The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

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Matt pointed at it. “It serves as a replacement for practically any metal required to upgrade a growth item. So, while it isn’t a perfect panacea, it’s beyond expensive. It also makes for some good enchanting materials if you want to use it that way. At Tier 14, I don’t doubt it will sell for a good handful of Tier 17 or 18 mana stones. The stuff is always in high demand for people who can’t find what their weapons and items need to advance.”

After storing the ore, they went and dispelled the first-floor ruin reward distortion. They got a handful of skills, but nothing they wanted to immediately use, and a handful of essence stones. They treasured the essence stones in particular, now that their compass was eating a stone with every attempt to find something.

On the second floor, things changed.

It seemed that Minkalla didn’t appreciate Matt abusing his Talent to decimate the monsters and put them in the middle of a floor of crystal like beings that were resistant to magical attacks.

It almost even worked.

Almost.

Matt countered anti-magic monsters with more magic.

Just not his own.

With a flex of [Create Blood], Liz washed away all the monsters they faced in an ocean of blood.

The golems might be able to resist magical attacks, but they had no such counters to Liz squeezing their crystalline bodies until they cracked.

On a tide of blood, they swept out of the cavern after harvesting anything that survived Liz’s wave.

They were a dozen feet out of the cavern when a [Fireball] and two arrows flashed out at them.

Matt cast [Bulwark], blocking the two arrows while Susanne cut the spell in half with her greatsword.

Matt was about to cast his own return spell when a voice called out, “Mistake! Mistake. We thought you were a monster.”

Pausing with his sword glowing Matt prepared himself for an ambush.

Liz barked out a single commanding word. “Explain.”

A group of four like their own stepped forward slowly with their weapons at the ready, but not charged with any spells.

A warrior to the left was the one to speak. “We saw the blood and thought we were under attack again. We just escaped a ruin that has blood monsters and their attacks drain your energy and don’t stop bleeding easily. An honest mistake, I promise.”

Matt looked at the man and his group and saw that what they said seemed reasonable.

Their arms and legs were covered with gore. Holes were ripped in their armor showing wounds that still seeped blood.

They were too far away to see anything more than that, but it gave credence to their story.

Through their AI, Liz said, “Let’s pump them for more information. I want that ruin’s location.”

Matt spoke up. “We found a tick monster that was feeding on the other monsters. We got swept away when it popped, but there were no others like it.”

Before he could say more the archer leaned over and vomited.

“If you could give us some information about where that ruin is so we can avoid it, we’d be grateful.” Putting action to words, he pulled out a number of [Bandage] talismans and waved them. “Two dozen Tier 14 [Bandage] talismans for the information seem fair?”

The leader immediately agreed. “Deal.”

Healing supplies were worth their weight in Tier 50 mana stones in a place like Minkalla, after all.

Most people stocked up with more than they would need, but a lost storage bag or the team taking more injuries than predicted could mean burning through more of your supplies than anticipated.

And with wounds that didn’t stop bleeding, but were otherwise not life threatening, using a proper healing potion or spell was wasteful in both supplies and healing cooldown.

Setting the talismans down, Matt and his team of four immediately backed up to give the group more than enough room to grab the talismans without fear that they would be attacked.

The leader inspected the talisman for a minute and used one on himself after the inspection.

When the light blue mana fell over a wound in his leg he sighed and thanked them. “We owe you guys one. The ruin is two caverns that way.” He pointed the way they came and continued, “But there’s a split. The left passage leads to a forest with odd blue leaves. If you see that you went the wrong way. Turn back. That forest butts up against the blood area.”

Matt nodded in thanks and the two groups moved past each other, their weapons at the ready. Now they were close, Matt was able to feel their cultivation.

Tier 6’s.

While he could feel that their real cultivation was a higher Tier than most who delved this quickly, that could mean a number of things. They could have slowed down and allowed the next quickest wave to catch up, or this group was stronger than most of their peers, even if at the same Tier, and therefore got more of their cultivation back faster then most.

Really, there was no way to know.

Even their attack could have been a probe to see if the four of them were easy targets.

In Minkalla, intentions were only as good as actions.

Matt considered attacking them, but in the end, it was a challenge to even come up with a good reason to murder strangers just for their loot and Genesis Energy.

When they were a good distance away, they increased their pace to a mile eating jog.

The forest only had one monster type attack them. It was merely a swarm of rats, and the path of destruction they cut through the forest spoke to the strength of the group they had passed. Even while limited in Tier, the group had done well enough to make an impact, and Matt made a note of the team and their composition, just in case they had to fight them in the future.

Just as the team said, they found a land of blood in the ruin after the forest.

The cavern’s pools were filled with blood that bubbled ominously, releasing a stench that clung to Matt’s nose. The blood Liz used still smelled like blood, which wasn’t exactly pleasant, but this stuff reeked.