The Path of Ascension Chapter 472

Chapter 472

Having dealt with their ship based obligations, Matt observed the planet burning beneath him. That was good, and seeing it himself finally removed the small nagging voice that had started whispering in his ear any moment that became too quiet, after seeing people fighting over the Crystal aspected world.

Allie didn’t immediately teleport away as Matt expected she would. Instead, she flopped into Aster and went boneless. “I’m teleported out. We can take the planetary teleport to your place after the meeting. Then we can have a meating. I’m hoping that open roasted BBQ place didn’t go out of business while we were gone. I also hope they still have the same old sauce and didn’t change it too much. I don’t have the strength to find gooder food, Aster. I can’t.”

Aster laughed as she flew the two of them to their island. Allie had been invited but declined originally, so her joining last minute wasn’t an issue.

Matt turned to Rah, the final person still with them after Zack and Susanne split off initially, but the older man shook his head. “I have some thoughts I’d like to jot down in my lab but then I’m also going on vacation. I intend to copy you guys and wander around the Empire for a few decades and settle down wherever I’m interested in for a year or two at a time. If we are in the same area, feel free to stop in for a bit.”

“You are welcome to come to the meeting.”

Rah shook his head firmly, not looking at where he knew the gem was hidden in Matt’s chest. “I’m deeply interested, but I also don’t think this will be solved any time soon. With that in mind, I’d prefer not to tempt myself with the possibilities before I take my break, then write my paper. You two really should join me on the break and not get distracted by work, even if it’s desirable work. From what I understand, the lower Tier skill modification scene has been exploding and I intend to go experience it first hand. When I was young, I dreamt of places where people would freely share skill structures; I never imagined a place where they’d also teach the methods of how to do it safely. Don’t miss out on the fruits of your labor.”

Both Matt and Liz watched as Rah flew upward to Titan’s Torch’s moon where he had a permanent office. They’d love to immediately follow his advice but they couldn’t. They needed to take over their duchies and give their respective seneschal’s, Cato and Isabella, a well deserved break after running everything while they were gone.

Kees too, though to a hopefully lesser degree given the scale of operations. No matter the amount, Matt owed his vice guild leader a break as much as his seneschal.

Resisting the urge to run over and show said guild what he’d done, Matt was interrupted as a black cat stepped next to where Matt and Liz were still floating in space.

After inspecting them for a long moment she said, “I either expected you a few months ago or in a few more decades when the first waves came back.”

The unasked ‘did something go wrong?’ warmed Matt’s heart, even if the cat didn’t express her feelings verbally.

Matt smiled back at her. “We’d love to tell you more about it in a more secure location.”

Flying to their ducal island, which had the best security, they sent out staggered summons to everyone they would need to talk to in the coming days, preparing themselves to dive in.

They intended to take over for a decade to give their people a break before going on their own slightly longer one. Having progressed so much in the recent years they were in little rush to delve; they all needed to digest the new abilities and items they’d gotten on their trip into deep chaotic space.

Combined with Matt needing to fully regenerate his willpower before being able to safely use it again, he and Liz were already planning their own large break. He and Liz both needed it but they both also needed to give the people keeping their fiefdom running smoothly their own first.

By the time they arrived on their island only four people had arrived instead of the expected five, but Ciceron wasn’t there. That meant a trip to the Capital eventually but that was already on their eventual itinerary, along with all of the kingdom-level capitals.

When they were safely inside the locked down secure room, Matt took a few minutes to say hello to everyone.

Cato was his seneschal and the day to day executor of Matt’s ducal responsibility when he was absent, and often enough when he was available but busy doing something else. The snake bloodline man was well paid but his responsibilities were vast, even if shared with Isabella, Liz’s seneschal.

A good seneschal was worth their weight in Natural Treasures and as such were as trusted as they were well vetted. As such Matt had no issue sharing the captured strange realm’s reward’s existence with them.

He’d probably be using them and the guild to help create the item he envisioned, but even if he didn’t use the guild to do the crafting, both seneschals would be involved in the planning. Additionally, he had no secrets from Luna and was happy she’d taken the initiative to come along as he wanted her advice on how to proceed even more than the others.

She understood him better than most and her advice was rarely bad.

He also wanted to see her shock when she saw what he’d done.

Matt wasn’t quite as close to Kees, but he wanted the older man’s advice all the same when it came to his growth item, given how pivotal he saw his guild being.

Once they were all settled in, Matt cut the gem free and floated it in front of everyone as Liz cleaned his blood off, leaving it pristine and sparkling under the room’s illumination.

Despite having checked on it minutely since he created it, he hadn’t gotten a good look at the gem with his eyes and enjoyed the sight as much as everyone else.

It was stunning.

Slightly smaller than a typical fist, the gem was rounder than a mana stone or skill shard, but that only added to its charm. Matt’s next thought was that he’d expected the gem to be darker thanks to the influence of his Intent concentrating his mana and therefore turning it black.

The result was ‘dusky’ rather than ‘dark’ and that made all the difference.

Inside, visible a dozen times over through the gem’s facets, the strange realm’s reward spun slowly in the same pattern he cobbled together. It was complicated and, while he understood the intertwining patterns abused the feature of mana that enabled the greater throughputs he’d been studying, why he’d needed several layers of different shapes and intensities to stabilize the energy was a mystery to him.

Or why the energy was stable at all.

He wanted to say that his Concept’s Endless sub-aspect was fueling the energy but even after months of observation, he wasn’t confident that was the case. He was sure it was at least a determining factor, but his instincts told him it had more to do with the second oddity he’d discovered.

His Tier 25 Talent confidently told him that the gem was a single solid mass of mana, despite the internals being fluid. He wasn’t willing to force his Talent to condense on the liquid mana gem a second time, and thanks to having bottomed out on his willpower, he had to wait until he’d naturally recovered before he could activate his Intent to make a test gem.

He’d already proven that without his Intent’s assistance he couldn’t keep the internals of his mana liquid. Once more, he didn’t necessarily think that was an intrinsic part of his Intent but a function of the hyper concentrated mana enabling a semi liquid but somehow still solid form of mana.

Matt was already starting to consider the possibilities the gem’s creation had sparked to be just as, if more, important than the growth item he’d eventually make. He had plans to apply the liquid mana crystals to his sword instead of the static mana crystals he normally did, envisioning the higher throughput and stability the new method could offer him.

Dreams of finally having an outlet to use all of his mana drew him in like a trap, but he couldn’t resist.

He’d still need a way to stabilize his spirit, but the gem was quite possibly containing the answer to that too.

Matt secretly preened at Allie’s unconscious whistle.

Liz’s reaction was only a second slower and she leaned forward, even as phoenix Liz split into three to get more viewing angles, as she squeezed his hand in a show of support.

Aster sent Matt a pulse of such raw adoration through their bond, he nearly blushed.

Cato, Isabella, and Kees just looked confused but Luna’s reaction was everything Matt had envisioned.

The black cat had been sitting on her chair trying to look bored, but the moment Matt withdrew the gem she stood up as all of her hair stood on its end. She was so startled he was internally betting with himself if she’d start hissing or swiping at the gem but then realizing the danger of that thought he grew slightly worried.

Luna noticed and quickly got herself under control. In slow and steady movement’s, she sat back down but her eyes and spiritual perception never left the crystal as if afraid Matt was going to drop it.

Her single word question came out strained despite its magical origin, “Explain.”

Having done his best to study what was going on while the gem had been lodged in his chest, Matt had managed to learn a few things and happily shared them with the others.

“This is the reward from a strange realm we visited near the end. It was a very interesting high Tier Crystal aspected planet and I have samples as well as recordings of everything. Beautiful place that has given me a lot of ideas I won’t elaborate on right now. This reward however can let me convert a single item into a growth item.”

Letting the moment hit everyone, Matt preened internally as Luna’s pupils widened instantly as her study of the gem intensified.

Continuing he added, “I’m still not entirely sure what I did to capture the reward beyond the obvious. My best guess is that it’s being empowered by my Concept’s sub-aspect and kept from dispersing by my Intent’s increased mana concentration, but I also think they are only secondary components to the technique that made the gem itself. So far I haven’t noticed any energy loss or destabilization and given that it’s been several months, I’m hopeful. Hopeful about a lot of things with the gem, really.”

Kees looked flabbergasted as Matt looked at him for help but his guild’s second in command shook his head, “Sorry Guild Leader, but Titan’s Torch doesn’t research Talent tech. I can send you our recommended affiliates list if you’re interested.”

Matt felt his jaw drop as everyone was caught off guard with his response. Unable to stop himself, he joined everyone else as they laughed at his reaction.

Growing more serious, Kees added, “Guild leader, this is a mix of a Talent and Domain applied to strange realm energies. It’s as far outside our guild’s expertise or mission statement as it’s possible to be. I’d go as far as saying we are woefully underqualified to perform any such analysis. The equipment alone needed to study something like this would blow our budget for the next century or three.”

Matt was going to quip back when Luna flicked a tail as she climbed onto the table and got within an inch of the gem.

As she did so her body language slowly grew more somber. “I do hope you kept this achievement private.”

It wasn’t a question but Matt answered it anyway. “Only our friend group was told and only through touch [AI] channels. Some might have seen my exit, but we were never going to hide that we got the reward. I did however act as fast as I could to hide what I was doing but most would assume I made a crystalline growth item not that I captured the power.”

Luna glared at him before looking at Liz and then Aster and Allie before she sighed. “You’re an idiot but I can’t blame you for this one. You are vastly underselling the importance of this, Matthew. I know I beat into you all that you aren’t that special, but come now children, think a little bit. Using your guild is good, but you aren’t most people. Once any of the Royals finds out about this they are going to drag Renaissance out of whatever hole she’d been working in and shove the two of you in a Tier 47 rift for a few thousand years until you have something perfect. Send me your ideas.”

Matt’s hopes were rising when Luna paused after seeing his proposal. When she shook her head she caused his rising excitement to freeze.

“Let me correct myself. In fact, let’s make a bet since I know how much you all enjoy such games. If I’m wrong, I’ll skin myself and make a scarf and give it to Mara for her birthday, if the Emperor doesn’t at least try to get JR to make this item.”

Knowing Luna, Matt felt his expectations rise even higher than he thought possible as he heard her make such a bet. If she was willing to take such a bet with no consequence for them she must be supremely confident Manny would try to get JR’s help.

He more than most knew how good of a crafter the Corporations’ Tier 50 was. He’d gotten one device from the bird, his Bifate Pair-Linker, and that had single handedly made his mana stone talismans possible and just a simple examination had triggered an inspiration in Erwin.

An item made by him turned into the growth item Matt was picturing?

He could only salivate at the idea.

Luna looked almost disappointed, “Matthew, think for a moment. With no time limit, there is no limit. You’re thinking like everything except an Ascender. Powering you up outside of an active war is an Empire-wide top priority. Given what is coming, that’s doubly true.”

Matt was going to speak but Cato, Isabella and Kees nodded or otherwise agreed with Luna.

“I still want to study it.”

Luna rolled her eyes as she sat down directly on the table. “No one is going to stop you once the crystal is used. Until then keep it well hidden. We’ll be having a separate conversation about you tapping out on willpower but I’ll assume you had a good reason to be pushed so hard. That said, it serves as an acceptable reason to delay making a choice in what item you want to convert but you need a plan and then we’ll ha—” Looking at Allie, the cat corrected herself, “We’ll use imperial intelligence channels to inform the throne and get Renaissance’s schedule cleared in case I’m wrong.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Turning to the other three who’d already used the rewards, she tapped her claws on the table in a rhythmic pattern until coming to a decision.

“How much control did you have over the items you converted?”

Already having learned everything he could from the others, Matt knew the strange realms reward had been fantastic.

Most strange realms were inevitably compared to Minkalla, but few ever managed to top the all-devouring planet, but their reward might come close. Once the energy was pushed into their chosen item, the energy infused it and they’d been brought into a time accelerated mental space where they were able to tweak the growth item.

Each and every one of them had experienced something slightly different, but they’d universally had an incredible level of control over the item. If they’d wanted to waste the reward they could have turned the item’s physical material into something rivaling a Natural Treasure but the more manufactured the item, the stricter the control.

Liz had done something that should have been nigh impossible and converted an alchemy cauldron made out of ichor iron still connected to herself into a growth item. As such the reward only allowed her to modify the cauldron in the context of it being an alchemy cauldron. However within that scope, she had substantial, if not total, control. Though every change consumed the rewards energy meaning someone indecisive could waste the entire reward if they changed their minds too many times.

Everyone in their group had managed to turn their chosen items into incredibly potent growth items, but Matt was particularly proud of what Liz and Aster had managed.

Liz turned her cauldron into a way to make herself stronger by refining her own blood, but even she didn’t truly quite know what she’d managed to create. She technically knew the powers of her new cauldron but without thorough testing, she wasn’t sure how close to her goal she’d gotten.

She set out to turn the cauldron into something of herself, that could be used to further modify herself. Thanks to replacing the original cauldron’s materials with ichor metals made from her own blood, she’d done exactly that.

If her theory was correct she’d be able to use the cauldron and its new growth properties to refine and strengthen a portion of herself. Ideally she’d be able to then after merging with the enhanced blood have the effects propagate. Then she could restart the process with a higher starting point growing stronger with every cycle.