Wish upon the Stars chapter 357

I slept for like nine hours. It was amazing. I didn't even tweak my  back sleeping on the training room floor because of my high Vitality.  The luxury of just slumping down and sawing logs like a layabout was  just...perfect. It felt so good to have some downtime that I decided not  to work on my wishes or training until later in the day today, so I  could ride the relaxation wave through the morning.

Hopping  to my feet, I set off for the kitchen, shooting Benny a text to tell  him we'd be doing breakfast here before we went out for the day, and  starting the process of making eggs benedict. I was feeling fancy this  morning, and I was going to show off a bit.

Callie, of  course, basically floated into the kitchen on cartoon smell  illustrations, and when she saw what I was making she squealed and  tackled me. "You're making breakfast! You've been so busy lately its  been cereal and premade meals. Real eggs benedict. I think I'm in love."

"With  me or the eggs?" I said with mock concern. "Because the former has been  established, and the latter might give me a complex. I refuse to share  your affections with breakfast food."

She gave an  exaggerated wince. "Oooh, sorry. Breakfast had me first. You're pretty  decent, but if I have to choose I'm afraid breakfast and I have too much  history to ignore." She winked at me. "Besides, are you telling me I  don't have to  with long hot showers for your affections?"

I  shot her a grin. "I'm happy to share any time." I looked around for  Cass before I said it, because I absolutely didn't want another 'why  Callie and Shane do things you can't know about' discussion.

Sadly,  it wasn't to be. She just patted my cheek fondly, resting her head  against my back and putting her arms around me. "Sorry love, you shower  for way too long. It would ruin my hair. Even Vitality can only prevent  so much dehydration. Maybe if you can cut down your shower time a bit."  At my appalled look she just giggled. "I thought so. Anyway, what's the  big plan for today? You're having a guys day out with Benny right?  Because Jessie and I are hitting a flower nursery and a swap meet."

"One  thing for each of you huh?" I said wryly. "Does she know the very  concept of loot turns you into a drooling lunatic? Because if I were her  I'd keep you on a leash." She wasn't able to give her undoubtedly  suggestive response though, because she was cut off by Cass barreling  into the room excitedly.

"Shane is cooking!" She cheered.  "I love your food! I'm so sick of eating cereal all the time. What are  we having?" The little girl was practically bouncing in place as she  grilled me on what I was making, but she too was interrupted as her  brother strolled in behind her and pushed her lightly toward the table.

He  gave her a stern look. "Cassidy, let Shane cook. I'm sure you'll like  whatever it is we're having. It's not nice to bother him while he's in  the middle of cooking."

"But Callie is doing it!" She  whined loudly. "She's giving him a hug and he doesn't even care. My  questions are probably way less distracting than that." I snickered  slightly at the comment as Callie groaned softly and let me go, turning  to walk over and plop down in a seat next to Cass.

She  gave the younger girl a warm smile. "I was just saying good morning. We  should let him cook for now. He's making eggs benedict, and that's  really good, I think you're gonna love it. So, I didn't see you  yesterday? Do anything fun with Tony and your Uncle Zeke?"

The  girl gave a put upon sigh, informing her that Zeke had been busy and  that Cark wasn't nearly as fun, and then giving a thorough if slightly  disjointed account of her entire day, skipping around to different parts  when they were more entertaining. By the time Benny made it to the  kitchen, she was telling us about the new episode of her favorite  cartoon for the third time, this time from the point of view of a side  character with a cute dog that she really liked.

My best  friend wandered in but didn't interrupt, yawning and dropping into a  chair before resting his head on the table and starting to snore. Sadly  for him, I finished cooking about then, and so I woke him up by slamming  a plate down in front of him, startling him so much he fell out of his  chair with a shout of alarm, sending Cass and Callie both into a fit of  giggles, though my girlfriend had the decency to try to hide it at  least.

"So." I said as he picked himself up, glaring at  me. "Thought we could hit a couple local markets to look for some stuff  for your Inventing. You haven't made anything new in a while, and I know  you still have some cash from working that job to pay me." Since he'd  been paying off wishes with attacks when I needed them, he had a small  stockpile of cash, which would work well for buying Inventing materials.

He  took a bite of the benedict, mollified by the delicious taste, and  nodded thoughtfully before swallowing. "Yeah, I could probably use some  new gear. Some of my merged artifacts are losing their punch. Some of  them are great and plenty useful still, but stuff like the gut rope are  pretty far past their best buy date. Plus with my Inventing at  Intermediate I have a bit more influence on what I get, and I can work  with much better materials. Where are we going to look around?"

I  shrugged. "Not sure, but I asked around and heard about a few places.  Maybe junk island would be fun. It sounds like an interesting place."

We  chatted a bit longer, but Cass finished eating and got bored, wandering  away with Cark trailing after her, lecturing her about not saying thank  you as she ignored him as usual. Jessie had shown up and grabbed a  plate, presumably after a bad night, because her face looked haggard and  her eyes ringed with dark circles. She ate quickly and then went to go  get ready.

Callie finished last, having taken her time to  enjoy the meal, as well as having seconds, but as she finished she  rinsed her plate and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Have fun on  your day off. Try to relax a bit. I know I can't convince you not to  train later, and I wouldn't if I could, but rest is an important part of  improvement, even Abel admits that."

I grinned at her. "I know. I promise we'll waste tons of time and do many things that are pointless and unnecessary today."

"Well."  She said wryly. "As long as you're sure." She looked at Benny. "Look  out for him for me? You know how he tends to get into trouble. I swear  he can't leave the house without getting wrapped up in some kind of dark  conspiracy. " She giggled at my affronted look and bolted from the room  before I could protest, leaving me to sulk as I finished my own food.

Benny  looked...sad. I cursed at myself, because us being affectionate  probably made his own situation harder. Not that it was something I did  on purpose. It just...kind of happened. Shoveling my food in I stood up  abruptly, announcing while still chewing. "Alright. Time for us to go.  We need to get to the bus stop since Jessie is going with Callie."

My  best friend half grimaced half laughed at me talking with a full mouth,  and started teasing me as we took off. We walked to the bus like we had  as kids, talking about anything but his relationship or cultivation,  which admittedly didn't leave many options in our current lives.

When  we arrived at junk island, I had to admit the place was interesting. It  was an entire closed off island on a lake, full of hundreds of run down  shacks and buildings piled with random junk.

There were  weapons, tires, machines, appliances, furniture, and dozens of other  things. Some of it was old and looked valuable, some was just trash.  Some of it was heavy in the way that let me know it had Impact, even  though visually it looked se destroyed as to be completely worthless.

Benny  dove into the shopping with gusto, picking up items and exclaiming  excitedly what they were, or trying to puzzle it out based on context.  His Inventing Mastery was a wish granted Skill, so he had an absurd  foundation, but that only went up to Beginner, because you had to tweak  skills in Intermediate to your own use to progress them, so wishing for  Intermediate Skills did more harm than good.

"So."  I said as we sifted through random junk. "Any ideas on what you're  hoping for? I know you can only really do so much to predict what the  outcome will be, but you have to have something in mind right? For what  would help you most?" Inventing was annoying to deal with, but even if  he couldn't control much about what he made, he could predict what  certain things would do based on the attributes of the material I was  pretty sure.

He  shrugged. "If I could pick, I'd probably go with some kind of mobility  artifact. I'm thinking I'll try using this." He held up what looked like  a corroded dark yellow metal wrench. "I'm almost positive this is a  gravity artifact of some kind. It's so busted and rotted through it  probably won't ever function again, but the best thing about Inventing  is almost anything can be used in production."

I  reached out and took it, noting that it was heavier than expected. "So  what? Just melt it down and throw it in with some other stuff?I'm not  sure if I love the randomness of Inventing or hate it."

"Tell  me about it." Chuckled my friend. "But there's something...amazing  about it. Mad Science is just pure chaos. Sure, you can make something  useless or even dangerous, but really, that's the fun. You're offering  your fate up to the universe, putting yourself at the mercy of the whims  of random chance. Isn't that what being an Ascendant is about? Seeing  where the future takes you? Getting swept along by the current?"

I  nodded contemplatively. "That's a decent point. I can see the appeal,  and I know you can make some pretty crazy stuff. Stuff that enchanting  wouldn't be able to make at anywhere near the same level. The randomness  is balanced out by power. Risk and reward. I guess that is kind of a  microcosm of what it means to be a cultivator."

He  pocketed the wrench, paying the stall owner a few chits, and then we  moved on. We spent hours there, combing through garbage to find a few  worthwhile items. Benny spent a surprisingly small amount of money,  given how hard some of the stuff was to find the people selling it  didn't always know what it was worth. They were here to bulk sell random  trash, if some people got lucky that was on them.

Once  we finished shopping we went out for dinner, eating somewhere relaxing  and then heading home to begin training and working for the day. The bus  ride back was just pleasant. We'd relaxed and calmed down, let  ourselves recharge, and not it was time to get back to the grind. With  the downtime behind us it was almost exciting to get back to training,  and I couldn't wait to see what my next skill would be.

Once  we got back Benny did his wishes, five tranq blows for twenty points of  might, bringing him up to two hundred twenty nine Might and five  hundred eighty three total stats. With that out of the way we each set  off to do our own thing. I was happy for Benny especially. Seeing him so  excited about Inventing instead of worrying about Celine was a nice  change. Plus it would be cool to see what he came up with.