The Path of Ascension

Chapter 139

Zack observed the projection of the opening ceremonies with half a mind, until the Pathers were teleported to the now much closer trial planet.

They weren't going to be making a move until most of the royals, and most importantly, the Emperor, left. At that point, moving over wouldnt be suicidal, just recklessly dangerous. That, they could handle.

Families and people close to the Tier 10s could get visitor passes to the Tier 15 planet, a method he and Allie would be exploiting as their way in. Anything else was too risky.

Zack was watching the cloned health monitor they had been able to get their hands on and started his own tracking of the Pathers' health statuses. Those bands were not new technology by any means. Still, this was only his third time seeing them in action. Each band was ludicrously expensive to produce. Only a Tier 35 with a good grasp on space and teleportation could create the runes that they relied on.

The damn things only worked reliably when the transponder was crafted from rare materials at least double the rank of the rift it was meant to broadcast from. Even these bands were only rated for up to Tier 14 rifts, but the sheer amount of exotic Tier 28 materials that went into producing this many would make anyone flinch. Turstal many times predecessor had personally invested into this health-tracking system, and the security protecting the network reflected that even to this day.

It was why they hadnt bothered to try and hack into the system directly. Instead, they simply located a less-than-well-observed monitoring interface that the guards had used to track the kids' health, and cloned it.

They could only copy the same information coming into that device without giving themselves away, but it was still something to work with.

Allies cry brought him out of his efforts to organize the incoming information to better suit their needs. Hah! I fucking got them!

She was fixated on her wall of screens, and he quickly scrutinized the scene that she had on a loop.

In the video, a nondescript woman walked through one of the teleporters and vanished. Nothing unusual, but she had subtly sent out a burst of mana during the formation's activation, an act that would normally result in the travelers death.

Except, no explosion of blood and gore followed.

Did you trace their jump to the real exit location? Zack tried to keep the elation out of his voice. He failed. This was the first other cell of spies they had detected.

You bet your stick-filled-ass I did! I told you! I fucking told you that they were using this teleporter as their redirect.

Allie gloated, and admittedly, she had earned it. He had postulated that they were using a more obscure method of travel. Using the planet-wide teleporters was downright brazen, and raised the question of how they managed to modify the teleporter pad without even the maintenance technicians noticing anything.

Those formations were inspected daily, and underwent more thorough audits monthly.

Either their counterparts had a new method of redirecting teleporters, which was always a possibility with Talents, or they had a few well-placed spies on the inside, who had been activated for this event. Either way, Zack was a little envious.

Still, they had a job to do.

Standing, he quickly strode across the room and pulled up the location that Allie had tracked the spatial ripples to.

Zack had to nod in professional appreciation. This operation was being run out of a spatially expanded mobile base hidden inside a fake pigeon. Even with all their sensors and knowledge of what to look for, they couldn't tell the imitation bird from the real ones sitting next to it. If the operatives teleportation didnt lead directly inside the bird, neither Zack nor Allie would have ever found it.

Zack didnt gamble, but he would bet his life savings on the construct being a Talent.

It was just too perfect to be anything else.

After confirming the birds location, he turned to Allie and began considering their options.

Should we dispatch them ourselves? Or do we just compromise their cover and let the local guards step in?

Naturally, their primary assignment was to gather information on the Pathers going through the Tier 10 tournament. However, counterespionage was the next highest priority in the mission statement. After all, it would not do to let their enemies learn too much.

The question was; how to eliminate the competition?

If they did it themselves, they could possibly extract the other team's findings, which might fill in some gaps in their own investigations.

That option came with the highest risk of blowing their own cover, though.

He knew which option Allie would champion, but a part of being a good team meant talking things through when you could.

Yet, his partner surprised him. Yeah, I'm not laying a hand on that winged rat.

Zack nodded happily. I'm glad you agree. It would be an unnecessary risk

Allie interrupted with a raspberry. Pffft! No, no, no. I want to see the big bad Emperor make a move. He's less than a blink away. If we pop their little bubble now, he might just hop over and curb stomp these yahoos personally.

Even though Zack already approved of this strategy, the outside chance of seeing the Emperor himself make a move added to the appeal.

While it would be exceedingly unlikely that they could poach any new information this way, they might witness a Tier 50s power for themselves. That was tempting.

Very tempting.

While I was already on board with the strategy, I would relish such an opportunity as well. Even if the Emperor doesnt make a move, getting one of the Royals to personally intervene would likewise be valuable. Even if the odds are long, theres no harm in trying to bait a response either.

Once the pigeon entered their attack radius, Zack started up their Base Blaster, as Allie insisted on calling it. In truth, the attack consisted of numerous, intricate formations that worked in concert to disrupt concealment measures. In almost any scenario, it could unveil camouflaged facilities, at least temporarily. The catch was that the activation was anything but subtle, and the area of effect was limited. Realistically, it was only effective if they had already narrowed down the location of their target to within a few feet.

He hated to admit that even he started to think of it as the Base Blaster, if only because of Allies continual obsession with using the childish name. Firing it would sadly mean they would have to burn this base. They had to sever any connection that could reveal their next actions, and their base would also be compromised. However, the recording equipment was already running in their next base, so at most, it was a minor annoyance.

The procedures that followed were something they had practiced many times. No words were exchanged as Allie levitated a needle with her Talent, floating it from its resting place on the far side of their base over to Zack. Both vigilantly avoided touching the object. Thanks to how Allies Talent worked, neither of them would ever have any direct contact with the needle, which would accordingly foil many forms of divination that might be used to track them with it.

But it was still insufficient.

While Arcane mana lacked true access to Void affinity, the one type which would make it truly untraceable, Zack had discovered a tolerable alternative. When fed a unique blend of Fire, Earth, and Metal mana, the normally illusion-based [Invisible Object] would reset any mana signatures which might have imprinted themselves onto a targeted metal object. This technique also yielded the side benefit of superheating the needle to the point where any physical evidence was incinerated.

Zack nodded once the needle was completely scrubbed of any possible evidence of their involvement, and they began their countdown in silent unison.

When it reached zero, they acted.

Zack called on his Concept, using the smallest fraction of mana he could to launch the needle forward. Meanwhile, Allie wrapped the projectile in her Talent and triggered the teleportation formation they had etched throughout the city. In the next instant, the needle vanished in a flash of untraceable mana.

Without a moment of hesitation, they activated their emergency escape talismans and arrived in separate locations of the city.

No commotion or outward disturbance could be felt, but Zack hadnt expected one.

When they rendezvoused hours later in their next hideout, they reviewed the recording of their attack.

The needle appeared half an inch away from the pigeon and punched through the creatures hide.

Apparently, the pigeon was actually alive, and the poor bird erupted into a shower of viscera, revealing a prismatic marble that had previously been hidden within it. As they continued to watch, the marble cracked and then split apart in slow motion.

A base not unlike their own became recognizable as it expanded to its normal size, now that the formations and runes containing it were broken.

Before the space ballooned to larger than the size of Allie's hand, everything vanished. Even the pigeons splattered remains had been wiped away.

That's it? They didn't even bother to appear themselves? Fuck me sideways. No, fuck them sideways! Allie kicked away from the screens and spun her chair in a huff.

Zack frowned himself. He concurred with his teammate. It had always been a longshot, but this outcome was more than a little disappointing.

That was the life of undercover and spy work, though. That same life also meant no protection from a Tier 50 snatching you if they stumbled upon your base.

The rules of war did not cover spies for a reason.

And one could argue that the international treaties on not attacking down a Tier were never even broken.

He was sure the other operatives were still alive. At least, for now.

What tomorrow brought them was best left unthought of. The fate of unsuccessful spies was never clean.

Well, let's get to work and dissect the information we can glean from the few frames of their safe room that we have from before it was pulled away. We might be able to identify which other Great Power they hailed from.

Allie grumbled, but set to the task with him.

***

Matt and Liz took off with his best Concept flying speed.

Sadly, they were in the middle of the group of other Pathers, which put them in one of the worst positions possible.

Still, not many others could fly without a flying device.

That didn't stop everyone else from getting on their flying devices, but the time it took them to remove them from their spatial bags slowed them down a little.

That delay let the two of them catch up to the leading edge of the Pathers, who were rushing out in a wave of flesh and steel.

Liz called through their AI, Forward to the left and up is a Tier 12 rift with a challenge to kill three hidden bosses. Five points a pop if we take off their heads.

That was more than good enough to get Matt to head in that direction. Even still, others were faster.

One by one, others passed them and headed to various rifts.

Not wanting to give away exactly how fast he could fly with his Concept, but unwilling to be more than second in line, Matt increased their speed by a small degree.

The rate at which people passed them slowed to an acceptable level, and they quickly flew the few miles to their target.

They were the second team to arrive, which put them first in line to wait out the fifteen-minute reset time.

At the entrance to the tear in reality was an attractive man in the same guards uniform that they had seen earlier.

As they approached, the man adopted an easy-going air and simply asked, Would you like the information I can provide about the rifts in this area, and this one in particular?

Matt nodded, but Liz actually spoke up. If you could tell us what you can while we have the fifteen minutes to burn, wed be grateful.

The man nodded back politely and started what seemed to be a well-rehearsed spiel. Let us start with what applies to every rift. You may queue up for any rift and enter as soon as the fifteen-minute cycle time is up. To keep everyone moving through as quickly as possible, participants are allowed to reserve rift time, but were requiring that anyone with an appointment is in line at least twenty minutes before their scheduled time. Additionally, rifts may not be scheduled for more than a day in advance.

As another two teams landed behind them, the guard nodded to them and said, If you wish to delve this rift, please form an orderly line. First come, first serve rules apply. Any timing disputes will be handled by us gardeners.

That the local guards were called gardeners seemed amusing until Matt realized the darker implications about what a gardener did. Sometimes you needed to cut a branch to let the tree grow healthy. Not that he expected them to be attacking people left and right, but Matt took note of the implication all the same.

With their new audience listening, the gardener continued, If you wish to schedule a rift, you simply must go to the rift and register. A separate line for the scheduling can be formed if needed.

Matt felt that would be a line they frequented more often than not.

The Gardener smiled as he gave the line a saucy wink, This half of the garden is kept civilized. The other half, not so much.

Matt cocked his head as he narrowed his eyes at that hint.

A quick search of the information he had made no hint or reference to a different rule set or any kind of other half of the planet that the gardener had mentioned. No one had shared anything on the PlanetNet yet about such a thing, and that it hadnt happened instantly showed just how important these initial waves of rift rushes would be.

Liz caught his eyes, and they made a note to find out what he meant when they exited the rift.

The gardener moved on quickly as if he hadnt said anything of import. Now about this rift here. It always has three hidden bosses, and each have unique features that are always the same. The ranking is based on how many of the bosses you kill and how fast you do it. At the end of the month, the person in first place will earn an extra twenty points, second place will earn twelve, and third place gets an extra five points. If you are in fourth or fifth, you will earn three extra points, and sixth through tenth will net you one extra point. Anything below that will not earn any additional points. Please note that clearing the rift doesn't give any pointsonly by killing the extra bosses will you earn anything. As a final note, each team is only able to run this rift twice a month, and if you are the victor in first place, you are unable to challenge the rift again for at least two months.

He pointed to a small stack of drones next to him, and one rose up at his gesture before floating behind Matt and Liz.

This rift is recorded and televised to everyone watching, so do not forget her Majesty's warning about using trump cards without reason."

The man leaned forward and said in a dramatically lowered voice, Do note that for this rift, the secret bosses will remain as such with AI-backed oaths. Please read the oath over, and if you feel like you can't comply, step out of line.

Matt reviewed the oath and quickly accepted it, as it was the standard one used in the Tier 10 tournaments.

It boiled down to, Don't speak to anyone outside your team about the things you learn in the rifts. And when you do speak of them, only do so in a way as to not be overheard by anyone outside of your team.

That final addendum meant dont talk about the rifts anywhere but your private rooms or through your AI.

Nowhere else was secure enough to meet the requirements.

The minutes seemed to stretch as they waited out the fifteen-minute instance change before they could enter the rift.

Already, Matt could see people leaving the rifts and wandering around into the various buildings. Either they had signed up for a rift slot, and had enough time to feel that they could leave the area, or they had given up on the idea altogether.

Right before their turn came up, he and Liz received a message from Luna and Kurt that they had registered them for a rift delve in a Tier 11 speedrun rift in four hours as Quill and Torch.

That should be more than enough time for them to clear this first rift.

They weren't going for a full clear after all. They just needed to find and kill the bosses and leave the rift.

Ideally, they would only be killing four monsters before leaving.

Still, the rift was a proper Tier 12, which meant it was at least fifteen hundred square miles at the smallest, and could balloon up to double that at the larger end.

Once the timer indicated it was safe to enter the rift, Matt and Liz entered with their weapons at the ready.

They found themselves looking at the edge of a densely packed forest that led up to a mountain range in the distance. Jagged peaks sprawled out in front of them as far as they could see, reaching towards the starry sky above. The moon hanging in the sky seemed almost like a second planet, providing enough light that the entirety of the rift was bathed in its soft white glow. Its pockmarked surface appeared close enough to simply reach out and touch. The whole scene would have been quite serene, if not for the menacing red glow causing their shadows to reach towards the trees.

Looking back for the secondary source of light, Matt found that they were at the edge of a cliff that dropped down to a river of lava. It looked like a glowing ribbon that seemed to be the boundary edge of the rift.

Want to just fly around and see what we can see? Matt asked, turning to Liz while she lifted off the ground with her now attached ankle bracelet flying devices. Neither of them wanted to waste the willpower it took to fly manually when flying devices were faster and only cost mana.

Matt withdrew his personally made flying sword, and after Liz joined him on the blade, they took off with all the speed that a Tier 12 flying device powered by 50 MPS could muster. He could have gone faster, as, the blade could handle around 500 MPS, but he didnt want to show his hand. Besides, 100 MPS was in line with his Concepts expected power growth from what he had shown in the vassal war.

Still, they were moving faster than most standard blades available for purchase.

It was fast enough that they wouldve been battered by air resistance without Matt controlling the air with his Concept. But he had gotten quite good at his control over the years.

Liz pointed down and highlighted the first monsters they saw. Looks like elemental dogs. So far, I've seen poison and lightning. Nothing else seems to be Tier 12, though.

That wasn't surprising. While higher Tier rifts had increasingly complex ecology, there were usually a limited number of at-Tier monster types that served as the main opponents in the rift.

At Tier 12, they could expect three or four monster species.

With two identified, Matt kept his eyes and spiritual perception scanning the air around them for aerial opponents.

They flew in the direction of the exit, which was over the forest and next to the mountains, but not through them. Matt circled around the much darker part of the forest that was bathed crimson by the light, giving it an even more eerie ambience.

The rest of the forest that they passed over mostly consisted of various species of deciduous plants, but this section was a near-perfect circle of evergreens. It was painfully obvious from the air, though Matt knew that the change in trees would have been harder to notice from the ground.

They hovered in the air, keeping a bit of distance from the discongruent patch of forest.

Should we burn it? Seems suspicious.

Liz didnt hesitate as she said, Burn it.

Matt, as Liz didnt use fire spells in her real identity, cast a [Fireball] and launched it into the forest.

As the fire hit the trees, the entire region of evergreens rippled, and an ear rending screech slammed into them as the trees pulled together and started to form a whip.

Now that the monster was no longer hiding, the weight of its spirit was obvious, as was the mid Tier 12 boss presence.

Liz jumped off Matt's flying blade and flew off in the opposite direction, starting to summon gallons of blood from her glove growth item.

They werent willing to show off the true extent of their abilities, but as the monster seemed only able to attack with whips made of trees, they did not have to show much.

Matt flew close while he threw [Fireball]s as fast as the skill recovered in his spirit.

From the side, he saw Liz swinging arcs of blood at the monsters whips. Despite the two Tier disadvantage, she only needed a few chops to cut through each limb.

Her Blood Iron once again showed its prowess.

With most of the monster's attention on his partner, Matt flew forward, getting closer to the center mass of the creature as its bark obstructed his sight.

[Flamethrower] took a second to burn through the outer layer of the bark, but as it hit the monsters inner flesh, the fire took on a life of its own.

Matt was instantly attacked by every whip the monster had, but his sword was fast, and he had practice dodging attacks in the air. Still, he was only able to keep his attack up for another few seconds before he was forced away from the monster. The sheer defensive frenzy that the boss was driven into, and the remaining time limit on his skill that served to hide his Talent pressured Matt as he continued his assault.

Still, the damage was done, and as they retreated higher up into the sky, he and Liz watched as the monster burned from the inside out.

Matt shrugged and said, That was almost disappointingly easy.

Liz scratched her armored head and gestured with her spear. I don't think Ive ever seen a monster with such a glaring weakness before. I guess that fight would have been awful if we didnt have fire spells, but who doesn't have at least one? She turned to him and asked, How long did it take you to get through the outer armor?

Matt reviewed his AI and said, A little more than two seconds of a full 40 MPS [Flamethrower].

Liz shook her head and joined him on his flying sword again. That means even with just basic [Fireball]s, anyone else could have broken through the armor in about six shots if they could hit the same spot. Probably less, since the explosion damage would have helped punch through.

They waited in silence until they felt the rush of essence that flooded their spirits before moving on.

The next sub-boss they found was a boulder golem in a ravine, situated at the edge of the mountain region.

The fight was harder than the tree monster, but only because this boss didnt have any glaring weaknesses, unlike the first monster.

Matt fought it from the ground and kept its attention on his armored form while only launching the occasional attack. It allowed Liz to build up enough blood to smash the boulders into pieces too small for the boss to reform.

It took them nearly twenty minutes to finish the monster off, but the fight hadnt been particularly hard.

The essence rush this time felt far more earned, and Matt smiled as they moved to search out the next boss.

It was essence two Tiers higher than their Tier, and as a sub-boss, it gave quite a bit more for a single kill than killing dozens of the regular Tier 12 monsters would have.

As they neared the exit, they were unable to find the third sub-boss, and decided to kill the main boss before looking around more.

The final boss of the rift was a pack of massively scaled-up versions of the elemental dogs that they had seen throughout the rift.

Before they went into the fight with the mid Tier 12 monsters, Matt and Liz went and killed several packs of the lesser monsters, to see if they had any surprises or unexpected skills.

As it turned out, the monsters didnt. They mostly used breath or ranged attacks of their elements while closing in, and tried to finish the two of them off in melee range by biting and clawing as much as they could.

While there were four types of the elemental dogs, the main ones were the poison and lightning-based dogs that they first spotted. They had little issue dealing with them, though Matt tried to fight the poison monsters himself, as he was practically immune with [Cracked Phantom Amor]. Liz had to fight them from a distance, so she focused on the other two dogs.

The last two types were wind and mud elementals, but they were even easier to kill than the other two variants, which made them feel almost like afterthoughts.

They didnt bother to fight fair against the rift boss, and Liz started the fight with a wave of blood that she had taken from their previous enemies.

As the wave crashed over and then clung to the bosses, Matt followed up [Mana Slash]es charged with 2000 mana and aimed at the monster's legs.

Together, they had the monsters down in less than ten minutes. Eventually each of the elemental dogs throats were cut by Liz as they futiley grappled with the manipulated blood.

Checking their time, they saw that they were closing in on three hours in the rift already, and after opening the reward distortion and receiving three bottles of Tier 12 mercury, they started to look around for the third and final sub-boss.

It was Liz who noticed it after half an hour of looking.

The third sub boss was a giant whale swimming around the edge of the rift, hiding in the lava flows that they hadnt particularly investigated.

Since Matt had [Lava Manipulation] in his arsenal from his spending spree after the vassal war, the fight was absurdly easy. After pulling the section of river where the monster was waiting into the air, they simply attacked it while the monster fell helplessly to the ground.

Even as it tried to gather up lava from the nearby river, it was unable to put together enough of a defense with Matt fighting its every effort. Meanwhile, Liz drilled holes through its craggy flesh with all the blood that she had gathered from the Tier 12 bosses.

With a final time of three hours and eleven minutes, they exited the rift to see that they were actually the first team to have completed it, which put them firmly in first place.

Not that they expected to stay in first place, as they were sure that now that they knew where the monsters would be, they could cut down their time spent in the rift to simply flying around and killing the bosses.

Still, it was nice to see they had beaten the team that had gone in before them, and the ones that had gone in after hadnt bested their time.

Their delve earned their team fifteen points, which was pretty nice, but they both wanted to delve the rift once again with their knowledge of the boss locations and abilities.

With a second attempt, they might be able to actually win the fastest time, if they could cut down their delve by about an hour.

With less than an hour to their rift delve as Quill and Torch, they went back to their rooms and changed out their personalities with Luna and Kurt, after getting a warning that they were pushing their shown power a little too far in their real identities.

The rift they had been signed up for was a simple race of a Tier 11 rift.

Wanting to show off in their masked personas, Quill and Torch were already hovering in the air with their matching flying ankle devices as the countdown to their entrance time began.

This rift could be run only once a month by each team, which made the first clear of the rift a blind one, but they were able to gather some information beforehand. The rift's designation was a speedrun, but it had a second, more telling category.

It was a maze rift.

As flying would have implied that they could bypass most mazes, they could conclude that the rift was underground, or had natural anti-flying restrictions. The two teams they had seen exit the rift so far had flown out, so they were able to remove the second possibility.

That information, combined with the current fastest clear being two hours and thirty-two minutes, gave them quite a bit more information than they had had for their first rift. The current first place team finished only ten minutes faster than the second and third place runs.

Lunas training with information gathering showed itself useful once again, as they were able to make preliminary plans without even entering the rift.

When the two of them entered, they were immediately proven correct in their initial assumptions, considering that they were in an natural underground tunnel with four openings. Of course, each path branched off in the four cardinal directions.

Interestingly, the direction of the exit was clear to their spiritual senses. Quill had expected it to be obfuscated in some manner to increase the difficulty, either by means of the rift itself, or by the hosts if it were possible.

Without even a glance, they took the path that led them toward the exit, only to find that it almost immediately looped up and around, to send them in the completely opposite direction.

The Tier 11 monsters they found were almost an afterthought.

Quill was able to kill entire packs of the monsters with a talisman or two, if Torch didnt flash fry the monsters first. Whatever this rift was meant to be, the monsters were weaker in actual combat than the average Tier 10 monster, despite being technically stronger.

Their greatest issue was the looping tunnels and all the backtracking it took to actually reach the exit. With no way to find the clear path, the two of them just followed their instincts and flew at their fastest speeds.

Despite their lack of clear path, they were able to clear the rift in just two hours and six minutes, putting their names firmly in first place over the next fastest speed of two hours and fourteen minutes.

That rift felt like something a seeker would do well in, and both Quill and Torch knew that they wouldnt be getting any rewards from maze type rifts in the near future. Unless they were able to bypass the actual maze somehow.

They easily decided to forgo those luck based rifts, and agreed to stick to rifts where combat prowess was the deciding factor.

Wanting to see what the mysterious other side of the planet was about, they moved along at a half-decent flying speed, admiring the well crafted city that Tur'stal had built. They carefully plotted their approach for the next challenge as they went, determined to assert themselves as the best the Path had to offer.