Owen was not happy to see us again. He didn't bitch too much though. We introduced him to Sydney, Lestri, and Lament, and given he was still gathering information on outsiders for the tournament, he seemed at least partially mollified. I briefly felt bad for not telling her about it, but then realized anyone with any common sense would be aware that the locals would be gathering intel, as evidenced by how much Lament had held back during her fight.

After we sat down, we were joined by Sydney's sister, Megan. Who was...much different. Where Sydney was tiny and shy with red hair. Megan was a tall blonde who looked like she could do some serious fighting. She wasn't as muscular as Lament, who was built like a seasoned warrior despite being slim, but still, she was in better shape than I was. With bright blue eyes and a big cheerful grin, Megan was as outgoing as her sister was hesitant to engage.

She had her own cadre of attendants, and had them sit at a second table with all of Sydney's guards and most of Sloane's crew, though Owen refused to feed all of them for free. Lament covered their meal since the dinner thing had been her idea, and Megan jumped right into conversation. "So, I heard you helped Syd out of a jam. I really appreciate that." She laughed wryly, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. "I...might have been wrong about the Chaotic Wombat. But come on, what are the chances of her getting picked?"

I was pretty sure that was what everyone thought, but Sydney just shook her head. "It's fine, sis. I'm just glad to make some new friends." She took a bite of her enchilada with a delighted moan. "Also, the food there couldn't possibly have been as good as this. What is in this rice?" She chewed for a minute with her eyes closed, savoring the food, before swallowing. "Sorry. Anyway, Miss. Lament was it? Thank you for the meal, and that was some impressive fighting. That spear manifestation was so amazing. Are you a Master Candidate?"

At the rest of our blank looks (those of us whose faces were visible), Wren chimed in. "Mastery is a qualitative jump in skill requirement, especially for weapon Skills. D-rank is considered a watershed for the higher ranks. People who reach the peak of the level above their own in a weapon Skill are considered prodigies who are much more likely to rank up to Master. Like Lament will be able to step into Expert pretty much the second she ranks up to F-rank. That gives her the whole rank to prepare for the jump to Master at E-rank. Master Candidates are considered elite in star system forces. Though in the wider cluster it's less uncommon."

"But wait." I said in confusion. "Don't you need to reach Master to reach D-rank at all?" Abilities ranked up when people did. So Master being a dividing like was kind of odd. If that was the case then D-rank would be much less common wouldn't it? Though thinking about it, I'd never met a D-ranker, so maybe it WAS less common. D-ranked planets (which couldn't support a D-ranker as far as I knew, just a multitude of E-rankers) were treated as pretty low ranked planets after all.

Wren didn't look surprised by my confusion. "Most people synergize some kind of Skill into their ability. People who use only their inborn power are rare. Hitting Master, or any higher rank, in a Skill is much different than hitting it with an ability. An ability is part of you, and grows as you do. It doesn't require any conditions or knowledge to rank up. Skills get more difficult as you go on. Weapon and martial Skills in general tend to be tough to reach Master in. Crafting Skills too. Of course, you have people born with a weapon Skill who can do it easily. Those are Naturals, and like people born with one of the three major crafting Skills, they're considered extremely valuable."

I hadn't even considered that actually. My own Wish ability didn't have any requirements aside from stats to rank up. Benny and the others had synergized, and needed Skill ranks to break through. But if someone had something like Inventing or Enchanting as their natural ability, then they would rank up easily like me, and I could only assume those ranks would come with the knowledge and skills necessary to put them to use. Considering how tough it was to rank up Enchanting that was a scary thought. It also made me a lot more wary of Mad Scientists in general.

Callie seemed enthralled. "So if someone was born with a Spear Mastery ability, they would just grow in technique as they ranked up, without needing to learn or upgrade any Skills? That sounds amazing. But doesn't that mean that they can't do what Lament did and rank their weapon Skill up past their current rank? Like someone with an inborn Spear Mastery could get to Master easily, but only at D-rank, right?"

"Exactly." Cut in Lament. "Naturals are tied to their rank. In the early ranks that's a huge disadvantage, because ranking up a Skill to Lesser or Beginner is substantially easier than reaching a higher Ascendant rank. Being a natural comes with downsides too." She gave a self satisfied smirk, her tone smug. "I much prefer the way I do it. I won't have any problems reaching Master, will I Master Saiten?"

The spear master just chuckled. "No, Lament. I don't suppose you will. But don't get a big head. There are people out there stronger than Master Candidates. Especially in the main systems of the five factions. Some of the larger clans and faction leadership have specialized training regimens for soul strength so extraordinary their descendants can breach the one rank barrier safely. There are F-ranked Masters your age in some parts of the universe."

Even Abel seemed taken aback by that. "That's insane. What kind of soul strength would you need in order to survive being two full ranks ahead in a Skill? That's not a temporary thing, you would have to live with that for years probably." He shuddered. "Even the thought of trying to breach Intermediate right now makes me want to vomit. My soul is already pressured just maintaining peak Intermediate. Is it even possible to beat someone like that?"

Saiten just shrugged. "Sure. There are all kinds of terrifying abilities out there. Some racial traits have absurd benefits, and there are jobs that give access to power far outside the norm. Early Mastery is terrifying, but the right kind of stat modifiers and Skills can make up for it. Not to mention just being higher rank. Still, those kinds of people are considered treasures even in big families and sects. You aren't likely to meet one all the way out here. Even things like Moonglow Dew aren't necessarily enough to rouse their interest."

At least that meant we wouldn't be fighting a monster like that. A Master Candidate like Abel or Lament was scary enough. Speaking of which, Megan seemed to have picked up on my mentor's slip. "Wait, back up. You're a Master Candidate too? Aren't you local? That's WAY more impressive. I've never seen a Master Candidate on a D-ranked planet before." She paused. "Which, ok, I haven't been to many D ranked planets. But still. That's pretty badass." She turned to Mel quizzically. "How about you? Are you a Master Candidate too?"

Our red masked teacher just shrugged. "My Fire Manipulation Skill is at Intermediate, but it just broke through a while ago. Plus Manipulation Skills are a huge pain in the ass to rank up. I'm not too worried about it though. We mostly focus on combat standards and integration. Apollyon just ranked his martial arts Skill up because he had a few years with nothing to do but train." She shot him a sharp glare at that, which he pretended not to notice as he dug into his Enchiladas with gusto.

"What about you guys?" I interrupted, trying to save my mentor. "Tell us more about the Wave Warren. We won't ask about combat specifics given we might be fighting you in the tournament, but we love hearing about the forces in the star system. You mentioned not having been to D-rank planets before, does that mean you've mostly been on C-ranked planets?"

She nodded happily. "Oh yeah. Wave Warren is based on a C-ranked planet. Granted, we aren't a C-ranked force or anything, the Warren Master is a D-ranker. But we do ok. We're not the only people from Gralter that are here either. Slime Hall managed to get invited too." She grimaced. "Damn summoners. Dealing with them is so gross. It's just the two of us from our planet though. We found out about this through back channels, and managed to keep it MOSTLY quiet."

"Slime Hall?" Callie asked with a grimace. "That sounds unpleasant. I don't know much about summoners, they aren't super common here, though I know they exist. Honestly before today I had only seen one or two. It's a pretty Fantasy heavy ability isn't it? You don't see many of those at G-rank."

That explained it. I'd been wondering where the summoners I'd seen came from. If they formed the ability through synergy at a higher level, or if they needed lots of Fantasy to be viable, they might not have been in combat much up to this point. I knew that some stats could be more easily gained through alternative routes than fights and patrols. Granted, Might was an important stat especially at low ranks, and we could still gain other stats by making an impression, but other careers like artists and pop singers provided good returns on some of the more elusive stats.

Callie had mentioned that her dad actually tried to convince her to be a pop star when she was younger. She and her mom had both put their foot down about it, and her ballet lessons had been a compromise. He figured some more artistry in her combat would help generate Fantasy, which to be fair it might have done, especially in combination with all the crazy shadow antics.

"Yeah. They summon slimes." Said Megan flatly. "Usually elemental ones, though some of them have weird trick slimes. The Slime Creation Skill is surprisingly easy to pick up at the Minor level from what I'm told. And synergy with a few other Skills makes Slime Summoning. Most of them synergize THAT with other inborn abilities to enable them to summon unique and more powerful slimes. They're a giant pain in the ass. Sometimes literally. One of their team members summons giant slimes."

This was the first time I'd heard about someone making a Skill as interesting as summoning from scratch. I knew you could learn Skills like that. Some people could teach them because they were born with an ability and took on a job, which turned that ability into a skill. I assumed you had to be able to teach those, but this seemed like a completely different thing. Kind of like a heritage a clan would have, albeit on a much smaller scale.

She went on to describe more about Slime Hall, how Wave Warren had been neighbors and competitors with them for years, and how the two of them had found out about the Moonsong Glade opening from the same source and greed to keep it secret. If some of the C-ranked forces on their planet had shown up it would have made this whole tournament infinitely harder, so I couldn't disagree with logic on that one.

We all traded stories and ate Enchiladas together, getting to know the visiting forces, and it was actually pretty nice. Sydney was shy, but extremely bubbly once you got her to open up, and Megan was pretty much a wrecking ball in terms of personality, which meant she got on well with Lament, Abel, and Callie, who were all pretty outspoken. When we finished eating, we offered to show Sydney and Megan to the Blue Robin, where they could get a better sleep. All in all it wasn't a bad night. I hoped the next day could be as peaceful, I wanted to get as much relaxing as possible done before that damn auction. Sadly, I didn't think that was in the cards. Abel was bound to have something crazy planned.