After breakfast the next morning (I made quiche) we headed for the Academy to meet up with the others. We took the skyride back over, though we left Cark at home with Cass since he wasn't a student. We'd promised to hand him a cut of the sales from the hunt, despite him actively attempting to turn it down. Cark had definitely done his part, and it would be wrong not to cut him in for a portion.

Even though he felt like we had done enough for him, I felt like he deserved a cut. Since it was my idea to begin with he was more than willing to trust us to sell everything and give him his cut when we got back. So we met up at the crafting hall with the others to sell our wares. As expected, Grimmengap was waiting for us when we got there, and not only them, the wolves were with them too. I'd brought Jin with me back to the house, and Rellia had been with Callie. Jessie and Benny had left their wolves with Grimmengap though because they wouldn't fit in the car comfortably even with the space expansion.

Seeing Jessie, her wolf,Lily, leapt onto the small blonde and licked her excessively. With her Might Jessie was able to stay up pretty easily since the wolf wasn't trying to hurt her, and she giggled nonstop as the wolf licked her face. Rolf, Benny's wolf, was much more circumspect and walked over to bump my friends leg with his nose, enjoying the petting he gave him as he scratched the big canine behind the ears. I nodded to the others. "Hey guys, you all ready to find out what our new rankings are?"

Celine was uncharacteristically jittery, and nodded quickly at the question. "Of course. All at the same time I take it?" We all agreed, and as one reached down to pull out our coins. Celine stopped, staring hard at the object in her hands. She took a deep breath, clearly putting lots of pressure on this new rank. I could understand that. This was more than just the result of the new points, this was the foundation they could use to get a foothold in the Academy.

I had my own coin out, and I flipped it over. Two hundred fifty thousand six hundred and ten. I had to fight down a whistle. That was a pretty big jump. Over a hundred thousand places difference from my previous ranking, especially counting the inevitable drop when I didn't do anything for a few days. This put me around the top twenty five percent of the entire Academy. Granted I knew there were still tons of powerful G rankers that were much stronger than I was. Just because I was high up the list didn't mean I actually had combat power in the top twenty five percent, but still. It was a start.

Everyone showed off their new rank, and we confirmed that the whole team had made it up over three hundred thousand. I was a bit higher than the others because of my Might ranking, and Callie was even higher than that, but we'd all made it to a respectable placing in the ranking boards. I could see Celine was pleased with the rank up, though my team mostly didn't care. We had our own methods of cultivation. While a higher rank was helpful it wasn't absolutely necessary for us to get stronger.

Still, this was only part of what we were doing here. Callie remembered too, and since my girlfriend could never get enough of loot and treasure, she was quick to steer us back to the matter at hand. "Alright guys, we still have to sell off our gains from the hunt. I've been doing some research on pricing, and we can get a pretty good chunk of change for everything, but there's still the matter of what everyone wants to keep. I think that everyone should get to pick one item. If that works for all of you. Solomon already got his of course." She nodded at my cane. "What about the rest of you?"

Benny raised a hand. "I want that hourglass. I know it basically just gives you a controllable vision of the future, but I can definitely use that to try out different combinations for inventing. It'll let me save on rare and expensive ingredients and get the best bang for my buck. I'm looking at designing a few new devices for my embodiment ability, and that will help me get the best possible outcome."

Despite being incredibly interesting, the usefulness of the hourglass was somewhat in doubt. Sure it could be used to find hidden dangers in your path, but since it was one time use relying on it for that set a bad precedent, and it was kind of a waste. Benny using it would give him a possible powerful artifact to use as part of his actual combat strength, so it made sense to let him have it. The others didn't seem to mind at all, so Benny took the hourglass, happily stowing it away as he got ready to use his cut of the cash to buy some new materials.

Callie kept the spectral severer, because it was interesting and there wasn't much else she needed. Jessie, Martin, Sarah, and Celine all took materials from the list that lined up with their combat styles so they could commission some weapons. I was pretty damn good, but there were plenty of enchanters here better than me, so they were planning to pay for them. Wishes might have been able to make something more impressive, but most of them didn't know that, and honestly with the kind of money we had to throw around that wasn't even a guarantee.

Benny got in on the haggling as expected, and after an hour or two of negotiations (helped along by my using Seek Hidden to find the people most in need of our materials. We walked away with ten thousand G ranked chits. More money than any of us had ever seen in our lives. Each of us got a thousand, and we decided to give Cark two thousand because he didn't pick a material and because he was going to need the money to take care of Cass in the future. We'd have other chances to do events like this, but he might not, and we wanted to make sure that our friend was taken care of no matter what happened in the future.

I'd been considering what to invest my share in, but I figured I'd ask Callie what she thought. I had a few ideas, but I was pretty much equally leaning towards two different options. I pulled her aside. "Hey, I was wondering if I could get your opinion on something." She hung back as the others kept walking, tilting her head quizzically at me. "I was thinking on what to do with my share, but I'm torn between getting a new car, possibly even a shuttle if we can afford one, or a new costume. This one is kind of wearing out at my current rank."

Callie didn't even hesitate. "Costume. The car we have now isn't perfect, but isn't bad either. That H rank armor has been holding you back though, and its gotten you hurt more than once. I get that it doesn't feel like its been quite as big a problem as it should, having a dedicated healer helps with that, but I'm guessing you have more than a few rips and tears in that thing? It was great when you were in H rank, but you need a better set of gear for combat purposes at least."

I sighed, knowing she was right. "Yeah, fair enough. The question becomes should I order a new set in the exact same style or try to update my look?" I glanced down at the familiar light armor, now covered with scratches and damage, despite my best efforts to keep it in good shape. It would be simple enough to get some Skills that would let me patch it up properly, but I knew deep down that it would just be treating the symptoms rather than the disease. I'd outgrown my old clothes, and part of me wanted to use the opportunity for a change.

Callie seemed to get that, but she shook her head. "Massive image overhauls like that are counterproductive to a rising Ascendant. My personal suggestion is maybe make some small changes. Keep the armor style and change the cloak in for a coat or something. As long as you keep the hood you'll still be easily recognizable. You can change your image, but you want to do it slowly over time. One element here, one there. That way people slowly acclimate to the alterations without losing their impression of you. Image management is incredibly important to cultivators."

That was an interesting take on things. I'd mostly been focused on the fact that changing my vibe this early would let me avoid losing out down the road, but a slow shift in image would probably work better. "Speaking of, what rank is your gear? You've been G rank since I met you, so I assume it's that level too, but is it as good as what you can get here? The materials you can find in a place like this would be a lot better than anything you can pick up back in Velan. Or did you get that on your visit?"

Callie's famous Nightstrike outfit had been in solid condition since we got here, despite not covering as much as mine it was clearly much more durable. I'd never actually given any thought to where she got it. She just shrugged. "I special ordered it. There are delivery services that run between here and Velan. I was a guild executive of the Velan branch so I was able to worm my way onto the approved list. Of course it was still expensive as hell, but I have a few sponsorship deals back home, so I was able to save up for it."

With my question answered I figured it was time to go and track down someone to make me a new costume. I liked her jacket idea and was planning to include it, but before we could move very far I heard the chime of my scan ring getting an incoming call. I spun it up to open the call, only to find Zeke on the screen. He rarely called me first, so I expected this to be important news, but rather than looking serious he seemed like he was about to break down laughing. I raised an eyebrow before remembering I had my mask on and cocking my head. "This can't bode well. What had you laughing so hard?"

Zeke grinned widely at me. "I wanted to be the one to tell you because I wanted to see your face. I just got a call from Stella." I waited, glaring into the screen as he took a deep breath, dragging this out. "She told me we're getting a visitor from Velan. Another local moving up to the big leagues. Specifically one nobody saw coming, and he brought his people with him." His grin was so wide I was wondering if his face hurt, and it took him a few seconds to finally get it out. "Mr. Jack-Tastic broke through to E rank. He brought his whole crew to Rajak. The Jerks have officially moved up to a planetary scale organization."

I froze, my blood running cold. I'd seen plenty of terrible things since I became an Ascendant, but nothing matched the sheer lunacy of the territory the Jerks had ruled over. That had been when Mr. Jack-Tastic was running a section of a much smaller town. Granted there were still plenty of other E rankers, but probably not that many, and he had a way of grabbing attention. I was pretty sure Rajak had just become a much weirder place. May the revenant have mercy on us all.