Four months flew by in the blink of an eye. I spent most of my time enjoying the relaxing trip with my friends, doing only the bare minimum for wish granting per day. I got another ten thousand points total. Eighty four hundred for my wishes and another sixteen hundred from pure renown.

Which was, admittedly, less than expected. But we were pretty sure the huge bump after the games combined with the big dip was a testament to the capabilities of the WCP and the five faction alliance. They had maximized the spread of my exploits right off the bat, so I was getting relatively fewer rollover stats.

I’d put five thousand into Perception, bringing it up to just over ten thousand five hundred, and then twenty five hundred each into Creation and Focus, bringing creation up over ten thousand and Focus up to just under nine thousand (ten thousand fifty four and eight thousand nine hundred twenty, respectively) for a grand total of sixty two thousand, eight hundred and fifteen.

The rest of the time I’d spent with my friends, my sister, and my fiancee, working out, eating good food, and playing the occasional game of pool. We also enjoyed plenty of time in an ACTUAL pool, with the sole exception of Abel, who had dedicated most of his time to training.

Which was why, as we approached Callus, Callie, Benny, Abel, Mel, and I were all gathered in one of the big restaurants celebrating, because my mentor had officially created his very own Solid Path.

“It’s impressive.” Admitted Benny as he cut into a juicy steak. “I’m just saying, why Ragam? Why not incorporate your Path of Blood into your ability in one shot, then you’d be a half step towards making your Chronicle like Shane is.”

Abel just shook his head, swallowing the bite of lobster he’d been chewing. “Because there’s no rush. I’m ages away from B-rank. I’ll take it one step at a time. My Path of the Bloody Fist works well. I still need to percolate on how to integrate it into my ability. Not to mention my Ragam can keep ranking up past my current rank.”

Benny turned to me. “That’s a good point, actually. Why didn’t you do that? Your Path of the Doom Sovereign is an ability so it’s stuck at your rank. Wouldn’t it be stronger if you got it up higher?”

“Yes.” I said bluntly. “But I wasn’t sure I could. Unique Skills have odd and sometimes impossible requirements for ranking up. The higher I go the higher the chance I won’t be able to reinvent the wheel again. Not to mention given the add ons I kept slapping on it to rank up the chances of me being able to form a Chronicle at all would have been slim. At this point I'm mostly cleaning up the Skill to prep for B-rank and it's slow going.”

Abel nodded. “My Path and Skill are perfectly compatible and very stable, so that's not a concern for me. Though I'm looking forward to sparring with Shane.”

“You better be looking through a telescope.” Said Callie threateningly. “I'm getting married in less than a week, and if you beat up my fiance before my wedding and it screws up my pictures, I'm going to jettison you into the sun.”

He swallowed audibly, and not because he was eating food. “Alright, damn. You don’t have to be mean about it.”

“Yes.” said Callie sharply. “Yes I do. Because you fight anyone for any reason and you don’t listen.” Her face brightened into a beaming smile. “But congratulations on the new Path, that’s super impressive.”

Abel stared at her in mild terror before turning to look at me. “My condolences for the rest of your life.”

I just chuckled. Callie glared at me, but I just winked back and she deflated a bit. She was really stressed about the wedding, having been working herself to the bone with the planning (I tried to help, but was informed I have terrible taste and am too edgy, whatever that means) and I had to keep reminding her to take a breath.

Sending some reassurance through the bond, I also pushed Piece of Mind to activate, shoving it toward her. She let it kick in, making a parallel to worry about wedding stuff while she relaxed, a compromise we’d come up with when she’d started burning herself out.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Sorry.” She said after the parallel took over. “I’m a little tense. Seriously Abel, Solid Path is a huge achievement. You been thinking of any new techniques?”

My mentor’s face lit up. “I have, actually. I got some inspiration from Shane and the Star Queen. I’m trying to create a cohesive set of Ragam techniques culminating in a transformation. It’s been pretty tough coming up with the moves though. Techniques are hard work, my Cicada Stacking Step was the result of LOTS of trial and error over a very long period of time.”

Benny nodded. “It’s not a walk in the park, trust me. My Dance of the Dracolich is still forming. Without Sasha’s advice I doubt I’d have gotten this far. Have you tried a change in environment?”

“Not really in the cards for me.” Abel grimaced. “Not here at least. When we get back to Callus I might take a trip into one of the forests and fight an E-ranked beast. There are a few of them lording over some of the more extreme areas of the planet.”

I nodded thoughtfully. “I’ve heard stories.” I admitted. “The Polar Cat King, the Berserk Volcano Ape. Probably a few more that I don’t know about. But they’ve been around for ages. Those areas are off limits for a reason. I’m not worried about any E-ranker from Callus in terms of humans, but I bet some of those beast kings are actually dangerous.”

Mel sighed. “That’s what I told him. But he never listens to anyone. I was planning to stop by the Beast Lord Garden with Jessie. If anyone will have a dossier on what those monsters can do it would be the Beast Queen.”

“I don’t want dossiers.” Complained Abel in a voice that told me this wasn’t the first time they’d had this argument. “It defeats the purpose. I need to go out there and push myself. Bleed and get bled. If I know all their moves ahead of time there’s no pressure. I’m on the Path of the Bloody Fist, not the Path of Slaughter.”

Oddly, I didn’t need to ask what that meant. I’d been around Abel long enough to understand the difference. Blood was earned through hard work and dedication. Killing wasn’t the point of Abel’s Path (though he was hardly shy about it). He was just as happy shedding his own blood as someone else’s. The point was to push himself beyond his limits. It was closer to a Path of War than Slaughter.

She threw up her hands. “Yes, but you can’t invent a new martial arts form if you’re DEAD. I’ll read the dossiers and wait nearby. If you run into trouble I can just step in to help.”

“No safety nets.” He said stubbornly. “It’ll weaken my resolve. If I can’t beat up some giant lava monkey I don’t deserve to create a technique.” Apparently he was going after the Volcano Ape. That was good to know.

Mel looked unhappy, but not as much as I’d expected. I was pretty sure she was getting more from their bond than we could pick up from the surface conversation. If I had to guess, part of the reason he was choosing the Ape was that it was a fire attribute creature. He was probably planning to have something made for her from the remains.

As I’d seen from watching Randall rank up, beasts didn’t incorporate their stats the same way humans did, they were more a part of their bodies. Much like naturally occuring runes in gems, certain beast materials would have naturally occurring runes that could be used to make gear.

We all had top notch armor from Camden’s cousin, but you could make foci like a staff or like the sphere we’d gotten for Mel ages ago that could amplify her fire attacks.

“Wait until after the wedding, please.” Pleaded Callie. “You’re a groomsman, and it’ll really ruin the atmosphere if you get your face burned off by molten monkey shit. I’ve heard stories about that Ape. It’s a monster. Granted, so are you, but I’d be shocked if it doesn’t get in a few licks before you put it down.”

Abel raised an eyebrow. “Lot to unpack there.” He said slowly. “I feel like that was an insult wrapped in a compliment wrapped in an insult wrapped in a command.”

“It’s like the turducken of comments.” I said wisely. They all just looked at me blankly. “It’s a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey.” I clarified. “I learned how to make it from a cookbook I bought on Tricorn.” I’d gone back to old Arble’s place to see the S-ranker, but he hadn’t been in, so I just grabbed some random books before leaving.

My mentor shook his head. “Some things aren’t meant to be attempted.”

“You’re talking about fighting an ancient Volcano monster to create a technique that can alter reality!” I protested.

Benny clicked his tongue. “He’s right Shane. Some things are just unnatural.”

“How am I the bad guy here?” I said in exasperation. “I was just talking about a recipe I found. Callie, back me up.”

I turned to find her glaring at me suspiciously. “You’ve never fed me any weird recipes like that, right?” She said slowly. “Because I’m not okay with being your guinea pig as you commit culinary violations to the natural order.”

Laughing at my crestfallen expression, Abel held up a hand. “Alright, stop picking on him. He might drop the whole table into a Pit of Despair or something.”

“I would never do that.” I said indignantly. “I’d poison you. Bit of Touch of Tears inside your food. Not enough to be noticeable, but it would only take a little bit entering your stomach to cause some serious pain.” I smirked at all of them. “Of course, I’d have to distract you all from the table somehow to do it. Maybe by throwing a huge fit about something innocuous.” I glanced slyly at my best friend. “Hey Benny, how’s that steak?”

My friend’s face went white and he dropped his fork. I burst out laughing as Abel glanced uneasily at his lobster. Callie just giggled. “He’s messing with you.” She said reassuringly. “I’d have sensed that, and he wouldn’t do it to me in the first place. Your meals are safe.”

“Spoilsport.” I said with a grin. “Look how scared they were. I wanted to see them squirm for a bit longer.”

Benny glared at me. “You’re not helping your case here. Mutant combo birds, poisoning steak, your cooking is becoming more and more suspicious.”

“Then don’t eat it.” I shrugged. “I don’t care if you eat my food. I like what I make and so does Callie. You can eat nutrition bricks for all I care. I’m sure your old food fabricator is in working order. I’ll have your folks send it over when we land.”

The horror on his face was exactly what I was looking for, and I dug back into my beef stroganoff with relish (the sensation, not the condiment, I wasn’t a monster). It was a bluff of course, I’d still cook for him when I had the time, but it was funny seeing how put out he got.

Laughing at my best friend’s misfortune, everyone left him to stew as we switched back to talking about Abel’s technique plans and enjoyed our meals. We were almost home, and this had been a nice end to a peaceful trip. Once we set foot back on Callus, we’d be completely swamped. I was really looking forward to it.