C_Mantis
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Chapter 383
🕑 Added 2024-12-13 19:59:01 +0000 UTCChapter 383
While Ra’thala was being questioned and interrogated by the people Matt had assigned to work on the tentatively named ‘Skills for All’ task force, Matt had other things to work on at the guild.
He would much rather help with the skills project than essentially slam his head against the wall, but he so rarely had time to work on his sword that he couldn’t justify putting it off any longer.
The idea had started as part of an idle conversation with Liz when Matt complained that his Talent was making it damn hard to make equipment that could handle his mana, and he almost wished his Tier 25 had helped with that instead of boosting some of his skills and improving his storage.
Liz had jokingly pointed out that his Talent already did give him the perfect material, his mana itself, which had sparked an idea in Matt.
In theory, his work with talismans in the war might have prepared him well for this. He’d flash-created a few basic enchantments by creating some basic links between premade enchantments in such a way that he could customize the results to his needs. He’d tried making talismans entirely out of mana, but that… didn’t really work. Maybe someday he could manage it, but he wasn’t a high enough Tier for it.
But, there was a way he could integrate his experience with talismans into his current quest for a better weapon. Namely, his growth sword. It was already bonded to his spirit, and there was therefore hardly a better way to rapidly iterate on an item that was already attuned to him. He’d hired a high-Tier specialist to modify the enchantment-wiping effect to be a bit more… selective. Now, instead of erasing all the enchantments present in a single mode at once, he could selectively erase parts of an enchantment. His precision was still a little weaker than he would have liked, and it was way more annoying to do a full wipe of an enchantment, but how much it sped up iterative work made it plenty worthwhile.
Of course, the process was fairly involved. He couldn’t just coat the blade in mana crystal and expect it to work. Instead, he’d created a sort of half-sword, with plenty of gaps in both the enchantment and the metal for his mana crystal to fill in both magically and physically. The end result looked almost organic, with fractal branches of crystal and metal twisting around one another, even if the actual function was still somewhat lacking.
He had lofty goals for the sword, that much was true, but right now, he was just trying to pull it up to the same level as his sword’s other modes. The twin enchantments of the blade and mana stone kept fighting each other instead of meshing, and because neither was properly complete without the other, resulted in a barely-functional sword instead of an epically versatile weapon of mass destruction with a perfect backbone of high-power mana conduit that he was looking for.
For what felt like the first time in his life, it wasn’t his control that was lacking. He had spent enough time as they moved through Tier 26 regaining a level of control better than all but a few in the Empire, but he needed far greater precision to perfectly pull off a full integration between weapon and mana crystal. Even Matt’s BPL, the tool at the heart of his current effort, wasn’t enough to pull it off to the standards he needed. It didn’t matter if a talisman’s enchantment was unstable and would burn up within an instant of being activated, that’s what they were designed to do. However, it was substantially worse if Matt’s sword spontaneously melted as soon as he started to use it.
The biggest hurdle was that he needed to do all the work himself. His growth sword could only be enchanted by him, after all, and he’d found out the hard way that included any external supplementary enchantments.
Part of him wanted to just put the project on hold until another one of his secondary projects with Maxine paid off, but that was at least another millennium from realization.
Just step one was getting the [AI] skill merged with half a dozen [AI] support skills like [Encrypt], [Simulate Motion], [Library], an upgraded [Calculator], and so on, which was insanely hard alone, as each needed to account for his past modifications as well. The only reason it was even possible was twofold: his flexible innate skill slot, and the sheer amount of documentation present regarding [AI] skill merges.
It was pretty much assumed that everyone would merge their [AI] pseudo skill into the real deal, other than nobles who just started with the real thing, but the enormous number of people who relied on their AI in their daily lives had found a few viable strategies for even normal people to merge one or two additional support skills into the structure.
But what had started this whole project was the Ascender chat learning that he, Liz, and Aster had finished Minkalla at Tier 11, and subsequently exploding with suggestions for how to take advantage of their innate skill slot. The project that had most intrigued Matt had, of course, been Max’s comments about some of the things she’d done with her [AI], and he’d taken her up on her offer of some individual tutoring as a result.
At least those changes would start paying off even before it was completely done. And the time spent on it would let him get to know Max better before they reached step two, which would require a level of trust he wasn’t quite sure he actually had in her yet. He still had a standing offer for mind magic defense lessons from her, but hadn’t taken her up on it yet, and it seemed like something he’d need to do before he’d be able to finish off this particular mod, given how he’d need her direct assistance for some of the latter steps.
But until then, it meant any free time he had spent tinkering in his guild, working on trying different configurations the teams put together while practicing his enchanting skills.
The current set was three different types of runes linked together. They were more complicated than his last set, but should double his sword's power from ten percent of its theoretical max to nearly twenty.
Two full weeks vanished as Matt and the team tinkered and tweaked the rune types, their placement, the structure of the sword itself, and trying to find an optimal balance between strength, ease of enchanting, and stability in a fight.
They were even making good progress when Matt got called away by Kees, who informed him they had a problem.
Standing in Kees’ office, Matt frowned. “I’m not sure I heard you correctly. Can you say that again? There is no way anyone would be dumb enough to do what you just said, let alone a dozen companies at once.”
Kees nodded, a frown carved onto his austere face. “Fifteen companies we use for various supplies just broke their contracts with us, all citing difficulties with existing clients taking priority. Four of our five rare metals suppliers, three out of three of our high-Tier enchanting materials suppliers, two out of four of our shipping partners, and so on.”
Matt rubbed his chin as he thought before asking a stupid question. “Is there any chance this isn’t a targeted attack on the guild?”
He expected Kees to quickly deny the idea, but his vice guild leader took a long moment to answer. “I don't believe things are as simple as they look on the surface for obvious reasons. We have made many enemies over the past century, but frankly, we have avoided stepping on too many toes directly. And I already checked, we haven’t directly insulted any of these companies' backers or their controlling interests. So, while I believe this is an attack on the guild, I’d be hesitant to pin the blame on our former partners too quickly.”
Matt grinned viciously. “And here my first thought was to go and knock on their doors demanding they reinstate us as business partners. Whatever will I do now that I won’t act like an angry Ascender?”
Kees didn’t share in his attempt at levity. “That may have been part of whoever orchestrated this incident's plan, but I very much doubt their goal was anything so simple. I’m sure they wouldn’t be mad if you stormed off in a rage, but you have shown yourself remarkably restrained for an Ascender since the end of the war. No, I believe this is phase one of a larger move to isolate the guild. I expect that in the coming months or years, we will find more of our suppliers and contacts pulling back for various legitimate and fraudulent reasons alike.”
Starting to pace, Matt thought out loud. “How would you handle this if you removed me from the equation? Give me the large strokes and from your old guild’s perspective if that helps.”
Kees’ answer was immediate. “Find out who is pulling the strings and why. If I can easily defeat them, do so, but more likely anyone willing and able to pull this off is someone of my own strength or greater. In that case, once I identified them I would work out a deal about how I’m stepping on their interest so much they felt the need to attack me like this and how I can pull back.”
Matt frowned at the idea but didn’t outright dismiss it.
“And with me and my resources, does that change your assessment?”
Kees frowned. “Not particularly. I would rather not have an enemy so well-connected they can pull the strings of so many businesses so casually, especially all at once. This is either a warning shot across our bow or stage one of a greater plan, and my intuition says it's the latter.”
Matt let his frown turn to Kees. “Kees, they are attacking a charity guild. I’m not going to pay them.”
Kees opened his mouth to speak, but Matt didn’t stop. “Kees, we haven’t even created too many actually impactful things. Two dozen inventions that have gone public in the last century but most were fairly minor and all were below Tier 10. Shit, most were below Tier 5. I’m not going to roll over to anyone because I stole their pocket change.”
Kees actually grinned, which caught Matt off guard. “I both fully understand that and am aware of your feelings and stance, Guild Leader. You did, however, ask how I would deal with it given my old guild.”
Matt let himself fall into the chair with a sigh. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. You’re correct, I’m just angry. Have you heard about Ra’thala and what he brings to the table yet? I know you've been head down the past weeks getting the mana engine paperwork ready.”
Kees’ frown returned. “Yes, and that will be a problem.”
Matt sat up straighter. “How so? I did some searching and I can't find a single instance of anyone using anything like blank skill shards for safe ways to make skills. I feel this will be mostly a research or high-Tier individual thing more than most of our inventions.”
Kees looked confused for a moment before saying, “Ah, no. While that is an academic curiosity and potentially useful, it's not that disruptive of current interests. No, I was talking about skill creation for low Tiers. If that works even half as well as the current rumors are saying, it will disrupt a lot of interests. Enough so that we might get outright attacked by a number of powers looking for vengeance, if nothing else.”
Matt’s already bad mood turned worse. He had considered that the making of skills would be disruptive, but he didn't think it would be that disruptive.
Just what had happened in the last two weeks?
“Elaborate, please. Is the method more applicable than we expected?”
Kees shook his head. “More that I believe your initial report isn’t fully accurate. I do believe that you are correct in that not too many people will take this route. Many will see it as easier to just buy a skill or an enchanted weapon, but I’ve had our Impact Teams run the numbers a few times, and even with our pessimistic models, it's looking at something like eight percent of delvers from mortal families will probably be interested in making skills for themselves. And more if…”
Kees paused before leaning forward making sure he had Matt’s full attention. “This is less dependent on you as a guild leader and more as a duke, but knowing you and Lady Moore’s inclination to help the poor, we ran the numbers with you opening or subsidizing places to teach the methods in a safe manner. A sort of after-school method for the newly awakened. The skills will need more refinement but given what information Ra’thala provided, we expect that most Tier 1s can manage to create a skill in their spirits within a year if they dedicate about three or four hours to it a day. If they take half the time, it will take a year and a half, to two years. Initial reports say it's not necessarily difficult, just tedious, thanks to a few tidbits Ra’thala’s people discovered which help with the process, and how dead simple the skills are. And that's before our people’s refinement, which they have positive outlooks on given the short time they have had to work on applying known skill modification techniques to the process. If we are correct and the process takes off like we expect, there will be a sizable dip in procurement for things like low-Tier items.”
Matt’s initial reaction was to say that eight percent wasn’t that large of a swing, but an eight percent revenue loss would see many businesses shuttering their doors as it translated to a ten to fifteen percent profit loss. He had thought the numbers would be lower, but as he reviewed the report Kees sent him, he couldn’t argue with their findings. Even without dedicated assistance, even a rudimentary guide on the EmpireNet would probably be enough for most newly awakened to figure things out. Even if it took longer than the estimated year or two, it wouldn’t take more than five, which wasn’t that long even for a Tier 1.
“What are the power levels of the skills looking like? Are they comparable to Tier 8 skills?”
Kees indicated his uncertainty with a gesture. “So far, no, they start out about half as strong. But all of the early reports indicate that even if that can’t be solved through some iteration, the skills should be fairly easy to build off of to at least reach a Tier 8 standard by Tier 5 or 6, given some mild diligence. Do note that is when Ra’thala says most of his people would have encountered their second major cultivation stage, and would have access to more advanced-level spells designed to build off the common spells he’s sharing. We actually believe that the skill distribution of his Realm is different from our Tier 8 breakpoint, and every six thereafter for skills to start appearing. We have no real way to prove it, but the relevant thing is his people usually built off their initial skills by Tier 5.
“Guild Leader, this is where our largest problem lies. It takes more effort, and most delving Tier 5s can buy a common skill like [Fireball] given some savings, but this is something they can theoretically build off forever. It may take some time, but most of our projections show people will start specializing their skills as they advance instead of forgoing them. It gives experience with general skill modification that they will find useful for all other skills, and as people pave the path for dedicated designs, they can self-direct said skill to the methods they want to take their cultivation. This will possibly have lasting repercussions to the lower Tier economies as a whole if not handled carefully.”
Matt leaned back and thought as he filled in the unsaid ‘this is where we earn enemies’.
He wasn’t considering keeping the information to himself, but he was considering how they needed to play it, and his initial answer was the one he liked the most.
Help the little people.
Higher Tiers could take care of themselves, and while he didn’t want them to be taken advantage of, they had more recourse to solve issues they ran into.
If they released the low-level steps, say Tier 1 and another at Tier 5, to bring the skills up to a typical Tier 8 level, they would certainly step on some toes. But if they left the higher-level specializations alone, allowing various guilds and interests to create, and most importantly, sell specializations similar to how skill modifications were already done, they could probably avoid the worst of the issues.
A lot of people would still be mad and lower-Tier businesses would take a hit with some undoubtedly shuttering, but they would be proving they weren’t trying to take everyone's lunch and that might mollify the biggest threats.
After explaining his idea, his vice guild leader shook his head. “That is the situation we have already considered. Because of your position and funding, I think you underestimate the lower Tiers. The value extracted out of those economies are small, but every world has low Tiers, they make up the majority of the Empire’s population, and they also are born often and die just as fast. If you sell a technique like this to an immortal, they only buy one or two, but a mortal needs to buy it every generation. Let's take enchanted equipment as an example. It's good, but it wears out and needs to be repaired and then replaced every few years. Being on the Path, you advanced quickly enough that I’d speculate you replaced your equipment once or twice as you Tiered up through Tier 1 through Tier 5. But most teams spend decades in those Tiers, and they replace their gear every three to five years. The cost of doing so isn't much, but that money is spent often and predictably, whereas this is a permanent solution. Even if it only catches on for a percentage of lower-income cultivators, there is always the chance it goes way beyond our eight percent estimation.”
Kees shuffled through some files on his [AI] before flicking a finger at Matt. “Speaking of, we have a request for creating non-combat variations of spells with this same method once the combat methods are solved enough to be published. Two of the team members are very interested in creating quality-of-life skills average people would find helpful. Mostly cleaning spells and the like, but I doubt you will say no, and that is a market we expect to see at least a fifteen percent interest in at a minimum. Enchantments are expensive, and a lot of people would rather spend an hour a day for a year or three to reduce cleaning for the rest of their life. At least those who are buying enchanted items instead of mundane ones for such activities.”
Reviewing the request, Matt winced at the expected costs for the research, they weren’t just simplifying and iterating on already known skills that had long since been ‘perfected’ like Ra’thala’s had been. No, they wanted to create entirely new skills from scratch. According to the report, Ra’thala had known of some spells, but they were all in the Tier 10 range, and few people ever really bothered to use them, as everyone over Tier 5 had a Concept. It could easily be used to deal with things like cleaning or other minor daily chores.
Which came back to a general problem of the guild. Matt may have unlimited mana, but even then, there were practical limits. He wasn’t going to go sit in a Tier 45 rift with a hundred times time acceleration just to produce a hundred times more mana. He wasn’t afraid to share his mana, but he wouldn’t lock himself in a box to do so either, which meant his only way to increase his output was through Tiering up.
That did work; however, there was a limit of how much mana they could reasonably launder through the Empire. Too much mana given to the guild would raise even more flags than their already massive budget did.
All of which meant Matt couldn’t just accept every single proposal for research that came before him. Far too often, at least for his tastes, he needed to make the hard decision and push some projects down in priority.
Currently, the guild worked on short-, mid-, and long-term cycles for funding. Short-term projects were ones that just needed a lump sum of mana or other resources to do, like direct charity work by hiring construction companies to build orphanages. Few research requests were of such nature, but their guild was still a charity guild, and they had people dedicated to directly helping those in need. Not even just in their duchy, but all across the Empire.
The mid-term funding projects were usually research teams requesting to look into whatever it was that caught their interest. Whether that be created quality-of-life skills simple enough for people to create on their own, a better way to vary mana output of enchantments without the typical additives, or creating a new cutting rune, most of them were funded for a decade before they would be put up for review to see if it was worth funding longer.
Part of the guild’s reward system for successful projects was funding personal projects, and they also fell under the same decade-long block.
Finally, there were the long-term projects, the ones that were expected to take centuries or even millennia. The entire aperology department was in that category, and therefore fully funded, because of how long such things were expected to take before they showed any appreciable results. Rune creation was in a similar boat as well as their general alchemy department.
All of that boiled down to the fact they only had funding for three more mid-term projects for the next five years, until other projects were expected to end. But even then, that funding might not be freed up if they showed appreciable progress, which had happened to otherwise stagnant projects before.
Their review process had taken some refinement, but currently few had complaints because of how impartial it was.
First and foremost, all of the relevant work was fed into an AI buried deep inside the guild moon’s molten core, which was free from subtle tampering. Said AI ran dozens of analyses on the project to see just how much progress they had covered, and to see if they had run into a seemingly insurmountable wall.
Then before that information was released, that same information was sent to a review team who did the same analyses.
When the team had their own result, both were compared, and if both groups agreed the project warranted more funding, the decision was finalized.
If only one party agreed the project needed funding, it was kicked up to guild management for further review, just as if both groups decided the project didn’t warrant further funding, so that the teams in question could plead their case to guild leadership in a sort of automatic appeal process.
It sounded like a lot of work because it was, but so far, most of his team who had hit a wall were the first ones to throw in the towel, as their willingness to step back and free up funding earned them goodwill with both their fellow researchers and guild management, who didn’t need to go through the process of denying an extension.
Not that everyone or every project was treated equally.
Matt had his own preferences and biases that he didn’t bother to hide or disguise. It was his guild, and he was funding everything after all, which is why aperology had the largest budget at almost a quarter of the guild's funds. And people he knew, like Erwin, were given pretty much automatic approval for any projects they wanted to create. Within reason, as Erwin wasn’t always reasonable, but even then, Matt was more likely to say yes than no.
The latter was funded through his own accounts directly, but that just meant skipping the obvious laundering of funds more than anything else.
Amusingly enough, according to Kees, those more typical things had done more to soothe ruffled feathers than Matt trying to be nice and equal to everyone else, as they were so used to leadership prioritizing their own designs that anything else felt alien and strange.
While they did have some time before a decision needed to be made, it would take at least a few years, probably a decade or so, before the team members’ current project of simplifying and iterating on Ra’thala’s basic combat skills were done. If Matt said yes to this, he was potentially saying ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ to another potentially worthy project that hadn’t been submitted yet.
To him, non-combat spells felt less important as a whole, but he was aware of his biases enough to know that he had them. He also remembered not loving having to scrub away dirty caked-on food from plates or hard stains that didn’t come out in a normal wash, and wishing he could magic them away.
And if his own life wasn’t enough, he was able to open up his Minkalla Folded Reflection lives memories and see hundreds of times where he parents, himself, or Aster complained about the woes of daily chores.
It might seem insignificant, but there was a reason Tier 8 non-combat skills could sell for as much as combat spells, and why household enchantments always went for a premium.
He even remembered when he was at his Pather’s Tournament and people asking him for runes that would make living on more hostile low Tier worlds for free, and this would be a step in that direction.
But was it worth it?
He didn’t know, but he provisionally approved the request.
If nothing else, it would be good to test the viability of such self-created skills and more data points could help the combat variants make either more specific or generalized skills. Both had their use cases, but given the time needed to create even a single skill, Matt doubted few people would ever make more than one skill this way before reaching immortality. So, having a wide range of useful starting skills was a must. And after that, they would have the funds to just buy better skills, so unless there were exceptional variations that appeared, it was unlikely.
It also depended on if the skills started showing up in rifts, how rare they were, and if they were easy to modify.
He had speculated that they might have just ‘invented’ an entirely new Tier of skills, but that was unlikely, all things considered. Skills’ complexity and power weren’t hard requirements for skill Tier, even if they didn’t fully understand the categorization. If it were possible for skills to drop lower, they would have seen it before.
That just brought his thoughts back to what Kees had said earlier. This would undoubtedly cause a number of people to get very upset with him, enough so they added their efforts to the people already playing games in the shadows.
It just came down to how Matt wanted to handle it.
Was he willing to fight for the things he believed in?
Or rather, was he willing to fight in a new way for the things he believed in?
This might become a physical altercation, but it was more likely to remain a clandestine shadow affair fought on corporate battlefields, and those were not his specialty.
His answer didn’t change, however.
“Let’s go ahead. We can try to placate people by stating our intention to only release Tier 1 and Tier 5 variants of the skills for free, but I refuse to shy away from doing the right thing because of threats. As for the interference with our various business partners, let’s—”
Matt paused as he got a message from Liz: “I need you down here. Someone hit a dozen of our aura potion shipments.”
Comments
Tristan R Mitchell
Nah. The new technique is weaker than the old technique AND more annoying to fully wipe, BUT does iterative work better. Downside AND downside But upside.
Julie Smith
It'd be more interesting to make the reader think they'll blow things up, but they pull off something subtle that cuts off the legs of their opponents.
Julie Smith
"Matt paused as he got a message from Liz: “I need you down here. Someone hit a dozen of our aura potion shipments.”" Great way to end a chapter! Matt's got to do items: find the guys behind the 15 supplies shut down (probably the Senses group) and those behind the hit on the aura shipment. (Probably a 3rd party mercenary hired by that group.)
Fabian
Not everything of course. But everything that would matter. And hurting Alden and his friends would matter, be it for wars or for mana.
Trevor Mergen
Thanks
ByLAWphoto
Remember the punching up/down rules: you're not allowed to punch down, and if you punch up first, the other person can totally end it. So hitting the bad guys has limited applications
C_Mantis
I dont intend to do that if for no other reason than we already did that plot point with the war and I really try not to reuse plot points
ByLAWphoto
remember ages ago, Matt considered storage rings and low-tier people. one of the first things he thought of was, "how can we make storage available to low-tier people?" because the low tiers have the fewest benefits and have to haul the most stuff. it's not shiny. it's not sexy. but it's these everyday problems that Matt has been focused on. and I agree: for the most part, he's stuck to his own lane. but he really does want to fix all the stupid things that low-tier people deal with--transportation, medical care, cleaning, and even equality. sometimes, they're pie-in-the-sky ideas so they go on the back burner. and sometimes, a guy appears out of thin air from a completely different universe and you jump on that for new ideas.
ByLAWphoto
the beauty of fiction is often the opposite: they'll get ironic justice and an HEA just 'cause we can.
Flopmind
I was mostly talking about how matt cannot, morally, legally, and most importantly physically "fuck up" the tier 40+s arrayed against him, forcing him to largely play within a different sphere than raw combat, where he specializes. As you pointed out, it'd be out of character. And no, I don't want this story to pivot into politics and master manipulation either.
Presten
I cannot articulate just how much I disagree with your opinions in this reply. Matt can and should kill the immortal scum from the last dynasty that stuck around and are doing this. Matt is the future of the entire realm and an ascender, Liz is the daughter of two monarchs and a ascender in spite of her childhood. The number of people more important than them in the realm both in and out of universe can be counted on a six fingered hand. Barring Matt acting completely out of character and being just the scum of the realm, the only real rules Matt has are self imposed. I think we have already been shown Matt being politically savvy in this book. I simply cannot fathom a book where Matt pivots to being a master manipulator and someone who hands dirty work off to others.
Presten
I desperately hope that this book isn't a parade of MAL constantly being rendered impotent via politics before one big fight at the end where they kill everyone. Because even fictional injustice makes me irrationally angry and I couldn't stand to read a book of that.
Flopmind
I was only joking about it maybe being them; it is pretty obvious who's at fault here. I cannot agree with the second half of your comment. Matt cannot mess everyone up because there would be consequences for pushing things too far. He might have more flexible bounds than most because of his ascender status, but yes he does still have bounds to contend with. If anything, I expect Matt to get another wake up call about how difficult it is for an ascender type like him to do politics and learn more about delegating and being subtle.
Arlano
I see it more as: Downside of new technique BUT old technique worse AND it's thus better.
T
Of course it’s them a shot across the bow for all of them I hope it wakes Matt up he needs to realise that he is not like everyone else he has the ability to fuck everyone up and the only good thing is that he is good person
T
Not everything even he can’t use his fathers talent all the time and he said the higher the tier the higher the cost with Matt at T45 he might be able to see the whole empire but even a slight move from one of the other t 50 to influence things he won’t be able to see shit
T
Oh ok but the stated goal of the guild is to make life easier or to save lives. I actually have to agree there if all he wanted to do is not stub the industry he could make it not free but charge a small amount for the information but the results would be the same he would still go into competition with the others he would just make money that in a few tiers would take a second to make Also the cleaning skills was just en example once they get the hang of it they can come out with an whole catalog of low tier skills wich can impact the whole low tier experience of living
Charlottef
The last time this issue about doing things by hand was mentioned, it was in the late chapters about the veil world. They were talking about tiers 1-3. Regarding the issue of companies selling cleaning skills, my point was more about a charity, which as far as the world is concerned is funded by the empire equivalent of public money, giving out something like this for free. If they were selling the method to make the cleaning skill, even for cheap, then it would not be an issue. Things that have a large economic or health benefit for society are valid things for a charity to work on. I don't believe domestic cleaning is in that category.
Alex
I think cultivators supplanting industry is a phenomenon confined to the higher Tiers - like, a single Tier 35 with the right skills would be able to produce microchips at a higher volume and quality than a low Tier manufacturing plant. Skills tend to overtly impact industry when they have higher fidelity and/or output than the alternatives; I don't see that being a factor with these low Tier skills which I imagine are on the low fidelity, and inefficient end of the scale, so I don't believe they'll play a massive role in industry. I also want to address the point you made earlier about these new skills killing industries - the point you made was about a low Tier cleaning skill destroying cleaning enchantment companies. My counterpoint is, who cares? The reason these new skills would kill an industry is because they were a better alternative to the product that industry produced - I see absolutely no value in suppressing innovation to keep industries alive. You need to remember that housing, food, and healthcare are basic rights enshrined by law in the Empire. People aren't going to lose their homes and starve if they lose their jobs in the Empire. Yeah, if a person lost their job at the cleaning supply company because Titan's Torch made the company redundant they'd be mad, but it wouldn't be a death sentence, and that same act would benefit far more people than it harmed.
Charlottef
Hi Alex, whilst I agree that these are spells to be used by individuals, industry does not seem to be the same in this world as the real one. One of the issues CMantis has mentioned in previous books is that so many things require awakened individuals to create or do them by hand instead of getting machines to do them. The fact that that low tier enchanters don't really exist means that anything that in the real world would be done by a machine (industrial or domestic) would be really expensive to buy for a tier 1-4, unless subsidised.
Alex
These new self-made skills fill the niche of low-Tier personal magic which can be made widely available to many people, most of whom aren't going to be delvers. The closest comparison in real-world terms would be cheap, personal appliances (like vacuum cleaners) - it isn't really applicable to industry. Agriculture is a heavily subsidized government-run industry in the PoA world - this new magic just isn't applicable there because agriculture is totally outside of the sphere of low-Tier personal magic. I'm not saying that Titan's Torch couldn't make advancements in agriculture, but the new skill methodology Ra'thala has introduced would be poor way to do it - agriculture is something that's better left to the Aperology, and Formations departments of the guild. I don't think healing skills would be a good thing to prioritize with this new skill methodology either, for a few reasons. First of all, medical magic is complicated - most healing spells start at Tier 14, with [Bandage], and modified [Endurance] being the only canonical exceptions; it's doubtful that a healing skill based on this new methodology would feasible for a low Tier to create - if a low Tier could create their own healing skill reliably, we have to assume the skill would be really crap based on the fact that healing skills tend to be T14+. Again, you have to remember that most people aren't delvers, and in the Empire people have free medical coverage for all non-delving related injuries; if a normal person got sick or hurt they'd just go to the hospital and have a doctor throw a [Healing Touch] on them - which would be completely free - so it wouldn't really be worth a normal person's time to make a really crappy healing spell. I like your idea about a low-Tier movement spell - I think that would be a valuable thing to pursue since cultivators tend to start using flying devices at around Tier 5; a Tier 5 movement spell that a person could grow as they advance would be really valuable, especially since [Flight] is a Tier 38 spell that's completely out of reach for low Tiers. I also like your idea about a heating/cooling spell - but again, you need to stop thinking about it in terms of industry; that would be nice to have because people need to heat/cool things in their daily lives. In industry, formations would be used for heating/cooling, since a low Tier wouldn't have enough mana to heat/cool a meaningful amount of anything.
Flopmind
I think that the council of sense might be rearing their ugly heads... just a suspicion lol.
Charlottef
Alex, please see my reply above. The examples I gave in my original post were given because that is what Matt had done previously (which happen to mostly, but not all be delving related). The healing spell and his transportation methods were not just used for delving. There is a reason why (in the real world) the steam train, the telegraph and the combine harvester were invented before the vacuum cleaner and the dish washer. Whilst the second two items were most definitely very helpful, the first three had a much larger impact on the population as a whole. Making cleaning the home easier is very much a modern, first world problem. If a real charity spent money on doing that the press and the public would rip them to shreds. We know Matt is spending his own money on this, but the rest of the empire believes that this money is coming from the emperor and Liz's parents who are royals. Beyond that, if you were a low tiered person who worked for one of these big companies selling skills for cleaning and you were told you would loose your job because an ascender decided that people being able to do domestic chores faster and easier was more important than you earning a living, how would you feel?
Alex
Okay, you've gone and touched on a big pet peeve of mine just now, which is that people massively over inflate the value of combat magic, and under appreciate the value of practical magic. Stories set in magical universes predispose readers to consider magic through the lens of the main character. This has the effect of getting people to think about magic in terms of how it could best be used by the main character - i.e, in combat. The thing you need to understand is that isn't how magic would work if it was real. You need to think of magic as a tool that would be used to enrich the lives of people who wielded it, like electricity. Saying that it makes no sense to use magic for anything other than combat spells is a bit like saying it makes no sense to use electricity for anything other than tasers and rail guns. If magic was real, 99.99999% of the time, people would use it to make their lives easier. They'd want it for practical things like cleaning, organization, transport, creature comforts, etc. Instances where magic was used in combat would actually be a vanishingly small minority of use cases. The overwhelming majority of people in the PoA universe would never step into a rift in their entire lives because they're monster infested death traps, which is the sort of thing that normal people avoid like the plague. Normal people would care a lot more about a cleaning skill than a combat skill, because it would be way more useful to them. All of you are massively underestimating how big of a deal a readily available, low tier cleaning spell would be. If that skill was introduced to the Empire it would instantly jump to the very top of the skill rankings by use frequency and mana consumption. The only skill that would be even remotely close to it in terms of societal impact would be [AI].
Charlottef
It isn't about whether the skills are used for delving or not. There are plenty of things that could be used to increase people's prosperity and wellbeing who are not Delvers. Any crafting skill (as crafters make things for non Delvers too), any farming or agriculture skill, a skill that slightly boosts the immune system or physical healing. One that slows your acceleration (this could be used by people who work at heights like construction workers or those who fall off flying swords). A skill that can regulate temperature of items, environments or living things up or down (could be used for medical or industrial use, or even at home). A skill that can reduce the weight of objects. Unless they are for something like disinfecting hospitals or cleaning up toxic waste, domestic cleaning skills are not among them.
T
That is were you fall in to the same trap that Matt was in most people are not delvers there is only a low percentage of people who delve as a career most cultivate ambient essence or pay to get carried through rifts and for the average citizen a spell that lets them clean the house and dishes is way more valuable on there time than a defence enchantment or a healing spell Matt was for the longest time in the delver bubble and I agree that for them a cleaning spell would be relatively low impact but think of the first chapters a waitress would get way more out of a cleaning spell then a fireball
Fabian
Knowing the Emperor knows everything that is gonna happen and people just have to get through it and learn kinda makes me feel less excited.
Charlottef
Hi Mantis, I'd like to bring something up that is bothering me about this chapter. The idea of producing quality of life skills seems incongruous with Matt's previous decisions. When he was making free enchantments, he deliberately stuck to those that would have a large and meaningful impact on lower tier people's lives. They were all, as far as I can remember healing, protective or support skills that would help low tier Delvers come out of of rifts alive. The skills that the team picked from what Ra'thala showed them, seems to more or less be in line with this. There were a couple of attack skills that don't even seem as powerful as a fireball, but the rest were things like body enhancement and shield skills. The problem for me is that the quality of life skills have no quantifiable benefit to people's lives. They don't make them safer, richer, healthier. They just take away income from those who sell the skills. The companies that sell these skills may be high tier, but the staff that actually do the selling and those tier 8s who delve the rifts for the skills are not. It is really no different than if Matt chose to use the travel mana to create a washing machine that could spin faster or a vacuum cleaner that could automatically clean the house faster, instead of the transport he decided to develop. The first just takes money out of other people's pockets, the second makes transportation of goods and people cheaper and quicker, which affects people's finances and local economy positively. Matt is very likely to loose the moral high ground here. He really does just sound like he wants to stick two fingers up to the high tier companies. It would be different if they had chosen to make crafting skills, which would make the crafters richer and maybe help make low level enchanted gear, but this just seems like picking a fight for the sake of it.
Charlottef
Thanks for the correction ; )
mly85lc
Well seeing how this is going playing doses of times over hundreds off years whit multiple different dance partners. It would make sence to gather, train and fund... "a corporation army division" to take on problems like this? Sure might need ask some favour form Many, Cat and and army's specialists. Alongside going to that 45 rift to train and fund everything in time.. but form that's preoperative this coordinate attack is prefect train and compression point for troops building up... so long theyry can defend it sufficiently to keeping operations going. Mayde have that division works "namely" under different ascender while still providing "services" to guild.
MinE
The worst part is the implication that the reason is rifts are lazy and/or like messing with us with OCD.
Aaron Hardin
T10 was the big tournament that Liz and Matt were entered in twice, once under a pseudonym which they won under.
Darune Albane
Not just as an Ascender but a PISSED OFF ENDLESS Ascender
Tristan R Mitchell
That is a completely different sentence. Currently it is downside AND downside BUT upside. Your suggestion would be downside BUT downside AND upside.
Zack
We just finished a major giant multibook story arc. There needs to be a bit of time to reset the story and set up the next bit. Most of the progression so far has been narrow and combat focused. This is the time for us to see the non-combat progression, of which the politics is definitely a part.
C_Mantis
We didnt advance last book but well see tiering up this book.
Gjim
Inserts * And it was at that moment they knew they had messed up meme.
David
Politics is fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out. But I can't help but feel like this progression fantasy has forgotten about the progression bit. Just my opinion
MinE
Honestly depending on the situation Allie could kidnap the emperor or one of the royals to have them help. Fredrick is the most likely b/c it would be hilarious.
Andrew K
I feel like Matt needs to make a point by just picking some financially sound interplanetary company he doesn't care for (that hasn't even necessarily really done much of anything to him, but doesn't seem totally random), then very publically and mercilessly driving them into bankruptcy.
Cindri
I bet matt blows his lid and finally starts acting like an Ascender
Arlano
"His precision was still a little weaker than he would have liked, and it was way more annoying to do a full wipe of an enchantment, but how much it sped up iterative work made it plenty worthwhile." I feel like this sentence doesn't work well. Maybe that would be better: "His precision was still a little weaker than he would have liked" BUT "it was way more annoying to do a full wipe of an enchantment" AND "how much it sped up iterative work made it plenty worthwhile."
Isiah Debarros
Ya it's like he is wearing shoes that don't fit cuz he thinks he should. Cuz he doesn't want to be like the nobles he that hurt him but the those people are using that against him
Bob Bryan
Probably did, trying to be nice. Then responded appropriately to it and never had to deal with it again. Never underestimate the stupidity of greedy idiots.
T
As much as I like Matt he forgot the highest truth of the realm power makes right So the response has to make the equation going forward highly different than at this moment I kinda feel that Waters would never have to deal with something like this
T
Power shapes the rules of the realm but if you are unwilling to use that power it is useless I kinda feel that as much as we know about Emanuel’s father he is even softer than Agatha they need to make a real punch to make the equation not work in the favour of whoever is stating this
Scion
100%
T
No like T15 unable to enter 11 is almost suicidal and they weren’t even 100 percent certain to make that they talked about tiering up at lest twice Even in the emp chap they talked about 80 percent chance
Zack
If they are intervals of 6, it might mean a secret tier 2 skill nobody has found yet O.O
fruit dragon
That would end with hell of a lot of bodies hitting the ground. And he'd probably find it boring
austin kutz
They've got tier 35 backers at the very least though. Call up Waters
Tommy
Matt is finding his feet with all this stuff to do with politics and balancing the type of response. He is an immortal. If he doesn’t like politicking - he needs to take the time to become so fricking good at it that while he might not ‘enjoy’ it, he can still kick political butt. After all, it’s gonna be a huge part of his existence no matter what. That way he can better balance his politics with his fighting responses I think? He’s being a bit too reticent to fight I feel. If he improves his politics side this will fix itself as he is more comfortable with what response is best. TFTC!
Sanairb
Are you sure about that? I remember 10 being the lowest possible, but too low for any chance of survival.
Greg Lambert
Yeah. I was really interested to hear how those conversations went as well. Shock, surprise, disbelief?
fruit dragon
Next chapter " yo Allie want to go f****** some pirates?"
Alex
I would really love to see a situation where a new set of skill Tiers gets introduced. That has nothing to do with the fact that my OCD demands skill Tiers should be in intervals of 5 starting at Tier 5. I definitely don't think that intervals of 6 starting at Tier 8 is heresy. Not at all.
Ryan Romano
Good thing a Phoenix is the natural predator of mice, ba dum tss
Blake N.
Careful now. A few letters changed in that sentence and you’ll have Disney/marvel gunning for you
Rhaid
And so we enter the full sabotage stage
Ryan Romano
He’s forgotten, or refuses to accept that eventually the entire galactic economy will run on his whims, and Manny will back him, you’re right it’s time to make an example
Alex
No, the lowest Tier you can enter Minkalla is Tier 11 - the group finished at Tier 11, got a boost into Tier 12 with genesis energy because they managed to unlock the secret white hole at the end, and then Matt had an inspiration to Tier 13 because he realized that white holes were real.
Ryan Romano
They’ve been too low key, it’s time to assemble the Ascenders!! But really, they find out it’s some lvl 45 nobles, just send their overpowered Dragon friend to wipe’em out, Lila would be ecstatic
Charlottef
"But what had started this whole project was the Ascender chat learning that he, Liz, and Aster had finished Minkalla at Tier 11". I thought they finished at tier 10. They got a boost to 11 from the white hole and Matt had an inspiration that got him to tier 12. The innate skill slot was a prize for those at tier 10. Is that not right?
Alex
Agreed - Matt needs to send a clear message NOW that he is not a man with whom to fuck, or he's going to have insurmountable problems once his Talents go public. When the world finds out what he's capable of the entire Realm is going to come calling to get mana from him. If he hasn't already made it clear by then that he'll come down like the hammer of an angry god on anyone who doesn't abide by his terms, he'll be dealing with a never-ending stream of assholes who think they have what it takes to get one over on him. I honestly think Matt needs give up on this obsession he has with being the good guy. He's so hung up on trying to be nice and approachable that people think they can get away with fucking with him, and it's not doing him any favors. He needs to send a message that going against him is suicide, and he needs to do it now while the number of heads he has to roll is still a relatively small number. If he waits until people realize he has the most valuable Talent in the Realm, the necessary amount of violence he'll have to perpetrate to maintain control of his fate will multiply beyond anything that's even remotely reasonable.
MinE
It either a distraction for something else or someone made a mistake. A full Ascender team vs entitled nobles.
MikeL
He needs to hire a clandestine/spy department. It’s now not just a hit against the guild but their Duchy. I don’t think he knows anyone with that skill set. Obviously too much to ask the King of the Spies. I wonder if that guy from the T10 tournament is really dead?
MikeL
Ooohh! A pirates arc.
Steve
Oh someone done goofed.
Bob Bryan
Matt has become way to passive with being afraid to step on toes. I get it, you can't make the entire empire your enemy, but if he keeps backing down, they will view him as a coward and it will be death by 1000 cuts. He needs to make a stand here and now. Figure out who is attacking them and crush them in every way imaginable. Find new suppliers and blacklist the ones that left to teach a lesson to all. In other words. "Talk softly but carry a big stick"
Thomas Todd
War! Time to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
Ryan Romano
an actual attack, bold strategy cotton
nolan saylor
Thanks Dae! Thanks Mantis! (I would give you a nickname, like Dae, but Man or Tis sound weird.) Issues with equipment holding up is a valid concern, and a smart way of attempting to solve it. If it works it would be a repeatable long term solution instead of needing to be re-resolved every few tiers. -If one version of Matt's sword breaks, do the other ones break or can he swap to a different version of his growth sword? So now we get MAL maybe learning that there is a deliberate force against them, not merely the Winter Wolves dragging their feet/paws. Skills can be weaker than T8 is a lovely nugget I will think about. How other Realms have different increments of power... I am certainly intrigued. -Is a T5 fireball different enough from a T8 fireball that both can be used without duplicating the cooldown? -Can a T5 skill be a guaranteed drop in a T5 rift? That would be huge for lower tiers to get skills earlier, maybe more impactful than Ra'thala's method of creating skills. And as a bonus the Empire already worked towards making all planets T5 at minimum. -Oh! it also means that for my idea of a T5 Realm there could be a skill for every tier 1-5. I do like the logic for how it will affect low tiers and how they cultivate. I want to ponder it more... but I have to read the rest of the chapter! -Matt is here screwing up the economy even before he becomes a high tier with endless mana. Add in how most high tier equipment has some repair function in it, so they only replace if it is shattered. Low tiers can't afford a repair enchantment and the equipment can't survive or sustain said enchantment. Low tiers really spend loads on repeat. -I wonder if there is money-laundering, and how well it works with low vs high tier mana stones. -op, and here comes Matt pondering about Money laundering... mana laundering? Hah, I thought of the skills appearing in Rifts first Matt! Op, and now we see the second step of the plan. I do wonder what the people in the Shadow Cabal have as their end goal? Do they plan to Ascend before MAL are strong enough to take petty vengeance? Will Shadow help take down the Shadowy Cabal. Seems fitting, and she does need entertainment. Have a great weekend!
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter
