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Chapter 111
🕑 Added 2022-01-21 20:00:05 +0000 UTCChapter 111
As they neared the third month of their training, Luna returned and gave them the okay to delve a Tier 9 rift, as expected.
What Matt and Liz didn't expect was for Luna to have a counter offer and additional conditions.
“I don’t think either of you are ready.”
Seeing both of them about to react, their manager elaborated. “No, it’s not that I think you aren't strong enough to fight in a Tier 9 rift. I think you should both leave The Path.”
This time, her upraised hand did nothing to stop the torrent of questions they had.
“What? Why?” Liz sounded almost frantic, and a part of him shared the sentiment.
Matt was more confused than upset, and added, “That came out of nowhere…”
Luna pointed at the two of them, “Neither of you are challenged by The Path. Your mana means it's not a race at all; there’s simply no struggle. You could coast through The Path with zero effort. The only real hurdle you have is obtaining your Intent, but given how your Concepts have progressed, I don’t see even that as an issue.”
That irritated Matt enough to say, “I'm working my ass off. We all are. It's hardly fair to put us through that training then say that we’re coasting.”
Luna just met his gaze. “I only said that you could coast. I will ensure that you do no such thing. The problem is the restrictions on The Path. I want to pour the best mana concentration potions in existence down your throat and get you the best skills for you now. But I can't with the rules set in place.”
Matt didn’t think that it was all that important, and Luna seemed to sense that sentiment. She continued, “Think about it. Better resources to craft rifts and better concentration potions. Better trainers all at once instead of drip-fed to you, as we have to do now. If you step off The Path, I can train you without restrictions. I can ensure that no inefficiency is left unaddressed. You're going to need a Tier 14 mana concentration potion to get your mana to near zero at your next Tier. When you're Tier 8, you’ll need approximately a Tier 16 potion. Eventually, we'll need Tier 35 plus natural treasures to ensure that we get the most out of your Tier ups. If you don’t max your mana concentration out at each Tier by bringing your max mana down to near zero, your mana will end up only seventy five percent as strong as it could have been if you used better potions. And your mana will then end up dozens of times weaker than a normal mage of your Tier. They’ll eventually have more essence to allocate per Tier than you will, even with the best potions we will eventually not be able to get you down to zero mana so these Tiers where we can are critical for your future growth.”
Her words actually swayed him. He really didn’t have any challenge on The Path that Luna didn’t intentionally put there. It also didn't sound like she would make it easier if he left, they would just have better resources to use.
Luna then added, "Right now things aren't a huge issue. Just your delving speed and mana generation are enough to buy items above your Tier. But remember that mana stones increase in value and mana capacity massively as they Tier up and you don't have growth items to let you jump Tiers of wealth anymore. Even if you just sit in a box right now and charge batteries all day every day it will take you over a year with the rift mana stone to produced mana value difference to buy a Tier 17 mana concentration potion at Tier 7. We are ok for the next few Tiers but why wait? If you don't reach zero in your current mana when you Tier up you are wasting potential mana concentration. That's where the weakness will creep in. Tier by Tier you will grow weaker the more you don't maximize your mana concentration."
Matt was honestly tempted, but a glance at Liz told him that she wasn't willing. She wasn’t saying anything, but he could see it in her eyes. She’d agree to it if he wanted to leave, he knew she would, she had said no many times before but that wasn't her desire.
Liz was on The Path to show everyone, including herself, that she wasn’t relying on her parents and their influence.
They had even had a conversation where she worried about relying on him and his Talent in the same way.
He could see it in her eyes that she wanted to remain on The Path. Her being willing to let it go for him wasn't enough of a reason for Matt to take Luna’s offer. And while in theory, they could break their team so that Matt could leave the Path while Liz remained, neither of them wanted to do so.
Staying on The Path was better for Liz, and Matt didn’t think there would be that much of a difference in the effectiveness of their training in the next few Tiers. After they had participated in the tournament for Pathers at tier 10, they could reevaluate. But he couldn't think of anything better that would prove to everyone that Liz was strong in her own right.
She was willing to sacrifice for him, but a good partner didn’t force someone to make that choice. And Matt wasn't willing to let Liz lose one of her largest goals for him, in exchange for only an extra bit of training.
Knowing it would make no difference to ask Luna to leave, he asked Liz, “What do you think?”
Liz shrugged. “If that's what’s best, we should do it.”
Matt shook his head. “No. What do you think? What do you feel about it?”
Liz repeated her shrug. “If that’s what’s best, I won't hold you back. That would be too selfish of me. I refuse to do that.”
Matt sighed internally, but was careful to keep that out of his voice. “No Liz, that's not fair at all. You can't just sacrifice everything for me. We’re partners. That means equals. If I just let you give up on your dreams for me, I'd be the biggest asshole in the world.”
He looked to Luna. “How much of a difference are we talking here?”
The dark haired woman quickly said, “Several percent to half as strong at the very worst case. There are a few… risks that we’d have to mitigate, but if I had my way, we’d just shove the best Tier 35 plus natural treasures in you which will ensure you don't have any inefficiency in your mana concentration.”
Liz pointed at Luna. “See Matt, this isn't nothing. I’ve said it before, I will step off The Path for you if we need to.”
Matt had to refrain from snapping. “But this isn't necessary. It’s a minor thing that there are workarounds for.”
Seeing Liz willing to give up so much for him reaffirmed his decision. “No. Liz, If I asked that of you I’d be the worst partner in The Empire. If we can't solve the problem before we run out of Aunt Helen's potions we can reevaluate then."
Keeping eye contact, he grabbed Liz’s hand and squeezed to reassure her that it would be okay.
“No, we'll stay on The Path.”
Luna didn’t seem surprised or angry as he expected. She just nodded and moved on. “If you want to delve a Tier 9 rift, we do it my way. I choose the rift and the mana types you make it with, as well as the items used to seed the rift. I will not put any restrictions on you. There is no advancing until you beat that rift, and you will only get one attempt at the rift per day. I’m going to make it hard. And if you want to keep on The Path despite the disadvantages, you need to survive this rift and not need rescuing.”
Matt and a now smiling Liz were ready to agree when Luna shook her head. “That's not all. If you want this, you need to have Melinda on standby. Tier 9 rifts are normally a large jump in difficulty. They usually have three monster types and are much larger. They can range between one hundred and five hundred square miles. But that's not what makes them hard. It's the first Tier where true sub-bosses appear. If you want to, we can continue, but you need to remember that if I have to pull you out of the rift, you’ll be kicked from The Path. Just like you would be if any other higher Tier saved you. If you do make it, I won’t bring it back up, and will put my full effort into making the best out of The Path for you..”
With that warning, Luna vanished. Matt grinned at Liz, who looked emotional.
“Well, I guess this is her way to try and force us off The Path. If we don't leave willingly, she'll force us off if we aren't strong enough.”
Liz ignored his comment and said, “Thank you. I know it's dumb. But I…”
Matt pulled Liz into a hug and cut her off. “Don't mention it. We’re a team, and without exceptional reason, if one of us wants to do something, we should do it. I know you want to stay on The Path, and that's enough of a reason for me. No need for thanks. It's not like you don't help me all the time, and I think this is too large a sacrifice for you to make for something so small.”
Liz pulled back and smiled at Matt. “Thank you.” Seeing that he was going to say she didn’t need to thank him, she added, “I do agree, that’s Luna’s plan for us, and it’s a normal rule for management teams. The logic is, if they weren't there and you died, you'd be dead. So with this, you leave The Path, but keep your life and potential. We’ll just need to be extra careful.”
She pulled back, and they walked hand in hand to her alchemy area, which was now under a gazebo. She said, “Luna did imply that if we passed this test, she'd find ways to not let you go without the stuff you need.”
Matt didn’t quite follow that logic and asked, “When did she do that?”
“She said that she won't bring it back up, and look at her. She's a perfectionist. I don't think she can let what she sees as inefficiencies go unfixed. Think of her training. I think she needs to fix anything she sees as less than efficient, but it will just be harder to do while on The Path.”
With Luna back, their magic control classes came back with new added twists. If they weren't training with Kurt, delving, or practicing some constructive hobby, she had them using an elemental manipulation skill.
With the skills they had been pulling from the rift and the cities on the nearby continents, they had all traded for enough skills to round out their Tier 8 wants. Kurt had told them that they should all get at least one elemental manipulation skill for practice, so everyone on Melinda’s team had saved up for them. Matt and Erwin hadn’t progressed to making rifts to delve for specific skill shards yet, so they had to trade for or purchase them.
Even with Matt making endless rifts for them to delve every day, it still took an argument to get his friends to take skill shards and mana stones. It had finally come down to him refusing to take them, like a child, for them to accept that they meant nothing to him.
He wasn't sure what Melinda’s team ended up doing with the mana stones and skill shards that they didn’t take, until he found them putting them in a box they refused to talk about. He and Liz ended up adding most of their unneeded skills in there as well, though they set up a bucket next to the box. Despite their prodding, neither Matt or Liz could get any inkling about the box from any of the six. All they could get was that the group wouldn’t be keeping it.
Matt’s current training was with his manipulation skills and creating complex structures with their element. Luna's current task involved him creating pillars of earth with swirling ramps on the outer layer, as he and Erwin waited for a rift to finish charging. As of now, he could only make the most basic swirls. Meanwhile, Vinnie had a completely hollow tower made from interweaving, but not touching strands of earth that only met at the tip of the pillar.
Matt sent a pulse of [Earth Manipulation] over to Vinnie's tower and smirked at his friend, who just stared at the pile of rubble for a long second. In return, Vinnie created a replica of Matt being chewed on by a giant crab. It was well made, if gruesome.
Their good-natured banter ended when Matt's next rift creation had stabilized, and he and Erwin started going over the details of it.
The rift was one made with only air mana but with the sub-aspect of weightlessness.
When they entered, Erwin had to catch him as they started to fall, a reminder of why he had been so careful after the tree rift. Falling when you went inside a rift was dangerous. This just happened to be very slow. Matt pulled out his flying sword, and found it was even hard to fly down. That was a good thing, because he was quite sure that Luna would have been more than willing to pull him from The Path if his life had been in actual danger.
It was like they were being resisted in their downward momentum, but still falling. It was like falling without the acceleration force that was normally applied by a planet's gravity.
He and Erwin spent over an hour mapping the Tier 3 rift out. It was a cylinder shape about a mile across, but over fifteen miles tall. If they completed the rift as intended, they would have fallen, and would’ve had to fight various birds until they reached the ground. There, to their surprise, they hovered off the soil by a few inches while fighting a much larger bird.
Matt tried to forcefully touch the ground, but even with his flying sword and Concept, he could not cross the final few hair's breadths of distance.
Erwin, on the other hand, was able to easily land and scoop up some of the soil for later testing. To both of their dismay, the soil was perfectly normal. Even the reward was subpar, as they were both well above the Tier of the rift.
It was still an interesting enough rift. It was marked to not be destroyed, unlike most other rifts. They had started removing the less interesting rifts once they started having ambient mana issues caused by all the rifts trying to feed themselves.
A month later, or four months after they started training with Kurt, Matt and Liz had completed their preparations to delve the Tier 9 rift.
When they approached Luna, she tossed Matt a bag and said, “Use this with the mana combination listed.”
When he looked inside, he saw a jumble of swords, potion vials half-filled, clothes, and other single-use items that he didn’t recognize.
The mana list was just as odd. Luna wanted nine mana types, all with careful ratios and specific sub-aspects to be used to create the rift. Thankfully, he had all of the mana types, but the combination was odd.
Pausing most of his other experiments, Matt spent the better part of two months making Tier 9 rifts for Luna. A large portion of the rifts unaspected before they hit Tier 9, and the rest, Luna simply entered for a second before dispelling the rift.
Every time that happened, Luna changed the items and mana formula until she found what she wanted.
It was late in the evening when Luna entered the seventeenth Tier 9 rift then called Liz away from her alchemy after exiting. She said, “Not what I was planning for, but it’ll work if you’re ready. Let's go.”
Matt knew they were very much not ready, and went to get Melinda. She was to wait at the entrance in order to honor their earlier agreement. They got her quickly enough for Luna to force them to wait until the instance cycled.
Then, the three of them entered the rift.
The view that met them was picturesque. They were halfway up a mountain on a forested seaside island that overlooked a calm and peaceful bay. It was protected by two arms of shore, giving the appearance of crescent moon edges that almost touched at the tips. The strips of land were crossed by an ornate wooden bridge. Below, they saw a winding dirt path framed by trees with pink leaves. It stretched on into the distance, cutting through the forested mountainside, precariously bordering the shore of the bay. Clean and perfectly round boulders dotted the sides of the path to complete the spectacle.
Matt looked at Liz and said, “This is too nice. I don't trust it.”
Aster sniffed around and yipped, “Those trees smell like cherries. Too strong. . Can't smell anything else.”
His bond then sneezed twice before growling at everything around them as her tail grew poofy, and she started to freeze their surroundings.
Liz asked, “What's our vote?”
Matt offered, “Proceed with extreme caution after we test the place? We know she only chose this one because she thinks we'll fail.”
Getting agreements from all around, Matt used [Earth Manipulation] and took control of all the ground around them, then shifted it a hair. It was a trick that Vinnie taught him. If something didn't move, it either meant that it wasn't earth, or was a single object too big to move. Either way, the test was a poor man's [Earth Sense]. Matt found nothing. Even extending into the boulders on the path, he felt nothing out of the ordinary.
“Nothing with [Earth Manipulation]... going to check with [Air Manipulation].”
Putting actions to words, he repeated his test of grabbing the air and moving it a hair. It was harder than with the more static ground, but even though the natural air patterns in the rift, Matt felt nothing that his instincts or his AI noticed as off.
Looking between Liz and Aster, he said, “Nothing. Any ideas?”
Aster, to his surprise, yipped, “I don't like the trees. Burn them.”
If his ice bond wanted something burned, he’d trust her instincts.
Using [Flamethrower], he set the nearest tree on fire, then used [Fire Manipulation] to ensure that the flames spread rapidly.
Still, there was nothing. No additional essence, and nothing moved besides the ashes floating in the sky.
Liz lowered her spear and tapped her armored chin. “Nothing. Huh. I really expected some traps.” She met his and Aster's eyes and asked, “Continue on?”
Matt nodded as Liz readied her spear, and a tendril of blood floated around her. Aster kept close to her heels as he took the lead.
Stopping after one step, Matt said, “Let me clear the air.”
Saying that, he used [Air Manipulation] to whip up a frenzy long enough to push the smoke away, and with the help of a few touches of [Fire Manipulation] removed the remaining fires.
With a clear path forward, Matt led the way, with most of his mana dedicated to both layers of [Cracked Phantom Armor].
As they passed the first copse of trees, nothing of note happened. Matt felt more on alert now, than if something had already attacked them.
After nearly two hundred feet into an open rift without being attacked, the trio became increasingly disconcerted. Add in the beautifully crafted scenery, and the whole thing seemed too perfect. The rift almost seemed to be purposely lulling them into a false sense of safety.
They were passing one of the perfectly round boulders when Matt looked back to Liz, about to ask if they should turn back. Something was wrong, and he could feel it.
As he turned, he saw the boulder swiftly and silently turn into a black-clothed, man-shaped monster. It kicked off the air and slashed out towards Liz’s neck from behind with a glowing blade.
On instinct, Matt used their rings to swap places, and concentrated all of [Cracked Phantom Armor]’s second layer around his head and neck, creating a shield as thick as he could muster.
His blade pierced the humanoid's chest, but at the same time, the glowing sword that had been aimed for Liz’s neck adjusted trajectory, and cut Matt in the shoulder. The weapon skittered along his collarbone to his neck.
Even as his sword killed the monster, and he felt a massive rush of essence, he felt his armor breached, and could feel his windpipe fill with blood.
The next seconds were a rush of panicked emotions from Aster, who had frozen everything around them, and Liz, who was carrying Matt to the entrance of the rift.
It was only because of Luna's training that Matt managed to focus on not breathing, and using his armor to prevent the blood loss from being worse, or drowning in his own blood.
As the world changed colors, Matt quickly felt Melinda’s healing energy washing into him. Spitting and coughing out the blood took Matt a good few minutes, while he heard Liz explaining what had happened to everyone else who had gathered around.
That put a damper on any further training for the evening, and he, Liz, and Aster just snuggled together, recovering from the close call earlier that afternoon.
Liz held him tight and whispered, “Thank you.”
Matt shrugged but said nothing. He'd always willingly take a blow for Liz and Aster. That wasn't a decision that took any thought.
He shrugged. “That's my job. Take the hits. You might not survive.”
Aster quietly yowled a mournful tone that broke Matt's heart. Along with the sound came a mixture of emotions he had no words for, but were a mirror of what he felt when he realized that he was truly alone in the nights after the rift breaks.
Liz continued, “I really don’t want to find out what it’s like to lose my head.” She looked over at Matt, then nodded and simply said, “Thank you.”
None of them slept until nearly dawn, but no one bothered them for the normal morning training.
***
Luna watched them sleeping only for the first few moments, pride and suffering plaguing her as she stared. They’d made it out of the rift better than she could have hoped.
“Better than I hoped at all.” Her soft whisper blew off on the breeze, and she turned her attention to the next regimen of training, and how all of them needed to improve. The way forward was clear, but The Path was muddied and treacherous after all. There was no telling when one might slip and fall off without a guiding hand to catch them.
Their preparations and testing of the rift were as good as she could ask for from Tier 6’s. Even if Matt had used [Earth Manipulation] on the boulder that the monster was hiding in, he wouldn't have felt anything amiss. The monster had been the stone before it transformed.
The rift was better than she expected when she had Erwin design the hardest rift he could think of. It was harder than an average Tier 10 rift. The only reason that it was a Tier 9 rift was the monster's lack of corporal forms. If their armor or clothes were broken, they had little holding them together. Or at least, that held true for the normal monsters. The sub-bosses were a different matter altogether.
It also helped that the rift had a constant danger of assassination, which would help the children in the upcoming years, whether they stayed on The Path or not.
Knowing that the kids would bounce back from this, she started to create a training regimen that would ensure they had the skills to successfully complete a rift as tricky as this one. She was stacking the deck, but she had to make the task presented possible.
If she was lucky, they would get overconfident and need rescue.
***
The next day Matt, Liz, and Aster threw themselves into the training presented.
When that was done, before he moved to start examining the rifts with Erwin, he asked Luna how to increase his defenses with [Cracked Phantom Armor].
Her answer wasn't what he wanted to hear. “You need to work on your mana manipulation and stressing the skill. I would also work on changing the base form's shape more. If I were you, I'd even try to change the color. If you can remove the color entirely, you'd have the best armor in the Empire.”
After she gave him some extra mana exercises that would help him, he went to join Erwin.
They had intended to work on reducing variables in rift construction, as they had most of the base elements tested.
To start, they created ten rifts with neutral mana. In theory, all of the rifts should have been identical, but they were anything but. Each rift was unique and varied. That was a problem with their elemental rifts, but they hadn’t been testing for that.
The results were okay because they were just their baseline.
Then, they removed all the ambient mana from the enclosure and created ten more rifts. These rifts had slightly less variance in their features, but there was still a wide variety of aspects. They could clearly see that some of the rifts were even elementally aligned.
That particular detail stumped them for a while. The new rift creating plates that they had made actually created a flat portion at the bottom of the rifts, which should have prevented any mana from coming up through the ground. But there was clearly still something influencing the mana.
Their theory was that Matt’s personal mana wasn't completely pure anymore, despite Erwin, Luna, and Kurt all agreeing that it was unaspected mana.
They even made a special trip to the largest city on the planet, and found a group of kids being awakened.
To isolate that as a variable, they brought with them a struggling Tier 1 monster pulled from the most neutral rift they had made so far. For the first time, Matt got to see the other side of a mortal's awakening.
A monster was placed in the machinery connected to the awakening chairs, and then killed. The killer then shunted the essence into the machinery, where it was transferred to the teen, and then absorbed so they could step into Tier 1.
It was incredibly efficient. One Tier 1 monster could awaken two dozen mortals. The machinery was that good at splitting the essence into the smallest of portions, as only the tiniest amount was needed.
Then, they had all the kids donate their mana for a Tier 2 mana stones value in credits. It was quite the reward for them doing nothing, but Matt and Erwin were able to discern that the kids’ mana had no differences to Matt's. At least, none that either of them could detect in a dozen tests.
They still repeated their tests with the new mana types, to no appreciable variances.
After that failure, they redesigned their rift creating formation plates, and added a barrier as a way to keep out ambient essence, thus removing it from the formation. That required six iterations of formation plates, since they needed the plates themselves to be outside of the formation. It was similar to the designs of their earliest versions.
When they tried to create a rift with that set up, they were left scratching their heads. Even when Matt pumped in nearly a million mana into the formation, they still had no rift.
The theories they were tossing back and forth were becoming more and more esoteric. Or they were, until Liz wandered over to observe and help get them back on track.
She looked from between the locked-up formation and the pair of mad scientists, and asked, “Isn’t it just like the saying, ‘Life makes mana. Mana makes essence. Essence creates rifts. Rifts convert all three’? You don't have any essence in there. So no rift.”
Matt and Erwin looked at each other in bemusement at their stupidity.
“I can't believe we overlooked that.” Matt scratched his head as he tried to laugh off the shame as Liz walked away chortling.
Erwin shrugged. “That’s just how it goes sometimes, you miss the most obvious stuff. We were simply too deep into the weeds, as they say. That’s why assistants are good. Also breaks. Mostly breaks, actually.”
Matt looked back to their bubble of mana and asked, “So what do we do now? New formation plate time?”
Erwin looked to the ring on his hand and then to the rift. He repeated that action half a dozen times, before withdrawing an essence stone and meeting Matt’s eyes.
“Well, I guess we just add Essence?” Even the older man seemed unsure.
Matt figured that nothing bad would happen as Erwin tossed the essence stone inside the barrier.
The world went blue as the mana reacted to the introduction of essence explosively.
Instinctively, Matt activated [Cracked Phantom Armor] and protected his face, but Erwin was as fast as his Tier befit.
He stuck a hand out, and instead of washing out in a fury, the energy was directed upward in a geyser of mana.
Everyone else came running as Erwin started cursing, as his hand had been almost entirely scoured of skin.
Matt was just impressed the man had been hurt at all. He never shared his exact Tier, but he had in passing mentioned his Tier 25 Talent, so he was at least that strong. To have his flesh stripped off by touching the explosion was impressive. Scary, in fact, It meant that Matt wouldn’t have teeth left if the older man hadn’t stepped in.
Melinda moved forward despite Erwin waving her off. “Don’t worry about it. I make healing potions by the ring, and you don’t need to go wasting all your mana trying to patch me up. There’s a few Tiers of difference at play, after all.”
The healer of the Empire ignored that entirely, and cast a [Healing Touch] on the man.
To only Erwin’s astonishment, the hand regrew its skin in a matter of seconds.
Erwin blinked at his hand twice before turning to examine Melinda closer, with his glasses flaring to life.
“Wait, wait, wait. How did you do that?” The man's eyes flicked off to the side. “Wait, I got a message about that? Oh. Hm, where did those go… ah. Hmm… Overhealth, oh yeah… Oh Oh!”
He stepped forward and started murmuring as he examined Melinda. “I thought that was a joke. How does that even work? Hm. Essence isn’t really…”
Mathew asked the question that Matt was thinking. “Did you really not notice that before now? Melinda’s been healing all of us from crippling injuries for months now.”
Erwin blinked several times at all of them. “Ummmm… I was… of course I… um. Look, what’s important is that there’s some experiments I need to run now!”
That derailed their rift experiments for a few hours, until Melinda explained her Talent and demonstrated it for the man again.
Hearing that Melinda wanted to heal old age, Erwin immediately became interested, and started drawing up plans for her to try and attack the problem. Most of his ideas had been fueled by the suggestions of Baxter, but Erwin came up with a few points that were new to Melinda, and she was happy to workshop them with the higher Tiered man.
The session ended when Erwin became more enthralled with the black goop that her Concept left behind when used on a rift monster than interested in her Talent.
After the man planted a few seeds and young plants in soil, mixed with Melinda’s Concept goop, Matt tried to pull him back to their rift experiments and the explosion they had set off.
When the seeds he planted instantly grew green, and then wilted to brown, he ran to drag Melinda back to take a look.
Melinda, who watched the entire process, hunched into herself. She said, “Yeah my Concept is all about death. I didn’t need to see a plant die in seconds.”
Erwin looked like he wanted to shake her as he said, “No, no… This is amazing! So I call this stuff Mayfly Grass. Normally, it grows and dies in a single day, with decent soil. But it can be sped up slightly by good soil quality. There’s a few simple tests to run once it dies, which we can learn more about the chemical and magical balance of the earth from. Really good soil, even fertilized, might take a few hours. Not… five point seven seconds. Anyway, the stuff your Concept makes is absurdly good at fertilizing…”
Erwin peered at Melinda. “I don’t suppose I could persuade you to make me some for my biomes? Actually, would you mind if I got you some attuned monsters to use it on? I’ll need to run some tests, but what I’m hoping is that this stuff might even be Essentially aspected, and that I can use that for a bit of minor terraforming. Let me get some ice-attuned potting soil. Or, I suppose, if it doesn’t impact the soil attunement, then I could just get normal, low-quality stuff. I can use this to bring it up to a much higher grade, and get my garden to really… flourish. ”
Melinda’s eyes went wide at the realization and mouthed what Matt thought was, ‘only through death can new life flourish,’ a few times, before she pulled herself out of her trance and looked to Matt. She asked, “Is he always like this?”
Matt just grinned. “Yeah. We lost two days when he found a new algae. It's fun, honestly.”
When they finally got back to their rift explosion, they hypothesized that it was the unnatural buildup of mana. When suddenly introduced to a Tier 28 essence stone, it reacted. Badly.
Matt glared at the man for using such a strong essence stone, but he waved it off. “It was the only one I had on me! I didn’t expect any reaction, let alone something like that.”
When they went to investigate the rift, Matt let Erwin go in first. It was the first time he saw the older man don armor. It was sleek, and looked to be made from wood, but Matt could feel the enchantments giving off a feeling of power.
He reappeared after a second, and gestured for Matt to enter.
The rift was perfectly ordinary, except for the fact it was Tier 8 from the outset. But other than that, it had no anomalies.
That discovery led them to recreate their initial test, albeit far more carefully. They still pulled most of the mana out, but Erwin redirected the tiniest fraction of essence from a captured rift monster to insert into the rift.
They added greater reinforcement to the newest iteration of the rune plates, but as they were far more careful with the amount of essence they added, there was no explosion.
There was a rift created, which they rushed into immediately. They discovered that there was nothing unique about the rift. It was a simple grass plane rift with rodent monsters.
The next rift they created had a similar general structure, but with different monsters.
They had finally been able to create a rift that had a repeatable feature.
They did the same test again with elemental mana, which proved less predictable, but they were able decrease the variability by forty percent. Still, they were unable to get a rift created through this process to Tier up without unaspecting.
Having run into another roadblock, they simply pulled back, and started to use items with no essence and elemental mana inside of the rift.
That created nearly identical rifts, as long as the rift was created in the same spot, with the same item and mana. If those conditions were met, the rifts were near clones physically. The monsters were usually similar, but not to the same degree as the terrain. The rifts were able to Tier up without unaspecting, but it was a coin flip on whether it remained the aspect that they wanted.
Their next idea was to create an essence filter, to only allow certain essence aspects to remain in the rifts’ creation formations.
Matt knew that cultivators and their Concepts could affect the essence in their cores, but he hadn’t realized that even ambient essence could be aspected. Erwin explained it as the essence that settled around or inside the element in question. Essence that settled in the ground would be earth essence. In water, water essence, and so on.
Matt had no way to filter essence, and even Erwin struggled with it. They spent two weeks getting the first prototype set up, then over a month on improving it, before Erwin gave up and used the one they had cobbled together.
Their success at creating an essence filter was fleeting, as they failed to make any improvements to the rate at which the rifts were deaspecting.
Using the filter, barrier, and the formation’s analyzation function, they got an answer that they should have expected.
They already knew that essence was produced by rifts, but the problem was that the rifts created pure, neutral essence. That led them to their next hypotheses.
The rifts were deaspecting because the non-aspected essence interfered with the Tiering up process.
Even with that knowledge. they currently had no way to prevent rifts from doing exactly what they were meant to do.
Their testing with elemental rifts gave them another glimpse at what was happening. A fire rift didn’t give out pure fire essence, it was about eight parts pure essence to two parts fire essence.
In retrospect, it made sense, as it explained why cultivating with ambient essence was so slow and difficult. It also explained why monsters in rifts didn't have any type to their essence. Even a fire rift would make mostly neutral essence.
Matt didn't understand that, but Erwin hypothesized that the ratio was how planets with a single rift didn’t become singular elemental planets. If rift only produced elemental essence, it would eventually spread and change the whole planet.
Their testing continued for another two months, along with Luna’s training, before he, Liz, and Aster decided to train in more rifts. It was time to prepare for a second attempt at the Tier 9 rift.
Comments
Psyren1596
I am really enjoying the rift creation experiments
Silver Beard
Are we ever going to see a status? Training is great, but measurable growth is keystone...and besides some vague references...left hanging
Randall C
I don't see everyone else problem: Yes liz wants to stay on the path for her own reasons and Matt does not care about the path any more. Yes it would be better to drop off; however, it's not urgent. Matt has the supplies and money to hold off till level 10. So there is no harm in stay on for a bit longer. So instead of Matt selfishly saying he's the only one who maters; they compromise and will reevaluate when in the future to see if they can stay the current parth or want to drop off. Also if I remember correctly, at level 10, Liz's parents will drop by, so it's a good break point anyway.
ALEXEI
Seems backwards that he thinks it would be selfish of him. Its selfish of her, they will be immortal she will eventually prove herself if he screws over his growth it effects him forever. Its not him that would be a bad partner its her risking his future for temporary sense of accomplishment. Doubt it will be a issue as they have time to think about it just my initial thoughts on him feeling selfish. Not that how people feel ever makes sense haha easy to feel guilty over stuff you have 0 control over.
Thomas Christie
Thats a bit of a sticky situation…I’m sure Liz would drop off the path for Matt, but clearly she’d be very unhappy about it. She seems a bit too cavalier about Matt running the risk of ruining his potential and being much weaker than he could have been. He’s also taking it pretty lightly considering his fears of ending up as a mana battery, which would loom much larger if he ends up a shadow of what he could have been. A lot of danger to pin on someones independence complex. Hopefully it all works out for them because that seems like a monstrous risk to take.
C_Mantis
Thanks. Its more about them having growth items which were worth t14 so ill add that.
Darkhelm
I think something along those lines makes it a little clearer. The idea that there is more of an exponential curve to costs as you tier up. The only challenge to that is they've seem to have the ability to grab tier 14 items before without too much difficulty (I could be remembering wrong) but that could but more linked to those unique events and future access depends on those and high success in them which is not guaranteed. Maybe something along the lines of above tier 15 prices really rocket up linking to the challenge of the increasing number of immortals in the empire would do a good job.
C_Mantis
@wiggles. How does this sound, a bit added in this chapter to help. Luna then added, "Right now things aren't a huge issue. Just your delving speed and mana generation are enough to buy items above your Tier. But remember that mana stones increase in value and mana capacity massively as they Tier up. Even if you just sit in a box right now and charge batteries all day every day it will take you over a year with the rift mana stone to produced mana value difference to buy a Tier 17 mana concentration potion at Tier 7. We are ok for the next few Tiers but why wait? If you don't reach zero in your current mana when you Tier up you are wasting potential mana concentration. That's where the weakness will creep in. Tier by Tier you will grow weaker the more you don't maximize your mana concentration."
C_Mantis
yeah that comes down to mana value and how the economy scales. Its been too long so ill be addressing that soonish. For now how is this addition to ease into it? Luna then added, "Right now things aren't a huge issue. Just your delving speed and mana generation are enough to buy items above your Tier. But remember that mana stones increase in value and mana capacity massively as they Tier up. Even if you just sit in a box right now and charge batteries all day every day it will take you over a year with the rift mana stone to produced mana value difference to buy a Tier 17 mana concentration potion at Tier 7. We are ok for the next few Tiers but why wait? If you don't reach zero in your current mana when you Tier up you are wasting potential mana concentration. That's where the weakness will creep in. Tier by Tier you will grow weaker the more you don't maximize your mana concentration."
WigglesDoomius
@C.Mantis I guess for myself, 1) it wasn't clear to me that the problem with Matt was his hybrid distribution of essence 2) why getting mana compression requires such high teir potions to get to near 0. You don't need to math it out in the writing but there are jumps in thought and logic that I don't follow.
Darkhelm
I have no problem with Matt staying in the path, but where it falls apart to me is there is no issue with Matt’s resources. Mana is the primary limiter and reads to me that with unlimited rift running they’ll be able to purchase whatever they need. Especially since they get to control tiering up and it’s not something that just happens.
Thomas
I'm not on the discord, because I don't have a discord account nor do I plan to get one. I am assuming Matt's tier 25 talent will have nothing to do with mana. Or if it does it will be something like an increase to the effectiveness of his physical cultivation based upon the percentage of his mana pool that is filled. What would be hilarious is if his talent was an increase in how "good looking" others perceive him to be based on how much mana he is regenerating. Although that wouldn't fit into the tone of the story, just a funny thought.
Obbu
"That's where the Path of Ascension comes in. It lets the sponsors get rewarded if their sponsee does well. If you make it to Tier 5, we get small rewards. If you make it to Tier 10, we get more all the way up to Tier 25." - Chapter 3 I think the decision that gets made is totally concrete, and in character, totally sensible: because I don't think Matt rates his current lot in life (which he pretty much owes to Dena and Eric) as being worth just "small rewards". I can't see him doing anything other than blitzing his way up the whole path - if it's within his power - to pay them back: then give them a high five at the end. Perhaps people's objections to the reasoning warrants re-mentioning the fact that he has currently only re-paid the bare minimum on that big old debt he's carrying around, but I don't think the decision is flawed, or that any blame rests on Liz's shoulders, especially considering that she immediately offers to leave with him. And that's even ignoring that the series is called Path of Ascension :P
C_Mantis
@wiggles what do you think in particular needs to be better explained? that way i can touch it up.
C_Mantis
Correct. Matt will struggle mana per mana to keep up. He cant have everything. IDK if you are on the discord but his T25 talent will NOT be about mana conc. thats just too easy.
Thomas
@C. Mantis with the information that at tier 30+ they are gaining an effective concentration of 1 per tier really changes the equation I provided to make it so the 2 becomes a variable that increases as tiers increase. Which doesn't change my point it just makes Matt's mana at higher tiers much, much worse than I thought. It might make it so bad that even with his insane regeneration Phantom Armor wouldn't be effective because his mana power is so low, even with perfect mana concentration potions. Thanks for clarifying, and the info.
BaguaBrady
there are very minor benefits to them going off now vs t10. earlier access to the very best skills and trainers. less publicity at the tournament so increased security. but no long term implications really, those differences are pretty insignificant come t15 if they jump off at t10. the only issue that's impossible to reverse is mana concentration and that wouldn't matter till later. my guess is the war will pull them off the path but that they will go through the tournament, again to no detriment to their cultivations
Wredniak2003
Yes and no. As far as I understood the chapter getting off the path right now will have tangible and significant benefits right now. Staying on the path will be detrimental, depending how long he stays it may be a few percents or if he decides to stay and complete the whole thing his mana concentration will be half of what could have been. That's why I thought this chapter doesn't make sense as it seems not only he refuses almost unlimited resources for growth and experimentation he actively is harming his potential just to pander to Liz complexes. And what is even worse Liz let's him do this. Additionally even if the decision have no negative consequences there is also opportunity cost of not choosing to forgo the path. Why this decision doesn't work for me is not the decision itself but how it is presented, if it was clear to me that all he is sacrificing is some efficiency at getting to the top and his decision wouldn't have any significant and lasting drawbacks then I wouldn't mind him being love sick teen. It would have even made sense. Based on your replay it was what you were aiming for but based on some comments I wasn't the only one who misread the situation. On the side note I think Luna could have got about the whole thing differently, for example I think it would have been much harder for him to refuse if he knew his experiments and finding new skills like copper skin (or whatever it was called) could have improved lives of other people in the empire, and how much more he could do with proper funds. But Luna being Luna I totally get why she focused on completely different approach.
C_Mantis
also same question as to another person. was this not clear enough the problem only comes in later Tiers? if not I can beef it up but I thought the implication was clear. You're going to need a Tier 14 mana concentration potion to get your mana to near zero at your next Tier. When you're Tier 8, you’ll need approximately a Tier 16 potion. Eventually, we'll need Tier 35 plus natural treasures to ensure that we get the most out of your Tier ups
C_Mantis
@thomas. Good write up. its all pretty correct except for what I said to wiggles. The higher tiers have sooooo much essence to allocate they dump a shit load into mana conc just to run the edge of the soft cap. that means mages in the t30+ are getting a lot more than 1.0 mana conc a tier. Now I dont really math but a cultivator to reach t40 needs ten duosexagintillion more essence than they already had. Thats a lot of essence to allocate. Thats where they pull ahead. While one essence isnt equal to one mana, mana regen, or mana conc they just have a lot to allocate.
C_Mantis
@wiggles, not nothings changed or retconed but its a logical conclusion. The higher tiers have trillions and quadrillions of essence to allocate per tier. That in its self means they have to consistently put into mana cocn to not run into the soft cap.
WigglesDoomius
That section is pretty vague. It makes more sense in the context of all these comments but honestly it was a pretry confusing section in the first read through.
C_Mantis
Its not really just me forcing them to stay. I have plans for taking them off the path. Hell, the beta readers and I find it would be easier to have him off the path. I dont mind taking him off but I dont see Matt stepping off that easy. Liz and Aster are his only real family. I dont see him being perfectly logical and min maxie about this. Not when its first dropped into his lap at least.
WigglesDoomius
Right, so I don't know if there was a discuss else where or it was retconned but the higher tiers dumping millions in essence into concentration has never been alluded to as a problem. What I recall is that other mage/caster types didn't concentrate their mana to a crazy degree because it forced them to shrink their mana pool.
Thomas
TLDR; Based on the math Matt will always be behind, but as the numbers get ridiculous for mana concentration it matters less and less. Matt would ask his AI this and that makes Liz's political savvy more important than a negligible improvement. On the math at tier 25 following the 50% improvement in concentration per tier per potion at peak efficiency for Matt he would have, based on his current concentration, 997 mana concentration. This concentration would have the mana power of 3.99 tier ones based on the formula provided. At the 90% efficiency assumption of Liz making his potions from materials from Matt created rifts, it would be 897 mana concentration. At this concentration Matt would have the power of 3.95 tier ones. A less than 1.1% difference, while I get that this would bug Luna, I don't see how this would bother Matt. The difference is so little that his sheer massive amount of mana would more than make up for it. In the math of log base 10 x for every multiple of 10 in x the output goes up by 1, so a 1 is 0, a 10 is 1, a 100 is 2 and a 1000 is 3, etc. etc. etc. This is the reason I don't really think that this is that important to Matt, nor was it that important to the Emperor nor the council that handles The Path. The difference in power won't change Matt's real strength in any meaningful way. Matt currently has a mana concentration of 1.3, or 1.11 mana power of a tier 1. Since we haven't been informed of the increase in essence needed in each tier I will make the assumption that it is double the amount of the previous tier. A mage will spend 70% of this on mana, and of that 25% will be on concentration because to use high end skills they need more max mana. This is because by increasing mana concentration a mage losses both max mana and mana regeneration, as stated in the chapter when Liz made mana concentration potions. Also assuming that the amount that mana can be concentrated at tier one is at a maximum 1. Operating on these assumptions a mage at the peak of tier 6 like Melinda would have a mana concentration of 11.025, or the mana power of 2.04 tier ones. This is without any mana concentration potions. At tier 25 following those assumptions and no mana concentration potions Melinda would have a mana concentration of 587,202.5, or the mana power of 5.79 tier ones. A 3.99, or 3.95 mana power isn't really all that different compared to 5.79 mana power. This is a 0.7% difference in power per mana between peak potions or Liz potions compared to an equal at tier 25. This slight difference won't really change much for Matt with his ridiculous mana. I'm going to be honest in that I'm fairly certain I'm over estimating how much the increase in essence between tiers is, as well as how much concentration can happen each tier. Using the assumptions provided the formula is Sum from k =1 to x 0.7 * 0.25 * 2^(k-1), where x is the max tier you are trying to figure mana concentration to. The 2 is the amount of essence increase for each tier, the 0.7 is the essence focused in mana, and the 0.25 is the amount that is focused towards concentration. I get Luna would obsess over this negligible difference, but I'm also fairly certain Matt would have already done the math and realized this and that currently he is at his weakest against those of his tier that he will ever be, and that it is only as he increases in Tier will he grow stronger compared to his peers. So by "sacrificing" a negligible improvement to stay on the path with Liz and keep her happy is way more important. I don't understand why people are thinking Matt is giving up his future strength for Liz here when he is not. C. Mantis what you are writing I interpret Luna's actions are, is an over reacting because of her past trauma. Matt's actions as I've done the math, or his AI has, and it's no big deal so let's keep Liz happy, who keeps Matt happy/sane/loved. And Liz's as I will do what's best for Matt, until he get's her to realize that she is what's best for him, because she will help with the politics that he will need help with once he is a power house. What I'm not understanding is the other readers freaking out about Matt staying on the path with Liz. Perhaps if you included Matt asking his AI what the difference would be in his power if he stayed or got off and he saw it was barely anything other people would understand without getting the math explained to them like I just did, which I understand would be super annoying because not everyone is a math junkie like I am, and while this story has some numbers its not really a LitRPG, nor is it driven by them.
Wredniak2003
I do have a strong feeling they are staying on the path because the author needs them to stay. Only a few chapters earlier we had the Matt realizing how bad his future could get if he doesn't get strong enough. Here he seems to disregard it completely for the sake of his girlfriend's insecurities. I guess it's not working for me mostly because Matt have realized already how important for him is to get as strong as he can as quickly as he can. Maybe if Luna grudgingly admitted that waiting to tier 10 it would actually be passable it would make more sense. At least to me.
Tjark
Yeah, Matt stating he'll wait until tier 10 and then reevaluate was the first thing he thought so it couldn't be any clearer to me.
BaguaBrady
the 50% is pretty wildly off, there are no consequences to postponing the decision to t10 and that's very firmly stated in the text. Seems like people are just having a strong knee jerk reaction and missing what's actually happening and clearly stated 🤷🏻
C_Mantis
so while im not an expert on all the actual math. The problem is mages will be able to dump millions of essence into mana conc in the higher Tiers so they will have a mana conc in the 100+. Matt cant, he can only get what he can get out of the potions so if he doesn't max out his mana conc hes weaker than he could have been. Matt will take a lead in the next few tiers but after that he starts to fall off hard. If that didn't answer you question please let me know.
C_Mantis
was this not clear enough that its the later tiers that are a problem? You're going to need a Tier 14 mana concentration potion to get your mana to near zero at your next Tier. When you're Tier 8, you’ll need approximately a Tier 16 potion. Eventually, we'll need Tier 35 plus natural treasures to ensure that we get the most out of your Tier ups. If not I can beef it up a bit but I do need feedback if its not enough.
Mousehowl
Please give the reasons behind staying on the path a rewrite, or to be better fleshed out. You have a world of constant danger and crippling strength by 50% vs ego as the scales. This single opening changed the view of their relationship to incredibly unhealthy and toxic. The majority of the chapter was barely retained as I kept thinking about the opening. Luna doesn't need to rescue them from a rift, a few words should end the relationship in bitterness. If that was your intent, I'd ask that it be shown in the writing. If not, then I'd really suggest reconsidering the reasons. (Edited to change post tone)
Thomas
I don't understand the issue around Matt's mana concentration. In chapter 73 on a kingdom net Matt finds the equation for the effect of Mana concentration which is log10(concentration) + 1, while his current mana concentration was 1.3 after three potions. Using this equation if Matt had a mana concentration of 10 he would have double the power in his mana compared to a tier 1. Yet if he got his mana concentration to 20 he would only have 2.3 times the power of a Tier 1. While the effects of the concentration potions are powerful Matt should be fine even with inferior product Liz makes him from the mana concentration herb rifts that he will make. Lets assume that concentration potions are more effective at each tier by a compounding 50% at tier 35 if Matt took an optimal potion each tier from tier 4 on he would have an effective mana power of 6.45 times greater than a tier 1. Matt's main difference is that he doesn't need a potion that also increases max mana and mana regen with his talent. If instead he keeps using what Liz can make for him, which I'm assuming is only 90% as effective as possible (based on the mana concentration potions sold in the first war auction, and not the potion Matt took that she made) Matt would have the effective mana power of 5.87 greater than a tier 1. Put another way at Tier 35 Matt's mana would be 91% as effective as it theoretically could be. While this 9% loss in potential maximum power seems like a lot at this tier matt will have in regeneration per second more mana than anyone else who hasn't ascended has in max mana and will be able to over power everyone with his mana anyways, and still be able to rank up worlds to tier 40. I'm fairly certain that Matt's mana concentration even with using Liz's potions will still be greater than even a pure mage's at equivalent tiers by tier 10, and by tier 25 will be so by an order of magnitude. It's fairly reasonable to assume that a deal with a guild could be made to make a rift of mana concentration herbs for each tier in exchange for the herbs and a potion that concentrates mana as much as possible making this worry baseless. This isn't a big sacrifice on Matt's part at all to stay on the path. I doubt that the difference would be anything greater that 2% in power by tier 25 when the path ends anyways. While that much could make a difference for a normal mage, with how much mana Matt generates it really wouldn't by that time.
Austin
I mean... He's not going to lose 50 percent of his cultivation right away. They can still leave the path later if they decide that's best. He still has one of aunt Helens concentration potions so he has until he hits tier 8 before it really affects him. With how much they're pulling out of rifts and the things he's learning he could probably buy more good concentration treasurers or farm them from created rifts. I think they have until at least tier 10 to decide if nothing changes. It may be selfish now for Liz but that doesn't mean she won't change her mind later.
Obbu
Edit Suggestions: It was like they were being resisted in their downward momentum, but still falling. It was like falling without the acceleration force that was normally applied by a planet's gravity. -> Consider non-repetitive sentence start, unsure if this is intentional. After nearly two hundred feet ->After nearly two hundred feet (Remove double space) the monster's lack of corporal forms. ->the monster's lack of corporeal forms. If rift only produced elemental essence -> If a rift only produced elemental essence
Ben Waschuk
I 2nd this, Liz isn't on 'ThePath' she is on 'TheEasyPath' but thinks shes just like everyone else. Just think about how the emporer tests all the skills for her. He missed some but they she still depended on him for it. That and she's getting carried by Matt. She can do all the killing herself but Matt is saving her years by allowing her to practice way more then possible. The whole reason why she wants 'ThePath' is to do it herself...
BaguaBrady
They also say they'll check back in around t10 when the actual consequences are more immediate. They've got time to delay a decision
Desidia
I like characters with a selfish side, it gives them a personality. They don't have to pick the perfect Path.
TerrestrialOverlord
Honestly I get it and somewhat sympathize with Liz's position of feeling the need to earn and control her growth and related decisions but in the end its an illusion. If she thinks that she can ever die except by super freak accident then she's kind of dumb, SHE IS NOT DUMB. So she is NOT on "The Path", she on "Custom Path". She needs to be true to herself, YES but she did not have to accept Matt's sacrifice for her sake. She is not perfect which I like but she's very much the person that she doesn't want to be. Someone is providing a smooth path for her, Matt. Matt has orphan insecurities and is also a nice guy. I wish he'd made a more selfish choice but I can't say I wouldn't have done the same in his place.....kind of bummed right now coz someone close to me is very much like her....hopefully they need rescuing the next time in the rift 9, and Liz gets to see what's really important and that she can get help from people without being weak or undeserving.
Istyatur Elestel
Its hard to tell how much to count the time and therapy though. She's been running around racking up new trauma with the war and how-to-fight-with-missing-limbs bootcamp and i can totally see how this particular fixation was pushed to the side when it will not even come up for at least 4 tiers and having a latency of days or weeks between responses.
Pyrefiend
Perhaps part of the rift variance comes from microbes, or even microscopic detritus inside the formation area. I feel like Matt and Erwin would have thought of this already, but I can't remember any mentions of it.
Daniel Smith
So your are saying the Emperor wouldn't think the mana a full mana some or two aspects to him worth the mana concentration potion?
Luciaron
Thanks for the chapter!
hmDrake
I don't know, I feel like it's a lot to ask someone to give up their dreams and drives even for a good reason. This is a mistake, but I get it. Sometimes, people make mistakes due to their pride, especially young people. This feels 100% natural to me.
Amelgar
I'm kinda surprised Matt didn't consider his safety after leaving the Path and who he'd be indebted to. Maybe even any thoughts of how he'd feel if all that power was just given to him vs earning it himself? He's mused abit about it.
Asur
She is 22 and 4 years on the Path right? With ongoing therapy great education and a offer of a trainer which their parents wouldn't dare to interfere.
WigglesDoomius
Yeah gotta agree here. That decision is needs more exploration. You've set up this huge universe impacting influence matt could have, 50% is nothing to scoff at when you have ascenders posing a threat to people several tiers above them. Liz' decision has essentially made it far more likely matt ends up as a world battery for almost nothing. Tyranny of logic and all that, that decision needs more exploration otherwise it has got to be one of the most selfish she could have done. Especially after that chapter all about how war is coming. And it wouldn't even be that much "showing her own power". Mara and Leon aren't allowed to interfere until tier 10. They are almost teir 7 at this point.
Alexander Hallonblad
Edwin 30+ confirmed. Gotcha.
ZaA
Ah, I forgot about Aunt Helen's potions. Should be interesting to see if/how they solve the problem past tier 10 if they choose to stay on the path after that
GoHazard
After thinking about it, aren't her actions exactly what was to be expected? Since the beginning she joined the path to escape her parents and now she was about to loose the excuse that hindered her parents from interfering with her life. Was it objectively nonsensical? Yes. She is still young and makes emotional choices. But it was still in character I believe.
C_Mantis
Yeah, Liz isnt perfect. Neither is Matt. He could have left the path and Liz stayed on it. Young and dumb as they say.
C_Mantis
@ZaA, yeah. it was Liz's decision. She 100% could have just said. nope I fall off and basically forced Matt off as he even said hes there for her. shes still young. And they still have two potions from Aunt Helen's and they can afford the next two Tiers of portions and be perfectly set up until Tier 10. So use bought potions for 7 and 8 then nine nad ten use Aunt Helen's potions. After that is when shit gets real dicey
Asur
Till this chapter Liz was logical, smart, far thinking and emotional mature. Now she is the selfish runaway princess without the ability to think outside the box! Basically her only remaining character trade is "complete the Path no matter what". This not only invalids all of her accomplishments and growth even regress her character. This is one of the worst case of parasitic love interest I have seen!
ZaA
I see why you're saying it was Matt's decision, not hers, but I don't think you're reading between the lines enough here. Matt chose to stay because he knew she wanted to stay. If she decided Matt's potential loss in strength was more important to her than her image and made a case that proved that was how she felt (something like "you losing half your strength is not worth me showing off how strong i am. Besides we can both become stronger if we step off the path, and my actual strength has become more important to me than my image of independence") then Matt would not have told her he wants to stay on the path. He would have said "if that's what you want" and ended it there. The decision was hers, even if he was the one who voiced it in the end. As far as the mana concentration situation goes, I believe Luna said that what he needed they couldn't afford even with Matt funding it. They'd have to buy suboptimal items to empower his mana. I do think that it wouldn't be the end of the world to be a few percentage weaker in order to make it to tier 10 on the path and join the tournament before leaving it, but that's them assuming that they would be able to get all the things they need with the path restrictions put in place (which is a big gamble to be making when they didnt even ask Luna if that was possible, nor did Liz suggest they leave after the tournament as a compromise, it was just a quick thought Matt had).
GoHazard
I was going to write, that I think their decision was just a really bad one especially after Luna telling him all the problems that staying on the path will cause. Though at the same time I agree with why you wrote it the way you did. No character should be perfect and their flaws are an important part of who they are. Perhaps while staying on the Path they will find a way to circumvent the aforementioned problems while following the rules. It makes me look forward how they will prevent them. I just hope they do find a solution at some point or that they later, perhaps after the tournament, decide that they should step of the path. Thanks for doing the hard thing and writing the story how you envision it, while at the same time knowing some parts might be initially less favorably seen! Looking forward to how it develops, it's exciting!
C_Mantis
yeah pretty much. it be like trying to shape hard concrete for a t6 to heal a t30+s flesh.
C_Mantis
Yeah, copy pasted from below. Yeah, Liz isnt perfect. I'm going off this study for her reaction. (https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna49091851) The short of it is, "Without thinking, people act with more generosity than if they take some time to weigh the logic of their behavior. " When you have time to think you talk yourself into what you want. I don't like to have perfect MC's. That just no fun. But they still have two potions for aunt helens and they can afford the next two Tiers of portions and be perfectly set up until Tier 10.
Alexander Hallonblad
So is the thing preventing a normal healer from healing someone of a much higher tier a difference in HP pool or a tier barrier that overhealth simply penetrates or something else?
C_Mantis
Yeah, Liz isnt perfect. I'm going off this study for her reaction. (https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna49091851) The short of it is, "Without thinking, people act with more generosity than if they take some time to weigh the logic of their behavior. " When you have time to think you talk yourself into what you want. I don't like to have perfect MC's. That just no fun.
Buzz1089
Agreed. Especially because of Matt's argument for it. He essentially said he couldn't sacrifice her wants for his needs, completely missing that it meant he was sacrificing for her. There wasn't an option for neither of them to sacrifice anything. No matter what, someone has to sacrifice. For her, it's pride and public perception. For him, it's potential future strength. For her, it's a want, a really strong want but not something she actually needs. For him, there is a very good argument that it's a need. Especially with the potential danger he'll be in later because of his talent. I understand the choice from young idiots and it would be weird if a story called "the path of ascension" had them leave the path before they were even a fourth of the way through it, but their arguments for the decision are stupid and weak. Totally in character though. I agree that they would make that decision and that Liz, despite wanting to make her own way, would still assume that Luna would ensure Matt gets what he needs anyway. Her life experience biases are affecting her perception of normal. Haha
Istyatur Elestel
Liz was not the problem; she intellectually knows its the right choice and its her desire to stay on the path is mostly from her hangups. Which is why the first, second, etc. times she said she would leave. Matt asked like 5 times and decided to try staying before she admitted it. Considering their wallet they can probably stay on for a few more tiers before they run into issues, and IMO matt should have used that as the compromise: we stay on untill we fall off, his need for mana concentration items being the new pressure since just reaching the tier in time is easy. Shure they'd probably fall off before T15, but it would give her more time to deal with her hangups and cost Matt little as he drew the line at useing suboptimal mana concentration. And its not like he doesn't have a use for that time (mana manipulation isnt gonna train itself).
C_Mantis
its really jsut that overhealth is cheating hax's. No real restraints to it. Thats why its so broken.
Drakken17
I wonder what will happen if they use the black goop as a base for a rift. Also what if they add aspects essence as rifts tier up would it still try to unaspect the rift?
Frardowin
Yeah it went badly, making too many assumptions for luna taking care of the issue herself. I think this will go down as one of the worse decisions made in the story, based on how it was written. Liz could have been a lot more confrontational about the whole thing with luna, to het her to admit wether or not she would be able to offset matt being on the path. Poorly thought out.
ZaA
Ugh. Lost a lot of respect for Liz here when they made that decision. She cares more about being perceived as strong outside of her parents rather than actually making herself strong. Not only that but she's willing to potentially cripple her partner's strength to do so. I know she's got hang ups, but damn. She just got told Matt could potentially lose half his strength if he doesn't step off the path ASAP, and Liz didn't even try to make a strong case for why they should step off when Matt suggested they stay for her. They chose to value Liz's pride over Matt's strength (and potentially his life, if that decision ends up making him too weak to stop the people that will come for him down the line).
Alexander Hallonblad
Must have missade something about overheal, because I didn't get why she was able to heal Erwin. Tftc anyway, enjoy the weekend!
IWannaBeATiger
I'm assuming the skill box is for donating to orphans? Also did Melinda find a new concept phrase or did she find her next step?
Enzo Elacqua
Thanks for the chapter. I gotta say I was kind of hoping for Liz to say about more then her just wanting it, since that seems more then a little selfish. I’m glad you added the bit about her believing that Luna wouldn’t let Matt’s talent be wasted, because I nearly lost respect for Liz. His talent is potentially a universe changing thing
Andrew
Thank you!
SpitEoll
Nice to see Luna honest with them
hmDrake
Thanks for the chapter!
