C_Mantis
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Chapter 396
🕑 Added 2025-02-03 19:59:00 +0000 UTCI just want to state that I hear the comments about the delving feeling like it's more lack of progress. That's not what I intended but if it's coming across that way it's good to know. I wanted to show some delving since we didn’t do so for so long but with the feedback in mind this will be the last delving we have for a while as the out of rift story beats start progressing.
Enjoy.
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Chapter 396
Despite the fantastic start to their delves, things quickly settled back into a pattern. One rift after another they rushed in, killed anything on their way to the boss, killed the boss, took the reward and left.
The individual fights were difficult, but no more so than any of their training. Monsters were ultimately only monsters, and even the smartest of them were driven by the rift rage that limited just how complicated their plans could be.
It was part of the reason that ultimately limited cultivators who fought at Tier. Without the pressure added from a speed and power difference it was harder to truly push oneself. Something they had seen in the scramble for the ruin world.
Most delvers never pushed themselves and therefore never reached their maximum potential. It was also why the army tried to never put fresh at-Tier delvers on the front lines: bad habits that got them and their teammates killed.
There was something to say for the fact they were alive, where others who had pushed themselves weren’t. But the fact still remained that delving was of limited danger, even when you delved up Tiers.
When delving up Tiers, you were forced to deal with the cultivation difference but the monsters didn’t become more clever.
But even they were hitting the limits of how far they could push up, not because of their skill, but rather the advantage of raw cultivation difference. If you couldn't even react to a monster's attack, you couldn’t properly defend against it either, no matter how skilled you may be, and would surely die in short order.
That was why Matt, Liz, and Aster spiced things up between other delves, and with Palustris being a fire-aspected world, they had a plethora of more interesting rifts to delve.
After the chef rift, they spent over four years hitting other rifts going as fast as they could.
This rift was something of a reward for pushing so hard as might get them all the way to Tier 27 if they played their cards right thanks to its unprecedented scaling.
The moment they entered the rift, a small barely flickering flame floated in front of them.
Liz sighed, seeing that there was only one in front of her three bodies. “Well, it was worth a shot.”
They had hoped to cheese the rift by bringing in more Lizzes to get more essence, but with only one flame, any excess bodies would cause the rift to diminish their rewards. So she was limited to one body.
Matt reached out and grabbed the flame in his left hand where it traveled down to his chest. It was almost like capturing a particularly clingy piece of fluff, but that was all. For a moment at least.
After it connected and fully stuck to Matt, it started to drain mana and willpower from him though the latter was at a much slower rate than the former.
At first it wasn’t much; even a normal Tier 25 would regenerate those resources fast enough to overcome the drain. However, the longer they were in the rift and the more monsters they killed with the flames alight, the larger the drain became until they discarded it.
Not that it was without its corresponding reward. Rifts always seemed to keep to the mantra of risk and reward, and this one was no exception. Keeping the flame alive granted a scaling reward in greater essence per kill.
For that reason, it was a rift they had wanted to delve since they started delving on Palustris proper. But so had everyone else, which meant they had had to wait for a team to relinquish their slot before it was their turn.
They could have flexed their power as dukes, but that wasn’t how they wanted to rule.
Aster blew at her flame where it sat on her armor, sending a wave of ice at it, but it didn’t even flicker and she sighed. “I guess it's a good thing I don’t need to be careful, but I want to lodge a formal complaint about this rift. This flame itches.”
Matt actually agreed with her. “Yeah, there’s a tingling feeling that comes from it drawing on my willpower and mana. It's not pleasant.”
Liz shrugged unbothered. “It's not so bad. Chop chop, slowpokes. We are officially on a timer.”
Liz was unfortunately correct, and the three of them threw themselves forward through the lava-lined tunnels of the rift.
The first monster they encountered was a fairly standard looking rock golem, and Liz exploded it with a thrust of her spear before it had even fully formed.
A wave of essence flowed into her, but with it was a small spark. It merged with her flame and empowered it.
Aster froze the second monster they encountered into a lump of hardened magma while it was still jumping at them, leaving Matt a second too slow to react.
He was determined to get the third monster, but that proved unnecessary, as the third enemy they encountered was a proper fight.
A dozen tentacles tipped with obsidian blades lunged at them from lava portals that appeared all along the tunnel around them.
Matt deflected two of the attacks and cut through another three that were trying to attack Aster from the rear.
Liz just let the fire elemental’s appendages skewer her and stole its heat to empower her ichor.
A puff of cold air slowed the retreating tentacles, which bought them all enough time to feel through the portals to where the octopus monster was hiding in the streams of magma around them.
Matt’s blade pierced its bulbous skull easily, though he noted the environmental magma seemed amplified by the flames they were carrying, as the damage to his sword grew and its corresponding draw on his mana increased the moment the spark merged with his flame.
Calling that out, they progressed deeper through the tunnels until they reached the caverns.
Most of the delving records of this rift hated the starting section for being unnecessarily long, exacerbating the drain on their mana and willpower. But even with their kills adding to their burden, they were unbothered by the trek. Though, that might have been because of how quickly they progressed down the winding halls. Instead of being careful for ambushes, they were hoping they were the ones targeted instead, as it meant even faster stacking of their multiplier.
That was the thing about delving records and why they didn’t bother with them most of the time, unless they wanted to learn how to reach secret areas.
The cavern was massive, a thousand miles wide at the shortest measurement, and teaming with angry rift life.
The three of them immediately cut left. Not because that was what the rift guides said, but because they spotted a potential mini boss lingering among a pack of flaming jackals.
It wasn’t that different from the other red furred monsters, except for the hole in the center of its chest that drank in light like a black hole.
Matt was disappointed to see there wasn't any resonance with his Intent or clash with his Concept, but that had always been a long shot hope.
Instead, he threw himself at the pack of monsters, letting claws, fangs, and fire-based magics slam into an already fire aspected [Cracked Phantom Armor]. His mana stone, imbued blade made short work of the monsters this time. Instead of the sword trying to be as hard as possible, his people had sent him a design that amplified the physical damage of each swing by maximizing the weapon’s sharpness enchantments.
He still had the durability design ready to be swapped into at a moment’s notice, in case this test made the blade too weak. But for unarmored monsters of flesh and blood, the added cutting power let him act with near impunity.
Specks of fire flowed into the flame like a wave, and he heard both Liz and Aster grumbling at his sudden rush forward.
His blade flicked out and caught a particularly large jackal in the chest, noting that this larger variant had a layer of enchantments embedded into its fur which reduced the effect of his sharpness enchantments.
That was surprising, and with a quick scan he confirmed that Liz and Aster had both started to encounter monsters that countered them.
The culprit was made obvious when he probed ahead and found a shamanic-looking jackal standing next to the first, with a similar black hole in its chest.
Next to them was a brute of a jackal covered in bone armor and wielding a sharpened jaw bone axe. It almost looked like a khopesh, which wasn’t a common weapon type, but one Matt did know how to fight against.
Zeroing in on his target, Matt threw himself forward, and grabbing at the flame on his chest, tossed it at the armored jackal that almost looked surprised at his move.
The flame seemed to be sucked in as it nestled in the empty void, but the reaction was immediate.
From a typically sized, if well-armored jackal, the monster twisted and grew as fire blossomed and transformed the monster into an eight foot tall version of itself.
The drain of Matt’s willpower and mana vanished as the flame left him, which was a mild relief thanks to the lack of itch, but it also started a countdown as the fire in the flame was drained.
If it ran out of energy completely, the fire would be gone, and his multiplicative bonus to gathered essence along with it. That put a strict timer on how fast they needed to kill the now empowered mini boss.
When Aster and Liz followed suit, throwing their own flames at the other two mini bosses, they had quite the fight ahead of them.
Matt sped up slightly, stepping ahead of Liz and casting [Bulwark], which blocked a massive blast of blue hot [Flamethrower] as it washed around them.
Matt whistled through their voice chat. “Now that is an increase in power. Peak Tier 28 at an absolute minimum. Possibly low Tier 29 in raw spell casting power.”
“Noted.” Aster’s reply was clipped and sharp as she started casting area debuff spells to weaken enemy flames.
Liz darted forward, her spear sending out a wave of ichor in an [Ichor Thrust], which had been one of her successes in ichor skill conversion instead of just using ichor as blood.
The spell had changed slightly from its blood variant, which was similar to a water spear attack. This spell instead rippled with ichor’s unique energy, fire and lightning inside the golden blood. It pierced through the incoming wave of flames, heading right for the shaman, but the melee fighter jackal stepped in front and deflected the blow with his now full bone plate armor.
The third mini boss jackal, the first one they had seen, then appeared next to Aster and tried to cut her head off with a tooth blade that shimmered with light.
Instead of killing his bond, the blade passed right through her, scattering her projection like the illusion it was.
The jackal, upon realizing it had fallen into a trap, tried to jump away, but the area where the fake Aster had been exploded in a wave of ice that extinguished its flaming fur and even froze its lesser variants solid around it. But before the mini boss could be finished off, it jumped far enough away that it was able to vanish.
It was like fighting a less-skilled version of Allie, which was annoying but not any more dangerous than fighting any other rogues.
Still pressing forward, Matt grabbed the stream of flame rushing at them with [Fire Manipulation]. The shaman tried to fight him for control, but the second he felt them try to engage in a metaphorical tug of war, he let go and caused them to inadvertently collapse their own spell.
Immediate threat removed, Matt dropped [Bulwark] and rushed at the melee fighter together with Liz.
Liz went low, with her body nearly touching the floor as she sought to pierce the bottom of the bone plate armor, while Matt brought his blade around in a heavy downward strike.
The monster tried to leap back to avoid both blows, but Aster summoned one of her ice golems right behind it, having reappeared from her hidden state next to the shaman that the melee fighter was guarding.
Unable to deflect both attacks, the melee mini boss made the choice to block Liz’s spear with its khopesh, trying to use the shape of its blade to hook her spear, while relying on its heavy bone plate armor to endure Matt’s blade.
It was the wrong choice.
Not that doing the opposite would have been the right one.
Matt’s blade cut through its plate armor deep enough to reach muscle and flesh, and he unleashed a [Mana Slash] that bounced around in the rest of the monster's chest and caused massive damage.
Aster and her ice golem turned on the shaman, which fared no better under her flurry of spells, while Liz pulled her strike to attack off to their left, where the rogue jackal tried to launch another sneak attack at them.
As the bodies fell and the essence rushed into them, Matt panted. That had been risky, but cleanly executed. They had even pulled it off in time, as proven by their now weaker flames returning to them.
The flames were now almost as weak as when they had first gotten them upon entering the rift, which lowered the mana and willpower drain considerably. That was one of the main advantages of fighting the mini bosses, they acted as soft resets without lowering the essence gain.
However, the flame was now a lighter red, despite still being illusionary and weak due to lack of power.
The downside didn’t take long for it to start showing itself, however, as each monster they killed had more flame inside them and were stronger than they had been before slaying the mini bosses.
The rift’s common name, The Flame Empowers, wasn’t without its merit.
The fire they carried through the rift empowered everything inside it. Everything except them, but that was just how rifts went.
They cleared out the rest of the jackals before they moved onto another monster group, some magma elementals that disguised themselves as boulders. They found another set of mini bosses among them, waiting to take their flames near the center of their territory.
Instead of rushing in like they had with the jackals, they spent more time and collected more flames by killing the weaker monsters. That would both make the mini bosses stronger, and also give them more time, which they felt they would need for a more defense-oriented monster.
Once they got close enough, they threw their flames at the mini bosses again, empowering them to harvest for more power.
Once the latest set of mini bosses were dead, their flames had nearly reached a proper orange color, signifying how advanced the flame had gotten.
Most delvers never went beyond blue flames before either rushing the boss or deliberately letting their flames starve. Not because of how strong it made the monsters, though that was undoubtedly a problem for most delving Tiers, even those delving at Tier 28 instead of at Tier 26. But rather because of the willpower and mana drain the higher spectrum flames needed to sustain themselves, even at a base level. The three of them pushed all the way to violet thanks to Matt’s Concept and Talent ensuring they always had mana. That combined with their Minkalla reward which gave them more effective willpower thanks to its cost reduction for their Concepts making them practically free.
That didn’t make it easy but it made it possible. The final groups of monsters they fought up until the boss were all at peak Tier 29 strength.
They themselves had reached the peak of Tier 26 thanks to their massive essence multiplier in the latter half of the rift, but they really wanted to finish the rift at Tier 26 and reap the massive rewards that would come with delving up so high.
The boss room was appropriately thematic for the rift, as the cave was thick with fire and fire mana, making it hard to see more than a few thousand feet ahead of them. But at the center was a single flickering flame on a plinth made of volcanic glass.
Their flames, even without their direction, left them to fuse with the boss. It started to bubble and pop as it was empowered by the violet flames they carried through the rift and strengthened throughout their delve.
A single humanoid figure formed and stared at them with the rift’s rage burning in its eyes.
A greater fire elemental.
Aster immediately cast a debuffing spell, but almost instantly the violet flames washed out of the purple elemental and tried to burn the ice mana in the spell. It failed, but it blunted the effect enough.
Aster quickly shifted to illusion and wind-based spells, speeding them up and buffeting the boss.
It launched itself forward with a speed that even while fully enhanced by potions, spells, Aster, and his own gear, Matt could hardly follow.
[Cracked Phantom Armor], having absorbed massive amounts of fire mana and being fully fire aspected, blocked the first claw strike that tried to drive into his face, and Matt called out to his team.
“It's pushing close to Tier 30 speeds. Fight or retreat?”
Aster made the call, surprising him slightly. “Fight! And we aren’t Tiering up, damn it!”
Liz hadn’t hesitated and threw herself forward, thrusting out at the elemental’s side.
It tried to dodge, but her spear caught its right arm, causing a stream of liquid fire blood to spill out.
Matt didn’t think much of it initially, and was instead going to chase after the monster, but from its blood rose half-sized jackals which attacked all three of them in a rush, uncaring for their own lives.
Swinging his blade back and forth, Matt cut down five of them in short order, though he was forced to use his teleport ring to intercept the boss rushing at Aster.
His blade was slammed back into his own chest from the force of their collision, but by using his Intent, Matt locked his place in the universe and even the faux Tier 30 power combatant couldn’t dislodge him.
That move did, however, drain a large portion of his willpower. Not because of the cost from Matt’s Intent usage, but because the boss had a draining effect built into its own Domain, similar to the willpower drain of the flame, that was activated when it touched him.
A quick check showed it wasn’t just his willpower being drained but his mana as well. The second wasn’t an issue but the first was.
While he had endless mana, they didn’t have endless willpower, which meant they needed to be careful when getting in close to the boss going forward. If his willpower was fully drained, he wouldn't be able to keep Liz and Aster topped up enough on mana, leading to a cascading set of issues and potentially death.
Shoving back, Matt slapped the elemental with a [Telekinesis], which did little more than ripple the monster's flame body.
Genuinely surprised, Matt instead switched to [Cosmic Pressure], which multiplied the strength of gravity near Matt.
With the amount of mana he was pouring into the spell, if he had cast it on a lower Tier planet, he would have rendered it uninhabitable immediately. But inside the rift there was hardly a quake.
The boss did slow down for the first time, and its retreat turned into a stumble that caused the boss to reform prone.
Liz followed up with a [Ichor Bullet] which struck the boss in its exposed back, but the fire portion of the ichor seemed to heal the monster while the lightning and blood were ineffective at best.
Cursing through the chat, Liz said, “Its fire absorption is stronger than mine. I’d need to be in melee to even have a chance at beating it.”
“Play it safe from range, then. I’ll keep it occupied.”
Matt put his words to action as he launched himself forward, unbothered by the increased gravity.
Just as the boss started to adapt to the new environment and move again, Matt started pulsing the mana he sent into [Cosmic Pressure], letting the gravity fluctuate, throwing every one of its moves off.
Matt, being ready for each pulse, was able to attack unbothered and landed several attacks in quick succession.
Cycling through spells, he confirmed Liz’s earlier finding that lightning spells did little damage and instead stuck with raw mana spells.
[Mana Slash] and [Mana Charge] were old favorites he had never abandoned for times just like this.
Not that he was able to attack uncontested.
The violet boss monster being at a Tier 30 power level wasn’t an empty statement.
Where the lesser monsters and the mini bosses struggled to pierce through the fire aspected [Cracked Phantom Armor], the boss’s flaming claws managed to punch through both layers and his physical armor any time he let it land a direct blow.
Its claws leeched fire aspected poison into his flesh.
Like a tree spreading its roots into fertile soil, threads of fire ate their way through Matt's flesh, carving their way deeper and upward towards his brain.
Not that they made it far. Between [Regeneration] and Millennium Willow Lifesap, which let him pour mana directly into his flesh, he was able to overpower the insidious attacks before they moved more than an inch or two.
Expelling the solidified fire and destroyed flesh was then just a matter of [Regeneration] pushing it out.
It wasn’t pleasant, but nothing Matt hadn’t dealt with a million times before.
As for the smaller monsters that formed from its splattering blood, they were of little consequence, as they were destroyed as fast as they formed with the blowback from both of their attacks.
While he was keeping it occupied, Liz and Aster weren’t sitting idle despite being soft countered by the boss.
Liz used [Ichor Crystal Armor] to solidify her ichor and started launching crystal feathers at them. Each one that stuck into the boss exploded, sending its liquid fire blood to flow and gather. But any time it tried to turn its attention away from Matt, he landed his own devastating attack.
Aster, on the other hand, kept cycling through her repertoire. They were more buffs than debuffs, but they were enough to allow Matt to stay in the fight when combined with everything else.
The boss did escape from his gravity trap by recalling itself to the plinth in the center of the room, but they showed it why that was a bad choice even before it fully reformed.
Matt opened up with a full powered [Mana Beam], which ripped whatever bodypart it touched apart with an arm thick beam of pure mana.
It tried to match his [Mana Beam] with its own [Flamethrower], but when even its higher Tier failed to push back [Mana Beam], it quickly gave up.
It might have tried something else, but with it at range, Liz and Aster were able to attack indiscriminately and caused massive damage to the boss, with its flames flickering unsteadily at points.
Seeing its repeated failures, the boss tried to wash the arena in fire but Aster turned them into partial illusions, which let their defences negate most of the undirected attack.
When that failed, the elemental turned to rush down Aster and Liz, but Matt swapped with Liz and the Aster it targeted was an illusion from the start, simply trapping itself in [Cosmic Pressure]’s area of effect once more.
The boss threw itself back at him with renewed fervor.
That was fine.
Better than fine, actually.
He was perfectly willing to trade an arm for a moderate wound, because by the time his arm hit the ground, he would have already regrown the appendage.
His own limbs littered the ground just as the boss’s fire blood did, but he didn’t miss the small thread of blood, both his and the bosses, entwined with golden blood that ran all the way back to Liz.
He felt her grin as her body fell into a puddle, and she flowed along the conduit to appear next to the boss.
She formed fully crystallized thanks to [Ichor Crystal Armor], which protected the fire portion of her ichor from being so easily stolen away.
Her arms transformed into spikes and she drove them repeatedly into the boss’s back, which eventually caused it to turn on her. But while fully armored, she took the blows and let them wash over her.
Her vitals reported damage, but she mitigated most of that by stealing the blood Matt had left all over the ground. Or at least what blood that hadn’t been burnt off by the fire.
Right after Liz’s attack landed, when the boss was at its most distracted, Aster made her move. She had taken the blunting of her ice spells as a challenge, as for an instant the entire injured elemental froze solid, though it took everything she had.
He could feel its very nature start eroding the spell, but Matt didn’t give it time to break free. With one final thrust, he forced his sword into its frozen body and exploded the mana crystal his sword had been filled with.
The massive explosion flung him and Liz away from each other, but that was fine as he felt the essence unleash from the boss, and the torrent that washed into them signified the end of the fight.
It was more than enough to overfill their cores, but Matt quickly stepped to the rift reward and dissipated it while they were still Tier 26, before crunching his core ten times and stepping into Tier 27 while the essence was still pouring in.
The boss alone got them a noticeable way into Tier 27, which was fairly impressive for a single monster. Though, not that impressive when he considered how they had pushed the rift to its very limit by bringing a violet flame when only Tier 26, two full Tiers below the rift’s own Tier.
Looking down, he snorted, seeing the reward.
A massive pile of mana stones. Almost a hundred Tier 28 mana stones was a small fortune for most at even their new Tier, but it was nearly useless to the three of them.
Not that he’d leave them behind. With a wave, he collected them into his storage ring.
Aster kicked the boss's ash mark. “Stingy rift. Come on. We deserve a good reward, damn it. Even Luna can’t complain about that run. Four Tiers up at Tier 26 for that final boss. That's basically a record.”
Matt threw an arm over her shoulder and ruffled her helmet. “It was only a faux Tier 30, so Luna won’t praise you. But it's ok. I’ll make us a nice meal to celebrate.”
Liz sauntered over, phoenix Liz already reforming now that they were done with the rift. “Oh, anything in particular?”
Matt shrugged. “After this rift? I was considering something spicy.”
“Har har. You're not funny, Matt.” Aster blew a lock of hair now freed from her helm out of her face as she said it.
“I think I’m hilarious!”
“Yeah, that's the problem.”
Grinning, the three of them exited the rift having finished their push.
It was time to return to the real world and take care of the problems waiting there, but Matt was excited, as it meant it was time to release the new skills and see how the Empire and the greater Realm reacted.
Comments
Mike Gierhart
Also, I thought the food rift was a hilarious concept. Please don’t stop doing things like that lol
Mike Gierhart
I don’t think delving is bad. I started reading the series with an understanding that it was about delvers. MAL have just gotten so strong that their delving lacks any real stakes. Add to that the fact that they’re no longer pressing toward a goal (completing the Path) but just living their lives, and the narrative feels kind of like an extended interlude. I’m enjoying it, don’t get me wrong, but I’m also saving up chapters to read in batches rather than hopping into Patreon as soon as the next one drops, because that helps me with the pacing. I’m looking forward to whatever the next plot arc is going to be!
Matt Griffiths
To me the current delving feels irrelevant because there is no tension. Plenty of stuff going on outside and the rift concept seems a bit like a joke. Can't see any risk to the characters or any stakes, so just found myself skipping sections. There needs to be some stakes. Maybe you have some lined up as a surprise, but fighting foodstuffs while there are interesting stories going on outside makes it hard to stay engaged.
Ellariayn
Please don’t take away the rifts. I love the delving - particularly the last one!
Warley Echeverry
The only real issue with the rift chapters is that it feels like filler. If the chairs were patreon only side stories, the story would be exactly the same
Istyatur Elestel
It was nice to have some rift chapters, and I think you could do one or two more... But we do have the dangling guild conflict so it might be for the best not too.
Brady Fisher
Please continue the delving chapters! They are so much fun to read, and it is always amazing to see MAL fighting up tiers, and pushing themselves.
Thorngrim Steelfist
Delving can fall into the Never(Ever)more problem. Nothing really actually matters during it, other than numbers go up.
Andreas Kunzmann
Nooo please don't stop the delving! I've really been looking forward to some action. I mean the entire Path was awesome because of it. For me it's the foundation of the whole storry. All this politic and guild stuff is really getting boring. If there would be a new fighting arc soon that would be fantastic!
Julie Smith
Fun rift challenge. Drains mana and willpower and empowers the monsters. So MAL are now at level 27.
Phil
The first 7 paragraphs of this chapter feel like something we've read a dozen times at this point
PartyPlatapus
I liked the rift chapters, it’s fun to see the whimsy and them getting back to their roots
Kbzzy
How does Liz’s armour fare better against the boss than Matt’s? Double layer phantom armour with millions of mana, fire aspected plus crystallised then under armour beneath that plus 100% physical cultivation with 5 layers of genesis energy and the boss keeps lopping his arms of like he’s made of paper? But liz tanked the hits
tryandtryagain
People are overly critical, you do you brother, the story is fine. The delve was fun, and the interlude builds anticipation for the storyline out of rifts
Timspt8
I really agree with this. The deliving of rifts and tiering up just doesn't feel as important anymore, sure it's important in the wider sense of Matt increasing his power and the story getting closer to the 'true' war. However it seems like it's not all that relevant anymore, it's more build-up while before it was a main part of the story
Jeff Wells
I think the problem with the delving isn't really the delving, it's that it feels like filler. We aren't really learning anything new about the characters or the world, it's more just "here's this neat rift idea I thought of". As good as the war arc was, it feels like it made the delves a lot less relevant for story and character progression. If you could find a way to tie the rifts back into character development and world building I think they would be popular again.
Joakim Berube
It was mentioned that his whole domain is specifically about punching up meaning that without his authority he would lose to an equal tier ascender
Dr. Redbush
Couple of questions. When you say they spent the next 4 years delving, is that 4 years real time or rift compressed time? What is the time compression of T29 rifts?
shanealicious freakzzell
People complaining about too many delving chapters are stinky heads! Delving is one of the best parts of this universe!
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
David Oldfield
Suggestion: Place the post T-25 books into a new series. I may be wrong, but part of me suspects that this storyline was created with a heavy focus on the PoA, and that author loves the characters as much as we do. I suspect that, while a stupid name, you might use "Imperial Ascenders" As a starting point, and create a whole new set of books. Though I do hope there is eventually a set that takes place post (Real Ascension). Honestly, part of me suspects that a lot of people ascending into the higher realm are immediately enslaved, and I also suspect that Matt's power will be nearly superlative to the next realm before he even gets there. It will be interesting to see what you do with that
Andre Christians
The delve can be really good, I think you got it right with the rift madness being a big factor, taking away the challenge with only full aggression, making the monsters too predictable.I think you can get through that with some more wide view on the problem, expand with mechanics like boss phases, complicated enemy skills that push the characters, a high rank Ruin, a rift The idea of combination of skill for Matt is great too, simpler is great, no need to have a gazillion different skills, makes the combat more robust, with the skills having more impact, with more sense of progression, and props for the grow sword work too, is doing great. It was kinda too silly the last cooking rift, but I say this, is your story, you need to focus on what you enjoy most and what you want to make it be. I know timeframe get wider with the tiers, and its fine, personally I love the view of other characters in the hole realm and don't mind a little time skip done right. Is hard to go for a more politics standpoint in a action and progression-base novel and make everybody happy, but what you did with Matt going his way and breaking the rift was great, no need to go full murderhobo and breaking his character, but showing that he is not going to play a rigged game or playing by the rules makes everything more interesting. Thanks for the chapter, and have a good one, take your time
Danzafan37
I could see a paragraph of lackluster delves shown off screen but here's what they got and throw in three cool rewards or a unique to the empire skill
Fabian
@TomC That could be its whole sub-plot if done well. World building together with showing what the world means to them, and what they mean to the world. This could make delving meaningful. And they should find clues with time. Make it an out-of-body experience, its own 3-4 paragraphs specially marked <> . And it does make sense to have those, because the difference between them and higher-leveled people with Aspects is not the skills or the levels, but that they see the world how it is, how it is connected. <> I go in. I come out. The rift is just an obstacle. That’s all. <> Every line of mana, every flicker of energy is connected to something else. Their beam was never just an attack—it was a disturbance in a massive, living current. A drop in a vast river of force, sending ripples far beyond where they could see. <> The first sign comes when she bleeds, and the wound does not close as it should. She has sealed cuts before, forced her flesh to knit back together with a single command. But this time, the blood hesitates. It clings to the air, writhing, resisting her call for just a fraction of a second. She dismisses it—until it happens again. And again. <> She leaps across a frozen ridge, paws silent against the brittle frost. The battle is behind her, the air thick with spent magic. Her breath swirls in misty ribbons, the afterglow of her power still shimmering in the sky above. But something is wrong. // <> sections generated with ChatGPT
David Bean
Delving is an integral part of this story’s identity and has been since the beginning, and it’s never been a problem before (in fact I remember most comments being excited to get back to delving). I think it would really take away something important if you gave up on delving chapters. Im betting the people that are complaining are doing so for one or a combination of three reasons. 1. The lack of overall dramatic story arc at the moment. 2. The last rift being strange but mostly just in a weird way, and not as interesting or exciting as a normal one. 3. Reading chapters one at a time with days between them takes some of the urgency out of a story (but that’s just the nature of serials). I hope you keep delving in the story, it’s always been one of the best parts imo. Edit: Like this chapter for instance was a great riff chapter.
Oni no chi
A storyline I would like to see during this time would be them hosting a group of trainees on the path led by Kirk or somebody and then trying to help them
Anna
I think they should get a bond as a rift reward. Do they keep it? Sell it? Does Liz end up with her phoenix on one shoulder and a flame sparrow on the other? What if it’s a fire fox? Can a bond have a bond? How does a tier 27 raise a tier 1 bond? So many fun questions!
Brennan
Loving the Delving chapters, especially if Matt made the rifts. I'm really looking forward to more delving, aperology, things like the ruin world, and Ascender stuff. Matt's fix to the missing researcher was excellent.
David
I'm glad you decided to leave the rift chapters alone. I mean unless a rift is directly relevant to the overall plot... then it can just be a footnote. While they may be fun to read... sometimes. They don't really serve any purpose to the plot. I think the story as a whole is still interesting, but suffering from not having direction. The only major plot line is the True war. Everything else is minor. What driving MAL to advance and become better? Nothing really. This book could have been combined with the last one imo
BluePegasus
I have really been enjoying the delve chapters! It's great to see the team interacting again as opposed to everyone off doing their own thing as individuals. They are way better than the political slog or torturous legal chapters. I like that delving brings them back to their roots even with everything else going on.
Ali Sha
I really love the delving, but was a bit disappointed they didn’t go for the t30 rift like Luna mentioned. Just feel like we are missing a bit of the urgency and tension from when they were on the path and in the war, so it feels a bit slower or filler-y.
Jacob
I for one like the rift/dungeon delving, especially seeing how weird they can get at higher (or mid, whatever) Tiers
Kuniku778
Down time that's extremely important to character development, how dare you Mantis. XD If you must find a middle ground make one rift the "Interesting" one and the flesh it out explaining the rules, or blind running it so the characters figure it out as we do. Because I really would be sad to lise such interesting scenarios just to increase pacing.
AMangoOpinion
If some people like the delving, and some people dont, you could do a middle ground and just mention the fantastic scenes or nature of the various dungeons. Say they explore a similarly unique dungeon, and just mention what the dungeon was like to flesh out and add some world building to the story.
ElecHertz
I will say I have definitely enjoyed the delving chapters.
Ken VanCamp
Mantis has done an amazing job of providing exciting delves. At this point I am sure it is a challenge to keep coming up with new challenges. While on the path there was the opportunity to delve and develop new skills and strategies, because the levels were only a year to a decade long. Now with levels taking time and skills pretty locked in, it would be boring to do the same thing over and over in a book. It will be a challenge to pass the time, there is guild development, political intrigue, family fun, to look forward to, but that does not come with levels. So, I am hoping Mantis has an epiphany and look forward to reading the story.
Jesse Nickerson
Also that last chapter with the cooking rift was incredibly funny and creative
Jesse Nickerson
Hey it's refreshing to see you read the comments! I don't mind the delving chapters but it's more of a im not sure what the next arc of the story is type thing. So sometimes it feels like we are reading delving chapters without progression. I absolutely love this series however and would rather read a delving chapter than no chapter! This series is incredible! Keep it up!
Collin Huddleston
The delving is my favorite part of this story!
Thomas Todd
I think part of it now is also that pretty much nothing they could get from a rift is actually useful to them, their gear is better than what could drop, they have all the skills and natural treasures ect
Tsorov
While I agree with everything that is said here, and it also was time for the story to show some delving, since we haven't had that in a long time, I think the problem here was timing. The rifts were very interesting, but we have the plotting in the background, where we know that a new attack can come anytime. That said, I don't know where else these chapters could have gone, since theres always something happening.
Danny
I realy liked the diving time
Cteatus
I've been thinking about this reaction to delving going on, and whether or not I agree that there's a lack of progress. I'd like to preface this all with the idea that, within the context of the overall story, I don't really have any problems with how this arc is proceeding. Maybe there's a bit of wheel spinning going on, but overall things have been solid. But I do think it might be worth examining pain points. It seems to me delving chapters can be used for a lot of things: show off new powers, show a neat aspect of the world, show the team advancing. But its in the first two where I think the pain points might be, so let's take them point by point. 1) Showing off new powers: Unfortunately we're in the slow incremental part of progress when it comes to advancements. MLA all have lots of irons in the fire when it comes to their movesets. Liz is still figuring out Ichor (and maybe also her Feather pseudoskill? Was there any followup on those celestial wings she picked up in Sects?), Aster's doing the same with Aurora, and Matt's got his AI integration, new sword, and skill creation and merging. And in the background we've got the Aspects brewing. I fully expect that these lawsuits and the guild are all gonna tie into Matt shaping the realm around him which is going to lead to his Aspect. But as I said, this is the incremental part of progress and none of the powers are properly mature here, so we didn't really see anything new from them. Not a big deal, but it could contribute to the feeling of stagnation. (Though I will also note that the development of their powers has been coming pretty heavily from Matt's lens so I hope we see more from Liz and Aster's perspectives too). 2) New aspects of the world. We saw some very cool rifts. I really liked the cooking rift and it came with a neat reward. In fact I'd go so far as to say that all three rifts had pretty cool concepts. Where things went a bit wonky was, perhaps, expectation setting. First rift had a huge mystery given the layers of reality, and even though Matt has a Domain Meld and authority over space he couldn't figure it out and that rift has been left a bit abandoned. That's a bit frustrating. Also as another comment noted, Luna seemed to hint that they should take on a Tier 30 rift and they team didn't rise to the challenge. Also understandable, but it did sort of set an expectation that, when coupled with the reward (or lack thereof) also feels a bit frustrating. Ultimately, I think these are nitpicks. I've really been enjoying Rathala and the upheaval he's introducing, and I think seeing Matt do the hard work of realm building is important both for his development and the story's. That being said I also hope we'll get back the spirit of adventure that was there in early Paths. I hope we'll get to see MLA explore the other great powers and Ascenders, and I definitely hope there's a whole arc devoted to exploring wildspace with Lila. Excited to read more, and thanks for the story Mantis.
Clint
For what it’s worth, I enjoyed a bit of delving. I like the politics and worldbuilding too, but delving and leveling still feels like the heart of the story to me.
Shuvo Khan
finally the delving ended. at this point I don't feel any suspense from their delving. they are going to be just fine anyway. the politics of the greater realm is more challenging for them.
Mashiara
I like the rift chapters. This was an awesome chapter by the way :)
Chris Britt
I liked the delving
Matt H
Mantis has previously stated that DW is at the absolute upper end of Ascender power and was, arguably, made to be too strong. MLA can't match him in hard power, but they (i.e. Matt) have the potential for far greater soft power in the future.
Tai Allen
Each rift cycles a new instance after 15 minutes. There's no limit to instances, but there is a time-gate, and quadrillions of cultivators.
Justus Saucedo
I think was more of "if I was still training you, you'd be pushing t29 and low end t30" The way I read it it was more of a smug boast at how good she is more then them "backsliding" They're not coasting by any means. It's been stated before how hard it is to progress at the higher Tiers taking 100's of years, and they're still advancing fast.
Wesley
I think it was when he got his intent at 17 that let m do T24 rifts as they don’t have one.
Kevin DD
I'm reading a lot of comments complaining about filler or not wanting to read about delving, but they are missing two very key points. 1. POA is not a web novel, it's very reasonable for a book to have delving sections be longer than a paragraph because previous to it will be long sections of politics, relationships and character development. 2. Delving is a key part of this world, it's how the people in it advance and the main aspect of life which all of the characters have in common, so finding out quirky and fun parts of rifts is important as is seeing lackluster rift rewards. The story literally cannot progress without delving and each delve can be unique, so it makes sense if the author wants to spend a few chspters describing the difficulty and amusements that go with it.
Jsar
Ya, I have to admit, having Luna give them a goal and they don't even try let alone succeed seems very out of character and a letdown. It makes it look like they are backsliding, coasting along in a lazy contentment of good enough.
MinE
He had his Aspect early as well. I doubt rift monsters at T35 have a powerful aspect, if they have ones at all. Plus his domain is focused on fighting up having some way to boost his mind is vital.
C_Mantis
yeah I dont intend to stop the delving but I will space it out a bit better.
alex bozdog
Pretty sure they said he did that before Tier 30, and he only got his Authority with an inspiration from T30 to T31
Thomas Todd
It's his authority, he's an entire domain stage ahead of anything in this realm. I imagine he uses the authority to create that space around his where everything is in the deeps so they're slowed
Havokk
Maybe Matt can just send him a bottle a T27 wine with no note other than who its from, then at each tier up so the same with a bottle of that tiers wine that way Matt's not threatening him merely sending him a gift lol
alex bozdog
I am somewhat curios how the hell Duke Waters ever delves up 7 Tiers, I think it was mentioned sometime around when they joined Team 0, but if MLA after all the improvements and resources poured into them for the war (granted they probably don't have super enchanted gear currently) only delve up 3 Tiers and have to struggle with boss mosters 4 Tiers up, how did Duke Waters even react to a monster 7/8 Tiers ahead? at that level if it's a speed type monster doesn't it kill him before he can comprehend he's under attack?
s476
Still, I enjoyed the chapter, don't get me wrong. Just enjoy the other parts way more
s476
I feel that pve sentiment. For me it's also that it feels low risk, has little interaction between the characters and the details don't matter as much for the story of all. If this was summarized in the beginning of the next chapter instead I wouldn't feel cheated. Sure a cool fight scene was skipped (or maybe just highlights) but I prefer the non pve delving parts, regardless of pvp, politics, the science stuff, slice of life or whatever
Caleb Alexander
I think a few chapters of delving every once in a while is perfect, or I will forget what they can do. This run was cool! I was totally hoping for some unique reward though
Benjamin Warlick
I think you’ll get complaints about delving from the few who prefer the politics and life stuff, and complaints about politics and life stuff from the few who like delving. And most of us just like it all and don’t want you to tailor the story to the vocal minority. To me that weakens my enjoyment more than any story element.
Solopath
This rift was something of a reward for pushing so hard as might get them all the way to Tier 27 if they played their cards right thanks to its unprecedented scaling. Think there's supposed to be an 'it' before 'might'
Austin Byrd
Lastly I’ll say it’s your quality . I think we’re used to a certain density in your chapters. Because you’re a great writer. So when a chapter all of a sudden is some silly rift that does nothing apart from be amusing - we then unconsciously compare it to other chapters, and have our expectations not met, and have a wtf moment because of it. Because even these last two chapters are better quality than most writers on Patreon or RR. So you’re getting heat, not because they are bad; but because they are bad compared to your other chapters lol. Your reputation is too high my guy , if you put out lesser quality writing on average, then nobody would be batting at eye at these chapters haha. Heavy is the crown
Disclancer
Sorry for the long stream of consciousness gubbins 😅
Disclancer
I thought the observation at the start was pretty interesting. My dad was saying the other day that he finds pve games very unsatisfying having delved into pvp. Though obviously the stakes are so much higher, I can see how individuals such as acenders would ultimately find rifts limiting and unsatisfactory after having engaged in combat agains much more technically responsive opponents and not find it as rewarding. Personally I think the lackluster rift rewards kinda underlines that sentiment nicely. MLA are playing in the big legues now, the rewards are state treasures hoarded by the great powers earned international conflict, things that are the rarest of rewards from even the highest quality of rifts or even unattainable from rifts altogether (what rift currently in the realm can compair to the personal crafts of a tier 50)
Christian Sullivan
Love the delving and thought the chef one was amazing!
Austin Byrd
I see what you’re saying and I agree. And I do see that you did exactly that at the start of this chapter, you gave us summary and progression and said they spent a few years diving rifts . Perfect. Already makes this chapter better than the last one (to me). But then dropped us back into another one. And like I said earlier, that should be totally fine. If you have something interesting to share with us about a rift then I wanna read what you wanna share. You’re a great storyteller and have great prose. I think it’s that it takes the whole chapter which is making people critical of it, or at least me. I’d have liked that chef chapter or this fire one to be exactly where they are, but a third of the size. Less about the rift itself, more time for other stuff. And then if you wanted to do 5 chapters in a row with rifts, fine, i’m game. And I hang onto every word you use when it’s about the new T25 guy, or Luna, or their new world, or trade, or the emperor, or other ascenders, or even while they travel. And I want to experience bigger rifts in the future, maybe showing us the full rift of whichever one finally lets them tier up would the right call. I’m not sure. I’m sure you’ll figure out something you tell a good story. Just tossing my two cents in about why these two chapters are getting a lot of questionable feedback. That being said, it’s a pickle because as they Tier up, they’re gonna need to spend a lot more time in rifts. I’m not sure what the answer is besides making the rift feel important because it’s the last one before tier up. And about the filler, The chef chapter was amusing for about a minute for me, then I got tired and skimmed. I do think most people will have more tolerance than I do about that sort of chapter. But to me it felt like I was wasting my time reading something inconsequential so I began to skim. I think I’m just at odds with spending a whole chapter going through a rift at this point in the story. But looking to the future, I’m not sure how it’ll work when we need to spend years in a rift. Because I believe that obviously needs to happen. Regardless. I have faith you’ll figure it out though lol
Alex
The Rift boss accounts for ~1/2 of the Rift's total essence. The fastest way to advance is to skip straight to the Rift boss, kill it, then move on to the next Rift without taking any breaks in between delves. It's very wasteful, but if all you care about is speed it's the best way to delve.
Disclancer
It would be cool if he sent Falker a bottle of something, with a little card announcing his new tier, that would indeed be something I'd like to see :))
Tom C
Yeah, thats why I’d suggest having the occasional realisation peppered in which is one of them moving in their path towards gaining an aspect or something. Sometimes these things are shown off page, like a description of how Aster realised something a few months before and was a step closer to her aspect. Whereas if that sort of thing was incorporated into their delving it’d add a more esoteric growth dimension to the delving? But idk.
Discordian23
I agree with this, before Rifts we're a means to an end now they have ascended. The end is tier 50 but there's no intermediate goals with the Rifts. It's basically I'll reach tier 28 and have the more mana. Which isnt bad but it feels like the time rifting is time that could be used for more progress elsewhere.
C_Mantis
@austin I think it depends on what you consider filler and plot. This is a character driven story which means we are following the MC not following the MC who needs to do XYZ. So these delves are important. That said I will be cutting down on the rifts going forward because I don't want to just have filler stuff or even the appearance of such. If I didn't already have this chapter written before last chapters feedback I would have skipped a second delve but I'm head of where pateron is and this wasn't egregious enough to fully cut the chapter in my mind.
Tom C
I like the rifts! For the lack of progress - I think if we saw one of them realise some sort of improvement in growth of a more esoteric nature. Like realising something that helps build towards their aspect, or something? Especially if it happens whilst delving. These kind of hints towards their growth are always great imo But tbh I’m happy with how things are going. Story is great! TFTC!
MikeL
So if they are delving to advance why are they going straight for the boss kill? Aren’t they missing out on the essence from the rest of the rift. Are they immediately jumping into a new instance? Also later they have to wait for rifts, can’t they just create a new instance? Usually there is a wait for the rift to gain enough mana, but they don’t have that problem. There is a max number of rifts per planet, but is there also one for max instances per rift?
C_Mantis
As for stuff like bond eggs your speculation isnt that far off the mark. There are hidden rules for how they work/drop.
Austin Byrd
Ah.. I see this one here is another chapter all about a rift. . Yeah.. idk. Some other comment brought up a good point, it’s difficult to balance regards to a web serial vs an actual novel when it comes to reader expectations about chapters. That being said, even if it were a true novel, this is the stuff I’d be skimming through to get back to plot progression. Readers, mostly, aren’t here because it just pleases us to read words. We’re here to enjoy the meaning and progression. I don’t wanna read a whole chapter of filler. I definitely don’t wanna read two chapters of filler back to back. Both of these chapters should have been condensed down to a third of their size and then two thirds of both chapters should have been actual plot
StarWolf
I didn't feel that way about the delving - they lvl 26/27... How much exp is it going to take to get to the next level? There are levels its going to take 5-10+ years of delving to get the level completed. It will be worse by the time they hit 45. I enjoyed the last chapter with the kitchen rift - it was funny and silly. And I totally get doing a rift for the "CHECK" we did that rift too! and got the most rare prize! Honestly too many political or non-action chapters in a row get a bit old. But as long as the delving is entertaining I can read quite a bit of it.
Smashadow
The rifts and combat are my favourite part of the story.
Alex
Bond eggs are a very special reward - there's a lot of superstition surrounding beast eggs and the whole 'bond of fate' thing, but I think there's merit to the idea that bond eggs drop for their fated person. Way back when Matt does the Rift Challenge that rewards him with Aster's egg, Griff tells him that Rifts use an unfathomably complex set of IF/THEN logic tests to determine their operating conditions: I think Rifts use this IF/THEN logic to decide if a person running a Rift is a viable candidate to receive a bond egg. In my mind, Bond eggs exist in a category of Rift rewards that cannot possibly be part of a loot table; they'll only drop under special circumstances if certain conditions are met. There might be Rifts that are more likely to drop eggs than others, but they'd only drop them for the right people. I don't think MAL would be viable candidates to receive a bond egg by virtue of the fact that they aren't looking to add another member to their team. Quick sidebar here: I also suspect that Rifts have a hidden table of special rewards that they can drop under specific conditions like Rift Challenges, or if the person running the Rift meets certain selection criteria. These rewards can't truly be considered 'regular drops' because they will only be awarded if certain criteria are met, but they are specific to each Rift, so if a person meets the special criteria in Rift A they'll get a different spread of rewards than if they met the same criteria in Rift B.
Christopher
I thought the cooking rift was great.
Austin Byrd
I think we’re just at a different point in the story. It’s like how, near the beginning of a story, while MC is learning how to fight, the author writes out the entire fight step by step, which is good. It’s what we want, But as the story progresses, the audience no longer wants step by step. We’ve journeyed with the MC through the fight, we’ve learned along with the MC how to fight; and now we want the next fight to be more summarized. Instead of reading about the next fight, step by step, we want “the rest of the spearman were similar and he spent 2 hours clearing the room”. Less time rereading another repetitive fight, and more time reading about the progress and what the results mean for the character. Weird rifts like last chapter are kinda interesting, but mostly it feels like filler when it’s an entire chapter. It wasn’t technically slice of life but it felt close. I’m just not interested in spending an entire chapter reading about some unique rift. A good question to ask yourself is - can this entire chapter be erased without affecting the overall story’s plot. And the answer for the last chapter was Absolutely. I was bored because of that. BUT. I do want rifts. I just want it to summed up in a couple paragraphs and then move onto something more important. I would have been pleased reading about this rift if it was like, maybe at most, a third of the chapter.
nolan saylor
Thanks Mantis! Thanks Dae! It's good to note that there is no right choice when letting an Ascender hit you. It's just choosing the manner in which you die. (Ender's Game, the giant's drink?) The mana slash bouncing around inside the jackal's defense is nice. Similar to how bullets can bounce around in a person or bunker. I wonder if this happens with magical defenses? I think we heard of a guy destroying a city in a basically similar way. But maybe an expert might be able to dismiss the magical defenses in places to let an attack out. Would be cool to see that happen. I hadn't thought about how rifts would also be given names. It makes sense, particularly at high tiers when rifts are more rare and people stay at tiers for longer periods of time. Mortals don't have the lifespan or wealth to travel across the Empire to experience a specific rift. Rifts also grow more unique as they grow in tier. -Though there are probably names for the mortal rifts as well. It's just more known in the immediate area. Maybe merely known by an archetype. This is a version of escort mission. Even types of missions and levels people dislike can be made enjoyable. -being able to breathe underwater makes a water level fun, though maybe people dislike it more for the water resistance and needing to defend in three dimensions. 4 tier gap, gotta love the battle junkies. Semi-casual planetary apocalypse abilities. Though I guess that has been a fact for a bit, his mana is insane and we saw how he dealt with a moon during the war. "solidified fire" Young Aster would be pleased at making fire fake and freezing fire. I still enjoy the teasing camaraderie shown between characters in this novel. Time for Matt the Philanthropist to drop another bomb on the Realm. -Still curious if he will end up getting the Empire an ally this way.
lockx
I personally really enjoy the rifts and would have been okay with a few more. I love the greater story too though. Maybe it's that earlier in the story some of the rifts had external pressure as well. Minkalla for instance wasn't just delving for tiers, and had rewards that felt well earned. I think it comes down to how many there are in a row that are done, and what the rewards/challenge are.
Conor O'Kelly
I've really enjoyed the delving chapters and the rift world. They have been a great change of pace!
Matt H
For what it's worth, I think these last two rifts have been interesting and the writing remains well done! What I think may be happening is that their foundations are so well-established that any improvements seem incremental at best. We're long past the days where a single Tier allows Matt to use a Skill he previously couldn't (Fireball), or where a Natural Treasure can put Aster decades ahead of all her peers (Tree of Perfection), or where a new Talent changes Liz's whole fighting style (armies of clones). It feels like the next chance for meaningful improvements beyond them just being faster, hitting harder, and having more mana available to them is forming their Aspects and that's 15 or so Tiers in the future? To be clear, they are progressing and growing stronger, but it just doesn't feel as meaningful (or obvious) as it did sub-T15 when they were first working with Luna.
C_Mantis
part of that is one me. First rewards are hard lol. Second I only show a few rift rewards so if when I do show a reward its always a cool reward people start to think all of their rewards are super cool and unique. Thats why I show lack luster rewards mixed in but then it seems like they get nothing of value. I just didnt feel the need to show the fire sword they sold off yaknow?
Tom
I think it will get better as they get higher tiered and so they’ll be on the high tier perception of time so they can do a bunch of rifts with highlights from the cool ones and then stuff like the legal battles would have actually progressed in those timeframes.
Havokk
great rift and you can definitely feel the disappointment at just getting mana stones as a reward lol. I still kind of want to see Matt send Falker a message "Just a slight update for you.... 27". I know its not what we think Matt will do but the thought of Falker getting that and the "ohh shit" moment is amusing to me lol
Owen Kaz
I do absolutely enjoy the delving chapters, especially when they are unique rifts like the food one was, some people are just impatient and want nothing but purely story progression at all times. Missing out on the fact that the realm revolves around battle and strength. This IS is story of the realm, and damn if our MC's aren't good at progressing the plot
adam1
I agree.
Sébastien Kingsbury
For all the delving up tiers they're doing, they don't seem to be getting many actual great rewards. You'd think they'd come across more beast eggs or cool treasures after years of repeat delving
Bunny Waffles
Last week's delve was definitely neat. Weird rifts are fun.
John Smith
I really enjoy the story and like the world enough that any of the directions Mantis takes are fun to read. As the rifts scale in size/complexity, I could imagine delving rifts being a side story to avoid skipping large chunks of the rift. But I also like seeing other parts of the world as the occasional side stories we get. I also think part of the reader disconnect some get on feeling of progress is a function of reading as a serial rather than a novel.
PikaAndrew
Tftc
Tyler Owens
I personally really enjoyed last weeks delving, especially with it being such an interesting rift
C_Mantis
Thats pretty much what I'm getting from feedback. Live and learn.
StabAlloy
Seconded
Noshei
I think having a delving chapter now and then is good, but having a bunch back-to-back does make the story progress feel like it's slowed down. So please don't stop having delving chapters; just spread them out a bit.
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
Thomas Todd
Thanks for the chapter
