The Path of Ascension Chapter 481

Chapter 481

It didn’t take long for the first wave of explorers to return to their home stations once they reached settled space. Even the oldest immortals wanted to return home after more than five hundred years of absence, but it still took time for them to travel. Instead of rushing, they decided to wait, and the moment they got confirmation Lila had returned to her guild, Allie gathered everyone and teleported them over.

Matt expected a content and happy Lila, but what he found was broody Lila who loomed over everyone unloading cargo, glowering at every item as if it had personally offended her.

Peeking around her, Matt saw a healthy hall packed with high Tier items, materials, and Natural Treasures. He couldn’t help but wonder what the issue was when Lila looked behind herself to inspect them.

“Please tell me you have something to show for your time in chaotic space?”

“You didn’t? Hey! No need for that.”

Aster darted around him, to escape the gleaming teeth that snapped only a few inches away from her tail.

Pulling her head back, Lila lumbered over to them and growled, “I did fine right up until the last moment. Gideon and that idiot Eclavorn burned favors to secure a Tier 39 True Sunflower. Do you know how angry I am?”

Allie scratched the side of her nose. “Not really? What’s it do?”

Lila looked ready to unleash her breath attack, but she answered nonetheless. “It’s a sunflower that creates light. Not just any light either. Said light allows for damn near any Natural Treasure to grow like a normal herb. It was mine! I could have secured it easily. One swipe of my claw and everyone would have fled before me. Sien and I could have had an amazing battle where the winner took all, but no! Do you have any idea how mad I am? Tell me you got something to make up for this.”

A giant eye blinked at the frantically nodding teleporter from only a few inches away, but Matt was already looking up the difference between the True Sunflower and other similar items.

Seeing that the list of Natural Treasures the sunflower couldn’t grow was the shorter of the two lists, he started to understand her frustration. As a Tier 39 item, the True Sunflower would allow the Monster Collective to grow otherwise impossible to find Natural Treasures for the war Tiers.

Unlike his introspection, Aster poked the dragon’s snout. “What about Sien? Why didn’t she fight?”

Lila closed her eyes and silently counted down from ten but eventually sighed, “She was rendered inert as well.”

“How?”

Liz’s question caused the dragon to slam her tail on the floor hard enough she shifted the orbit of the space station. “How many times do I need to say they burned favors?”

“Until you elaborate.” Liz sniped right back.

“I—” Snorting, Lila fixed the floor and the orbit. “I’m irritated and am choosing to not answer. It is what it is. I secured lesser oddities, so it was still a very lucrative trip overall, but it could have been more profitable, which is why I’m irritated. How about you and the Unsparing? How did my old ship do? Tell me she’s still got some of the ol’ perfectly normal good luck on her rather than Wun’s brand of… luck.”

The dragon almost said the last word like a curse.

Allie pulled the [Home] skill orb from its plinth in the storage vault, spinning it on a finger tip. “How about this?”

Leaning down, Lila nearly knocked the skill orb off Allie’s finger, even as her draconic grin grew extraordinarily wide, the way only a dragon could properly manage.

“Now that is special. Its use will make fantastic collateral in any upcoming bets you might want to engage in during the upcoming auctions. We’ll be having an Ascender gathering at the start of the Minkalla auctions, so I do hope you’ve prepared properly beyond this little delight. However this is an amazing find.” Scanning the orb from several angles, she finally asked, “After that, are you interested in selling it? I’ll take it off your hand at a fair price. It would be unbecoming of me not to secure this for my people. Has anyone seen it appear in a rift yet? How far have you spread it?”

Having already decided on a similar course of action, they agreed readily, improving the dragon’s mood.

Reaching out with a single enormous claw, Lila absorbed a copy of the skill from the orb as Zack updated her on it. “No rift drop appearances as of yet, but there are less than a hundred people with the skill and most estimates put the skill at the Tier 38 or Tier 44 brackets. However, nothing will be confirmed until it drops, so we are in a bit of a limbo at the moment regarding the skill. Given its utility…”

Lila looked over to Rah, who shook his head without needing to be asked. “Many people have asked, but no. I don’t know where one would even get started on trying to make such a complicated skill, let alone being willing to try creating something so complex inside myself, and all attempts to make the skill in a blank skill shard have proven futile.”

Instead of getting angry at the news, Lila’s tail started sliding across the floor in an unconscious swishing motion as her smile deepened.

Matt definitely didn’t notice Aster mouthing the word ‘wag’ to Allie, but Lila was in too good of a mood to mind the teasing.

“The minute one of these skills show up in a rift, the skill orb’s value drops off a cliff. By that same logic, we can charge sky high prices for each use until that point. Oh, this is perfect! I already know most of what the others personally acquired, which will let us strategize. What else did you squirrel away? I hear you killed some idiots. Good for you.”

Liz gave a quick recap of their run-ins with Remi and his ultimate fate, but Lila seemed unbothered. “Vana has a number of descendants, so I wouldn’t be too worried until you go to the Republic. Then, you might want to be careful. The old wolf is… well respected, to put it lightly. Some people might try and get you to do something stupid when you go and delve your buyout rifts, but someone would have tried that anyway, so I wouldn’t worry too much.”

Lila was far more interested in the crystal planet and the strange realm they’d found as she inspected the few growth items people had on hand.

Lifting her head, the dragon snorted lightly, “Not a bad haul for your first trip, but you could have done better.”

Allie started counting on her fingers before quietly asking the room, “But we brought back two full inventories. How is that only ‘not bad’?”

Gleaming teeth clicked as razor sharp claws tapped out a staccato rhythm on the space station’s floor as Lila ignored Allie. “You guys are lucky you got something nice for me, because I have good things for you.”

Tail swishing over their heads, they followed her through the space station halls. Halls that were surprisingly big enough to let her massive frame move through the halls.

In fact…

Aster, having sensed Matt’s thoughts, threw a bolt of snow at the scaly underside of a wing and asked, “Did you only steal this place because its main corridors were large enough for dragons to walk through?”

Said tail swiped down and made an indent on the floor where Aster had been standing before [Floating Snow] activated and repositioned her.

Despite the yelp of protestation, Lila never bothered to look back as she denied. “Not a chance. And you won’t think that either if you want some of the things I brought back.”

Seeing a pile of loot already being picked over by over a dozen appraisers, Lila pulled a small collection of items over.

Matt’s eyes were drawn to a small doll-like figurine that was pulsing faintly, and as such, he wasn’t too surprised when Lila sent it over to him. “A backup item for getting your sword. I have other stuff if you already got one, but I kept this one aside for you. I’ll have you know, I had to fight Wun for it. A fierce battle of tooth, claw, and staff— you don’t look excited.”

“Thanks Lila. I did, in fact, find a replacement on our own trip. Though…” Reaching up and tapping a scaly leg, Matt sent the dragon everything about his armor and JR.

Lila’s humming caused the space station to rattle for a moment before she sent a single thought back.

“You lucky bastard.”

Then she started bragging outloud.

“Let me tell you about our first big detour…”

Instead of listening, Matt scooped up a beaded ring from another cart before sending it to an appraiser, who confirmed it was a Tier 38 Nine Life Ring. The ring didn’t grant additional lives, as its name might imply, but it did have a unique regrowth mechanism, one of the several kinds of treasures JR told him to look out for during the auctions, as he intended to try and transplant the effect into Matt’s armor.

The idea of ‘wasting’ an entire Natural Treasures for only a tiny part of its power wasn’t entirely foreign to Matt, who’d helped Liz with enough alchemy to understand that sometimes only a bit was needed for best effect. However taking a Tier 38 Natural Treasure that could protect a person’s spirit from potentially devastating curses and discarding ninety nine percent of it felt extravagant even to him.

When Lila saw what he picked up, she snorted lightly. “Fine, take it. But know I lost part of a wing for that, so don’t think it was cheap, even if it’s a lower Tier than the first gift.”

While he had her attention, Matt asked, “Any word on someone getting an arcane mana aspecting Natural Treasure?”

To his shock, Lila nodded. “I heard a rumor that two were found, but there might be slightly more or less, given how rare they are. Additionally, you need to remember a lot of such hyper valuable items never make it back to settled space at all. Most get used internally rather than sold. One I’m sure exists, because they shared the news, was Tier 19, and the Republic explorers made their stance of selling it to their Path equivalent clear from day one. They vanished almost immediately, so either they are dead and it’s gone, or it’s already in the hands of the Republic. The other one I heard was over Tier 30, but under Tier 35. Sadly, it was grabbed by the Clans, so good luck getting your hands on that one.”

Catching her hint, Matt used the now working Ascender Chat and messaged Wun. “Any interest in the ability to save a star system’s location and then be able to track said location through chaotic space? Additionally, you’ll always know the fastest way to return to said spot, whether you need to travel through a real space crossing, chaotic space, or sky bridges- I mean planetary tethers. Sorry, new nomenclature from Rah.”

Matt expected an immediate and enthusiastic response after his teasing message, but when Lila snorted and curled up around the skill orb, he realized what had happened and sent another message. “You verified with Mom? How sad.”

That finally got the lucky Clan Ascender to respond. “There is no way I would believe something like that without three forms of proof, so know you’re on thin frosting. And don’t call Lila mom again or I’ll show it to her.”

Ignoring the attempt at a distraction, Matt pressed, “So you’re interested?”

Matt let himself smile as he heard Wun’s grumbling even through the text. “No shit. What do you want placed in a bet for you to wager it?”

“Can you get your hands on the Arcane aspecting Natural Treasure?”

“Absolutely not. Those stupid Mountain Raider idiots have already made it clear they are selling it to the assembly rather than hold the item.”

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Cursing, Matt clenched his fist, seeing his opportunity just out of reach.

Unwilling to give up, he asked, “Any chance your government might not use it immediately and are open to negotiating?”

It took long enough for Wun to reply that Matt was fairly confident that he’d at least tried when his reply came back. “No official word, but unofficially I was told they already know of your interest and aren’t willing to empower a competitor. I was told that if you are willing to leave the war Tiers they are willing to talk, but I’m pretty sure even if you accept, they won’t actually agree. Sorry, Matt, but the best I can tell you is that they are probably going to argue for at least a century before any committee can assign ownership of such a valuable item. Do with that as you will.”

Knowing he’s reached the limit on what Wun can do, Matt thanked the man before letting him go.

Checking the rest of the Ascender Chat, Matt was mildly surprised to see everyone except Aiden was active.

Seeing Lila’s post about the [Home] skill orb and the disbelieving comments under it banished any negativity on possibly losing out on an arcane aspecting Natural Treasure. They were incredibly rare at the best of times, and two appearing now was already well above the statistical average.