Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Matt sat with Liz and Aster on a nearby stone wall while everyone else scurried around, accosting the few people highlighted in green in his HUD. It was more like a school of fish swarming around prey than any normal human interaction..

Seeing nothing interesting, Matt started working on his Concept again. With an effort of will, he hardened the air in front of himself and tapped at it, causing the plane of solid air to crack.

What the fuck Matt!?

With a questioning look, he turned to Liz, who pulled at her hair as she glared at the area in front of his hand.

She poked his ribs and growled at him, How are you doing that?

He tried to get away from the finger of doom, but as he wiggled away, she scuttled after him.

That hurts! And tickles. Stop! No fair! Im running out of wall.

Liz finally stopped but still pouted at him.

How are you doing it?

Matt noticed that for all her joking attitude, she was serious about her question.

I just felt what the Colonel was doing and tried to sense it. When he felt me, it became clearer, so I copied it. Its not strong enough to stand on yet, but it really doesnt seem hard to do.

Liz mixed a glare with a pout for a truly odd sight.

You cant really do that until Tier 10, though... She let the statement trail off as she watched him recreate the plane of solid air. At least thats the common convention.

She started poking the air in front of her, but he felt nothing with his Concept.

Liz gave up after two more attempts. I dont know if its my Concept being internal or what, but Im finding nothing here. What are you doing?

Matt thought about it for a minute before replying, Im just recreating what the Colonel did. I felt him hardening the air, so I just wanted the air to be solid. I didnt really find it hard. Why? Is it normal for people to not be able to do it?

Liz leaned back and started ruffling Asters fur while dodging playful nips aimed at her fingers.

Yeah, most people cant do it at our Tier, as they dont have the willpower to do it. Maybe youre getting a benefit somehow with your image, but I honestly dont know. Its impressive that you can do that already, though. Im proud of you.

Matt let the compliment bolster him as he added a ruffling hand to Liz and Asters game, but he still wanted to help Liz. To that end, he tried to explain further. Im doing what you do when you resist monsters in rifts from trying to restrict movement. Its like that, but instead of countering their own will over an area of effect, Im recreating what they were doing. Im willing the air to solidify.

Liz looked up from their game of tease the fox and poked at the air once more, before raising an eyebrow at him. But I dont do that. When I resist a monsters Concept with my own, its with my body. I force my way through it, so its not able to slow me down or restrict me. I dont counter their Concept; I fight through it.

Huh. I didn't know that. He really hadnt known that she hadnt used her Concept in that way. He had always assumed that she was using it just how he was.

In his mind, when someone tried to push you down, you resisted in the equal and opposite way, or you redirected the force. That way, it wouldnt be able to apply the intended effect on you. It was exactly how one would resist a physical blow they were unable to dodge.

He did it constantly every time he fought.

That was when he realized why he might be able to make the change. With a thought, he turned the Concept from just hardening the air into willing a plane to exist and resist his forward moment. The harder he pushed, the more it resisted. It was like his Concepts repulsive effect, but facing him.

The new resistance was also much easier to produce in comparison. With a flat palm, he shoved hard and slid backward until the back of his knees pressed into the wall. It drained some willpower, but as the area was a small, flat plane, and not a sphere around his entire body, it wasnt that bad. The cost still increased with his force, but it was a good starting point.

Aster nipped a too-slow finger, and he returned his attention to where it belonged. With his family.

***

Colonel Throne watched as the boy played with his Concept and his friends from a hidden, warped area next to them with his Intent. He was about to leave while mentally noting that the boy was good, but not exceptional, when the boys methodology changed.

Suddenly, the boy did something that shouldnt be possible at his Tier and experience.

He quickly brought up a profile on the boy, and was about to set up an offer for army recruitment and personal tutelage, when his body froze.

It wasnt an attack, but an overwhelming pressure of a greater cultivator. It was a second later that his spirit cried out a warning that a monster was looming over him with jaws wide open.

His instincts gained in countless battlefields over his last nine thousand years in the army cried out for him to flee, but he was caged by a will stronger than his own. His Intent was gently rebuffed and forced down.

It was a terrifying realization that also brought some comfort, because if someone that strong wanted to kill him, he wouldnt have even noticed his death. The horror of being this close to a monster was something he hadnt felt since his Tier 20s.

A purple-haired woman floated in front of him, and he received a message verifying the womans identity. Her Tier was only marked as Tier 40 plus, but her message identified her as Luna. She was surrounded by two other people who stood close by, but said nothing.

With an air of pure authority,she said, These are my subjects. Go find your own clay to mold. These are mine.

This was a Path manager in the flesh. He had never met one before, and he already wished that he hadnt.

I didnt mean to interfere, maam. I can...

She didnt seem to hear him, continuing as she sent him a second message with coordinates. Also, make this island your base. But if you ruin the rifts there, Ill take it out of your hide.

Throne cringed internally at the order, as he would need to move his entire operation, but this woman was at least Tier 40, and had the Emperors ear. He had no obligation to follow her orders, but for something this small, it was a harmless change that wouldnt impact their plans. He would do it to avoid trouble down the road, if nothing else.

He waited for a dismissal quietly. He didnt want to leave before he was dismissed, which might anger the great lady. It was unlikely that she would harm him, but even in the Empire, catching a Tier 40 plus ire was never good for career advancement.

As Throne listened, his expression grew confused.

This idiot boy. What is he doing? He could be getting fourteen percent more out of his Concept if he added a bit of firmness behind his repulsion. Lessons in physics are in order. This is shameful, her boy toy is using Concept manipulations, and she cant.

The man handed what looked like a piece of paper to the ranting woman while he wrote on a floating notepad.

Luna read it for a moment, then it vanished in a puff of void. I dont care if she has an internal Concept. Its only a little harder for her. She could do it if she put in the work.

Throne felt bewildered. Internal Concepts made it nearly impossible to harden the air or carry oneself without flight spells. The best way for most people with internal Concepts to circumvent that problem was to use their Concept to lift their bodies up. But that was thousands of times harder than having an external Concept and hardening the air.

This woman wanted the girl to do something he had only heard of two internal Concept users accomplishing? The difficulty of the task was only matched by the reward for actually figuring the methodology out. Internal Concepts sacrificed the ability to use manipulations like that for increasing the user's power. But if they were able to learn to reach outside of their body, they got the best of both worlds.

More than one cultivator thought they were unique and could bridge that gap, but the ones who succeed were more myths than tangible data points.

The man turned to him and nodded a dismissal.

Throne cast [Teleport] and escaped from the crazy manager. Anyone who pushed their charges that hard was someone whose attention he didnt want to garner.

Those poor kids.

Just in case, Throne marked the trio to be watched. He didnt plan on giving them special treatment, but he didnt want to be surprised about their movements.

With an internal sigh, he started the arduous task of moving the army base to the island selected. He would personally inspect the rifts, as they must be unique for the Tier 40 to take an interest in them. He also didnt want any potential dangers near his camp, no matter how unlikely a few Tier 1 through Tier 7 rifts were to be a threat. The Tier 1 rift was particularly unusual on a Tier 6 world, but it was no real cause for concern. The Tier 7 was rift was notable as well. Rifts growing to a Tier higher than the planet was normal enough, and indicated that the planet would be Tiering up in a mortal generation or two. But he still would need to check them both out as outliers.

The battered and soot-covered Prince smiled while he called out, A good fight! Ah yes, where was I? Mr. Polovesnty, we were talking about what you would gain by joining my faction.

Matt and Liz turned back as Albert was swarmed by green outlined people trying to join the kingdoms side. Apparently, his little showing was more effective than Matt would have guessed.

It didnt escape his notice that Sara had an identical scene around herself on the other side of the landing area.

Matt and Liz returned to their room, and by nightfall, were joined by three other people to round out their squad.

They all sat around in the little common room that linked their five doors into a suite.

The first was a man who looked slightly older than them, and had the beginnings of stubble on his face.

He introduced himself, The names Conor. Im mid Tier 6 and twenty-two years old. I primarily tank, with a few special properties that allow me to use [Demon Zone] without hurting myself. Im a solo Pather, so Im going to have to change some things up to work with yall, but I can make it work.

Matt looked closer at the man and nodded, he knew the skill and its limitations, as he was looking at getting it himself back on the training world, but that hadnt panned out yet. It was an incredibly rare Tier 8 skill, since it wasnt valuable enough to farm rifts for.

Liz nodded and said, Were familiar with the skill, and Matt at least can work inside without issue.

That caused Conor to look closer at Matt. They would need to have a good spar and test each other out. Melee fighters needed to be familiar with one anothers fighting styles if they were going to work efficiently in each other's vascinity. The best way to accomplish that, obviously, was a good fight.

Matt looked away and nodded at the next two people who sat close to each other.

They were identical twins. Even Matts AI had a hard time telling them apart when they left his sight. It didnt help that they purposefully styled themselves in the same fashion, but they took the hint and introduced themselves.

Im Emily.

And Im Annie.

Emily continued, Im a burst mage with mostly water and lighting spells.

Annie continued without missing a beat, Im an assassin with invisibility.

Like that, she vanished. Even the indent where her weight pressed down on the couch was gone.

Matt spun and guarded his and Lizs rear, ready to activate [Cracked Phantom Armor] at the slightest indentation of the short carpet.

From behind him, Annie questioned, What are you doing?

Matt turned around to see that the woman hadnt moved.

I half expected some teleport or [Blink] with a move like that.

The woman looked wistful when she said, No. I wish. It would be an amazing combination. Sadly, were just too poor to buy a skill like that.

The other twin, Emily, continued, Were both peak Tier 6 and twenty-five. We were going to Tier up to 7 early, and keep ahead of the curve, but we held off with this little war. We had the time, and even without the rewards, the combat experience isnt easy to come by.

Matt waved slightly and said, Matt. Low Tier 6. I have [Hail] as my only real offensive skill. Im a longsword melee fighter with an armor Talent that lets me take hits a Tier above my own. I also get a strength increase with the skill.

Conor and Annie looked interested, so he flicked his armor on for a moment to give them a look. He was going with the same excuse that he used during the golem fighting, as he was sure that Juni had it registered. There was no need to blow a cover that was already provided for him.

Liz continued, Im Liz. Blood mage who can act like most water mages, as Im sure you already know. Emily, we should see how your lighting works with me. I absorbed some blood iron, so maybe we can do some combination attacks there. Im good at sustained and long fights, as the more people bleed, the more free blood I get to use. I can take down Tier 7 foes with my skills.

Matt held up Aster, who had walked by him, and introduced her, This is Aster, my bond and the third person on our team. Shes an arctic fox who uses ice spells. Shes just starting to talk, but shes only really at two-word sentences, so cut her some slack. She loves eating ice cream and hearts.

The latter caused everyone to pause slightly, but no one questioned it. He also purposefully didn't say their ages. While Liz was six months older than him, she still wasnt quite nineteen. While not unheard of,it was an incredibly fast pace to reach Tier 6 by. They were hoping that little tidbit would be overlooked.

Aster looked around and asked everyone present, Ice cream? Where? No smell.

The others smiled at that, but Emily asked, While I dont have a problem with it per se, why are you three in charge? Youre weaker than us, and younger by a good margin.

Liz answered that. Well first, weve been in the kingdom for a while. We came in as a part of the subjugation mission for this planet.That involved fighting in the golem battles when we were Tier 5, and we took both first and second places for our contributions when taking the fortification. She let that settle for a moment before she tacked on, We were only mid Tier 5 at that time attacking peak Tier 6 monsters. Were on the Path as well.

The last was added as almost an afterthought, but Matt had to smile at how it caused all of them to re-evaluate their perceptions of the trio. Liz, for all her bitching about high society, had a knack for handling people.

Conor nodded, Thats impressive enough; I wont complain.

Annie asks, So youve been here longer. Why choose the kingdom over the queendom?

Matt shrugged a shoulder casually. We were already here and actually like Juni- the Prince's right-hand man. Also, we wanted to delve in peace during the downtime between the announcement and attack.

They had since confirmed that it was a good call, as anyone who chose to swap sides had been confined to the cities for the duration of the countdown timer. They were stuck there until the neutral city had been built. Matt didnt want to know where they would be if they hadnt had the time off to increase their wealth and strength before the announcement of the war.

Liz checked her watch and said, We were told that we wouldnt be deployed until tomorrow, but Id like to get some light sparring and team tactics training in tonight. Nothing crazy, since we dont have a healer. But enough so that when we get started, we dont have to fight together blindly.

No one disagreed, so they went to find a training room, and saw that mostly everyone had the exact same idea. All of the training rooms they came across were already occupied.

The Golem Battalion had been nearly fully staffed with the arrival of the Pathers. It didnt escape anyones notice that there were no teams consisting of cultivators on The Path and kingdom cultivators together. They were always in separate groups.

They stood around for nearly ten minutes, until Conor asked, Does anyone know how the challenge areas work?

Liz caught on faster than Matt and called out, Brilliant! I challenge you three to a duel.

Matt laughed as their AIs asked for confirmation. When they accepted, they got a notice that a platform would be sent to their location shortly, and showed a four-minute timer.

Annie looked at the other man and nodded, Good thinking. I wouldnt have thought of it on my own.

Conor looked unperturbed. Saw it in a movie, so I cant take the credit.

They milled around, and to the shock of the other teams nearby, boarded the platform when it descended. They got a marshy swamp area; Matt felt bad for anyone who didnt have a skill to keep out murky water and foul stenches.

The teams who were huddled around the front entrance of the kingdoms building put two and two together as they watched the group of six. As their platform rose, Matt was able to see four more platforms moving in their direction.

Summoning his sword, he began moving forward, only to stop when a hovering woman appeared to ask, Whats the challenge for, and what win conditions do you want?

Matt quickly said, Well be using the platform for round-based three vs. three with team swapping and breaks.

The woman shrugged and vanished while echoing, Well, let me know when you all are done.

Almost as an afterthought, she added, Do you care if people can see or watch in?

Liz quickly added, We would like our privacy, please. From all but you, of course.

The edge of the area seemed to shimmer in the air like a heat haze. Seeing that they were protected, Liz withdrew her spear and said, Well, lets test each other out some, shall we?

Matt readied his blade. They had a war to prepare for.