The Path of Ascension

Chapter 121

Matt struggled with locking down space more than he expected. He knew that it was well within his capabilities, but he still struggled with performing the maneuver consciously.

Luna was not patient. She started out by guiding him through exercise, but eventually, her guidance devolved into mockery.

Despite knowing that she was only needling him, the tactic worked wonders. With her throwing increasingly childish taunts at him, he was able to lock down space through sheer frustration.

After that first success, they simply worked backwards with a calmer mind, until he was able to lock down space with intent and a reasonable degree of repeatability.

His actual ability to lock down space was subpar at best, and Luna was able to use his own level of power to break through his Concept with ease. Her technique was leagues above his own; that was to be expected. To improve, they played a game involving her stealing his cups and utensils while eating, in which he had to prevent her interruptions.

The exercises actually became somewhat fun once he refined his initial mental image.

When he wanted to lock down the area around himself, he imagined the space as being his. If it was his, then no one else could affect it, which meant nothing got in or out.

Luna had a way of slipping inside his awareness and cementing herself as a part of the reality that he was holding an image of, which meant she was able to circumvent his efforts effortlessly.

His first counter was to explicitly exclude her and anything that reminded him of her, but she shattered that attempt simply by changing her hair color, which was enough of a difference to render his mental image useless.

She did commend his efforts, but told him that singular exceptions were a bad idea unless you were in a one-on-one fight. They were more efficient in willpower usage, but they left you vulnerable to the opponent changing something about themselves and bypassing your shallow defense.

No, it was better to use a broad mental image, and rely on the fact that distance was a massive factor in a contest of willpower. So, Matt worked on building a better understanding of reality, and willing it to remain as it was.

Eventually, he stumbled on his current image, which was to overlay his Concept and use a white hole vomiting energy to prevent any spatial shenanigans. If his mana was flooding the area, it was obviously part of him, which meant that he had a greater level of control than anyone else. Foreign influences had to contest with the endless expulsion of mana pushing them away.

That worked fantastically, except it drained his willpower immensely, since he was keeping two effects up at the same time.

They landed on the planet before Matt was able to make any sizable headway on solely using his Concepts mental image of a white hole, while suppressing its mana generation function.

When they arrived on the planet, they started scouting their target. The manor was a small countryside villa that used to be owned by a noble family that had lost power. In the shuffle of the power vacuum, the residence was discarded. A local merchant picked up ownership, but never used the estate, and eventually resold it.

That trend repeated until now. It was currently owned by the son of a Tier 22 bowyer. He was seemingly unmotivated to cultivate, as he was only Tier 7, and looked to be middle-aged.

Lunas goal for them was to simply steal a painting that hung in the hallway of the main entrance.

Not thinking too much of the project, they casually scouted the building and its formations for a few days. When the noble left for a short time, they rushed in and kicked down the front door, looking to take the painting and leave.

At least, that was the idea. In practice, they ended up locked in the courtyard by a mana barrier as they tried to leave.

The three of them turned in fear at the sound of clapping from behind them.

It was what they expected; Luna and Kurt were there, but they were accompanied by a third man.

They recognized the unexpected third party as the person living in the manor. Except, he was no longer Tier 7, but was instead well beyond Matt's ability to scan with his spiritual sense.

The new man was the one clapping. Well done! Well done. You managed to fall into the simplest of any estates security. Well done!

He shook his head and walked over, introducing himself. Ignatius, Tier 35, and one of the best espionage operators currently active in the Empire.

Ignatius gestured to his face, and not that he was close, Matt could see that half of his face seemed waxy, and didnt quite move correctly.

This is what happens when you mess up in the real world. People come and try to kill you, and if you aren't good enough, you get hurt. I lost everything from my ear down after my last mission. I'm held together with my own mana generation and [Regeneration] running constantly. Im so far over the healing cooldown that I'm lucky to be alive. It's also why Im able to see to your training for the next year and a half.

Aster yipped a question in return. If you're so good, howd you get hurt?

There was no malice in her tone, but Matt winced at the uncouth question.

Ignatius didnt seem bothered. I got out because I'm good. The enemy isn't stupid either never doubt that. Im not bragging when I say that any lesser agent would have been killed out of hand. I also was able to complete my mission, if that settles your fur.

Luna stepped forward and said, Ignatius usually only trains the best of the best for the Empires active spies, assassins, and other covert operators. He only agreed to train you while he recovers. Do note that his being here abides by The Paths rules of only using Tier 35 and under for training, despite his being the best. Also, you will still have to pay for his training as usual, though the cost will be higher. Dont waste his time. Once he recovers enough, he's gone.

All three of them nodded as Ignatius started to lecture them about the estate, while he shuffled around on a leg that seemed to hesitate behind the other.

Matt had to respect the Tier 35. He was able to talk at great length about everything from formations, to smithing, to being a servant.

One thing he said stuck out to Matt.

This job isn't just about spying or assassinating people. Those other professions do what I do, but they dont need to know as much. They know what's relevant to their profession, and thats it. They don't need an expansive knowledge base, so they become awfully good at their portion of the job. Take an assassin. They'll be masters of remaining hidden, infiltrating, and exfiltrating, while a spy will be good at blending in and gathering information. But they're careful not to get bogged down during their espionage.

Ignatius paused at that and pointed to the three of them. You don't need to be a master. Find out whats required, and learn to be proficient at it. I doubt that you two will ever become good operatives. You're all too damn combative. Look at your first attempt. You idiots just kicked down the front door. But that can work, in certain situations. If you know you can fight your way out, you can always have that option as a fallback. But never make it your first course of action. The best operations are the ones where no one knows what happened, but going in loud can work sometimes.

***

Ignatius walked them through planning and completing several jobs in the coming months, but he wasn't their only trainer.

Luna, or rather April, as the stressed woman had finally returned, found them trainers for nearly everything.

Etiquette and table manners training were torture for Matt, but he took the time to learn and improve in his defenses, as far as the rules of courtly dinner were concerned. As his instructor had once said, The many knives before you mean little to the other nobles who wield the blade of their influence. Excell here, and their blades just might hang limply long enough for you to curry their favor, turn them against one another, or strike first.

Then, Matt grabbed the wrong salad fork, and received a whipping on the knuckles with a ruler from the stoic man. It irritated him far more than it hurt.

The mundane training provided much more enjoyment. For him, it was a breeze to insert himself back into a normal cook or farm hand position. Matt even found some inspiration for his rift work after joining a rift farming operation. The combat team would clear the rift, then a team of farmers would set up the automated farming equipment, and after ensuring it was working correctly, leave.

The idea to use fertile rifts with automated seeders and harvesters was a brilliant idea that he messaged Erwin about, and they started theory-crafting rifts explicitly designed for the purpose. The ideal rifts were open plains with an available water source, and not too many hills or trees.

The rift Matt helped in was only a Tier 6 rift, which made it almost amusing to have to pretend to be scared with the other workers. While he could understand their trepidation at the prospect of monsters coming from anywhere at any time, he had long since lost that initial fear himself, with the years of combat experience that he had at his disposal. He was far from an expert still, but having to pretend to balk at the idea of setting foot in a rift was odd.

He mused inwardly as he milled about and loitered with the other nervousness helpers. He had never acted this way, even before his first rift.

Matt had always wanted this.

He could have killed every monster in the rift with his eyes closed, but for the workers who huddled around the rift entrance distortion, it was a scary few minutes as the combat team cleared the areas directly surrounding the entrance.

Both sides had done this before, and while the farmers trusted the combatants to protect them, they were all Tier 5 or below. When combined with their lack of combat skills, their lack of strength gave them good reason to be afraid. Matt had to admit that the combat team he was paired with was professional; they constantly reassured the farmers that everything was safe.

When they finished clearing the rift, they returned and informed the farming team that it was ok for them to start. The rift was full of centaurs, which meant there was no worry of monsters hiding in the shadows somewhere to attack them.

When they got the all-clear, Matt joined the others as they mapped out the edges of the rift, and set the machines to work. Under the endless sun and fertile soil, the giant, crab-like seeders and harvester drones would cut the grass down and till it under the ground, helping the fields grow for the next few years.

Matt was a part of the mapping team, who had to place markers so that the visual optics of the farming equipment wouldn't run into the invisible boundaries of the rift. While the rift looked like an endless plain of grass, it wasn't, and setting up responders for the harvester was much cheaper than repairing it for damage.

For the job, Matt was accompanied by one of the fighters who kept a ready guard to protect him from anything. While he didnt need it, the character he was playing did, and Ignatius had drilled into Matt that an operative had to play the part to the fullest of their ability.

It was interesting to watch the five harvester crabs get to work. They all stopped over at the water extractor, which had been placed in a river before they started cutting the tall grass and tilling it into the ground.

It was crazy to think that in half a year, the rift would then start sending out a variety of crops, which would continue for three years, until the rift's soil was depleted and no longer suitable for growing. Then the harvesters would leave, and would be quickly sent back in. With thousands of instances running the same operation simultaneously, a single rift was able to provide for a city of millions on its own.

Every hour, the rift had a new team sent in, which meant that they had a little over twenty-five thousand units in constant use.

Apparently, it was a tactic used on most well-established planets. In the higher Tiers, they would have bigger rifts that could feed even more people before the soil was depleted. Erwin told him that the output of a single rift provided food for each of the seven hundred billion people on the capital planet.

Matt fell in love with the idea, and the two of them used their free time to try and theorize the perfect rift for crop farming. They were sidetracked into talking about an ideal rift for producing meat as well, via the rift monsters. They eventually decided to try combining both perfect farming space and livestock monsters into one rift. It wouldn't be too useful for lower Tier worlds, as they didnt lack for land, and had no way to purchase the necessary number of Tier 15 harvesters, but that didnt stop them from planning during their free time.

Liz, on the other hand, struggled with the mundane training, due to her lack of experience. Though, she wasnt a skeptical, spoiled princess. She had lived on her own, and knew how to survive in the wilds as well as any delver.

She lacked the experience of working in a professional kitchen during a dinner rush. She never had to personally scrub toilets after someone made a mess. She was new to dealing with angry customers who wanted to vent their anger at someone that couldn't tell them to jump off a roof.

Liz simply had never walked in the shoes of a common citizen trying to get by and struggled to slip into the necessary mindset.

The situation was actually kind of nice for the couple. Matt was able to help her learn some things about the common folk, and she was able to help him learn how to act in high society.

Neither became experts at the aspects of life that were foreign to them, but the training allowed them to turn hard work into fun.

When the focus of their training returned to combat, Kurt insisted that Matt needed to bring his skills with his other weapons up to par. He told Matt that he couldnt solely rely on being an expert with his longsword, and Matt had readily agreed. The problem was, the man was an insufferable teacher who refused to explain anything, and expected Matt to decode the lessons from their practice bouts.

Matt finally became so fed up with the lack of communication that he asked for his instructor to be replaced. April seemed inordinately pleased with the request, and had a new instructor there in a month.

Despite their other training, the trio primarily focused on espionage work with Ignatius. As time went on, they learned about blending into various occupations, and how to identify others doing the same. They eventually settled into the various roles more readily, though it was still hard work.

Matt had fun with the training, and actually liked employing the covert skills in the field. Their first real mission ended in disaster, as Aster accidentally tripped an alarm with her tail, but they learned from their mistakes.

The bakery they had broken into had a surprisingly robust security AI installed, which identified her not as a burglar, but as not wearing the proper attire for being behind the counter.

They had gotten away without a hitch, but it was a good lesson about not being able to prepare for everything.

After the year of practice with Ignatius, they moved planets, settled down, and started doing small jobs while training.

While they didnt increase their Tier, the three of them rapidly grew in combat ability, from all the training Luna had lined up for them.

With Erwin, Matt finally settled in and started training his AI, despite being quite sure Luna would rather he not. But he suspected that in the battle between efficiency and her hatred of AI, the need to make sure he was at his best would always win for Luna.

His AI rapidly improved its combat predictions, but that was the least noteworthy improvement. Matt and Erwin focused his massive mana regeneration to expand its work functions, and recreate all the standard functions that a normal AI could do, like identification, to take better advantage of his unique mana situation.

But the best new skill Matt had honed over his next two years of training was how to fly with his Concept.

He was slow, and a little unstable, but it was true flight without the use of a skill, or a blade beneath his feet.

Matt spent hours creeping along the ceiling to scare Liz, or pick up and twirl Aster.

It turned into a game, and he would mess with them a little whenever they were lounging around. Despite neither of them figuring out how to fly themselves, they did both learn to lock down their own bodies with their Concepts, effectively stopping Matt from messing with them directly.

That stymied Matt for a while, until he took a page from Luna's book and started manipulating the air around them, which led to them learning how to lock down an area beyond their own bodies. It had taken them quite some time, so he had his fun, but they eventually managed the impressive feat.

Days blended into months, then into years, as if they weren't working so hard. The age old saying, Time flies when youre having fun, came easily to mind for Matt as he reflected on the recent stretch of years that theyd spent training this way.

He found their work on the security formations fascinating, as it advanced his knowledge of formations and enchantments by leaps and bounds.

He was surprised to learn just how advanced higher Tier formations could get. Allegedly, formations at Tier 15 had parts shifting through spiritual and spatial dimensions, making it impossible to view them without the use of a finely honed, higher Tier spiritual sense. Matt was barely able to view more than the outline of the runes.

While Matt didnt have a chance to create those complicated runes, he was able to break them more often than not, if he was given ample time.

Aster, on the other hand, was really good at sneaking into places where she wasn't supposed to be, and became one of their better scouts after they got her a collar that let her change her shape to a degree. She could shift to anything from a small cat to a medium sized dog, given a few minutes to hide.

She loved doing that sort of work, but enjoyed the more traditional education she was getting with a number of other Tier 10 and Tier 11 beasts even more. Her counterparts were just getting their own human-like minds, so she was ahead of the pack, if only slightly. She had a blast spending time and playing with other bests at her level of mental acumen.

The playful floof had a surprising head for learning, even if she willfully refused to apply it whenever it pleased her.

Still, it was good for her to make friends and expand her horizons, despite the number of times Matt was called to explain her shenanigans.

They were nearing the two-year mark of their training when news came that Lilly, Matt's homeworld, had been taken over by a Margaret Thresh. She had completed the Emperor's mandate and reached Tier 15 while on The Path first. Shed been a teenager when the rift breaks struck the first city, and had lost her family nearly fifty years ago.

Directly after the tragedy, Margaret had accepted a position at an off world guild, and left Lilly soon after before being scouted for The Path at Tier 2 and leaving the guild.

She had taken the opportunity of the Emperors edict, and as a solo melee delver, rushed her way to Tier 15. There, she had immediately stepped off The Path to take control of her home planet.

They were too far away for Matt to get more than a small fluff piece from one of the Empire-wide news stations, but he wanted more information, so he bought an information packet about the woman.

By all reports, she was a kind and fair woman who was hardworking and determined.

While she hadn't been the Baroness of Lilly for long, she was already expanding the Empire's incentives out of her own pockets, and had begun lowering taxes on the cities that had been hit hardest by the Rift breaks. All while encouraging the expansion out of the safe coastal areas, and into the depths of The Planet, so there would be less uncontrolled rifts.

Matt could find nothing indicating that Margaret was a bad person, but he didnt know how he felt about Lilly.

On one hand, he was happy that someone who was competent and seemed to be trying to fix everything was finally in charge. But he was sad that the world was in the hands of another. He realized the hypocrisy in that feeling, but it didn't lessen the way he felt.

A part of him a small part of him, had wanted to take control of Lilly for himself, and use his Talent to make it a high Tier world.

He knew it was unrealistic, but he was in a funk for days, until he accepted the fact and talked with Liz and Aster. Together, they decided that it was best for him to go home for a visit before the Tier 10 tournament.

***

Jacob, Jake to his friends, was excited to be delving and exploring the guild's new territory with his team.

The New Horizons guild was a smaller operation that had only earned a slot on the new planet because the guild leader's brother was serving in the army. He had cashed in some of his army merits to get his sister a slice of real estate on the frontier.

As a Tier 19, the land grant was more than Rebecca could have earned on her own in the next hundred years.

Jake had only met her twice, but he liked the guild leader. She was reasonable enough, and had given everyone a fair shake after recruitment. The terms of service with the guild were generous as well.

With a land grant of a little more than fifteen hundred square miles, they were getting a sizable chunk of real estate. It was far bigger than anything the forty members of the guild would need, but they expected to grow. Logan was back at their old planet, and was still trying to recruit more people.

Jake was just happy to have been brought along, and be able to increase his Tier. He was been stuck at the peak Tier 7 for years because he couldn't afford a Tier 8 rift. It was annoying, but he persevered.

The last nine months of subjugating their part of the planet had paid dividends. Just last night, he had broken through To Tier 9, and was now comfortably one of the true guild members. Since they were on a Tier 13 planet, most of the monsters were still beyond him, but along with his team, he had given support and earned a generous portion of the essence from their kills.

He could hardly believe his luck. Breaking through Tier 8 in a year and a half was still unbelievable. He wasn't so brash to think that he couldve done it on his own, without his guildmates feeding him all the essence from Tier 10 monsters, but he had still done it.

He was proud of that.

Rebecca had tasked his new Tier 9 team to delve into one of the rifts in their area, and they were finally ready.

It would be the first rift of his new Tier, so he was slightly worried about their delve, but the Tier 13s had already cleared it and given them a full rundown of the rift.

There would be no surprises.

That morning, the newly minted Tier 9s in Jake's team entered their assigned rift, and fought through the odd, four-armed, green humanoids.

They struggled, but only took a few minor injuries that their medic was able to easily bandage up.

The monsters all had their own Concepts that seemed to let them fight without fatigue, which increased the difficulty of the delve significantly. With all of the team still working on their own Concepts through lessons from the few Tier 15s, they were at a constant disadvantage.

It took them nearly two full days inside to clear the rift, but they managed, and a fist-sized gem fell out.

His teams whoops and hollers echoed off the cliff walls. They were excited, and were still coming down from their epic fight against the monster's leader, which was at the peak of Tier 9. They had gone through a fight for the ages, battling from the bottom of their Tier to slay the boss.

When they exited, Alejandro, one of the Tier 13s, was waiting for them. He took the gem to get inspected while they fell asleep in safety for the first time in days.

Jake and his team spent three days recovering before they entered the rift again. As one of only four Tier 9 teams, it was their duty to inspect the guild's new rifts and see if the rewards were worth anything. It wasn't glamorous work, but it was their work, and with everyone so busy, they were happy to do what they could.

Since the planet was old and only just found, it had an abundance of rifts, even in their small area of land. The fledgling guild was hard-pressed to even keep wandering monsters out of their area, let alone keep all the rifts delved.

The next three delves netted them unremarkable rewards besides the [Chop] skill, which was an excellent addition to the guild's coffers.

On their ninth delve, they got another skill that none of them recognized. When they showed it to Alejandro, the man nearly exploded.

You guys got [Endurance]. Wow! I need to tell the boss lady.

He looked to the side before looking back.

Sally took the opportunity to ask, I know it's expensive, but not how expensive. Doesn't the Empire buy them all up?

Their Tier 13 guild member bounced the skill shard in his hands. The Empire trades nearly any Tier 14 skill for [Endurance]. You guys just made a killing.

Before he could say more, Rebecca landed without a flying device, and the skill shard rushed into her outstretched hand. She inspected it for a long moment before grinning.

Well done. It's yours by right, but I'll offer each of you, any two Tier 8 skills if you sell it to the guild.

Jake and his team of five instantly agreed. That was an easy trade of one skill for ten. Since they all couldnt absorb the skill, they were quite happy to round out their arsenals thanks to the lucky drop.

No one thought anything of the rare skill dropping. They just figured that it was a lucky reward. At least, they did until a second [Endurance] dropped on their thirtieth delve. That caused a commotion so large, Rebecca recalled everyone at Tier 9, and had them delving the rift as fast as they could.

She seemed almost manic, but once there was a third, then fourth [Endurance] drop, she explained.

Everyone, we got extremely lucky, but we need to discuss how to handle this kind of luck.

Jake, being one of the weakest members of the guild, kept his mouth shut, but noticed that only the other Tier 15s were nodding along.

Seeing the confusion on most of the guild members' faces, Rebecca explained. This rift, if the preliminary drop table can be believed and I believe it can be has an [Endurance] skill drop for one of the three. That's fantastic news, but horrible news at the same time. This is too big of a matter for us to handle. I'm not sure of the specifics, but [Endurance] rifts are super rare. I think there are like, two others in the entire Empire.

There were cheers and shouts as people realized that they would earn a killing from this rift.

Jake didnt miss that while Rebecca looked happy as well, she was clearly nervous.

Yes, this is good news, but we need to report this up. I'm also sure that while well be generously compensated, were going to lose our plot of land.

Even Jake felt indignant at that, but the immortals amongst them looked relieved.

I need to report this to the local noble, who will report this higher and so on, until at least a duke gets involved. We only have a limited time to delve into the rift before we lose access to it, and it becomes an Imperial rift. After that, I don't know. But I believe we have a few weeks at best before things spiral out of control.

Jake started to get nervous, but Randle, the second in command, spoke up. This is a good thing, people. But don't do anything dumb. Don't share the news, and be sure to keep your mouths shut. The Tier 9's will all be delving the rift until we get kicked out.

Rebecca added, Same with the Tier 8s. Have two teams merge, then slowly and steadily delve the rift. Well be getting you all new gear. Gear thats a Tier higher than yourselves, so you can get every bit of damage out, and increase the speed of your delves. Also, let me know after this meeting what skills you all need for your ideal builds. Even with all these new upgrades, our number one priority is still safety. I'd rather have no skills than have any of you die.

After the meeting, things became hectic. Jake got his new gear in short order and returned to delving. With the new skills and items, they were able to clear the rift in a day and a half. When combined with their minimum downtime between delves and their familiarity of the rift, Jake and his team were able to constantly delve the rift over the next month.

Rebecca was right when she said that things would change when the news came out.

The day after her proclamation, a squad of the Baron's personal Tier 20 guards came and stood guard over the rift, while Tier 9s from other guilds came over. New Horizons had first dibs over all delve slots, but with only five teams able to delve the rift, they were far from enough to fully exploit the time they had remaining.

After a month, Jake was relaxing with his team, having just returned with their seventh [Endurance] skill shard reward. Out of nowhere, hundreds of people appeared and started politely but firmly removing everyone from the area.

It only took them one look to see Duke Dartmouths insignia, and everyone scattered. Not long after, a floating island that housed the ducal castle floated over, and hovered directly over the area with the rift.

As a Tier 9, he wasnt a part of the discussions, but Rebecca kept them all informed.

Their claim on the land and its rifts wasn't being contested, but even the Duke said that he was unable to make a decision for them.

They were all confused as to why until, an entire battalion of the Empire's army landed and took control of the area.

News quickly spread that this wasn't an ordinary battalion, but a Tier 35 battalion. Jake had never seen so many Tier 33 through Tier 35's before in his life, and from the gossip, no one else had either.

After the arrival of the General, everything was settled in hours. As Rebecca feared, New Horizons was losing their entire land grant, as it was being appropriated for the capital, which would be relocated to the area around the new city.

The Baron was ecstatic at that, as he was planning to do that himself.

There were a lot of other things that changed, but what mattered to Jake was what happened to his guild.

Rebeccas brother would be refunded his army contribution points, and they would be given a land grant twice the size of the previous one, on this planet, or any other from the new frontier.

If that had been all, they would have been bitter, but that was the least of their rewards.

Every member of the guild was exempted from taxes for the next five years, and given their pick of a skill shard above their Tier.

The guild as a whole made out even better.

They were given a six-block space allocation in the new capital, which they wouldn't need to pay taxes on for the next hundred years.

Their final reward was generous beyond what any of them could have even dreamt of: a free, permanent slot in the [Endurance] rift, as long as the guild and rift existed.

Rebecca had been unable to control her excitement when sharing the news, and had blurted out how thousands of guild applications were being filled out after the rift was revealed to the masses.

It seemed to take only a day before a city was created next to the army encampment.

People were flooding the planet and everyone was vying for land, which sent the price skyrocketing. In turn, that made the free land they had gotten even more valuable. Even the outlying portions of the planet were quickly bought up by powers both local and from farther out, as everyone wanted a foothold at the new rift.

In just a year, the guild had turned from a struggling, small-time guild to one of the newest juggernauts in the entire sector.

Jake, having been a part of the guild before its success, was carried upward through the guild ranks despite his low Tier.

Life was good.

Sometimes you just get lucky.