Wish Upon the Stars chapter 284

Owen was not happy to see us again. He didn't bitch too much though.  We introduced him to Sydney, Lestri, and Lament, and given he was still  gathering information on outsiders for the tournament, he seemed at  least partially mollified. I briefly felt bad for not telling her about  it, but then realized anyone with any common sense would be aware that  the locals would be gathering intel, as evidenced by how much Lament had  held back during her fight.

After we sat down, we were  joined by Sydney's sister, Megan. Who was...much different. Where Sydney  was tiny and shy with red hair. Megan was a tall blonde who looked like  she could do some serious fighting. She wasn't as muscular as Lament,  who was built like a seasoned warrior despite being slim, but still, she  was in better shape than I was. With bright blue eyes and a big  cheerful grin, Megan was as outgoing as her sister was hesitant to  engage.

She had her own cadre of attendants, and had them  sit as a second table with all of Sydney's guards and most of Sloane's  crew, though Owen refused to feed all of them for free. Lament covered  their meal since the dinner thing had been her idea, and Megan jumped  right into conversation. "So, I heard you helped Syd out of a jam. I  really appreciate that." She laughed wryly, scratching the back of her  head in embarrassment. "I...might have been wrong about the Chaotic  Wombat. But come on, what are the chances of her getting picked?"

I  was pretty sure that was what everyone thought, but Sydney just shook  her head. "It's fine, sis. I'm just glad to make some new friends." She  took a bite of her enchilada with a delighted moan. "Also, the food  there couldn't possibly have been as good as this. What is in this  rice?" She chewed for a minute with her eyes closed, savoring the food,  before swallowing. "Sorry. Anyway, Miss. Lament was it? Thank you for  the meal, and that was some impressive fighting. That spear  manifestation was so amazing. Are you a Master Candidate?"

At  the rest of our blank looks (those of us whose faces were visible),  Wren chimed in. "Mastery is a qualitative jump in skill requirement,  especially for weapon Skills. D-rank is considered a watershed for the  higher ranks. People who reach the peak of the level above their own in a  weapon Skill are considered prodigies who are much more likely to rank  up to Master. Like Lament will be able to step into Expert pretty much  the second she ranks up to F-rank. That gives her the whole rank to  prepare for the jump to Master at E-rank. Master Candidates are  considered elite in star system forces. Though in the wider cluster it's  less uncommon."

"But wait." I said in confusion. "Don't  you need to reach Master to reach D-rank at all?" Abilities ranked up  when people did. So Master being a dividing like was kind of odd. If  that was the case then D-rank would be much less common wouldn't it?  Though thinking about it, I'd never met a D-ranker, so maybe it WAS less  common. D-ranked planets (which couldn't support a D-ranker as far as I  knew, just a multitude of E-rankers) were treated as pretty low ranked  planets after all.

Wren didn't look surprised by my  confusion. "Most people synergize some kind of Skill into their ability.  People who use only their inborn power are rare. Hitting Master, or any  higher rank, in a Skill is much different than hitting it with an  ability. An ability is part of you, and grows as you do. It doesn't  require any conditions or knowledge to rank up. Skills get more  difficult as you go on. Weapon and martial Skills in general tend to be  tough to reach Master in. Crafting Skills too. Of course, you have  people born with a weapon Skill who can do it easily. Those are  Naturals, and like people born with one of the three major crafting  Skills, they're considered extremely valuable."

I hadn't  even considered that actually. My own Wish ability didn't have any  requirements aside from stats to rank up. Benny and the others had  synergized, and needed Skill ranks to break through. But if someone had  something like Inventing or Enchanting as their natural ability, then  they would rank up easily like me, and I could only assume those ranks  would come with the knowledge and skills necessary to put them to use.  Considering how tough it was to rank up Enchanting that was a scary  thought. It also made me a lot more wary of Mad Scientists in general.

Callie  seemed enthralled. "So if someone was born with a Spear Mastery  ability, they would just grow in technique as they ranked up, without  needing to learn or upgrade any Skills? That sounds amazing. But doesn't  that mean that they can't do what Lament did and rank their weapon  Skill up past their current rank? Like someone with an inborn Spear  Mastery could get to Master easily, but only at D-rank, right?"

"Exactly."  Cut in Lament. "Naturals are tied to their rank. In the early ranks  that's a huge disadvantage, because ranking up a Skill to Lesser or  Beginner is substantially easier than reaching a higher Ascendant rank.  Being a natural comes with downsides too." She gave a self satisfied  smirk, her tone smug. "I much prefer the way I do it. I won't have an  problems reaching Master, will I Master Saiten?"

The spear  master just chuckled. "No, Lament. I don't suppose you will. But don't  get a big head. There are people out there stronger than Master  Candidates. Especially in the main systems of the five factions. Some of  the larger clans and faction leadership have specialized training  regimens for soul strength so extraordinary their descendants can breach  the one rank barrier safely. There are F-ranked Masters your age in  some parts of the universe."

Even Abel seemed taken aback  by that. "That's insane. What kind of soul strength would you need in  order to survive being two full ranks ahead in a Skill? That's not a  temporary thing, you would have to live with that for years probably."  He shuddered. "Even the thought of trying to breach Intermediate right  now makes me want to vomit. My soul is already pressured just  maintaining peak Intermediate. Is it even possible to beat someone like  that?"

Saiten just shrugged. "Sure. There are all kinds of  terrifying abilities out there. Some racial traits have absurd  benefits, and there are jobs that give access to power far outside the  norm. Early Mastery is terrifying, but the right kind of stat modifiers  and Skills can make up for it. Not to mention just being higher rank.  Still, those kinds of people are considered treasures even in big  families and sects. You aren't likely to meet one all the way out here.  Even things like Moonglow Dew aren't necessarily enough to rouse their  interest."

At least that meant we wouldn't be fighting a  monster like that. A Master Candidate like Abel or Lament was scary  enough. Speaking of which, Megan seemed to have picked up on my mentor's  slip. "Wait, back up. You're a Master Candidate too? Aren't you local?  That's WAY more impressive. I've never seen a Master Candidate on a  D-ranked planet before." She paused. "Which, ok, I haven't been to many D  ranked planets. But still. That's pretty badass." She turned to Mel  quizzically. "How about you? Are you a Master Candidate too?"

Our  red masked teacher just shrugged. "My Fire Manipulation Skill is at  Intermediate, but it just broke through a while ago. Plus Manipulation  Skills are a huge pain in the ass to rank up. I'm not to worried about  it though. We mostly focus on combat standards and integration. Apollyon  just ranked his martial arts Skill up because he had a few years with  nothing to do but train." She shot him a sharp glare at that, which he  pretended not to notice as he dug into his Enchiladas with gusto.

"What  about you guys?" I interrupted, trying to save my mentor. "Tell us more  about the Wave Warren. We won't ask about combat specifics given we  might be fighting you in the tournament, but we love hearing about the  forces in the star system. You mentioned not having been to D-rank  planets before, does that mean you've mostly been on C-ranked planets?"

She  nodded happily. "Oh yeah. Wave Warren is based on a C-ranked planet.  Granted, we aren't a C-ranked force or anything, the Warren Master is a  D-ranker. But we do ok. We're not the only people from Gralter that are  here either. Slime Hall managed to get invited too." She grimaced. "Damn  summoners. Dealing with them is so gross. It's just the two of us from  our planet though. We found out about this through back channels, and  managed to keep it MOSTLY quiet."

"Slime Hall?" Callie  asked with a grimace. "That sounds unpleasant. I don't know much about  summoners, they aren't super common here, though I know they exist.  Honestly before today I had only seen one or two. It's a pretty Fantasy  heavy ability isn't it? You don't see many of those at G-rank."

That  explained it. I'd been wondering where the summoners I'd seen came  from. If they formed the ability through synergy at a higher level, or  if they needed lots of Fantasy to be viable, they might not have been in  combat much up to this point. I knew that some stats could be more  easily gained through alternative routes than fights and patrols.  Granted, Might was an important stat especially at low ranks, and we  could still gain other stats by making an impression, but other careers  like artists and pop singers provided good returns on some of the more  elusive stats.

Callie had mentioned that her dad actually  tried to convince her to be a pop star when she was younger. She and her  mom had both put their foot down about it, and her ballet lessons had  been a compromise. He figured some more artistry in her combat would  help generate Fantasy, which to be fair it might have done, especially  in combination with all the crazy shadow antics.

"Yeah.  They summon slimes." Said Megan flatly. "Usually elemental ones, though  some of them have weird trick slimes. The Slime Creation Skill is  surprisingly easy to pick up at the Minor level from what I'm told. And  synergy with a few other Skills makes Slime Summoning. Most of them  synergize THAT with other inborn abilities to enable them to summon  unique and more powerful slimes. They're a giant pain in the ass.  Sometimes literally. One of their team members summons giant slimes."

This  was the first time I'd heard about someone making a Skill as  interesting as summoning from scratch. I knew you could learn Skills  like that. Some people could teach them because they were born with an  ability and took on a job, which turned that ability into a skill. I  assumed you had to be able to teach those, but this seemed like a  completely different thing. Kind of like a heritage a clan would have,  albeit on a much smaller scale.

She went on to describe  more about Slime Hall, how Wave Warren had been neighbors and  competitors with them for years, and how the two of them had found out  about the Moonsong Glade opening from the same source and greed to keep  it secret. If some of the C-ranked forces on their planet had shown up  it would have made this whole tournament infinitely harder, so I  couldn't disagree with logic on that one.

We all traded  stories and ate Enchiladas together, getting to know the visiting  forces, and it was actually pretty nice. Sydney was shy, but extremely  bubbly once you got her to open up, and Megan was pretty much a wrecking  ball in terms of personality, which meant she got on well with Lament,  Abel, and Callie, who were all pretty outspoken. When we finished  eating, we offered to show Sydney and Megan to the Blue Robin, where  they could get a better sleep. All in all it wasn't a bad night. I hoped  the next day could be as peaceful, I wanted to get as much relaxing as  possible done before that damn auction. Sadly, I didn't think that was  in the cards. Abel was bound to have something crazy planned.