The Path of Ascension

PoA: Minkalla Chronicles Floor 3

Minkalla Chronicles Floor 3

Vibia took a deep breath as she entered the third floor and smiled.

She felt good.

Despite her losing all of her cultivation, she felt fantastic. Better than she had in centuries.

Everything looked interesting and new, from a weaker perspective, and she had never felt so alive. Or at least, not since she reached Tier 14.

She had learned a lot about herself in the last few weeks. Not everything she reflected on was nice, but she still had grown from the experience.

Vibia was just an adrenaline junky. Well some form of it anyway.

Once she reached Tier 14 and stalled in her advancement, she no longer went out to explore and delve like she had used to. At first, she had still explored new rifts for the excitement, but when she realized that she had no idea what her Concept was, that slowly faded. Eventually, she got to the point that she only delved for profit, and soon afterwards, it devolved into only seeking rifts when she really needed the money, like so many other peak Tier 14s.

But that had been her downfall.

Vibia craved that excitement and the chasing of new experiences. Like most others who were experiencing the slow end of their long lives, she had sampled every pleasure and vice, but none had excited her or roused her old self like exploring Minkalla had.

She liked to find the unknown.

Keeping her feet moving was important. She was like a shark. When she stopped moving, she stopped breathing.

One foot after the other.

Vibia felt something click in her very being, like a puzzle piece that she never knew was missing.

Her Concept slipped into place, and while it was a monumental discovery on its own, it was accompanied by a strange resonance within her spirit as it flexed and expanded.

She thought it was a side effect from her Concept slotting into place, but when essence started to appear from nowhere and rush into her she realized the truth.

All of her previous excitement vanished, and was replaced with terror.

Inspirations from forming a Concept werent rare, especially not among people like her, but the timing couldnt have been worse. Shed seen the recording of what happened to those who hit Tier 15 in Minkalla, and she had no desire to explode, not when shed just escaped death.

But her spirit was mid-Inspiration, and she couldnt stop it. Essence was pouring into her spirit, and the only reason she wasnt dead already was the fact that Minkalla was eating almost all of the essence being generated through her resonance with the realm. Her cultivation being temporarily reset by entering Back to Basics also helped, as it made the inspiration work harder to recover what was taken away by Minkalla.

Vibia even tried to shunt the essence as if she didnt want the reward from a kill, but found that completely impossible.

She was already Tier 2, nearly Tier 3. If she didnt manage to clear all three levels of the floor and escape the planet at the safe room before her Inspiration finished, shed never be able to enjoy her new Tier 15 immortality.

As her legs pumped, she realized that her Concept was currently true.

If she stopped moving, she was dead.

***

Fred walked through the forest that used to be full of ogres and decided to rest before he entered the boss distortion to exit this floor.

He had already killed the boss, but he knew that the next challenge would be difficult, and he wanted to enjoy some luxuries before he had to suffer for months.

He had trained for the challenge, but he still liked his creature comforts.

Pulling out his tent, he set it up next to the small lake and just enjoyed the sound of the bubbling water.

The peaceful moments between the blood and gore were what got him through the days of fighting.

Breaks were vital for a healthy mind.

Using his bedroll as a pillow, he watched the false sun of this floor slowly set before climbing into the tent.

His mother had made it for him, and despite only being a Tier 12 herself, she poured her heart and soul into it.

It wasnt the best item he could have afforded, but it meant so much more to him than anything store bought could have.

It was his own little slice of home that he could take with him everywhere he went.

***

Claude watched on as a team of ten people fought their way through a herd of buffalo monsters. Lightning zapped from their horns and they attacked viciously, even against the team that was far too large for Minkalla.

Taking over one of the bulls vision, he watched as the team systematically cut down the monsters, but took the time to take note of each of them.

Their appearance and skills were slowly revealed to him as he watched from a safe distance and stole the perceptions of the monsters they fought, and he didnt like what he saw.

A team of ten people should have split into two and separated, to prevent them from splitting the Genesis Energy so many ways, but they seemed unconcerned by the added time it took them to range about while looking for more monsters.

Even then, it hadnt impacted them much. They were currently Tier 9, and were taking down the Tier 12 monsters like it was child's play.

They also had some of the best gear he had ever seen, which told him that they weren't Heroes or their other Great Powers equivalents.

It painted a picture he didnt like.

Death squads.

He had been briefed on them, and was taught how to counter the tactics and recognize them. He had made enough of an impression for the Guild leadership to suspect that he would be targeted during the delve, so he was trained to deal with them.

Except, this group wasnt quite what he expected so he followed them.

A death squad relied on their greater cultivation to kill the cultivators with potential from the other Great Powers before they could grow. A death squad should be strong enough that being in such a large team was unwarranted.

Using the fading hearing of a dying bull, he finally heard them talk as one gave an order in the Federation language, allowing him to make some inferences.

As he watched, they came upon a Monsters Collective cultivator, and without hesitation, attacked and killed the woman.

That was enough for Claude to take action.

They might not be a normal death squad, but they were close enough that he was unwilling to allow them to return to their former Power and start killing others.

He wasnt sure if he could fight them ten to one if they returned to their peak Tier 14 power levels, but they had so many people in their group that they had yet to pass Tier 9 on the third level.

Claude, on the other hand, was alone, and was back to his peak power.

That didnt mean he was going to rush in stupidly. He was anything but reckless.

When they were entangled in a fight with the bull boss, he struck.

Stealing the senses of the woman serving as their primary front liner for a fraction of a second, he delayed her response by just enough to allow the bosss attack to strike her in the gut, goring her through her armor.

He frowned. She had been in a lot more pain than most people usually were.

Surprisingly, she didnt die immediately, and continued to struggle even as she was flung into the distance.

Claude rushed over to where she landed while keeping most of his attention on the boss.

As he reached the woman, she was already sitting up and pouring a potion on her wounds with one hand, while stuffing the intestines back into her abdomen with the other.

He didnt give her a chance to heal, and kicked her head with his armored boot as hard as he could.

He expected her skull to shatter, but he had to twist and stomp down since he didnt feel the rush of Genesis Energy that would have signified her death.

He used the ground for leverage through his second stomp to prevent any lost energy, then he finally flattened her helmet and skull, eliciting the appropriate rush of energy.

Still, his mistake allowed her to send out a message warning the others.

Dodging to the side, he avoided the arrow that sliced through the air at him.

With his peak Tier 12 speed, he ran low to the ground as half of the team disengaged from the boss and turned to face him.

Stealing the sense of touch from the archer right before he shot, he caused her attack to miss and fly off into the distance.

The four that were keeping the boss contained werent able to help attack him, but he still stole their senses any time he could to make that fight harder, causing them to take injuries.

As the other five closed on his position, he [Dash]ed forward and intercepted a downward slash by hitting the man's wrist and casting [Shocking Touch].

Using the moment of disruption, he uppercut the man and slipped to the side, allowing the mans sword to pass between himself and the man he hit. Disengaging with the two of them, he swapped their perceptions with each other and used that disorientation to kick out and break the first man's knee. But once again, he was surprised at how hard the bones of this team were.

His kicks were devastating, and that blow should have broken bone rather than just snap cartilage.

Even as he turned away from the duo, the man he identified as a healer was quick to do his job.

Though, Claude was just as quick to throw a throwing knife into his eye, thus ending his life.

No matter how hard their bones were, their brains were still vulnerable.

A man and a woman tried to tackle him, one going high and one going low, but Claude switched their perceptions, causing them to stumble as their bodies stopped reacting correctly.

That earned him enough time to punch the falling woman, but in return, he took an arrow in the shoulder.

It pierced through the flesh and bone as if they werent there, and caused his blow to only daze instead of killing the woman.

Turning, he was forced to roll out of the way of another arrow, but this wasnt his first time fighting a ranged opponent.

Faking a jump, he dived and grappled the man with the just healed knee, and entangled them before squirming to get the man's back. Once he was in position, he drew the back of his gauntlet across the man's throat.

The sharpened ridge of his gauntlet opened the mans carotid artery, but despite that, he kept trying to elbow Claude in the ribs.

The blows were like hammers and broke several of his lower ribs, but Claude ignored it and pulled the two of them up.

As the man bled out, his blows weakened, and Claude used his body to rush the archer.

To his surprise, the archer didnt even hesitate, and shot an arrow right at her teammate that he was using as a shield.

She didnt aim for anything vital, but didnt seem overly concerned about hitting him either.

Even as the glowing projectile bounced off the man's stronger shoulder pauldrons, Claude closed enough of the distance.

Stopping his forward rush, he threw the man at the archer and spun, grabbing the other man who was trying to run him through from behind with a sword.

Claude grabbed the man's wrist and twisted, forcing the man over his own shoulder with a hip check, and then brought the hand down with a wrenching movement. Once more, the bones didnt break as he expected, and he was forced to roll the man over his shoulder in a throw before driving a finger through the man's eye and into his brain.

That ended the man's life, but it seemed that the team decided that he needed to die, and the others who had been fighting the boss ignored it and ran at him.

An arrow nearly took Claude in the head, but he was faster than the Tier 9, and moved to the side just in time.

Closing the distance, he took a glowing arrow through his chest, but he ignored the wound and tackled the woman, using his gauntlet to cut her face before he was able to grab both of her hands on one of his own. She quickly broke free, but it gave him enough time to use his already wounded arm to drive a dagger into her eye.

Raising his head, he watched the remaining four Federation death squad fighters with his Talent and grinned.

As a mage cast a spell, he threw the body at his feet to block the spell, and moved to finish the fight.

Even as they fought, the boss came in and started attacking all of them, but Claude was faster, and any time the monster tried to attack him, he stole its vision, forcing it to target the others.

With his inadvertent helper, they made short work of the rest of the death squad.

He then had to finish off the boss bull, but that wasnt so hard.

Before he fell to the ground and started to heal, he looked at the already dissolving corpses of the death squad.

If his instructors were correct, they would have fantastic gear that he could use himself.

As he looted them, he shook his head.

It was a waste. If they hadnt been evil, they could have avoided this situation, but instead of being righteous, they chose to attack those weaker than themselves.

They would not be missed. Of that, he was sure.

***

Xavier burned away the Tier 5 monster in front of his team and they were all on high alert.

Their scout Kathy reported, Last one I sensed. Careful though.

Careful was the anthem they lived by after their near deaths on the first floor. Alex, their healer, had only just barely managed to save their lives by digging a hole into the ground and then casting [Create Water]. With the resulting cool mud, he was able to start nursing them back from the brink of heat stroke.

After that incident, they hadnt dared to be anything but careful. Even if the other floors couldnt kill them with environments they couldn't sense, they took the lesson to heart.

There was no reason for them to let their guards down for even a second.

They almost didnt continue past the first floor, but they all decided to press on to the fourth floor as they originally intended. The only difference was that their team was far, far more alert.

It had slowed them down, but they had found and avoided a number of traps on the second floor. That same caution had even prevented them from being attacked by an ambushing team of cultivators from the Empire.

They hadnt been able to defeat their opponents, but they retreated with only minimal injuries.

Now, they were traversing a watery plain that seemed to extend forever.

This challenge room was odd in the fact that it seemed to be an endless expanse of water. But instead of having to swim or anything, the water was only a finger width deep before they hit a barrier they couldnt pass.

Monsters, on the other hand, could pass it without issue.

Most of Xaviers spells were useless, with the fire magic not being able to penetrate the water, but he still provided what assistance he could.

As they walked on, they looked around and only found more of the same endless blue water and sky.

Kathy finally stopped them. Something is weird here. Let me investigate.

Nathan, their melee fighter, kept a close guard on Kathy, and everyone else's eyes were darting around, searching for the slightest indication of a threat.

Alex shook his head. I feel like were missing the point of this challenge room. It felt so similar to A Watery Voyage, I swore it was. But this isn't that test. I have no idea how it changed.

Xavier kept his mouth shut.

He wasnt sure if there was a point to this test.

They simply walked around in a vast empty plain.

Even the sky and the water seemed to blend together in the distance like a heat mirage .

That thought caused him to pause and consider.

Unable to come up with an answer, he looked over to where Kathy was kneeling in the water.

Voicing his observation, Alex smacked his head as he exclaimed, Ugh! We are so stupid. This isn't A Watery Voyage, it's A Pail Expectation. Fall into the water, guys, with the expectation of leaving.

Saying that, he closed his eyes and then slowly tilted forward until he fell. Except when he splashed into the water, he vanished.

Xavier closed his eyes and tried to convince himself that if he just believed hard enough, he would fall into the water and not smack into the barrier they were walking on.

It was scarier than it should have been, but when he splashed into the water, he found himself back in the real world and out of the pillar of crystal.

A second later, Nathen and Kathy came out, and they joined Alex in watching the pillar create their items.

Not long after, a thumb-sized orb of silver covered in pulsing streaks of black popped out.

An upgrade orb.

It was probably only Tier 14, but all of them salivated at the chance to use it.

Xavier kept his mouth shut, but he really wanted it for himself.

He was the only one with an innate skill, and upgrading [Flame Blast] was a dream of his. Still, he didnt feel it was right to use that fact and practically bully his friends.

But in the end, it didnt matter. After their initial excitement, they unanimously voted to give him the upgrade orb.

It warmed his heart more than his flames ever could.

***

Han De looked down upon the mass of lightning elementals from his cliff in the adjacent ruin.

Monsters were scarce on the third floor, and especially so on this third level. Being behind the pack leaders had its own advantages, but it also meant that there might not be any challenges left for him to face.

He had wandered through half a dozen ruins, finding only a handful of monsters that had either been missed in the initial sweep or that had respawned, until he finally stumbled on this ruin.

Immediately upon finding it, he understood why it was skipped and abandoned by everyone else.

Lightning elementals were incorporeal, and therefore hard to damage. They also had incredible attack power by virtue of their element.

If Han De was his old self, he would have retreated, moving on to find an easier set of monsters to earn his Genesis Energy from, but he wasnt his old self. He was new and strong. Reborn from fire and flames.

Armed with Yi Zhelans sword, he dropped down the cliff and moved forward, his powerful leg technique making each step cover twice the distance it should have normally.

His sword descended and cut the first flickering elemental in half, but didnt destroy it.

As it started to glow brighter, preparing to cast some lightning technique, he reversed the direction of his blade and brought it around, cutting the still rejoining halves into quarters, finally eliminating the monster.

Sliding to the right, he brought his blade around, caught the next elemental off guard, and blocked its lightning attack. The discharge of energy made Yi Zhelans sword tingle in his grip, but the weapon was stronger than anything that a meager Tier 11 elemental could damage.

Even only having returned to Tier 9 himself, Han De had no issues beating these monsters. Before his transformation, he would have struggled and feared facing opponents stronger than himself, but no longer.

He understood.

Fear was the real killer. It froze the mind and prevented necessary actions, and hesitation would inevitably lead to death.

As he blocked the next lightning strike, he brought his blade around in the same motion and slew two more elementals clearing this area from the monsters.

Genesis Energy sat in his spirit like a comfortable weight.

Definitive proof of his power.

He stalked forward towards the next cave.

He was almost done killing the monsters in that rift, and had just rebroken through to Tier 11. He only had two Tiers left before he could leave this floor, but he suddenly felt a presence come towards him from the side.

They had Genesis Energy, but his spiritual perception said they were only Tier 10, so they had killed fewer monsters than he had.

He was surprised when he realized that he knew the people.

Senior Brothers Qin Dong, Pan Meng, Xuan Heng, and Senior Sisters Yi Chun, and Duan Jian. The five of them were from his own Soaring Clouds Sect.

It felt like a lifetime since he saw them last, but from their readied weapons, they were wary of him.

Han De only realized what was going on when Senior Brother Xuan Heng shouted out. We have nothing valuable for your Excellency to take. Please just leave us be. We will immediately leave your Excellency's hunting ground.

Saying that, they backed up, keeping formation, and only once they had the wall between them they turned around and ran.

They hadnt recognized him.

Inspecting himself as an outsider would, he paused.

Han De almost couldn't recognize himself. It shouldnt have been surprising, but he was shocked regardless.

His clothes were in tatters, but his spirit was strong. Bright like Yi Zhelans sword, which sat comfortably in his hand like it had always been there.

Clean steel. Hard and flexible.

Hammered into shape and reinforced through each blow it underwent during the forging process, he was no longer recognizable as the fearful Tier 13 who entered the planet's copper depths.

If the old him saw his current appearance, he would have also apologized and ran at the first moment. The strong didnt need a reason to attack in a place like this, and they would have feared he would do the same as some Young Master.

Han De paused at that thought.

Others were afraid of him. Of him. The thought should have brought him great pleasure, but he felt sickened.

He wanted to be strong, but he had never considered others would fear him for it.

That just felt so wrong.

For a few minutes, he felt the old fearful Han De return, but he crushed it.

His Sect mates had banded together and therefore forsaken the true test of Minkalla.

Their combined strength and general cowardice ensured that they werent pushed far enough to grow.

He was no longer like them.

If they wished to fear him, that was on them.

He was no Young Master to throw his weight around but, he now had an inkling on how it felt to be one.

He just wasnt sure he liked it.

***

Eara had paused at the safe area between the first floor and second floor for a week, but never saw her friends appear. She had eventually pushed forward, wanting to catch back up with them, but even upon waiting at the safe area between the second and third floors, she still couldnt find them.

It was disconcerting. She had been lost on the first floor for a week, but she eventually fought her way out of the forest of illusions and then found the exit. Her friends should have been waiting for her there. They had agreed to wait for two weeks if any of them got separated, but they never showed.

It wasnt like there were multiple safe rooms in Minkalla. No, there was only one ever-expanding space.

They should have waited if anything happened to her.

So, she pushed deeper, and despite the challenge of delving alone, she pushed through the awful theme floor and reached the next floor in a record setting two weeks.

The sheer speed had caused her to almost lose her life half a dozen times, but she had survived, and waited for her friends yet again.

Once again, she couldnt find them.

She thought it was unlikely they had died, but it was always a possibility. They were a strong team, and that shouldnt have happened. So she decided to delve into the third floor before calling it quits.

That was where they originally planned to exit the planet, and despite losing her, they should have proceeded on. Hopefully she would catch up to them there.

So, she just needed to get to that floor and wait for them.

Eventually, they would appear. She was sure of it.

***

Alvin watched his team as they butchered the rat boss.

The monster had an incredibly strong defense with its golden fur, but that same fur seemed to have no way to block magical attacks, which left him standing guard.

Like some peasant.

He was so anxious, it was hard to control himself.

This boss, a monster he had no good way to hurt, was the final obstacle between him and the fourth floor, where he could finally earn his Concept.

This fight would have been a million times easier with Bernard, the cowardly mage who immediately left them as they moved to enter the second floor, once hed gotten his Concept. Without him, they had significantly less ranged damage, leaving them in their current lurch.

Alvin had a few ranged spells, but not as many as the others, and his spells weren't nearly as potent, meaning he would just waste mana if he used them.

He would have preferred to find another boss, but the others wanted to get to the fourth floor as fast as possible. After all, it wasnt impossible to kill this boss, and they just needed to advance.

All of them wanted to move on as quickly as possible.

Their immortality was just around the corner.

When the boss finally fell, they ignored the loot and rushed through the distortion to the third floor safe area, and directly to the central pillar.

Seeing the seasons and hearing their offers of boons, they decided most of the strongest people would be choosing Summer, and decided to choose the same.

As long as they got enough Genesis Energy, who cared if they had to ride on other people's coattails.

Alvin sure didnt.

How they won didnt matter. Only that they did. After all, losers wouldnt be able to gather Genesis Energy. And more importantly, they would probably be dead.

***

Natalie froze, eyes locked on the cultivators staring back at her. They couldnt see her, courtesy of her invisibility cloak, but one of them must have had some particular skill with perception that her Talent couldnt fool. A pair of detection skills swept over her, but she told them that there was nobody here, no odd protrusions of magic, nothing.

That seemed to settle their internal quarrels, and they moved on to their hunt. While her newly empowered cultivation had been marvelous- nearly all of her essence had converted into Genesis Energy after the last floors challenge- being immediately thrown into Back to Basics was quite jarring. That she got this floor was something of a mixed blessing. Lower cultivation meant her Talent had a bit more sway over thinking creatures, but the themes challenge was an unknown. She should be alright; even if she died on day two, the elaborate illusion involved in the survival challenge was definitely something that her Talent could fool. But she didnt know if true death within the first six months was an automatic byproduct of the testing setup, or an artificial penalty enforced by Minkalla. Just in case it was the former, shed have to legitimately survive the full six months, which would be annoying.

The group had moved on well enough by now that Natalie felt confident in claiming her latest finding- another challenge room. This one was

She wrinkled her nose. It spoke of single combat against a great foe. That wouldnt do. Anything that put her into combat directly, with no secondary completion category- or a failure state other than death- wasnt something she could really use her Talent on. If she beat the boss eventually, it would be fine, but she wasnt actually a good fighter, no matter what her certifications said. A strong boss would quite possibly just kill her, and she couldnt cheat her way out of that.

Well, there were plenty of other challenges to be found.