Wish upon the Stars chapter 294

It didn't take too long to get back up to where the others waited. I  noticed Master Saiten had stuck around up at the shore rather than come  down. Knowing what E-rankers could do I wasn't sure that actually  mattered, but I made a note anyway. Once we got back to shoreline we all  split off to head back to our relative hotels. That gave me a chance to  get the wishes for the Beast Lord Garden out of the way, giving them  all five wishes again, and putting another fifteen into my Fantasy stat.

Once  we got back to the hotel, Abel pulled Mel, Callie, and I aside to talk.  He led us back to one of the rooms, closing the door. "So." I said once  it had been shut. "We got the Skill for Paired Dueling. Does this mean  we don't need to finish the training down here?" I wasn't sure if that  was an intriguing or disappointing prospect. Doomtown was a dangerous  mess, but it had been interesting so far.

Abel just shook  his head. "The Skill is still at Minor I assume?" We both nodded. "Then  we can still get plenty out of this. Minor Skills are the easiest to  rank up, and a Lesser version of that Skill will serve you much better.  Plus you're getting a better idea of the kinds of things you'll be  dealing with in the tournament. Hell, I'M getting a better idea. Despite  being experienced Mel and I are still locals. Our view of things is  ultimately still too shallow."

Seeing Lament fight seemed  to have excited and scared him in equal measure. I knew for his own sake  he was more than enthused for a fight between them, but it had put the  potential danger the rest of us might see into perspective. He wasn't  the only one either. I was planning to focus on getting my DS Mastery  Skill to Intermediate. Seeing what Abel and Lament could do with theirs I  was interested to see if I'd notice any changes. Even if I didn't  though, it would be worth it. I'd be getting another finishing move next  rank.

I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I  wasn't sure why or from what. I didn't think it was about the tournament  or Lament or anyone from the rafting trip. My Fantasy stat was higher  now, and I was getting a better feel for that ineffable sense it  brought. My best guess was something to do with the auction, and I  didn't intend to keep that to myself. "So..." I said, trying to figure  out how to put it into words. "This auction. I get a not so great  feeling about it. Does anyone else feel that or am I just letting my  imagination run wild?"

To my surprise, Abel's eyes snapped  up to mine. "Really? How long has this been happening?" At my shrug he  bit his lip. "I don't sense anything. But there's more than a few  possible reasons for that. For one my Fantasy probably isn't as high as  yours at this point. For another fate sense isn't really one size fits  all. It tends to point you toward things that will be interesting or  dramatic for YOU. Just because you'll be running into something that  will get you attention doesn't mean I will."

I'd never  heard it called fate sense before, but that was a pretty spot on  description, and I decided I liked it. Still, it left the obvious  question. "Does that mean we shouldn't go? We can always give it a miss  if it'll be too dangerous. I'm sure they have some way to sell our items  and pick up the money later."

I wasn't one to run away,  but I also wasn't one to risk my friends pointlessly. If the others  decided we shouldn't go I was fine with that. Callie was the one who  would ultimately make the decision, but I knew she'd be just as  interested to hear their take on it as I was. A quick glance told me I'd  been right, as she nodded her interest in hearing the answer when I  looked over at her.

Mel fielded this. "No. We can't afford  that. Not just because of the auction itself, though there are bound to  be expensive materials we can't get elsewhere, but also because if we  back down the others will smell blood in the water. They'll swarm us and  we won't survive. Ascendant confrontations are a matter of reputation  as much as combat, as you probably know. If we get a rep for being weak,  we'll be buried in half assed challengers until we get taken down by  numbers alone."

That didn't sound pleasant. I could kind  of see her point too. An impressive team would scare off a lot of low  level challengers. I doubted we'd get many teams just giving up when we  faced them in the prelims, but we'd probably see SOME. We were pretty  scary, and we could continue making an impression. A bit of danger now  would save us work in the future.

Plus we needed some  Skill Crystals. Balam was a dangerous and useful martial art, and  Callie's foundation would bring our fighters right to the edge of making  their own strides in it for Intermediate. Prior to that Skills were a  bit more standardized, so learning Callie's version of it wouldn't hurt  anyone's potential advancement.

"Alright." Callie said  with a nod. "Then we go. We have the spider armor and some of the F-rank  gems to sell off, and that should give us some money to play with, even  on top of what we have. I'm sure there'll be plenty of interesting  items to pick up. That just means we have a few more days to kill before  it's time to attend. Once that's done we can reassess. Do you have any  ideas by the way? On how to get out Paired Dueling to Lesser?"

I  was curious about that too. The mild situational empathy and predictive  ability was useful, but I didn't know where it would go from there. We  basically fought like two halves of the same whole. There was room to  improve that of course, but I wasn't sure how. Then again, Minor Skills  were usually pretty weak, being only mortal level. It was highly  possible the main benefit of Lesser was just a more complete version of  what we had. Though that made me wonder what Beginner Paired Dueling  might entail.

Sadly, there didn't seem to be some special  method. Abel's shrug made that clear. "Not really." He said  apologetically. "Just more of the same. Minor to Lesser is just a matter  of polishing. You usually see extra utility in Beginner, which somewhat  prepares you for finding your own path to intermediate. Not always  though, really just depends on the Skill."

That did make  me a bit confused about something. "If Intermediate is where people  usually start to do their own thing, how come you and Lament have such  similar manifestations?" I'd been wondering why it seemed like  Intermediate, which was so personalized, seemed to manifest the same for  them. He'd mentioned that manifestation was a common thing with  Intermediate martial arts too, so it wasn't just them.

"Utility."  He said calmly. "While it's true Intermediate is mostly self  determined, one of the main weaknesses of close combat and weapons  Skills is range and scope. Addressing this is one of the most common  steps down the path to Mastery. It's not universal, but it's compatible  with a shockingly large number of combat styles. Expert level martial  arts start to branch more, though there are still some themes that a  majority of them follow."

Mel broke in. "What he's not  saying is the similarities are only superficial. Intermediate isn't just  adding a new aspect, it's about personalizing a Skill to be something  more attuned to you. Perfectly adapting your martial art to your combat  style and your other Skills and ability. It's why he's so far ahead. He  spent years doing that anyway. Soul strength plays a big part as well of  course, since as you know a strong soul is needed to modify Skills,  which is an integral part of stepping into Intermediate and beyond."

I  knew what she meant. "Is that why Mastery is such a stumbling block?  Because people don't work their souls enough and get stuck relying on  the native soul strength from rank ups?" I asked. I knew that rank ups  would increase your soul strength naturally as you Ascended, but it  never occurred to me when they mentioned Mastery being difficult that  the two things could be related. It made sense though. It also reminded  me of something else. "And is soul strength what lets you resist  recursion?"

Abel shook his head. "No to the second, yes to  the first. Lack of soul strength is one of several reasons Mastery  poses a challenge to most people, but no, soul strength isn't the same  quality that allows someone to resist recursion. It's...related? But not  the same. There are people who manage to reach the higher ranks warped  by their recursion. They aren't common but they exist. We're getting off  topic anyway. We were talking about training. We'll be doing more  generalized combat going forward. Some sparring, maybe some days at the  Bone Arena for the last day or two."

Mel cut in. "That  will be later though. For the moment our biggest windfall down here is  interacting with and learning about the external factions before the  tournament. The Wave Warren and the Spear Legion are mostly on good  terms with us, but we have one other faction we don't know too well yet.  We have an in with the Darkling Institute but haven't exploited that.  Our best move here would be to learn more about them before the  auction."

I was torn on that actually. I got a bad feeling  about the Darkling Institute. On the one hand that meant I should be  looking into them deeper to head off any backstabbing, but it also meant  I didn't want to be near them. I wasn't sure what was tipping me off  about it really, fate sense didn't work like that, so it wasn't Fantasy.  The only other thing I could think of was some kind of bleed over from  my diviner class. Still, that felt nebulous and ridiculous. As much as I  trusted my instincts on some things, I couldn't justify depriving my  team of powerful allies because of a bad feeling I couldn't even put  into words.

I decided to keep quiet about my concerns for  now. If we hung out with the Darkling Institute's fighters I'd have a  chance to observe them up close. Maybe then I would be able to put my  finger on what bothered me about them. Or maybe it was just necromancy  that I had a problem with. Gods know I didn't have a nice first  experience with them.

"Well." I said cautiously. "Where  should we meet them then? Assuming we can get in touch. Maybe we could  avoid any activities that involve water. I don't really think there's  anything more to gain from Riot Bay after all the time we already spent  there. Unless there's a secret water park that you forgot to mention?  Because that actually kind of sounds like fun."

Abel shook  his head, but his mouth was stretched into a grin. "No water park I'm  afraid. But I do have a slight inkling of something fun to do. There are  plenty of interesting games to play down here that don't involve  water." He looked to Mel. "What about the Shatter Lanes?" Her eyes  widened and she started to chuckle, before bursting into a full on  laugh. Abel looked back over at us. "Yeah, I have an idea. Just our of  curiosity how do you feel about giant birds? Specifically how do feel  about the idea of  racing on them?"