Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Matt brought his fist down on Camillas left arm and used [Cracked Phantom Armor] to ignore the bladed whip that was embedded in her flesh. The whip was made of linked, concentric, rotating blades that formed S shapes. Their hooks were incredibly sharp, and could even stress his armor if the whip got wrapped around him.

His fist struck her just hard enough for their AIs to count the blow as a broken arm. He was able to dodge her retaliatory strike with her gleaming mace with a back step. He used the distance gained to deliver a low sweeping strike to the womans overextended leg.

The blow sent her to the ground, and Matt dove in, using his size and weight to restrain her in a grappling lock. The first time he had done that, Camilla had freaked, and she ended the training session for the evening. Now, she was determined to learn how to escape.

She struggled, but after a few moments of being unable to break out from his grip, she called out, I yield!

He dropped his hold and wiggled away. Camilla didnt like any more personal touching than was required, and he respected that as much as he could while they weren't sparring.

Seeing the look of disappointment on her face, he said, You really shouldnt be that hard on yourself. You said youve been learning to fight for only about a year. Sure, youve had good, even great, teachers, but you still need time to really learn the finer points of fighting.

Before Camilla could say anything, he held up a hand. You are doing better than I was with this much training time. You need to stop thinking so much. You plan your next move and which combat form youre going to use ahead of time. That makes you easy to predict. The best way to move past that is to experience more fights. There isnt much else you can do.

She lightly punched the floor. You say all that, but you arent using your boosting skill or even a weapon. And I cant use [Berserkers Rage] as a boost in a practice fight.

A part of Matt was envious. Duke Waters had kitted the girl out with great items and skills. She had [Berserkers Rage], and either it was cracked, or she had a Talent that boosted her strength when she took damage. The one rift they had delved as a test had shown at least that much.

Camilla had rushed the monsters and willingly took flesh wounds, while delivering crippling blows with her two items. The fact that she only wore armor covering her vital organs and head gave Matt his boost when damaged hunch. She also had a skill that he couldnt identify. It was able to heal skin and muscles, but was completely unable to heal the broken arm she had gotten.

Once again, he wasnt sure if it was a Talent, a rare skill, or cracked skill. But her whole kit fed into her combat style of taking smaller hits, then hitting back with twice the power.

On top of it all, her whip and mace were growth items. The whip bit deeply into her own flesh, but she never seemed to mind. The damn thing also tried to do the same with anything it hit, and could ensnare a limb and shred flesh with ease. Matt was incredibly wary of the weapon when his armor skill was inactive.

The mace was slightly less menacing, but it had the ability to project force deep into whatever it hit. [Cracked Phantom Armor] thankfully blocked that effect, but the mace head could levitate three and a half feet off the shaft of the weapon. It only could move as if still attached to the shaft, but the ability gave her an extra bit of range. It was invaluable against enemies that werent quite brave enough to get into melee range, and hovered just out of her perceived reach.

As if she needed any more advantages, her kit was rounded out with a [Bolt] skill for mid-range opponents. Matt was sure that she had a long-range skill or weapon hidden somewhere, but she hadn't shown it yet. Neither he nor Liz felt comfortable pushing Camilla about anything she wasnt willingly offering up, so they didnt pester her. She didnt question why Matt was able to keep so many skills active, or how he could do so for much longer than a typical melee fighter at his level. So they let her keep her secrets in return.

They had kept busy during their downtime between train rides and waiting for the teleport times between planets. To that effect, they bought out a single Tier 5 rift for a single delve during a long break between departure times. They wanted to see Camilla fight real opponents, and the delve allowed them to finish consolidating their Tier 5 cores with the remaining crunches.

With their time traveling together Matt learned a few things about Camilla. She never met anyones eyes, man or woman, and while she could fake public interaction for a few minutes she always cut it short quickly, never letting a conversation stretch on past its shortest point.

Matt had decided to hold off on taking the potion Aunt Helen had made for him until he was at the peak of Tier 5. If he found a Tier 5 mana concentration treasure while exploring the new planet, he would regret using his potion. The potion would work at any Tier, unlike a treasure.

With their fight over, Matt joined Aster at the edge of the room, and used her to practice limiting his Concepts mana regeneration effect on specific people. They knew it was possible, as the Concept ignored anyone with full mana. It was just a matter of him learning how to do it consciously.

They also had figured out the math of his Concept with the help of Travis and Keith. He could impart his mana regeneration to anyone in the area of effect. However, there were three limitations. First, his mana transfer lost efficiency with distance from his core. Second, his mana was pretty inefficient at condensing itself to match those with a higher concentration than himself. Finally, he couldnt control the rate of mana restoration between individuals in the area of effect. At least, he couldn't currently. His Concept always tried to give to everyone in its area of effect evenly, regardless of who had more or less.

It was still faster to refill Aster and Liz with his Concept mid-fight than to recharge their fast converting mana stones. It was only a matter of time until he could limit the effect to them, and keep them going for as long as he could fight...

Endlessly.

Matt idly watched Liz take her turn against Camilla. Liz was kitted out in a forest patterned armor set that, while vaguely similar in shape to her old armor, was made from Tier 5 materials. It was a step up in every way from her old set.

The most notable change was that she had retired the spear that she had won at the auction on the training world.

Instead, she had used the baroness smith to remove the old enchantment, and place it on a new spear more reminiscent of the one she had lost in the landslide on the training world. This particular spear had a hollow core that she could fill with blood, and her proficiency with the new weapon compared to the old one was night and day.

With her [Blood Manipulation] skill, she could make the spear hover, and if he didnt know better, he would have sworn she had a weapon skill that made it automatically fight by her side. The woman was able to use the spear to fend off Camilla, who had to devote a lot of attention to preventing it from poking her. Liz never pushed any more than that, but Matt knew exactly how infuriating it was to get poked at constantly, only for the weapon to dart away at the last second like a hummingbird.

This portion of the training was more for Camilla to get used to fighting people at range. She had quickly learned that [Bolt] cost too much mana to sustain against Liz, who had her [Blood Shield] ready to absorb the electricity.

After a few more rushes that only caused Liz to keep her distance, they changed the pace, and Liz started shooting out [Blood Bullets]. Camilla had to use her admitted flexibility to dodge the thumb-sized balls of blood. Liz was working to put extra spin on the pellets of blood, giving them a bit more penetration power. But the skill still automated the creation and manipulation processes for her, removing the need for her to manually guide the blood or maintain their form.

When the blood mage used her Concept, the blood was as dense as steel and hit as if a Tier 7 threw them.

All of that raised the problem. Camilla was having a hard time keeping up. She did much better in a rift, where she could take damage and get a boost, but she didnt have the experience to keep up with the trio in this type of combat.

If Duke Waters hadnt asked for them to help the woman, Matt wouldnt have even considered taking her to explore a new world... No, he might have been swayed by the womans tragic backstory. He wasnt that heartless. She needed help, and he could understand wanting to get strong, so that no one could direct your life.

But he was worried that this babysitting assignment would slow down their progress. While this excursion wasnt meant to increase their Tier as much as delving would, they would still be dealing with a planet full of rift breaks. Monsters would be everywhere, and with it being a Tier 6 world, Matt was afraid that her inexperience would get her killed.

Matt and Liz were trying to book as many rifts during the last leg of their journey as possible, to get Camilla some much needed combat experience. The problem was that they were buying the slot from a team that already held the position. No one wanted to give up the essence and rewards, so prices were sky-high.

It had been so frustrating getting obviously fleeced, Matt was tempted to take out his homemade rift charging plates. They were shoddy work, with a terrible efficiency of forty-five percent, but they accomplished the end goal. Besides, it had only cost him a few hours of time and mana generation.

Giving out his secret would be monumentally stupid, but showing the arrogant teams that their precious rift slot was worth about five minutes of his time was a beautiful daydream.

Still, Camilla wasnt some genius of fighting, and her odd choice of weapons didnt help her. But the woman was determined. And that was much more important in his mind.

Matt still worried that the temporary addition to their team was going to get in over her head with them. He didnt want her death on his hands.

After watching Camilla dodge Lizs attacks for a while longer, they swapped out again. He stood up with his longsword in hand. The weapon had gone from dangerous to deadly, with his spirit able to handle repeated uses of the embedded skill, [Mana Charge]. It gave every few swings a massive increase in power, and had so far ended every fight on its own.

This particular spar with Camilla, he pressed aggressively, and forced her to take painful slaps with the flat of his blade. The message that he could have bisected her at any time was clearly getting through to her, if the scowl that grew on her face was any indication.

Still, she used her evil whip to great effect, trying to tie down his blade with its clinging effect. She never kept a hold of the blade for more than a moment, after the first time he had simply braced himself and pulled her off her feet.

She had a more moderate essence allocation, and that, combined with his larger build, meant that she only out muscled him when [Berserkers Rage] and whatever secondary buff she was using were active.

Matt wasnt sure, but seeing her deflate when he had turned on [Mages Retreat] and easily broke out of her grapple, actually made him feel like he had taken something important from her.

Still, they had a lot of work to do if they wanted to get Camilla ready to keep up with them.

Later that night, Matt worked on his second project. He bought every beginners enchanting guide he could get his hands on. The price wasnt so bad, but when he expanded the purchases to every other crafting profession, the total hurt his bank account.

It was worth it though, as he was able to run simulations on his AI with nearly his full mana pool. At least when they werent sparring. The mana was wasted if he didnt use it after all.

The results were slow at first. Even his basic understanding of the professions from his classes at the university was enough to tell him that the AI was off the mark with most of the simulations it came up with.

The man let out a large long exaggerated sigh.

Ill make it easy, you sign the guilty plea, and you only have to serve twenty-five years delving for the state in recompense. If you dont, well do this the hard way. And believe me, if a judge sees this case, youll be looking at fifty-plus years.

He gave a false smile and finished with, Im trying to help you. Really.

With that, he grabbed Matts hand and forced him to thumb his acceptance.

Look, see. That was easy. Now you just need to make up for your crimes. Rehabilitation is a long road. And youll be put to work on the new planets. For endangering the public, youll now be protecting them. How noble.

Matt just stared at the man. He had committed everyones face to memory, and he swore he would be back, and heads would roll.

As he thought about it, he started to find it amusing.

These idiots have no idea that we are on The Path. And once they find out who Liz is, they are going to shit themselves.

Either of those backers were far larger than this little group could deal with.

The prediction came true not fifteen minutes later, when he heard panicked screams and the sounds of fast movement from outside his integration room.

A moment later, the door opened, and a guard in a more official-looking uniform came in and asked, Are you, Matt?

At his reply of, Yes. The man entered, and removed his shackles, then escorted him to a guard with a healers armband.

Fuck kid, what happened to you?

The healers reaction reminded him of the now dried blood from his forehead, and while he had been able to channel [Endurance] in the integration room, it wasnt going to remove the already caked-on blood.

A quick heal later, and he was done. Matt found Camilla and Aster on a bench facing away from him. As he walked over, Aster spun and leaped into his arms. She sniffed around his face, and worry flooded to him through the bond. Her anger matched his own that he was keeping tamped down.

Whats going on?

He asked Camilla, who was watching what he assumed were actual guards streaming in and out of the building.

She nodded through a window he hadnt seen. Liz was animatedly waving her hands around in a silent pantomime that clearly expressed her anger at the situation. Liz has been tearing them a new asshole for the last few minutes. She's said the words "The Path" so many times, but they keep flinching each time.. Shes fearless while talking to them. I dont know if I could do that, even with my backer.

Camilla shrugged and finished, You just dont talk to higher Tier people like that.

Matt understood what she meant, and silently agreed with her. On the other hand, Liz grew up with people stronger than this entire kingdom and all their corruption. It was honestly shocking that something like this was going on in the capital city.

He looked over at the dark-haired woman who was still seated. Did they force you to agree to something as well?

She nodded. Yeah. Whatever happens, I want to make sure that the contract is nullified. Even with my AI recording, I dont feel good about it.

Matts frustration boiled out at that, and he hissed, I dont know what they were thinking. Its not like we couldnt prove everything they did. Thats so incredibly illegal.

Camilla shrugged. We arent in the Empire proper anymore. This could all be legal here. Forcing a contract doesnt sound legal, but maybe they dont accept AI recordings as proof or something. I dont know, but this group seemed a little too used to doing this.

Matt didnt know what to think. This was so outside of his expectations and world view, it was shocking. It also showed how lucky he was. He may have been on a poorly run world, but even the worst guild recruiters didnt try and force contracts on people.

The incident blew up when two people in much nicer clothes appeared in the window, and then tried to talk to Liz. Matt saw the moment she name-dropped her parents. The peoples faces drained of any color, and their body language changed. He almost felt bad for them, with the threat of two royals looming over them.

Matt had the feeling that this would come with worse consequences than sending the taxmen after the vassal kingdom. A part of him relished the idea, but a larger part of him hated the fact that if he wasnt on The Path, he would have been forced into whatever joke of a sentencing that they had arranged.

Being an Empire proper citizen, especially one on The Path, meant that he was always judged by imperial law, and not local ones. But this was a wake-up call that the Empire, while not perfect, was miles better than the alternatives.

With a sigh, he hugged his bond for comfort. It helped.

He looked at Camilla. I hate having to rely on others for protection like this.

Her fist tightened until her knuckles popped, and she nodded. I shudder to imagine if the people on top werent held in check by other, stronger people who care. She actually did shudder a bit, then finished, Ive been at the mercy of others once before. Thats why I need to be strong. I wont let it happen again.

Matt patted her shoulder and said, Thanks for the save back there.

She turned to look at his hand, then followed it to his now healed head.

That would have killed me outright. Just... thanks.

She didnt say anything, and they watched as Liz browbeat the two officials.

Did we ever get our things back? The thought crossed his mind, and he asked the question idly.

Ah. Yeah. Well, kinda. Theyre still trying to collect our things, apparently.

That didnt sound good, but he had a record of everything he had. They wouldnt be able to play any funny games with his belongings.

Finally, Liz came in and said, These fucking worthless idiots are useless. First, all they can say is that the assassin was a standard first hitter, and wasnt in any databases. Then they tried to give me shit about not pressing charges.

She fumed. Lets go. This isnt over, but we did all we can for now.

We still dont have our stuff back, Liz.

That caused the redhead to shudder with repressed rage. She stormed out, and before the door closed, he could hear her shouts.

Camilla looked at him. And youre dating her?

That got Matt to smile, and it took his mind off who was trying to kill him. It was a short list of people he had pissed off after all. It seemed that the idiot from Dual Stars wasnt happy with letting a broken neck be the only price to pay.

Well what can I say? I find strong-willed women attractive.