The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

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Matt and Luna stood in the Tier 10 rift as he flexed his 5,120 mana pool all on [Earth Manipulation].

The ground seemed to flow as he pushed the skill to do as he commanded, and more like water than stone and dirt, the landscape around them rose up and rushed forward.

Observing the damage and destruction with his spiritual sense, Matt whistled even as he shunted the essence that rushed into him from the many, many monsters he had killed back into the air for the rift to reabsorb it.

He didn’t want or need Tier 10 essence mingling in with his cultivation core, and that wasn’t their purpose here anyway.

Luna, in her cat form, jumped up to his shoulder and said, “Your range has improved, but that’s just from the doubling of mana and the Tier up. It’s 8.3% less than it should be, and it shows how the inefficiency is hurting you.”

She nodded and flicked the back of his head with her tail. It actually stung like someone had flicked him with their finger. All in all, it was a reminder that she was at least Tier 40 with power well beyond his comprehension.

And really, it wasn’t his fault. He was so used to Aster riding in his backpack that reaching up and scratching something fluffy on his shoulder was second nature. Luna really didn’t need to knock him flat for that one mistake.

Aster had, of course, found it funny, but Matt was plotting his vengeance. One day he’d be stronger than Luna and would then ruffle the woman’s fur in revenge.

Sadly, that day was far, far off, as demonstrated by the casual wave of her paw that sent all of the earth he had manipulated back to what it had originally been like. She even recreated the hills and valleys perfectly, down to the scattering of rocks and small stones, to a degree that his AI wasn’t able to see the difference.

The only indication of their presence was the absence of trees and grasses nearby, which were destroyed by his earlier manipulation.

“Do it again but go through the control exercise.” Matt turned to observe Luna, who, despite speaking, was currently grooming herself, making his brain hurt at the dissonance of her actions.

When Aster talked and did something with her mouth, it was one thing, but she talked with her AI. When Luna did it, she was using [Air Manipulation] to recreate her human voice, and it sounded all too accurate, painting the picture of his manager in human form.

Shaking his head, he took a deep breath before going through one of the exercises Luna had first taught him as a Tier 6.

The ground around him rippled as he sent his mana through [Earth Manipulation] and then told the ground within his range to flatten.

It only took a moment, but all the hills and valleys Luna created were gone, and he created a surface with a deviation of less than a sixteenth of an inch from its highest point to its lowest.

Luna rumbled, “Better. Only a 5.9% deviation larger than expected. Continue.”

Getting the go ahead, Matt flexed his mana once more, this time focusing on destroying every stone larger than a pea into smaller fragments, then focused on grinding down even those peas of gravel into the smallest pieces he could manage.

He felt Luna’s purr-like rumble through his shoulder as she said, “Step one was a little sloppy, but step two was much better with a 2.3% larger decrease in size than expected.”

Matt’s mouth twisted into a self-mocking sneer after hearing that. It wasn’t bad by any means, but he had felt his own manipulation and wasn’t happy with the results. A large portion of that final effort had been completed by his increased mana regeneration rate, rather than skill.

He knew that mana control would be an issue with his Talent, but it irked him to see the effects in the flesh and knew it would only get worse in the future every time he doubled his mana.

This test was completed in stages that each evaluated a different application of [Earth Manipulation].

The first test focused on his maximum range, while the second tested his long range control and sensory feedback from the skill itself in trying to level the ground as much as possible. The third test was meant to see his control over the ground and his ability to process information; he first needed to crush larger rocks to specific dimensions without going too small, and then he ground it all to the smallest level he could to test his raw power.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that he didn’t have an issue with raw power and its application.

Flexing his mana once more, he moved onto the fourth step, where he took all the loose ground and compacted it into a pseudo-sandstone-like material as he commanded the ground to fuse into a solid mass.

As he stopped, Luna’s tail swished. “1.9% increase in material hardness greater than we expected from the increase in mana. That could be from increased familiarity with the skill or the boost to your spirit. I wish we had been able to test this before you had your Inspiration. It would have made for a good baseline. The best we have is the test from right before you entered Minkalla.”

“I used [Earth Manipulation] quite a lot in Minkalla to control the terrain, so I did get good practice with it.”

Luna pondered his words before telling him to continue.

With that order, he began the final part of this test.

It was also his least favorite, as it was the one test he never performed as well as he would have liked on it.

Commanding the solid ground to rise, he created intricate concentric rings of square stones, exactly five feet on a side, to form in set distances that varied in each ring as they stretched outward to the farthest distances of his control.

Once the first layer was completed, he created a stone cube on top of his last one exactly half the first one’s size, and he repeated that until the cubes were smaller than dice, where he was no longer able to keep them perfectly square.

It was irritating, but he had expected this test to be bad and continued after pausing long enough for Luna to give him a critical grunt.

With a mental command, he transformed the stacked cubes into a more uniform pyramid, trying to sharpen the edges and flatten the planes as much as possible. If he had been able to focus all of his concentration on one pyramid, he could have easily made a mirror smooth structure, but that wasn’t the purpose of this test. It was meant to test his split control and concentration.