The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

23

Matt and Aster’s armor had been made by Amelia Galley, so they at least had armor that was adequate by Luna’s standards.

The under armor he had bought boosted self-buffs, which was amazing when paired with his new skills, but if that turned into a growth item?

That would be incredible.

Carol shrugged. “You don’t directly choose what items convert, and it’s possible, though really rare, to get two. The record I know of is four converting, but that asshole has more luck than even a fate-driven Talent could explain. Rolled sevens on everything in Minkalla despite having a six-sided die, I swear. Regardless, one is an expected amount. Just use the items a lot. Generally speaking, the more you use an item, the more likely you are to bond with it. Keep it on your person as much as possible. There isn’t a strategy beyond that. If you encounter a challenge or floor reward that affects a growth item, but don’t have any, whatever item is the closest to bonding will finish the process. Then you’ll get whatever other benefits you should get.”

“There is actually a way to speed up how long it takes for an item to bond to you as a growth item,” Luna added, “but it doesn’t give you any more control over what bonds. Essentially, manually spin your Genesis Energy like you’re overcoming an essence suppression band. If you do that, you stand a much better chance of getting two bonded items.

“While monsters in Minkalla don’t give any essence, they are liable to drop essence stones, items, and skills in addition to the Genesis Energy you’ll get from them. Any monster drops you find are incredibly valuable and should be collected. The essence stones won’t last long before Minkalla reclaims them, as it does everything that dies in its depths, so pick them up and get them in a spatial bag or ring quickly. The first floor will only have Tier 8 skills, but past that, there will be Tier 14 skills, and by the time you reach the seventh floor, you’ll be finding lots of Tier 20 skills. It’s the best likelihood for skills you’ll find anywhere in the realm, so grab everything you can. We’ll cover some more in detail later, but keep a particular eye out for Headhunter’s Necklaces, Muffle Cloaks, and Genesis Crystals. They all only function inside of Minkalla, and become mundane when removed, but they will be very useful for your delve.”

Hearing that even the monsters would be dropping items, essence stones, and skills, Matt was stoked and ready to go and Luna hadn’t even started talking about the “real” rewards of the place. The things she had mentioned were interesting but not so much that he believed she would drag them here. Not this early.

The screen changed once again, and Luna explained what they were seeing. “Just like how each of the possible floor themes that could appear get more challenging the deeper they are, so too do the rewards get stronger as you approach the core. These theme rewards are usually considered the greatest treasures of Minkalla, for all that it’s nigh impossible to know ahead of time which seven you’ll get, let alone what order they’ll be in. Once you complete the floor, for a sizable amount of Genesis Energy, you can enter a special challenge to gain the corresponding reward. This is where most people reap the largest benefits.” Luna nodded at the screen. “Some theme rewards are more useful for you than others, but all are generally good. Manage your risks accordingly. Likewise, don’t waste time and Genesis Energy on completing any extra challenge for themes which don’t help you.”

Kurt interjected, his pen flying as he wrote, “Theoretically, anything but the deepest themes and exit rewards are replicable in some form, even if they are incredibly rare and hard to find or time consuming to reproduce.”

Luna nodded in agreement. “That is technically true, but incredibly rare is an understatement. Minkalla is the only place that produces such rewards at a consistent rate. But continuing on. Once you are inside Minkalla, your AI and your spiritual perception will be restricted in its range and effectiveness. Most divinations are, but that doesn’t affect you directly.”

She shot them a look, and Matt nodded, though he still felt that she was over correcting their training for what was fundamentally a one-time thing.

Luna let out a sigh and looked at them like she knew they would disappoint her. “While none of the theme rewards are bad, I will reiterate that you can still have good or poor luck that we just can’t account for. There’s always some who wait until reports return on what the themes are before venturing inside, but doing so cuts them off from the very best rewards. The easy sources have been picked over, most of the monsters have been culled, and even as Tier 11s, you would struggle to afford some of the deeper rewards, let alone the really good ones which always cost more. So, it’s something of a gamble that you’ll get good rewards, but one you can’t not take.”

She pointed to the screen where an empty numbered list appeared.

“When you complete the deepest sub-layer of a floor, you’ll be presented with an opportunity to claim a theme reward, but like the challenge rooms, they come with their own extra challenge to complete. Sometimes, just getting through the floor is the hardest challenge, and the end challenge is less difficult. But you still need to fight under the restrictions of the floor’s theme, so it’s never easy. The usual example given is the ‘Folded Reflections’ floor. Matt?”

Folded Reflections? That was… Oh, right. “Folded Reflections is one of the few floors which doesn’t carry some special ‘rule’ to it, but instead has the largest variety of enemies. Namely, it involves fighting weaker and slightly different ‘reflections’ of other people on the floor, including you. The final boss of the floor is a fight against yourself, exactly as you were upon floor entry. Thus, it’s seen as one of the most dangerous floors, especially early on. I don’t know the bonus challenge though.”