The Path of Ascension

Chapter 215

As if waiting for the cue, Carol walked through the door with a bag slung over her shoulder.

“Is everyone ready?”

Matt looked at Susanne's manager and then down to his bed and wheelchair, wondering exactly what he was going to take with them.

As Luna nodded and jumped to the other manager's shoulder, he got his answer.

Nothing.

His oh-so-convenient wheelchair and bed were both left behind as Carol teleported them to Luna’s house. On instinct, he tried to catch himself with his Concept, but Carol was already lifting them along as Luna unlocked her front door and went inside. Matt, meanwhile, noticed his house on Luna’s lawn where he normally set it. He probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but he had been half-comatose when Luna had set it up, and hadn’t left the hospital since.

“Gather your house Matt, we’re getting out of this system as soon as possible.”

As Matt collected his house, a much easier task now that he was Tier 13, Luna recalled her own home from inside, leaving a barren patch of earth that Carol set her ship on. With a casual wave of her hand, the four of them floated through the hatch and into the lounge, while she and Luna went to the cockpit and took off. Below them, the moon and then Minkalla itself shrank away, leaving behind all the wonders and nightmares it brought.

It took them a little while to get out of the mana-draining field that Minkalla exuded, but once they had, Matt practically gasped in relief. It wasn’t truly noticeable on its own, but the sudden shock from leaving it felt like a breath of fresh air. Shortly after, he felt the twist that accompanied breaking through to chaotic space, and Luna returned, tail held high, to check in on them and get them more situated.

After about a day of travel, they returned to realspace, dropping in above a Tier 1 planet Matt had never seen before, then jetted out to the distant reaches of its solar system. Only then did Carol return from the pilot’s seat and join them in the lounge.

Luna stretched from her catnap, licking a small tuft of fur back into place, and settled into a sitting position even as she said. “I am aware from Liz that you managed to reach the core at Tier 11. Welcome to the one hundred.”

At the group’s questioning look, she further elaborated, “In the Empire’s recorded history, there have been less than a hundred people that have completed Minkalla and exited with the Tier 11 reward. Even Duke Waters didn’t manage to do it. Admittedly, he didn’t even enter Minkalla at Tier 11, but the point still stands. For that, congratulations are earned and due.”

Matt smiled at that. They had pushed themselves to the limit to try and get through the hurdles Minkalla and their fellow delvers put in their way, but in the end, they had succeeded.

Hearing Luna acknowledge that felt really good, and put him in a contemplative mood as Liz started to describe their delve.

***

Liz, by some silent agreement, spoke first, and Luna’s ears flicked as the children began recounting their delve.

“Floor one was Eternal Darkness, and honestly, everything went along with your predictions and training. The fights, while slightly more difficult because of the floor theme, weren't anything unexpected.”

Luna resisted the urge to sigh. She had tried to beat into the children’s heads that Minkalla was dangerous, but the way they described their early encounters in Minkalla, it didn’t seem like that particular lesson took. Saying as much now would do them no favors though, and the condition their bodies were still in indicated that they had gotten the message… eventually.

Eternal Darkness was one of the most dangerous starting floors, as evidenced by the below-average survival rate from this cycle, but the kids clearly considered the floor practice. A little jaunt in a ruin with a fun twist. It spoke to their ability that it could be so simple, but she would have preferred they learn the painful lessons that would teach caution at the start.

Still, she nodded along, taking everything in until Liz mentioned that Matt had shortcut a rift by overpowering the binding on the end prize.

Luna shot Carol a look and the other manager understood.

As Liz was actively speculating, Minkalla’s tests often had multiple ways to complete them. There was always an ‘intended’ way, but the planet often included ways to outwit, circumvent, or in this case, brute force its challenges. Other times it would insist on playing by the rules, but it seemed that this time, it was content with Matt’s physical struggle.

To demonstrate, Matt pulled out the reward he’d gotten from it, a pair of gauntlets connected to a tiny black orb. As she realized what she was looking at, her ears drew back in surprise.

The core of a Tier 14 black hole.

That was….

Impressive.

And useful for someone with a opposing Concept.

She began to say something, then thought better of it, dispelling the sound waves she’d generated with a flick of her ears.

“Was the core a part of the original item?” Carol asked, to Luna’s approval.

Matt shook his head. “No, we got it on floor… six, right?”

“Fascinating,” Luna cut off Carol’s next question. “I look forward to hearing about that once you get there. That looks removable, yes?”

Matt nodded.

“Well done. A resource like that has many uses. Don’t permanently integrate it into anything without consulting Kurt or I first, and certainly don’t sell it.”

Matt nodded, and Liz took that as a cue to continue.

Given the subtle shifts Aster and Susanne gave when Liz described their encounter with Essential Civilizations and its rift development as ‘interesting,’ she assumed what truly happened was Matt found something that sparked his interest during the civilization, and promptly talked about it until only Liz could bear to listen. She made a note to message Erwin. The man was involved in some project for the Emperor, but at his Tier he would be a nonessential assistant at best and would probably jump at the chance to work with Matt again.

Her team would need new rifts, and Aperology would be an excellent way to keep them all busy with new delves.

She would need a few years to recuperate, after all, and keeping them busy and close in some isolated area would be ideal.

Liz carried on, describing their respective floor challenges, and Luna nodded at the ‘Chaser’ approach Matt and Susanne took, as well as Liz’s ‘Seeker’ tactic. Fittingly, albeit irritatingly, the challenge was best entered blind to the various ways one could modify your approach for the most fitting reward.

The ruin they had found themselves in midway through Genesis Cultivation was unusual, and its rewards matched the rarity. Their seeker compass was certainly one in a trillion, but not all that interesting in its functionality. It had a substantial range of items that it could point to- anything below Tier 14 that the user didn’t already consider to be ‘theirs’ in some sense- but it wasn’t terribly useful to any of them, save perhaps Susanne but even she would quickly out Tier it. The Seeker’s guild tended to offer a premium on such items besides, so it was unlikely they’d keep it.

The mirror and key were similar. The mirror sounded strong for its Tier, but they hadn’t tested it against a dedicated illusionist to know how it truly compared. The key, meanwhile, needed an actual keyhole to work, and that cut its utility drastically.

The three items were still incredibly strong inside Minkalla, and would probably be bought by the Empire to send in with future teams. Then, either they would lead to better rewards, or would possibly bind to someone and potentially become incredibly useful.

Their cornucopia showed no signs of being anything more than just a food-creation item, leading Luna to explain that Minkalla occasionally handed out similar rewards, a token prize and an enhancement of previous rewards, as an indication that a given challenge was complete.

Matt’s domination of the floor challenge made Luna proud, though she didn’t show it. Experimentally proving that essence could be made from pure mana was novel, albeit of limited practicality. The same thing went for making pure Aura. Interesting but not directly useful for his training. She hadn’t heard of anyone attempting it previously, but she’d have to ask Erwin about it when they met up with him again. He’d certainly know of any similar test if they were public record, and she was sure he would want to pick Matt’s mind over what little he could remember about the test.

Back to Basics was treated even more dismissively than Eternal Darkness, though even she had to privately admit that Matt having his full mana would make the floor trivial for them. Susanne’s Talaria Seed would be useful, as would Liz’s vampiric blood. Though she would ensure that their next hospital ran some tests on Liz to ensure there weren’t any long-term complications from the blood they ought to be aware of.

Liz’s voice was starting to sound rather hoarse by the time she finished explaining their strategies for the floor challenge, and Matt’s awarded AI enhancement left her feeling rather conflicted. She really didn’t like over-reliance on the damn things, but she would need to fully explore his new ability and see how best it could be utilized without becoming a crutch. Liz waved off talking any more in favor of a warm cup of tea, leaving Matt to tell of their expedient trip through Courtly Warfare.

“First, our idea was to create an autonomous reconnaissance system which we did with a number of others on Winter's side.”

Luna nodded. It was an intelligent use of resources while not revealing too much as to his true capabilities.

Her eyes shifted to Aster as the fox took over the story, explaining how and why she entered Winter's castle. “I felt something familiar and decided to explore, and Matt was the only one free, so he came with me. Winter was nice enough, and she gave me a boon almost immediately, which helped settle my bloodline a bit.” Her AI-created voice turned bitter as she continued. “When we left the floor, I asked her for a final floor Blood is Thicker, but she flaked on me. Though, all I really did was explore the place, which led to Matt meeting Winter.”

The fox could be flighty at times, but she had good instincts. Winter must have welcomed her, but her request to Minkalla was pointless. Floors were set at the start of the cycle, which she knew, but the young were ever wistful.

Matt sighed, filling in the details she skipped. “While Aster was passed out, Winter and I had a chat. That was when we learned the Fae forces were created with mana. I started feeding the court, with Winter concealing the output. We then used the increased production to rush down Spring and then Fall.”

As he continued telling of their time in Winter, Luna's mind raced. Minkalla lied often, yes, but it could be very honest at times, particularly in its promises in Courtly Warfare. If it said that it was hiding Matt’s contributions, to enable him to better contribute, it was likely doing just that.

Still, discretion was the better part of valor for such things, and between his approach in Courtly Warfare and him being forced to double his mana in an all-too-public manner, it would be best to ensure that no rumors about his capabilities were circulating. The only good thing was that the four of them had rigorously tested if his mana was obvious, so she would have to go off the assumption that they were correct, and no one had noticed.

And in the end, they had proven the decision to make more foot troops was the correct one, as they were able to get out of that floor before even more people caught up with them.

Liz and Susanne spoke up from time to time to detail their individual outings, but it remained primarily Matt who told of their conquest first of Spring, and then of Fall. Their decision to attack the general was foolish, and borne of the overconfidence they’d carried through their entire delve until that point. But they all survived, and that was what mattered.

That Liz had her glove destroyed was something of a painful loss for the girl, but she was confident that Liz would be able to overcome it. The girl’s Concept only effectively applied to blood inside her own body, or previously the glove, it being bound to her spirit so closely.

Once removed from her body, it required active focus and Willpower to maintain the connection. Thus, external storage devices of the form commonly employed by water mages would be insufficient for the blood mage. Liz’s Talent enabled her to quickly assimilate external blood as ‘hers’, but when compared to the millions of gallons of blood the glove could store for her, it would take her an impossibly long time to gain control over a comparable amount of blood.

She would still be able to utilize [Blood Tidal Wave] and its ilk, of course, but losing the ability to reliably apply her Concept to them was a substantial loss in power for Liz’s Blood kinesis spells. Once they were off the Path, custom enchantments from Talented crafters could easily return her oceans of blood to her, but in the meantime, it would present a substantial obstacle to the girl.

Still, as a loss which taught them the danger of Minkalla, it was far superior to one of their lives.

It also served as a firsthand reminder of the danger of overreliance upon any one strategy. There existed a counter to every tactic, and redundancy in toolkits was essential for any Ascender. Tools were vital for any cultivator, just as surely as Domains and skills were, but the loss of a single tool shouldn’t cripple a cultivator any more than a countered skill, missing limb, or broken Domain.

Luna wasn’t happy the item was gone, but she also wouldn’t mourn its passing. It had served its purpose in both life and death, which was more than most growth items could say.

Susanne spoke up for the General’s true defeat, and while Luna wasn’t pleased that Liz had utilized her offensive blood magic in such an external and public way, Courtly Warfare proved its value once again as they spoke of how obscured the blood was in its use.

Their choice of attacking was still not something Luna was particularly proud of, but they at least had the sense to stay and finish the fight, rather than run. Hopeless battles should be fled, close ones should not, if they were to become true Ascenders. They had won, and that carried a certain level of justification for their actions. Even Liz using her blood magic. She’d rather the children be alive and needing some of their messes cleaned up rather than dead, after all.

Even from their retelling, Luna would be having words with all of them- such as Matt not anticipating an intelligent foe to dodge an attack- but their overall performance was admirable.

Even better, they all received high-quality upgrades for their growth items, new and old.

Taxing Skills slowed them, and as she had expected, they were constantly facing other delvers, having all been reset to the same stage courtesy of Courtly Warfare.

Folded Reflections slowed them down again, as was normal, and the smaller floor meant they were starting to really learn why other delvers were the true danger of Minkalla’s depths. Minkalla was a test bed for proto-Elites, and it was hardly a surprise that when outnumbered and out-Tiered, they would struggle. A group of ten was less common, but all that truly meant was that one of the Great Powers had a full squad of promising recruits they decided to send into Minkalla together.

The one fight took nearly two hours of back-and-forth, given how effectively their opponents had separated them, and Luna would be spending a substantial amount of time ensuring they’d know exactly how to proceed in a similar situation in the future. Being outnumbered by people slightly weaker than them would become a common occurrence, and they needed to learn the tactics to fight in such situations.

Matt and Liz’s voices were getting raw, so they took a break for food, then resumed to discuss the lives they each had experienced. True to form, Minkalla’s illusions were traumatic even at the best of times, and she used the opportunity to mention that she’d already coordinated a series of visits with their therapist in the coming weeks, while they were still recuperating.

Matt’s lives were interesting, but ultimately nothing unexpected. She hoped that living a full life with his family alive and Aster as his sister would help settle some of those issues once and for all, but that was ultimately a good life that shouldn’t cause any lingering issues. The other lives got progressively worse, and she knew he would need to properly process those lives before too long.

That one of them had shown him as a terrorist was surprising, but the life where he was locked in a room to provide mana had the potential to become an issue. She was grateful that Emmanuel hadn’t been placed in the role of Emperor for that life, as that could have turned into something very delicate. It was everything he feared, and that whole life had the potential for creating deep seated mental instabilities.

Aster’s lives were varied and useful for their effects, but Luna had no worries about them becoming problematic in the future. Beast bonds as a whole were a bit more resilient to those lives because of their connection to said bond.

Liz, on the other hand, was another situation altogether. From the start, Luna had some hope that her lives wouldn’t be too traumatizing, but she was quickly proven wrong, as each one seemed to strike at another facet of the woman’s fears.

Eventually, Luna had to interject after Liz’s life as a serial killer plague mage. Liz was putting up a decent front, but she’d had far too many millennia of experience to be fooled by someone who was only slightly over forty.

“Liz, while I understand those lives weren’t pleasant, don't push them away. I haven’t been able to train you in the usage of your blood beyond fighting like, as you put it, ‘a red water mage’, not because I don't want to, but because the resources are basically non-existent in the Empire. Either blood mages go into healing, where they are incredibly helpful, or they do reprehensible things and are executed for their crimes. Second hand documents and reports are valid resources, but are not nearly as valuable as first hand experience.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Liz snapped, her voice raw. Matt reached out to grab her hand, and she clenched it tightly enough that her hand went white.

“I am well aware of what blood mages do. I’m not a healer, and don’t want to be one, but everything I’ve read has shown that it’s either being a healer or being a reprehensible, utterly horrid monster that history books will at best describe as ‘unstable’. That's why I never even wanted to delve too deep into actual blood magic in the first place, now that I think about it. Because apparently, doing so is basically an assured way to go crazy and murder entire planets! I am all too aware of what blood mages do, I see what they do every night in my dreams. What I did.”

Luna opened her mouth, but Liz charged ahead without stopping. “And don’t say that that wasn’t me. I know that it wasn’t actually me. But tell me, at what point does it even matter if it was me or someone whose head I lived in for nearly a thousand years, watching them do everything and feeling every little bit? If I start following in their footsteps-”

Liz cut herself off mid-sentence with a sharp breath and looked away, giving Matt’s hand a final squeeze and taking a deep breath. “Sorry, that was uncalled for. My next life was…”

In addition to therapy, Luna added a possible detour to see some of Liz’s family to their upcoming itinerary. Liz was broadly stable, and more than capable of overcoming her trauma once again, but Luna had made a rare misjudgment as to what Minkalla had done to the girl. It was less that she’d had an unfortunate life than it was a long-healed scar ripped up, then rubbed with salt. Multiple times at that.

She could only hope that once Liz started to use the skills she learned in those lives, she could fully put to rest the misgivings she had about them. It wasn’t untrue that blood mages often did truly reprehensible things, but there was no evidence that an elemental aspect did anything to impact personality. There were just less of them than other mana types and therefore the outliers tended to stand out more so than when a fire mage went bad.

Susanne’s lives were interesting enough, but nothing Luna particularly honed in on. She was Carol’s charge after all, and beyond some little bits of help, it was rude to interject on someone else's Pather.

Once they finished with the lives, they moved onto the final floor and the rush they went through to get out of the free for all that the final floor turned into.

Luna saw the smirk Carol gave Susanne and rolled her eyes. The woman had reason to be proud, as the girl was good, but vendettas had a time and a place to be settled. That was not one of them.

Overall, she was both surprised and happy with her team’s showing in Minkalla, and was even more pleased knowing they had gotten through the Forge at Tier 11. Even Matt’s little incident with having an inspiration would be a good thing in the long run, though she would have preferred it to happen sometime else.

It had nearly killed her to ensure he got to double his Talent-granted mana pool, but that was temporary.

These kids were going to be monsters when she was done with them.

Oh, she had so, so many plans.

***

When they finished their recounting, Luna had them remove all of the items they had gotten through their delve, and after seeing it all in one place, Matt had to admit… It was impressive.

While they had kept pretty good track of their items throughout the first four floors, once they entered the fifth floor and the fighting became hectic, most things had just gotten chucked into the house for later perusal.

Their final pile of loot was beyond massive, and once the various spatial items were emptied, larger than their house. And that wasn’t even considering the fifteen houses they had gathered from other delvers.

The houses were numerous and of varied quality. None of them were bad, per se, as the rings needed to hold a house that was also below Tier 15 were in no way cheap. But some were obviously made to a higher standard than others.

After seeing just how much they had gotten, Luna and Carol both agreed it would be dealt with once their team's respective liaisons got back.

As it turned out, once they had started to suspect that the cycle had a Courtly Warfare, the two managers had sent their helpers out to prepare for when they came out of Minkalla in an expected year or longer, instead of the almost year they were inside.

A three month Courtly Warfare wasn’t a record, but it was close, and it had turned all of their time tables on their heads.

They’d returned to chaotic space after their initial debrief, and spent the time predominantly recuperating and relaxing. Carol’s ship wasn’t exactly the most luxurious place they’d ever stayed, but it still had more than enough comforts to keep themselves occupied, even if half of it wasn’t usable in their current state.

They had quite a good time, and simply being able to relax and sleep in was wonderful. There were several days when Matt and Liz just never got out of bed, as often as not just spent holding one another and talking. Their Folded Reflection lives, their battles hard-won and fun, plans for the future… They just talked and enjoyed each other's company without the risk of death looming over them.

“She’s definitely helping me with… the memories, that’s for sure.” Liz sighed, her head resting on Matt’s lap. Even traveling through Chaotic Space, Luna had gotten them some virtual therapy sessions set up, with in-person meetings loosely set up next time they were in a suitable location.

“Well, that’s good. Progress, right?” Matt remembered the nightmares he’d used to have about his parents’ death, overridden by monsters, and Liz’s own lives had been worse, many times over. Considering the guilt he still felt about killing Liz in one life, Matt felt he had a faint picture of what she was struggling with. He ran his fingers lightly over her forehead, providing what comfort he could.

“Yeah, yeah. But then, with what Luna said…”

“That’s still bothering you?”

“Not one, Matt. She couldn’t find a single blood mage trainer for me that wasn’t just a healer who barely even touched the field beyond translating healing magic techniques into body magic. Luna couldn’t find a trainer. Out of quadrillions of people in the Empire, I’m the only blood mage who’s willing to use it offensively and isn’t worthy of summary execution.”

“Some just didn’t want to share,” Matt pointed out.

Liz waved her arm-stump. “That just means they’re doing ethically shady stuff on the side, and don’t want the scrutiny that would come with training a Pather. Better at hiding their crimes than the ones who were executed, sure, but they most definitely are not great people.”

“You don’t know that,” he countered. “There are lots of reasons someone might decline to be a teacher, and it’s not like any kind of combat magic makes people crazy. I’m sure there are just as many fire mages who decided to burn everything down as there are blood mages who went all blood-sacrifice-crazy.”

“Are there though? There’s millions of fire mages who were great and noble and moral and went down in history, but there just aren’t any equivalents for blood mages. When they do show up in the history books, it’s always because of the awful stuff they did. And when I look at the lives I lived in Minkalla…”

“Well, there’s how many billions of fire mages for every one blood mage? Most of them never get any notoriety good or bad. But your lives, they were all stronger than you, yes.”

“Exactly. Well, maybe not my researcher life, but in every one I’d done far more impressive things than I have in reality. Minkalla lies, yes,” she cut off Matt’s next statement, “But history doesn’t. Blood mages are either mediocre or horrible, or both. There’s no way I’m somehow the first blood mage with morals and a drive to succeed. So here I am, a second-rate water mage, does that sentence me to mediocrity? I’m barely dipping into the pool of blood magic, that much is clear, but what if dipping in deeper is going to make me crazy?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a red water mage, you’ve done more with less.”

“Yes! I’m a second-rate fire mage too! And guess what, I’m damn good at it. I’m a damn good second-rate water mage and fire mage. But I’m not a blood mage. It’s just…” She sighed and covered her face with her hand, slightly muffling her voice, “Veritas says whatever I do, I should decide and commit to it wholly. Do I want to be a knockoff elementalist? Or do I want to be a blood mage? If I can command fire the way I do, and I’ve got the practice of being a red water mage, do I focus more on those? Just stick to the physical manipulation abilities and work around my Talent as much as possible while hopelessly trying to stick it to the Realm for trying to ruin my life?

“Or, do I stick it to the Realm and legitimately go the blood mage route, with blood curses, sacrifices, plagues, and all? Do I want to find out what drove all of my predecessors to either abandon the field or go insane? I want to say that I’m better than that, that my other lives have prepared me, but did they really? Every one of my predecessors shared the same fate, am I really better than all of them? I’m good at this Matt, almost too good. What happens if an almost-Ascender or even outright Ascender quality blood mage goes crazy? Is that something I want to risk? Is that blood I want on my hands? ”

“Well,” Matt pecked her on the lips. “Whatever you do, I’m sure you’ll do great.”

“Mmm. That’s almost the problem,” she mumbled back, pulling him in close once again with a smile.

Still, difficult conversations aside, Matt couldn’t remember the last time they’d had such a stress-free time together. It was entirely possible they simply hadn’t since they started dating. Perhaps the Pather War, but even then, they still had something they needed to do, as opposed to being consigned to bed rest and movies. It had been decades since Matt had watched some of his favorite movie series as a child, but he had to admit that Liz’s running commentary about all the things they got wrong about Duke Waters in the movies’ ‘about’ him certainly changed the viewing experience. Whether it was better or worse, he couldn’t tell, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

Their break eventually came to an end when Susanne’s liaison, Jeremiah, April, and Kurt met them at their next stop in realspace.

It was nice to see the silent man once more, and better yet, to get an update on The Unbroken, his friends from his time at the PlayPen and fellows from his home planet Lilly. They were doing well, and were trying to decide if they wanted to do their own run through Minkalla.

That gave Matt some mixed feelings. Melinda’s Talent may have granted her Overhealth, providing perfect healing with no cooldown, but he’d been inside Minkalla, and wasn’t sure if that alone would be enough to get them through the planet, especially if it started singling her out like it had with him.

And that didn’t even consider the fact that other delvers were just as dangerous, if not more so. Let alone the possibility of the six of them getting a floor theme that stopped her from using her skills altogether.

After making a note he needed to visit them in the next year or two, Matt and the others turned to their loot.

April looked torn between dismayed and delighted at the literal pile of work they had brought out of Minkalla.

Before they even separated the loot between teams, she and Jeremiah needed to go through all of it and give things at least a tentative value, which took three full days.

Once they had a rough estimate of the total value of the loot, the hard part started.

Divvying it up between the two teams.

Not because they fought over the loot, but because Matt, Liz, and Aster kept trying to give away too much of their loot to Susanne.

The three of them never had money issues since they figured out he could charge rifts, which was a luxury Susanne didn’t have.

But things were never that easy, they couldn't weigh things too far in her favor without breaking the rules of the Path, and there were rewards they wanted.

In the end, the lesser spoils were divided in an equal half and set aside to be sold off in the general exchange between Great Powers, if only to buy more needed items and useful things like natural treasures.

Though, they had an abundance of Natural Treasures in their own right.

They weren’t sure who they had killed, but one of their victims had dozens of different natural treasures along with many duplicates in his spatial ring, tucked away and untouched.

Some were simple natural treasures like Eternal Embers, only good for replacing firewood in their natural state, but others were much, much rarer.

Susanne ended up taking, at Carol's insistence, a natural treasure that would help her split her mana pool and a leaf from a Sicklebranch bush, which an alchemist could process into a potion that would both aspect one half of her mana to air, and even help with sharpening her air spells into honed blades. Combined with the bottle of Mercury’s Might from the challenge room on the seventh floor, she would have a split metal and air mana pool, which would give her plenty of flexibility in the future. The natural treasure she’d be using to split her mana pool would also make it somewhat easier to integrate additional mana types in the future, or develop existing mana types into higher-order ones, which made Matt wonder a bit about what they were planning on doing.

It was unlikely to be Void— though the attack power it provided was undeniable, since there were practically no natural treasures that granted the affinity. Those which did exist only tended to show up once every few dozen millennia, and nobody had figured out the right mix of lower-level elements to make the ultimate Nothingness, if it even existed. A seventh floor Blood is Thicker was the only way he’d ever heard of doing so reliably.

Matt already had the Sliver of True Night's Sight, so he passed on a similar natural treasure that Liz took. He took some Ironsight Salt for himself, which when dissolved into water and dripped into his eyes enhanced his vision by a fair margin, mostly in his ability to track moving targets and notice fine details. It was exactly the kind of thing he was aiming for with his focus in sense cultivation, and would help with both combat and enchanting. Ordinarily, the natural treasure would turn his pupils gray, somewhat like Susanne, but his Concept overpowered the effect, leaving him with his white, swirling pupils that bled into his green iris.

Aster ended up grabbing a Feather of Falling, a natural treasure that gave the person who took it the ability to better control themselves while they were falling. She didn’t need it for that effect, but it was one of the core ingredients in a wind potion that would strengthen her control over air mana.

The next big-ticket items were the houses. Some of them were quite nice, and Susanne and Aster each decided to take one of them. Aster took one so she had somewhere to call home herself when she was separated from them, once she reached Tier 15 and went off to the beast academy. Susanne took the other because the house was simply better than the one she had gotten from the Tier 10 Pather tournament.

Luna tried to tell Aster she would have little need of the house, but she set her mind on it and refused to budge, so they let her have it. The rest of the houses were set to either be absorbed by Matt’s growth house once he reached Tier 15, and could use a larger spatial ring, or were to be sold outright for other helpful items.

Most of the swords went to Susanne so she could absorb them into her Concept, even the void longsword Matt had used to defeat his reflection during the final fight of the sixth floor. While a void weapon was handy, it wasn’t a growth item, and he would have little use for it as a Tier 13 that would be delving in at least Tier 15 rifts. Void was strong, but changing his entire style for a weapon that would ultimately only be useful for a few Tiers was pointless when Susanne could get much more use out of it, once they confirmed it would be safe to shove inside her spirit.

The rest of the arms and armors were divvied up to be sold en masse at the Corporation’s moon orbiting Minkalla, which hosted one of the largest inter-Great Power markets in the realm. April informed them that some of it would be shipped away back to the Great Powers proper, but most would end up back inside the planet one way or another, which gave Matt an odd feeling.

Skills were the next biggest debate. They had nearly a thousand Tier 8 skills, twice that in Tier 14 skills, and nearly one hundred and thirty Tier 20 skill shards. It was a staggering amount of wealth, far too much for them to properly assess in a reasonable amount of time without help.

After looking through the piles of skills, they took the few they wanted and then gave the rest to the liaisons to sell and barter off in exchange for a laundry list of skills that Carol and Luna wanted their respective teams to take. The first was [Arcane Powershot], which was most commonly found in the Corporations, Clans, and Sects under the names of [Conjured Weapon NM20-AR], [Skypiercing Bow], and [The Divine Arrows of Distant Vengeance] respectively. It was a skill that summoned a magical bow, then allowed for channeling mana into a single magic arrow that was fired off at incredible speeds. With a base effective range of fifty miles, it was considered an ‘extreme’ range skill, far better than what even [Cracked Mana Spear] could accomplish, but that wasn’t what made it special.

While the mana arrow was being reinforced, the skill also allowed other bow skills to be applied, giving a wide latitude of additional effects with the appropriate setup. There were some drawbacks, however. When releasing the arrow, it kicked like a mule, and the spell itself anchored the caster in order to prevent them from being flung backwards. Effectively, he couldn’t move while firing. Additionally, the mana control requirements for making the arrow and layering effects on top of it could become quite high. Normal mages had trouble when using half their mana pool per shot, and Matt expected to use several times that amount.

With that in mind, Matt collected a few skills that would bolster his new ability, putting his Taxing Skills reward to good use. He had the mana and outer skill slots to spare, and there was no compelling reason to not use a few skills supporting his new ability and corresponding new strategy. [Telescope] would help him see his targets past the normal limits of his sight, [Piercing Shot] would add some basic armor piercing to his arrows, [Illusory Arrow] would project an illusion of the arrow following a slightly different arc as it flew, and [Pinned Shadow] would stick a person in place when their shadow was struck by the arrow.

Aside from the bow skills, he also found [Hypersonic Edge], which he had seen the utility of firsthand. It wasn’t quite as good for him as it was for Susanne, but it would boost a substantial part of his arsenal.

Susanne took [Searing Weapon], a Tier 20 version of [Fire Weapon] which focused more on heat rather than flames, and could get hot enough to burn through metal armor, given a few strikes. Typically, this heat could damage the user’s weapon if too much mana was used at once, but weapon Manifestations didn’t have that problem. She also grabbed [Bulwark], which they had in their pile of skills. She wouldn’t be able to abuse the skill as much as Matt did, but it remained a staple skill for melee fighters for a reason, and she would likely be able to infuse it into her shield Manifestation with some practice.

Additionally, April identified the light skill they had found from their challenge crystal on Folded Reflections as [Corunthican Defense], a skill not usually found in the Empire which reactively shot down incoming magic with focused rays of light, disrupting their structure and typically causing them to detonate harmlessly. It had its limitations, mostly against very large attacks, but it provided a strong and cheap counter to tactics like Matt throwing out [Fireball]s as fast as he could cast them. Susanne took that skill with a grin, remarking that Matt hardly needed a dedicated defense against being whittled down.

Liz wasn't left out of the new skill splurge. [Heartpiercer] was a spear skill meant for piercing both magical and mundane armor by making the spear heavier and heavier as mana was channeled in, culminating in a shaped explosion when the spearhead struck the target.

Despite the name, [Shadow Sword] worked nearly as well on spears as it did swords. It paired well with a number of other skills, especially [Rapid Thrust]. Unfortunately, that skill had broken when Liz brought it into her spirit, but [Illusory Feint] still had potential. She’d absorbed it during Folded Reflections, but the illusions hadn’t become real blood as she’d hoped they would, instead becoming illusions of blood spears. It was on the list of skills Liz was planning on moving to her outer spirit or outright ejecting from her spirit altogether, but she hoped combining the attack with [Shadow Sword] would be just as effective as it was normally.

Ideally, the combination of the two skills would make three insubstantial blood copies of her weapon, and one very real one. It wasn’t an entirely original trick, as illusionists had whole books filled with similar misdirections, but some things were classics for a reason. Her Courtly Warfare boon would throw even more mud in the water, making any opponents who she did hit fail to notice their wounds, and conclude that they’d only been struck by an illusion. Once her spirit was in good enough shape, she was looking forward to trying out her preemptively-christened [Pulmonary Echo].

Aster took her own share of skills to round herself out. [Ice Skin] was a Tier 14 skill that few took prior to Tier 15, as it could kill the user through hypothermia, but it otherwise provided some strong defense by hardening the skin and making many attacks slip off the user, at the cost of slowing the person down some. Aster had plans for it, though, and using one of her Folded Reflections lives as a basis, she planned to modify the skill to turn her fur into ice instead of her skin. In addition to negating the movement speed drawback, it would let her fur act as ablative armor that could be regrown far more easily than her skin could.

Matt was pretty sure she was at least partially motivated by the burns she had received, but she insisted that wasn’t the main reason… though she admitted it was a reason.

A Tier 20 version of [Hail], [Absolute White] summoned a cloud of snow and fog which slowed people, objects, and even spells which entered its radius, in addition to the more ordinary concealment it offered. Ambitiously, Aster wanted to modify it to not make its own fog, but instead apply the slowing effect to any other concealing mist, such as what her growth tiara could make, which was precisely the kind of advantage a flexible innate slot could offer.

Doubling up on area denial skills, [Cutting Hurricane] summoned gale force winds that also cut at targets inside its huge area. Against most strong targets, it wouldn’t do all that much, but it was great for clearing chaff and contesting flying targets who couldn’t brace against the ground.

The upgrade orbs were pulled out of their loot piles to be used after April came back, in case she got a Tier 8 or 14 skill that needed an upgrade.

After they settled that, it was left to their liaisons to beg, barter, and steal any other skills on their list. When Luna told April exactly that, Jeremiah laughed, seeming to be thinking that the cat was joking, but at her glare, quickly shut his mouth.

Despite the insane amount of wealth they had given her, the list of items Luna wanted in return was just as daunting, and Matt said a silent apology to their liaison for what she was about to have to deal with.

April though, seemed completely unbothered, saying she would handle it within three months, which made Luna grin.

In cat form, the grin was probably a little more threatening than otherwise intended, but it felt like April had passed a test just as much as they had coming out of Minkalla.

Once April and Jeremiah were set with their loot, the rest of them immediately left the system.

Even while recovering, none of them truly stopped training, but their training was substantially more relaxed, averaging about four hours a day, and focused on things which wouldn’t aggravate their wounds.

Carol focused primarily on light Concept usage, taking advantage of the comparative non-stress that Mind Over Matter had left their Concepts with, and got them to explore and grow used to their new Folded Reflection abilities, with more focus on Matt due to his healed spirit. All of them got training in how to best utilize their enhanced spiritual senses from Eternal Darkness, though.

Luna, for her part, gave more lessons on how to stimulate their cultivation to guide their bodies to lessening the healing cooldown, usage and integration with their new growth items, and some light Skill modification lessons. Matt wasn’t sure if it was more disorienting to be receiving lessons from a cat, or for Luna to not be pushing them to their very limits.

The latter at least made sense. All of them were well past the healing cooldown and usually spent at least seven hours a day sleeping— several times longer than what someone of their Tier would normally need. While they were recovering, they were still being healed. Luna kept a close eye on the progress of their healing, but left physical therapy in the hands of the healers.

Granted, things like limbs and such were a minor concern to the healers, who focused on healing their internals first.

Matt earned himself a raised eyebrow and shake of the head from the Healer who inspected his heart and lungs, before finishing the healing that he had received at Minkalla.

But at long last, he was whole once again.

Even if half his limbs were artificial.