"Shane!" Benny said as he barreled into me, lifting me into a crushing hug. "You're up. I'm so glad you didn't scramble your egg by accident. Also, I want priority on wishes for a while, seriously between Jessie's bond with Randall and now all this shit, I'm lagging behind."

"Thanks for your concern, ass." I said with a chuckle. "But I'll see what I can do." I looked around spotting Gabriel, Bethy, Satala, Markoth and a bunch of the other people from the raid. "Hey guys, thanks for waiting, I heard we have a meeting to attend. We don't have to do this up on the mountain do we?"

Abel snorted. "Like they would leave that where it was. The first wave of seniors from the various factions snatched that up. Not sure who got it, but it's long gone."

"Valak Dante." Said Zeke with a grimace. "A-ranker from the Labyrinth Lord's clan. Sneaky fucker. I'd have fought him for it if it wasn't so slippery." That was a stark reminder that Zeke wasn't a normal B-ranker, I was guessing this Dante guy wasn't a combat focused A-ranker though. I'd been getting a clear lesson on how rough it was trying to punch up.

To my relief, the meeting happened to be in a nearby clearing, apparently someone had texted everyone when I woke up, because the whole crew was there when I arrived. Well, the ones who were left. Which was apparently about eight hundred and fifty of us. I looked around, and the only person missing I knew was Chad, the team leader I'd met at the party back at the Bazaar.

It was rough to realize we'd lost so many people. I thought we'd all made it. Apparently some of those unconscious people had never woken up. It was a stark reminder of the kind of danger we'd all been in.

Once we arrived, Callie got called up to address the group. She made a nice speech about using the contract we'd signed as a foundation for future cooperation, some comments that implied she might try to recruit some of them into my faction, and then officially called the task of defeating Suvaya to a close.

I'd positioned myself behind her as she did, and when she collapsed, I caught her easily. Or at least, I WOULD have, if my own brain wasn't basically imploding from the pain. Not just my own pain either, but her pain as well. She was getting it much worse than I was and I was glad I'd been able to offset some of the agony for her. Once it was done, I lowered her to the ground, vision blurry, as I checked my own stats.

Wishmaster candidate status. F-rank. Ability: Intermediate Wish- Six times a day grant an Intermediate wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Might- 475 Impact- 33 Fantasy- 500 Vitality- 220 Focus- 220 Perception- 204 Creation- 180 Progress to next rank: 1832/10,000 Soul Strength- Orange 33% Stored: 7 shadow attacks, 7 shadow jump, 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks,0 triple strenth tranq blows, 5 triple strength density shifted attacks. 9 spider leg attacks, 10 heal bursts(10 in reserve), 4 gravity attacks, 3 shadow clone, 21 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more) Pet- Wolf named Jin Skills:

Intermediate Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Lesser Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Lesser Balam Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery,Lesser Paired Dueling

DS Subskills.

Monk:

Rogue:

Diviner:

Stone Limb, Moonlit Night, Consecration of Flame, Ripple Running, State of Grace, Steam Arrow, Afterburner, Pit of Despair, Mountain Stance.

Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death

Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rythym of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense

Two hundred points of Might and two hundred points of Fantasy. That had been rough. The pain was based on percentage, and luckily I hadn't doubled either stat, so I wasn't QUITE fried out of my head, but Callie's boost had been MUCH bigger than mine, and she'd gotten it bad. I rested her head on my lap, cleaning the blood off her nose and waiting for her to wake up. "Hey." I said with a smile as she eventually came around. "How are you feeling?"

She groaned. "I don't think this can be considered pain anymore. I need to invent a new word. I feel like bees made of molten bleach are colonizing my brain stem. My eyebrows hurt." I laughed and helped her up. "How about you? I know you took some of that for me. How are you still so...lucid?"

I shrugged. "My brain is pretty used to pain by this point. The Path Stacking was pretty much just as bad. So? How did you make out? I got four hundred points across two stats. Surprised it was so focused, but I guess my main impression was Might and Fantasy. Crazy impressive lightshow and big stabbing."

She giggled, then winced. "Ow. Stop making me laugh. Laughing hurts. Anyway, I think I did ok. Honestly better than ok. I'm blown away."

Calliope Reynolds F-rank. Ability: Abyssal Infiltration- Enter the shadows and emerge where you will within range, shape the darkness to your call, moving it as if it were part of your body, and even extend your senses through the shadows to spy on your enemies. Might- 1050 Impact- 33 Vitality- 342 Fantasy- 550 Focus- 108 Perception- 875 Creation- 405 Progress to next rank: 3443/10,000 Pet- Wolf named Rellia Soul Strength- Orange 14% Skills: Minor Tracking, Minor Dual Dagger Mastery, Beginner Stealth, Beginner Trap Mastery, Beginner Disguise, Lesser Balam Mastery, Beginner Shadow Manipulation Mastery. Lesser Paired Dueling

"Holy Shit!" I gaped at her. "That's...so fucking many stat points. Eight hundred and two might? Five hundred Perception? Three hundred Creation? I know you killed a god but damn. No wonder it hurt so fucking much. Over two thousand points. You almost literally tripled your total. And congrats on the increase in your soul strength. I know you've been working on that. Five percent is a nice jump." The bump to Focus was probably just the natural drift from her being higher ranked. Lagging stats tended to creep up naturally.

"Your staff Mastery jumped up a rank though." She pointed out brightly. "And your soul is WAY more advanced."

"Hey I'm not complaining." I said with a grin. "I'm used to chasing after you. I just need to step up my game a bit. You're pulling ahead again." I frowned. "I'm honestly surprised it was only this much. For slaying a god I'd have figured you'd have hit E-rank or something."

"Not a chance." Zeke said with a laugh. "There are limits to bulk drops of renown. She'll get a steady income over time for this, but remember, just like you need stats to withstand Impact bestowal on rank up, you need Impact to withstand mass stat dumps. It's cyclical and builds on itself. That's why we improve one step at a time. Don't worry though, the story is only just getting started disseminating. She's bound to keep riding that rocket through F-rank at least. Probably further."

I grinned at her. "See! You're in the fast lane. Now I'm going to be playing catchup." She squealed and reached up to wrap her arms around me, but Zeke caught her.

"Whoa there." He said sternly. "Lets not pulp the nephew. Your Might just pretty much quadrupled. You need time to adjust so you don't accidentally murder people when patting them on the back. one of the downsides to fast growth. We'll have plenty of time for you to train on the way to the Ruined Soul Temple. We're taking the long way, since we have some time. Which is good, you'll all need some serious training before the trials."

"After we pick up some more Dew." I said firmly. "An Impact advantage isn't something we can give up. But before we do that, I want to check with everyone else. I bet they got some pretty solid boosts."

I stood on shaky legs, helping Callie up, and we made our way over to Gabriel and Bethy, who were seated with legs crossed, having apparently been way better prepared for this than we had. Why hadn't I decided to sit down? Rookie mistake.

Gabriel nodded as we approached. "Shane, Callie. You look like you had decent returns. Especially you, Callie. I imagine as the final victor you've gotten quite a boost. Your condition certainly suggests that."

Bethy nodded cheerfully. "He's right! You look terrible! I did pretty well I think. My Domain helped out a lot, and people saw me tank that moon attack for you guys at the end. Still, I think aside from Callie you three are the big winners. I bet you'll get some more points off this over time."

Gabriel shrugged. "I'm approaching E-rank, and once I cross the dividing line, those trickling stats will be far less of a benefit. As big of an ordeal as this has been, its still just an unusual dungeon run. It's a big universe, and strange things happen every day. I doubt this will carry us as far as you might expect."

"Boo! Hiss!" Bethy jeered, literally saying the word hiss instead of hissing. "Don't be such a buzz kill Gabe. Don't you know frowning ages you. Speaking of, you guys totally have to meet my daddy when he shows up! He'll be so excited to meet my friends!"

We all flinched, and Callie offered her a weak smile. "Oh, sorry Bethy, we can't stick around. We have those trials in the Ruined Soul Temple coming up. Have to head out so we can make it on time. We're taking the long way apparently." I had zero idea what the long way even WAS, but I didn't let that stop me from using it as an excuse. having seen Bethy in full vamp mode, I didn't want to meet her dad, who was the person who CREATED that state of being.

She pouted. "Oh fine." Then her face lit up. "OOH I can come to the trials too! Daddy says its really important to reach the peak of green soul in F-rank. If you wait longer you'll be behind once your soul solidifies at D-rank. He says achieving that edge of blue soul quality is called the 'Azure Soul Body' and that it's a necessity for anyone who wants to become a god."

I hadn't known about the name, though I knew the rest of it. Still, scary dad aside I welcomed Bethy. The more friends we had in the trials the better, probably. I still wasn't sure what they were exactly, but I wasn't complaining either way. Before we headed off to search for Dew though, I pulled Gabriel aside. "Alright. You were being vague earlier, faction secrets, whatever. But you know something about my mom, and I want to know what it is."

He stared at me with a complicated expression for a minute, then nodded. "You're right. We've been through quite a bit together. I've seen into your soul from a certain viewpoint, and I trust you. This isn't common knowledge, so I hesitated to speak on it. I only know about it because I met her. It concerns the reason that the Star Queen will be at the Ruined Soul Temple to begin with."

"Actually." I said with a frown. "That's a good point. Why is an elite A-ranker being sent to babysit a bunch of kids. Important or not, that seems like it would be beneath her."

"It would." Said Gabriel, his face blank. "Except for one small factor. The Star Queen isn't going to the Temple to babysit a bunch of kids. She's going there to babysit her own. She's attending the trials in order to bring along her daughter." He gave me a sympathetic look. "I don't suppose you knew about it, based on your earlier comments, but I suppose I'll be the first to inform you. Apparently you have a sister."