The Path of Ascension

Chapter 222

Matt looked into the sky, using [Telescope] to inspect the food hauler.

It was huge.

No, it was massive.

At a mile from bow to stern and almost a third of that from port to starboard, the ship was completely unable to enter a planet's atmosphere. But then again, it didn’t need to, with dozens of shuttles purpose-built to do exactly that.

Matt, Liz, and Aster were with all the other lower Tiers waiting for the atmospheric shuttles just outside the city limits.

All the Tier 15s and above who didn’t need to breathe were able to directly fly to the massive rectangle floating above the planet, which Matt wished he could do instead of sitting around waiting in line. He was entirely confident that he could carry enough air with just [Air Manipulation] to take them a couple hundred miles to reach the large ship, which would allow them to skip the predicament altogether.

Despite his complaining, their line moved fast enough. The moment one shuttle lifted off one of the five designated landing pads, another was quick to settle into the stop.

As they got to the front of the line, Matt finally was able to get a good look at one of the shuttles and was mildly impressed.

There were two models on display. One was obviously part of the ship’s contingent, as everything but the frontal end was blocky, to maximize storage space and make it aerodynamic enough to get through an atmosphere and into space where it could dock.

The other model was sleek, painted white with silver trimmings and the local nobilities’ heraldry on the side facing them. Despite being physically smaller, just as many people were funneled into the ship as the grain hauler, which spoke of a very impressive spatial expansion on the interior of the ship. It wasn’t surprising, considering those few vessels were personally owned by the Adairs.

Sadly, he wasn’t able to inspect the nicer ship as their line was funneled into the more utilitarian ship next to it. With Aster draped across his shoulder, the three of them and close to a hundred others were herded into the ship by a local guard, and the moment the doors closed, their shuttle took off.

With his spiritual perception stretched out past the hull of the ship, he was able to watch as they slowly threaded their way through the dozens of other ships taking off and arriving at the station, before reaching a clear stretch of sky where their speed rapidly increased.

With a few minutes before they reached orbit and the hauler waiting there, Matt took the time to inspect the ship's interior.

It was very clearly a working vessel, with every surface equipped with recessed hooks and anchor points to attach to what could be a variety of containers. There were even a few pieces of grain still stuck in a few places, along with what he believed were carrot leaves deteriorating in a corner.

Liz was jostled into him as the turbulence of them cutting through the atmosphere vanished all at once, and things settled down. Someone bumped into Matt, and Aster growled at them, earning him a modicum of personal space back.

Almost ten minutes later, when they were nearing the larger ship, Matt was finally able to sense the ship itself and was able to get a feeling just how big it was.

Even as they approached, it felt like they were a fly trying to land on a building. At least, that was the feeling Matt had as they slowed down and entered the ship through a hangar bay covered in a layer of what he suspected was mana. It was supported by various enchantments to keep the air inside the ship.

As their shuttle landed and the doors opened, everyone quickly filed out and into the loading bay, where they were immediately directed to the side. There, a man wearing a uniform that Matt’s AI identified as belonging to the shipping company that owned this ship addressed them.

“Welcome to the FTS Lydia. We, as our designation implies, are generally a food transport ship. That frankly doesn't mean too much to you all, but there is one thing you need to understand as individuals below Tier 15.”

Pausing, he flared his cultivation, showing he was a Tier 19 to gather everyone's attention. While Matt, Liz, Aster, and a large portion of the others were unbothered by the display, some less than lucky others had a variety of reactions, not limited to slinking back or even shuddering.

“Parts of the ship are not filled with air. If you see a hatch with a red trim, do not go inside. If the door has a blue trimming, it is safe. Please stay in your respective areas. There is a map available to download to assist you, but if you find yourself in a vacuum area even with all of those precautions in place, you can contact the ship's AI, which will notify a rescue team. I warn you now, do not wander around the Lydia. She is a large ship and is easy to get lost in. Our voyage will take a little more than three months, so settle in for a short trip.”

As he finished his speech, a woman entered through a door and stood just behind him.

“Please follow my associate as we direct you to your lodging. If you purchased the single room accommodation or bunking area, please go with my compatriots. If you are in the general berthing, please follow me.”

About a tenth of the crowd went alongside Matt and Liz to the private rooms, and the woman taking them led them out of the main bay. They found themselves in a long, flat hall that Matt suspected usually had automated transports running along its length. There were no signs of those now, though, just the levitation runework that they usually ran along.

An incoming message pinged at his AI, and Matt let it through.

“Your lodgings are in one of the cleared holds that has been pressurized and retrofitted for temporary habitation. There you will find both a chow hall and lavatories. Please note that our supplies are limited, so don't expect anything luxurious.”

They walked through the halls for close to ten minutes before they reached a door that closed the hall off.

Their guide took that opportunity to speak once more. “This is a lock. It does as you might expect and prevents air from escaping in the case of a hull breach or if someone opens the wrong door. Note the blue trimming that signifies the other side of this door is also pressurized.”

After a winding path through the ship, they eventually stopped in a tiny hallway barely large enough for two people to walk past each other, but stretched hundreds of feet up with doors placed in a regular grid across the wall.

“Find your room and settle in for the trip.”

With that, the woman flew over their heads and back to the airlock they had just entered through before vanishing.

Matt grabbed Liz with his Concept and pulled them up to just two rows from the top, where their accommodations were.

The three of them stepped through the door, after checking to ensure it was the right one, to reveal an incredibly cramped room. Matt’s hair was nearly brushing against the ceiling, yet the bunks on either side of the door each contained three mesh cots jammed together. They, as people with Concepts, had been put near the top so those without were actually able to get into their rooms without difficulty.

What was more interesting were the two people who had made it into the room before them, a man and a woman currently setting out sleeping bags on two of the cots. Both were either Tier 15 or disguised as such, with dark brown skin and blue hair. With how rare higher Tiers were, Matt assumed the shipping company had put similar Tiered people together, which made sense.

They exchanged nods, then Matt and Liz got to work setting up their own cots, taking the top and middle bunks opposite the other couple.

Looking at the tiny space, Matt groused, “I won't even be able to roll over in there.”

Aster laughed at him and started to make a joke about his size, but before they could do more than set their things out, their door opened up once more.

A burly man walked through the door and immediately narrowed in on Matt, Liz, and Aster. A quick inspection told Matt he was Tier 15, but if Matt was correct, the man had only recently gotten his Concept. Possibly even from Minkalla, from just how… vague it felt.

Matt was content to ignore him, but the man grinned when he noted their apparent relative weakness. As he sauntered forward, he grinned and said, “It seems like you two are in need of some protection. For a small fee, I c—”

Liz was closest, and didn’t even let him finish before she spun around and punched the man in the chest, sending him staggering back and wheezing as the air was forcibly removed from his lungs. Matt didn’t even bother stopping himself from smiling, and ensured the newcomer could see it.

“If anyone tries to bully you, friend, just come tell us, and we can make sure they leave you alone. We don't even charge.” Liz reassured the man, her voice dripping with false sincerity as he looked up at her, bewildered.

While amusing, Matt found the reaction of the other couple far more interesting. The woman had pulled out a pair of weighted gloves, and the man had mana swirl around his fingertips as the newcomer started to intimidate them, but the gloves and magic had vanished just as fast when Liz laid him out.

He hadn’t expected someone to stand up for them, and it intrigued him. After sending a quick message to Liz and Aster on his observation, he nodded in thanks to the couple.

The man proffered a hand. “I’m Marcus, and she’s Olivia. Nice to meet you two.” He cocked his head at the door and asked, “We were going to explore whatever counts for a lounge in this place, and figured you might want to come along.”

After introducing themselves with their cover names, they left their room and the still-recovering man to follow the couple out of the room.

Once they were through the airlock, the man, Marcus, laughed. “Oh, the look of surprise on his face was to die for.”

The woman, Olivia, smiled and added, “And here I thought you three would need help. How surprising that I was wrong.”

Her tone indicated she was actually caught off guard, and not probing for information, so Liz responded in kind, laughing and downplaying her own ability.

When they arrived at the lounge, all five of them paused as the wave of sound hit them like an attack the moment the airlock opened.

The lounge was beyond packed, with barely a free space open.

Matt was going to brave his way to the bar when Marcus caught his arm and pulled him back to the airlock, where they left the way they came.

“Fuck that. I’d like to relax, not deal with that mess.”

Aster, who had taken her place on Liz’s shoulder, asked, “Do you want to sit in the room or something, then?”

Olivia chuckled. “Nothing so boring. I’m sure there is a crew-only bar or something similar for the passengers who bought their own rooms. We are going to go hang out there instead.”

Matt raised an eyebrow, which Marcus caught and answered, “Perks of being away from the inner regions of the Empire. Rules are a bit more loose out here.” Shaking a cupped fist, he made the hand gesture for mana stones and continued, “A few Tier 16 or 17 mana stones will open doors, I'm sure. Pocket change for a lot of the higher Tier members of the ship, but as long as we follow the rules, that's more than enough.”

Aster swished her much less bushy tail and asked, “Rules? I'm confused?”

Olivia raised an eyebrow in return and asked, “I take it you three are young and from a more central part of the Empire?”

When none of them confirmed it, she waved them off. “Not that I expected you to answer, but it's obvious you haven't spent a lot of time on the frontier. Like Marcus said, the rules are a bit more flexible here, but at the same time, when you are breaking the rules, you need to be smart. We’re going to bribe our way into a better lounge. While there, it's understood that if things start getting crowded like the other place, we should leave. We also need to behave ourselves and not get drunk or anything. Also, never admit it's a bribe, that's bad form.”

Marcus smiled back at them as they entered another airlock. “It's a reason why we generally stick to the frontier. Less rules, and we like it that way.”

He flexed before cupping his hand once more. “Muscle or money. Both are far more effective.” Shrugging and dropping the theatrics as the doors cycled around them, he added, “As you get older and stronger, you’ll learn more about it. The only reason we’re going back to the Empire proper is to work on our Intents. A fucking hurdle and a half that, and after our delve into Minkalla for our Concepts, we’ll take the easy way out for once.”

Matt raised an eyebrow at them. “You two went into Minkalla? The way you flew made it seem like your Concepts were better than the ones normal Tier 14s get.”

Olivia grinned at him. “Now that's telling. We did, but once we were Tier 15 and immortal, we broke those shitty Concepts and took our time figuring out just what we wanted our Domains to be. Took us a few thousand years, but we got there in the end. I take it you guys didn’t have such an issue?”

Liz wiggled her hand. “We had Concepts already when we entered, but we ducked out after a floor 4 Courtly Warfare, where some frontrunner managed to conquer nearly the entire floor in like a month and a half. They left behind a faction far too powerful to clear out easily. A few close calls later, when the doors finally opened, we decided to leave well enough alone and cut our losses.”

That was their official story for these identities that they had worked out beforehand with Luna, and they had actually been part of that cycle, so they could convincingly tell almost anything about it without seeming like they were lying.

They chatted the rest of the way to another lounge with a door guard who let them pass after Marcus shook the woman's hand.

Inside, they found the lounge which, while smaller, was almost empty, with tables recessed and hidden in shadowy alcoves. The bar was the only brightly lit place, and a quiet melody was coming out of speakers hidden somewhere in the room, completing the ambiance nicely.

Together, they took a table and placed their orders for drinks, and started chatting with their new traveling companions.

Matt wasn’t sure how he felt about the duo, but it was mixed.

They were friendly and open to taking three younglings under their metaphorical wings and showing them the ropes of how to bribe and weasel their ways into hidden lounges. That in and of itself would have been fine, Luna had had them practice far more devious espionage skills. But the way the duo openly talked about how they liked living in places where nobles like the Adairs ruled was a new experience to Matt.

Matt had almost thought them revolutionaries, but the two laughed at the very notion of the other Great Powers. They liked, even loved, living in the Empire, and even talked about how they gladly paid their taxes to fund the public works.

They just didn’t like living under the firm rules the Emperor was pushing for.

It was a new viewpoint for Matt. He hated nobles like the Adairs, who allowed even low-level corruption to run rampant. Marcus argued that it made things run smoother, but Matt disagreed mentally.

The rules applied to everyone, not just those who couldn’t afford the bribes.

Despite that, he found himself liking the duo, and the three of them spent most of their time with the pair.

With the ship packed as tight as it was, there was little they could do without arousing unwanted attention. Small elemental manipulations, skill modification, and reading for their respective crafting specialties made up a fair portion of the time they dedicated to real training. Long hours of meditation helped with Concept development, but the cramped ship was hardly an ideal location for it. Mostly, they tried to relax, watch movies, and listen to music.

At first, it was nice, but by the end of the first month, Matt was going stir-crazy from the lack of activity, as the ship didn’t even have a proper sparring room. When they finally reentered real space at The Citadel’s system, Matt was just happy to get off the ship with the others, who would be taking alternative transportation out of the system.

Marcus and Olivia would be returning with the Lydia to the outer reaches of the Empire once the Ascension ended, and therefore didn’t exit the ship.

While not being on the same planet would mean a slight reduction of efficiency from the Ascension, just being in the same system was generally good enough for most people, especially those like themselves, who already had a Concept.

Ascensions for an Intent or Aspect were useful, but it was like a cup of water being splashed into a pond. It might make some ripples, but one wouldn’t fill it, so they didn’t mind going to the Tier 44 capital world in The Citadel’s system.

Matt almost kissed the ground when they landed, but did allow himself a sigh in relief.

Luna, Kurt, and April appeared next to them as they exited the space port, and Luna asked, “How was your trip? Anything to report?”

Matt was pretty confident that her or Kurt had been there with them the entire time, but didn’t say anything. Along withLiz and Aster, he reported everything they did on the three month journey.

“Good. We still have three months until the start of the Ascension, and Ciceron should be here in a few weeks to set up for the next Tier 10 tournament.”

Liz smiled and asked, “Can we rent a rift then? Somewhere to let off some steam until then?”

Luna flicked her tail. “I don't care what you do until then. Your parents are coming, aren't they?”

Liz nodded. “Family dinner with everyone. I’ve missed a bunch, but they usually try for at least one a decade, or once every couple months when I was growing up.”

After getting the ok from Luna, the three of them took a teleporter to the city that housed the local Feathered Nestled Inn, the Moore family hotel chain. The two of them had both given them permission to use the family’s room, or use a set aside room they had for all the kids.

The lobby had another one of Mara’s giant feathers floating overhead, and Matt could only shake his head. The feather was massive, and served as a reminder that Mara wasn’t to be trifled with despite her generally goofy demeanor.

The suite was a carbon copy of the one on East Flower, Tur'stal's capital planet, and they quickly put their belongings away before immediately turning around and leaving once more to find themselves a rift they could let loose in.

Thankfully, it wasn’t that hard.

Rusty’s capital planet, like Tur'stal's, was home to trillions of people, and had every amenity one could think of, which included rifts.

As they walked around in the crowds, they looked up rifts in the Tier 14 through Tier 16 range that they could immediately buy out, and eventually settled on a nearby guild rift that was being offered at a reasonable rate. For the small price of a Tier 16 mana stone, they were able to enter the Tier 14 rift, which was an insane rip off, but they only wanted to let off steam. Which they gladly did as they massacred the monsters inside.

When they left the rift a few short hours later, they decided to explore some more, which was interesting. It was only Matt’s second time on a capital planet, but he found it amusing that this capital also reflected its owner’s personality.

East Flower, despite being a city, had a vibrant ecosystem that could be seen in the plants and trees seen everywhere, while Rusty’s capital planet was more utilitarian, despite the city blocks dedicated to having green spaces for people to have access to.

Still, this particular planet had a martial atmosphere that pervaded everywhere they walked. The lower Tier guilds stylized themselves as martial halls instead of normal guilds, and in almost every park, they saw people working out or sparring with mundane melee skills, both unarmed and armed.

There were even beasts who fought each other in their own special rings.

Fighting was everywhere, even if controlled and orderly.

The only place they didn’t see people fighting was the old child’s playground, and even then, some of the roughhousing might have been considered martial practice.

The three of them, seeing that, found a park that catered to Tier 13s and joined in on the fun, sparring a few rounds with others and having a blast.

A little sweaty, they found a Tier 15 bar and settled in.

Matt laughed as Aster, three drinks in, finally caved and publicly asked for spicy food.

“I want the curry extra hot.”

Matt ribbed her. “What happened to not liking spicy things because a stupid fire fox liked it?”

Aster snorted. “This is my first time eating it.”

Matt rolled his eyes and sent her an image of the curry take-out container he had found in his trash.

Aster wasn’t even phased. “I said chili is gross. And it is! Curry is much better. Stupid fire fox doesn't even know good food.”

Matt was taken aback by the spice wafting off the dish, and looked on with horror as Aster destroyed the curry that was burning his nose from feet away. Even the man next to them at the bar slid down some laughing as he waved his hand in front of his nose.

As Liz and he ineffectually heckled Aster, he paused as a woman came up to him and placed her hand on his forearm.

Leaning forward, she asked over the music, “Can I buy you a drink?”

She paired the question with a wiggle that brought attention to herself and smiled.

Matt tried to be polite and wiggled his hand with his teleport ring. “Happily taken, but thank you.”

The woman looked Liz up and down before glancing at Aster then snorting, “I don't see any competition here.”

Matt smiled as Liz leaned back in surprise.

While they were wearing masks, neither of them were unattractive, and the woman was being far too pushy for polite company.

The alcohol that wafted off her spoke to the reason why Liz didn’t immediately explode, but instead said in a clear and firm voice, “When I was in my twenties, I would have laughed this off, but lady, you are drunk and barking up an owned tree. Leave before I remove you myself.”

Matt smiled at her ferocity, but frowned as his spiritual perception caught a man moving up to the bar and bringing his hand over the drink of the man next to him.

It was an innocent enough action, but Matt felt the liquid in the drink shift slightly, and while that could be explained away with the ice settling, his spiritual perception instantly started identifying it as a threat, bringing Matt’s full attention to the glass.

Before he was able to say anything, the man took a sip of the drink, and nothing happened.

Figuring that his intuition was wrong, Matt went back to the argument between Liz and the woman. That lasted only a moment, as the man crunched into an ice cube and his mouth, throat, and upper chest began to melt as though coated in a potent acid.

With a quick [Bandage], Matt threw himself past the woman and at the assassin currently trying to vanish into the shifting crowd.

Not wanting to show off his more identifiable spells, like [Cracked Phantom Armor], Matt rushed forward, and with some assistance from [Mage’s Retreat], grabbed the man who had waved his hand over the glass.

As his hand grabbed the man's upper arm, the assassin turned and spat at Matt's shoulder. Matt could see decay mana swirl around the spit, and his spiritual sense instantly assessed it as a potent acid, just like what the assassin’s target was dealing with.

Considering the man went for a nonlethal strike, Matt chose not to put a [Cracked Mana Spear] through his head, and instead twisted to dodge the spittle that landed on someone else's back and started to burn.

Matt tugged the man back towards himself and hit him with a vicious left hook.

The man's eyes went wide as his head bobbled, and Matt wondered if the assassin would go down that easily, but it was never quite so simple.

With a mouthful of blood, the man seemed like he was going to spit at Matt once more, so he did the one thing the man never expected.

Covered his mouth with his hand.

Matt smirked as the man seemed confused as to why his hand was fine with what was surely acidic blood, but with the Stygian Gossamer having transformed his hand into a near invulnerable form, he wasn’t concerned by the tests of a Tier 15. His hand had been able to block the lightning blast of a Tier 18 golem without an issue, and that monster hit far harder than the Tier 15 could ever wish to.

The assassin tried to run away, but Matt had already slipped a foot around his ankle and pulled hard, sending them both tumbling to the ground. As they hit the ground, Matt twisted to get the man's back and flexed, pushing the man's face away from him and into the floor.

The floor was made from higher Tier materials and resisted the bubbling spit and blood that threatened to eat through any flesh.

Matt drove a hard punch into the man's temple, which caused the man to go limp.

Not believing it, Matt didn’t relax, but was still sent into the air as the man used a skill to increase his strength explosively for a moment.

If Matt was alone, the man might have been able to get away right then and there, but he ran headlong into a wall of ice Aster had created.

Before he was able to do anything else, the ice grew around him, completely encasing the man.

Matt was able to tell when the assassin tried converting the ice entrapping him into frozen acid, aiming to interfere with Aster’s control. Against most ice mages, it would have worked, but his bond was no ordinary ice mage.

As Aster loved to say, anything frozen was ice.

Matt didn't have nearly that level of flexibility, but he didn’t need to. He had Aster.

Once the man saw his escape was helpless, he sent an AI message acknowledging his capture.

What Matt found interesting was the man's credentials, which clearly stated he was a registered assassin with one of the local assassin guilds.

Kurt had taught them about assassin guilds, and so Matt knew that he had no obligation to let the man go, nor would he face reprisal from the guild for interfering as he had.

While assassin guilds weren’t well liked, they were legal entities that had to follow the rules of the Empire. When Matt had asked Kurt why the Empire allowed such things, his trainer had simply shrugged and asked him why wouldn’t they.

Assassin guilds would always exist, and it was better to legalize it and make the rules clear for everyone, rather than dealing with endless startup organizations or freelancers who might not respect the rules of the Empire.

That had prompted Matt to ask what the guilds got out of it. In return for following the rules of not attacking down or attacking Pathers, the guilds didn’t get razed to the ground and have their members hauled away. The guilds also got a safe place where they could operate semi-openly that the local guards wouldn't raid. The members also got lesser punishments in the event they were caught in the act of an assassination.

Luna had then explained that the assassin guilds were given such freedoms because, during times of war, they were all contracted by the Empire.

Instead of sending their own people to kill spies, infiltrators, terrorists, and defectors to the other Great Powers, the Empire handed out missions to the local assassin guilds and would reward those same assassins for jobs completed.

Matt had found it a little too mercenary for his taste, but had to admit that it at least sounded like a workable solution to a tricky problem.

Turning his attention to the target of this assassination attempt, Matt found Liz with blood covering her front, sitting back on her heels.

The man was clearly dead, despite having been Tier 15.

Either he hadn’t been able to control his cultivation well enough to keep his brain functional without blood, or the acid had made its way to his brain somehow.

Then, almost as if they had always been there, guards and healers rushed into the bar and started controlling the situation, cuffing the assassin the moment he was loose with cultivation-suppressing enchantments.

Those who had been injured were healed, and everyone started getting questioned, Matt, Liz, and Aster especially.

The guards seemed familiar with the acid man and said he had been operating in this system for a while, but had always managed to get away before his acid dissolved enough to be lethal.

Thankfully, there were a plethora of [AI]s, and after they gave their statements, they were allowed to leave, where they immediately encountered a black cat seemingly being ignored by the walking crowds.

“An eventful evening.”

Matt didn’t hear any scorn or judgment in her voice, which told him they had done well enough to not get berated. That didn't mean they wouldn't go over the fight once they got back to their home, but it would at least be a conversation, rather than them getting yelled at.

Liz shrugged. “Damn, that acid was nasty. Followed the spine like a fucking straw into his brain.”

Matt winced at that visual, but Luna seemed unconcerned. “You did your best. Now let's take a walk and see someone not doing their best.”

Invisible, the four of them walked out of the building where they were, just in time to see the assassin being led to the sidewalk, where he was grabbed by two guards and lifted by each arm.

Matt was scanning to see what Luna had meant, and only saw it when two blades the length of his forearm flashed from the ground at the two guards. Or rather, the assassin in their clutches.

The blades easily cut through the man's arms and therefore removed the cuffs that suppressed his cultivation.

Like a fish in water, the suddenly-armless assassin flew and vanished around a corner and down the street, quickly leaving Matt’s spiritual perception range.

Luna swished her tail. “The woman was a distraction and his helper. She was trying to start a fight with you, Liz. A decent plan, but the target liked to chew his ice, which screwed up their timing.”

Turning to them, she asked, “How would you have done the assassination differently?”

Matt sighed, as he realized this would actually be a long night.

At least they were off that damn ship.