The Path of Ascension

Chapter 251

Once they had hit the four oldest sects and marked the Tier 15s inside with tracking runes, Matt had expected the spies to lead them to bases or meet up with someone in command, but he was disappointed.

The Tier 15s went to their registered homes and called local healers, who were clean as far as Matt, Liz, and Aster could tell, and then did nothing. They just sat there recovering without meeting anyone, going to any secret bases, or calling anyone on their AI. They couldnt scrounge up a single lead.

With their big plan failing to accomplish anything of note, Luna started lecturing them about normal spy operations and typical fallback procedures. Taking that in mind, they were able to go and refresh some of their markers, which did take them to a rarely used warehouse where two of the Tier 15s from each sect met up.

As much as Matt wanted to get close, Liz properly pointed out that it was very obviously a trap, and the area was probably littered with tracking spells waiting for them to set foot inside their range and become marked themselves.

Matt knew the real world didnt operate on movie logic, but he hadnt really expected to run into a wall after their first step. During his past missions, he was able to identify and capture spies in short order, but the situations were vastly different, and he had to admit that before coming up with a new plan. Spies who had been there for at least a few decades were going to be well ingrained in the local populace, and would know better than to rush back to their secret lair after a pair of wanna-be Ascenders came kicking down their door.

Adjusting their mentality to a longer-term operation, they set up simple spying formations around the apartments of Tier 15s to see who visited them and if there were any repeat or connected persons. They were clearly not going to solve this situation in a weekend, and needed to get into the proper mindset.

A mindset that involved massive fines for their destruction of private property and a harsh warning that if their antics near low Tiers injured one of them, their punishment would be far stricter than simple financial penalties.

Settling in for the long haul had one benefit at least; they were able to hang out with Beverly, Shane, and Yosef a little and meet a number of other local immortals and integrate themselves better.

That, and their first delve into an underwater rift came up. Beverly was as good as her word, and had gotten the recently injured team to loan them the slot while they recovered for the low price of five Tier 17 mana stones. Normally Matt wouldnt care about saving money, but with the fines they had had to pay, their official accounts were dangerously low.

Unlike most who would worry obsessively about delving three Tiers up, they were looking forward to the Tier 18 rift and the challenges they would experience. Not everything was a surprise, like they would have preferred, as the team who sold it to them wanted to make sure they werent going to kill themselves. But the rift seemed really interesting, and they needed something stimulating to do after their failure with the sects.

When they entered the rift, Matt let his spiritual perception spread out and whistled. Or rather, he tried to whistle but just blew bubbles.

They knew from the questions that there would be a portion of the rift that was based in a city, but the city they found was visually impressive. A fully underwater civilization must have been the inspiration, as each building had entrances every few floors, instead of just at the bottom layer. The layout of the buildings was also less grid-like than cities in the Empire, and the buildings themselves seemed to be more freeform with their design, with some buildings starting out thin at the base before blooming into wide canopies that covered other buildings.

The city streets were equally as disheveled as the buildings seemed, littered with statues of something vaguely humanoid that held a crown in its left hand and a key in its right. If there was only one statue, it wouldnt have been that odd, but there were dozens on each visible street.

He looked over to Liz and Aster, who floated next to him, taking in the sight. With Tier 18 rifts being so large, the city was correspondingly massive, but while his spiritual perception couldn't see beyond it, he could do so with his [Telescope] enhanced eyes. And in the distance, he could see three other cities separated by a seaweed and kelp plain that he was sure was full of monsters.

Floating away from the others, Matt tested slashing with his sword, trying to adapt to being underwater. They had spent an evening doing this in one of Ventillyrias seas, but they all wanted to ensure that nothing was different in the rift. Thankfully, the conditions were the same, or close enough that he could fight almost as well as he could on land. At least with his melee style. His spells took a noticeable hit, as he had never really needed to practice parting the air for them like Aster and Liz had to.

If he needed a spell to move faster in the air, he just used more mana to cast it, whereas the ladies had been forced to learn how to do it with their Concepts.

Even though he couldnt see her, he could feel Lunas eyes burning a hole into his back.

Ignoring their manager, Matt floated over to Liz and Aster, who had finished their own tests, and they floated over to the first city.

Matt took the lead with both layers of [Cracked Phantom Armor] running at full mana, ready to take any surprise hits.

The team who had sold them the rift slot had asked if they could take armor-penetrating attacks, and Matt would rather not get chewed on today.

It was a good thing he was prepared, because out of an optical illusion created by the light filtering down from the false top of the water, a lamprey lunged at Matt from his blind spot.

The monster was only six or so feet long and as thick as his thigh, but it was fast, and its teeth glowed with at least two spells that gave Matt the shivers.

Twisting, he slashed at the monster even as a coating of ice slowed it down.

Instead of trying to dodge, the monster bit his sword, and Matt could feel the strengthening and repair enchantments he had put on the blade drawing more mana as they tried to keep the monster from biting through the sword. Cursing mentally, Matt cast [Mana Charge] and [Mana Slash], which blew part of the monster's head off. To his surprise, it didnt outright kill it, and the monster tried to swim away, but Liz was ready, and her spear finished the job.

Blood swirled and accumulated around Liz as she grabbed it before it could diffuse too much. She could concentrate diffuse blood from the surroundings, of course, but it generally wasnt worth the effort when compared to keeping it under control after a new creature died.

Aster also noticed something interesting about the lamprey's hiding spot.

It's a light-based illusion. Let me see if I can spot them with [Illusion Manipulation].

As it turned out, she could spot the illusions, but that didnt mean they could find every lamprey. The monsters, instead of casting the spells themselves, seemed to just take advantage of naturally occurring illusions that the rift produced.

That was an interesting bit of information, and they slowed down their approach towards the city so Aster could check all of the illusions. A decision that paid off when they found a small chunk of crystalized light that their AI recognized as a pseudo-natural treasure that was possible to find in the rift. The small, solidified light was useful to any light or illusion mages, as the item could capture a scene and then replay it all on its own, acting as a backup to their arsenal. Crafters, on the other hand, used the item as the core of illusion-based items and could do some interesting things with its copying abilities, but that was all beyond Matts level of skill.

It was still a fantastic find, and would help recoup their fines, so they spent a good hour trying to find another one in the light illusions scattered throughout the rifts depths.

Sadly, it was an hour wasted, as they only found ravenous lampreys intent on eating them.

Realizing it was a lost cause, they headed into the city, where the water got cold enough to force Liz to activate temperature enchantments on her gear. If this wasnt a rift filled with high Tier water, it would have been ice instead of liquid. Aster, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the cold and teased Liz for needing protection from the frigid temperatures.

Their first encounter was with a fish only the size of Matts hand that darted in to try and slice Matts throat. It even penetrated the first layer of [Cracked Phantom Armor], but its small size didnt provide enough force to push through Matts various reinforcements.

Killing monsters by looking down really hard felt a little anticlimactic, but the rush of essence was a nice reward for almost getting a new hole in his neck.

Pulling the monster out of his neck, Matt looked at the razor-sharp fin on the monster's back. This rift seems to have a theme, and I don't like it.

With his lungs full of water, he didnt even bother to try and talk and just used his [AI] to transmit his thoughts.

Liz agreed, even as she collected the blood from the fish. Lots of armor piercing. Not really fun for anyone. I think Ill copy Aster.

Blood coalesced around Liz, solidifying into full [Blood Crystal Armor] and broadly matching Asters tactic of encasing herself in a block of ice.

While it stopped the fish, they were left relatively defenseless as squid darted from the darkness and sprayed them with sticky, obscuring ink. While Matt was able to repulse the ink with his Concept, the ladies werent as fortunate, as they were unable to dodge the squids crushing tentacles.

They escaped easily enough before they were actually injured, but were forced to shed their outer layers of armor for the required speed. Matt and Liz coordinated to flush away the squids ink with a joint [Water Manipulation], and Aster turned their surroundings into an icy slush as she targeted the squids with a number of debuffing spells.

Matt made sure to attract most of the monster's attention with a few well placed [Mana Slash]es, and then focused on protecting himself with his numerous defensive skills. Liz used the change in the battle's momentum to block a tentacle with her shield and slice another off with her spear, before using the spilled blood to stab another squid in the eye as it slipped around her defenses and sought to break her arm.

The Tier 18 monster didnt die, but its appendages were wracked with tremors from the nerve damage. Liz quickly escaped its clutches and finished it off, letting its death empower her as she went after the next closest monster.

Aster handled the ambush differently, leading the squids after her on a chase while she froze their tentacles and nudged the monsters in each others way, letting them shatter one anothers tentacles, leaving them defenseless for Matt or Liz to finish off. Unfortunately, the squid kept filling the surroundings with their ink, making it all but impossible for any of them to perceive what was going on. While they could mitigate the issue via [Water Manipulation] to both clear away the ink and give them a sense for where the squids were, it was a losing battle, and the tactic forced them to relocate and regroup.

***

Aster watched the battlefield from the rear while not forgetting to watch her back for any of the small fish that had tried to dart in at Matt.

Liz was finishing off three final squid, so Aster delayed an incoming pod by conjuring a [Headwind] elemental, the white ribbons snaking through the water and restraining the monsters long enough for Liz to give them her full attention. A twist of her bloodline, enhanced by Lizs concept, was enough to turn the waters around them to an icy slush. It further slowed them and their ink from spreading, and Liz tore into the new monsters with gusto.

With Liz stable for the time being, she turned back to Matt as he held off a half-dozen of the monsters. His left leg was in the grasp of a severed tentacle, but as the creature it had come from was long dead, she ignored it. Instead, she formed a barrier of ice around him with [Snowpack] and detonated it a second later to push back a squid trying to hit him from behind.

While Matt was holding his own against the flood of monsters, he wasnt making enough headway to deal with his current group before a new wave appeared. [Meadows of Rime] turned the tide as the shards of ice in the area scored countless minor wounds against the monsters, giving Matt the opening he needed to truly start finishing them off.

Even as he was fighting, Matt kept rotating his position to attract most of the monsters swarming them from Liz and herself. As her attention was pulled out of fighting in a support role, she noticed a squad of squids coming at her from the rear.

She instantly split into an even dozen, illusions of herself springing into existence as she redirected her [Headwind] to ensnare and entangle the creatures after her. [Frost] and [Polar Ray] partially entrapped them in ice as [Absolute White] slowed their feeble escape attempts to a crawl. Liz was able to finish them off no problem, with a blood-clad projectile smashing through the squids eyes and shattering their frozen arms.

Aster was once more covered in ink, but ignored that besides making a note that she was going to suggest they finish their city off by range once they got a moment to breathe. She was tired of getting covered in monster fluids.

***

Aster grumbled as she stroked her tail, slowly working out some of the ink staining it. Ok, can we just kill the sub-boss of the area and hope the next city doesn't have squids? Because if it does, Im going to be pissed. Im going to spend hours getting the ink out of my tail.

Not wanting to deal with the ambushers anymore than they had to, the three of them circled the city, looking for the sub-boss they suspected to be residing inside. Sadly, they couldn't find it, and were forced to go back into the city and start clearing it street by street. It would have taken them weeks to clear the whole city, but this wasnt a populated city on the planets surface. Instead of being careful with the buildings, Matt just hit each building with a few [Arcane Powershot]s until they fell down. Sometimes, that killed the monsters hiding inside, but most of the time, they crawled out of the rubble to get blasted by all of their long-range attacks.

It created a mess, and after getting fined for burning just a few buildings, it was kind of stress relieving to level a city without consequences.

Their antics did bring out the sub-boss, which, contrary to their expectations, wasnt the giant statue in the city center, and was rather an oversized squid who started the fight by inking what felt like the entire city. Matt used [Water Manipulation] to keep out most of the ink, but when the giant squid with a silver eye rushed them with tentacles the size of a train car, he was pushed hard just to avoid dropping the spell and get them covered in ink.

Unfortunately, his concentration was broken when he took a bad swat by the giant squid after one of its tentacles shifted trajectories before he could react. The hit shattered [Cracked Phantom Armor], and Matt was only just able to reform it before he slammed into the ocean floor. With a few cracked ribs and a little internal bleeding, Matt stood back up and threw most of his mana into [Arcane Powershot].

Liz and Aster had closed in with the large boss, and by using their positions and triangulating their position with his own, he was able to narrow the location of the boss to a reasonable degree.

His first shot caused a scream that blew out Liz and Asters eardrums. The second missed, but the third brought the beast's attention fully on Matt.

Even without his spiritual perception, Matt could feel the water rush at him as the squid tried to crush then eat him. Instead of running away, Matt cast [Bulwark] and then threw his remaining mana into [Arcane Powershot].

The fourth shot blew off a large portion of the monster's mouth, but he wasnt able to get the fifth shot off, as Liz and Aster hit the enraged monster from the rear and killed the sub-boss right before it reached Matt. Matt sighed in relief at the rush of essence that confirmed the monster was dead, even as he cycled it into his spirit just as fast as it came in.

With Matt needing to recover and with them all needing to get the ink off themselves so they could use their spiritual sense, Matt took a few minutes to be introspective.

He had taken the direct hit of a sub-boss three Tiers higher them himself and walked away with only a few broken ribs. That was something his younger self would have never even dreamed of.

When he had dreamed of his future, he was more like the quintessential hero who destroyed the enemies, and who only ever really got hurt when he defeated the final villain in a climactic showdown.

The reality was different.

For all that he could dish out a ton of damage with a blade and spell, Matt was a proverbial brick wall, and he liked it that way.

When the monsters were striking him, they werent attacking his team. He went back to what Legacy Manny had said. With a strong enough defense, you dont need to worry about yourself; you can just focus on your enemy or your allies. You can take the [Firebolt] so that others dont have to. That is my legacy.

Matt didnt think he was quite as focused on the defense as Manny, but there seemed to be a nugget of truth for his own style.

He and the Emperor were hyper-flexible. They could do anything, and even if they couldnt quite match a dedicated specialist in that particular field, they wouldn't be far off. When they had that much flexibility, they could be a menace in a fight, and in that last fight, Matt thought he might have seen part of his future.

He could deal so much damage with his attacks that he would almost always become the focus of whatever monster or enemy they were fighting. If he could survive their attacks, he didnt just become a thorn in their side, but an impossible conundrum.

Were they supposed to focus on him and the incredibly dangerous spells he was casting, or should they attack Liz and Aster?

If they went after him, they opened themselves up to Liz and Aster attacking from the rear, and if they chose to ignore him, he could continue to bombard them with a nigh unlimited amount of spells.

But that was all predicated on him being dangerous enough to force the enemy into that situation, and being strong enough to take the punishment.

Matt just wasn't sure if he wanted a tank Intent, or how that would even work. He just didnt feel any real resonance with the idea of being a shield. Most of the time he acted as a melee bruiser who had tank level defenses, but he currently lacked most of the tools a dedicated tank would have, especially for combat against real people. He was just really hard to kill, and was able to deal out a lot of damage at the same time, putting enemies in an awkward position.

By the time they were ready to leave, Matt had no great answers, but did message Luna with a recap of his ponderings, which she said they would talk about when they were out of the rift.

They had done that before, and Matt was pretty sure that if Luna wasnt Luna, she would make a good therapist, as she always had a knack for forcing him to look at himself differently. That was a very useful skill for when the three of them were trying to create their Intents.

With one city cleared of monsters, they went to the next, which, while not a hard task, was an annoying one. They were forced to deal with the lamprey that liked to hide in the rift's natural illusions. If they had only needed to cross a dozen or so miles, it wouldnt have been too bad. But with close to five thousand miles between each city, they were forced to deal with near-constant ambushes, which limited their speed. The only good thing was the fact they found another crystalized light fragment.

The second city was much easier to clean than the first one, thanks to the fact the monsters inside were crabs that had incredibly hard shells paired with strong claws. The crabs would have been easy to kill from a distance if not for their movement spell, which could turn them into bubbles and allow them to reposition at will. Even with that advantage, the three of them cleaned the city in less than half the time it had taken them to clear the first, thanks to not being slowed by the blinding ink.

When they reached the third city, they paused as Liz pointed out the obvious incongruity. Rifts are weird. No one can deny that, but what's with the statues?

Matt inspected the city a few miles in front of them, and just like in all the others, the city was littered with statues. The first city had statues holding a crown and key, while the second city's statues had been holding a sword and key, and the third city's statues held a key and a shield.

Aster cocked her head and asked, Does that shield kinda sort of look like the crab shell of the last citys sub-boss?

Liz shrugged. I don't see it.

Turn more sideways. Look, if you squint a bit, it actually looks like it.

Matt did as he was instructed and sort of saw it.

Liz still couldn't see anything resembling the crab shell, but when Matt agreed with Aster, Liz acquiesced that they might be onto something. Even if his [AI] didnt find it to be a match.

With that in mind, they cleared the remaining five cities until all that remained was the most central city, which, like all the others, was populated by statues.

Matt was almost ready to ignore them, when one lashed out with a mace that nearly took off his head. He was able to duck quickly enough to avoid the swing and deliver a heavy punch to its stone rib, which shattered the monster.

The essence proved he was correct in his assumption that this was actually a monster, so the three of them started cutting down the statues with extreme prejudice. With the monsters acting like true statues and standing perfectly still, the three of them were easily able to kill them from a distance, but stopped when they reached the city center. There they found a giant statue, standing tall among the surrounding buildings.

Unlike the other cities, this statue had a dozen arms with its hands empty, and it actively followed their movements but never took a step forward off its pedestal.

Liz pointed at the statue and said, Look at that. Empty hands. What do you want to bet that we can power up the boss by giving it the items? See, I told you that the thing's shield didnt look like a crab shell. We just need to get all the items, and maybe well get something special.

Aster agreed readily. Let's go! I want to see what we get. Secret bosses and areas usually lead to way better rewards.

It took them almost a full day to fly through the water to retread their steps to each city, where they took the items out of the city center statues, but Liz was proven right when the items they were hauling behind them pulled themselves free of the rope and flew to the boss's hands.

Once the boss was fully armed, it stepped off the pedestal it was on, pointed the wand it was holding, and shot an arc of lightning at them.

With them being underwater, the lightning spread and hit all of them, but their defenses were enough to block the attack with only moderate damage penetrating.

Matt flew forward and, using [Bulwark], blocked the fifty-foot statue's sword swing.

Flaring his Concept and [Water Manipulation], he braced himself to stop the swing in its tracks, which created a massive collision that sent out ripples of water and destroyed the surrounding buildings as if they were made from cardboard.

If the monster had only had a sword, Matt was confident he could have held it up for the entire fight, but the monster had a dozen arms, and he was forced to dodge to the side as a mace, a book, and a gem tried to smash him.

The book started to glow with the gem even as the statue kept chasing Matt down, which gave him an ominous feeling, and he prepared both [Diffusion Shield] and [Bulwark] to block the incoming spells.

Aster kept to the side, but she aided his defense by casting [Dispelling Wind], [Meadows of Rime], and [Brittle Cold], the latter of which weakened the statue's Concept, which was restricting space and preventing any teleports or spatial items from working.

When the glowing items finally attacked, Matt braced himself as two oversized [Mana Bolt]s crashed down on him and sent him flying through a dozen buildings.

He hurt everywhere, but stood back up even as he flexed his Concept's repulsion to throw the debris off him and pointed with his sword in mage form as he cast [Cracked Mana Spear] at the boss.

The spell created a wave of bubbles as it vaporized all the water in its way before carving a line in the boss's stone side.

That once more brought the monster's attention firmly on him, and Matt smiled as he settled into a rhythm with the battle, blocking another series of attacks.

Liz came in low with her spear at the ready and drove a needle of blood into the monster's leg, before growing and solidifying the blood to the ground.

With the boss unable to move one of its feet, he and Aster had free reign to open up all their attacks, as they knew Liz couldnt keep that going for long underwater.

Matt immediately rushed directly under the monster and started building up his Concept explosion and channeling [Sheer Cold] until he started hitting the diminishing returns of the spell.

Just as Lizs blood leash fell apart, Matt cast [Sheer Cold], and the explosion of cold and frost turned all the water around them into ice in a mile-wide radius, which included the boss and a large portion of the city.

The boss wasnt dead, but its stone hide was littered with cracks, and Matt switched all his mana regeneration into [Ice Manipulation] then commanded all the ice to stay as far away as possible from himself. Aster conjured her staff of ice and will, readying herself for a finishing blow.

The moment he was ready, Aster cast [Cracked Shatter] on all the ice, and Matt unleashed his own detonation.

The explosion seemed to rock the very rift itself, and despite his counter-explosion and spellwork, he was still hit with an uncountable number of razor-sharp shards of ice.

Liz crawled out of the ground and shook her head. Fuck me sideways. That is a little too strong underwater. Im glad I went extra deep because the ice still reached me.

She twisted her shield, which had divots of white where ice had hit it.

Matt coughed up water and blood even as Aster happily swam over. That was fucking awesome! Look at what it did to the boss. It's not even in pieces. It's in whatevers smaller than dust! Damn, we are good.

Matt nodded even as he pulled the shard of ice from his chest. It's great and all, but Im not going to be doing it again. Being in the center of the explosion is a little too dangerous for my taste. Damn, that hurt.

Aster smacked him on the arm. Dont be a baby. I think we did more damage than your [Cracked Mana Spear] with that attack. Think about it. A Tier 18 boss that was juiced to the gills in one fucking shot! How is that not worth a hole in a lung? You don't even need lungs.

Matt flicked Asters tail but didnt disagree. That had been an impressive amount of damage, and was something he wasnt sure they could recreate outside of an underwater rift. At least, not without a stupid amount of prep work.

[Sheer Cold] could create some ice in a normal rift, but it couldnt create a mile-wide block of ice without a corresponding amount of humidity, limiting the damage that [Cracked Shatter] could deal.

Wanting to see their prize, they went over to the pedestal and saw a hidden workshop or science lab hidden inside.

On guard, they were ready for an ambush but found nothing dangerous in the nonsensical lab of pipes that led nowhere, nor in the beakers filled with bubbling ice. Eventually, they found a pedestal that had a pair of mechanical arms that seemed able to stick to armor.

Matt nodded, seeing it. So that's where they get them. Ive seen these for sale on Ventillyria and wondered where they were from. They can attach to any armor and can act as a second pair of arms. Theyre decent for physical fighting, but crafters usually snap them up before anyone can get their hands on them, though once attached to the armor, they are paired with it forever. They sell for a Tier 20 mana stone minimum, so this is a nice windfall.

Aster nodded appreciatively. That's cool. I'd be half tempted to use them myself, but I don't really need a second pair of arms. They look awesome, though.

Liz agreed. Same. Id need to run them by an appraiser first, see if theyre even worth using for fights of our level. The lack of blood in them isnt an encouraging sign, and Id hate to deprive a craftsman of a tool that I might only use for a few short years.

Clearing the reward distortion, Matt collected the disappointing reward of a block of silver, and they exited back into more water.

It was weird, but Matt wanted a bath after all this salt water. He was pruney in the worst way and wanted to check on the sects. He had a bad feeling about their actions in the last few weeks and despite a nice respite in a rift, returning to the real world only brought those concerns back to the fore.