Chapter 30

The following day, Matt woke up to a dark, empty room. Climbing out of bed, he padded into the living room, and saw that his boxes of food were removed from the table. He looked around, seeing that the trash was empty, and that Aster wasn't in Liz's room. With a quick check of his ring, he noticed that its counterpart wasn't in range.

Deciding to take a shower, he came back out to find Liz had returned by the time he was finished. More importantly she came in with a bag full of breakfast.

Testing the waters, he smiled and said, "Hey."

He got a bright smile from the mage, and she responded, "Breakfast is ready. We can start going over how to form your image after we visit the healers."

Seeing that she wasn't going to bring up last night, Matt jumped at the opportunity to put it behind them and ignore the whole situation.

Digging into the food with Aster sitting on the chair next to him was an excellent way to start the morning. He rushed through his meal. Matt was eager to start forming his image. It would dictate the future growth of his concept.

After breakfast, they made their way to his healing checkup. The healer station only had a single staff member working at the station. Most were probably at the teleporter building, Matt surmised.

After his arm was slipped into a far larger machine than the small screen used last time, Matt waited for the beeping to stop. Once it did, the healers poked and prodded him for a few minutes, before casting a general healing spell that refreshed him even more than his morning shower did.

The ribs were already healed yesterday, but the touch-up made him feel like he had enjoyed a great night's sleep. A far cry from the night full of tossing and turning he had suffered through.

Back in their suite, Matt and Liz sat facing each other on the couch with their knees touching. Aster was preoccupied with watching the world pass from her perch on the windowsill.

"Ok. You've done the hard part and gotten a phrase. What is it?"

"I am endless."

Liz nodded, and thought for a moment before suggesting, "Go into the Concepts area in your cores, and check if it's 'endless' or 'I am endless'. That’ll make a difference in how you proceed."

Doing so, Matt tested each phrase. "It's 'I am endless'."

"Ok. Now while in that space, go in and start picturing something endless. It doesn't have to be something real. It can be an idea, like a perpetual motion machine, or one of those twisty river drawings that connect the bottom to the top. But those are just some ideas off the top of my head for endless. For now, think of a spring in the earth pushing out water."

Not quite agreeing with the idea that a spring was endless, he did as she asked. Liz was the expert of the two after all.

Mentally delving into his Concept space, he pictured a spring in the ground.

Liz's voice almost brought him out, but he remained in the trance, "Ok. Start simple, and focus on only the trickle of water, with small bubbles of water coming out. Picture it moving in a small loop."

Matt followed the instructions, but it was wrong somehow. It was like a puzzle piece that was the wrong shape, color, texture, and taste. Somehow it also felt flat. He could shove it into place and hammer it down, but it wasn't right.

Her next words brought him back to the exercise, "Now add the trees and the foliage around it."

Matt did so. Everything still felt wrong.

"Ok. the image should feel like a puddle. Wide but shallow, now we add depth. Add the life cycle of the plants and trees. Add the insects and bacteria and algae living in the water."

Trying to do as she said, the image shattered in his mind.

It didn't hurt, but he was ejected out of the space. Opening his eyes, he met Liz's yellow ones.

"Image broke and kicked you out?" The question felt more like a statement, so he nodded.

"Yeah, it also felt wrong. Like, like..." Matt struggled to get the words right. "Like the image was a puzzle piece that didn’t fit."

That, oddly enough, made her look happy. "Perfect! We found a good starting point. The fact it doesn't 'fit' right now isn't a big deal. Right now, we need to work on you building the image. That's harder than you think. When you can create the spring with clarity and it 'feels right’, you can start working on finding your 'right' image."

He was quickly envisioning all of his free time being consumed by these exercises, so Matt asked, "Is there any way to speed this up?"

Liz scoffed. "Yeah, sure. You just need to have a friendly Tier 45 plus with their Aspect ascend to the higher realms near you."

Giving her a flat look, he said, " Ha ha. What else is there?"

This time she just shrugged. "Nothing really, just hard work and time. I'd love to find someone ascending once we get off this rock. It'd help me progress from my current image. It works, but it isn't quite 'right', compared to one that’s perfect. Technically, anyone about to ascend is supposed to give three months advance warning. That way, people in our situation have time to get to the planet and acquire stronger, more fitting images."

"Wait, you weren’t messing with me? How does it help?"

"From what I understand, the act of ascending is great for the planet you do it on." Raising a finger, she said, "First, when they ascend, there’s a weakening in the laws that govern reality. That weakening lets people form images for Concepts, Intents, and Aspects much easier. That building process you were struggling with would've been as easy as breathing."

Liz raised a second finger. "Second, it lets the planet Tier up without the possibility of rift breaks, or any of the other problems that stem from dumping too much mana or essence into the cycle at once."

With a third and final finger raised, she finished, "Finally, there’s an increase in children's talents that are awakened within a day or two of the event."

The first two seemed reasonable to Matt, but the last seemed unreal.

"How's that even possible? That seems to disregard everything about Talents and our spirits that I've ever heard. Talents are a unique part of the spirit. They aren't able to be changed or predicted. They aren't even genetic."

Liz nodded. "All true. But in the end, it's proven to have an impact. On average, people awakened right after the ascension are shown to be fifteen to twenty percent stronger. I can't argue with the numbers. My parents tried to get me one, but no one was ascending."

She shrugged at the last bit.

"Doesn’t three months seem kinda short notice?"

"Yeah, the Empire prefers that people give a few year's notice. That way, neighboring planets can ship kids in, and infrastructure can be prepared. A few hundred years ago, someone gave a decade warning, and they emptied the neighboring planets out completely. Anyone even remotely near the proper age was awakened. I think kids as young as ten years old made the trip. Of course the rich brought their kids over. It was a huge event."

Matt thought it over. "Why not make people wait longer and do that every time?"

"I don't know. I'd imagine that most people just want to help the world that they care about. I can't think of many people who have given more than six months' warning. The only disincentive to respecting The Empire’s three month mandate is their ability to go against an ascender’s will. At least regarding the goods they leave behind."

"Will? Like a death will?"

"Yeah. You can't bring anything with you as you ascend. Even if it's in your body, it gets left behind. So it's basically death. People make a will, and their belongings are left to whoever or whatever they choose. If they wait the three month period, I think it's all tax free. But I'm not sure. The recordings I've seen of it usually show people giving their wealth to the planet they own or came from. They use it to push the planet a bit further ahead, or they have skills bought and distributed to the next few generations."

Matt thought all that over. He couldn't imagine something like that. It seemed crazy. The thought of raising Lilly to a higher Tier and helping the kids there was bittersweet. He wasn't sure if he'd pick his homeworld when he ascended. There were so many mixed feelings there.

Getting back on topic, he asked, "So that's out of the question. Anything else? Or even anything to speed it up?"

"Nope. Not that I know of, at least. Maybe some super rare rift reward or something."

Done with the distracting thoughts, Matt pushed back into his cores and tried to build on the image. It was tedious, and his AI was of no help, as this process was all in his spirit, not his mind.

Opening one eye, he looked over to Liz. She was now lying with Aster, both looking out the window. He asked, "Is there no way for my AI to help?"

He just got a "Nope." in response.

Matt practiced for two hours. At that point, he was backsliding on his progress, and convinced Liz to go work out with him instead.

They weren't gathering essence, and he wanted to do something physical. Working out with a real weight set was better than the bodyweight exercises he did in between delves.

That night, they went to an actual restaurant. After they had finished eating, Matt brought up the topic he had been mulling over for the last few hours.

"I think we should return to our regular delving schedule tomorrow."

He expected an outburst from Liz, but nothing was forthcoming. She just finished wiping her plate clean with her bread.

"I agree. Your skills mean that you never really get injured in the normal rifts, and even with the one week healing, that would put us right back on the extra rift schedule. Do you want to head back right after breakfast tomorrow?"

He had been hoping to leave tonight but took the offering she presented.

"Perfect."

***

Standing in the bear rift, Matt felt surprisingly nervous. There was a thrum of fear he hadn't felt before coming into a rift, even after the rift challenge.

With as subtle a movement as he could manage, he wiggled his left arm. It felt ok. He found it strange how nervous he was. There was no reason to be. Instinctually he knew that, but there was something about losing an arm that made the dangers of delving real.

As he approached the first bear, he activated [Mage's Retreat] at a twenty five percent boost, and cut through the bear in a single blow. Immediately, all was right in the world.

Aster walked up to the corpse. A red glow activated around her mouth, and the bear's chest cracked open. The heart was ripped out with the help of her new skill, [Heart Of Power].

With two bites, the mass of flesh was down her gullet. Once the heart was consumed, there was a small red aura surrounding the fox. It was only visible to Matt's spiritual sight.

With the newfound power from her skill, Aster took off and found another bear.

She had gotten better at taking down the much larger bears on her own with experience. By now, she was an expert at crippling their legs and driving spikes of ice through their eyes and into their brains.

She had developed a much easier strategy than trying to punch through the tough hide of the beasts with her ice. But with [Heart Of Power] active, the small arctic fox easily drove a spike of ice through the bear's chest.

It quickly died, and Aster began learning of the limits to her new skill. With her latest victim’s heart destroyed by a fist sized icicle, there was little to eat, and even less for her to use the skill on. Five minutes after the skill was activated, the aura around the fox disappeared, and the buff was gone.

"Well that's a nice skill. Maybe we'll get another one that I can use."

Matt looked at Liz, who clearly wanted to copy the fox and get buffed by the hearts of her foes. It did fit well with her blood mage combat style. He had to give her that.

Thinking of the buff stacking on [Mage's Retreat], he asked, "Any chance that skill removes the need for cooking and cleaning the meat?"

The armored woman shook her head. "Probably not. She is still eating the monster's meat after all."

Cursing the fact he was a normal human and unable to process monster meat, the trio proceeded to kill their way through the rift.

When they reached the end and finished off the remaining bears in the rift, Matt sat and observed his spirit, with Liz and Aster doing the same. It was nearly full, but the pyramid rift had given him this much essence per wave.

Liz, clearly thinking the same thing, spoke out loud. "Kinda sucks that the pyramid rift gave us so much more essence total. Damn, some rifts just are better."

"Yeah."

There was a silence that stretched out for a moment, before Liz grabbed his nearest hand and squeezed it.

"Sorry about yesterday. I was worried and took it out on you. I shouldn't have. Also, sorry I took Aster and went and broke down. Sorry." The last was a whisper he barely heard.

Matt had hoped they would just put this behind them, but he wouldn't let her overture go unanswered.

"I... I'm sorry too. I was wrong. I shouldn't have tried to downplay the whole thing. I..." He didn't want this to sound like an excuse, but he felt the need to explain. "In the orphanage, you couldn't show any weakness at all. You always had to hide anything that bothered you. It would cascade through to anyone who couldn’t internalize the shit that life threw at us. Whole waves of kids setting each other off. There wasn't enough help, and the caretakers were burning out."

He looked up and squeezed her hand a bit tighter.

"It was rough, and most of us learned that the best way to move forward was to push our feelings down, and mentally beat down our trauma. It was easier that way."

After gathering his thoughts for a few heavy heartbeats, he slowly continued.

"After the tragedy, everyone barely had enough to take care of themselves. Even if you couldn't, no one else would. No one had your back. But now that's not true. Now I have you and Aster. I… I’m not used to that. I guess I need to learn to be more open."

They were silent for a long while, the three of them sitting down and watching the smoldering ashes of the hut in front of them.

"Matt?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you consider therapy?"

His initial reaction was to say he didn't need it. That therapy was for the kids who couldn't cope on their own. After the initial reaction, he thought it over. The kids who actually got to talk to the therapists were usually better adjusted in the long run.

More than one kid who bottled everything up had snapped. He didn’t want to become another.

"Yeah. That would probably be for the best."

Liz dropped her head on his shoulder, and they sat together. The three of them.

***

They had just finished their second ferret rift, when they went back to the common area to talk. They were looking forward to hearing about what had happened over the last few days.

The attitude was somber. And people weren't talking and chatting the way they usually did.

Seeing a group of non-guild delvers they were familiar with, they asked what had happened.

Suu nearly whispered to them, "Oh, you guys are alive. We thought they might have killed you three."

The fuck? Killed us?

Matt was surprised, and was about to ask for more information when Liz leaned in and whispered, "What happened?"

"The Tier 5's have taken over quite a few rifts. And now there are more of them. Eleven full teams. They’ve just been delving the best rifts on repeat."

Suu looked around and whispered, "Two high Tier 4 teams tried to stop them and got their limbs shattered for standing up to them. Be careful."

Matt leaned back and shot a surprised glance at Liz.

It was almost as if their conversation had drawn the very people they were talking about, as the delver group they were talking to scattered.

The man in front stormed up to their table and kicked the stone slab over. Matt, who had been resting his elbows on the table, kept his position, and just returned the glare from the angry table kicker.

The apparent leader of this group, a girl in light melee armor, placed a hand on the man's shoulder, and he calmed down. He was seemingly restrained by her.

'Their acting is shit.' Matt had seen enough bluster recognize this game, and sent the message to Liz.

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and sent, 'you know what they’re planning? I figured they were stupid and willing to go against people on The Path. They’re flirting with banditry.'

'Naaaa, let me handle this one.'

Matt knew this game. He had seen it before at Benny's and the orphanage. Even the gangs around the area had tried similar tricks.

Matt grabbed the toppled table and righted it with a hand, noticing a piece had broken off. "Try this shit on other people. We aren't dumb enough to fall into this trap. And..."

He was cut off as the woman took her hand off the table kicker, and he exploded, punching and shattering the table.

Matt wiped the stone fragments off his lap while the man raged.

"You went into our rift. You owe us the essences. So give it up."

Matt nodded. "As we all know, that's impossible. What do you really want?"

The man smiled. "If you hand over everything you own, we’ll only have you each break one of your own arms."

Matt continued to nod and looked at Liz, saying out loud, "See, they want to rob us, but won't come out and say it. Especially if side-threats get us to give them our things. That's not them robbing us. Technically."

He looked from the awkward man, who continued to rampage about, to the woman behind him.

Matt smiled and said. "So unless you’re willing to throw the first punch on a team on The Path, please fix the table and fuck off. Well, be delving our chosen rifts."

The duo both got red in the face this time. Matt figured that it was real this time. Not the act they had been playing up.

The woman spoke up this time. "Listen here, smartass. You either give us your shit or we’ll attack. If you..."

Matt cut her off. "Please, feel free." He spread his arms and continued, "I won't activate a single skill. Attack, please. Even if you kill me, you think you're faster than my AI sending a message?"

"This is a training world. We’re allowed to attack each other, stupid."

Matt nodded at that. "Yup, Tier 5's sure are allowed to attack Tier 4's for a Tier 4 rift."

He put on a shocked expression. "Oh, wait. No. They aren’t. That's why you tried to provoke us into attacking first. We aren't stupid. I've seen this game before. Please fuck off."

When they didn't move, he shooed them with his hands. "Shoo, shoo. Be gone. The stupid you two put off is upsetting my stomach."

His antagonistic words were working, as the woman was now shaking with rage. In a complete turnaround, the man was now trying to pull her away.

Matt messaged Liz, 'Be ready. Best case is they leave us alone. But if they’re dumb enough to attack, we both send messages and turtle up.'

'I wonder what compensation the guild will give us if they attack?' She followed up the message with a silly smiling face.

The man started dragging the woman away while she growled. "Oh, you'll regret this, you stupid fucks. You took from me, and I'll get mine back. Just you fucking wait. I'll..."

The trio moved to the neighboring table. Matt looked to Liz and said loud enough for the retreating duo to hear, "Why do dumbasses always have to act so entitled and stick their noses in other people's business?"

She grinned and prodded them on. "Ahh. Most people aren't that stupid. But it’s always the stupid ones making trouble. It's like a bad trope. But think about it. Most of the people are really nice. Or at least they don't put their noses in others’ business. I know I don't remember every person who leaves me alone, but I sure remember the assholes who are stupid enough to butt into my life."

The duo was out of range, and Liz said. "Wow. I hadn't seen that tactic before. It's so stupid that it works. It’s so dumb that it wraps around and almost becomes brilliant."

Matt laughed at that, "Nah. Once Suu's group said they were beating people up after they attacked, I figured it out. Plenty of people try that. Goad someone weaker into attacking, and you have free reign to 'defend yourself’."

Matt thought for a moment and mused, "They’re probably going to try and follow us into a rift now. Felt weak, though. Neither had strong foundations, and they both had bottled Concepts. I didn't get a good feeling for what type they had though."

"Yeah, you're right about that. No way they'd be dumb enough to attack out in the open, but I’ll bet they try and come in at the last minute and just say we never made it out."

"Pshh. I'm not taking that bet. That's their best way to avoid blame. Just say they didn't get our instance." He scoffed at her trying to swindle him.

They sat looking around, and Matt asked, "Well. Honestly, I thought they'd just instantly attack. It would have been better."

The blood mage just nodded and then asked, "How much loot do you think they have?"

Bobbing his head, he thought about it. "It depends on whether they went back or not. Even if the goods aren't technically stolen, I don't think they’d want to spend time in the city with recently healed people that they’ve stolen from. What are the odds they have a hidey-hole?"

Liz thought it over, but shook her head. "Nah, no way they would hide it. I bet everyone and their mother is watching them, and searching anywhere they go that isn't a rift. I bet they have all the loot with them."

Matt grinned. "And besides, after the boss we faced, how can two new Tier 5's who can’t even delve Tier 5 rifts possibly compare? As a matter of fact, there’s no way they have much backing in the guild. They would’ve gotten enough skills and weapons to delve the Tier 5 rifts without an issue. All their gear was Tier 4 still."

He didn't think he was being cocky. Them attacking in the open would have been ideal, since they could have gotten the guild guards to teleport in and handle everything. They would have been able to get all of the stolen loot without having to lift a finger.

Now, they were sure to have a fight on their hands in the next couple of days. But Matt was never one to back away from a challenge.

***

The following two days passed by without incident. The trio was especially cautious when going into rifts, waiting twenty minutes from the last team, and watching their entrance portal for another twenty minutes.

On the third day, when they were in the bear rift, they finally got visitors. As the fifteen minute window was about to close, a trio walked in. The two from before, and a second man. This one was shorter, and had a pair of daggers drawn.

The woman from before had a rapier, and the table kicking man had a staff.

With nods, they looked around, and skulled in the direction of the exit.

Matt and Liz looked at each other. Even with their faces covered, they knew each other well enough not to need words. Aster, in her backpack, already was baring her teeth, but did not make any sound.

Liz turned to the bear next to her and knelt, so Aster could use [Heart Of Power] on the corpse. Once the fox had eaten the heart, Liz drained the monster of blood.

They had prepared for this fight, and it would be a bloody one. No one came into a rift like this and had any intentions other than murder.

Matt took point and approached the group, sword leading the charge. Noticing him, they spun around, and the staff wielding mage in the rear let a bolt of lightning loose. His AI analyzed the skill to be [Spark]. From the lacking damage, and the fact that it was drawn to his longsword, he agreed with his AI’s conclusion.

The mage retreated from the new frontline, as Matt was intercepted by the duo of melee fighters.

The dagger wielder struck out while trying to slip behind Matt. The blade skittered off [Cracked Phantom Armor] as he ran past. Matt wasn't afraid for Liz. If things got bad, she could swap with the rings. There was no reason to hide the rings here, as one party would be killed off.

The rapier wielder stabbed out with a glowing tip, and Matt deflected the blow with his much heavier weapon. He went on the offensive, lashing out with a combination of slashing and stabbing attacks. [Mages Retreat] gave him the strength to move the heavy longsword nearly as fast as the Tier 5 woman moved her skinny blade.

She retreated, forcing the mage behind her to do the same. After they reset their formation, the mage started sending out [Spark]s every time he had a clear shot. Most of the bolts were pulled to Matt's blade, but the few that hit him directly did little to destabilize [Cracked Phantom Armor].

They really are weak. Barely stronger than a Tier 4 monster. I don't even think a Tier 4 boss is this weak.

Matt felt their weapons. The girl's was a Tier 4. He was close enough to get an accurate sense, and the mages' staff felt the same.

The rapier user was too lightly armored to take a hit from his Tier 5 weapon, and her own Tier 4 weapon was unable to pierce Matt's armor. He tested it by letting the unenhanced edge of the blade run along his armor.

With the girl unwilling to get close enough for a solid attack, Matt patiently waited for her next flitting strike. To bait it out, he feinted at the mage.

The woman took the bait and lunged at Matt, trying to keep his attention off her teammate. In response, Matt grabbed her blade. Whatever skill was causing the tip to glow didn't affect the edge of the blade, and his armored fist clamped down around the weak weapon.

The blade slid slightly, but his hands were protected from the cutting edge. The move interrupted the girl’s fighting pattern long enough for him to slash down with his superior sword.

She let go of the blade and tried to retreat, but she was too slow. The blade cut through the woman's abdomen and dropped her.

Turning to the lighting mage, he found him already down, with a chest full of icicles.

Glancing back, he found Liz approaching him, with Aster poking over her shoulder. The rush of essence Matt felt from the dagger wielder behind him was shunted into the ground, and he felt Liz and Aster doing the same.

Using someone else's essence was less than ideal, as it was no longer as pure as rift monster essence. It was closer to ambient essence, and not of much use to them.

No point in ruining my foundation for such little gains.

Matt looked at the mage, as his female teammate died in the dirt as well, the essence once again pushed away.

Matt looked at him. He was trying to say something. The ice in his chest had punctured his lung, making him unable to get the words out.

The mage's mouth moved, and Matt made a guess at what he wanted.

"Want me to end it?"

At the man's nod, he drove his sword into the man's chest. The third and final rush of essence was shunted into the ground.

Under his breath, he repeated what he had been taught in one of the PlayPens lessons. “I am not responsible for your actions.”

With a sigh, Matt spoke up louder. "Well, the rift is happy about this one."

Liz nodded, and silently went to grab the group's bags. They dumped them out to find nothing remarkable.

"Ok, I get that they were robbing Tier 4's, but this is pitiful."

Liz agreed with his assessment, "Yeah. Only forty three Tier 4 mana stones. No way this is everything. Either they have a stash, or they went back to the city in the last few days."

Matt didn't know what to say, so he spoke as the thoughts came to him. "Three dead because they were greedy. I almost feel guilty. They were so weak. But they used what little power they had to steal and lord over others. Huh. I don't know."

This was the first time he had taken a human life. It had been so easy.

Liz agreed, and Matt realized that his last thoughts had been spoken out loud. "Yeah, they were pretty weak. I wonder why they thought this was a good idea. With their level of power, they had to struggle against even the weakest Tier 5 rift. How did they think attacking two people on The Path would turn out better?"

Matt had even less of an idea than she did. "I don't know. Maybe they thought they could get ahead like this? I really don't know, honestly. Do we report them? Or just let them stay missing?"

If they reported what the group had done, the guild would have no recourse, as their members had clearly been the aggressors, attacking a group weaker than them. The only reason for telling the guild what had happened was to at least let them know that the group hadn't gone missing.

Liz shook her armored head. "I don't know either. I don't think we should tell the guild. The only thing it will bring them is shame. And, well... I don't feel too good about this. We may have provoked them, but that was only after they threatened us. But did they have to push it? We would have left them alone. And they could still be alive now."

Matt understood, and added his own thoughts. "The part that's eating at me is that the people out there are probably happy to see them gone. Shit, the groups they beat up and stole from would be ecstatic. Now that i think about it, how did this group even beat anyone? Tier advantage or not."

Liz came over, and they stood over their attackers, looking at the bodies.

"What a fucking waste."