The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

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For them, their goal would be to kill all the ants and the elephant, as doing so would give them an extra reward of some kind; the more ants killed the better. Except it wasn’t that easy, killing the elephant would immediately end the challenge, so you needed to kill the elephant as fast as possible, not only without aid from the ants, but also while killing all of your supposed allies.

The other challenges were similar. Soldiers vs. Dragon was as the name implied, and the main variation was that the reward was scaled based on how many soldiers survived the battle. Over the Mountain was about getting a large group of people across a huge natural hazard, be it a mountain, raging ravine, or perilous desert. Abomination Civil War involved fighting an enormous monster with a group of people, and after each monster was killed, half of the surviving allies, and all the dead ones, would fuse together into a giant abomination that acted as the next monster to fight.

In every case, there was a single big monster to take down, and likely a huge army of weaker monsters. In other words, it was just a normal rift delve for them, with the bonus of there potentially being a huge pool of blood for Liz to steal and command.

Liz asked, “So we’re definitely doing it, right?”

Matt and Aster immediately answered yes, but were still slower than Susanne, who simply nodded.

“If we all agree, let’s try it. We have enough Genesis Energy to start the challenge, if just barely.”

“Race to the kill?” Liz winked at him. Their ‘original’ strategy for the challenge had involved Matt occupying the elephant and weakening it while Liz and Aster swept the army of ants, then Liz used the enormous ocean of blood accumulated from the ants’ extermination to [Blood Tidal Wave] the elephant and drown it. But the [AI] simulations they’d run once getting used to working with Queen had revealed another potential route to victory.

Why exactly [AI]s were so restricted within Minkalla was a matter of debate, with some saying that it was to force people to rely on their own abilities. Others said that it was restricted in the same way all Tier 26 and above skills were, with the unusual nature of the artificial pseudo-skill the only reason it worked at all. Regardless of the true reason, Matt could brute force a simulation with enough mana, even inside the Forge, but he didn’t need to here with their pre-entry prep.

With Queen acting as support for him, as well as providing the first crack into the elephant’s armor, he projected that he could take down the elephant with about a minute straight of [Cracked Mana Spear] at full bore. But he’d need someone to help keep the elephant occupied while he attempted to drill through its skull. At full charge, his skill was a massive strain on his spirit, and he’d need to cast it six times in a row to balance the timers of the skill destabilizing and the spiritual strain from overwhelming him while casting at max channel. His best guess was six casts of ten seconds would be his sweet spot. Susanne could keep him safe during that process though, and if this all went well, they could clear the challenge in record time.

“Only if it actually is Ants vs. Elephants,” he clarified. “Or Abomination Civil War. But it is likely to be AvE.”

“Oh, of course.”

“Good. In that case, I wish you good luck stamping out a few bugs.”

With that settled, they gathered and put their hands and paw on the pillar of crystal. When they did so it sucked most of the Genesis Energy out of their bodies and into itself, brightly illuminating the crystal for all that they couldn’t see it themselves.

As the Genesis Energy stopped flowing out of them, a feeling of vertigo hit Matt and he almost blacked out, but he was able to resist the feeling.

The first thing that Matt noticed when the world stopped spinning was the fact he could see.

The floor’s restriction on their senses had been lifted, which after hours of sensory deprivation was a reprieve unlike any other, and Matt took a second or two to enjoy being able to see and feel. Not all challenge rooms abided by the floor’s rules, but whether they did or not was more random chance than any set pattern. It did mean that he was able to enjoy the smile stretching across Liz’s mask, but he couldn’t linger on any of the thoughts that came to mind, as they quickly sprang into action. Spiritual perception was good and all, but it wasn’t the same.

Before them was an elephant the size of a warship, the tip of its head tall enough to scrape the nonexistent clouds, and a writhing black carpet of human-sized ants that coated the forest’s floor. Exactly as they hoped.

Liz leapt into the air, overseeing tens of thousands of ants as they charged at the massive elephant that Matt flew toward. In his wake, he left an enormous trail of blood and ice, spawned from his endless mana pushed through [Create Blood] and [Hail], filling the pocket space they found themselves in.

Time was ticking, and they didn’t want to waste any of it. After all, the faster they were, the better their rewards.

From Matt’s right hand, a three-hundred-foot-wide [Hail] rushed forward, guided by Aster into a massive wave of ice that slowed and froze the ants en masse, cracking their exoskeletons and leaving a slight trail of blood from each insect. From his left hand, hundreds of gallons of sanguine liquid from [Create Blood] flooded the battlefield for her to use.

At the peak of her jump, Liz reached into her glove and withdrew just a bit of blood, with the growth item ensuring it was already perfectly primed to accept her skill. A quick flex of mana and will later, she sent off her first [Blood Sprite]. The red sparrow immediately dove into the river of blood that already occupied the battlefield and started multiplying, fast. Within a second there were dozens. After a few seconds more, there were hundreds, and that was when Liz unleashed the bloody birds on the frozen ants.