C_Mantis
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Chapter 210
🕑 Added 2023-01-30 20:00:03 +0000 UTCLets talk about how this arc will finish out. The 3rd will be the last Matt chapter and then the 6th will be the Emp chapter to finish out the arc.
Normally at that time, finishing an arc, I would take a two chapter break. And I kinda sort of will. The 10th and 13th will be breaks for everyone else and you guys (Tier 15+ pats) will get the last two Minkalla Chronicles chapters.
That will catch us up, and give me some time to work on planning the next arc. Not idea to have a break so soon after the Christmas one but that is how this cookie crumbled.
Chapter 210
Matt panted despite not having a physical body.
The last fight wasn’t hard, in and of itself; fighting even peak Tier 14 monsters wasn't anything new for the four of them. The difficulty came from the fact that they were rushing headlong into every pack of monsters they could find.
On the second level of the seventh floor, they were practically bumping elbows with what seemed to be the entire planet's population, and each of them was trying to push deeper faster than their competitors.
Even with their spiritual perception restricted, they could cover about the three nearest ruins, and the floor was small enough that just within that range, they could feel two other teams fighting to get ahead of them. Or rather, a team of three and then a solo delver who felt like a summoner of some type.
And they had already been attacked by other teams on three separate occasions, with each of them retreating once they saw that the four of them weren’t easy prey.
They were starting to fatigue while pushing as hard as they could to stay ahead of their competitors, so their lead was nowhere near as secure as they’d like. Though they had finally gotten used to moving without a physical form.
A walking pace was sustainable with their mental bodies, but trying to run or fight with them grew exponentially harder. And being at the head of the pack, for better and worse, meant they were constantly facing monsters. Half the time, the monsters needed to be killed twice to get their Genesis Energy, leaving the team on constant alert.
Matt led the charge with Aster on his shoulder. His bond kept up a low-grade [Kar'tan Greets his Foes] to slow the monsters ahead of them, with Matt taking advantage of the sluggish targets by empowering a constant stream of [Flamethrower] and [Fire Manipulation]. Ribbons of fire danced through the nearly-frozen creatures, charring and burning the strong, jellyfish-like monsters they were scorching their way through.
Once they popped into groups of multiple lesser monsters, Liz took over his flames, burning the remnants to blood. Susanne took care of any stragglers, giving them a steady stream of Genesis Energy.
Their cooperation wasn’t perfect, but it was still the fastest method they could come up with to kill most of the monsters, albeit at serious willpower cost.
Still, they formed a four man squad of death and cut their way through the floor, searching for any ruin with a boss.
The floor was the size of a tera-city, and there just wasn’t enough Genesis Energy to go around. Even hunting their fellow delvers was unlikely to get them enough energy before the next wave of cultivators killed their own reflections, and made everything on this floor that much worse. They just needed to find the next level, maybe ambush their pursuers, and get to the final level of the floor.
They were close.
So close to getting out of this nightmare planet.
They had grown stronger, but they had also been worn down to their limits and beyond, in ways that mere training couldn’t replicate.
As they reached a passage to another ruin, the four of them paused to send their spiritual perception into it, hoping for a boss.
The ruin was odd, to say the least.
Three feet tall humanoid mice ran around in packs of dozens, centered around a stone replica of a garden with oversized trees and rocks that led far into the spatially expanded ruin.
As they paused to inspect the ruin, Liz said, “I’m pretty sure I can feel a boss in there. At the least, there’s something big and dangerous.”
Susanne shrugged before gesturing at the mice. “That's great and all, but what about the monsters? Humanoid mice? That's a new one.”
“I’ll check it out.”
As he said that, Matt put words to action and moved forward while casting [Bulwark], readying himself to activate his defensive Concept.
[Hail] and his new upgraded [Ice Manipulation] made a brutal combination of torso-sized hailstones, forming themselves in the blink of an eye before crushing the nearest and smallest group of the mice monsters.
Surprisingly, they were utterly crushed. If not for the stream of Genesis Energy they provided, Matt would have suspected an illusion, but their weakness was partially explained by the pitiful reward they each gave. Around him, the hailstorm continued to whip itself into a frenzy, pulled into a cyclone with the four of them at the center.
He could feel his Boon feeding into the working, hardening and sharpening the ice into incredibly durable flying razors.
With Liz and Susanne keeping close, Aster floated onto his shoulder and started assisting him in empowering the ice closest to them, which prompted Matt to cycle the ice outwards from the center, before bringing it back in.
Once Matt fell into a rhythm he felt he could handle, he stopped channeling [Hail] and started floating forward.
As they passed into the rift, the monsters started charging at them in swarms.
The outer wall of ice was immediately dyed red as the monsters were torn to shreds, which was when Liz started controlling and gathering up the blood along the edges of the ice, empowering the already sharpened blades of ice.
Matt could feel the strain of the complex control that spinning the ice required, but grinned as he kept pushing.
The more he used it, the more the Boon started mimicking what he was doing and taking over the heavy lifting.
Despite each individual monster not giving a lot of Genesis Energy, there were thousands rushing at them every moment, which sent a steady stream into Matt’s spirit.
The others got a portion of it, but as he was the original caster of both damaging spells, he was allocated the majority of the reward.
Susanne, feeling left out, created a second copy of her sword and threw it into the ice, and held it steady and locked in place in the swirling winds. For the monsters that didn’t immediately die, and instead got sucked into the winds and were crushed by the colliding ice, it acted as a quicker end.
With the four of them working together, Matt started to speed up, and the monsters reciprocated in kind as they neared a building.
It was some odd mix of a temple and commercial building that gave off uncanny valley vibes, but they didn’t hesitate as they entered one of the oversized entrances.
Inside, there were massive structures on large but relatively thin metal legs.
With his spiritual perception stretched to its limit, Matt noticed that they were oversized and distorted games with odd imagery.
Thankfully, the space was large enough that Matt was still able to move his whirlwind of ice around the few obstacles.
Even then, they were starting to slow down. The mice had gradually gotten larger during their journey into the building; they were now close to human sized, and were correspondingly tougher.
That didn’t stop the mice from throwing themselves into the ice blender they had created, but the four of them needed to slow their forward progress so the monsters didn’t overwhelm them.
Concentrating on his Boon more to reinforce the ice and sharpen it, Matt activated his AI and [Sharp Mind]. The newly upgraded skill allowed him to concentrate on the vortex, and he mentally created finger width bands of frost in the storm, then started changing their speeds.
That increased the load on his mind, but with the upgraded skill and his AI helping to quickly notice and identify spots that needed his attention, he was able to increase the lethality of his attack a dozen fold. Even the larger mice were unable to push past the frozen cyclone as it now stood.
Liz and Susanne helped by sending waves of blood and swords out of the ice dome, which started killing some of the mice before they got close, relieving even more of the pressure on Matt.
When they were close to halfway through the first room, Matt felt a jolt in his spirit as the Genesis Energy he gathered told him that he now had enough for the exit reward.
“Exit reward achieved. Nothing about the challenge reward yet.”
Aster yipped a happy noise as she redoubled her efforts to earn more Genesis Energy, and Matt noticed Liz and Susanne do the same with their efforts on killing the monsters before they reached Matt.
Seeing they were challenging him and Aster, Matt cast [Hail] in their path and started assimilating all of the ice that fell down, with Aster's help.
As they took back the lead on killing, Matt activated his Concept to refill both Susanne and Liz, but added his Championing effect to Susanne, who was lower on mana.
Using both effects wasn’t quite a doubling of the normal mana refilling, but rather an additive effect. Still, Susanne had a smaller mana pool than Liz, so the boost was more significant for her.
Matt knew he couldn’t keep that level of drain up for long, but he wasn’t using his will power to shape the cyclone thanks to Aster's assistance, so he had some to spare.
They paused in the center of the room, as thousands of eight foot tall mice men rushed them and died.
As more fell, Liz started casting [Blood Tidal Wave] and then [Blood Sprites] on the remnants.
That signified the end of their troubles, as the self-replicating birds had oceans of blood to feed on, and did so before swarming out to devour all of the nearby mice.
Even though it took dozens of blood sparrows to kill even a single monster, they feasted off the body before splitting and moving on in a red wave of sparrows.
Dropping the now unneeded ice combination, Matt walked forward even as Aster complained to Liz, “You stole all of my kills! [Blood Sprites] are cheating.”
Liz snorted. ”It's definitely not. You could argue it was before, when I could just summon out all the blood I needed from my glove, but now I need to earn every kill so I have enough blood to cast it and [Blood Tidal Wave].”
As the two of them carried on with their good-natured bickering, Matt and Susanne took out the few stragglers with [Mana Slash]es, but Liz hadn’t left many for them. They were just about to relax when a presence appeared behind Liz.
A nearly-invisible mantis-like monster emerged from thin air, slicing its arms like a scissor around Liz’s neck, biting deep into her armor.
Blood flew, and Matt’s heart leapt into his throat before her AI confirmed she was still alive, but one of the blades had made it through her armor and cut into her neck. Mana pulsed in her neck and Liz wrapped herself in a cocoon of blood, clutching her head and lashing out blindly with an array of blood tendrils.
Even as the monster faded out of sight and from his spiritual perception, Matt threw some [Fire Bolt]s through the area where the monster had been.
Not feeling any feedback from his attack, Matt reinforced [Cracked Phantom Armor], locked down space, and started feeling his surroundings with [Air Manipulation] as he prepared to block another sneak attack. Susanne stood at his back, sword and shield ready to block the next assault.
A spike of danger alerted both of them to the next attack, and as Susanne swung at where the warning originated from, the mantis reappeared as it twisted in midair, turning a deadly execution into a merely devastating attack at her lower half.
Susanne moved her shield a hair too late, and with no physical armor to stop it, one blade surrounded with thick tangles of mana cut through her [Shadow Armor] and halfway through her knee. The monster yanked on its blade, and it went the rest of the way through before withdrawing.
Despite losing half a leg, with the severed limb falling and vanishing in a thin cloud of smoke and leaving an even wispier copy of itself attached to Susanne, she managed to cut one of the monster's blade limbs off. But before her sword could kill the monster, it pulled back and started to vanish like mist in the sun.
Before Matt could really get a good look at it, it was gone, and they were left in an awkward stalemate as Matt dropped on top of Susanne and cast [Bulwark] flat over her, creating a small dome for her to start healing in.
During that time, Aster and Liz had covered the area in blood and ice, but even the wide area attacks seemed to do nothing, implying the mantis had a level of intangibility, which was a scary thought.
Thankfully, Aster was thinking one step ahead and retrieved their illusion-piercing mirror from her spatial collar, and immediately swept its view across the room.
The second it hit the mantis’ hiding spot, Matt lanced out with [Cracked Mana Spear], and Susanne’s sword followed in its wake a second later. Space began to blur around the monster as it tried to twist around Matt’s attack, but Susanne and Matt both shut it down hard with focused spatial blocking, a move even more effective on this floor than normal.
The moment the mana beam struck the suddenly-stationary monster, it vanished in a puff of mana, and tellingly, no Genesis Energy.
“I think it was a fucking summoned monster,” Matt swore.
Susanne straightened up, absently rubbing her leg. “Oh that fucker wants to play games. Let's see who gets to the safe room first. I’m more than happy to fucking cut their head off.”
Liz emerged from her cocoon and studied the faint outline of Susanne’s lower leg and foot. “Ugh, you ok?”
Liz’s voice was mildly garbled, but a look of concentration crossed her face. “Better? Better.”
Susanne shrugged, but replied with her AI, “Could still be listeners. I don't really need the leg here, so it's not that big of a deal. Aster used a [Bandage] on it, but I don't even think it bleeds.”
“Liz? Are you…”
She ran a finger over her throat, “It’s kind of weird thinking about nearly being decapitated as not too bad a wound, but I was able to keep the blood flowing just fine and my spirit counts as close enough to blood that I was able to manually reattach the severed arteries. And now the cut seems to be… gone? Still not entirely sure about that, but I’m definitely pumping my own blood for a little while just to be safe. Thankfully, [Blood Crystal Armor] took most of the hit.”
Mind Over Matter made things weird, but Matt was just happy they were ok, and made it his personal mission to kill the summoner, if they found… whoever they were.
He had no idea how long the monster had been following them, and didn’t like that it seemed impossible to sense with both mundane and magical senses.
Aster shivered slightly before freezing the mirror to her collar. “I think I’m going to keep this on me for the rest of the floor. I don't think I’d survive the sneak attack.”
That put them all on high alert, even as they pushed through the rest of the ruin.
Thankfully, their entrance and then Liz’s follow up seemed to have killed most of the mice, and they were able to press into the next room quickly.
There they found small groups of ten foot tall mice men that were noticeably more muscular, and actually started casting spells.
Each of these monsters were substantially tougher than their lesser brethren, making conventional tactics a faster approach than the winter storm that Matt had been using before.
Matt opened with a flurry of [Mana Slash]es at one of the monsters, while Liz drove a spear of blood into its shoulder and drained the mouse dry. It didn’t have blood exactly, but whatever it did have was close enough for her new blood-drinking Concept power, and it greedily consumed the monster over the course of a few seconds.
Susanne was substantially slower than she had been before she lost her leg, but she was still able to direct her second sword with full agility, keeping her future targets at bay as she allowed one at a time to approach her and die on her main blade.
Aster served a largely support role, slowing down the monsters enough that the rest of them weren’t overwhelmed. She kept Liz’s targets particularly restrained, and buffeted Susanne’s future victims, leaving them disoriented and ready for execution, all while keeping an eye on her mirror, ready to preempt the next assassination attempt.
A defensive measure that turned out well, as while Matt was embroiled with two fifteen foot tall mice men, Aster lashed out with a short but violent storm of ice as she reported, "Five of them!”
Matt growled and used a short burst of [Cracked Mana Spear] to finish off all the remaining monsters of this room. A couple of them tried to jerk out of the way, but Matt finished them off before they could escape.
Driving his sword into the wispy ground, he growled, “So the asshole isn’t content to just try once.”
Liz interjected, “Do we need to go finish him off?”
Matt paused as he thought about it, even as Susanne growled, “I’m all for it.”
Matt shook his head as he analyzed the situation. “That wouldn’t be a smart use of our time. It's better to just keep our attention on our rear but push forward. He can't do shit if we get to the next level before him.”
Despite arguing otherwise, Matt waited for anyone else to have a good reason to go kill the man, but none of them did, so they carried on deeper into the ruin.
As they turned, Liz adjusted her grip on the spear and growled, “Fucking summoner. Maybe we should wait around for a few hours to see if he appears in the safe room? I’d love to give him a little surprise.”
Susanne nodded. “I only need a second. It's one thing to attack people, but invisible, impossible-to-sense monsters just feel unfair.”
Matt offered up an explanation of his own, “I think it's the floor theme that’s making them so dangerous. My guess is that outside of Minkalla, they’re probably normal assassin mantises with the ability to vanish from spiritual perception. Here, though, they don’t have a physical body hindering them- they’re more like a mental projection by the summoner. Because of that, they’re already not fully ‘here’ to begin with, and some kind of ability their master has to force them to ‘vanish from everything’, they’re able to avoid attacks not specifically directed at them. Maybe it’s some sort of Concept ability”
“What makes you say that?”
Matt pointed to where the assassins had been lurking. “Of those five, only one felt as slippery as the first one we fought. I think the summoner may have picked up a new ability from Folded Reflections, and can only focus it on one creature at a time. By what I’m sure wasn’t coincidence, it was also the only one trying to use a skill.”
Aster shook like she was wet, which was a disorienting sight with her star body. “Even so, it's a bad match up. Imagine if we didn't have the mirror?”
“But thankfully, we do. Let's just kill the boss and get out of here.” As a thought came to him, Matt added, “Actually, let's even out our Genesis Energy after testing how much we need to get the floor reward.”
As he and Liz consolidated their Genesis Energy through the gauge rings they had gotten on the first floor, they cringed.
Both of them individually had enough Genesis Energy to take the exit reward, which was the flexible innate skill slot, but it was only together that they had enough for the floor challenge. There was a bit to spare, and once Aster and Susanne added theirs to the mix, they found they had just shy of enough Genesis Energy for two of them to afford both the challenge and exit reward, though all of them could afford the exit reward, even then.
It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t awful. They were about two-thirds of the way there, and depending on how much Genesis Energy they got from the level boss, it might end up being enough. If not, well… That was just a few more ruins that they’d need to clear on the next level.
Or, they could kill a few delvers.
Even at half-rate, they’d get a lot of Genesis Energy at this stage, and if they all got half of their current amount again, it would be enough for them all to get out with full rewards.
Matt could only shudder at the cost of a final floor Spirit Journey if Mind Over Matter was this expensive for Tier 11s. Luna saying only one or two people ever got that reward when it was the final floor made a lot more sense. Everyone would be waiting on the final level, trying to kill each other to gather an entire Minkalla run’s worth of Genesis Energy.
And with how Genesis Energy became more obvious to everyone the more one gathered, anyone ahead of the average would turn into public enemy number one.
Thinking about the possibility, Matt was grateful they had gotten Mind Over Matter instead.
After redistributing the Genesis Energy back out to everyone, they pushed forward, killing the mice monsters as they grew larger and larger. By the time they entered what seemed to be a nightmare version of an industrial kitchen, the monsters were close to thirty feet tall, and were growing difficult to take down. The good thing was, they also grew rarer, allowing them to focus their entire combat prowess on killing one.
With Aster watching their back, they cut through the final monsters until they found the management room, where they found the exit distortion and the ruin's boss.
Which was a literal… boss.
Or, the mouse version of an office manager.
With a set of armor that looked more like business clothes, the boss wielded a clipboard as a shield and threw pens like massive darts.
Matt raced forward and cast [Hail] at the sixty-foot-tall monster, and directed the ice at its face while it was busy blocking a [Mana Slash] from Susanne.
The monster threw a retaliatory pen back at him.
That would have been fine, but either through an insidious mind or bad aim, the monster's attack was headed straight for Aster, who was keeping watch for more assassins.
Cursing, Matt flew into the way of the projectile and cast [Bulwark], and activated his defensive Concept to empower the skill.
He was sent flying in the resulting explosion, but he had stopped the pen dart in its tracks, which surprised him.
That was an attack from a boss monster that was three Tiers stronger than himself, and he didn’t even need to use [Cracked Phantom Armor] to block any of it.
With more confidence, Matt cast [Cracked Mana Spear] at the boss, which was trying to swat the annoying fly that was Liz, who flew faster than normal with her boots of wind.
As the beam of mana landed on its faceplate, the monster immediately turned to smack at Matt with its clipboard.
The larger monster’s clipboard froze in the air for a moment before it overpowered Aster’s Concept, but Matt had already floated out of range and kept the beam on the monster, cutting deep lines into and through its armor.
He couldn’t strain his spirit too much quite yet, so the moment his beam opened a legitimate hole in the creature’s armor, he switched to unleashing a torrent of [Fireball]s. The boss managed to block several of them with its clipboard, but more struck its face, keeping its attention firmly on him.
Thus freed from the boss’s attacks, Liz and Susanne closed in on the monster itself. Liz drove her spear into the beast’s ankle and launched herself up with the assistance of her wind boots.
Susanne flitted forward like a shadow being chased by the light, pulled along by her sword as she raced up the left side of the monster, aiming for the gaping hole in its business suit armor.
Liz reached the pinnacle of her leap, and pulled herself above the boss with a blood tendril. She summoned the blood around her into a giant spear, and dropped down into a stabbing attack. Her shield and spear glimmered in the not-light, and her Spirit flared as her Concept poured into her attack,
Even as it tried to slap Susanne, the monster took the blow from Liz on the face, and the helmet cracked like an egg and shattered.
As the boss screamed and went to smack Susanne, Matt let himself fall to the ground as he channeled [Wood Manipulation] and [Metal Manipulation].
With the two spells, he grabbed the oversized clipboard and pulled.
The weapon was protected by the monster's spirit, which made the manipulation hard, but Matt had the mana to spare as he sent nearly all his mana into the spells.
Even as the massive boss tried to pull against the force, Matt held firm and grinned as the shield was sent flying under the combined and opposite forces.
That moment of hesitation was more than enough for Susanne to reach the monster's face and drive her blade deep into its eye.
The monster slapped itself in the face, trying to kill what was hurting it, but that only helped drive the blade deeper into its body, and it went stiff right before Liz’s blood spear drove into the other eye and started spinning.
As the boss slumped over, Matt felt the rush of Genesis Energy that signified it was truly dead, and sighed in relief before catching himself and looking to Aster, who was still watching their rear with the mirror.
It would be the perfect time for the summoner to try and ambush them, after all.
As the boss vanished, it dropped a number of items and natural treasures, which Matt added to the other pile that fell out of the reward distortion, somewhat forlorn that they weren’t in a good position to look into whatever Tier 20 skills and other valuables they happened to get. They simply didn’t have the time for an unnecessary pause.
He’d nearly signaled for them to move on when the former clipboard caught his eye. Matt took a closer look at some of the runes along its edge and was somewhat surprised by what he saw. On top of a frankly ludicrously strong durability enchantment, it had an impressive shape changing rune array built into it, enabling it to shrink or grow over the course of about a minute from the dimensions of a thick piece of paper all the way up to a square forty feet on a side and four feet thick. That included the ability to grow divots or edges, self-repair, and self-clean with a bit of mana. He could even change the finish, color and grain of the wood to any ‘natural’ pattern that he desired. For anyone who wanted a ridiculously over-engineered base for a flat shield, it would be a great find.
He’d use it as a cutting board.
Aster didn't see anything trying to sneak up on them, leading Matt to assume that the summoner had decided it wasn’t worth the mana to create more monsters to send at them. That, or he understood they had a counter to the monster type.
When they appeared on the third level of the final floor, Matt immediately cast [Bulwark], sensing an attack from their rear.
A Tier 13 and two Tier 12s were within a hundred feet of them, and had seemingly been in the middle of clearing the ruin when they appeared right behind them.
As the Tier 13 finished off the alligator monster, one of the other two turned and started casting [Fireball]s at them while the final member shot magical arrows out of a bow.
[Bulwark] blocked each and every attack, and Matt called out, “We don't mean any harm!” and sent the same message through his AI.
The other team didn’t respond to either message, and Matt returned his own [Fireball] as they started to batter down his [Bulwark].
Seeing they weren't going to stop attacking, Matt settled on killing them.
He hadn’t chosen to appear right next to another team, but he also wasn’t going to walk away after the misunderstanding was perpetuated.
A single attack out of surprise was one thing, but a continued assault was another.
As a burst of flame came from Liz, not having any blood to wield, he cast [Earth Manipulation] and brought two slabs of ground slamming towards the team.
The mage of the team created a bubble of hardened air with a spell, but Matt broke that working with a flex of [Air Manipulation].
The other mage reacted quickly, even with only a moment before the slab of earth landed on them, and used [Earth Swim] to enter and pull the archer into and through the ground.
For cultivators of their Tier, one hundred feet was nothing, and that made all the difference. If they weren’t deposited right on top of the other team, they might have had some chance at running or even getting off an attack, but they hadn’t been.
Susanne had already started moving towards the Tier 13, who clearly didn't expect a melee engagement with the floor theme, and tried to block with a magical shield. Susanne’s blade didn't even slow as it cut the man in half.
Seeing one of their teammates die, both the remaining people immediately Tiered up to Tier 13, but Matt didn’t give them time to do anything more.
With a stream of fire from [Flamethrower], he wrapped them up and punched through their [Water Shield] that attempted to keep the flames away with [Fire Manipulation]. As two more bursts of Genesis Energy rushed out of them, Matt relaxed slightly.
“Fucking idiots.” He nearly spat the words out.
Aster flicked her ears. “Their loss is our gain, though. That was a good bit of Genesis Energy. We’re close, very close, to having enough to leave.”
Sadly, things were never that easy, as they felt another team rushing at them from a distance. A full team of Tier 14s.
Their fight wasn’t even the only fight in this ruin, let alone this floor.
Everywhere his spiritual perception stretched over was filled with fighting, as teams tried to reach boss ruins and Tier 14 kill squads used this level as a final bottleneck to finish their missions.
The end was in sight.
Now, they just needed to get there.
Comments
Revenice
You need to pass a skill through your inner and core slots to put it in the deeper innate slot so the skill would turn to blood before it got there.
Drakken17
Nice so I am still hoping liz gets an innate flex skill slot amd merges blood and fire manipulation. Also makes a new mana type with blood and fire
Jonas Schauer
i think it was A tier 15 tournament not a pather tournament but it would have to reread to be 100% certain
MikeL
For the innate skill slot Luna states it can be any skill in your spirit. So Liz’s outer skills can be placed there. Will they convert to blood, I’m guessing we will find out if innate counts as core.
Anon
How the hell do you even remember something that was mentioned more than 200 chapters ago? Lol.
Anon
I hope we get some good Aster chapters of her making friends and getting up to mischief. Her personality really shines when she's away from Matt and Liz.
Bob Bryan
Not if that nail can teleport and attack back.
MikeL
On the 4th floor they get asked how strong they were and Liz answered. Tier 15, no issues. And we finish them quickly.” She also thought with Queen they could kill T16’s.
MinE
Point, they should have at least a brief protection period.
David Stifter
Thankyou
Exchao
172 and 173 is the discussion about the types of floors and rewards.
MinE
Can you imagine the look on Liz’s face when she realizes.
David Stifter
Can someone please remind me what chapter game the Background on the floors I want to re read that Luna floor walk through.
Drakken17
It does say for core and inner. The only thing innate is mentioned is that only talents affect it like Vinny and aster. Basically a free skill but better then core. So does that mean if it is flexible they can pull from any part of tge spirt with out touching any of the other spots
Arnon Parenti
Its explained on chapter 3 when Matt buys a book about absorbing skills.
Drakken17
Oh well there goes some kind of blood fire mana aspect. I was thinking she could mix blood and fire aspect mana and pair well with the burning concept from folded reflections. Burn blood to ash for enemies and burn the impurities from allies like a cleanse. And would pair well with her alchemy
Finn
I believe, to get to the initiate slot, the skill will have to be in a core slot. Just like layers and the initiate is the core of the core.
Bob Bryan
Safe from minkalla not each other.
Gjim
I wonder if they ended up finding the skill Leon had a bounty on ( Liz's Dad)? The enchanted striking rooster thrust or some equally sexual sounding skill from the sects.
Drakken17
Was it explained how skills are moved with an innate skil slot? Do they have ro move it outer -> inner -> core -> innate or can be moved freely? Really hope they get it at tier 11 since I feel it would be a way for the characters to stand out from Duke Waters like how Matt completed the rift challenge.
Drakken17
So I went back to the 1st book. Tier 1 talen says any skills in her core and inner spirit get turned to blood related skills. And she got her manipulation skill in her core spirit when she got put on the path. She has no innate skill currently. Maybe she can still get her fire manipulation and just partition her mana pool like luna taught? I think she is doing it now for her torch persona it would just be cheaper mana wise if the innate skill slot isn't affected by her talent
Mashiara
Probably one of the best Chapters in this Minkalla arc. I am really glad this arc is about to close. I mean, it’s fun and all but just like Matt and the crew, it’s time to leave Minkalla behind
PoeticSaint
Eerrmagerrrrd!!!! I'm loving this and CAN'T wait for the next drop so I can see how they manage in the moments following this chapters conclusion!
Adurna
Just gotta say Mantis, I love this floor theme. It is quite a nice mix-up. :)
Jumping Flounder
she originally had innate fire manipulation, but her concept changed it into blood.
BaguaBrady
you don't need GE to go through the floors, just to get rewards
Seiryus
There were like a billion people entering Minkalla. Being among the first 1000 or so puts them firmly "ahead of the pack", I'd say. They are very very powerful, but I have the impression that there are people down there that could give them a run for their money.
Drakken17
I think that would blow his talent right? It was mentioned that they have to follow strict rules so the other powers can't call shenanigans. They know about his concept from tier 10 tournament but it is nowhere near enough to fully charge a rift in the time his concept would last with will power. They are going tk want to hold his talent in the dark as long as they can
Drakken17
So question if Liz gets an innate skill slot for fire can it turn to blood? I thought her talent was only inner and core. Her innate is blood manipulation already right?
Ricky Kukowski
in courtly warfare matt talked about how they could all beat tier 15s individually. and as a group of four could probably do a tier 16 rift but that they hadn't tried it.
SilasDrekken
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
adam1
In book 1 Matt watched footage of Light and Shadow at the Tier 15 tournament...
Nathan Sto
The difference between tiers is really quite large in this novel. Even though our MCs are special, it seems that a few tiers of height does present a challenge. Remember, they might think crushing tier 14 monsters is easy, but so do tier 14s. Most of the type sent into kill squads would be able to punch above their tier as well, and we HAVEN’T seen any indication that Matt Liz and Aster can consistently destroy tier 15 or higher enemies.
Anon
Lol. If they revealed they were T11, they'd have the entire floor ignoring everyone else to kill them. If they made it this far at T11, they are a HUGE future threat to the Empire's enemies.
Anon
Agreed. Having yet another ambush point right at the end would be beyond ridiculous. Frankly, I think all these "safe" rooms are stupid. You can get attacking literally the instant you appear by any number of people who arrived before you. How the fuck is that remotely fair? Isn't Minkalla supposed to be about rewarding excellence? All that does it allow the mediocre to zerg the actual talent.
Wrathwind
Liz said this chapter “Fucking summoner. Maybe we should wait around for a few hours to see if he appears in the safe room? I’d love to give him a little surprise” so there is one more safe room, I think it’s the core room…..
Anon
Yup. I feel like this issue is just ignored for plot convenience. Those big Republic kill squads should have so much trouble getting enough genesis energy to actually move down floors. Shouldn't they need several times as much as a T11? How could they possibly keep up with a much smaller team 3 tiers lower?
mant06
The arc is also ending next chapter, that kind of setup needs time and space to be done without feeling cheap and rushed.
Bob Bryan
I mean there are those people from the federation that were structurally broken down to just brains, turned into children guinea pigs by the one who did it and completely brainwashed them into believing she is mother Theresa fighting the evil empire with rainbows and kisses, so yeah. Plus the clans are psychos, mostly, so that doesn't help
SilasDrekken
I mean, who the fucks signing up to be on the killsquads? The mortality rate on killsquads has be be fucking astronomical; way worse than Minkalla's general mortality rate if I were to bet. "Hey you know those guys who we're afraid of letting live because they're able to fight several tiers above themselves and they're incredibly powerful? Yeah we want you to go fight those guys... while you're only several tiers above them. Yeah, that's right, while you're right inside the range of their combat potency. Nah, you'll be fine." You'd have to either be uber patriotic to the point of brainwashed or literally not care if you live or die. Or both.
Galaxyace1
I hope we get a debrief chapter with Luna
SilasDrekken
I don't think it really makes sense to have a "safe" room after the last floor. It's only purpose would be for ambush killing people at the finish line. It's safer outside than in this "safe" room and if theres no more floors to advance to then I don't see why they shouldnt be able to leave directly from their floor reward challenge. Edit: I'm not saying I don't think theres a safe room. I know there is, it was confirmed in chapter. I'm just saying it doesn't make much sense that there is one.
Asekhan
I think they shouldn't hide the fact that they're Tier 11, if anything, it's been told that a tier 11 in Minkala are probably the most dangerous people around, so if you're tier 11 _in floor 7_, everybody would get the fuck out. Except that... maybe seeing a tier 11 would make the kill squad teamup together to anihilate them
Jim
Probably skipped floor 5. Most people probably would care less about the increased skill spots. Maybe got into a bad fight that made their T13 tier up near the end and they ran.
Bearrito
Ok, that can explain the kill teams but what about that team of 2 tier 12s and the tier 13? Shouldn't they have tried to get rewards? What is the point of them coming to Minikala if not for the rewards?
Ryan Romano
they're also going to have that decade where Aster is away, so maybe Matt can enter some cooking competitions and they can do the SoL stuff then, since they can't outpace Aster
Aaron Hardin
No, you need Genesis Energy to get both the floor reward and the exit reward. To get to the next floor, you just need to kill a boss (technically three, one for each sub floor). Pathetic teams need to kill enough monsters to get enough genesis energy for the rewards, plus any challenges they want to face. Kill teams skip all of that, so the only thing they need to fight are the bosses. Think about how much time Matt and company have spent resting to recover, with a significant amount of it from non boss situations (and the kill teams, as they have significantly less genesis energy, can’t be sensed as easily so have fewer random encounters until the last floor as well).
Arnon Parenti
What is the chance we will get a SoL arc with some closures to lingering projects from the first book? We need some info about the ancient space dragon, more Aperology, planet scaling. To us it has been a year but Matt and Liz are at it for decades, so there should be some advancement in some of their hobbies and interests.
Wrathwind
Next chapter has the final floor, the floor challenge and the core room/last safe room (last ambush chance). That’s a lot for one chapter the team gota speed through everything and the floor challenge must be easy or something.
Bearrito
Don't you need energy to even go to the next floor? How do these tier 14s get enough to get past floor 5 6 and 7 and still beat our protagonist to the bottom of bottom floors? If you don't need energy to get past a floor and they skipped all the rewards then why are there non-kill squad teams still ahead of them? I thought them having unlimited mana was the reason that other teams wouldn't be as fast because they would have to regenerate that resource back.
David Dorelus
They are completionist. Not only are they getting treasures but they are also completing challenges. Finally they are making sure everone in the group can get the exit reward and the floor theme reward.
Jim
They’re trying to get everything so they need enough energy for the reward and the challenge. Others are skipping one or both. Kill squads at 14 are just racing to the bottom level where the floors are smaller. The holdup on floor 4 made it worse any other scenario would have had them still racing at the front of the pack.
BeepBoop
A bullet for the "secret 8th floor for Matt and team" theory. Do you remember the girl with the "cheat" talent? Well, seeing her die was the result of her talent. She will be the one to get the 8th floor. In the last Minkalla extra chapter.
Bearrito
How are they rushing ahead "at the front of the pack" and pushing so hard and yet there are 30 teams that have beat them to the 3rd floor?
saganatsu
also, a group that follows would have issues following through different floors without taking a cut of the genesis energy, as well as being a de facto kill squad themselves.
Bob Bryan
Sorry that I have to disagree with. I hate when authors do that, it would nerf all 4 of them to do that and feel forced. Matt would put himself in danger first and save them both and we all know that. Also he saw himself kill Liz and lived as a mana box, he had emotional damage as well
Bob Bryan
Though waters didn't have a bond. They and aster are going to be separate for at least 10 years so they need to give that time to not get in the way.
Robin Richards
So while it's certainly possible to rush through the tiers I'm not sure that they should. Part of the point of the path is using pressure to create diamonds, so finding additional challenges at every tier is something Luna is absolutely going to do and the best challenges are those that require the full range abilities. In addition spending as long as possible at tiers they can deal with his mana concentration is better for trying to figure out the solution for the next tiers. I think Luna is going to keep them within the statistically normal timeframe for Panthers to complete the path just like they asked Duke Waters to slow down
Austin
Hopefully. I don't think they're special enough to be the only ones to discover a secret.8th floor in the billions of years minkalla has been delved.
Robin Richards
Unless it's a fake out...
CottonMod
Yea, I'd hate to see anyone die. It just feels like there needs to be some sort of negative event that would open up growth possibilities character-wise. For Liz, it already happened since arguably the most impactful "gift" she received from Minkalla was emotional damage and damage to her sense of self. It gave her a lot of room to grow, change and improve. Ultimately, it would make her a better person, which is the journey I look forward to reading about it. When it comes to Matt, such an event hasn't really happened yet. Minkalla was pretty much what Luna trained them for and what our heroes expected. As a consequence, there has not really been any change to Matt as a character. I would really appreciate there being something, at least something like learning how the hero would behave in a particularly dire situation. Death is only one such possibility. Another example I can come up with is being forced to choose between Liz and Aster at some point, which not necessarily might result in death. It could provide character conflict, set up future growth, and, honestly, be a damn satisfying way to end the arc (if executed correctly, that Mantis is perfectly capable of).
seth dauer
I think they let the kill squads happen on purpose. The Pathers are supposed to be able to punch up. Makes t14 kill squads that haven't been able to afford the rewards pinatas. Hit them and good things fall out. Also, not every t14 is a kill squad. 13's that had to tier up to survive.
Matthew Baird
Speaking of a red herring what about that woman all the way back when Matt first left Lilly. She made Matt consider leaving the Path to follow her, if only for a few moments. Are we ever going to learn what that was all about? I presume it was an attraction Concept or possibly a skill but maybe she was just a super attractive woman and Matt’s hormones surged right then. (Sorry if this is a bit too wayback but I’ve just been rereading the story and that little plot point was at the front of my mind).
Fleetpanda
They can proceed without getting rewards (I think? Don’t quote me here). They just power through to the end and then wait to kill people from other powers. Frankly the solution should be to have anti kill squads: groups that follow promising pathers and prevent them from being swarmed like this. Pathers aren’t supposed to receive help, but it’s also illegal to attack people lower than your tier, so it seems fair to just prevent them from falling to foul play.
Sean McClain
Agreed, I know the 4th floor leveled the playing field somewhat but floors 5 and 6 should have given tier 11s a bit of a head start again. Though if I am playing devil's advocate maybe if they ignored trials and challenges and just go for exit as fast as possible it evens out. Though clearly there is some time dilation going on with challenges as they spend years in them and clearly years don't elapse on the outside.
adam1
The key got them the max reward in that ruin and got converted into a general use magic item, like the mirror and compass. The compass is just better since its a seeker item, but a key to magically open locks is still very good.
adam1
They key got converted into a magic item that opens locks. It's pretty good as is.
Tom Henman
Seems like 14's would have trouble keeping up with speed of 11's in going deeper since they would be needing much more energy to proceed. But also really points out how 7th floor is a kill floor since it was hard for 11's to get enough energy for exit and reward.
Tommy Mullane
Great chapter
Xavier Joanblanq
Man, can't wait for the debrief
Anon
Man, fuck these kill squads. I feel like there should be measures taken to prevent it. It should be extremely obvious to the babysitters which teams are legitimate and which are purely there to kill future elites. Not sure how you'd do that, though...
Ryan Naquin
I think its to show that they are capable of losing. They are elite but so is everyone else at this point. It would be boring if they steamrolled a challenge that is supposed to be suicidal at tier 11. I dont think anyone necessarily has to die.
Violet
My "conspiracy theory bingo card" for the arc has the friendly couple as enemy agents, tbh. If the spies of unknown providence from the previous Arc weren't obviously too high Tier to enter Minkalla, I'd say it was them.
Bob Bryan
It could also unlock an extra reward for them, not a new floor.
Violet
I think we can probably rule out the second, on the grounds that showing us Chekov's Gun and then just never having it be relevant to the story is a great way to break immersion for readers. There's an implicit expectation when Chekov's Gun is wildly waved in your face that it is relevant to the future plot. Just having it be a thing that didn't really matter betrays the reader's trained sense of how narrative works.
CottonMod
Short but sweet. Great chapter! It feels like there is a lot of setup for somebody to die (losing multiple times, Liz getting her neck bit, Aster saying she would not survive that). It's not going to be one of the main 3, so it leaves Queen as a potential option or at least the friendly pather couple from Floor 4. I can't wait to read the final confrontation with the Alpha squad.
Violet
Per C. Mantis' response to Herbwick's comment on Chapter 208, the Arc "ends when they exit" which tends to imply that there is no floor 8 with the schedule we've been showed. Of course, it's possible that the key is to something outside of Minkalla or does something to change Minkalla after they've exited it, so that doesn't rule out the set of all things which are akin to a floor 8 but are not floor 8.
Oran Poe
Found it. 181
Bob Bryan
Hold. They still need to get there second legacies. Plus war could happen and a higher tier one would be interesting. Plus Luna might want them to target some rare or unique skills and master everything they got inside here before getting to tier 15. Plus Matt might try to make some unique rifts. Maybe try to make some new healing skills.
RedeyeA
At the end of the last chapter, they achieved the exit reward when they evened out their genesis energy. Matt achieves the exit reward again towards the beginning of this chapter. I think it works better with this chapter because in the previous one they were only on the first sub-floor when they got enough energy. This way makes it seem like it requires more.
Lacrimosa
I like the grind rifts to tier up hard strategy they could even do it on a low tier world like lily to forcibly tier it up
Violet
Once they hit Tier 15 they're on a decade long break while Aster finishes her schooling. Most likely case is that Luna rushes them to 15 and then, when they "retire" from the Path, she sets up intensive training for all three of them (she'll need to find a Beast willing to train Aster while she's away, but that's probably one of the tasks she has Amber doing right now) over the next decade to master their new skills from Minkalla. Depending on how Legacies work, they can either get to peak Tier-14 and do the second Legacy before Tiering up or wait until after and do it as part of their decade of "downtime" (during which Luna will have them training their asses off, so its cute that they think they'll be getting time off).
Oran Poe
Anyone remember what chapter the key was found in?
Lacrimosa
Damn your cliffhanger perfection lol. Great chapter ty
yannick schwende
Maybe the key simply lets him get another reward or they could have already missed what it should have been used for?
Fleetpanda
I can hope. That key has to do something >_>. (Tier 8 will be in our hearts at least. ;-;)
Omer Segal
It's been confirmed in discord that there aren't any Pather T15 or T20 tournaments, there just aren't enough pathers at the required tier to hold them
Rowsdower
While i do think they will get to Tier 15 quickly Luna has stated earlier she hates rushing through the tiers. That was one of the reasons they waited at Tiers 6 and 8. Personally I think they will be doing one rift a day at the highest tier they can complete, with the rest of their time spent concept training and hobbies especially after the Folded Reflections and Mind Over Matter being the last two floors. Then when they get to Tier 14 they can do a second Legacy. P.S. I also enjoy your story "Gamer Reborn"
Metool
Or it's a feint, or the next arc is floor 8.
Brad
The problem is that no matter how satisfying it would feel, Luna is always going to go for optimal. If it's better long-term and not too damaging, she'll have them stagnate right where they are now so they can train their Minkalla awards. Though with the fact that they just wiped the floor with a team of T12/13s who were good enough to reach the last floor of Minkalla, I really don't think they're at all underpowered
Pixelblade
Let the lord of chaos rule.
TerrestrialOverlord
I'll be really pissed if they didn't have to tier up this entire time but then have to do so to survive....I'm having very bad vibes and spider premonitions..... don't do it Mantis!!
Damien Hinkle
Bolt]s] has the misplaced square bracket
alex bozdog
Once Minkalla is done with is there any reason for Luna not to abuse the infinite mana Matt generates to speedrun them to Tier 15, stagnate there for a while and train up then go into a T15 tournament and just wipe the floor with everyone, then repeat for Tier 20? As I understand it they have the Matt mana concentration for up to T15 ready to use and the T15 rewards will give him the Mana concentration potions for up to T19-20, and the fact that they can run 2-3 rifts a day when a normal pather group can run 1 a week at best at those levels means they can speedrun decades ahead then stop at a Tier and do massive amounts of catchup training with Luna. It would feel amazing to finally have them be Ascender level and just wipe the floor with people to the point they can just oneshot entire teams at or just above their Tier, instead of the struggle they currently have. Most parties will have to ration mana for training or delving and ration money for rift buys, skills, gear and healing, Matt's team has no rationing needed as they have free rifts, infinite mana to train or delve and for all intents and purposes healing cooldown doesn't affect them as they can just work on their crafts (cooking,enchanting,alchemy) while waiting out the healing cooldowns and just make up the loss by delving an extra rift a day for a week. Not to mention they can keep all their skills for use or trade in order to have infinitely more skills and options than anyone else on the path. Though I feel like Luna will just not allow them to enter a tournament where they will literally just shit on everyone else from a great height without some drawbacks.
Herbwick
Thx for the chapter. Now I want them to take down both Blood Hand and the summoner, lol.
SilasDrekken
Announcement really puts a bullet in the “secret floor 8” theory. :(
