The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

18

Ideally, the combination of the two skills would make three insubstantial blood copies of her weapon, and one very real one. It wasn’t an entirely original trick, as illusionists had whole books filled with similar misdirections, but some things were classics for a reason. Her Courtly Warfare boon would throw even more mud in the water, making any opponents who she did hit fail to notice their wounds, and conclude that they’d only been struck by an illusion. Once her spirit was in good enough shape, she was looking forward to trying out her preemptively-christened [Pulmonary Echo].

Aster took her own share of skills to round herself out. [Ice Skin] was a Tier 14 skill that few took prior to Tier 15, as it could kill the user through hypothermia, but it otherwise provided some strong defense by hardening the skin and making many attacks slip off the user, at the cost of slowing the person down some. Aster had plans for it, though, and using one of her Folded Reflections lives as a basis, she planned to modify the skill to turn her fur into ice instead of her skin. In addition to negating the movement speed drawback, it would let her fur act as ablative armor that could be regrown far more easily than her skin could.

Matt was pretty sure she was at least partially motivated by the burns she had received, but she insisted that wasn’t the main reason…though she admitted it was a reason.

A Tier 20 version of [Hail], [Absolute White] summoned a cloud of snow and fog which slowed people, objects, and even spells which entered its radius, in addition to the more ordinary concealment it offered. Ambitiously, Aster wanted to modify it to not make its own fog, but instead apply the slowing effect to any other concealing mist, such as what her growth tiara could make, which was precisely the kind of advantage a flexible innate slot could offer.

Doubling up on area denial skills, [Cutting Hurricane] summoned gale force winds that also cut at targets inside its huge area. Against most strong targets, it wouldn’t do all that much, but it was great for clearing chaff and contesting flying targets who couldn’t brace against the ground.

The upgrade orbs were pulled out of their loot piles to be used after April came back, in case she got a Tier 8 or 14 skill that needed an upgrade.

After they settled that, it was left to their liaisons to beg, barter, and steal any other skills on their list. When Luna told April exactly that, Jeremiah laughed, seeming to be thinking that the cat was joking, but at her glare, quickly shut his mouth.

Despite the insane amount of wealth they had given her, the list of items Luna wanted in return was just as daunting, and Matt said a silent apology to their liaison for what she was about to have to deal with.

April though seemed completely unbothered, saying she would handle it within three months, which made Luna grin.

In cat form, the grin was probably a little more threatening than otherwise intended, but it felt like April had passed a test just as much as they had coming out of Minkalla.

Once April and Jeremiah were set with their loot, the rest of them immediately left the system.

Even while recovering, none of them truly stopped training, but their training was substantially more relaxed, averaging about four hours a day, and focused on things which wouldn’t aggravate their wounds.

Carol focused primarily on light Concept usage, taking advantage of the comparative non-stress that Mind Over Matter had left their Concepts with, and got them to explore and grow used to their new Folded Reflection abilities, with more focus on Matt due to his healed spirit. All of them got training in how to best utilize their enhanced spiritual senses from Eternal Darkness, though.

Luna, for her part, gave more lessons on how to stimulate their cultivation to guide their bodies to lessening the healing cooldown, usage and integration with their new growth items, and some light Skill modification lessons. Matt wasn’t sure if it was more disorienting to be receiving lessons from a cat, or for Luna to not be pushing them to their very limits.

The latter at least made sense. All of them were well past the healing cooldown and usually spent at least seven hours a day sleeping—several times longer than what someone of their Tier would normally need. While they were recovering, they were still being healed. Luna kept a close eye on the progress of their healing but left physical therapy in the hands of the healers.

Granted, things like limbs and such were a minor concern to the healers, who focused on healing their internals first.

Matt earned himself a raised eyebrow and shake of the head from the Healer who inspected his heart and lungs, before finishing the healing that he had received at Minkalla.

But at long last, he was whole once again.

Even if half his limbs were artificial.

4

April arrived back in the Minkalla system with a sigh.

It wasn’t that she disliked the place. No, she rather liked the atmosphere that permeated the carved out section of space, populated with all the entrants of Minkalla that returned. Mostly old Tier 14s who had just gotten their Concept and were now Tier 15 and immortal. There were also teams of Pathers who went in at Tier 12 and came out with more items, skills, and abilities than they knew what to do with. The members of the military who went in to hunt down enemy combatants and protect their own side’s people were also peppered in. And finally, the scions of the rich and famous who went into Minkalla for the thrill of adventure without their immortal minders watching over them made up the remainder of the gathering.

Anyone who came out contributed to the atmosphere of celebration and joy. Anyone who wasn’t so lucky was in no position to sour the mood.

All in all, the place was bustling and frenetic, two things April enjoyed.

She just wasn’t excited for her actual job.

Luna had saddled her with a rather hefty list of goods and items she wanted procured for the team. In and of itself, that wasn’t unusual, but the manager had also left a large amount of the items to April’s own discretion, which screamed test.

And passing Luna’s tests was vital to April’s career as a liaison, trainer, and manager in her own right.