Chapter 71

Chapter 71

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 hadnt 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 kingdoms 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 Gregors 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 havent 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 rifts 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 Majestys 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 didnt 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 didnt 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 Empires capital and reported in.

He was immediately summoned to a tribunal the moment he entered the capitals real space. It wasnt unexpected, but he had hoped for time to freshen up and relax a little before they called on him. Still, he didnt 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 elevators 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. Ill 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 didnt 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 doesnt 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. Id 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 Matthews Talent. Even he shouldnt 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 hadnt been there and seen it, he wouldnt 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 Elizabeths 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 wouldnt notice the planet was only Tier 6 had been a pipe dream.

They didnt 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. Id 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 Silvers interference in a tribunal.

Are this childs 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 subjects 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.

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 youre 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 mans Aspect. It was newly formed, so he didnt even need to use his own to counter it.

The leaders 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 wasnt overwhelmingly powerful.

Aiden hadnt 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 Concepts 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 didnt, 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 Concepts 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 4s, 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 didnt 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 didnt 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 adults 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 werent.

They were just protege and mentor.

April didnt 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. Its 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 didnt 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 wasnt good enough for the purple-haired woman, nor for the man she had measuring Matts 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. Shes better with the spear when using her manipulation skill. Completely unacceptable.

Kurt once again broke out the ruler, and measured the blood mages 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.

Shes wasting mana by the bucketful with that approach. I don't care if her boytoy is an unlimited mana battery, shes still wasting so much. I cant 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 Lizs 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 foxs 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.

Shes 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, Youre right. Theyre still young and don't have experience. Theyre 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 wasnt sure if shed imagined it before the womans face returned to normal. Ah, yes. We should get in touch with the problem child, shouldnt 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 didnt 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 Kurts silent shaking of his head, and Lunas clenched fist, they clearly disagreed.

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

The woman hadnt 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 cant stand to see such potential avoid the forge. Ill see them heated and reshaped.

Gathering her courage, April asked, Whats with the G? None of our names start with G.

I dont want them to know who their manager or trainer is. You arent to tell them either. Little Lizs parents know me, and so she might. Just call me G to the kids.

April shrugged. If thats what Luna wanted, thats 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 youve 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 wouldnt hate her after this.