The Path of Ascension 8: A LitRPG Adventure

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He used his Concept to shoot the spine out of his limb, and he crashed into the ground at full force, slamming into the monster. It tried to entrap and snare him with its tentacle-like limbs, but Matt unleashed a Concept shockwave and blasted it to pieces from the inside.

As he started to charge the explosion once more, he let the wind catch him, blowing him out of the way of a descending tentacle. A pair of gusts later, Matt had cleaved the offending appendage in half and was unleashing a massive [Flamethrower] to scorch and burn its stoney skin.

Liz grabbed his extraneous flame for one of her own attacks, burning the monsters until they were nothing more than puddles of blood to keep the whirlwind going.

The monsters weren’t especially tough for Tier 18 enemies, clearly not dedicated to defense. While their movements were odd and jerky, they were trivially easy to predict with the team’s respective AIs once they learned the movement style. They barely even cast any spells, which was somewhat unusual for such high-tier monsters, but he wouldn’t complain about good fortune.

A barrage of spines flew at his back, wreathed in silver light, and Matt was forced to take them as he was locked in combat with another three of the creatures. He reinforced the spots where they were going to hit slightly, but didn’t need to bother, as his armor’s second layer blocked the attacks admirably.

Liz bathed in the blood of her enemies, silver glinting in the wake of her passage as she ran laps around the monsters. She managed to make the tentacles, a full five tiers above her, look clumsy as she danced an intricate dance of death. A good deal of it was thanks to Aster’s aid, of course, but it still looked impressive as [Hungering Blood] fed back into her [Bloodrush], making her faster and faster as she picked her foes to pieces.

Aster stood proud atop an icy spire serving as the crowning piece of a garden made of frozen plants. Rift monsters rabidly attacked her, only to be sliced open by [Meadows of Rime], frozen into place, and drained of life by Winter’s Embrace.

Another nigh-invisible spine nearly struck Matt in the leg, but he teleported out of the way, spun, and sent a return [Cracked Mana Spear] in the direction of the offending monster, wherever it was.

A [Bulwark] intercepted another one of the spines, this one aimed at Aster, but between the two spines, Matt was able to figure out where the culprit was, namely half-buried in the rock and taking shots of opportunity. He was able to layer enough [Cracked Mana Trap]s on top of it that the next time the monster tried to emerge, it was instantly reduced to twitching piles of flesh.

They fought for somewhere between five and ten minutes. Liz was able to fuel her spells well enough with [Lesser Blood Sacrifice] and even [Lesser Sacrifice] that she needed only occasional assistance from Matt’s Concept to keep up, but Aster required his Concept’s full focus to keep functional. Fortunately, the single-target championing mode of his Concept was close enough to its base mana-granting ability that he could keep it up for hours before he’d need to take a break.

Aster detonated a portion of her ice garden with [Cracked Shatter], the explosion killing another dozen of the monsters, and Liz slammed into the final morass of monsters with a veritable wall of silver. Her blood turned her shield bash into a wall of destruction, vaporizing the last of their enemies. After, it spiraled into Liz’s spear, with the black steel hungrily drinking gallons of blood until it gleamed like a sunset.

Matt sent out another pulse of [Earth Manipulation] to find more hidden enemies but saw nothing. Even the fallen bodies in front of him simply didn’t register as existing or taking up any space.

Liz joined him, bringing with her an unconsumed sphere of blood.

“The only reason it’s not turning into stone at the moment is because I’m connected to it with my Talent. This blood—” Matt almost smiled as Liz stressed the word, “is hardly blood. It’s liquid stone the same way mercury is liquid metal.”

Aster flicked an armored ear in question. “So it’s stone that’s just liquid at room temperature?”

“Basically. There’s some active magic involved, so the blood will transform to stone at the slightest opportunity, once it stops moving. I can get it going again afterwards, but I’m pretty sure they’re more elemental or golem-like than their…well, everything else would suggest. If they aren’t moving, I need to actually treat it like it’s stone to control it at all.”

Aster nodded. “So some kind of hibernation?”

Liz nodded. “That’s my guess. They’ve also got really good camouflage of some kind, which is why [Earth Manipulation] isn’t finding them.”

Aster grinned right back at him. “Only one way to tell.”

Matt slipped his arm under Liz and willed them into the air. Liz was technically able to fly with her Concept these days, but it was slow, unwieldy, and was in practice more akin to hovering. So, she and Matt still tended to fly together any time when speed was important or when willpower was in short demand as it was so much cheaper for him to use [Air Manipulation].

His boon from Winter, and the ability to drop the skill into an innate slot for a few weeks at a time, had led Luna to teach him a particular usage of the skill that mimicked the Tier 26 [Windsurfing]. The net effect was that he could treat himself, and any passengers as though they were weightless, and thus able to be freely blown through the air on even a slight breeze. It was certainly easier than his earlier method of freezing the air around him, faster, and far more agile.

Plus, it was fun, and the novelty hadn’t worn off yet.

Below them, he and Liz each took hold of the ground. It was tricky, interlacing their control of the dirt and stone, as each of their respective magics wanted to take full control of the area, but they’d practiced this, and could manage it just fine.

Once their grips were adequately solid, they both twisted the ground in opposite directions as hard as they could.

There was a distinct lack of a reaction, prompting Matt to worry for a few moments until the essence started rushing up from the ground.

At first, Matt was pleased by the result, but then, on second thought, frowned. Liz voiced his thought an instant before he could.

“Swarm?”

Aster c****d her head, then nodded. “They were too easy. Tier 17 strength at most.”

Even Tier 13 monsters tended to have at least three spells, and the monsters they’d fought so far had one, maybe two, depending on how their camouflage and quills worked. Only extremely physical-focused monsters wouldn’t have something at this point, and the monsters certainly weren’t tough enough to be focused on their bodies.

And of course, a Tier 18 monster shouldn’t be weaker than a Tier 17 monster.

Was it possible? Yes.

Would Luna have kicked them out of the rift the moment she saw the rift wasn’t as strong as a proper Tier 18 rift should be? Also yes.

Which meant there was an issue.

Matt released Liz, allowing her to float to the ground on her own power, and let an updraft carry him further into the sky. He passed a substantial amount of mana to [Ranger’s Sight], allowing the vision enhancement to aid his scan of a massive portion of the rift.

He thought about using his spiritual sense, but that could be felt by monsters, and he didn’t think that alerting the real monsters of the rift was a good idea quite yet.

After a few minutes, he had nothing new and landed.

“I’ve got nothing.” Shrugging, Matt looked up to the abused moon hovering over them. “I don’t think we should go up there until we understand what is going on down here, though.”

In preparation, they took turns applying their life-support systems to their armor. It was niche enough that most suits of armor didn’t include protection from hazardous environments that wasn’t cold or hot, but when blind delving rifts, it was an invaluable investment.