The Path of Ascension 7: A LitRPG Adventure

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Jasper jumped to the side as a bolt of mana swiped past his flank, while his bond darted from under his bulk and sent out a lightning bolt of her own.

As an Earth Armadillo, his outer shell was harder than most and was reinforced by his mana, even without an active spell. Which was very good for this floor, as the cost of his defense never increased.

Thankfully, Amsond was a Ground Gopher with a penchant for lightning spells, despite what her Talent would like to force her into.

As good as the bound pair was, they had been forced to fight their way through a number of ruins that were less than ideal for an earth mage, and she could pick up the slack.

As his bond chittered at him, Jasper sent a pulse of mana through his feet and felt for any more monsters nearby. Thankfully, nothing came back to his senses, and he was able to let out a sigh of relief.

Amsond climbed onto his outer shell and pointed off into the distance. “Oh! I see a lightning-struck tree. Head that way, and we can see if there is anything good.”

Not particularly caring about where they went as long as he could minimize spell usage, Jaster sauntered over toward the charcoal tree and started digging through it.

Instead of a natural treasure, they found a pillar of crystal.

A challenge room.

“Want to do it?”

His bond rubbed her paws together as she thought before shaking her head. “No reason to risk it. We have enough Genesis Energy to take the floor reward as soon as we find an exit.”

Agreeing with her, he started to walk forward once again. “Can you scratch that scab where the crab thing pinched me? My armor is rubbing there.”

He could feel as Amsond rolled her eyes but helped him out.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he moved the two of them forward.

Han De jumped to the next tree and grabbed the squirrel like monster and drove a dagger he had found on a defeated foe into its brain.

To say this floor was not good for him would be the understatement of his life, but it was forcing him to learn.

This planet was one giant training ground where one needed to get rid of the crutches they once relied on, and it seemed he relied too much on his techniques, as they had been growing ever weaker while he fought.

He noticed the difference quickly and had been fighting with just his body for a while now, but his real issue was the lack of monsters.

It seemed that being behind the others was finally making things hard for him. On the other floors, he had been able to find untouched ruins with a little effort, but now he couldn’t find a ruin with even a dozen monsters in it.

That, combined with his techniques being limited, had led to him gathering a few new wounds but, thankfully, nothing debilitating.

Gathering his resolve, he looked off to the distance, where he could feel the newly respawned boss of this ruin.

With pumping legs, he charged at the purple and silver man-sized squirrel and slid along the ground, cutting at its front leg.

Before his blade could land, it jumped into the air and tried to drive its claws into his body, but Han De was just as fast as it was.

Rolling to the side, he brought his blade around and slashed out at the claw.

Sparks flew as Yi Zhelan’s sword impacted with the claws.

The purple squirrel seemed to have a mana type that actively ate away at Yi Zhelan’s sword, and seeing that, he changed his tactics to avoid using the sword so much. He didn’t want to risk it in a fight. It wouldn’t be the first or even the tenth item he had gone through in Minkalla, but that one was special to him, bonded to him even.

But as they fought, Han De was forced to use skill after skill to defend himself and felt the skills he had previously hoarded start to get more expensive, until finally, he couldn’t cast them anymore.

Close to ten minutes later, a bloodied Han De looked at the squirrel and shifted his grip on Yi Zhelan’s sword. Lightning coursed across his body, turning what remained of his clothing into smoldering ash and beginning to char even his flesh in its wake.

He felt this would be the final exchange.

One of them would die here.

With a heart like iron, he knew it wouldn’t be him.

Rushing forward, he met the monster’s attack with Yi Zhelan’s sword, and steel met claw. His breath heaved, unsteady and ragged as his chest burned with exhaustion and violet flames alike, but he pushed against the claw with all his might. It met his muscle with its own might, and lightning swallowed his body.

The tip of his blade cut through the claw and plunged into the beast’s chest. The squirrel’s lifeblood pooled on the ground, mixing with his own. He sputtered with the aftershocks of the squirrel, and his vision grew dark as he collapsed onto the body of the squirrel, his final thought solely on not losing his precious blade.

Yi Zhelan was with him always, even to the bitter end.Matt’s copy shot out a [Mana s***h] immediately upon seeing them, while Aster’s cast [Ice Spear] at the same time.

It might have been threatening, but the two spells were half-formed at best; they were so weak, they only fizzled out in their flight.

The copies Minkalla started with were bad; Matt knew that from all the reports they had seen. But this was beyond his expectations.

As the first two spells crossed the halfway mark, the copies of Susanne and Liz made their moves, with Susanne’s casting a sloppy [Wind Cutter] while Liz’s attempted control over a stream of blood was so bad that the glob of fluid wobbled.

Despite that, they all took the fights seriously, and split off to deal with their copies.

The deeper they were on this floor, the better the copies would be, which meant they needed to learn to fight themselves while there was a smaller risk of death, rather than rushing headlong into danger.