We didn't hear back from Alexander until the next day. Since we had one more after this before the auction I let the Beast Lord Initiates do another full five wishes to preload some more days for later. I'd have to work out some kind of arrangement for after I left. I managed to get the points in Might this time, which was nice, and put me at nine hundred nineteen points total.

When they F-rankers arrived in the morning I left the five wishes for that day unused, ready for the emergency escape wishes my friends would need, and went to greet them with the others. I'd been curious what Alexander would manage to put together for his niece, if anything, but I was shocked to see four fresh F-rank elites waiting for us at the Pavilion when we woke up (we slept in the rooms in the back that Mel used when she worked overnight) all looking ready for a fight.

The four people that Alexander sent were...weird. They all wore black robes and masks, and seemed pretty much indistinguishable from each other. Not just at a surface level wither, their actual conceptual weight was basically identical, and nearly everything about them made it impossible to tell which was which. Only one of them ever spoke at a time, but which one it was changed sentence to sentence, with seemingly no communication to let them know whose turn it was.

When we arrived, all four of the figures bowed to Callie. "Young mistress." Said one. "The Nothing sends his greetings." Said another. "We are the four as one. Though only recently having reached the F-rank, we are powerful for our tier. We will be your guardians on this mission." A third spoke up, informing us of their identity. It was functionally impossible to tell their voices apart.

Abel whistled. "Quadruplets I'm guessing. And they probably cultivate as a group. It's tricky to pull that off. Makes it much harder to accumulate individual stat points. Still, I'm betting they have some variation of the Paired Dueling Skill that works for all four of them. Sucks for them they're already F-ranked. They would have been a hell of a team in the tournament. Still, I see why they were available to take us down there. They're going to be at early F-rank for quite a while, having to share all the renown like that."

One of the four nodded. "You are correct." Another spoke up. "Still, we do not feel displeased. We can be of use to The Nothing, this is our honor." I raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment. I imagined training quadruplet Ascendants would be extremely taxing. Alexander must have invested a ton into their development, in time if not resources. It made sense they would be grateful.

Mel cleared her throat. "As...nice, as this all is. We still have to discuss our resource allocation for this. We've managed to cobble together a total of three E-ranked chits for this auction, with a few F-ranked left over. That's not a small amount by any means, but some of the visiting factions will have just as much if not more. We should probably expect that we'll end up using all of our money on two or three big ticket items. We might be able to afford some smaller stuff like armor and weapons too, but we need to decide what we're aiming for, at least in general terms."

I looked over to Callie, who nodded. "I'd been considering that actually. We know we want a blank Skill Crystal. G-ranked if possible so I can imprint a Beginner Skill on it. If we can get our hands on something that can increase soul restoration like Clockwork's belt that would be good too. Hopefully something that works on an area rather than an individual. Other than those priorities we should just pick up anything we can find that can help multiple people improve. Maybe a few useful Skills if they pop up."

We'd been looking into faction building since we took over the Pavilion, but at our rank there really wasn't a ton you could do to improve the foundation of lots of people at once. Soul strength, as we had learned recently, was important, so having a way to replenish that for training would be huge, but other than that and buying Skills like Callie said, pills were probably the only real option, and those were of course limited by the elixir limit at each tier.

The only bright spot there was that while there wasn't too many options right now, any results we saw would bring prestige to the Pavilion itself, and as members our people would benefit. Once people heard about the Pavilion more, wearing its symbol and being a known member would help add reputation to those who worked under us. It would turn into a feedback loop.

That was why factions were so ubiquitous on Callus, and pretty much everywhere else. Any possible way to squeeze out a bit of extra rep was necessary. Honestly I'd been surprised by the way the cultivation worked when I'd first heard how we got stronger. I'd expected more politics and PR. But the fact was people cultivated for power, and SHOWING that power was what they did to show the results of that cultivation.

Because of that, demonstrating power was the easiest way to cut through the bullshit. Branding and PR were important, as we saw from the Academy, but when there were people blowing up cars and hurling fireballs in the streets, it was much less impressive to HEAR about someone doing that. Stories and rumors still influenced growth of course, but not as much as getting out and showing tangible evidence of what you could do. Especially since those feats spawned stories and rumors of their own anyway.

After Callie finished her list, Mel took a minute to think before nodding. "We might be able to get a bulk price on some pills too. Our people haven't hit their limits on elixirs for the most part. The way we used to run things, we prioritized combat strength over everything. I still think that's the way to go, but if we're pushing for active expansion a marked improvement in a large number of people in a short time would be best. With the Beast Lord Garden backing us we won't have to worry about standing out and getting smacked down."

I hadn't considered before why the Pavilion wasn't more well known actually. Granted, Abel had been away, but Alden had trained both him and Mel, so logically he should have been able to train more powerful Ascendants. Even if they didn't reach the same level they should have been pretty strong. Instead it had been a small regional force in the Cavalcade that no one outside the circus had heard of.

Thinking about the whole mess with the deed and the attack from Sanctuary Hall though, it was pretty dangerous to stick out in the WCP without some kind of background, even in G-district. That was easy to see when you took into account how quickly things escalated once Burning Fist and the Peace Lord became involved.

"Alright." I said. "Agria, Nightstrike, Clockwork, I had some things I wanted to talk to you about before we left if you have a second." I'd expected to be waiting longer before we left, but if we were heading back down soon we should get the escape wishes out of the way. When they followed me over, I didn't need to say anything to them. They already knew about the escape wishes from before, so the three of them naturally didn't need to be reminded.

Each of them made a wish to be able to escape from Doomtown if they were put in mortal danger, and I was able to grant them all. Given how much power was needed, I had to get five of each attack before I could grant the wishes. Since I was at my full ten after only two attacks from Callie and Benny and three from Jessie, we settled on a geass that they would let me store attacks as I used them up. I felt better having topped up my heal bursts and those density shifted triple strength attacks were damn useful, so it wasn't a bad deal for me.

Once that was done Benny and Callie headed back over to join the others, but when I moved to follow them Jessie grabbed my arm. "Hey Shane, hang on a second." I turned to cock my head at my tiny blonde teammate. "I was hoping we could try a wish. Specifically I was hoping to with for a Beginner Level Beast Bonding Skill with Randall as my bonded beast. I can pay with another...let say twenty five heal bursts added onto my tab."

Wish detected. Grant wish? I confirmed, interested to see what that kind of thing would cost. Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 36 Impact, 450 Perception, 444 Focus, 540 Fantasy. I blinked at that. Fantasy wasn't what I'd have expected for something like this, but Perception and Focus both made sense. Actually now that I considered it Fantasy did too, given the way the Fate Sense worked, Fantasy clearly had a sensory component too. Given that it didn't mention requiring compensation I supposed the payment was enough too.

"I can do it." I said slowly. "But are you sure? Wishes scale in difficulty, and not just to grant. Beginner Skills are EXTREMELY painful to receive. I'm not saying you can't survive it or something like that, but it's going to be agonizing. You sure you don't want to wish for a lower level of this Skill and work your way up?" I knew it was unfair to Jessie to worry like that, but I couldn't help it. Callie was tough as nails, and despite that she'd been devastated by receiving her Beginner Shadow Manipulation Mastery Skill.

Jessie just stared at me, eyes hard and stance firm. I sighed and nodded. "Alright. Go get Randall. Having him here for this will be necessary. He should be waiting outside for the trip right?" She nodded and lit up, racing off to go fetch her companion. Truth be told I didn't need him here. I could have granted the wish without him. But if he was here I was pretty sure he could take some of the pain, plus he actually did need to give permission at least, since he'd be getting a Skill too.

It also occurred to me that this was the first time someone had wished for a paired Skill, and she'd paid for it all by herself. No wonder the damn Skill had been so expensive. I also knew that Beginner Skills from my wish power gave a better foundation for advancement. Even if Intermediate Skills weren't really viable to wish for without fucking up your advancement, it meant that my teammates could still wish got Beginner versions of new Skills they wanted to acquire later in our journey.

When she came back with the bear I led them both off to the side where the four wouldn't see me granting this wish. A big electrified giant bear was bound to be eye catching. Once we got there Jessie explained what was going to happen, using her vital energy to convey the messages more easily. Randall didn't mind, and actually seemed excited, despite being warned of the pain.

I briefly considered Jessie's lifeweaver ability, and how consistent infusion of life energy could alter an animal. I wondered how this bond would work out for them? Regardless I'd been paid and the excuses were out of the way. As I let the electricity build across my skin, I reached out and placed a hand on both Jessie and Randall, closing my eyes as I allowed the wish to wash over them both, infusing the Skill into their brains. As they choked back screams I winced, but forced myself to persevere. This would definitely make them both much safer in Doomtown.