Chapter 3

Laying in the dark, Matt cradled the pad in his hands, he had tried to sleep, but the anticipation and thrill of getting away with the theft kept sleep away.

He looked at his pad again. This was his lifeline. Some part of him expected to have Benny or the man burst into the room and snatch the pad and skill shard out of his hands, but all was quiet.

Delving without a skill wasn't unheard of at lower levels, but the casualty rate was much higher for those unlucky delvers.

Matt wouldn't let this pad out of his sight for the remainder of the year. This skill was near perfect for him. A channeled skill would allow him to use his full one mana per second.

Matt used his PlanetNet time to check on the status of the Glesie public rift. The purchase price for a spot was still 10k. He then quickly searched for average mana stats for lower Tier Mages and found a guide put out by the Juniper family that had the barony over the planet.

The guide was only recommended up to Tier 3, then more advanced versions had to be bought. It talked about directed mana cultivation and its three aspects, Maximum Mana, Mana Regeneration, and Mana Concentration.

Matt read on fascinated. He hadn't been taught the nuances of directed cultivation at the orphanage. They were taught that as you gathered essence from killing monsters in rifts, the person who got the final hit would absorb most of the essence.

Most wore devices that would automatically share the essence amongst the rest of the party. Ratios could even be changed so one person could get all the essence. Which was how crafters got the necessary essence to advance without having the skills to fight.

Once out of the rift, you would process the essence allocating it to either your body or mana.

Cultivators could direct how they allocated the essence, physical or mana were the two sides of cultivation. After that choice, you could target sub aspects which was called 'directed cultivation'.

The other option was to let the essence go where it was needed, called undirected cultivation. It was an easy way to shore up weak areas.

The guide described it as making mountains have specialization and letting the valleys get filled in, raising the baseline to build your peaks even higher.

All power needed a strong foundation, after all.

None of these details were discussed at the orphanage because it was expected that the group they joined would have their own guidelines and recommendations specific to their position.

The guide said the goal at Tier 3 was to have 1000 mana and mana regeneration of about one mana every two and a half minutes. The guide said that this was the ideal ratio for directed mana cultivation at lower levels, with seventy percent directed mana cultivation and thirty percent undirected physical.

The guide strongly warned against trying directed physical cultivation until Tier 3, and only with the appropriate classes were taken, and guides were not available until after the classes were taken.

What's the difference? Why are you allowed directed mana cultivation but not physical?

Matt wondered but got back to reading. The information was interesting but useless until he would collect essence in a rift. It was still something to do while he couldn't sleep.

The idea was that you would regenerate 576 mana a day, and since it wasn't recommended to delve more than once every three days, that let you fully regenerate in less than two days and then put extra mana into a mana stone or use it for practice.

Which because it was mana from your own mana pool, there wouldn't be any time needed to acclimate the mana.

The guide also recommended emptying and refilling any mana stones after a week because the mana would un-aspect, turn into ambient mana, which, while great to power devices, was hell on a cultivator's mana channels.

The last and most interesting part of the guide was that on Mana Concentration. It said it wasn't recommended to allocate any essence into Mana Concentration before Tier 5.

Mana Concentration shrunk your other aspects to make your mana denser and more concentrated. It would give your spells more power for the same amount of mana, but the returns were terrible.

To double the power of a spell with Mana Concentration, it would reset a Tier 8 mage to their base values of Maximum Mana and Mana Regeneration they had at Tier 1. That was at a seventy percent allocation through all the preceding Tiers.

That brought Matt up short. That was insane. The amount of essence that a Tier 8 had would be massive. To advance to the next Tier, you needed to have ten times the last Tier amount. If it took ten essence to reach the peak of Tier 1, then it took a hundred to reach the peak of Tier 2.

It was why people didn't farm low Tier and, therefore, safer rifts. The monsters didn't have enough essence to make it worthwhile. Killing one monster in a Tier 2 rift was worth killing a dozen in a Tier 1 rift.

The amount of mana and Mana Regeneration a Tier 8 mage would have would be insane, completely incomparable to a Tier 3, and to give all of that up to reset back to the base of around 100 mana and one mana every twenty minutes.

That was clearly not worth it.

It was a good warning though, Matt was sure many a young mage would have crippled their mana cultivation early on without that warning. They would be in the same boat as Matt, unable to cast a single spell but without his advantages.

Matt stroked his pad, his Tier 1 Talent wasn't perfect, but this skill shard synergized amazingly.

Matt plugged the pad in so the mana battery would charge overnight and tried to drift off.

***

The vibration of his pad woke Matt up. It was 3:55.

Panicked, Matt clumsy, tapped around the pad, finally opening a video to hear nothing, and sighed.

All was well. The skill shard hadn't managed to run off in the night somehow. He was still tired but forced himself to get moving. It had been near midnight when he had finally fallen asleep.

He got down to the training room only a little late and checked his schedule to see today was only flexibility training. Matt didn't know how he would have done anything if it was a strength day. Stretching was perfect to wake him up before Dena and Eric came down to spar.

When they arrived, both came to his corner. Matt was surprised because Eric said his control training was almost done, and then he could stop the dull exercises.

Eric started talking as soon as they got close. "Matt, Dena, and I talked it over last night. You have talent, and it's wasted here. We want to help."

Matt opened his mouth to say it wasn't necessary. He didn't want to take from them. They were too kind.

He thought back to the skill shard he swiped last night. Did he still deserve help after that? If they had been the ones to lose it, he knew he couldn't have stolen it.

Eric continued before he could get anything out. "It's not charity, at Tier 1 with no Talent helping your physical cultivation, hitting a Tier 3 is more than enough to get you into a guild anywhere but here. It's actually a standard test, though they usually do peak Tier 2 with a seventy percent split."

Dena pulled a pair of blunted daggers off the weapon rack.

Matt wanted to reject her offer, but on the other hand, this was his shot at escape from this shit hole city. He wouldn't need to spend another nine months slaving away. He could escape with his stolen skill shard all the sooner.

Dena could clearly see what he was thinking because she said, "Remember, this isn't charity. You're either going to earn the hit or not. And I'm going to be at Tier 3."

Eric could still see the hesitation on Matt's face, so he said. "We won't force you, but sponsoring a young talent isn't unheard of. It's not even uncommon in the Empire proper. You aren't the first person with a less than ideal Tier 1 Talent from your Awakening. The Emperor doesn't want strong people to languish in the gutters because they were born on low Tier planets."

"That's where the Path of Ascension comes in. It lets the sponsors get rewarded if their sponsee does well. If you make it to Tier 5, we get small rewards. If you make it to Tier 10, we get more all the way up to Tier 25."

Eric looked wistful as he continued, "The Empire wants powerhouses, needs them. But it also won't waste resources on those who won't put them to good use. This system helps all involved, but we won't recommend anyone if they don't have the drive to advance."

Matt swallowed. It did seem like he wouldn't be taking advantage of them, but what if he didn't do well?

As he was about to ask the question, Dena said, "If you stop advancing or die, you simply get marked as a failure, if we as Sponsors have too many failed recommendations, we lose the ability to recommend people, it stops people from recommending everyone they see and just playing the odds."

Still seeing Matt's hesitation, Eric added, "This is how we got started, two street rats from a Tier 5 planet. There are thousands of low Tier planets in the Empire, Matt. More people than you probably think come from places like this." He and Dena smiled at each other, reminiscing on their own beginnings.

That decided it for Matt, "Alright. I'll do it. I'll rise all the way to Tier 25 eventually and get you those rewards." Matt tightened his grip on the training longsword.

Dena laughed and said, "That's the spirit," and with that, she lunged at him and started the hardest fight of Matt's life. She was so fast Matt had trouble seeing some of her movements. They were less than blurs that just left pain in their wake.

As the fight passed the five-minute mark, Matt realized that there wouldn't be rounds to catch his breath in or rethink his strategy. This would only end when he gave up or landed a hit.

That steeled Matt's resolve. He hadn't taken the chance at stealing the skill shard because he was afraid of a risk or a challenge. He concentrated on keeping his movement defensive, disregarding Dena's strength and speed advantage; her endurance would be of a Tier 6, so she could just attack at full speed until he collapsed.

Matt started sending out more attacks. He had the longer blade, so attacking was his best defense. Whenever she got it close, her daggers had the advantage of being able to tie down his blade with one and get painful stabs in with the other.

Once his attacking pattern bought him some breathing room, Matt noticed that whatever lack of skill she had with the staff was absent with the daggers. Dena used the two weapons as her backup in rifts. She was familiar with her range and light on her feet.

Matt was patient; he wasn't trying to kill her, just land a single blow. Not an easy feat on someone with four times the physical abilities of a Tier 1. Each Tier doubled the power if two people had the same allocation ratios. Higher Tier meant more essence, and more essence meant more power.

After another few exchanges, the fight stalled, with Dena sending probing attacks or blocking with her daggers or forearm guards.

Matt was getting tired and desperate. He would run out of energy soon, and that would spell the end of this chance, so he attacked with all he had.

Going fully offensive, the flurry of blows kept Dena on the defensive until Matt used the rebound of her blocking a side slash to step left and forward, closing in on her and bringing the longsword around with every ounce of power and speed he could muster.

Matt was 5'10, and Dena was only 5'8, maybe 5'9, which meant Matt had the slightest reach advantage before their weapon choice came into play. Dena was more experienced and faster than him, though, and she danced back from the blow.

Matt wanted to curse but couldn't waste the air on useless chatter. As he went to follow up, Dena kept retreating, holding up her hands.

Matt paused, fear gripping him. I didn't hit her, so is she just calling it because I wasn't good enough?

The words that came out of her mouth shocked him, "well done, Matt. I knew you had it in you." Eric even clapped a few times.

Matt was confused. They had said it wasn't charity, but what was this obvious faking of a hit? At least they could have made it more convincing "I didn't hit you, though?" Matt tried to protest.

Dena smiled at him and raised her right arm showing her side. "Nope, you grazed me right here." Matt couldn't see anything, but Eric was nodding along.

"You don't have to sponsor me. I couldn't make my part of the deal, so you don't have to feel..."

"You did hit me. Look." With that, Dena reached down and pulled the workout shirt over her head. Matt couldn't help but stare, she was only wearing a sports bra now and she had a light sheen of perspiration reflecting the light. The freckles ran down her upper chest down to her...

Matt jerked his eyes up to meet their combined smirk and felt his face flush. Pale skin and a trail freckles taunted him to look down again, but with an effort of willpower he didn't know he had, Matt kept his eyes on her's.

Dena had righted the shirt and showed him a small mark under the right armpit. Matt had to squint, but he could see it, if barely. A small diagonal line was only distinguishable from the weave of the fabric because it wasn't parallel.

He had done it! It wasn't more than the smallest of strikes, but that was all he had needed. Relief washed through him. His body that was hopped up on the adrenaline of the fight wanted to collapse after the stress left him.

Matt looked at Eric and Dena's smiling faces. Eric tossed a small bag Matt hadn't seen him holding and said: "well, congratulations Matt. You did what most are unable to even dream of. Hitting a person two Tiers higher is one hell of an accomplishment."

"I don't know how I can repay you both."

Before Matt could continue, Dena answered, "Advancing is more than thanks enough let alone the resources we get the more you advance. But if you really want to pay us back. Pay it forward when you can. As a Sponsee, when you get to Tier 5, you can recommend someone for the same program. Don't waste it but don't forget about it either."

"In the bag is more instructions and a train ticket" as Eric said that Matt looked at him. It was still hard not to have his eyes drawn to the woman standing not two feet away. "You might want to get moving, the train leaves at 8, and the train station isn't exactly next door. Unless you want to spend any more time here?"

That cut through the myriad of thoughts in Matt's head.

Not next door. That's an understatement. If I leave, now I'll still have to run part of the way to make it.

Matt looked at them, not knowing how to express his gratitude. Dena took pity on him and said, "best get a move on. I know I look good, but I didn't know I looked so good you would miss this opportunity."

That once again made Matt blush deeply but also spurred him into action. Calling his thanks over his shoulder, Matt picked up the pad next to the wall and started running to his room and Bennys to tell him he was done.

Freedom awaited.

***

Matt ran down the road. He didn't see a train in the station and was afraid it had come early. He checked the pad clenched in his hands, and the time only said 7:32, but he was still worried the train had come and left early, stranding him here.

He finished his run, pack bouncing on his back with what clothes and what few other personal possessions he had accumulated.

Matt got in the small line at the teller's booth and opened the small bag Eric had tossed to him. Inside was an envelope and a few other odds and ends. At the bottom, hidden by the envelope, he saw the train ticket.

Matt carefully closed the pouch and waited for his turn. He'd explore the other contents of the bag when he could sit down and dedicate his full attention to it.

When the person in front of Matt walked to the waiting area, Matt handed the ticket over to the man behind the glass, who scanned it and looked at a screen. "One cabin to Durham. No transfers. Do you have any luggage you want to check into storage?" he never even looked away from his screen while he asked the question.

"No, thank you."

"Well, in that case, you have a four-day trip ahead of you. Two meals will be provided per day. You can choose what meals you take. You'll have to go to the food car near the front of the train. Do you have any questions?" he pushed a new slip of paper out of the small window, still not looking away from his screen.

Matt took the slip, said he didn't, and thanked the man before walking to the seating area.

With no train in sight, Matt put the boarding pass in the pocket with his pad, found a restroom to freshen up from his earlier sparring session and ran to the station.

Keeping an ear out for the announcement of his train, Matt hurried through his ablutions, still afraid that he'd miss the train.

After only ten minutes of nervous waiting, the train pulled into the station. Only a few people departed, and then the boarding call started.

Handing his pass to the man at the door, he was directed to car twelve, room two. As Matt made his way to his cabin. Matching the room number to the one on his boarding pass Matt was prompted to scan his pass then pair the door key with his pad.

It was a small room but more than enough for his uses. Matt dropped his bag of clothes to the side and carefully dumped the contents of the pouch Eric gave him onto the bed.

Matt opened the envelope first and began to read the letter.

Matt

We are happy you earned this opportunity. You are hard-working and dedicated to improving yourself, traits rarer than you probably think. We will be leaving as soon as you are on your way, so don't bother trying to find us. It's harsh, but if you have too much contact with your sponsor, it spoils a lot of sponsees. You are meant to find your own path. It's called the path of ascension because it's only wide enough for one, don't be afraid to make unconventional choices. Learn from others but don't treat anyone's advice like it's the only truth, even this advice.

You are on a good start. Believe it or not, you may think you are behind because you spent a year working at Benny's, but most places don't perform the Awakening ceremony until fourteen anyway and don't let people delve until fifteen. Emotional maturity will keep you alive in a rift as much as strength once you arrive at the PlayPen.

Matt was stunned. Arrive at the PlayPen? He thought they'd be covering the 10k to get a delve slot, not getting him into the PlayPen. Matt still remembered how Miles talked about it with a desire that couldn't be fulfilled.

He continued reading.

Once you arrive at the PlayPen, take the intro course and what they recommend there. It's been quite a while since we were under Tier 3, so it's a little fuzzy, but only the best are chosen to staff a PlayPen. It's a prestigious position even on a low Tier world like this. You can trust their advice though you should think critically about everything you hear.

I do remember that you will get a slot in the rift once every three days. Be careful. They will have true healers on staff, but it's expensive. Though you shouldn't have a problem with getting injured with your skills if you are careful and patient.

Well, and that skill you swiped should help a lot.

The letter slipped from his hands. The earlier shock at going to the PlayPen was replaced with dread.

They saw that and still gave me this?

Matt gulped and, with far more nerves than before, continued.

Well, and that skill you swiped should help a lot. It's a good skill to pair with your Talent, Yes Sponsors can see a Sponsee's Tier 1 Talent. Eric and I both feel that even if you don't get a paired Tier 3 Talent, you can strive to get the Tier 25 Talent even with this handicap, though we find it unlikely. Remember that you'll be able to dedicate your entire essence allocation to physical, which no one else can. That advantage will only grow as your advantage. AND DON'T DIRECT CULTIVATE PHYSICAL UNTIL TIER 3!!!!!

Back to the skill, don't feel bad you took an opportunity placed in front of you and made it out successfully. Being willing to take a risk is important and knowing your limits is crucial. You took both into account and won. Besides, if those idiots didn't make a scene, throw a fucking expensive skill shard to start a brawl, he wouldn't have lost it.

That's on him, and if you hadn't tried to get the old man out of harm's way at the cost of your own safety, you wouldn't have been in the position to profit. Karma was working fast yesterday.

The handwriting style changed and was sloppier.

Eric here. That was a slick palming, the only reason I noticed (Dena completely missed it!!!) was because we were watching to make sure no one killed you by accident, but it was a good plan well executed!! Just had to say that, good luck and visit the….

Whatever the last word Eric had tried to write had been scratch out to the point it was illegible. And the handwriting went back to the loopy style of Dena.

Don't go to places like that. He's just trying to live vicariously through you because he knows if he went to one, I'd go to one in revenge, and neither one of us wants that.

What are they talking about?

Anyway, good luck. You got this.

Best Wishes

Dena and Eric Thorne.

Ps: I forgot because of Eric stealing the pen. Look up 'The curve.' It will be informative. While you are on the train, just focus on absorbing the skill shard. When you get to the PlayPen, buy a newer pad, the ones they sell there are Empire standard, and that means they are twenty-plus years ahead of the best this planet otherwise has.

PPs: Also, the card has a 20k limit, so buy a good weapon and don't be afraid to go into a bit of debt in the beginning. The PlayPen should have a budgeting class. Take it.

PPPs: Ps's are fun.

Matt was surprised they had been watching out for him in the brawl, he hadn't been looking for them, but he hadn't seen them either. It made him feel good, a warmth in his chest he hadn't felt since the rift break.

Matt looked at the credit card. He'd never seen one before. No bank would risk loaning to someone under Tier 3 or without a backer.

Which he guessed he had now. Now he had a limit twice what it would have cost to buy a slot in Gelese. It felt unreal.

Matt looked at the last few things in the bag. One was the mana control ball Eric had been practicing with for so long. It was a nice gesture and a good reminder that even if he couldn't allocate into his mana cultivation, he could still work on control.

Once he got more mana, that was.

For the first time, he didn't feel like that was an outlandish dream. Two Tier 6's thought it would fix itself with his Tier 3 Talent, and he trusted their expertise more than his own.

The last thing was a pair of gloves like the ones he saw Dena use but in his size. Were they special?

Matt tried them on and couldn't see anything different about them but trusted that they were useful. Even if just as normal gloves, he'd cherish everything they gave him. They gave him a chance at true freedom and treated him better than most people in his life, even without the Sponsorship.

Matt repacked the items and went to retrieve his skill shard from his pad but came to the realization that he didn't have anything flat and hard enough to pry the back off. After searching the room and finding nothing, Matt briefly debated smashing the pad to get the back off to get his skill shard out.

Matt found the dining hall and, seeing no one was there, grabbed a pre-packaged meal and utensils. After eating, he dumped his tray into the disposable rack while pocketing the knife.

Once back in his cabin, he used the pilfered knife to get the pad open.

Skill shard in hand, Matt reassembled the pad and realized that he didn't know exactly how to absorb the skill. No one had ever talked about the details. People treated it like it was self-explanatory, but Matt was clueless about where to start and hesitant to somehow ruin the skill experimenting.

Matt opened the PlanetNet and found a guide. It wasn't free but only cost 100 credits. He had 6000 credits saved from Benny's and a credit limit of 20k.

Why am I worried about such a small price?

With warring instincts, Matt inputted his account information and waited as the purchase was verified.

Matt read the guide and was glad he purchased it. The actual process of absorbing a skill was easy, just send a strand of essence to the skill, and it would flow into your spirit.

According to the guide, there were three ways to absorb a skill, or rather how far you pulled the skill into your spirit, which was the determining factor on how long it took to absorb the skill.

The first was what the guide called core skills. The amount your spirit could hold was dependent on Tier, but on average, at Tier 1, people could hold two in the core spirit.

The limited number was made up with increased efficiency or power and lower cast time, usually around 30 percent more. Being in the core of the spirit also let the user modify the skills far easier. It was recommended that build defining skills or lifesaving skills went to the core spirit.

It was a trade-off though even at Tier 5, most only had three slots and Tier 10 four. Every tenth Tier after that gave one as the spirit grew with cultivation.

Next was the inner spirit which was the average that skills were presumed to be added to. At six slots at Tier 1 and adding two every Tier, it was the place general combat skills were recommended to be added. Plentiful enough that most wouldn't have enough skills to fill as they advanced, it was the average.

The outer spirit was last and while the largest area allowing 20 skills at Tier 1 and five more per Tier. The skills here were slower and weaker by half, with the mana cost going up 50 percent on average. Non Combat spells like [Purify] or [Create Water] that were useful skills but not time-critical to cast.

According to the guide, while skills could be shifted in the spirit after initial absorption, it took months of meditation.

Finally and most importantly was how long it took to get the skill into the spirit's right area, about a day per area. As long as the skill shard constantly had essence circulating, the skill was considered to be in the integration phase and slowly moving closer to the core region. Matt should be able to feel the difference as the skill moved along.

Matt was relieved he bought the guide. He'd never heard of anything about this and was sure he'd have ended up with his single and very synergistic skill in the outer spirit and losing out on a ton of power.

The guide recommended that skills should be secured to the body with specially made holders. Matt taped it on his chest.

Once the shard was secured, Matt directed a strand of essence to the shard and felt the process take over. The skill shard seemed to gently pull his essence while feeding back the essence after circulating through the shard, completely automated. He just had to be mindful of his chest until the skill moved to the core of his spirit.

***

The next day Matt felt a jolt in his spirit and instantly knew if he directed mana through the skill structure in his spirit, he'd activate the skill [Cracked Phantom Armor]. With a grin that lasted the rest of the day, Matt anticipated arriving at Durham and the PlayPen.