The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

22

That had some interesting implications and consequences. It might also explain why Minkalla was draining the surrounding star system of mana and essence. Creating some form of higher realm super-energy couldn’t be free.

The screen behind Luna changed to two people fighting, and unlike the edited version they’d previously seen, this time once one killed the other, they saw a golden light flow from the corpse to the victor. “And yes. When you kill another sapient, you harvest about half their accumulated Genesis Energy by default, which means killing each other isn’t just a possibility, but actively encouraged. Like you should know by now, people are the true danger of Minkalla. Also, it’s easier to sense people with lots of Genesis Energy. They’ll light up your spirit senses like a bonfire, even through Minkalla’s suppression. You get enough, everyone on the planet may be able to sense your presence. There are technically ways to hide that, but they’re all rewards from inside the planet. One of the most notable is a brass ring with a gauge in it that allows for storage and retrieval of Genesis Energy. It will reduce the sensing efficiency by about half, so while not perfect it’s useful.”

The picture of Minkalla returned, but different things were expanded. Between the floors, there was a thin green line that was expanded. Next to that, a small area in the center of a Ruin brick was a different color and expanded as well.

“So with that in mind, when I say that the areas between Minkalla’s floors are safe to rest areas, I mean both that there are no ruins or monsters there, but also that Genesis Energy isn’t transferred over on a kill. You still aren’t actually prevented from killing anyone, you’re just not rewarded for it, aside from all the normal reasons it’s rewarding to kill someone. Though given those are also the places you can leave, running away is a very possible solution. That brass gauge ring I mentioned? Some enterprising souls try to set up shop, selling items they find—or bring—in exchange for Genesis Energy. Sometimes, they even succeed without having everything extorted from them, but if you’re going fast enough, you’ll be well ahead of all of them. And yes, the amount of Genesis Energy you have can also influence the rewards you get when leaving, but I’ll cover that in due time.”

Behind her, the slide changed and showed a graph of monster density compared with time on the other axis.

“One of the main things to keep in mind is because you’re going in at the start of a cycle, the Genesis Energy has just reset, and you’ll be able to find plenty of treasures. But that doesn’t keep you from wanting to go fast, so that you stay at the head of the waves of people delving and keep the advantages of going in right at the start. The earlier and further you progress, the better the Genesis Energy and monster drop rewards, largely because you’ll have less competition, and the most obvious locales won’t have been plundered. If you fall behind, and the theme reward isn’t absolutely incredible, speed up. Being one of the first on a new floor, if the theme is good, is very valuable. While there are no hard limits for how many people can get all the rewards, and you have the advantage of being Tier 11s, you still want to stay ahead of the curve and away from the soft cap limited by the available monsters.

“As for the challenge rooms, you need to pay a Genesis Energy price before you can enter them, which is the risk I told you about. If you can’t complete the challenge, you can remove yourself at any time, but there is no refund. If you beat the challenge, you are given on average about twice the Genesis Energy you spent to enter it and may get a few other rewards as well.” Matt nodded. He knew all the challenge rooms by heart—they were often some kind of incredibly strong monster that needed to be defeated, but there were also plenty of puzzles, displays of skill or strength, and even some more…abstract challenges.

“Liz! How do you spot a challenge room?” Luna quizzed.

Liz sat up straight in her chair, reciting one of Luna’s earliest lessons on Minkalla, “Despite being technically hidden, on the higher floors it’s possible to find challenge rooms by the lack of anything, leaving huge and unnaturally blank spots in your spiritual sense.”

Matt nodded along. That was broadly true. They had trained enough that the practice areas certainly felt gaping at this point, but they’d still been tuned to Tier 14 spiritual senses. Luna, being Luna, had spent about six months hiding random stuff of theirs under what was supposedly a similarly strong cloak, until they had to know what to look for if they wanted to wear socks on a given day.

“It gets better hidden as you progress down the floors,” Liz continued, “And not only will the blank spots be less obvious, or become better camouflaged with their surroundings, but the actual entrances be hidden as well.”

That had been an annoying month.

“Like everything else, the top floors are bottom Tier 14 in cultivation, and just like with the monsters and challenges themselves, it will scale up until the cloaking and camouflage is peak Tier 14.”

When Liz paused, Luna slipped back into the conversation, “Good. Now, you can generally get a feeling of the challenge type, and sometimes its reward, from the entrance. At least, once you break through the cloaking. But, the Genesis Energy you get from those challenge rooms are secondary to the rewards, which are some of the true treasures of the place, second only to the theme rewards.” Kurt raised his pad and interjected with his pen and paper. “Genesis Energy also has its own advantages. It’s a higher form of energy and can change items that are exposed to it into growth items. That’s why you were all supposed to get good armor with your rewards from the Tier 10 tournament. Sadly, only Liz got hers.”