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Path of Ascension by C Mantis. A Western Xianxia inspired progression fantasy with Litrpg elements.

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Q99 said:
He still has a disguise mask, and those disguise even someone's physical shape. It should be very obvious it's phantom armor, but the crack might not be as obvious without actually fighting him.
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Phantom Armor is a reserve skill, so out of a fight there is no reason not to keep it up.

And at this tier its going to be a lot more common than it was at the single digits, where it was unusual. To the point that iirc Queen has it.
 
Hrm. So since we have this fancy new thread would this be a good place to talk about possible fanfic ideas?
 
Q99 said:
He still has a disguise mask, and those disguise even someone's physical shape. It should be very obvious it's phantom armor, but the crack might not be as obvious without actually fighting him.
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Dahak said:
Phantom Armor is a reserve skill, so out of a fight there is no reason not to keep it up.
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The original Phantom Armor skill is ONLY supposed to activate as a last-ditch defense to save your life. In Book 1, the skill activated briefly for both the Tier-25 Empire cultivator and the Tier-25 Republic cultivator during their fight on the training planet. Matt got a look at both of their armor, but the armor only took one hit that would have otherwise killed the cultivator using it.
 
Mount. Elements said:
The original Phantom Armor skill is ONLY supposed to activate as a last-ditch defense to save your life.
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That isn't the case. "Alternatively, skill can be activated at user's discretion."

And from the fight on the training world the Armor shows when you reserve mana to it, not just when activated.
 
Well, since no one said anything negative about potential fanfic ideas I figure I might share my own, though it's mostly just a set of talents that I thought would be neat to play around with.

Tier 1: Instinctive mastery with any object personally crafted.
Tier 3: Chance to add a free enchantment to any object crafted proportional to the amount of materials used in the crafting personally gathered by the crafter. Strength of enchantment and enchantments available increase with tier.
Tier 25: Items personally crafted by the user can be overcharged to increase their attributes.
Tier 50: Items crafted by the user can be freely modified.

So obviously this character would be a hybrid crafter and fighter since the tier 1 would allow them to use a sword they personally crafted as if they practiced with it for years and the tier 3 would incentivize delving rifts to personally obtain the materials used in crafting. As for a story idea I like the idea of someone not on the Path and exploring what it'd be like to be part of a guild in the Empire.
 
Dahak said:
That isn't the case. "Alternatively, skill can be activated at user's discretion."

And from the fight on the training world the Armor shows when you reserve mana to it, not just when activated.
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Here's the skill description from Chapter 3:

Skill shard identified as [Cracked Phantom Armor].


Original Skill Description: Tier 14 skill. Pre-charge 200 or more mana into the skill. When a lethal blow is detected, skill will automatically activate and block the attack. Alternatively, skill can be activated at the user's discretion.
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So you're right about how the skill can be activated at the user's discretion, but I don't agree about how the armor shows up when you put mana into it without activating it. The Phantom armor there only showed up when the cultivators took hits and then disappeared & was replaced by physical armor.

What's unusual how Matt can keep Phantom Armor running for so long even while tanking a ton of attacks. I'm not sure whether the mana for the original skill is used up over time or by damage absorbed, but Matt being able to use Phantom Armor for so long is what caused the rumors of that being his Talent during the vassal war. It's a major part of his actual identity's fighting style, and we never see anyone else use PA for very long, which is why I was surprised that he was using it casually when he was instructed to kill anyone who sees him using an identifying skill.
 
Mount. Elements said:
What's unusual how Matt can keep Phantom Armor running for so long even while tanking a ton of attacks. I'm not sure whether the mana for the original skill is used up over time or by damage absorbed, but Matt being able to use Phantom Armor for so long is what caused the rumors of that being his Talent during the vassal war. It's a major part of his actual identity's fighting style, and we never see anyone else use PA for very long, which is why I was surprised that he was using it casually when he was instructed to kill anyone who sees him using an identifying skill.
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Yes, a fair point.

It is possible that it's simply not as identifying at tier 11 among pathers as it is at lower tiers. More mana pools around and such. It is, after all, not rare in itself, just an uncommon usage. Still, an explanation would be nice.
 
Q99 said:
Yes, a fair point.

It is possible that it's simply not as identifying at tier 11 among pathers as it is at lower tiers. More mana pools around and such. It is, after all, not rare in itself, just an uncommon usage. Still, an explanation would be nice.
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The other explanation suggested by people in the comments is that Matt was taking advantage of the "diguise his magic as Winter's doing" part of his boon, but there should be a description of how Phantom Armor looks different in that case. I'm hoping that the author addresses that when this arc is released in a book. The first book had a lot more explanations and clarifications than I remember from when those chapters were posted online so hopefully the trend will continue.
 
Sirrocco said:
Side note - I am honestly perplexed why a couple that included a guy with "I turn into a giant molten metal guy" fire powers went for winter... and the story doesn't even treat it like it's a thing.
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Mount. Elements said:
I think it's because of the immunity to cold boon. If he can only manipulate MOLTEN rock or metal, then he'd want to make sure that people can't just use a lot of water to turn it into a solid.
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Pretty much this. Cold is an obvious counter to his abilities, and he's trying to mitigate that. It actually comes up in story as the reason, though I can't remember when (I shelled out for the advanced chapters when I need something ton read recently), so I guess spoiler warning?
 
I don't want to be edgy here which I've already failed at but given we know that there allies are just sitting back and letting his team be ambushed and maybe die as well as actually fucking over his allied cultivators from the same kingdom to the point where anyone who isn't op enough to solo a active kill squad does die. Why is he still concerned about fairness and not pissing off the people who want him dead when he knows that being fair is getting people killed.

Have all the worthless allies fight the other kingdom without npc support well you use the npcs to deal with this one so that you don't get stabbed in the back. It might take longer but you can print out loyal npc allies and by killing there favour gain or making them fight without your support it would cripple either there power or there speed.

or since he has unlimited favor on this one take the hit to your favor to kill off the fuckers that are actually trying to kill you and will try harder on the next floor.
 
kitsune9 said:
I don't want to be edgy here which I've already failed at but given we know that there allies are just sitting back and letting his team be ambushed and maybe die as well as actually fucking over his allied cultivators from the same kingdom to the point where anyone who isn't op enough to solo a active kill squad does die. Why is he still concerned about fairness and not pissing off the people who want him dead when he knows that being fair is getting people killed.

Have all the worthless allies fight the other kingdom without npc support well you use the npcs to deal with this one so that you don't get stabbed in the back. It might take longer but you can print out loyal npc allies and by killing there favour gain or making them fight without your support it would cripple either there power or there speed.

or since he has unlimited favor on this one take the hit to your favor to kill off the fuckers that are actually trying to kill you and will try harder on the next floor.
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No, it's unfairness that was getting the Empire and Clan Guild cultivators killed. Matt calling for fairness seems to have stopped most of the infighting (aside from the death squads that were specifically sent in to kill powerful Pathers and seem to be from other Courts), but it didn't make the Federation and Sect cultivators act to support the Empire and Clan Guild cultivators instead.

There are probably thousands of Federation and Sect cultivators just in the Winter Court. Trying to kill them all will just get Matt's party swamped and killed, and the neutral forces will feel threatened if they somehow managed to succeed. Right now, Matt is just trying to get this floor over with as quickly as possible, and that means getting the Federation and Sect cultivators to at least stop sabotaging their allies long enough to finish the floor.

If it helps, I'm pretty sure that a lot of these cultivators are going to end up dead once the floor ends. I've been envisioning them crowding in to swarm Matt, and then he uses whatever beefed-up version of Sword Rain he came up with since the Tier-10 tournament.
 
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Mount. Elements said:
Thanks. I'm surprised that the Collective was neutral. They don't like the Federation while the Empire helped them become a Great Power so it's strange that they were going along with the Federation and the Sects.
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The Emperor was thinking the Collective would probably be roughly neutral in the upcoming war, implying they don't feel a particular favour towards the Empire over the other Great Powers, as opposed to the Federation's apparent anti Empire hate. Or that since they are one of the three weakest powers the Sects are managing to intimidate them.
Or they are worried Mara might annex them.

For whatever reason they have been portrayed as neutral to the Empire consistently. Could just be they don't want to be seen as the Empire's lapdogs or "Gratitude is an ill fitting shirt, that chafes." .
 
Mount. Elements said:
No, it's unfairness that was getting the Empire and Clan cultivators killed. Matt calling for fairness seems to have stopped most of the infighting (aside from the death squads that were specifically sent in to kill powerful Pathers and seem to be from other Courts), but it didn't make the Federation and Sect cultivators act to support the Empire and Clan cultivators instead.

There are probably thousands of Federation and Sect cultivators just in the Winter Court. Trying to kill them all will just get Matt's party swamped and killed, and the neutral forces will feel threatened if they somehow managed to succeed. Right now, Matt is just trying to get this floor over with as quickly as possible, and that means getting the Federation and Sect cultivators to at least stop sabotaging their allies long enough to finish the floor.

If it helps, I'm pretty sure that a lot of these cultivators are going to end up dead once the floor ends. I've been envisioning them crowding in to swarm Matt, and then he uses whatever beefed-up version of Sword Rain he came up with since the Tier-10 tournament.
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Point taken but with how the updates structured it doesn't feel like his speech did anything. What changed from before his ultimatum on not fucking them over or they'll walk and solo the floor and the very next scene where Susanne had to fight a five on one fight well her allies sat back and watched.
 
kitsune9 said:
Point taken but with how the updates structured it doesn't feel like his speech did anything. What changed from before his ultimatum on not fucking them over or they'll walk and solo the floor and the very next scene where Susanne had to fight a five on one fight well her allies sat back and watched.
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What changed is that before they'd have jumped in to help her enemies or sabotoge her instead of sitting back.
 
Two things to consider is the Empire is top in population so gets some static for that.

And the sects are top in number of people sent into the planet, so they may have the largest number on this level.

I will say how bad the casualty rate is in numbers also isn't made clear. The rate is higher, but how bad is it out of the whole?
 
How big of a time/tier skip do you guys think we'll get after Minkalla? Given that Minkalla covers opponents up to tier 14, I think a skip to tier 15 might not be out of the question. Admittedly any tier 14s here are far from the cream of the crop, or they would've entered at an earlier tier.
 
SCDarkSoul said:
How big of a time/tier skip do you guys think we'll get after Minkalla? Given that Minkalla covers opponents up to tier 14, I think a skip to tier 15 might not be out of the question. Admittedly any tier 14s here are far from the cream of the crop, or they would've entered at an earlier tier.
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It depends on what's supposed to happen between Tiers 12 & 15. For example, the managers might decide that their charges need downtime to maintain their mental health after Minkalla so Matt might study rifts with Erwin again to learn how to make a rift for upgrade orbs. The Pathers will have to practice the additional Concept abilities and any skills they got from Minkalla. I'd guess 2 or 3 chapters to cover Tiers 12-14.

What I'm worried about is the Tier 15 tournament. Yes, I'd like to see more of Jill and Bradley, but no, I don't want a full arc about the Tier 15 tournament. I'm hoping that's summarized, and we jump into the war.
 
SCDarkSoul said:
How big of a time/tier skip do you guys think we'll get after Minkalla? Given that Minkalla covers opponents up to tier 14, I think a skip to tier 15 might not be out of the question. Admittedly any tier 14s here are far from the cream of the crop, or they would've entered at an earlier tier.
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I think we are getting a timeskip at tier 15 when Aster goes off on her mandatory decade+ separation.
 
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Mount. Elements said:
What I'm worried about is the Tier 15 tournament. Yes, I'd like to see more of Jill and Bradley, but no, I don't want a full arc about the Tier 15 tournament. I'm hoping that's summarized, and we jump into the war.
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I'd be fine with a full arc about the tier 15 tournament... as long as we had another arc or two after the end of Minkalla before the tournament. I'm not actually sure what that arc would be, mind you... but torch and quill are now a thing, and I could imagine an arc of starting up a new crafting-based guild, say, and trying to unleash a few upgrades on Empire society as a whole - give us some diplomacy and maybe a bit of intrigue within the Empire as the established guilds try to react to all of this.

The idea of a timeskip straight from 12 to 15 just feels really weird to me. That's a lot of time, you know?
 
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Sirrocco said:
I'd be fine with a full arc about the tier 15 tournament... as long as we had another arc or two after the end of Minkalla before the tournament. I'm not actually sure what that arc would be, mind you... but torch and quill are now a thing, and I could imagine an arc of starting up a new crafting-based guild, say, and trying to unleash a few upgrades on Empire society as a whole - give us some diplomacy and maybe a bit of intrigue within the Empire as the established guilds try to react to all of this.

The idea of a timeskip straight from 12 to 15 just feels really weird to me. That's a lot of time, you know?
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I think Matt has mentioned that he should have enough mana regeneration to start the crafting guild at Tier 35. That seems really far ahead so maybe his Tier 25 Talent or a Concept ability from Minkalla will speed things up.

Also, I know that he wants to make a guild for both crafting and studying rifts, but I'm wondering why he doesn't just team up with the guild he's already giving mana to for crafting.
 
Certainly I don't think he's likely to start on building his guild until much closer to tier 25 at the earliest, much less now. The main draw is that he would be able to throw endless mana at them to make things, but he can't do that until then since he's trying to keep that under the radar as much as possible. Building a guild and trying to establish it amongst the competition also sounds like a huge undertaking that would severely cut into his training time. Meanwhile if he waits until after he's an Ascender then he can easily carve out a space through his mana and reputation. Starting now would just be a gigantic waste of time.
 
Okay. Fair. I just... I don't think they're going to fast-forward to 15 without any arcs in between. It's too much of a jump. I certainly hope they're not.

Minkalla is a huge arc that's all about lots of fights, and lots of power-ups, and lots of direct danger. It has relatively little in the way of social interaction outside the core group, and much of that is straightforward high-conflict interaction with people from groups outside the Empire. So... what would be the way to pull back from that and do something else?

Well, it would involve a bunch of mucking about with things that have implications for the Empire's internal politics... and we have Quill, who (as a character) has demonstrated an active willingness to do just that. He's also (as Quill) going to be coming out of Minkalla with a fair bit of a rep boost. Making it all the way to the bottom is no mean feat. It's going to cause waves... and I wouldn't be surprised if the next bit is to do something to take advantage of those waves. It'd be a good palate cleanser.
 
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