When Zeke had mentioned the bazaar, I had assumed we would be attending some small gathering of stalls. Maybe some tents, a few blankets on the ground. The word invoked images of a temporary market that contained equally temporary sales locations. What we actually ended up walking into was...not that.

For one thing I felt...heavier. Like I was under pressure I hadn't been before. It was a strange feeling to experience, like I was suffocating even as I took a deep breath. Once I realized I was panicking about nothing and forced myself to calm down the panicked sensation went away, though the weight remained. For another thing though, the place we'd ended up was...amazing.

The close night sky in the portal made much more sense once I got to view it up close, since we were literally IN space. It looked like someone had torn a city (a very large one mind you) out of the ground and let it float among the stars. Buildings extended for as far as the eye could see, all of varying shapes and styles. "This is...temporary?" I said in shock. This place was just a random camp set up to wait on the glade, but it looked like it had taken centuries to build.

Zeke snorted. "They've probably got a high ranking Architect around somewhere. I've seen variations of that ability that can make entire countries with a snap of their fingers. There are a bunch of ways to do it. Though out in space like this they either had the rock shipped out or they hired one of the Fantasy based variants. The latter would be pretty damn expensive though."

There was a sound as a man cleared his throat, and we turned to see a short, burly man with curly dark hair and horns. His eyes were goat eyes and he had a small patch of facial hair that went well with his annoyed expression somehow. He held out a hand. "My tip?"

Rolling his eyes, my uncle started muttering something about Waywalkers, and fished out a chit he flipped to the goat man. The other ascendant caught the chit, then made a show of biting it while staring at Zeke, before nodding and vanishing into thin air in a blink. I was guessing since Zeke had been transported too, tipping wasn't a breach of contract, but I wasn't going to ask in case he'd just managed to slip that by the geass by not thinking about it.

"So...we're here." Said Callie slowly. "Wherever here is. Does this place have a name?" She looked around excitedly. "Actually, I can find out on my own. I should try out my new powers here. I can use them to spy on everyone around here to figure out all the important info. Learn the ins and outs of the city."

She stepped toward a wall, but Zeke held up a hand. "Don't!" He said quickly. When she stopped to give him a confused look he just sighed. "Don't forget that your ability, while amazing, IS Perception based. Anyone with a sufficiently high Perception can detect you even in the shadows. This place is full of random elders and faction management. Given the low standard of the cluster, I'm guessing that there won't be many B-rankers, if any, but a C or D-ranker is more than up to noticing you."

Wincing slightly she stepped away from the wall. "Ah. And you can't protect me because I'm not your charge. Speaking of, D-rank is the new level of protection you can offer right? If we run into any E-rankers and piss them off we're screwed." She sounded about as worried as I felt.

Zeke just waved it off. "Oh sure, but there won't be any here. Sending an E-ranker to this place would be stupid. Everyone else would be stronger, or weaker, depending on if they were entrants. With the Glade blocking anyone below or over F-rank, and any protectors being notably powerful, most of the people will be C-rank. Only lower middle class factions will send B-rankers. Strong enough to have them but weak enough not to trust their reputation to protect their people."

That seemed to put Callie back on balance. "That makes sense. This whole thing is its own kind of challenge. The chaperones will be seen as expressions of both power and confidence. Won't having you here make us seem weak though? You're WAY overkill for this place."

"Nah." Said my uncle casually. "I'm his sole protector, technically speaking. Stuff like this tends to be a gray area for candidates. If anything having a protector like me is bound to impress. Most candidates get rookies like her." He jabbed a thumb as Selka, who was standing next to a calm but interested Nat.

The other guardian bristled. "I'll have you know that I'm a talented combatant. You don't get chosen to be guardian unless you can handle yourself. Don't treat me like some punk kid."

Zeke just grinned maliciously. "Awww, it thinks it's dangerous. How cute. Here's the thing though, you ARE some punk kid. It becomes exponentially harder to rank up as you move up. You may never reach B-rank, and even if you do it'll take you absurd amounts of time to reach the point I'm at in B-rank. By that time I'll probably be an A-ranker." He paused. "Or dead. I might just be dead. Either way, respect your elders kid."

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Her glare was almost funny, until I snickered and she turned it on me, at which point I shut up. "Anyway." Said Callie firmly, regaining attention. "Where are we going? Do we have some sort of...faction safehouse here? Are there other WCP branches here? Can we trust them if there are?"

"There are, and we can't." My uncle said firmly. "I don't know if there are other candidates, though if there are I would wager not many. Regardless, the WCP isn't cohesive enough for that. Maybe if it was another member of your branch, but there's no way to know at the moment. Too many people for me to keep track of, so I can't even check. Not that my geass would allow it."

Callie scowled. "So...maybe a hotel or something? Do we even have the money for that?" I hadn't paid much attention to joint funds lately, but I knew I personally was just short four and a half E-rank coins. I was betting that would NOT be enough.

Zeke just gave her a pitying look. "Did you forget we're traveling with a pair of wishmaster candidates? They're basically walking piggy banks. You can trade wishes for nearly anything." He pointed over at Nat and I and I scowled at him in annoyance.

"Hey!" I said loudly. He just raised an eyebrow at me. I looked away, grumbling to myself. "You could be nicer about it, you know. I'm not just some asset to pay for things."

"You're a PAIN in my asset." He drawled. "But we can figure out where to go with an easy trick of the trade. I wish we had the location of a safe place to stay." I blinked at him. Zeke had never wished for anything from me. I could see how it was within his geass, since he needed a place to stay too. He paused as the words flowed across my vision. "Oh, payment." He pulled out a chit and flicked it to me. An F-ranked chit, which was pretty decent.

Wish detected. Grant wish? I confirmed, accepting the point cost which was much lower than my usual wishes these days. There was a flash of electricity and I realized why there had been Creation points folded in. A piece of paper covered in a spidery scrawl flashed into existence, a map that showed all the nearby areas, including a single neatly marked X off to on side, with a caption over it saying. "Daylight Dreamer Inn."

I grinned at him. "That's a good idea. I take it you want me to get more used to using my Wishes as an asset now that I'm stronger?'

He nodded amiably. "Yup. There will probably be another candidate or two around here, given the sheer scope of a cluster wide search. Even candidates who don't travel horizontally among similar scale worlds like Natalie probably got swept up in this mess."

Clapping me on the shoulder, he chuckled lightly. "More candidates means that your Wishes are both more and less valuable. You can use them more freely, but they aren't quite as limited a commodity as they used to be. You'll need to adjust to the new environment. Granted, it's pretty specific to places like this, but the Ruined Soul Temple will be one of those locations as well, so it's something to get used to."

I nodded, following Callie as she grabbed the map from Zeke and set off in a direction. Benny stepped up next to me. "This place is nuts, right?" He said, gesturing around us. "Because I thought Rajak was big, but this place has to be like...half the size, and they put it together short term as a place to hang out and wait? Architect or no that's insane."

"Yeah." I murmured back. "I feel that. I think I feel...slower here. Weaker maybe? Which is nuts because my stats are higher. This must be a higher level area than our planet. Probably just D-rank though. If we were more than a rank up right now I assume it would be much more obvious."

Zeke, who was ahead of us, turned to nod. "Yeah, D-rank. Since your planet is a psuedo D-rank world anyway it's less difference than you would expect. It won't have much effect at this level. Just a bit of suppression and a change to the strength of your abilities. Nothing too noticeable with all the recent upgrades."

"It's true." Celine said solemnly. "I've been on higher ranked planets before. Your combat efficiency doesn't drop much, considering it's a linear change across the board. The one difference is that the surrounding environment tends to be harder to damage. I doubt it would be a simple thing to destroy a building here, if we were even capable of doing so."

Which seemed like a big change from our psuedo D-rank planet, but then again, this place was much smaller. Maybe the Impact was more condensed here. Suffice to say I could understand why they didn't let anyone under F-rank off the planet. While this was only mildly stifling for us, I got the feeling that with twenty less Impact it would be much more difficult to bear with, even if still possible.

Finally we came to a stop in front of a large, tower like building. With cream colored walls and red tiled roof, the place looked like a vacation destination more than a run of the mill inn, but it was definitely upscale enough to be a feasible place to stay. Zeke looked it over carefully before nodding. "Decent security and top notch stealth. Probably a high C-ranker running the place. Not perfect but more than enough for our purposes."

I was curious how it had top notch stealth when we found it so easily, but I was sure I wouldn't care about the answer anyway. He said it was fine and I trusted his judgement. So we stepped inside, strolling up to the counter. The girl behind it had black hair in a ponytail, pale skin, and dark lips with a single ring in them. Her eyes were ringed with dark liner, and she mostly ignored us as we approached, engrossed in a leather bound book.

Knocking on the counter, I cleared my throat. She looked up. "I'm hoping to talk to your boss about accommodations." She pointed above her head at sign with pricing on it before returning to her read. Must be a fascinating story. I scanned the values and sure enough, WAY too many chits. I grinned, knocking again. "Tell them we're from the WCP. And we're willing to trade wishes." It was satisfying how quick she slammed the book shut. It's nice to be taken seriously.