Wish upon the Stars chapter 285

Before we went to sleep, I did all five wishes. I traded fifteen  points of various stats for fifteen points of Fantasy. The summoners  today had made a big impression, and I was interested in gaining the  ability to do that kind of thing. I'd been saving my wishes for the end  of the day lately, just to make sure I didn't need them for some  emergency. Doomtown wasn't exactly safe most of the time, so it seemed  prudent not to waste them.

At eight ninety seven, I was  only three points shy of nine hundred, and I decided it was time to  finally ask Abel and the others about ranking up. Or rather, about NOT  ranking up. I cornered my mentor at the pool table, playing a game with  Wren. "Hey boss man, was hoping we could talk. I'm coming up on a  thousand points, and I wanted to know if I need to do anything specific  to not rank up. Like...do I just not accept? Will that hurt me? I'm  guessing you've been denying a rank up for a while. Is there some secret  to it?"

He scratched his shot with a curse. "Fuck! Damn  it, hold on." Wren snickered something under his breath, but Abel caught  it. "Fuck you that counts. I was distracted. Put the fucking ball back  where it was. I need to go have a discussion with my disciple. I have  perfect spatial awareness by the way, even with my stats suppressed, so  I'll know if you move it." He turned back to me, aggravation in his  eyes. "Come on, lets go talk somewhere less crowded. None of this is  really earthshaking info, but it's better shared in private."

Leading  me back down the hall to mine and Callie's room, he kicked the door  shut. "First of all." He said, turning around. "Good on you for  bothering to ask ahead of time. Short answer is no. There is no penalty  for suppressing rank, with the exception of being unable to gain more  stats. All the stats you COULD have gotten are lost, which is why most  people avoid it, but it doesn't hurt you or anything. I have been  suppressing my rank, as has Mel. I did it partly for training and partly  not to get attention, and she did it partly for training and partly for  me."

He gave a wry snort. "Silly girl. I'd never have  asked that. But she did it anyway." He sounded distant and almost sad  for a second, but then shook it off. "Never you mind, it worked out in  the end. Point is no, you won't be hurt by suppressing your rank. People  do it all the time. Not just Mel and I, there are more than a few  E-rankers who engage in the practice. How the hell do you think Moravian  isn't at D-rank despite being over three millennia old? Do you know how  famous he is?"

"Wait." I said, holding up a hand. "The  Moravian is suppressing his rank? I thought he was just stuck because  this planet can't support a D-ranker? Like there isn't enough renown for  one to rank up, right?" That clashed with what I had been told badly,  though to be fair Cark had much less of a reason to know details about  this kind of thing than Abel.

"No." Abel said slowly. "As  in, it PHYSICALLY can't support a D-ranker. This is a theoretically a  D-ranked planet, but that's only because of the number of E-rankers  here. It's more accurately psuedo D-rank planet. As in, it hasn't  reached D-rank yet. If one of the E-rankers tried to break through to  D-rank, it would trigger the planet to attempt a rank up to compensate  for the Impact increase. You know, I assume, what happens when someone  ranks up without a proper foundation?"

I winced at the  image. "Their soul collapses. I didn't know the whole rank thing was  literal. Does that mean the planet is a dungeon then? Callie told me  that places with Impact are dungeons." This conversation was a lot more  complicated than I had been expecting.

Abel looked like he  was starting to get annoyed. "No!"He snapped. Then he groaned.  "Just...no. Dungeons are more concentrated. A planet's Impact is spread  over a massive surface area, so it barely has an effect. Most higher  ranked planets actually get bigger to compensate. There are Dungeon  Worlds, small planets with a high rank, but they're incredibly valuable  and are usually used as training grounds or heartworlds for big factions  and clans."

I held up both hands placatingly. "Sorry, I  don't mean to get so off track. Just one more question?" He sighed but  nodded. "So why don't the E-rankers just go somewhere else to rank up  and then come back? Then they would be in charge of the planet right?  None of the ones who stayed would be strong enough. Or does the planet  literally not support D-rankers on its surface?" I knew that wasn't the  case, because Zeke was B-ranked, so there had to be some reason.

Shaking  his head, Abel confirmed my theory. "No. Higher ranked people go where  they want. It's complicated. D-rank is a watershed, like we mentioned  earlier. The rank up to D is supposed to be...dramatic. I don't know the  details, I've never seen one. Besides that the Unity runs this planet.  If people were leaving to rank up and coming back it would fuck the  distribution of power, so it isn't allowed. The WCP discourages that  kind of thing too. It robs higher ranked planets of power concentration.  When you leave a planet, you aren't banned from coming back or  anything, but it's expected you won't be returning to live there."

Considering  what I knew about renown being exponentially weighted as you ranked up,  that made sense. Higher ranked planets were renown farms, so they would  definitely want powerful people there in droves. The important thing  was I'd gotten my answer, even if it came with about a dozen more  questions. I nodded. "Alright, I'll suppress my rank up then, at least  until after the tournament. If we do the rank up right after we  shouldn't lose out on the points from the tournament itself right?"

"Right."  He agreed. "No way any of the other entrants would have agreed to  participate if they had to miss out on a big windfall like that. They'll  probably have some kind of ceremony for the winners and let the ones  who can rank up on the spot for the prestige bump. Most people joining  up will be peak of G-rank about to Ascend. That's why there are a  relatively low number of forces here. They needed a team that fit the  conditions and was also strong enough to be a contender. Of course, not  ALL of them are peak of G-rank. The prestige from the tournament will  help some get there, which is why there's a wait time between the  tournament and the glade opening."

That was something I'd  been worried about up to this point, so it was good to have assurances.  The whole planet thing was also way more complicated than expected. I'd  known about the size difference, since supermassive planets had much  stronger gravity to offset Might. But the Impact thing was interesting,  and I wondered exactly how that effected Ascendants on the surface of  that world. I also wondered if it meant Zeke was stronger here, or if he  was just so much more powerful than this place that he barely noticed.

Abel  chuckled at my silence, clapping me on the shoulder. "Don't worry so  much about it kid. We're a long way from having to worry about things  like Ascending to D-rank or how powerful people are on other planets.  Take care of the problems you have before you start new ones. We have to  get through the next two weeks, as well as the tournament itself, and  THEN we're going to be competing with the winners of the tournaments  from all the other systems in the cluster for the resources in the  Moonsong Glade."

That set me to snickering. "Yeah, I guess  I'm just borrowing trouble at this point huh? We have so much more to  focus on." I shot him a suspicious glare, not that he saw it behind my  mask. "Speaking of trouble, what exactly are we doing tomorrow? I get  the feeling Sydney and Megan will be coming along, plus their entourage,  and probably Wren. We've picked up quite a few passengers in our time  here. I'm assuming your have something suitably awful planned we can all  do together?"

Aside from spending time with new friends,  which was nice, we'd also be seeing them in whatever situation Abel put  us all in, and presumably learning more about their abilities before the  tournament. "Awful?" Said Abel innocently. "I'd never force you all to  do something awful. All of my activities are fun team-building  exercises. Like tomorrow we're going white water rafting! It's going to  be a blast!"

"Hold on." I said in confusion. "There's a RIVER  down here?" The lake I...kind of got? I guess? Just Ascendant nonsense,  but a river seemed weirder to me somehow. "But...where does it come  from? Like I get Ascendants do crazy things and it's stupid to question  how there can be a river but not freak out about forests and oceans and  pocket dimensions that can implode. But...rapids need power? What fuels  them?"

Instead of mocking me, Abel just burst out  laughing. "Yeah. Everyone has those moments where they go 'how the  fuck?' even with all the crazy things they've seen. The rapids aren't  actually some crazy spell or anything though. The water pressure comes  from Riot Bay actually."

"Wait." I said, my blood running  cold. "Like...giant hate fish attacking us Riot Bay? Are there FISH in  the river? Because I don't want to worry about getting smashed by carp  or something again. The Bay was stressful and awful." I shuddered. "Also  the smell was terrible. Plus that was just an exercise in  differentiating levels of Impact on the same rank. Money aside how would  doing it again even help us?"

Abel just rolled his eyes.  "Don't freak out about it. There's no fish in the river. The rapids are  just where all that force and energy ends up when the lake settles down  again. Since there are tons of parts of the Bay that are getting those  waves even when you can't see them, the rapids are always going. But  don't worry. I promise there are no fish in the rapids. Hell, I can  promise you nothing lives in those rapids at all."

Something  about the way he said that made me worry even more, but I recognized  the smug glint in his eyes. My teacher wouldn't tell us any more about  this trip, because he wanted it to be an unpleasant surprise. "Alright.  Fine. Well, if we're going to be doing something crazy tomorrow, I'd  better get some sleep." I turned and started to head out, but stopped,  looking back over my shoulder. "Also, just saying up front that if  there's a fee for this insane trip, you can cover it. We made plenty of  money for you last time."

As I opened the door to leave, I  suddenly stopped again. "Wait...why the fuck am I leaving." I turned  back to my now smirking mentor. "This is my room. Get out." I had to  bite back a scowl as he burst out laughing at my stupid mistake,  slapping me on the shoulder on the way out.

"I gotta admit  kid." He said as he walked away. "You can be a bit serious sometimes.  But you're always good for a laugh." I just sighed and rolled my eyes as  I closed my door. I could do without being his comedic relief, but hey,  at least the job came with combat training. I doubted I'd be where I  was without Abel. Still...I was totally going to push his ass in the  water tomorrow once I made sure it wasn't like a murder river or  something. If only that wasn't such a strong possibility.