The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

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Matt watched the other team as Aster finished recounting the ‘official’ end of their adventures on the fourth floor of Minkalla. As his bond described in great detail how they fought dozens of other teams under the attacks of the Fae, he was able to see how his friends had changed over the years.

Mostly, it was subtle things.

Mathew clenched his fist at the mention of Liz targeting an enemy healer and shifting to be just a little closer to his wife. Kyle, in awe as Aster described her and Liz taking out forts on their own, Vinnie asking about how Minkalla’s restrictions actually felt, and endless questions about the planet itself. Tara was disappointed she wasn’t able to pick up any secondhand ideas from their interactions with Jill, the archer pair of the husband and wife team who they had made friends with in Minkalla. Samantha, at rapt attention when they described the magic the general was working. And Melinda, mouth thin as she asked about their tactics and injuries taken in the fourth floor, when they finally started facing other cultivators.

They seemed to soak in the information in preparation for their own delve into Minkalla in the coming years.

As they drifted on to other topics, Matt was quite interested to hear about what kinds of delves they’d been getting into. Unfortunately, they didn’t have many interesting stories to tell, and Matt hadn’t seen most of the movies Mathew and Melinda had been watching, or even heard of ReForge before Vinnie and Samantha started talking about the game at length. It made it difficult to really relate, as the game’s crafting system was so different from reality Matt simply had nothing to offer. Aster was fine with it, though, and the traitor seemed quite interested in learning how enchanting worked when it was someone other than Matt explaining it.

Tara was at least easier to talk to, as she was looking for some advice on starting to do some basic enchanting-work with her own arrows. Quality ammunition was expensive, after all, and while she didn’t have a crafting Talent or Domain, she was interested in being able to do some of her own repairs and maintenance, a topic Matt was more than happy to help with. Her growth quiver was good but not unlimited or perfect.

Liz had settled into a similar conversation with Kyle, discussing the respective alchemy they’d done on their blood. Oxygen became something less of a concern as you rose in Tiers, but Kyle had taken his Tier 3 Talent and used it as a baseline to hold more than just oxygen. So far, he’d managed to extend it to carrying other gasses, but from the sounds of it, he was hoping to get a blood iron of his own and become capable of carrying around several times his own body weight in solid steel.

When the conversation finally ended and Matt described his Inspiration in greater detail, they finally broke up the impromptu party, with Matt following Kyle out onto the attached balcony.

They stood in the predawn chill for a few minutes, listening to the city underneath them that didn’t seem to sleep with people walking or flying around.

Kyle finally broke the silence. “I want to enter Minkalla, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

Matt was taken aback. “No? I mean, with Melinda you wouldn’t have to worry about the healing cooldown, you’ll be fresh the entire time. I mean sure, you’ll need to load up on mana stones beforehand, but that’s not too bad. And the rewards are pretty good, most cycles don’t have someone clogging up the fourth floor and throwing everything into chaos.”

Kyle just shook his head, “We wouldn’t make it far enough for the rewards to really matter. You three only made it halfway, what chance do we have? Besides, you saw the others. Melinda was terrified at the thought of facing an entire planet full of yous, Vinnie doesn’t want to go anywhere near that planet that could cut him off from his [Earth Manipulation], Mat doesn’t want to go anywhere that Melinda could be in any kind of harm, where her status as a healer doesn’t mean she’ll be protected, but actively aimed at. There’s no backup, nothing.”

He sighed, “I could get Tara to go, but really what’s the point? The two of us definitely wouldn’t make it past where you three cut your losses, and floor 5 is where the rewards start to be really good. We’ve all got our Concepts, we don’t really need more skills, and none of us really need to worry about being able to bench an extra three pounds or getting more growth items, we’ve got plenty between us already. Maybe just the two of us could get to the third floor, come out with a pile of skills to sell, but Melinda may well have a heart attack from stress if we tried.”

Matt didn’t really know what to say to that, and just stood there with him in what was hopefully a companionable, rather than awkward, silence.

He didn’t want to push them further than they were capable of, and Minkalla was dangerous. Sure, Melinda obviated a big part of that, but there were still floors where her healing would be negated, cut off from skills or mana.

He knew they were better at not relying on Melinda’s Talent now, especially when compared to when they were kids. But they still always had the knowledge Melinda could bring them back from damn near anything.

If they went into Minkalla and got a bad floor, some or all of them might not come out, which would make Kyle pushing the team into Minkalla for his own sake beyond selfish. He also didn’t want to push Kyle and Tara to try and brave the Forge on their own. They were part of a team and used to being part of a team, they just didn’t have the habits needed to manage that difficult of a delve as just a duo.

It was a hard pill to swallow that the team you had been with since you lost your family, the people who had become your new family, were now slowing you down and preventing you from doing something potentially beneficial for your own future growth.

“I don’t have a good answer. Minkalla is called a slaughterhouse for a reason. I don’t regret going in, but we were almost forced to Tier up a few times, and our lives were at risk the whole time. I wish I had an answer for you…but I don’t.”