Wish upon the Stars chapter 25

Unlike my experience with Enchanting, Benny was perfectly aware of  the finer points of Inventing. I'd really fucked myself getting my  Enchanting Skill from someone with almost no memory of the art. It was a  reminder that while my ability would thwart any attempts at "unfair  compensation" it also worked of intent. I could still get screwed if I  didn't understand what I was getting. Not that I was angry at Mr. Patel,  I'd been the idiot who did zero research before asking for his Skill.

Once Benny was feeling better we continued with the last two wishes. As agreed we didn't do any more Skills,  Benny wished instead for some supplies for entry level Inventing. I was  fascinated by exactly how the information in his head worked. Since the  Skill was created instead of being traded from someone it made me  wonder where the information came from. I imagined the exact amount of  knowledge depended on the stats I spent on it, but it didn't answer the  question of where it came from.

Still, Benny had the  knowledge and clearly knew how to use it, and he was able to get exactly  what he needed by making a list and wishing for, and I quote. "As much  of the contents of this list as you have the power to give me." He'd  managed to get everything he asked for with the two wishes combined, and  some of the stuff he'd requested was weird to me, but he seemed so  excited by it all that I decided to wait it out to find out what he  could do now. Once he had everything he borrowed some tools from Zeke's  workshop and we retired to my game room where there was open space to  work.

Benny set down the odd pile of randomly shaped metal  objects and tubes of chemicals on the floor and stood back. "Ok.  Teaching you will probably take a while, but the first step is going to  be helping you learn what Inventing actually is. It's...complicated, but  I'll do my best to explain it to you. Much like all crafting Skills  Inventing is about stats. That isn't surprising because stats basically  quantify all the important elements in existence, and they exist in some  form in everything."

I nodded. That fit with what I knew  well enough. As we'd seen earlier even mortals had stats, they were just  so low that they weren't quantifiable by the world around them, and as  such they weren't able to handle cultivation. One point of Impact was  the foundation that an Ascendant was built on. You could construct a  tower one block at a time, but you needed a stable surface to place down  that first block. Everything Ascendants did involved stats on one way  or another, and creating items was no different.

Benny  picked up a vial of red liquid and a bronze pipe. "This chemical is  called Virium, and this pipe is made of phosphorous bronze. Virium has  extreme regenerative properties, and phosphorus bronze is incredibly  hard. These are mundane items, but they possess higher than average  amounts of stats. Vitality and Might in this case. Still below a point,  but the values are there, and that's where Inventing does it's work.  Where Enchanting shoves your stats into an object and Alchemy mixes them  together, Inventing is about more than simply combining things."

He  picked up a few other things and started fashioning them together.  "Rather than combine the objects together by merging them, Inventing  treats the various objects as parts of a whole. Phosphorus bronze has  more Might than most metals, it's good for striking things or cutting,  Virium has more Vitality, it can heal. The item I can make will have  both of these properties, but rather than just add them together, it  applies them to the entirety of my creation." His hands moved swiftly  and surely as he made adjustments, slowly rotating gears and small  pieces of odd random junk he had pulled from the pile and attached.

It  took him about ten minutes to finish putting them all together. "With  multiple pieces of phosphorus bronze here to use, rather than, to  ballpark it, a tenth of a point of Might each the Inventing Skill lets  me treat the whole device as a piece of gear with one point of Might.  With a few of the other items there added together I also have a point  of Vitality mixed in, and because of the strange construction and visual  effects I was able to capitalize on the small amount of Fantasy and get  a point of that."

He finished and set down...a robot. It  was a tiny semi humanoid being with big thick legs that were attached  high up the sides of its square body and two tiny flexible arms. There  was a red glow behind it's eyes and it looked almost...excited, as it  stomped around the empty room, its metal feet clanging as it ran  playfully in circles. I blinked at Benny. He just grinned in response.  "I call him Tock. As you can see, inventing can make amazing things.  Unfortunately it's somewhat more limited than Enchanting or Alchemy."

I  raised a questioning eyebrow at that and he shrugged. "When you Enchant  you shape the runes to your will, and when you use Alchemy you can use  your stats to prioritize ingredients...I think. There was a bit of basic  knowledge of a bunch of things in my Inventing Skill but it was vague.  Anyway, Inventing is different than the others because due to it's  nature as a cumulative discipline, the nature of what you make is  entirely dependent on the materials you use. You can make bigger, more  impressive things out of Ascendant materials, but it still works based  on the properties of what you used."

I blinked in  understanding. "Oh! That's part of why people are so skittish around Mad  Scientists I bet. They're at the mercy of their materials, and  therefore they don't control what comes out when they create." I paused.  "Well, I mean they control it by making sure to use materials relevant  to their object, but it explains why their results are so inconsistent.  It probably takes a ton of experimenting to identify a combination of  materials that produces a specific item even after you finish making  it."

Benny nodded. "It does. The trade-off is the fact  that unlike Alchemy and Enchanting you aren't mobilizing much of your  own energy. Mad Scientists can work for days where dedicated Enchanters  have a hard limit based on their rank. Alchemists can push a bit further  because of their reliance on more powerful materials but Inventing is  the most economic and least tiring crafting discipline, even if it's  also the most unpredictable." It was weird seeing my friend talk with  such authority about a subject I knew he had no clue about a few hours  ago, but not in a bad way.

I got  down on the floor to look at the frolicking little robot. It was, in a  word, adorable. I looked over at my friend and he chuckled. "Vitality,  Fantasy, and Might, the combination makes an animated robot." He paused.  "Well, the combination of these ingredients makes an animated robot.  The biggest gamble in inventing is the nuance of the materials can  create a totally different outcome if you don't use the exact same  combination. If I was using some other metal I might have gotten an belt  with a third arm on it."

Which  actually made the way Mad Scientists were treated a lot more  understandable. With what Callie had told me about recursion, if a Mad  Scientist accidentally made something crazy or dangerous it would start  to push their reputation in a more negative direction. Hell, even the  general perception of "corrupted" abilities probably pushed people with  those powers towards more selfish or brutal actions. The worst part was I  could see why they didn't just tell everyone the truth too, because if  it came out that Ascendants were vulnerable to mental manipulation like  that it would seriously shake public faith in us, and the worry of the  masses might have a wide scale effect on all of us.

The  image curating that the Unity obviously did behind the scenes made so  much more sense in that context. Hell the existence of the Unity made  more sense. Snatching up all the talented new Ascendants and pushing  them to be "heroes" gave them a sharp push down the right path at the  beginning that would hopefully snowball enough to stick. Regardless that  was all way above my pay grade. I was just an H ranker, I could worry  about this all when I had the power to actually come into contact with  it.

For now I  was just going to play with this weird little robot because it was  hilarious and adorable. The robot, having noticed me getting on the  floor, was trying to stalk me now, circling around behind me to pounce.  It apparently wasn't aware that it's big metal feet were clanking on the  floor with every step, and to make it's complete lack of steath more  apparent, as soon as it got out of sight it wailed. "THREEEEEE!" And  charged me. Loudly. I felt it bump gently into my leg at what was  probably it's top speed and then...stop.

The  little guy was all of seven inches tall and made of relatively  lightweight metal. Despite the loud impacts on the floor as it walked it  had very little force behind it. The robot came to a stop against my  leg and kept trying to run, obviously attempting to...push me? I looked  up at Benny, who just shrugged "He's a guard robot, because of the  Might. You're intruding on his floor, so he's trying to remove you." His  lips twisted a bit as the robot pushed harder, obviously trying not to  laugh at the little bots antics.

I  rolled my eyes and picked the little thing up. It's legs kicked in the  air and it's arms waved furiously as it repeated it's high pitched cry. I  felt like an asshole so I put it back down after standing up, and it  went right back to slamming harmlessly into the side of my shoe. I  looked to Benny, who was staring, fascinated, at the little guy. "Well,  how does it feel to have an almost superpower? A Minor Skill is technically within human limits, but you're right on the edge with that one."

He grinned at me. "It feels amazing. I almost picked Alchemy because it went with my cooking  Skill, but this one is better. I don't need expensive ass ingredients  you can't find on this planet for one. Plus look how cute that little  guy is." He nodded down to the robotic menace ramming into my leg. "I'm  going to give him to Maria. Maybe it'll shut her up about that scan box.  Speaking of which, have you been back on Doom Sovereign lately? Seems  like a waste not to use the thing even if you have a better source for  wishes now."

I  winced. "No. I really need to actually. I've been meaning to experiment  a bit in game and try to get a better handle on my Minor Doom Sovereign  Mastery Skill. I think the stronger it gets the more of the game  mechanics I can use in my fights, and since my power isn't really combat  applicable I think I want to focus on that Skill for battle." I'd  decided against synergizing it after I learned from Zeke that I'd lose  my three times stat modifier if it changed, but I was still incredibly  excited by the possibilities.

Benny  grinned. "Well, I'm here and you have your original setup still. Why  don't I go into the game with your original rig since I have nothing to  hide, and you can go in with the newer box. I mean, I don't remember how  to play much, but still, I'm sure you could use a sounding board, and  with my new slightly better than normal but still not even one point of  Focus I bet I can pick things up pretty quick." I returned his smile  with one of my own, showing my teeth, and walked over to pick up my old  scan box, tossing it to him. Guess it was time to do some more testing.