The Path of Ascension Chapter 445

Chapter 445

Emmanuel and the others arrived at the edge of the Tier 46 world as far as they could be from each other, even Tobias shrinking down to his humanoid form, his shield world vanishing into his very spirit.

The moment they entered the world’s real space, they all immediately probed it.

Emmanuel first checked in with the beacon left hidden in the second moon, reviewing the world’s history since it was last delved.

Sadly, there were no new Tier 45 or higher strange realms, meaning they were all out of luck. If they tried to enter the three Tier 43 strange realms, their advanced Tier would crush the realms and destroy them instantly.

Instead, the logs made clear nobody had been to this world since a joint expedition into layer four made by the T50s five generations ago.

That was fantastic news, and exactly what he needed to hear after rushing for so long; it meant the world should be ripe with treasures.

Emmanuel shifted his attention to the world itself.

A very, very old world, the Tier 46 planet currently had four major landmasses and two major island chains, along with dozens of smaller features. Between the eight of them, that was a fairly decent split, but things would never be so civilized.

The treasures on display were simply too valuable.

Emmanuel teleported forward immediately, arriving on the largest and southernmost continent, claiming half it for himself, letting Allister claim the other half.

He chose after spending nearly all of his mana checking the world and its various treasures and how useful they were to himself and the Empire.

The Tier 47 bamboo shoot conspicuous amongst its brethren wasn’t a Natural Treasure known to Emmanuel, but its abundant life force was a powerful draw. Combined with his Talents telling him it was the most valuable item on the planet, he wasn’t surprised when two others appeared a moment too late and confronted him.

Winter Hornet arrived, covering the distance from where they entered real space in orbit with a single step, abusing the Tier 46’s worlds firmer reality and allowing him to exert more of his power without being in danger of ascending.

Emmanuel blocked the awl, its razor-sharp tip drinking in the heat around it at an astonishing rate, allowing the weapon to cut a furrow through his upraised shield.

That opened Emmanuel up to Aoife’s attack, her bare fist crackling with power aimed directly at his head.

It wasn’t quite a full power blow, but if Emmanuel took the hit without blocking, he’d be in a world of hurt.

Instead of fighting, he changed his Talent set once more and turned incorporeal. Both Tier 50s halfheartedly tried to stop him, but once they saw he wasn’t going to stand and fight, they each left as fast as they had arrived.

Teleporting once more, he arrived and picked up another Natural Treasure, even as the world behind him illuminated from Aoife’s blow’s backblast.

The Fairies Beard was a notable Natural Treasure that could elevate any Growth item to its Tier, regardless of other item requirements. With the item’s Tier being over the Ascension survival threshold, the item was priceless for those who were stuck in this Realm because they didn’t want to Ascend and lose a growth item.

Anyone so stuck would fight tooth and nail if Emmanuel put the item on the general market, but he didn’t intend to, at least not quite yet.

Instead, he moved to his third target.

It was actually the second most valuable item on the planet according to his appraisal Talent set, but he wasn’t sure why.

The item felt like any Nature Treasure peach tree, and now that the most important items had been taken, Emmanuel allowed himself a moment to inspect the tree and the bamboo.

The bamboo with the excess life force was actually an edible treasure which massively increased the tenacity of a fighter’s life force. It enabled full biological regeneration, excluding the brain’s memories, the power pulled from the excess a higher-Tier cultivator’s cores produced.

Emmanuel knew Rusty would want the item, but they would have to see if any of the crafters had a better use; he expected that to be the case given the level of importance his seeker Talents had put on the item.

The peach tree, however, was much more interesting.

The tree would only flower and fruit once every hundred years, but when eaten by a low Tier, the fruit would drastically strengthen their spirit, giving them a small but significant advantage that would remain as they grew stronger.

Given that the tree had over thirty fruits, each of which could be used to get political favors from people he couldn’t persuade, threaten, or bribe with more common resources, it was unsurprising that his Talents had noted its value.

Emmanuel stepped once more, this time appearing next to Winter Hornet to spite the Sects leader for attacking him earlier.

Winter Hornet didn’t stop picking the bundle of dandelions radiating a necrotic energy, instead kicking up with his off foot, deflecting Emmanuel’s strike through the nearest mountain range and creating a new inland sea as water rushed to fill the gap.

A Tier 46 world couldn’t quite contain them, but it did better than most. That same blow would have evaporated a star system on anything lower than a Tier 40 world.

Seeing his revenge attack fail, Emmanuel teleported once more, switching into Matt’s Talent for a moment to refill his mana pool. Thanks to Talent shenanigans, he actually came out ahead by simply switching into Matt’s Talent and then switching out. The amount of mana in his pool was only ever lost when he lowered his mana pool below his current mana, so even though Matt’s 1% mana pool wasn’t larger than his, it was larger than his previous mana amount.

Mana full once more, he stepped down to a riverbed as he felt the planet tremble from the aftershocks of Janet and Virgil coming to blows over a fish with Natural Treasure scales.

Picking up the Smooth Stone Natural Treasure, Emmanuel contemplated whose weapon he might want to make unnaturally sharp. There were several who had the right to claim such a useful effect, but he only had the one item.

That was most of the reason they had come. Natural Treasures of this Tier were impossible to get in settled space, and no one was willing to pass up on anything.

One step later, Emmanuel arrived in a cave in the deepest corner, where two petrified eggs sat circling around each other.

They weren’t the Natural Treasure; instead, it was the Attraction Mushroom that had grown between them. Paradoxically, it reduced foreign mental effects across the board. That had its own downsides, as it reduced friendly effects as well, but Emmanuel was still happy to grab it.

His next step was a Primordial Grass, which made herbs grow faster if they were planted near the clump.

Continuing on, Emmanuel took everything of value he could from his area, ending up with almost a hundred Tier 46 Natural Treasures and thousands of lower-Tier ones.

Not that the harvesting took long. The world was still trembling from the earlier battles when the eight of them reconvened on a smaller island, having already looted everything of value in the real world.

All eyes went to Emmanuel, who put on his best smile.

Aoife snorted at his arrival. “Now let us see if your Talents are as good as you claim.”

Emmanuel hoped so too. The better their rewards, the better the items he could take when they were all done.

Looking over his fellows, he responded while letting his smile morph into a smaller but hopefully more confident expression. “Then let me get started. Who wants to go first and which rift do they want to start with?”

***

Matt blinked as he entered the real space universe. The world was as expected, already fully looted, but that wasn’t what surprised him. Rather, it was the very obvious strange realm.

Deep in an otherwise ordinary rain forest was a winding tendril of solidified light that screamed otherness. It almost looked like a single incredibly long ribbon which formed a sphere of light that slowly pulsed along its length, but it felt like a solid wall to his spiritual senses.

Everyone from all four groups honed in on the same oddity, each trying to unravel its mysteries.

The Federation team’s leader was a grizzled older man who, despite appearing strong, looked haggard.

With a wave he said, “The name is Marve, Captain of Exploration Team Indigo. That before us is the thrice-cursed thing. We haven’t figured out how to actually enter. When we try, we are immediately rejected. Feel free to check yourselves. I suspect it’s a cooperative strange realm, but I might be wrong and it might be competitive. Frankly, I’m not willing to risk that with just any team.”

The moment he finished speaking and allowed them near, Allie teleported the seven of them next to the strange realm, everyone else following with more mundane methods but keeping a careful distance.

Together with the others, Matt pressed his hand against the sphere of light and nearly recoiled at the unexpected feeling.

It might look like a silk ribbon, but the barrier felt like slightly warm ooze.

Matt tried to probe the strange realm like everyone else, but nothing happened.

It wasn’t often, but some strange realms weren’t cooperative, but rather competitive, which required at least two teams to enter at the same time in order to activate. Sometimes that meant the teams would fight to the death, and other times it was a safe challenge or a race of some sort. It was impossible to truly know which was which before entering.

Most of the time, either type of strange realms gave an indication about what type they were, but it wasn’t always accurate. That and there was always the risk that an inherently noncombat strange realm might still allow lethal combat between participants, which left the entering delvers at great risk of betrayal.

Stepping back, Matt and the others allowed the remaining groups to try one by one.

They all similarly failed until eventually, Marve looked over the various groups before settling on the other Empire team. The delving team looked apprehensive at the scrutiny, but didn’t resist when Marve called out.

“Are you lot willing to test the realm with my own team? I can swear if it pulls us in without a chance to back out, I’ll try my best not to kill if we don’t have to. But I’m not willing to risk the initial touch with anyone else. Nor am I keen on allowing someone else, anyone else, first entrance.”

Clara Lund, the leader of the other Empire expedition, looked to where Matt and the others stood, wanting some level of reassurance before agreeing. “We are, so long as the Ascenders are willing to watch our backs.”

Allegiance to the same Great Power was a thin twine of trust, but it was also the only thing any of them had in common. In this instance, it was also enough for Liz to agree to their request.

From opposite sides of the strange realm, both groups touched the sphere of light at the same time.

All at once, both parties vanished only to appear a moment later, smiles plastered on everyone’s faces.

Marve looked a decade younger as he smiled. “Fantastic news. It’s a cooperative-type strange realm. A killing and gathering challenge it seems. We might interact, but it will be sparse I’m sure.”

Hearing his words, everyone turned to Clara, who brushed a strand of platinum hair out of her face with a thought.

“That seems accurate for what we felt. We were able to leave, which is a sign that it isn’t a fully competitive strange realm at least.”

Together, everyone who wanted to enter put their hands on the sphere, not wanting to risk being left out due to a timing issue.

Matt felt himself drawn into the orb, the ooze growing over his arm faster and faster until it swallowed him up in its blinding radiance.

The next moment, Matt found himself in a clearing inside a dense woodland that spread for a mile before turning into a wall of fog.

To their left and right, all of the other teams appeared in their own clearings with their own towers.

Strangest of all was the gem now embedded through his chest, as if it had always been there. His heart in fact. The yellow gem was the same color as the rest of his group had in their hearts, but given it didn’t interfere with Matt’s biological functions in any way, he wasn’t too worried about its presence. Interestingly enough, it gave him information about the strange realm when he probed it.

The tower behind them was their tether into the realm, and if it was destroyed, they would be immediately ejected, ending their attempt. The same was true on an individual level with their heart gems. If they were destroyed for any reason, the person would find themselves ejected, along with anything stored inside the gem being transferred to the killer. The gem acted as both a life preservation method and easy target for destruction.

There were no prohibitions about fighting each other, though it wasn’t required or even encouraged beyond general maliciousness and greed, which were always a factor in strange realms when resources came into question. What Matt did find interesting was the tidbit of knowledge that anyone ejected early wouldn’t leave the strange realm until everyone had left the challenge, and that there was an aggressive time dilation effect.

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Said test of the strange realm was fairly simple: survive as long as possible while keeping one’s tower intact from the ever spawning monsters. The longer a team survived, the more yet-undiscovered resources they could bring out, with only the last remaining team guaranteed to get everything they collected. If a team was eliminated early, what they kept was up to chance, and no one wanted to risk that.

It was that simple.

As for what the major reward was, what they were supposed to be fighting over, Matt couldn’t find any indication of it, so he asked the others. However, no one had figured anything more out either.

Matt’s attention then went to Allie, who indicated she wasn’t confident she could teleport out, but could probably manage it if the worst came to pass. He understood why, as he could also feel how the space they were in was strange. She didn’t want to risk it unless she had to, and he agreed.

Looking at the other teams, Matt was almost surprised when one of the other towers, the Republic Clandestine Clippers combat team included, vanished, their location being replaced by an empty forest like everything else around them.

In rapid-fire succession, the Federation’s combat team led by Marve, the Monster Collective team lead by their founder Ralph, a notable Bat bloodline according to Lila’s reports, vanished, leaving the two Empire teams with the secretive Corporations team.

The latter also vanished, and once they were ostensibly alone, Liz called out to Clare. “Good luck. Let’s try to help each other where we can.”

Clare’s delving group gave reciprocal comments but didn’t linger, touching their tower and vanishing just like the others.

Allie sighed the moment they left, turning to Susanne, who had signaled to delay leaving the moment the first team left. “Finally. Can I touch it now?”

Susanne shook her head. “Not yet. I don’t like that Corporations team. They are giving me a bad feeling, but I can’t pinpoint why.”