Wish upon the Stars (Original Superhero cultivation sci fi litrpg)

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, what have you all been upto?" My mentor asked as he flopped back down onto his chair. "Heard you've had some decent fights. Even killed a C-ranker at early D-rank, that's pretty wild. Punching up is doable, but most people only manage it from the peak of the previous realm. Your new minions were telling me all about."

Dom bristled. "What do you mean minions? We're not his minions."

Sable rolled her eyes. "We're totally his minions. But I'm cool with it. What kind of minions get paid with divine artifacts?"

"Hey, I never got paid with a divine artifact," Abel protested. "I was one of your very first minions. Sure, I don't listen to you or do what you say, and I treat you with middling to low levels of respect and don't care that much about your opinion, but other than that I've been an awesome minion! Where's my god weapon?'

Mel snickered, patting him on the shoulder. "I feel like it you repeat that little speech to yourself out loud you might stumble on the answer on your own."

"I already arranged for you to train with the most powerful mortal Ascendant in the universe," I told him mercilessly, enjoying the karmic retribution/ "You only get one life changing opportunity from me. You're not my wife."

He snorted. "Yeah, thanks for that. Being tortured by an insane vampire for a few months was at the top of my bucket list. How would I have gotten through life without this foundational experience." His tone was dry, which was a good sign, so the rest of us weren't shy about laughing at his pain.

"Oh, is that Adnab?" chirped an excitable voice. "Welcome back! Did you have a good time learning from daddy?" Bethy appeared from seemingly nowhere, beaming at Abel as she brushed off her dress.

Abel actually flinched. "Oh! Bethany. I mean Lady Lark, I mean…your highness. It's nice to see you."

Bethy's winning smile deflated, replaced by a suspicious frown. "That's weird. You don't usually refer to me so formally. Or anyone. You're not a formal person at all. Did someone tell you to do that? It was Sebastian wasn't it? That old busybody. Don't listen to him. He's not the boss of anybody."

"Lord Stein is a noble and generous person," said Abel mechanically as he glanced around the courtyard, his eyes darting in paranoid little hops.

Bethy whirled, looking around in outrage. "Oh, he's HERE isn't he? Sebastian! You get out here right now! You're not allowed to bully my friend! Only I'm allowed to do that." She waited, expression thunderous. "Not coming out? Then how about I tell daddy who stole the spine from that Tomb Lord that he was planning to have made into a whip."

There was a whisper of darkness and a tall man appeared in front of us, his expression apologetic. "Young mistress, there's no reason to do that. I would never STEAL from the master. He simply forgot to let us know of his intentions for that piece of material. He completely forgot about it eventually, and there's no reason to bring it up. How did you even hear about that incident?"

"My mom told me," she beamed. "She said you're a busybody and that I needed leverage to keep you from being mean to me." She jerked a thumb at the man. "This is Sebastian Stein, my daddy's personal butler. He's like…super old, but he's stuck at A-rank because his body is built out of dead person parts."

The older man winced. "Young mistress, that is a GROSS oversimplification," he protested.

"It's your power," she said with a shrug. "If you think it's so gross why don't you try something else?"

His shoulder slumped in despair. "Yes, young mistress. I'll take that under advisement." He turned to smile at us pleasantly. "Good evening, my name, as the young mistress so helpfully informed you, is Sebastian Stein, and I am the butler of the Lark family. The young mistress beseeched her father to send one of her siblings to aid you in your succession battle, but the master decided it would complicate matters politically to allow a high ranking vampire to participate."

Bethy's eyes widened. "Daddy sent YOU? But don't you need to mind the house? He won't be able to travel if you aren't there."

My grandfather cleared his throat. "Regardless of internal business, we're honored to have you on our grandson's side, Lord Stein." He shot me an urging look, and I agreed, thanking him for his assistance.

Sebastian Stein looked…old. Which was saying something for an A-ranker. Bethy hadn't been kidding about his age. Silver hair, close cropped beard, serene blue eyes, he was every inch the elegant butler. The only confirmation of her earlier accusations were a few nearly invisible seams running across his skin at the neck, ears, and on his hands. Seams that could easily be very well applied stitches.

My grandfather stepped up next to me, and I felt a subtle shift as he used some kind of stealth technique. "Sebastian Stein is the most powerful non Lark Ascendant under Morgan's control. He must adore his youngest daughter to dispatch his steward. Stein is a Revenant, a necromantic construct of his own design, and he is one of the most powerful A-rankers I know of. His attendance will be a huge boon to your cause during the succession war." When he saw me start to speak and then stop, he chuckled. "You can just respond out loud, I'll hide your traces."

No one, not even the super scary A-ranker, noticed him speaking to me, though I suppose demi-gods have to have their tricks. "Ok, so this guy is some sort of mad scientist undead? Like that old story about the doctor?"

"Similar," he said with a grimace. "Because of his particular powerset, he's stronger than most A-rankers, but he's never been able to integrate a Saga. Regardless, for our purposes he's basically ideal. With him involved, we've got all your A-rank slots filled."

I was just as excited as he sounded, but sadly I was pulled back into the conversation by Bethy, who was lambasting the older man for "bullying her friend". "Isn't that right Shane?" she demanded triumphantly. It took me a second to replay the conversation in my head, but once I did I could only sigh and nod.

"Yes, Abel is an important member of my team. If he were to change because of your decrees it would make me…sad." My tone was dry, but Bethy ignored that, whooping with joy.

"See! Daddy says you're supposed to help Shane, and making him sad isn't helping, so bullying Alice is ignoring daddy's orders!" She sounded smug, and I had to choke down a laugh at her complete refusal to call Abel by his name, despite being actively defending him at the moment."

Sebastian sighed. "Yes, young mistress, I shall endeavor to treat master Abel with more respect. As a nominal disciple of the master, I suppose he deserves at least that much. His Ragam Blood Body is…acceptable. At least for his level. Perhaps he might one day become a halfway competent Ascendant."

Abel rolled his eyes, clearly less terrified the old man would smite him. "Acceptable," he says. My new form is fucking unstoppable. I based it on your staff art, Shane, creating my own Ragam form out of a fusion of my Path and martial art. I know your fire bullshit is overpowered, but there's no way you can keep up with my Ragam Blood Body."

I just smirked at him. With Sammael and my domains, I wasn't afraid of anyone my own level…except Bethy. I was terrified of Bethy. But her powers were bullshit and didn't count. Still, it was impressive he'd managed to create a form like mine. I'd never heard of anyone else doing anything similar. I wondered if he might eventually be able to make a pseudo Domain, though based on what my dad had told me it was vanishingly rare at my rank.

I was about to retort when I felt something change in the air around me. I tensed, ready for an attack, before realizing my grandparents, mom, and uncle were all here, and the chances of me detecting a threat that they couldn't stop before it smashed me like a bug were pretty much zero.

Looking around, I tried to figure out what was going on, and my attention was immediately drawn to something odd. Namely, a reflection in a nearby glass pane. Except it wasn't a reflection of me, or anyone else nearby. It was someone I knew though. Desria.

When she saw me, she slumped with relief. "Fist!" She shouted anxiously. "Thank the gods I got through. We're in trouble. I used your scroll to reach you. After you left, we stuck around Rackham for a while, but we decided to try to put our scrolls to work elsewhere. We waited like you said, but somehow someone noticed us leaving. We were chased into a nearby dungeon by some priests of…someone, and they're hunting us en masse. Hundreds of D-rankers are after us!"

"Des?" I asked in shock. "That's…ok, give me a second," That was a lot to process. "Where are you?" I checked my ring and sure enough, ten E-ranked chits had been deposited. Apparently messages to the actual wish granter weren't too expensive. Good to know.

"The dungeon is called the Screeching Shoals," she said urgently. "It's not too far from Rackham. We were heading here already when they caught up to us. Fist…I think it might be a trap. We're pretty sure they're luring you in. Ray says not to come, but I couldn't think of who else to call. I can't watch them die."

I shook my head. "It's fine," I told her firmly. "You did the right thing. I'm on my way, just lie low and stay safe."

The connection faded, and I turned to look at my grandfather, my expression solemn. "Ok, this little good will tour is going to have to be put on hold." I explained the situation. "I know that gathering my forces is important, but my friends-"

He waved me off. "No, I get that. We'll take you. With all of us here, unless there's an actual god waiting in the wings nothing can hurt you. But the actual dungeon…based on what she said, I think they're right about it being a trap. A hundred D-rankers is a nasty force. Chances are good no one above that rank can enter. I know you're strong, but those won't be normal D-rankers."

I was well aware. Raxus was most likely trying to get ahold of me to learn the location of the other divine artifacts. He'd send his strongest, and a hundred plus…that was a tall order, even for me. Quantity had a quality all its own.

Abel slung an arm over my shoulder with a laugh. "A hundred? Please. That's child's play. I hope they miscounted, honestly, because I could use a workout. We got this."

I stared at him for a minute, touched. Abel didn't know any of my new friends, and had no reason to take a risk like that. Confidence or not he wasn't stupid. That many presumably peak D-rankers were a danger even to him.

"What he said," I laughed. "You all just take care problems outside. But I'm a little worried. What if one of the Vanished gods show up?" I explained my theory about Raxus.

"Don't worry about that," he said confidently. "Gods can't engage directly so easily, not when we have our own to counter. I wouldn't be surprised if Black Sorrow is waiting in ambush in case he tries." That was something I hadn't considered. My great grandmother had pretty much vanished after I passed her the stone, was this still part of the mission? Was I bait? It didn't matter. My friends needed help, and I was going to help them. And I wasn't doing it alone.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"So, dungeons," I said as we all settled into the Acheron. 'Are they all like the Moonsong Glade?" We'd just gotten off the damned ship, so it was annoying to have to get back on, giving up the firm security of real ground. I was never quite as comfortable in space as I was on a planet. My grandfather pointed out that ships were basically planets, and that he'd been on ships that were LITERAL planets, but it didn't feel the same.


My grandfather shook his head. "Not all of them. I assume you mean are they inaccessible to higher rank individuals? That was a fairly unusual phenomena, but not unique. Locked dungeons aren't the norm, but I'm guessing the one we're heading to is one of them."


"It is," my grandmother said in frustration. "I just pulled it up on the database. It's a minor D-rank dungeon, so I'd never heard of it, but it's spatially locked. Your friends are right, this is a trap."


I frowned in worry. "That seems…insufficient. A hundred D-rankers seems like a lot, but Raxus knows I'm strong enough to beat a C-ranker. He has to assume I can handle that. Sure, maybe he sent some other D-rankers that could punch up, but no way the god of Deception doesn't know I have friends with me."


"The ring you used is a rare and difficult to source enchanted item," my grandmother pointed out. "It's not UNIQUE per se, but it isn't something anyone your level should have access to. Spatially binding two objects across unlimited distance requires S-rank spatial manipulation abilities, if not outright divinity. My mother made those rings herself."


"Which means that since he probably has some method of divining that I haven't seen her yet, he might assume I still have the artifacts," I said grimly. "That's why she never got in touch with me directly. Do you really think this is a trap she set?"


She sighed. "It might be, but we should proceed on the assumption that it isn't. If she arranged this, she's planning to intercept Raxus personally. The gods have their own arrangements for countering each other. Chances are good that we won't see her even if this is her doing, and if we do it probably won't be for long."


"I don't enjoy being bait," I told her bluntly. "Your mother may be a god, but I'm not super fond of the way she does things."


My grandmother gave me a sad smile. "It's hard for gods to see us as people, Shane. Becoming a force of nature changes your fundamental perception of the world. I only barely understand it myself. They retain some semblance of who they were, but it's not…gods and mortals are the same kind of being, but they're made of different things. You've had a small taste of it at D-rank, but imagine crossing that watershed, only a hundred times more intense."


"Why do you make excuses for her?" I demanded. "I get that there's nothing we can do about her behavior, but can't I even complain? Is she going to snuff me out for daring to criticize? Because honestly, if she is I might prefer it to having to keep my mouth shut!"


My voice had risen, and everyone was staring now, my wife looking a little alarmed at the outburst. I knew that not questioning divinity was part of the recursion of the gods, but Black Sorrow just kept pushing and pushing. I would have to be an unfeeling machine not to get at least a little pissed after everything she's done.


"I love her," she said with a shrug. "She's my mother. No matter what she does, that won't change. She's still the woman who carried me across star systems to demand my father's disciple heal me when I got slightly sick as a little girl, who created a new species so I could have a pet after I saw a fictional animal I thought was cute in a book. She's complicated and arbitrary careless, but she loves me more than anything."


"Well, she doesn't love me," I said bitterly.


She shook her head. "No, she doesn't. But she respects you. The mission she chose for you, the tools she gave you. They represent an investment. My mother doesn't waste her investments. Sure, she needed someone who could handle the Enshrining Darkness, but it isn't like she doesn't have a dozen younger members of the clergy who are trained with it."


"So I'm supposed to be grateful she chose to fuck up my life instead of theirs?" I demanded hotly.


"No, of course not," she denied. "I'm just saying that if she does come to care for you, which I believe she might be, it'll be a great benefit to you. She's far from impartial. She directly favors those she cares about. My goal in acting as an intermediary has always been to try to add you to that list. Fighting my mother is an exercise in futility, even my father knows that."


My mom snorted. "I personally think she's wasting her time. But I do agree it would be better to have BS on your side than not."


"So you expect me to bow and scrape to her on the off chance that she might be willing to be nice to me?" I snorted. "Because I'll pass. I'm not stupid enough to be rude to her face but I don't want her good opinion."


Celia laughed. "Amusingly, that's exactly the kind of talk that would get it. I understand your position. Just…don't judge her only by the bad. Those rings are unique and precious treasures. She made them for you personally, albeit at my request. To her, that's already showing a lot of care."


"We're getting off track," Callie interrupted. I expected my grandmother to be annoyed, but she just ceded the conversation to my wife. "We need to know everything we can about the Screeching Shoals. If this really is a trap, it's not one we can worry about. At least not at the divine level. We need to worry about what's IN that dungeon, because Shane is right. Either there are way more D-rankers in there than expected, or they sent something truly nasty. Possibly both."


I grimaced. We had no real context for exactly what the forces of the vanished gods could do. I'd seen some scary people among them at the conclave, and during the trial, but those trial members weren't even REAL initiates. The strongest of the vanished god's forces would be those legacy Ascendants from inside their worlds, who had been cut off from the universe and training in isolation since their gods originally fell.


Thinking about the surge of powerful S-rankers that Lark had fought off, I couldn't imagine what the internal D-rankers from the various god worlds might be like. I glanced at Bethy, Abel, Callie, and all my other friends…and part of me was actually kind of excited. We had to be some of the strongest D-rankers for our level. Sure, we weren't peak D-rank yet, and there were probably some five faction bigwigs who were stronger in D-rank by virtue of higher stats, but I'd give us good odds against anyone close to our level.


"Before we can even worry about that," cut in Abel. "We need to get inside. If this is an ambush they might be waiting with high rankers at the entrance. While I'm sure you could all fight them off in a blaze of glory, sitting around in one place while we explore the depths of the dungeon, consistently repelling ever increasing waves of bad guys seems…suboptimal."


Celia nodded. "You aren't wrong. I can slip us past. The Acheron is my personal vessel, and while my husband is perfectly capable of pushing the speed up, its true value is only visible when it's in my hands. They won't see our approach if I don't want them to. More than that, even after you've gone in, if they have some method of contacting the D-rankers in there, they still won't be able to locate us. I could park this ship on the Vampire's nose and he wouldn't notice it."


"Obviously, if a god shows up, especially Raxus, they'd see it instantly," my grandfather warned. "But under these circumstances we should be able to hang around unseen and wait for you to emerge. Once you've come out we'll make our escape."


"That's all well and good," said my mother grimly. "But looking at this particular dungeon, I don't think it'll be that easy. It's not unstable, it's enfolded."


My grandfather bristled, looking at the database, and then cursed. "Fuck, I missed that. Ok, that's bad." Seeing our confusion, he explained. "Spatial locking comes in multiple forms. There are always unique ways to manipulate any force, given how diverse Paths and abilities get. You've seen unstable space before, essentially it's too fragile to withstand higher Impact, directly collapsing if powerful people enter."


"Enfolded space is different," my mother cut in. "It's a similar mechanism, but it's wrapped AROUND the dungeon instead of overlapping with it. While that may seem like a meaningless distinction, it isn't at all. Because while people of a higher rank can't ENTER, they can still EXIST."


My eyes widened. "You're saying my friends are stuck in there with native high rankers?"


She waggled her hand. "Some, maybe. Locked dungeons distort renown, it makes it harder to rank up. There are probably a few C-rankers, but there won't be anything higher. You should be able to handle C-rankers together. If you're careful. But it'll complicate things. There's a difference between a running battle with a hundred random D-rankers and a running battle inside an occupied dungeon with higher ranked natives."


"Ok, I don't want to be the one to say it, but is this really worth it?" asked Abel bluntly. "You just met these people. Like it's not nice to say, but is risking our lives for some people you hung out with a few times worthwhile."


Bella, who had been mostly quiet until now, bristled. She'd been pretty intimidated by all the new faces and had been trying to disappear into the background and avoid notice, but Abel's words, she stiffened and glared at my mentor. "Hey, shut up rabbit-guy!" We all turned to look at her, but she was too busy glaring to notice. "Elena is a mom. She has two kids. Emma and Simon. Simon is eleven and he was really sick until master helped him. We can't just let his mom die!"


"Elena is with them," I confirmed. "They talked her into going along for the resources. Dungeons usually have some decent treasure and Simon's medical care has mostly wiped out their savings. She could have used that wish I gave her for money, but she decided to keep it in case Simon had a medical emergency." I held up a rolled up piece of paper. "This dropped into my pocket as we were entering. It's all the information they could give about their location and who is with them."


I'd only had a chance to scan it before we started this little meeting, but it hadn't been relevant to entry so I hadn't bothered bringing it up.


Abel blew out a breath. "Great. Kids. None of you bleeding hearts are going to let this go. Fine, whatever, as long as I get to punch things I'm happy. I want to really show off my new form."


Despite his carefree words, his tone was somber. Abel didn't give a shit about most things, but he liked kids. He had offered to train Cass to help with her trauma after being kidnapped by the Heartrippers, even if he played it off like a whim. My mentor might be a violent menace, but he was good people.


"Alright, well, now that we've got that out of the way, lets dig into this dungeon a bit more." I cracked my neck, hunkering down for some serious research. We needed to be ready for whatever was coming, because somehow, I doubted the god of deception had set a trap for me without a few nasty surprises.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

It took less than a day to get to the entrance to the Screeching Shoals. Like my grandmother had said, the Acheron was a whole different beast when she was the one commanding it. I hadn't noticed a real difference before, but it was clear she'd just been letting us take the scenir route.


Not just in terms of stealth, but speed as well, the ship had completely changed, swimming through space like an invisible fish cutting through still water.


During the trip, I took the opportunity to pass out my scrolls to the crew members, seventy two in total, after figuring out which of them were willing to trade stats. After such a big boost to my stats my wish powers had grown in scope, and I was able to get a whopping fifty points per scroll, though based on the difficulty, I was pretty sure I'd hit my limit again until at least late D-rank.


Thirty six hundred points was nothing to scoff at, but even more impressive was the other sixteen thousand that had come in ambient renown.


When Black Sorrow had started spreading word of our connection, I'd known I'd be seeing a big upswing in points, but it hadn't been more than a month since my big windfall, and to be getting nearly twenty thousand points was going to be an adjustment. Even more of an adjustment was how little those twenty thousand moved the needle in terms of overall rank.


My rapidly snowballing fame wasn't going to be able to keep up once I hit C-rank, or hell, B-rank. I understood now why the Unlucky Thirteen had been created. Funneling renown to the most promising members of the younger generation through those titles was the only way to maintain the fast rank up pace that so many of us grew used to at lower ranks. It put even more pressure on me to deal with this damned succession war seriously.


Still, for the moment I'd need to survive the dungeon, and on that note, I took stock of the changes to my stats. The thirty six hundred went into Might, moving me up to just over ninety six thousand total, five thousand each into Focus and Perception, putting them near and past fifty thousand, respectively, and six thousand into Fantasy putting it almost fifty four thousand.


Might was looking a little stacked, almost twice as high as my other stats, but BS's stories were apparently playing up my cleverness and intuition rather than raw force, and I assumed the Fantasy aspects were because of the involvement of other gods. I found it all pretty unbelievable myself, so I couldn't blame the masses for that one. I was conflicted though, knowing that my great grandmother's influence was helping me keep up, and that I didn't like owing her anything.


Callie took my hand, squeezing it gently to get my attention. As I looked up, she smiled warmly at me. "Don't sweat the big stuff," she told me in a warm but firm tone.


"Pretty sure that's the opposite of the advice most people get," I pointed out wryly.


She shrugged. "You're not most people, Shane. You're involved in a whole lot of shit way above your paygrade. The affairs of gods are beyond our comprehension, isn't that what you told me? So follow your own advice. Focus on the trees, not the forest."


"It would be easier if the forest wasn't on fire," I complained. "But I get your point. Honestly this dungeon might be good for me. Getting back to basics, fighting people our own level with the team." I squeezed her hand. "With you."


She leaned against me happily. "I missed you too, you big reckless idiot. I was learning so much and getting stronger so quickly, but all I could think about was the danger and the pain I could feel from you. I spent the last month or two scared out of my mind you were going to die. I don't want to be a widow before I turn twenty one."


"Then why do you dress like one?" I smirked at her. She let out a faux offended gasp and I triggered Double Trouble on Benny who was nearby, laughing at her squeak of outrage as she fell through my illusion. She didn't actually fall over, catching herself easily, but she blurred to her feet, flashing toward me almost too fast to track.


Benny, who hadn't noticed me appearing behind him, squawked and stumbled back at her sudden rush, and I dropped down into a crouch as he did, letting him flip over my back like I was a table.


Callie screeched a halt as Benny hit the ground, he faux fury derailed by the admittedly unprovoked and unintentional assault on my best friend. She covered her mouth, looking halfway between horrified and amused, but the giggles from behind her hand gave away the game as her body shook with suppressed laughter.


"What the fuck?" Benny spat, throwing his hands in the air. "I expect that from him, but what did I ever do to you, Callie?"


Her face turned red as her laughter redoubled, giggles making it hard for her to breathe. "Gods, I'm so sorry. I was chasing him and he teleported behind you." She turned to me with a weak glare. "Did you have to make me an accomplice?"


"Partners in crime, baby," I said with a wink. "It's me and you against the world." I held out a hand, pulling Benny to his feet, laughing as he glowered up at me. I patted his shoulder. "Thank you for your sacrifice."


At his confused expression, I gestured around us to where everyone was watching with expressions of amusement or exasperation. I saw when it dawned on him what I'd done, and he rolled his eyes. The atmosphere had been a little tense, and I'd seen a chance to lighten the mood. I made a mental note to slip Benny a day's worth of scrolls when I could, to make up for involving him in a stupid childish prank. Then I ratcheted that down to five scrolls, because it wasn't like he hadn't pranked me in the past.


"That was so cool!" Bethy squealed excitedly. "You teleported behind him and you were like "ouaggh" and then you were a table and he fell over. I didn't even think of using abilities to prank people! We should all start doing that!"


"No!" Everyone in the ship immediately shut her down, our hearts filling with terror at the idea of what BETHY would consider a practical joke."


Callie smacked me in the back of the head, scowling. "You see what you do? If I wake up with battery acid in my coffee or something I'm blaming you. Honestly, do you want to get us all killed?"


I winced. Bethy had very little understand of proportional response. I wasn't sure how much of that was her messing with everyone, but I WAS sure it wasn't all of it. I cleared my throat. "No pranks in the dungeon," I told the vampire sternly. "We can talk about anything else later, but we're going to be entering soon and we need to be on our guard."


She pouted, but eventually nodded with a sigh. "You got it bestie, super serious." She stuck out a pinkie. "Pinkie swear? Cass taught me this. She said it means you can't break your promise no matter what."


I laughed, but extended my pinkie, locking it with hers. Cass did take her pinkie promises seriously."


"As adorable as that is," drawled my grandmother as she appeared beside us. "I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this heartwarming moment short. We've arrived, and we have a problem. Come with me."


The laughter on the faces of my companions faded, replaced by worry, and we headed over to the other side of the bridge, where the screen that showed the exterior of the ship was positioned. Actually, the screen could change size and location, but prior to this there had been nothing but space outside, so none of us had been paying attention.


"Radiant slide frequency filter," my grandmother said calmly. One of the crew, sitting at a terminal, hit a few buttons and…something happened. There was a ripple across the screen, and where before nothing had been out among the empty stars, now there were quite a few things. Gaps in space that looked like nothing so much as warped vision from a very curved piece of glass floated in the void of space.


My grandmother pointed. "First of all, as I'm sure you can see, there are quite a few ships waiting for us. We can avoid those, the Acheron is undetectable with me running it provided no gods show up." She moved her fingers and pulled on the edges of the screen, zooming in. "Our main issue is this, however.


"As you can see, the folded space of the dungeon is visible in this spectrum, I won't bore you with the details of this filter, but this is concerning." She zoomed in on a large spherical warp, focusing closer until we could see what looked like flows and patterns in the twisting space. "This is spatial power, as I'm sure you could guess. Folded space dungeons have very stable spatial power. The exact stability is called the Vechner Coefficient, actually, but that's not important right now, what IS important is the speed and complexity of those ripples."


My grandfather cut in. "What she's trying to say is that someone has connected to the inside of that dungeon from the void. It doesn't change the facts of entry, even from that side, no one above D-rank can get in, but we have no way of knowing how MANY they sent. And they can keep sending them."


That was…suboptimal. There was a big difference between them sending a hundred people into the dungeon and having a back door through the void. Theoretically they could flood the entire dungeon with D-rankers. Who knew how many existed in worlds those gods were hiding in the void.


Obviously guessing my thoughts, my grandfather smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry too much. There's a war going on. D-rankers are the main combat force Ascendants use in large scale battles. They might have kept some of their strongest in reserve, but there's no way they're going to mob you too badly. Especially since there's C-rankers in that dungeon. The more they send the more they risk getting into a dustup with the locals, and that doesn't benefit anyone."


"Maybe," I conceded. "But there's still probably going to be more of them than we anticipated. Besides our own problems, I'm worried about my friends."


My grandmother nodded. "Understandable. But the question needs to be asked. Are you still willing to go in? We have know way of knowing exactly how many will be inside or what the situation is. I know you're determined to help, but this might be a very bad idea."


"I don't believe they can stop us," I said bluntly. "With Dantalion, Murmur, and all my various combat abilities I can run, hide, and fight better than almost any D-ranker I can name. With Bethy, Callie, and Abel there, our combat power should be some of the best in the universe for our rank."


If this was a pitched battle I might have been concerned, but we were dropping into a large scale dungeon. Murmur and Dantalion meant I could both hide and seek perfectly. They'd never catch us unless I wanted them to.


Sighing, she smiled sadly and pulled me into a surprising hug. "You remind me so much of your grandfather," she said as she squeezed me tight. "Hopefully you're better than he is at staying out of trouble though. Be safe, Shane. If things go wrong, have Calliope use her bangle to report to us. We can figure out some way to get you out." I nodded to her confidently and she sighed, turning to the screen.


With a flick of her wrist, I watched her tear a swath of darkness in the air, through the screen and into space itself. It was a dizzying effect, and trying to understand how she did it gave me a migraine, but she just gestured to the hole. "Alright, this will take you inside. But that's all I can do. Good luck, and take care of each other." And with that, we stepped into the dark, plummeting through space toward the Screeching Shoals.