The Path of Ascension 7: A LitRPG Adventure

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As Aster killed her copy with a quick [Chomp] to rip out its throat, Liz turned the tendrils of blood swirling around her into spears, skewering her copy a dozen times over. The body and a substantial amount of the surrounding blood soon dissolved into nothing.

There weren’t any terribly notable landmarks around them, with the ruin being a simple forest-type. After a quick survey of their surroundings, Liz stashed a small amount of her blood in a spatially expanded canteen, brushed off her hands, and consulted her compass to get a heading.

It continued to point to the right as they followed it to a small scattering of other delvers’ copies.

They took their time to fight them, as it was important intel on their possible opponents, but it had its complications.

Or at least, it was in theory. Minkalla didn’t always use reflections of delvers on the current floor as templates. Anyone who had ever entered its depths could appear, so far as anyone knew, but it preferred those who had entered the planet this cycle. Particularly those who had reached the floor. Frankly, the sheer breadth of possible people who could appear was good for Matt, since it would help obscure his own identity and trump cards. So long as whoever fought one of his reflections didn’t see an attack that was uniquely and identifiably his, no matter how much mana it used, it wouldn’t be a concern.

He had carefully hidden [Cracked Mana Spear], and from his single encounter with his copy, he assumed that the spell would be hidden until the last moment as well. It was an assumption, yes, but he felt that it was a good one. If the copy had used it immediately, it would have fared much better in their battle.

And while the spell might be incredibly strong, if anyone got attacked with it and survived, they would know one of his most important hidden trump cards, which was less than ideal.

It also meant that anyone who fought his copy would get a good look at his sword, which was one of the things he tried to avoid, as it was the single piece of equipment that could link Quill with his real identity of Matt. He had already failed on that front when fighting Young Master Blood Hand on the previous floor, and it was one reason of many that he so desperately wanted to tie up that loose end.

Knowing there was nothing he could do about that, he just hoped that anyone who fought a copy of himself got blasted to bits by a beam of pure mana.

When they reached the edge of the ruin, they all paused.

The forest ended like it normally did, in a sharp line, but the ruin next to them was out of Matt’s expectation.

It was space.

Or at least, what looked like empty space was sitting next to their standard forest. Vast and devoid of any and everything, it looked like it went on forever, but their compass pointed in that direction without fail.

Liz broke into a coughing fit as she tried to speak, causing Matt to wince at the ear-grating sound. He gave his girlfriend a reassuring pat on the back, and she recovered enough to finish what she’d been saying. “So, do we follow the compass and enter…space? Seems kinda risky.”

Matt extended [Air Manipulation] into the next rift and confirmed. “Yeah, no actual air in there. I can bring in a lot of air, but I don’t have [Create Air], so it will eventually run out.” They did have the skill somewhere in their numerous bags, but they had barely even spared it a thought, given how niche of a skill it was.

Aster yipped a question. “Can we use a spatial ring to bring in more air? It’s compressible, so it should be possible, no?”

While they talked and discussed possibilities, Susanne squinted and watched something in the distance before speaking up. “Is that an asteroid?”

Everyone peered into the distance until Liz brought out a pair of binoculars. “Yup, that’s an asteroid, and it definitely has air.”

After she handed off the binoculars to Matt, he saw what she meant.

The asteroid had plants and water on its surface, despite not being much larger than their house.

After helping Aster see the asteroid, Matt started doing the math on how much air he could control, and whether or not it would be enough to get them to their next destination.

The answer came out as a confident yes, even without accounting for his Boon.

With half of his mana generation, he would be able to grab and hold enough air for them to breathe confidently.

With that settled, they tied themselves together with a bit of rope and jumped into the void.

Entering the empty space was…odd.

Matt could feel the strain of having to simulate the natural air pressure around his bubble of air, ensuring that it didn’t escape into the surrounding vacuum. Without gravity warping their trajectory, all they did was wait as they floated toward the asteroid.

All of them seemed to have the same thought at the same time, and they twisted to get a look at the ruin behind them.

Like a strip of light in the darkness, there was a band of reality that seemed starkly out of place as light leaked out of the adjoining ruin into the empty space. Oddly enough, it seemed like the ruin they were currently in stretched out beyond their previous ruin as well.

As they drifted out into the distance, Matt started to ponder.

He had a space related Concept, but he had never actually been to space, as odd as that seemed.

Oh, he had traveled through space, but he had never experienced it directly.

That seemed weird to him.

He hadn’t thought about it at all, and even Luna hadn’t suggested anything of the sort. She might have been waiting until he was Tier 15, and didn’t have pesky needs like breathing, but Matt felt connected to the new ruin around him in a way.

Through their bond, he knew Aster felt the same way.

She had aspirations of making space ice, and he could feel her fascination with the surroundings as they drifted through the emptiness.

After a few seconds of drifting, Liz started pushing herself along with [Blood Manipulation], dragging the rest of them to the asteroid that was floating along ahead of them.