Chapter 9

Matt was still trying to get used to Aster. She felt the need to be a part of every single thing he did. It was adorable and cute, but frustrating at times.

Currently, he was on his bed attempting to break through to Tier 2. Every time he sunk into the meditative state required, Aster would shift on his chest, or flick her tail, or do something else to break his concentration.

He did not want to fail the breakthrough. It wouldn’t harm him, just waste his hard earned essence. His physical side of cultivation was full, and he had a decent amount of essence in his spirit. He just needed to use that essence to compress the loose essence acquired from delving into something more solid.

The guide suggested a mental image of sand to sandstone, but he felt Aster shift again. Her chill permeated his shirt, his mental imagery shifted to snow being compacted into ice sheets.

From shifting and unstable to firm and unmoving.

With this new place to build upon, the Tier advancements after this would compress his essence even more, slowly adding more weight. This new arrangement of essence would be the foundation the rest of his life would be built upon.

Matt thought of his helplessness after the rift break, and his anger at Iris trying to steal Aster. He took all of that emotion, and with every ounce of power his spirit had, he squeezed.

The essence compressed down easily at first, as the loose snow became hard. Matt didn’t let up, he kept pushing, and just when it felt there was no more progress to be made, the essence compressed again. The once hard bundle of essence he had created shrunk, but it had also loosened. It was only slightly harder than it had started before the first compression.

He repeated the process four more times, five compressions was good for Tier 1. Coming out of his trance with Aster's wet and cold nose against his chin was a bit of a shock.

Matt checked his physical cultivation. Right in the center of his chest was a small, rock hard sphere of essence, with a small layer on top that wasn’t as densely compacted as it’s core. Diving into his being with his spiritual sense, he inspected his metaphysical half. The mana cultivation was tiny, and seemed atrophied in comparison to his physical half.

Where one was a bright ball of essence the other was dark and hollow.

He sat up and cradled the kit. Five compressions. He had five more to go to fully stabilize his cultivation, but he’d do it with the first essence he accumulated at the Tier 2 rift. That way no problems could occur. It was said to be rare, but he didn’t want to take chances.

The compression of the essence foundation was repeated numerous times in the guide the PlayPen provided. It was possible to advance to the next Tier with only a single compression, but the cultivator would be able to express less power than their peers who had completed the full ten.

Tier 2. He had done it.

Aster, feeling his excitement, wiggled out of his hold and picked up a toy. So Matt played with his bond until she was panting, ready for a nap.

With Aster curled into a chilly ball next to him, Matt looked up the information of the Tier 2 rift.

It was a jungle path with large insects as the monster of choice. The regular monsters were a mix of giant centipedes with a monstrous bite strength, and giant praying mantises who had steel-like, grasping arms used as blades and crushers all in one.

The boss was a peak Tier 2 ant queen. Like normal ant queens, this one was a fighter, and would ferociously defend her territory. The final fight was against her and a horde of soldier ants.

It was reportedly a hard fight for solo fighters. The only benefit was that the soldier ants were barely Tier 2, and should have trouble getting through his [Cracked Phantom Armor].

The skill was only strong enough to fully block the weakest of Tier 2 attacks, so his advantage was gone. He would slowly be able to get more defensive power out of the skill as it imprinted into his spirit; but for now he would have to be careful of injuries in the Tier 2 rift.

If his Tier 3 Talent didn’t change his mana shortage, he would have to face the fact that the skill would become increasingly less effective.

Matt looked at the snoring fox next to him and was more concerned with her safety. He’d need to bring her with him so she could gather essence as well, but he wasn’t sure how to keep her safe from a bunch of ground-level insects.

Maybe I should keep running the Tier 1 rift until she gets stronger?

He decided to ask Melinda’s party tonight at dinner. They had actual experience running the Tier 2 rift, and he didn't want to have to run the Tier 1 unless he had to. The Tier 2 monsters would have more condensed essence, and larger amounts of it at that. Aster would progress and catch up to him much faster if Matt stuck with Tier 2 essence as her fuel.

***

Their advice was so simple Matt should have thought of it himself. He bought a larger backpack and stuck Aster inside with a blanket to pad it out for her.

He was sure he looked comical. A man covered in ghostly armor with a shield, axe, and a white fox poking her head out over his shoulder.

Even the Ant Queen was only slightly over waist height, so Aster was out of reach.

Matt was working his way down the main path of the rift, smashing the tough chitin exoskeletons of the monsters. He crushed them one by one as they swarmed him, careful to avoid their mandibles and arms. As he progressed, he began to barely make out the end of the long trail cut out of the dense jungle foliage surrounding him.

The Tier 2 rift wasn’t really any more challenging if Matt was careful. There were no distinct rooms like the Tier 1 rift. Here the insects were more ambush predators, focusing more on surprise attacks from the underbrush beside the jungle path than on frontal assaults.

Matt had tested his limits, and had found that his [Cracked Phantom Armor] was nearly impenetrable by singular attacks from the basic monsters. It took them a few seconds of sustained bites or grabs to overcome the mana running through the skill.

As he chopped his way through the waist-high monsters he eagerly collected the essence. It was thicker than that of the Tier 1 rift. Splitting half with Aster didn’t affect his gains, as he was gathering more essence from each kill here than he would from four Tier 1 monsters.

After making his way through the long hot jungle path, leaving a trail of dismembered heads and limbs, Matt came to a large clearing at the end. Here the thick underbrush gave way to tall tropical trees and bright flowered plants, all coated with a layer of vines.

In the center of the clearing, a giant mound of dirt signaled the entrance to the queen’s underground network of tunnels. As he approached, the ground itself shook and split apart as the queen and her drones breached the surface, sensing the imminent threat.

Sizing up the Queen Ant, Matt quickly realized he had a problem. She was big, the top of her head reaching slightly above his waist. While he knew her pincer attacks were strong enough to tear him in half, Matt doubted that she was fast enough to land an attack.

After quickly dispatching her guard unit, Matt’s suspicions proved correct. He could easily maneuver around the queen's slow and predictable lunges. The real problem was his inability to damage the queen. His axe didn’t have enough weight to drive through the chitin of the stronger insect. Where he could hack and crush the shells of the weaker insects, the queen’s exoskeleton was like steel plate armor.

Matt eventually was able to chop through a weaker leg joint, but all that did was slow her down even more. Seeing no other viable options, Matt endured the tedious process of de-legging the queen one limb at a time. The queen’s lunging attacks became increasingly pathetic with each missing limb, but Matt was still wary of her mandible’s crushing power.

It took him a while but he was able to separate the queen from her legs, and finished the fight by bisecting her at the joints of her head and abdomen.

He was coming with a bigger axe for this fight next time.

Matt approached the reward distortion. It shimmered with a pale grey light. When he collected his prize, he spat at the reward of only four Tier 2 mana stones. A below average haul. Matt felt it summed up the delve perfectly.

The bright side was the bag of mushrooms and herbs he gathered along the forest path. Apparently, they were worth a decent amount of credits to the alchemists, so the trip wouldn’t be an entire waste.

Arriving at the alchemist workshop, Matt perused the displayed items. Potions of strength, speed, proprioception, even odder things like night vision.

They didn't have actual healing potions, just blood clotting potions. Matt would consider them alchemical triage, it was just enough to get you out of a rift and to a healer.

The problem was the prices. Every item was sold with the price in mana stones. Tier 3 mana stones.

Giving up on the idea of getting any of the expensive items, Matt left the store area and found a desk. He told the receptionist he'd like to sell items from the Tier 2 rift.

The room he was led to had a man in opulent robes sitting reading a book. Matt sat down but was ignored. He coughed slightly to get the man's attention, but the alchemist waved his hand at Matt with a shushing sound.

After five minutes of waiting, the man put down his book and barked, “Where are the goods?”

The man had pulled each item out of the bag and found fault with every one.

“This one wasn’t harvested properly, the entire stem isn’t here.”

“This one has too much surrounding dirt, we can't use this.”

How can too much dirt make moss worthless?

Frustration building, Matt fought the urge to punch the alchemist in his smug face. The large bag that he had trekked through the humid forest was only valued at 100 credits.

Matt knew he was getting ripped off. The guide said the items should have carried a value of fifty credits per item. Raging internally, he thought over what he should do. What irritated him was that he had been careful when harvesting the items. He followed the guide to the letter.

Looking at the smirking man across the desk Matt decided he didn’t want this man’s money. He wasn’t sure if this was a scam the alchemist was running himself or if the entire department was just a bunch of assholes.

Decision made, he snatched the pouch up and stuffed his goods inside. Walking out before the man could say anything, he found a trash can and proceeded to shred every item in his bag.

He got a few odd looks, but couldn’t tell if they were because of the crazy man angrily tearing up mushrooms and moss, or the fox yipping in excitement every time he did. Matt just wanted to go home and cultivate, that was the only positive he could still hold on to. Finishing solidifying his foundation would be worth the absolute slog this delve had turned out to be.

***

The next few months of Matt’s time on the PlayPen was uneventful, he delved, trained, and took classes. Aster had reached Tier 2, and could now push her cold aura out further, but that ability was useless in actual combat.

She usually just sat behind him taunting the uncaring insects. But the rifts while productive were no real challenge to the duo.

After some time, the day Matt was dreading had arrived. It was Melinda’s group’s last day on the island. They were holding a private dinner, and then tomorrow morning they would be gone.

It wasn’t a surprise that they would be leaving the island before him, but now that the time was here, he didn’t want them to go. They were the best friends he had since… well he couldn’t think of better friends.

He knew it wasn’t like they wouldn’t be able to communicate, it would just be slow once they were on different planets. The data dumps only happened when the portal was opened, and that was normally once a month.

This was the reason they were leaving two weeks early. Paying for a slot on the monthly portal was only a Tier 3 mana stone apiece, while getting a personal portal was a Tier 8 mana stone.

Sitting on his bed, he cuddled Aster to him. She would be all he had once the others left. He didn’t even mind anymore that she refused to use the incredibly expensive bed he’d bought her, and instead preferred to freeze him nightly.

Checking the time, Matt made his way down to the reserved room with Aster on his heels.

When the duo entered the room, he plastered on a smile he didn’t feel. Acting happy to see them move on.

As they ate he asked, “So have you decided where you are going to go?”

“Yup, we’ve got three jumps to get to the planet, it’s called...” Sam looked at her pad, “Relstor. Weird name, but it’s a Tier 7 world and has enough Tier 3 and 4 rifts that there isn’t any real competition for spots. So no fee to purchase a delve slot.”

Mat continued with a full mouth, “There’s even a rift with goblins. It’s only Tier 3, so just a single tribe. It’s where we'll probably go, because it lets us use our numbers pretty well. And we’re familiar with the monster type. We should be able to reach Tier 4 in a few months, give or take.”

“That’s only if we delve every two days, and we talked about that. It’s too risky. We’re only 16. We’re still well under the curve if our goal is to hit Tier 5 before we reach 22. We don’t have to rush for it. The free skill will seriously increase our strength. And by the way, don’t speak with your mouth full you delinquent.” Melinda ended her comment with a poke to Mat’s bulging cheek.

Matt agreed, “Yeah a free skill would be amazing. Do you guys have any idea what you want?”

“Nope, we’ve only got the two skills that aren’t talents. And they were gifts from our sponsor. Have you seen the price for skills?”

“No, I haven’t even looked into them at all honestly.”

Tara waved a chicken leg and said, “Tier 8 rifts are the first point where they become common drops, at around a one in four chance. Even then, it’s still only a set number of weaker skills that drop at Tier 8. So most weaker skill shards sell for about a Tier 8 mana stone.”

Vinnie chimed in “Yeah, but you can get lucky and have higher Tiered skills drop. What if we got something like [Regeneration] or a healing skill? That would sell for a lot more.”

Kyle cut him off, “Dummy. We’ll be the ones buying healing skills. Even with the free Tier 5 skill, Melinda’s gonna need more healing skills. [Ranged Heal] is great and all, but she needs a group healing skill, and some kind of heal over time would be good as well.”

Matt could understand the bitterness in his voice, so he raised his cup and said, “To being poor!”

That got a laugh out of everyone, and they started talking about their ideas for archetypes to build into.

Matt let the others run with the conversation, he didn’t know what he wanted. It really depended on how his Tier 3 Talent fixed his mana problem. He trusted it would, but he had realized there were multiple ways to ‘fix’ it.

The best, and most unlikely fix, was his Tier 3 Talent just unblocking his Mana Cultivation. Matt didn’t think that would happen, as that would require a direct contradiction of part of his Tier 1 Talent.

It left him at an impasse. He couldn’t plan if he didn’t know what direction his Talent would take him.

He mentaly rejoined the conversation to hear Sam say, “I want an area poison skill, it would be so nice. Then I wouldn’t have to stab things to actually use my Talent.”

That jolted Matt, he had forgotten to check their Talents. The night they met the Emperor was so chaotic with Melinda’s Talent, he hadn’t remembered to check the others.

Mat:

Talent Tier 1: Everyone in the party has lowered threat generation, threat generation can be redirected to an individual of choice.

Talent Tier 3: You are much harder to knock off your feet. Knockdowns give a temporary durability bonus. Grows With Tier.

Skills: None.

Melinda:

Talent Tier 1: All healing skills are 50% more effective and cost 50% less mana to cast.

Talent Tier 3: All Healing has the ‘Overhealth’ effect.

Skills: [Ranged Heal]

Kyle:

Talent Tier 1: All Strength allocation has double the effect.

Talent Tier 3: Blood carries extra oxygen. Giving strength boost dependent on regeneration. Grows With Tier.

Skills: None.

Sam:

Talent Tier 1: Poisons and Venoms only affect designated targets.

Talent Tier 3: Can control Poisons and Venoms in the surroundings if not directly controlled by a skill. Grows With Tier.

Skills: [Venom Strike]

Vinnie:

Talent Tier 1: [Earth Manipulation]

Talent Tier 3: Can see through earth. Distance and clarity grows with Tier.

Skills: [Earth Manipulation]

Tara:

Talent Tier 1: Innate understanding of ranged weapons.

Talent Tier 3: Ranged attacks have more penetrating power. Grows with Tier.

Skills: None.

After reviewing the groups Talents he wasn’t surprised, but was slightly jealous. They had gotten good Talents, even if they weren’t as absurd as Melindas. The ‘grows with Tier’ modifier was apparently a common trait of most Tier 3 Talents.

From what Matt read, Tier 1 was unique, Tier 3 was growth, Tier 25 was power, and Tier 50 was sovereign.

Matt couldn't find much on what the last two actually meant, but they must be powerful to be awakened at such high Tiers. He had read more than one account of people becoming powerhouses after being unknowns before their Tier 25 Talent.

He put the pad away forcing himself into the conversation and to be happy for his friends.

***

It was five months after Melinda’s group left when Matt found himself in trouble. He was slightly surprised it had taken so long.

The new groups of non-sponsees had come with the graduation of the latest year of classes. Most of them were arrogant, but kept it contained to their peers. Some pecking order had been established based on their backers. Most weren’t stupid enough to mess with Tier 2 or 3’s, so Matt was mostly left alone.

With a few hundred people, one or two were bound to be stupid. And sadly, Aster attracted stupid.

Matt was eating at a table by himself. Jasmine, his girlfriend, was delving tonight and that left him and Aster to eat alone.

As they were eating, he felt someone tap his shoulder. When he turned, he was confronted by six people. They were crowding him and his table, uncomfortably close, they clearly didn’t have good intentions.

“Do you need something?” He didn't bother being polite, their demeanor raised Matt’s hackles. Even Aster felt the rising tension, and looked up from her bowl of food.

He scanned them as he waited for their response. It was a group of middling Tier 1’s with smirks on their faces. From that observation, it was no surprise when the boy in the front said, “Give me that fox. It will make a good gift to my mother.”

Matt clenched his jaw so hard he was afraid his teeth would break. “No.” He turned around and picked up his utensils ready to eat.

“You dare to defy me the son of...” Once Matt heard that he tuned the idiot out. They could use that kind of pressure on others, but there was no bigger backer than the Emperor. He ignored them. He didn’t think they were dumb enough to try and steal from an upper Tier 2.

Matt decided to let them bluster all they wanted. It wasn't worth the trouble a confrontation would cause.

Sadly, they lacked the sense to quit while they could.

A slap on his shoulder made Matt turn around again.

“Did you not hear me? I...”

Matt faced his dinner again, growling, “Fuck off kid, no one cares. I’m trying to eat so go bother someone else.”

That’s when a hand reached for the still eating Aster.

Matt pinned that hand to the table with the knife he had been eating with. He stood, shoving his chair back while activating [Cracked Phantom Armor]. The two hits on his back were ignored as he smashed his armored fist into a face.

Quickly, he grabbed the hand holding the dagger that had just skittered down his chest, and slammed his palm into the elbow. His assailant crumpled to the floor screaming.

Before the fight could escalate further, the guards were on the scene. They had their batons drawn and shouted for everyone to stop.

Matt complied, raising his hands.

One of them barked at him, “End the skill.”

Calmly he replied, “Once the idiot next to me doesn’t have a dagger in his hand. I’d rather not get stabbed.”

The guard grabbed the kid and his dagger. Matt deactivated his skill and was pulled off to the side.

Aster hadn’t even stopped eating, confident Matt would protect her.

Matt wasn’t even mad at her, she didn’t do anything wrong by existing. The jackasses shouldn't have tried to steal what was his.

Shame the guards had arrived so fast or I might have been able to break a few more bones.

His anger at the arrogance they showed still burned like embers in his gut. Matt calmed himself, maybe he wasn’t as over Iris’ attempted theft of Aster as he thought.

Maybe this would teach the fools a lesson, but looking over at the detained group, he could hear their obnoxious leader. With a now bandaged hand, he was spinning a tale of how Matt had stolen their fox and then fought them.

Idiots.

Aster was well known and very unique. Matt just smirked as the guard continued to ask, “And that’s your official statement?”, before typing in his pad.

Matt honestly couldn’t believe the kid didn’t realize that the guard was letting him dig his own grave.

“See? My fox loves me!”

The idiot reached for Aster with his good hand. If he had been looking, he would have seen her tilt her head at the approaching hand. As it neared the fox, she lashed out, sinking teeth that could tear apart iron, deep into his hand.

The boy let out a guttural scream, and wrenched his hand out of her mouth, further shredding his hand.

He then turned to Matt shouting, “How dare your beast attack me? I’ll be wearing it as a coat! And I'll see you hanged for attacking me. My father is the castellan of the Junipers you worm.”

Matt had to replay the words to make sure he heard the kid correctly. Then, he decided to rub salt in the wounds, “Wait? You are the son of a guy who worked for the nobles that just. Got. Arrested. And you’re flaunting that? Really?”

Matt turned to the table that was watching the developing drama next to him. “Hey, you! My dad just got canned. Respect my authority!”

As they laughed at his mockery, the kid lunged at Matt, but was held back by the guard. He was actually snarling. It made Matt wonder if the last of his brain cells had short-circuited.

Matt sent a thought to Aster, and she snarled at her attempted foxnapper. The blood on her muzzle made it a far more menacing sight than the kid’s attempt had been. The fool flinched back from the fox who was wearing his blood.

That got even more sniggers from the watchers.

The guard bandaged the kid’s other hand then put him in handcuffs.

“What are you doing? You should be arresting him!”

“Sir, you admitted to a crime not moments ago. And we've already reviewed the security footage. You came to his table and started the confrontation. If nothing else, you lied on an official statement.”

The guard read him his rights,but the boy continued to refute the guard’s words as he was frogmarched away.

After giving his own statement and being asked to wait, a separate guard came over to Matt half an hour later. “You’re clear, but in the future, please don’t use so much force.”

He just thanked the man, and assured him he would be more careful if something like this happened again. He hoped it didn’t, those assholes had ruined his dinner.

Grabbing a meal to go, Matt went back to his room to find Jasmine sprawled across his bed. Aster tried to go and greet the girl, but Matt forced her to sit still while he brushed her teeth, he didn’t know where the foxnapper’s blood had been.

Set free, Aster jumped on the bed and shoved a cold nose into Jasmine’s cheek, waking the girl up.

“Aster nooooo. It’s so cold.”

Aster cuddled in deeper. Then licked the brunette’s face.

“Why does your breath smell minty? Did you eat poop again?”

Aster looked heartbroken, utterly betrayed at the mention of her past folly.

Jasmine opened her eyes and saw the food Matt bought as he left the dining hall.

“Oh, you brought me food! You're the best.” With a sweet smile and a quick kiss, Jasmine stole his dinner and started digging in.

In between bites she asked, “So why did you brush Asters teeth? Did she eat poop again?”

Aster yipped her protest. She had only done it once after all, and really it wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t known what it was.

Matt told the story, and Jasmine was in disbelief that he had been accosted. When she heard the part that he was the castellan’s son she just ahh’d.

“Yeah, I met him a few times. Always acted like his father was the biggest backer one could have. The funny thing is, most kids from the Junipers that were his age hated him. Never understood how he was so arrogant.”

She swallowed another bite and said, “Whatever. Maybe before he could have gotten his father to put some pressure on you, but now he’s got nothing. From what I heard, the workers of the Junipers were all given one free pass to the PlayPen so they wouldn’t fight the transition of power.”

“I’m not worried, just amazed how someone could be that stupid. He lied to the guard, who repeatedly asked him ‘is this your official statement?’ Like he was given so many chances.”

Jasmine finished the sandwich and said, “Well enough of idiots, I just had an amazing run and we got seventy Tier 2 mana stones.”

She bit her lip then turned around and walked into his shower “Want to help me celebrate?”

***

Matt looked up from his bed. Today was the day, his delve was in four hours, and his physical cultivation was nearly full.

It had taken eight months of delving the Tier 2 rift, and finally, only a month shy of his 16th birthday, he was about to hit Tier 3. This kind of rapid cultivation was the greatest advantage of a solo delver. Aster, even with her fifty percent take of the essence, wasn’t slowing him down at all. Pet companions could gather essence humans normally couldn't, so she was gathering what he was unable to.

She was at middle Tier 2, and nearly her full size at almost 10 pounds and three feet long. She could easily defeat the Tier 2 insects in a one-on-one fight. Her ice powers were still weak but they got stronger every day.

Aster could also eat the monsters and gain essence that way. She relished eating her kills, even if the insects tasted horrible to her.

That ability made Matt jealous. To eat monster meat, humans needed specialized chefs to process the food, otherwise it was extremely toxic. The problem was, no chef would work with monsters under Tier 5. The sheer amount of the essence lost during the cooking process made it not worth their time and resources.

Matt stood, and was about to leave to catch the bus to the rift portal, when Jasmine opened the door. “Guess what? My parents got me and my team a slot in a Tier 3 rift.”

She hugged and kissed him before doing the same with Aster.

“That's good news, I know your team was bummed out that y’all didn’t get sponsored.”

She frowned at the mention of her team's plight. They were a party of non-sponsees, who had hoped to catch someone's eye and get sponsored before their advancement to Tier 3.

It just never happened, and Matt agreed with their assessment that it had a lot to do with the Emperor's recent proclamation. Anyone who had lost family in the unaddressed rift breaks and reached Tier 15 would become the rulers of their home planet.

Sponsors were finding and scouting the orphanages around the world. They weren’t looking to sponsor a team with wealthy connections who had not suffered during the rift breaks, and thus were not eligible to get the big reward.

Jasmine frown deepened “That's the problem. The rift is on my dad's homeworld, and he had to pull strings to get the slot. Which means we have to leave today. The portal is this evening and we can't leave the slot open for long or we'll lose it.”

Matt felt like he had been punched in the gut. Today was his big day. He was going to reach Tier 3, and she had to leave now?

Is there a Tier 50 playing pranks on me?

Matt didn’t let his melancholy show.

Jasmine and her team were good people. While they came from rich families, they tried their hardest and never acted arrogantly. When they had heard of Matt's fight, they had all reached out to their parents to make sure that none of the others in the castellan son’s party tried to make trouble with him.

It had been unlikely with Matt being on The Path, but they had done it simply because Jasmine cared about him.

“Well then good luck and congratulations. It's a big step, I know you guys only had another two months on the island, but it's good to see you have a path forward.”

“It's just terrible timing, but I can't make everyone wait on me. I know today is a big day for you. I just wish I could be here with you to celebrate.” Jasmine got a look on her face and asked, “You have what? Four hours til your rift?”

At Matt's nod, she pushed him into the room.

“Good, we have time for one last goodbye.”

***

Matt watched Jasmine run out of his room and down the hall, hair still mussed. They had cut it far closer to her boat's departure time than they had planned, but neither could let go.

With a promise that if they ended up on the same planet again they’d at least say hello, she had left.

There wasn't much either could do at this point. Her path was forward, and Matt’s was still on the PlayPen.

Matt went down to the waiting area and sat impatiently. He couldn't stop looking at his pad, Aster had gotten tired of his impatience. She started roaming out of boredom, and was sniffing a bush off to the side of the road.

When the bus arrived, Matt held down the urge to push through the exiting people and tell the driver to hurry. He did none of that and waited his turn; fantasies of finding a teleport skill in his shoe and just teleporting to the rift running through his head.

The ten-minute ride to the rift was the longest of Matt’s life.

Entering the rift, Matt hurried Aster into his backpack and he sprinted through the jungle path.

He would get as much essence from killing the queen ant and her soldier ants as he would get from killing the fodder insects, so ignored the lesser monsters. He only needed half of the queen's essence to make the attempt at his breakthrough, and couldn't bear to wait any longer than he had to.

He rushed through the rift, and when he reached the queen’s area he hastily sped past her drones and drove his heavy axe into her skull. Only after feeling the rush of essence from the queen did he massacre the remaining ants.

Matt checked his pad, twenty minutes. If he hurried he could catch the next bus back to the residential area, where he could perform his breakthrough and test his Tier 3 Talent.

Quickly grabbing the mana stones the reward distortion hid, Matt exited the rift and bypassed the checkout counter, sprinting to the bus stop.

He climbed on and mentally begged the bus driver to leave early.

Aster, pouting in the seat next to him forced him to calm down.

He didn't prefer to cultivate when sitting, so he picked Aster up and went to the back of the bus. There were seats running the entire back wall where he could lay down. Once he was horizontal he forced his spiritual sight inward.

Calming his breathing, Matt gathered the newly acquired essence in his spirit, wrapped it around his little sphere of physical essence and squeezed.

What was loose turned hard. What was hard turned solid.

His Tier 1 essence was compressed even further when Matt squeezed his Tier 2 essence down.

One compression, two compressions, three, four, five. It was after the sixth that Matt lost his momentum and couldn't continue.

He felt his physical cultivation with his spiritual sense a second time.

Tier 3.

He had done it.