The Path of Ascension 7: A LitRPG Adventure

16

Matt, who now had his head wrapped, proffered a hand, which the man took.

To his surprise, Claude spoke the Empire language, even if it was a little hard to understand everything with his accent and poor grammar. “Nice to meet you. I not stand and watch ambush on allies. You interesting fight guy side.”

Matt scoffed. “You could call it that. Long Zhiyuan, better known as Young Master Blood Hand. He ambushed us as we were attacking the first Clan team. I didn’t realize who he was until another team called his name out as he killed them.”

Liz sat down and pulled up her shirt so Matt could start applying a disinfectant to the hole that had been punched through her abdomen.

It looked like an arrow had gone through cleanly, but it was always better to be careful, so he took his time to ensure that her internal organs weren’t punctured.

Liz said as he worked, “Is that what happened? We were wondering when you got attacked.”

“I’m not sure if he was ambushing the Clan team or us, but he has a way to hide from spiritual sense scans and has most of his Genesis Energy in a ring. Or I assume so, as when he killed people, he got their Genesis Energy like normal. Either way, he’s a strong fighter and excels in close range combat, just like the information said.”

Claude paused for a second before asking, “You start this?”

Susanne took that one. “Yeah, that was on me. That Clan team were on Winter’s side with us on the last floor, and they didn’t put much effort in aiming their attacks while I was getting attacked by a Death Squad.”

Her tone was challenging, and Claude clearly caught it as he nodded to her. “Fair. Just surprise. Most us avoiding attacking other teams—” The Guilder paused for a minute while clearly searching for the word he wanted. Seeming to give up, he finished with, “Fear of this happening.”

Matt nodded as he pet Aster before starting to pull out the two crossbow bolts still inside his chest and leg. Liz was busy helping Susanne pull an arrow from her back, so he dealt with the easier injuries himself.

Claude lingered with them until the other teams left and then said, “AI. Please.”

Matt looked to the others, who nodded, and Matt activated his AI and translated for Claude as he said in the Guilds’ speech, “Watch out for the Federation. They have a few death squad teams of ten, and they are incredibly strong. I fought one on the third floor, where they were only Tier 9 while I was Tier 12 on Back to Basics, and I still struggled to kill them. They kill without hesitation or negotiation. I know of at least two teams running around, one of which is even more fearsome than the group I took care of personally or so the report of the lone survivor indicates.”

Matt met his team’s eyes and they saw the same surprise in their eyes.

Susanne said, “We encountered the same thing. Ten assholes who were more than happy to attack us on sight. They were strong, but we were able to kill them off easily enough.”

Claude shrugged. “Maybe it was the same group, but with all respect, I don’t think you would be walking right now if you had encountered the stronger group. Seeing two groups like that implies more, and they can’t all be so proficient. I handled a group on my own, but I had a three Tier advantage, and they were weakened and distracted. Just a warning.”

With that said, he nodded and walked out through the nearest cave entrance.

Matt took a little longer to get back on his feet, with the wounds he took during the fight taking more potions than normal to heal.

Now that they were alone, Liz took the opportunity to inspect Matt’s mask.

Thankfully, despite the cuts to his face, the enchantment was still intact, and with the helm, no one would have been able to see more than blood.

They still swapped out the mask for one of the backups they brought. The last thing they needed was someone to discover that they were Tier 11, let alone this deep in Minkalla, with everyone so packed in together.

When they were walking through the tunnels, Susanne said, “Thanks, guys. I know we didn’t expect it to snowball like that, but thank you for not pulling out or anything. I couldn’t have blamed you guys for not wanting to go for the initial fight, or not sticking around once it turned bad.” She paused before shaking her head. “Just thanks. Means a lot.”

Matt, limping alongside her, could see her discomfort in opening up, and took the opportunity to change the subject. “What did you guys get for loot?”

He hadn’t seen what Claude brought over, but they were a lot closer to the explosion, and he didn’t expect much to have survived.

Susanne, who had gone through it, shrugged. “Nothing stood out to me but a few houses. A lot of items, weapons, and other stuff. A few things might be natural treasures, but I can’t be sure with the quick look I gave it.”

Matt quickly parsed through what he was able to while on the move and agreed that there was nothing too noteworthy, though a full assessment would have to wait.

Going through his own loot, he found something quite interesting.

A single bottle of green liquid. Green liquid he had seen before.

It was a bottle of decay mana from the Fall General.

Pulling it out, he shook it. “Well, what do you know? It may take a while, but our rightful earnings always find their way back to us.”

Liz grabbed it and inspected it. “Nice. And they didn’t even open it. I might be able to make a poison potion out of this. I wasn’t going to pay the cost for this thing, but now that it fell into my lap, I won’t say no.”

They chatted until they found a way out of the area in a jungle ruin that still had monsters, and then dropped their house and took a break to recover from their wounds before pressing deeper.