The Path of Ascension Book 10.5

A LitRPG Adventure

By: C. Mantis

Narrated by: J.S. Arquin

Echos can come in as many flavors as there are sources. They are all unique, but few more so than an Ascension.

Matt, Liz, and Aster are off to fight in a war their predecessors started two hundred years ago, but the Empire marches on, and so too do those whom the Ascenders affected.

Don't miss this special novella in this action-packed fantasy adventure that blends everything you love about LitRPG with Xianxia.

About the series: This is a mix between LitRPG and Xianxia. It's like a car that looks like a LitRPG with dungeons and skills, but the interior and engine are all Xianxia. It features a magic system and progression system that are logically and internally consistent, as well as realistic fight scenes and a rational MC.

©2025 AETHON (P)2025 Aethon Audio

The title of the book was an excellent introduction to this story

First of all, I enjoy this series. Second of all the story was great. It’s interesting to read about the peripheral characters in this universe. Third of all the narrator was great as always. If you have not read the series start from the beginning, just look how many books you have to go through. Excellent will be waiting for the next audible release of this series.

getting to see a whole sluth of outsider perspectives to the ascension gave a clarity i didn’t know i needed.

kinda just grounded the rest of the cast in a more *normal* light as much as they can be. shows just how impactful ascenders from the empire really are.

just like all the other books (in my opinion), despite being so much shorter than c. mantis’s average, i feel this release gave an equal, if not more importance to me than the others, if only for the needed distance between non-ascenders, almost ascenders, and true ascenders.

10/10.

I liked it, but a few things felt, not right?

It was nice having some closure and extra details on a lot of these extra characters, and I really appreciate that this was labeled as an in-between book like 3.5 was. That already puts it ahead of other series I've listened to, like the wheel of time books, where one of the books was basically like this, but for an entire book, and was labeled as a main series book; that was still probably my least favorite book ever.

The only thing I personally take issue with in this book is the character "Pause". The way she was presented in this book made it feel like the author wrote themselves into a corner with her power set, and just needed an excuse for her to be taken out. Like, I get it, she mostly just existed as a plot point and challenge for the pather tournament, so she was never really going to be all that important, but the way she was handled just doesn't make all that much sense.

For example, Queen, the second place in that tournament, was breaths away from completing the path, and it made sense, it was fine, it worked, even for a character that I actually kind of expected to have been able to finish it, despite her being solo. Pause, could have easily just been another person who wasn't able to make it in time and it wouldn't have been an issue. But writing her to have THAT happen to her just feels like it doesn't fit. Heck, he even killed Adam off screen, and didn't need to elaborate on that, because stuff happens, people die. That's why it feels like they wrote themselves into a corner, because, how do you deal with a character who's whole shtick is that she basically can't die? Normally, in a competition like setting like that path, you would just do something like say, "yeah she can't die, but she also couldn't keep up at the higher tiers, so it doesn't really even matter". IDK, it just bothered me.

Don't take my weird rant the wrong way though, I still very much enjoyed this, I just disagree with that one particular section.

Great back ground info for the series and info dump for enemies

Great to get so many points of view from the recent events would love to get more of this from every book

didn't expect to like it as much

but I was wrong. it was honestly fantastic to hear the perspectives of so many characters during the ascension ceremony, even enemies. I would listen to another book like this again.