Chapter 126 (Patreon)

NEW MESSAGE

So for the few days I've been having a persistent rash that wont leave my hands and wrist. Long story short the doctor things its stress hives and while the meds are working I'm sleeping nearly 16 hours.

To that end I'll be take monday off hoping that helps. Sorry everyone.

Chapter 126

After receiving Kelley's message, the three of them headed to the indicated location, where they found the older crafter standing off to one side.

Kelley was only Tier 12, which almost surprised Matt. Though, the man sat at the upper limits of that Tier, and seemed only a baby step away from advancing. It had been so long, Matt had expected the man to have advanced much further.

Kelley shook each of their hands and said, “It's good to see you all, but honestly, I'm surprised to see you guys here so soon.” He took a massive breath and grinned, “Can you feel that? It's amazing, isn’t it?”

Matt reached out with his own spiritual sense and tried to make sense of what was giving him such a weird feeling. It wasn't the gravity that he could feel was enhanced through a series of formations to increase the gravity to a planetary standard.

No, this feeling was different.

Aster had no desire to figure it out herself; she just directly asked, “What is it?”

Kelley tapped his foot a few times on the concrete and continued grinning. “This moon was found and brought back by an exploration team. It was orbiting a gas giant situated a pretty substantial distance from a Tier 20 planet.”

That explained the moon only being Tier 2, despite currently orbiting a Tier 27 world. Essence was just light enough to escape a standard planet's gravity well, but not enough so to escape the greater gravitational pull of a sun. Solar systems would slowly Tier up as long as a rift-bearing planet existed, but the further away from the essence producing planet that a celestial body was, the slower the growth would be.

That still didn’t explain the weird sensation Matt was feeling now, though. There was something like an aura of spiritual lightness to it, but that didn’t particularly help define the other sensations he had picked up on. Similarly, the moon’s normal gravity could easily be explained by a formation, but that didn’t feel correct either.

Kelley kept tapping the ground with a growing smile. “This moon had three subsatelite moons, and through some luck, all three formed with nature aspected rifts containing strong wildlife elements. That created an aspected feedback loop between this moon and the sub satelites. The essence here is nature heavy, leading to a fantastic number of rifts with large open areas, and a preponderance of monster rifts. The situation makes this place perfect for our crafter goddess.”

Matt assumed he was referring to Amelia Galley. The adoring look on the man's face was comical. Or, it would have been, if it didn’t awaken memories of what Cindy had done with her little cult.

Carefully using his own Concept, Matt probed for signs of foreign influences on Kelley, but found none. The man was just plain old star-struck.

“Matt, I’ll try to get you a meeting with Master Amelia. I'm super junior on her team of researchers, but she's amazing. Her thought process is just so... so different. Matt, she can use Tier 2 monster hides and produce the defensive bonuses equivalent to a Tier 6 item. It's incredible to watch.”

Liz seemed unbothered by being left out of the conversation and asked, “How did you get involved with her, Kelley? Weren't you planning on working with the enchantments that you and Matt figured out?”

Kelley’s face scrunched as if he wanted to spit. “Yeah, that was the plan… until someone stole the planet we were on and the prismatic rift with it. Who the hell steals a planet?”

Liz must have forgotten about that, as she pursed her lips and nodded along.

Matt chuckled but prodded Kelley back to the topic at hand, and the man continued his story.

“Right. Yeah. I was actually still working on that stuff, and even making some inroads with a few smaller guilds about trading mana samples. Then, some influential people started questioning our little aspect-trading organization. A few said that people were showing serious interest in my malleable mana type too. Honestly, I got a little scared and skirted their questions about it for a while. Eventually, Master Amelia came knocking personally. She offered me a job, and I took it. Best decision I’ve ever made.”

That made enough sense to satisfy Matt, so he decided not to pry. But he still didn’t understand why the moon was so special. Yes, it was rare. Useful? He wasn't so sure about that.

“But what's the big fuss about this moon? There are several elementally aligned planets in the Empire, and none of them seem like that big of a deal. At least not the ones I know of.”

The only two examples Matt could think of were fire and ice planets that had been too close to one another, and too far from their respective suns to start. When essence finally reached them, it was filtered through their extreme environments, leading to a cascading effect. Most of the essence aspected into fire and ice respectively, before spawning rifts with those elemental types. That cycle repeated itself for millennia or eons before most, if not all the essence in the planet's core was aligned to that element. At that point, not even terraforming the planet could change the core’s affinity. They made great training grounds for anyone who wanted or had to specialize in those elements, but they were otherwise normal planets with unvaried ecosystems.

The wildlife subtyping might be rare, but it didn’t seem nearly useful enough for a famous Tier 21 to relocate their entire operation to a Tier 3 moon.

Kelley looked ready to shake Matt.

“This means that the rifts here are all but guaranteed to include animals with high quality hides. There’s also a ton of plants suitable for making natural fibers. It's perfect for Master Amelia. She worked out a deal with Duke Fletcher, stipulating that he'd provide essence to help the moon Tier up. He’s just thrilled to have her based out of his territory. Just in the last two years we’ve been working here, Master Amelia has discovered new methods for curing hides and layering enchantments that allows far more power to be inscribed into low Tier materials. She would’ve had her latest inspiration within the first year, but she’s been repressing it.”

Matt didn’t really see the appeal, but he also recognized that he was a mere amateur in the crafting professions at best. It just seemed no different to him than if she simply had the hides ordered from a variety of planets and rifts.

He wasn't dumb enough to say so out loud. Amelia had found over a dozen inspirations, and he had had zero. She was clearly doing something right, and to devastating effect, if her very presence could inspire near zealotry in someone like Kelley. The man used to have issues with authority.

Kelley led them into the building, where he bypassed half a dozen security measures and got the three of them into clean suits for a tour. They were able to enter a hallway that let them see into a lab, where half a dozen people surrounded what looked to be a boar's skin. They were brushing the hide out while stretching the skin as someone else brushed vague rune forms onto the skin with a liquid.

Kelley was helpful enough to explain. “A part of the process that Master Amelia figured out was better prep work on the animal skins. By using a mixture of slightly higher Tier liquids, we can massively increase the amount of energy that leather and cloth armor can hold. And that's only the first step.”

They were then led to the next room, where a team was blasting a hide with a truly massive amount of mana. Matt, the man with limitless mana, even felt that it was a waste, seeing how much energy they were hitting the material with.

“This is our example chamber. The normal enrichment chambers are far more effective, as they’re just boxes that the materials are placed in while their mana parameters are calculated. Helps give the material a higher threshold of power.”

Kelley took them through another three rooms, where the process continued on to one of the final steps. At this point, the leather was cut and hardened into a shape resembling armor.

That was where Matt found Erwin, Kurt, and Luna standing next to a woman with a massive, brown braid that reached her knees. She was tall and graceful in her movements, and positively towered over everyone but Kurt, whom she only loomed over.

It was Amelia. Matt had to admit, the woman definitely matched her pictures. But her physical size, while well documented, was much more apparent in person.

Kelley whispered, “Master Amelia has been giving VIP tours, trying to drum up money. Let's move on before we disturb her.”

Matt had no intention of doing so, and messaged Erwin, who turned and waved.

Amelia said something, and with a familiar burst of power, the four of them were inside the cleanroom.

Matt didn’t miss Kelley starting slightly, but he had half expected this. Or at least hoped for it. Erwin was a well-known and respected figure in the scientific community, which gave him the ability to meet and greet crafters of high status.

As his half assistant and friend, Matt had been toying with the mere hope of riding the older man's coattails to get a meeting with Amelia. But he honestly hadn’t expected it this early.

Erwin made the introductions. “Amelia, this is Matthew, the one I was telling you about earlier. Also, Elizabeth and Aster. I don't know the other one. I assume he's one of yours?”

Amelia, in a deep but lilting voice, said, “Yes. Kelley is one of the more recent and promising additions to my team. He's the one with the malleable mana type I was telling you about.”

Erwin, in his forgetful way, immediately ignored everyone else and started pestering Kelley about his mana and Concept, while Luna just rolled her eyes at his antics.

She spoke to Amelia, but Matt felt it was also directed to himself. “If you want to make a contact yourself, this would be the person and time to do so.”

She was leaving the ball in his court, but he wasn't sure if she was referring to his mana aspecting and its usefulness in creating things, or his endless reservoir of said mana.

While Matt was considering how to handle it, Liz took the pause in conversation to ask Amelia a question. Matt mostly ignored the ensuing discussion, lost in his own thoughts.

He decided that he did trust Luna, and figured that she must have meant his mana’s unique effects from his Concept, rather than his Talent.

Then, he remembered what Kelley had said. Amelia was looking for backers to fund her testing. Matt was the perfect person to do so.

Finally giving up, he looked to Luna and messaged her. “I have no idea what you want me to tell her. Any suggestions?”

Luna rolled her eyes and clapped her hands, and everyone but the eight of them vanished from the room. From the spatial ripples he felt resonating from the working, Matt knew that Luna had cleared the entire building.

Then, he felt the familiar presence of Luna’s Aspect wrap around them, preventing anyone else from listening in.

Seeing Amelia narrow her eyes dangerously at the removal of her staff, Matt stuck out his still clean suited hand. “Matthew Alexander. The go-to guy for all your mana needs.”

He also extended Aster, who stuck out her own gloved paw, to the woman, while gushing out his entire mana regeneration. His 640 MPS was a noticeable expenditure, even for a higher Tier. And with his own Tier 9 strength that he did nothing to hide, Amelia grasped the significance behind the private session as she shook both Aster’s paw and his hand.

“Well now, isn't that interesting. Erwin said he was working on rifts, but wouldn't explain how he was funding it. This certainly makes things clear now, doesn't it?”

While Matt continued his outpouring of mana, she quirked her head and asked, “And this doesn't cost you anything? You don’t get tired? I can't imagine how your Talent works.”

Kelley finally worked up the nerve to speak. “That's gotten a lot stronger since I last saw you.”

Liz slithered an arm through Matt's. “Yes, he’s quite the interesting specimen, but I don't know if telling people about his quirks is the best idea.”

Kurt nosed his pad of paper into the conversation, writing, “Amelia here has been fully vetted, and is trusted by the higher ups. She’s a good contact to have for your own reasons, and said higher authorities want to help her develop as well. Having the two of you meet and come to a mutually beneficial agreement suits both desires.”

Luna took over. “While no one is forcing anything, we were hoping that you two could come to some arrangement. You can uniquely help each other. How exactly you do that is up to you to decide.” She looked straight at Matt. “We practiced for this. Now is your first opportunity to put it into action.”

Matt felt thoroughly out of his depth, despite their training. His nerves were fluttering crazily as he reviewed his lessons. What settled him down was noting that Luna wasn’t giving off any subtle hints to him, so he decided to show off a little and establish his worth. While he had the more valuable goods in his mana sub-aspect and Talent, he was of a much lower Tier.

“My Talent lets me endlessly produce mana at an increasing rate as I Tier up.”

The giant woman's eyes glimmered, but he didn’t let that distract them.

“I also have an unusual sub-aspect to my mana that increases the longevity of any effect it powers.” After removing his hand from hers, he reached into the bag on his back, blindly fishing around until he found a small wooden slab with a standard light rune carved into its surface.

He put two mana into the rune and let it light up, then waited as the rune's glow stayed lit for longer than it should have. Being Tier 21, he held no doubt that the woman could feel the difference.

“That's what I bring to the table. I'm willing to give you mana to fund your research.”

Amelia looked like she wanted to salivate. As she was going to speak, Liz said, “The real question is—”

Suddenly, she was relocated off to the side, next to where Luna floated.

Everything stopped for a moment, but his mentor simply shrugged. “This is one of those things you need to do on your own, Matt. At least this time.”

Aster started to yip in response, but the fox disappeared out of Matt's arms and was deposited into Liz’s.

Amelia looked amused, but shifted her focus back to Matt. “What are the exact specifications of your Talent and sub-aspected mana?”

Matt shook his head and shot back, “My exact Talent is private. Sorry, but references from on high or not, I don't know you well enough to share that much. Let’s just say I can put out a royal fuckton of mana, and leave it at that.”

The tailor looked taken back at that, so Matt forged on. “The sub-aspect, I don’t mind sharing. That’s from my ‘Endless’ Concept. I am endless. As is my mana.”

He flexed both portions of his Concept for a brief second, refilling her mana pool and Erwin's, while gently repulsing everything around him.

“It gives a twenty percent boost to power generation with my mana. Works best on channel spells and enchantments. As my mana is a neutral aspect, it works really well in most general applications, if mana cost or longevity are a factor.”

Amelia’s tongue started fiddling with her left canine tooth, almost as if it was how she focused on her thoughts, or was her body’s way to assist her level of focus. That had been an interesting thing to learn while in their spycraft training–how to spot a tell or read body language. Those classes had been almost fun for Matt, since higher tiers usually were better about controlling themselves.

She continued to tongue her tooth for a moment before finally saying, “That's a lot to offer. Honestly, your Talent is of more direct use to me than your mana type. I need to test various things, not add new variables. How much mana can you provide, and how often?”

They spent the next few minutes going back and forth about his availability. Amelia didn’t try to keep him local, and immediately started her bargaining in deliveries made to her and not him sitting around, which made Matt fond of her.

She realized he wasn’t going to agree to being a battery, and directly started negotiation on the amount of mana she wanted and how often. Honestly, it wasn't a lot for how often she wanted the deliveries.

Once a month, she was looking for a billion mana. That was too much for Matt to reasonably provide right now, with all of his other training, so they settled on a third of a billion every month going forward. It would stay at that amount as long as he was Tier 9. She would be responsible for the transportation of said mana, along with its discreet delivery to Luna.

Matt wasn't dumb enough to believe that he could protect himself if he openly gave the woman mana directly. He was fully relying on Luna to act as a cover for him. As the older cat didn’t say anything, he assumed that she agreed.

Finally, they moved on to what he wanted from the deal, and Matt found that he honestly didn't know, beyond the obvious. His training for this all predicated that he was trying to make a fair deal, and he honestly liked what Amelia was trying to do with sharing her knowledge.

“I want armor for Aster and me whenever you’re at the point where you can produce items at a higher Tier than us at that time.”

He looked to Liz to see if she wanted to switch to light armor, but she shook her head.

After that Matt ran out of ideas, and the negotiations turned slightly awkward.

Even Amelia clearly felt at odds with the requested compensation being so low, and hesitated to agree right away.

Matt saw Liz fight against Luna’s powers, clearly trying to say something, but he couldn't intuit what she was driving at.

As they stood there in an ever-increasing awkward silence, Matt asked for three more sets of armor made for his friends, up to a limit of thirty times.

Even then, it still felt like an incredibly lopsided deal, until he had an idea. After looking up what information he could find out about the woman, he deceived to go for broke, hoping that she would go for it.

“I want you to share what you learn using my mana. Whatever processes or general discoveries that can help anyone, I want you to make it public, with no strings attached.”

For the first time, Matt saw the woman truly react to a request. He knew it was a large ask, and headed off any possible rebuttal.

“I get that's a lot to ask for. I really do. But so much of the higher Tier information is locked away behind guilds, other organizations, or pay walls so exorbitant that it’s almost impossible to truly grow your craft. Those on the outside always end up being reliant on, or indebted to someone else. Everyone is singularly focused on keeping their own unique edges. I was working on rifts, and we learned a ton. But I'm sure if I peeked inside all of the oldest noble families’ and guilds’ records, I bet I would find most of what I learned already there. It's too wasteful of a process. I can’t let a chance to prevent that pass by.”

Matt thought as he spoke, and came to a decision. He trusted Luna, and even the Emperor that he had only met once. If they wanted him to work with Amelia, they must have their reasons.

The tailor tried to open her mouth again, and Matt finished, “Like I said, I know it's a lot to ask, but my own value will only increase. If the higher ups want us to work together, I’ll trust their judgment. My mana generation only increases every Tier. Eventually, I’ll be making more mana than I could possibly use. I didn't intend to hoard it, so you’ll only really be delaying getting my mana if you say no now. But I’d like to help everyone out, and make a real change in this Empire. If you can agree to that, I’ll eventually ensure that you have more mana than you know what to do with, once I Tier up a bit.”

Amelia smirked at him as he finished, and Matt noticed an amused look on both Luna and Kurt's faces. Liz looked exasperated more than anything, which told Matt that he had messed up.

The Tier 21 laughed. “I take it you looked me up, did you?”

Matt nodded. Luna had prepared him for contract negotiation years ago, and they had even applied that situation to his mana, but a lot of those ideas revolved around him taking percentages of their profits or parts of the companies. If the tailor wasn't trying to make things better for everyone, he would have gone down that route.

As it was, he would rather let her develop without worry, and reap the less tangible benefits later.

Seeing his nod, Amelia chuckled. “While I learned not to flaunt it too much in the last few decades, I was a massive proponent for freedom of information. I can’t say I was going to share everything. But I already intended to share most of it. It's a small price to pay for so much mana.”

Matt nodded. That was what he had seen.

She continued, “Most of what I know has been learned already. Hidden by guilds, I'm sure, just as you said. As I’ve Tiered up and gathered support, my public relations people have been having me tamp down on those statements, so as to do the research I want to do. I need the support of the factions that I’m looking to eventually undermine. That's why I'm holding this expo. I want to share knowledge, not hoard it, so I’m happy to honor that agreement.”

Liz was just rubbing her head through her clean suit, but she did smirk at him. In most of their training, she was the far more aggressive negotiator for his mana, always trying to get the most in return for his help.

Aster just wanted to see what outfits she could get made.

Matt chuckled. He might have made the most lopsided deal in history, but he didn’t want to go down the same old paths, with everything valuable locked up. He also realized why the Emperor wanted him to meet up with the crafter. She was a rising star in the Empire, and as she advanced, especially if she advanced through more inspirations, she would gather more political weight and influence.

She wanted the same changes he wanted, and he suspected the Emperor wanted the same.

Trying to get at least something tangible out of the deal, Matt took inspiration from Aster and tacked on, “I also want you to make more non-combat clothes for the three of us.”

Aster's suit-covered tail started to wag furiously, and Liz, now free of Luna’s influence, sulked forward and grumbled, “Could have taken her for way more.”

His girlfriend didn’t look too disappointed, though.

***

They spent the next few hours talking with Amelia about her process, which she was happy to share. It made Matt feel dumb, as Kelley had said she was giving tours, after all. He should have realized what she was doing far earlier, but he still wasn't unhappy with the deal. Supporting her research was a net positive, as she tried to streamline her process for tailors and leather workers of all stripes.

One interesting tidbit was what Amelia truly wanted with the moon. She had spent a sizable fortune to get the moon moved over to a more stable region of Empire space, so she could slowly Tier it up while preventing it from losing the aspects of it’s makeup that made it unique.

If they moved too quickly, or dumped too much essence into the thing, they could dilute the moon’s core, and it would start to make more non animal rifts. If nothing was done, eventually, the moon would produce enough neutral essence to shift the balance in its ambient essence.

As the moon Tiered up, that would be harder to do. But at Tier 3, the moon was easy enough to shift, so they needed to be careful. The sheer size of the moon only worsened the situation

Planets and celestial bodies large enough to condense essence were like large cultivators. They had cores where their essence gathered and mana started to generate, but they lacked spirits

Technically, the molten core of a planet was a fantastic crafting item, and technically harvestable to aid in higher Tier’s cultivation, but it was a massive taboo to touch planets' cores, except in extreme circumstances.

It was one of the few things that all the Tier 50s agreed on. Or so Luna said.

The exact reason why, or what happened when an essence core was removed from a planet, Luna wouldn't say. No matter how much Matt pestered her. Eventually, he just accepted that whatever it was, he shouldn’t investigate further.

After the first night, they retired to rooms Luna had arranged for them in one of the massive, spatially enlarged buildings. The fifteen-floor buildings were expanded at least a thousand times over, to the point that it was a twenty-minute walk from the front entrance to their room.

It was an impressive, but ultimately temporary measure, as the amount of mana that the building needed per day to stay active was mind-boggling. While the planet underneath could handle permanent construction, the low Tier moon could not. But it didn’t need to, as they expected most people to use the intrasystem teleporters to travel to the moon. At least, they expected that to be enough when half the crafters in the Empire weren’t clamoring to reach the moon.

Even with Luna bringing people over with her greater ability, the moon was slow to fill up. Still, slowly but surely, the areas started to fill with crafters showing off their wares, or competing in official and unofficial exhibition matches that were held for every profession.

Matt, Liz, and Aster spent days wandering through the stalls and talking to other crafters.

It was humbling to see so many other exceptional crafters. Matt knew he was only an amateur, but seeing just how far he had to go was jarring. He learned as much as he could from the various books available, but his inventions rarely worked on his first attempts. Most of his projects were finished with patience and his unlimited mana.

The crafters he interacted with didn’t have that advantage, and had to carefully plan and study every rune and material before attempting an enchantment. They were forced to be perfectionists in everything they did to cut down costs and waste.

Mana was the greatest limiting factor for any normal crafter. They needed to purchase the mana from cities, or wait and accumulate it themselves. The first cut into their profits, and the second would simply take far too long if they wanted to practice more than once a month.

Which was exactly what most higher Tier crafters did. They needed millions of mana at each step of the process, and few cities were able to supply them with enough mana.

When he wanted to enchant something, or try his hand at crafting, Matt just attempted it. He wouldn't run out of mana or materials with his ability to fuel rifts.

He was good because he had the wealth to practice without worry.

To call his situation rare was an understatement.

Matt started to imagine what things would look like if he was able to gather those more talented crafters and remove their greatest limitation. Sure, material components were important, but the mana was the truest issue that they all faced. What if Matt could pull them to himself, and foot that most important bill on his own? The fantasy was enticing as he looked around at the vendors and stalls where people cautiously plied their trades. As the days passed and the moon filled up, and Amelia started to give more talks and guide other crafters with various lesions, his idea crystallized.

He wanted to start a guild of crafters. A guild where people were free to make whatever they wanted, with an unlimited mana supply backing them up. He wanted to push testing and advancement as far as he could.

It wasn't something that he would be able to do until at least Tier 35, when his mana generation would be truly monstrous. The idea of a place of crafting where he could gather the best and brightest minds was an intoxicating thought. Especially if, like Luna and Liz always suggested, he could get the best for himself. How much stronger and better protected could he be if he had the best and most-cutting-edge equipment available to the Empire at his disposal?

He kept the thoughts mostly to himself as he pondered the rough ideas and problems, but he figured it was possible. Few would be willing to turn down the opportunity to have every project funded, and materials provided through Aperologists making rifts, in which he could have delvers working to feed the crafters.

A wonderful dream indeed.

But in his current state and level of power, it remained just that—a dream.

During his evenings, Matt spent eight hours filling massive mana reserves for Amelia and her future crafting tests. At Tier 9 and with a perfected body, he needed only two or so hours of sleep a night, and only really slept longer most nights because sleeping was fun.

At the actual start of the exposition, Amelia shocked everyone with her announcement.

She had not only one, but two inspirations ready.

Having seen an inspiration before, Matt wasn’t all that interested, but Erwin brought him, Liz, and Aster to a vantage point just out of the moon's atmosphere. He didn’t miss that Kurt came with them, but hovered slightly behind, not interfering.

Through an AI group chat, the older man asked, “Do you know what an inspiration does?”

Matt felt like this was a trick question, and kept his mouth shut, but Liz had no such compunction. “It’s when someone resonates with essence about a revelation they learned, and essence rushes into them, instantly Tiering them up.”

Erwin nodded. “Correct on all accounts. But that's not what I'm getting at. Let me re-ask the question. What happens when a Tier 21 has an inspiration on a world much lower than their Tier?”

Matt's initial answer was that the planet might be cannibalized through the intake of essence, but that didn't seem quite right. Amelia had a vested interest in protecting this moon, not destroying it.

In the vassal kingdom, Kelley had had an inspiration. Being four Tiers above the planet's Tier at the time, he had absorbed essence for minutes on end, since the essence needed to accumulate to match the man's Tier.

But Matt had no idea how much essence it would take for a Tier 21 to reach Tier 22, then Tier 23 in short order. He became worried that it would be enough to hurt the core of the moon. Planets needed magnitudes more essence than a human would need to Tier up, but the difference between Tiers 21 and 22 was just so large. Matt's initial gut feeling was that Amelia would hurt the planet.

As a pulse of energy washed out, it was too late to ask Erwin, so he just turned and watched.

Just as he feared, even from miles up, Matt could feel most of the essence rushing into the woman. But as he started to worry, something like the energy he felt when they traveled through chaotic space appeared.

Except that it wasn't exactly the same. The feelings were like near-identical fraternal twins; they were similar, but there were subtle differences.

Matt pushed out his spiritual sense as far as he could reach into the swirling energy, but before he could catch on to what was going on, the energy started to transform into essence.

Tier 22 essence.

It rushed down into the Tier 2 moon like a tidal wave, and Matt could feel the moon nearly instantly Tier up. It shot through Tier 3, Tier 4, then Tier 5. Spots of purple void energy that felt like Luna's willpower flickered as the rifts improved qualitatively, and spewed their monster hordes out upon sudden Tier up.

Matt shook his head in awe.

He, Liz, and Aster simultaneously asked, “What was that?”

Erwin laughed in the bubble of air he had brought with them and replied through his AI.

“There’s a sort of defense mechanism for planets that are too weak if someone much stronger than them goes through an inspiration. Once the world starts to experience a significant degree of essence loss, to the point it will cripple the planet, there is an influx of energy from elsewhere.”

The older man looked at them. “It felt like chaotic space to you, right?”

Aster yipped in the thin air, “Yes, but no.”

Erwin nodded in reply, “A good enough answer, my quadrupedal friend. Yes. It's not quite chaotic space energy. That energy is anathema to life in real space. That was its bigger and far scarier cousin, the energy that separates realms. It's got a few more uses than pure destruction.”

Liz figured it out before Matt, “Wait, like an ascension?”

“Exactly like one. Except for the part about boosting Talents for the unawakened and a few other details. There is a rush of essence that will fill the planet, or in this case, the moon. Normally, going from Tier 21 to 22 wouldn't be enough to push a planet up so many Tiers, but it's a moon, and much smaller, so it needs correspondingly less essence to Tier up. That final condition is basically impossible to fulfill on planets, with their greater size and essence reserves. On a planet, even with the Tier difference, Amelia would need to be at least five Tiers higher to have an influx of essence.”

There was a gathering of power, and Erwin quickly said, “Get ready. She’s about to Tier up again. Try and feel the higher realm energy.”

Once again, the essence on the moon rushed toward the place Matt knew Amelia to be, and the process started over again. She pulled in a substantial portion of the essence on the moon to her, and when it wasn't enough, that same energy appeared.

Being ready for it, Matt was able to get a better grip on its appearance. The energy felt like someone pressing their figure onto a cube of gelatin, but not hard enough to push fully through the surface tension. They pushed just enough to indent the gelatin and have their presence known. No more, no less.

That slight pressure was enough for essence to rush in, and it was a perfect match for both Amelia and the moon. Matt could feel two distinct types of essence mixed in with the rush of power.

The tailor's essence was like leather and cotton. Soft and pliant at the same time, while also exuding an aura that gave the impression of being as strong as metal.

Matt wasn't able to pinpoint the feeling that the higher Tier essence gave him to any degree greater than that vague initial sensation.

The moon's essence was, as Kelley had said, distinctly animal flavored. It smelled of the wilds to his spiritual sense. Not just one type either, but of all of them. From jungles to deserts, to cold mountain peaks, to the frigid depths of the oceans. Everything that was nature and animal was represented in the essence. Despite being far weaker in Tier, it had far more depth than Amelia had in her essence.

Matt watched on in awe as the moon advanced to Tier 7, then stopped.

They stood there in silence as the weight of the event that had just happened washed over them. Matt caught Erwin breathing in deeply a few times, despite the air being incredibly thin. Not long after, they were brought down to the surface of the moon.

Amelia was giving a speech that Matt couldn't focus on as he thought about that greater energy. The energy was on a completely different scale to be able to fill in the gap created when planets couldn't handle the presence of stronger cultivators.

Erwin’s remarks implied that inspirations were miniature ascensions, and Matt wasn't sure if that comforted him or scared him.

But he wasn't sure if that was right either; his gut told him that it wasn't the whole truth.

If inspirations communed with the Higher Realms, or something similar, Erwin would have said so. He didn’t beat around the bush most times. It would also mean that inspiration Tier ups, like Kelley’s, were different in some way. Maybe the location mattered, or the massive Tier difference forced the planets to protect themselves somehow.

There were greater powers out there that even the higher Tiers might not fully understand.

It was a beautiful and scary thought.

As Matt was finally swept up in the celebration, he had to put aside his questions and let himself enjoy the moon-wide party.

Amelia had earned it.

This was her day. Existential crises could wait.