The Path of Ascension 7: A LitRPG Adventure

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The Healer sent the nurse off with a flick of his finger and winked at Matt, who was trying to wipe the lingering taste off his tongue. “Sorry, kid, but if we warn you, you’re almost guaranteed to get the bad reaction.”

Matt shot him a glare but didn’t say anything.

That hadn’t been nice at all.

After Healer Cox left, Matt could hear his tone change, and he started yelling for others to start doing things, but the door shut before he could listen in. He was yelling at a door, or somebody named door, which Matt just found odd.

Now that they were alone, Matt’s parents rushed in close, each taking a side of the bed, and they started fussing over him.

No matter how many times Matt insisted he was fine, they kept adjusting his blankets or, in his mother’s case, combing his hair.

“Oh, honey, we were so worried about you.” His mother said as she pulled him into a hug.

His father looked at him with a shaky grin as he added, “I knew you would pull through, champ.”

That caused his mother to snort, but she didn’t say anything out loud despite having a smirk flirting around her lips.

Seeing that moment, things seemed to crystallize for Matt. In that moment, while things seemed so perfect, everything felt so wrong, and it was almost like he was a stranger inhabiting his body. Thankfully, the feeling passed as soon as the nurse came with the promised porridge.

With an effort of will bolstered by his parents’ urging, he managed to choke down the bland food, but even that was a struggle, as the oats seemed overwhelming to his amplified senses.

Still, he managed it and quickly fell asleep with a full belly.

When he woke up, his parents were asleep on the couch and cuddling together, his father’s arms wrapped around his mother.

Once more, that odd feeling of wrongness overwhelmed Matt, but it passed quickly as he shook it off.

He was stuck in the hospital for another two days as they observed him, but they finally let him go home on the third day of his being awake.

Things returned to normal for the three of them for the next two weeks, once his parents finally stopped worrying about him so much, and he was able to return to his normal routine of after school activities.

The sense of normalcy lasted until two weeks after the incident of the undead rift.

A massive news broadcast went out as Investigator Ignite made an announcement.

She had found in her investigation of the undead rift that the local Baron family, the Junipers, had their personnel creating rifts recklessly close to the inhabited cities. This had led to two cities being outright attacked before the undead sickness had alerted Imperial authorities.

The Junipers had both covered up the earlier incidents and done nothing to rectify the problem, which led to their house head being arrested publicly while their family was stripped of their noble title.

It shocked the entire city, but Matt’s family in particular, as they had met the woman personally.

Not long after that, they were brought in with a collective lawsuit against the noble house and the Empire itself.

Matt found it weird that the Empire had represented them and everyone else with a Tier 25 lawyer to sue themselves, but when his parents tried to explain it to him, it just went over his head.

It took nearly five months but, eventually, the verdict was ruled that they and everyone else affected was eligible for both financial compensation and a public apology. The latter of which was given to them personally by Duke Fulton, who had been the Junipers’ many times removed liege.

Matt hated the entire thing, as his parents had forced him into a suit, and he had been forced to stand around all day during the ceremony, but they insisted he needed to be there with them.

After that, things seemed to return to normal. Matt went back to school and was about to enter the fourth grade when his parents sat him down, and his father asked. “Matt, how would you feel about a little brother or sister?”

Matt shrugged and looked at the door. He had hoped to join the other kids from his old class in a game of tag, but his parents were asking him weird questions instead.

There was that odd feeling of something not being right, but since this was the third time he had experienced it, it was easy to push away. He quickly said, “It’s fine, I guess. Can I go play with everyone else now?”

His mother put her hand over his fathers and said, “Sure, buddy. Just be careful and remember to be back before four. That means you need to leave at three forty five. Set your watch to it. You might not realize this now, but things will change.”

Doing so, and showing his parents he had done so, he ran out and went about his day.

Seven months later, just as his parents warned him, things did indeed change.

He was sitting in the waiting room with his grandparents, who had come in from the neighboring planet in the waiting room, while trying to get rid of the feeling that he didn’t know them.

It was odd because he did know them. He had only met them three times, but that was more than enough for him to remember them. He couldn’t shake the feeling they weren’t supposed to be there though and should have died years before this.

That feeling was dispelled when his father came out and said, “All done and no issues. We have a baby girl!” He seemed tired but excited, and Matt thought about what he said.

He now had a baby sister.

It seemed so odd, and that distorted feeling came back stronger than ever. It seemed like the world would collapse if he pushed that feeling.

That feeling remained until his father led the three of them to the room where his mother had been moved to, and in his mother’s arms, he saw her.

All he could see on the large head was the wispy white hair and piercing blue eyes that seemed to shock his soul as his mother presented the baby to everyone.

“Everyone, we’d like to introduce you to Aster Alexander. The newest member of our family.”

Once more, Matt felt the world seem to go out of sync, and this all seemed wrong, but he shoved that feeling away.

This was perfect.

And how could something so perfect be wrong? It couldn’t, obviously.

From his earlier indifference, Matt was suddenly infatuated with his little sister, and they were inseparable.