The next three weeks were consumed by work. Wishes, both to myself and Nat, paid for with money that I was going to desperately need soon enough, finished up the construction of the new territory (which Celine named Bennington in what I was SURE was an obvious troll) and got all the information we needed for the attack.
The last few weeks had been surprisingly good for my progress. Since we were coming up on the big fight I’d not only netted myself another twenty D-ranked chits of spending money, but with legends of my feats spreading even further, gathered another twelve hundred stat points, three hundred Might, two hundred Perception, two hundred Fantasy, and five hundred Focus. Bringing me up to sixteen thousand total.
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 4005
Impact
65 Fantasy 2250 Vitality 2902 Focus 2020
Perception
2204 Creation 2554 Progress to next rank: 16000/100000 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 (3 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 10 shadow clone (2 in reserve), 19 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more) Pet: Wolf named Jin Financial resources: 10 E-rank chits 30 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed) Skills: Expert Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Lesser Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam 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.
Third form- Mornax. Stone Limb, Triple Strength Density Shifting (x10 F-rank stored attacks), Mountain Stance
Turning to Callie, I raised an eyebrow. “Tomorrow is the big day. Are we completely prepared?” We’d acquired so much information, but I’d delegated a lot of the actual planning to the researchers. I didn’t have as much experience with any of this as Anna did, and she was the main influence.
“Yup.” She said grimly. “And the divination wishes were able to confirm their tactics. Secrets are expensive, but yes or no questions can really help narrow down information in a set window. Since we knew they’d be attacking right after the month protection period was up, we had enough to flush out some details.”
Nat had been consulted for a lot of that, and I was glad Celine was rich, because she’d been spending like crazy for this, as had Camden. Speaking of which. “Will Camden need any help? Can we afford to send it?”
Anna, who was here with us preparing for tomorrow’s operation, nodded. “He will, and you can. Celine spent a few wishes shoring up the anonymity of this place. With your shielding in place it’s a lot easier to make sure no one finds it. All she had to do was pay for it in short blocks of time, and she can afford to dispatch the Garrisoned forces here to Camden’s aid.”
I whistled at that. “Damn. That’s clever. Must have been pretty pricey though. Are you going to use the stealth capability to ambush Spencer’s forces once they’re mid-attack?”
“Of course.” The D-ranker said with a grin. “And Callen will be attacking right alongside them. You have the plans now, study them, learn your part. We’ll be hitting them tomorrow at three forty six in the morning. According to our divinations from Nat that’s when the most of them will be asleep.”
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Divination meaning lots of yes no questions based on the specific time blocks we’d already identified. Knowing exactly when they were coming was definitely a big help. It got around the weaknesses that usually prevented us from using wishes for info gathering. I just wished things were always this convenient.
Once they left, I turned to Callie. “Ok, this is going to be a mess. My part is simple…kind of, but your mobility means you’ll be separated from me and disabling some of the security alone, and I don’t like it. Anna is going to be using those Impact soaking straw dolls to draw off the only remaining D-rank guard, but there’s still lots of danger from stronger E-rankers.”
She beamed at me. “Now you know how I feel when you go do dumb shit.” She put her arms around me, leaning her head on my chest. “But seriously, I’ll be fine. We’ve planned this meticulously down to the second. Just stick to the plan and we’ll get Anna her shot. Once Spencer is dead all this ends.”
“Then we can start wedding planning.” I said with a grin. “I mean, we have the conclave first, but we’ll be en route for a while after the Necromedes picks us up. We can use that time to decide on things like location and cake flavor. You know, the important stuff.”
“I thought we were having it at my mom’s house?” She asked. “That’s the cheapest option right?”
I shrugged. “Have you even started on your guest list? We’ve met a lot of people since leaving home. Even if we kept it to the Pavilion members we couldn’t fit. Not to mention all the friends we made at the Bazaar, in the glade, HERE. Mom will want to come, obviously, and I bet Killian will stop by.”
“Damn it.” She cursed. “This is going to be a whole big thing.” Then she paused. “Hey, you’re distracting me!” She accused.
“I’m distracting myself.” I admitted. “I’m worried. Your stats are probably way up by this point, can you at least show me how much you grew over the last month? With the conclave coming up I’m betting stories about godslayers are going like gangbusters.”
She grinned at me. “I wanted to keep it a surprise. I even locked down the bond so you didn’t notice the jump. It’s been crazy. Three thousand Might, two thousand Perception, four thousand Fantasy, and a thousand Creation. A full ten thousand points,though I’m rounding a bit! I think if anything spread of my story took some time to build up.” Her smile dropped. “Just a shame its a drop in the bucket.” She passed me a listing of her 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 7350 Impact 65 Vitality 742 Fantasy 8105
Focus
908 Perception 6375 Creation 1485
Progress to next rank:
25210/100000 Soul strength: Sapphire Soul Body Pet: Wolf named Rellia Skills: Minor Tracking, Minor Dual Dagger Mastery, Beginner Stealth, Beginner Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Intermediate Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Intermediate Paired Dueling. Path of the Abyss Illusory.
I whistled. “Seven thousand Might? That’s insane. “And eight thousand Fantasy. Man the stories about that must be nuts to drive that one so high. But it’s hardly a drop in the bucket, Cal. Twenty five thousand! You’re a quarter of the way to D-rank. I’m jealous as hell. Not to mention the boost you’ll get off marrying me.”
Smacking my shoulder, she scowled at me. “That’s not why I said yes and you know it!”
“Of course I do.” I said soothingly. “But it’s true. The wedding is going to bump both of us up a ton. All the high rankers that’ll be coming? There will be stories all over. And I’m glad. The stronger you get the safer you are. I don’t consider you benefitting from us getting married a bad thing.”
We’d had this conversation before, and it never failed to put a scowl on her face. “I don’t like it.” She repeated for the tenth time. “That’s why I wanted to do a small ceremony at my moms. I don’t want people thinking I’m some ladder climber. Making a big deal out of the wedding for attention seems like something my dad would do.”
I pulled her close. “We’re getting married because we love each other and because we want to be together forever. You didn’t even think of the wedding benefits until I mentioned them, which I know because I felt your surprise when I brought it up. It would be stupid to avoid it just because your dad would approve.”
“I know.” She muttered. “I guess it’s unavoidable.”
“Besides.” I said with a grin. “I’m the one marrying a godslayer. If anything I’m getting the better end of this deal. With the war blowing up your story like it is, I’m gonna rake in some serious points for landing you.” I said in the most dramatic voice possible. “Maybe I should retire and let you become a god while I live a life of indulgent luxury.”
Callie just rolled her eyes. “Right.” She said sarcastically. “Because I’m definitely guaranteed to become a goddess. Because I’M the one with a foot halfway into B-rank already. I’m not even sure I’ll manage to hit C.”
She’d been worrying about her Path lately. We’d talked over how I’d gotten DS Mastery to a Solid Path, but my experience was hardly usual. I was pretty sure just shoving Skills willy nilly into one big super Skill normally wouldn’t have worked. Especially knowing what I did about proper Skill construction. I was convinced it had been a fluke.
That didn’t help her calm down, since her own Path was still Illusionary (something I’d repeatedly told her was completely normal and even advanced for her rank). “Look, get to Master and THEN worry about it. Besides I don’t think B-rank is going to be as easy as the earlier ranks.” At her flat stare I grimaced. “Ok, not easy…straightforward. Zeke has implied it gets more complex.”
The one thing I knew was that learning to make Skills properly was going to be important, and I’d been working on it for a while, taking apart and rebuilding the worst of my Skills to be more efficient.
She sighed, cuddling into my side. “I miss back when things were simple. Catch a serial killer running around our small town.”
“Well…I mean, I almost got butchered with a snack knife.” I said. “So maybe not THAT simple.”
Snorting, she shook her head. “You can’t let me have my misplaced nostalgia? You’re a terrible boyfriend.” She stuck out her tongue at me and I couldn’t help but laugh at her antics.
“Fiance.” I reminded her with a grin. “And how about I cook us dinner to make up for it. I got fresh clams for linguine.” I’d been planning to surprise her before the big day, but the immediate light in her eyes told me telling her now was a good choice.
Grabbing her hand, I pulled her after me out of the basement of the inn, off toward the kitchen where I would put dinner together. Despite the big mess tomorrow though, I felt at ease. Risk was always present, but Callie and I were on the right track, and as long as we were all together we could do this. I forced myself to temper that confidence so I didn’t overlook any important details, but I held onto the sentiment. I had a feeling I’d need it.