Chapter 138

Chapter 138

When Matt woke up, he found that Aster was still upset about the pyramid of household objects stacked on and around her. She was ignoring everyone while sending chilly gusts of wind at anyone she thought it would bother.

Currently, her only targets were Matt and Liz, as they were the only ones in the living room.

Not long after Emmanuel had left, the party had devolved into various drinking games.

Possibly because she was the first to pass out last night, the fox was feeling the best.

Matt felt like someone hit him in the face, but he was at least able to function.

Liz was only doing slightly better than Matt, and had an arm thrown over her eyes while trying to find a comfortable position on the couch shed taken over at some point.

Despite the fact they were much higher Tier and fully able to control their bodies, the immortals were doing far worse than the three of them. The high Tier liquor they had started drinking apparently hit a lot harder than what the three of them had drunk.

Mara was currently in a tiny phoenix form, and had at some point created a miniature nest in a bookshelf. She wasn't actually in the nest; she had gotten stuck in the chandelier that hung over the kitchen table. She had struggled valiantly, but eventually gave up, and slept entangled in the gems and chains.

Leon, if Matt remembered correctly, and if his ears were working properly, had been stuffed into the fridge, and was currently asking for someone to open the door.

Matt ignored that and looked around for anyone else.

He found Sam curled up under the table using a bottle of silvery liquor like a pillow.

Leah and Alice were nowhere to be seen, but he could see Erin's slippered foot sticking inside the apartment from the balcony.

Matt eventually found Daniel when he noticed the second couch was extra lumpy and looked closer.

The middle sibling had apparently decided that getting under the couch pillows was the most comfortable position to be in.

Considering that Matt had woken up with a pile of stacked cans and a chair falling on him from when Aster freed herself, he wished he had thought to protect his head as well.

Moving slowly, he started to cook everyone breakfast after letting Leon free from the fridge, where he had been stuffed inside an intricate bottle in storm cloud form.

Matt didn't even try to remember what the older siblings had been thinking when they convinced the man to get into the bottle.

He remembered it had been funny, just not what the actual joke was.

By noon, everyone was up and moving, which actually allowed them to catch the official start of the games.

They had used the capital city's location for the opening ceremonies, which was six or so hours behind their current location on the planet.

It was an impressive showing, and everyone watched the proceedings with rapt attention.

The Emperor had given a speech at Tur'stals floating estate. They were in a spatially expanded garden, and he addressed the crowd of millions as the sun broke over the horizon.

Most of it was political fluff that passed through one slightly hungover ear and out the other, but seeing the Emperor use a primitive flint and steel to start the fire that would stay aflame for the next year was a sight to behold.

There was something entrancing about watching a man that could easily summon fire at a whim create it through mundane methods.

Matt was sure that there was some greater symbolism to it, but the subtler aspects of the ceremony were lost on him.

From then on, there were seemingly endless banquets and parties as the weeklong countdown began.

The Emperor kept things interesting by crashing random gatherings and doing impromptu meet and greets between his official appearances at various higher Tier events.

It gave the random Pathers a chance to meet the Tier 50 personally, and despite not having more than a minute to spend with each person, he somehow made everyone he interacted with feel like he had taken note of them specifically.

Matt was pretty sure that the Tier 50 was abusing a cloning skill or Talent, but it didnt change the fact people were ecstatic to meet him.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

The three of them spent most of their time in their normal identities so they could hang out with their friends, old and new. But they also donned their Quill and Torch personas to attend a few of the masked parties.

But as the final day approached, the atmosphere of the planet took two distinct turns. The Pathers got serious, and like an unspoken switch was thrown, the partying and fun time stopped when the day counter ticked over to hours.

At the same time, everyone elses parties seemed to kick into high gear.

When there were only minutes until the official start, Matt and Liz stood with Melindas team, Annie's team, Janet's team, and Felix in the crowd of participating Pathers. Quill and Torch, run by Luna and Kurt, were off in the distance with the other top ten maskers.

They actually had a much better view of the festivities, but Matt and Liz had wanted to be with their friends.

From the sidelines of the massive open area that they had all congregated in, the stands were full to bursting.

They were spatially expanded to the limit. Both the building in general and the stands that wrapped the venue were expanded to hold the fourteen billion people who were attending the event in person.

The staggering number only consisted of the lucky few who had won the planet-wide lottery to earn a seat. Everyone else on the planet that housed trillions, and all the viewers throughout the Empire had to watch on a screen.

And Matt had to be honest

Anyone not here in person was missing out.

There were two dragon and phoenix pairs chasing each other around the venue's sky in an acrobatic display that was dazzling even before their handlers started to add illusion spells to the showing.

The two dragons chased the phoenixes around in loops that brought them seemingly within arms reach of the crowd, but that was more an illusion created by their massive sizes than anything else. The great beasts were larger than some buildings, but were still nimble enough to turn tight circles. Matt was pretty sure they were cheating with their Concepts.

Something that big just shouldn't be able to turn that quickly.

Throughout the show, the dragons and phoenixes shot jets of elemental magic at each other, so their attacks fizzled out in colorful displays of magic that dissipated above the standing Pathers' heads.

It was an amazing backdrop to the entertainers who wandered above their heads and performed acrobatics and other impressive stunts in miniature performances.

An illusionist was performing sleight of hand card tricks near the group, but his shadow was constantly disrupting his tricks and pulling the hidden cards out of his pockets, to the annoyance of the main body.

After running through a few shows, all the hovering performers shifted places on an unheard cue.

Matt was watching a woman juggle half a dozen flaming blades with her feet, when all the performers faded away as if they were made of mist.

As they started to vanish, everyone's attention moved to the large stage that took up the center of the venue.

With billions of eyes watching, the empty stage that had held a few larger performances just moments ago was covered in a rising mist.

As quickly as the mist appeared, it vanished in seconds, and the flat platform was replaced with the Royals standing in a semi-circle around the Emperor.

At the first sight of the Emperor, the crowd went wild, and screams and shouts blasted out in waves.

The Emperor was the only royal that reacted, and simply waved at the crowd, letting them burn off their excess energy.

Matt's eyes were drawn to the royals flanking Emmanuel. On the right were Leon and Mara, standing next to each other with stern looks on their faces.

Seeing them up there, he looked to where he knew the Moore family was in the stands, and found the real versions of Mara and Leon shouting and waving like anyone else in the crowd. No one else recognized them, or any of the other Moore's as someone of stature in the crowd. Matt had checked with Kyle, and he only saw normal-looking people in the Moore family's places. In fact, he couldn't even see their shenanigans.

Currently, the family had matching cartoon shirts of Matt and Lizs faces while they slammed tubes together to make noise with the rest of the crowd. Matt plucked his bond with Aster, and she started wiggling and yowling as he was looking at her.

That sent the Moore family to redouble their effort in making noise, which Matt was only able to smile at. It was nice to have his own personal cheering squad.

He didn't mind in the slightest that no one else could see them, but their presence was a warm feeling that lingered in his heart.

Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to see the other royals in person, he scoped out the rest of the royals, comparing them to the pictures and videos he had seen and studied. Next to Mara, on the Emperor's right side, was a shorter, masked form.

Harper, the [Telekinesis] specialist, was small in stature, but the robes and mask hid any identifying features. Ironically enough, it had become their only real identifying feature.

To sate his curiosity, Matt had been forced to abuse his access to Mara and Leon. He asked them for details, and found out that Harper had started as a cover identity, but had eventually took over as the main identity. Or at least, the outward one. Along with their past identity, the royal had discarded everything else.

If the duo knew anything about the real Harper, they didn't offer the information, and Matt took their silence as answer enough.

On the other side of the Emperor was Tur'stal, in an elegant dress that seemed spun of light made solid.

Looking closer, the dress had vines and flowers in the stitching, which was a surprisingly subtle nod to her power set of controlling nature.

Normally, the left and right position next to the Emperor were taken up by the two Tier 48s, Mara and Leon. But with this being her planet, her position was switched with Maras for a more prestigious placement.

Next to her was a burly man who, even in formal attire, rippled with muscles. Rusty, the only pure melee fighter of the royals, was closing in on seven feet tall. All of which was supposedly genetic, instead of from using his physical control earned after reaching Tier 15 to tweak his form.

As she spoke, areas on the planet lit up in a variety of colors. A small minority were red, and Matt understood them to represent the Tier 10 rifts. At a Tier lower than what the planet would naturally birth, they were only kept from advancing with formations. That made them expensive, and much less numerous than their naturally occurring, Tier 11 counterparts.

Those were the most numerous. The orange highlighted rifts were plentiful, and held a noticeable majority, judging from the half of the planet they could see.

The planet's infrastructure seemed to be built around each beacon of light, and corresponded to the difficulty of the rifts. Yellow and green lit-up areas were lesser still, but apparently had far more infrastructure dedicated to them.

Giant buildings were spaced out between clear areas that surrounded the Tier 12 and Tier 13 rifts.

There were a few bright green lights showing the location of the Tier 14 rifts. They seemed to be orbited by the lesser rifts colored yellow and orange.

Interestingly enough, the two blue lights he could see were lost in the planning of the other rifts; their locations appearing more random than the others.

It made sense when you considered that no normal Tier 10 could fight in a Tier 13 rift, let alone the Tier 14 rifts. While the Pathers were stronger than average, even a dozen teams couldn't bridge a five Tier gap in power.

That made the Tier 15 rifts superfluous, and only a byproduct of having the maximum number of Tier 11 rifts available by making the planet Tier 15.

Even still, the Tier 13 rifts would be housing the greatest of single team challenges, with the Tier 14 rifts curated to be weaker than normal, and designated for the group battles.

Or at least, that was the historical information that Matt had been able to learn beforehand had suggested.

There was always the chance they had changed things this year.

Tur'stals words slithered to his ears once more. Here we have the stage for our upcoming Pathers. This entire world is dedicated to them for the next year. Here, we will challenge them and push their limits.

In the sky, a similar apparition to the one that had been used to view the Tier 15 planet appeared.

This time, it was a giant, numbered listing of blank places.

For everyone who isn't a participant, we will be able to watch the teams fight in the rifts through the streams. Well have a front row seat as they compete in challenges of speed, clearing rifts as fast as possible.

The view in the sky projection changed to show half a dozen different scenes in a massive grid.

As the months progress, the challenges will change and be reset, giving opportunity for everyone to grow and learn from past experiences. They will also earn greater rewards as the competition grows.

Tur'stal paused at that. With all competition comes betting. People love gambling on their chosen champions and hoping to become rich. While a fun way to participate in the competition, I wish to remind everyone to gamble responsibly, and to use the officially sanctioned brokers. If you choose to use an unlicensed bookie, there is no guarantee for receiving your rewards. Please bet responsibly.

As if trying to wave that warning away, Tur'stal gestured out, and streamers of light slithered around the Tier 10s standing at the foot of the stage.

With that final warning, I send off our competitors. I wish all of you the best of luck, and remember to stay safe.

As the two strands of light stretched around the Pathers, and finally met at the far end of the stadium, the light extended to the ground. Suddenly, Matt was looking up at East Flower from the surface of the Tier 15 planet.

The gravity felt the same, but he knew that it was a product of enchantments, rather than the mass of the planets being identical.

To his surprise, the royals were still in the same location, despite the stage having disappeared.

A more serious Tur'stal called out, Now that we are here, and away from the crowd, I would like to take the time to go over a few more formalities.

Her words were accompanied by a gentle smile, but there was a tone that demanded everyone's attention.

The Tier 10 rifts are hardly a challenge for anyone here. Even the Tier 11 rifts are hardly a difficult hurdle for any of you. To that end, most Tier 10 rifts are free for anyone to delve for essence or rift rewards at any point. But there are correspondingly no competition rewards for said rifts. There are a few rifts of that Tier that are used for challenges and testing, but if youre good enough to appear on this stage, a rift at your own Tier is no challenge. Like all rifts that have associated challenges, we will be relying on your taking AI-backed oaths to not spread information about what you learn in those rifts. To assist in that endeavor, the information spread between our little garden planet and the East Flower will be limited in the extreme. So, if you expected to get help from there, you will be sorely disappointed.

Tur'stal gestured to the crowd, and a massive information packet was downloaded to Matt's AI.

This contains all the rewards and current challenges for the first month of games. Even though the rewards are small now, they will increase as each month resets the standings.

Matt resisted the urge to snort at the comment that the rewards were small.

The smallest reward he saw in his perusal of the list was of a speedrun of a Tier 10 rift, which gave a Tier 12 crafting material. Even if it was just sold on the open market, it was worth quite a bit.

As was stated earlier, most rifts will be recorded with our drones for entertainment and verification purposes. Some rifts will be exempt from said recordings, and you will be notified if that is the case. Also, for our more interesting challenges, like the endless wave rift, we have direct access to view what happens inside each instance at any time. I remind you of this as all of you have hidden skills and abilities you might not want revealed until the final, Big Three competitions. Those same videos will be open to the general public, but we will be censoring any information we find too sensitive. Still, remember that the others who actually care about your abilities aren't stupid, and are perfectly capable of deductive reasoning. Also, note that any location marked with a White Rose means there is no recording allowed from us or you. All of your apartment rooms are included in that. Please respect your fellow competitors' privacy, as they will respect yours.

Tur'stal waved her hand, and an arm band hovered in front everyone until they took it.

This is linked to our planetary AI, and monitors your health at all times. It's powerful enough to punch out of rifts, so we can monitor your health even during a delve. We do not wish for any deaths, and will be actively preventing them if needed. That doesn't mean you should be reckless in your battles. Know your limits, and push them carefully. We have the best medical staff the Empire has to offer here, but we cant remove healing cooldowns, and we will block you from delving if you reach that limit.

Matt wanted to poke Melinda, but resisted the childish urge as he took the slim band of metal and put it around his wrist.

Still, her warning was a good one. They were going to be pushing hard, and a bad injury could take the most promising contestant out of the running if they were unlucky.

Tur'stal smiled at the reaction from the crowd said, Back to the fun information.

A three-sided pillar of stone rose out of the crowd and the surface rippled as a listing appeared.

Here is, at least for most of you, the most important ranking. The Big Three. The crafters' challenges will start preliminary rounds in three months, while the solo duels and team battle will start at the six-month mark.

Everyone's gazes were drawn to the pillar as it rose hundreds of feet into the air.

Matt couldn't wait for his and Lizs names to top the two combat pillars.

The challenge of beating everyone else as Quill was invigorating. Especially after his latest conversation with the Emperor.

A woman appeared next to Turstal, standing smartly at a modified parade rest. She was dressed in a sharp looking uniform that was reminiscent of military dress uniforms, but in green and silver. Tur'stal's personal colors.

These are our guards, the personnel who will be staffing this event. They are all Tier 20 at a minimum, and while they are here to assist you in your time here, they arent servants to be ordered around. If they tell you something, please know that they do so for your own good. If you believe they are acting out of turn, just call out my name. I will be watching everything closely, and listening for any such calls. Otherwise, they are here to assist you all, so I ask that you listen to their orders.

The unnamed guard nodded before saying, We will do our best to ensure your stay is as comfortable as possible. Simply calling out, or messaging the planetary AI the phrase A bud needs care will draw our attention to your location in short order.

With that single remark, she vanished.

Matt wanted to smirk at them being called buds, as it matched the theme of Tur'stal Talent, but it was also a reminder of what Matt had mostly forgotten after living with Mara and Leon for so long.

A Tier 47 could easily see and watch the entire planet, all at once.

An uncomfortable thought, but one he had long since come to terms with.

With each Tier 10 tournament, we try to change things up, and this time is no different. For this tournament, everything you do will be judged and awarded points. Complete a Tier 10 rift speed run and earn a point. Do it in under a specified time, and earn more. Have the fastest time at the end of the month, and youll earn even more points. The harder the challenge, and the better you do, the more points you will earn. Tur'stals grin was palpable through her voice as she smiled at the Pathers under her. These points will be cumulative throughout the entire year, and at each month, you will receive rewards depending on your total ranking in the various challenge categories.

A second but flat pillar of stone rose from the ground, and had a hundred listings waiting to be filled.

These rewards will not be insignificant. If youre a generalist, and are able to compete well enough in each challenge to take the top places, you will find your rewards similar to those of the final victors of the Big Three.

That set the Tier 10 Pathers aflame. The rewards for the winner of the Big Three were always stunning. Even the top 100 earned rewards that usually were out range for any Tier 20. Rare and unique items were commonplace at that level, and Tur'stal had just said that there was a new, fourth way for anyone to earn rewards of a similar caliber. They just had to be active and able to spread themselves out.

The competitive edge that had been simmering under the surface now exploded out from each Pather team in the crowd.

Those who had been their neighbors and fellows in the celebrations were now their competitors.

Tur'stal, having anticipated this, added one final bomb. Also, your accumulated points can be spent for a variety of rewards at any point. They can be anything from time with a high Tier personal trainer to new weapons or armor. Or, for those more spendthrift individuals, lavish evenings of decadence and pampering, the likes of which you have never imagined possible.

The available rewards were then sent to each of them in an information packet. They were everything that Tur'stal had hinted at and more.

Growth items of all types were commonplace and plentiful. As were items personally crafted by Tier 25s, which also appeared with turn around times that Matt had to question the possibility of. A personal weapon being made in a single evening seemed impossible, until he realized that the Queen of East Flower was probably going to be sending the crafters into the rifts on her Tier 43 worlds. She would most likely be abusing the time dilation to get the orders done quickly.

With the ability to buy things at any time, everyone needed to balance the possible rewards and power boosts they could earn with the loss of points that would set them back in the overall standings.

It would make for an interesting balancing act.

Even with his inflated view of money from his Talent, Matt found dozens of things he wanted. They had previously been impossible to afford, or were just not sold on the open market.

It all just cost points.

Matt was going through the listing of point-earning activities when Tur'stal finally said, With that, I wish everyone the best of luck. We will be eagerly awaiting your showing.

Matt turned to Liz and saw a matching fire in her eyes.

They had two identities that they needed to start earning points with, after all.

They needed to get moving if they didnt want to get left behind.