Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars 662
🕑 Added 2024-07-04 21:40:16 +0000 UTCArriving back on the Necromedes was…blissful. Aside from the lack of pressure from the Tricorn’s Impact (I’d gotten so used to it I kept having to watch my step to keep from catapulting into the air), I also got to see a bunch of old friends. When Callie and mom mentioned bringing people along, I’d underestimated exactly how many people they meant.
Serah and Holly were coming, as were Yvette, Annalise, Markoth, Nasha, and all my other friends were coming. We’d sent out invitations to various factions we’d encountered on the way here too, and at this point, the list of wedding guests was going to be enough to fill a small town.
Luckily we didn’t have any of those on Callus, only big cities that would have plenty of room. For now, we had to get everyone settled in though. The newcomers were blown away by the ship. “You have access to an A-ranked ship?” said Holly in shock. “We belong to an S-ranked faction and we don't have one of those!”
Serah nodded stoically. “Yes. It is certainly in…ship shape.”
Bethy giggled at the joke. “Hey that's funny. You're pretty funny.” She held out a cheerful hand. “I'm Bethy by the way. What's your name?”
“Serah.” Responded the stoic angel. “It is nice to meet you.”
I cleared my throat. “As much as the idea of you two hanging out terrifies me to the very core of my being, I wanted to check that everyone was here.”
Jessie double checked and then nodded. “Looks like that’s everyone. Most of us went to unpack, but Blake said he’d handle introductions and all that.” She grinned at me. “You have somewhere else to be right? Isn’t it about time you checked?”
I laughed. “You still know me better than anyone except Benny and Callie. Yeah, I’ve been holding it back, but it’s about time.” Waving goodbye to the others, I went ahead reached out to Callie. There was a shift in the shadows and she appeared right next to me, grinning. I nodded at her wrist. “So it fits I take it?”
She displayed her wrist with a smirk. “Oh, this old thing? Yeah, isn’t it nice? My fiance got it for me because he’s the best.” She leaned up and pecked me on the cheek. “So is it really time? I was waiting for you. How much do you think we gained?”
“Hard to say.” I said as we headed back to our rooms. “I mean, with your godslayer legend propagating, especially after the war declaration, I’m guessing you got a big boost. The games will have pushed me up pretty high too though I bet.” I winked at her. “I might just catch up to you at this rate.”
She shot me a warm smile. “I hope you do. I always feel my best when the two of us are equal partners.”
I put my arms around her, squeezing tight, and then we reached out lodgings. We headed inside, dropped off what stuff we had, and then headed out into the yard in case of any damage. “You mind if I go first?” I asked excitedly.
She shook her head, and I closed my eyes, reaching out with my soul. The ability to put off renown and stat gain was important as you ranked up. People like us had a lot of stories circulating, and the sensation of a constant trickle of power would be way too distracting. It was more convenient to wait until we had time to process everything before allowing the renown to hit.
Given how many points I already had and my soul strength the influx was intense but not overwhelming. Still, it was easy to tell just from feedback that this was beyond any gains I’d had before. I could feel my heart pounding as I pulled up my stat sheet, letting the purple flames roll across my vision.
Wishmaster candidate status. E-rank. Ability: Expert Wish- Seven times a day grant an Expert wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.
Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.
Might-11,500
Impact-65
Fantasy-9530
Vitality-12,242
Focus-6420
Perception-5504
Creation-7554
Progress to next rank:52815/100000
Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body
Stored:7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 0 triple strength density shifted attacks. 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 0 heal bursts (0 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 0 shadow clone (2 in reserve), 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)
Pet- Wolf named Jin
Financial resources: 50 E-ranked chits 38 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)
Skills: Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Intermediate Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Fire Manipulation Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Intermediate Paired Dueling, Expert Dust Construction Mastery
DS Subskills. Monk: Stone Limb, Moonlit Night, Consecration of Flame, Ripple Running, State of Grace, Steam Arrow, Afterburner, Pit of Despair, Mountain Stance.
Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death, False Fatality
Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rhythm of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind
Goetia Staff Art:
First form- Belial. Touch of Tears, Stone Limb, Consecration of Flames
Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.
Techniques: Cosmic Collapse: comdensed sphere of black flame that explodes out one side amplifying force. Mephisto's Waltz: Movement technique, Damnatio Memoriae: causes the ground itself to dissolve best used on mountains to cause avalanches
Circle of Damnation: defensive technique through destruction
Third form- Mornax. Stone Limb, Triple Strength Density Shifting (x10 F-rank stored attacks), Mountain Stance
Fourth form - Zagan. Heal Burst, Purifying Flame, Consecration of Flame, Afterburner
Techniques: Life Nova, purifying and healing version of Cosmic Collapse.Genesis Burst: enhanced version of Life Nova designed to repair soul damage.
I was blown away. Over twenty three thousand points. Almost twenty four. This last series of events had bumped me nearly one QUARTER of the way to D-rank. I doubted I’d get quite this level of boost again soon, I had mouthed off the Wishmaster in front of a bunch of S-rankers, which had probably played a large role, but still. My feats in the games should keep paying dividends.
I wrote everything out, showing it to Callie with a grin. Her eyes bugged out. “Holy shit, Shane. That’s…wow. I mean, You’re well past where I was at. I should be getting a bit bump from the war declaration, given people will be looking into stories about gods but…I’d be shocked if I passed you by much.
“I think it was the S-rankers.” I admitted. “I know that higher ranked Ascendants have more heavily weighted renown. I impressed some of them during the games. Still, past the halfway point of D-rank…that’s not bad. And I passed ten thousand points in multiple stats. VItality and Might make sense. Life Nova and that crazy mountain crushing blast.”
She nodded. “Fantasy too, given the obvious technique use. Still a sizable bump. You ready to see how I did?” She sounded eager to compare, and I nodded excitedly. She closed her eyes, letting the renown wash over her. After a moment of focusing and breathing through the sensation, she took a pen and paper from her ring and wrote out her own stats.
Calliope Reynolds- E-rank. Ability: Expert Abyssal Infiltration- Enter the shadows and emerge where you will within range, shape the darkness to your call, moving it as if it were part of your body, and even extend your senses through the shadows to spy on your enemies.
Might-15,550
Impact-65
Vitality-3742
Fantasy-10,105
Focus-3908
Perception-12,375
Creation-9485
Progress to next rank: 55230/100000
Soul strength- Sapphire Soul Body
Pet-Wolf named Rellia
Skills: Minor Tracking, Beginner Dual Dagger Mastery, Intermediate Stealth, Intermediate Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Expert Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Intermediate Paired Dueling.
Path of the Abyss-Illusory. Technique: Shadowed Glide
I laughed. “Damn, you still got me. It’s close though. I’m only a couple thousand short. I think you’ll pull ahead though. Your godslayer story has clearly been spreading like wildfire with those numbers. Even your low stats have evened out a ton. I think that huge bump from the S-rank renown is going to be a one time thing for me though.”
“Please.” She snorted. “You’re ignoring the tons of points you’ll be getting from wishes during the trip. I’ll be lucky if you don’t hit D-rank before the wedding.”
I frowned. “Actually, what about D-rank.” I hadn’t considered it before, but we’d be on Callus. We couldn’t rank up there. “I guess we could suppress ourselves at peak E-rank until we can get somewhere more stable. Maybe the Necromedes. I think Killian is staying for the wedding, so that’s an option.”
She waved me off with a laugh. “I was just puffing you up a bit. Considering you seem to be stuck at ten points per wish, chances are good we’ll both need more time. The four month trip back to Callus would net you less than ten thousand.” She frowned a bit. “Speaking of, what about that? Did you get a chance to ask anyone about it?”
I nodded, blowing out a breath. “I asked my mom. Ten is a soft cap. It’s a recursion thing. I’ll be able to get past it when I hit D-rank and have over a hundred Impact. Just one of those weird things people all believe that screws us a little bit.”
“Well at least its solvable.” She said with a smile. Walking over to me, she pulled me to my feet, then dragged me over and shoved me onto a couch, curling up against me. “Can you believe in four or five short months we’re going to be married.” She said as she rested her head on my chest.
I reached up, pulling my mask off, something I rarely did when we weren’t alone. “I can.” I said softly. “In fact. I couldn't believe anything else. I can’t imagine not spending the rest of my life with you.”
“Sap.” She said in a pleased voice. “But I love it.” She grimaced, and at me raised eyebrow blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry, I just thought about my name. I’m taking yours, not sharing one with my asshole dad is nothing but good, but Calliope Wyndham sounds so snooty.”
I clicked my tongue. “Honestly darling.” I said in a high society voice. “I ordered the crystal chandeliers in the Rutherford pattern. This is clearly Cheffause.”
She burst out laughing. “None of those are things.” She said in exasperation. “And yet somehow they all sound so accurate it's ridiculous. Maybe I should tell Bethy you’re a secret art and fashion genius.”
“I don’t believe you would do such a thing.” I said sagely. “You love me too much.”
She rolled her eyes. “Right. That. I knew there was a reason I kept you around. That and reaching things on the high shelves.”
“Good to know I’m at least as useful as a stool.” I said mildly.
She patted my cheek tenderly. “Oh, honey. Don’t sell yourself short. You’re far more useful to me than a stool. I have to carry those to the shelves. You just come when I call you.”
We laughed together, snuggled up and staring at the ceiling, and I thought about our upcoming life together. Or rather, the one we already had, and how it would change. The comfort and security was soothing, and soon enough I started to drift off. Tomorrow we’d meet up with Benny and Jessie, see how they were doing after this mess stat wise, and then settle in for a relaxing wedding cruise back to our hometown. Life couldn’t get much better than this.
Comments
CringeWorthyStudios
“Life couldn’t get much better than this.” … any other arc and I’d say that’s a signal that something is about to go terribly wrong… Thanks for the chapter!
David Rodriguez
You know I'm usually always down for drama, but I genuinely hope the next mini-arc is just slice of life wedding scenes (Callie punching her dad in the throat does not count as drama, that's just a treat). Shane's last words this chapter sounded way too much like a flag.
