Chapter 13

The first thing Matt noticed as he exited the small transport hatch was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Dark brunette hair in a thick braid rested over her left shoulder, and eyes like melted chocolate looked up at him as he cleared the entrance.

As he stood to the side of the hatch, he ever so briefly considered staying as long as it took to try and win this beauty’s heart.

With a shake, he freed himself of that notion. He didn’t want to stay here. Even if she turned out to be interested, he wouldn’t remain. Joining The Path might have been an escape to get out of poverty, but now, he truly enjoyed the feeling of growing stronger and overcoming his limits.

His path was to be the ascender to get to Tier 25 by two hundred years old.

Matt wanted his name to be known as Duke Waters’ was.

He wanted to grow strong.

Staying on this Tier 6 world wasn’t his destiny.

After he checked in with the beauty, he walked towards the exit. He found it more challenging than he expected. It didn’t make sense; he didn’t even consider giving up his path for Jasmine. This woman seemed magnetic. With effort, he removed himself from her pull.

With Aster following at his heels, he walked out of the building and onto the city streets. As he reached the sidewalk, Matt realized he had no idea where he was going. He knew where he needed to go, the train station that would trace half the continent to the next teleporter location.

He used his AI to connect to the CityNet, downloaded a map, and followed the trail it projected for him. His train didn't leave for another five hours, but he needed to leave the teleportation area.

The walk was short, but Matt was able to distract himself with the city around him. He expected it to look more urban since it was one of only three cities on the planet with teleporters. Instead, he saw green everywhere. Trees, parks, flower beds, and creeping vines covered this city.

It was refreshing. The city even had a pleasant smell from the flowers, despite being in the middle of the night.

Aster was playing stop, sniff, then run to catch up. They only passed a few people as it was after 10 pm local time, and most stopped to lavish attention on the white fox.

As they reached the train station, he was amazed. The space surrounding it was a massive park. This all felt foreign and out of place for a city.

Matt quickly checked in, and registered his AI with the station. He planned to go and do some shopping in the nearby mall that was still open. It was still morning for his internal clock after all.

When the train finally came, he was lying in the park as Aster demolished a stick she had found. He was more interested in the entirely new night sky to observe. The Empire made sure all planets had a twenty-four-hour day for uniformity, but years were based on the capital planet.

It amazed him that a higher Tier could slow or speed up the rotation of something as large as a planet.

Is it a specialized skill or just their raw power?

The moon on this planet was a vibrant peach, and it had several smaller subsatellites that traced complex patterns across its surface.

It was an entrancing sight. Matt wanted to travel and see every planet the empire had to offer.

He sent a picture of the sky to Melinda's group. They were busy with their new rift, but they had gotten to Tier 4 a few months ago, and were pushing quickly to Tier 5. With him traveling, it was much easier to get messages through to them. They didn’t have to to snake their way through a dozen portals trying to find them anymore.

They had only exchanged a handful of long letters to each other. Matt’s were mostly filled with the mundane, while theirs were full of tales of their delves in various rifts. They decided to bounce around between a few rifts, instead of staying and repeatedly delving the same rift. It gave them a more varied combat experience, but it also kept them busy and left little time to message him.

He hoped to send them interesting tidbits about his time on the training planet ‘The Vacant.’

He had tried to message Dena and Eric when he left the PlayPen, but had simply gotten a message stating they were unavailable to receive notifications.

That struck him as odd since the message hadn’t even tried to send. If it had bounced back after a few attempts to locate the couple, it would be understandable, but immediately being kicked back to him? It felt off. The only thing he could find on the EmpireNet regarding the topic was that it meant Dena and Eric blocked him, they were on do not disturb mode, or they were dead.

He couldn’t do anything at the moment but hoped it wasn't the latter. He didn't know what he would do if they had died.

***

Matt stepped out of the teleporter onto Bladehold. The Tier 14 planet was rich with high Tier ores, and most smiths in this earldom flocked here. With the world’s higher-than-average metal concentration, it made for a perfect smithing planet. Armors and weapons were far cheaper on this planet than they would be on a neighboring world.

The city he was currently in was only a short train ride to the guild capital of Dual Stars. They were the guild that had rights over the training world.

Dual Stars was the strongest guild on the planet. Technically this wasn't their guild’s main branch, but it was their starting location and original world. So, they still kept a large guild hall established.

From what he had found in his research, Dual Stars was a major local power and did most of their recruiting locally. Their deep ties to the planet and its people gave them tremendous support from the citizens.

What Matt had been looking for, and hadn't been able to find, were scandals about the guild and the training world. Only a few small stories about their guild leaders supposedly cheating on one another came up. He didn't care about that. He was just worried about them trying to strong-arm anyone on the planet to give up or sell rewards for values below their worth.

He thought it was unlikely that something would happen since the world was a gift from The Empire. That same Empire had the habit of executing anyone and everyone who interfered with ascenders, so the guild would be unwise to cause Matt any unnecessary trouble.

If they did mess with those on The Path, it was more of a question of if Duke Waters would get to them before The Empire did. He was far less gentle with his methods of retribution than the Empire was.

That didn’t mean they couldn't cut his throat on the other planet and just say he never returned, but that was always a risk every delver faced, so he found it unlikely.

The train was packed, and Matt and Aster had to fight to get a spot to stand in. Many of the passengers were young, and he felt they were around Tier 3 to Tier 5.

Some even had masks to hide their identities. It wasn't a bad idea, and Matt even had a mask, but it was useless. An Arctic Fox was a dead giveaway that no mask could hide.

After the uncomfortable train ride, they arrived at the guild headquarters. It was more of a typical city than the teleporter city was. This city was nestled into a valley that took up the entire window Matt was pressed against.

The valley and city were split into thirds of roughly eight miles. The east-most third was the guild’s territory and had wide-open spaces. The border was a wall that looked more decorative than practical. Though Matt wasn’t sure, as runes and formations could be hidden inside, turning the small wall into a barrier that would take years to break.

The center third of the city was one of skyscrapers and massive estates; an odd combo Matt wouldn’t have thought went together. The last third was smaller. He would almost call it slums, but there was no trash or debris, just a poorer part of the city. Even if it was clearly crowded, he didn’t see graffiti or gang signs as they approached the station.

Once they arrived, Matt’s AI received a ping from the CityNet. The message was short, but stated that as a participant in the training world’s opening, the Dual Stars provided him a room until the portal’s opening. There would be a trolley to take participants to the guild’s staging area.

Seeing the massive line, he decided that they would just walk the few miles. It would do him good after the nearly two weeks of traveling. He and Aster could use the time and stretch their legs.

They weren’t the only people with the same thought, as half a dozen groups saw the mass of people waiting and started walking as well.

The path was easy to follow, as the train station was between the city’s wealthy and more impoverished areas. According to his AI, it was only 5 miles to the front gate.

It was a leisurely walk. The guild maintained the area well, and every third building was a smithy of one type or another.

The odd part of walking by so many smithies was that there was no noise. At all.

The city must’ve had a law about noise barriers, because every workshop had them. It made the walk almost otherworldly.

As they walked, he saw so many signs proclaiming the smiths’ skills inside, or declarations of enchanters that could imbue any rune onto items.

Matt felt truly poor when he looked up some of the prices at an enchanter’s shop. The prices weren’t even in credits, they were in mana stones, and the starting prices were usually Tier 10 mana stones. The prices only went up from there.

It would be good to remember that even though the guilders participating would be Tier 5 and below, they might have backings that allowed them to have incredibly strong items. The only thing saving him from being crushed under the guilders’ wallets was that their spirits’ strength would limit them.

A Tier 5 might be able to use a Tier 6 weapon, but it would be a dangerous strain, and limit the time they could use such a weapon.

The more he thought on it, the worse it seemed. Even if they couldn't use the higher Tier weapon’s enchantments, they could use the metals’ raw power to cut through lesser materials.

Matt decided to be extra cautious with anyone from the guilds. He didn't want to fight over a rift and get killed because some brat could crush him with equipment out of his Tier, thanks to daddy's wallet .

Though if I could steal someone’s higher Tiered equipment, it could be worth a fortune.

He shook that thought out of his head. That was a dangerous path to take. Everything he had read suggested taking equipment after a victory was considered acceptable, if in bad taste. It would still be stupid to try and extort his host.

The other item he saw advertised was a Tier 5 booster. If the advertising was to be believed, they were necessary to break through into Tier 5. The expensive elixirs gave people a bonus to one of the aspects of physical or mana cultivation. The price was understandably high, at two hundred and fifty Tier 4 mana stones or twenty-five Tier 5.

It wasn’t immediately necessary, but he made plans to start looking up guides and saving money for the purchase.

As the pack of people rounded the last corner, the entrance came into view, and the fifteen feet wide gate was packed with people trying to enter.

He and Aster approached the crowd, and he picked her up. He was afraid that with how close everyone was, she would get crushed or stepped on.

As they waited for the line to progress, Matt scanned the people around him with his essence sense and eyes.

Most were only lower Tier 3, but at least a quarter of the people he could sense were Tier 4. It would mean stiff competition after he did at least one more delve. He was near the peak of Tier 3, and with the essence of a Tier 4 rift, he could make his breakthrough.

If he had a few days on Bladehold, he could absorb the ambient essence and make the breakthrough here, but he didn't think he'd get the time. The portal was scheduled to open in just three days.

He eventually reached the front and found several booths with guild members behind them. Quickly finding the booth for people on The Path, he was checked in and given a temporary badge that would allow him free access to the guild’s facilities, and a room for his stay.

Once he was through the gate, the noise and clamor instantly dimmed to a quiet murmur instead of the roar it had been.

Matt immediately went to his room and decided to stay put for the next two days. He didn't want to get involved with the zoo that was the guild's territory.

He had already checked, and the guild did have rifts held at Tiers 1 through 9, but they were completely closed to anyone who wasn't a guild member. And even then, there was a six-month waiting period.

Resigning himself to making his breakthrough on the training planet, he waited the two days in boredom. The one party he went to had ended in a stabbing, and the guards had arrested half a dozen people. After that he avoided other people and concentrated on his breakthrough. Even the gyms had had fights breakout because of the smallest perceived slight.

His research said it wasn't a good idea to cultivate ambient essence for delvers. The essence was like sand to the bricks of the essence from rift monsters. It would need to be processed, and even then, it was a lot of slow work. Most delvers just relied on the essence from rifts to progress.

It was annoying, but he wasn't willing to ruin his foundation to break through a few days sooner.

***

Matt, along with a hundred thousand others, stood in an arena. They were the first group to transit to the training planet. The final number of participants from The Empire was a little over a million.

The transfers would be going for days. Then, the portal would lockdown for the six-month duration of the event.

Next to the portal were multiple large scaffoldings in the half-sphere of the teleportation pad.

As he stood with his teleportation group, he saw the Dual Stars leaders and namesakes take the stage. The Dual Stars were a couple that leaked light. Literally.

They were two individuals that, rumor had it, possessed nearly identical Talents. It was how they met. What the exact details of their Talents were was a constant topic of speculation, but ultimately unknown. They obviously were walking light sources, but some of the rumors attributed far deadlier aspects to their Talents.

The male star spoke with a resounding voice that seemed to weigh down on Matt. It was impressive, but Matt couldn't help finding it lacking compared to the Emperor's. The sheer weight of the Emperor’s voice had more of an effect through a video call planets away. This pressure was like activating his enchanted weapon, but affected his body, spirit, and mana at the same time.

“Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, welcome. We are so happy to welcome you to the opening of the training world. Before I continue, let me introduce myself and my wife. I am Richmond Page, and this is my lovely wife, Faye Page. I am Tier 29, and this genius beside me, Faye, just broke through to Tier 30.”

At that, everyone with the white and yellow colors of the guild cheered. It was so loud that Aster flinched and used her paws to cover her ears.

Richmond let the cheering continue for a solid minute, with his wife next to him smiling and waving to the crowds. When she turned her blinding smile to an area, the fervor of their cheers increased.

When the applause died down, Richmond continued. “We are happy to return to our roots again. This is where the guild was founded, and where we toiled”. At that, he was interrupted again by more roars of approval.

“This is home.” The rhetoric and grandstanding continued for several more minutes, and Matt just tuned it out, reviewing information his AI was producing.

When he heard the man get to the relevant information, he tuned back in. “We are happy to introduce your Tier 25 guide for this training expedition. He is the son of our guild’s treasurer, and was on The Path of Ascension until Tier 15. Driver.”

With that introduction, a tall man with dark hair bounded on the stage. He waved, and his reception was astoundingly loud.

“He recently reached Tier 25, and we are proud to have him overseeing this exercise. He will be your protection from The Republic.”

This time there were scattered boos, but Faye spoke for the first time. “Do not disrespect your enemies, it will quickly get you killed. We are sending our best, and so will they. This brings up the point of the competition. You will be fighting for the same rifts as The Republic, but do not go too far. Indiscriminately killing will not be tolerated. Death will happen, but it had better be accidental. Rob and push away those weaker all you want, but every death in the overworld will be noted and investigated.”

“That is the point of sending a Tier 25 to a Tier 5 world. The Republic and we ourselves each send one to guarantee good behavior. If you have AI’s, make sure they are recording, it's the best way to prove your innocence if someone gets killed.”

That was good advice, and Matt took it to heart.

“Remember, don't bring shame to The Empire or to yourself.”

With that, the first scaffolding moved into the teleportation circle, and Driver jumped on with the set-up team.

They would be the guild's staff and defense force. If there was a problem, they would remain on the platform and be swapped back with the second teleportation of equipment.

With a flash, the teleportation platform was empty.

The next platform, which was packed with boxes, was moved into place. Five minutes later, it was swapped with an empty one as the teleporter activated for a second time.

A data packet was transferred through with the returning structure, and Matt's AI picked up the data. Most of the message was encrypted and unreadable to Matt’s AI, but the overall message was everything was as it should be. They were deploying the defenses and had detected the republic doing the same. In essence, all was as it was all as expected.

Matt and everyone else who had intercepted the data let out a cheer, and the anticipatory atmosphere evaporated. Vendors who had been at the sides started hawking their goods at the waiting people.

He was glad that being on The Path earned him a spot in the first wave of people sent over. It wasn't a massive advantage, as the first teleport out of the city wouldn't be until mana had been built up for the defenses. It did however, mean that he could get in line and be one of the first out.

The thought of going out of the city on foot and grabbing a rift near the city had crossed his mind, but that was a risky venture as he was sure that others would have the same idea.

Several vendors had to be waived off by Matt and the others around him. The vendors were charging exorbitant prices for essentials. Things like cold-weather gear and self-filling water bottles were being sold for ten times their normal price.

He was glad that Griff had warned him about the price gouging. He did end up relenting slightly, and bought some sketchy meat on a stick for Aster and himself as they waited. She was as bored as he was, but had the option of laying down and sleeping.

Seeing the fox lounging, he contemplated following her example, and bringing out the small foldable chair he had. But, the press of people was just tight enough that he decided against it.

The next two teleports happened at five-minute intervals, and after the third, it was time for the next group of people to go. This group had more staff, but most were support types. They would be the ones running things for the next six months, and their departure marked the start of the actual transfers.

Matt was in group thirty-two, and as the first group of a thousand loaded onto the waiting platform, his anticipation was growing. Now every two and a half minutes, a platform was transported over.

It was somewhat of a race to load and unload nearly a thousand people, and that was why each side had five of the giant platforms. With transfers that quick, it would lead to deaths if everyone had to vacate it in that short of a time.

As the line moved in two and a half minute bursts, he quickly got onto the platform. Matt hadn't realized it at the time, but this was much larger than the interplanetary teleporters he had used before.

He had his AI pull the data and found that this teleportation sphere had a radius nearly fifty percent larger, which was essentially triple the amount of area of the transit world’s teleporters. From what he could find, this size increase decreased the efficiency of the teleporter by eighty percent. The only reason they didn’t use the smaller, more efficient teleporter was time constraint.

That explained the massive price for anyone outside the Dual Stars or The Path who wanted a spot on the training planet. This was an opportunity to get rare rewards and skill shards. And for people Tier 5 and under, that was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

A single extra skill could change everything for a delver. It was so expensive to get a skill shard under Tier 8, that it was the main draw guilds used for recruiting.

Skills were the lifeblood of anyone trying to delve. Every skill added to your ability to survive and thrive in a rift.

He thought of the profiles of the Tier 5 guilders. Several of the best from Dual Stars and other guilds had public profiles. Each prodigy he checked had five or six skills given to them by the guild, or parents who could afford it. It made them much stronger than those without.

That changed around Tier 8 when skills became more common. Anyone who was able to climb that high with minimal skills and support was on average stronger at the same Tier. The real difference came in delve speed. With more skills, they ran rifts daily. Or at least as often as their mana let them.

Matt didn't want to be cynical, but it was hard. Those with rich backing didn't have to struggle. Low on mana? Buy mana stones. Need a skill to round out your abilities? Buy it.

He thought it was the reason that so many on The Path came from poorer backgrounds. They didn't have the opportunities and advantages, so the restrictions of The Path meant nothing.

The rich were giving up safety and easy advancement for what? Matt wasn't sure, maybe it was pride.

He couldn't be sure of others’ motives, but was self-aware enough to admit that if he had been offered an easier way out before meeting Eric and Dena, he would have taken it.

Now, he didn't think he'd voluntarily leave The Path. His luck and odd Talent gave him an advantage over most, even if it was limited for now. In the future, he wanted to be able to take pride in the fact that he had stood on his own, and that he had risen from the bottom of society to the top.

Matt was pulled out of his musings when he felt the platform he was on start to move. It was his turn.

Aster jumped into his arms. She never took teleports on the floor after she got vomited on during their second jump. He didn't mind, as he had no interest in cleaning vomit out of her fur again. She had moped for days.

The speakers built into the platform quickly counted down the time to leave.

When the countdown hit zero, he felt the lurch. It was far worse than the usual jolt of teleportation. It also felt like it lasted years. Time warped and twisted before snapping back to normal.

Matt's spirit felt wrung out when the sensation ended and the teleport was over. He even heard familiar sounds of retching as he felt the platform move.

Being near the center of a middle level, he couldn't see anything, but heard exclamations from those that could. After the platform jerked to a halt, the speakers instructed everyone to disembark quickly.

When Matt got his first view of the new planet, he was incredibly disappointed. Everything was gray. The ground, the walls, the buildings, all made from the same gray stone.

Looking past the monotony, Aster noticed it first and drew his attention to the sight that had made the commotion.

There was a multicolored dome covering the sky. Matt knew from his research it was a defensive shield that also helped regulate the city’s temperature, but that didn't take away from the sight’s beauty. It would be invisible when it was fully powered, but for now it was a mesmerizing, multicolored specter in the night sky.

Matt felt the bump of someone behind him, and stepped off the edge of the platform. When he reached the ground, he moved away from the crowd and checked the messages his AI was receiving.

There wasn't anything unexpected. Designated buildings were for teams to use as lodging while on the planet. It was free, but furnishing wasn't provided. Crafters were in the last groups of people coming over, so the participants were warned not to expect them unless they were waiting the full week.

Costs for things like food and water were posted and were unsurprisingly absurd.

Finally, near the bottom of the list, he found what he wanted to know. Teleports were unavailable until the city's mana reserves reached an acceptable level. Priority teleports were going to those that provided more mana to the collection.

That was exactly as he had read about, and he planned on exploiting this privilege, so he could be one of the first people out.

Following the directions to the mana depository, he found a central building that was the only one he had seen guarded so far. From the feel of their spirits, they were Tier 10’s and one Tier 15, though the last was a guess, as it was already at his limit to sense the Tier 10’s.

The building was the center of the temporary city, and even had an aqueduct feeding water to the lake. He could see the vast body of water fade off in the distance through the distortion of the shield.

He could also make out the Republic’s city’s outline on the other side.

It was a good reminder that this was a neutral planet, and enemies were at the proverbial gate.

Matt followed several others in the building, and stepped to the side to see how this worked.

Even if he was willing to show off some of his abilities, he didn't want to broadcast them far and wide.

As he watched, the group that had entered before him walked to a pad and signed in, then touched a large crystal. With a flash of mana, they walked out after depositing what mana they had to spare.

It seemed simple enough if you were just depositing your mana pool, but Matt would need space to sit and channel his mana regeneration.

He saw someone with a scanner and a pad that he thought was a technician and asked to speak to whoever was in charge of the mana reserve.

After talking to the tech, he was directed to a small office, where he knocked and waited for the man behind the desk to acknowledge him.

The man sitting there was typing at a pad and watching readouts. He didn't look up, and just murmured a distracted “what?”

Matt took it as the best he was going to get until he proved his worth. The man was setting up a city, and Matt was surprised it was as easy to find him as it had been. So, he made his pitch as enticing as possible “I can give half a million mana in half a day if you get me a private area to do it.”

The man's fingers froze. It was disturbing as he went completely still, even his spirit stopped, it rose Asters hackles, and Matt felt the same.

The man’s head turned from the pad in front of him with unnerving stillness. “Prove it, send me your profile.” The words were said politely, but there was a threat hidden just under the surface. There was also disbelief in the tone.

A part of Matt was starting to regret this decision, but it was too late to back out now. He swallowed and sent a modified profile. A cultivator’s profile was a personal record of skills, abilities, and Talents everyone had. It was impossible to lie on one, as it was calculated and verified with the same AI’s that did skill and Talent testing.

It was possible to lower your abilities or confirm a statement of capabilities. If chosen, the sent profile would show the question and an answer that was verified, but with no detailed information.

Matt sent a verification that his claim of half a million mana in half a day was accurate. Or at least close, as it would take a little over thirteen hours.

The claim still stood, and Matt watched the man's eyes go side to side. He was clearly reading, then rereading the message Matt had sent.

The man stood, and reached out his hand. Any previous hostility was gone. “Simeon, I'm the director of the day-to-day operations here. Driver is in charge of defense, but I'm the one in control of everything else. That’s one hell of an ability you have.”

After shaking Matt’s hand, Simeon looked him up and down, clearly getting information from his AI.

He lamented, “You’re on The Path. Ugh, well I can give you a great recruitment deal if you want to join the guild, but it has to wait until you leave The Path.”

Matt didn't want to let this continue, so he cut in, “No, sorry. I’m happy ascending on my own. Maybe when I fall out naturally, but until then, I'll stay the course.”

Simeon didn't look surprised, but did look disappointed. “Shame, Shame. But I understand. Welp, to your mana. I can get you a room, and I can have you on...” he paused, and after getting the information continued, “the third teleport out. The first two are guild VIP teams. I'm even willing to put you in any spot you want, not a random one.”

That was far better than Matt had been expecting. He said as much, and Simeon laughed and started walking out of his office. The halls they traversed were made of the same gray stone, with just mana lights brightening the corridors.

“We brought a ton of mana with us in mana stones. We could start teleports now if we didn't have the republic on our doorstep. While it's unlikely they'd attack if we didn't have defenses up, it's a possibility. So we don't run the teleporter until we’ve built up a reserve of mana. The higher Tiered combatants will donate as well, but they only go down to three-quarters of their max.”

He looked at Matt and had a feral grin. “With you giving half a million mana, we can get our people out nearly a full day before The Republic. That means they will either have to cut spending to vital systems, or wait and let us get a massive head start.”

That made sense, but Matt felt something was off. So he asked, “I know half a million mana is a Tier 18 mana stone, but it seems like a guild of Dual Stars’ Tier would be able to cover the cost.”

Simeon chuckled at that, “On paper, sure. A Tier 18 mana stone isn't hard for a Tier 25 guild to produce, but the guild spends nearly everything it makes on building up crafters and honing the combatants’ strength. Most guilds don’t make money, and sure as hell don't have money to burn on something like saving a few hours. So, your contribution is far larger than you think.”

They arrived at a small room with just a chair and a copy of the crystal he had seen in the lobby.

“Here you go, I'll send you my contact information and run your special status. After today, you can get front-of-the-line privileges. If you spend time in the city in the future, I've set you up for guild access to the trading nets. So, no fees if you use the auction house. Also, we’ll take any more mana you want to give. The crafters burn through mana like you wouldn't believe, and after we settle your mana into ambient mana, it will help a lot.”

After that, Simeon hurried out with a massive grin plastered to his face. Matt sat down and started the tedious process of pushing his mana into the stone. As his current mana reached .1 mana, his regeneration ramped up to 10 mana a second. He channeled everything his AI didn’t need into the crystal.