C_Mantis
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Chapter 120
🕑 Added 2022-02-21 20:01:02 +0000 UTCOk. So what happened with this math crap and why does it make everyone kinda dumb seeming?
Short story: I'm bad at math and confused the beta readers who then said Matt was fucked if he didn't get all the conc he can get. When we figured out that we were confused we realized he really doesn't have to worry that much to remain competitive.
So ill be making some of lunas comments less numbered. more vague. she still wants to get every drop out of him but no 'he'll be half as weak' comment. Sorry everybody. This ones on me. Can't write smart characters if Im confused.
Chapter 120
Matt's return had been amazing. He might have failed in his surprise arrival, but he spent good quality time with Liz and Aster that night. When they returned to real space, he had even gotten a reply message from Dena and Eric. They had questioned his rapid rise to Tier 8 in an unheard-of amount of time.
It had been touching to see them worry about him having gotten himself into trouble. Them being willing to extract him from said trouble gave him a warm feeling, and he wanted to put their fears to rest.
Having seen that this reply message to his quietly hinting at his Talent was weeks old, there was no rush to get another message out to them. He intended to respond while they were traveling with Luna, and would enlist Liz’s help to craft a message if they hadn't understood.
His good mood was ruined when Liz said, “We don't need to leave The Path. Either of us.”
Liz’s words echoed through Matt's mind like the persistent shaking and silence-shattering bang of a gong.
It just didn’t make any sense. They’d talked about it. Matt would need every bit of mana concentration he could get.
Seeing his confusion, Liz started explaining, “Luna is overstating the mana concentration problem.”
Hearing their trainer scoff, Liz forged on and asked, “You know the increase in effective power from mana concentration is a log10 correct?”
Matt nodded. He had looked it up before, but with a base value of 1 mana concentration, he would be quickly outclassed in mana power, which was the problem.
Seeing him nod, Liz continued. “That means your strength doubles when you go from 1.00 mana concentration to 10.00. That's three times stronger from one to one hundred; so on and so forth. Do you know what that means?”
Matt nodded slowly. “Yes… it means that I need every bit of mana concentration I can get.”
Liz looked happy that he was hearing her out, and blurted out, “Yes! That's all I thought about as well.” She looked at Luna and gave the woman a dirty look. “Luna only gave us half the picture, though. I've been working on making better mana concentration potions for you, but that got me into the actual math of mana concentration, and the potions that affect it the same.”
Matt felt his chest loosen slightly at that information. Liz was always looking out for his best interest, including taking her training time to try and create all-new potions, just for him. It was just more evidence that she loved him.
Liz looked to Luna, probably expecting her to say something, but when their manager didn’t stop her, Liz forged on. “The Tier 32 potions you're using from Aunt Helen are meant for Tier 32’s.” Seeming to try and inject some levity, she said with a half-grin, “Surprising, I know. These are rough estimates based on what I could find, but when a Tier 32 uses one, they’ll lose about 900,000 mana, which is about 10% of their total mana at that Tier. In return, they get around 90,000 mana concentration, and their limits for mana regeneration and max mana go up a ton.”
Matt felt Aster perk up at that from her place on the couch, and he responded in kind. None of this sounded like a reason that he needed less than all the mana concentration he could get.
Seeing that he was still following along, Liz went in for her killing argument. “Mana concentration is obtained from sacrificing mana. It's not a one for one, or even a hard value for value, but we can assume that for every ten mana lost, you gain ‘one’ concentration. That's why you only got about 14 mana concentration from the last potion. You don't have enough to sacrifice. When you have millions, 1 or 2 mana concentration will mean nothing.”
She watched his eyes as he processed what she was implying, and his own mind raced. He hadn’t thought of that. Luna had said that mana concentration mattered, and after checking that mages in the higher Tiers could hit millions, he had agreed with the assessment and resigned himself to leaving The Path.
It was like his old swords. He was attached to them for what they had done for him, keeping him alive and allowing him to fight, but he wouldn't use one after he had outgrown it. That was stupid, and he applied the same logic to The Path.
But The Path had more sentimentality for him. It had given him his current place in life, led him to meet his friends, and helped him become someone that others could look up to. Matt didn’t think he would be the person he was today without The Path.
Liz then added, “Matt, if you can get to 100,000 mana concentration, your mana will only be one third weaker than a mage with 100,000,000 mana concentration, as they will only have 50% more mana density than you. That's the same gap that a normal melee fighter will have. The next ten Tiers will mean nothing when you have millions of mana. And you won't only have 100,000 mana concentration. You'll get far more than that, even if you never catch up to us normal mages.”
Luna finally interjected, “The next Tiers matter less than the teens, but they still matter. Why leave any power on the table? That’s the height of folly and foolishness.”
Matt took a deep breath as he processed everything, and used his own AI to run the numbers, following the logic that Liz had brought up. His confusion and resignation at his predicament slowly churned in his mind, until he had a better idea of the situation.
Matt looked at Luna and narrowed his eyes as he asked, “Is that true?”
Luna looked unashamed as she said, “If you are willing to settle for mediocrity, yes. You can do more than that, Matthew. You can be the perfect mage, and the perfect warrior. You can earn a few hundred mana concentration before you hit Tier 19, and then we can really get you a lot of it. Despite Liz’s impassioned speech, that isn't nothing. It would be like taking a dull sword versus a sharpened sword into a fight. Certainly they’re both useful, but which would you rather have?”
He shook his head. It wasn't surprising that Luna had let him believe the difference was so large but the difference wasn't a sharp sword vs an unsharpened one. It was more than the difference between a club and a mace. They could both do the same job but one was sturdier than the other.
Without bothering to mask his annoyance Matt replied, “And you would have let me fall off The Path for something a single potion would make irrelevant in a few Tiers?”
Luna met his glare and calmly responded, “No. I would have you not suffer at all. You need the best. You’ll need higher Tier potions to keep hitting zero. Think, Matt. At Tier 15, you’ll be almost perfectly using a Tier 32 mana concentration potion. What about after that? Will you leave power on the table? You wouldn't have lost anything of value by leaving, and you would have gained even more of my support. Better trainers and items would be the least of what I could provide. No limits to the Tier 35’s who can fight in the wars. I don't see any issues here.”
He tried to remain logical and think it through. Luna was a perfectionist, and he could see her obsessing over a fraction of a percent of power.
Liz must have seen something on his face and added, “That's entirely true, Matt. I'm not trying to lie to you. If we need to leave The Path, I will. But we don't.”
He knew she was serious, and nodded.
His partner turned to Luna and said, “I assume you have something in mind.”
“Yes, I —”
Matt shook his head and interrupted as a second answer came to him. “Wait, wait, wait. All this talk of potions got me thinking. Where are my rewards for creating three new skills for The Empire? Okay, one of which is useless, I’ll give you that. But the second one is fairly valuable, and the third is downright priceless. And then creating rifts for [Bandage] and [Endurance] out on the frontier. And even the basic research on rifts. I should get a portion of credit, even if most of it goes to Erwin. That should be enough to get me anything I need.”
Liz turned and joined Matt in his questioning glance to Luna. Aster yowled slightly, adding her own voice. They were a united front against Luna.
Luna just sighed. “What can you give for something priceless that must also be hidden? Any official rewards must be able to clear the fact check of an AI. That makes it incredibly difficult with your past rewards from the dragon blood rift. Too much luck and corresponding rewards will still flag the AIs about outside help, let along creating new priceless rifts. And you are already pushing that limit. If there are any discrepancies, the other Great Powers could use that to make a smear campaign. It wouldn't lower the combat prowess of the fighter, but it would ruin the entire Empire’s prestige. That matters more than you know.”
Matt was about to say something to rebut that, but Luna talked faster. “No one is disputing your efforts, Matthew. But for now, things must be kept quiet. I do know that your reward for reaching Tier 10 will be increased to accommodate that lack. I told you, if you beat the Tier 9 rift, I would help you push all the way. I'm not your enemy. I applied and got approved for another three Tier 32 mana concentration potions. Anything else will have to wait until you leave The Path. If you want more after that, you need to reach Tier 15, and so forth.”
Luna was crazy, but she had honored her deal. Matt could admit that, but he was still upset as his mind raced through everything with a new perspective.
Rubbing his face, he asked, “After Tier 19, what do we do when my mana increases further? I do see the problem, but I don't know enough.” He looked to Liz and asked, “What about your potion stuff?”
He wanted to be more grateful for her even trying, but he didn’t have the time to properly appreciate her help, so he just made an AI note to thank her later.
Liz shook her head, but Luna spoke first. “That isn't practical. Our best bet is to use Erwin and his Talent for Tiering things up. The problem is, you need to be able to afford a Tier 32’s services. At market rate.”
Matt mentally winced, knowing how valuable that was.
Luna didn’t pause. “Even then, that's only a stop-gap measure. I don't even think theoretical Tier 50 potions will work on you past Tier 25. I have other ideas, but none as promising. Alchemy has a chance of working, but we'll see. It might come down to you making specialized rifts to find herbs or something. I believe the Emperor will be working on the same problem from an imperial standpoint. We can only… hope to see what may come.”
Matt started pacing as he worked out his thoughts, “So the Emperor will get me the best potions he can get, but I’ll lose out on some potential mana concentration if we stay on. Even if we don't, there are no potions that can reduce mana by the trillions. I just need enough to stay relevant.”
He nodded to himself, as that seemed to jive with everything that both women had said.
“You're our trainer. You're meant to help us. Not give me half information for a few percentage points now, that only add a fraction to the big picture later.”
He shot Luna a look that he hoped conveyed his irritation.
Luna nodded slowly and caught his eyes. “I truly believe that any loss in potential isn’t worth staying on the Path for. You want math and hard numbers; you shall have them. I still think you’ll need to step off The Path after Tier 20 to avoid falling behind, unless we discover some other way to increase your mana concentration. Even you can see that math. Don’t forget that staying unnoticed is important for your safety.”
Matt felt like a toy that two children wanted, while each held an arm and tugged at it. It wasn't Luna versus Liz. It was everyone else versus him and his wants and desires.
He heard the warning in that last sentence, but he didn't like it.
That left them all quietly contemplative. Looking to Liz, he could see that she didn’t have an answer for that particular problem. She had no issue in leaving The Path if he needed her to do so. He had never doubted her sincerity. He just didn’t want to force her to. He had never wanted to leave The Path; it was a symbol of protection for every scared young orphan in the Empire. And now, he might not need to. Him having even 100,000 mana concentration was one percent of a true mage’s raw mana concentration, but it would make him only half as weak in spell power.
He also knew that a fight wasn't purely decided on how hard one hit. Otherwise, there would be no top-level combatants who were melee fighters. How well you fought and could read a battlefield was infinitely more important than just raw power. And Matt would have more mana than any mage. He would not only be physically stronger, he would be faster, and would have a greater variety of skills to use in a fight.
Melee fighters usually used fewer skills, but further customized them to increase their mastery, thus increasing their damage.
Matt could do that, but he would also have all the options that a mage would in a fight, while also having an unlimited number of skills that he could cast.
Looking at the numbers again, he shook his head.
Even at the worst yields that he could get from mana concentration potions, he expected his mana to be seventy percent as strong as a mage.
Matt shook his head again. He wanted to stay, and said so.
The dark-haired woman shrugged at all three of them and their weird looks that bordered on mutinous. “It was the best option to keep you two under the radar while maintaining the level of challenge that you’ll need to further advance.”
Luna’s grin grew dark. “In the meantime, I have other ideas for training.”
Aster’s hackles rose from where she sat, and Liz looked uncomfortable, but Matt was only half paying attention after her second mention of hiding. That was a bigger issue that he couldn't easily ignore.
The woman's look was evil. “How do you deal with higher Tier people wanting to dictate your life?”
It seemed to take Liz a moment to comprehend what the woman was getting at, but she answered quickly. “There isn't much anyone can do. The power difference in Tiers is just too large to fight back.” Liz must not have thought the question was that simple, and added as she thought, “If you don't have a backing, you need to be strong yourself. There are laws, but they can only do so much.”
Luna then turned without speaking to Matt.
Matt half answered as he thought, “Hide?” The way he said it was more of a question than a statement, but Luna just turned to Aster.
The fox whined slightly before saying. “Nothing?”
Luna sighed. “Correct. Or close enough. You need power or influence to survive people stronger than yourself. But if your value is too high, you draw a target on your back. Matt will be exposed, and probably captured if we don't play this carefully. Staying lowkey is our greatest strength. Now, the best way to prevent that is to not be noticed. I intend for us to do that, but to succeed, we need to play things properly. In the meantime, no more rift creation. We’ll also be training more with noncombat topics.”
A series of messages started to ping Matt’s AI.
Ignoring the fact that she used her hated AI, Luna said, “I sent you information packets. You can decide what you want to do, but first, I want you two to learn how to blend in. I’ll be training you on urban stealth and assassinations to start. I want you to be able to break into secure areas and steal something, or kill someone. I hope you'll get good enough that you can stop any such attempts on your own lives.”
As Matt skimmed through the list of other topics, Liz paused and asked, “Why are you adding more cultivator versus cultivator training?”
Luna once again looked tired and asked, “Is there any way I can convince any of you three to not fight in the upcoming wars?”
Matt flinched hard enough that he felt Aster respond. It was like a boulder had been thrown into his own turbulent thoughts.
Liz slowly said, “I wanted to say that I wouldn't, but as the thought settled, I rejected it. If there is going to be a war where The Empire was being attacked because other Great Powers were jealous, I can’t sit by and do nothing. What good is strength if not used to protect what I value? The Empire is my home. So how can I let others risk themselves and do nothing myself? No, I can't do that.”
Liz was noble, but that wasn't where Matt’s thoughts had gone.
Luna just sighed. “These wars last for, at minimum, decades, and usually drag on for centuries. Don't be in a rush. But I didn’t expect you three to be willing to sit out. It's also good training for you all. Fighting only matters more as you Tier up.”
Seeing something on their faces, Luna barked, “But don't think I'm going to let you three go into any fight without proper preparation. The real wars aren't a game, and even I can't save you if you choose to fight. Although I will try to talk you out of it, I’ll still prepare for that eventuality.”
Luna looked at Matt and caught his eyes. “I don't have any proof, but I’d bet all my money that higher Tier people who will remain nameless won't want you on the front lines.”
Matt flinched at the mention of him being put in a box. “That's bullshit! No. How is that fair? Why can’t I help defend the Empire? War is approaching, and it's not going to be an even fight between two Great Powers. Everything you’ve said suggests that we’ll basically be getting ganged up on.”
That comment struck far too close to his own thoughts on the subject.
He started pacing again, and his anger bled over to Aster once more, putting her on edge.
Matt shook his head as Luna said, “I'm sure that they’ll say something like, ‘you're more valuable in the back lines. Even while hiding your Talent, there is a lot you can do to power things quietly’.”
“I don't like that. It feels too close to being merely a battery. It feels too passive, like waiting for others to do all the work.”
Luna scoffed, “Be grateful that Emmanuel isn't his father. If the old Emperor was still here, you would already be in that box you so desperately fear. Without a doubt. Georgios was far more pragmatic than his son. He would have imprisoned you for the greater good the second that your Talent was fixed. For the greater good, and your own protection. A warship's battery is put behind all the armor, after all. You would have been well treated, but you would have never been afforded any measure of freedom. But I don’t know Emmanuel that well.”
Liz nearly shouted, “Uncle Manny wouldn't do that!”
Luna raised a hand to quell her coming tyrade. “I like the man too, for all he’s done for the Empire as it is. I respect him and his word.” She then shrugged a single shoulder. “Still, I don't know the man well enough to confirm that he wouldn’t be of a similar mindset to his father’s, considering the abundance that sits on The Path. It’s right here, not ten feet from me.”
Matt felt like a toy once again, being too weak to decide anything for himself. If someone else found out about his Talent, he would be shoved in a box. If the Emperor was kind, he would be allowed some freedom, but he would still be a prisoner. If another Great Power found out about it, war would surely follow, which would lead to countless deaths.
It was different when he chose to give mana, but when that choice was taken from him, it would poison the well.
If he wasn't strong enough, he would ultimately become a captive in his own home.
He needed to be strong enough to refuse on his own merits.
He was being stifled and repressed.
It was suffocating.
He was not being endless. He needed others’ protection just to train, and avoid being abducted. His very existence was the temptation of a lifetime and beyond.
Needing to let out the fear of the unknown, Matt punched out at the air with that thought, lashing out at the hopelessness that threatened to drown him. He realized that all roads could ceaselessly lead to someone more powerful or well off putting him in a hole somewhere, forcing him to power their own will and machinations.
It was like a wet blanket had been draped over the room, and then tightened. Space itself locked down, aligning with the air that reacted to Matt's anger.
At the edge of his vision, he could see what looked to be heat waves rippling. Liz and Aster looked stifled, but Luna seemed unbothered.
That was just another reminder that he was weak.
If he was weak, he could have no agency. Matt would not be a toy for others to use and discard when they were done. He would not be taken out of the box to be played with, then returned for, ‘his own protection’.
Matt was no one's prize; he was no one’s endless battery.
He turned to Luna and growled, “I will not be a tool to be used.” The edges of his vision flickered with that same heat that he’d barely registered earlier. “Not by my enemies, nor by my well-intentioned allies. I refuse both the iron cell and the golden cage. I am more than a means to an end.”
Luna was unbothered by Matt's Concept, and just smiled in a way that he could only interpret as a cat whose prey had moved exactly where they had wanted it to. It made him wary.
“Matthew, I know you don't agree with me wanting you off The Path. But besides that, have I ever let you give me anything but your all? Have I ever accepted anything but your best? Have I not pushed you to be strong? Ask yourself, why? Why not keep you weak and pampered?”
Matt's flash of anger waned, and the force of his Concept slipped away as he slowly puzzled it out. “You expected this, and you don't like it either. That's why you want me strong. So I can break out of any cage.”
He honestly hadn’t expected that. Luna had seen farther than he had, and had already tried to plan for it. She had her own ideas about what was best for him, but she didn’t want him to be weak.
He figured that all of her insistence on strength was due to her obsession with perfection and efficiency. That could still be the majority of her motive, but Matt now knew that there was more behind her machinations.
Luna paced around him. “Yes, Matt. Exactly. I don’t like the idea of your potential being wasted any more than you want to become a mana slave. I also don't think The Emperor will force you into becoming one, but you’re going to need to prove that you won't die in the first fight, if you wish to move with impunity. No one will allow you to risk your life for something as foolish as pride. You need to prove that you’re a beast too rabid and strong to cage. I want you to be strong. We agree on the end result. We just disagree on the best path to get you there.”
As he listened to Luna's impassioned speech, he reviewed all of her actions so far. At least, with the persona she had displayed, her wanting him off The Path made sense.
He didn't think that she was lying to him now. If he understood her properly, and he thought he did, she wouldn't even consider letting a millionth of a percent of power be wasted. So explaining the actual math never occurred to her.
Matt thought for a moment longer, then stuck out his hand to shake. He might not agree with everything Luna wanted, but he truly believed that she wanted what was best for his combat prowess. And right now, he needed that kind of support more than ever.
“To keeping me out of a box.” He was still fuming, but managed to crack a joke.
Luna nodded and grasped his wrist. “We have long to go if we’re to accomplish that, Matthew. Which means training. Go sit down.”
After he had sat down and took Liz’s hand, Luna gestured off to the side, and a hidden screen was revealed as a panel of the wall moved. A planet was displayed, accompanied with various statistics.
“First thing I want you three to do is infiltrate a high society gathering for youths of the nobles and influential guild leaders. Your mission will be to find out as much as possible about each noble house. For further missions, you will be using the information you gather to do other things, like steal or assassinate designated targets.”
Seeing Matt's hesitation, Luna rolled her eyes. “It will be Kurt or me acting as the target for most of them. If I want to have you really kill someone, I would need to have you register with one of the assassin guilds, and we aren't going to do that. Maybe I'll have you put a letter in someone's pocket or something. We'll see.”
Besides that, Matt noticed a plethora of other lessons, such as multilateral thinking, weapons training with masters, foreign language training, and crafting training for the skills they did use.
It seemed like Luna wanted have them to learn everything in the next dozen years.
Liz dug her fingers into Aster’s fur and entwined her other hand with Matt’s.
He took a lot of comfort from that.
They were a team.
When Luna finally left, Matt turned and hugged Liz and Aster.
“Thanks for letting me know.”
Liz hugged him back. “We're a team.”
Aster wiggled in between them and pushed hugs to them both.
It was nice to have them on his side.
He jokingly wondered if Luna gave snuggles in cat form.
They went to sleep early that night after a quiet dinner.
He showed them around their suite in the ship, but none of them had the energy to enjoy it. They were too tired from the emotionally charged day, and called it an early night.
When they woke the next morning, Matt recognized a feeling in the air from his travels with Luna. She would be coming to brief him on training today. If she kept to the same pattern as she had on the last trip, she would come right after he ate breakfast. He had no idea if she was actually doing something, but he could always tell.
So as he cooked, he filled in Liz and Aster. “So my Sponsors finally got back to me.”
“Oh?” Liz set the pad she was tapping at off to the side and asked as she sat at the table.
“Yeah. They were worried that I had gotten myself into trouble and was cheating somehow, with how fast my speed of advancement had been.”
Aster chuffed, and Liz snickered.
“What did you say?”
“I just said my Talent was good for something after all. I only got the reply message when I was back in real space, so I didn’t have any time to respond. I haven't even read it yet honestly.”
As he put down breakfast for them, he projected the message to the pad Liz had been using, and they watched the video.
Dena was sitting to the right and Eric to the left.
They waved, and Eric said, “Hey Matt. We're pretty sure we understood your message and the implied logic behind it. I suspect you have a management team yourself.”
Dena rolled her eyes and said, “Honestly, if we’re at all close on our guess for what it is, we could use your Talent ourselves. We're slamming our heads against a wall at Tier 24 rifts. Delving three up isn't easy, as I'm sure you're aware of, or will soon find out.”
She waggled her arm. “Lost my entire right side in the last delve, so we're back on a healing cooldown. Same reason we were able to go scout you back then, if we’re being honest.”
Eric nodded. “Ugh, yeah. Had a monster chew off my arms, which is why I was working on my mana control. Might as well use a healing cooldown for something useful, you know. If I had better control, I might not have lost my shield spell.”
They chatted about the random things they had been up to in the last few years for half an hour while Matt chuckled and listened along.
The duo weren’t a substitute for his parents. He didn't know them nearly that well, but they were like older friends, or a distant aunt and uncle he could trust and look up to.
They had helped him so much, even if they had just been randomly asked by a planetary AI to investigate him. They had still said yes, and were kind to him when he needed it most.
He wouldn't forget that.
“Anyways, Matt. We want to get your manager to coordinate with our manager so we can be sure to be at your Tier 10 tournament. We're getting close to falling off The Path, and we will have to do something after that, but we want to make sure that we can see you compete. We came in second place during our year.” Eric seemed almost wistful as he reminisced.
Dena nodded. “When you make it as far as we do on The Path, there are a ton of opportunities that open up for you. We're joining the army for the next few centuries to help—” Matt didn’t miss Eric's shift subtly, and Dena seemed to change what she was going to say. “With whatever they need us to do. We’ll probably be cleaning toilets or something.”
They laughed it off, and if Matt hadn’t been keenly aware of the upcoming war, he would have missed their meaning.
Dena wanted to tell Matt that they were going to fight in the war, but Eric had warned her off, and she had agreed.
Remembering their first message that you could never be sure you weren't being watched, unless you were in a rift, had a new meaning. Especially after he had spent so much time with his own management team.
As if to prove his point, Luna walked in and said, “I'll let their manager know. Dena and Eric… Hmm. They implied that they're fighting up three Tiers to Tier 24 rifts at Tier 21. That's impressive. Even if they’re getting wounded, they aren't dying outright. They're going to be folded into the special operations section of the army.”
Seeing that they didn’t understand, Luna smirked and explained. “The special operations section of the army does exactly what the name implies. Special things. Actually, Kurt can explain this better. He was a part of them.”
She turned to the side, and Kurt appeared, standing next to her.
He quickly wrote, “I was there for my second contract. And yes, I believe any Pather who makes it that far, with that strength, will be selected to that section. I worked with plenty of people like them. The whole point of the section is to solve or create problems for the enemies. We went behind enemy lines, or we reinforced our own side when we were getting hammered. If they aren't exaggerating their power, they're top Pathers, so they’ll do fine. But we’ll need to let them know when the tournament is if they wish to go. The training for that position takes a decade, and then the missions can take far longer, depending...”
His pen trailed off as he wrote, then scratched out, “And with the war...”
Kurt stuck up his thumb as his board wrote, “I know people in the command structure. Worry not. They should be able to show.”
As Matt thanked the older trainer, Luna waived off the problem. “It doesn't matter. We have things to do. Matt, you know what you did yesterday?”
He was worried that she was mad about him yelling and cursing at her, but her next words put him at ease. “You locked down space. And quite well. That's the second time you've done it without knowing. And you're pretty good at it. We just need to get you to do so consciously.”
“The second time? When did I—”
Luna waved for silence. “When you fought that Talous boy. Now, I need you to focus. We only have a week of travel, and I'll be damned if you take that long to figure it out.”
Comments
_mori
Huh. I thought his sponsors were the shadow and light duo? They seemed to fit pretty well with the descriptions to me
Bruh making Luna wrong doesn't feel right.
Darth Bayes
You concentrate 10 units of mana into one unit with ten times the concentration, which has twice the effect. So if you're behind in concentration by a factor of ten, you're only behind in strength by a factor of two. But you're behind in *income* by a factor of ten, as well as strategic impact in, say, a war, and with gear and things like mana cannons behind in personal strength by significantly more than a factor of two. In addition, a simple 2x improvement to your chassis is much more than a 2x improvement in combat effectiveness. If you double your HP (mana shield?) and damage, that's 4x combat effectiveness, not 2x. And if it doubles the effect of a haste spell, that's 8x. And there are plenty of effects that scale faster than that, like flat damage reduction (phantom armor) or parry strength--doubling your flat damage reduction could bring you from taking 50% damage from an attack to taking 0%. And with a damage booster on the sword, a strength boost, a speed boost, a perception boost, an AI boost, an armor boost, a shield boost, a teleport cooldown boost, a range boost, an attack charge time boost... Those 2x multipliers will multiply up to *more* than 10.
sqeesqad
Still don't see the point of staying on the path. It provides no extra challenge while making it more likely that he is discovered, while also making him miss out on valuable resources. Just makes no sense Also, he should have some kind of hidden suicide implant installed, so that he always has an out
Chymor
After some reflection I think there’s a few interesting themes here that is drowning in the mana concentration discussion. Much more interesting are the broader questions of “What will he use his power for” and “How much power can he afford to ignore now that the Empire is willing to invest in him”. I especially liked the contrast between his concept of endless and hiding in the back, winning wars by changing the strategic conditions. The mana concentration discussions seems to be needlessly focusing on the short term, while the critical part is extending them to cover as much mana as possible when going up in tiers. In fact get an official research team going for that instead of having Liz do some investigations on the side. After all if those potions could become “endlessly” effective, Mat has a lot more mana to sacrifice than any other mage.
ZaA
Of course it does. Read the log 10 explanation again. 10 concentration and 100 mana fireball is half as strong as 100 concentration and 100 mana fireball. Makes each mana stronger
Gerald Morris
Ok so in reference to Matt. Does any of this even matter once his mana fully aspects to "Endless"? He will probably be able to just shit spells and never turn them off 😂. (That image was awesome btw)
Gerald Morris
That's like a chapter 2 thing. Yes that's exactly who they are.
Jerad Stephens
How do you get to have sentimental won’t step off path Matt and not in a box Matt simultaneously? I don’t see how those get to coexist. If you think they can please explain how
Tom sawicki
Hahahah all good my dude! I too am not an intuitively maths person and I was like, ehh he knows what he’s doing. Also, this is a serial at the moment so please don’t feel bad. This is exactly what should happen at this point! Cheers for the chapter as always!
Any chance Matt's sponsors are actually Light and Shadow? Do we know anything that proves they are not?
Wredniak2003
I have a few questions on mana concentration. So it was said before skills can take fixed amount of mana before the skill destabilizes and with time you can push the skill to take more mana. How then mana concentration make spells stronger? Does this mean that there is limited amount of "space" for mana inside the spell and be concentrating mana you can fit more of it inside or you can always fit the same amount of mana (e.g 200 mana) but by concentrating it each individual mana "unit" is "denser/heavier"? Not really important question story wise just a curiosity. Follow up to that would be if it is fitting more mana into the same space would it mean that high concentration of mana could results in liquid/solid mana? Is the difference between mage and warrior in ability of their souls to compact mana closely together or does mage's mana is intrinsically higher quality in itself. (Not sure if the last question is clear enough... but for example in powering a city would there be a difference between warrior and mage of the same tier donating mana besides the amount of mana they can provide).
LordDark
I liked the idea of a slow burn concentration potion, that way matt can just sit there and keep refilling his manna as it drains.
Jonas
Thanks for the great chapter
Aaron Hardin
Depending on how you made mana concentration work, it can either have issues playing catch up if Matt ever misses at any point, or it could be trivial once he has more mana to concentrate. As readers, we don’t get the full mechanics so we have no way of knowing, and either way the emphasis on it the last few chapters detracts from the story. I believe you should just choose something via author fiat and move on.
Ricky Kukowski
it does that for enchantments and things that he powers, yes. that will have some effect on combat but will not change the spells he's actually casting.
Thomas
Here's a formula that works for the essence needed to tier up based upon only what is canon: di*10^(t-1). Where d is the density of the essence for that tier, i is the initial amount of tier 1 essence needed to tier up from tier 1 to tier 2, and the 10^(t-1) term represents the fact that it takes ten times the essence of the previous tier to tier up, as stated in chapter 3. I'm assuming i is 10,000 because that is about the number of tier 1 rift creatures that Matt needed to kill to get to tier 2. I'm also assuming that d is the same as t but since it has a different meaning I gave it a different variable, d could also just as easily be t^2 and that makes sense and would further reinforce the tyranny of tiers and why jumping up a tier is so impressive. I'm assuming that mana concentration takes more essence to increase the higher mana concentration gets. This assumption is because otherwise the mana concentration numbers get insane. They get to the point that any mana concentration Matt could get from potions would be meaningless in comparison to the mana concentration of a mage. To keep it simple I'm assuming that the formula for increasing mana concentration is 0.01*a/(c^2) where a is the essence being added in a cultivation session and c is the effective mana concentration. This formula gets an effective mana concentration of ~1.3 at peak tier 1, ~4 at peak tier 2 and ~9 at peak tier 3. These are approximations since I didn't want to do the integration to get exact values. Following the progression of this increase in mana concentration per tier, excluding potions, each increase in tier provides a mage with an increase of about 4 effective mana concentration. At tier 20 following the formula above a mage would have an effective mana concentration of about 100 with potion use each tier. Using potions and a 30% (close to what happened at tier 7, because of using a higher tier potion) of max mana into mana concentration per tier Matt would, at tier 20, have an effective mana concentration of 5. At tier 25 Matt would have an effective concentration of 11. Even with a logarithmic slowdown to the concentration increase of mages from cultivation due to the exponential increase in essence per tier they will outstrip Matt in mana concentration. Matt has no chance of ever having mana concentration close to anyone of his tier. Warriors who only put in 15% towards mana cultivation will still have an effective mana concentration of less than 1 less than a mage of the same tier because of the logarithmic effects of the effective concentration formula (this is based on information from the book and not any of my formulas). The formulas I've derived are the closest I can get to what is described in the book and clearly show that when it comes to mana concentration Matt is screwed six ways to Sunday, and has no way of ever getting close to his peers. Luckily for Matt high tier combat is more about infusing Willpower into attacks and defense than mana concentration, and with Willpower Matt is Endless.
Rhys Rathbun
So feel free to correct me if this doesn't make sense, but having the limitless sub-aspect causes Matts mana to last longer and accomplish more than it should. I get that the effect is miniscule now, but when he fully converts it wouldn't that offset having a lesser concentration. Also, there are skills that don't use a set amount of mana but rely on a charge so Matt should just get a couple of those or maybe create one himself. I forget who said it but "quantity is its own quality". Between that and potions he should be good until he hits tier 25 and gets a new talent that fixes the issue.
JoBo12
I feel like Mana concentration was an attempt to combat the realization that Matt will grow way to powerful way too quickly. It would have been better imo to focus on the spiritual limitations instead. I remember early on when we were told that casting skills and wielding enchantments strained the spirit. This was also one reason as to why the use of higher tier than yourself weaponry is not common. This is more and more overlooked as we never got any spiritual training yet Matt was fine wielding a weapon two tiers above his own tier. There are more such examples and I feel like this would have made a much more convincing weakness where also not as much math would be needed on the authors side.
Wredniak2003
I hope Matt will get over his hang ups and realize if he can do more away from the battlefield it is exactly what he should do. Just because he is risking his life doesn’t mean the job is more noble or valuable. But that is in line with his character and as story goes he will get to a level of duke waters so the problem will fix itself anyway. And I don’t get his attitude that being 30% weaker than other mages is fine. Especially when he can pretty easily remedy that. The closest analogy I could thing of are MMOs and people there go insane for +12 weapons when increase form +11 is only 5ish percent (at least that is what I remember from olden days of me playing those games). I get that he has other strengths but truly can’t get over this. The other thing that doesn’t make sense for me is premise that concentrating million mana at tier 2X will fix most of the problems. It is based on the idea that mana concentration gained is pretty much only dependent on the number of units of mana sacrificed. IMO The concentration or “density” of mana sacrificed should also matter. So let’s say mage who’s mana is 7 times stronger sacrificed million mana he in fact sacrificed 7 million mana. Which means by ignoring lower levels any mage is screwing their foundation and that is going to have compounding effects. Or I just misunderstood completely and mana concentration doesn’t do anything to mana and one mana unit is the same regardless of concentration but then why would higher concentration mean stronger spells? Because you can pack more mana into spell? I get a feeling that the plot with mana concentration doesn’t work as well as originally planned and attempts at fixing it made it only worse. If this was a book I was beta reading I would advise rewriting as this is a web novel it is harder but I do think inventing different reason for abandoning the path and scraping mana concentration altogether would work better for the story. But that is just my suggestion, I still enjoy the story (slightly less than in the beginning but that is given with Web novels) and in 20 chapter will most likely forget about the whole thing with mana concentration (assuming it will not be brought up). So to sum up Matt wanting to be the hero is me having a problem with Matt and that is perfectly fine in a story. The mana concentration is a problem with the story itself (either planning ahead or communicating clearly) and it interferes with my suspension of the disbelief but this is a web novel and holding it to a book standard is unreasonable. So I complained in the comments and all is better ;).
Luciaron
Young master gathering sounds like a hoot. Thanks for the chapter. I think you're realizing why most systems just hand wave the math lol
McCormack
Imma be honest i kinda dislike Matt, im not sure if its just me being a (self proclaimed) selfless person but I would be happy to be in that box if it meant I could help so many people, but I get why Matt is the way he is.
JoBo12
OK, at this point I have to ask: What exactly does it mean for Mana to be for example 20% "weaker"? (for simplicity I'll use game terms) Does this only apply to damage and healing values or does this also have an effect on the aoe radius or the duration of timed skills? Does this also impact multipliers like mage's retreat?
Roy Nikkel
I believe the difference is being able to kill something with 1 fireball (for example) to use 3 or more. Even if you have the extra mana to do it, its still more combat/time efficient to kill something in 1 hit than more. I could be wrong though.
Zebrababies
I don’t think I really understand the difference between having lots of mana and having concentrated mana.
Otter Pops
I think it's selfish as hell for Liz to be so adamant about being on the path. They are going to be on the path for a short portion of their lives, but they will be protecting themselves and the kingdom for thousands of years.
MagicWafflez
.... =_=; so they're tier 21... like light and shadow... and they came in second at their tier 10 tournament... and light and shadow did their tier 10 tournament 2 days after they broke through... the only things that don't match up are, light and shadow are no were near falling off, and eric and denna came from a tier 5 planet while light and shadow came from an *under* tier 5 planet... but that could be easily fixed by lying.
C_Mantis
hey man i love people throwing out their ideas. Better to join the discord as we chat easier there but feel free to throw them out.
Rhys Rathbun
So if Matt can "Unofficially" create priceless rifts. I don't see why Luna and company couldn't be "Distracted" while Erwin tiers up a few mana concentration potions real quick.
Leander
Second thing: If Matt was really serious about not getting stuffed in a golden cage he would share the same sentiments as Luna, I mean, he already stated that he wants to be strong enough to force his freedom. That is his expressed goal, to fulfill that, the should be as perfectionist as Luna and crave for every ounce of power he can get his hands on, every fraction of a percent stronger is a fraction of a percent he is closer to keeping his freedom. Ergo: He wouldn‘t or shouldn’t agree with Liz that the lost potential is negligible, because it isn‘t!!
Azgaroth
Thank for the chapter. I am a new Patreon, and already late for the chapter..... I have so many idea for Matt, and the story in general, i know that some people don't like reader telling the author what to write, but SHUT UP, 5 min, the time to read the comment, also it's the same for people who read comment, and tell other, that he has problem in his brain, without even reading all the comment or even reflecting onto what was written...... SO, read my comment, think about what i write, and after that you can DISS me, and tell me DIE in my toilet, because my brain is fecal matter.... First(wasn't what i wanted to begin but the chapter demand it), i was thinking with Matt's mana becoming "endless", perhaps at some point (something like 0.1% or 1%), because endless is a "special" aspect, Matt's mana will begin to "automatically concentrate" itself, to try to become the most endless possible, so solving the concentration problem.....(but that don't block any potion at all.....) Second, again with the endless thing, Matt's mana allow him to create Aura, but i think, perhaps, if that exist, he will be able to create something above Aura, an "ESSENCE" (temporary name), that boost and do the same thing Aura do, but in addition can aspect mana pool and skill. (perhaps other application..) Example: Matt create and obtain Fire "ESSENCE", and if he use it on himself depending on the quantity, he will totally transform his mana pool into fire aspect mana.... For skill it's simple: [Mana Sword]+Fire "ESSENCE"= [Fire Sword]..... Now returning to what i considered the start, but first some question , how rift interact with each other??? How close they can be??? How they're affected by Spatial Array with Rift inside??? These question are for one thing: WORLD RIFT!!!! What a World Rift? that simple, Matt create and harmonise Rift from Tier 1 to Tier 49, after that he compresse all Rift with a Spatial Array to the size of "seed item", and finnally above them, he create a Tier 50 Rift, that by magic, will absorb all the "seed Rift", to create a World Rift, wich a Rift the size of planet or more separated into zone, each zone a Tier, from Tier 1 to Tier 50 in growing order (T1 ->T2 ->T3->....->T50), and at each boudary is a exit/entry Rift you can use whenever you after touching it, like first time in the Rift, you appear zone T1 after some time you go up to zone T9, but you exit because you're fatigued, and so the second time you can enter any "Rift" from zone T1 to zone T9..... FINNALLY, Matt's Bloodline, first i will explain something i THINK!!!! is the functionnement for physical cultivation, so i think in addition of the normal cultivation we know, some of the essence from the physical "part" goes into the body each at their emplacement, strength into the muscle fiber, durability into the skin, sense into the ear, nose, mouth,.... So you seen the pattern, and at each Tier up, either the Essence is compressed or the capacity is augmented (like from 2 point of Essence per cell to 3 Essence per cell from T1 to T2...) or even the two at the same time..... So, what the deal for Matt and his supposed "BLOODLINE", here the deal, because Matt only "focus" on physical cultivation, at some point his capacity will be reached and the Essence will begin to "spill" into other place, like the durability Essence into muscle fiber, strength Essenc into his mouth,ear and nose, and sense Essence into his skin.... So the Essence will mix making "physical" Essence, that give Matt a better boost/body because all type of Essence are everywhere, so rounding his body performance.... (passing from 95% to 100%, not to much, just a bit better than people with the exact Essence quantity and distribution for the body, even at higher Tier......I am talking only on body performance, not skill, mana, or other sh*t...). So at that time here what will happen, HIS body with HIS "physical" Essence, that a mirror/imitation of HIS Core, with HIS Essence from cultivation into HIS Spirit/Soul, that linked to HIS body..... So you too much HIS/HIM and with the Essence and "Endlees"(read infinite/eternal/indestructible/.....) magical bullshit, that all the HIS/HIM will want either to fuse to "reach" a higher state, or imprint itself so it's can't dissapear..... AND TADA!!!! Matt has created his own Bloodline, that carry his Endless mana aspect and his physical prowess, so all of his and Liz baby, will be Eternal Fire Phoenix that have six-pack from birth and arm the size of people thigh....
C_Mantis
like an alt pov chapter? I can get behind the idea.
Leander
Ok, two things: 1) everybody is falling into the same trap of seeing Matt as a primary fighter in the future, as seen in Liz‘s argument against leaving the path. But that isn‘t going to be where he will excel in the future. That will be spells he can load up with a shit-ton of mana, something that has already been seen when they broke through the siege during the path-war. He will become a living siege engine that can defend itself in close combat and not a close combatant that can fire siege spells occasionally, that‘s where he is worth the most if he fights.
C_Mantis
yeah some people love it. others meh. others still hate it. Its a line to walk to keep everyone happy. but yes adventure awaits.
Eraser279
Could we please get a chapter showing the effects of the rifts and skills that Matt created? I think it would be quite interesting.
Andrew Pritko
Really enjoyed the chapter! Not gonna lie I was starting to lose focus with all the rift making talk the past few chapters. Glad to get back into the adventure!
C_Mantis
Oh god no please. Don't do this to me. I failed Math for Marines. (joking but this log10 shit is way beyond my math levels)
RottenTangerine
Finding a dragon heart rift and selling that info means you get great potions from Liz's aunt but 'finding' a rift that produces the first t8 healing spell that will revolutionize healing can't be rewarded because itd be suspect? I don't quite get the logic there.
RottenTangerine
The not giving matt a reward for new skills is a little hand wavy but overall, good chapter!
focus2x
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, C. Mantis' lastest novel: "The Power of Arithmetic"
