Wish upon the Stars chapter 151

We got home in short enough order, Jessie driving of course, and  headed inside to check in on Cass. When we arrived we found her sitting  in front of a huge screen, watching a replay of the stream from the  scavenger hunt. Since she hadn't been able to come with us, she hadn't  gotten to see everything that happened, but watching all of our  adventures during the stream, not to mention the adventures of the other  teams was obviously thrilling to her.

I had to admit, the  people at the Academy knew their stuff. Not only had they strung  together all that footage in a way that firmly made us look like the  stars, they'd managed to create a cohesive narrative with the clips they  picked. The way they arranged it made sure not only that the other  teams looked good and got a bit of screen time too, but that the  impression they left made them more impressive as a counterweight to us,  making us seem even more powerful in comparison. Punching out a bear is  way more impressive if you just watched that bear kill a mountain lion,  so to speak.

Watching the video, which maintained a  stable and compelling storyline, even I thought we looked pretty damn  impressive. Cass was sitting on the couch in the middle of the orange  living room, hiding her face behind her hand and watching it from  between her fingers whenever she found a point where her brother was in a  fight too big for him to handle. She gasped and cheered and was clearly  completely enraptured in the action. I wondered if someone at the  academy had some kind of stoytelling Skill, because this was actually  really good.

We didn't have the heart to interrupt her, so  we went over to check with Zeke, who was sitting on a different couch,  arm thrown over his eyes and clearly trying to sleep. Despite not being  able to see us, when we came inside and walked over behind the couch it  was simple for someone with his Perception to notice us. "You're back.  Good, you can watch the kid now, I'm going to sleep. I'm counting this  job as over, you can make crepes for breakfast to make the wait up to  me." He hopped to his feet, landing nimbly, and reminding me of my own  humiliating mistake earlier.

Despite his apathetic words  he shot another look over at Cass to make sure he was ok, and I had to  smile internally. My Uncle liked to pretend to be a lazy good for  nothing, but he was a big softie deep down. He'd acted the same way  about me when I was a kid. I could tell he liked the kid, and I decided I  would check and see if Cark wanted to take one of the spare rooms here.  The place was huge anyway, and having them around would be convenient  as well as fun. Besides, Cass livened things up around here. Having  someone who wasn't a cultivator nearby would make sure we did things  other than train.

Of course I'd check with Callie and with  Cark himself before I offered in front of the kid, but I didn't see  anyone having a problem with it. Now wasn't the time for that  conversation though, so while Cark stayed downstairs with Cass the four  of us went up to talk over our new stats in their entirety. We picked  one of the training rooms, but rather than start the training we just  sat down to go over what everyone got. Since we'd already chosen sort of  an order I decided to tell them everything I got first, and when I  finished, everyone seemed pretty impressed.

Benny was the  one who seemed most annoyed. "Man, other than Focus I didn't get any  huge lump sums like that. I'm guessing all that Might came from some of  those huge blows you landed. I saw that one that put Raleigh down and  that was fucking monstrous. Other than the thirty focus I got ten  Creation, which was a new stat for me, fifteen Vitality, five Might,  fifteen Perception, and ten Fantasy. No clue why I got any Fantasy at  all to tell the truth, probably one of my item effects, but still, that  was another new one and marks a full unlock for all my stats so I'm not  complaining." He wrote out all his totals just to be clear.

Benicio  Cortez- G rank. Ability: Lesser Mechanical Embodiment- Allows the  integration of existing inventions into the users body for the purposes  of strengthening and enhancing them. insignia is a half gear in the  shape of a C

Might-40

Impact-12

Fantasy-10

Vitality-31

Focus-75

Perception-17

Creation-10

Current  integrated tech. 8/10. Torso: Extending rope. Right fist: triple punch.  Left forearm: long range attack attraction. Left fist: minor slow  acting tranquilizer effect. Right foot: Density shifting to create  heavier kicks and more powerful jumps. Left Foot: momentum  neutralization to allow stopping instantly. Head: slight cognitive boost  to allow more thinking time. Back: ability to grow a shell to tank  damage.

Skills:Minor Cooking Mastery, Beginner Inventing Mastery, Minor Haggling Mastery, Minor Stealth Mastery

I  had expected him to get more Might, but I supposed he'd been kind of  playing a background role and relying more on his support abilities.  Maybe the Fantasy was from his tranq punches. It also explained why he  hadn't seemed nearly as fucked up from the stat dump, since his were  more spread out. I noted he'd also gotten less overall than me, but that  made sense since Callie and I were the stronger of the four of us, and  the recent G rank members of our team probably stood out less in  comparison.

Jessie was up next, and she seemed just as  excited to share as before. "As I mentioned, I got a full Fifty points  in Vitality, which as you might expect was my largest gain. I did get a  decent bump in both Creation and Fantasy though, at twenty each. That  was basically it though. I didn't get any new stat unlocks like Benny  did. I guess my ability is one of the ones that people tend to typecast  as using certain stats. I'm super pissed I didn't get any Might  especially, but I figure I can move some of those Fantasy stats around."  She wrote hers out just like Benny had.

Jessica  Evans- G rank. Ability: Beginner Lifeweaving- Infuse living things with  life itself and direct their actions while the users power flows  through them. Control had limited effect on sapient entities. Prolonged  exposure to life energy may cause lasting effects in controlled non  sapient subjects.

Might-32

Impact-12

Fantasy-28

Vitality-108

Creation-28

Skills: Beginner Horticulture,Beginner First Aid, Minor Herbalism, Minor Flower Arrangement

She  wasn't wrong, people had definitely focused more on her healing related  stats, but still, she got some use out of most of those. Not Fantasy so  much, but those were good points fodder to buff up her other main  stats. Her Vitality had already passed a hundred, which was nuts. It had  taken me ages to get a stat past a hundred, but to be fair I had sort  of gone out of my way to keep my points more evenly spread.

Finally  it was Callie's turn. I knew she'd gotten a huge bump in Creation,  which was still helpful even if she would have preferred Might. I was  sure she'd gotten at least some Might points though. She'd been kicking  plenty of ass in the hunt. Creation would be a big help to her though.  Creation helped her make MORE shadows, while might gave them physical  presence and Vitality gave them enhanced mobility as she could breathe  more life into them.

She didn't seem upset though, like  I'd noted, and she talked as she wrote out her totals. "As mentioned I  got a big bump in Creation. Other than that I also managed to get  another twenty Might, twenty five Perception, eighteen Vitality, twenty  five Fantasy, and twenty eight Focus. Focus was the biggest change for  me, and where most of the pain that hit me during the upgrade came from I  think. Still, all in all I'm happy with the outcome. I think the big  Focus boost shows that people had a good impression of me as a leader  and a tactician, which I'm happy about. The other stuff is mostly shine  on the apple, those stats were already high."

Callie  Reynolds -G rank. Ability: Beginner Shadow embodiment- The ability to  control and shape shadows either molding them into constructs of imbuing  them into specially prepared objects to enable enhancement and control.

Might-127

Impact-12

Vitality-164

Fantasy-75

Focus-68

Perception-175

Creation-142

Skills: Minor Tracking.Beginner Stealth, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery

It  was interesting how clean Callie's sheet looked compared to the rest of  ours. She had less skills, but they were all much higher than most of  ours, and while she was obviously focused on specific stats her points  were pretty spread out. It was intimidating to see what proper  understanding and a good build could do for you. Callie had created a  strong foundation that made continued progress much simpler. I was just  hoping that we'd managed the same for Jessie and Benny. My build was  basically a lost cause.

Callie  looked absolutely thrilled with everyone's growth. "This is amazing  guys. I can't begin to tell you how quickly we're improving compared to  most teams." I was pretty sure we had a decent idea, but it was nice to  know she was happy with the results. We also had tons of spare points  now to funnel into more important stats from ones we used less. I was  able to grant wishes like that even at my own suggestion, because a one  for one points exchange was inherently fair as far as my power was  concerned.

We  had all this gear to sell too, and all that money was bound to give us  new opportunities to grow. Even if we couldn't turn it directly into  strength (which we could in some ways since none of us had even  scratched our ten percent elixir limit in G rank) we could still benefit  from the cash. We could buy expensive powerful gear, hire people to run  us through missions, or hell, post our own missions to take care of  problems.

After  we discussed our future plans a bit more, and talked each other out of  peeking at our Academy coins before the agreed upon meeting time, we  officially decided it was time for bed. Benny and Jessie got up and  headed back to their rooms, leaving Callie and I alone. I pulled her  against me and we both slumped back onto the floor to stare up to the  ceiling. I spoke casually. "So, we got through it. When were you  thinking we would go back to visit you mom?"

She  snuggled into my side, sighing happily. "Not sure, don't want to think.  I'm just so damn relaxed. I've been stressed as hell during this whole  thing. I know I'm not the only one who has to be responsible for the  rest of the group, but being the leader makes it feel like that. Don't  get me wrong. I appreciate you guys putting your faith in me, but it's  still a lot. I'm going to enjoy some downtime."

I  felt the same way and told her so, and she smiled leaning over to kiss  me soundly before getting up. "Alright well I'm heading to sleep. Get  some rest, I need you in top form tomorrow, we have to sell all that  stuff. I know Benny has the haggling skill, but I trust your judgement."  She turned and strolled off down the hallway, a bounce in her step. I  hopped to my feet and stretched widely. I was a bit tired, plus I had to  get up in the morning to make breakfast. There was no point in forcing  myself to cook sleepy. With that I headed off to bed, thinking about  what Callie had said. Hopefully things would stay this peaceful.