The Path of Ascension Chapter 451

Chapter 451

 

Captain Stenson had been around Ascenders before. He was one of Lila’s trusted captains, having been with her since her third expedition well before she had founded the guild. He had, with her help, risen from a Talentless but dedicated member of the maintenance staff with grand ambition, to Captain of his own ship.

Like most of the original crew, he had taken up various positions in the now larger guild.

Having lasted with Lila on her ship until Tier 30, when he decided to slow down and better prepare himself and his family for his eventual Ascension, he had seen a lot of strange things.

He had thought he had seen it all but these Ascenders were something new.

Having just taken a loss, he had expected bravado, anger, sullenness, anger, irritation, anger, whining, or even possibly being really mad at them for having possibly witnessed their ‘failure’. He even half expected them to take after Lila. She hadn’t lost often to anything but overwhelming odds. But when she did, the crew had known to keep out of her way for a few days as she could be touchy.

Which was almost funny in its own way.

He’d never seen a fight lost by any Ascender group or solo that he thought he or any of his crew could have participated in so he couldn’t really empathize at all.

Tier 31 pinnacle elites could reliably fight and outright kill an average Tier 33.

Captain Stenson was happy when his same-Tier delves went off without a hitch. Being a long-term explorer, he and most of the crew were stronger than the technical average for their Tier, but it was strange to listen to a debriefing from people who genuinely believed they should have had no issue fighting up two Tiers. That would be ridiculous as Tier 15s, let alone at Tier 29.

It was mind boggling.

What was even more unsettling, was how they openly started discussing what they did wrong in the fight and what they could have done better. Three times they had tried soliciting feedback from the crew but none of them had anything to say.

Captain Stenson understood. What was there to say?

The Ascenders had taken a loss because of a Tier gap and being outnumbered.

That combined with the Ascenders caring to ask what they thought of the fight put most of the crew on edge. They all wondered if some stray comment would result in blame being shifted to them for the loss and no one wanted to risk that.

He would never admit it, but he understood. Lila had never snapped at them, but every explorer had heard stories of army elites hiring teams and treating the general crew as disposable.

No one wanted to find out if the Empire’s newest Ascenders had similar tendencies.

Being only a Tier stronger than them, the crew had no illusion that they could put up any resistance if such happened.

He didn’t discourage that fear but he did use it to his advantage, driving the crew to work a little harder for the first few weeks after the loss. Work was ultimately what the crew considered normal and so ensuring they were too busy with their tasks to stress too much, worked well for everyone.

His focus went to figuring out the why of the attack.

Captain Stenson knew desperation when he saw it and he didn’t buy the personal vendetta angle the elites tried to portray any more than the Ascenders did. Two pinnacle elites from different Great Powers attacking Ascenders who were entrenched in a position, relying on nothing but the Ascender’s good will to ensure no one truly died? When the planet was already so obviously plundered?

That might not be impossible, but before the fight, he would have bet all of his family’s savings on that not happening.

Wanting good news when the Ascenders recovered enough to start asking questions, he had the crew start digging.

They intercepted every message they could, cloned them and started trying to break the encryption. Despite having far more mana than he was used to, he wasn’t willing to ask Ascender Titan for assistance until he offered, given that none of the leadership group had said a single word after their debriefing.

Instead, he had his crew do what they could.

They weren’t Ascenders, but they were damn good at their jobs, and with a single oddity they started pulling at strings.

What they found was not what he wanted to hear.

Calling up both Seekers, on a hopefully private channel, he had them each do a test divination.

Watching their auxiliary mana reserves drop, Captain Stenson wanted to vomit when he saw two near-unanimous results.

Both Seekers indicated if they wanted to get the best rewards from the breach, they needed to… return to the world they had just vacated.

He was terrified he knew what was happening, and halfheartedly cursed his ancestors for their crimes, real or perceived, for putting him in this position.

There was a lot of signal traffic, but the majority of it wasn’t what he wanted to know, which meant sorting through the junk. Thankfully, there was a plethora of messages to sort through.

Most exploration groups who didn’t have the space or budget for dedicated chaotic space repeaters repurposed a life pod to act as one, because no one wanted to be unable to call for help.

During a breach, it was something of a vital necessity for groups who wanted to delve a world’s rifts to nothing, to set up an early warning beacon so they knew if another ship approached. Additionally, having a beacon allowed non-hostile groups a way to get messages about potential bandits roving around.

Having lots of experience in deep chaotic space, as well as having delved several breaches in addition to the prior appearance of the Rasdale breach, he wasn’t left helpless when he encountered something unusual.

Finding a Clans deep exploration company he had interacted with before, he reached out and bought their entire backlog of past messages.

The Clans captain was wary at first given the distances involved making trading physical items difficult and dangerous. Digital currency wasn’t much better. If the Unsparing was destroyed and all of them died, the guild would have to cover the payment which might be disputed. But once the other captain knew they had two groups of Ascenders on board, their negotiation style flipped.

From domineering and aloof, they suddenly offered to waive the payment, trying to buy the Ascenders protection.

When he didn’t agree, they settled on something only slightly higher than fair to be transferred when they returned to settled space.

With redoubled efforts, he had the crew start looking for specific messages and they quickly found enough corroborating evidence that he didn’t dare not report to the Ascenders about what he found.

Standing there as the Ascenders honed themselves in their chairs, Captain Stenson coughed slightly, hoping that he hadn’t badly misjudged them. That or be blamed for not figuring such information out sooner, even though that was impossible.

“Ascenders, I believe I might have discovered the reason why we were attacked so… ferociously.”

Captain Stenson flinched when one of the raptors’ eyes opened and stared at him.

The bird had been sitting contently on Ascender Titan’s shoulder, but the eyes pierced through him like a blade and he was forced to swallow.

Ascender Legion noticed his state but she didn’t retract her gaze as the others brought themselves back from whatever they were working on.

Being stared at by two sets of Ascenders put him on edge, but he kept his body and emotions under control pretending they were Lila.

That helped. Slightly.

He only hoped they wouldn’t blame him but he forged on. “I investigated the previous incident and suspect that Tier 30 planet might be the breachpoint for the third layer planets.”

Seeing all of the leadership group waiting for more, he explained.

“A breachpoint comes in two flavors, the first is when the higher-level energies dissipate naturally, the worlds closest to the edge count as such because people will use them as spring boards to delve the most valuable planets. Much more rarely, the energies condense instead of dissipating gradually. That pulls all of the third layer worlds closer together until they explode outward like a pinata, usually along the line of the first few outside tethers to appear. Which is why breachpoints for a contracting bubble breach are so contested. They allow a connection from inside the higher level area to outside, bypassing the more dangerous energies. Teams will swarm such breachpoints, as it allows them to be close to the explosion of worlds without risking being annihilated by the wave of third level energies that will rush out when it pops. These bubbles are sometimes entered by exploration groups crazy enough to run across the natural teleport tethers. They get an advantage of a year or two because the formation of the tether indicates the explosion is imminent but it is incredibly risky when a small year or two wait will suffice. Many lose their lives to taking such risks. In fact I bet the pinnacle teams were simply trying to cut the line before we could realize the prize we were sitting on. I—”

Captain Stenson froze as all eyes focused on him with a palpable intensity not sure what he had said that earned their ire.

Ascender Titan leaned forward in his chair to ask. “Do we know what causes one type of dissipation to happen over the other? Or why the explosion of worlds is caused by it?”

He was surprised by the question but nodded. “There are no widely-accepted theories as to why one forms over the other. As far as we can tell, it’s random. As for the explosion of worlds, we actually do. It happens because of the tethers. Worlds don’t like to get too close to each other in chaotic space, that’s why worlds can safely pass through settled space without destroying everything they pass, they repel themselves at too close distances. The tethers, combined with the repelling, shatters the weakened and contracting bubble as the worlds try to create distance. That lets out one final wave of higher-level energy that will wipe out anything too close, which is why groups flock to breachpoints once they notice the energy is contracting instead of dissipating. These variations are rare and I take full responsibility for not realizing what type of world we were sitting on before it was too late.”

When he stopped, Ascender Legion waved a hand, urging him to continue.

He did, but felt the Ascenders were having a weird reaction to knowing they had been forced out of such an important world.

“I believe our previous world, the one we just left, is going to be the focal point that allows access to the third layer of chaotic space’s planets. From messages we have been able to crack, there are at least seven Tier 35 guilds heading for a high-Tier world in that vicinity based on their Seekers’ predictions. In fact, I had our Seekers check and they indicate we need to return and probably retake that world if we don’t want to miss out. I’m sending what we have recorded about such events now and can answer any more questions.”

Ra’thala, the lower Realm ascender but not an actual Ascender, looked at him strangely. “Is all of this information about ‘naturally forming tethers’ correct? It’s… not what I expected.”

Worried he might have messed up, he checked the information but saw it was all correct and said so.

Ra’thala smiled at him as if he had been wishing to hear those exact words. Captain Stenson was confused but didn’t try to interpret as the seven people in control of their expedition discussed privately.

Ascender Legion laughed as she turned to him a few moments later. “That’s great news! Allie will teleport us back to the world before its time, so don’t worry about that, Captain. In fact, use Matt’s assistance and narrow down the time frame with the Seekers as much as possible. We want to arrive at least ten percent earlier than the third layer’s expected eruption. Then we want you to start spreading the news. Spread it to everyone. Shit, spread it with our name if people don’t believe. Once people are distracted fighting over the Tier 30 world, we can go around visiting the less-contested strange realms roaming farther afield than anyone else, giving us the best of both situations.”

Captain Stenson looked to Ra’thala, but seeing the man no longer despondent, combined with the order to return early, he assumed the ascender had some special method to cut ahead of the metaphorical line.

Ascender Wraith was the one to turn and speak instead of Ascender Legion. “Next, start looking for strange realms out here. Use your normal priority searches. No, scratch that, put an extra focus on worlds with cooperative strange realms first. Let’s scoop up the most valuable things while everyone else is distracted. Then we can work our way down to friendly competition ones, like our last, and then full on death-match strange realms last of all, if we have time.”

She smirked at the reference to her old title, but Captain Stenson was far too nervous to do more than smile politely.

They asked a few more questions but with directions given, he got to work spreading the information as news as ordered.

That was more familiar ground. At least unlike Lila, they weren’t planning to stay on the planet they were luring everybody to. Those times were nerve-wracking and he always hated the chases that resulted. This more indirect method was far more up his alley.

Almost as if the Realm wanted to punish him, he then had to tell the Ascenders that there weren’t any broadcasted strange realms yet, hoping they wouldn’t react badly. It was after all a reminder that they had been kicked off their resting planet before they intended to leave.

Ascender Legion’s phoenix self seemed distracted as she replied through spiritual perception fluctuations. “Have the Seekers check deliberately for nearby strange realms. A direction is better than no direction but if you need to just get us as far away from the Tier 30 world as possible as fast as reasonable.”

Captain Stenson initially wanted to say that they couldn’t afford that, given they had just made a divination before he told them about the breachpoint, but he checked himself.

Bringing up the Unsparing’s auxiliary mana reserves, he felt his attention go to Ascender Titan for what felt like the millionth time.

One of his great grandson’s inspirations growing up, he had expected a lot of things, but he found Ascender Titan strange.

He was an affable enough person, willing to chat and even take pictures with the crew before they had fully left communication of settled space once the first person asked. The large blond man seemed perfectly content to put his head down and grind away at a task. That in and of itself wasn’t abnormal at all. Most ambitious young immortals, let alone Ascenders, did so. They hadn’t yet reached the point in their own abilities where they couldn’t make much progress.

No, what was eerie was how Ascender Titan kept his Concept going at all times. On the entire crew.

Magnus, having worked with him before, had even quietly shared that the Ascender’s mana-giving Concept was affecting all his animals.

Every day.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

For decades.

Even the most blasé of the crew had already gone through the stages of disbelief until they arrived at weary acceptance. Yes, Ascender Titan really did keep his Concept going at all times as a force of habit like the rumors said he did.

The only times they had felt themselves excluded from the additional mana was when the Ascender was out of spiritual range or he was actively fighting.

He had also realized that this ability and willingness to keep his Concept running at all times explained why the Ascender had such a notably powerful Domain.

Captain Stenson had seen Domain specialists, not the best in the Realm Duke Waters himself, but he had seen several of the others. Few could manage the strain of keeping such a powerful Domain ability active, even if they also had a last floor Mind Over Matter making Concept powers near, or entirely, free.

Part of the Ascender group had been firmly identified in Minkalla but their Tier upon finishing had never been officially stated. Official movies either left it a mystery or chose between Tier 11 and 12, depending on the tone the producers wanted.

Most, Captain Stenson included, had thought the four had most likely completed it at Tier 12. But now he wasn’t so sure.

Using a free Domain ability caused spiritual and mental strain given a long enough time. Even the best specialist needed— or at least wanted— a break after decades of expenditure.

He could count the times Ascender Titan had dropped the ability in over a decade on one hand.

The Unsparing, despite only being stopped for a few years and doing two divinations only hours before, was still above seventy percent mana reserves. Donations were frequent as the untasked crew fed their excess mana to the ship, having gotten used to having more regeneration than they were used to. It would probably take some adjusting back after this expedition ended and they lost the boon.

It was, at least on their small scale, an incredibly helpful display of generosity that let the ship run at an output they normally reserved for fights.

Signaling to the Seekers that they could once more cast their techniques, he waited and watched the Ascenders, looking for signs they would lash out, thankful they hadn’t done so yet.

Finally able to settle back down himself once the Ascenders were back to their normal banter, his mind went back to the ship.

Blessedly, they hadn’t needed to engage in the last fight. All involved ships had been hired hands, so both sides had happily agreed to keep their distance before a victory had been decided.

Captain Stenson had explored with Lila before but this was a legendary exploration already and he had to wonder how his guild leader was faring.

The guild leader had, using the Ascenders, informed the guild to get her best ship ready and meet her in the first layer of chaotic space, aiming for the deepest parts of the breach. Knowing her, her attitude, and her Tier, she would be pushing for the biggest prizes and he wished her luck.

When the Seekers’ reports came back, the Ascenders chose a direction and they started moving.

Captain Stenson used the travel opportunity to continue listening to the space chatter going on around them.

The breach was very active, and thanks to guild leader Lila being willing to steal anything she could during a war, the Unsparing had access to elite-grade military communication gear.

Given her absence in the war Tiers recently, they were a generation behind and there were a few notable signals they couldn’t decipher, but most ships bothered to do little more than basic security that they easily broke through. Not that they could legally have actual top-of-the-line military encryption-breaking equipment. The Great Powers preferred to keep such cutting-edge tech out of civilian hands, and definitely not on ships prone to spending long times isolated in chaotic space where they might fall into enemy hands.

The Unsparing was no exception, but being an Ascender’s personal ship, ensured no one bothered looking too closely.

Most information passed along were about advanced groups who had secured a world and were trying to guide the rest of the organization to them. Such information, even if poorly encrypted in terms of communications security, rarely had any actionable information. It usually only had a name and string of confirmation code that would only have meaning to the group that created it.