Chapter 144 (Patreon)

Here is a 7.5k chapter to finish the met up. Whoo. These chapters took a lot out of us to get right. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 144

As Matt finished his little self-introduction, he watched as all the Royals stared blankly back at him.

Seeing that, he tried to reiterate his mana concentration weakness, but even that didn’t seem to bother them. He had honestly expected more of a reaction from the Royals. He was almost… disappointed by the lack of any expression.

Frederic was the first to approach, followed by Harper, but Rusty cheated by covering the ten foot distance between them in a single fluid step.

The mountain of a man just appeared next to Matt and Liz; she had hopped up onto a table while Matt gave his little speech.

Rusty laughed and then pulled the two of them into a huddle before he whispered, “Hey Matt’ery. Why don't we go have a good spar before we get down to all that boring talk? Better to get it out early. Work off some steam.”

Even as he chafed at the awful, punny nickname, Matt took in the man's eager expression and immediately chucked Liz under the bus. “Liz already warned me that you don't hold back nearly as well as you think you do.”

Rusty shot Liz a hurt look as he straightened. “Well, that's just not fair at all. I hold back my cultivation perfectly, it’s just that I’m also amazing in ways you can’t hold back!”

Instead of leaving, he plopped himself next to Liz on the table and started to swing his legs like a child as he offered, “What if I restrict my cultivation to Tier 7? Tier 6? Five? Four? three? Tier 3, final offer. Even you have to admit that’s fair.”

Liz just poked the man under the ribs, an act which he didn't even seem to notice.

Rusty’s insistence to fight stoked Matt’s own competitive spirit, but he declined. “Maybe when we reach Tier 25 and finish The Path.”

Rusty jumped on that offer quickly. “Done! No take-backs.”

At that, he seemed content to sit and watch as both Frederic and Harper arrived after walking the normal way.

Harper moved over to Liz and took up a perch next to her on her free side, as Frederic moved forward to talk to Matt himself.

Tur'stal glided forward, seemingly unbothered by the other Royals advancing, and took up a position next to Frederic.

Mara and Leon had removed the noisemakers and had started to animatedly talk to the Emperor.

Frederic was the first to speak of the two, and he offered a hand to Matt as he introduced himself. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Alexander. While we’ve seen each other, we have never formally met. I am Frederic Macheteuil, the newest King of the Empire. I must say that I have never heard of a Talent quite as special as your own. It's truly remarkable.”

Tur'stal offered her own hand as soon as Matt’s was free from Frederic, and gave her own introduction. “Queen Tur'stal, as I'm sure you are aware. I agree that you come as quite a shock. Mana Talents aren’t that rare, but one that generates as much mana as yours is truly unique.”

Frederic nodded along to his fellow Royal's statement. “Your Talent puts you in quite the peculiar situation,” he followed up. “You can do nearly anything you want at a much earlier Tier than most, at least in terms of spells. Most of us take up a single elemental type or hone a specific combat style because of our limited time when young, which defines our combat style going forward. But you are hardly limited by something so trivial. Your Talent gives you a freedom and versatility that few have at your age. To your credit, you are already showing a remarkable ability for adapting your fighting styles, as seen by your identity as Quill. You easily shift between talisman types and styles. In fact, you do it so well, I don't know what skills to offer you.”

Rusty interjected, “Take a punching one. Nothing is more satisfying than punching someone in the face! They always look so shocked.”

He then laughed at his own joke while Frederic smiled politely.

Matt used that pause to say, “While I try to keep my abilities hidden, my Talent means channels and high cost skills are ideal, but I do like my talismans. They’re practically free for me to make, and they offer a high degree of versatility that I just don't have from my skills at this Tier.” He paused, not knowing how to say the next bit without sounding rude. “Why would you be giving me a skill, though?”

Frederic’s smile turned slightly brittle as he said, with a nod to Tur'stal, “My earlier recruitment drive may have pushed the bounds of good decorum with our generous host, Queen Tur'stal. As recompense for that gaffe, I will be awarding every competitor in the top twenty-five slots of the Big Three, and the overall points total, a skill from my personal collection. As it's awarded by the slot instead of the individual, you will most likely be qualifying for two skills, not just one.”

Frederic’s smile turned genuine as he spun his hand and a small, clear box holding a single skill shard appeared, clutched between three of his fingers in a tripod. His voice almost sounded giddy as he said, “I like to collect unique skills, whether they be rare in and of themselves, or ‘merely’ have an interesting cracked effect. It’s my hobby, and favorite pastime. Normally, I use them as recruitment hooks, but as you are without a doubt able to complete The Path of Ascension, you are off-limits for that. Still, sometimes there are matches that are just too perfect to waste.”

With that, he moved the skill shard closer to Matt. “This beauty has been sitting in my collection for close to two thousand years.” Seeing he had Matt and everyone else's full attention, he continued, “This is [Cracked Mana Spear]. The original [Mana Spear], as you are likely aware, is a simple, variable-cost Tier 20 skill that creates a mana bolt. It's a simple spell with little to make it unique or interesting. This cracked version, on the other hand, functions a little differently.”

Matt couldn't help but lean in and look at the skill. He knew of [Mana Spear], and even intended to get the skill himself at some point. What Frederic had not said was that while [Mana Spear] had a massive range and incredibly high striking speed, the skill was believed to be the Tier 20 evolution of [Mana Bolt]. There allegedly was a Tier 14 version of the skill that was still unknown, or did not exist at all.

He had wanted to get the skill for some additional ranged options, but after hearing Frederic say this cracked version was perfect, he couldn't contain himself. He wanted to snatch the box away. He wasn't above a few greedy thoughts when an item was this perfect.

“This [Cracked Mana Spear], on the other hand, is perfect for you. Like [Mana Spear], the skill has a variable cost, but when you reach the mana cap of the skill, the mana you provide is shunted out of the end of the spear. The strength of the outflow depends on the rate in which you provided the mana, acting like a channel skill.”

Seeing the hope on Matt’s face, he nodded. “Yes, you get a beam skill as well out of this. It's the best I can do for now. Obviously, I can't just give you [Mana Beam], as that's a Tier 38 skill, and too strong for your spirit at this Tier. Plus, a reward that valuable isn’t allowable while you’re on the Path. Nonetheless, I think you can see why I believe this skill is perfect for you. The main downside is that there will be a delay in firing the mana beam, since certain aspects of the skill need to be powered and stabilized first. Otherwise, it functions as mostly normal, and shoots a single, continuous projectile.”

Matt sighed to himself. That skill was perfect for him. There was only one question about its viability he needed to get cleared up before he started to celebrate internally.

“After being cracked, is the skill a true channel or a pseudo-channel? I have a skill that was cracked into a channel, and I’m constantly having to expand how much mana it can take, unlike a normal channel skill that’s built to expand an indefinite amount.”

Frederic looked intrigued, so Matt decided to fill him in. The Royal already knew his real Talent, and that his armor skill Talent was just a lie. So he said, “My armor skill is [Cracked Phantom Armor], and it was turned into a channel.”

He flicked the skill on, then sent mana into the second layer and moved the mana around, showing the difference between it and the bottom layer. The latter was growing ever more plain and sleek as he advanced, while the second layer became more and more ornate.

“It's my core skill, but it's not a true channel. Or at least, its first layer isn't. After upgrading the skill, there’s a second layer that can take as much mana as the first layer without issue. But at the same time, I can't go past the first layer's mana limit. Though, to be fair to the upgrade, I can put all of that increased defense in a single location.”

Frederic looked at his skill with undisguised interest. “Was that skill a rift reward by chance, and has anything like it come out of said rift again? I’d love to add a channeled [Phantom Armor] to my collection, or anything similar. That is truly unique.”

Matt shook his head. “No, I got the skill at Tier 1 when a team found it back on my home planet after getting lucky in a rift. They wanted to show off, so had the skill appraised in front of everyone at the inn I worked at. When the crack rating came out ‘detrimental’, people gave them shit and a massive bar brawl broke out. The skill shard ended up getting thrown across the room in the chaos and I stole—” He coughed for effect while grinning at the Emperor, “— I mean, ‘salvaged’ it.”

Frederic seemed wholly unbothered by that. “Do you by any chance remember the name of the team who found it? I want to try my luck at sending a team to delve that rift for a few years. Sometimes a rift has a penchant for cracking skills in a particular fashion. While no two cracked skills are ever exactly the same, the resulting effects can still follow a particular motif, or even function almost identically.”

Matt had to think for a minute, but the whole event was carved into his memory, so he quickly remembered. “The team leader was the son of Brackus, of Brackus Holdings. It was a local courier service, and I'm sure they will tell you which of the three nearby rifts they were actually delving when a Tier 46 asks.”

Frederic seemed tickled pink at the chance to get a unique skill, despite how unlikely it was to get even a skill at all from a Tier 3 or 4 rift. But Matt assumed that hiring even a dozen teams of Tier 3s for a decade wouldn't even cost the man a rounding error of his daily income.

If he wanted to try and get the rift to spit out another [Cracked Phantom Armor], Matt wished him the best of luck.

Frederic got himself back on topic quickly after looking to the side once. “My apologies, I got off track with my own musings there. Back to the [Cracked Mana Spear], you needn’t worry. The crack making it a true limitless channel is exactly what made this gem worth adding to my collection in the first place. We can tell by the skill’s structure. The infeed function for a limitless channel skill’s structure appears far more malleable, to the point of having an almost ephemeral quality, even from inside a skill shard. While predictions based on structural analysis aren't always perfectly accurate, I employ the best appraisers, and I myself am not without some renown when it comes to skill analysis. Although, I must admit that I don’t have as much time to dedicate to the field as I would prefer. As such, I am profoundly confident that this skill will act as a limitless channel. You should face no restriction in how much mana you can power it with. In fact, at higher channel rates, it will generally surpass any comparable option, short of a true channeled beam skill with an equally variable cost. But something of that ilk won’t be dropped by any known Imperial rift until at least Tier 38.”

On hearing that, Matt smiled at the skill still in Frederic’s hand. It wasn’t his yet, but if he needed any incentive to win in the solo battles and team fights during the tournament, he now had it.

Frederic continued, “That isn’t to say that this particular gem won’t shine brighter with the help of some carefully targeted polishing. Like any cracked skill, the rest of the skill isn’t necessarily balanced with the change from the crack. Normal skills are highly optimized in how each part comes together. With cracked skills, the parts not directly impacted by the crack generally remain as or close to their original state as possible, which rarely fits perfectly with the cracked skill structure.”

The man paused, seeming to realize something. “This [Cracked Mana Spear] is actually a phenomenal example. If you don’t object, I might record this structure as an example for my next book, once I get around to it. While the crack makes it a limitless channel skill, certain unchanged parts of the skill aren’t well suited to support that. Most importantly, the portion that helps stabilize the aim is not designed for sustained activation, which will result in the pseudo-beam gradually gaining a slight instability over time, leading to increased strain on the spirit. At lower rates, the effect will be fairly negligible, but if more than around 3500 MPS is channeled into it, you’ll hit a threshold where the strain begins to spike beyond the norm. Greater channeling speeds will rapidly exacerbate the flaw further. Fixing that should be your first priority. In fact, I’ll write you a guide on how to best correct that portion as you absorb the shard into your inner spirit. Additionally…”

Mara interrupted from across the room, “Matt! Listen to Frederic’s advice on this. While he doesn’t advertise it often, he’s actually one of the Empire’s foremost experts on cracked skills. Now if he would stop cheating at poker...” She shot her husband a smirk and garnered an exaggerated pout at the reminder of his loss due to his mirrored glasses.

Frederic looked flatly at the other Royal, not immediately responding to the outburst, compliment, or barb. “As I was saying, there’s also the portion of this skill that shapes and loads the mana into the projectile to consider. This function is also still streamlined towards creating a single, contained shot. That’s not to say it won’t still work well enough for the beam. However, by shifting how the mana gets divided up to rebalance the ratios, you can better stabilize it for continuous activation. Even by conservative estimates, this could increase the effective range by over forty percent, since the beam will bleed much less mana into its surroundings as it fires and travels. Those are just the two main points, but there are actually numerous smaller tweaks that will help optimize the overall skill structure too. This gem will never be a beam skill in the truest sense, but you can still bridge the gap considerably. Like I said, I’ll prepare you a general guide on how to address the skill structure’s failings while sustaining its strengths. In fact, I should probably prepare one for each skill I give out during this tournament.”

Frederic turned to Liz. “As for you Ms. Moore, I am sadly not familiar with you and your Talent. However, I do have a few naturally blood-aspected skills which might interact with your Talent in interesting ways. The wording on your Talent was `makes skills blood aspected’, correct?”

At Liz’s nod, he smiled. “While I have no guarantee, my years of experience tell me that absorbing a blood skill will result in it becoming even more blood aspected, so to speak. If not, I also have some other, unorthodox suggestions for you as well. But I’m going to hold those back until I can run some advanced simulations. Blindly combining cracked skills with a much different skill-changing Talent is always a massive gamble. Sometimes the skill is ruined. Sometimes it changes predictably. But on rare and elusive occasions, the crack and Talent compound to produce an unbelievably unique and powerful effect. We can discuss such possibilities later, though. In the meantime, take a look at the skills I have up for offer, and let me know if anything catches your eye.”

He looked back to Matt. “Same for you, Mr. Alexander. If you perform as well as projected, both of you will be earning two skills from me. Ah, and you have a bond, no? It seems a pity that a member of your team should be excluded from all of the tournament’s rewards, so I will extend this offer to her as well. Though, due to The Path’s restrictions, I won’t be able to give anything to her until Tier 15, when we can take advantage of the Bond Sequestration Loophole.”

He looked to Mara, who just gave him a thumbs-up without turning from her conversation with the Emperor.

Matt saw the gleam in Liz’s eyes and smiled to himself. They, or rather Luna, had the same thought about blood skills and her Talent. But proper blood skills only started appearing after Tier 26, and were incredibly rare drops, which meant they were out of their price range at Tier 10.

At worst, this would net her a good skill that wouldn't break in her spirit due to her Talent’s blood aspecting. At best, the skill would become a better, stronger version of itself.

But before they could check the list, they needed to address Tur'stal, who had been patiently waiting for Frederic to finish. Yet as they turned to the other Royal, she waved them off.

“Skim through Frederic’s catalog first. There is a specific matter I wish to discuss, but I would very much prefer to have Matt’s full and undivided attention for it. Right now, you’re both practically vibrating with anticipation. Go satisfy your curiosity and select some future prizes for winning my tournament. I’m not in a hurry.”

Neither of them needed any further prompting. As they looked through the library of rare and unique skills, they made a list of the skills they wanted.

Liz’s first choice, [Cracked Blood Drain], was an easy pick. The Tier 26 skill drained the blood out of an opponent and weakened them for a time, while transferring that strength into the caster. The crack simply increased efficiency with no foreseeable drawbacks, making it quite remarkable amongst cracked skills.

While Liz would need an open wound, and would need to break through the target's spiritual defenses, it was an incredibly strong skill for her fighting style. If the skill was upgraded further with her Talent, it would be incredible.

Her second choice was a bit more of a gamble: [Cracked Inner Flame]. The original skill allowed the user to spend their mana to create a heat wave area of effect around their body. But with Liz’s Talent, they hoped it would integrate well enough for her blood to become the fuel and the source of the heat, instead of her mana and body. This would allow her to use the skill as both Liz and Torch without spending her mana. The cracked version greatly increased the size of the affected area, and afforded more precise control over the heat that the skill created. The only downside of the cracked version was that the ramp up time was longer than the original skill.

A few other options stuck out as well, but Liz wanted to avoid getting too committed to anything until she had time to sit down with Frederic and discuss the ‘unorthodox’ ideas he had hinted at.

Matt wanted a skill that he could use as Quill, and settled on [Cracked Mana Trap]. The original [Mana Trap], as its name suggested, created a near-invisible trap that would lock down the movements of anyone who crossed into its area of effect.

The cracked version let the user charge the skill with any mana type for various modifiers to the lockdown effect after the initial cast. If cast with ice mana, the skill would attempt to freeze the affected person. If cast with fire mana, the opponent would be set ablaze. If Frederic was right about the way the skill worked, it could take mana from people other than the caster. Which meant that Matt should be able to add effects with his mana ring as if he was charging a pre-existing item, instead of casting with the foreign mana. Something that his ring couldn’t do.

If the skill worked in synergy with his ring, Matt wanted to integrate the spell into Quill’s more ranged-based fighting style by imbuing the skill into talismans. They would allow the mage to keep his distance with the slowing effect, while dealing damage to anyone who tried to close the gap.

At the same time, he could see his true fighting style casting the spell under and around his opponent's feet at melee range, and tanking any splash damage with [Cracked Phantom Armor]. As the skill’s caster, the movement reduction would not affect him.

Frederic seemed content with their choices and said that he would provide Aster the list of skills to choose from as well, in case there was anything she wanted to reserve now. Matt still took a peek at the ice skills on the list on her behalf, mostly out of curiosity. Towards the bottom, he saw something that caused his mind to halt and blurt out his immediate thought.

“What the fuck is [Yawning Winter Breeze Greets Radiant Sunflower]?!”

A sudden snort erupted from Rusty and some muffled giggling could be heard from the direction of where Leon, Mara, and the Emperor stood. Next to him, Frederic’s lip quivered almost imperceptibly as he responded, “Ah yes. That particular shard was smuggled into the Empire by a defector from the Sects. Fleeing a blood feud of some sort, apparently. He then auctioned it off to help fund her resettlement after Monarch Harper finished the vetting process. The only rift known to drop that skill is deep in the Sects’ territory, so theirs is the only name for it. Depending on which of their sects discovers a given skill, the names can end up dramatically more… poetic than typically seen in the Empire. As a general policy though, we don’t bother officially assigning our own names to skills only found in foreign rifts.” He considered his next words for a moment. “Well, for the most part. We’ll rename such a skill if we can somehow still acquire enough of them for it to matter. Or alternatively, if multiple other Great Powers have conflicting names that can cause confusion, like when we internally standardized [Waning Moon, Rising Thunder], [The Dromyran Rebuke], and [Area Stun NS32-DE]. We chose to designate it as [Sphere of Discombobulation]. We Imperials are far more utilitarian on our naming conventions than some of our neighbors. Thankfully.”

Rusty barked out from the side, “Speak for yourself, Frederic. Sometimes, even the inSects pick amazing skill names. Hell, the name was the only reason I so aggressively outbid you for [Despotic Jade Lion Palm] at that auction. How could I resist? It just sounded so cool.”

Leon spun and proclaimed, “Yes! And I will never let you party-poopers rename [Vigorous Thrusts of the Rooster]. No. Matter. What.” He swung pointed, accusatory fingers back and forth between the Emperor, Rusty, Tur'stal, and Frederic. “Cuddlebird and I only just learned about that skill two or three millennia ago, and have had a bounty out for a copy ever since. No one gets to ruin that name for us.” His wiggling eyebrows undercut any possible threat that a higher Tier individual yelling at someone weaker could have given.

Matt wasn't sure if the skill Leon mentioned was a sexual skill or just a poorly named combat skill. He could see the other man getting excited for both.

The Royal beside Matt just let out a long, slow exhale, and then brought up a projection of the description for the original skill in question. “Let’s get back to Mr. Alexander’s original inquiry. As you can see, the ponderously named [Yawning Winter Breeze Greets Radiant Sunflower] is a Tier 26, ice-aspected, curse spell. It latches onto a single target and imbues the space around them with a [Frost]-like effect. It  starts relatively small and weak, but grows in area and power over time. Any ice-aspected attack that would strike the cursed target gets boosted in power as it passes through the area of effect. This area also helps draw ice attacks that enter its effect directly towards the target, which makes them increasingly harder to dodge as the zone expands. The longer a fight drags on, the more vulnerable the target becomes to ice attacks, until the curse either wears off or is purged somehow. It's quite the devious skill to counter, unless you’re prepared for it.”

With that question taken care of, the man stepped back and let Tur'stal move in to finally have her own conversation with Matt.

“Well Matt, let us cut to the heart of the matter. What do you see yourself doing with your mana?” she asked.

The question seemed simple enough, but Matt gave it honest consideration. Still, that didn’t change his answer.

“I know that I will have—” He paused as he considered his words, “—obligations. No, that's not right... Expectations. There are expectations of me to fill the capital's rifts and reduce the crazy recharge rate dictated by the lack of ambient mana. I have no problems doing that. I really don't.”

Tur'stal just blinked at him, but he couldn't read her lack of expression. She didn’t look upset, so he continued. “Still, that's not where my passion lies. I want to further the research on aperology. My idea is to build a guild around advancing the science and fund the research myself, while helping where I can. I know I can’t discover everything myself, but with a few teams of people, I think we can do a lot of good work. Besides that, I'd like to fund the guild with the rifts and try to bring in the best crafters of every type to push those specialties as far as they can grow, without worrying about a mana budget. Ideally, my guild would be on the cutting edge of research and development, and spearhead innovations that could improve the Empire as a whole. I don't intend to restrict our findings unless there are pressing reasons beyond just making money. Obviously, money won't be something that I’ll ever lack, and even rare materials can be acquired with proper rift building. Better to give the information out freely, and improve everything for everyone.”

Tur'stal nodded. “A laudable goal, though I believe that you’re thinking a little too small.”

Matt raised an eyebrow. He felt he was already aiming too big, and would be instructed to bridle his ambitions.

“No, Matt, I believe that you could do so much more with your Talent. Not that you have any obligation or requirement to do so. Nonetheless, you should look at the bigger picture of the Empire as a whole. We have a plethora of Tier 5 planets, and even planets below that. Your own homeworld, for example. It's not uncommon for a world that has nothing special about it to take a few hundred years to reach Tier 5. That's with the Empire helping them reach that minimum threshold. After Tier 5, they no longer get that help. Not because we don't want to, but because the price is exorbitant, and we already don't have enough mana to go around. That's why local planetary taxes are usually reinvested into the planets to get them to advance. Even beyond that, we find a dozen Tier 5 worlds whizzing by for every world that is over Tier 5, but under Tier 10. It only gets worse as we go up. Even if every single rift was able to run at the fifteen minute instance timer and we didn't have to wait for ambient mana to regenerate, we would still not have enough rifts to allow everyone to delve. We simply don't have enough high Tier planets, and therefore rifts, to go around.”

Tur'stal leaned forward slightly and caught Matt’s eyes as she spoke with steely conviction. “You can single-handedly change that. With you giving your mana to the Empire, we can smooth out that gradient so that there is a smooth pyramid to the top, instead of everyone getting stuck at the bottlenecks where they just need to wait for rifts. We could double, or even triple our amount of high tiered worlds. It would also spread out some of our human assets. On the top worlds, there are billions of people. My queendom-level capital has over half a trillion people packed into spatially enlarged areas. Humans congregate where the power is greatest, because there are more jobs and opportunities for even low Tier people. Even just halving my population would free up a good bit of mana. Fixing the innate lessening of higher Tier worlds would do more for solving the issues the Empire faces than almost anything else. It won't just be the elites who can afford high Tier items or custom made rifts. It will help everyone and, most importantly, the ones who would otherwise have less of a chance to grow. The Path is fantastic for those with drive and the ability to fight, but that isn't everyone's path. A large portion of the citizens of the Empire would advance farther if they could do so safely by cultivating ambient essence or being carried through rifts. We just can't do so unless someone is wealthy enough to afford the slot, and a team to carry them. If you can do that, you would have made a contribution that has everlasting effects that everyone can take advantage of forever.”

Matt was actually taken aback by her vehemence on the topic, but as he heard her talk, he couldn't help but be surprised by her apparent care for the little people of the Empire.

While Tur'stal might just be a fantastic actor, he could see passion in her eyes about improving things for the average citizen.

He hadn’t met many of the hereditary nobility except the children of the low level ones at the various parties he infiltrated, but he had found them to be mostly vain and foppish. The certainty that one of them would be chosen to take over had made them indolent with their wealth and standing.

Tur'stal, on the other hand, seemed to truly care about her subjects and not just the other nobles.

He knew that the position of Royal was, in the end, chosen by the Emperor. He was a compassionate person, but the candidates were also funded by the kingdoms that the nobles represented. They could always ensure that the candidates were of a like mind.

If Tur'stal was chosen, it implied that the duke level nobles might not be as uncaring as he believed.

Matt paused momentarily. The candidates also had to be exceptional in their combat abilities, which further limited the pool. But he wasn’t sure if that helped or hurt the selection of kind and compassionate people.

Before he went further down the mental rabbit hole, he pulled himself back. Noble politics were something to think about when he had more free time.

Now, he reviewed Tur'stal’s plan and came to the conclusion that she was right, At least, at a surface level.

Her plan would change the Empire for the better, and provided a strong foundation to grow further. The only question was its feasibility. He could only be in one place at a time after all, and planets couldn't get too much mana at once, or it would cause rifts to overfill and create rift breaks. And that was the exact opposite of what he wanted to happen to any planet.

After mulling it over for a minute, he nodded. “I like the idea. Love it even. I do believe that it could do a lot of good for everyone. I just don't know how feasible it will be.”

Tur'stal dismissed his words with a gentle smile and a wave of the hand. “Don't worry about that so much. Even if we just moved you around to fill all the available mana reserves on planets every few years, they could slowly leak it out, which would safely increase the planet's rifts essence production. With a few well placed rifts higher than the Tier of the planet, we can ensure the fastest and safest advancement for the planets as a whole. If you are willing, I can start the primary planning on just how to do this best.”

Matt nodded. He was willing to give up some of his time moving around to do something so useful, and having plans didn't lock him into anything. He wanted to see how viable the idea was anyway.

“I'd like that. My mana generation isn't at that level yet, but this won't be an easy thing to implement anyway.”

Tur'stal smiled and toasted him with her wine before saying, “I believe that day will come sooner than you think, but yes, we have time. Thank you for hearing me out. While you are on The Path, there is little I can do for you, but know that I will do what I can to assist you in your own endeavors.”

Matt returned her smile and thanked her.

Harper, who had been off to the side, seemed to be waiting for that. They smoothly stepped in and said, “Are you interested in telekinetic skills at all?”

The voice was completely androgynous, and came from a small device at their wrist. But after spending so much time with Luna, Matt no longer assumed that the Royal was speaking through it, instead of using an ability to do so.

Luna and Kurt seemed capable of doing anything with their Concepts.

Matt was slightly taken aback by the seemingly random question, but he nodded. He was always up for learning new skills.

“I wouldn't mind. They are just higher Tier skills, and rare on top of that. But if I found one, I’d use it. It's like any elemental manipulation skill. Better to have them and become proficient with them because of how versatile they are, even if the mana cost is inefficient for most mages. I don't have that issue.”

Harper nodded. “Exactly so. I doubt that you will ever have the same level of control that I have developed, but [Telekinesis] is an incredibly versatile tool that no other skill can match. It also has the advantage of being nearly invisible to spiritual senses, making it a useful tool for ambushes and other activities that you want to go unnoticed.”

A pair of rings hovered up in front of Matt, and he recoiled slightly as he saw that they were his growth ring and his mana aspect ring.

Harper looked at his mana ring and then nodded. “So that's where you keep the different mana types. Interesting growth item. I could use a ring like this for my operatives. Where did you get it?”

He looked at the rings, then back to his hand in disbelief, staring at where they should have been. He hadn’t felt a thing, but the rings were truly gone, despite feeling as if they were still on his fingers.

Yes, Harper was massively stronger than him, and if they had teleported the rings away, he could accept that he wouldn't notice. But using [Telekinesis] meant that they had manually removed the rings in a way anyone could theoretically do. Despite the canyon-sized gap in their strength, he felt that he should have picked up on it.

He would be less surprised if they had used their higher Tier speed or abilities to do the feat, but this was impressive because in theory, anyone could have done the same thing.

Matt looked to Liz, then to Mara and Leon, who had taken an interest in the conversation at some point.

“Did they teleport them or actually use [Telekinesis]?” He coughed to cover the slight crack in his voice as he asked his question.

Leon nodded. “[Telekinesis]. Harper is that good with it. Even without their level of control, the skill is nearly impossible to directly detect with your spiritual sense.”

Harper nodded at their fellow Royal before swiftly returning his rings to his fingers.

Even watching the action, he couldn't actually feel the rings moving at all. He assumed that was some advanced application of the skill, but his desire to get [Telekinesis] and learn how to use it ramped up a few levels, regardless.

To answer the telekinetic's earlier question, he told them about the rift he had made, and that it was currently in Mara and Leon’s planet collection, gathering dust.

Harper just nodded at him in thanks and moved on. “Once you’re Tier 15, or otherwise have some time, I will take some time to teach you [Telekinesis] properly. It's difficult, but rewarding. I believe you intend to take a break when you reach Tier 15 because of your bond? We can spend some time then, when you're not delving. Getting you the skill might take some finagling but I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Matt wasn't sure how that would work with the rules and restrictions of The Path, but assumed either they knew how to get around those restrictions, or that they wouldn't be an issue.

As fast as the conversation started, Harper pulled back and seemed to fade into the background of the conversation that Rusty started about fighting.

Matt and Liz spent the rest of the evening with the Royals, even having a small dinner with them before returning to their rooms for a few hours of sleep. Afterwards, they met up with Melinda, Annie, and Janet's teams to plan for their group delve of a Tier 13 rift.

Having only met the man a few times, Matt still was sad to see the Emperor leave before they really got to show off all of their abilities. He had more cool talisman combinations to use, after all, and Emmanuel oozed uncle vibes that he couldn't resist.

Even if it wouldn't be a challenge for their real power levels, they would be right alongside their friends, struggling with their respective real identities’ restrictions.

Matt smiled as he and Liz got into bed. It could be fun to have to hold back.

Before they fell asleep, Liz rolled over and asked, “Have you seen our videos? We’re trending hard, just like the reporter said. Even hours later, we’re still in the top five most-watched videos in the nearest planets.”

Matt watched the drone's view of Liz guiding the oversized fireball into the snake and nibbled at her neck. Seeing her throw around that much power was getting him excited.

“You looked sexy, wielding that much energy. It's even hotter when I remember that it's not even your best element.”

Liz started kissing along his shoulder and said, “I'm impressive, aren't I? Your little Aster impression was too. I always love to watch you work.”

Matt was missing his bond already after delving so much without her, but it wasn't the time for that. Refocusing on Liz, he pushed any other thoughts out of his head.

They didn’t manage much talking after that.

***

Emmanuel watched as his Royals mingled after the kids left.

They all reacted approximately how he expected, which was reassuring. Rusty just wanted a spar, Tur'stal immediately thought of her dreamed utopia, and Harper focused on the war. Frederic had been the biggest wild card. While unquestionably loyal to the Empire as an institution, he also led a faction that was staunchly opposed to change. Even the slightest reform had to be wrenched from the man’s adamantine grip at great cost. Yet when faced with an arbiter of absolute change, his newest King had adapted quickly. It gave him hope that they would all react equally predictably again, when Harvest Moon introduced Melinda’s Talent. It would be soon, once her team was vetted for their own management team in a few months.

He had thought about pushing it up sooner, but had decided against it in the end.

It was best for Melinda to take the normal path. That fit what she and her team wanted more than anything else. And whenever possible, he preferred not to push people into doing things they didn’t want to do.

Melinda would change the face of the next war in ways that needed to be planned around. Rusty was in charge of most of the active-duty military, and would be the best place to start preparing, but Emmanuel would wait. He had to let things progress at their own speed.

There was enough time for that.

Still, he was happy with his Royals' suggestions to Matt, and the young man's responses, though they would be disappointed at how true blood-aspected skills reacted to Liz’s Talent. He would let them learn it for themselves; he had tested it, just in case the reaction could possibly hurt his niece. But it didn’t, so he wouldn't butt in on their experiments. While her Talent had an effect, it wasn’t nearly as exaggerated as they hoped, and would just make the blood skills slightly easier to modify in comparison to normal skills.

But in the end, every conversation came back to Matt. After they had collectively badgered him to see Matt and Liz in a real fight, he used his fathers Talent and pulled the trio’s fight with Dena and Eric. That was enough to mollify them about any concerns with Matt risking his life in a fight. The kids hit well above their Tier, but it only increased their security concerns about assassinations.

Harper had already given him two hundred and thirteen reasons why one of them needed to be glued to the mana fount at all times, but for now, he wanted to keep things quiet. Harper even agreed with the logic.

Putting too much protection on Matt could have the reverse effect. Royals couldn't move without being tracked by the various spies, and if one of them dropped off the radar, the other Great Powers would quickly start turning over every stone to find them.

Since Luna was with Matt, he had enough protection anyway. The old cat was dangerous in her own right. If the other Great Powers found out about Matt and sent high Tier assassins, breaking the rules of war, they needed to get through her claws.

Not an easy feat.

Before he left, he checked over the situation of East Flower to ensure that it was just as he expected. His attention lingered on the spies and counterespionage teams. Neither side could hide themselves from his detection, but he didn’t do anything. Anything the spies could find out was only going to be marginally better than the information the general public would receive, so he let both sides play out their games.

His own people needed training and experience, after all.

Still, he was sad to miss the rest of the kids' Tier 10 tournament. Seeing it live was always way more fun. He had loved his time at this same event, but he was leaving tomorrow to make it to the ascension of Dicomaty and the rise of his successor.

Politics. A painful, but necessary game to play.