Scorching Ascension - [Progression Litrpg Apocalypse]

Ethan stood before the portal but didn't step into it just yet.

"Just need a quick minute…" he mumbled as he eyed the 26 points sitting unassigned. The 25 from the quest still hadn't gotten a new home, and he'd rather get them settled before he dove into a new rift.

Let's see… Everything but Toughness is at 33 before the buffs and bonuses, and Toughness itself is at 47. I want things to be a little fair, but Toughness is my bread and butter. So let's give that… 12. No, 14, which leaves the rest with 4 points each.

Ethan confirmed the choice and closed his eyes as the miraculous force seeped into his body and soul. Within seconds, he felt denser. Stronger. Mana pulsed through his limbs and scales, and he almost thought he saw them shine a little brighter.

Good stuff. Now, let's see what this rift has in store for me, he thought, and took a step into the light.

The magics of the portal gripped on to him and dragged him into a world of dark and blinding purple that he could somehow taste and out the other end. One moment, Ethan had been on the cracked asphalt of the parking lot and the next, he was standing in what seemed to be a quarry of some sorts.

Blanched, crumbly rock crackled under his feet, as if he'd stepped on thin ice, and all around, as far as he could see, the same type of uneven, chalky stone covered the ground. Further out, he could tell that he was in some sort of open pit and of course, he wasn't alone.

Eyeless heads swiveled toward him. They'd been standing around, encircling his position, as if they'd been waiting for something.

This was where the portal leading out had been, I'm assuming.

The first rocky elemental was opening its mouth to spit shards of rock at him when the snap of Ethan's wings filled the dead-quiet space, right before he leaped up in the air.

Not long after, a prompt showed up.

Rift challenge: Exterminate the parasitic rock elementals

Challenge reward: One mid-grade primagem

Parasitic, huh. I bet I could get some draining primagems from these, then. Maybe even the reward itself is one of Draining?

From high up in the sky, Ethan looked down at the "quarry" and quickly came to realize what it really was. It had been a mountain, he believed. One that had been eaten up from the inside and out. The white dust produced from the dead rock had spread out to cover everything beyond the mountain under a white, sickly film. There had been a forest, around the mountain, but the only remains were sickly, gnarly, and twisted leafless things.

There wasn't even wind, aside from what his wings were creating. The ashy powder left by the elementals had spread out like some sort of virulent fungi, blanching the trees and soil all around them. There had been a few more mountains further east, but they all looked like open-sky pits, just like the one he was flying above.

Looking down at the heads tracking him, Ethan cracked his neck. There must be at least a hundred of the things. Maybe some more. Though no tier-2 was in sight, as far as he could tell.

I guess I'll look for it once I deal with the chaff. There's plenty of those. Then again, I did want some fragments.

Seeing the desolation within this rift, Ethan would not need to hold back. After all, there was nothing left to worry about burning out here though once the fight was done, he wanted to explore the edges before he claimed the riftcore. Ethan wondered how big this rift was. The last one had been an island and well, he'd been on the clock back then, so he missed out on testing the rift's limit.

"Alright. Time to focus."

Starting on the first fireball, Ethan extended a hand and began channeling the spell, but this time, he didn't let it charge normally. Using the control given to him by the Arcanum of the Fire Elemental, Ethan reached into the spell and took a moment to sense its parts.

He was no expert in modifying spells on the fly. Not yet. But he could sense the bit that would ignite when the spell would impact. Threading his focus around it, Ethan stole some of its strength and spread it elsewhere, altering the ratios within the spell.

His goal was to add more explosiveness at the expense of fire. After all, the elementals were not that vulnerable to fire. They could be hurt if he focused the flames for a long periods of time, but it was far from efficient. The fast way to clear them out was to exploit their weakness. Aka, violent explosions.

In theory, this modification should not be too out of his reach, considering this was still a fire-typed spell and he was well within the capabilities of Arcanum's title. In practice, fucking around with a spell that had predisposition of blowing up was… risky.

The still moderately small fireball shuddered once, expanded suddenly, which made him flinch, then calmed back down. Ethan, completely still, eyes wide, waited a couple of beats before he exhaled and began channeling more mana into the spell.

"That was cl—"

The fireball detonated.

Not a lot of mana had gone into the fireball, so the damage wasn't too bad. It still stung like hell, though. With his ears ringing, face singed, and pants ruined, Ethan glared at his still outstretched hand. Then back down at the monsters still staring up at him. He almost thought he saw a few look at each other before glancing back up at him.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"You just wait," he mumbled, glaring down at the peanut gallery. In response, a few spat up at him, but he was high enough the shard just ended up falling back down.

***

Amanda POV

Amanda watched, eyes shining, as the last barrack appeared out of thin air over the space she had ordered cleared. Just like the others that had been bought before it, the barrack looked more like a fancy barn than it did a regular building. It was made of thick, golden oak-like wood, with a red-shingled gable roof, four chimneys, and plenty of glass windows.

She hadn't inspected the interior of this one just yet, but she expected it to be the same as the other. Five bedrooms with four beds each, five restrooms, a mess hall connected to a well equipped kitchen with mana-consuming stoves and whatnot, and decent plumbing that would need to be plugged to their own system. Eventually. Once they built it.

Behind her, still just as fascinated, the small team she had built up stared, some of them still panting from the effort it had taken to even out the ground once a particularly large tree stump had been removed. The damn thing had somehow managed to spread nearly forty-feet in diameter.

Would make for decent firewood, she thought.

The team was comprised of a few with abilities and spells that could help in her efforts and if the last few hours had told her anything, it's that this new world was going to need quite a few earth and water mages.

Engineers and architects as well. We're gonna need plenty of those, now that magic's around.

"This the last one, boss?" asked Fredrick.

"Hm?" Amanda looked away from the building as its foundation slipped seamlessly into the prepared soil, before the magic of the pylon bound everything together. "No. We got one more, then we'll be done."

Fredrick nodded. "Ah. The big boss's place, right?" he asked as he twirled the knobby club he held in hand. It made Amanda a little nervous, seeing the weapon from this close, but it's what allowed him to shape the earth below them. Behind him, the other two shared a look. One was a woman, another earth mage, and the second her twin brother, a water mage. She hadn't spent much time with them back in the tutorial, but she now knew they'd survived–and thrived–in the tutorial trapping lizardlings and monitors in tiny tombs that they then filled with water.

Effective. Also terrifying.

Amanda peered around to make sure they weren't being overheard. "Yeah. But keep it discreet. We'll go a bit closer to the water. I marked a spot. Should not be easy to see past the trees we kept. That way, he can have his own space."

"Isn't it a bit weird that he's getting his own place? Like, I don't personally care, but won't cause some weird tension with the rest of the camp?" asked Selena.

Amanda shrugged and looked down at her notebook, crossing out one of her items as she responded. "Who would you have him share a barrack with? Who's gonna be able to relax with him just one bedroom over?"

They all had to nod at that. While Ethan was mostly friendly and was seen as a benefactor by most, he still made quite a few of them nervous, especially with the wings and horns and every other spellform he had. While spellforms in and of themselves weren't that rare, you had to admit that his collection was pretty spooky.

Plus, of course, he out-leveled everyone in camp and he could match tier-2s. The only tier-2 the other were aware of had been the gigantic acid-spitting and crystal shooting monsters that had roamed the tutorial. Knowing he was more dangerous than them had a certain effect on people.

Taking a moment to check the map again through the pylon's interface, she saw the rift's icon still blinking. Ethan was still inside. Turning her attention to the other side of the map, she noted that the second rift was still stable and unoccupied. Diego, Amelie, and a few others had gone to clear it. They had not gone in just yet, having only minutes ago finished clearing the monsters around the portal.

While Amanda would prefer it if Ethan got to that rift as well, she didn't mind having some more powerhouses in the settlement. As long as the rifts in their territories didn't get exploited by another group, she was fine with it.

We'll need to start scouting. Find others before they find us.

She didn't need to take that note. It was already written down as one of her top priorities. Looking up at the finished up barrack, she nodded. "We're done here. Let's move."

Heading toward the area she'd marked for Ethan, she wrote down a couple of reminders and took note of their current balance.

We got enough for a personal cabin. Not sure what they look like, but they must be nice considering they cost the same as a barrack.

It didn't matter anyway. She expected a pretty big contribution from Ethan anytime, now. As soon as he got within the collecting range of the pylon. Sure, it was taking him a while to clear his rift, but that meant more time for her to get everything ready and to plan things out.

Arriving at the space she designated, Amanda smiled and turned to the others. "Alright folks. Same as last time. Let's clear in between what I marked and once that's done, we'll get the work approved."

She didn't expect to have any push-back from Liz or Audrey about the cabin. She would use the same argument she used with her team. Which was valid. Though not exactly her main reason why she wanted a cabin for Ethan.

No, the real reason she wanted him to have his space and a nicer place to live—and not have it be a shared barrack—is that she wanted, to put it simply, to butter him up.

A long time ago—around six days ago, to be precise—she had met him for the first time and she'd admit it, she had thought of how she could use him or get him off the board. Not making a move directly herself, of course, but back then, she wouldn't have been mad if he'd bitten more than he could chew.

She'd been misguided, of course. She would be the first to admit it. And while Amanda could be a cold-blooded schemer when she had to, she knew when to jump ship and when to shred a plan when it was dead in the water.

Floating above the side of the river, she watched as the trio cleared the space and began preparing it for the cabin. They didn't know the exact dimensions of the building-to-be, so they went wide, just in case, but she didn't expect it to be much bigger than the barrack.

It would take her a while to gain his trust. But she didn't mind. Sooner or later, she'd earn her place. Because Amanda strongly believed that this city had the potential to be one of the strongholds of this new world. And she was going to be part of it. One of those who built it.

Part of the legacy of… E-G12.

"He really needs to name it, though," she grumbled under her breath and floated away. It was time to get her request approved.