The Path of Ascension 6: A LitRPG Adventure

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While Minkalla still restricted their spiritual perceptions’ range without Eternal Darkness’ oppressive nature, Matt felt as free as a bird. His spiritual perception now stretched for a few miles without issue, enough that even after less than a mile of walking, he sensed danger and readied his blade.

Susanne seemed to notice it at the same time, and their different reward in the last theme challenge showed its usefulness.

Liz and Aster had better range, and higher sensitivity to minute details over the expanded distance, but Matt and Susanne noticed the danger first with their specialized senses.

A prairie dog suddenly appeared from out of the ground, and without warning, shot a blast of lightning at Matt. Flicking on [Cracked Phantom Armor], he took the hit, but before he could cut at the rodent, Susanne had already lashed out with her blade and cut it apart. Space itself stretched out her blade to allow it to reach.

The rush of Genesis Energy they received was more than three times what they got from even the sub bosses on the first floor, but it was hard to tell how much of it was because of the deeper floor, and how much of it was the theme giving extra Genesis Energy to allow for skill usage.

They now knew one of the monsters to be on the lookout for going forward, but Aster was the first to notice their next attacker.

“Eagle from behind us. Hiding in the sun,” she yipped.

Aster, without the ability to effectively fight in the melee, was their dedicated scout. If they needed her to attack, she would be spending more Genesis Energy than the others would with their melee attacks.

Matt turned and was shocked as he was finally able to see the eagle in his spiritual perception. It was massive, and had a wingspan of thirty feet, which powered a correspondingly gargantuan body through the skies.

Liz called out, “Spend spells for this one!”

Matt charged a [Mana s***h] and sent out a golden arc of energy, but the eagle seemed completely unbothered by the spell.

Susanne’s spell was just as ineffective, even when combined with [Hypersonic Edge].

Their attacks did literally nothing. The bird didn’t even have a feather out of place from their spells.

Liz’s blood and Aster’s ice also had no effect, forcing Liz to call out, “Get us underground! This isn’t normal…”

Hearing that, Matt used [Earth Manipulation] to open up a tunnel into the ground, and then cover it back up. It cost him the same amount of Genesis Energy he had gotten from the prairie dog, but it kept them alive. As they felt the eagle land above them, it fortunately didn’t seem interested in pecking the ground or otherwise digging.

After a second of looking around, they watched it fly off with their spiritual perception.

Seeing it was gone, Liz asked, “Anyone know what this could be? It doesn’t feel like an illusion.”

Matt spent the Genesis Energy to activate his AI and had it check for anything they knew about it, but found nothing about an invulnerable eagle.

When none of them found anything, they were forced to concede to the fact that they found something weird in Minkalla, which was to be expected. They just needed to adapt to the situation.

No normal Tier 14 monsters could shrug off their attacks without even a feather getting bent. They were strong, and Genesis Energy empowered their spells even more than when they cast them with mana. That was why Liz thought the beast was an illusion, but it had left sizable indents in the ground when it landed, proving that to be a false assumption.

After debating for a while longer, they decided to create some camouflage out of the grass and try and slink their way through the prairie.

The invulnerable giant eagle essentially meant that flying was off limits while they were in its ruin.

As they crept along the ground, they had to fight a few prairie dogs, but they never came in packs greater than five. They were easy for the four of them to take out, especially with Liz’s elephant serving as a living bulwark. It may not have been as powerful as Matt’s skill, but even with Minkalla forcing Liz to activate it with Genesis Energy, it was by far their most efficient defense.

Aster discovered that she really enjoyed the taste of the groundhogs, and Matt started gathering their bodies for later meals. If his bond liked it, they couldn’t be bad to experiment with, and he was always on the lookout for new ingredients.

It took them a full day, but eventually, through careful crawling and keeping a low profile, they reached the end of the grassland, only being attacked by the eagle when they made too much of a racket.

That told them the gimmick of the ruin was exactly that. They needed to keep a low profile, like the prairie dogs, and avoid the eagle circling overhead.

When they reached the edge of the ruin, they had no doubt they found it. Like someone had forgotten to add any natural transition in nature, they found a volcanic area that bubbled with lava that bordered the waving grasslands.

They couldn’t even feel the heat until after they crossed the invisible border.

Pulling his hand back, Matt looked at the others and asked. “Push through, or try to find something else?”

Liz shook her head, “Fly through with our Concepts. But keep low. We don’t know if that eagle is restricted, and I don’t want to risk it.”

Matt took Liz with him, and they all disposed of their grass suits and flew over the bubbling lava. The amulets he had made for the desert on the first floor worked well enough to help keep their temperature in check, and as they were an item, ran on mana instead of Genesis Energy.