The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

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Aster ended up grabbing a Feather of Falling, a natural treasure that gave the person who took it the ability to better control themselves while they were falling. She didn’t need it for that effect, but it was one of the core ingredients in a wind potion that would strengthen her control over air mana.

The next big-ticket items were the houses. Some of them were quite nice, and Susanne and Aster each decided to take one of them. Aster took one so she had somewhere to call home herself when she was separated from them, once she reached Tier 15 and went off to the beast academy. Susanne took the other because the house was simply better than the one she had gotten from the Tier 10 Pather tournament.

Luna tried to tell Aster she would have little need of the house, but she set her mind on it and refused to budge, so they let her have it. The rest of the houses were set to either be absorbed by Matt’s growth house once he reached Tier 15, and could use a larger spatial ring, or were to be sold outright for other helpful items.

Most of the swords went to Susanne so she could absorb them into her Concept, even the void longsword Matt had used to defeat his reflection during the final fight of the sixth floor. While a void weapon was handy, it wasn’t a growth item, and he would have little use for it as a Tier 13 that would be delving in at least Tier 15 rifts. Void was strong, but changing his entire style for a weapon that would ultimately only be useful for a few Tiers was pointless when Susanne could get much more use out of it, once they confirmed it would be safe to shove inside her spirit.

The rest of the arms and armors were divvied up to be sold en masse at the Corporations’ moon orbiting Minkalla, which hosted one of the largest inter-Great Power markets in the Realm. April informed them that some of it would be shipped back to the Great Powers proper, but most would end up back inside the planet one way or another, which gave Matt an odd feeling.

Skills were the next biggest debate. They had nearly a thousand Tier 8 skills, twice that in Tier 14 skills, and nearly one hundred and thirty Tier 20 skill shards. It was a staggering amount of wealth, far too much for them to properly assess in a reasonable amount of time without help.

After looking through the piles of skills, they took the few they wanted and then gave the rest to the liaisons to sell and barter off in exchange for a laundry list of skills that Carol and Luna wanted their respective teams to take. The first was [Arcane Powershot], which was most commonly found in the Corporations, Clans, and Sects under the names of [Conjured Weapon NM20-AR], [Skypiercing Bow], and [The Divine Arrows of Distant Vengeance] respectively. It was a skill that summoned a magical bow, then allowed for channeling mana into a single magic arrow that was fired off at incredible speeds. With a base effective range of fifty miles, it was considered an ‘extreme’ range skill, far better than what even [Cracked Mana Spear] could accomplish, but that wasn’t what made it special.

While the mana arrow was being reinforced, the skill also allowed other bow skills to be applied, giving a wide latitude of additional effects with the appropriate setup. There were some drawbacks, however. When releasing the arrow, it kicked like a mule, and the spell itself anchored the caster in order to prevent them from being flung backward. Effectively, he couldn’t move while firing. Additionally, the mana control requirements for making the arrow and layering effects on top of it could become quite high. Normal mages had trouble when using half their mana pool per shot, and Matt expected to use several times that amount.

With that in mind, Matt collected a few skills that would bolster his new ability, putting his Taxing Skills reward to good use. He had the mana and outer skill slots to spare, and there was no compelling reason to not use a few skills supporting his new ability and corresponding new strategy. [Telescope] would help him see his targets past the normal limits of his sight, [Piercing Shot] would add some basic armor piercing to his arrows, [Illusory Arrow] would project an illusion of the arrow following a slightly different arc as it flew, and [Pinned Shadow] would stick a person in place when their shadow was struck by the arrow.

Aside from the bow skills, he also found [Hypersonic Edge], which he had seen the utility of firsthand. It wasn’t quite as good for him as it was for Susanne, but it would boost a substantial part of his arsenal.

Susanne took [Searing Weapon], a Tier 20 version of [Fire Weapon] which focused more on heat rather than flames and could get hot enough to burn through metal armor, given a few strikes. Typically, this heat could damage the user’s weapon if too much mana was used at once, but weapon Manifestations didn’t have that problem. She also grabbed [Bulwark], which they had in their pile of skills. She wouldn’t be able to abuse the skill as much as Matt did, but it remained a staple skill for melee fighters for a reason, and she would likely be able to infuse it into her shield Manifestation with some practice.

Additionally, April identified the light skill they had found from their challenge crystal on Folded Reflections as [Corunthican Defense], a skill not usually found in the Empire which reactively shot down incoming magic with focused rays of light, disrupting their structure and typically causing them to detonate harmlessly. It had its limitations, mostly against very large attacks, but it provided a strong and cheap counter to tactics like Matt throwing out [Fireball]s as fast as he could cast them. Susanne took that skill with a grin, remarking that Matt hardly needed a dedicated defense against being whittled down.

Liz wasn’t left out of the new skill splurge. [Heartpiercer] was a spear skill meant for piercing both magical and mundane armor by making the spear heavier and heavier as mana was channeled in, culminating in a shaped explosion when the spearhead struck the target.

Despite the name, [Shadow Sword] worked nearly as well on spears as it did swords. It paired well with a number of other skills, especially [Rapid Thrust]. Unfortunately, that skill had broken when Liz brought it into her spirit, but [Illusory Feint] still had potential. She’d absorbed it during Folded Reflections, but the illusions hadn’t become real blood as she’d hoped they would, instead becoming illusions of blood spears. It was on the list of skills Liz was planning on moving to her outer spirit or outright ejecting from her spirit altogether, but she hoped combining the attack with [Shadow Sword] would be just as effective as it was normally.