C_Mantis
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Chapter 342
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Chapter 342
Matt took in a deep breath as they returned to the capital. Allie had teleported back most of Team Zero, the only exception being Arthur, who wanted to check in on one of his many-times grandchildren who intended on entering Minkalla the next cycle.
Just a moment after they arrived, Allie turned and waved as she started walking away. “Ok I’m off. I’ll check back into the Capital once a month for the next year, but then only once a year.”
Before she was able to teleport away, Aster pulled her into a hug, which bought everyone else enough time to give their wayward teleporter their own goodbyes.
Matt took the time to slip Allie a ring he had prepared right after the war ended and ignored the eye roll he got in return. He knew Allie was in a rush to go and venture through the Empire, but really she could have waited a few days.
Still, it was what she wanted to do and he supported that.
Allie was always one with a heavy wanderlust, and she had complained numerous times during the war about how sparse her waypoint network was anywhere not near the war front. Frankly, Matt doubted that she would be returning to a more settled life once she filled in the Empire, and he expected she would instead start sneaking into the other Great Powers and creating waypoints through their territories.
Which was exactly why she got a ring full of mana stones as a gift.
It cost Matt nothing, but that much mana in stone form was good for trading, fueling ships, or refilling their mana pools should any of his friends get in a fight and need the boost.
Two and a half billion mana should see even Allie out of any potential issues she might get herself in, and it had only taken Matt a minute to make.
As Allie vanished with a wave, Zack turned and bowed slightly. “I shall also take my leave. I have much to attend to before I begin my tenure as a Duke, but any of you are always welcome to contact me directly on my AI. I just need some time alone before I settle in.”
Aster draped herself over the man’s shoulders, resisting his efforts to shrug her off. “You better tell us when you’re getting married,” she said with a wink. A moment later, she yelped as a bit of purple lightning coursed across Zack’s arm, collapsing on the floor dramatically.
“That will not be for some time yet,” he said seriously.
Aster pouted, then shot an inquisitive look at Susanne, who gave a nod.
“Bah. You’ve known each other for… decades? Centuries? How long has it been?”
“That’s not that long,” Ai’la pointed out. “And Path marriages notwithstanding, it’s generally not considered a good idea to get hitched when you only know someone from a war setting.”
Aster waved her hand dismissively, conjuring and shooting a snowball at the crafter, who easily dodged it.
A few rounds of goodbyes, and one more stockpile of mana stones later, they were down one more member.
General Darrow nodded to everyone remaining. “It was an honor serving with you all. I wish you all the best as you advance. I can’t do much, but if you ever need anything, feel free to reach out.”
After checking the ring Matt handed him, Darrow protested, “I can’t take this. It's way too much. I—” realizing what he was doing, he laughed lightly. “I’m being foolish. Thank you, Matt. It's not much for you, but it will prove helpful as I advance.”
“If you need more, feel free to reach out. You know how little it costs me to help, and I’m happy to do so.”
After Darrow turned and flew into space, no doubt returning to High Command, Sebastian took his leave. His voice was quiet and he was clearly holding back a few emotions as he went around and hugged everyone.
“I’m going to miss you guys. Shame Morgan isn’t here with us.”
They all collectively sighed at their fallen comrade, who had so nearly made it all the way to the end of the war. Matt laughed as Greed reached out and grabbed the ring he tried to hand to Sebastian. Even as the other man flew away, he was bartering with his emotion to get the ring back.
Susanne sighed lightly as she looked out to the capital orbiting beneath them. “I guess it's my turn then. I’ll see you around, I expect. I intend to stick around the capitals. I’ve been wanting to match blades with some of the experts since I reached Tier 25. Or at least I will be for the next five years or so. Maybe a decade, but if Zack hasn’t gotten out of his funk by then, I’ll go chase him down.”
Matt was thankful that at least one of their friends would be remaining close.
With just four of them left, Dena sighed. “I’m going to join a PlayPen, serve as the leader for a rotation or two. I enjoyed watching kids take their first steps to greatness, and it’ll be a good way to find my feet again. We had plans, but... Eric and I really enjoyed our time at our PlayPen, and I need something to do.”
Matt pulled her into a hug and tried to reiterate. “If you need a—”
“I know. I can come to you guys. I am doing better, I promise. At least well enough that I won’t fall apart. Don’t worry about me doing something stupid. Pace and I are working to collaborate for supporting each other, and Morgan’s family is giving her some pushback, so that’ll keep me busy in my spare time. I just need some time to adjust, is all. Check in on me, for sure, but you don’t need to worry about me.”
Matt was, in fact, worried about Dena doing something stupid, but not in the way she implied. She and Allie hadn’t exactly been subtle in their talks in the few months between the war ending and the ceremony. He just hoped she wouldn’t do something stupid in her quest for revenge. For all that he liked Allie, she would be happy to facilitate a hit in another Great Power, even if it would undoubtedly cause massive issues.
After giving her a ring full of mana stones, they were back down to the three of them.
It felt good. It felt right.
At least until Aster waved, and his stomach dropped. “Well. I’ll see you guys around. I—”
Aster snorted and ruined her act, which caused Matt to let out a breath of relief.
“You're a shit head.”
“I know.”
Liz threaded an arm into Matt’s even as phoenix Liz went over and pecked Aster for her bad joke.
“Let's go to the Moore estate and settle in.”
Matt fully agreed, and was more than happy to return to Mara and Leon's estate in the Capital. It was exactly as it was before the war, and it was good to reset themselves.
Amusingly enough, they didn’t even spend any real time in their rooms, instead taking over one of the kitchens where Matt cooked a dozen meals, with Aster working on desserts.
It was a good way to burn a day before their seneschals arrived, which was the main thing they were waiting on.
They all had plans in motion that they needed to check in on via their seneschals, as they had been distantly involved at best while the war was active.
While they were waiting, Matt checked in on one of their other Ascender benefits, the Horizon class cruise ship they had been given.
They each had one, and currently they were simply sitting in orbit. They were fully furnished with the best the Empire had, but for the first time since they got them over a hundred years ago, they expected to use them as they traveled to their duchies.
Checking in on that, Matt leaned forward, causing Liz to slide off his shoulder and the phoenix Liz and fox Aster to slide off his lap in a flurry of wings and tail.
“What was that for?” Aster followed up her question with a bite that Matt ignored.
“I was just checking when our first planets will arrive. It's been updated, and well, look.”
Aster flicked her tail in a shrug. “My first planet won't be arriving for another six years, it says. That’s kinda fast I guess? I don’t really have a frame of reference for these things.”
Liz’s eyes widened as she found what he did. “Not ours. Our first planet to be delivered is apparently a Tier 3 world from the Republic, a place called Soerilia, and it will arrive in just over a year. That's so fast. Too fast.” Raising an eyebrow at Matt, she asked. “Think it's a mistake?”
Matt shook his head, “I doubt it. Look at the rest of the delivery schedule. A glut of worlds will be arriving soon, and we are slated to get all of them. I—” Matt paused as he thought he realized what was going on. “Aster, send me your assignments.”
While he and Liz were content to share a duchy together, Aster wanted and got her own. It was just a good thing they could share, as with his guild, Matt was going to be very busy and he didn’t want to be an absentee lord. Between himself and Liz they should be able to make enough time in their projects that they equaled one standard Duke.
After comparing the lists, he nodded. “I bet I’m right. Allie and Zack both had a bunch of things they wanted to do outside of their duchies, so they’re skewing the faster deliveries to come to us, because we’re already ready to start managing them.”
Aster nodded her understanding and crawled up onto Liz’s lap, just to get sent flying again as Liz stood up a heartbeat later.
Phoenix Liz pointed a wing at Aster and laughed, all that got her was getting tackled as Aster righted herself and the two started to wrestle.
Matt’s attention was pulled from the show as Liz spoke. “Look deeper Matt. Did you see our capital world?”
Matt hadn’t and indicated as much, to which Liz laughed. “Tier 27 fire-aspected planet from the Sects. That’s so rare. Not a ton of infrastructure, what with it only being settled for a millennia, but still! It’s so friggin cool.”
“Pretty sure it will be quite hot.”
“Har har. But really, this is awesome. Mom’s going to be so jealous. I bet we can get a flight of phoenixes to settle at our capital as well. They love fire aspected places, and an entire planet will be like paradise for them. Really, all fire aspected bloodlines. Ventuslisa is their current favorite planet in the Empire, but that one’s only Tier 23.”
Aster pretended to gag. “Disgusting, wretched, abominable, detestable, disgusting! A fire planet? Where is my ice planet? My duchy is slated for being a normal world. Oh it's Tier 30 though. Never mind. Ha, ha. My capital is better than yours.”
Even in her fox form, Aster managed to gloat, but Matt hardly minded. Planets with an essence attribute were incredibly rare. He had seen a nature-aspected moon when he visited Amelia Galley, but that was the only example he had personally seen. It was hardly the only planet in the Empire with an elemental aspect; there were thirty two in the Empire, but that was a fraction of a percentage of the total planets. They were also incredibly in-demand planets, with anyone who had that elemental bloodline or those who aspected their mana to that element flocking to the worlds in question. Their environments were cultivation paradises, and seeing as they were going to get one, a fire one in particular, warmed Matt’s heart.
Considering most of these rewards were probably from Zack, Allie’s, and Aiden’s payout and they were getting it, it was clear they had been given the planet as a gift.
It made Matt wish he had given everyone more mana stones before they had left, but there was always next time.
Both Lizzes bounced around. “Oh, I'm so excited. I bet we can find so many unique rifts in the world. I looked up Ventuslisa a while back as a place to visit and I loved the images of the fire rain forest. It looked so pretty with the unique flora and fauna the abundance of fire essence creates. Sadly it's on the far side of Tur'stal’s kingdom and would take years to travel to.”
Phoenix Liz paused in her bouncing to cock her head and squawked. “Oh, maybe we can turn one of the planet’s moons into Ichor? Have one for lightning and blood as well. Have the trifecta of what makes up Ichor. That would be so cool.”
Matt pondered the feasibility of the idea and shrugged. “I doubt it's that easy to do, but I’ll put it on the list of long term goals. If it was easy there would be more than a handful of planets with aspected essence, so I'm sure there is something that makes it harder than just dumping in a load of elemental mana to make elemental essence.”
That didn’t seem to bother Liz at all, and she pulled him down for a kiss before springing off. “Oh, this makes me so excited. Maybe I can convince mom and dad to move the planet faster? It's slated to be one of the last to arrive.”
Matt had already looked into why it was taking so long and pointed out the reason. “Nah. If they untether it now, it’ll start drifting closer to the Clans. Until the chaotic space currents shift in a couple decades, you’d need to pull it upstream, and I doubt anyone short of the Emperor himself could pull a Tier 27 world that far upstream.”
Liz blew a raspberry at him. “Don’t bring logic into my fantasies! I’m super excited, though. Oh, I want to publicize this. Oh!”
Both Liz’s turned puppy dog eyes on Matt. “Let's hold an end of war party. We can announce both your guild's founding and our noble holdings!”
Matt wasn’t against the idea and after a moment agreed. If they were going to actually be nobles, and Matt wanted to be a right and proper lord to his people, he needed to interact with other nobles and parties were one of the main ways that happened. The timing also worked as the war had just ended, and everyone expected the Emperor to hold court shortly after he returned, so nearly every noble was on or on their way to the Capital.
“Sure, let's do it.”
Liz punched the air in sync with her phoenix form, causing Matt to laugh. Making Liz happy was worth it on its own, but it really was a good idea. Doubly so that hosting their own party meant they could avoid the endlessly stream of invites he was sure they were already getting now that it was clear they were remaining in the capital instead of vanishing like Zack and Allie.
Aster huffed. “I’m going to hold my own party and force everyone to decide which one they should go to.”
Matt laughed. “That could be fun. We each hold a party at the same time and force people to decide who they want to snub by not attending.”
“It's wicked. I’m actually tempted.” Liz looked positively evil at the suggestion.
Her and Aster’s villainous plans were interrupted by the front door of the estate opening which set off a few subtle pings.
Spreading his spiritual perception, Matt was on guard until he realized exactly who had shown up.
Travis and Keith, Liz’s older brother and his husband, and the two family members Matt had first met when they were just Tier 4s.
Cranking his perception and activating his combat buffs, Matt was the first to arrive in front of the duo, but Liz and Aster were only a moment behind him where they all lowered their perceptions to Tier 20 speeds.
“It's good to see you two!”
“Travis! Keith!”
“Ha! I’m stronger than you now! Taste my vengeance!”
As the three of them talked over each other, Travis and Keith reacted to their presences. “There they are, the Heroes of the hour!”
That praise caused Liz to pause mid jump. “Ahh, now I feel bad for wanting to bully you.”
Travis ruffled Liz’s hair before pulling her into a hug. “It's ok, no matter how strong you get, you’ll always be my baby sister.”
Liz mockingly mouthed the words “baby sister”, but she didn’t pull away.
Matt instead fought with Aster on who got the first hug with Keith. Aster won by dint of creating an illusion over Keith, making Matt miss the actual person, so Matt just hugged both of them.
“It's good to see you, Keith. How have you been since our last message?”
“Good, good. Really, just the same old same old. Delve once a year, work on other things the rest of the time. It becomes a routine pretty quick. How are you guys doing with the war? Or rather, how are you guys holding up now that the war is over?”
Matt didn’t want to lie and say he was doing fine or good. He had lost friends and was far from either of those descriptions but he didn’t want to bring down the mood right after seeing them for the first time in so long. Messages just weren’t the same as in person contact.
“We are… As well as can be and getting better day by day. It's great to see you two though. And unexpected.”
Travis laughed as he leaned in for his own hug. “We were all the way at dad’s capital and we left the day we heard the news of the war ending. We are only lowly Tier 20s, and our best method of transportation was slow.”
Aster poked his puffed up cheek causing him to let out a puff of air. “Why didn’t you just hitch a ride on a shipping liner? Fifteen just arrived today, and they have been flooding the capital since the war officially ended.”
Keith tried to hide his laughter but failed, causing Travis to sigh. “We—” Looking at Keith, he corrected himself, “I thought it would be better to fly ourselves.”
Matt snorted at that. “Well, you are still the first ones to arrive, so you are doing better than everyone else.”
Travis perked up at that and started into the estate proper, talking over his shoulder. “I bet Sam and Annie won’t be free for a while. Backline Generals like them always have a ton of stuff to do post war, or so he says. What—” He spun around and his eyes narrowed in on phoenix Liz. “Oh yeah, your new bloodline. Congrats, by the way. But wow. That’s weirdly subtle. I mean, it’s clearly not a normal phoenix when you look closer, but something like an ice phoenix is very obviously other.”
“Because ice bloodlines are the superior element. We are so cool!”
Both of the siblings ignored Aster, and as Travis transformed into his own phoenix form to inspect his sister as they walked, Matt walked with Keith further into the house where he settled them into their room.
Like their own rooms, the rooms came equipped with every amenity, but Keith seemed well used to them as he put their spatial rings on the holders which distributed their content to the appropriate venues in the rooms.
Looking around, Keith gestured Matt and Aster over. “Under no circumstances can you let ‘you know who’ know about this, but I want to share.”
Keith flashed a small hand sized sphere that looked like petrified flesh. It took him a moment to properly identify it, but his eyes widened in surprise once he did so. Aster, after pinging him to tell her what it was, played up her surprise even further, making an illusion of herself shattering like glass and vanishing into the breeze.
“How’d you get one of those?” Liz asked with a bit of awe, and Matt couldn’t help but agree. Descendent Decanters, like the one Keith had, were exclusively dropped in rifts above Tier 40 and allowed anyone to have a kid. Whoever provided essence to the item would be a parent, be it a singular Tier 1 or an entire group of Tier 40s. Considering how much fertility dropped for immortals, it was an incredibly desirable item at the best of times.
With Manny preparing to have a kid, they were actually impossible to buy at the moment, along with all other reliable child-producing methods. That Travis and Keith had one was surprising both from a rarity perspective, but also in what it represented.
Keith answered with a hushed tone, “Leah got it from a delve a couple decades ago, and instead of selling it, she gave it to us. We’re really grateful, because otherwise there was no way we’d be able to be part of the upcoming noble generation. Neither of us wants to body morph to go for a child the biological way. Not that the timing matters that much, but… well, you’d know why we’d want to do it this way, Liz. Kids between generations and all.”
Matt nodded along, still shocked. It made sense that Leah got it. Despite only being the second oldest sibling, she was the highest Tier at Tier 44, meaning she had a chance for it to actually drop from a rift. It also made sense why Keith was being secretive. If Mara and Leon found out, they would probably explode from the happiness of finally being grandparents.
It was then that Keith dropped a second bomb on Matt. “Currently Sam, Erin, as well as Alice are planning to do the same. We’ve joked we are going to bury them under grandkids after denying them for so long.”
Matt chortled at the idea of Mara and Leons reaction to the fact they would be grandparents four times over. They might explode with happiness.
Then his laughter stopped as he realized the potential.
He was still lost in thought when phoenix Liz came in and cheered over the Descendant Decanter as if she hadn’t seen it in human form.
Matt couldn’t help watching her as she congratulated Travis and Keith. It could easily be five of them instead of just four. The current date for the birth was thousands of years away but it suddenly felt very close to Matt. He found that as he thought over the idea that he didn’t hate it. The idea that his and Liz’s child would be raised with at least four other cousins was comforting, not scary.
Liz shot him a look which told him she had gone through the same thought process and they would talk about it later.
But not here.
Frankly, Keith and Travis were foolish to bring out the Descendant Decanter anywhere on the Capital. Mara and Leon might arrive at any time if the Emperor teleported them back, and the siblings seemed intent on turning this into a surprise for the ages. Mara and Leon’s no snooping rule could only apply if they knew there was someone to accidentally snoop on, and a quick scan would surely reveal the secret if it was just sitting out in the open.
No matter his own complicated feelings, Matt was ecstatic for Travis and Keith. “Come, let me cook something up to celebrate.”
Aster immediately agreed. “Oh yeah, I just made some ice cream as well. We need to celebrate this before the terrible duo come back!”
As if the arrival of Travis and Keith was the signal the others needed to arrive, Erin and two of her harem members arrived, then shortly after Daniel arrived, turning the evening into a party.
With the new arrivals, they decided that instead of cooking they should go out to eat. After some good natured arguments, they settled on going out to a twin-Red Feather restaurant just two buildings over, which they had gone to before with the extended family as they wanted something quieter. As Ascenders, they had standing invitations to eat for free at pretty much every restaurant in the Capital but that would come with interviews they didn’t want to deal with.
Matt was still shocked at just how spatially expanded the Capital truly was, as they had to fly for almost two hours to reach the edge of the building they were in before they could exit. Each building was like its own, not so little, self contained world. Spatial expansion was one of those things that was easy to take for granted, but added so much livable space to a crowded place like the Capital that when he really thought about it, Matt was slightly overwhelmed.
He wanted his guild to fundamentally change the world in a similar way to how spatial expansion changed how people lived. It was a lofty goal, but it all started with a single step. The first person to create a folded space surely had no idea just how far their idea would grow and morph.
With how old spatial expansion was, it wasn’t like they could study the actual history of its development, but they had enough information to make guesses. It started small and mostly for higher Tiers and the wealthy, but thanks to its usefulness, the demand, and the value of spatial items, there were more and more crafters willing to make them. Some number of those crafters improved the contraptions, building off each other, lowering the Tier of the spatial items, removing the need for exotic materials, and making cheaper methods to enchant them. Until eventually, someone created the first closed spatial item that didn’t need an aperture, and items like spatial rings were born. The same process repeated until they reached where they were today.
Some suspected they had reached the end of major advancement and were simply chasing the nines as it was called, but Matt didn’t believe so. Nominally, spatial rings were only usable by people above Tier 15, and while Talent-made ones did break that rule, most people just chalked that up to Talents being Talents. Or the rings were made for specific items and unable to hold anything else but they were expensive and specific enough that only delvers could really afford them. Matt felt all of that signified there was still progress to be made for the non-Talented methods of research.
Not that spatial items were high on his personal list of things to delve into, aperology took that slot. It was however something so useful that any advancement was a net positive for everyone, and if someone came to his guild with a good idea that wasn’t already being worked on by another company, he’d happily fund it.
Spatial items weren’t perfect.
That was but one of countless things that he could do with his mana. Individual discoveries existed, and tremendous amounts of research was done on so many things, but so much of it was, in his opinion, wasted. Or at least not fully utilized for all the good it could do.
Most high Tier research was directed towards optimizing a specific person’s Talent or Domain creations, or tweaking outputs in specific non-replicable situations. And it was almost always in service of making something new and specific. If a high-Tier wanted a new sword, that almost always required bespoke research to tailor it for their essence and Domain, but that research was barely applicable to common crafters trying to learn something new to further their own skills.
His own mana concentration array was a perfect example of that. The odds of someone else ever using it were basically nonexistent, but a huge amount of resources had been directed into it.
That was all fine, and Matt even understood why it was like that. Cultivation became so individualized that artisanal crafting was the better option at the higher Tiers. Combined with higher Tier crafters wanting to push their skills and their fellow higher Tiers being the only ones who could facilitate that it all made sense.
But with his guild and with his mana, Matt wanted to improve things from the base up. Better enchantments for the common mortals, better rifts for beginning and low Tier delvers, better mana density on high-Tier worlds, all to help out the lower Tiers who couldn’t afford to just fix their own problems by dint of their individual power.
Even now, the air was positively starved of mana in a way that was still shocking every time he noticed it.
With that in mind, combined with the reminder of the incredible amount of essence swirling around them, made Matt spontaneously grab a wisp of environmental essence and use it as leverage against his core, crunching it and advancing to Tier 26 and letting that wisp of essence fade back into the air around him. Manny hadn’t officially told him to advance as fast as he could, but he could read between the lines and there was no need for him to be any weaker than he had to be any more.
With his Tier 25 Talent, it was easy to take his mana pool from 41,943,040 to 83,886,080 in a matter of seconds.
He’d need to crunch his mana a few times before he even considered Tiering up to Tier 27 but his regeneration increase would help while he stockpiled mana for Manny. He knew the Emperor had his own plans and as much as Matt would love to just flood the planet with mana he knew that was a bad idea. Things, while not great, were stable and no one was in danger at this moment which would have forced Matt’s hand.
Feeling his own Tier up, Liz and Aster followed suit which raised some eyebrows from the people they flew past but no one commented, not even Liz’s siblings for which Matt was grateful.
Instead of letting his mind go down the path of his mana Matt instead focused on his family and enjoying his time with them.
Who knew how much time he would get with them going forward? He wanted to treasure every minute he had.
Comments
Constantin
Shit apple
Matt Brown
I just did too
Blake N.
Idk why but I just got a patreon notification about this chapter and thought it was todays
Nicholas Grey
At least until Aster waved, and his stomach dropped. “Well. I’ll see you guys around. I—” Aster is a little shit 🤣
nolan saylor
Matt is putting the Nigerian princes to shame. He really does have a million dollars that he wishes to give to you. I like that Susanne and Zack are taking it slow. It does indeed feel wise to know a person outside a stressful environment. Particularly when you're immortal who has theoretically all the time in the world. Greed taking the money filled ring is fitting. Dena going to manage a playpen feels fitting. Not a happy place, but a needed role. A place she can help others grow. I can't say Morgan's family is abnormal. Siblings, gotta hate 'em, gotta love 'em. Huh, not only a fire world, but a young fire world. Integrating the Sects just got even easier. Still curious if Aster will get a winter world. They were said to exist in the Empire, controlled by winter wolves. Maybe she just gets a low tier one. -Matt could help aspect a low tier planet to Winter, probably, but not until after the true war. An ichor moon would also be cool. Maybe Matt helps Aster get an aurora moon, and eventually space ice. The latter seems particularly fitting. Is it truly complicated, or is it more that it is an utterly insane amount of mana for most. They have T45s and above with aspected mana, so maybe it really s utterly insane, or maybe the higher tiers just value said mana. Maybe the difficulty is in controlling said enormous mana, a thing Matt is an expert in, as otherwise the planet simply tiers up instead of changing aspects. -Matt could make so many diverse planets. A truly useful boon for the Empire, and maybe the other GPs. Icing on the cake of upgrading planets. Kind curious what those chaotic space charts/maps look like. Though they might not be something I can so easily see as a mortal. Again, siblings. Gotta love 'em. A nice touch that they message each other. They don't interact only when the audience can see them. Honesty is key, letting your significant other rib you in good fun is also important. Aster using Matt as wikipedia as his AI is better is understandable...reminds me of everyone asking the person who has their phone out to look stuff up that is coming up in the conversation. Poor Matt. Aster and Liz are both acting a bit like Mara and Leon with their cartoonish antics. It is cute, Matt needs to join in though. Huh, I am intrigued by both a singular person having a kid and a group having one. The group has a multitude of opportunities, but I am curious how different he kid would be from a singular parent. -I wonder how Erin will go through it. She could certainly use a descendant decanter. No comments on other ways for it to work, this is a family friendly story. It only has mass murder. -Imagine Allie just popping back with a kid. Might not be by birth. That kid would be having a crazy time teleporting everywhere, and then a bit off kilter when they no longer have that. Like Liz when she no longer gets phoenix feather hammocks. Burying them in grandchildren might be their happiest moment... who cares about ascenders. History can be very interesting. Magical history is doubly so. Though with how blandly I think about tech I might see magical history just as blandly. -Everything is much less fun when it is required. Low tier parking could just be your car on a keychain. Cars could come with keys/ scanners as well as a carrying case. Matt keeping his focus on the lower tiers is nice for so many reasons. It would be nice if some GP joined just for seeing who Matt is and accepting Matt really would be willing to help the Realm. Toby is a current contender for that, as he was already introduced to Matt in that fashion. -Good Guy Matt.
Alex
It'll be nice if they have kids at the same time as Manny. Would be good for the little one to have some friends the same age. (Actual friends, aka kids from not super politically minded parents who are friends with Manny) Liz was very lonely.
Magnuss
Nooo how long do we need to wait to read Matts side of the previous chapter
Danny
The idea how mutch pain the nobels would have if they had to decide which 2 assanders they want to piss off its to funny :D !!
Silver Beard
@hachetnif - only so many rifts for the many. That will never be an issue for Mat. By the time he's in his 40's he will be able to create his own tier 40 rifts in seconds.
Trevor Mergen
Thanks!
Coorsbie
Willpower has been at a premium during the war but the Minkalla upgrade was what allowed his AI to function relatively normally despite Minkalla’s suppression. It was described as willpower intensive. Further, through mana spend he can out computer all other AIs by several orders of magnitude at least His guild mates will essentially get access to unlimited funds and a supercomputer with the rest of the universe mana starved and running simple calculators
Kelly Bryan
Minkalla rewarded his survival trial (put in a tier 0 body and survive as long as possible) with the ability to use his willpower to super charge his AI, within Minkalla it was said to be just a slight boost to normal function and a removal of Minkalla's AI restrictions I dont believe its actual strength outside of Minkalla has been described.
MRob
Did minkala power up his AI? I forget what all his upgrades were
Coorsbie
I think the revolution is more of a post-scarcity revolution with Matt being at once a functionally limitless power source, and with his Minkalla fueled upgrade a AI supercomputer in a world of slide-rulers. Matt can do great things but what he can empower other people to do is what is really exciting.
Jiří Trpkoš
Im not sure how impactfull/broken you want the invetions to be. But if we are talking about something as impactfull as special expansion, then I think chaotic space maping and predicting could be really good. I know its always changing but something like meterological maps but for chaotic space where you would in real time see how the chaotic space shifts and where to go to get out etc. Also some predictive models that based on the information could predict trajectories of undiscoverd worlds. It would change the game of expanding, It would be huge for all the great powers, and depending on the range and precision it could completly change society as a whole if sudenly high tier worlds wouldnt so rare because you would get every hight tier wourld around you not just those that are close and you got lucky to find.
Anime Problem
I kinda want to see how that tier 3 planet changes over time under Matt's Influence it's probably everything he wishes he could have given to Lilly as it's ruler and it'll be fun to follow people chasing his shadow the power and the assurance that things will be OK and the people who want to serve someone who ended a tragedy that could've ended up like his home planet
Michael Hill
🤣
Kelly Bryan
You know, Im curious about the difference between the duchy awarded for completing the path and their bonus for the war. The two should be separate... They wouldnt use war awards to be their path awards right? Our heroes should have greater than average duchies due to winning more in the war AFTER being awarded a complete duchy for The Path right?
Kelly Bryan
What if when the item meets certain requirements it can be a reward from the rift? Free resources and a chance to walk out with a novel invention?
Coorsbie
The scope of the strategic resource he is necessitates that he be able to take on ALL the other Tier 50s, and emerge victorious. He represents the existential threat to all the other powers of facing down and being forced to fight against a post-scarcity economy, a war machine capable of expending infinite resources. That is the level of power he has to have. He is running out of time.
WierdWebLurker
Question is... when do you say "yeah, that's enough power to achieve my goals"? Does Matt need to reach Tier 30? 40? That won't protect him from the Tier 50's if they want him dead or imprisoned. And if we're expecting him to Tier up until he replaces Manny as the new Emperor... that's a long time to wait for him to make actual change in the Empire. Perhaps long enough for him to forget anything other than how to pursue strength. Add to this, the whole "mana battery" question depends strongly on when people figure out Matt's mana capacity is "yes". What would get the other Great Powers investigating faster: Matt taking some time to set up a Guild to run R&D, and benefitting the entire realm (bonus points if this altruism gets a few of the GPs to sit out the True War when it breaks out) while he ranks up at a rate consistent with most other Ascenders? Or Matt immediately throwing out all his stated goals in favor of attaining ever more power... almost like he's running out of time?
C_Mantis
we will see some delving on screen this book and just in general going forward. It wont be super common but it with either be to show a cool rift or as a bit of a check in to how their combat evolves as they Tier up.
Apiris
I liked this chapter a lot, but the time rewind between the prologue and this felt off to me. I think I’d have preferred the last chapter ending without Matt showing up? Excited to see where this goes - the fire world sounds cool
Alexander
I'm guessing they're just manipulating the space around the planet
Alex
They're moving the universe the planet resides in through chaotic space, which isn't exactly the same thing as moving a planet; the perception of motion from the reference frame a planet would be based on the local universe of that planet - in that reference frame the planet isn't moving, so unless a Tier 15+ cultivator decided to stick their head out the window into chaotic space they wouldn't be able to tell that the world was being moved. The teleporter connections might go a little funny while the world was moving though - I could imagine that it would be impossible to enter or leave the world using the normal teleporter platforms while the world was being moved through chaotic space. Depending on how long it took to move the world that might be a big deal: being cut off from the teleporter network for decades might be a minor annoyance for an immortal, but it would be a massive disruption in the life of a mortal - if a newly awakened mortal got stuck on a low Tier world for a few decades they'd be completely screwed, since by the time they had the opportunity to move to a higher Tier world and delve they'd be too old to fight, and need to be carried.
Alex
@Silver Beard Earlier in the series Liz mentions that a long-ass time ago health potions given as rift rewards changed color from green to red as a result of a change in perception in the wider Realm about what color a health potion should be. Rifts are clearly 'aware' of the state of the Realm, so I think it's reasonable to assume that a Rift could judge a crafter based on status quo of the Realm - i.e if the Realm at large would judge a crafter's creation as being amazing, then the crafting rift would do the same.
copperspike
i think (at least if i'm correct in my interpretation of matt intending for his guild to have a significant educational component, both in teaching new hires about aperology, mana theory and related fields and subfields, but also producing teaching material for- or even directly being involved in- the education of the general public within the scope of his duchy) that it could be valuable for you to - at least briefly - look into ferrer's modern school and the free school movement for types of schooling that are genuinely interested in helping people's ability to investigate and creatively approach new problems, and to teach people in ways that fit them personally instead of just making sure they know a specific set of facts without being given many tools for inquiring about deeper meanings or further conclusions one can reach and such like. i feel like some of the ideas matt seem to be excited about being able to try with his guild and duchy echo the ones of these and similar movements in interesting ways
DisgruntleFairy
I love that they are physically moving the planets. How are they hiding that from the people on the planet, i wonder.
hachetnif
Yeah there's a lot to look forward to and could happen The arc could focus on their duchy, the guild, the researcch, delvin, the other ascenders and probably more than that. There's a lot of possibilities. Personally at their tier l don't see delving being a focus yet with them having organizations that can get useful stuff in the rifts. The only reason is to get essence to advance and maybe experimental rift. Later on in the '40s and so on that will change cuz there's only so many of those.
Tristan R Mitchell
I can see it being possible. Minkalla works via Ruins for the floors with Rifts for the challenges, so theoretically anything that Minkalla does can be replicated in a rift. We know there was a crafting challenge since Matt and Liz completed one. Now Matt just has to do the research to recreate it. And Silver Beard, the Rifts already have some form of program-like intelligence AND somehow access information from beyond themselves. They just don't think or live like a person or animal does.
Silver Beard
I'm more concerned that delving will become household chore. That was where all the fun was when the story started. It's where MC acquired Aster. War over, was looking forward to that again vs a bureaucratic quagmire of people and politics.
Silver Beard
I like it but 'something' has to judge the craft submitted for its complexity, originality, and function. It's a shame there's no direct connection with Ascension! That'd be the real deal.
Austin Gillespie
Oooo making a planet aspected with rifts was going to be my suggestion for his guild. This definitely will make that easier and on his radar
Adam Charron
Yay a new arc! The last chapter set to the tone so nicely. I have 2 questions: - Are we expecting the pace of time to pick up through these next few arcs? The timescale leading up to the true war feels pretty far away now. - What’s the timeline typically like for an arc to end up on Kindle Unlimited after it wraps up?
TwoMoreYears
I really enjoy the prologue/epilogue pattern you've established and this one was definitely enjoyable. I also like that you're taking time to let the family spend time together before the dukedom/guild etc... take over. There are so many possibilities for the guild, and it'll be fun to see what pops up on the spreadsheet.
C_Mantis
They dont scale well buuttttt we have a Tier 3 planet in the works where we can see low Tier economies to get a sense of scale.
Jg
An idea for the crafting guild. Matt could combine aperology with the fun he had making drones. Not to farm the rifts but to monitor them world wide to alert if/when it will breach. He cangive these drones to low teir planets and sell to guilds so they can farm the rifts when they are full!
C_Mantis
We will talk about this in the up coming chapters. Thank you guys for bring it up so I know its an issue now.
Kuniku778
No need tp justify or explain in your intro, its your story. We're here 400+ chapters later, just let people be wow'd when they don't see the point until it slaps then in the face like a mana charge. :P
John
Thanks
wartgalore
Love this idea!
Silver Beard
As an Introvert, I'm not great at emotional stuff but it was still a pleasant read. Thanks for sharing.
Wool
True but I think we’ve been told multiple times that mana:credits don’t scale well after the first few tiers because of inflation issues it would cause in the low tier (credits) economy. So I don’t think we know how much 2.5B mana would equate to.
Wool
I think I’ve lost the bubble on Matt’s mana scaling issues. Please correct me if I’m wrong. His control issues are due to the vast scale of mana available to him…like trying to wrangle control of an exponentially increasing flow of water. That just takes time and practice to regain each tier. Then there’s the density issue that requires the machine. That just makes each unit of mana have more impact / efficiency as it’s used. Ignoring that would leave potential power on the table. I think where I’m confused is if/how the two issues tie together and how lack of control could manifest. Would he just lack some finesse or would he actually reach a maximum throughput on his skills/spells before they blow up in his face?
Alex
One idea that’s been knocking around in my head for Matt’s aperology is crafting rifts. We know that rifts aren’t strictly combat based due to the existence of puzzle rifts — it’d be cool if Matt’s guild could create a crafting rift: essentially the rift allows you to craft inside a liminal space and ‘submit’ what you create (like genesis cultivation), then the essence and material reward is based on the item that was submitted. It’d be a revolution for the crafters of the Realm who’d be able advance with their craft instead of paying to be carried through rifts. EDIT: Just to flesh out the idea a little more, a crafting rift would ostensibly be like the genesis cultivation challenge in Minkalla, but it would differ in a few key details. Firstly, a crafting rift wouldn't protect a person during the crafting process like genesis cultivation does. Secondly, crafting rifts would have more fixed setups - i.e an alchemy rift would have workstations geared towards alchemy, a blacksmithing rift would have a forge and anvil, etc. Thirdly, the rift would have a limited allotment of resources (mana, metals, herbs, etc.) based on how full the rift was. Rewards from crafting rifts would scale with product quality, innovation, resource conservation, and the Tier discrepancy between the product and the crafter. If a crafter used the entirety of the rift's resource allotment to make a crappy, unimaginative product that was below their own Tier then their reward would absolutely suck, but if they made an entirely novel masterpiece beyond their Tier with a tiny amount of the rift's resource allocation then their reward would be incredible.
Alex
The credit value of manastones isn’t a good basis to evaluate Matt’s mana on a unit-per-unit basis. Rift stones are much smaller than what Matt can make, which is where a lot of their value comes from, but Matt’s mana is much more concentrated, which is valued at higher Tiers since powerful formations are more efficient when they use more concentrated mana.
Blake N.
Personally I enjoy non-main character povs in stories
Coorsbie
That is a distinction without a difference. The fact is Matt only has the luxury of not being a manager battery by virtue of being 1) incredibly lucky, and 2) being under the aegis of an improbably benevolent politician. As benevolent as Manny (and other characters) is, would he choose Matt over the Empire? Over trillions of lives? Over Carissa and his Child? Manny wants Matt to get as powerful as possible as fast as possible because he knows that he can only protect Matt for so long. He won’t interfere and force him, but I daresay Manny knows he couldn’t protect Matt from the other T50s if they combined strengths. He is a good guard dog sure, but the wolves will soon be circling the Hen House. IMO, Matt is being a bit childish and naive.
Blake N.
I think it’s the tier 3 republic world they mentioned. It was in the veil so it has to be low tier
MRob
Does that mean that between them they took one duchy and the cash reward for a second? I'd vaguely assumed their plan was to get three adjacent duchies then basically let aster run them as one grand duchy
Scott Lyon
A tier 1 mana stone has 10 mana and is worth 100 credits. 100 creds was a weeks wage to matt when he worked at the pub.
Disclancer
Also, it's Duchy, a Dutchy is apparently a Canadian doughnut 😜 "insert snotty English man noises"
Disclancer
They are entitled to a duchy each, combined that's a Grand Duchy! They should get what they're due! Someone needs to be looking out for them on these things, they're to prone to give things away! If it weren't for Aster having her head screwed on they'd be living out of a box!
DaftWully
Of course they are not Grand Dukes. They purposely combined their dutchy to one can 'jump in' and rule while the other is busy. They are, therefore, double-dutch!
Roro
I wish we had a mana to dollars (or other reasonable true-to-world) conversion sense, so I could tell how much 2.5billion mana was worth (how much Matt just give to each of his team zero friends). Also, do the other non-ascender team-zero folks get post-war gifts?
Andrew K
The fire world definitely isn't the one from the prologue chapter - the prologue world is the tier 3 they're getting first (last line of the prologue gave the planet name).
Roro
Do they atleast get twice the # of planets in their one duchy? I hope so. Because they can always hire competent people to manage them on the daily.
Joshua Jernigan
Unfortunately the world teaser feels more veil world and the fore world came from the sects
Jeff Wells
He has the backing of the most powerful man in the realm, it's extremely unlikely, at this point, that he becomes a mana battery. He does need to continue to grow, but frankly the only people who reasonably could turn him into a mana battery he won't be strong enough to fight them off until after he ascends.
Disclancer
So Matt and Liz *are* sharing a Duchy but they're not a Grand-Duke and Duchess! I feel cheated!
John Balman
I'm hoping the world teaser we got is Matt and Liz fire world. I really liked the prologue and how it provided a new perspective
Sean McClain
A level 1 spacial bracelet that even the republic sheltered normals could use would be game changing I think (since they don't have a concept of mana IIRC)
Patrick Brennan
Matt should see what that guy who made the spacial bracelets is up to and if her wants to jump into the guild with unlimited budget
C_Mantis
We will at least see the last wednesday arc finished this arc. There are still two or three more of those I want to push out. And we have an idea for a side story this arc but. These chatpers are easier to write so easier to write more side stuff.
AirSak2000
Hope we see a return of Wednesday chapters this arc
Coorsbie
I think Matt is being somewhat shortsighted with his approach here. Sure, he can endlessly fund himself, but he needs to be as strong as possible PERSONALLY to avoid ending up a mana battery. Leveraging his talent to make as much money and wealth as possible to buy and acquire as many natural treasures and other tools to enhance his personal power would do both. The Emperor can only afford to spend his wealth to enhance the power and growth in the Empire because he is personally strong.
Jairo Hernandez
We are back and ready for post-war work! But first, party with the fam!
Jana
No Problem - its saved as a dokument anyways but beware these kind of idea brainstorming dokuments tend to grow the longer they brew and i started this one weeks ago :-P
Aaron Hardin
He needs to take enough time to get maximal gains each tier from the mana compression array. I may be remembering this wrong, but there is both a maximum compression amount he can do each Tier (so not maximizing this before tiering up means some potential mana compression is permanently lost. It may be a very minimal amount, but after having Luna as a manager and having everything maximized, Matt would like to get as much as he can before Tiering up), and there also needs to be a recovery period between sessions, so the required time taken in mana compression is needed at each tier before tiering up at a minimum, then add in that delving and essence collecting is also required, and increasing control will help make those go faster (better control helps Matt in combat), and while he may not take extra time in each tier to gain more control before tiering up, he definitely will be working on control while within a tier as he works on getting everything ready to advance to the next tier.
C_Mantis
I forgot. Ill add it to friday's chapter. Thats on me
Rexosaur
Awesome to see both Matt and Liz share a duchy and the future reactions of Leon and mara will be amazing I just know it
Bob Bryan
No that would make it a lot harder to deal with his mana control than easier.
Keegan Moss
Another cool rift idea that could become a “ oh look I modified this rift resource into something cool” would be using his man made mana stones as a base for a rift as well as a skill stone to see if it could be morphed into some sort of portable/usable skill. This way someone wouldn’t have to absorb a skill to have access to it, but it would only have a certain amount of charges. Then if you pick the right skills, you get a sort of emergency skill charge stone
Havokk
Now I cant wait to see Mara and Leon when they get told about 5 grand kids at the same time..... Maras going to be babysitting all the kids on the fire planet lol. so much in this chapter is alluded to that I want to see now
Cam
TFTC!
Jana
So, wasnt there going to be a survey today? Asking for a Friend who totally hasnt a mile long post waiting to be Crlt + V -ed.
C_Mantis
thats a template that they can be made off of but isnt needed now.
CommodoreCaptain
I’m so pumped for this arc. The glimpse of Matt introducing a world to the greater universe we got last chapter was so exciting. Can’t wait to see that play out from his perspective in addition to everything he wants to do with the guild.
MikeL
Would it be better for Matt to advance multiple tiers quickly to avoid his problem with mana control when changing tiers? Quickly move to say T30 then spend years regaining his control vs stopping at each tier.
MikeL
In book 1 wasn’t it stated that spatial rings were originally based on rift rewards? Or maybe only the template.
Bob Bryan
Matt could potentially make the first aurora aspected world and give it to aster. Or turn her capital into one or whatever she becomes after she advances.
C_Mantis
good catch whoops
RedLeaf
Can’t wait see Matt’s guild get started - and what the repercussions of his “free, for all” approach will be!
Neocorupt
I thought Amelia Galley moon was nature based not life? Also just check book 4 chapter 21 Kelly explains it is nature heavy.
Namorat
Kind of insane that this had to be explained after numerous books...
James Getgood
Booo, I want more Path of Architecture!
C_Mantis
If I did that again im pretty sure id get jumped at dragoncon this year lol.
Matt H
Bit of an ominous last sentence there. That wouldn't be a death flag, right Mantis? ;)
C_Mantis
well get there soon
James Faulkner
Tftc!
mitchell kaiser
Can’t wait for Fridays chapter, I’d thought we would leave off with Matt receiving his planet.
Keifru
Ngl, was a bit disappointed we didn't start where the prolonged left off in Matt's poverty. Thought it makes sense to zip back...but we don't even get to the juicy bit by the end of this chapter, never-ending partway through and some Matt doing things
Ryan Berends
Let’s go!
