C_Mantis

Chapter 367

Ok may have gone a little overboard over the weekend after seeing the response to the last chapter. 8.8k chapter instead of dragging the povs out to a third chapter. Enjoy.

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Chapter 367

Grady Briggs sat in front of his team of lawyers along with the rest of his C-suite and Board of Directors, not wanting to believe that there was nothing they could do to stop the dissolution of Briggs Inc.

In the first weeks of the integration, he and his family had, like...

Chapter 366

Chapter 366

Kai listened to the man in the sky speaking and felt it hard to accept what he was hearing.

But there he was. This… Ascender Titan.

There was a weight to those words, imparted by what he assumed was magic projecting the speech into his ears, that he couldn’t quite describe. He wanted to just call it magic, but it wasn’t that. It was part tonal emphasis and part stressing of syllables that wasn’t typical of the Noricum lexicon.

It w...

Chapter 365

A 6.5k chapter.

I hope this AAR answers most questions but there is something you feel isn't answered properly I'm open to suggestions in the comments.

As always, enjoy.

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Chapter 365

Matt’s first action was to send a message to Liz through the Ascender chat. She’d want to know what happened as soon as possible, and nothing beat Ascender chat in that regard. He told her to finish up what she needed and not to rush back because ultimately there ju...

Chapter 364

Ok so update on the timing in the coming weeks. I'll be leaving the country in the middle of November so I want to take a break then for obvious reasons. At the same time this arc is about to end, roughly 375 or so for the Manny chapter, which is when I’d normally take a break but I don’t want to take a break more than take a break after one or two chapters. So we'll be skipping the after manny break and I’ll be taking off, roughly Nov 15th, 18th, and 22nd. Those dates might shift up bu...

Chapter 363

I heard you guys like 6k chapters instead of 5k so here's another one.

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Chapter 363

The once pristine marble around the rift was positively bathed in blood.

There wasn’t a single spot in the surrounding area that wasn’t completely soaked in blood, and looking up, the cause was obvious.

There was a battle happening in the sky above, while lower Tier sect members fought street by street.

The moment they appeared, several spiritual perception...

Chapter 362

Ok so update on the timing in the coming weeks. I'll be leaving the country in the middle of November so I want to take a break then for obvious reasons. At the same time this arc is about to end, roughly 375 or so for the Manny chapter, which is when I’d normally take a break but I don’t want to take a break more than take a break after one or two chapters. So we'll be skipping the after manny break and I’ll be taking off, roughly Nov 15th, 18th, and 22nd. Those dates might shift up bu...

Chapter 361

Chapter 361

As Sien led them through the floating city Matt got to see quite a bit of sect life. Not the Empire propaganda, not the Sect propaganda, not movie recreations, or anything but genuine sect life.

It was… strange.

He shouldn't have been surprised, but for the most part Sect people were just… people. They did normal things like anyone else, but there was something Matt wasn’t able to put his finger on that just made everything seem different.

...

Chapter 360

Chapter 360

The rift was dark and oppressive, filled with smoke that caused no end of interference with Matt’s spiritual perception. There was also a pervading aura of fear, the entire area almost dreamlike in quality. He half-jokingly checked to see if Sien had followed them into the rift, but of course, she hadn’t. It all just felt a little too in theme for her favorite rift for there to be zero chance she was pulling a fast one on them.

Now that they wer...

Chapter 359

Chapter 359

Matt looked at the guild bustling beneath him and a part of him wished he could delay their trip to the Sects just by a few years. With the release of the aura rifts, Titan’s Torch had most of the pressure removed from their shoulders now that they weren’t in a rush to deliver on their signature innovation before the self imposed deadline. Not that they were slowing down now that the decade had passed. In fact, the various teams were now starting their own tes...

Chapter 358

Chapter 358

Baron Haluk Avci watched as Ascender Titan walked the reporter through the third aura rift in a row.

The first had been a simple fire aura rift with fairly standard, Tier 4, oversized insect monsters that had fire aura clinging to their carapaces. The second had been a mist aura rift, Tier 4 as well. But the third was the crown jewel.

A Tier 4 sharpness rift.

The possibility of such a rift had been circulating amongst those who cared about such t...

Chapter 357

Chapter 357

Demarcus Jackson, professor of ancient world histories at Ciliradi Provence University, was not crazy. All of his past students probably assumed he was, many of his colleagues surely thought he was, most of his ex-girlfriends probably suspected he was, and some of his friends were sure that he was. But he wasn’t. 

He just wasn’t blind.

At worst, he was passionate.

As a 32 years old tenured professor, he ha...

Chapter 356

Chapter 356

Matt listened as Tholly finished his report. “Discounting the application that Wraith’s friend sent in, we’ve intercepted sixty-three applications from likely spies, eleven attempted infiltration's through false-identity applications, one spy who’s been undercover for some decades, nine attempts at embedding divination anchors within our premises, and six distinct sources for divination's attempting to bypass our wards.”

Matt had made...

Chapter 355

Chapter 355

Liz tore her way into Lily’s real space and let her spiritual perception spread outward to find Matt before letting their spiritual perceptions mingle in a hello. It had been too long since they had seen each other, but before she could get excited to see him again, she felt that Matt was irritated through the contact.

Mentally cursing, she twisted space around and appeared in the office he was ruminating in, situated at the top of his guild. 

�...

Chapter 354

6k chapter. Enjoy.

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Chapter 354

Matt sat in his office as he tried not to look at the vast fields of rifts visible outside his window.

Things had been going far better than he could have ever hoped. Kees ran a tight ship and kept everything on task, and the things Matt needed to deal with on a weekly basis amounted to a few hours of work, but those hours were precious.

Now that the other aperologists were settled in and working, the guild was crunch...

Chapter 353

Chapter 353

Fabian Lacor didn’t like being dressed down like a child by a foreign noble, but he put on his best contrite expression and begged for forgiveness, which seemed to work when combined with his Talent to slink into the metaphorical shadows.

The lordling left after he promised to get the magical rods distributed to the hospitals by the end of the day.

Fabian noted two things. 

The first was just how quick the lordling was to notice the issue,...

Chapter 352

Chapter 352

The four of them spent a full four months with their heads down, and Matt had to once more double the size of his island. It was reaching the limit of an auxiliary guild location's land allotment, but they just needed more room to ensure the rifts were properly spaced out as they rapidly built and destroyed them.

They worked day and night with smiles never leaving their faces. That was especially true when Aisha and Theodore realized the mana really wasn’t...

Chapter 351

FYI I'm going to be going to dragon con this year so I'll be taking one day off (Sep 2nd).

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Chapter 351

Matt felt the tear in reality on the other side of Lily's orbit, so he quickly [Portal]ed over next to the ship.

The moment he arrived, Erwin said. “Finally! We’ve gotten lost twice.”

Matt raised an eyebrow at the comment. “How could you possibly get lost?”

The woman next to him and one of their first guild recruits, Aisha, was an ...

Chapter 350

Authors note: Minor retcon from book 4. Matt no longer figures out how to make all the aura rifts during that time and only the basic four. Old Mantis gave Matt too much too quickly, offscreen, and I want to actually show the process here and now.

“Within the year, they found the recipe for creating Aura of the basic mana types of fire, water, earth, and air, while also making more abstract Auras like sharpness. In their testing, they even created Aura for the other weapon ty...

Chapter 349

Chapter 349

Matt wished he could say that he was full of confidence when they exited the Arbitration Convention building, but instead he was just wrung out.

People were ultimately people whether they were high Tier or low Tier and the unawakened proved that to Matt better than any research paper ever could. A few of the leaders seemed like genuinely good people looking out for their countries and its peoples but far too many of them only seemed interested in the benefit...

Chapter 348

A 6k chapter. Enjoy.

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FYI I'm going to be going to dragon con this year so I'll be taking one day off (Sep 2nd).

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Chapter 348

Westley Bakerfield had spent his life sharpening his teeth in politics. When he was in elementary school, by dint of his last name being earliest in the alphabet, he was made class president and was responsible for making sure all of the other kids cleaned up at the end of the day. Originally, the position was supposed to ...

Chapter 347

Chapter 347

The four of them watched Councilor Samuel call up his younger counterpart, Councilor Jolene. 

She was obviously confused as to why Samuel wanted to call for a last-minute full assembly, but her insistence that she was going to come to talk to him in person caused him to break out in a cold sweat, fearfully looking up at Matt and Liz.

It was so dramatic that Matt had to wonder what he had been told to be so fearful of them. Or was it just the natur...

Chapter 346

FYI to all patrons who use APPLE products and the APP STORE. Any NEW subscriptions made through the PATREON app will cost 30% more thanks to APPLE demanding a cut of all payments that go through them. If you don't want to pay that additional cost you can simply pay the normal price by subscribing through the Pateron website. 

THIS DOES NOT AFFECT RECURRING PAYMENTS unless you cancel your subscription. 

So please watch your payments and beware as this will affect all purc...

Chapter 345

FYI I'm going to be going to dragon con this year so I'll be taking one day off (Sep 2nd).

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Chapter 345

Matt, Liz, and Aster let the crowd chatter for a few moments, just long enough that the lower Tiers watching could fully process the information. However, that was more than long enough for the higher Tiers to look at him like they wanted to turn him upside down and shake the answer out of him at the delay.

“So soon?” Sciath hEachaidh, scion of the ...

Chapter 344

FYI to all patrons who use APPLE products and the APP STORE. Any NEW subscriptions made through the PATREON app will cost 30% more thanks to APPLE demanding a cut of all payments that go through them. If you don't want to pay that additional cost you can simply pay the normal price by subscribing through the Pateron website. 

THIS DOES NOT AFFECT RECURRING PAYMENTS unless you cancel your subscription. 

So please watch your payments and beware as this will affect all purc...

Chapter 343

FYI I'm going to be going to dragon con this year so I'll be taking one day off (Sep 2nd).

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Here is the google form for Matt’s guild ideas if anyone has something they think can be invented in the universe. Any and all ideas welcome.

https://forms.gle/2C7NJ4ddPXyDkS9A6

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Chapter 343

Matt was fighting a battle of epic proportions when his [AI] alerted him that relie...

Chapter 342

FYI to all patrons who use APPLE products and the APP STORE. Any NEW subscriptions made through the PATREON app will cost 30% more thanks to APPLE demanding a cut of all payments that go through them. If you don't want to pay that additional cost you can simply pay the normal price by subscribing through the Pateron website. 

THIS DOES NOT AFFECT RECURRING PAYMENTS unless you cancel your subscription. 

So please watch your payments and beware as this will affect all purc...

Chapter 341

FYI I'm going to be going to dragon con this year so I'll be taking one day off (Sep 2nd).

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This is our typical ALT POV prologue that we have every start of a new book. This is still PoA and well be back to Matt next chapter.

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Chapter 341

Kai sighed as his view changed from the brief stint of sunlight back to the monotonous stone of the tunnel. As he shifted in the very comfortable train seat he contrasted it with the uncomfortab...

Chapter 340

Chapter 340

Allister waited in his office, fingers steepled and orbs spinning behind his head in an orbit so slow, they seemed to not move at all.

The inertial energy was harvested and then fed back into the orbs in case anyone was foolish enough to fight him. Allister wasn’t bad at fighting, but that wasn’t his speciality.

He was a planner, preferring well laid plans and careful execution to hasty action. It came from his time as a two bit villain, where heis...

Chapter 339

Chapter 339

Contrary to his expectations, the older Ascenders were content to spend the entire two weeks leading up to the ceremony lounging around in Lila’s room. He had half expected them to have their own things to do, but all of them seemed more interested in hanging out in person.

Matt, Liz, Aster, Allie, and Zack, on the other hand, had never been inside the Corporation Minkalla space station and wanted to explore. Which matched up with the rest of Team Zero who...

Chapter 338

7k chapter enjoy.

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Chapter 338

Matt wasn’t looking forward to the celebration, but between Allie’s excitement and Aiden’s waxing on about the event, he was at least interested in going, if for no other reason than to see the strongest people in the realm. Part of that was the Tier 48s and Tier 47s, they would undoubtedly be powerful, and uniquely so at that, but most of his interest was targeted at the realm’s other Ascenders.

They were his peers....