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Chapter 148
🕑 Added 2022-06-10 19:01:02 +0000 UTC7.8k words enjoy.
Chapter 148
Allie shoved away from her desk and spun in her chair with a tap of her foot.
She was on her third time around when her AI beeped with another fruitless scan.
Her search query involved a possible identity of one of the masked Pathers, but she had to be careful to not directly search for anything important. If she carelessly searched for keywords related to the identity in question, she would trip a million automated alerts. Monarch Harper, the head of the Empire’s intelligence bureau, took counterespionage very seriously, and plenty of foreign agents had flown straight into their webs by data mining the EmpireNet too explicitly.
At that point, it wouldn't matter how many proxies and false relays she hid behind. The Empire would burn all information related to the masked Pather. Then they would come looking for her.
That didn’t mean relevant information was impossible to find. Far from it.
They had briefly intercepted an official backup of the EmpireNet six months ago and cloned it, giving them an offline way to search for most of the information they needed.
Still, her investigation of the Gems came up empty. Again.
Polyamory was hardly a unique or even rare trait, but it did limit the possible identities to a much smaller sub-group than any of other known criteria that they had. Yet despite searching for any mentions of polyamorous trios in official reports over the last decade, zero promising leads popped up.
Even something as simple as a trio of people booking a single room for a Pather rift was usually enough to put her on the right scent. But so far, every hand she played went bust. At this point, she was leaning towards the whole thing being a red herring. It would hardly be the first time masked competitors faked a relationship to help throw inquisitive people off their trail.
She slapped her foot flat on the ground, making a loud smacking sound as she stopped, facing Zack where he sat.
Hopping to her feet, she walked over to where he was working and flopped bonelessly onto the back of his chair to look over his shoulder.
“I can't find jack shit. Remind me who thought this was a good idea? I’m bored, and this is dangerous work. It's the worst of both worlds.” She deliberately added a whine to her voice that she knew he couldn’t resist responding to.
Her friend did not disappoint. After holding firm in his stoicism for a moment, he gave up on staying silent. “Well Allie, I seem to remember that a particular someone, which I must note was definitely not me, was— and I quote, ‘so super excited I might just climax right here and now’— for this when we first got our briefing.”
Even with the pair having been working in close proximity for almost a month straight, he still sat upright in his chair as if he had a metal rod shoved up and through his back. To disguise his utter annoyance, he shuffled through a pile of paper reports that had fallen out of a spatial ring and into their laps. Zack didn’t think he would ever get used to her cavalier approach to her work. The reports were regarding food preferences of the masked Pathers, which he was trying to correlate to previous reports from Pather events.
Allie knew that would be just as dead of an end as her own searches, but she hoped something came out of it to alleviate her boredom, if nothing else.
She sighed. “Yeah, someone should reach back in time and bitchslap whoever suggested that.”
Not that it would have made any difference. It seemed so interesting at the time.
Zack shrugged. “We’ll at least see something interesting in…” He paused to check the feed of news reports. “...four hours and six minutes. The end of the first month's events are about to commence, and Tur'stal has gathered everyone for an announcement.”
Allie knew that as well as he did, but she doubted anything would come of it.
The first weeks of events had been exciting and action-packed, with rampant speculation and debate among the watchers. However, as the second week ticked over to the third, things had settled down into a monotonous grind. As the smaller events, like the legacy battles and nonprofessional crafting events would start, some more inspiring performances would be displayed. But currently, they were in the most boring phase of the tournament.
Zack interrupted her moaning with a question that caused her to slump to the ground bonelessly.
“Anything turn up on the Scribbling?”
“Don’t. Just don’t,” Allie groaned, trying to not get into this argument again.
Zack asked anyway. “It’s something we know must lead somewhere. If—”
She interrupted him again. “Bla bla bla! Yes, I know. Quill must have a history of interaction with the guilds, and/or access to an insane amount of computational resources. I already did all the searching we can without scouring for smaller sources on the live servers.”
Allie half-heartedly rolled over the cool ground to dodge Zack as he stood and went on his rant for the thousandth time. To mess with him, she started to mouth his words along with him.
“Creating a completely new rune in just hours isn't something that just happens, Allie. Most Tier 20 enchanters would take a month or longer to make even a Tier 8 rune based on a well known skill.”
Allie pulled a beer from her spatial storage, and while she drank, mimicked Zack’s words with her hand instead. Her thin fingers waggled in the air as his own hands began to wring together excitedly. This topic, to her chagrin, had been fascinating for him to delve into. His passion was well meaning, if a tad boring, and was easily mimicked.
“This is either something he prepared months, or even years ahead of time, or his Talent is drastically more complex and powerful than we first thought. You don’t just pull a new rune, let alone such an astonishingly abridged one, out of thin air in front of trillions of people and millions of on-site crafters. And if you miraculously can, why aren’t you walking the crafter side of the Path!? We already ruled out him ’walking the line’ between the Paths. If he were, the Empire would be promoting him as the potential ‘Duke Waters of enchanting’ right now.”
Allie already knew all of this. When they witnessed Quill’s stunt, she had been flabbergasted, but Zack had been more discombobulated than she had seen him in over a century.
He, along with every other enchanter, had acquired the first rune that Quill released to the public and studied it. The common refrain among experts called it rough, but brilliantly inspired work.
When Quill had then offhandedly released a Tier 5 rune at the end, her partner lost what little shit he had remaining. Allie smiled at the memory of it, fighting the urge to watch the recording of it that she had saved to her AI as he blathered on.
Anyone else might have tossed tables and rampaged, or maybe even spat and shaken a fist, but Zack simply cursed twice and joined in the mid Tier crafters debates under a false identity. He surfed and searched and started to rip apart the ‘hasty scribble’, so dubbed because of the speed and relative crudeness it was made under. One prominent figure in the community was widely quoted as calling it a ‘sloppy, drunken masterpiece.’
For two full days after the Scribbling, he’d done almost nothing but join in the raging EmpireNet debates as to its construction. Seeing her partner’s rigid composure slowly deteriorate as he argued with the denizens of the EmpireNet was a much needed reprieve from her boredom, but it hadn’t lasted.
The news had treated the Scribbling with a curious level of indifference which she agreed was odd. They simply talked about how it was interesting, but otherwise not more important than the original patent release. Someone was putting pressure on the stations to not make a fuss, but that could be the Empire proper, or bribery from the higher Tier guilds and corporations. They would hardly want another round of copycat activists making free products again.
The talking heads were significantly more interested in running fluff pieces about the Tier 35 enchanters who had already started an official competition to make a lower Tier [Bandage] rune, all while touting the boy's altruism.
But under the surface, all of the professional crafters were obsessed with the second rune.
‘Idiot savant’ was how Zack reported their findings.
Parts of the rune were apparently completely new in their methodology, enough so to likely warrant an inspiration at such a low Tier. Meanwhile, other portions were so obviously ass-backwards that no one understood why such a prodigious talisman maker had left them so totally unpolished. Allie had stopped him and ordered him to explain what he meant by that, and he just glared at her for a moment.
“Anyone who is able to create the core of a Tier 5 or Tier 6 rune—even a Tier 10 who is capable of that feat—should have been able to solve some of the issues we see in the Tier 5 rune. It's a rough first work, but…” He took a moment to compose himself before adding, “Think of it like someone building a brick wall. You have the foundation, the bricks themselves, and the mortar. A professional would do things like go back and ensure that the mortar doesn’t seep out and make the wall look poorly constructed. They’d tap any bricks that shifted out of place while the wall settled and whatnot. I don't know what else; I’m not a wall-maker! They make shit clean and presentable at the end of a project, you know? But this! Quill has half the wall constructed perfectly, but then a random brick is turned sideways, or is just missing, and mortar is seeping out of the cracks in some places. If he was able to create the rune in the first place, which is obviously not an easy feat, these mistakes are ones that you just don't expect him to be making!”
He threw up his hands—really only a flick of the wrist. But to Allie, it may as well have been him shaking his fists at the sky, given how controlled he normally was. Still, he quickly went back to his keyboard-warrioring. The analogy was weird, but if Allie understood it correctly, almost everything about the rune functioned in a manner that it shouldn’t. It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done, and that bothered a lot of people.
Allie could respect that. Pretty didn’t always matter, especially in the kinds of situations where someone’s life was on the line. Sometimes it was better to have a shitty wall than no wall at all.
Over those two days, Zack grew more and more irritated with the other crafters as they experimented with applying some of the amateurish changes to their own runes, to see if Quill was secretly onto something else.
While she hadn’t asked Zack, he had already taken and re-enchanted half of their gear after the event, making use of the new runes and methodology.
“Allie, this isn't a joking matter. There are two prevailing scenarios here, both of which are startling. Either Quill has an outlandishly powerful Talent that enabled him intuit the rune in mere hours—”
“Which is the leading theory.”
Zack nodded. “For good reason too. The alternative is there’s a shadow group behind him feeding him the information. And most importantly, they’re somehow getting away with it.”
That second possibility was more worrying. If that was the case, they would have a damnable time investigating and pulling it all apart, and management would definitely order them to. If only to see if they could replicate the group’s methods themselves. Plus, with the number of factors intersecting here, the shady details all-but-promised to be worth knowing.
Pathers being backed by outside organizations was explicitly against the rules, but it had happened before. Unlocked masks were not easy to get a hold of, but neither were they completely impossible to steal or forge.
Around twenty thousand of years ago, someone got their hands on a surplus mask and then pretended to be on The Path during the Tier 10 tournament, recruiting a group of specialists to help them pull it off.
They lasted all of two weeks before their organization was uprooted and publicly punished.
The fact that Quill was still moving around unhampered mostly likely meant that he was clean, or his background was notable enough to hinder his removal. The next best possibility was that releasing the rune straight into the public domain might be keeping him in a legal gray area of sorts. In this scenario, Quill was essentially just the frontman for a mysterious nonprofit. The rules against outside backing were not explicitly written with the consideration that a Pather might exploit outside help without actually receiving any benefits themselves. He had certainly gained public recognition from the stunt, but whether that qualified as prohibited assistance could depend on what Quill did with it. Which, in turn, might be connected with the mainstream media’s strange reticence to praise him for the Scribbling.
She let Zack rant for a while about how he wanted to get his hands on Quill for a few hours before she shot to her feet.
Tur'stal's announcement was about to begin, and at least that was something she hadn’t heard before.
***
Matt found the remaining two weeks of the month to be far more simple. At least, he did in his real identity.
Quill had garnered too much attention, and it had bit them in the ass.
To his and Liz’s amusement, Quill was being hailed as a hero of the common, low Tier people, while being vilified by the guilds and many of his fellow Pathers. Now, any time they went to the Wild Side of the Garden, they were quickly beset upon by more than half the teams they encountered, leading to a massive, chaotic, free-for-all fight.
They won cleanly against all of their fellow competitors, including the ones who had bothered to ambush them. Annoying as it had been, the majority just weren't near the level necessary to challenge them, but each victory just added to a resentment-based feedback loop.
People despised him either for hoarding the limelight and news networks’ attention, or because they bought into the rhetoric that he was paying to win the tournament.
According to their logic, his talismans had to cost an absurd amount of money to make, and yet he threw them around like they were dirt off the ground. That, combined with their excellent combat records, actually ignited a large enough public outcry to prompt an official investigation into Quill and Torch for cheating.
Nothing came of it. Tur'stal personally released a statement verifying their innocence. Yet instead of dampening resentment, it only seemed to stoke the flames higher.
Everyone either abhorred or adored Quill. No middle ground existed.
Matt, on the other hand, was being lauded as a direct inverse to that bastard Quill and his greedy spendthrift ways. The time he spent freely sharing mana in the various tea houses or coffee houses made a huge difference for a lot of the Pathers and their exhausted mana reserves, buying him more than a little good will.
He and Liz found it amusing, but harmless overall.
Less harmless, though, were the guilds themselves.
Apparently, his little stunt had tweaked the nose of far more guilds than just the Burning Hearts. Numerous organizations feared Quill would undercut them too, and in a rather odd statement of solidarity, they banded together to conspire against him.
Rumors spread of them resorting to everything from contracting assassins on The Path, to trying to identify and unmask him. According to the hottest gossip, they were even going as far as paying other competitors to target them.
Luna confirmed that last tidbit as fact, but rejected any suggestion of stopping them. As she repeated, they needed to be challenged if they wanted to grow. Plus, actions had consequences, and this was a practical lesson in that.
For now, instead, Matt took note of the guilds involved and added them to his shitlist. At the same time, he didn’t go out looking for trouble with any of them directly. Not yet. Instead, he focused on the most immediate repercussion of his actions in creating low Tier runes.
In the days and weeks after his reveal, millions of messages flooded in begging him to recreate various runes at a lower Tier.
That, far more than attempts to kill him, was terrifying. People desperately wanted help and were pleading with him to solve their problems.
The majority of the messages asked for simplified versions of other patented runes and they mostly fell in two distinct groups.
The first category consisted of more honest and simple people asking for things like a lower Tier version of the [Purify Water] rune that they wouldn’t have to pay for. Those were understandable, even if he couldn't actually refine a Tier 3 rune into a lower version at his current Tier.
Matt empathized with those pleas for help. They were common folk searching wherever they could for a helping hand.
Based on the messages, he compiled a list of ten other runes he wanted to prioritize in the coming year. In addition to the good that having those runes available would do, it would also let him vet more enchanters and other crafter Pathers for his future guild. Anyone willing to spend their time during such a crucial tournament with little to nothing to gain were the type of people he wanted to recruit. Those would be the people he would see shine, and who would create the best goods for the Empire.
The guilds be damned. He honestly couldn’t care if they got upset. In fact, he was looking forward to giving them an even worse headache than the one he’d given them thus far. One message in particular pointed him toward an idea that would make the guilds indignant at the potential loss of revenue should he pull it off.
A number of runes, especially for complex formations, had never been simplified. Tier 15 and higher runes were often kept under lock and key by the stronger and more specialized organizations.
While he doubted that he could solve those issues at his current Tier, his mana generation would only grow, which would make the problem easier and easier to tackle.
In any case, any guild, noble house, or corporation opposed to his altruistic actions had no place except for his ‘do not help or interact with when I start giving out billions of free mana’ list.
The money they made from the low Tier patents was negligible as far as overhead was concerned, almost to the point that most entities didn’t bother to restrict runes below Tier 5. The value they earned from sales mattered far less than the good publicity they could earn from giving it away cheaply, or even for free. That didn’t mean there wasn’t profit to be had, just that it wasn’t as crucial as other benefits.
People at the lower Tiers would always need practice with how to make things and improve them, so making the lowest Tiers of common runes free was worth it for both the guilds and craftsmen. Coupled with the fact that there were far more low Tier rifts across the Empire, you had a decent-sized market to grow your pool of customers from a seemingly altruistic act, like making low Tier runes free.
And what pulled them in better than quality gear and expendable items? The warm fuzzy feeling they got buying from someone who claimed to be working for them and their safety.
But some saw any potential earnings as lost earnings, and refused to let realized profit slip through their fingers, much like the Burning Hearts.
It was the second category of messages that were less savory: others were asking and willing to pay big money for their competitors' runes to cripple their competition in a specific field.
Matt didn’t just throw those veiled offers away. Instead, he made sure he saved the list of the perpetrators in a very special place.
The entire event showed him a darker side of humanity that he knew existed, but didn’t appreciate being pulled into. Let alone having it pointed at him, like a dagger at his throat.
He still didn’t regret his taking a stand. He had gotten a message from Mara and Leon saying that they knew of the attempts on Quill's character and life, and would take action if he wanted.
The fact that they had his back unconditionally warmed his heart, but he told them to let whatever was coming, come. Any assailant at his own Tier was just good training. Anyone stronger taking the contract would enable Luna or Kurt to act. Either way, he wasn't too worried for now.
Seeing the smear campaign that the threatened guilds ran would have been amusing if it wasn't directed at him.
He took solace in the fact that only jealous people currently in the Tier 10 tournament seemed to be buying into the drivel at all.
Matt understood, even if he begrudged the small mindedness of people.
Still, the month had crept towards its end, as well as the consequent, inevitable reset of rift rankings. As Matt and Liz, they had actually managed to top the ranking for their multi-team delve into the wyvern rift. Despite their problems and bloody final boss fight, their run proved much cleaner than any other alliance of teams that braved the challenge.
On that same note, Fen’s baby wind dragon hatched. All of the teams from the delve were invited to watch her birthday. Together, the rest of the group fought to save the wee dragon from the atrociously cliche names that Fen intended to curse the poor thing with, like Windy and Storm. It had taken some time, but in the end, they had persuaded him that if he really needed a sky based name for the female dragon, they could do better.
Baby Azure was an inquisitive dragon hatchling who explored endlessly, and was constantly getting into trouble while trying to fly, despite her undeveloped wings. It reminded Matt of his first months with Aster, but in a more scaly way.
As Liz warned, an older water dragon, Joshuah, now tagged along with Fen. The elder beast chaperoned Baby Azure when her bond delved, and ensured that the hatchling understood her connection to the greater dragon society. There was an agreement made between Fen and the Dragons as a whole, giving Azure at least the year he spent in the tournament at Tier 1 so she could enjoy her childhood. It was something Fen had had no issue with, and readily complied with.
Joshuah was pleasant enough to interact with, but was clearly dedicated to Baby Azure above everything else, and never let a conversation last longer than it had to. Not even with Liz, though she never tried to take up the man's time by asking questions, like some of the others did.
They had brought the little dragon to meet Aster on one of their weekly meetings in the visitor center, which had been amusing. Aster had immediately ‘adopted’ the little dragon, and somehow got her invited to the gathering of bonds she had started.
Matt made her promise to not to lose any more bonds in her grand adventures too, which she was sour about. He had ignored her indignation at ‘losing’ five of the bonds in the very park they had passed out in, and the further shenanigans they got up to when searching for their ‘missing’ friends.
Still, Baby Azure enjoyed her time with the other beasts and apparently made some good friends, according to both Aster and Fen.
But besides Matts and Liz’s one big splash in the rift rankings, Quill and Torch had also been at the top of the rankings for three rifts in the Wild Side, and two in the Safe Zone of the planet.
They had actually done the winning delves themselves, rather than having Luna and Kurt win for them.
Luna and Kurt delving for them, and inevitably earning points for them, had been an odd problem to have. But they had settled it by just having Matt and Liz furiously spend those points on the luxury services that the planet offered. It was a decision that only exacerbated their reputation for extravagant wastefulness, and the resulting hatred aimed at those identities.
Or rather, aimed at Quill. Torch seemed to sit above the endless contempt, despite enjoying all the same benefits, a situation that Liz endlessly teased him about. One thing that Matt was able to throw back at her, at least, was that the stoic, grunting woman had earned herself a band of super fans. They organizeda club that called themselves the ‘Light Bringers’ and worshiped her visage in a manner that made Liz blush in frustration.
Matt laughed as he found an edited image of her on the EmpireNet forum for the group. He had joined the forum right away, as the poster was too good to resist. It showed Torch’s spear pointed at their latest attackers, with a caption that said, “Allow me to light your way back to the Garden.”
The entire incident had occurred because she had prevented her flames from hitting a pretty flower, and it had gone viral on the tournament world, and in the Empire as a whole. Most thought she was trying to protect the flower for its beauty, when in reality, Liz had been hoping the flower was a unique alchemy ingredient.
The incident had earned the quiet Mask a following that only grew day by day.
When he had shown the picture of her inspecting the flower to Liz, she had covered her face and groaned. “Oh come on, they can’t even be original!”
Despite the levity of the situation, the issue with the guilds and the surly Pathers left them in an awkward situation for the upcoming event that Tur'stal's was holding.
Ideally, they would attend as Matt and Liz, but Luna had warned that going as Quill and Torch would be better for what was planned. The problem was, he and Liz weren't super comfortable with Luna and Kurt pretending to be their real selves and interacting with their friends.
That just felt wrong. It was dishonest in a very personal way.
Still, they took their manager's suggestion, and were standing on a stage with everyone else who had topped a ranking.
They were, it turned out, closer to Tur'stal than their real identities because of their higher completion rate. They were actually in the top ten for most won events as a team, though they knew that wouldn't last once the other events started in the upcoming months. At that point, they wouldn't have the time to dedicate to delving, as they would need to focus on the main events rather than their delves. Because of that, their overall ranking would start to slip.
Ten minutes before the start of the event, Tur'stal appeared and clapped twice, which stilled the air and ceased all noise in the venue.
“Good afternoon, my charges. I hope you have had a fruitful time in my lovely little garden.”
The Tier 47 paused and smiled at everyone who looked up and over to her.
She seemed to meet everyone's eyes individually before she moved on. “As this first month comes to a close, I would like to congratulate everyone. You have worked hard, and the results make that obvious. I expect the same to continue as the next eleven months fly by.”
She gestured to her right, where the top ranking teams were. “I would like to make special note of the ten teams who topped the most leaderboards.”
Quill and Torch were introduced, along with everyone else, as Tur'stal went down the list. He found it interesting that half of the leaders in the overall points ranking were also among the top ten masked Pathers, and the other five were all still in the top twenty.
When Tur'stal reached Quill and Torch, she changed up her introduction. “I'm sure everyone knows Quill and his partner Torch. Some of you have met their staff and spear, while others have followed the tale of Quill inventing a brand new rune for the Empire.”
The smile that crept onto the royal face neared a smirk as she continued, “As some of you are no doubt aware, there has been a public outcry amongst the people of the Empire to reward Quill with points for his contribution toward the greater good of our beloved Empire. Personally, I tend to agree.”
She let that statement build the resentment in the other Pathers in the tournament. Matt could feel every eye on him trying to burn a hole in his chest. If Tur'stal's idea was acted upon, there was no way he wouldn't instantly top the points ranking.
While the people of the Empire might like that, the people competing against him were vehemently against any such action.
Tur'stal laughed slightly as she continued, “Sadly, rules shall not be changed mid event to benefit one single competitor.”
A collective audible sigh swept through the crowd at those words.
“At the same time, we recognize the extraordinary event that happened, and my fellow Royal, Rust,y has already agreed to provide a particularly large bonus for creating and releasing a rune free for the Empire in the next Tier 10 tournament.”
Quill fought the urge to glare at both Tur'stal and the unseen Rusty, but maintained a neutral expression and body language through sheer force of will, despite every eye shifting back to him.
Tur'stal looked up and to the side before a grin snaked its way on to her face. “But this year, we have our own planned events. I have invited a special guest, and here she comes.”
Everyone looked to where Tur'stal turned, but saw and felt nothing for nearly ten minutes.
Then they saw it.
A speck of yellow appeared flying in from space.
As it drew closer, they finally got a good look, and cries of surprise and excitement broke out from the crowd.
An amber yellow dragon with a vibrant violet discoloration on their chest was immediately identifiable.
Lila Worldwalker.
The Lila Worldwalker.
The Empire’s Ascender just before Duke Waters.
Rumor had it she was in the Tier 40s, and preparing to ascend to the higher realm soon. A rumor most strongly driven by the fact she had stepped down from her position as head of the premiere exploration guild, and sequestered herself from the public view.
And yet, here she was.
The massive yellow dragon landed to deafening shouts and cheers.
Quill now understood why Luna advised them to choose these identities. At this moment, they stood a mere twenty feet from the legendary Roaring Sandstorm herself.
Despite not being the Ascender of their own generation, like Duke Waters, Lila Worldwalker was still a widely celebrated hero in her own right. Even little orphan Matt had been taught of the woman and her meteoric rise through the Tiers.
She was actually a rift-born bond whose partner’s Talent gave her sapience from the moment of her hatching, and she immediately chose to join The Path of Ascension, creating an interesting reverse of most situations, like Matt and Aster.
Lila, as a dragon, was not given good odds to complete The Path due to the narrow time restriction. Defying all early predictions, she quickly emerged as a monster of a cultivator.
Dragons, as a species, grew slowly. Even at Tier 1, they could live nearly two hundred years before being considered young adults. Therefore, they would effectively need to finish the entirety of The Path in their childhood. They also required decidedly more essence per Tier than a human or the average beast.
Lila had not let any of that stop her, or even slow her.
With her innate control over sand, she crushed anyone who stood against her, and then protected the Empire throughout the middle of Emperor Georgio's reign, before stepping down and reaching Tier 36. Her retirement came a few thousand years before the changeover of leaders.
With a flurry of wind, Lila settled next to Tur'stal and roared into the sky.
The entire world trembled with the crowd's cheers before Lila shrunk and twisted into the form of a human woman.
Her sandy hair contrasted sharply with otherwise dark skin, and all the more with the purple diamond-shaped mark on her sternum. That particular feature was only visible thanks to a notably deep neckline, the single apparent concession to fashion her otherwise simple outfit gave.
Anyone else coming to such an event with clothes that seemed better suited to hard physical work would have been inappropriate, but who was going to tell an Ascender that they needed to dress better?
Quill was sure that anyone ballsy enough to do so would earn a one way trip to the hospital if they were lucky, or the dragon's stomach if they were not.
Lila Worldwalker smiled and waved to the crowd. “Hello, everyone—”
Not another word could be heard as the crowd of young Pathers boomed with cheers.
The dragon in human form let the cheering die down before continuing, “Ah. It’s good to see all of you. And there are so many. Far more Pathers are still here at Tier 10 than in my time. It's amazing to see how far we have come as a nation.”
A second round of cheering fired off, but Lila just smiled through it.
“I’ll always remember what it was like during my time at this event. It was a grand ole’ time. I lost half my tail and a wing during my final fight in the team battles.” She winked, “To any of my fellow solo delvers, I do wish you the best of luck in those uneven battles.”
She then looked to everyone who had topped one of the leaderboards and smiled at them, “I have heard of the new points system and ranking of the delves. What a wonderful idea, and when I heard of it, I requested a chance to come see it myself.”
The dragon nodded to Tur'stal, who smiled back.
“While I can't and wouldn't want to give you all much, I can do a few things. For the months remaining in this competition, I will be spending some time with any team who manages to top a leaderboard. The more top spots you take, the more time I will be able to spend with you.”
This time it wasn't only Quill getting glared at on the raised platform that Tur'stal had put them on. Everyone who had not pushed themselves to take first place on at least one leaderboard now regretted it, and glared at the lucky few with the chance to meet and interact with the legend.
Lila laughed at the looks, “This was why we didn’t warn anyone beforehand. I thought it might be more interesting this way.”
She let the glares intensify for a while, before bringing everyone's attention back to her by walking down the line of people.
The Ascender stopped at Fen and Baby Azure, who seemed star-struck at the older dragon.
Lila scooped up the baby dragon as if she weighed nothing before walking back to her place next to Tur'stal, saying, “Sorry, this was a surprise to me, and I couldn't resist. It's so rare to see other dragon bonds, let alone a newborn.” Her hand morphed into a claw-like shape as she grinned and tickled the baby dragon’s stomach scales, making her legs kick at the air in delight before Lila looked up and continued to speak. “Anywho, I will spend two hours with each team who takes a place on the leaderboards going forward. Some of you will have substantial time with me, and I’m happy to give you some advice on your styles, or just chat.”
Quill internally snorted at that last bit. Who would waste such an opportunity with a living legend? Hordes of people would kill for just fifteen minutes in the Ascender's presence. In comparison, they were getting two hours alone with her where they could ask for her help, at least. Those who had done better, like he and Torch had, would be getting far more time.
Lila then officially reset the leaderboard with Tur'stal's blessing, and the next month commenced.
Quill and Torch were fourth to meet with Lila, and both Matt and Liz felt nervous.
Liz had zealously idolized the older dragon from a young age. Meanwhile, Matt was just excited to actually meet an Ascender; Duke Waters’s video messages about them teaming up with Camilla did not count in that regard.
When they entered the building set aside for the meetings, they were ready for a lot of things, but not to hear the older dragon say, “I can't really help train you two.”
There was a smile playing at the corners of her lips that seemed to be trying to escape, but she took a sip of her tea instead as the light played across her eyes.
In the seat across from Lila, Luna appeared without warning. Their manager smirked at them and their slack jaws. “What? Who do you think her manager was?”
Lila burst out laughing while Quill and Torch stared at their manager.
Lila shrugged. “I can't teach you anything that Luna couldn't or won’t, so let's just enjoy some food and get to know each other. Share some stories and lie through our teeth about them.”
Luna pointed at their masks. “You can remove those if you like. Lila knows how to see through them as well as any of the Royals.”
Liz shot Luna a glare as she pulled off both masks. “You knew, and sent us here in the masks anyway, didn’t you?”
Luna didn’t even try to deny it. “I have to amuse myself somehow. I'm considered the best manager because I make Ascenders. It’s kind of my specialty. Both Lila and her predecessor were trained by me, and I also made quite a variety of almost Ascenders. The waterboy should have been mine too, but the timing was all off. At least he still turned out okay.”
Matt pulled off his Quill mask, then the Shawn one, before setting down next to Luna, giving Liz the place of honor.
Lila winked at him at the shrewd move, but said nothing about it.
Lila proved an excellent conversationalist. They spent their hours together chatting about and comparing their time on The Path of Ascension, before Lila moved on to what the two of them could expect after Tier 25, when they would spend their time protecting the Empire.
Lila didn’t hold anything back from them. According to her, if they had Luna’s training and her confidence in completing The Path, then they would. She didn’t need to know their real abilities or Talents. She just trusted in her former manager and trainer.
“You kids have it worse than I did. I only dealt with two defensive wars, and one offensive war, during my time as an Ascender. But you have your work cut out for you. Still, you have at least two other sets of Ascenders to help you, which will lessen your burden.”
Soon, they turned the topic to Lila’s own time as one of the Empires Ascenders, and she was a font of information and warnings.
“You’re going to end up as the clean up crew. It always happens if there’s an Ascender.” She paused at that before wobbling her head back and forth. “Maybe not with Light and Shadow, but probably. Duke Waters is a fucking wrecking ball, and will continue to be sent to the most dangerous missions, or to shore up a weak spot. But mostly likely the first. Light and Shadow specialize in their own brand of fighting, and while they are good at what they do, they are best used on the defense, in my opinion. That leaves you two to make and clean up messes, and act as an Empire wide quick reaction force.”
The dragon grinned at them. “Which ironically puts you in the position of most solo Ascenders. I spent most of my time during actual wars running from place to place and putting out fires for Georgios. There was this one time when we got into a scuffle with the Monster Collective, and Georgios didn’t want flat out war, but refused to cede the Tier 22 world and its connecting branches. I got sent in, and was told to plant my scaly ass on the planet and not move. I was only Tier 31 at the time, but the Collective sent dozens of Tier 31s to fight me. I ended up fighting against well trained and coordinated teams of their best up-and-coming fighters. Thankfully they didn't have an Ascender at the time, and eventually I killed or injured enough of their fighters to make the world not worth it for them.”
Lila paused at that, and looked off into the distance for a few seconds. Matt and Liz kept quiet, allowing her to process whatever she was remembering.
“Anywho. A thing to remember, even though your handlers in the Army will beat this into your heads. If you aren't fighting the Sects, try to spare people when you can. If you can take them prisoner, all the better. But needless killing when you can avoid it will not help your image. Also, it will be easier for you to win fights if people know that they won't die if they lose. People fight the hardest when they know their backs are against the wall.”
She leaned over and spat. “Fucking Sects are an exception to the rule. Kill every one of them with no quarter given. If you try to be merciful, they’ll surrender and play nice until they’re inside your base, then detonate their cores to kill themselves and everyone around them.”
Matt didn’t need to be a genius to understand that there was a story behind that comment, but Lila pulled herself together quickly. He wasn't brave enough to ask further questions about what was obviously a sore topic.
“Being kind will thirdly keep your ass alive if you end up getting into a situation where you can't win, and need to surrender.” Lila shrugged. “Don’t give me that look. It's rare, but it happens sometimes. You can't win against a million people of the same Tier, and might get trapped. It happens.”
Her grin told a different story from her words. “Never to me, mind you. I was far too good for something like that. But I did manage to capture the Corporations' Ascender when he overextended in a border dispute against the Guilds, and crossed into our territory.” She let out a long, wistful sigh. “I'd never seen Georgios so happy as when I delivered him an Ascender wrapped up in a nice, neat bow. The ransom we got from those guys for his safe return was enough to triple my hoard overnight. Good times. Good times.”
Matt tried to imagine it, but failed to grasp the magnitude of that feat.
The stories had lulled Lila into a jovial mood, and she ended up spinning them a tale that Matt felt was more than half embellished. It was about how she got the chance to ransack two of the then stronger Republic's Tier 42 planets, or at least the governors' estates of those planets.
According to her, she had single handedly fought through hundreds of Tier 35s before reaching the vault, and being unable to break into it in a timely manner, had decided to just carry the Tier 45 vault off the planet and through chaotic space. Apparently, she had to fight off more and more pursuers before eventually forcing her way out of an encirclement with her prize still clutched in her claws.
Even if she had exaggerated the entire story, she was an excellent orator and drew both Matt and Liz deep into the events with her descriptions of the fighters who tried to stop her grand heist.
As the hours ticked on, they learned a lot about the older Ascender before they finally left with her personal AI contact information, and the offer to message her at any time they wanted to chat.
Neither could really believe it, but they waited to have their geek-out moment in the privacy of their own room.
When they met Lila officially as Matt and Liz, as a part of their group who tackled the group rift, they had to pretend it was their first meeting. But that was easily done by following the lead of the others who were meeting the Ascender for the first time. Azure took up a portion of Lila’s attention, but she still gave everyone good advice and suggestions, even while cooing at the baby dragon the whole time.
The arrival of Lila shook things up, and the competition for the next month's top rankings was increasingly fierce as the halfway mark of the second month neared. Fewer teams were able to hold as many first places, as teams who had been trying to hide some of their abilities started to show hidden cards to secure a meeting with Lila.
What Matt and Liz found most interesting was the first rift they had delved. They actually only ranked second, despite their incredibly fast run coming in at just under an hour and a half. Another team had taken first place, despite taking over an hour longer than them.
It was something only made possible by the other team killing more bosses than they had, meaning there was a fourth, hidden boss somewhere in the rift that they would need to find.
They planned to take another, closer look at the rift, but they had already used both of their chances to delve the rift for the second month. They needed to wait until the third month to enter the rift again.
With that disappointment, they could only wait with bated breath until the next reset to see what other secrets the rift held.
In the meantime, they were preparing to tackle the endless rift under both sets of identities in the next week.
It was time for all their identities to make a splash.
Comments
Christopher Bates
Google AI strikes again
_mori
Everyone thinks it’s Quill who’s a talented enchanter, but they have no idea that the real savant is his AI
Obbu
Edit Suggestions: that no one understood why such a prodigious talisman maker (double space) Luna confirmed that last tidbit as fact, (double space) and refused to let realized profit slip through their fingers, (double space) They organizeda club that called themselves the ‘Light Bringers’ ->They organized a club that called themselves the ‘Light Bringers’ Matt laughed as he found an edited image of her on the EmpireNet (double space) and my fellow Royal, Rust,y has already agreed to provide a particularly ->and my fellow Royal, Rusty, has already agreed to provide a particularly they’ll surrender and play nice until they’re inside your base (double space)
