Wish upon the Stars chapter 1135 (Patreon)

It took another three weeks (and two days) to complete the template. Considering the very different nature of the power source and the work I’d put in to get it done, I wasn’t too unhappy with that timeline, even if it was beyond the rather optimistic projections I’d made when we came up with the plan. Six weeks total, or half of my lead time up to the midterm, but I knew for a fact it would be worth it.

Beyond that, I had gotten a new modifier, times three to might, and I had officially hit five hundred stockpiled scrolls. With the new template filled out, I had officially hit a third of the way through the nine phoenix art, and I could feel a qualitative shift in the capabilities of my body, even beyond what I’d been expecting or what showed on my sheet. I’d even bound another page in for the Nine Demons Reincarnation Art, bringing that total up to nine with the achievement of finishing my third template. I was excited to see exactly what I could do with a single scroll, so the extra two days had been a wait to meet everyone at Common City and officially get the ball rolling on my next influx of points, for which I had high hopes.

When I arrived at the inn where we were all meeting, I was in a good mood. I was all but bouncing on the soles of my feet as I dumped the pile of scrolls on the table for all my friends to see.

“Alright people, here’s the deal,” I told my followers. “These are wish scrolls. They grant wishes. Some of you know this, some of you don’t. For the ones that don’t, there are rules. I can’t tell you what to wish for mostly, though I can ask for a specific payment. Payment is required to be fair and balanced, at least from both our perspectives. As such, the one exception to the “can’t suggest wishes” rule is that I CAN suggest a one for one stat trade, as it is inherently balanced.”

Sorwen, who had been sitting nearby, stared at the scrolls with interest. “But if those scrolls can do anything, why would we wish for stats, especially with stats as payment?”

“Because the scrolls are limited by my power and your ability to pay,” I explained. “And because contrary to what anyone else will tell you, the most beneficial thing you can wish for is more power of your own. Now a one for one stat trade may not sound like a big deal, but that’s because you’re not considering the possibilities. Jessie, tell them what they’ve won.”

My friend grinned, popping to her feet energetically. “Yes boss,” she said, snapping off a sloppy salute. I rolled my eyes but let her have her jokes, and she huffed a bit at the lack of reaction. Bethy was a terrible influence on everyone around her. Turning to the others, she gestured to herself. “Now, you all know about my racial trait, mostly because I’ve got bear ears and I don’t hide them. But I was powerful long before that, and it’s mostly because of wishes.

“Not because I wished for MORE power, though I did that too once in a while, but because of what kind of power I wished for when I did.” Her eyes were bright and emphatic as she spoke. “Ascendants are creatures of reputation,” she said bluntly. “We’re all about showing off. And nothing makes more an impression than being able to do something that someone at your rank shouldn’t be able to. I funnelled all of my points into Vitality, and I have a three times Vitality modifier from my trait. I technically have more effective Vitality than the cap of my entire rank, and while I am Vitality heavy, I still have plenty of points in other stats.”

Sorwen got it first. “Your Vitality abilities, your healing and other tricks, they work like you’re a B-ranker.”

Jessie waggled a hand. “Depends on the situation, but they can. The point is they work WAY better than a C-ranker should be able to manage. And that gets me noticed. Gets me attention. You want to know why you would pay for stats with stats? Because you can drain your most useless stat and dump it all into your best. You can focus your whole build in a way that’s completely impossible naturally.”

“But there’s no pressure,” I informed them easily. “There’s only five hundred of these, and all of you have a LOT of stats. Even just a few of you interested in a large overhaul could manage to use them all. So take your time, figure out who want-” I didn’t even finish talking, the crowd mobbed the table, snatching up scrolls and scattering, and I just laughed wryly as they vanished from the room, off to find a private place to make wishes.

Callie clicked her tongue. “Animals,” she said loftily.

“You sure you don’t want any?” I asked her worriedly. “I know you’re worried about pushing past B-rank, but you could still rearrange stats like they are.”

She shook her head. “No. I spiked up too high too fast. Between my time on the war front and your help I went through C-rank much too quickly. I’ve been working on stabilizing, but I set myself a goal and I’m sticking to it. I’m going to do the C-rank advanced student trial, just like Bethy did. I’d never be able to pull off the B-rank trial at the bottom of the rank. Better to perfect my abilities now where I have an advantage.”

I nodded in acknowledgement. “Well, yeah, fair. Just be careful not to let any stats in.”

“I know,” she sighed. “I liked it better when we thought the inside of this place was time locked. Though I’m guessing you feel differently.”

As it turned out the Frozen Moment Academy wasn’t really outside of time. The stasis chambers were just a party trick to keep students fresh until they were needed, but time WAS still passing outside, and we knew this because people were still getting renown from external sources.

“I do,” I admitted. “Based on my guesses, I should be able to do about twenty five hundred points per scroll now. One point two five million is an INSANE amount of stats for a C-ranker, but for me? It’s barely a drop in the bucket. I need to ride the Wishmaster wave alongside the rest of my training if I have any shot at hitting A-rank anytime soon.”

She snorted. “If you hit A-rank before I hit B I’m going to be SO pissed. I feel like I’ll never catch up at this rate.”

“Atlas will be finished recovering not too long from now,” I said with a laugh. “And the Asura are making waves here already. Soon everyone is going to know who the heretic god is, as well as BOTH his daughters. Sharing your face with a powerful murder goddess doesn’t hurt either. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alara is still terrorizing the battle front just to muddy the waters and build your rep while we’re in here.”

That seemed to cheer her up a bit, but I wasn’t able to focus on that too much, because I felt a huge influx of points of my own coming. I couldn’t help but grin. It had been a few MONTHS since my last boost, and that was after I’d both managed an alliance with a higher dimensional force and led my people into the tower. I was expecting quite the haul. Sure enough, as I closed my eyes and relaxed my soul, both the influx of wish stats and pure renown from my office rolled over me like a tidal wave.

Wishmaster status. B-rank. Ability: Legendary Wish- Ten times a day grant a Legendary wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly  achievable by the candidate's own  efforts within a three day period  with  current statistics.

Legendary Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.

Might-6,125,421(x3)

Impact-215

Fantasy-3,433,568

Vitality-5,221,871 (x3)

Focus-2,624,853

Perception-3,641,640

Creation-4,343,143

Progress to next rank: 25,390,711/100,000,000

Soul strength- Obsidian Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 27/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 9/9, (Ruin Phoenix) 9/9

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:6- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 9 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art)

wish scrolls stockpiled: 0 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)

Domain size: 34 miles

I was glad I was sitting down for this. It was…a lot. More than I’d gotten at once relative to my stat pool possibly ever. I’d gotten more stats in this one sitting than I had in total, and I fucking FELT it.

Granted, my body and soul were qualitatively different, and my Domain helped, but it still kicked my teeth in. I breathed through the pain, more than used to it after three weeks of grueling template training, and then focused in on my gains. It was the result of months of effort and buildup, on top of years of striving to reach this point in terms of reputation and resources, and I had never been so fully convinced I’d made the right choice.

Twenty five million. A quarter of the way through B-rank. Granted, I knew a bit chunk of that probably came from the renown I’d gained among the faculty here. Renown was qualitatively weighted, and if an S-ranker could bump me up, I imagined an Overgod could do even more. Not to mention the gods outside and their impressions of my capabilities getting this whole alliance together.

Still, even if I had burned through quite a bit of my renown potential within the academy, I was sure I still had plenty coming from outside, and the more powerful my body got, the more wishes became an actual practical choice to rank up again.

At my current level, I could hit A-rank with just a few years of focused income. It was intoxicating, knowing I was growing so much faster than any other Wishmaster before me and that it was by virtue of my own effort. Not to mention I’d gained another mile of Domain space from the constant grinding of the Cosmic Phoenix, which I’d had a parallel running for me through Beelzebub clones even while Nine was working on the template.

I looked over my stats again with pride. Might and Vitality had EXPLODED, but that was no surprise. With my recent modifiers to the latter it was bound to be attention grabbing, and Might was always one of the easier stats to raise, since any sufficiently impressive attack was attributed to the stat. Creation and Fantasy were rising fast, presumably because of the demons, which was interesting, and I’d dropped that one point two five mil into Focus to try to keep it as even as possible with the others.

My biggest gain though, was the ability to pump out more stats because of the nine phoenix reincarnation art. That was going to let me not only hit A-rank relatively fast, but continue bringing my friends with me as I went, and that alone was priceless to me.

I shared everything with Callie as I processed, writing out my stats, and I could feel the genuine joy through the bond as she hugged me tightly. I’d expected some kind of lingering annoyance at me for outpacing her, but I was ashamed that even now, after so long together, I could still misjudge her. All I felt was happiness and relief. The stronger I got the safer I’d be, and she was all for that.

Settling in to enjoy my day off now that business was taken care of, I prepared for my next big adventure, at least as well as I could. With the template condensed and my stats raised, I was officially ready to begin my education in temporal mechanics. This time tomorrow, I’d be in class, learning how to Mythcraft properly for the first time. I really couldn’t wait.