Chapter 139

Chapter 139

Zack observed the projection of the opening ceremonies with half a mind, until the Pathers were teleported to the now much closer trial planet.

They weren't going to be making a move until most of the royals, and most importantly, the Emperor, left. At that point, moving over wouldnt be suicidal, just recklessly dangerous. That, they could handle.

Families and people close to the Tier 10s could get visitor passes to the Tier 15 planet, a method he and Allie would be exploiting as their way in. Anything else was too risky.

Zack was watching the cloned health monitor they had been able to get their hands on and started his own tracking of the Pathers' health statuses. Those bands were not new technology by any means. Still, this was only his third time seeing them in action. Each band was ludicrously expensive to produce. Only a Tier 35 with a good grasp on space and teleportation could create the runes that they relied on.

The damn things only worked reliably when the transponder was crafted from rare materials at least double the rank of the rift it was meant to broadcast from. Even these bands were only rated for up to Tier 14 rifts, but the sheer amount of exotic Tier 28 materials that went into producing this many would make anyone flinch. Turstal many times predecessor had personally invested into this health-tracking system, and the security protecting the network reflected that even to this day.

It was why they hadnt bothered to try and hack into the system directly. Instead, they simply located a less-than-well-observed monitoring interface that the guards had used to track the kids' health, and cloned it.

They could only copy the same information coming into that device without giving themselves away, but it was still something to work with.

Allies cry brought him out of his efforts to organize the incoming information to better suit their needs. Hah! I fucking got them!

She was fixated on her wall of screens, and he quickly scrutinized the scene that she had on a loop.

In the video, a nondescript woman walked through one of the teleporters and vanished. Nothing unusual, but she had subtly sent out a burst of mana during the formation's activation, an act that would normally result in the travelers death.

Except, no explosion of blood and gore followed.

Did you trace their jump to the real exit location? Zack tried to keep the elation out of his voice. He failed. This was the first other cell of spies they had detected.

You bet your stick-filled-ass I did! I told you! I fucking told you that they were using this teleporter as their redirect.

Allie gloated, and admittedly, she had earned it. He had postulated that they were using a more obscure method of travel. Using the planet-wide teleporters was downright brazen, and raised the question of how they managed to modify the teleporter pad without even the maintenance technicians noticing anything.

Those formations were inspected daily, and underwent more thorough audits monthly.

Either their counterparts had a new method of redirecting teleporters, which was always a possibility with Talents, or they had a few well-placed spies on the inside, who had been activated for this event. Either way, Zack was a little envious.

Still, they had a job to do.

Standing, he quickly strode across the room and pulled up the location that Allie had tracked the spatial ripples to.

Zack had to nod in professional appreciation. This operation was being run out of a spatially expanded mobile base hidden inside a fake pigeon. Even with all their sensors and knowledge of what to look for, they couldn't tell the imitation bird from the real ones sitting next to it. If the operatives teleportation didnt lead directly inside the bird, neither Zack nor Allie would have ever found it.

Zack didnt gamble, but he would bet his life savings on the construct being a Talent.

It was just too perfect to be anything else.

After confirming the birds location, he turned to Allie and began considering their options.

Should we dispatch them ourselves? Or do we just compromise their cover and let the local guards step in?

Naturally, their primary assignment was to gather information on the Pathers going through the Tier 10 tournament. However, counterespionage was the next highest priority in the mission statement. After all, it would not do to let their enemies learn too much.

The question was; how to eliminate the competition?

If they did it themselves, they could possibly extract the other team's findings, which might fill in some gaps in their own investigations.

That option came with the highest risk of blowing their own cover, though.

He knew which option Allie would champion, but a part of being a good team meant talking things through when you could.

Yet, his partner surprised him. Yeah, I'm not laying a hand on that winged rat.

Zack nodded happily. I'm glad you agree. It would be an unnecessary risk

Allie interrupted with a raspberry. Pffft! No, no, no. I want to see the big bad Emperor make a move. He's less than a blink away. If we pop their little bubble now, he might just hop over and curb stomp these yahoos personally.

Even though Zack already approved of this strategy, the outside chance of seeing the Emperor himself make a move added to the appeal.

While it would be exceedingly unlikely that they could poach any new information this way, they might witness a Tier 50s power for themselves. That was tempting.

Very tempting.

While I was already on board with the strategy, I would relish such an opportunity as well. Even if the Emperor doesnt make a move, getting one of the Royals to personally intervene would likewise be valuable. Even if the odds are long, theres no harm in trying to bait a response either.

Once the pigeon entered their attack radius, Zack started up their Base Blaster, as Allie insisted on calling it. In truth, the attack consisted of numerous, intricate formations that worked in concert to disrupt concealment measures. In almost any scenario, it could unveil camouflaged facilities, at least temporarily. The catch was that the activation was anything but subtle, and the area of effect was limited. Realistically, it was only effective if they had already narrowed down the location of their target to within a few feet.

He hated to admit that even he started to think of it as the Base Blaster, if only because of Allies continual obsession with using the childish name. Firing it would sadly mean they would have to burn this base. They had to sever any connection that could reveal their next actions, and their base would also be compromised. However, the recording equipment was already running in their next base, so at most, it was a minor annoyance.

The procedures that followed were something they had practiced many times. No words were exchanged as Allie levitated a needle with her Talent, floating it from its resting place on the far side of their base over to Zack. Both vigilantly avoided touching the object. Thanks to how Allies Talent worked, neither of them would ever have any direct contact with the needle, which would accordingly foil many forms of divination that might be used to track them with it.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

But it was still insufficient.

While Arcane mana lacked true access to Void affinity, the one type which would make it truly untraceable, Zack had discovered a tolerable alternative. When fed a unique blend of Fire, Earth, and Metal mana, the normally illusion-based [Invisible Object] would reset any mana signatures which might have imprinted themselves onto a targeted metal object. This technique also yielded the side benefit of superheating the needle to the point where any physical evidence was incinerated.

Zack nodded once the needle was completely scrubbed of any possible evidence of their involvement, and they began their countdown in silent unison.

When it reached zero, they acted.

Zack called on his Concept, using the smallest fraction of mana he could to launch the needle forward. Meanwhile, Allie wrapped the projectile in her Talent and triggered the teleportation formation they had etched throughout the city. In the next instant, the needle vanished in a flash of untraceable mana.

Without a moment of hesitation, they activated their emergency escape talismans and arrived in separate locations of the city.

No commotion or outward disturbance could be felt, but Zack hadnt expected one.

When they rendezvoused hours later in their next hideout, they reviewed the recording of their attack.

The needle appeared half an inch away from the pigeon and punched through the creatures hide.

Apparently, the pigeon was actually alive, and the poor bird erupted into a shower of viscera, revealing a prismatic marble that had previously been hidden within it. As they continued to watch, the marble cracked and then split apart in slow motion.

A base not unlike their own became recognizable as it expanded to its normal size, now that the formations and runes containing it were broken.

Before the space ballooned to larger than the size of Allie's hand, everything vanished. Even the pigeons splattered remains had been wiped away.

That's it? They didn't even bother to appear themselves? Fuck me sideways. No, fuck them sideways! Allie kicked away from the screens and spun her chair in a huff.

Zack frowned himself. He concurred with his teammate. It had always been a longshot, but this outcome was more than a little disappointing.

That was the life of undercover and spy work, though. That same life also meant no protection from a Tier 50 snatching you if they stumbled upon your base.

The rules of war did not cover spies for a reason.

And one could argue that the international treaties on not attacking down a Tier were never even broken.

He was sure the other operatives were still alive. At least, for now.

What tomorrow brought them was best left unthought of. The fate of unsuccessful spies was never clean.

Well, let's get to work and dissect the information we can glean from the few frames of their safe room that we have from before it was pulled away. We might be able to identify which other Great Power they hailed from.

Now that the monster was no longer hiding, the weight of its spirit was obvious, as was the mid Tier 12 boss presence.

Liz jumped off Matt's flying blade and flew off in the opposite direction, starting to summon gallons of blood from her glove growth item.

They werent willing to show off the true extent of their abilities, but as the monster seemed only able to attack with whips made of trees, they did not have to show much.

Matt flew close while he threw [Fireball]s as fast as the skill recovered in his spirit.

From the side, he saw Liz swinging arcs of blood at the monsters whips. Despite the two Tier disadvantage, she only needed a few chops to cut through each limb.

Her Blood Iron once again showed its prowess.

With most of the monster's attention on his partner, Matt flew forward, getting closer to the center mass of the creature as its bark obstructed his sight.

[Flamethrower] took a second to burn through the outer layer of the bark, but as it hit the monsters inner flesh, the fire took on a life of its own.

Matt was instantly attacked by every whip the monster had, but his sword was fast, and he had practice dodging attacks in the air. Still, he was only able to keep his attack up for another few seconds before he was forced away from the monster. The sheer defensive frenzy that the boss was driven into, and the remaining time limit on his skill that served to hide his Talent pressured Matt as he continued his assault.

Still, the damage was done, and as they retreated higher up into the sky, he and Liz watched as the monster burned from the inside out.

Matt shrugged and said, That was almost disappointingly easy.

Liz scratched her armored head and gestured with her spear. I don't think Ive ever seen a monster with such a glaring weakness before. I guess that fight would have been awful if we didnt have fire spells, but who doesn't have at least one? She turned to him and asked, How long did it take you to get through the outer armor?

Matt reviewed his AI and said, A little more than two seconds of a full 40 MPS [Flamethrower].

Liz shook her head and joined him on his flying sword again. That means even with just basic [Fireball]s, anyone else could have broken through the armor in about six shots if they could hit the same spot. Probably less, since the explosion damage would have helped punch through.

They waited in silence until they felt the rush of essence that flooded their spirits before moving on.

The next sub-boss they found was a boulder golem in a ravine, situated at the edge of the mountain region.

The fight was harder than the tree monster, but only because this boss didnt have any glaring weaknesses, unlike the first monster.

Matt fought it from the ground and kept its attention on his armored form while only launching the occasional attack. It allowed Liz to build up enough blood to smash the boulders into pieces too small for the boss to reform.

It took them nearly twenty minutes to finish the monster off, but the fight hadnt been particularly hard.

The essence rush this time felt far more earned, and Matt smiled as they moved to search out the next boss.

It was essence two Tiers higher than their Tier, and as a sub-boss, it gave quite a bit more for a single kill than killing dozens of the regular Tier 12 monsters would have.

As they neared the exit, they were unable to find the third sub-boss, and decided to kill the main boss before looking around more.

The final boss of the rift was a pack of massively scaled-up versions of the elemental dogs that they had seen throughout the rift.

Before they went into the fight with the mid Tier 12 monsters, Matt and Liz went and killed several packs of the lesser monsters, to see if they had any surprises or unexpected skills.

As it turned out, the monsters didnt. They mostly used breath or ranged attacks of their elements while closing in, and tried to finish the two of them off in melee range by biting and clawing as much as they could.

While there were four types of the elemental dogs, the main ones were the poison and lightning-based dogs that they first spotted. They had little issue dealing with them, though Matt tried to fight the poison monsters himself, as he was practically immune with [Cracked Phantom Amor]. Liz had to fight them from a distance, so she focused on the other two dogs.

The last two types were wind and mud elementals, but they were even easier to kill than the other two variants, which made them feel almost like afterthoughts.

They didnt bother to fight fair against the rift boss, and Liz started the fight with a wave of blood that she had taken from their previous enemies.

As the wave crashed over and then clung to the bosses, Matt followed up [Mana Slash]es charged with 2000 mana and aimed at the monster's legs.

Together, they had the monsters down in less than ten minutes. Eventually each of the elemental dogs throats were cut by Liz as they futiley grappled with the manipulated blood.

Checking their time, they saw that they were closing in on three hours in the rift already, and after opening the reward distortion and receiving three bottles of Tier 12 mercury, they started to look around for the third and final sub-boss.

It was Liz who noticed it after half an hour of looking.

The third sub boss was a giant whale swimming around the edge of the rift, hiding in the lava flows that they hadnt particularly investigated.

Since Matt had [Lava Manipulation] in his arsenal from his spending spree after the vassal war, the fight was absurdly easy. After pulling the section of river where the monster was waiting into the air, they simply attacked it while the monster fell helplessly to the ground.

Even as it tried to gather up lava from the nearby river, it was unable to put together enough of a defense with Matt fighting its every effort. Meanwhile, Liz drilled holes through its craggy flesh with all the blood that she had gathered from the Tier 12 bosses.

With a final time of three hours and eleven minutes, they exited the rift to see that they were actually the first team to have completed it, which put them firmly in first place.

Not that they expected to stay in first place, as they were sure that now that they knew where the monsters would be, they could cut down their time spent in the rift to simply flying around and killing the bosses.

Still, it was nice to see they had beaten the team that had gone in before them, and the ones that had gone in after hadnt bested their time.

Their delve earned their team fifteen points, which was pretty nice, but they both wanted to delve the rift once again with their knowledge of the boss locations and abilities.

With a second attempt, they might be able to actually win the fastest time, if they could cut down their delve by about an hour.

With less than an hour to their rift delve as Quill and Torch, they went back to their rooms and changed out their personalities with Luna and Kurt, after getting a warning that they were pushing their shown power a little too far in their real identities.

The rift they had been signed up for was a simple race of a Tier 11 rift.

Wanting to show off in their masked personas, Quill and Torch were already hovering in the air with their matching flying ankle devices as the countdown to their entrance time began.

This rift could be run only once a month by each team, which made the first clear of the rift a blind one, but they were able to gather some information beforehand. The rift's designation was a speedrun, but it had a second, more telling category.

It was a maze rift.

As flying would have implied that they could bypass most mazes, they could conclude that the rift was underground, or had natural anti-flying restrictions. The two teams they had seen exit the rift so far had flown out, so they were able to remove the second possibility.

That information, combined with the current fastest clear being two hours and thirty-two minutes, gave them quite a bit more information than they had had for their first rift. The current first place team finished only ten minutes faster than the second and third place runs.

Lunas training with information gathering showed itself useful once again, as they were able to make preliminary plans without even entering the rift.

When the two of them entered, they were immediately proven correct in their initial assumptions, considering that they were in an natural underground tunnel with four openings. Of course, each path branched off in the four cardinal directions.

Interestingly, the direction of the exit was clear to their spiritual senses. Quill had expected it to be obfuscated in some manner to increase the difficulty, either by means of the rift itself, or by the hosts if it were possible.

Without even a glance, they took the path that led them toward the exit, only to find that it almost immediately looped up and around, to send them in the completely opposite direction.

The Tier 11 monsters they found were almost an afterthought.

Quill was able to kill entire packs of the monsters with a talisman or two, if Torch didnt flash fry the monsters first. Whatever this rift was meant to be, the monsters were weaker in actual combat than the average Tier 10 monster, despite being technically stronger.

Their greatest issue was the looping tunnels and all the backtracking it took to actually reach the exit. With no way to find the clear path, the two of them just followed their instincts and flew at their fastest speeds.

Despite their lack of clear path, they were able to clear the rift in just two hours and six minutes, putting their names firmly in first place over the next fastest speed of two hours and fourteen minutes.

That rift felt like something a seeker would do well in, and both Quill and Torch knew that they wouldnt be getting any rewards from maze type rifts in the near future. Unless they were able to bypass the actual maze somehow.

They easily decided to forgo those luck based rifts, and agreed to stick to rifts where combat prowess was the deciding factor.

Wanting to see what the mysterious other side of the planet was about, they moved along at a half-decent flying speed, admiring the well crafted city that Tur'stal had built. They carefully plotted their approach for the next challenge as they went, determined to assert themselves as the best the Path had to offer.