The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

56

The four of them were surprised that the people had learned that trick on their own, without an event or them spending the Genesis Energy to directly interfere. But that advancement helped tremendously, as they were able to advance the Tier of monsters and rifts with their increased power levels.

As Tier 6 and Tier 7 rifts started appearing, things became dangerous, since the strongest people were only just advancing past Tier 5. At the same time the general populace had only reached Tier 1, but they still survived and even thrived, now they had an idea of what was happening.

With more people awakening, they started to notice the difference between people and eventually learned that Talents were universal, rather than just fantastic powers only a few held. That discovery also taught them just how useful Talents could be to help people do new things.

Without the technology of the Empire, they were unable to categorize the Talents, so it was mostly trial and error, but as more and more people advanced, strong people started to stand out.

The real problem was the Tier 5 bottle neck. Anyone without a Concept, or as the people of the simulation called them, a Truth, was stuck at the peak of Tier 4. The simulation had no bottled Concept to allow them to push that necessity to a higher Tier.

At that point, Matt shamelessly cheated.

Anything they knew how to do they could recreate in the world below. It just cost Genesis Energy.

Matt didn’t hesitate to do so, and by spending a good fraction of his saved up Genesis Energy, he recreated a Tier 4 Aura rift. It took them some time, but they learned that with the Aura, they were able to create a ‘False Truth’ as each person who made their Concept from Aura called. Sadly, they misunderstood why each person who used the Aura was limited to an earth type Concept and labeled it weaker. Still, it allowed them to advance past the bottleneck, and the island he spawned it on soon became an independent city-state, despite everyone trying to gain or retain control over the rift.

The Aura rift did its job amazingly, and the percentage of the population who advanced to Tier 5 and beyond exploded.

As the first century of the simulation ended, people started to notice that the higher advanced people lived longer and were healthier, which created a drive to advance in a lot of people who had otherwise not bothered with cultivation.

At first, the four of them were able to advance the planet a Tier once a decade, but soon, that slowed down as advancements took longer and became harder.

If the four of them weren’t on a time limit, Matt would have loved to spend time observing the simulation and seeing just how everything worked inside with its slightly altered rules, but they didn’t have time.

After the second century, they just sped the simulation to maximum speed and watched the countries grow and fall.

None of the original ones were still standing a thousand years later, but the planet as a whole had reached Tier 16 with its special rules.

Before the end, Matt checked in on Abby. The woman who had started as little more than a peasant girl had grown into a respectable warrior and remained one of the ten Tier 18’s who had taken the role of guiding their planet’s advancement. He was proud of her for that and was sad to see her life fade to nothing with the end of the simulation.

A Tier 16 planet and an average population reaching Tier 7 was a very respectable final score, earning them more than triple the Genesis Energy they had all put in.

Back in their bodies with six hours spent in the simulation, they watched as their rewards were created.

Unlike the previous time, they only got a single item, but considering it was an endlessly refilling healing potion, they didn’t care much. Sure, it took mana, time, and a touch of Genesis Energy, or presumably essence, though they weren’t able to check, but the chalice definitely helped ease the burden put on their normal potion stock. Of course, the fact that the potion couldn’t be poured out of the chalice without being drank was a double-edged sword, as it meant they didn’t have to worry about it spilling, but they also couldn’t pour it on their wounds or into any of their empty potion bottles to stock up.

They ended up giving it to Susanne, who didn’t have the advantage of unlimited [Lesser Regeneration] or Liz’s ability to make her own healing potions. She’d probably get five or six tiers of use out of it, before out-Tiering it to the point that it wasn’t worth the increased healing cooldown that a lower Tier healing potion would impart.

After that challenge room, they inspected the rest of the cave network, collecting anything they found useful before they continued on through the tunnels and found the exit of the sub-floor they were on.

Even with their dampened spiritual perception, they could see the Ruin reward distortion off in the distance.

When they exited the tunnel, they found themselves in a shifting desert, and finally got a good feel for the distortion. It was a good distance away, but it shone like a light in the darkness that the floor imposed on them.The four of them trekked through the desert for half a mile before they were forced to stop.

Eternal Darkness, as a floor theme, had many dangers to be aware of due to the lack of senses. Before entering a typically hot and dry place, they had Aster create a fist-sized orb of ice and float it next to them as a rudimentary temperature gauge, which was the only reason they realized that the environment was becoming dangerous.

Her ice ball melted in less than ten minutes.

Aster, as a Tier 11 former ice fox, had a Concept revolving around making her ice colder, and thus less susceptible to melting. She also had decades of practice in refining and strengthening said ice.