The Path of Ascension Chapter 431

Chapter 431

Matt entered Kees’ open door just for it to close behind him with a soft thud.

“Kind of ominous there, Kees.”

His vice guild leader gave him a flat look that Matt figured he had earned with his dodging the man for the past few days.

Matt had already known what they were going to talk about, which was at least in part why he was willing to avoid this conversation.

Pushing the chair out, Matt flopped into it.

“Hit me with it. How many patents have we been sniped on?”

“Three in the last century, and I expect a fourth to follow shortly with the cumulation of the potion delivery system.”

Matt frowned and resisted the urge to get up and pace.

While they had been delving to reach Tier 28 as fast as possible, their enemies hadn’t been sitting still waiting for them to return. No, they had their own plans in the works, and they had been striking with slow but steady blows.

Three of their latest works had been patented just weeks or even days before the guild submitted theirs for approval.

If the patents had been stolen from Titan’s Torch, that would have just been familiar ground. But instead, the latest few sniped patents had perfect documentation.

The Circle of Ever Flame society, or at least that was who they believed was doing it, had stepped up their game. Instead of half-stolen works quickly turned in to claim first, the latest patents had been fully researched beforehand.

It was more a question of just how before was before.

One of the patents, a stabilizing rune, had a researcher listed who had Ascended nearly thirty thousand years ago.

Sadly, there weren’t restrictions on discoveries having been shelved until a competitor was about to design something similar. There were even fewer restrictions about companies just throwing more money into an issue to beat out a competitor, which had happened to them with a patent for a type of crystal meant for small device screens.

Or that was what they believed had happened. Shortly after their own team had formed, another research company had recruited the best and brightest in the field that they could, and then simply threw even more money and resources to make a similar product.

Then, just days before Titan’s Torch was about to push their idea to get patented, they went ahead and patented their own version.

It was a clear and obvious attack, but an above board one that Matt had little recourse to easily counter.

They couldn’t even dispute the fact that their rivals were actually doing the work, as one instance of patent sniping failed because the results of their research were distinct enough from Titan’s Torch’s findings for both patents to be valid. So he couldn’t solely chalk it up to excellence in laundering corporate espionage.

The threat was clear. The society would try to interfere with anything his guild was developing that they could until Matt gave up or ran out of funding.

And it was working. Matt was very irritated at their actions, which served only to prevent helpful patents from entering low-Tier circulation and discourage his researchers.

Matt and Kees could, however, do something about that final point. Instead of treating it like a failure for the teams in question, they paid out the rewards as if they had gotten the patent, pretending the other companies didn’t exist.

That earned them a lot of internal goodwill, but didn’t exactly solve the underlying issue.

In response, they had increased security, but that was hard given the guild couldn’t try to hide what people were working on. Requests to form teams were public, as scientists often put out notices looking for others who might be interested even before they submitted an application for a project.

It was a great system that had paid dividends for the guild, as it let their people work on what they personally found interesting, which usually resulted in more dedicated research.

He and Kees couldn’t really figure out a way to keep that open method of recruitment alive without gutting the very thing that made it work.

“Let’s circle back around to preventative measures. Have there been any good ideas since we last discussed this issue?”

Matt doubted there had been any such developments, but he was hopeful.

Kees shook his head. “None that are worth considering.”

Matt rubbed the bridge of his nose while nodding. “Then let’s just go ahead with the decoy program. Chances are they will see through them, but we might just get a patent for free out of it. If they do spend money on wild goose chases, I won’t be upset. Do we have any leads on who their spies might be?”

Kees pulled out a small folder of papers, and Matt quickly shuffled through it. “Two unconfirmed and one working for Duke Innes.”

Matt frowned at the final sheet. Duke Keegan Innes was the man Eirene had run away from. Initially, it seemed like he wasn’t going to strike out for Matt and Liz ‘stealing’ one of his people or Matt destroying a clone of his, just content to play the long con. But now, they had evidence of him making a move.

Looking deeper into the person’s file, Matt saw that Michel had been initially flagged by the Imperial agents and let through by Kees. Matt fully agreed with the decision, but he was more interested in the position they had signed up for. It wasn’t an innocuous job like admin, or gardening, or even a high-profile job like security, logistics, or even one of the scientists. Instead, they applied to be a mid-level general manager.

So far, they hadn’t done anything out of line or accessed anything they shouldn’t have access to. It was possible they had a Talent that might let them bypass any number of security systems, but that was always a risk.

Still, knowing the identity of the spy was good, but Matt was interested in what Duke Innes had been doing.

Checking in with the file his spies had made, he found the duke had only been active in his own duchy since their encounter. Such information meant very little, as they had already seen the man had a clone and was willing and able to use it to travel.

Having run into a dead end, Matt sent a note that he wanted any possible sightings of Duke Innes reported to him, but put it as a low priority. The Empire was large, and there were a million and one ways to bypass passive surveillance.

Matt finally looked more fully at the other two potential spies. One had seemingly been turned after they were hired, a mid-level admin that started to access files he shouldn’t have.

“If we can’t identify who the admin is working for, let’s just get rid of him.”

Kees pursed his lips. “That’s a risky move, Guild Leader. It shows we identified a fairly robust deep-cover agent. We will also need to replace him.”

Matt didn’t just wave off the concerns, but instead went into their promotions folders.

He was mildly amused when the first name that popped up was Cameron. The magma otter had worked her way into a position of seniority, leaving her as the next to be promoted and making it an easy decision for Matt.

“Let’s get rid of him, then open promotions in the guild. Our initiative to promote internally is good and might need to be further developed.”

“That risks us not being able to find suitable hires for senior positions.”

Kees’ comment was well noted and Matt sighed. “Yeah, but if half of the senior leadership we are hiring are spies, then what’s the point?”

“Half is an exaggeration, Guild Leader, but your point is noted. I will, however, counter with the fact that several of our best upper management members were recruited from elsewhere and have been perfectly loyal. Therefore, I can’t recommend locking down outside hiring any more than we have already.”

Matt huffed, letting his exasperation show. “So we just have to accept allowing rats in our walls? I don’t like it.”

Still, he knew that Kees was right. Or at least, he had the experience in running a guild, which was why Matt had hired the man in the first place. If he didn’t trust the experts, why recruit and pay them? Instead of arguing a losing battle, he just waved it away.

“Whatever. You’re right, I just don’t like it.”

Kees didn’t look surprised and instead said, “Such is the reality of being on the defensive.”

Matt smirked at the tone the older man used. “You sound like you’re counting your days until you leave.”

Kees didn’t even hesitate as he said, “I’m counting the hours, Guild Leader. This has been far more stressful than even I thought I was signing up for.”

Wincing, Matt groaned. “Ugh. Now I actually feel bad. You know I wouldn’t hold you to the contract, right? If you want to go, you are free to do so.”

Kees, however, smiled. “I am aware, yes. And while I most certainly won’t be signing up for a second term of vice guild leader, I don’t intend to flee my post either. I’m honestly considering sticking around in another capacity for a while and seeing just what havoc you cause. It would be entertaining, if nothing else.”

Seeing Kees wasn’t hating his life as much as Matt would in his place, Matt immediately switched his tune. “I can give you your heart’s greatest desire if you stay on.”

Having lightened the mood and earning a grin from his vice guild leader, Matt turned his attention to the final spy.

According to the Empire counterespionage people, it was likely a spy from another Great Power and they were currently working as a scientist.

As he looked at their records and saw they were actually supremely competent in their field, having helped two teams complete their work, Matt found he didn’t really care about them sharing information with a foreign Great Power. Or at least, he was happy enough with their performance that he didn’t mind too much.

“Any chance we can entice more scientist spies from the other Great Powers? Researchers this capable are hard to come by honestly.”

Kees wasn’t as amused at the comment as Matt thought he’d be. “Dangerous words for anyone to speak when the walls have ears.”

Matt just rolled his eyes. “Shit, I’ll ask Manny myself. Though Harper might be a better choice. But stealing a few of their better scientists for information we are going to make public anyway? I don’t see the issue. We aren’t actually doing anything top secret here.”

Neither of them commented that their funding was the true secret the Great Powers would be looking for. If Matt didn’t have his ring that conveniently teleported his mana stones to secure locations where they were treated like normal shipping goods, he might have been worried, but the guild was fairly well isolated from Matt’s Talents.

Still, it was probably not something they should be tempting the Realm with.

“Okay, bad ideas aside, do we have any wins? I need a win.”

Thankfully they did. Mainly in the Tier 0 skills department where they had shined.

Titan’s Torch was still the foremost leader in Tier 0 skills, having developed two wholly new skills and a handful of variations of the original five.

They had finally figured out several of the elemental variations for [Lesser Fire Weapon]. One notable exception was created by a young dragonling who had sold the patent to them for a hefty but well-earned reward.

The final variation was a lightning variant of [Solar Flare], which had been well received by the general public.

A private company had beaten them to the punch with the creation of a water variant, and was charging the absolute most they could for the skill, but water wasn’t the most useful projectile and so the skill was never destined to be popular.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author’s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Matt did bump up the priority for an ice variant, knowing that Aster would be pissed if someone made it and then didn’t let it be freely available for everyone to enjoy.

They were hardly the only ones to be making new variants of skills. All of the other Great Powers had made some progress on that front, but none greater than the Sects, who had the best foundation given their extensive modification experience.

There had been several higher-Tier sects who managed to create Tier 0 versions of their own personal unique skills, or rather, techniques as they called them. According to the reports, such creations had come at massive expense, usually suspected to be involving a high-Tier rift’s time dilation as well as massive amounts of testing.

Those same reports also indicated that the new Tier 0 skills were better able to grow into the sect’s unique techniques easier than their standard skill modification method. Or so was the speculation, but it was nothing more than that, given it hadn’t been long enough for the results to manifest as they were still growing up. A core of carefully selected disciples kept under strict lock and key were being treated as each of the sects in question’s new generation of elites.

Several attempts had been made to insert a spy to learn the method or skill structure, but unfortunately, the sects hadn’t gotten any worse at keeping their skill modification secrets exactly that: secret. The report even went as far as stating they, along with most other agencies, were giving up and taking a more passive approach, just waiting and seeing how the first batch turned out.

Given that the Great Power they were being raised in was the Sects, there was little doubt that the children would soon be unleashed on each other to cull the wheat from the chaff, or whatever saying they would use.