The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

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“It sticks around. Even past Tier 40, it can still take a few seconds to absorb a Tier 8 skill, and much longer for higher-Tier skills. With the seventh-floor reward, that becomes functionally instant almost regardless of how high a Tier you or your skill are.”

“I’ve definitely seen Uncle Moon absorb a skill just by tapping it.” Liz raised an eyebrow at the cat.

“I do believe that Harvest Moon’s party encountered New Growth on the fourth floor when they ventured into Minkalla, which was as deep as they went, and would cut skill absorption time in roughly a quarter. At his Tier and for a Tier 8 skill it would be functionally instant.”

The next slide demonstrated a boulder crumbling to sand, and flooding down a mountain in a dust avalanche.

World of Cardboard: All items become exceptionally fragile and can break under the slightest touch. This does not apply to magic, to which the area is highly resistant to. Monsters are frequently those which use the terrain to their advantage, and heavy on ambushes, in particular.

Reward: Item-enhancing Concepts are enhanced at floor one, scaling up to three times increase in strength by floor seven, and if the Concept didn’t initially possess such an ability, it gains that usage, up until floor seven when it is as strong as the initial Concept.

Matt looked over at Queen as Carol explained how it also applied to Manifested items. Their fellow Pather didn’t say anything, but he knew it would work perfectly for her.

“Okay, so this one works the other way. Would this apply when I’m using my Concept internally?” Liz asked, “I know it will be useful when I make weapons out of my blood, but will it help me when I reinforce my body?”

“Just like with Back to Basics, it should apply even when you’re using your Concept, just not as directly or strongly, and likely only help with strength and durability.” Carol answered.

Liz nodded and scribbled more notes down. “That’s all I’d be looking for from it. This one would push me even further.”

Liz shot Matt a look like she was eager to beat him up if they got that reward.

He blew her a raspberry in return.

Wasteland: No healing or regeneration. Monsters are numerous, weak, and frequently pack monsters, often willing to use suicide tactics to deal even the slightest injury.

Reward: Concepts that aid in healing, regeneration, or repairing are enhanced, up to a three times empowerment by floor seven. Those which did not have an aspect along that theme have it added.

Matt rubbed his arms. Wasteland was considered one of the most dangerous floors for a reason. Any wound would refuse to heal even slightly, but [Bandage] would almost certainly be invaluable on the floor as it didn’t heal anything but paused the injury. Honestly, it was probably one of the best floors for them to encounter—Liz would absolutely adore a floor where even the smallest wound would never stop bleeding on its own…

He couldn’t help but feel like the reward would be useful even for him. If his Concept incorporated healing aspects, it would likely work similarly to the way the mana generation functioned, namely acting as though the person regenerated it themselves. So, would that mean his theoretical Concept-healing might bypass cooldown, like how [Endurance] worked? Even in something of a worst-case scenario, it would be an enhancement to his mana recovery aura, which he was always after.

Matt made a note next to ‘Wasteland’ marking it as potentially one of the best floors to get. And if they did get it, he had a lot of testing to do.

Folded Reflections: Fight lots of mirror versions of yourself and other people, similar yet different in some way. It culminates in a fight against you as you are right now. Incredibly dangerous final fight.

Reward: Experience a number of other lives equal to the floor depth, change your Concept to one of them, or fold their effects into your current Concept.

Matt was still dumbfounded at the ability that Minkalla provided to see entire other lives. Illusion or not, that was still orders of magnitude more complex than any other illusion-caster he knew of. But there wasn’t much they hadn’t already covered, so they moved on shortly thereafter Carol restated the fact that the lives weren’t real and not to get hung up on what happened in them.

Spirit Journey: A psychedelic journey through your own mind, facing inner demons in the form of monsters. Perception matters as much as reality, and ghosts from the past are the greatest danger of all. It is extremely challenging to remain in groups, though technically possible for those who are exceptionally close.

Reward: Gain a pseudo-bond spirit guide familiar. On floor one, it’s little more than a mote of light that points out things of interest. By floor three, it’s a small animal-like spirit that can be directed to do basic things. By floor five, it’s fully sapient and able to fight independently. By floor seven, it’s an extremely powerful accompanying spirit on the level of a dragon that has its own Talents and skills. It remains fundamentally a part of the person and can turn immaterial to reside inside their spirit. If killed or destroyed it will reform given enough time.

Kurt explained that even bonds could get that reward, but most people found the tiny little mote of light awarded at the first floor so annoying they actively avoided getting the reward if it appeared as an option. Though any time it was found on the seventh floor, a bloodbath ensued as the Genesis Energy needed to take that reward was insane, though no Tier 11 had ever gotten it to see how much of a discount they got. The problem was that it was almost impossible to have accumulated enough Genesis Energy just by killing monsters to earn it. You basically had to earn more by taking half of someone else’s Genesis Energy after killing them.