Healing or not, we had to carry Abel out of the arena. My mentor was in bad shape, though not as bad as the armor double Midknight had been using, which had been mostly destroyed. Callie had been...quiet, since we saw him get wrecked, and I wanted to pull her aside to check on her about it but we had other problems.

Zeke rode home with us this time, as did Natalie and her guardian, along with Perit and Valk. We were all pretty quiet until we got to the house, at which point I finally broke the silence. "Alright...what the actual fuck? Like, to all of that Zeke. Can you tell me what happened now that it's over?"

My uncle shrugged. "Stupid people doing stupid people things." He cut a look at Selka, who wilted slightly but didn't argue. "I made an example of them, so they shouldn't try it again, though you can bet they'll try other things. That's your problem though."

I couldn't really complain about that. "What about the other factions? Abel won, but the Empire, the Faerieland, are they really just going to back off because you smacked around a couple B-rankers? Like, won't they send more people to come and fight you?"

Zeke just snorted. "No. First of all, there are a hundred of these. Losing two B-rankers, even trash like them, is a blow over something this insignificant. Sunk cost fallacy isn't something the upper echelons of the Black Sorrow Cult engage in. Or any higher ups from the factions. Going to war over a random border planet would be ridiculous. Second of all they can't spare enough people to kill me off, especially knowing they'll lose most of them. I'm basically unkillable under A-rank and everyone knows it."

Selka nodded quickly. "It's true. Janus is infamous among B-rankers. He's predicted to reach A-rank in the next decade."

Seeming to send my skepticism at the time frame, Zeke snickered. "I know it seems like a while to you, but in the upper ranks you need hundreds of thousands or even millions of stat points to rank up. Not to mention...other things. The next decade isn't bad. I think that was part of why Eli did what he did. I'm sure you of all people can imagine how frustrating it is to be giving out points that let people rank up fast when you lag behind."

I hadn't experienced that, but he wasn't wrong. It was easy to picture. "Well that whole thing was certainly dramatic enough to diffuse things. I guess that means it's really over. We...we won." I felt myself melt into my seat gleefully. Like some magic switch had been flipped. I couldn't believe it. We'd been working so hard for such a long time for this, been through so much.

Callie looked shocked too, her eyes wide as she thought through exactly what it meant for us to have made it. Abel was grinning, despite his injuries. I couldn't see Mel's face under her mask but Jessie and Benny looked thrilled. We'd separated from the others after the mess at the tournament, planning to meet up again soon.

"So..." I said uncertainly. "How are we handling the Moonsong Glade. You can't get in, right Zeke? I was told it was F-ranker exclusive. How long will we be in there? Are you just going to wait outside? Can you suppress your power to come in with us?"

"Nah." Said my uncle casually. "Your mask will let me keep an eye on you. If things go too badly I'll break in and help, but it would destroy the glade which would be...bad. Even for me. I probably will wait outside. Plenty of the older generation will be out there. I'll make sure they don't ambush you when you come out for whatever you get. Though I think we should get you all some proper spatial gear before you enter."

"Like a ring? A real one? How would we even get that? They don't really have them available on Callus. At least not that I've seen. I've got some solid cash reserves, but we don't have access to the proper supply." It was a similar problem to the issue of my weapon. I really wanted something E-rank, but despite probably having enough for a relatively low level E-rank weapon there weren't any on world.

His grin was wolfish. "Well sure, which is why you'll be picking up what you need at the field market outside the glade. Someone always starts one. That large an influx of newcomers always spawns a bazaar. People need consumables and weapons before entering, not to mention that it ends up being a huge conglomeration of powerful elders from different forces waiting around for months on end."

"You think they'd have an E-rank weapon I could use?" I asked excitedly. "I definitely need a new stick to hit people with. Hopefully something that can take a beating."

Abel snickered. "You know, I understand the with for blunt damage, but you could pick up a more traditional weapon and develop an actual Skill for it. Maybe a staff? Bit longer than your usual but it wouldn't hurt to give yourself some range. It could synergize with your combat style too. Pole vaulting would be a good complement to you movement skills and open up more lines of attack."

My mentor had been mostly quiet since the tournament. He seemed happy to have won, but I saw him giving Zeke awed looks that made it hard not to snicker. Though as I nodded my agreement to look into a staff weapon a question popped into my head. "Oh, that reminds me. Was that really a B-rank fight? Don't get me wrong it was crazy, but I was figuring it would be...larger scale."

My uncle just smiled. "It was. You just couldn't tell. That shield protected you. It was dampening the Impact to prevent not just physical but conceptual damage. Looking at B-ranked attacks directly without any protection can damage your soul. Impact is a qualitative difference in level. Sound is just vibration, sight is light bouncing off an object. The size of the attacks wasn't massive because they were in a confined space and that wasn't necessary, but make no mistake those moves would have killed you just by observing them if I hadn't protected you."

Selka chimed in. "Not to mention any one of those casual blows would have atomized the planet and everyone on it. B-rankers operate in the ten million range of stat points. Any blow you're capable of throwing they can beat by thousands of times, and that's not even counting the qualitative leap that is D-rank or the effects of higher ranked Skills. If I were you I'd commit that fight to memory. You'll be benefiting from it for decades. Even if you can't see why yet."

I tried thinking back to the fight, to the movements, the abilities, and I could kind of see what she meant. There was...something, there. Something just out of reach of me. Like looking at a crack in the ground that's only a few inches wide but then realizing it goes down for miles. I was only seeing the crack.

The others almost all seemed nearly as distracted by the statement as I was. Mel though, Mel was all business. "I'll keep that in mind, but I want to know that Abel's win is going to be safe. He worked his ass off for that. How do we know they won't try something before the ceremony. Speaking of, when IS the ceremony?"

"Tomorrow." Said Zeke bluntly. "The actual date for the Moonsong Glade is in a month to make sure everyone's teammates have the best chance to rank up, but no one was comfortable waiting on the ending ceremony. Tomorrow they announce the top placements and allow everyone IN the tournament to rank up. You'll all be reaching F-rank." He glanced at Abel. "Provided you're willing."

My teacher nodded firmly. "No more waiting. I'm confident I've gotten the most out of G-rank, and I want to take the next step. I wanted a good fight to go out on, and I definitely got that. It's going to be brilliant ranking up and getting to fight it out with people so much stronger than I am on a relatively even playing field."

That was actually a good point. The idea that some people would be five times stronger than we were but still within our ability to harm was kind of crazy. Not that I was going to be fighting peak F-rankers, but the point remained. This would also be a huge opportunity for me to make sure I was able to reach the higher levels of F-rank in an area without E-rankers to take advantage of the gap.

"Wait." I said, remembering something. "You said it would be MONTHS?" I'd asked for a time frame earlier, and I guess I had one, but that was kind of crazy.

Zeke shrugged. "For you are least. Some people might stay longer, but I absolutely refuse to let you miss out on the soul trials. The Ruined Soul Temple is one of those places I mentioned to you where you can train soul strength outside of a clan. Once in a while the temple holds trials for people training there, and they offer prizes that can increase the speed of soul refinement and even reward special Skills and unique gifts."

That sounded intriguing. "So this would be a way for me to increase the grade of my soul to two ahead before D-rank? Because I know you said that's important."

"All of you, if you're ready." He said, looking over the others. "The Ruined Soul Temple is technically neutral territory, but practically it's hard for anyone outside the higher ends of a faction to get in. There are so many people scrambling for entry, there's no possible way to accommodate them all. The cream of the crop have their own soul refinement methods and locations, but for something like the soul trial even clan heirs will be showing up."

My eyes widened. "That's why everyone is paying so much attention to the Glade!" I said sharply. "When everything else is equal, a boost in Impact might be the thing that puts them over the top in the trials."

"Exactly." Said Zeke with a nod. "I didn't want to bring it up and increase the pressure, but now that the tournament is over it's best you know what's coming. The trial is a unique opportunity. You can get things there that even wishes would have trouble giving you, at least from any people low ranked enough to bother with any of you. Some people have even manage to pick up a second ability."

My head snapped up. A second ability would be...big. Especially for me. The current Wishmaster had his position specifically because he had two abilities, something that gave him the skills and power to beat even my dad out for the position. Not to mention it would enable me to have a surefire Skill that would always rank up without detracting from my effort in other areas. If I got a weapon ability for instance, I would be a natural. It would prevent me from ending up a Master Candidate like Abel, but that wasn't ever really in the cards for me anyway.

Seeing his comment had its intended effect, Zeke grinned, leaning back and closing his eyes. He wasn't going to sleep, Zeke just liked to tune things out sometimes when he was bored. His relaxed expression changed when his ring vibrated and he looked down to see a text, his face paling as he swallowed hard. "Huh. Apparently Stella wants me to come down for a visit so we can talk." He tried to sound nonchalant, but there was a quaver in his voice that made me laugh. Good to know my terrifying uncle could still feel fear.