Chapter 17

    The loud noise brought a barrage of fire and lightning strikes. Matt was able to roll under most of them. The combination of all those attacks hitting at once could pierce his [Cracked Phantom Armor], so he pushed as much mana into the skill as he safely could.

    Rolling with a sword was awkward, but he had practiced for this moment, and with the enchantments off during the roll, he wouldn''t accidentally cut himself through his armor.

    The large salamander clearly was irritated at the unsuccessful attacks as it whipped its tail around. What was an easily absorbed attack on the lesser, waist-high salamanders was now a brutal blow Matt needed to avoid. He had no confidence in being able to block the gem salamanders strikes without being sent flying.

    The tail was a mass of muscle, and at the size of a horse, it was a danger he wouldnt willingly tank.

    He came out of the next roll in a lunging attack that took a smaller salamander out with a thrust to the head.

    His AI warned him that a swipe from the gem salamander was incoming. Having a partner watching his back and sharing AI information made his life so much easier.

    Matt dove over the corpse he had just created, and slashed down at the giant, fiery tail coming straight at him.

    The tail was two feet shorter after passing over Matt, but the tails momentum had slammed his weapon back into his shoulder. Knocked back, Matt was forced into a defensive stance as two of the smaller salamanders approached.

    At the same time, he took a massive lighting strike from above. It was so strong it nearly broke through his armor. He was able to feed just enough mana into the skill to block it, but he was hoping Liz would take out the dragonflies faster.

    With a slash and body check, one salamander was seriously wounded, and the second was knocked off its feet.

    He followed his AIs warning ping to look up and see the larger salamander bearing down on Liz. Matt disengaged with the remaining smaller monster, and ran up to the gem salamander, landing a massive blow on its leg.

    That returned its attention to Matt, and his AI informed him why it had targeted Liz. She had taken out all the smaller flyers, and dragged the other boss to the ground with her blood whip. She was in the process of bashing through its armor when the gem salamander attacked.

    He needed to buy her time to finish the gem dragonfly, and the wounded salamander was keen on getting revenge for Matts successful slash. Stepping back, Matt avoided the ensuing onslaught of bites and swipes, but took a face full of flames. Like the lighting attack, it was right on the limit of his defensive capabilities, but he was able to withstand it.

    Relying on his AI to protect his blind spots, Matt heeded its warning to step left. He heard the charge of the lesser salamander as it tried to tackle him from behind.

    Taking advantage of the clear shot presented to him, Matt stabbed with his glowing sword, and caught the eye of the flaming gem salamander.

    Then, a spike of blood passed by him, finishing off the remaining lesser salamander. With wounds dripping bright orange blood, the giant salamander was finally alone.

    The fight was over quickly, as Liz didnt hesitate to drive a spike of blood into the salamanders brain.

    She lost blood engaging the hot monsters, but she had drained the dragonflies until they were only shriveled corpses. She had blood to spare.

    With heaving breaths, they surveyed the bodies and looked at each other.

    Liz was the first to speak up, That was too easy for a final boss. And no reward distortion.

    Matt agreed with a nod. He looked around and, following his gut, walked over to the dead salamander boss to cut out the crystal in its head. Liz, understanding his idea, did the same with the gem dragonfly.

    They brought the gems together, and when they touched, they snapped together into one. As the combined gem began vibrating, a portal appeared on the back wall of the boss cavern.

    Exchanging a skeptical glance, they inspected the portal.

    Its not leading outside. Matt stated the obvious, and probed with his senses again.

    Liz offered, I cant reach that far, but I think its to the starting area. Ive heard of rifts like this before. One of my older brothers told me a story of one he found like this.

    Matt looked at her waiting for more of the story.

    In his rift, they had to fight mini-bosses, then got teleported to a random location in a giant dimensional maze. Rinse and repeat until they found an exit.

    Matt considered her words and shrugged. It didnt feel dangerous, so he raised his sword and stepped through.

    He found himself back in the starting cavern, with the portal covering the entrance they had taken.

    Liz followed through a moment later. Oh. Well shit. Were gonna have to fight six mini-bosses, arent we?

    Matt figured she was right. They went down the next path, and this time, they took it at a jog.

    They encountered another salamander and dragonfly duo, but this time, the salamander was dripping green liquid. Matt had to assume it was acid, and he had a theory about the dragonfly that was shining with white light.

    Matt found both of his guesses to be correct. The salamander spat out a jet of the green liquid that bubbled away at [Cracked Phantom Armor] in futility. When he damaged the poison salamander in response, a ray of light from the dragonfly covered the wound, as it quickly stitched itself together.

    Matt quickly put an end to that by tanking a tail sweep and piercing the back of the salamanders head. Poison again splashed his armor ineffectually, but Matt knew this would be dangerous when facing the salamander mini-boss of this variant.

    With a resigned sigh, they began the process of clearing another four pairs of monsters, before coming up to the boss cavern. It was a repeat of the last, with four each of the lesser variants to help the two larger monsters.

    The only difference apart from the mini bosses affinities were the orange gems lodged in the monsters, instead of red ones.

    Matt took the lead and distracted the salamanders, while Liz waited for her chance to cleanly kill the healer bugs.Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through N?o?v€l--B1n.

    He didnt even try to damage the salamanders. Instead, he just retreated while circling, luring the dragonflies hovering above him closer to the hiding Elizabeth.

    When she had a clear shot, she sent forth four bullets of blood, and killed the lesser dragonflies, while simultaneously lashing out with whips at the retreating gem dragonfly.

    Meanwhile, Matt had to throw himself at the lesser salamanders to keep their attention away from the mage killing their healers.

    The poison of the mini-boss was more effective, but it was only strong enough to render [Cracked Phantom Armor] ineffective against other threats. He didnt dare tank a hit from the enraged monsters. It took everything he had physically, as well as his AI predicting the monsters movements and attack patterns, to keep him from getting hit.

    When Liz attacked from the rear, Matt went on the offensive, and they quickly ended the fight. The poison salamanders were more of a problem for her, as her armor would quickly degrade. So, Matt was forced to keep their attention with opportunistic stabs and slashes. Some well placed blood shards quickly dispatched the lesser salamanders, and the gem salamander quickly followed with their combined efforts.

    When they finished the fight, they connected the orange gems, and walked through the portal they created.

    When they went down the third path, they encountered a salamander with porcupine-like spines made of sword aura. They were wispy, but incredibly sharp. His full-strength armor was pierced slightly by a spray of spines from a salamander. He very quickly had a shirt full of little holes.

    This variant of dragonfly was also something Matt had only ever heard about in stories of higher Tiered rifts. It was actually living glass.

    They quickly dispatched the monsters, and Liz bent to inspect the fallen pair.

    This blows. I lost my bag, and sharpness aura is expensive. Something this weak would sell well to someone trying to cultivate a sword Concept. Id love to harvest this. At least the living glass is semi-valuable, and easy to collect. with that, she swept it up and placed the shards of glass into his bag.

    That grabbed Matts attention, so he asked, You know about Concepts? I haven''t been able to find any solid information about them. What do you know?

    Liz was happy to explain on their walks between fights.

    A Concept is a baby Intent. And a Concept is required to break into Tier 15. You need an Intent to break into Tier 25 and an Aspect to break into Tier 50.

    A Concept is essentially just understanding something. It can be anything. My sister cultivated a growth Concept. It allows her to grow herbs a little faster, and makes them a little more potent. Sharpness aura is made with sharpness Intent. It empowers any attacks with a sharp weapon. For example, take a Concept of Sword. Its defined by the person who cultivates the Concept.

    If the person can gain a deep connection to what Sword means to them in their spirit, they can manifest their Sword Concept. With a Sword concept one can generate sword aura. Technically its all sharpness aura, but it gets broken into subcategories if it only affects a single weapon type. Like battleaxe aura, or in our case, Sword aura. These salamanders sharpness aura can help with cultivating any concept involving a sharp weapon.

    She looked at him and asked, You following?

    He was impressed she knew this much. She had mentioned that her mother was an evolved companion, so that meant Tier 15 at minimum. It must be nice to have high Tiered parents. She might not have material advantages while on The Path, but her knowledge was enviable to say the least.

    At his nod, she asked another question, You know the potions you have to buy to breakthrough into Tier 5?

    Yeah, Ive heard of them. They make it possible to break into Tier 5, from my understanding. They are pricey though.

    Liz nodded at that. They are expensive, thats true. But what they are is more important. Theyre basically prosthetic Concepts for people who cant cultivate one on their own.

    A persons Concept should always involve a core idea that they can identify with, down to their very spirit. As they broaden into Intents and Aspects, it becomes more difficult to find an understanding deep enough to manifest the next level. The potions help the individual create an understanding of the Concept theyre created from.

    The potions themselves are essentially distilled Concepts, and the ones on the open market usually are simple physical or magical boosts. Theyre much broader in terms of the idea behind the Concept. Thats done intentionally, so theyre easier to make, which is why theyre cheaper and more plentiful. Theyre also easier to identify with strongly enough to manifest the actual Concept.

    The potions are an aid to break through into Tier 5. But because they arent self-discovered concepts, they dont mesh right. So, you have to buy new, stronger ones at Tier 10. And at Tier 15, you have to purge the old ones and create your own.

    If her Talent worked like normal [Blood Manipulation], it should have the mana cost and mental control demands of [Water Manipulation]. The information on the former was more speculative, because of its rarity. But the latter was common enough to have public information.

    It took not only a lot of control to manipulate that volume blood, but also a massive amount of mana to animate it. His AI calculated the amount of blood to be equivalent to around nine cubic feet of water.

    That was over five hundred pounds of blood she was manipulating. It even pointed out that the golem must have been mostly hollow, or composed of a structural lattice to be that size, with the amount of blood available.

    At Lizs slight whimper, Matt pulled off his spatial bag, and had her pop a painkiller for the massive headache brought on by her efforts. She had clearly overextended her mental capacity with that last engagement.

    She took the pill and water with her eyes closed, and drained the canister after swallowing the pill.

    Aster, who came to investigate, got pulled over her face as an impromptu ice pack.

    Matt quieted the fox who began to protest the rough treatment.

    He finally was able to deactivate his armor for the first time today, as he drank from the refilled canteen.

    There were no enemies present, and his sword was in reach if one appeared. However, Matt found another encounter unlikely, as the rift was cleared out. They had traveled the entire length of the rift to do so.

    Half an hour later, Liz pulled her face from Asters fur. She glanced at him, then looked him up and down.

    With squinted eyes, she said, Huh. I was starting to think you were the armor.

    Matt quietly chuckled at her attempt at humor.

    No, just my best way to stay warm between rifts.

    That made her face droop even more.

    Youre telling me you dont feel the cold out there? Go die in a hole, please. My fingers nearly freeze off, even with the heated gloves.

    With a grunt, she stood and said, Lets get that last crystal and open the reward distortion.

    At her words, Matt looked and saw there was a large violet gem in the center of the monsters head.

    When he got close, he had to use the tip of his sword to pry the gem from the monsters chitin.

    Once it was out, the cavern began to rumble. Out of a blank spot of wall, a chest with a huge indent in the middle appeared. Upon closer inspection, they found six indents in a circle around the larger one in the middle.

    It was obviously a recreation of the pathways where they had killed each mini-boss and the final boss.

    When the last crystal clicked into place, they found a pillow, and a single small gem placed directly on top of it.

    A skill shard.

    Matt and Liz just look from the skill to each other. If they had any plans to betray one another, now was the time. And she was spent from the last fight.

    He backed up a half a step and asked, Do you want to do the honors of testing it since you got the final kill?

    Liz looked relieved at his non-aggression, and plucked the shard up, staring at it.

    Huh. its [Puddle Jumper]

    Matt looked it up in the low Tiered skill database he had purchased, and found it.

    [Puddle Jumper]: a near-flight skill. Cost per cast: 50 mana. Allows the user to jump mid-air. While skill is active, the user will not lose altitude.

    Matt whistled. Thats a pretty valuable skill. I cant use it. Can you?

    He was offering to allow her to take and bind the skill, at the cost of having to reimburse him for his half. It was fair, and he really couldnt use it with the mana cost.

    Liz shook her head and said, I could, but its not very useful to me, and... she paused and looked hard into his face and continued, My Talent affects the skills I bind. So I could completely ruin the skill. Id rather sell it, and get a skill I know I can make useful. Besides, we should make a killing with a near-flight skill, especially with the Tier 5 guild members.

    Matt was surprised and touched that she had revealed that much about her Talent. Talents were incredibly personal, and usually the cornerstone a fighters style was built around. It wasn''t something to share lightly.

    He turned to the rifts reward distortion. He had felt it move from the previous mini boss cavern, but hadn''t wanted to rush his spent bloodmage. He and Liz walked over, and this time he dispersed the reward. A bar of dark metal fell out with a thud, denting the ground where it landed.

    He had his AI analyze it. A Tier 6 iron bar. It was a valuable reward. Very valuable. But it still felt lacking compared to the skill.

    With a shrug, he put it in his bag, and the two left the rift.

    They chose to set up camp in a nook of the canyon where the wind was unable to assault them.

    After setting up the tent, Matt went inside and quickly cleaned himself up, before trading locations with Liz.

    He slipped on his boots and activated [Cracked Phantom Armor] while in shorts and a t-shirt.

    Now it was Lizs turn, and Matt waited outside for her to finish her longer ablutions. He had taken the first shift because he didnt have to clean sweaty armor after cleaning himself.

    He played with Aster until he got a ping from Lizs AI saying she was done.

    Once in the tent, he reveled in the warmth of the heater, and saw Liz in some of his underclothes. They were comically big.

    She saw the smirk on his face and asked, What?

    There was a challenge in the statement that he didnt want to touch with a ten-foot pole. He cautiously answered, You remind me of when we would get the clothes the older kids outgrew, but didnt fit us yet either. Everyone looked like blobs until we grew into them. A good memory actually, we enjoyed getting the hand-me-downs. It was like an extra New Years celebration.

    That got her to smile, and she pointed to the heater changing the subject. Did you have to skimp on the heater? Its gotta be the most ineffective model Ive ever seen.

    Matt laughed, and decided to return some of the trust he had been shown earlier. No, its one of the few heaters that can run on personal mana. Im sure youve done the same calculations Ive done on you.

    That comment got her to avert her eyes, and added a bit of color to her pale cheeks.

    Part of my Talent allows me to produce a lot of mana, but I have almost no capacity. Its why I can run my skill all day but cant use [Puddle Jumper]. I cant afford the mana cost.

    He didnt get into specifics, but he touched the heaters inset mana stone, and quickly filled the 200 mana capacity.

    Liz looked at him and down to the heater and said, thats an interesting limitation and an even more interesting advantage.

    Part of him scoffed at the word advantage, but that was the year and half spent at Bennys trying to rear its ugly head. He did have an advantage.

    Yeah, its got its uses. It will even let me take advantage of less expensive skills. Matt didnt mind talking about his intentions to purchase [Mages Retreat]. The purchase was going to be public record, so it was harmless to talk about.

    Liz was intrigued at the idea. While they talked, he pulled his pot out of the spatial bag, and started making dinner for the three of them.

    [Mages Retreat]? Huh, an odd choice for most, but with what Ive been able to calculate, it should be potent. At the upper ends of mana cost, [Mages Retreat] is actually better than [Mana Strength].

    That turned into a conversation about skills and combat styles that lasted through dinner.

    They had just finished eating, as Aster went back outside into the cold, and Matt asked, You said your mom was an evolved companion, right? Do you know why Aster does that when we get to cold places? She doesnt know why, just that she should. I cant find anything about it.

    Yeah, thats easy. Shes refining her bloodline and mana with cold stronger than her own. Those with bloodlines, normal humans with specific Talents, or those possessing super rare rift rewards, can aspect their mana based on the type. It gives a massive boost to skills and spells of the same type, but at the disadvantage of absurd mana cost for everything else. When Aster begins to absorb other skills, shes really only gonna be able to use ice skills.

    After a slight pause and bob of her head, she added, Maybe wind or water as well. All blizzard stuff. But fire? She wont be able to activate a fire skill if her life depended on it.

    Matt was once again thankful to Liz and her knowledge, and irritated that he couldnt find any information about this.

    Liz clearly saw the irritation on his face, and asked, You were in a PlayPen, right? Didnt someone explain this to you? They should have, even if it was some else with a companion.

    Matt looked back at her and answered, No one had companions. It was a Tier 4 world. Companions were completely unheard of. I even had a healer try to buy Asters egg from me.

    He told her the whole story, and at the end, Liz said, Shes lucky she got such a clean death. If there was an evolved companion or beast in human form present, they would have done far, far worse. Its one of the tenets of companions; you dont pressure the one who finds an egg into selling. Theres a bond of fate thats sacrosanct. And wow, I cant believe you didnt know what a rift challenge was. You are a lucky little shit aren''t you.