C_Mantis
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Chapter 435
🕑 Added 2025-06-30 18:59:01 +0000 UTC6k chapter! Enjoy.
***
Chapter 435
Emmanuel flew through chaotic space at his personal best speed, keeping in line with the other Tier 50s. He could have changed his Talents to any number of ones he had worked out for just such an occasion and sped past them, but he was, like the others, saving his strength for what came when they reached the small cluster that was around one of the five Tier 46 planets usually swirling around in the deepest parts of the fourth layer.
Originally when he felt the sudden shift in trajectory he hardly considered it important and hadn’t even done more than update the Tier 46 and higher world maps trajectories, so others could do the calculations without disturbing him. It was rare for worlds to break through chaotic space layers, and there was no indication that this sudden turn would be any different. After all, there were dozens of such events every few centuries and nothing came of them.
That difficulty was exactly why he had been spending most of his attention trying to figure out the best way he could get Allie safely into the fourth layer, where the Empire could gain permanent access to another capital level world with no one the wiser, so long as they never sent Tier 46’s who would be felt moving in the Tier 50s’ perception.
It would make a good fallback point if all else failed, but unless he could figure out a way to safely get someone else deep into the third layer at a minimum, where he was sure he could find a Tier 30 world without letting the other Tier 50s know he was doing that, he was stuck.
Which was why he had been spending so much of his time sending out variations of clones that couldn’t be tracked, trying to see which one did the best through trial and error.
This shift in trajectory, because the Realm couldn’t help but laugh at his attempts to make plans, proved different.
Whatever empowered the Rasdale tidal breach shoved the world with enough energy to punch right through the third and fourth layer boundary.
That was interesting.
That was unique.
That was unexpected.
That was more than enough for all eight Tier 50s to race off into deep chaotic space.
While it would be impossible to bring any of the planets all the way back to their respective Great Powers, the resources they could bring back would not only help their subordinates, but possibly even themselves. Natural Treasures in the Tier 45 and higher range were basically extinct, with only one or two rifts per Great Power sometimes producing one.
It wasn’t that Emmanuel wanted to leave all of his important duties without the proper preparation for his absence, he didn’t need future sight to know that was going to create tons of avoidable messes, but that he couldn’t afford to stay.
If he didn’t leave when all of the others started moving, he risked calling their bluff.
If anyone stayed behind, all of the other Great Powers without a Tier 50 ready to react would need to consider that the lone Tier 50 might break the truces and decimate their factions. Some of the leaders wouldn’t care if that happened and might or might not seek revenge. Even if they didn’t, the other remaining Tier 50s wouldn’t be happy about it and would seek retribution in the name of justice, and more cynically, to avoid setting precedent that this was okay.
The problem was that the other leaders probably understood that he, Emmanuel Sophron, third of his name, would never harm innocent people like that. If he stayed behind, the others wouldn’t feel forced to return to guard their people. Instead, they would continue onward deeper into chaotic space.
Not getting the resources from the Tier 46 world wasn’t the biggest issue. No, the problem was the Empire not getting them and their enemies getting them instead. That could lead to a small but potent shift in high Tier strength, an area the Empire was already behind in since his grandmother's execution or forced ascension of the Empire’s Tier 45s and higher when she took the throne.
Anyone against her had been forced to leave.
A smart decision that had paid off in internal stability, but left them exposed if a war ever escalated past Tier 35 and into the Tier 40 range, no matter how unlikely that should have been.
So, with everyone else leaving, Emmanuel was forced to go despite the short term consequences.
Possibly the worst part was he could leave to return to the Empire at any time via Allie’s Talent but it would be a one way trip. He could only use it as an escape method or to return home faster.
That second reason was tempting all on its own, but he wasn't sure he wanted to show exactly how strong Allie’s Talent really was in such a public manner. Let them guess and second guess what was real and what was deception.
There were advantages with both decisions.
Before he could think about it too much, Emmanuel flashed to the right. Aoife seemed to shift to avoid a spatial turbulence a few thousand miles away, which put her too close to Winter Hornet, who shifted to keep his own distance, getting too close to Emmanuel for his own comfort.
At their Tier, a thousand miles was the absolute closest they wanted anyone near them in such a hostile environment, and Winter Hornet least of all.
There were a few things that could kill Tier 50s in chaotic space, but for every one of them, there were a thousand things that while not lethal, were just dangerous enough that they could force one of them to ascend. This early in their collective reigns, that would cripple their Great Power.
Which was why Emmanuel would have been happy had everyone stayed in their respective palaces.
Emmanuel’s attention was dragged back into the present as he felt someone else shift closer to him. When he saw it was Allister wanting to chat, he changed direction so they met faster.
When he heard what the other Tier 50 had to say, he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.
***
To her credit, Lila pulled her old ship out of a spatial ring the moment they were outside the space station. Matt had half expected her to fuck with them or up the price, but she signed over the controlling rights to the ship and looked at them expectantly.
Allie and Aster were first through the door, but Matt didn’t even make it that far. He was no ship snob like some others, but even he could see that the ship was top of the line.
Made entirely out of Tier 30 materials, the ship was all smooth lines, minimising the eddies of any chaotic space energies that might make it through its shields.
More than that, it was bristling with weapons of all kinds. His AI even identified several weapons that had been from other Great Powers' more elite ships. Knowing Lila, she had probably looted them herself.
Looking at the engines, he was sure she had looted them because they were clearly of Sect design.
Inside, the Unsparing was more restrained than he would have expected. Elegant yes, gaudy, not really, especially when compared to the statue ship they had arrived on.
Matt followed everyone else going to the helm where they got a good look at the controls.
All of the advanced tech Lila pilfered had incredibly high potential, but running them with less power made them more efficient. That didn’t make them as efficient as a purpose built weapon or engine, but it was close enough with the added benefit of having a lot of extra power. It might cost more mana over the course of a trip, but when any other exploration ship might decide to kill for already harvested resources, it was the smarter option.
Something they didn’t really have to worry about with him there.
Piracy, Matt knew, was one of the greatest concerns for exploration ships.
Unless a Tier 32 or higher stepped in, it would be hard for anyone to kill them, and they always had Allie to teleport them away if someone of that Tier did come at them.
Or at least, they hoped that would be the case. Leaving settled space would be the farthest Allie had ever been away from somewhere she wanted to teleport. It was unlikely but possible that she might actually have a range limitation, and was something they would be testing constantly just in case.
Seeing Lila still waiting for them, looming next to the ship, Liz sent a clone out.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to get back to your meeting?”
Lila nodded. “Oh, I’m just waiting for you all to realize you are missing something.”
Matt stepped out next to Liz, wanting to join the conversation, which grabbed everyone else.
Lila loomed down over all of them shaking her head. “Don’t be like Aiden. If you are exploring chaotic space you need a proper crew. At least two Talented Tier 30 pilots to do the minute to minute flying, several Seeker’s to best find the planets, navigators to map out safe areas, engineers who can rebuild any systems blown up in a fight or just damaged by the environment, and harvesting crew members who can best gather the Natural Treasures. These people aren’t cheap, and you need them. Especially if you are flying my ship. For an additional three percent, I can promise you my guild's best people who are already familiar with the Unsparing. Well, you probably want to hit up one of the important Capital Seeker guilds as well. I’m sure there are a team or two of more famous Seekers who will partner up with you for cheap, given that you are getting an advantage on a Rasdale breach. In fact, I’ll need you to pass on an offer for me when you teleport back to my guild and the Capital.”
Liz gave the dragon a flat look. “That's your original ten percent. What the fuck.”
Lila gestured with a claw. “Yes child, keep up unless you want to be like Aiden and end up losing a very expensive ship and needing to crawl back in shame. If you'd thought to ask for a crew from the start, I'd not have done this. Oh, if you want to be extra safe you can hire a mercenary team. They will come at a premium, but can help you fend off the numbers I’m sure you will encounter. There are extra nice things I can recommend, but none that can be ready on such short notice. Hmm.”
Hearing that, Matt considered getting Team Zero back together, but being active duty military elites, they were all still Tier 25. Even at their best, the others couldn’t fight up five full Tiers to Tier 30 like they could halfway through Tier 28.
Sien sauntered out of a shadow as Lila was tapping her claw in thought. “Let us see this aura. We are in quite a rush and this might prove useful.”
Maya stepped out of a door of light, glaring at the Sect Ascender. “And you said we shouldn’t ‘buy too early’. Look at you now.”
Sien dismissed the critique with a wave. “Yes, that argument helped me then. It doesn't now. Item please.”
Liz brought out the vials and immediately Matt knew they shouldn’t sell or agree to bet them yet.
Both of the other Ascenders seemed far too interested, neither hiding their lingering gazes.
Aster didn’t even bother with a private [AI] message and instead said out loud, “We should wait until they return from their own exploration and bet with some of their higher Tier Natural Treasures.”
“Agreed.”
“Absolutely.”
“Wait now—”
“Do be sen—”
Sien and Maya tried to argue but they held firm, quickly leaving to get their crew in the Empire, where Sien and Maya couldn’t offer even more tempting items on promise when they returned from their own expedition.
In the Empire each Kingdom had its own launching point, with Lila’s guilds being in Manny’s kingdom and therefore on the other side of the Great Powers from the Rasdale tidal breach. They weren’t alone, with another dozen guilds of equal size and influence there.
Accompanying them and the riches they pulled out of chaotic space were dozens of other industries, including Mercenaries and Seekers.
The guilds had their own Seekers, but the best of the best were semi-independent and part of the Seekers guild; which was more like a union of Seekers, given that they normally acted as contractors for a percent of the share.
The moment they arrived in-system flying the Unsparing, Lila’s guild immediately contacted them, where they sent both their offer; seven percent for the crew, three percent for Lila. They did it simply to piss off the dragon in a way she wouldn’t be able to call them out on.
It wasn’t only the best teams who would be rushing the breach, but everyone who could.
While Lila’s guild was reacting to the news and preparing who would be going with them, they teleported to the Capital and negotiated with the Seekers guild, hiring two highly experienced Tier 30 Seekers with notable reputations for another five percent of the loot.
Normally, neither of them moved for less than ten percent of the share and would have never agreed to work with another Seeker, but with two Ascender teams and Allie, they negotiated them down using the sheer amount of valuables they expected.
Allie was visibly strained as she teleported that many Tier 30s, in addition to the Tier 30 ship itself, all the way back to Minkalla.
Minkalla was as far as Allie wanted to reveal her teleport waypoints in other Great Powers.
As they tore into chaotic space, Matt went to check on the mana storage and see how best he could fill the system.
There he found the four mechanics already having checked the engines over and settling in.
Like the rest of the ship, the mana batteries were stolen from various sources and merged together with a deft but unsubtle touch that Matt could easily follow. Best of all was that there was already a mana link installed, so Matt could refill the ship’s stores from anywhere inside of it. It was less efficient than using the dedicated mana recharging points, but Matt cared more about his convenience than the lost mana.
On long expeditions, it was expected for the crew to help fuel the ship with any spare mana generation. Combined with his mana sharing efficiency, Matt could probably keep their ship mana positive with just his Concept, so long as everyone contributed.
If he needed to, he could manually fill it once a day or so to keep up illusions about his Concept being more effective on himself, but that was an acceptable sacrifice if he needed to do so at all.
He then went over the various weaponry and noted that several were actually projectile launchers instead of raw mana based cannons. They even had a dedicated cannoneer who had a Talent and Domain which made their weapons stronger.
He found everyone else in the storage portion of the ship with the six crewmen who were inspecting the walls of spatial boxes one by one.
“What's so interesting?” Matt asked as he came up beside Liz and Susanne, who were at the back of the crowd.
Liz leaned over and phoenix Liz hopped to his shoulder with the movement. “Lila’s storage security is really good. So good in fact that even Allie is having trouble breaking in.”
Matt whistled, which earned him a glare from Aster who was holding up a ‘you can do it’ sign, to Allie’s annoyance.
It took almost half an hour, but eventually, Allie punched the air. “Got it. Weird layering system, but once I puzzled that out it wasn’t too bad. Now let's actually check the storage out.”
Matt decided to use his access to the ship's systems to open one of the small doors like a normal person.
Inside was a lush landscape complete with a garden and picturesque sun dappled clearing. It was the perfect place to store any Natural Treasures that needed such environments. It wouldn’t let the Natural Treasures grow stronger, but it would hopefully prevent any deterioration that might come with harvesting it.
Most resources were fine being thrown into a plain spatial box, but some of the rarer ones, which included most Natural Treasures, needed specific conditions to be met or it might deteriorate or lose effectiveness on such long voyages.
Closing the door, Matt looked at the rows upon rows of similar containers, whistling.
Then it was settling in for the long haul and letting the crew work around them as they familiarised themselves with the ship and got it into its best shape.
Thankfully, they were still close enough to the Empire they could send messages back, but they couldn’t do anything that would require a secure network, given they were flying along the border of the Federation and Monster Collective. They all felt it was best to limit the amount of eyes on themselves until they got into chaotic space.
The Federation surely hated them because of the last war, but the Monster Collective as a whole might not be too much better. So instead of cutting through their lands, which would be slightly shorter, they stuck to the border worlds between the Great Powers.
It was slower than a more direct flight would have been, but the two years and nine months of travel from Minkalla to the edge were well spent.
Between bouts of trying to figure out the second stage of his Power, Matt mainly worked on modifying his second round of skills, namely [Tribulation Strike], [Mana Charge], and [Mana Slash] in preparation for merging them. More often than not, Matt used all three skills together anyway, and it was a more complicated merger than his [AI] skills, which had a lot of documentation to aid with the process.
It was a slow process, and one that Matt wasn’t really rushing to finish. Not only was merging skills a delicate balance of mixing and matching various spell structures together, it also generally weakened or outright disabled the spells. At least the traditional methods of spell merger did. The more passive version of merger, which was just using both skills at the same time and shoving them together, had less downsides but also generally made the weakest type of merged skills.
There was too much redundant clutter left over from unneeded spell structures, which was why Matt was going for the much more methodical practice of slowly, manually, integrating the two skills, hoping to create something greater than the sum of its parts.
A lot of the difficulty came from the fact all three skills were heavily modified from use, or in [Tribulation Strike]’s case, deliberate modifications to make it a melee spell. The other two weren’t too much easier, in that they had been with Matt since he was on the Path and they had grown up along with him, subtly shifting from their original structures to better fit how he used them even before the upgrade orbs he had applied to them.
With them about to go into possible serious combat, Matt didn’t rush. They had several years of travel before they arrived in the first layer of chaotic space, let alone the edge of the first and second layer. Instead, he moved the skills closer together and started puzzling how he thought the three skills would best merge.
The simplest option was to merge two of them and then merge the final skill into the final product. That was what he did with his [AI], merging one skill at a time to the collective whole, but Matt wanted to try something more complicated. He wanted to merge all three skills together at the same time, hoping to keep the channel portion of [Lightning Tribulation] so the combined skill wouldn’t have the limitations normal cast spells had for him.
Despite all his hard work to expand his normal spells, they were still falling behind his doublings, where his channels were far easier to modify to keep up with him.
Learning how to properly do such a merge would be important for when he tried to merge [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Archmage’s Presence], which was his ultimate goal.
However, his early testing was interrupted as they reached the edge of the Great Powers, where chaotic space became far more turbulent.
Matt joined everyone else in the bridge as they got close, having never been outside settled space before.
At first, he was slightly disappointed by the lack of any hard translation as described by the stories he had heard, but after a few minutes of flying it hit them.
Quite literally.
A wave of turbulent energy that formed out of seemingly nowhere slammed into their shields and shoved the ship miles off course. The blow was so strong, the inertia dampeners had to kick in to keep the inattentive from bouncing into a wall.
It was also hardly the only one. The moment it seemed like they would be able to fly normally, there was another gust that shoved them from above.
Aster whistled. “Okay, I was half expecting the advice, ‘always be on watch’ to be overly dramatic, but yeah, I get it.”
Liz agreed as she looked out the ship's readouts. “And this is only the first layer of chaotic space. The second is said to be hundreds of times more dangerous.”
The pilot, a Tier 30 man, nodded, unbothered by the waves and casually changed values which steadied them out, letting the ship move with the waves instead of trying to fight through them.
“It's a typical tradition to take the divides rough. Reminds people what it's like without us and why we are worth our share.” The grin was slightly self deprecating as he spoke, but there was a touch of truth to his words.
Matt spread his spiritual perception and winced the moment his mind came in contact with the corrosive energies.
Near the Great Powers, in the zero layer of chaotic space, Matt had no issues spreading his sixth sense, but here, the energy of chaotic space was strong enough that it destroyed the outermost layer of his spiritual sense like an acid.
Allie closed her eyes for a moment before saying. “No interference at this point. I can still feel all of my waypoints. In fact...”
She vanished for a moment before reappearing a few seconds later with a small collection of snacks in her arms.
“This might be our last chance to stock up on fresh things.”
Matt happily took the small pack of cookies and split it with Liz, who had grabbed a bundle of honeyed grapes.
The pilot and navigator both failed to hide their disbelief as they were tossed snacks, but Matt figured that was half of Allie’s reason to have teleported. She wanted to show off, but there was a reason they weren't relying on her to travel.
Using the sensors, Matt looked for anything interesting the navigators and Seekers might have found. Sadly there were only three worlds currently in range.
One Tier 2 world that was at the furthest edge of their sensors, a Tier 4 world that was close to their path and might be worth checking out if others hadn’t already looted it, and finally a Tier 1 world that would pass through the Federation.
That was it.
In several tens of thousands of miles that their Tier 30 equipment could scan through, they found a whopping three planets drifting through chaotic space.
Liz chuckled and Matt raised an eyebrow, silently asking what she found funny. “I just remembered why we hadn’t bothered with exploring chaotic space yet.”
Matt snorted and pulled her closer. “I was thinking the same thing. If we were flying blind, I’d be really disheartened right about now.”
Rah, who was with them at the back of the bridge, laughed at the comment. “I wonder how interesting the chaotic space in my Realm would have been. Many worlds, in fact most I went to, had new sky bridges forming somewhere on them at any time. The longest I think I ever saw was the Vi family's main world, which went ninety years without a single natural skybridge forming. It caused many to think they had offended the stars themselves and caused their destruction. That ratio seems far busier than what we see in this realm. But why is it like that? I wish I could know.”
Zack responded after a moment. “It's possible your connection of worlds wasn’t at the center of your Realm. We have records of worlds being lost to the deeper regions of chaotic space. Even in the latest fracturing of a central state, the Glorious Everlasting Kingdom of Prosperity, there were hundreds of worlds that were broken off in the fighting which drifted into chaotic space. Few worlds subjected to that survive for long, but it’s not impossible. Your collection of worlds could be similar.”
Rah seemed puzzled and asked, “You say it's unlikely for any world to survive if that happens. What do you mean? While I can understand that getting cut off from the greater collective might be bad, I don’t quite see how it's a death sentence as you imply. It's an entire planet.”
Everyone looked to Rah questioningly and he returned their confusion two fold.
Aster asked, “Did your worlds never have monsters invade from chaotic space? It's pretty rare, but it happens on some of the border worlds. One or two duchies every year get hit. Most of the time it's only a Tier 15 or so creature that has a special resistance to chaotic space, everything else just dies. But other times it’s something stronger. There are entire Seeker, diviner, and future sight departments constantly keeping a lookout for anything stronger that might come into settled space. The same goes for explorers. They are expected to kill any monsters that discover chaotic space travel, or report the ones they can’t if they happen to get away. But, Rah, sometimes an entire world's population can get eaten. A thousand years ago, a Tier 8 world, Relvaa, was devoured with less than a hundred people surviving because a Tier 25 creature arrived and decided to eat everyone. It started with the Tier 15 baron and feasted after that. It was killed when the nearest Count responded a few hours later, but it was too late for most of the people.”
Rah winced at the description. “Not that I ever heard of. How does a monster even enter a chaotic space? My understanding was that they couldn’t leave the vicinity of their rift, but we never left them alive to test that. It was only here that I learned they could have the anger bred out of them at all, let alone them traveling.”
Matt shook his head as everyone looked to him as the resident expert in rifts. “That's normally true, but there are caveats. First, rift monsters can attack other rift monsters. If two rifts are too close to each other and both have rift breaks, their monsters will automatically attack the other rift, with the defeated rift ending up destroyed. It's best to think of such range limitations like a leash. Chaotic space is outside real space, so any monster that discovers chaotic space can snap the leash by traveling to chaotic space. They are so far away the leash breaks before any restriction can keep the monster from traveling further. They go from within range to outside range in a single moment. The monsters are still filled with a rift's rage, so they do what they are wont to do, looking for people to eat, which typically leads them to inhabited worlds. They seem to be able to sense concentrations of life, given how they always find their way to the core regions.”
Pausing to think, Matt offered his own explanation. “If your people had never been attacked as such, it's possible that our explorers are somehow leading the monsters back, but I’ve never seen that definitely proven, and several groups have tried to ban exploration for that reason. With no proof, people were unwilling to give up the resources the passing worlds contain. However, your Realm might offer some anecdotal proof to back up such reasoning. If there isn't a fundamental difference between realms, that is. That, or you never encountered it but it happened around you.”
Matt looked to Zack, who continued where he left off. “That isn’t the only danger. The other issue with worlds lost to the void is that any high Tier world will struggle with populations. Any higher Tiers will evacuate, leaving lower Tiers, who then can't fight the monsters which will eventually pour out of rifts, leading to the eventual extinction of humans. From what historical records I’ve seen, the best course for such unfortunates is to enter a rift instance and clear it before settling down inside. They will eventually run out of even ambient essence to cultivate, leading to a fully mortal population, but they can at least live.”
“On the other end of the spectrum, low Tier worlds are safer for mortal populations, but even if they aren’t devoured by a passing beast in chaotic space, those worlds typically start to run out of critical resources that weren't made locally, leading to civil unrest. That eventually topples whatever passes as a functional local government and starts infighting over what remains. Such disunity then leads to rift breaks and casualties. Then there is the passing of generations. With no immortals, knowledge is generally lost and hard to recover, leading to a societal backsliding where people forget they were ever part of something greater. Notably, low Tier worlds have a better survival rate, but it's still less than ten percent for worlds found within a thousand years, and drops to near zero when the world goes longer.”
Aster added, “That is one of the reasons it's strictly forbidden to attack anywhere near a teleportation tether. The risks are massive.”
Liz groaned at the reminder. “Ugh. We have a noble who broke her tether to relocate. Sadly, she succeeded in the maneuver, but that is what she was risking. It was only a low Tier world, so it probably could have been rescued if it came to that. But she risked a lot doing so.”
“So there are less worlds near the center? That is possible. It makes me wonder what else might have been out there if we weren’t the center. There were over a hundred connected worlds that I knew of, and I wasn’t that traveled for a Tier 25.” Rah’s question was one Matt didn’t have an answer for.
Allie offered her own idea, “Maybe it's just a measure of size, same amount of planets, but less space. Or maybe the sky bridge method itself. It's a natural phenomenon that even happens here when two worlds’ chaotic space nodes interact. A lot of people back the theory that the nodes are representative of a world’s spirit, projected into chaotic space. The tether system we use evolved from something similar, according to Ciceron, but what if it's more than that. What if the tethers are pacifying chaotic space around them, similar to how a world does? I know a little because they are important teleportation mechanics used in them, but I was never interested in the side effects of the tethers. It's possible.”
Zack immediately rejected her idea. “It's probably not the tethers themselves; most studies showing such pacification effects are dubious at best. If anything, it's more a phenomenon of the raw size of the Great Powers which act as a series of baffles, slowing down any turbulence in a purely mechanical manner. The collective Great Powers have millions of worlds. That's several magnitudes of difference from Rah’s original Realm’s purported size.”
Allie rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I blame you, Rah, for not knowing what we would ask before you ascended.”
Rah laughed at the ribbing and the seven of them spent the days of travel to the Tier 4 world chatting, or quietly working on personal projects that weren’t too disruptive to the crew on the bridge, wanting to experience their first world’s entire process from find to leaving.
With the constant and ever changing waves, their ship was rocked back and forth, but they didn’t deploy the additional measures as they were still within the range of the Federation and Monster Collective.
The world, however, turned out to be a bust.
The moment they entered its real space, they found a small beacon embedded into the local planet's moon.
It was a simple broadcasting relay that explorers used to record their passages, record the world identification number, pass on news to following explorers, as well as the most important role, which was letting others know the last time the world was harvested.
Being so close to the Great Powers, it wasn’t surprising another team had cleared the world out five years ago, with two other teams stopping by like they had.
The pilot wanted to leave immediately, but Allie stopped him before explaining to the rest of them. “I want to try this. Give me a week to establish a way point. I can track this waypoint as it moves through chaotic space. If I ever feel like I can’t teleport to it, we will learn a lot.”
There was no reason to stop her, so Allie quickly established a waypoint. She could have gone faster, but the quicker she forced a waypoint to manifest, the more spiritual damage she took, and she was still somewhat raw from the trips needed to gather the crew.
Matt and the others took the time to explore the world, but it wasn’t that interesting all things considered. It was both a low Tier and average world. That didn’t mean it wasn’t fun to roam around an uninhabited world and hang out with the others, but there was a distinct lack of valuable resources for them to harvest, causing the rest of the crew to not even bother leaving the ship.
So the minute Allie finished, they left the unnamed world.
They were just in time to see two other ships, Tier 20s that broadcast Monster Collective identifications, dart away from them and the world they had exited like startled fish.
Being higher Tier and with the Unsparing, they could have easily chased the ships down, but they weren't trying to be pirates.
Instead, they turned their ship deeper into chaotic space, where the tidal wave of planets was.
Two weeks later, when they were fairly sure they were outside of the Great Powers’ scanners, they pushed their ship to its full capabilities.
That further stabilized their travel, and if he didn’t look outside, Matt could forget they were in the first layer of chaotic space.
Three years and half a dozen already looted worlds later, they encountered their first higher Tier world, thanks to one of their navigators finding an unusual pattern in the waves and latching onto it. Once they got close enough, the Tier 12 world was like a beacon to their sensors and they immediately prepared to check it out.
However, they weren't the only ones.
Behind them, the ship which had been following them for the last nine months, at what they thought was a safe distance, edged closer. It appeared to be a Tier 25 ship but moved like a Tier 30 one, and they broadcasted like they were the ones who found the world.
“Leave our find or our Tier 30s will move. We know you don’t have a garrison onboard, so don’t bother to argue.”
Not pirates, but hardly better.
Matt just hoped the fight would bite when they refused to comply.
He could use someone to practice his Power and see if any of his recent ideas and insights were correct.
Comments
Bailey Tucker
Well, it was explained here in the chapter. He's trying to merge the 3 Skills he opens combat with, since he already smashes them together for a similar effect anyway. The most obvious reason is efficiency; giving [Tribulation Strike]'s channeled mana cost to the other two, eliminating their increasingly limited mana capacity in the face of his Mana pool. The other reason is for valuable firsthand experience: Matt's final goal is to merge [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Archmage's Presence] into an ultimate self-boosting skill. He wouldn't risk that final merger without knowing the entirety of the process firsthand.
Chimera80
Heh. Wonder how they’ll do it. Preferred scenario: no radio response, just turn the ship slowly towards them, and make the equivalent of direct, extended eye contact while planting their claim beacon.
Chimera80
Can I get a quick reminder as to why Matt is trying to merge his Skills, especially at the risk of weakening his foundational stuff? I’m seeing a lot of potential downsides described here, but no real benefits - is it just more space in his spirit for new Skills? Is he running out of slots?
Chimera80
The terrifying thing is that would only take Matt about… seven seconds to charge.
Chimera80
Hah, I was coming here to use the literal same comparison, the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
Julie Smith
I really like this chapter on travelling through chaotic space. A truly new section of the Realm-verse. Nice ending too, with a challenge from another ship. They almost certainly don't know they have five Ascenders on board. Surprise!
s1ntec
"In several tens of thousands of miles that their Tier 30 equipment could scan through, they found a whopping three planets drifting through chaotic space." Just wanna say that miles may not be the best measure here. That distance is less than the distance from the Earth to the Moon. If they can only see this close to themselves the chance of finding anything would be basically zero
Rodney
I've been thinking about this for a few days now since this chapter and Emmanuel is a troll of the highest order because when Matt's talent comes out and everyone realizes the emperor has a copy of it The other t50s are going to fill some kind of way when they realize he's been charging risks this entire time so he scammed them out of stuff lol I'm sure he's charging tier 35 rifts to full so his military units can get all the best stuff and with his ability to 10x match manager generation with a few different talents that he showed off a while back I wonder if he can already get some of the tier 40 plus rifts full lol Emmanuel is probably my favorite character
Jordan O'Hare
He just gets a copy of her power, with all her way points. He can't make the way points, as it's a copy of hers.
Endgame
Why can't Manny make waypoints like shadow? Did I miss something?
Alex
That it isn’t really necessary in the lower layers of chaotic space. In the Manny chapter where he goes to meet Frederic to get [Cracked Miasma] he says that the corrosive energy of chaotic space is a non-issue for Tier 50s — that’s evidently not the case in the fourth layer, but it probably holds true in the first and second layers, maybe even a good way into the third layer. Also, last chapter Matt said that Tier 50s need to use special gear to delve into the fourth layer, so they've probably all got that stuff equipped - they'd all effectively be wearing a chaotic space ship in the form of their clothing.
Jacob
Are the t50s making a bubble of stabilized chaotic space as they travel through it?
A Flashy BR
Tyftc!!
Brian O.
lol.. we know you don't have a garrison... bitch i AM the garrison. (i'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me)
Corvid
"I see your silly little tier 30's and raise you a billion mana multicasted breach aspected to speed and then apocalypse mana before impact." Light and Matt fighting together is some of the most fun shenanigans
Throngler In Chief
I hope the Ascender's gunner has been watching their stalker for the past several months staring at their signature in space muttering, "Would you intercept me? *Unhinged lip licking and smacking* "I'd intercept me."
Blake N.
I think his clones could have different talents running. They just don’t have full use of his domain so would be significantly weaker in that regard unless I’m mistaken
TimeDrawsNigh
> which was why Matt was going for the much more methodical practice of slowly, manually, integrating the two skills, hoping to create something greater than the sum of its parts Should be three skills (tribulation strike, mana charge, mana slash)
Darkarma
Mana breach spam incoming 3, 2, 1, friday.
Xarow
Thank you for the chapter. Lots of nice information to think on in there.
Mick Gormley
I think he’s just the strongest. I remember something about him winning the T50 position by defeating 2 people older than Yun Me. All of the other T50s got their positions w/ a lot more politicking rather than combat
Alex
From a meta point of view E and F almost certainly aren't going to happen. If either of those things happened a True War would follow in short order - Matt is WAY too low Tier to fight in a True War at the moment, so he'd be forced to hide or flee and hope that others could win the war for him: I just don't see the story going in that direction.
Havokk
Now will the T30's on the other ship be smart enough to recognize the Ascenders and just how quickly they should retreat ????? most likely not which means some curb stomping is about to happen
Kain
New bet: Does Matt’s secret get exposed in this arc, and if it does to who/how many people: A. Nope they make it out clean the cat stays in the bag. B. Cats out of the bag but only into a slightly bigger bag: only the crew of their ship learns and maybe they don’t even learn the full details just more than Matt and the others would like. C. Cat gets into the group chat: Some or all of the other ascenders find out. D. The cat jumps into a frying pan. Some neutral faction, that they have no control or influencer over, find out. E. The cat jumps into a roaring fire- an antagonistic group finds out. F. The cat hurtles into a star. A non aligned tier 50 finds out.
Alex
Why is Winter Hornet the one that Manny is most wary of? Is he just considered the strongest Tier 50 at the moment? Is it because he's known to hate Manny's guts? Are his abilities particularly problematic for someone to deal with in chaotic space? All of the above?
Alex
I guess that also means that "Tyranid swarm attacking from the depths of chaotic space" is a real doomsday event that could happen in the Path world.
Alex
That exact existential question is why Mantis made "no rifts inside a rift" as one of the few hard rules for the setting.
Kbzzy
Poor thugs are gonna feel their hearts drop through their asses when they see who gets out of that ship hahaha
Bryce Daniel
Thanks for the chapter! Now I’ve been put into an existential Crisis with the thought that we could be in a rift on a dead planet in the middle of chaotic space that has long since run out of ambient essence. Spooky
T
I want to see the face of whoever is inside when the ascenders pummel them into oblivion
Alex
Monsters being able to travel through chaotic space is a problem I hadn't considered before. I wonder if a mobile ruin like the golem ruin could start wandering around chaotic space.
Tom C
Heck yeah time to wreck some pirates! Capn Jack Sparrow about to take a beating TFTC
Bob Bryan
That was the absolute wrong ship for those idiots to send a message to.
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
nolan saylor
Thanks Mantis Thanks Dae A nice start to the week So there are T46 planets. Are they not brought out by the leaders as it would start another war? Or are they too difficult to move, at least this deep in chaotic space? -Just curious if the Feds worked to get a T46 planet out of here only for it to backfire, or if it basically came to them but ended up screwing them over. Do we know if Manny's clones can have different Talents from the main body? As in if they are made when he uses a Talent does it have that Talent? Or do they always reflect the original? So the Rasdale breach requires loads of energy to happen. Imagine if Mantis makes it so the Rasdale breach is caused the T4+ dragon that we try and sweep under the rug. "This early in their collective reigns" there goes my thought that Winter Hornet, or anyone, may be close to the end of their reign and we'll get to see some political maneuvering to get someone chosen more agreeable to each GP. Mean little cliffhanger to not hear what Allister has to say. Lol, I like Lila's frankenship. There goes some potential secrecy about Matt's Talent. Needing a crew. Sure you can minimize the risk, but it still grows enormously. Poor Lila, the gang tricked her into shooting herself in the foot. Friends scamming friends, with the knowledge all of them enjoy laughing at pranks and can take a joke, is fun. I think that is why it feels fine to cheat Lila... but also yes, partially because it's our main characters coming out on top. -I wonder what she'll do to get back at them. I look forward to it. -I doubt it, but it is possible that she left an opening to be kind to her favorite Ascender pals. Or just so she has an excuse to prank them in 'revenge.' Merging skills! Something to look forward to. Reading about it in action instead of merely knowing it is possible. - I think at least one of the chosen Skills to merge is a cracked skill? -maybe just the mentioned heavy modifications. Interesting way to explain monsters in chaotic space. I am not sure the monsters need to sense concentrations of life. It can simply be survivor's bias. A monster finds people or it dies before it finds people. Or have people secretly followed chaotic space monsters and observed how they veer towards life? Would be interesting to have people who get lost in chaotic space help a monster break into chaotic space to follow it back towards civilization. It would be interesting to see how people survive in rifts. The rift has to be high enough tier to support a population while low enough tier for mortals to be able to affect the environment. Add in sustainability and I could see rift living being the equivalent of rifts in Fallout. Matt and Liz were a nice growth of relationship. Zack and Susanne were abrupt. It'd be fun to see Allie and Ra grow together as a couple... Though we might get some other relationship perspectives when the wave of kids happens. On the training planet individual rifts had beacons that they were harvested, here it is entire planets+ If Allie wasn't bought out of the Wars... imagine her setting waypoints on planets and letting those drift into other GPs. Still an option for the true wars I guess. I do love when karma comes around. -it is unlikely for their to be a surprise Ascenders loss... so the curiosity is if the wannabe bullies will survive. And if the T12 planet has anything fun on it worth fighting over. Or if the first loot will just be the other's ship.
