Wish upon the Stars

The dragon steak was fantastic. Callie actually gave me a bite of  hers (I got something called Infernal Lobster, it was huge but  absolutely delicious) before she finished. Once we were done we ended up  getting cheesecake to wash it down, and that was pretty fantastic too.  As we ate, we caught up with the others about what had happened during  their days.

"So." I asked between bites. "Now that you're  feeling better Valk, what the hell happened? Like...was the Vampire just  waiting in an alley to jump you? How did you even get her attention? Or  is she just like some crazy monster who attacks anyone nearby?"

Perit  snickered at that. "He wishes." The tall woman didn't talk nearly as  much as Nat or her partner, but she clearly felt more comfortable with  us now that we were on the same team.

"I...well, I was  showing off a bit in the street." Valk said with a grimace. "One of my  whips clashed with an opponent's attack and a bolt of energy slipped  free. It didn't hurt her but...it kind of burned a hole in her dress.  She...wasn't pleased." He sounded more embarrassed than upset, despite  having twenty points of his Vitality sucked out. It seemed like an  overreaction to me, but then I didn't care much about clothes. I could  understand being pissed about being randomly attacked by a stranger  though.

Nat rolled her eyes. "This moron shouldn't have  been doing party tricks for a crowd on the street. I can return the  points, so no real loss. Even if losing twenty is a bit of a waste.  That's almost a day of wishes."

Benny blanched. "Wait...is  that enough to take him under a thousand? He's not going to like...die  from that is he?" I hadn't actually considered that myself, but when he  mentioned it I glanced to Zeke worriedly. Valk was a member of the team  even if I didn't know him well, and he seemed like a decent guy.

"No."  Said my uncle firmly. "Stat milestones let your soul know when it can  handle more Impact, which lets it then handle more stats, but once you  rank up your Impact and soul both qualitatively improve." He gestured to  me. "Your soul is orange now, about fifteen percent of the way to  yellow, like it was fifteen percent of the way to orange before. Losing  stats won't change that. And it won't change your Impact, so you'll be  fine."

That made sense. "What about losing Impact though?" I asked cautiously. "What will that do?"

"Kill  you." He said bluntly. "Losing a point of Impact kills you unless you  have some to spare. It's part of why you don't see people trading Impact  with wishes at lower levels. Until you hit S-rank and have Impact to  spare even a single point of it will bring most people below their  threshold. Wishes require fair compensation, what's fair compensation  for dying? Not just normal death either, your soul will shatter."

I  blinked. I knew that Impact wishes existed and could work, but I hadn't  really tried it except for with Benny and Amelia. Thought that brought  up another question. "Wait. I've given mortals abilities before. They  didn't have any Impact and I gave them a point of it, so can I give  someone Impact just from my power?"

"Not possible." He  said firmly. "Impact isn't like other stats. It's more...primal. You  can't MAKE Impact. You can take it, hold it, trade it, but you can't  make it. A mortal does have Impact, like they have other stats, it just  isn't a full point. When you awaken someone as an Ascendant you're  giving them a PORTION of a point of Impact. It works the same way  Enchanting does. You can recover that over time. It pushes them to a  point and then the universe does the rest."

Nodding  slowly, I thought over everything I knew about Impact. "That explains  why the WCP isn't mass producing gods. I know Impact has something to do  with godhood, so aside from soul strength the need for Impact is  probably a limiting factor. I guess stuff like the Moonglow Dew is an  exception, right? If you have more than the rank limit in Impact you  could trade it safely."

He waggled a hand. "Safely is a  bit of an overstatement. Trading Impact HURTS. It's painful and  diminishing. Finding someone willing to do it is difficult, and the cost  is astronomical. You need extremely high stats to arrange an Impact  trade for the most part. Theoretically though, yes, if you can afford  the cost of the wish, someone with more than the baseline Impact for  their rank could survive trading it."

Nat didn't look  surprised by any of this, though Selka (who hadn't really spoken since  we showed up here, presumably out of fear of Zeke) seemed intrigued that  he'd mentioned all that to me. It was probably touching on secrets that  candidates weren't allowed, though he hadn't crossed the line based on  his lack of excruciating pain.

Gesturing to Valk, I asked Abel my last question. "What about the Vampire? Can he consume Impact? Can the others?"

Because  that seemed incredibly broken. I wasn't sure why they wouldn't all be  gods at that point. As expected, he shook his head. "No. Or at least,  not most of them. Whatever Lark is, people believe HE can drain Impact,  though judging by how long he's been in the S-rank not fast or reliably.  Might be something to do with all the Vampires he ate when he was  younger, or at least that's the prevailing theory. Regardless, the other  only do stats, and the number of them varies based on both Vampire and  target."

Nat finally had enough of the remedial nonsense  and groaned aloud. "Oh gods, enough." We all looked at her. "I'm sorry,  but I can only take so much of 'baby's first cultivation journey'. No  offense little cousin. But spiraling over how scary the boogeyman of all  S-rankers is won't accomplish much. If you want to meet a Vampire, I  can introduce you with an apology as a pretext. I'll just offer her a  wish in exchange for her dress. Now can we please get back to some  proper dinner conversation?"

Abel  started snickering around his own steak (some kind of shark or  something). When we all looked at him he swallowed, looking around  innocently. "What? It was funny." When we all kept staring he just  sighed. "Alright, I guess I can share what we did during our day out.  I..." He began with gravitas and suspense. "Got in a fight."

Something  about the delivery, his serious expression, and the wait mixed together  just broke me, and I cracked up, joined by Mel, Callie, Jessie, and  Benny. "What my idiot means to say." Cut off Mel, still chuckling. "Is  that we went out exploring and met up with some of the other contenders.  Abel hit it off with some big burly guy with curly red hair named  Craygen, and after yapping for about an hour they decided to mix it up  in public."

Abel  nodded. "It wasn't that weird of a call, there have been a LOT of  street fights here based on what I saw. People just clear out a circle  and throw down in the middle of the road. Craygen was a pretty tough  guy, material shifting power, turned into some kind of gemstone. Super  durable. It was a solid fight. He's much further into F-rank than I am,  so I was able to really cut loose a bit."

I  was about to ask how that was possible given the tournament  requirements, but then I realized I was making assumptions. We brought  Celine even though she hadn't been in the tournament. Granted, Celine  was much closer to our rank because she had basically bribed Nat to  grind her up to F-rank in that one month gap like I had done for Jessie.  It made sense that the other winners would bring F-rankers who were  stronger than the contestants.

"Anyway.  Craygen lost, obviously, and he invited us to some crazy party tonight.  All the other contestants will be there. Craygen's tourney winner got  the invite from some imperial Ascendant who made it through their own  tournament. It sounds like fun to me but I wasn't sure if you wanted to  go."

It was a  strange reminder that even though I was the legacy and Callie was the  leader, Abel, for all his lack of care about it, was the real winner of  the tournament. He was still our muscle, despite breaking through, and  being able to take on a higher level F-ranker from this crowd just  proved it. This party would be a damn good opportunity to meet some more  of the people around here that were like him.

I  looked at Callie. "I think that's a good idea." She looked pretty much  poleaxed by the statement, knowing my hatred for parties and social  gatherings, and I had to laugh at the expression. "Zeke said that we  shouldn't treat this like a competition. These people aren't our  enemies, even if they think they are. The mission is what matters. If we  can make friends and be on good terms with the other entrants it could  end up being a huge help for later."

She  giggled at my impassioned speech. "Oh I know. I'm just shocked you're  willing to go to a party. I think it's a good idea too." She glanced at  Jessie, Benny, and Celine. "You guys in? Or you Nat, you're welcome of  course. You're part of the team and we'd love to have you along."

My  cousin smiled at her but waved her off. "Nah, I appreciate the invite,  but we've had enough excitement for today." She jerked a thumb at Valk.  "Besides, dipshit over there needs to recover. Even if he looks better  after Agria topped him up losing twenty points of Vitality isn't  something you brush off. He needs bed rest."

I  could have sworn I heard the bald, red bearded man mutter. "Yes MOM."  But if he did he did it so quietly even my Perception barely caught it.  Nat heard it fine though, I guessed, because she whirled to glare at him  and he looked away innocently, actually whistling as he avoided her  gaze. She rolled her eyes at that, but I could tell she thought it was  funny by her smile.

Benny  cut in, answering Callie's question from earlier. I had seem him  whispering to Celine, though they must have used a Stealth Skill to talk  because I didn't hear what was said. "We're in. I want to check out  some of the other entrants, see what we're dealing with. Plus it'll give  me an excuse to stock my new artifacts. I made replacements for a few  of my more outdated pieces of gear, I can't wait to show you guys."

I'd  been wondering about that. He'd mentioned working on some things, but I  wasn't sure if it was done. I never wanted to bring it up. Now that he  was volunteering the information though I was excited to see what was  coming. We decided to invite Cark, though I doubted he would come with  us. Nat offered to watch Cass if he did though, my cousin was becoming  just as enamored of the little girl as the rest of us.

As  we finished dessert and headed back to the inn, I couldn't help but  glance around the restaurant one last time, making sure to remember the  details. I wanted to plan that date with Callie carefully. She'd adored  that dragon steak, and while the place was a little pricey, it was worth  it to see that smile light up her face like it had when she tried her  dinner for the first time. Next time though, I'd get the steak too. That  bite had been way better than my lobster.