The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

48

Once they had that down, Luna started shoving them either as a group or solo into Tier 15 rifts with one skill they could use total, and they’d have to clear it with what was usually a pretty suboptimal skill and whatever they could scrounge up. She also restricted their Concept usage, Natural Treasure usage, or gear usage, but usually not all at the same time.

However, the invariably hardest delves were the times when the one skill was actually reasonable, like [Cracked Mana Spear].

The training was brutal, as all of Luna’s training was with her perfectionist tendencies, but Matt relished it all. There was just something about beating a rift boss’ head in with a rock that was so satisfying.

Once they became proficient with even their oddest spells, Luna’s training shifted once more to delving with illusionary injuries. They weren’t simply pretending to be wounded, but rather dealing with a progressively worsening injury that debuffed them as though they were losing blood just as a start.

Matt almost ‘died’ fighting Tier 15 monsters with one leg broken and the other one severed but managed a breakthrough in combining his Concept flight with spatial expansion just in time, using his own armored body as a cannonball to eliminate a rift boss before his actually broken right arm was bitten off.

Liz was even forced to spend some time at the local hospital under the tutelage of a Tier 20 healer. Her tuition was an eye watering fifty Tier 17 mana stones, but they paid it at Luna’s insistence.

While Liz still wasn’t pleased about being a healer, she kept most of her complaints to bedtime chats, and even then, it was primarily centered around how she was expected to treat even the absolute idiots who injured themselves doing something stupid with care and kindness.

His question if she’d had to deal with any kids who tried to fly using bedsheets for wings cost him dearly but was so very worthwhile.

The training still paid dividends though. Liz had outpaced undirected healing spells for efficiency quite some time ago, but she was still improving and was nearly able to reattach limbs already. She’d never be as good as a trained healer, let alone Melinda, but Matt was proud that she was delving into all aspects of blood magic, even the non-glamorous ones.

It felt like only weeks later when Luna had Kurt dispel all the rifts they had been using and told them to get ready to travel to Yellow’s Ascension.

The fact they would also be getting their second Legacies was only icing on the cake.

10

Matt looked into the sky, using [Telescope] to inspect the food hauler.

It was huge.

No, it was massive.

At a mile from bow to stern and almost a third of that from port to starboard, the ship was completely unable to enter a planet’s atmosphere. But, then again, it didn’t need to, with dozens of shuttles purpose-built to do exactly that.

Matt, Liz, and Aster were with all the other lower Tiers waiting for the atmospheric shuttles just outside the city limits.

All the Tier 15s and above who didn’t need to breathe were able to directly fly to the massive rectangle floating above the planet, which Matt wished he could do instead of sitting around waiting in line. He was entirely confident that he could carry enough air with just [Air Manipulation] to take them a couple hundred miles to reach the large ship, which would allow them to skip the predicament altogether.

Despite his complaining, their line moved fast enough. The moment one shuttle lifted off one of the five designated landing pads, another was quick to settle into the stop.

As they got to the front of the line, Matt finally was able to get a good look at one of the shuttles and was mildly impressed.

There were two models on display. One was obviously part of the ship’s contingent, as everything but the frontal end was blocky, to maximize storage space and make it aerodynamic enough to get through an atmosphere and into space where it could dock.

The other model was sleek, painted white with silver trimmings and the local nobility’s heraldry on the side facing them. Despite being physically smaller, just as many people were funneled into the ship as the grain hauler, which spoke of a very impressive spatial expansion on the interior of the ship. It wasn’t surprising, considering those few vessels were personally owned by the Adairs.

Sadly, he wasn’t able to inspect the nicer ship as their line was funneled into the more utilitarian ship next to it. With Aster draped across his shoulder, the three of them and close to a hundred others were herded into the ship by a local guard, and the moment the doors closed, their shuttle took off.

With his spiritual perception stretched out past the hull of the ship, he was able to watch as they slowly threaded their way through the dozens of other ships taking off and arriving at the station, before reaching a clear stretch of sky where their speed rapidly increased.

With a few minutes before they reached orbit and the hauler waiting there, Matt took the time to inspect the ship’s interior.

It was very clearly a working vessel, with every surface equipped with recessed hooks and anchor points to attach to what could be a variety of containers. There were even a few pieces of grain still stuck in a few places, along with what he believed were carrot leaves deteriorating in a corner.