The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

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Reward: Rework a chunk of your cultivation, achieving better than perfect compression in the process. Ranging from the most recent two Tiers on floor one to a complete redo on floor seven, any reworked essence is more potent even if overall essence distribution is not changed. Additionally, starting on floor three, permanently gain the ability to slowly shift allocated essence, increasing in speed with the depth of the floor.

“Does that work with Genesis Cultivation if you get both themes?” Aster asked.

Kurt wrote a simple, “Yes.”

Aster nodded at him as she yipped. “Oh, that has some possibilities.”

Taxing Skills: Skills become more expensive with each usage, tracked on a per-skill basis. Channeled skills become more expensive to use at a continuous, ever-increasing rate. Monsters tend to come in huge groups.

Reward: Gain bonus skill slots. On floor 1, this is two extra Inner skill slots and five extra Outer skill slots, effectively one Tier’s worth in total. By the sixth floor, it permanently increases how many skill slots are gained per Tier, and by the seventh it slightly more than doubles both current and future skill slots.

“Now that’s interesting.” Matt tapped his chin in thought.

“What would you need that many skills for?” Susanne asked incredulously, “You already have plenty of Inner spirit skills for any kind of fighting. Besides, it’s hardly like you need to worry about mana efficiency so you can use Outer skill slots if needed.”

“Maybe, but I can use a lot of skills at the same time, and just because I get my mana back doesn’t mean I shouldn’t use it efficiently. I’m already tight on space, and that’s not going to get any better as time goes on.”

That earned a nod from Luna.

“Well, good for you.” Susanne’s smile cut any of the sting that the comment could have generated, making it an obvious joke.

Matt smirked and said in his best Quill voice, “Stick with me kid, and you’ll see great and fabulous things.”

They quickly moved on to show a host of diagrams about shapeshifting.

Self-Identity: Those entering the floor will find their appearance, cultivation, non-consumable items, body, and skills changed to another random person upon the floor, keeping only your Talents (consumable items vanish, but are not gained). Upon leaving the floor, the changes revert. Monsters are predominantly mimic and shapeshifter-types.

Reward: Remake a part of your body. On floor one, this is replacing your eye or a hand to be better than perfect, a bio-mechanical substance that grows, heals, and for all intents and purposes is alive despite also being artificial, with the remade body part functioning similarly to a growth item. On floor three and deeper, that body part can be enchanted in addition to generally being made of higher-quality stuff than your baseline body. By floor seven, the entire body was remade into the strange biomechanical substance as a perfected being.

“Wait, what?” Liz blinked, “Also, will my blood magic still work if I’m…artificial?”

Matt echoed the sentiment, and it looked like Aster and Queen were similarly trying to process it.

“It will. You will lose nothing, but your body will be made of metals rather than tissues, despite behaving almost the exact same. Minkalla’s rewards are never detrimental,” Luna explained.

“Almost?” Liz didn’t seem content with that vague an answer, and neither did Matt on her behalf.

“Some of the organs which regulate internal stasis are removed, and the digestive system functions completely differently, but as far as you’ll be able to tell anywhere other than a healer’s table, you’ll be completely normal,” Luna confirmed, “The remake will also make your healing cooldown lower as well as raising your baseline above even what the normally ‘perfected’ body which comes after Tier 15 can provide. That’s without even touching the enchantments you can put on yourself. Self-repair is particularly common among that group. Well, as far as anything could be said to be ‘common’ in a group that contains hundreds. It has a very high Genesis Energy cost but is considered one of the best final floors. I don’t believe there has yet been a documented fifth, sixth, and seventh floor of Opposite Day, Genesis Cultivation, and Self-Identity in that order, but it’s speculated to be one of the strongest possible combinations of the last three floors for physical fighters.”

Susanne raised her hand, “How do Concepts work on the floor itself? If people only keep their Talents…” Carol answered that one. “You use the other person’s Concept effects but using the Domain expertise and thought patterns from your own Concept. Reportedly, it feels deeply strange, and figuring out how to effectively use another person’s skill set on the fly is one of the larger challenges of the floor. In terms of monsters and terrain features, it’s one of the easiest floors, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the casualty numbers.”

New Growth: Only things which have been obtained on the current floor can be used. Skill shards and items can drop at an increased rate on this floor, and skill absorption is increased. Monsters usually have highly adaptive defenses, swiftly gaining resistances to attacks they are exposed to.

Reward: Skills become quicker and easier to absorb, modify, and move. By floor seven, absorbing skills is instantaneous and modifying skills is roughly as easy as if it were one stage closer to the core, and skill movement is fast enough to nearly fully rearrange the spirit within days. Matt’s mind immediately returned to his dream of having a modifiable Innate skill, but even faster? Unfortunately, Luna dashed his hopes almost immediately.

“The speed boost mostly only caps out at Core skill speed. Core skills do also get a boost in modification speed, especially with later floors, but Innate skills, so far as we can tell, don’t benefit at all.”

“What about instantly absorbing skills? Isn’t that just a thing that higher Tiers can do normally?” Liz pointed out, “Or is this something that falls off as you get to higher Tiers?”