Before we went to sleep, I did all five wishes. I traded fifteen points of various stats for fifteen points of Fantasy. The summoners today had made a big impression, and I was interested in gaining the ability to do that kind of thing. I'd been saving my wishes for the end of the day lately, just to make sure I didn't need them for some emergency. Doomtown wasn't exactly safe most of the time, so it seemed prudent not to waste them.

At eight ninety seven, I was only three points shy of nine hundred, and I decided it was time to finally ask Abel and the others about ranking up. Or rather, about NOT ranking up. I cornered my mentor at the pool table, playing a game with Wren. "Hey boss man, was hoping we could talk. I'm coming up on a thousand points, and I wanted to know if I need to do anything specific to not rank up. Like...do I just not accept? Will that hurt me? I'm guessing you've been denying a rank up for a while. Is there some secret to it?"

He scratched his shot with a curse. "Fuck! Damn it, hold on." Wren snickered something under his breath, but Abel caught it. "Fuck you that counts. I was distracted. Put the fucking ball back where it was. I need to go have a discussion with my disciple. I have perfect spatial awareness by the way, even with my stats suppressed, so I'll know if you move it." He turned back to me, aggravation in his eyes. "Come on, lets go talk somewhere less crowded. None of this is really earthshaking info, but it's better shared in private."

Leading me back down the hall to mine and Callie's room, he kicked the door shut. "First of all." He said, turning around. "Good on you for bothering to ask ahead of time. Short answer is no. There is no penalty for suppressing rank, with the exception of being unable to gain more stats. All the stats you COULD have gotten are lost, which is why most people avoid it, but it doesn't hurt you or anything. I have been suppressing my rank, as has Mel. I did it partly for training and partly not to get attention, and she did it partly for training and partly for me."

He gave a wry snort. "Silly girl. I'd never have asked that. But she did it anyway." He sounded distant and almost sad for a second, but then shook it off. "Never you mind, it worked out in the end. Point is no, you won't be hurt by suppressing your rank. People do it all the time. Not just Mel and I, there are more than a few E-rankers who engage in the practice. How the hell do you think Moravian isn't at D-rank despite being over three millennia old? Do you know how famous he is?"

"Wait." I said, holding up a hand. "The Moravian is suppressing his rank? I thought he was just stuck because this planet can't support a D-ranker? Like there isn't enough renown for one to rank up, right?" That clashed with what I had been told badly, though to be fair Cark had much less of a reason to know details about this kind of thing than Abel.

"No." Abel said slowly. "As in, it PHYSICALLY can't support a D-ranker. This is a theoretically a D-ranked planet, but that's only because of the number of E-rankers here. It's more accurately a psuedo D-rank planet. As in, it hasn't reached D-rank yet. If one of the E-rankers tried to break through to D-rank, it would trigger the planet to attempt a rank up to compensate for the Impact increase. You know, I assume, what happens when someone ranks up without a proper foundation?"

I winced at the image. "Their soul collapses. I didn't know the whole rank thing was literal. Does that mean the planet is a dungeon then? Callie told me that places with Impact are dungeons." This conversation was a lot more complicated than I had been expecting.

Abel looked like he was starting to get annoyed. "No!" He snapped. Then he groaned. "Just...no. Dungeons are more concentrated. A planet's Impact is spread over a massive surface area, so it barely has an effect. Most higher ranked planets actually get bigger to compensate. There are Dungeon Worlds, small planets with a high rank, but they're incredibly valuable and are usually used as training grounds or heartworlds for big factions and clans."

I held up both hands placatingly. "Sorry, I don't mean to get so off track. Just one more question?" He sighed but nodded. "So why don't the E-rankers just go somewhere else to rank up and then come back? Then they would be in charge of the planet right? None of the ones who stayed would be strong enough. Or does the planet literally not support D-rankers on its surface?" I knew that wasn't the case, because Zeke was B-ranked, so there had to be some reason.

Shaking his head, Abel confirmed my theory. "No. Higher ranked people go where they want. It's complicated. D-rank is a watershed, like we mentioned earlier. The rank up to D is supposed to be...dramatic. I don't know the details, I've never seen one. Besides that the Unity runs this planet. If people were leaving to rank up and coming back it would fuck up the distribution of power, so it isn't allowed. The WCP discourages that kind of thing too. It robs higher ranked planets of power concentration. When you leave a planet, you aren't banned from coming back or anything, but it's expected you won't be returning to live there."

Considering what I knew about renown being exponentially weighted as you ranked up, that made sense. Higher ranked planets were renown farms, so they would definitely want powerful people there in droves. The important thing was I'd gotten my answer, even if it came with about a dozen more questions. I nodded. "Alright, I'll suppress my rank up then, at least until after the tournament. If we do the rank up right after we shouldn't lose out on the points from the tournament itself right?"

"Right." He agreed. "No way any of the other entrants would have agreed to participate if they had to miss out on a big windfall like that. They'll probably have some kind of ceremony for the winners and let the ones who can rank up on the spot for the prestige bump. Most people joining up will be peak of G-rank about to Ascend. That's why there are a relatively low number of forces here. They needed a team that fit the conditions and was also strong enough to be a contender. Of course, not ALL of them are peak of G-rank. The prestige from the tournament will help some get there, which is why there's a wait time between the tournament and the glade opening."

That was something I'd been worried about up to this point, so it was good to have assurances. The whole planet thing was also way more complicated than expected. I'd known about the size difference, since supermassive planets had much stronger gravity to offset Might. But the Impact thing was interesting, and I wondered exactly how that effected Ascendants on the surface of that world. I also wondered if it meant Zeke was stronger here, or if he was just so much more powerful than this place that he barely noticed.

Abel chuckled at my silence, clapping me on the shoulder. "Don't worry so much about it kid. We're a long way from having to worry about things like Ascending to D-rank or how powerful people are on other planets. Take care of the problems you have before you start new ones. We have to get through the next two weeks, as well as the tournament itself, and THEN we're going to be competing with the winners of the tournaments from all the other systems in the cluster for the resources in the Moonsong Glade."

That set me to snickering. "Yeah, I guess I'm just borrowing trouble at this point huh? We have so much more to focus on." I shot him a suspicious glare, not that he saw it behind my mask. "Speaking of trouble, what exactly are we doing tomorrow? I get the feeling Sydney and Megan will be coming along, plus their entourage, and probably Wren. We've picked up quite a few passengers in our time here. I'm assuming your have something suitably awful planned we can all do together?"

Aside from spending time with new friends, which was nice, we'd also be seeing them in whatever situation Abel put us all in, and presumably learning more about their abilities before the tournament. "Awful?" Said Abel innocently. "I'd never force you all to do something awful. All of my activities are fun team-building exercises. Like tomorrow we're going white water rafting! It's going to be a blast!"

"Hold on." I said in confusion. "There's a RIVER down here?" The lake I...kind of got? I guess? Just Ascendant nonsense, but a river seemed weirder to me somehow. "But...where does it come from? Like I get Ascendants do crazy things and it's stupid to question how there can be a river but not freak out about forests and oceans and pocket dimensions that can implode. But...rapids need power? What fuels them?"

Instead of mocking me, Abel just burst out laughing. "Yeah. Everyone has those moments where they go 'how the fuck?' even with all the crazy things they've seen. The rapids aren't actually some crazy spell or anything though. The water pressure comes from Riot Bay actually."

"Wait." I said, my blood running cold. "Like...giant hate fish attacking us Riot Bay? Are there FISH in the river? Because I don't want to worry about getting smashed by carp or something again. The Bay was stressful and awful." I shuddered. "Also the smell was terrible. Plus that was just an exercise in differentiating levels of Impact on the same rank. Money aside how would doing it again even help us?"

Abel just rolled his eyes. "Don't freak out about it. There's no fish in the river. The rapids are just where all that force and energy ends up when the lake settles down again. Since there are tons of parts of the Bay that are getting those waves even when you can't see them, the rapids are always going. But don't worry. I promise there are no fish in the rapids. Hell, I can promise you nothing lives in those rapids at all."

Something about the way he said that made me worry even more, but I recognized the smug glint in his eyes. My teacher wouldn't tell us any more about this trip, because he wanted it to be an unpleasant surprise. "Alright. Fine. Well, if we're going to be doing something crazy tomorrow, I'd better get some sleep." I turned and started to head out, but stopped, looking back over my shoulder. "Also, just saying up front that if there's a fee for this insane trip, you can cover it. We made plenty of money for you last time."

As I opened the door to leave, I suddenly stopped again. "Wait...why the fuck am I leaving." I turned back to my now smirking mentor. "This is my room. Get out." I had to bite back a scowl as he burst out laughing at my stupid mistake, slapping me on the shoulder on the way out.

"I gotta admit kid." He said as he walked away. "You can be a bit serious sometimes. But you're always good for a laugh." I just sighed and rolled my eyes as I closed my door. I could do without being his comedic relief, but hey, at least the job came with combat training. I doubted I'd be where I was without Abel. Still...I was totally going to push his ass in the water tomorrow once I made sure it wasn't like a murder river or something. If only that wasn't such a strong possibility.