The path of ascension 2.., p.1
The Path of Ascension 2: A LitRPG Adventure, page 1
THE PATH OF ASCENSION 2
©2023 C.MANTIS
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the authors.
Aethon Books supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact editor@aethonbooks.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Aethon Books
www.aethonbooks.com
Print and eBook formatting by Steve Beaulieu. Artwork provided by Fernando Granea.
Published by Aethon Books LLC.
Aethon Books is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead is coincidental.
All rights reserved.
ALSO IN SERIES
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Thank you for reading The Path of Ascension 2!
Groups
LitRPG
1
Matt opened his eyes and saw.
It was like the world had been hidden by sunglasses that were finally taken off. The world was sharper, more real. Colors were far more distinct, as though separated by lines each time they changed hue. Sounds broke into a melodic composition, every movement highlighted.
Matt released his Concept, and the world returned to normal, giving him a moment to orient himself to his new ability.
It was a stronger effect of what the Emperor had done, when he had appeared as a hologram when they met at the PlayPen. The man didn’t even need to be present to impact reality itself, which made Matt’s status as a peak Tier 4 cultivator practically insignificant in comparison.
I am Endless, his Concept whispered in his spirit, but compared to the absolute oceans of strength which the royals displayed with their mere presence, he was a single drop of water.
And Liz grew up with these monsters.
Taking stock of his situation, Matt scanned the area to find only Travis, Liz’s brother, still lingering in the chairs they’d set up around the house to watch the Ascension. Quietly, he walked inside, jumping when he kicked a finger-long shard of what he thought was glass.
After looking at the Tier 17 and ensuring he wasn’t bothered, Matt scooped it up. He could feel the same energy that had permeated the air during the Ascension.
Some still lingered around them, but in a much smaller quantity. Here in this shard, the energy was condensed. He could even see a part of the ascender’s calf captured in the shard like a picture.
Once inside, he came face-to-face with a graceful redhead holding Aster. Now that Matt was less absorbed in his newfound Concept, he felt through his bond with the small white fox that she was in serious distress.
He crossed the intervening distance with hurried steps. As he reached out to scoop up the white fox, Aunt Helen shifted slightly to deny him.
He looked to the Tier 24 Phoenix with concern. Her feathered hair swooshed in an arc as she moved.
Quietly, he asked, “What’s wrong with her?”
He trusted that the older woman had her reasons for preventing him from taking his bond, but he still needed answers.
The older woman smiled, but it was one filled with what he interpreted as remembered pain. Or maybe a shared experience.
“Beasts who advance usually do so without complications from Tier 1 through 4. Tier 5 is a monumental change. Little Aster is having her mind forcefully enhanced. She is going from Sentience to Sapience. And it hurts like nothing else.”
She looked down, and kept stroking the little fox, whose flank was now violently quivering.
Matt wanted to clarify. “So, she’s becoming more human? And those hurt?”
Aunt Helen smiled. “I remember mine, though it was so very long ago. It’s excruciating. And there isn’t much that can be done without hurting her more. Her mind is growing and creating new connections. I’m doing my best to soothe her, but I can’t interfere anymore.”
“Is this going to happen every time she Tiers up?”
His stomach rolled at the idea, and he tried to send warm, comforting thoughts to his bond. But she was curled up tight, even mentally. She let nothing in, and Matt was getting desperate to help.
“No, Matt. This will be the worst. Tiers 5 through 10 are all about the mind evolving, and Tiers 11 through 14 are about your body feeling…wrong. Easier advancement has its drawbacks. Beasts’ minds grow, which makes it so that we start feeling trapped in our own bodies. It’s why we create a more fitting form once we reach Tier 15.”
She gently rocked the ball of white fur in her arms. “This is the worst of it. She’ll get better in a few more hours. It’s almost over.”
Matt opened his mouth to ask a question, and Aunt Helen spoke over him. “When she finishes this, she’ll need a good cuddle and sleep with the people she cares about. The next few days will be hard for her, and the world will be a completely new place. It will be up to you and Liz to guide her through this. But I’ll give Aster some advice before I leave. She’ll come out of this stronger. It’s painful, but natural.”
He still wanted to grab his bond and hold her, but he respected the phoenix, and would wait for Aunt Helen to finish. Matt wasn’t so arrogant to think that he could do something that a million-year-old cultivator couldn’t do.
Trying to change the subject, he asked, “Aunt Helen, was the ascension enough to form your Intent? Liz said you had some problems, but the ascension seemed very helpfuuuu—”
He petered off as he realized that he was bringing up memories of her long-dead family, but the woman just laughed slightly and reached up to stroke his sandy blond hair.
“No, dear, not yet. But it helps. I’m trying to piece a shattered vase back together. My Concept shattered when my son died, and then was ground to powder when my husband couldn’t handle it either.”
The Tier 24 looked off into the distance before murmuring, “I already discarded my Concept once. I, like most fire beasts, had a fire Concept. But that wasn’t me. I am family. So, I destroyed that one and created my family Concept. I could have cleaned out the fragments of my shattered Concept and easily created a new one, but that would be removing the last bit of my husband and son that I have left. So, I’ve been rebuilding this one for the last few million years.”
The woman shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, but Matt could relate to her, at least a little bit. He had lost his parents at such a young age and had trouble even remembering their faces.
Matt pulled the smaller woman into a soft hug. “It doesn’t get easier, does it?”
She only shook her head, and they stood there for a long moment before Aster’s renewed shivering brought them both back to the present.
Aunt Helen started petting and rocking the little fox again. “Two happy things; I’m almost done rebuilding, and you have a Concept. What did you settle on?”
Matt grinned and touched his Concept, allowing the sensation of reality to wash over him once again.
“I am Endless. I’ve known that for a little while, but nothing quite fit my mental picture until I settled on an image of a white hole, eternally spilling out mana.”
Matt scratched the back of his head. “Though I don’t know what it will do.”
Admitting that felt far more awkward than he expected.
Shouldn’t I just know? It’s my Concept, after all.
Aunt Helen just chuckled. “Oh, Matt. You are hardly the first to have that issue. Go explore your new power with BethBeth. She’s insufferable. Just bouncing around, waiting for you to finish.”
As he turned to go find his partner, Aunt Helen stopped him again.
“What do you plan on doi
Matt looked down at the reality shard that he was still holding. He had actually forgotten about it in their discussion.
“I figured I’d give it to Keith and Travis as thanks for letting us stay.”
Aunt Helen rolled her eyes so hard Matt felt it.
“Matt, you are the second to last person out of the trance. If we wanted it, any of us would have taken it.”
He paused at that.
So, they’re leaving it for a reason. But what reason?
Matt looked at the shard. It was good for helping people recreate the environment of an ascension on a small scale. It was valuable, but he didn’t need the cash. Liz, Aster, and he could use the money, but he doubted the higher Tiers would leave it for something so simple.
Matt knew what he wanted to do with it, so he half-asked, “Can I send this to a group of my friends?”
Aunt Helen’s smile was radiant. Clearly, he had said the right thing.
“I knew I liked you. Sharing what we have with those close to us allows everyone to evolve. If you write a letter, I’ll deliver both to The Unbroken.”
That made Matt pause. “How did you know their team’s name?”
The older woman winked at him. “Having rebuilt most of my Concept gives some advantages. I can tell when influential people are growing, and I have a sense of what they need and when they’ll need it.”
Matt opened his mouth, but the woman’s arm stretched the nearly five-foot distance, and she pressed a finger to his mouth, before scratching his scalp. The sharp talons were perfect at hitting all the right spots, and he had a hard time formulating his question.
Aunt Helen chuckled at his slack face. “Matt, I would have pulled you to the side whether you met my niece or not. Don’t be afraid that you’re not holding your own.”
That somehow put him at ease. Matt didn’t think it was from arrogance, but to think he hadn’t gotten special attention of his own merit stung his pride a bit.
I need to watch that. Who am I to think I’m special?
She continued, “You run along now. I’m waiting for Travis to come out of his trance. I’ll leave tomorrow sometime, so write up a nice letter to your friends. I’ll deliver it sooner than it would otherwise get to them.”
Matt nodded and thanked her, then went to find Liz.
His first guess turned out correct when he knocked on her door.
“Come in.” Liz’s voice came through the door, and he found his redheaded teammate sitting on her balcony, looking over the valley.
She turned to him, and her grin was infectious.
“I beat you by six hours!”
Her yellow eyes reflected her grin, and Matt shot back, “I didn’t rush.”
That wasn’t exactly true, and the look he received in return told him she didn’t buy it for a second.
“Okay, I tried to form my Intent.”
Matt flopped down next to his teammate and chuckled at himself. Even with the extra power granted by his Concept, he had felt nothing.
“Ha. Yeah, we need years with our Concepts to even be able to feel that.”
Matt knew that the way Liz was kicking her feet meant that she was nervous.
“You tried as well, didn’t you?”
Liz just nodded and coughed, changing the subject. “So, what did you settle on for your image?” He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could even draw breath, his friend interrupted him, “I was able to insert myself into the image!”
“That’s great! Congrats. I know you wanted that. So…what does it do?”
Liz shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve been waiting for you to finish, and for Aster to recover from her own ordeal.”
That touched Matt, but Liz quickly asked, “What did you settle on? Was it the sun? Or were you able to make something more abstract work?”
Matt smiled. He was proud of what he had done after all. “No, I was able to create a white hole image.”
Liz’s eyebrow reached for her hairline, so he explained, “Yeah, I know they aren’t really real, so far as anyone knows, but it’s not like that’s a requirement. It’s just…the opposite of a black hole. It doesn’t pull everything in, it pushes everything out. I eventually got it to snap into place by making it expel mana instead of matter and energy.”
Her next question hurt slightly. “You already make mana. Just…so much mana. Why not make matter instead? That could be really cool.”
“I, uhh… It felt right. And mana can make matter and energy, so it’s better.”
Liz narrowed her eyes. “You just thought of that, didn’t you?”
She continued slandering him to his face for a few minutes before Matt gave up on convincing her of obvious facts and turned his attention to the valley around them.
The crowds were gone, and where tens of thousands were just two days ago, now there were only a few scattered people. Almost all of them were still in trances, like Travis.
It was a massive contrast to the view just days ago, and Matt’s stomach suddenly started to rumble as it realized it had gone nearly two days without food. He had been sitting down forming his image the entire time and food had been the furthest thing from his mind.
Liz hooked his arm and said, “Aunt Helen has a spatial ring full of food. Let’s go raid it.”
Watching Liz raid the woman’s spatial ring was a sight Matt wouldn’t soon forget. She snuck up on the older Phoenix where she sat stroking Aster, and with large, exaggerated steps, grabbed the woman’s hand and shook it over a plate. The Tier 24 pretended that she didn’t notice, and food fell out on the waiting plate.
When Liz returned with her spoils, he had to question her methods. “That seems wholly unnecessary. I’m sure we could have just asked her for the food.”
Liz gave him a pitying look. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Matt ignored his teammate and dug into his plate. Aunt Helen had loaded his plate with turkey and stuffing with asparagus and warm gravy.
It was divine. The turkey was impossibly moist with a crispy skin and the gravy added that slight bit of additional flavor to the meat while the asparagus were full of what he guessed were steak flavors, like they were from an entirely separate meal. Considering how Liz got the food might very well be the case.
Still, it only reinforced the fact the woman had reached a level in cooking he only hoped to come close to someday.
When they were done, he washed and dried the plates while Liz talked. “We have a ticket out of here in four days. It’s good that we got one when we did. The backlog is months long. And that’s even with most of the Tier 15s and higher just flying out through chaotic space. Otherwise, it would be years. Speaking of leaving, are we still on for hitting a club tomorrow night?”
Matt finished his meal and asked, “What’s taking so long, then? It was mostly Tier 15s here, right? And, yes, I’m up for it.”
Liz shook her head. “Not really. Remember, the ascension is good for people awakening, too, and all the planets near here brought over every kid they could. I’m sure they were cranking out teleports as fast as they could manage.”
Matt responded, “I did forget about that. It makes sense, though. Not as much of a rush to bring them back. Lots of mana wastage to save time.”
The usual month-long teleport time was a long enough delay that ambient mana could be gathered and used to fuel the teleport. If they were trying to get thousands upon thousands of people off-world as fast as possible. Matt felt like he had a pretty good idea as to what the millions of mana he’d sold to the Baroness in the months before was being used for.
Matt sat with Liz and asked, “Aster already broke through into Tier 5. Are you ready to do the same?”
They didn’t have any essence in their spirits, but they could still perform a single crunch, and break through now. They would just need to finish the remaining crunches when they had enough essence to power the consolidation of their power bases. It still annoyed Matt that any unused essence only lasted for a few days, but he couldn’t change that fact. If he could have kept the essence from the Tier 5 rift they had delved, he could have finished all ten crunches of his core right at this moment, which would have saved them the inconvenience of having to delve, kill a monster, then finish their advancement.
