [Wind Blade] s it fired out at them to be quite a shock with their size and speed.

Matt assumed that it was a rift creature that had escaped and reproduced outside of the rift as he had never seen anything on a settled world that big and scary. That same size gave it an advantage through its physical abilities, and it quickly closed the distance with them.

The attacks were easy enough to dodge, but with the mountain range, he had to slow down to avoid slamming into the sides of the peaks meaning their speed was reduced to the point that the creature was able to keep up and intercept them.

Taking manual control, Matt flew higher to avoid the hazardous terrain, and cranked up the speed. It was dangerous, as they were reaching heights where breathable air was scarce but, after a few frantic moments, they were past the creature, and it didn’t bother to chase them.

“f**k!”

Matt wholeheartedly agreed with Camilla’s statement. That wasn’t a monster he wanted to tangle with three passengers on his blade.

The rest of their travel was uneventful, and they reached the teleporter city to find they were just in time to catch the next port out. At this point, they were caught up with the first groups of lower Tiers. The higher Tiers had been much faster to get to the fourth planet, and thus to their goal, the Tier 20 planet. That was a prize most just traveled through chaotic space to reach. The first to arrive would be the first to reap the rewards.

After reaching the second planet, they had to travel a much shorter distance, and soon reached their own goal of the Tier 6 planet.

They all had [Endurance] and were using it to push off sleep. They were caught up to the most connected groups, who had had top priority in leaving the planet, so their harsh travel methods had been worth it.

The Tier 6 planet was still getting satellite coverage. It was spotty at best, so they relied on purchasing the initial survey from an information broker who was working out of a collapsible table near the teleporter platform.

The information cost them five Tier 6 mana stones, but it was an acceptable expense to try and get to valuable spots early. Sadly, the details were as spotty as the coverage, and they didn’t show any obvious locations of hotspots.

Just when they were exiting the tent, a young man came up to them. “Hey, are you looking for rifts or…” he looked around and said, “better locations?”

Matt checked their backs, while Liz asked her own questions. “And what’s it to you? And who are you?”

Seeing no one behind them preparing an ambush, Matt turned back to the man.

“Ah. Sorry. My name is Malcolm. Wannabe explorer and adventurer. I, uhh…spent all my money on getting to be one of the first people here, and I never thought ahead about the monsters.”

Malcolm laughed good-naturedly and looked over their group again. They didn’t join in his good humor and just stared at him.

“So, I have a Talent that leads me to what I want, and I wanted a team that might be able to help me. My Talent gave me good feelings about you all.”

Matt wasn’t buying what this guy was selling. This was a trap of some sort. He was sure of it.

Liz opened her mouth to deliver what he was sure would be a rejection, and Malcolm clearly also saw the same thing, so he hurried to add, “Look. My Talent works on more than just people.”