The Path of Ascension

Gregor ripped through the veil of reality and into chaotic space, where he paused and viewed the world. It was always a beautiful sight, and he took the time to observe the ember of light tethered by two strings that would lead to the next worlds.

Instead of following them, he shifted his Intent and reentered the world, but in another location — the main entrance city.

His AI sifted through the most recent information flowing through the CityNet, and he found his targets. The little fox, Aster, had given him more than her bond recognized. His AI noticed that there were at least two teams that hadn’t come out of the rifts where they hid for safety. He intended to fully correct that issue.

With an effort of will, and by mixing his Concept and Intent, he found the guardian Tier 15, and pulled them through space to where he hovered. He hated interacting with the vassal kingdom’s immortals. They thought they were above it all, and treated the lower Tiers like pieces on a game board. Long ago, he had learned that if he acted how they expected a higher Tier to act, things were much smoother.

“My Lord. What can I do for you?”

The man had a weapon out but quickly returned it to his spatial ring and bowed deeply. His heart rate and breathing were erratic, but Gregor’s spiritual sense felt the man readying spells. They were futile measures, but he respected the man for his attempt.

“Give me a list of all the rifts where survivors haven’t come out.”

There was a moment of hesitation, so Gregor used his spirit to suppress the man for a heartbeat. It had the desired effect, and the Tier 15 quickly sent over the requested information.

Crossing checking it with the reports he read earlier, he moved to the closest rift and focused his spiritual sense, Concept, and Intent on the distortion as it flickered before his eyes. It took him nearly a full minute to find the spatial pocket that the rift’s past instance resided in.

It took five minutes to grasp the spot and rip it open to force his way into the rift.

He appeared in the sky and hovered with an application of his Concept. Higher Tier rifts had firmer realities, which would force him to use the [Flight] skill. But he had no reason to use his mana for something as simple as passing a message.

“I am Gregor Hanson, Tier 41 and a member of his Imperial Majesty’s reclamation squad. You are free to leave this rift, the incident with the golems has passed, and normalcy has been restored.”

When his voice echoed through the tiny rift, he had a moment of nostalgia for the size of the pocket in space. It had been so long since he had entered a rift that was only a few miles long. Now, when he delved rifts, it took years.

The moment was ruined when he saw the fear on the faces of the children. He was a predator, and usually took great pleasure in his enemies’ fear, but these were mere children. He could tell that they feared being killed out of hand for some perceived slight.

It boiled Gregor's blood, and he made a note to come and perform an inspection when this vassal kingdom was integrated into the Empire. Personally, he disagreed with the practice of letting disgruntled factions strike out on their own and settle the frontier. But history had shown that it provided a useful outlet for dissenters.

The Empire had, like the other great powers, learned how to slowly integrate the vassals when they grew to an appreciable size. Still, Gregor despised how the vassal states could treat their citizens so poorly, that just the sight of an immortal would leave them cowering in fear.

Even when they heard his proclamation, they still hesitated to look up as they started packing. Seeing that all was moving along, Gregor repeated his actions in the other four rifts that still harbored holdouts.

After his duty was done, he ripped his way out of the world, and followed the tethers that the teleporters created in chaotic space. It was faster for him to follow the established routes than to make his way through the much more dangerous, empty areas in chaotic space. When planets were linked with teleporters, they were relatively stable, and held their location relative to everything else in the network. But that didn’t mean that the great powers were closely linked in chaotic space.

No, even a single planetary jump was so far apart, it could take hours of travel to reach the next one. It didn’t help that new worlds flew through the loose net that was the Empire all the time. It was how most worlds were discovered; people waited for the worlds to fly to them, rather than venture out too far away from the safety of civilization. Some worlds moved fast and some slow, but they all moved.

Two days later, Gregor arrived at the Empire’s capital and reported in.

He was immediately summoned to a tribunal the moment he entered the capital’s real space. It wasn’t unexpected, but he had hoped for time to freshen up and relax a little before they called on him. Still, he didn’t hesitate and moved through the city.

The Tier 47 world ensured that he had to fly with [Flight], and weave his way through the traffic lanes. There were strict flying zones that dictated allowed flight speed and direction. If he broke them, he would be heavily fined. No one was exempt, not even even the Emperor and the royals. It ensured that few were so brazen to break said rules.

It was what Gregor loved about the Empire. Rules applied equally to all. He had traveled in his youth to visit the other great powers, and saw how greater power usually meant less adherence to rules and laws. The higher the Tier, the worse the unpunished injustices were.

No, the Empire had the right idea.

Gregor arrived at The Path of Ascension Regulatory Hall, and entered after sending some of his essence into a reader. Even unaspected essence was unique from person to person, once it was allocated or in the spirit. Fingerprints and DNA could be altered after Tier 15, but essence signatures were much harder to fake.

As he made his way into the elevator, he noted that the button to call for help was over the Tier 5 maximum. Such emergency measures were not allowed to be more than Tier 5, so that weaker people could still manually activate it without their AI.

That was the problem of living on a Tier 47 world. It was nearly impossible for common folk to exist, as the ambient essence Tiered up anything left in the environment for too long. He checked the elevator’s last inspection data and frowned.

Nearly a thousand years. It at least explained why the button had Tiered up in the meantime. Time meant so little after Tier 15. He distinctly remembered the last time that the elevator had been out of commission, and needed to be repaired. It felt like only weeks ago.

As he exited the elevator, he called out to the receptionist, Barry, “Morning Barry. Elevator emergency button Tiered up.”

The man looked over and squinted before he responded, “Second one this month. They were supposed to inspect them all. I’ll put in another request and see why this one was missed.”

Gregor nodded as he took a seat outside of a nondescript door and waited.

Anyone who treated Barry as a simple receptionist was in for a surprise. The man was the right hand for one of the seven seats that oversaw The Path. Which seat, exactly, was a hotly debated topic in the gossip circles. There was even a betting pool about which of The Seven he served.

Gregor had a few thousand contribution points on Madam Moment. They both had the same no-nonsense attitude and took their job seriously.

It was a short two hours of using his AI to catch up on the documents he had missed while out in the field, when the door opened with a nearly silent click.

Immediately, he shut down his work and entered the door, carefully closing it behind him.

He found himself in the center of a room, facing the modest chairs arranged in a half-circle that held The Seven. Gregor didn’t dare to make a sound, and waited for one of the officials to make the first move. These were the people who created policy for The Path of Ascension, and answered directly to the Emperor.

While acting as an Investigator, he only reported to the Emperor in normal duties, but his last report and recommendation had to go through these seven.

One of the seven spoke, “Mr. Hanson, your last report has caused a stir. Explain, please.”

It was impossible to tell who The Seven were. They all wore full masks and long robes, differing only in color. The robes had a suppressing effect, which made it impossible to sense who was under the outfit. It gave them unparalleled anonymity.

The Blue masked administrator who spoke was referred to as Governor Idle by title. All seven administrators wore the robes and identities of the first people to sit in their seats.

People would only know who one of the Seven were when they left their seat and retired by ascending. It was a position that was held for life, and both were cut short if they were found to be abusing their position.

Gregor intended to someday take up the mask and robe himself. He had done his time and worked his way up through the ranks for that singular goal.

If this worked out, he could cement a good impression in the remaining six masks’ minds. Madam Terror, the Yellow mask, had publicly let it be known that she intended to ascend in the next few decades.

“My report should make it clear that I went to investigate a reported cheating incident.”

The Purple Mask, Mr. Fracture cut him off, “Please report on the incident that caught the attention of the AI.”

“It was a sale of two growth items and the inspection of three others. That doesn’t include the massive haul of standard growth items. I was the closest agent in the field, so I responded.”

The Green Mask, Madam Moment, asked in a deep and masculine tone, “And what did you find?”

“I followed them for a few hours and made my entrance when they were alone. I proceeded to investigate the suspicious activities of their profiles and was given satisfactory answers. But when confronting them about the three growth items, I was given an answer that was hard to believe, so I verified it.”

The Red Mask, Mr. Flexible, asked in a light and feminine voice, “And what was the answer, Mr. Hansor?”

Gregor swallowed and prepared for what was to come next. Everything so far was standard debriefing that could all be verified with his report. Now was the moment of truth.

“A Seeker-like Talent that allowed for a complete disregard of any difficulty of The Path, through near unlimited mana generation. I’d rate it as ten on both the usefulness scale, and the kidnap or kill scale for the other great powers.”

The room went silent, and Gregor watched the unmoving masks. They would be discussing the ramifications of his carefully chosen words. He could see in their hand movements and twitches they were both excited and nervous.

Madam Terror spoke after nearly ten minutes, “Continue. But elaborate on why you used the highest classification of seeker Talent.”

“The Talent in question does more than just what is seen with a standard seeker Talent. Instead of finding wealth in the outside world, or manipulating treasure encountered in rifts, this individual was able to effectively force rifts to run as if they were at full capacity at all times.”

Gregor was careful to tiptoe around the truth of Matthew’s Talent. Even he shouldn’t know the specifics, and had AI restrictions in place to ensure anything he learned about Talents was kept quiet.

The Silver Mask, The Arbiter, held up his hand, and every face shifted to see them.

“We find this hard to believe. Please provide an AI backed guarantee to back up that claim.”

Gregor did, and Silver just nodded to him. If Gregor hadn’t been there and seen it, he wouldn’t believe it either.

The Orange Mask, Governor Busy, asked, “And that led you to offer a full team at Tier 5?”

“With the claim verified I...”

Gregor used his AI and started playing a video. It was heavily edited, with faces and voices carefully left out, so any decision the tribunal came to was unbiased. Even Elizabeth’s skills were recolored to clear-blue, as to appear like a more common water mage.

“I challenged the duo team to prove they had the ability to delve Tier 5 rifts. With that proven, they were clear of trouble. But with the ease in which they cleared the rift, I decided to see how far they could be pushed. I challenged them to a Tier 6 rift. A different Tier 6 rift that they had no knowledge of.”

Gregor watched the stream of video as a vague melee fighter killed hippos, and a vague water mage did so with even more ease.

Timing his words as the trio delved the rift, he added, “As you can see, the team cleared the Tier 6 rift in an easy and carefree manner. So I decided to continue the testing. I took them into a Tier 7 rift.”

Silver held up a hand again, and Gregor's heart clenched. The Arbiter only acted to settle disputes and act as a tiebreaker. He had given three debriefings like this before, but Silver had never acted a single time.

What are they discussing on private channels?

As much as Gregor wanted to know, he pushed forward, and provided an AI backed claim. It was more information than he wanted to provide, but his hope that they wouldn’t notice the planet was only Tier 6 had been a pipe dream.

They didn’t push, and Gregor continued his story, “So I had them delve a Tier 7 rift blind.”

The Purple Mask, Mr. Fracture, asked, “What was their exact cultivation at the time of the delve?”

“Mid Tier 5. This is the rift that they delved. I’d consider it a hard counter to both cultivators. I also would have recommended them a full team if they had been able to retreat against the much stronger opponents. They exceed expectations.”

Green nodded, but said nothing as they watched the children smash their way through the sandstone golems. At the time, Gregor had expected to have to intervene when he saw what the children were forced to contend with. They had surprised him with their tenacity and ability to adapt.

Those were traits not always seen in lower Tiers, where nearly every rift delved was already plotted out, and the dangers were already known. No, they had adapted to the situation on the fly, and carefully cut their way through enemies two Tiers higher than them.

They watched the entire multi hour delve at quadruple speed. Gregor searched for a hint of the masks’ mindset as he reviewed the video along with them, trying to judge the video as he thought The Seven would. Finally, when they had finished, they rewatched the parts with intense combat a few times at half speed. He saw hand movements and tilts of the head as they communicated, but nothing was said out loud.

When the video ended with the children stumbling out of the rift, Silver raised a hand for the third time. Gregor swallowed hard. Three times had to be near a record for Silver’s interference in a tribunal.

“Are this child’s seeker-like abilities going to lessen as they Tier up, or advance with them?”

That was a much easier question than Gregor feared. “I did my research with the subject’s history, and can assure the Seven that it will only grow stronger as they Tier up.”

That caused a much longer silence. It was almost an hour later when the Seven looked up and dismissed him.

“Mr. Hanson, you have done well with your report. Your actions have shown a good judge of character for both yourself, and of the potential cheaters you deal with. We have no further need for your services. Your patrol was meant to end in just a few years, so we have canceled the rest of it. Your delve slots will be moved up to compensate you as well. Personally, I am adding a page in your file about your service, and commendations will follow after it is approved.”

Gregor didn’t let himself react. There would be time for that with his husband and wives. Now was time for a calm and collected appearance.

He said nothing, and retreated out of the now ajar door with a slight bow. His job was done, and he had done it well enough to be congratulated.

Things were looking up.

***

Silver sat back and listened to the others chatter about who they should send to manage the children.They kept out of it, as their position demanded. Only when the other six reached an impasse would they offer up advice.

As they listened to the back and forth of the conversation, their mind whirled. The suggestions that the others offered up weren't bad, but they thought that there was more that the masks could do.

A three person team jumping two Tiers wasn’t unheard of while on The Path, but a team jumping two Tiers while only at Tier 5 was much more impressive. Combat prowess spiked when teams approached Tiers 7 and 8, as they could round out their skill sets and cover any glaring weaknesses.

Jumping two Tiers then was noteworthy, but doing so with only a handful of skills and having never seen the rift before? No, that was impressive.

Silver thought and listened. The others debated pulling off Korun from Light and Shadow, but they disagreed themselves. Korun was good, but they felt the duo needed a special hand. The ability to negate all difficulty from The Path called for a larger consideration.

They had noticed the inconsistencies in Gregor's recordings that gave them a greater understanding, though they were speculations. But they had been doing things long enough to trust their gut, and accept the guarantee that the child’s ability allowed him to circumvent the difficulty of The Path.

That was the problem. Most of the time, the ones with seeker abilities didn't outshine their peers to such an extent. Especially not this early. Some seeker Talents let cultivators accrue wealth, and therefore items and skills, at an unprecedented rate. But those usually lacked actual combat ability, and were it not for their wealth, would be utterly unremarkable.

They could tell that the children were this strong before they had been able to truly use their wealth generation.

That meant that they had the ability to push these children forward before they fell into bad habits.

When the others decided to contact Korun, Silver raised a hand and gathered everyone's attention.

“Let me offer a separate proposal. Korun is good, no doubt, but he is still finishing up with Light and Shadow. While he could manage both teams, as Light and Shadow are almost done, I feel that this incident needs a special hand. I want to contact Luna.”

Blue and Green both subtly leaned back, while the others let out a flurry of complaints, and reasons as to why it was a bad idea. Silver agreed with most of their comments.

Blue allowed the other colors to bicker, before finally ending it with a point that the others hadn’t considered. “Luna would be good, no doubt. She’s always had the best track record for taking hopeless cases and pushing them further than anyone would have expected. But she also claims to be retired, and has refused the last few offers we sent over.”

Green nodded in agreement. The two of them had been on the tribunal long enough to remember when the crazy void user had taken the Tier 10 Pather. The individual had only made the Tier threshold by three days, but she managed to get them to Tier 17 while still on The Path.

The problem was, the mad manager had broken more than one team, and had forced several to leave The Path early with her frantic need to make them better.

They had better results when she was paired with people who had the drive to continue, not just the ability.

Luna was three quarters genius, one quarter insane, and one hundred percent perfectionist. She expected everyone else to be as good as she was, and was absolutely insufferable about it. But it was also why she was such a good manager.

Finally, Green asked, “How do you intend to get her to agree? If it's possible, I vote to allow her to take the manager position.”

After they had a consensus, Silver sent an edited packet to Luna.

Immediately they received a reply, ‘I don't care about any up and comers.’

Silver waited.

After twenty minutes, a second message came through.

‘They’re only Tier 5. I'm not looking.’

Silver smiled. They had her.

Luna was insatiably curious, and now that she opened the file, she would be forced to read the entire thing. If the contents weren’t up to her standards, she would instantly forget about it, but Silver expected a better outcome.

They waited for the next messages as the rest of the tribunal moved on to other topics.

‘They aren't even abusing their advantages. And what is that fighting style? No. They’re trash. I'm not going.’

Silver smiled. If Luna had read that far, he knew her mind would be spinning with possibilities. They had sent a highlight reel of their three delves, and a record of their sale to the local auction house, along with their timeline on the planet. She could make the same assumptions as he could.

Finally the message they were waiting for came in. ‘No. No. This isn't acceptable. They’re just lounging around? There’s so many things they could be doing.’

Silver just waited with a grin bolted on under their mask.

‘Where is Kurt? Get him sent over immediately, and send me the best liaison you have right now.’

With Luna’s confirmation, the identities of the two individuals could be revealed. When Silver satisfied their own curiosity, they cocked an eyebrow under their mask.

Leon and Mara’s youngest was hitting well above her Tier. Impressively so.

The second person on the team, the melee boy, had a much more interesting background and purported Talent. The watcher AIs couldn't hack the Talent database, but everyone scraped the public information for possible rare abilities. Once the investigation was opened, the AIs had started compiling information. The boy’s actions were distinctive enough that Silver had an idea of what he could do.

It wasn’t impressive... It was unprecedented.

A message was sent to the Emperor with their findings and decision. He probably already knew, but Silver wanted to ensure that the Empire's leader knew of the new Talent.

Silver's smile dimmed as they tuned in on the next topic of conversation. The other great powers were trying to apply pressure, considering the Empire’s recent success at creating powerhouses. They hoped to add another team to the scales with this move, before Duke Waters got bored and decided to keep climbing.

***

Aiden flew through chaotic space and looked for the cluster of worlds that were moving through the border of the Empire and the Sects.

It was a dark and desolate place, but with his Concept extended, he felt the surroundings resonate with him. The purples and black with hints of red of chaotic space were overwhelmed with blue, as his preferred element took a greater hold in the destructive energy.

They were here.

Aiden smiled. This section of space had a single tether connecting it to both the Empire and Sect territories. If one of them could control the other’s bottleneck, they could force them to abandon anything beyond in this direction. It wouldn’t stop their expansion, but it could secure a safe area for them to expand without worry of attacks or raids.

Aiden saw the fear and hatred in their eyes. Felt in it their spirits. The forty people who came out to stop him were the strongest of the Sects local forces. He was sure that they had dispatched more fighters when word went out that he was being sent to the border.

The Emperor had made his punishment public and well known. If Aiden had known that all it would take to get sent back out to the frontlines was meddling in The Path slightly, he would have done it a decade ago.

It had been too long.

One of the enemies sent an AI message, ‘Leave now, and we can pretend you never came into our territory.’

Aiden just laughed. He could feel that the woman only had an Intent despite being Tier 35. They knew they were sent here to throw their lives away. Even he knew it.

Either they would die at his hands, or they would retreat and be killed by their leaders. The Sects were extremely harsh in their punishments for surrender, or even retreat in the face of an enemy. It made their warriors fight to the bitter end, and had earned them enough victories that they refused to change their policy.

Though, the Empire’s spies had heard rumors that they were changing that ideal, after he had slaughtered their top generals enough times.

That always made Aiden smile. They were afraid, but they hadn’t even seen everything he could do.

One day. One day I’ll show them all, and they will fall in line.

Aiden had infiltrated the other top five great powers when he was forced to stop his delving. He had seen how they were generations behind the Empire in their treatment of weaker citizens.

He didn’t think that the Empire ruling everyone was feasible or right, but with his mere presence, and the up-and-coming threats of Light and Shadow, the other great powers were scrambling. At least, the smart ones were. The Sects were the worst, and doubled down on their past traditions, instead of embracing a higher standard of treatment for their weakest citizens.

He hated them with a burning passion. If you weren’t above Tier 15, you were less than trash to the Sects. At least the other great powers were trying to recreate the success of the Empire. But if anything, the Sects had regressed.

They called him Duke Waters in the Empire, but they called him The Drowner in the Sects. He would show them why he had earned that title once again today.

Not bothering to send a message, Aiden called out, “Surrender, retreat, or die.”

The Sect fighters clenched their weapons and spread out. They had chosen death.

Not bothering to move, Aiden let the wave of Tier 35 attacks approach him. There was a tacit agreement with the other great powers that he was treated as Tier 35, and was unable to cultivate by delving rifts.

It was a sacrifice that he was willing to make, as it had ensured that the assassination attempts on Light and Shadow stopped. Well, nearly so.

It didn’t matter to Aiden that he was unable to advance. Once he hit it, he intended to stay at Tier 35 until he found a successor. Not every Ascender did the same. Most simply kept climbing once they accepted that there was no hope of finding someone to succeed tem. He understood, but with his successors already apparent, he was in no rush.

He cast [Water Shield], [Water Bubble], and [Water Armor], letting them fuse into a spell greater than the sum of their parts. [Water Shield] was just a flat plane of water that could block frontal attacks. [Water Bubble] was a sphere of water that had a weaker damage threshold, but better coverage. But when both were added with [Water Armor], it created a near-solid defense against the barrage of attacks.

To his surprise, he had to add a little reinforcement to his defensive layers using his Concept. After he did so, the attacks were meaningless to him.

He could tell they were growing tired once they started staggering their attacks, hoping to conserve mana while keeping him tied down. The sign of weakness was all he needed to decide to go on the offensive.

[Teleport] wasn’t terribly useful in chaotic space, but it was good enough to close gaps in combat.

That was when the screams started.

Duke Waters stood, arms crossed, in front of the leader. She tried to throw her Intent at him, along with a flurry of skills, but he drowned her Intent and skills with his own Intent. She would spend months with a headache as she recovered from the backlash of having her Intent broken, if she made it out alive.

A shred of amusement rose at the thought.

Duke Waters overwhelmed her spirit with his Concept, and watched as the long-lost biological need to breathe air took over. But, there was no air to be found. Only water.

As she clawed at her throat, he watched the light fade from her eyes. Her companions kept barraging his defenses, but it was futile.

They couldn’t stop him.

He had given them the opportunity to surrender after all.

As he felt the burst of essence from the leader’s death, he captured it. He used his Concept and Intent to scrub the woman’s own from the essence. Once it was clean and pure, he brought it into his spirit and began allocating it as he moved from person to person, drowning them as he went.

When the last were dead, he looked off into the distance and called out, “Are you going to come out or not? I don’t have all day to wait.”

There was a harrumph that echoed out as five people in robes emerged from hiding.

“You truly are as strong as the rumors say. Too bad today is the day you die.”

Duke Waters laughed at them, and the fight started. The first thing he noticed was that all of them were peak Tier 35 and had Aspects, not just Intents. They also had much better gear than the trash that the others had.

All of that only meant one thing to Duke Waters. A good fight.

He let loose with a [Water Blade], and followed it up by closing in and lashing out with a [Whirlpool]. As they scattered with looks of surprise, he picked the leader of the five and lunged after them while firing a barrage of [Water Bullets].

He quickly caught up to their retreating form, as the leader laughed and said, “Now you’re right where we want you.”

A formation appeared and tried to lock down the chaotic space. It made teleportation impossible for, and slowed down movement of all who weren't keyed into the formation. It also had a shielding function that would allow attacks in, but not out.

It was good, but he had seen better.

Duke Waters laughed and threw his Intent at the man’s Aspect. It was newly formed, so he didn’t even need to use his own to counter it.

The leader’s bravado disappeared and swiftly shifted to panic as his Aspect shattered, and Duke Waters started to drown him. His eyes started to roll back, and his legs flailed to get a purchase on emptiness. Aiden just watched them fail and flounder.

They never seemed to learn. It never worked. Traps and ambushes only had a chance when the other side wasn’t overwhelmingly powerful.

Aiden hadn’t been blessed with a powerful or synergistic Talent, but he had always found Concepts and their mysteries easy to comprehend. Instead of following the normal path that most took, he doubled down on his power and followed his instincts.

It had given him amazing strength. When his peers were practicing skills, he played with his Concept. It was like a sore tooth that he had to poke at. His time playing with it led him to discover something. He was good at Concepts. Most never looked at what a Concept was until they had access to the information at higher Tiers.

He had discovered it on his own. A Concept’s growth was converting the essence in the cultivator's core. It was why taking in someone else's essence was dangerous for the untaught, as they would need to pit their own Concept and will against the inert will of the dead cultivator. If they didn’t, they could pollute their own essence with a foreign Concept, and cripple their path forward.

Unlike most, Aiden never had trouble synergizing with his Concept, and its growth had been explosive. By Tier 7, he had converted all of his essence to his Concept’s aspect, and started looking for his Intent.

That advantage had been pressed until he was here today.

What always pissed him off was the fact that no two Concepts were the same, and what worked for him never worked for anyone else. He had shared his techniques, but to no avail.

So, he did what he could do and protect the Empire as a whole. If he had been born in one of the other great powers, as the son of two Tier 4’s, he would have never advanced. But here, he had.

His AI pinged him that he had plans to take his wife to visit both of their parents when he got back. Thinking of his parents always brought a smile to his face. He had progressed so quickly that he had been able to pay for his parents’ advancement to Tier 15, where they still sat. He didn’t mind. They had only gotten their Concepts because he called in and gave favors for Shards of Reality, so they could simulate an ascension. But now, he didn’t have to worry about them dying from old age.

Duke Waters was brought out of his idle thoughts when his spirit warned him of an attack. A blade tried to cut his throat from behind, but his Aspect locked down the space and turned the water into something harder than concrete.

At the Depths, water got denser than most could imagine, and he channeled that to block the glowing blade that plunged towards his neck.

He locked the cultivator behind him up, and pulled them around to hover next to the still struggling leader.

“Was that your big plan? An ambush? In your next life, try a better one.”

He forced his Intent into the leader and finished him off. He looked to the assassin and found a stunningly beautiful woman, who pleaded with watery eyes and bouncing breasts that were barely contained by her revealing armor.

A flex of his Concept broke the illusion, and the seductive figure was replaced with a fully armored form. Their Aspect tried to fight his Intent, but it was like a child trying to beat at an adult’s legs.

Futile.

Duke Waters frowned at the assassin and looked around. The other three had fled.

He smiled.

At least they were learning.

He moved on deeper into the Sect's controlled territory as he cleansed the essence from his last two kills. There were more locations where he needed to route the enemies and the conflicts were escalating.

Aiden had more work to do.

***

April stood to the side of Luna and Kurt.

She was still in awe that she had been chosen for the liaison position for Luna. The woman was a legend in the manager circles for her handling of rising stars. She, unlike most managers, only dedicated herself to a single team, and was known for either breaking them or creating monsters.

Kurt was always her trainer, and he never worked for any other manager. April had thought they might be a couple, but after spending the last two months with them, decided that they weren’t.

They were just protege and mentor.

April didn’t even know why they were here, or why she had been chosen as liaison. Luna was said to be retired, and Kurt had been a manager in his own right. Why he would accept a lower position was a mystery above her pay grade.

Currently, they were berating Matthew as he fought his way through a rift.

“He has no footwork. It’s like watching a tree fight. Utterly embarrassing. He could be doing much more damage if he just moved around more. The Mages have flying equipment, they aren't in danger damnit.”

April kept her mouth shut. She didn’t know what they were talking about. For a Tier 5, Matt was smooth on his feet. He might not have been a light weapon user, but he was better than most heavy-blade melee fighters that she had seen during her climb to Tier 25.

But apparently, it wasn’t good enough for the purple-haired woman, nor for the man she had measuring Matt’s steps with an actual ruler. They had even drawn up plans for the boy to attend dancing lessons to correct the deficiency.

As this was her second assignment, April just kept her ears and eyes open while staying silent unless spoken to.

Luna had been doing this longer than anyone else and knew better. So did Kurt.

The thing that confused April the most was the fact that Luna refused to accept the offer to manage the trio, and was holding off on making it official. All while creating elaborate plans for their training.

They even criticized how Matt went about creating new rifts, calling it unrefined and writing up plans for how to isolate more variables.

Liz, with her background, had it even worse. And they had days worth of planning written out for her as well.

“She over extends on nearly every lunge. She’s better with the spear when using her manipulation skill. Completely unacceptable.”

Kurt once again broke out the ruler, and measured the blood mage’s steps and attacks, all while shaking his head and silently tutting.

Luna grabbed a handful of floating purple hair and nearly pulled it out when she saw Liz using pure [Blood Manipulation] in a rift.

“She’s wasting mana by the bucketful with that approach. I don't care if her boytoy is an unlimited mana battery, she’s still wasting so much. I can’t stand to watch anymore. Kurt you watch her and write it up.”

For all her criticisms Luna gave praise as much, if not more than when she took issue.

“He hits hard, and he uses his mana stone well to cast spells before he could normally cast them.”

At that Kurt nodded and handed the woman a piece of paper.

“Yes. His plan to modify the [Fireball] skill is interesting. If it works, it could allow a full combat swap much earlier.”

“Liz at least gets the most out of her blood skills, and takes advantage of their similar properties to water.”

Luna hated AIs, and insisted that everything was done in actual paper and pen, refusing to even read messages from Kurt. She was always making the man write everything out by hand. Though, he seemed used to it.

She was a weird woman, that was for sure.

Luna appreciated Liz’s unique use of her abilities and modified spear, but the obsessive manager was disappointed with her only now training so hard.

Even Aster the fox was put under intense scrutiny, with the ruler being used yet again to comment on the fox’s butt wiggle while lunging at the rabbit that she was stalking.

“She wiggled four times more than needed, and ten percent more than she had to each wiggle. Is she wiggling to impress people or set her feet? Who taught her how to hunt? Shameful. Efficiency efficiency efficiency.”

“She’s just like the other mage. Wasting mana as if it were free. JUST BECUASE YOU HAVE UNLIMITED MANA NOW, DOESN'T MEAN YOU ALWAYS WILL! Honestly! So imprudent.”

The woman shouted so loudly that April half expected the trio they were watching to hear her.

It was weird enough that April broke her silence and asked why they were judged to such a high standard.

Luna and Kurt looked at her like she was crazy, and Luna said, “Look at Aster. She spends time in the ice rift and makes sure she improves her ice aspected mana. But half of that is because she's following her instincts, so it hardly counts. The other two have had a long break in the last year, when they could have been improving. They have so much raw talent that seeing it wasted is a crime. The higher the ability one has, the higher the standard they must be held to. Add in their cheating ability to never run out of mana and always have full rifts to delve, and you can see why they need to be pushed harder than anyone else.”

Meanwhile, Kurt nodded like a chicken beside the severe woman and held up a sign that said, ‘Languishing in mediocrity is the worst thing you can do.’

“Children, all of them. Is this the standard The Path has fallen to? I've only been in seclusion for a few centuries. How did they slip so much?”

Kurt handed a paper over and the woman nodded and corrected herself, “You’re right. They’re still young and don't have experience. They’re making good plans for the future as well, judging from their recent purchases. April, make sure those packages arrive in the next few weeks. I like the idea of giving Aster Winter's Embrace, it has some excellent synergies with other ice skills, and it matches with her personally well.”

“And the rift work is interesting. I don't know too many people that have done much rift testing at these Tiers. We might need to raid a few guilds' vaults to see what information they have. Could save time.”

Kurt passed over a paper and Luna glanced at it. A grimace flickered across her face so fast, April wasn’t sure if she’d imagined it before the woman’s face returned to normal. “Ah, yes. We should get in touch with the problem child, shouldn’t we? Erwin would love this, and he could also help the girl with her alchemy. See what his schedule is like over the next decade, would you?”

April returned to her silence and tried to absorb as much information as she could. She didn’t know how she was going to get the packages to arrive faster, but she flicked through her contacts on her AI. She didn't even know who Erwin was, but started a few searches for anyone with that name who had interacted with Luna in the past.

When the announcement came for the war, and they listened to their logic for skipping out of the fight, April nodded to herself.

It was exactly what she would have done. If you can make rifts anywhere and always delve them, spending some extra time at Tier 5 and farming growth items was the smart play. But from Kurt’s silent shaking of his head, and Luna’s clenched fist, they clearly disagreed.

Finally, a message saying the kids had to fight reached April’s AI, and she looked to Luna in confusion.

The woman hadn’t even officially agreed to manage them. Why was she forcing them into this fake war?

Luna saw her look and answered the unspoken question. “Yes, we are taking them. I can’t stand to see such potential avoid the forge. I’ll see them heated and reshaped.”

Gathering her courage, April asked, “What’s with the ‘G’? None of our names start with ‘G’.”

“I don’t want them to know who their manager or trainer is. You aren’t to tell them either. Little Liz’s parents know me, and so she might. Just call me G to the kids.”

April shrugged. If that’s what Luna wanted, that’s what she would do. She was the lowest person on the ladder and was trying to learn.

“Should I go and introduce myself now that you’ve decided to take the position?”

Kurt looked aghast, and Luna shook her head. “No. I want to see them more without the suspicion of being watched. This war will let me learn a lot about them.”

April just hoped that the trio wouldn’t hate her after this.