The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure

23

Those were the only ways that Matt saw the man having any chance to reach Tier 5 at his age. He didn’t look much older than them…twenty-one at the oldest.

The slowdown on aging didn’t really kick in until Tier 5, where a human would live about double the years an unawakened would. Even with one hundred and eighty years to live, the man acted so pitifully young. At most, he was in his late twenties to have the appearance that he did. Matt had to just assume that he had lived an extremely sheltered life.

The rest of their watch turned out to be mundane enough. Matt was getting breakfast made for everyone with the small camp stove, when he heard someone call out.

“Hey, there’s the camp.”

Matt spun and found a man around his age appear along the cliff face. He was standing in the open with his hands visible, and a massive brown wolf was at his side. Aster, who sat in Liz’s lap, c****d her head at the wolf and yipped at him.

She got a curious bark in return, and Matt called out, “What can we help you with?”

The pair stood their ground, but called out, “We smelled breakfast cooking, so we thought we’d come share what we knew of the surroundings. We’d be happy to trade the info for a hot meal.”

Matt queried Aster through their bond, and found she wasn’t suspicious of them or anything. After looking at Liz and Camilla for approval, he decided to call the man over.

A second, smaller wolf came out of the forest, and the now trio approached. Matt checked their rear out of instinct, but nothing else came out. The wolves seemed to be a matched pair, and from Aster’s reaction, they both seemed to be bonded to the man.

They sniffed at Aster, who remained in Liz’s lap, but c****d her head at them.

The man sat in the clear area, while Matt pulled out extra few chunks of lizard flesh, he had put away. It wasn’t like they could keep it forever, considering the low Tier storage items they had.

“I’m Fen. These are Bow and Arrow.”

Fen smiled at the names. Matt assumed it was an inside joke of some sort, but he didn’t press for an explanation. The wolves were cute during their quiet conversation with Aster.

Matt used his large spoon to point to himself, then everyone else. “Name’s Matt. That’s my bond, Aster. Liz and Camilla make up our party. Malcolm here is an escort task of sorts.”

Fen nodded at everyone but gave Aster a larger smile. “Nice to meet you all.”

After stretching out a bit, he said, “So, there’s a Tier 5 rift a few miles away, tucked into the corner of a valley. It’s kind of hidden, but we have good noses. Anyway, in the rift, you’ll find a perfect set up for a party. It’s a long winding mountain climb; downhill, thankfully. But each monster is some sort of massive goat-hybrid thing. They were usually alone, but they had a lot of essence for their Tier.”

With that, a location was sent to their AIs, along with a message verifying the information it contained.

Matt was tempted. Large rifts with lots of larger beasts were ideal for essence. Not all rifts were equal, after all.

With the extra food catching his attention, Matt listened to the conversation. It was mostly Liz talking to Fen and his companions. It surprised their new breakfast additions quite a bit that she was able to speak the beast language. That seemed to really open him up, and he shared some embarrassing stories of his journeys with his bonds.

For his effort, he got a large paw in the face, and was also sat on by the larger male wolf. It was all in good fun and, after a few minutes, they sat down to eat.

Bow and Arrow ate their slabs of lightly cooked meat with gusto, and the humans soon joined them in eating.

As they were cleaning up, Malcolm asked Fen a question that ruined the mood. “So, how do you have two bonds? Were they twins, or do you have a Talent?”

Matt looked at the man, shock written all over his face. Liz and Camilla both had the same expression. That was an incredibly impolite question that Matt wouldn’t have even dreamed of asking a stranger. He hadn’t even asked Camilla about her Talents, and they had been traveling for nearly two months now.

Fen just looked coldly at the explorer, and down to his wolves, before turning to the other four. “Well, stay safe, you all. Maybe our paths will cross later.”

With a slight wave, he walked into the forest, and was quickly gone, lost in the foliage and hills.

Matt looked at Malcolm and was about to question his reason for asking such a personal question, but Camilla spoke first.

“What was that? Where were you raised? No one tells people their Talents. Or at least the finer details of one.”

Malcolm just looked between them, confused. “What? It’s not that big of a deal. I just wondered why. How will you ever get questions answered if you don’t ask? There are only so many explanations for him having two bonds. Why not answer the question?”

Matt just shook his head. He regretted taking this i***t up on his offer, but he really wanted to get into the ruins.

The things I do for profit.

With the mood soured, they headed deeper into the forest. They heard combat not more than an hour later, and when they investigated, they found two parties fighting. The rift nearby was the obvious prize.

They stopped to watch from their vantage of a hill, about a half mile or so away.

The one side had three people, and the tank was using his shield to cover his dagger wielder. That particular man was slipping in and out of the melee, quickly striking when their two melee opponents were otherwise occupied.

The party of three also had a ranger that launched flaming arrows which exploded on contact. The bowman was trading attacks with the image of the other party, who was launching [Earth Spears] that were all easily dodged. The opposing party seemed to be losing, as their mage had to raise an [Earth Wall] to block most of the retaliatory arrows.

The fighting came to a stalemate, until the dagger wielder was able to slip under an attack using a skill. Matt wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but the dagger wielder seemed to move quicker than everyone else around him, and his form became almost ethereal for a brief moment. He was able to get behind a member of the opposing party, and he plunged his dagger into their chest from the rear.

With that, the group of three quickly finished their fight, and killed the rest of their opponents. The mage ran off but was already being chased down by the archer. Matt didn’t think they had a chance of escaping.

They turned and took a longer path around the rift. None of them wanted to get in a fight over a rift that they didn’t even want. Once they were a good few miles away from the rift, Malcolm pulled off to the side and started to vomit.

Once he finished, he washed out his mouth and looked behind them. “Why would they s*******r people like that? It’s just a rift.”