Wish upon the Stars chapter 1214 (Patreon)

I woke up the next day feeling refreshed. It felt…good to sleep properly, to let myself unwind. Now that we were so close, I felt like I could breathe for a minute. Not too long, mind, I had work to do, but it was nice not to feel like an axe was hanging over my wife’s head for a minute. Reaching for my ring, I checked it for messages, and I had to smile when I found a note.

“Morning lazy bones,” I read aloud. “I assume you’re sleeping like a log while I’m being kept permanently awake by your children, I hope you fall and can’t get up. PS, I love you.”

I rolled my eyes, sending a quick message back. I told her good morning, said I loved her, and asked her if she wanted me to send her some scrolls from my stockpile. To my surprise, she informed me that she didn’t need them. Apparently she was a local celebrity, which wasn’t too surprising, and she was getting a substantial income of points just from the notoriety. On top of the income from news of her kidnapping making the rounds, she was looking at potentially making it to A-rank before I found her.

Of course, she wasn’t quite ready for that breakthrough, she didn’t have enough pages bound, but she had nothing but time there, and had been hard at work over the last four months.

On the one hand, I was happy my wife would be able to protect herself better, but on the other…I hated knowing we’d been apart so long from her perspective. How far along were the babies? I was too scared to ask, and she hadn’t told me. I was sure she was worried it would hurt me. If I missed their birth…or worse, missed MORE than that, I didn’t know what I’d do.

Closing my eyes, I climbed out of bed. If I couldn’t get there now to help, I needed to improve myself. My previous ease was gone, replaced with steely determination. If Callie didn’t need the scrolls, I would use them.

Of course, I needed someone to use them ON, but I had a few people with me that I was sure could help. So I dragged myself to the bathroom, showered (even this had lost its luster) and strode off to find my friends…only to become IMMEDIATELY lost. The interior of Ralkyne Manor wasn’t just creepy, it was also CONFUSING. All the hallways and walls looked the same, and while impressive, it made finding anything nearly impossible. Finally I just gave up and triggered Dantalion.

I smiled in satisfaction as the flood of information rolled over me, and I followed the proper turn to the room where Abel was staying. I knocked on the door, and he opened it within moments. He blinked as he took in my expression. “Hey Shane,” he said slowly. “What’s up?”

“Wanted to see if you were interested in trading some points,” I asked with a shrug. “I’ll ask the others too, but I figure you might benefit from aligning your stats a bit. Just don’t go overboard, obviously.” We’d seen from Jessie how much good specializing could do, but my own situation was proof positive that letting your stats get too unbalanced could also be a detriment.

He hummed with interest. “I mean, I’m not AGAINST that. I’ve got a hundred million to play with. If I skim a bit off everything I could seriously boost my might.”

“Perception is a particular priority at the moment,” I said wryly. “Though I know you use that one more often than not. Still, I’m sure you can spare something. Anything at all would be useful. I need all the help I can get.”

“I’m sure you’ll be netting some Perception,” he pointed out. “I mean, you’re currently off on a tracking mission that everyone in the WCP knows about. I’d be expecting a big bump.”

I blinked at him, but realized he was probably right. Of course, I’d probably also be netting a ton of Focus, but I wasn’t exactly displeased with the idea that I might be able to balance my Perception a bit. Though now that I recognized that, I realized my next flame would probably need to be Focus based to balance out the Perception.

Following him inside, I started pulling out my scrolls. I was JUST about to have him start wishing, however, when a loud, rapid knocking sounded at the door. Frowning, I walked over and pulled it open to find Bethy, Crell, Fade, and Alanna.

Bethy waved excitedly. “Hey boss!” she chirped. “We doing wish stuff? I wanna!”

Abel groaned behind me. “Sure, everyone come on in. Might as well make it a party, anyone bring any booze?”

“Um, only DUH!” Bethy squealed as she burst into the room, two huge bottles of wine appearing in her clenched fists. “Now you’re speaking my language Abner! Come on, lets all get hammered and wish to be fuzzy mammals!”

“We JUST took the wine from you,” Crell frowned as he pried the bottles from her fingers. “We can’t afford to get drunk in this place. Don’t you feel how creepy it is? We’re here to help Shane, because he won’t be able to focus on balancing his stats right if he only has one person to work with. Am I wrong?”

I shrugged. “I mean, not really, that’s a fair assessment. Even distributing things evenly wouldn’t be enough, I’d be worried about unbalancing Abel’s build.”

“Exactly,” he nodded sagely. “So instead you unbalance ALL of our builds. Just…y’know. Less.”

Sighing, I gestured to the nearby table, where I started laying out the scrolls. They dug into the pile, getting started right away, and I waited for the influx of stats before I allowed myself to FINALLY relax and process the weeks of pent up power.

Wishmaster status. A-rank. Ability: Mythic Wish- Eleven times a day grant a Mythic 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.

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

Might-99,654,183(x3)

Impact-285

Fantasy-46,472,182

Vitality-57,118,871 (x3)

Focus-84,434,651

Perception-75,501,420

Creation-47,829,243 (x3)

Progress to next rank: 411,010,835 /1,000,000,000

Soul strength- Mercury Soul Body

Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 36/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 9/9, Third Layer (Ruin Phoenix) 9/9, Fourth Layer (Arcadian Phoenix) 9/9

Chronicle: Myriad Demons Manual (pages bound:100- 4 Zagan, 1 Leviathan, 1 Beelzebub, 9 Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art, 3 Limbo, 3 Overlay, 9 Mephistopheles, 1 Song of Arcadia, 1 Cosmic Waltz, 7 Life Nova, 9 Angelic Bond, 1 Wisdom of Solomon, 12 Dantalion, 2 Sammael, 1 Cosmic Collapse, 1 Cooking, 1 Double Trouble, 13 Doom Sovereign, 9 Azazel, Song of Arcadia 12)

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

Domain size: 108 miles

Soul supported stat number: 25,000

Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)

Weapon: Pillar of Goetia 

The influx of strength was, frankly, kind of staggering. Not really in relation to the amount of power I HAD, but relative to what I EXPECTED. I’d netted more than a hundred and fifty million points. That was substantial, even for the Wishmaster. Granted, six or so mil of that was from the scrolls, but the fact that it was such a substantial boost was still kind of absurd.

When I mentioned the total to Abel (because I needed to tell SOMEONE), he just rolled his eyes.

“You’re on a vengeance quest to save your pregnant wife who got kidnapped by a long dead goddess, AND you recently hit A-rank. At twenty one. I don’t think you understand quite how absurd all that recursion is getting at this point, Shane. A-rank is a BIG deal. I asked around. It took Aiden a decade, even after becoming the wishmaster. Your growth, your accomplishments, your travels…it’s a potent mixture. Bringing the void gods to the table, even if not all of them, bringing Elonwy to teach people how to possibly become gods, you’ve done a LOT. For the WCP and this universe as a whole. People notice.”

I blinked. I hadn’t really looked at it like that. I mean, I knew hitting A-rank so young was impressive, but it wasn’t like it was just me. Abel was A-rank now, as were Bethy…and it occurred to me that I had just listed the two most freakish geniuses I had ever met as my measuring stick for what was normal progression. Maybe he had a point.

“Well…at the very least I got some much needed relief from that Focus imbalance,” I groaned. I hadn’t QUITE equalized them, but it was a lot closer now. I’d poured all those scroll points into Perception to help, and it had clearly done the trick, at least combined with whatever income I got from rumors of this mission. I wondered how much of those rumors my own people had started, and how much was just the normal leaky faucet of the rumor mill. I honestly didn’t care if it got me strong enough to save Callie, and I was pretty close to halfway through A-rank now, which definitely didn’t suck.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I’d been way too busy for my proper training, which meant I hadn’t even started in my fifth layer of nine phoenix. I had the flame on hand, but I was just so swamped I didn’t have to do the work. At the very least, I knew Nine Phoenix himself was working with Gaze of Certitude to form the template, and that was assuming it wasn’t already done.

But still, I felt good. Strong. I knew the extra power would help me on my journey back to Callie and the kids. I just needed to actually get GOING on that journey. I turned to Crell and the others. “We get any feedback from the Ralkyne yet? I assume my parents are with them now?”

“Last I checked,” he nodded. “As for feedback, nothing yet. They claim they can’t rush the responses. They sent out feelers, and now we just need to wait for access to the gates. The three he can get us access to, at least. The fourth…well, Stanley said he set up that introduction, it’s up to you when to accept the invitation that came with it. He said you’ll be expected to attend a formal dinner.”

I frowned at that. “By myself?” I asked suspiciously. That sounded like an ambush waiting to happen.

“You can bring a plus one,” he said with a headshake.

“Oh! I want to go! I’m your master of challenge, right?” Bethy bounced in place excitedly. “I want to go and show off at the party and let everyone so my sick dance moves. I learned this really fun one from Benny where you move your arms like a cyborg.”

I snorted. “That’s why you’re NOT going,” I cut her off. “This isn’t a game. It’s a serious meeting with political ramifications. Plus there’s a ninety percent chance your dad would follow you, and if someone made a rude comment, drown the whole place in a sea of blood. Since we need them to presumably LIVE to help us, I think bringing someone more political would be useful.”

Crell winced. “It’s gonna be me, isn’t it? I hate when it’s me. Can it be someone else? Please? Anyone? You could bring that coatrack. It looks very stoic.” He pointed across the room at a wooden coat stand.

I rolled my eyes. “Suck it up. You’ve been raking in the points as one of my cabinet. Time to pay up. I don’t want to be there any more than you do, so watch my back, tell me if I’m about to offend someone, and don’t let me drink poison.” I paused. “Or eat poison. Help me avoid poison in general.” Oddly, he didn’t seem comforted by my comment. Strange.