The Path of Ascension Chapter 413

Chapter 413

Matt dealt the cards, ensuring each landed with a snick. If he didn’t, Lyre would complain again, and he needed his full attention to keep the rest of the table from cheating.

Aunt Helen’s Concept repair party had turned from a large event into a planet-wide event with seemingly every cultivator over Tier 20 arriving to congratulate the old bird.

Matt and the other Ascenders had uniformly stayed to congratulate Aunt Helen but they had quickly retreated off the main floor into one of the private rooms where they had been quickly joined by their closest friends. Then the Royals and even Manny and Carissa had escaped the masses fawning over them which turned the atmosphere competitive, which in turn had blossomed into a thirty person poker table.

Knowing exactly how things would end, Matt had volunteered to be the dealer. He almost wished he could say he had been proven wrong but that was distinctly untrue. His ever beautiful wife was dominating the table but it wasn’t as clear as he had imagined despite her ever growing pile of chips.

Flipping over the river, a four of clubs, half of the table tossed in their cards without revealing them, leaving Aiden, Aster, Liz, Mara, Lyre, Frederic, and Carissa fighting over the pot.

As they went through the final round of bets and bluffs, everyone was forced to reveal their cards. Carissa raked the four hundred credits towards her with a giggle, which caused Matt to squint.

Turning his gaze to the discard pile and then to the fifteen decks they were playing with, he glared at the table.

“I think it’s time we open new packs.”

His announcement was met with a round of groans and curses but no one was foolish enough to complain directly to him.

“Oh, come on. One more round! Pleaseeeeee!”

Matt glared at his mother-in-law who definitely had a distinctive red card tucked into her feathered hair.

Pulling out a box of yellow cards, he watched as most of the table started tossing cards they had stolen onto the table.

The only ones who didn’t have cards to toss to him were Liz, Manny, and Yilek, one of Lila’s army friends. Those three were also unsurprisingly the three who were doing the best despite the rampant cheating.

As he cut the packs of cards into one large deck Matt tutted at everyone. “It’s kinda sad you guys can’t even beat the noncheaters.”

A slightly drunk Allie drove her dagger into the table, earning a glare from Susanne who had lost a finger to the errant blade. “It’s not fair that you are giving them the best cards!”

Matt just rolled his eyes as Aster, even drunker than Susanne who seemed downright sober compared to Allie, insisted on trying to freeze the digit back into place.

He wasn’t buying any of their acts for a second and reached out, stopping Aster’s invisible hand from snatching a card off one of the piles he had made. The cheating trio ‘magically’ sobered up enough to complain but he saw that for what it was even as he fended off a tentacle, a miniature man made of lightning, and finally a sand dragon who tried to roll a card away.

Deplorable, all of them.

New cards and sour faces, Liz and Frederic split the pot and cleaned Aiden out.

“I want to buy back in!”

Aiden pounded the table even as his wife, Medea, leaned away from him shielding her own pile of chips from his outburst. Matt thought he saw a flash of yellow in her tentacles, but he strongly suspected he was being baited and so said nothing.

According to the unwritten rules of the game that had developed, if he misidentified an attempt to cheat, he had to stop paying attention for a round.

Seeing Aiden still watching him, he reminded the older Ascender, “Pay up doofus.”

Once the 100 credits hit his account, Matt handed Aiden a stack of chips even as the older Ascender started cackling.

Checking that both piles were untouched, Matt passed out cards to everyone just for Aiden to immediately call out the moment the river was dealt. “All in!”

In unison, three quarters of the table tossed in a matching hundred credits worth of chips into the pot as they called.

“Fuck!”

Seeing his outburst, everyone increased their bets even further. Aiden kept up a stony face until it was revealed that he had only had pocket twos and he once more had to buy in.

Leon shook his head at the water Ascender. “That was never going to work.”

“You did it two rounds ago.”

“Exactly. That’s how I knew it was never going to work.”

The next two rounds went off without a hitch except when a waiter brought in a roasted rabbit bribe for phoenix Liz courtesy of Rusty who was then flashed two feathers.

Liz turned and glared at her bird self as her bluff was called. “Have some integrity.”

Chunk of rabbit in her beak, phoenix Liz just blinked at her human counterpart until phoenix chicken Mara ambled over and tried to take part of her bribe, which started a feathery wrestling match.

Matt wasn’t able to watch the fight as he noticed that the card Zack handed back was subtly different from the others and called the other man out for modifying a seven into a king.

He was just about to pin down Frederic and Leon for working together when Aunt Helen sauntered into the room, putting a pause on the game.

“Matty darling, I need you for a minute.”

The woman of the hour was thoroughly drunk and it was quite amusing as the usually regal phoenix was a bubbly drunk who simply wanted to gossip with anyone about anything. This was actually the third time she crashed their game to chat with someone but this time she was accompanied by a man Matt initially thought was a Sect cultivator given his robes but his [AI] identified the man as a Tier 46 member of the Guilds.

Wiping his hands to show he hadn’t pocketed any cards, Matt stood up even as the others started to argue who should be the new dealer and why it would be Liz, Manny, or Yilek so others had a chance to win. As no one was able to agree, they collectively started to eavesdrop.

“What can I help with, Aunt Helen?”

Matt reached out and steadied her even as she leaned into Matt’s arm for a moment. “This is an old friend, Qin Jiang. Old as me, in fact. Same with Luis over there. Us old fogies are mostly friendly, but they are actual friends. Good people. They—” Aunt Helen hiccupped before giggling, “They wanted to meet you and make a deal which is funny because the moment I saw them I had the same idea. Do try to help them if you can, sweety. You’ll like them. They…”

Seeing someone outside say something interesting, a laughing Aunt Helen wandered out of the room seeming to forget she was in the middle of an introduction.

Smiling, Matt proffered a hand. “Well, if Aunt Helen says I should help, I’ll do my best. What do you need?”

Qin Jiang stared at Matt for a second but before he could say anything, Aiden called out. “Aww don’t help this guy Matt. He’s a dickhead. I asked him to help me make a weapon that could boost my Domain but he blew me off calling me an unstable blowfish.”

Qin Jiang’s eyes narrowed and a grimace flashed across his face as he turned his attention to Aiden. “That is because your Domain reveals a mentally unstable person. Or at the very least not a person fit for society. And I see you have only become worse with the inclusion of your Authority. It speaks poorly of you that you resonate with such a… foul ideology.”

Everyone else at the table started to laugh and rag on Aiden but the water Ascender just threw up his hands. “See! Dickhead.”

Matt couldn’t help but chuckle as he nodded at Aiden’s antics. “He might be a dickhead, but he’s also not wrong. How many times have you asked to drown me in the last two hours alone?”

“And what’s your point? Besides, you get a benefit out of being drowned so it’s not like you can complain. And I asked. See that makes me a good person.”

Matt turned away as others at the table started digging into Aiden for his behavior.

“Why don’t we move to another room?” When Qin Jiang and Luis both nodded, Matt commanded the venue to create an adjoining room where they and the almost three dozen people following the two entered. All the guild members were easily identifiable thanks to them all wearing similar circlets.

With Manny on the same planet let alone a dozen feet away, Matt felt no discomfort being so close to so many foreign high Tiers and was instead interested in what he could do. A lot of people sought his help, which was part of the reason he had been so willing to escape into their private room, but the fact that Aunt Helen had seriously recommended this foreigner made Matt not only willing to hear him out, but willing to give it serious effort.

Sitting down and calling for drinks appropriate for everyone’s Tier, Matt said, “Aunt Helen recommends you, so what can I do to help?”

That seemed to surprise most of the people, but Matt just waited and watched. The higher Tier and presumably older members of the group looked at him with various combinations of distrust, distaste, and contained but blatant hostility. That hostility was nothing compared to what was directed at Aiden earlier, but it seemed to stem from the same source. It was not a group he would be normally inclined to involve himself let alone interact with but Matt trusted Aunt Helen even if she was a little drunk.

After a moment of inspecting Qin Jiang spoke, “First let me introduce me and mine. We are Those Crowned in Glory. We are a guild dedicated to eradicating evil in its many forms. We eradicate the unjust and try to promote equanimity inside the Guilds. We…”

The Tier 46 seemed to consider his words for a minute but when he didn’t seem to find the words the only other Tier 46, Luis, spoke up, “Historically we often have a contentious relationship with other Heroes, excuse me, Ascenders. We have contested many when they overstepped the bounds of what is right and proper. Beyond what was tolerable even for them of their power as challenging one of such power isn’t to be done lightly. Happily, we mostly managed to foil their worst excesses but they are hard and bitter fights with losses. So please understand why it makes us a little uncomfortable to come and ask for your help.”

Matt considered their words and, after a brief check in with their records stored on the EmpireNet, nodded. It wasn’t common knowledge or particularly obvious, he wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t specifically looking for it, but there were several records of the Crowned hindering and sabotaging a Hero’s endeavors. Looking deeper into those heroes, all of them had suspiciously open records of their abuses and misuse of power. Normally a Great Power tried to present their past Ascenders in the best light possible but he had a feeling that too was the Crowned’s work.

“Given your stated goals and half a second of looking at your notable historical actions, I can see why. I’m not sure how that applies to me, but I get it. A lot of Ascenders are assholes or become them when the power goes to their head. Still, none of that answers my question. What do you want from me? Aunt Helen’s recommendation is enough of a reason for me to help, she knows me and my goals and so would have never recommended you if we couldn’t work together, but I still don’t know what you want. I’m inclined to say yes because your purported purpose seems positive. That said, it would be really shitty if you all only came to use Aunt Helen to meet me. That’s not something a friend should do.”

As Matt spoke, the tension in the room increased to a palpable level until Luis laughed. “We intended to swing by your home on our way out. Rest assured the main purpose was to visit and congratulate Helen. She had a similar idea to us and insisted on introducing us after we said hi. She’s a little drunk at the moment and insisted.”

Qin Jiang softened at the same time but the others were slower to retract their claws. “It speaks well that you think so, but yes, it was Helen who insisted. We would have otherwise waited for a more appropriate moment.”

Matt nodded, choosing to believe them given how easy it would be to verify with her later.

Qin Jiang continued after leaning back slightly in his chair. It wasn’t a slouch or even what Matt would call getting comfortable so much as him signifying that everyone else should relax, which Matt noticed they did. “Our goal is simple in purpose even if possibly impossible in practice. Brother Mathias, if you may.”

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The youngest and lowest-Tier member of the guild bounded forward with a similar expression to the adoration Matt was used to in lower Tiers.

Going into his PR mode, Matt stood and took the kid’s hand giving him a firm handshake and a smile. As he did so, he noticed most of the higher Tiers tense, getting ready to intervene as if there was a chance Matt would attack the kid which irritated him enough to send a glare at them faster then the lower Tiers could notice.

Standing back with a beaming smile Mathias’ circlet’s ruby blossomed to life as a Domain-empowered flame swirled around him.

Qin Jiang looked like he was going to speak but in his exuberance, Mathias spoke first, “I used one of your aura potions to create my Domain which was Justice enough and in the right way that I was able to bind with one of the circlets and become a full member of the guild.”

Matt nodded to show he saw and heard the Tier 6, but he wasn’t part of the Guilds and had no idea who these people were beyond a few headlines.

Qin Jiang thankfully explained. “My Power, excuse me, my Domain and Talent, allow me to create growth items that empower Domains. They also let all of us share a Domain pool. Each of the members passively add a portion of their Domain into the pool but can also call upon the others for a power boost. It is a collective effort which means the Domains need to be hyper specific. A general Justice Domain won’t work. At least not usually. If a person wants to bind with a circlet, they need something that will fit with everyone else’s Domain. Our numbers are few and have never crossed over a hundred, even in millions of years. There are millions of outer guild members who passed our rigorous personality tests, and they go on to do good for the Guilds as a whole. Many of them even create variations of a Justice Concept but they still can’t bond to one of the circlets. After seeing how Brother Mathias was able to turn one of your aura potions into a suitable Domain, our guild tried to replicate the success but it failed. Our hope in coming is that you and your guild might be able to create an aura rift that might allow us to make aura potions that can increase the probability of an appropriate Concept by directly using our Domains as a sample.”

Matt hadn’t known such a shared Domain pool was even possible and mulled over the possibility and its implications. He also gave in and started reading some of the information about the guild and its history in detail.

The guild was truly as presented and unless there was something missing in the Empire’s private reports on the guild of the Crowned, as they were locally known, the guild seemed like a force for good.