The Path of Ascension 7: A LitRPG Adventure

17

As they sat around, Matt once more contemplated the idea that they might need to Tier up before they exited this floor.

It would make all these fights easier, and it would also slow them down as they would need more Genesis Energy to take the rewards.

But they would be safer.

Much safer.

Looking at all of them, Matt couldn’t help but notice their growing collection of injuries. Injuries that might force their hands.

Tiering up wouldn’t remove or even reduce their healing cooldown, but it would help them take less wounds.

He remembered Luna talking about Minkalla and his own attitude.

Matt didn’t think he was arrogant, but he had been confident before this, despite everything.

He now knew how much of a delusion that was.

Minkalla was dangerous, and a Tier disadvantage made that all the more apparent.

The monsters were one thing, and if it was just them, they would be fine, but the other delvers proved to be the real threat.

They, more than the planet itself, might prove what forced his group to Tier up.

He would rather Tier up than have his friends in danger.

That could be avoided if they could regain their lead on the pack, which is what they were trying to do and being Tier 11 they gathered Genesis Energy far faster than their competitors. That was an advantage he was loath to lose.

That was his last thought as the painkillers finally kicked in, and he fell asleep.

4

Matt rushed forward and punched the moose creature in the face, even as it tried to bite him in retaliation.

Dodging the monster’s maw, he stabbed down at its eye with a dagger he summoned, and after finishing it off, he turned to see how his team was handling the rest of the smaller creatures that the boss had summoned.

Seeing they had everything under control, Matt was about to turn and dispel the reward distortion when he noticed a team standing in the tunnel they had come down to find this boss.

This new team wanting to leave through an already open exit wasn’t in and of itself surprising, but their stances, lack of Genesis Energy fluctuations, and general demeanor told Matt that they had less than honorable intentions.

As he watched them watch him, he saw the moment that they decided Matt’s team were easy targets and made their move.

All six people rushed out of the tunnel as Matt yelled, “Another one!”

That was all the others needed to hear, and they started slinging spells.

The fight was short, not because the team was weak, but because as soon as they put up a resistance with strong spells, the other team decided to pull back.

On any other floor, Matt might have chased them down or used [Cracked Mana Spear] to finish them off, but the increasing cost of his spells meant that his strongest channeled spells were now only as strong as a stiff breeze after being on the floor for so long.

The other team backed off, not wanting to get into a life-and-death battle right before they could leave the floor.

If they had been spent from their boss fight, the other team wouldn’t have hesitated to push the attack, Matt was sure. But without easy kills, they decided to move on. It wouldn’t be the first, or even tenth team that had tried to ambush them, hoping they were weak from prolonged skill usage on this floor.

How the team got this far with so little Genesis Energy was a mystery, and Matt didn’t get the feeling that they were hiding most of their Genesis Energy in rings, as his team was.

Getting stuck on the third level with no Genesis Energy was a hard place to find oneself in, being faced with the choice of facing down the incoming waves of slower delvers or skipping out on a valuable reward. Though, the thought occurred to him that maybe they actually had been lucky, and someone let them surrender at the cost of all of their Genesis Energy, which was why they were now so desperate.

Matt’s team had left other Empire delvers alone, but maybe some people took a middle ground between killing their fellow citizens and mutual ceasefire.

They, on the other hand, were flush with Genesis Energy after their battle on the second level of this floor and had been able to get ahead of most of the pack with that boost. As Aster looted the dissolving boss, Matt and Liz guarded their rear as the four of them walked into the distortion and were finally able to leave the floor.

When Minkalla saw that he had more than enough Genesis Energy to take the floor theme challenge and offered it to him, Matt agreed with a lethargic sigh.

The floor itself was a slog, and its challenge was no different.

For this test, they needed to fight their way through waves of monsters. That, in and of itself, wasn’t a difficult challenge, and wouldn’t have been up to Minkalla’s standards. But, like always, there was a catch.

During the test, they were put into false bodies, and they would need to kill monsters for extremely breakable gear and talisman-like spells, color-coded for quality. As this was the fifth floor, he would need to clear the twenty-fifth wave to maximize his reward for this challenge and get the full reward of three skill slots in his Core spirit, fifteen Inner slots, and forty Outer skill slots.

Gaining control of his body, Matt moved his arms and legs to test the new body and found that this one was generally the same as his own, at least physically. He was a bit slower and weaker than normal, and his Talent and mana pool seemed to be wholly gone, but he knew that it was all just part of the challenge.

Inspecting his surroundings, Matt found himself inside a valley with steep walls that he knew would be impassable, but what caught his attention were the five towers lit with what looked like small fires at their peaks. One piece of gold-quality loot per boss wave, as expected.

Even as a mental countdown appeared in his mind, telling him he had five minutes until the first wave of enemies, he ran forward and looked for monsters to kill.

The waves would start small but grow over time, and he knew there would be random, lone monsters he could kill for equipment that would be wandering around the area. If he could find and kill any of them, he would be in a much better position for the first wave.