Wish upon the Stars chapter 300

With one wish remaining for the day, I was still feeling pretty  secure as we headed back down to Doomtown. "So." Said Benny as we  walked. "Tell me about this place? What did you all do for the last  week? I hope this wasn't some excuse for a second vacation, because if I  was training my ass off while you were lounging on a beach somewhere  I'm going to be pretty pissed."

I cracked up at the beach  remark, because we'd gone to the beach twice, and could have died both  times. "Yes to the beach no to the lounging. We spent most of the time  down here either fighting or doing crazy training exercises that would  have probably killed anyone else. Still, we've gotten a lot stronger.  You'll see when we take part in the tournament. Speaking of stronger,  Agria, how you doing over there?" I shouted over to Jessie, who was  seated on Randall's back, swaying slightly as he walked.

She  shook her head hard, noticing us seemingly for the first time. "Huh?  Oh, sorry...this is...intense. I felt some level of connection with my  ravens during the scavenger hunt, but this feels like...more. I feel  stronger now, or at least able to draw on more strength. I think my  Might will increase over time. Plus my life energy is pouring through  the link. It feels like Randall is constantly being infused and growing  too, though VERY slowly."

I'd considered that possibility,  but she made it sound a bit more impressive than I expected. Having a  way to get stronger like that was amazing. "You think he'll get to  E-rank eventually?" That would be way more impressive than I had  expected from that kind of Skill. It was only at the Beginner level, and  being able to make her companion rank up like that would be HUGE.

Jessie  just giggled. "Gods no. At least not anytime soon. There's a huge gap  between ranks. Randall's Vitality will slowly rise over time, but unless  I break through to F-rank and rank up the Bond there's no way it'll get  that far. Still, the effects will get more impressive as I get  stronger. This is amazing, it'll definitely cover for my specializing in  healing."

"How is it so strong? Gradual growth without  training is crazy." I couldn't hide the shock and slight envy in my  voice. She'd gotten insanely lucky. "I mean, I'm glad you're getting so  much out of it, but still, I can't believe a beginner Skill gives so  much benefit."

She just laughed again. "It's resonance  between the Bond and my ability. They're extremely compatible. I could  probably synergize them at my next rank up if I wanted, but I'm staying  focused on healing personally. Randall will handle the attack and  defense stuff. Plus it's less impressive than it sounds. Randall will  grow VERY slowly, probably slower than he would with just regular  exposure to people, and my Might won't ever get higher than his, and  probably won't even catch up."

Knowing there were limits  helped a bit, but still, Jessie was going to benefit from this a ton.  Her lifeweaver ability really gave her a ton of utility. It was  shockingly powerful for our rank. I know if her Vitality hadn't been so  overwhelmingly high for her rank she never would have gotten such an  overpowered ability, but it was still staggering. I was sure someone had  studied what combinations of Skills and stats unlocked what, but I  doubted anyone had managed to synergize Jessie's exact Skills with such a  high percentage of Vitality.

It made some sense that it  would be so strong though. The combined effects of her having  frightening amounts of Vitality to fuel it and the fact that the ability  was almost exclusively based on that one stat harmonized to create a  limited but monstrous power. With Randall to cover for her one weakness  in the form of low battle potential, there was no telling how far Jessie  could go, especially with me here to keep funneling Vitality points to  her. If she wanted to resurrect her brother, I suspected she was  definitely headed in the right direction.

Benny,  meanwhile, looked exasperated. "I should have waited before I wished for  my ability. Oh well, doesn't matter. With my Inventing at Intermediate I  can begin to slowly steer the basic direction I want my created objects  to have. Not by much, but I can at least decide on a general vibe. I  might not have Agria's overpowered ability, but my own is only limited  by the fantastic items I can make. I won't let the rest of you leave me  in the dust."

Personally I was pretty sure that  strengthening his soul was going to be far more important than the raw  stats Jessie might be accruing, but he'd figure that out on his own  eventually. I'd seen huge dividends from my soul strengthening over  time, and definitely planned to get a belt like that if I could find  one. It would be insanely useful for me, even if not quite as useful as  it was for Benny.

I didn't know how not integrating it  like he did would alter the effects, but I suspected it would definitely  do so. We kept talking like that as we walked, discussing how they  might improve, how we had already improved, and where we might go as a  group in the future. The Moonsong Glade was going to be a huge  opportunity for all of us, especially Jessie, considering some of the  animals we were bound to come across there.

Randall being  her bonded companion didn't mean she couldn't still tame beasts. Lily  was still trailing behind her mistress, and Rolf was playing with Rellia  and Jin as we walked. The wolves had been incredibly happy to see each  other, though not as happy as they'd been to see Jessie, with her  magical life force infusing ear scritches. It was sweet to see all the  puppies playing together.

In general I was just happy to  have the team back together. I loved spending time alone with Callie,  but being in combat and going on adventures without the whole gang just  felt kind of wrong. Being down here with everyone was much more fun.  Sadly we had to stop talking about the Bond pretty quickly, since Sloane  came over to chat with Jessie. Honestly my Stealth Skill got a ton of  work when I discussed almost anything, given how many secrets I had. I  had to constantly be sure not to be overheard.

Still,  Sloane was just excited to see Jessie. The two of them trained together  pretty often in the Beast Lord Garden, especially while Callie and I had  been doing our months of training with Abel and Mel. They were pretty  close, and Sloane was almost as excited to see our blonde teammate as we  were.

We headed back to the Blue Robin when we reached  Doomtown. We hadn't actually checked out, just missed a night sleeping  there, so we were able to keep our rooms easily enough, and Sydney,  Megan, Wren, and Vector were all there when we arrived to say hello.  Wren was the firs to notice us as we came into the main room. "Hey, they  you are! Didn't see you all yesterday. Looks like you picked up some  strays."

I shrugged. "They followed us home. We were going  to tell them to beat it but she has a giant bear, which is pretty cool  so we figured we'd be nice." Benny rolled his eyes and smacked me upside  the back of the head, not that I even felt it through my hood. I  plopped down at the table with them, gesturing for the others to pull up  some chairs. "So, where's Lament? She and Master Saiten getting ready  for the big auction?"

Wren snorted. "They're meeting with  Falken, he finally showed up. We've been waiting for that lazy moron for  months now. He's almost as strong as Lament though, so he does what he  wants, which admittedly is usually sleep. As for Master Saiten, sadly he  can't come. The local forces made an exception for him to come down  here and guard Lament out of respect for her status as a Master  Candidate, but even that won't convince them to let an E-ranker attend  an auction."

I grimaced, but nodded. I could see it. It  would be impossible for that to go fairly. Granted, there would be  external factors in any auction, but since everyone in the auction house  would be max of low F-rank, Master Saiten could literally do whatever  he wanted. Even if he was too honorable to actually do that (which I had  no way of confirming) the other people at the auction would take a step  back to avoid pissing him off just in case.

Wren seemed  to know what I was thinking. "Yeah, he would compromise the proceedings.  Still, he's pretty pissed about having to miss it, and he would  probably have forbidden the two of them to go if the others attending  wouldn't be incapable of harming them. Plus neither of them listens  particularly well, even to him." He snickered at the older Ascendant's  misfortune. "You know how Lament is."

I'd  met Lament for like a total of three hours and yes, I knew how Lament  was. I didn't even need to question if she would ignore someone because  she felt like it. Jessie, who had been forced to leave Randall outside,  held out a hand to Wren. "Hi there, I'm Agria, since Solomon forgot to  introduce me. That's Clockword over there. We're members of his team,  though not for the tournament itself."

That  startled a laugh out of the big spearman, who took her hand and shook  it firmly. "You're the one with the bear? Or was that a joke? Because I  would love to see a giant bear. I'm Wren by the way, that's Vector." He  nodded to his traveling companion.

"I  do have a giant bear!" Jessie chirped excitedly. "His name is Randall!  Do you want to meet him?" She turned her head to Vector. "Nice to meet  you by the way. You two as well." The last was aimed at Megan and  Sydney, and the two rabbit eared girls smiled back at her warmly.

They'd  been staying out of our banter, but after being addressed directly,  Megan spoke up. "You too. And I'm with big and stabby over there, I'd  love to meet a giant bear." She tapped her sister in the ribs with her  elbow. "How about you Syd? You've always been a big fan of animals. Want  to meet a giant teddy?"

Sydney  blushed at the obvious dig at her being childish, but she didn't say  no, which got a laugh from all of us. Callie rolled her eyes at me. "See  what you do? We're back ten minutes and you're introducing our secret  weapons to the competition." Despite the criticism, her teasing tone  made it clear she didn't really care. Jessie wasn't in the tournament  anyway, so it hardly mattered.

Chatting  happily, we all got up to head outside to let the others see Randall.  The Blue Robin had a stable for mounts. They weren't incredibly common,  but beast tamers DID show up in the WCP from time to time and some of  them rode on their beasts. Plus, they could repurpose the place for  other uses when there was no one in it, so it wasn't really a waste. It  turned out that the stable was actually underground, which explained why  I hadn't seen it when we arrived.

Everyone  fussed over Randall, who seemed much more docile after bonding, though  he still had that same imperious air to him. As we all talked about the  upcoming auction, I considered again what might be coming. I still had a  bad feeling about Mordaunt, who had invited us, but Callie had taken my  worries seriously and we had four F-rankers who could probably fight  twice their number, not to mention Abel, and probably Lament. Whatever  would happen tomorrow, I was confident we could handle it. All I could  do now was enjoy a day of peace with my friends.