Chapter 26

    Liz set down the backpack with Aster in it, and let the fox free. Finally liberated, Aster sauntered over to the remains on the floor, and waited for her hearts to be extracted.

    After the spoiled fox had her fill, they dispelled the reward distortion. It was a small reward of only four mana stones. Not great, but they were here for the essence, not the monetary rewards.

    They started poking around the empty hut Matt had smashed through. Matt went over to the dead lizardman and inspected its hand. On one of its fingers was a ring that fashioned as a worm biting its own tail, creating a circle. He tried to slip it off, but it wouldnt budge.

    Liz peered over his shoulder and said, Dont bother. That wont come off. Its a rift storage ring. In theory, its a rift reward as well. Its a special unbound growth item. And its usable at low Tiers if the rift makes it.

    So if we delve this enough, we might get one? Matt wanted a spatial ring. It would be so much more convenient to be able to summon and dismiss his sword at will.

    Liz scoffed, Psh no. Not a chance. They are incredibly rare.

    Matt stared at the ring and asked, And this isnt worth anything?

    The armored mage was already walking to her backpack. She called back over her shoulder, Not really. It used to be useful to enchanters who were trying to make spatial rings, but now they all use the same few templates.

    Sighing, Matt stood and got ready. This rift wasnt fully cleared as they walked to the exit. Since they were trying to gather essence, it was worth their time to attract the rest of the bears and maximize the returns of the delve.

    On that thought, he turned to Liz and said, Give me a few minutes. I''d like to allocate the essence we picked up.

    He sat against the wall of the hut and focused inward. Once he was in touch with his physical core, he fed the essence to cover all of the attributes evenly. It was tempting to direct cultivate, but he wasnt even at the quarter mark for Tier 4.

    After the essence in his spirit was distributed, he came out of his trance. He checked his AI, and found that only five minutes had passed. It was a far cry from the first time he had cultivated at the PlayPen, then he had wasted half the day away.

    Looking at Liz, he motioned to the place where he had been sitting, and she took his place. He found she had started gathering wood, and he finished the task, while keeping a lookout for any prowling bears. They were huge, but the forest was their natural home. Getting attacked out of nowhere was very possible, and would be incredibly dangerous.

    It was easy enough to pile up broken tree branches near their resting place. He also used the lumber from the broken shack. Soon, he had more than enough for a good fire.

    Job finished, he stood on the small hill the boss encounter had been on, and surveyed the surroundings. This rift was large, at least the size of a small city. The hill they were on provided a decent vantage point for scouting the area, and from the distortion in the air, he figured there remained at least a third of the rift monsters.

    A moment later, Liz popped up, and backpacked Aster. The foxs head poked out from behind the armored shoulders of the blood mage.

    Holding a small bottle, Liz asked, You ready?

    At his nod, she grabbed a stick and put the smallest drop on it. The concoction would attract and enrage the already hostile rift monsters. Theyd be rushing here en masse, in a tidal wave of muscle and fur. The only problem was spreading the scent, which is where the bonfire came in.

    After dropping the imbued stick on top of the pile, she clicked the fire starter at the base of the wood. After a moment, the magical flames caught and climbed up the pile. The smoke was dark from the greenwood mixed in, but the flames billowed and came to life when the imbued stick caught fire. The flames were now a brilliant golden hue, and a strong musk wafted from the rising smoke. Matt noticed Aster restlessly stirring in Lizs backpack. He wasnt sure if it was from the scent itself, or from anticipation of the carnage to come.

    Well, here we go. With that, Liz gathered the surrounding blood into a sphere, and took her place on the other side of the hill.

    As he waited, Matt checked the ring on his finger. It was sitting at 2000 mana again. He had filled it as he cultivated, but double checking helped to ease some of the tension of the moment. His HUD even displayed its current charge, but it was like a sore wound. He felt the need to keep poking at it.

    His distracted musing was interrupted with a roar from the distance. The scent had reached a bear, and boy did it sound angry.

    The next half hour consisted of the swordsman and blood mage slaughtering the bears that remained. It was gory work, as the potion enhanced the rift given rage of the monsters. It pushed the bears to almost suicidal fury, rampaging along with no regard for their own mortality. They would not stop their assault under any circumstances, and the only way to subdue them was decapitation.

    The fights themselves werent hard, as Matt was able to rely on [Mages Retreat] to outmatch the bears with his speed.

    Only when the trio went five minutes without any more volunteers for their new head removal service, were they convinced that the onslaught had concluded. Liz went back down the hill and practiced with her spear, so they could avoid the mad dash to get to the lizard mage in the future. That, and she absolutely refused to hear any more lip from Matt about missed throws.

    Matt took her lead, and pulled out his small crossbow. After drawing several dots on the wall, he practiced hitting his makeshift targets.

    He was having a hard time hitting the small dots, even at ten feet. Using his off-hand wasnt helping, but he wasnt going to drop his sword to use the small, ranged weapon.

    His AI was indicating wind patterns and giving prompts for when he should pull the trigger, but he was hitting inches away. That wasnt necessarily the end of the world, but it could be the difference between missing and hitting a moving target.

    He felt that he should be hitting dead center at this close of a distance. According to his AIs analysis, he was jerking the trigger, which was causing his shots to go wild.

    Half an hour later, Liz decided she was done. She walked over and said, This was a lot less of a pain in the ass when my spears shaft was full of blood. It was so much easier to control. Now its just a spot at the back, and I can only shove it or pull it back.

    It''ll get better. Besides, this rift is amazing. A full clear gives me a solid chunk of essence.

    Yeah, a high volume of large monsters is great for progress. Liz hefted her bag, with Aster now out and having her fill of hearts, and asked, Ready for the next one?

    He wasnt. The second rift they had picked out was also a peak Tier 4, and was a swarm rift containing tons of small monsters. It was perfect for Liz, but the exercise would consist of Matt getting constantly pelted, while she did the heavy lifting.

    When they exited the bear rift, they found themselves back in the gray, cold landscape of the training planet.

    Aster enjoyed it, but Liz rubbed her armored gloves. Seeing her distress, Matt made a display of stretching and running his hands through his hair. He earned a swift kick to his armored shin as a reward.

    The second rift was not far away, it was in the same cluster. After a five minute walk, they found the rift they had decided on. It had a beacon outside. After a quick scan with their AIs, they found that a Republic team had claimed it for one delve a day.

    Standard procedure was ten delves per rift a day, so the rifts could get completely plundered for their rewards. The training planet didnt have the luxury of rift maintenance or scheduling, like an inhabited world, but no one wanted the potential rewards to drop too fast. To prevent that, a slight ration was set up for delves per day, so the rifts wouldnt degrade from unsupervised over-delving.

    After putting their names on the slot, they checked the timing of the other teams entry. Seeing it was more than half an hour ago, they entered.N??v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

    They found a rift with a tall waving grass as far as the eye could see. Matt, with Aster in his backpack, walked forward, and Liz began using [Create Blood]. As gobs of blood began splashing around her, Matt brought his sword down on a blur that flashed directly in front of him.

    His sword missed the intruder, and stuck into the ground. The unidentified speeding object hit his armored leg, but bounced off without putting any strain on [Cracked Phantom Armor]. It had speed, but the monster had no mass or strength to put behind its attack.

    Before he could get more than a glimpse of it, the rift ferret darted off into the grass.

    He looked at Liz and asked, You ready for this?

    Instead of answering him, she lifted off the ground, and was quickly encased in a ball of blood. The sphere rolled forward through the grassland like a blender of death.

    The scent of blood attracted all of the surrounding ferrets attention, as they rushed to defend their home. Matt and the fox in his backpack had to fend off the occasional speedy monster, but most of their attention was drawn to Liz and her one woman wrecking show.

    The field was flattened, and the more the little speedsters attacked, the more their blood enlarged the spinning mass of Lizs blood sphere.

    Whips of blood started lashing out, as she hit a volume of blood that she felt was sufficient.

    Matt kept trying to feel around, but didnt get much of anywhere. He didnt expect this to be quick. They had at least the next five months here on the training planet, where they could delve without limits. He wanted to at least get near the peak of Tier 4 while they were here. These last few months were less about money, and much more about advancing while essence was abundant.

    Standing, he said, Alright, you ready? I''d like to set up for the night and get a workout done before bed.

    Liz nodded, but stopped after a step. Wait, I forgot to mention this. We need to start being careful about assassins. Weve both pissed people off with money. And there might be some people from various assassination syndicates mingled in with the masses. Were known to be on The Path, so that limits the number of people able that can come after us. Anyone who wants to touch us has to also be on The Path, but that doesn''t make us untouchable.

    Matt felt like the bears had launched him through a tree again. Wait. Assassins? And they can only attack us if they are on The Path? It sounds like theyre sanctioned.

    Liz shrugged and slipped back into her armor. Yeah, the Empire limits it and protects us from people outside of The Path. It will also charge anyone caught doing assassinations.

    Why dont they crack down on them?

    Matt, think about it. Really play it out.

    At her prodding, he did so.

    What would happen if they stopped all assassination? Matts first answer was people wouldnt get assassinated, but his mind went to the Republic, and Light and Shadow. Griff had said they faced assassination attempts from the other powers.

    Slowly, as he thought it out, he said, Stopping internal assassination wouldnt stop the other powers from doing it. And that might mean people arent on their guard. But what stops higher Tier people from just killing people under them?

    It follows the rules of war. A high Tier assassin like Blink might kill anyone weaker than him, but he doesnt because of the rules of war. And the assassin syndicates get their true government sanctioned targets in times of war. But if they get caught sending assassins of higher Tiers after their targets, its the same as if any normal high Tier attacked a low Tier. It makes the syndicate responsible vulnerable to reprisals.

    Look at Blink. Hes got some intangibility skill that makes him nearly impossible to kill. He can even attack while most cant touch him. But hes only killed those at his Tier or higher. Hes pretty much the boogie man at his Tier and higher. People breathed a sigh of relief when he was confirmed to have advanced a Tier.

    Theres nothing stopping a lower Tier from attacking up. A higher Tier just cant hunt those weaker. He was on The Path for a while, before he disappeared for a few decades or so. Blink gets blamed for pretty much any deaths that are unexplained. Dudes a literal ghost. Officially, hes not performed any known hits in the last dozen or so years, so people argue if hes dead or not.

    She waved her hands around. Thats not the point. The point is that he, like all assassins, has to comply with current rules. If some Tier 5 comes after us, hell get his entire assassination guild wiped out. Along with whoever hired them.

    Matt finished for her. So we should be safe for the most part, but still need to be careful.

    Yeah, pretty much.

    ***

    They moved their tent to a central area, where others had a small tent town set up. Someone had scraped runes into the ground in a smallish circle. It was a central gathering area protected by the runes, so people without cold resistance skills could be outside without freezing.

    Matt, Liz, and Aster were eating with a small group of others. It was nice to be able to socialize while in-between delves.

    A large woman with the rough hands of a melee fighter asked, Find anything interesting in your rifts? We found a stupid purple cat that we couldnt get to, and it would just smile at us from hidden places. Really gave me the creeps, that one. Matt had forgotten her name and was hoping someone else would say it.

    He had messaged Liz to ask, and she just responded with a laughing face, to his dismay.

    Brandon was the shorter, dark skinned man next to her. He rubbed his palms into his face at the womans words. Ugh. I tried to hit it with every spell I knew. Completely impossible. It was like it was made of mist.

    Whatever he was going to say stopped, along with the rest of the bustle of the camp, with everyone looking over Matts shoulder. He dropped his empty bowl and spun, trusting Liz to have his back if this was a trick.

    It wasnt. He found a group in the colors of the Republics version of a guild. He checked his AI and found that their name was The Worthy. A bit pompous if you asked him, but he didnt get a say in that.

    The group slowed at the edge, and Matt received a message his AI translated to, We just want to set up a cooking station. No fighting in the common area.

    That caught Matt''s attention. A monster chef? That was rare at this Tier from his understanding.

    But even if the chef just purified the meat and made it safe to eat, Matt would kill for something besides the stew they had. Liz may have complained about the food cubes he bought being plain, but the ones she had were only a little better. It was still stew, and he was already tired of eating it.

    With rapt attention, he watched the group of Republicans pull from their spatial bags a long thin sheet of metal. They quickly set up a spit with what looked like a gutted deer draped over it.

    Aster had less self control than he did, and pattered over to them, before sitting and begging for scraps. It made Matt nervous, but his spiritual sense said they were only Tier 4, and Aster could handle herself at her own Tier.

    They just laughed, and gave her a quick scratch on the head. They werent using their AI to message everyone, but he had downloaded the translation software for speech, and they were telling her to wait.

    After the hunk of meat rapidly cooked, everyone received a message that they would sell a meals worth of the meat for a single Tier 3 mana stone. It wasnt expensive, but it was a bit more than food without essence should cost.

    Matt went over, and gave them a Tier 4 mana stone, so he and his gluttonous fox could eat for a few days.

    They refused to make the little fox pay, and just gave her a plate with a larger chunk of roasted meat, along with a head pat.

    Matt saw love in the little traitors eyes. He brought over his plate of food after thanking the chef, and promptly had it stolen by Liz. Sighing, he got up and got another one. When he finally got to eat it, he was surprised at how good it was. The meat was tender, and the spices were subtle, but they enhanced the flavor of the meat.

    It was worth every credit the mana stones added up to.

    At a Tier 3 mana stone, he had no problem with giving the group a profit. Especially if it meant he could eat real meat instead of bland stew.

    The food brought the attention of other groups in the area, and soon the little common area was bustling with comradery and conversation. Most groups were segregated between Empire and Republic, but some were intermingling.

    Matt just sat back and watched. Aster was drawing a crowd, which proceeded to lavish attention on the fluffy fox.

    It wasnt long after when a man with a portable chair made his way over and asked, Mind if I sit over here? Its a little crowded away from the edge. His AI translated the republican speech for him.

    Matt just waved him down. Most of his attention was focused inward, trying to sense his skills structure better.

    He didnt mind the man chowing down on his steak next to him. He kept [Cracked Phantom Armor] ready to use in a split second, especially with this many people near him.

    Seeing the man finish up eating, he turned and asked the burning question he had since he had seen his first Republican. So, weird question, but how do your elections work?

    The man looked at him and said, Every so often, people of the area can vote for positions. But they are limited by Tier for the position. The president has to be Tier 50. So only Dicomaty runs for the presidency right now, but the secretary of defense is growing fast. So there might be another election in the next few hundred years.

    They talked for the next few hours while the common area turned into more of a party. Someone had the [Brew] skill, and used it to make some quick beer.

    Their conversation turned to the disasters each political entity had dealt with recently. In the end, they were arguing against their own countries. Matt brought up his own planet, and Chun brought up how the lower Tiered candidates of the Republic never stood in office long enough, or came in with the right mindset to accomplish anything. Their time was mostly spent canceling anything their predecessor did, while pushing their own agenda. None of them really were around long enough for anything positive to be finalized.

    The last thing Matt had expected out of the training planet was becoming friendly with a Republican, but Chun was a cool guy who just wanted to better himself.

    It was a fun night.