Scorching Ascension - [Progression Litrpg Apocalypse]

Amanda's POV

Amanda watched as Ethan picked up the Ignisra and flew away toward the rift. He'd done it some distance away, but she could still see him with her Prime enhancement and as the two disappeared behind the mushroom trees, she looked around her. At what remained of her so called plan.

The Ignisra had brought them closer to the high-schoolers and to Ethan's companions, and now they'd been told to rest up while the new coalition helped push away some lizardlings and their drakes.

Amanda looked to the side at the unmoving form of Damian, then at the wisps of golden smoke floating off of his mouth and off the boots still on his feet.

He was barely twenty-five, she thought, bitterly. Two out of the three who'd chosen to stay with her had died when Ember had shown up to free them. With spells flying from the two captors, and from the attacks of the monitors who'd been attracted to the mayhem, two of her people had passed.

"You okay, boss?"

Amanda glanced ahead to find Fredrick looking worriedly at her, club still in hand. He was the last of those who'd agreed to stick with her plan. A tall man. Late forties. He kept calling her boss, which at first annoyed her a little. But it grew on her.

Now there were only two of them. This wasn't the first failure Amanda has had to face, but her failure didn't usually… well, fail because people died on her watch. How long until Fredrick bit the bullet as well? When would her own luck run out? It had almost been today. She'd almost died as bait to a giant stupid lizard.

"Everyone is dead or gone. You should… probably do the same. Join a safer group," she said as she eyed her surroundings. This would only be a setback. She would grow from this. But first, she'd like to bury Damian. And maybe go and pick up Forest later.

Fredrick chuckled, and Amanda slowly looked up, a little surprised at hearing laughter after eating such losses.

"Ah. Sorry. It's really not the time to laugh, but, you know. Laughter can find its way out in the worst and most inappropriate moments."

Amanda blinked, then shook her head as a tired smile pulled on the edge of her lip. "This… doesn't feel great. We—no. I failed."

Fredrick nodded, then rested his club on his shoulder as he looked around. After a couple of seconds, he spoke up. "Yup. It was a shitshow."

Amanda had no words there. She completely agreed.

"You remind me of my daughter."

Her brows twitched, and she waited for him to clarify what he meant by that, but no explanation came through. After a few more seconds, her eyes swivelled to the man. "Not sure where you're going with that, but my father's still alive. Probably."

Fredrick waved her words away. "I didn't mean anything weird by it. I meant that your drive reminds me of her. And of course, she had setbacks here and there, but she always picked herself back up. And…well. At some point she could. But not much we could have done about that. How about you? Are you going to pick yourself up or are you going to mope about for long? Because they're levelling right now while we're out here licking our wounds."

Amanda listened quietly, then a chuckle escaped her lips. She looked around her, at the lizardlings taking potshot at them, then into the direction Ethan had gone as she summoned her wings and wand.

"We need strong allies, Fredrick. The winds are turning, and we need our own little boat ready to sail with a mightier fleet. We better level for now, I guess. Then play it by ear."

Fredrick grinned and gripped his club tighter as red-gems began materializing over the hand-held weapon. "Aye aye, captain."

She didn't manage to strike out on her own, so she would make herself indispensable to those who could.

And first things first, I should make friends with those he surrounded himself with.

***

The orange flaming tail swished back and forth, sliding against Ethan's ear while he stood a few yards away from the rift. The cat was purring and even though he'd expected her to come down and examine the rift as well, she seemed content to hang around atop of his horns, purring up a storm, ever since he'd made the mistake of admitting he had actually worried about her.

"We're here. You can get off now."

"[No.]"

Ethan stared ahead at the paw dangling in front of his face and sighed, then looked past it.

The rift hung ahead of him, crackling with wild energies. The air smelled like a mix of sea water and dead algae, oddly enough, which he assumed meant he was about to drop into the territory of the moss-covered lord. Or on a beach.

Ethan took a step back and kneeled down to touch the still smoking lizardling-shaman, and for a moment, he looked past them and drew his lips in line before he pulled the Harvester's dagger from the dimensional pouch. Or, more accurately, what remained of it.

Stupid fat lizard, he thought as he turned over the deformed pommel, and eyed the broken edge. Ethan had swung by the area in which he fought Edwin's group. Having thrown the dagger to the side in the heat of the fight and having had to scram when the tier-2 creature had shown up, he couldn't stop and pick it up then but after having gone back, he quickly found it, at the edge of giant footprint left by the lord of the Swamp.

Oh well, at least I got both a new spell and a level out of the little adventure. Though I did end up using Scorching Ascendancy, which means I'll have to be careful until it recharges.

You have defeated [Human (I) - Level 50]

…

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

You have defeated [Lizardling (I) - Level 47]

You have reached Level 52. 1 stat point awarded.

Ethan assigned the point to Toughness. Things had been close against Edwin and his team, and Ethan was pretty sure if he hadn't been investing this heavily in the attribute, he wouldn't have survived. All of those metallic shots, electric blasts, and stabs could have been much more severe if they'd managed to get through his Toughness. Even that blindness could have easily lasted a while longer. Probably.

Next, Ethan had some fragments to spend and before doing so, he checked his interface to see if there were any upgrades he could afford on the Prime Arcanum. He'd gotten plenty of Essence with the last encounter. Nearly 20 points, in fact.

Just gotta keep running into danger headfirst. Easy enough.

Ethan eyed the list of upgrades and hummed. He really didn't have the time to dwell on his choices for too long, but he wished he had enough for the Spellform Capacity increase. Unfortunately, he couldn't afford that just yet. And sooner or later, he was going to have to get a couple of mana upgrade because he was starting to feel it. The limits of his regeneration. Between the intense flames, the wings, and everything else, his mana consumption was quickly becoming unsustainable, and the only reason he managed to keep up was likely thanks to [Mana Heart].

Turning his attention to the Lesser Arcanum, he didn't find any game-changing upgrade there. He could always boost the spell capacity and whatnot, but it wasn't critical, and it could wait a little.

Actually, nevermind that. I could get a couple of spots in there easily enough, and that'll let me slot in the new homing modifier as well as [Crystal Dart].

Ethan quickly found the latter in the pouch, assimilated while he bought two capacity upgrades back to back, which cost him 400 fragments total, then after he equipped the spells, he pulled out the interface and eyed his lineup to make sure everything was in place.

Prime Arcanum of the Juggernaut

Spells: [Detect Life], [Small Fireball], [Gout of Flames]

Spellforms: [Mana Heart]

Arcanum of the Fire Elemental

Spells: [Whisper], [Arc of Force],[Homing][Crystal Dart]

Spellforms: [Scorching][Sapping Scales], [Extending][Draconic Claws], [Draconic Wings]

There we go, Ethan thought as he rolled his shoulders. Eyes on the rift, he summoned the scales on his face and head, summoned the wings and claws, and grabbed the black and red form of the Prime wand as it popped out of thin air. Ember stopped purring and hopped down and before her feet touched the ground, her anklets were manifested. She looked up at him, eyes glowing. "[Ready?]"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Ethan took a step forward and reached forward to the white light. Before he even touched it, he felt world slip by around him in a flash of blue light, as if he'd just stepped on top of the fastest moving walkway in existence and as soon as it started, it stopped, and Ethan stumbled right as the bright daylight blared into his retina, quickly followed by the pungent scent of decomposing plant matter and stagnant water.

Next, a prompt popped in front of him Ethan quickly parsed it before he dismissed and looked around.

"Ember?"

Ethan flared his wings, ready to fly up just as they'd planned, but the cat was not at his feet.

He cursed. They'd considered this a possibility, but the Ignisra had not been able to know for sure. She'd said some rifts separated the people who challenge them, and some allowed groups to stay together, and it seemed like this one was of the former.

Thankfully, they accounted for that, and the cat said she'd be able to find him thanks to their connection so all Ethan had to do was find a dry, high spot, and secure an area for them. Which would certainly not be this spot as already, scaly, moss-covered heads began popping out of the murky, duckweed covered waters, and as he focused on one, he quickly realized he really had to take to the air before he got dragged into a risky fight.

[Swamp Monitor (I) - Lvl 62]

A bit too intense for the moment. Especially when Edwin could be watching and preparing a trap for him. So, for now, Ethan jumped up and beat his wings, and within a couple of seconds, he passed the sparse canopy, and his jaw slackened.

They were in a bubble. A giant, rainbow-colored bubble that seemed to encompass a tropical island. The island was divided into mainly three biomes. First, the swamps Ethan was currently flying over. Right next to them, a large, imposing mountain that was riddled with caverns, almost as if it was just a giant ant-mound. And finally, a rocky beach–no, a lagoon, and on the shore, countless water monitors were lounging around, taking in light of the sun.

Wait… there's no sun…

The light seemed to be coming off of the walls of the bubble itself.

This is crazy… but I'm honestly glad I can take a break from the blue lights of the mushroom trees.

Hovering in place, Ethan looked around once more and knew he had to make a decision, but first, he wanted to re-check the prompt.

Rift challenge: Defeat the three lords (0/3)

Rift restriction: Exit is not possible until the challenge is finished.

Rift reward: One custom trait

That's perfect. Means Edwin has nowhere to go. And the three lords?

Ethan looked down at the biomes, recalled the two lords he'd already seen, then his eyes swivelled to the beach. Considering he'd already seen the lord of the swamp and the lord of the cave, he assumed the third would be the boss of the water monitors, which brought him back to the question; which area should he start with?

If I want to meet Ember, I feel like she'd be at the cave. She doesn't like water much. But the issue is, the caves might give the advantage to Edwin and his webs, and to the shadow-hopping woman.

Ethan eyed the three biomes for a few more seconds, enjoying the fresh air as he thought things through, and came to a decision.

I'll start with the caves and see if I can find Edwin's tracks… otherwise, I'll spend some time in the area between the cave and the lagoon, and get some levels. It's not as if he can leave. In the meantime, I can start working on the first lord.

Ethan beat his wings and smiled as the air ruffled his hair. He wondered which new trait he was going to be offered this time, and whether he was going to be driven off-course again and as he flew toward the horizon, he brought up the main quest for one second before he dismissed it.

Main Quest: Gain access to the tutorial's exit within 3 days, 06 hours, and 07 minutes.

"Time keeps ticking," he mumbled to himself.