I woke up to the sound of pounding on my door. Not urgent pounding, granted, but someone wanted me to wake up. It was annoying and I tried to ignore it, but they were insistent and I eventually dragged myself out of bed, ignoring the annoyed whine of my extremely clingy girlfriend as she burrowed into the covers. When I threw the door open with a glare, I was mostly unsurprised to see Benny waiting for me, Celine looking mildly uncomfortable behind him.

"What!" I snapped, knowing it wasn't anything serious by the smug look on his face. I'm not a morning person almost ever, but being woken up before I've finished sleeping puts me in a bad mood every time. Even for naps, premature wake ups are the best way to piss me off if there's no special reason for it.

He just raised an eyebrow, long since immune to my bad moods. "You've been sleeping for like four hours, and I'm bored. We want to go to the bazaar now."

"I'd like it noted that this wasn't my idea." Celine said, raising a hand to get my attention. "Also hi Shane. I told him to let you sleep, but he's actually kind of excited about the shopping, despite how scared he was earlier when I told him that he'd have to learn to haggle."

Benny glared at her. "Don't TELL him that! Now he's going to think I'm a huge pushover."

"Oh please." I snorted. "That ship sailed years ago." I blew out a breath in annoyance. "I...guess we could go out. I'm up now so I guess it doesn't matter." I looked over my shoulder. "Hey, Cal, you up?" My girlfriend's only response was a hand with the middle finger out poking through the covers. Celine actually giggled at that, and I turned back to Benny. "Yeah, she's up. I wouldn't expect much civility from her for a while though."

There was a series of muffled words croaked out from under the blanket, and Celine went red as Benny blanched. "You can't say that to someone!" He squeaked. "Where did you even learn to talk like that?" Her hand snaked out again and pointed to where I was standing. My best friend glared at me. "You're a bad influence."

I just gaped. "I didn't tell her to say that!" I snapped indignantly. "She's got an even worse mouth than I do sometimes when we're alone." Sulking a bit, I huffed. "Go get ready or whatever, we'll be out in a bit to get going. You check with the others? Do they want to go?"

He shook his head. "Mel and Abel already left to explore, Jessie is cuddling with the animals, Natalie is in her room and Cark and Cass are in for now. I went to check in and I think Cass decided to follow in your footsteps and take a nap. Cark was hanging out reading some book Zeke gave him. Seemed pretty into it. Basically, it'll just be the four of us."

I hadn't seen a spot to put the animals, but this place was an Ascendant inn, so they probably had a basement for it or something. Shutting the door in Benny's face, I walked over to grab some clothes. There was an attached shower behind a hanging tapestry on the wall that I'd only just noticed. I poked Callie as I went by. "You want to join me?" There was some muffled muttering and I winced. "Not only is that not anatomically possible, even if it was I wouldn't do it. How about you wake up a bit while I shower and we can talk later." Her response was a muffled grunt that may or may not have been a four letter word.

By the time I came out, Callie was awake, albeit wearing the blanket like a hood. She'd managed to scrounge up a cup of coffee from somewhere and was sipping it, staring blankly into the distance. I snickered because I'd seen this before. When Callie was really tired, especially after partial naps, her brain kind of overloaded itself after waking up. She would stare into space while her thoughts ran for a few minutes, letting her mind catch up.

Despite that, when I walked in, wearing my armor, her eyes snapped up to me. "Shower." She croaked. And I just laughed and gestured that it was all hers. She downed the coffee like a shot, shook her head back and forth like she was trying to shake start it, and the stumbled into the bathroom, grabbing her clothes on the way. After she left I grabbed my mask off the dresser and popped it on my face, then I started stretching a bit to loosen myself up after that absurdly comfortable nap.

The hot water from the shower had relaxed me a ton too, and the combination meant I needed to warm my muscles up a bit to really feel like I was awake. As I was stretching, the tapestry pushed aside and steam billowed out of the bathroom. "Oh gods." Groaned Callie as she emerged. "I'm going to punch Benny in the throat someday when he isn't looking."

I just laughed. "Don't be so grumpy. The nap would have messed up your sleeping schedule anyway. Besides, I'll make you breakfast to make it up to you. In return make sure he IS looking when you punch him in the throat." She giggled at that as she dried her hair with a towel, not worried about normal water damaging her armor or anything. "Anyway, aside from the spatial rings, you planning to look for anything?"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

She gave a hum of consideration. "I think I might look into some weapons myself. I raided the pavilion coffers before we left, so we'd have enough for rings, but I should have some leftovers for a dagger or something. My personal stash I'm saving for wishes, but I think it's about time for me arm up. If you remember I can imbue my darkness into items and control them like shadows. I did it with my bike, though it took years of imbuing and special materials."

"Ah." I said, understanding her point. "You've improved. Your new rank and all the stats will make it easier. Plus I bet having a smaller target would help too. Will you need to find a dagger with special materials for that? Or can you just brute force it with anything darkness related." I wasn't sure even a market this big would have her weapons if they were too rare.

She grinned at me. "Pretty much. I just...gods Shane, I never thought I'd be this strong at this age. It would have taken me YEARS in Valen to get to F-rank, if I ever did. I might have been able to do it in Rajak if I'd left with my dad originally, but I'd have basically been selling my soul. Now not only am I an F-ranker with a TERRIFYING new ability, I have a whole team of friends and I'm STILL growing. By this time next year I might be at E-rank at this rate!"

I wanted to tell her not to jump the gun but...she wasn't wrong. I didn't think it would be quite that fast. but still I could see her point. "So...you're happy then?" She gave me a flat look and I held up my hands. "Ok, forget I asked. I know we just talked about this. I just worry. I don't want you to regret coming with me."

She rolled her eyes. "You're such an idiot about some stuff. You're lucky you're so cute. Not much in that giant head of yours."

It was my turn to flip her off, to which she just giggled, then finished brushing her hair and dragged me out of the room. We met up with Benny and Celine in the downstairs entryway, and then the four of us set out to explore the city. As a cheat, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the map that led us here, but it didn't actually help at all. Lots of streets and buildings but nothing was labeled.

"Nice try." Said Zeke's voice from behind me. I jumped out of my skin, whirling to find my uncle leaning against the wall behind us. He gave a lazy wave.

"What are you doing out here Zeke?" I asked incredulously. "You're usually pretty hands off. Do you have something you wanted to pick up?"

He sighed. "This place has way too many C and B-rankers. I can cross a planet in a blink, but that only matters if my abilities are leagues above everyone else. If two equally strong B-rankers are attacking someone, the closest wins. Don't want to risk you pissing off someone who might be a genuine threat. After that big show I put on I figure I should stick close."

That hadn't occurred to me, but it seemed like a sensible precaution. "The mask won't work on high rankers. Right." I paused for a second. "Wait...is this mask made from a person? I know your other ones are..."

He snickered. "No. I have a limit to how many greater masks I can make. I can add little buffs and stuff to them with my Voltomancy easily enough, but soul binding a mask is complicated and time consuming, and I can't sustain too many of them. Thirteen at a time, give or take. I can make as many lesser masks as I want from lower ranked Ascendants, but I usually don't bother."

"That's a super creepy power." Said Benny matter of factly. "Just in case you didn't know. At least they're masks made of porcelain and not like...actual faces."

Zeke nodded solemnly. "Even I have limits. Anyway, you're all looking for the marketplace. What specifically were you hoping to find? I know spatial rings, but I also know Shane wanted a weapon. What kind of weapon did you settle on? I can point you in the right direction. Since I'm with you and don't feel like wandering around for hours it's only really helping myself."

I nodded. "I've been waffling, but I decided on a specific type of staff that has the properties I like. It's called a Bang. Some crazy Ascendant with a monkey trait used to use one a long time ago. It's a short staff made of wood with long iron caps on both ends. Small, heavy, and with good spin, plus it's compact and easy to carry on my back. There are some martial arts that use that kind of weapon, so I can pick up some new Skills with it and keep a similar style of combat."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I know the guy you mean. Way before my time obviously, but I think the original Wishmaster knew him. Gods don't age at all as far as I know, and he's been around a LONG time. Not that I can swear to it, I've only met the old man a few times. He likes to spoil the grandkids but attendants aren't usually allowed near him. Me and Eli were close so he got an exception made."

I stared at him in shock. "You...met the Wishmaster. The original? What was he like? I always figured he'd be really scary."

"He wasn't." He said simply. "But because of that...he was. Being a god and being able to hide your presence so thoroughly you seem like a normal old man? He looks to be in his fifties probably, and the one time I met him. I couldn't tell. Not based on the way he moved, or talked, or even his senses. He just felt...regular. It was extremely jarring, because I knew he could atomize me with a strong thought."

He trailed off, seeming distracted, so I focused back on the task at hand. "We can talk about that later. For now, let's see if we can find my weapon. I assume you have a place in mind?" The grin he gave me in response made me a bit worried, honestly. I got the feeling this was going to be a wild kind of place.