Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Get over here when you see this.

Matt decided that he didnt appreciate the tone of the message he woke up to. His blacksmith could have been a little more cordial, considering the amount of cash Matt was about to hand over to him.

Only stopping to throw Aster in Lizs room, so the mewling fox could go back to sleep, Matt was out the door and in the brightness of morning.

By standard time it should be predawn, but with this planet having never been adjusted, it was midday going by the sun's movement. It was so early, Matt only saw a group of three stumbling to a different apartment block, and a group of guards smirking at them. Despite his rude awakening, Matt was also amused at the trio struggling to get the door to open, and hide from the light of day.

Matt looked at the overlay his AI was projecting, and headed over to the smiths workshop. When he arrived, he was slightly surprised to find what looked like an open sided apartment building.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

There were only a few active smithies, but when he climbed to the seventh floor of the structure, he found the smith. His back was to the interior wall as he stood next to the lightly glowing forge.

Matt paused, he didn't remember the man's name.

Maybe I can get him to say it?

With only a single eye cracked open for a moment, the smith said, Go check it out.

Looking around, he only found one blade sitting on the bench, and it was a beauty. Instead of the shiny silver of polished steel, it had a darker gray color with hints of green.

As Matt marveled, he heard from behind him, I had to use a Tier 5 plant monster to get the conductivity for mana up. If you don't like the color, I can't help you.

Matt picked the sword up, and nearly lost his balance. He knew it would be heavy, even for a Tier 5 sword. But this was heavy enough to make wielding the blade almost uncomfortable, at least without [Mages Retreat] active.

Stepping to a clear area, he tested the heft and balance of the sword. It was clearly well made if not a little unwieldy. But once he activated [Mages Retreat], using 2 mana per second, the sword was light enough to be usable. It was a Tier 5 sword with a bit of Tier 6 tungsten, which really weighed it down.

At 10 mana a second, the weight wasn't an issue at all, but that cost would go down. Advancing through Tier 4 and allocating more essence would give more for the skill to enhance making it more efficient. With an effort of his spirit, he pushed mana into the blade, and sprung into a slashing form.

This blade was a bit longer than his last one. It straddled the line between longsword and greatsword. If Matt was any shorter, he would be unable to use longsword techniques with this hefty weapon, and would have to transition to pure greatsword patterns instead.

But at sixteen and a half, he was expecting a few more inches on his 62 frame. As he finished his growth, the blade would allow him an extensive reach advantage on most opponents. But now, the sheer size of the weapon pushed the limits of his control of the blade.

With his spiritual sense, he found the durability, sharpness, and repair runes. Even though they were lesser runes, he found them to be a little heavy, and they ate quite a bit of his mana when active. Each required about a quarter of 1 mana per second for normal operations. That was a problem, as it would cut into what he could give to [Mages Retreat].

[Cracked Phantom Armor] took priority, as it kept him alive. But for the first time in his time on The Path, he had less mana than he needed.

He tried to push some mana into the last structure in the sword. This one was not the same shape as the runes, but was a more complex, three dimensional structure. To his spirit sense, it felt similar to the structure of his skill.

This was clearly [Mana Charge], and when there was a small amount of mana deposited, he tried to trigger the skill. It was like trying to lift a boulder with his spirit, while underwater and already out of breath.

Despite the somewhat startling strain it took, he was able to release a small gust of mana from the blade. His spirit was sore afterwards, so sore that even having [Mages Retreat] active was irritating.

Satisfied after a few more appraising movements, he slipped the sword into his spatial bag.

It seems good. After a pause, Matt found the smith still had their eyes closed and asked, You ok?

He barely got out an mhmm, and thought that would be all, but the smith responded, Ive been up all night. Getting the Tier 6 tungsten to merge properly was a pain in the ass. And having to use city mana to get the runes embedded into the sword is an even bigger pain in the ass. Using unaspected mana is far more taxing on the spirit when dealing with the fine control necessary for enchantment work.

The smith spat at the ground, in what Matt didnt quite interpret as disgust, but was definitely more than displeasure. Besides I burnt nearly twenty thousand mana making the alloys merge properly. I'll be paying back the city for weeks.

Matt felt a little awkward that the smith was in this state because of him. Umm, well thanks.

He turned, and was halfway out the door when he heard, Yeah, and theres the leftover metal, over on the other counter. Use that if you need to repair the weapon with the rune. Its the same stock, so itll make sure there are no compatibility issues. I'll send you the exact formula.

After thanking the man again, Matt left. As he was exiting the building, he passed a smith with a giant hammer symbol. Quickly stepping over, he asked,

Hey, do you have any hammers or maces in the Tier 4 range already made?

The tall woman turned and answered, Yeah, anything on the bottom shelf there. One Tier 5 mana stone if you don't want anything custom.

Matt walked to the indicated area, and found a shelf full of blunt weapons. After perusing for a moment, he found a large war hammer. It even had a spike on the back end, making it an excellent option for heavily armored opponents.

The weapon only had a durability rune, to help prevent it from crumbling if it hit something too hard.

Dropping the requested mana stone off, he left with his new crystal golem crusher.

When he arrived at their shared suite, he found Liz and Aster eating breakfast on the couch. The foxs bowl of food had the kibble that he had brought with him. Mostly, it acted as a supplement to the monsters she ate. Matt wanted to make sure that she had everything her body needed. To that effect, Liz had mixed it with some mystery meat they had gotten at the general store.

Flopping down and stealing one of the blood mages hashbrowns, he asked, You decide on a rift you like?

Matt had one area in mind, but he wanted to see where her head was at.

Yeah, I think we should go to this rift. It's away from the clusters, so we should be able to remain undisturbed. That'll let me teach you the meditation techniques for when we get [Endurance], and help with finding your Concept.

Matt was surprised that she stuck with that plan, instead of being lured by the potential spoils of the central rifts and the delvers they drew in.

I thought wed go for a slightly more aggressive area. Here, look. He sent her a rift location. This is a mixed area of Tier 4 and a few Tier 5. Theres even a rift thats perfect for us. Its a swarm type, so you can rampage, and the boss shouldnt put up much of a fight. I can't kill very well in a swarm, but I cant really be hurt by them either. If we backpack Aster shell be fine.

Liz bobbed her head back and forth. I wouldn't have thought you'd want to fight for rewards. And with even one Tier 5 rift, we won't be the strongest people there. We can probably take a standard Tier 5, but anyone who has their Concept will kick our ass.

Whats the difference?

Well the big one is when you make your own Concept you get just that. Self made Concepts are always stronger. With them, you can also manipulate the area around yourself a bit. You can firm the ground around you and anchor yourself for better heavy weapons footing for example. You can even move faster by moving the air around you as you go. That's a lot harder, but it's how the Tier 15s can move without shockwaves all the time. They use their Concept like a zipper.

The point is, a Tier 5 rift boss will have these abilities for sure, and some rifts will have lesser monsters with them as well. Thats really the main reason why Tier 5 rifts carry such a jump in difficulty. Almost as an afterthought, she added, And all the common monsters will have skills as well.

Matt knew most of that. At least about the common monsters having skills. The ways a rift grew in power were well established and circulated, even to the lower tiers like him.

He had even done his research with his guild VIP access. There was more to it than he had previously thought. He had even discovered how skill shards appeared in rifts.

At Tier 8, there was a twenty five percent chance that a skill dropped. Each rift had an eighty five percent chance to drop one of any three common skills. It was only a ten percent chance to drop a rare skill shard of that Tier. Those four skills were set for each rift at creation, or at each Tier increase in the rift itself.

The remaining five percent was a chance to drop any skill, but the common skills usually were the safe bet.

The lower tier rifts on this training world would work under the same rules, but with closer to a three percent chance to get a skill on initial delves. Now that the most abundant essence was used up, it was less than a one percent chance.

It's a solid idea, but well be at a disadvantage against even a team with standard battle Concepts. Most get strength or regeneration, so theyll be five percent stronger for their essence at most. So while you might be able to match up with [Mages Retreat], it's going to be a while before you can take anyone stronger than a fledgling Tier 5.

Using the blood she had taken from Matts kill, Liz lashed out with a blood whip, and mirrored the attack with a swipe of her spear. The pincer attack was extremely effective, cutting deeply into the bears open mouth and face and rendering its jaws useless.

While the monster's skill and fangs out of the equation, it resorted to a flurry of swipes at the mage, who was testing her strength by blocking the blows with blood. She used less and less with each parry, until she discovered the smallest amount required to block the large monster's attacks.

When presented with an opening between swipes, she threw her spear at the monsters exposed flank. It flew far faster than her sixty-forty essence allocation should have allowed. The capsule of blood in the butt of the spear acted like a rocket booster thanks to Lizs [Blood Manipulation].

A quick scan with his AI showed that his partner was also using her new blood doping method to push her physical prowess even higher.

With an agitated roar, the bear turned and bit at the spear now protruding from its side. Before the bear could twist enough to get at the spear, it removed itself from its newest resting place, with gushes of blood following its retreat.

Now armed with two bears worth of blood, Liz gathered it into a sphere, and used it to crush the weakened bears head.

The pop of the monsters skull was lost in the din from the rushing waves of blood released from Lizs control. Aster saw the incoming wave of evil, fur staining blood, and jumped into Matts arms with mental pleas for protection.

With the fox in one arm, Matt walked over to the newest corpse, and dug out the bears heart, handing it to the squirming fox.

As the third bear approached, Aster hopped down, defiance and anticipation radiating across their bond. Matt wasn't thrilled with the idea of the ten pound fox taking on the massive bear, but she and Liz assured him that it would be fine.

Aster didnt charge in like Matt, but instead fought like the mage she was. Her first attack was a spray of small shards of ice. They got directly into the lunging bears eyes, effectively ending the fight.

It wasnt that the single blow had killed the beast, but the fox was three feet long and ten pounds. While the size of a male of her mundane counterparts, she was still much smaller than the bear who was two tons and blind. It had no chance of winning as the fox flitted through the trees while yipping. The clever fox was luring the bear directly into the trees, peppering the monster with ice shards as it crashed into each trunk.

It took a few minutes for the bear to go down, and Matt had the full 10 mana coursing through [Mages Retreat] for each agonizing minute. He was ready to get in between the bear and his bond at a seconds notice.

He wasn't blind to Liz, who had a mass of blood behind the fox as well. But he was damn sure to take every precaution for the sake of his bond. He didn't even want to think of what would happen if the bear fell on top of the little fox.

When the fight finally ended, he felt as if his heart was going to pop out of his chest.

He checked his AI, and found that the fox had used a little more than an eighth of her mana. She didn't have the penetrating power to punch through the bears mass, and had to whittle it down instead, which burnt mana.

Still, the fox was happy with her performance, and prancing around the corpse of the monster she had slain.

With a cute flip of her tail, she sat and looked at the duo of humans. She yipped at them, which Matt interpreted as, Are you gonna get my heart or what? Liz actually understood the words, and said, It's not a can of meat, it doesnt work like that.

Aster yipped in response and pawed at the monster. Laughing at her antics, Matt cut the monsters chest open and yanked the heart out, letting the fox savor the spoils of her solo kill.

They repeated this routine, with Aster sitting out every other rotation to conserve mana. She was also getting full quickly from the size of the hearts. They ended up backpacking the fox, so she could sit with the non fighter and not take up an arm.

The rift was massive, and instead of going straight to the exit, they zig zagged through the forest, trying to find as many bears to kill as possible. They found almost forty bears on their roundabout path to the exit. They provided a lot of essence. So much, in fact, Matt decided to allocate it before they left to delve the second rift.

As they approached the exit, they found a clearing with a house. Lounging around the house were three massive variants of the bears they had been slaughtering all day. Each was nearly as tall as the normal ones while lying down flat on their bellies.

They sat and watched the house, until a lizard humanoid came out, wearing a feathered crown. It tossed massive chunks of meat at the dozing monsters. It was too far away to be sure, but the lizardman seemed to be wearing a ring of sorts on one of its fingers.

Please be a spatial ring I can use. Please be a spatial ring I can use. Please be a spatial ring I can use.

Matts pleas continued in his head, as Liz launched her spear at the lizardman while its back was turned.

The throw needed to cover the sixty feet, which was a breeze for Tier 4s like Liz. If they could take out the leader first, this fight would be worlds easier. The lizardman was a debuffer, and would slow and blind them, making them easy targets for the bears to maul.

As the spear flew, Matt started sprinting, with 7 mana a second pouring into [Mages Retreat]. That resulted in a forty four percent increase in his strength. Hed be able to keep it up for a while, but he wanted to conserve enough mana for his weapons enchantments.

As his feet dug into the ground, his AI calculated the path of the spear. The stupid bloodmage was going to miss.

This fight was about to get a lot harder. With his enhanced speed, he was nearly half way across the clearing, and two of the three bears looked up at him. They charged him, determined to keep him away from their master.

With an empowered jump, Matt tried to leap over the bears. He made it halfway, and was still flying through the air when a paw nearly the size of his chest smacked him across the clearing. The blow threw him towards a tree and stressed [Cracked Phantom Armor]. If he had been brazen enough to try to tank the blow, it might have completely broken through, instead of just sending him on a slight detour.

With 9 mana a second flowing through the armor to cushion himself, he slammed into the tree and wrapped around it, before falling down.

Standing up with a crack of his back and a grunt of displeasure, he ran back into the fray. Liz was moving massive amounts of blood and holding off two of the bears. The third was staying close by the lizardman, who was waving its arms to cast something.

Red lights surrounded all three bears, and they each became faster. Matt left Liz to fend off the [Enraged] bears, and rushed the backline. It wasn't ideal, but he needed to stop the shaman before it could get a slowing skill on either of them.

The last bear was smaller than the other two but, what it lacked in size it made up for in pure speed. Its claws and teeth lashed out like the daggers of an experienced assassin. It took everything Matt had to keep away from its jaws. His AI was eating every drop of mana he could spare to generate countermeasures. Its predictive capabilities were helping him avoid the bear's quick strikes, but he disengaged after seeing the shaman point at him.

Matt vaulted over the bear, putting it between himself and the shaman. The stun struck the bear just as he slid down its other side. The bear became cloaked in black, swirling wisps of smoke from the binding spell. Matt took the chance to vault back over the locked down bear and charged the lizardman.

The shaman quickly dispelled the stun, but Matt was already past the bear, which spelled the end of the debuffer. Matt closed in, and cleaved him two with a single blow. This boss had a load of mana, but no physical stats.

Turning away from the defeated shaman, Matt slashed out, and caught the attacking bear's skill empowered bite with his blade. As strong as the bear was, the sword was still composed of Tier 5 and 6 materials. Powering through the empowered bite, he sliced right through its head with spray of blood, bone, and fur.

The momentum of the lunging bear sent him tumbling through the wall of the hut. Pausing to catch his breath, he got back up and checked the information his AI was sending him.

Liz's fight had moved up the hill, in range for a maximum distance swap of twenty feet but it would burn all 2000 mana stored in the ring. Matt was just grateful the swapping function of the ring did not scale in cost like the teleportation function. Focusing his spirit, he took his stance, and swung his sword while activating his ring around his finger.

Suddenly, he was teleported between two bloody bears. His swing was already in motion, and cut deep into the rightmost bear as soon as he materialized. He left the blade lodged in its chest, as the second was on him fast.

Matt turned, and put everything into [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mages Retreat]. He wasn't in danger of being bitten, as Liz had shattered this one's jaw. It was why he had taken the rightmost one out first.

With a hand gripping the large monster's arms, he grappled with the bear, holding it from pressing down on him.

At his highest boost, he was nearly its equal in strength. But if the bear was smart enough to yank back, he'd be taking another flying lesson. He barely weighed in at two hundred pounds, so he was vulnerable to the bear using leverage.

This bear wasn't that smart. It was just trying to grind him down with brute force, and all Matt needed to do was resist. [Cracked Phantom Armor] and [Mages Retreat] gave him the strength to shove back. After knocking the bear off balance, he stepped back and pulled the beast forward and down to the ground. Reaching back for the finishing blow, he found an arm length shard of frozen blood already sticking out from between the bears ribs.

WIth deep breaths, he lowered [Mages Retreat]s draw, and called out, At least you can hit a throw with Aster's help!

Liz just scuffed the ground before giving him the middle finger. She murmured something he couldnt hear, and as she removed her helmet, he found her face flushed with embarrassment.

Or maybe she was just still blood doping.

Whats that you said? He wanted to needle her a bit

I said fuck you. I'll practice the throw. She kicked the ground as Aster yipped in the backpack on her back.

Yeah, yeah Ill get the heart you little scamp.