The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

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He was in charge of the formation while Liz transplanted the herbs that littered the edges of the pools to her garden, and Susanne protected them from anything trying to attack them, with Aster’s help.

Matt ended up with the quickest and crudest method of keeping the Mana Leeches from draining them and their gear of mana. He simply created a bubble of mana and kept feeding it with more and more mana for the leeches to drain, protecting what was inside of the bubble from their influence. Minkalla made the process more difficult, but he was able to just spend more mana to counteract its draining effect as well.

It only took 200 MPS to maintain, but that was more a commentary of Matt’s enchanting style than what a normal, better designed item would be able to do.

Ten minutes into their voyage, they found their first real monster. Or rather, it found them. A massive, crocodile-like reptile that was all but invisible to their spiritual senses had burst from the water, and they didn’t even notice until Susanne vanished from ‘sight,’ as she was swallowed whole by the monster. It didn’t go well for the creature, as she cut through its mouth in a single, devastating blow, highlighting its existence as she killed it.

Susanne ended up not being too worse for wear, as her [Cracked Second Wind] took care of her wounds. But they made sure that they were substantially more careful as they progressed, encountering several more of the crocodiles as they explored the network of tunnels and caverns. The next time, it was Matt swallowed whole, and he didn’t notice he had been swallowed until his companions vanished from his perceptions.

His armor proved stronger than the bite, since the jaws were unable to pierce the skill before he exploded out of the creature’s head in a gory, icy [Icicle]. He made his escape fast enough that the mana leech-repelling ward didn’t so much as waver.

By then, Liz had figured out the telltale signs of the predators, and when one came from her, she intercepted its ambush with a hail of [Blood Bullet]s, punching through its upper jaw and skull mid-bite. They didn’t have that much trouble with the beasts all together, as they were only low Tier 14 and specialized for stealth, but they were annoying.

Meanwhile, Liz led them through a zigzag pattern between the various pools and streams that littered the caverns as she collected several plants. Most weren’t all that valuable, but they did encounter a few notable natural treasures.

Purple Heart Lotus was a natural treasure that, once eaten, would grow a membrane of purple mana around the eater’s heart, which would protect them from stabbings and generally help keep the heart pumping in spite of any injury.

Sadly, the item wouldn’t work after Tier 15, when biology took a back seat to essence and manipulation of the spirit. At that point, the body and spirit produced enough essence on their own that the cultivator’s body was self-sustaining.

Still, it was useful for them, and all of them ate a leaf before Liz stored the rest of the plant. It would sell for a rift on the outside world, and they weren’t going to pass that up.

The next viable item they found was an odd one…pine-apples. It was a pine tree that grew…apples. They were rare and quite valuable, not because they were useful or had some special properties, but just because they were incredibly tasty.

Liz had a difficult time transferring the entire tree to her alchemy garden because of its size, but they succeeded in the end, and as long as they kept the item charged with mana, it would give them a slow but steady stream of the pine-apples.

Her portable garden was a rare and expensive spatial item, built around being able to hold living things and keep them alive, but it had the downsides of being expensive to run, along with restrictions on what could enter.

Still, it showed its value in times like these.

The next item they found was a Grasping Vines Root, which was an item like Aster’s Winter’s Embrace. Once eaten, it gave the user an ability that would grow along with them but wasn’t an actual skill.

Susanne debated taking the natural treasure, but in the end, she decided not to. It would be useful, but she would need to remain rooted to a single spot, which wasn’t how she liked to fight.

For that same reason, they all passed up on it.

They were nearing what they expected was the center of the cave network when the first Mana Leech attacked them. Susanne cut it in half before it neared their barrier without issue, but they were surprised by just how much Genesis Energy they got.

It wasn’t a ton, but it was more than any of them expected for a creature that had little in the way of offense or defense. They suspected it was because Matt was feeding them with mana at a crazy rate, which in turn created a large population of small Genesis Energy generators.

That discovery led them into a Mana Leech extermination mission, where they hunted down all of the parasites they could find.

During that mission, they actually found another challenge room when a Mana Leech disappeared into a blank spot of another large lagoon. Once again, the sense-suppressing nature of Eternal Darkness had made them almost completely miss what should have been blindingly obvious, but Matt felt that they were getting better at accounting for it.

The pillar of crystal stood on a small sandbar at the center of the body of water, and gave them a feeling of…testing, building, and guidance. It wouldn’t involve combat, they were sure, but the impressions it gave didn’t really correspond with any mana leech or swamp-style challenge rooms that they knew of.

Beyond that, they couldn’t get a better feeling for the challenge. Still, they decided to venture inside.

After sending Genesis Energy into the pillar, all of them were sucked into the challenge.

Matt laughed as he saw what their test was.

It was a simulation environment, specifically ‘Essential Civilization’.

Together, the four of them needed to raise a civilization out of a pre-essence age to as high as they could in one thousand years.

Matt looked to where he felt Liz, Aster, and Susanne off to his sides. The floor theme was gone, but their bodies weren’t actually here either, and they were all just outlines of their normal shapes.

“Everyone knows the strategy for this one?” Liz asked.

Aster yipped, “Yup! Push ‘em early then in waves.”