C_Mantis
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Chapter 382
🕑 Added 2024-12-09 19:59:02 +0000 UTCAlso fyi this book is about to start speeding up but wanted to slow roll the new guy but this arc is going to start kicking into gear.
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Chapter 382
Ra’thala couldn't help but look to where Ascender Shadow, Allie, had vanished. He and Ascender Titan, Matt, were dozens, if not hundreds of planets away at the Ascender’s own fiefdom and traveling to his guild, but none of that was at the front of his mind.
Like a specter of the night that sought to take his life, the information he had spent his last few days learning refused to reconcile itself with everything he thought he knew.
Hearing Ascenders were the strongest people of their Tier in this Realm was one thing, but learning that to earn that title they needed to reach Tier 25 in less than two hundred of their years was beyond shocking. Their years weren’t exactly the same length— his Realm didn’t have standardized years across planets— but they were easy to convert. Once he had done the conversion, he realized these people had gone from unawakened mortals to the peak of his Realm in less than a Divines’ lifespan.
And they did it with minimal help.
Sure, they had some support and trainers, but that didn’t change the fact that they earned their power by entering Monster Dens and killing the monsters inside, instead of just killing the spill off that escaped from full rifts.
Their cultivation was different; certainly that could account for some of their speed, as they weren't limited by the ambient essence and others cultivating near them. But the fact remained they had effectively raced through his entire former Realm in a little longer than an early Divines’— a Tier 5’s— total lifespan.
It had taken Ra’thala almost an entire day to actually believe that, and even then, he had needed to go over the insurmountable amount of media surrounding each Ascender’s Ascension before it really sank in.
It was only after he truly understood what made one an Ascender that he could appreciate his new acquaintances and Yun Me, who had reached their level through grit and effort.
Even Susanne, who acted like Ascender was a nigh impossible goal, had only failed at the final hurdle, and from the media reports, could have completed The Path of Ascension if she had been just a dozen years faster.
From his perspective, the difference between two hundred and two hundred and twelve years was nothing.
He knew immortal cultivators who had been in seclusion longer than that, trying to work their way through a bottleneck in their cultivation, and these people had gone from nothing to the peak of his old Realm in that time.
It made him wary of even being near them.
Sure, they had defeated him in combat, and this new information didn’t inherently change his relative power, but it did put things into a new frame of reference.
These weren’t pampered children raised to their position and given everything they could need or want, they were the most brutal, efficient killers who could be sourced out of countless quadrillions.
Even more shocking was learning they were still pushing themselves to become stronger. Not just in advancing in Tier, but they were constantly honing their spells, their abilities with their weapons of choice, and formulating new tactics to make themselves stronger in their Tier despite only having rivals among themselves.
All of that made him feel like that small boy who had cheated his way into being a Celestial. Small and unworthy of interacting with such prodigies.
He knew it wasn’t logical, but that didn’t stop him from feeling that way.
Matt floated into the air and opened his arms. “Our capital planet. Palustris. It's a fire-aspected world, and a prize at its Tier.”
Ra’thala wrenched his mind to the present and looked around with all of his senses.
Eyes widening, he took in a deep breath and cycled some of the ambient essence through his spirit. Having not yet created a cultivation method that would let him form his twenty sixth layer of cultivation, he couldn't keep this uniquely fiery essence but his cycling let him get a feel for it nonetheless.
“A worthy world.”
An understatement to be sure. Anyone from his Realm who practiced a fire cultivation method would love to get their hands on this essence. It danced like it was alive and ready to burn any of his enemies to a crisp.
Wanting to share a little, Ra’thala continued, “I never found such a world myself, but I heard a tale of a similar world, except this one was filled with seemingly endless oceans. A dozen families fought over the world, but it was all for naught, as one of the defeated parties, angry at their loss, destroyed the Sky Bridge, sending the world adrift. We didn’t know that Chaotic Space was traversable, and so the world and its people were lost.”
That was another thing he hadn’t known of before his ascension, and something that seemed obvious in hindsight.
They had known that people too strong for a world could tear through reality and pull in destructive energies, but no one had thought to send themselves into that area to explore, as these people had learned to do.
Or if there were people or families who had learned of that secret, they hadn’t shared.
He suspected there were. He personally knew of at least three families who had consistently sold treasures not found on the connected worlds who he now believed had discovered how to traverse the dangers of Chaotic Space, and were raiding passing planets for their treasures before Sky Bridges naturally formed. Possibly even ones far enough out they wouldn't form bridges.
Matt nodded at his words but indicated a cluster of rifts to the side that didn’t look naturally formed. Too uniformly spaced. “I have something of a hobby of creating rifts to study and also to keep delving from getting repetitive. You said you wanted to check them out. We can do that before or after the visit to the guild, but I’m happy to walk you through them.”
Ra’thala didn’t know him that well, but he believed he read reluctance in Matt’s body language, and so shook his head. “Let us go to the guild first. Work then play as they say.”
Matt grinned and flew out of the planet.
Letting his sixth sense stretch out, Ra’thala searched around them to find both of the planet’s moons were not just inhabited, but terraformed, and had their own essence cores.
That wasn’t entirely new to him, but it was rare that people bothered to go through the effort if the moons weren’t inherently inhabitable, and he doubted they were given what he could feel.
It was also a reminder just how powerful and influential these Ascenders were.
An entire moon was dedicated to one of their personal projects.
A Tier 25 doing so in his Realm wouldn’t have been that unusual, but Matt wasn’t at the peak of the Realm— just halfway there. No one would have allowed a Tier 12 to have such wealth in his Realm. People would have descended upon them to plunder the accumulated wealth like a pack of ravenous wolves.
Surely a benefit of having such a large and interconnected government, but not without its downsides. The wars these Ascenders were founded for dwarfed anything he had even heard tales of in his Realm, and he kept that in mind even as he saw the grandeur of this place.
Still, it was impressive, and he let himself bask in the feeling of the new and unusual before it became commonplace.
Buildings were spread out to make what he would call courtyards or estates, and people moved between them along carefully placed walkways. Laboratories staffed with dozens of people all working in unison on whatever tasks they had.
It felt like the Royal Academy of Isha’tl he had visited when he was a Deity and on his path of vengeance.
He hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to really appreciate it at the time, but he had learned several spells there and earned himself a good bit of resources from treasures of the stars he had traded with the academics there.
Sadly, the academy had been leveled when the royal family had been defeated by a neighboring world, who themselves had been kicked out of their own world after losing their Almighty— their Tier 15— in a battle.
Ra’thala set his new [AI] to correct him anytime he used his old Realm’s terminology and once more marveled at the skill.
Having absorbed it, he was shocked at how delicate and intricate the skill’s structure was, but while that was impressive, it was dwarfed by what the [AI] allowed him to do. So much was just a thought away, and it was easy to get lost in the amount of information available.
Before he could get distracted once again, they landed at a large central building and stepped inside, where Matt walked him through connecting his [AI] to the LocalNet, giving him permissions to be on the world and access to the research ongoing at the facility.
Deliberately not looking through the list, Ra’thala looked to Matt and blinked at him to lead on, then corrected himself to a small hand gesture his [AI] said did what he wanted.
Leading the way, Matt guided him through the halls as he spoke. “I sent a message here as early as I could about looking for people who had a special interest in skill making, or rather skill modifying. There aren't too many who bother to make skills here, but there are a few. I even know one. A summoner who helped train me when I was Tier 6 but he’s still a few months out. Thankfully, the guild has a few people who have both dabbled in the subject and are eager to listen to you talk about it.”
As they arrived at the room set aside for them, Ra’thala didn’t miss that it was spatially expanded, though to a smaller degree than he had seen at the Capital, where space was at a premium.
His attention was drawn away from that to the people waiting for them. Almost all of them were stronger than him, and Ra’thala felt a small twinge of unease at the thought of teaching these people until he realized they weren't the people he was projecting onto them.
They weren't old hands who long since would have mastered anything he had to share, but instead like fresh Celestials who needed guiding, and he had done that a time or two even if he had never been anyone's master.
That settled him into a place he was more familiar with, and Ra’thala went over the basics of skill creation using the simplest physical boosting skill as a starting point.
Being of a higher Tier than himself, they learned quickly, and he never needed to repeat anything more than twice. And half of those instances were because of translation issues, as his [AI] was seemingly still finetuning his language conversion just as he was learning Empire Standard.
One of the men, Erwin, raised a finger in question. “The size is a bit of a problem. It's larger than our standard size by almost half. Is that reducible?”
Ra’thala thought over the question for a moment before shrugging. “The size is larger than some. In fact, it's a touch larger than what I would call average, but it's larger for two main reasons. One, it's a foundational skill that is like a block of marble ready to be carved. Many of the skills that build off of this will trim away pieces, which bring its size down. Not to the degree your peoples have seemed to create skills in, but something closer. Second, the skill is easier to make if it's a little larger. More margin for error. Additionally, we just don’t really run out of skill space, so having slightly larger skills isn’t really that big of a deal. I never met anyone who wasn’t an immortal skill collector that needed to use what you call the outer layer of skills.”
Realizing he hadn’t really answered the man's question, Ra’thala added, “As to if it can be reduced? I’m sure it's possible, but I don’t know if it will be worth the results.”
Erwin started murmuring to himself, but Matt nodded as if he had expected Ra’thala’s answer and held out a hand. Another person appeared long enough to drop a small bag into it before vanishing once more.
Tossing the bag to Ra’thala, Matt said, “A collection of blank skill shards of various Tiers. They let us transfer skills to other people and are the perfect way to test a lot of our theories about skill size and what Tier each skill is considered as its impossible to put a higher Tier skill into a lower Tier skill shard.”
Ra’thala pulled one of the small gems out of the bag and looked at it.
It was blue, similar to the light blue color of mana itself, but a shade darker. Unlike the skill shard he had absorbed the [AI] skill out of, this one was hollow.
Or not hollow. That was the wrong word.
It was filled with a more solidified energy similar to his spirit, just static and viscous.
It would be difficult to create a skill in such a structure, but Ra’thala believed he was up to the challenge.
He liked to think of creating a skill like creating pottery: his spirit was the clay and his cultivation the wheel upon which the clay was spun.
Being so far away from the center of his spirit, carving the skill structure into the blank skill gem was like trying to carve his desired shape in the clay with foot long sticks, but Ra’thala had enough experience to manage though he almost destroyed the skill shard as he realized he needed to treat it differently than his spirit.
Line by line, he carved the beginner body strengthening skill into the skill shard.
He initially tried to make the skill smaller, fearing the skill shard couldn't contain the larger skill, but while things were a little cramped thanks to his small errors working so far away from the center of his spirit, he had enough room to carve a near perfect example of the skill. At least it was better than anything a Celestial made when going for such skills, and would work perfectly fine.
It took almost two full days of carving, but when he pulled his attention out of the skill gem, he found almost a thousand people crammed into the now larger room.
Blinking, he found Matt just a foot away with his eyes glued into the skill shard in his hand.
“Do you know what you just did?”
Like a spell was broken, a murmur broke out as everyone started talking at once but Ra’thala was just thoroughly confused.
He had just done what was asked of him.
Wiggling the skill gem, he responded, “I created the skill for you all as you asked. It was a bit more difficult making it in an outside source, but it's quite handy if someone else can absorb it later. Or even just view it without absorbing it.”
Matt laughed, but it had an edge Ra’thala couldn't place. It wasn’t anger or anything targeted at him, but there was something there nonetheless.
His worry evaporated when Matt grinned at him. “Ra’thala, when we mentioned making the skill, we meant for you to make the skill in your spirit and then push the skill out of your spirit as if you were discarding a skill. With a blank skill shard in hand, you can safely eject it inside.”
Ra’thala blinked his confusion. “Eject a skill? Why would you do that? I didn’t even know that was possible.”
That caused another stir, but even as they reacted, Ra’thala realized that it should indeed be possible, just unimaginably wasteful. But for a people who absorbed skills instead of creating them, it was entirely possible for them to fill up their spirit with skills.
Matt dumped a bag of blank skill shards into the air where they floated on display, as Ra’thala started to understand what was going on. “These are almost considered trash. They are, or rather were, damn near useless for anyone who didn’t want to transfer a skill. No one had ever tried to create a skill inside of one. Not successfully at least. After seeing you do it, we obviously started trying for ourselves.”
Looking up from the floating skills, Matt met Ra’thala’s eyes and asked, “Unless your method is somehow safer, what happens when you mess up creating a skill?”
Ra’thala winced but answered. “Spiritual damage. It is both painful and takes a long time to heal. It can also make breaking through to the next Realm harder, and in some cases, impossible until the damage is fully healed. Which takes longer than being healed well enough to fight normally.”
Everyone he knew had messed up at some point, and it was a lesson that was taught the first time. Creating a skill was to be done carefully in small steps, and preferably in secluded meditation for good reasons.
Ra’thala watched as Matt started carving inside a skill gem he grabbed. “All true for us. Except, when you fail when working inside a blank skill shard. Which is something none of us have succeeded in even while watching you.”
As he said, the skill structure fell apart, taking the skill shard with it. Crystal turned into dust and then into nothing, but there was no wince of pain or discomfort as the skill creation failed.
Ra’thala opened his mouth before shutting it. Reaching for another skill shard, he deliberately failed in the creation of a skill and watched as the shard fell apart without any harm to himself.
“I thought you wanted me to make the skill in the shard and knew something I didn’t. I figured the difficulty of making the skill was why your people didn’t do it often.”
Matt barked a laugh. “You surprised us, that's for sure. No one in the Realm knows of this, or if they do, they aren’t sharing. And I’ve checked sale records, no one is buying lots of skill shards, so I doubt there is anyone really using this to their advantage. And frankly, no one really develops new skills in this Realm.”
Ra’thala could only smile that he had even inadvertently shown, or possibly taught, these people something new.
It felt good and put him on more of a level playing field. Part of him wanted to keep his method to himself but that would be cruel with so many eager and expectant faces after all the kindness he’d been shown and it was obvious why they were failing and so he explained his method in detail to the eager listeners.
That seemed to open the floodgates as nearly everyone in the room started asking him questions at the same time, but they instantly stopped as Matt held up a hand.
All except Erwin, the man who had spoken earlier. While everyone else had what Ra’thala would call a healthy fear of the Ascender, Erwin seemed oblivious that he was ignoring the man's clear instruction.
From the bemused and tolerant expression on Matt’s face, Ra’thala put together that they had a history together, which was both why he could get away with such acts and why he was the only one.
“The skill you created. I’ve been analyzing the structure Matt sent over and watched you create it. Why did you create this extension before the surrounding area? It just seems to get in the way. Why not create it after the surrounding protrusion?”
Ra’thala reviewed what Erwin was saying and nodded in agreement. “That would be a more advanced method. The protrusion creates an area of stability that makes all of the smaller, more delicate work that follows easier. That's why we make all four of those platforms first. It's possible to not make them, as they aren’t needed for the function of the spell, and if I was recreating this skill for my personal use I wouldn’t bother. But I’m making a show model, so I followed standard practice for all novitiates.” Feeling the word wasn’t exactly the one he wanted, he surged his cultivation to speed up his perception and searched through a few dictionaries for what he wanted. “Novices.”
The first question answered opened the floodgates, and Ra’thala answered a few more questions, quickly sketching out a few more generalistic skill patterns that were commonly used by low Tiers in his world.
Of special interest was the basic [Fury of the Blade] that he had started with, a [Draw Heat of the Stars] that coated one’s blade with fire, a variation of that same skill that sent out a small dart of flame called [Sun Flare], and [Star in My Hand] which conjured a small plate-sized shield of mana on the caster’s hand.
There were more, but those four were the ones that the actual team members selected to work on the skill project were most interested in.
Ra’thala had half expected all of the people there to be working on the project, but as it turned out, most of them just wanted to see a new discovery in the making, as he accidentally showed everyone what blank skill shards could be used for.
Which was a question he had to ask. “When you say the skill shards are useless, what is going to happen now that they have a use?”
Matt made a gesture Ra’thala didn’t quite follow. “The price will rise once we release the information. Eventually it will stabilize and new rifts will be created that regularly drop blank skills, as well as popularizing the rifts that already drop them. Currently, most blank skill shard rifts are just destroyed and recreated to have a more useful drop.”
Having heard about that, Ra’thala asked about the rift creation methods and was given the promise of a full walkthrough once they were done getting the teams started.
A process Ra’thala didn’t fully understand until Matt explained.
His people were going to take what he had taught them and iterate upon it using their own methodologies, trying to standardize and simplify the skill creation method.
When Ra’thala asked if Matt had any hope that they would succeed, because he doubted it, as the skills had been boiled down over tens of thousands of iterations in his realm to reach the widest audience, the Ascender simply shrugged. “What does it matter if they fail?”
Ra’thala was baffled at the question. “But the costs? I heard you allocate a number of resources to them that I admittedly don’t have context for, but if those Tier 30s are excited for the resources, that indicates it’s costly enough they couldn't gather it themselves, and therefore valuable. If that value is wasted, won’t you be upset? My method at least works and can be shared immediately at no cost.” Realizing how that sounded, he added, “Not that I believe my methods can’t be improved upon, but it seems wasteful.”
“Okay, but what does it matter if they fail?” Matt just repeated his question, which forced Ra’thala to reconsider his position.
Finally he gave up. “I don’t know. They fail and waste the resources and time.”
“Yeah, but is that such a bad outcome? Sure, I might lose some money, some time where those researchers could be doing something else, and it delays the rollout of the idea. But out of those outcomes, the only one that really bothers me is the last one. So what if it wastes resources? It's just money. Money can be made, time would be used no matter what they were doing. But the possible reward is something that can let the poorest people make up for their own lacking wealth by spending some of their time. Most people in our Realm don’t delve, but there are a number of people who do. Ninety nine percent of them start by buying either normal weapons or, if they are magically inclined, magical wands that cast specific spells. They are a money sink, so not everyone can afford them. But everyone has time. For those without money but willing to dedicate some time each day to making a skill, even a skill that is slightly larger than normal, they can get not only a leg up, but something that will advance with them, instead of needing to be replaced every few Tiers.”
Matt paused for a minute before he continued. “Realistically, the skills will break into something like five percent of the target audience, but even that is enough for me to try. The blank skill stuff is way cooler in my opinion, but will probably be limited to research. I know Liz would love to test some of her more esoteric skill ideas without risk, but others will follow in her footsteps, and who knows what else will come out of the discovery? So yeah, I’m willing to roll the dice and spend an inordinate amount of resources in the hopes we can create an even simpler skill. My people don’t have much experience in creating skills outright, like yours, but we do have extensive experience in modifying them. I’m hoping by mixing the two together, we can make something better.”
Ra’thala was about to respond when Matt gestured outward. “I didn’t have much growing up, but I had chances and opportunities. One of my goals has been to help everyone.”
“Creating more ladders.”
Matt looked at him oddly and Ra’thala realized he spoke in his native language, and so explained the saying to which Matt nodded.
“Exactly.”
Grinning, Matt tapped his temple. “Also, you should check your [AI]. I reported your finding to the Emperor, and he has seen fit to reward you. Normally, that would only be if you decided to share the discovery, but it was so public that the cat is out of the bag. Credit will still be given to you, or your name can be left out of it.”
A quick peek had shown that the Emperor had already been very generous with his reward, and no matter the laws of this land, wealth put a target on one's back.
Ra’thala’s pride liked the idea of his name being attached to the discovery, but he shook his head. “I’ll take the anonymity if it's all the same.”
Matt laughed and agreed, before clapping his hands together and rubbing them. “Okay, the next stop is the enchanters. They want to go over every rune you know so they can see if anything is worth iterating on. This is fun, isn't it?”
Ra’thala couldn't help but agree: It was fun.
Comments
BeepBoop
The difference is that knowledge can spread to the other great powers and they are skilled at gathering it. Some things will remain secret, much won't as millenia come and go.
Jonathan Campbell
I have a feeling that after he learns all the details of the new idea of using blank shards as a skill canvas that Wrangle will probably have his original skill idea finished and absorbed long before his spirit is fully healed. That being based on where it was said that it takes a LOT of time for the healing and rebuilding of the spirit so it's probably been at most 4 or 500 years since they were trained by him so I could be very wrong, but I'm sure he'll love it regardless as a new actually safe method for him to experiment.
KnightRider007
“Deliberately not looking through the list, Ra’thala looked to Matt and blinked at him to lead on, then corrected himself to a small hand gesture his [AI] said did what he wanted.” -lovely, subtle piece of cultural differentiation there. Nicely done.
KnightRider007
Yeah, the look on Wrangle’s face - like “That was an option?!?”
Julie Smith
C. Mantis, that's my experience interacting with my editors. I write a passage I think is clear and they don't get it. It's usually because several words or a whole sentence I was assuming wasn't in the paragraph.
Julie Smith
This chapter IS fun! Thanks, Mantis! Now Ra'thala is wealthy and has done at least one thing no one else ever tried before. The next logical development is mass-producing these skill shards for lower tiers. I'm nearly 100% sure Matt's guild will succeed. And the positive economic impact will be immense. Will it solve Manny's economic worries? Probably not completely.
MinE
Besides the Innate Skill slot the exit rewards seem definitely less than an ascension but for floor rewards it depends a lot.
Clint
Only his overdeveloped sense of duty.
Donan The Barbarian
Aside from tiering up via inspirations, the Crater has to use their own ability to make stuff for trade profitable enough that they can afford raw materials and mana for crafting and escorts through rifts to tier up normally and keep their crafting skills sufficiently advanced that people 2 tiers higher and many times older than them are still beneath the Crater on The Path in terms of practicality of produced items so that the Pathers' stuff sells out damn near instantly at all times. Someone using their crafting ability to create their own combat power and walking the line between Crafter and Combat has it a little better and a little worse as they don't need to pay a team to carry them through a rift but that also means they need combat power close to a combat only pather to stay on pace without inspirations because there's no garuntee you'll get one when you need one.
Sean C Jackson
And besides who in the realm could make him stay?
Sean C Jackson
Better than expensive enchanted weapons and armor you might not be able to afford.
Sean C Jackson
They have at least 1 tier 50 planet in the past but it/they were either lost or destroyed in the shattering.
Sean C Jackson
It's definitely more comprehensive as it seems to give a significant boost to every aspect of your cultivation.
Justice Knapton
I think minkalla is ment to mimic an ascension out of a plain so what her got for achieving a real one is definitely better
Pyrefiend
It's a shame that he can't do Minkalla. I imagine the vast majority of peak & pinnacle elites in the realm got a good Minkalla reward.
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Tsorov
And he can't use the full scale of his talent or the other great powers would notice
Tsorov
Nah, not really, yes it will help more people form skills sooner, but it isn't a realm changing thing like: I will upgrade the main planets to tier 50.
Tsorov
Not really. Crafting has two possible paths, just like "normal" Ascenders. Trough rifts, or through inspirations. And, as they have longer and longer to work on their projects, they have less and less time to dive into rifts, slowing their advancement. I think we have heard of one guy who got to at least tier 25 with Inspirations, but that wasn't a pather, as far as I know. So yes, it is possible, but even more difficult that other Ascenders. On the other hand, most Ascenders do have a crafting passion, like Matt with Runes, or Liz with Alchemy
Bryan
How does the crafting path work? I feel like a pather specializing in crafting skills could do well
Kaladorph
Rath boot camp to raise him to closer to ascended, regular character plox
C_Mantis
I will say thanks for the feedback this stuff is great as I dont always say what I think im saying.
MinE
His talent certainly helps, but he has other sources of income.
Anthony Randolph
Made this comment before remembering that the high tier rifts don't tier up because their delved all the time lol, as long as they let them tier up I'm sure they have tier 100 rifts!
C_Mantis
More items need to be replaced. Not everyone can afford a Tier 8 fireballl at Tier 1 so they by a wand of fire that does something similar but then they need to upgrade it again at Tier 3 and so on similar to matt with his OG sword.
BagFullOfLizards
I’m pretty sure they only have to eat planet cores because this realm lacks tier 50 planets, so they don’t have high enough tier ambient essence available. It might have had them before the shattering of the old empire? So as long as the higher realm has planets up to tier 100 people should be able to make it that high without ridiculous amounts of resources.
Itsigu
Na. I don't think so. Remember the "careful what you wish for" challenge in minkala. It showed matt at tier 51 and the emperor of the realm. And he hated it because it was boring and he wasn't advancing. At the end of the day he's an ascender and I think the itch to grow will be too much for anything like that.
Sébastien Kingsbury
It's not necessarily better if you can just afford skill shards, but because you make them yourself you can keep building on them as you tier up so the skill keeps up with you
Anthony Randolph
Loved the chapter! I've been thinking about the scaling of tiers and I'm curious if there are even tier 100s in the higher planes? In the lower plane people are able to reach the peak of the realm purely on ambient essence which takes much longer than delving as far as we know, but in the middle plane people have to cheat and eat planetary cores to reach tier 50 in even tens of thousands of years (if I remember the farm and how long it takes to raise a new ruler within their 30 thousand year reign correctly) how hard would it be to reach tier 100 if scaling continues at the same rate? What materials do they have access to that helps? Dam I'm so curious about the higher planes!!!
MinE
Hopefully for her future students, there is no widely available back to basics equivalent or she'll be forcing them at best to switch between methods to find which one fits best or at worst to design their own custom cultivation method.
David
Too short
Luciaron
He can only say this because of his talent
Alex
Luna has a compulsive tendency to correct inefficiencies wherever she finds them - partly this is because her void affinity makes her slightly insane, partly it's because her Domain is built around the idea of efficiency and potential, but mostly it's because her bond Nora died at Tier 14 without a Concept. Let it not go unsaid that for all of Luna's brilliance, she does have issues. Luna's worst tendencies emerge when she starts "chasing the nines", trying to find every last bit of potential when her subject is dealing with severe diminishing returns. This would be an issue she'd run into fairly frequently because a lot of the cultivation techniques used in the Empire are considered 'perfected', so it's just a matter of fitting them to the person she's training. With that in mind, I think Luna would be overjoyed if she woke up and found that the world was completely different. There would be so much potential waiting to be realized, and so many inefficiencies she could correct without having to deal with the futility of trying to eke out the potential of something that's already near-perfect. EDIT: I will also add that Luna knows about cycling essence to boost cultivation, she mentions it in the post-vassal war arc when she's talking about the suppression bands she put on all the kids. She doesn't think it's a very valuable technique to learn because it takes centuries of effort to figure out, it only boosts cultivation by a few percent, and it strains the core in a way that requires the user to rest afterwards. I'm sure she'll reconsider that idea when she finds out about Ra'thala's cultivation method, but core cycling isn't an unknown to her.
MikeL
What makes these skills better that it will advance with them, instead of replaced?
Jacob
Is anyone else picturing Luna waking up from her nap in a 1000 years, to find everything she knows is out of date. Tier 1 and 2's now have skills Skills are being created on skill shards A whole new cultivation method The ability to cycle your cultivation It will either be her greatest dream or worst night mare
Sean McClain
The reason making a new skill was basically a lost art was due to the backlash if it failed which can stall future progression. This man from a different universe just invented a way to make a skill with no risk of spiritual damage if you fail. Thus the main impediment to making new skills goes away and should open the flood gates to people either making their own version of new skills, copies of intrinsic skills, or make new skills out of whole cloth. It's a big deal. Just because you had someone with an outsiders prospective.
Jason Hatter
Matt took Ra'thala to his Guild, to show off and see what could be learned from the different methods between Realms. When asked to show off his skill, instead of putting it into a shard like the Empire would, he carved out directly into the shard, a technique no one present had ever considered, and one the Emperor thought was worth rewarding.
Jason Scott
Matt's gonna gonna do a run as supreme emperor for 50k and none will let him stand down. They will make him do another 50k before he can ascend. By that point everything will be under his rule. Manny and the others will be kings of their nations buy Matt, he rules all. Who's gonna stand against a guy who will control all mana everywhere when he's close to T50? At that point you can't be immortal around him he can control the mana that sustains your life lol.
Kazith
It’s nice to see them experimenting with different facets of magic again. It feels reminiscent of when Matt first delved into Aperology.
Jason Hardman
TYFTC! Loved getting the insight into his thoughts on the insanity that is an ascender. It's fascinating to see how such a radically different perspective allows for new discoveries. I've always liked it when a realisation strikes that your preconceptions are blinding you to a whole range of possibilities.
C_Mantis
Ill try not to. I actually added the chapter numbers because I wanted to see where we would land. Im writing 85 today so well see how 86 ends up friday.
C_Mantis
TLDR he can make skills as shown in his pov chapter. He also learned its possible to safely make skills inside a blank skill shard which was otherwise only used for transferring skills to someone else though there is a trick to it.
Tommy
Yeah new guy is awesome. TFTC!
C_Mantis
This or something like this was always the idea for how they figured it out. I just cant always tell you guys the truth.
Orims
They probably did and failed. If these researchers with milenia of experience and Matt are struggling to do it, it is not an easy task, also it is plainly not needed to do as most of the skills used anywhere are dropped by rifts. I mean I do agree that this does strain credulity a bit but whatever.
Clifford Solonas
thx for the chapter
Zebrababies
I’m gonna be honest I did not understand what was happening in this chapter at all
RedLeaf
Thanks for the chapter! It's looking like Ra'thala has some knowledge that has the potential to be another pretext for the "big war" that's going to kick off when Matt's talent is made public.
nolan saylor
Thanks Mantis! Thanks Dae! I am glad Ra"thala isn't oblivious to what an Ascender is. I hope we see his journey to still stand tall by them. I wonder if the clans may be raiding or if it is possible to hide a sky bridge. -I wonder how many archipelagos of worlds there are in the T25 realm. They don't have the spiritual weight of T50s dragging all the worlds together. It is interesting how much knowledge is hidden. How far would the world go if people shared knowledge. It is sadly understandable that people care firstly for their own and for civilization less, at least many people. I do like that a blink was the cue. With cultivation you can certainly control your need to blink. -Also it reminds me of cat's expressing themself in a blink. Still curious if the oversize skills can fit in standard sized skill shards. Huh... Mantis said that people wouldn't discover the idea of creating skills within the blank shard in this novel. I wonder if that was a lie, or if they didn't plan it but it just didn't make sense. It really does make sense, no preconceived notions about what to do and what is possible. It's a common cause of innovation -So it's not merely that the realm didn't try it, but that they may have needed a different style of skill creation to make it work. -And now we see another benefit of making larger skills. Yeah, I do enjoy Ra'thala. For that alone I hope the stare at the beginning of the chapter, where Allie left, was more than awe at power. I hope he sticks around. -And him admiring her constellations at their first meeting was cute as well. -An Ascender with an ascender.
John Smith
It doesn’t have to be nobody has tried, it has to be that it hasn’t been done since before the breaking or that it’s a secret advanced method of a different major power. I could also see skill size and complexity having exponential impacts on difficulty to where it takes a tier 50 doing it for a tier 8 skill to work without the tricks.
fruit dragon
Those skills are going to end up being required at playpens in like I don't know 50 years. Like the classes Matt had to take at the start of the story. It might be something like "the Titan skills pather exam" or something
MinE
Can’t wait to find out how upgrade orbs work with these self created skills, bigger than one slot sized ones specifically.
Colin Groh
every t40 who detonated a custom skill inside their spirit looking like a total dumbass right now. Liking Ra'thala a lot I'm glad you gave him some time to get adjusted before next arc
Darune Albane
So it is your birthday (happy bday) .. you gonna give us a gift of a chappie with a cliffie just befor you do the break
saganatsu
Nobody succeeded
Alex
That works! I think it would be good to add a bit of PoV of the event from Matt's perspective in the next chapter and mention that the way Ra'thala's spirit interacted with the skill shard felt extremely odd, or something along those lines just to make it clear from someone who has experience with blank skill shards that he's doing something novel.
Havokk
Loved seeing Matt still be Matt with his "screw the resources if this makes life better for others"
C_Mantis
Let me know if I need to add more. Being so far away from the center of his spirit, carving the skill structure into the blank skill gem was like trying to carve his desired shape in the clay with foot long sticks, but Ra’thala had enough experience to manage though he almost destroyed the skill shard as he realized he needed to treat it differently than his spirit.
Alex
I think that would be a good addition, because it reads like nobody's ever thought to try it, which is insane.
Dallin S
I love this new arc and ideas that come with it!
Richard Merlin
it is fun
C_Mantis
as Ra showed there is a trick to it. If thats not clear I can expand it.
Sacchito22
I feel like I'm on a new roller coaster at my favorite theme park, cackling wildly as we slowly rise up on an incredible incline. No idea what's gonna happen but sweet f*** I'm excited.
Derze
I like him,he is fun
Alex
I find it really difficult to believe that nobody has tried to carve a skill into a blank skill shard before. EDIT: I want to add a bit to help get my point across better, and I hope it doesn't come across as me being mean because that isn't my intention here. I believe if a cultivator was told that blank skill shards exist, they would assume they had a function to carve skills into them, because that's what I assumed as a reader when they were first introduced back in the post-vassal war arc. I will not accept that people haven't at least tried to carve skills into blank skill shards before, because I find that entirely unbelievable. For the wider Realm to have accepted the fact that it cannot be done, I think a few points could be made to help get that across. 1. Attempting to carve a skill into a blank skill shard in any way that would be considered natural should result in the immediate destruction of the skill shard without any progress being made in terms of actually creating the skill structure. I think if a cultivator could make even some amount of progress carving a skill into a blank skill shard before it was destroyed, they'd assume they weren't doing it right rather than think it was impossible. If that was the case I believe that there would have been somebody in history who would have doggedly kept at it until they succeeded - especially if blank skill shards are considered worthless, and therefore wouldn't cost very much to experiment with. 2. I think the method to carve a skill into a blank skill shard should feel wrong to anyone who was familiar with skill shards. This would be an easy explanation as to why nobody's managed it before, and it would also explain how Ra'thala figured it out so quickly: because he's unfamiliar with skill shards he'd be more inclined to use them in ways that normal cultivators would consider 'wrong'. With that in mind, I think it would clear things up a lot if a line was added that Ra'thala destroyed a few skill shards before he tried a different approach, which could lead into a point of view from Matt in the next chapter that he found Ra'thala's approach to carving into the skill shard really unusual when ultimately succeeded.
James Faulkner
Aw Matt has a new friend lol, Tftc!
