The Path of Ascension Chapter 359

Chapter 359

 

Matt looked at the guild bustling beneath him and a part of him wished he could delay their trip to the Sects just by a few years. With the release of the aura rifts, Titan’s Torch had most of the pressure removed from their shoulders now that they weren’t in a rush to deliver on their signature innovation before the self imposed deadline. Not that they were slowing down now that the decade had passed. In fact, the various teams were now starting their own testing to explore the aspects of aperology that interested them.

Which was exactly why Matt wanted to stay for just a few years longer.

The aperology department was finally starting to look into other aspects of the field and Matt wanted to help. Aura was fun, it had been and would continue to be an intriguing puzzle, but they had cleared the lowest hanging fruit off that particular tree. Now, there was a forest of other trees laden with fruit.

Even as he watched, there were two teams working on trying to isolate variables seen in rifts by carefully tweaking the mana types and amounts they fed to a rift both during and after formation.

Another interesting trend were the three teams trying to create more utility rifts. Rifts rich in metal, harvestable trees, or even water, oddly enough.

Metal, he could understand. Metal was the backbone of all permanent tech, and Tiered metal was all the more valuable for its increased potency as it Tiered up. Even on Lilly, they happily collected the metal weapons rifts produced and either melted them down or sold them to enchanters. A single low Tier rift like the goblin rift might not produce a lot of material, but it was a steady supply that added up quickly when pooled together.

Trees were an odder demand, but he could see the desire to not cut down local forests on more populated worlds. The amount of labor to pull full trees out of a rift didn’t seem proportional to the cost, but he could see the value.

But water?

Matt hadn’t understood why anyone would need or want a rift to produce a source of water.

Water was abundant on most worlds, and even on desert worlds water could usually be found in great amounts on the outermost planets in the form of asteroids or moons.

At his request, Cato had thrown together a packet of information about the topic. And as it turned out, Matt just wasn’t looking deep enough.

First were the desert worlds. They always had a low but steady demand for water, and at scale, rifts were more economical at creating water than simple [Create Water] spells or enchantments to the same effect. But the largest demand for water rifts came from high Tier worlds.

With hundreds of trillions or tens of quadrillions population, most of whom were mortal, basic necessities such as food or water were always in demand.

With so many people, even the small losses of water that were used by people or left unreclaimed by the various waste reclamation facilities on the higher Tier worlds meant they were losing massive amounts of water to garbage dump rifts.

Water that needed to be replenished in some way.

Part of that issue was solved by the sheer size of higher Tier rifts, which meant materials could be pulled out of them in massive quantities, but all of those raw resources took further processing to be useful.

Few people were happy about drinking lake water; even if said water was pulled out of a lake larger than their star system, it was still filled with all kinds of bacteria and decayed materials without extensive refinement. That meant expensive treatments to make the water potable needed to be completed before the water could be added to the system.

If they could create a rift formula that produced clean, ready to drink water, preferably without monsters, they could simplify a lot of things for higher Tier worlds. Or reduce maintenance of the existing water purification infrastructure which had its own benefits.

Though that tied back in with the two teams who were trying to create a rift without monsters. Half a dozen teams had applied to that task, and Matt had been put in the uncomfortable position of choosing which of the teams were given that assignment.

Rifts without monsters, or possibly without aggressive monsters, was something of a fairy tale in the aperology field. Once you got to the Tiers where industrial rift-harvesting would be relevant, even puzzle and maze-type rifts had some form of monstrous presence, and usually a very potent one for the Tier at that.

That didn’t stop nearly every aperologist that Titan’s Torch had hired who had a friend of an acquaintance, who had a third cousin, whose friend’s sister-in-law had delved into a rift and encountered a paradise with no monsters. Or at least monsters who didn’t fight back.

Matt had heard the rumors, but had never put any stock into them. There were zero verifiable incidents of such a variant rift instance, and if there was any truth to the stories, there would be proof somewhere. Something that was rarer than rift challenges would sell for an astronomical price to any news channel, so the chance that the news hadn’t even been verified was, at least to Matt, impossible.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to throw mana at the idea.

Amusingly enough, rifts with docile monsters would be more valuable, but even just idyllic summer garden rifts would be more than enough for him.

Currently, farming rifts were a thing and were used on worlds where space was at a premium. But the costs involved were immense, which stopped the practice from spreading beyond where there was a direct need.

Ultimately the greatest issue of farming rifts was what made rifts so useful to delvers. Instances that closed after fifteen minutes.

That meant when creating a farming rift instance, all materials and support personnel needed to be brought into the rift in that fifteen minute window.

Then the rift needed to be cleared of all possible threats, or in the case of higher Tier rifts, the area around the rift entrance, so that the support personnel could set up the farming equipment.

From there, it was just a matter of ensuring the LocalNet was set up and the AI in charge of the farming was operating. Then, everyone could either leave or continue on to delve the rift as was their role.

A typical farm rift instance could usually be farmed for close to a decade before soil degeneration started to significantly worsen crop yields, and at that point, the AI in charge of the farm would pack everything up and exit the rift where it could be sent into a new instance.

That initial danger meant only the best delving teams were chosen to lead in the support personnel, so they were in extremely high demand. And expensive.

If a rift could be created without monsters, that first and most important step could be removed, and you wouldn’t even need more than a person or possibly two to enter the rift to ensure the initial setup went smoothly.

That was the goal the aperologists were chasing.

The rest would be focused on helping with the rest of the teams who were researching the intricacies of rifts and how they formed and functioned, or the teams who were just trying to create cool rifts.

It was all fascinating work to Matt. Work that he knew if he allowed himself to delve into, he wouldn’t come up for air for at least another decade, and everyone else wanted to delve now and not in ten more years.

So Matt waited next to Liz as they waited for Allie to come pick them up.

She had told them she would be there ‘soon’ more than a dozen times over the course of an hour, so Matt let his mind drift to the reception of the aura rifts.

It was still the early days, but he couldn’t help but be a little disappointed in the overall reception.

Part of him had expected or hoped the Empire would start replacing rifts the instant the formula went live, and while there were thousands of worlds who did exactly that, they were the exception rather than the rule.

The largest motivator for the aura potion was the announcement that the subsidies for Bottled Concept’s would be slowly lowered until they were phased out in a few centuries, and the freed up revenue relocated to other places of need.

Most worlds seemed content to just add a new rift or two, if their world could sustain a Tier 4 rift without too much cost, and they weren’t in a rush to do so.

Matt wasn’t sure he should, or even had the right to intervene, but he had been hoping for more.

Eventually it would spread, but reality didn’t quite match his expectations.

There were, however, a number of the Tier 7 and 8 worlds who had embraced the rifts, and were going all in with the production of aura rifts and aura potions. Matt wanted to be happy about that, but instead of aura rifts being available for anyone to delve, they were being treated like the farming rifts he had just been contemplating. Perfectly managed and delved on cooldown to maximize their gains, which just felt wrong.

Still, the potions would slowly start to make their way into the Empire, and Matt always had one option if he really wanted to see things change.

He was a duke, even if he only controlled just a handful of planets so far.

Though, by the time they finished this delve cycle that would change, as they were slated to get a glut of planets by the end of the next decade, including their ducal capital.

A blade appeared out of nowhere heading right for his eye, and Matt reacted instantly.

His left hand enveloped the blade, and he pulsed his Domain meld, washing away the foreign Domain usage. Liz held strong with barely a tremor, but everything else was flattened.

A [Mana Beam] was cycling in his spirit, ready to fire even as his combat buffs started to churn when Allie popped into existence with a frown.

“What the fuck dude! How did you kick me out of my hidey hole?”

Matt let go of the blade and let the mana fade from his spells.

Liz settled back down from her ready stance as she saw who it was as well.

“Nice to see you too, Allie.”

Allie poked his cheek with an excited finger. “Eyy you got the meld working!? Nice dude! That’s so dope. I’m considering making my Aspect a mirror of my Concept or Intent to see if I can get anything cool with a meld. That shit is so cool. Do tell Aiden I told you this, he’s so jealous that you’ve got a Domain trick he doesn’t have. Cause, you know, super Domain master and all.”

Liz was busy reabsorbing her spear back into her body when she caught what Allie had said. “Don’t you mean don’t tell Aiden you told us?”

“Na I want you to tell him. More fun this way! Anyway, are you guys ready?”

Matt rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Allie, we’ve been ready for a few hours. Are you ready?”

“Meh, whatever. Insert a clever excuse here.”

Before Matt could even roll his eyes, he felt a familiar tug as space fluctuated around him.

That was interesting.

He had always been able to feel Allie’s teleports, but either she had gotten sloppy in the decade since the war– incredibly unlikely– or his connection to space had grown in interesting ways.

Matt could feel as they left reality behind and locality itself twisted around them to drop them impossibly far away.

He blinked, his eyes rapidly adjusting to being outside. Surprisingly, it looked like Allie had actually set them down on a designated entryway, rather than just dropping them directly at their destination, which was… unusual for the teleporter.

Around them was very clearly a meticulously manicured garden, with carefully-raked stones of many colors forming intricate patterns around artfully placed trees and shrubs. A walkway stretched forward with rocks that straddled the line between naturally occurring and curated, forming a series of stepping-stones through the elegant, multicolored pebbles.

Ivy grew in artful spirals, the natural patterns on the vine’s leaves quite clearly spelling out various words in Sect languages. A babbling brook cascaded over a waterfall, its spray casting prismatic light through nearby crystals that refracted its gleam into a semi-wavering, but detailed full-color picture on a nearby cliff of white stone.

Past their immediate surroundings, the signs of impossible curation faded into something that could only be described as the abstract ideal of nature. Beautiful creeks supported populations of pristine fish, birds with immaculate plumage sang in exquisite symphony, and trees artfully shaded places that would be prime to sit and meditate. Beneath the ground, the tunnels of mice with coats that practically gleamed as though freshly-brushed formed intricate and fascinating patterns with the roots of trees, their burrows giving off the sensation of hominess rather than dirt and grime.

Even beyond the physical, the mana and essence flows were sublime. There were practically no snags or disturbances in the spiritual currents around them, all manner of elements streaming together impossibly well and practically begging Matt to sit and cultivate in their soothing flows.

It was like looking at a masterful painting of nature, filled with flourishes by a masterful artist, rather than the real thing.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Turning to Allie, he was about to ask where they were when she spread her arms and said. “Surprise!”

When she didn’t get a reaction, she wilted. “Ah come on, you were supposed to be super excited that you didn’t have to travel on a ship and congratulate me!”

Matt flicked Allie on the nose. “And we might have been if you didn’t try to stab me the moment you arrived to pick us up. Which I note was over an hour late.”

Allie sank while she blew raspberries in some bad impression of a deflating balloon. “Whatever. Y’all are spoilsports. Let’s go join the others.”

Phoenix Liz flapped over to Allie and pecked her hard on the head. “You mean you made us wait while you already brought the others?”

“No! Kinda? Well, not really. It’s your guy’s fault for being all spread out. Andddd I still might have to pick up Zack, so at least you’re not last.”

“Go get Zack, Allie.”

The teleporter vanished for an instant, just to appear a moment later with an annoyed looking Zack. Interestingly, he looked a decade older, a few gray strands creeping into his normal brown hair and complimenting a somewhat longer beard.

“Good to see you two. I hope the last decade has treated you well.” Zack’s polite words were spoken over Allie’s head despite her attempts at regaining their attention.

“You too Zack. How have your projects been going?”

Liz hooked an arm through Matt’s and interrupted him, even as Allie tried to cover Zack’s mouth. “Okay boys, no shop talk for at least the first day, or we’ll never even arrive to meet the others.”

Matt grinned, he and Zack had been in contact through the Ascender chat, but it was different when talking in person.

Zack even had a small smile as he walked forward past Allie. “I can agree to that, so long as someone else doesn’t start such talk first.”

“Oh come on Zack, you know Sien is going to start it, so that’s a flimsy way to shift the blame.”

Before Zack could respond, Allie grabbed all three of their hands and pulled them forward. “And this is why I didn’t want to grab you all at once. Gab gab gab.”

The forest walk was just as stunning as the entry garden, though clearly made for higher Tiers. Once they left the initial garden, the stepping-stones faded away, instead transitioning into a pathway clearly marked out via a small-scale mana flow with no clear origin. But the intent was obvious enough, and they followed it as it led them up a clear brook with minuscule points of rocks barely above the waterline. Then they proceeded along the branches of a tree, stepping across several semisolid clouds, and up a winding path on a sheer cliff.

It was at the end of that last leg of the journey, they reached their apparent destination, a magnificent villa built out of the side of the mountain and with an absolutely incomparable view of the valley they’d appeared in, hemmed in on all sides by distant mountains.

Jai Sien waved from a balcony with a glass in hand. “It is quite the joyous occasion to greet you once more.”

Floating up to her, the four of them joined her with Matt probing his spiritual connection with Aster to see where she was. He could feel that she was close, but he was surprised to find she hadn’t come out and greeted him yet.

“Beautiful place you have here, Sien.” Liz said what Matt should have, and he quickly added his agreement to the sentiment.

Except, the Sect ascender waved them off even as Allie laughed. “Oh, this isn’t my abode. Your host for this particular stay is The Elder Yun Me. This is her continent, and this particular estate is one of her guest houses, the one she most commonly makes available for visiting Masters.”

Matt raised a shocked eyebrow at that particular revelation, but Sien continued. “The stories the Anvil tells for its founding is that she grew tired of our predecessors constantly seeking to sneak in simply to prove they could, or to challenge her, or to poach usage of one of her rifts. She concluded that the most surefire means of curtailing undesired activity would be to provide official channels for our colleagues. After all, the glory and challenge is much lessened when all that is required is simply to ask for entry. In addition, the first rift you shall be delving is within this system, and this therefore serves as an excellent base for your expedition.”

Allie chuckled. “Also, Sect leadership likes to keep foreign Ascenders close to Yun Me in case anything happens. We’ll blow this joint in short order, worry not my pretties.”