Ron nodded and appreciated Jacob's trust in him to tell him his name. Scarlett was also a lot less on edge now that they were on an equal playing field. Ron told Jacob how to get the protection from wishes and how much it costs. Jacob nodded along and didn't think about protection from wishes before, he bought the protection for 1,100 points however he didn't buy a ring instead he bought a pendant.
Ron still didn't give the gun back; he still wanted to ask some questions more specifically about the other wishmasters he encountered. Jacob told Ron it had been around two weeks since he came here, the same time Ron and Jeff were also sent here. This meant that a whole group of people were sent here two weeks ago.
Jacob used to be a bodyguard so he was trained in firearms and after re-living through his death he was granted 2,500 points. He used those points to secure a firearm for himself along with one clip of ammo costing him a total of 1,100 points. He came to find out that ammo was expensive however.
Jacob spawned close to the river to the north so water was no problem for him, food however was a different story. He relied mostly on the wish store if he couldn't get any food for the day, however that wasn't optimal. After around ten days he encountered some other people.
They were all extremely sceptical of each other because of the wish store. However they all couldn't share their methods of how they used the wish store. Some wished for strong fighters and enslaved them the same way Jeff did. Others wished for basic weapons before enchanting them to create magic weapons. Some people even tried wishing for strong powers only to be refused by the lack of wish points
Jacob never really had the time to play games or watch some fantasy so all he did was listen and test in his own time. Eventually he landed on an idea that would eliminate the bullet cost. He enchanted his gun to automatically fill up the magazine after 2 minutes of downtime, it cost him 1,000 points but this ended up engraving the strange language on the handle. Apparently all weapons enchanted gained engravings.
Ron looked at his whip not seeing any engravings on there, however looking at it a different way there were red lines woven in between the normal leather. Were these engraved? Only with some magnifying glass could he see them and he wasn't about to spend points on it.
Jacob stayed with the group of wishmasters for around three days and travelled south to the forest only to discover the spider webs. Some in the group were divided about entering the forest and looking for the spiders hoping to destroy them for some wish points. Jacob assumed with his gun that he would fare decently against the spiders.
The group split off between wanting to explore the forest and not exploring the forest however for the most part everyone stayed for the wish points. They encountered the spiders however with their numbers they dispatched of them easily enough. But soon changes started happening.
The mother spider was on a whole other level. Jacob's gun's didn't scratch it and it was fast and hit hard. Eventually they were overwhelmed by the mother spider and drugged by the black spiders paralysing poison. They were taken to the nest before being spun into cocoons with Jacob being the last one. Airflow in the cocoon wasn't the greatest and the wish store couldn't be accessed due to it counting as being in combat. He slowly passed out and after that he awoke to Ron and Scarlett rescuing him.
Ron and Scarlett nodded as they listened to Jacob's story. There were a few things to note about the story. First there were more wishmasters around and slavery seemed to be a popular trend among them. Second, adding enchantments on weapons, Ron was already wanting to give that a try, however he didn't have the need to enchant his whip before he could have even used it.
Ron also noted the restriction on Jacob's gun, it needed time to refill other than that it was infinite ammo. Restrictions seemed to lower the cost for wishing points, if that was the case then Ron had even more ideas on future projects he wanted to use. Ron and Jacob chatted for a bit exchanging some tips about the wish store in general.
"So, where do you want to go now?" Ron asked after they had caught up and exchanged some tips. Ron didn't know if he wanted Jacob along for the ride or not, he seemed like a nice person and Scarlett didn't give off any warning signs along their talk.
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"That depends, can I get my gun back?" Jacob asked for his gun back, it was after all his gun and he did spend a lot of points on that gun.
"Are you going to shoot us the second we give you that gun?" Ron asked a question of his own and Scarlett was going to verify it for him.
"No, you have my word for it" Jacob told Ron and Scarlett, his word was the best he could give.
Scarlett didn't give any hint that there was falsehood in his eyes, either he was really good at lying or he was truthful. In the end Ron gave the gun to Jacob.
"Thanks for trusting me" Jacob said as he put the gun in the holster. "As for where I'm going to go, that I don't know".
"There's a dungeon in that way it's fairly easy with a gun" Ron said as he pointed towards the kobolds cave dungeon. He explained about dungeons a bit in his chat with Jacob.
"Only beginners can enter it and only once but I got a lot of points off that dungeon" Ron told Jacob.
"I assume you're searching for a new dungeon to enter," Jacob commented.
"That is correct," Ron simply stated. There wasn't anything special about their plans.
"I see, I'll go to the dungeon then I'll probably go to the south to see what's there" Jacob told Ron his plans.
"Alright, good luck, maybe we'll see each other in the future" Ron wished Jacob well as they shook hands.
And with that Jacob left for the kobolds cave dungeon while Ron and Scarlett moved to their original course before stopping for a small break, Ron had fought to the death with the spiders and multiple times before that.
"Did you want him to join us?" Scarlett asked Ron. It seemed like Ron was very friendly with Jacob like he wanted him to join them.
"It would be nice if he joined us, yes however that wasn't the main reason I was nice to him" Ron said before explaining "I just don't want to make enemies with other wishmasters".
"Then just kill them if you make enemies with them" Scarlett commented as if it was common knowledge.
"Where I'm from killing another human is very frowned upon and I don't know if I can do it" Ron told Scarlett. Killing another human was a life ending affair in his own world.
"You've already killed goblins, boars, kobolds and even giant spiders. What's the difference at this point" Scarlett reminded Ron of his killcount with other creatures that were not human.
"I'll see what happens if I ever have to kill someone" Ron didn't like killing someone for no reason, he killed all those creatures because 1 they threatened him or 2 it got him something. Ron knew this was a little hypocritical.
"Fine, so are you going to drink the potion now?" Scarlett moved on from the topic and mentioned the potion. He had discovered the true power of the kindling stage and had healed himself fully with the wish.
"You mentioned the kindling stage and how I need to light all the stars, more lit stars equals more time and more base power I assume?" Ron wanted some more info on the kindling stage, before Scarlett didn't say much other than the basics.
"Pretty much, you can light more stars the stronger your body is. It's usually done with techniques and tempering, some rich nobles would use body forging potions" Scarlett explained on how to continue in the body forging phase.
"It's going to suck isn't it?" Ron was a little apprehensive of pain, he wasn't a masochist who loved pain.
"Suck it up princess" Scarlett smiled and teased him a little.
"Fine, my whip will be left behind again, however I do have an idea thanks to Jacob in order to have them be complementary to each other" Ron explained he had an idea on how to improve the whip's weakness once he got more physical strength. Why would anyone use something weaker? It's why the martial artists in Scarlett's world didn't use weapons.
"I'm looking forward to it" Scarlett said, the closer he got to her the faster they could move and maybe find a good dungeon where Scarlett can break through. She was also interested in what plan Ron was cooking up.
Ron took out the potion with the red liquid inside. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves a little. He opened the bottle and tried smelling it, however there was no smell detectable. Throwing caution to the wind and disregarding Scarlett's deadpanned look when he tried to take a whiff Ron downed the potion in one swig. It didn't taste like anything; it felt like Ron was just drinking water.
After finishing the bottle Ron didn't feel anything he almost thought he was scammed or that he was giving a wrong potion however soon the effect started with a bang. Ron gritted his teeth; it felt like every nerve in his body was on fire, his skin started turning red and he felt extremely hot. Ron tried his best not to scream however every breath felt like a fire was in his lungs.
Soon his muscles and veins started bulging, growing by the second, some veins started bursting and blood came out like a volcano. ('I need to find an outlet and fast!') Ron needed to let loose the energy somewhere but if he moved more veins would pop open.
Ron thought about what Scarlett said, he needed to light the stars and the only way to do that was through his flame. Trying to meditate and enter the white void as the potion continued to destroy his body was no simple feat. However continued use and mastery of the meditation technique got him to the white void, or as Ron came to realise once he was inside a now red fogged up void.
Red fog was everywhere in the void, Ron had a feeling the red fog was the potion. He tried to move the red fog however it wasn't budging he needed to get the red fog inside the flame. He moved to the purple flame and tried to move it, still unsuccessful. Ron racked his brain on figuring out how to continue on when he got an idea, what if he made the flame suck up all the fog?
He imagined the flame as a mouth that would inhale and draw in all the fog in the area. It took some time but soon the flame changed shape a little, it changed to resemble something close to lips. A sucking feeling could be felt as the fog slowly gathered at the core of the flame, as Ron got more proficient with the flame the sucking power grew more and more.
Soon the fog collected all in a red ball and Ron closed the flame around the ball. The moment the flame surrounded the ball it grew 10 sizes and lit up like a giant beacon before slowly digesting and compressing all the way back to normal. Suddenly a massive pulse fired off from the flame before it dimmed back down to normal.
The pulse lit all the stars once more before they went dim again. 90, 80, 70 they quickly dimmed as they went out by the batches. 50, 40, 35 it went slower and slower as it seemed to reach a point where all of them remained lit. 34, 33, 32 slowly until the 31 star stayed lit. He had gained 30 stars worth of power from that one potion.