The Path of Ascension

Chapter 232

After their honeymoon, Matt and Liz were hardly able to laze around. First, they needed to go to Lilly and show they were well and truly off The Path by spending lots and lots of money. It would hopefully allow them to then fade into a ‘decadent’ lifestyle, mostly away from the public's eye.

Once that was settled, they would be almost exclusively living as Quill and Torch until they finished The Path, which now seemed so close and so far away to Matt.

They may have been Tier 15, and as such, nominally more than halfway through the Path, but in practice, they were barely over a fourth of the way to being Ascenders.

Of course, Tier 15 had countless advantages of its own, beyond what he had anticipated.

The first was simply the utter wealth of information available to him. There simply was no more Tier-gated information, he could learn anything he wanted. Even how to make an Aspect was accessible, but was buried behind a series of disclaimers and warnings about how learning about Aspect instruction could interfere with Intent formation. Seeing that, he decided to not look too deeply into it before getting the go ahead from Luna.

There was also information about Chaotic Space, and more importantly, how to use it to travel. Now that he was Tier 15, he could finally survive a trip to Chaotic Space. Granted, he would die within a few seconds, thanks to his low Tier, but it was a massive upgrade to instantly dying. There were plenty of guides on different methods to traverse Chaotic Space without a ship, though the general consensus was to attempt it after Tier 25, where one had an Intent.

What he was most interested in was, of course, bloodlines. After what Luna had said while teaching Liz how to transform, he was more than a little curious about what was really going on.

After some research, he concluded that what was generally considered the best work on the subject was a book called The Essential Guide to Bloodlines, by one Gosiah Ithular. The first few chapters were getting everyone up to speed on the basics of what bloodlines were, and was mostly stuff he already knew, but even those had their own little tidbits. By the time he finished the entire thing, he had learned a lot of new stuff.

At the core of everything was the bloodline. It was a unique, impossible-to-replicate part of the spirit that had no clear analogue in a bloodline-less spirit. It was also generally odd, as most things were in advanced spiritual theory. The explanation which Matt found most helpful was one that Luna had introduced him to, the idea that a bloodline was a third ‘part’ of cultivation; an additional core residing in the spirit.

Most life didn’t have a proper bloodline, whether human or animal. That was actually the difference, as it turned out, between proper Beasts and simple high-Tier animals. Just like a human couldn’t turn into an animal without a bloodline, or some other magic, an animal couldn’t transform into a human unless they had a bloodline. Similarly, without a bloodline, they didn’t become more intelligent or grow in sapience the way Aster had, and instead just stayed as animals, getting stronger and more powerful, but nothing further.

In very rare cases, what should have been a simple, mundane creature could instead have a bloodline, and in doing so, develop in much the same way a bond would. Even plants could sometimes experience that phenomenon, and would become dryads.

There were a few different theories for why this was the case. Some people believed that it was possible for anyone to awaken a bloodline, and those animals had simply been lucky enough for it to happen to them. Others claimed that there was some kind of dormant bloodline, which could occasionally flare up in a number of different theoretical ways. The list went on, from the possibility that all creatures could create their own bloodlines, but that only some animals were ‘enlightened’ enough to manage it, to the idea that beasts in their bloodline form were responsible, simply never fessing up to the fact they’d had children with a mundane animal.

All of the theories had serious problems, and didn’t align with the way bloodlines worked with humans, and the author ultimately said that it was simply an unsolved problem. But the most likely theory was that something about the animal form kept the bloodline from fading away completely, the way it did in humans. Instead, it would exist in an intensely atrophied state that could sometimes be strengthened from either birth or circumstance, and allow for sapience to form.

Reading that, Matt thought of Alyssa, his opponent from the vassal war. Despite the incredibly weak bloodlines her parents had, her bloodline was strong enough for her to earn a place at Red Feather Academy.

Thoughts of the academy brought Matt’s mind back to thinking of Aster, and how much he missed his bond. He wondered if she was okay, if she was making friends, or if she was stuck as an outsider. The little fox was quite the fighter, but hopefully she was doing well emotionally too.

He did his best to distract himself with the rest of the book, to limited success. Still, it was interesting.

The bloodline ‘core,’ unlike the magical and physical cores, wasn’t fully static. Instead, a cultivator could grow it with the aid of bloodline energy, such as could be found in some natural treasures, or essence. As they did so, the bloodline became more developed and could accept essence in new ways, to give new abilities. Each new way was considered a ‘rank,’ and such ranks were considered the main method of determining the strength of a bloodline.

Rank 0 bloodlines were most often mundane animals, and had no additional powers that they granted outside of their beast form. Rank 1 bloodlines usually granted an elemental affinity, and were the most common type. Aster was rank 1, or at least, was born rank 1. He’d have to ask her or Liz if his bond’s development from ice affinity to winter affinity had been accomplished by advancing in rank, which seemed to be a common method of advancement.

Accordingly, rank 2 bloodlines granted an extra ability. This could sometimes simply be a more advanced or additional mana affinity, but was more commonly some kind of unique power associated with the bloodline, such as phoenixes and their rebirth. Most high-Tier bloodline holders were rank 2 if they were serious about their bloodline.

Rank 3 bloodlines were apparently possible in theory, but the author didn’t know of any rank 3 individuals currently alive. Apparently, they were quite rare because instead of rank 3 bloodlines lasting 3 generations before they faded, they only lasted a single one.

The entire time, the book emphasized again and again that it wasn’t possible for humans without a bloodline to gain one. You were either born with one, or you weren’t. A rank 0 bloodline holder could theoretically reach all the way to rank 3, with enough dedication, but Matt was simply unable to ever gain a proper beast form or additional bloodline powers of his own.

It was a bit of a shame, but at least those with bloodlines weren’t categorically stronger than those without. Just like with the physical and magical cores, the bloodline core needed essence to function. Ten percent was the oft-cited guideline for how much essence should go towards one’s bloodline, and that meant they were ten percent weaker in their other cultivation. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Besides, he had his hands full with Luna’s body modification training.

Matt knew that simply gaining Tiers would slowly rework his body into a more perfect state, simply as a side-effect of cultivation, and that it would gradually slow down and come to a pinnacle at Tier 14. His Root of Perfection had sped that process up substantially, and while he hadn’t assumed that would mean his body was perfect in an immortal sense, he had thought it would at least give him some level of benefit when it came to reshaping his body.

After two agonizing weeks of rebuilding his entire skeletal system from the ground up, Matt could safely say he was too optimistic. He’d simply misunderstood what exactly separated bodily ‘perfection’ from Luna’s standards. Before modifications, his body was the pinnacle of what a human could be like. Now, his hips and legs were redone to optimize power and flexibility while walking and running, he’d moved his ribs around and added an extra pair for better protection of his lungs, and his skull was thicker in several areas. Nearly all of his joints had at least an additional twenty degrees of flexibility, and his spinal column was completely reworked, among countless other optimizations to every bone in his body.

Later on, he’d be changing the composition of his bones to transcend the mere calcium carbonate currently making them up, and replicating the bones’ other functions through specialized organs, which he’d be making room for with other optimizations of his squishier parts. He had an entire stack of military-grade handbooks on body modifications, and Luna was working with him to ensure that he was optimizing his new body to work for him. He gained a lot less from optimizing for stamina, when he could just throw a few thousand mana at [Lesser Regeneration] to keep him at a full-on sprint for hours, and his skeleton needed to prioritize physical strength over the ability to deform and squeeze through tight gaps.

In theory, the entire process could be done painlessly if he did a couple of tiny changes each day or week, then allowed his body to acclimate to the changes before moving on. Alternatively, if he had better control over his spirit, he could make changes even faster, with less pain, by tweaking all of the systems around his primary change to accept that particular change. Of course, he’d then need to make changes to everything that connected to, and that connected to that…

In any case, he didn’t have the time or inclination to slow down, and there was no better way to get better at manipulating his body than simple practice. He wished he could skip immediately to his muscles, but that was foolish. All the parts of his body were connected, and he needed to ensure that he was rebuilding himself from the ground up, so all of the supplementary systems needed to come before the exciting parts. No sooner had he finished the last of his skeletal changes, before he started modifying his vascular system.

It was already hurting much less, thanks to his improved control, but that didn’t stop him from shocking himself with excruciating amounts of pain. But it was nothing that a bit of [Lifeblood Manipulation] couldn’t fix, so it didn’t slow him down much. Liz had skipped a fair number of the skeletal changes, on account of having inherited some of them from her parents, but had spent the time focusing all the more on her blood. Her Talents and the natural treasures she’d used meant that she could be extra-aggressive with some of her modifications, while also being extra-careful to not interfere with the delicate balance of effects present within her blood.

She wouldn’t be done any time soon.

The results of all his pain was more than worth it, both the minor benefits he was already experiencing, and the promise of better effects in the future. At least, he kept telling himself that. But getting more power from every pound of muscle, more durability from every inch of bone, and more nutrients from every drop of blood, was all vital. The simple fact of the matter was, anyone he’d be fighting worth a spare thought would have undergone everything he just had and then some, and he’d fall behind without it. Even when fighting rift monsters, the gaps were getting large enough that he needed the additional performance to keep pace with the increased essence in his prey. After all, essence acted as a multiplier to what was there, so increasing his base capabilities meant his actual strength jumped substantially.

Even going as fast as he could, he hadn’t even finished remaking his blood vessels by the time they reached Lilly, and Matt had to grin and bear it once they landed so he didn’t look like a fool to the massive amount of reporters and news outlets who had arrived for the event.

There simply weren’t enough hours in the day for everything, nevermind that he didn’t need to sleep at all any more. He had managed to look over his Path rewards for reaching Tier 15, which unsurprisingly consisted mostly of mana concentration potions. The ring they came in was a proper Tier 15 spatial ring, and with the storage capacity of a living room, it was a substantial improvement over his previous versions.

What he was most excited about was a solitary skill shard, placed like the crowning jewel above the glass bottles. [Artificial Intelligence], the single most-useful Tier 26 skill in possibly all of existence. It also came with a booklet on how to merge the true skill with the pseudoskill, to maintain continuity between the two, with a cheerful note from Leon and Mara tucked into the front cover.

When Luna saw the skill, and the note indicating who it was from, she didn’t react at all, in a way that made it clear she was consciously not reacting. She stood perfectly still, staring at a blank patch of the wall with deadly focus.

Matt knew the older couple respected their own trainer, but also liked to pull her whiskers as much as possible now that they were stronger than her, and this seemed to be one of those moments. After a few seconds Luna simply let out a long breath and told him to use it.

[Artificial Intelligence], as his in-laws’ note explained, was a fairly common Tier 15 Path reward, especially for crafters. Much like the inferior version Matt had been using constantly for the past forty years, it acted as a processing hub for general computation, communications, and interpreting the senses. None of that was unique, though the true skill could accomplish it far more efficiently than what Matt’s AI required to perform the same processes.

No, what made the true skill valuable was the way it could interact with other skills and senses in the spirit. Instead of directly controlling how much mana went into each of his buffing skills, Matt could simply tell the [AI] to increase his strength and speed, and let it figure out the most optimal balance of mana spent to maximize those attributes, or even direct it to specific benchmarks of different cultivation attributes. If he wanted to dash, it could activate [Cracked Air Slide] and [Mage’s Retreat] in conjunction with minimal input from Matt, automatically balancing the skills such that neither overpowered the other. But that was only the start of what the skill could do.

If he wanted to look at something far off with [Telescope] and then make an illusion of what he saw, for others to see? Trivial. If he wanted to use [Illusion Manipulation] to make each mirror self created by [Afterimage] to act as their own individual Matt, he barely even needed to think about what he wanted each to do. He could have it control his [Air Manipulation] to help him fly, set it to [Bandage] any injury he took the instant he took it, or raise a [Bulwark] to intercept any attack aimed at him. He could automatically reinforce his [Cracked Phantom Armor] when he was about to take an attack, or rapidly swap between preset second-layer configurations for any number of reasons.

He could set it up to cycle between all of his manipulations, pulsing each for a fraction of a second, and could display the locations and prevalence of every element he could control, what his spiritual sense could perceive, and process the resulting feedback into a map. He could even store previous results to highlight what had changed. The [AI] skill, much like the pseudo skill based on it, wasn’t creative and instead needed to be trained on specific methods of using any given skill rather than coming up with novel approaches on its own.But beyond that fairly minor inconvenience, the sheer scope of complex, but oft-repeated tasks that it could take care of was utterly breathtaking.

And Matt was woefully unprepared to utilize the [AI] to its utmost potential. There were entire classes of skills that could empower the skill to better simulate, like the exact way water would flow through an area, how a potion would turn out, the ways massive crowds would move through an area, how a fighter would attack, to predict the weather, to predict airflow… It was all things that the skill could do on its own, in theory, but a dedicated supplementary skill could turn a calculation which even Matt’s regeneration couldn’t cover into something that even warriors would manage with their passive regeneration.

There were people who made their entire careers with an [Artificial Intelligence] as the cornerstone to their entire build, and it almost made Matt feel a bit bad that all he could really bring to the skill was absolute planetloads of mana, and a Domain capable of strengthening it directly.

The Domain was the one major thing that an [AI] was incapable of controlling directly, as even the user’s body was capable of being directed via a [Self Control] skill if so desired. It also generally capped out at only being as good as the user’s skills, and was usually a bit worse than manual control without dedicated training. Matt wouldn’t be able to use his [AI] to bypass his mana control issues, unfortunately, unless his Concept strengthening the skill did something weird.

It had taken the entire time he spent modifying his skeleton for Matt to absorb the skill, during which time he didn’t hear a single whisper about it from Luna, and he marveled at the new ability to directly modify the skill rather than rely on configuring the software of the pseudo skill. Unfortunately, the booklet on how to merge his [AI]s wasn’t especially useful, as his old AI was a more basic researcher model, and as such, didn’t have any of the fancier features of the more well-developed versions. It was rarely an issue, as he could always just throw mana at it until it came up with a workaround, but in this case, that meant its structure hadn’t been carefully modified to slot in perfectly and immediately mesh with the true skill. He’d have to manually direct the process, but with his new [Artificial Intelligence] in his innate slot, he was optimistic it would only take a few months.

There was little chance of critical failure thanks to the pseudo skill being built to be absorbed by the proper skill. In theory the [AI] skill could take over the process itself, given enough time and mana, but he wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity to get a bit of practice with skill merging.

Thankfully, being on Lilly was a distraction, and seeing his home once more was nice. Sadly, most everyone he knew had moved on by now, like Griff and his family, or Miles from Glave’s Good Guilders, but that didn’t distract him from taking enjoyment in seeing the city and planet so prosperous.

Overally, he couldn’t help but be delighted with the tour he took of the planet.

Baroness Margaret Thresh’s combat prowess was undeniable, from simply reaching Tier 15 on the Path, but she had also proven herself a capable administrator, as was apparent by the population boom Lilly had undergone in the recent years. That increase in population had finally reached the point where small towns had set up in locations outside the rift free, five mile area along the coast, which Matt was gratified to see.

All of the higher Tier planets he had been to possessed full cities in those regions, due to their larger populations forcing people away from the safe areas. While it might seem odd to want to live closer to the monster infested rifts, cities or even small towns being built outside those areas meant the rifts nearby could no longer satisfy the population near the coast. That meant more rifts were getting regularly delved and there was practically no chance of rift breaks. And more rifts being delved meant more money, rift made items, natural resources like metals, and even skills circulating in the economy, which all added together to make Lilly truly blossom

More so than it was when he had left a little more than half a century ago, and the same went with his visit close to twenty years ago, when Baroness Thresh had first taken over. The planet was finally recovering from the disastrous rule of the Junipers.

That didn’t mean things were perfect.

Not by a long shot. Even from his quick flyby, Matt saw a half a dozen fights, muggings, and even one stabbing, which he did intervene in. Matt dropped the victim off at the hospital after a quick [Bandage] to keep him in good shape, and the assailant at the local guard. Both were left very confused in the wake of his passage, and it served as his last stop before meeting back up with Liz.

Luna gave him a flat look that told him she had seen everything, but he couldn't tell if she approved or disapproved. Unlike her, he couldn't sit by and watch someone die in front of him. Maybe when he was a few thousand years old he might be more jaded, but for now, he was happy with himself and his actions.

Once he finished his little flyby, they quickly flew over to the new capital city of Lilly, located notably deep inside the largest continent. It was nestled right on the edge of a massive mountain range and by a large river that brought snowmelt from the mountains to hundreds of miles of grassland between them, as well as the forests near the coast.

Seeing the location, Matt understood why Margaret had selected it. It had plenty of water, and plenty of space for the city to sprawl without any need for costly spatial expansions. If they were so inclined, the grasslands could be converted to extra-rift farmland to even better support the population.

At least, if she could keep the area free of monsters.

It would be a difficult task if the half dozen packs of monsters were anything to go by.

Not that he thought Baroness Thresh was doing a bad job, as he saw an equal number of teams of Tier 4s who were actively tracking and hunting said monsters. A quick probe with his AI showed him the CityNet had open bounties for any monsters killed in the vicinity, which ensured there were always teams willing to spend their free time culling any roaming beasts.

He was happily surprised when he noticed there were actually a half dozen Tier 5 rifts near the capital city as well, which showed that Baroness Thresh was actually using her tax funds to increase the planet's Tier as fast as possible.

When they flew into the city, Matt took note and had his AI record each and every building under construction to analyze the methods they were using on a hunch, which turned out to be true. Baroness Thresh had clearly obtained patents for one of the more advanced building methods, given the amount of enchanted concrete present. Not only would the magical structures be substantially stronger, and thus capable of supporting taller, safer buildings, but would also drastically cut down on the expense of full-building enchantments. Nobles who didn't see much direct value in raising their planet's Tier beyond Tier 5 often avoided the extra cost, but doing so meant they would have to tear down the oldest cities once building-wide enchantments became common and expected, once the planet was in the Tier 6-10 range. After Tier 10, the buildings would be so old that they'd need to be torn down anyway, but that was still a few thousand years away. As a result, this choice reduced disruptions to the people living there.

Thinking about a few thousand years being a minimum timeframe took a little getting used to, but it was a realistic estimate for Lilly reaching Tier 10, even with a plethora of resources being diverted to it. At least, if proper precautions were taken when advancing the planet.

Still, things were early.

The city seemed to be under a perpetual state of fabrication, whether it being a building getting its foundation set, or a building getting its roof worked on, it seemed like everything was under constant construction.

But Matt liked it.

Seeing the people working and seemingly content, he was happy for them.

When they neared the Baroness’ estate, Matt saw a number of completed individual houses, commercial buildings, and even a skyscraper that a quick scan with his spiritual sense revealed was furnished and had people living inside.

He didn’t pry, but the few people and belongings he saw indicated it was mostly populated by the construction workers, which was a bittersweet thought. His father had been one of those workers a long time ago.

Liz must have sensed he was thinking about his parents because she took and squeezed his hand, bringing him back to reality just as they reached the front entrance of the noble estate. As the guards scanned them, Matt examined the protective formations surrounding the estate and was taken aback by just how bad they were. From what he could tell, either Baroness Thresh lacked an enchanter on her staff altogether, or the one she had was subpar and undeserving of the title. The formation itself wasn't inherently poor; it was a standard design without many glaring weaknesses. But, it was also basic enough that any professional formation breaker could easily bypass them—a level of vulnerability that might theoretically be acceptable for something as mundane as a perimeter wall.

What truly grabbed his attention was just how badly the formation was installed. It seemed like someone with their first enchanting lesson decided to do the work freehand. Runes were carved wrong, in incorrect spots, or were flat out not working properly.

When Matt stopped, he attracted the attention of the guards, but after spreading his spiritual sense through the entire wall that surrounded the estate, he found things were only worse the farther away from the gates.

Baroness Thresh met them just inside the foyer and made some polite chatter, but Matt immediately went back to the array problem.

“Do you have an enchanter on staff?” At her confused look, he continued, “Are you aware the formation array protecting your estate is about as secure as a wet paper bag?”

Baroness Thresh paused for a moment and blinked at him. “Excuse me? What?”

It took him a moment, and a bit of back-and-forth between his two AIs, but Matt quickly sent her a report of all the flaws and exploits he’d picked out just from passing through the area. The Baroness’s eyes went wide, then narrowed.

“I hired someone to set up the formation, and they said they had a Talent for it, and that was supposedly why it felt weird, even to me. I don’t know the craft, but the example seemed to show no flaws.”

Matt shook his head. “I’d test it thoroughly and independently. Maybe I’m wrong, and it really is a Talent making the normal rules not apply, but it looks like crap work. Get some wardbreakers to check it, and if it's not secretly brilliant, I’d immediately tear the wall down and get a reputable professional to do the work.”

Baroness Thresh looked to Matt with hope in her eyes, but he immediately shot her down. “I can’t help you. It's a Tier 15 formation built with Tier 15 material. I just advanced into the immortal Tiers, and haven't had the chance to learn about the differences in runes. They are far more complex after all. It truly is just that bad.”

That wasn’t entirely true, but it was the amount of crafting experience ‘Matt’ had. He had actually already started to grasp the intricacies of Tier 15 runes, but even then, he wasn’t ready to make any Tier 15 runes as Quill, even with his [AI]’s help, for at least another year or two. They truly were far more complex, and no one made the jump from Tier 14 to Tier 15 runes in less than a year without a Talent for it.

Baroness Thresh worked her jaw for a silent moment, but nodded. “Thank you anyway. Better to know about this before or if it becomes an issue.”

Matt nodded and returned to the pleasantries.

He and Liz talked to Baroness Thresh for the rest of the evening before meeting up with Vinnie and Mathew, who were already in the city for the tournament. They were, in fact, part of the prize pool. Anyone in the top hundred but below the top twenty-five of the unawakened tournament would get three months of lessons at their martial hall for free as part of their rewards. They joked they were part of the consolation prize, but Matt could see they were actually prideful about the fact. They were a fairly new martial training hall, but had already shown their experience and expertise, which was reflected by their being just under the immortals with centuries of experience that Brandy had roped in to becoming temporary coaches to the top contestants of the tournament.

Those same people were the ones who took up most of his and especially Liz’s time over the next few days, in a seemingly never ending banquet held by the Baroness.

Brandy hadn’t been able to rope Tier 25s in with the idea of giving back to the Empire, but rather had used Liz’s name and parentage to draw them in. While Liz and Matt had no official titles or power, they were still the youngest children of Mara and Leon. And that was a connection everyone wanted to form, even if it was indistinct and once removed.

Matt didn’t blame them. Most were respectful and made no mention of favors or the like. They simply ensured their names and faces were learned by Matt and Liz, wanting to chat about this or that delving experience before letting them move on to the next guest.

He did find it interesting that an equal number of people preferred to chat him up rather than Liz. He was, after all, just a son-in-law, and that should have put him in a lesser position. At least, that was what anyone not familiar with Leon and Mara would think. Anyone who knew the couple understood they made no distinction between son and son-in-law, which let Matt peg those individuals as better informed, or just lucky.

Then, there were the really smart ones. They talked to Vinnie and Mathew without treating them as lessers because of their Tier or birth, which was a distinction he saw in some people he talked to. A minority, to be sure, but there nonetheless.

While most hid it, he could see the disdain in their actions when they talked to him. The information packets he got from his AI showed why. Almost all of them were from noble backgrounds, and the majority of them were from hereditary noble families, and spent most of their time chatting with Liz.

Those were the dumb ones. Liz could smell their ilk from before she was awakened, and with half a century of experience and Luna’s training, she could spot them a mile away.

Matt just tried to remember that it was a distinct minority of even the hereditary nobles present who acted like that. It even mostly worked.

Two days later, when the banquet ended, they and everyone else moved to the newly built stadium and watched as the unawakened kids fought in a fairly simple bracket tournament, even complete with a losers bracket. Most of the fights were frankly bad, but Matt enjoyed it and got into each clash.

The blades were real steel but blunted, and the false wands and staves for aspiring mages were fueled by mana stones to simulate attacks, but despite all of that, the kids fought their hearts out, and Matt respected that.

Determination would take them farther than an amazing Talent every day of the week, and for those who got both, even the sky wasn’t a limit.

The unawakened bracket ended after three days, which was when all the immortals descended on the competitors and made small talk, gave advice, and general encouragement. The kids ate it up and had such hopeful and worshipful faces, Matt felt uncomfortable in receiving such adoration.

He did keep his eyes out on the nobles he had noticed being standoffish, but to his surprise, every single one was both polite, respectful, and encouraging to the children. As for why they treated them well and snubbed Matt, he only had guesses, but frankly didn’t care. He could take the jabs, but wouldn’t tolerate it directed at the kids.

Which, when he thought about it, Brandy must have known or at least suspected. Or possibly, she knew Liz wouldn't tolerate it, which amounted to the same thing.

The unawakened children's prizes were surprisingly good, at least to Matt. The top one hundred each earned one skill for when they awakened out of the more common skills like [Fireball], [Mana Slash], [Mana Strength], and other skills almost anyone could use that were also relatively cheap. Matt and Liz had ostensibly provided those skills with Mara and Leon's help, but they had actually just dug them out of their bucket of Tier 8 skills they had lying around. The few rarer skills they provided, like [Endurance], were actually provided by Mara and Leon, due to the high demand of the skills, but those kids who knew they had earned themselves something so valuable were ecstatic.

Matt was sure the three [Endurance]s would be gone first, due to the top five spots all being occupied by melee fighters, but there were even a few rarer skills for mages like [Jolt], [Ice Spear], and [Earth Spear].

Matt had wanted to include a few copies of the four basic manipulation skills, but Luna had dissuaded him from that course of action, reminding him those skills were basically useless at the lowest Tiers. Their limited mana pools and lack of a way to get elements to manipulate, like fire, without a skill like [Fireball]. Those who wanted to go in that direction could do so using the more structured skill to earn money and get valuable experience.

Not one to ignore good advice, Matt and Liz decided to give Baroness Thresh the remainder of their bucket of Tier 8 skills, which included a few manipulation skills for her to hold smaller local tournaments for the skills in the next few decades. Lilly being a Tier 4 planet meant there weren't any rifts with guaranteed skill drops, which forced her to import most of them. It was expensive on a planetary scale, but hopefully the donation would help.

The Tier 3 awakened tournament was actually much more interesting to Matt.

While the unawakened kids had guts and drive, they hadn’t seen any actual combat, where the Tier 3s had been delving for some time. Some of them had even been delving for a decade or longer, which Matt didn’t disregard like some of the others did. They might be slow in their advancement, but most of them had solid grasps on tactics and strategy, beating most of the younger opponents by leveraging those advantages.

That didn’t mean all the younger kids in question were bad or knocked out immediately.

Some were actually pretty good, especially as the rewards on offer had tempted a few contestants from nearby systems to come to Lilly for the opportunities it presented.

Liz took a liking to a young woman with what they hoped was an alchemy Talent, and who wasn’t elaborately committing medium-term suicide by drinking volatile potions like so many energy drinks. She probably would have sponsored the girl if she wasn’t already on the Path, but settled for placing a few bets on her doing well in the placement.

The tournament ended up being fairly interesting, after Emma, the favorite to win, lost to a young man a quarter her age. He surprised everyone by casting a [Fireball] from his mouth at melee range. The single attack wasn’t the finishing blow, but the detonation against the woman’s helmet left her open for a ‘fatal’ strike, ending the fight.

With a new dark horse showing himself capable and one of the oldest contestants in the losers bracket, the crowd went wild and created an infectious air as the young man, Ivor, won time and time again. None of his matches were clean, but despite everything, he managed to come out on top again and again, giving the crowd a show every time.

In the end, a climactic final battle ensued between Ivor and Emma once again, an epic showdown involving a grand total of three different skills on display. The victor was ultimately decided when Ivor’s last trick was countered and, poetically, a fireball exploding in his face.

Still, it was a rousing display, and Ivor seemed more than content with his second place prize.

The Tier 3 tournament had much greater rewards, with most of them actually provided by Leon and Mara, as Matt and Liz would have been hard pressed to be able to afford the assortment of Tier 3 to Tier 5 natural treasures they bought and sent over. While nothing was amazing in the same vein as what they’d become accustomed to, the gifted prizes were truly treasures to those otherwise normal delvers.

Things like Troll’s Liver, Oak Limb, Crystal Eye, Snake’s Eye, Idmonian Spinnerets, and Gecko Grips were more than the contestants could have hoped for and were the least of their prizes.

Everyone in the top one hundred got a Tier 8 skill of their choice, with the top twenty five being able to choose even Tier 14 skills. Matt was sure a few of those people who chose Tier 14 skills that synergized with their build or Talent would explode in power in the coming years, which made him happy to see.

Their last reward was bittersweet, at least, it was to Matt.

Everyone in the top one hundred were given multiple rift slots in Tier 3 and Tier 4 rifts on Lilly for the decade after their training with the immortals ended. But after that, Baroness Thresh had personally bought them tickets to the nearest Tier 8 planet, where Tier 4 and Tier 5 rifts would be abundant, so they could continue their own path without getting stuck on a low Tier planet like Lilly.

After all, no one could stay home forever, and everyone had to leave the nest at some point, but Matt was sad to know those that succeeded would grow out of Lilly. And he knew that only those who made an effort, like Baroness Thresh, Mathew, or Vinnie would come back to improve their low Tier homeworld.

He thought about making a comment to that effect, but ended up holding his tongue. It wasn’t his place to tell impressionable children and lower Tiers how to live their lives. He just hoped they saw his and the others’ examples, and decided to give back when they could.

Once the after parties ended, he and Liz left Lilly once more, but this time, it was to do their own jobs.

Matt and Liz's fun had ended, and it was time for Torch and Quill to have their turn

They had missions waiting for them. Not training missions, but real-world problems they were expected to solve by using the things Luna had taught them.

Matt was sure blood would be spilt, but he at least hoped they wouldn't get too many bad movies made in their next few years.

Luna dropped a packet of information on the table of her ship. “A full report of what Quill and Torch have been doing for the past two years. Memorize it, then give it back to me for destruction. Do what you need to prepare to leave Matt and Liz the moment the little tournament you set up is over, and I hope you enjoyed your time off, because we have a lot of work ahead of us.”