The next seventy eight days flew by. Word of our godslaying must have still been spreading, because I got the occasional burst of stats when I hit a milestone, as did Callie and Abel. I got five hundred each in Might, Fantasy, Vitality, and Perception, bringing me up to thirteen thousand total or so. Callie got a thousand in Might and two thousand in Fantasy and Perception and made the jump to fifteen thousand total, managing to inch her soul up to ninety five percent of blue in the process.
During the downtime, most of our people had managed to make E-rank. Abel, Mel, Gabe, Bethy, and Callen had all ranked up, though Nat herself had been unable to make it, having been paid directly for all the points she gave Abel and Mel.
In the meantime, Benny and I had been working our asses off, and had FINALLY finished all the wall sections. I’d put in so much work over the past couple months I’d even managed to hit Expert with Dust Construction Mastery, allowing me full use of the monstrously large and powerful walls we’d set up.
“Forty sections.” I said in awe, staring at the defensive lines we’d erected. “Ten per side, all heavily enchanted. Sixteen thousand blocks total. It seems so crazy, even though we ended up losing most of the enchanters early on.”
Once we’d gotten a better idea of our timeline (Camden had used a wish to confirm the attack date) they’d been pulled for other projects, we’d only needed a little over two hundred blocks a day to stay on track, and they’d been required on other projects. I’d actually wanted to go bigger with the wall, but I knew that wasn’t feasible.
Benny, who was aware of this, helpfully reminded me why we’d done it this way. “There are limits to what you can control, even with a Sapphire soul and Expert Dust Construction. Plus, the majority of the centuries need to be committed to keeping Clairdon’s men off us, not to mention preparing for whatever nasty surprise Spencer has waiting. Assuming we don’t get hit with any of the big boys this will hold.”
“He’s right.” Said Camden as he stepped up next to us. On his left, Abel stepped up, silently regarding the wall, with Mel on his other side. They’d been picked for guard duty, given how hard it was to surprise Abel. “We’ve done the best we can with this. We’re ready.”
I cocked my head at that. “Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that…why exactly are we ready? Like why do we know exactly when the attack will happen.” It seemed stupid to be so obvious about it to me, but everyone just acted like knowing the exact date this was going down was totally reasonable.
“Why else?” Said the Baron with a chuckle. “Reputation. There have been studies done about the impact of surprise attacks vs. declarations of war. On the whole, that anticipation seems to generate greater results, and it’s easier to spin a narrative justifying the attack ahead of time and then fit into it. Being forced to attack from the dark makes you look like the underdog, which is fine if you’re taking a position from someone, but it’s a bad look for a defender expected to hold the land in question long term.”
That forced a laugh out of me. “Now imagine how bad they’re going to look if Clairdon gets linked to the Stone Lion attack.”
“Which is why I don’t think he knows about it.” Agreed Camden. “Or if he does he’s being lied to about the scale. Sadly any attempt to reach out to him is being taken for mind games. My people have been positioned and trained for the attack, for both attacks, but he’s going to take some serious damage.”
Part of me had expected to feel pleased that our enemy was going to be taking the brunt of the Stone Lion invasion, or at least helping but… it just felt wrong. All those people dying at the whims of a psychopath like Spencer, and for what?
I hated him. Camden had opened up more about his life, about Sara, the information broker that betrayed him, about Spencer, about his home. It had added context and depth to the already profound loathing I felt for the other Tolbert. The only person I’d ever hated this much was Travis, and he’d LITERALLY stabbed me in the back.
“So the other centuries have been engaging in lots of mock battles right?” I’d been looking forward to those myself actually, but I knew my people would be needed at the walls, so they’d continued training with Randall, Gabe, and sometimes Abel. They’d gotten frighteningly competent at stopping a charge from a strong opponent, with my cover from the walls, they would be fine during the melee.
He waggled a hand. “I wouldn’t say mock battles. More…codified engagements, but yes. Especially the elite unit, they’ve been crossing swords with Clairdon’s people on and off for months.” He grinned at me knowingly. “Of course, they haven’t been showing off the extreme bump in power from all the wishes. Skills, gear, consumable items, we’ve outfitted my best people with quite a few toys to turn the tide.”
“You’re the expert.” I shrugged. “I haven’t had time to learn large scale tactics, between working, politics, and wishing, I’ve been booked solid. Callie’s had to drag me away from work on the weekends to force me to decompress. Gods bless that girl.”
Benny snickered. “I think that was half for your good and half for hers. You two are both miserable if you don’t get a decent amount of time together. Not that she was the only one who benefited, you’re even worse. A few days is fine, but I don’t want to put up with a Shane that hasn’t seen Callie in more than two months.”
“Yeah, because you and Celine definitely don’t spend every waking moment together.” I said dryly. Turning to Camden, I held out a hand. “Oh, forgot to ask, did you finally get ahold of those elixirs for Jessie? Tomorrow is the big day, and we really don’t want our healer unable to make a difference.”
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He nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a bag. “Vitality.” He said as he passed them over. “Given the coming battle those have become scarce. I had to overpay, so I hope you’re grateful.” Despite his words, I could see his excitement at the prospect of his hired healer ranking up. Jessie had done quite a bit for his forces, and she was likely to be key in our victory.
One of the things I’d noticed in my time as a cultivator was that healing wasn’t nearly as common an ability as one might expect. People didn’t like being left behind or coddled, especially not dramatic and bold people like high ranking Ascendants.
Most of the Ascendants that did heal tended to tweak their ability to make it versatile enough to be used in combat. People like Serenity and the Peace Lord, who were excellent healers but could be just as terrifying on the battle field, were the norm among healers.
Jessie was one of the few people I’d heard of who pushed for a more traditional healing discipline. Sure, she’d tweaked her ability same as most, but she’d altered to to allow overcharge and long term changes. It was still a potent and direct healing method, with beast taming being more of a side benefit.
As someone who was ostensibly a support myself, I was impressed how integral she’d managed to make herself. She had enough Vitality on hand to be an effective support for E-rankers literally as soon as she ranked up, and the further she got with her Vitality, the stronger her ability would become. Not to mention the dividends it would pay in terms of renown.
Thanking Camden, I left Benny talking with him to head to the healer’s tent. Tomorrow was the big day, so I wanted to make sure the last holdout from my main team was ready.
Arriving at the tent, I came to a stop at the flap as I opened it to find a familiar face hanging in front of me upside down. I sighed at Bethy. “Why?” I asked simply, assuming I didn’t need to explain my confusion.
“I’m guarding the door.” She said solemnly. “I’m even wearing pants.” She gestured to the armored leather outfit she had on to replace her usual ball gowns. “Sonia made it for me. Pretty cool, huh?” She seemed smug about the new outfit, and I smiled, rolling my eyes. “Not as cool as yours though. I wish I had a crown.” She added, flipping down to land perfectly on her feet, arms up in a V like a gymnast.
I chuckled at the showmanship. “I’m sure. Now if you don’t mind, your highness. I need to see Jessie. Is she here?”
“She’s in the back.” The Vampire said with a smile. “Chelsea brought Chalk over, and he’s playing with Randall.” I shuddered slightly, feeling sorry for the lower ranked bear. I wasn’t sure what that rabbit considered playing, but I doubted I’d like it. I thanked her and headed for the back of the tent, where a sectioned off part of the space doubled as a break room.
When I entered, Jessie smiled at me, holding up a finger to her lips as she gestured to where my sister had fallen asleep against a wall. I nodded gesturing her out, and then handed her the bag Camden had given me. Looking inside, she nodded excitedly. “Five hundred.” She said happily. “It’s all I need at this point, I’ve been slowly gaining Vitality for the last few months. You mind watching me while I get this done?”
“Sure.” I said with a smile. “Is your soul up to it? Benny said he’s been helping you train it, I know his spiritual calming is WAY more effective because of the rank difference. What are you at?”
She grinned. “Sixty three percent.” She said proudly. “Benny even got up to seventy five percent of blue working with his so often, though a lot of that was probably crafting those blocks. Anyway, I’m higher than he was on his last rank up, I should be fine.”
“Alright.” I said, blowing out a breath. “Let’s do this.” I gestured to a spot in the center of the tent clear of stuff. She nodded, sitting down as Bethy got closer, her expression serious as she stood guard, letting Donuts, Poptarts, and Luggage out to keep an eye on our friend as she pulled out series of small green pills.
Because of the shortage it looked like Camden had gotten five one hundred Vitality pills instead of one five hundred. One by one, Jessie slugged them back, unworried about the weight of them given how little they represented as a percentage of her highest stat.
She went through the process much more smoothly than Benny, as we’d hoped, and though there was some adjusting, she got past it quickly and was able to share her new status with me right away, though there was nothing too surprising. She’d gotten a few hundred points extra, dragging some of her low stats up, probably by virtue of being so behind in so many of them at such a high rank.
Jessica Evans- E-rank.
Ability: Expert Lifeweaving- Infuse living things with life itself and direct their actions while the user's power flows through them. Control has limited effect on sapient entities. Prolonged exposure to life energy may cause lasting effects in controlled subjects.
Might 1425 Impact 65 Fantasy 208 Vitality 8004 Focus 305 Perception 215 Creation 208 Progress to next rank: 10430/100000 Pets:
Wolf named Lily and bear named Randall(Intermediate Beast Bonding with Jessie)
soul strength: Blue- 63% Skills: Intermediate Horticulture, Intermediate First Aid, Minor Herbalism, Minor Flower Arrangement, Minor Beast Taming Mastery, Intermediate Beast Bonding, Intermediate Shape of the Wild
I grinned as I took in the subtle changes, but that wasn’t the end of it. I heard a small rumble as sparks began to come off her, green light leaping up and falling on the small form on her shoulder. The form hopped down, and we dragged a few objects clear as she returned Randall to a bigger if not full sized form. Jessie wasn’t the only one ranking up. Randall was about to hit E-rank, and I for one was excited to see what that would be like.