- Location
- Canada
I mean, yeah. Just look at Dao Children basically. Assuming any revival would probably have better checks on not turning the kids into sociopaths.
Path of Ascension by C Mantis. A Western Xianxia inspired progression fantasy with Litrpg elements.
- Thread starter Dahak
- Start date
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
Chapter 375
Some more on keeping Knightly Orders under control and its time to play the economic development game.
Some more on keeping Knightly Orders under control and its time to play the economic development game.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I feel like Matt could likely get away with releasing a bunch of mana into the atmosphere. How would anyone even keep track of that?
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Yeah... but all that would do would be cause them to rank up somewhat faster.
It's not an unreasonable strategy, but I think the math suggests that it would take him a significant investment of personal time... and if and when he gets to the point where it *wouldn't* take him that significant investment, it flips over to being suspicious.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Not just that people on the planet would have more ambient mana to work with which leads to greater economic prosperity. It's just that Matt would have no control over how the mana is being used.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Okay... but you're still talking about a significant amount of his own time and energy to make a low-producing world marginally less low-producing.
Like, if he only had one world, then it might have made some sense, but that's not what's going on here.
- Location
- Canada
Oh right, no chapter on Friday or next Monday either. Back in the new year.
Hm, I wonder if Matt and Liz would consider having a kid of theirs be a Knight…? Presuming they could be convinced of the safety for theirs.
Right, as a strategic asset, he needs it to be used, well, strategically. Guilds, research, and empire reservers.
Right, as a strategic asset, he needs it to be used, well, strategically. Guilds, research, and empire reservers.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
He really needs to make some cool rifts of his tier to make delving proper fun.
- Location
- Canada
Knights are just the secret method of implanting a Natural Treasure, plus lots of training in secret techniques. So unless they can get the Orders to cough up that secret method of implanting Natural Treasures which they've never even given to the rulers, then that would just be lots of training they'd probably give their kid anyway. Unless you mean giving up their kid to an existing Order, which seems very very unlikely. Not sure the Orders would even accept that, with the risk that between a blood-based Ascender and another Ascender that keeps doing groundbreaking research might manage to reverse engineer something from their kid, as it's not like they're going to give up access to their kid.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
It would firmly align them with the idea of Knightly Orders, which is not quite the same thing. In particular, their support is going to be part of what gets the resurgent Noble Orders back up off the ground. Given their significant steps in the other direction, and the fact that "the knightly orders" issue is their step back towards a more moderate/nuanced position, I think they could make it work.
I think the greater sticking point is going to be the one where the whole "knightly order" thing means making major decisions for your kids well before the kid in question has any say in the matter. I'm not going to say that it's impossible, but it seems unlikely. Past that... well, it wouldn't really align them with the hereditary noble faction, but it would make it quite likely that the kid in question would be thus aligned, unless they managed to set up a knightly order of their own.
Now, the two of them have a lot of research power between them. If they really wanted to, they could manage to figure out a new way of doing this thing, and then set up their own knightly order. At the same time, that's a lot of investment, and some potentially serious moral pitfalls, and... yeah. That's not really where their interests lie.
My take on this is that they hold a dukedom, and they're ascenders coming off of a war in which they were an obvious and critical part of preserving the Empire. They have enough economic power and soft power that if they came out strongly enough in favor of the Knightly Orders, and invested enough in them personally, they could reap the kind of payoff in gratitude that would have an order set up shop inside their dukedom, largely beholden to them, and thus willing to work with them that closely.
Thing is... they don't care enough. They're enough in favor of it to go on the record saying that they support it and are in favor of it. There may be some minimal effort or outlay that they should make to indicate that, yes, they really really do care about this, and it does count. They're not opposed to making that minimal effort. That's primarily important because of the clear indication it makes that the issue is at least somewhat bipartisan - that there are important people who are opposed to the hereditary noble faction who also support this thing, and thus that "hand power to the hereditary nobles" is not the only thing that it is doing. Past that, though... it's a minor thing for them.
376-
Manny chapter!
Even with Mattery mana infusion, the Empire economic is not doing great. A three front war will do that, but a big part of it is the Empire has never had a time to really build up a safety net in this area since Agatha took over.
As an analogy, I'd compare its rise to a new ascender; it catapulted itself in power but hasn't yet soaked their fill of resources and spent the time tempering their weaker areas.
But also of note, there's a new ascender coming! Not of the path coming, but 'someone from a lower realm has risen up and will be arriving'!
Manny chapter!
Even with Mattery mana infusion, the Empire economic is not doing great. A three front war will do that, but a big part of it is the Empire has never had a time to really build up a safety net in this area since Agatha took over.
As an analogy, I'd compare its rise to a new ascender; it catapulted itself in power but hasn't yet soaked their fill of resources and spent the time tempering their weaker areas.
But also of note, there's a new ascender coming! Not of the path coming, but 'someone from a lower realm has risen up and will be arriving'!
- Location
- Canada
Yeah. I'd been speculating/wanting a new Ascender for a while. Not... this kind of ascender though. If it's important enough for Manny to be notified of though, then presumably whoever is coming through should be noteworthy in some manner.
I wonder how strong they are.
Presumably people that move up to the next realm aren't too much of slouches. Though it would also depend on the realm you come from too. In typical bloody xianxia worlds, the people that make it to the top of their world are all usually quite formidable. In a realm like our main realm though, where the highest tiers don't even fight each other and you're already immortal less than halfway up, you could just do a very slow grind to move up eventually. I wonder which of the categories this guy will fall into. You also get an "Ascension bonus" when you move up realms.
Presumably they should not be actual Ascender tier. Lower realm "ascenders" have never been spoken of as combat monsters in the same way as <200 year old Tier 25 "Ascenders". And certainly the average Tier 45+ leaving this realm to the next are no Ascender tier combatants, so we shouldn't expect the same out of whoever is coming from below. Also, a smaller and presumably much less developed realm (presumably with a lower tier cap they don't have people that have lived millions of years and have had the powers and resources of Tier 40+s to research and develop things) would likely have much less in the way of general advancement in all areas. So once they come up, there would also presumably be a lot of easy to grab strength they can get to quickly upgrade by a bunch. But I would terribly disappointed if they were only some mook or low level elite. Mid? High? Peak? Probably not Pinnacle either. Or even a high level peak. Low peak at most to have room to grow?
Anyway, an incoming ascender is also probably not super young like "Ascenders" are either, both due to sheer probability, and coming from a much less essence rich realm. So probably not going to be in the high tiers in time for the true war. So their personal combat prowess might not matter for the long term anyway. So maybe there's something else special about them or the place they came from? Probable less overall development doesn't mean they can't have a couple special quirks that could be interesting.
I wonder how strong they are.
Presumably people that move up to the next realm aren't too much of slouches. Though it would also depend on the realm you come from too. In typical bloody xianxia worlds, the people that make it to the top of their world are all usually quite formidable. In a realm like our main realm though, where the highest tiers don't even fight each other and you're already immortal less than halfway up, you could just do a very slow grind to move up eventually. I wonder which of the categories this guy will fall into. You also get an "Ascension bonus" when you move up realms.
Presumably they should not be actual Ascender tier. Lower realm "ascenders" have never been spoken of as combat monsters in the same way as <200 year old Tier 25 "Ascenders". And certainly the average Tier 45+ leaving this realm to the next are no Ascender tier combatants, so we shouldn't expect the same out of whoever is coming from below. Also, a smaller and presumably much less developed realm (presumably with a lower tier cap they don't have people that have lived millions of years and have had the powers and resources of Tier 40+s to research and develop things) would likely have much less in the way of general advancement in all areas. So once they come up, there would also presumably be a lot of easy to grab strength they can get to quickly upgrade by a bunch. But I would terribly disappointed if they were only some mook or low level elite. Mid? High? Peak? Probably not Pinnacle either. Or even a high level peak. Low peak at most to have room to grow?
Anyway, an incoming ascender is also probably not super young like "Ascenders" are either, both due to sheer probability, and coming from a much less essence rich realm. So probably not going to be in the high tiers in time for the true war. So their personal combat prowess might not matter for the long term anyway. So maybe there's something else special about them or the place they came from? Probable less overall development doesn't mean they can't have a couple special quirks that could be interesting.
It's that boost that draws my eye, it upgrades everything, so they legit could be ascender tier now when they weren't before. And it's so rare, perhaps being super badass is one of the ways of doing so- sample size is, like, 3, right? Not a lot of baseline to judge with. So I would actually be non shocked if they were pinnacle or even possibly near our ascenders. This could be someone who dominated their realm Hastor style.
I suspect the next chapters will give the lowdown.
I suspect the next chapters will give the lowdown.
Realm Ascenders are so rare he's only seen it twice or so, and path Ascenders are also super rare, so the combination would be rare enough that it wouldn't be a surprise if none had ever appeared.
Mind, not as rare as if you just multiplied the chances, because those aren't independent. The same way that if you looked at all 25+ people, you'd find way more Ascenders than if you looked at all people including mortals.
Mind, even proper path Ascenders would not make the 200 years, just because there would not be any tier 25 rifts to delve, and certainly nothing higher. Even Aiden wouldn't be able to make it under those circumstances.
But you can still have someone who just doesn't die and keeps pulling impossible bullshit.
Mind, not as rare as if you just multiplied the chances, because those aren't independent. The same way that if you looked at all 25+ people, you'd find way more Ascenders than if you looked at all people including mortals.
Mind, even proper path Ascenders would not make the 200 years, just because there would not be any tier 25 rifts to delve, and certainly nothing higher. Even Aiden wouldn't be able to make it under those circumstances.
But you can still have someone who just doesn't die and keeps pulling impossible bullshit.
- Location
- Scotland
I don't think its an single person ascending. People ascending from lower realms is rare, yes, but I don't think they're 'two in the lifetime of the Astral Map' rare. The mentions before now haven't hinted at that. Take this snippet from chapter 305. It implies a lot more information transfer that '2 in recorded history'.
And remember the map only shows planets. We're explicitly told that. Sure sure it could be possible that ascending individuals create disturbances that show up on the planet map but Mantis went out of their way to note that fact to us.
So what's ascending? I think an entire planet just tiered up and ascended, it's plant core having reached the absolute limited of tier 25. I suspect the ascension upgrade is going to do interesting things to the planet that builds off the elementally aligned planet world building from the recent chapters.
Or maybe not. Will be fun to see, though.
And remember the map only shows planets. We're explicitly told that. Sure sure it could be possible that ascending individuals create disturbances that show up on the planet map but Mantis went out of their way to note that fact to us.
So what's ascending? I think an entire planet just tiered up and ascended, it's plant core having reached the absolute limited of tier 25. I suspect the ascension upgrade is going to do interesting things to the planet that builds off the elementally aligned planet world building from the recent chapters.
Or maybe not. Will be fun to see, though.
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Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
New chapter
So the lower world normally requires an Inspiration to awaken & cultivates ambient essence with essence from monsters viewed as unclean. Presumably this extends to utilizing skill shards from rifts as well and instead the focus on making your own skills? We see the bottleneck from needing to form a concept, know that Ra has his intent and ascended as a result of an inspiration pushing him to tier 26.
The ability to shape stone into stuff is cool, especially if its precise enough to be able to make clothes. I'm thinking that's probably the Ra's talent at work?
Edit: Also it seems he has a named technique for cultivating. If that's an actual skill that improves the quality that comes from cultivating ambient essence then that could be a big deal if they can make it a rift drop.
So the lower world normally requires an Inspiration to awaken & cultivates ambient essence with essence from monsters viewed as unclean. Presumably this extends to utilizing skill shards from rifts as well and instead the focus on making your own skills? We see the bottleneck from needing to form a concept, know that Ra has his intent and ascended as a result of an inspiration pushing him to tier 26.
The ability to shape stone into stuff is cool, especially if its precise enough to be able to make clothes. I'm thinking that's probably the Ra's talent at work?
Edit: Also it seems he has a named technique for cultivating. If that's an actual skill that improves the quality that comes from cultivating ambient essence then that could be a big deal if they can make it a rift drop.
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Nah, skill shards would be fine, they just don't know those exist because they don't go into rifts because there's nothing to gain as far as they know.
Some people probably did it anyway, for training or just violence, and know, but keep it secret. Wouldn't be surprised if the big families often forcibly awaken their children too.
So,
the benefits (i.e. the "loot") for the Empire would be:
1) First-hand experience of ascending to the higher realm, which Manny almost certainly can access through some past-viewing talent
2) New cultivation technique(s) and methods
3) What's probably an ascender-tier potential fighter (though I don't think he's very fight-oriented) who no one knows anything about (if they managed to keep him secret).
4) Some new data to extrapolate how the upper realms should look.
the benefits (i.e. the "loot") for the Empire would be:
1) First-hand experience of ascending to the higher realm, which Manny almost certainly can access through some past-viewing talent
2) New cultivation technique(s) and methods
3) What's probably an ascender-tier potential fighter (though I don't think he's very fight-oriented) who no one knows anything about (if they managed to keep him secret).
4) Some new data to extrapolate how the upper realms should look.
She's Zack's girlfriend. So probably
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Huh. I guess it was just one guy.
They seemed to strongly believe that rift essence was in some way tainted, toxic, or otherwise bad. I gotta wonder why. Maybe in their universe it was?
Also, worth noting that he ascended... and that always gives you a serious boost to whatever it is that you had already. If he hopped up at 25 (which I think seems to be the case?) then he'd have upgrades on his first three talents. Manny can almost certainly get something useful out of that.
They seemed to strongly believe that rift essence was in some way tainted, toxic, or otherwise bad. I gotta wonder why. Maybe in their universe it was?
Also, worth noting that he ascended... and that always gives you a serious boost to whatever it is that you had already. If he hopped up at 25 (which I think seems to be the case?) then he'd have upgrades on his first three talents. Manny can almost certainly get something useful out of that.
- Location
- Reading, Berks, UK
He seemed to have a technique for gaining power from the stars and rift essence was different.
Pretty sure he was rank 26 after the inspiration from meditating on the tree and forced to ascend for being over levelled for his realm. He also thinks he's the same rank as Suzanne and the Ascenders who are IIRC rank 26.