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With their cultivation and numerous prizes from Minkalla, they were able to clear the Tier 16 rifts together with enough ease that Luna started having Matt create more and more complicated rifts, hoping to make a counter to them, but their skill pools had widened so much recently that it was a difficult task.
Matt almost expected her to start limiting their skills in the Tier 16 rift, but she never did. At least, not in that rift. In the Tier 15 rifts, their restrictions went up and up until they were delving with one skill each. It was fun, honestly, figuring out the best ways to adapt when Luna suddenly told him that he wasn’t able to use [Ice Manipulation] when he was actively holding a monster back with it, or what to do when he was inches away from being hit by an attack and instructed to drop [Cracked Phantom Armor]. Sure it was painful sometimes, but that just made the successes that much sweeter.
Days started to blend into weeks and months as they worked on improving themselves.
With nearly every waking moment spent doing something productive, they fell into the grind to make themselves better, and the results showed.
Liz, after some struggles, finally started seeing results with her blood magic being used in rituals. Going off the information from her blood queen life, she was able to create runes that, when powered by blood, granted stronger or additional effects.
It turned into a fun project between the two of them where they could mix their specialties into a greater whole. Matt was designing and creating a number of runes, and Liz was empowering them with blood from the numerous monsters they killed daily.
Aster, on the other hand, worked on strengthening her Concept and its various powers from Minkalla, along with working on spatial abilities. Something none of them had any luck with, even if she was the closest.
Liz still wasn’t at the flight stage yet, and Matt couldn’t stop expanding space no matter how much he tried to reverse what he was feeling. Fortunately, their other Concept practice went far better than their attempts at spatial manipulation. Matt’s two enchanting abilities worked fantastically together, and they allowed him to pack enormous amounts of power into everything he made.
Their weapon skills didn’t sit idle either. Liz, in particular, had taken the opportunity sparked by her new spear to branch out with her fighting style. With some guidance from Kurt, she ultimately settled on making the shield she’d picked up in Minkalla more of a permanent part of her kit. The shorter nature of her new spear actually helped with that, and while she still frequently fell into old habits, she was only ‘dreadful’ at it according to Luna’s standards, which put her well above the average spear and shield fighter.
Matt also trained with Kurt as a blademage, but even he could admit his improvement there was minimal. He had already mastered the basics to a degree that most of his gains were from simple practice incorporating his new skills.
Aster even got training with Kurt, as she was adamant she wanted to learn to fight when she got a human body, and wanted to get a head start on that. Most of her training was watching Kurt explain things, but she seemed to enjoy it, even if she couldn’t do most of it herself yet.
One of the most common refrains in their training, which Aster and Liz did while Matt was practicing enchanting, was summoning practice. Liz had taken [Lesser Blood Clone] into her core, and also had [Summon Blood Monster], which combined to give her a breadth of options in a fight, especially when acting as a mage. The summoned monsters from Aster’s tiara were innately more powerful than Liz’s summons, but much more difficult to directly control.
Naturally, Luna did not take something being difficult as an excuse. For hours at a time, Liz and Aster would have their summons fight each other, or run through obstacle courses, which also interlaced with Concept practice by empowering the summons in various ways.
Any time they had free time beyond that, which was rare, April took to training them under Luna’s supervision. The lessons ranged from simple things they already knew about pertaining to their Concepts, to Great Power politics, and even the military command structures for all eight Great Powers and how they varied, along with their strengths and weaknesses.
Before they knew it, three years had passed, and Liz and Aster were almost at the peak of Tier 12, and Matt was only slightly deeper into Tier 13, having diverted nearly all his share of essence to his teammates.
The plan to get Liz a new growth item hadn’t panned out, as nothing the rift created was useful for her, either being too niche or not blood related at all.
Liz had also been able to work through most of her issues with being a blood mage with the help of a local therapist and a few exchanges with her parents who helped to reassure her that everything would be fine and she wouldn’t go crazy just for using a new power. Liz didn’t magically get over her reticence overnight but it did put her on a stable footing going forward.
It seemed like any other normal day when their and everyone else’s AI pinged them.
One of the members of the tribunal, Yellow, was ascending in five years on their homeworld, one of the lower Tier planets in Rusty’s capital system.
With half a decade of lead time, everyone who could go started planning their trip to the system, and the three of them weren’t any different. An Ascension was good for creating a Concept, yes, but it was also helpful for anyone trying to create an Intent or Aspect. Though it was relatively less helpful for those higher levels of domains.
Still, they wanted to be there. It would be a waste to pass it up.
Matt expected Luna to get them to hunker down and focus on their advancement, and she proved them right.
“It’s time you three actually finished a Tier 18 rift.”
- Writer
