The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

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“If anyone tries to bully you, friend, just come tell us, and we can make sure they leave you alone. We don’t even charge.” Liz reassured the man, her voice dripping with false sincerity as he looked up at her, bewildered.

While amusing, Matt found the reaction of the other couple far more interesting. The woman had pulled out a pair of weighted gloves, and the man had mana swirl around his fingertips as the newcomer started to intimidate them, but the gloves and magic had vanished just as fast when Liz laid him out.

He hadn’t expected someone to stand up for them, and it intrigued him. After sending a quick message to Liz and Aster on his observation, he nodded in thanks to the couple.

The man proffered a hand. “I’m Marcus, and she’s Olivia. Nice to meet you two.” He c****d his head at the door and asked, “We were going to explore whatever counts for a lounge in this place and figured you might want to come along.”

After introducing themselves with their cover names, they left their room and the still-recovering man to follow the couple out of the room.

Once they were through the airlock, the man, Marcus, laughed. “Oh, the look of surprise on his face was to die for.”

The woman, Olivia, smiled and added, “And here I thought you three would need help. How surprising that I was wrong.”

Her tone indicated she was actually caught off guard, and not probing for information, so Liz responded in kind, laughing and downplaying her own ability.

When they arrived at the lounge, all five of them paused as the wave of sound hit them like an attack the moment the airlock opened.

The lounge was beyond packed, with barely a free space open.

Matt was going to brave his way to the bar when Marcus caught his arm and pulled him back to the airlock, where they left the way they came.

“f**k that. I’d like to relax, not deal with that mess.”

Aster, who had taken her place on Liz’s shoulder, asked, “Do you want to sit in the room or something, then?”

Olivia chuckled. “Nothing so boring. I’m sure there is a crew-only bar or something similar for the passengers who bought their own rooms. We are going to go hang out there instead.”

Matt raised an eyebrow, which Marcus caught and answered, “Perks of being away from the inner regions of the Empire. Rules are a bit more loose out here.” Shaking a cupped fist, he made the hand gesture for mana stones and continued, “A few Tier 16 or 17 mana stones will open doors, I’m sure. Pocket change for a lot of the higher Tier members of the ship, but as long as we follow the rules, that’s more than enough.”

Aster swished her much less bushy tail and asked, “Rules? I’m confused?”

Olivia raised an eyebrow in return and asked, “I take it you three are young and from a more central part of the Empire?”

When none of them confirmed it, she waved them off. “Not that I expected you to answer, but it’s obvious you haven’t spent a lot of time on the frontier. Like Marcus said, the rules are a bit more flexible here, but at the same time, when you are breaking the rules, you need to be smart. We’re going to bribe our way into a better lounge. While there, it’s understood that if things start getting crowded like the other place, we should leave. We also need to behave ourselves and not get drunk or anything. Also, never admit it’s a bribe, that’s bad form.”

Marcus smiled back at them as they entered another airlock. “It’s a reason why we generally stick to the frontier. Less rules, and we like it that way.”

He flexed before cupping his hand once more. “Muscle or money. Both are far more effective.” Shrugging and dropping the theatrics as the doors cycled around them, he added, “As you get older and stronger, you’ll learn more about it. The only reason we’re going back to the Empire proper is to work on our Intents. A f*****g hurdle and a half that, and after our delve into Minkalla for our Concepts, we’ll take the easy way out for once.”

Matt raised an eyebrow at them. “You two went into Minkalla? The way you flew made it seem like your Concepts were better than the ones normal Tier 14s get.”

Olivia grinned at him. “Now that’s telling. We did, but once we were Tier 15 and immortal, we broke those shitty Concepts and took our time figuring out just what we wanted our Domains to be. Took us a few thousand years, but we got there in the end. I take it you guys didn’t have such an issue?”

Liz wiggled her hand. “We had Concepts already when we entered, but we ducked out after a floor 4 Courtly Warfare, where some frontrunner managed to conquer nearly the entire floor in like a month and a half. They left behind a faction far too powerful to clear out easily. A few close calls later, when the doors finally opened, we decided to leave well enough alone and cut our losses.”

That was their official story for these identities that they had worked out beforehand with Luna, and they had actually been part of that cycle, so they could convincingly tell almost anything about it without seeming like they were lying.

They chatted the rest of the way to another lounge with a door guard who let them pass after Marcus shook the woman’s hand.

Inside, they found the lounge which, while smaller, was almost empty, with tables recessed and hidden in shadowy alcoves. The bar was the only brightly lit place, and a quiet melody was coming out of speakers hidden somewhere in the room, completing the ambiance nicely.

Together, they took a table and placed their orders for drinks and started chatting with their new traveling companions.

Matt wasn’t sure how he felt about the duo, but it was mixed.

They were friendly and open to taking three younglings under their metaphorical wings and showing them the ropes of how to bribe and weasel their ways into hidden lounges. That in and of itself would have been fine, Luna had had them practice far more devious espionage skills. But the way the duo openly talked about how they liked living in places where nobles like the Adairs ruled was a new experience to Matt.

Matt had almost thought them revolutionaries, but the two laughed at the very notion of the other Great Powers. They liked, even loved, living in the Empire, and even talked about how they gladly paid their taxes to fund the public works.