Chapter 1112
New
Malcolm Tent
Monkey with a typewriter.
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I had Dantalion, Azazel, and Fate Sense go over the contract. It was fairly standard. There were a few tweaks here and there, and I contacted Callie through the bond to have her check with my dad just to be sure. I was almost positive that some of the traps in the contract were left there as tests for me, but I was reasonably sure I'd passed them all. Once that was done, we finished signing the documents and The Lady invited me to stay overnight in the castle while she sent for the B-rank parties from her own realm and Verdyn's.
With that out of the way, I headed upstairs, ready to embark on the next step in my own journey. Entering the legacy ruins at C-rank would be stupid. Anyone without a complete Chronicle qualified, which meant B-rankers would be abundant. I was going to need every edge I could get in there, and so I needed to be at the top of my game.
I took out the elixirs I'd gotten from Alara. With the treaty signed, not to mention that big show in the throne room, my reputation among the locals would be soaring. It wouldn't be enough to reach B-rank, but it should get me to the nine million that I had expected, and maybe a little higher. From there, I had however long the trip was to the Legacy ruins to make that final step into B-grade in preparation for our entry.
Based on what Callie told me, the breakthrough of the clocktower had DEMOLISHED the Void on the other side of the barrier on the warfront. It was so fragmented trying to move through it was like trying to climb through a meat grinder. We'd need to take the slow way to get there, and that was going to take MONTHS. The only upside was that the fragmented space would apparently delay the descent of the higher dimensional forces.
Interestingly, the delay didn't seem to matter. The legacy trial was set up for challengers, and it required a specific number of them to be initiated. And not just ANYONE below B-rank would do. There was a test to even enter, and based on preliminary assessments, the space inside the tower was locked in some sort of stasis. Until all nine hundred and ninety nine participants had passed the challenge, anyone who entered would be held frozen in time.
It was…suspiciously convenient, really. All of it. And not something I suspected Deveskane was capable of. It made me wonder if the Overgod who owned the trial was partly responsible for any of the things we'd been through. And if so, how many? How much of my life had been steered towards this point to prepare me for entering this trial?
But worrying about that kind of thing in this universe was a good way to go insane. Whatever the reason, it gave me and my friends a chance. I had Callie get in touch with my parents and pass messages to Benny and Jessie. I didn't know if they could prepare in time, but I also didn't know what the test entailed. Maybe it wasn't pure combat. For now, I'd done all I could. All I could do now was make my own preparations.
I counted the elixirs. Ten of them, one hundred thousand points each. The potions were strange and ethereal, shadowy smoke suspended in brilliant shimmering liquid. I was PRETTY sure Alara had sourced the base from the moonlight river that was suppressing Drexel's tower. Interesting.
There were a few variants. One Might, two Vitality, three Creation, two Perception, two Fantasy. I'd tried to focus on shoring up my weak spots, leaving the beefier stats behind a bit, only getting enough points to make it to one point five mil. I was reasonably sure I'd see an influx in those naturally anyway, given the renown income. Slowly, one by one, I tossed back each elixir, preparing myself for the surge of stats that was incoming.
Staggering them helped, and then I let the excess hit afterward, and I was pleasantly surprised by the results in more ways than one.
Wishmaster status. C-rank. Ability: Grandmaster Wish- Nine times a day grant a Grandmaster 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.
Grandmaster Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.
Wishmaster candidate points-1000
Might-1,832,421
Impact-155
Fantasy-1,461,238
Vitality-1,621,871 (x 3)
Focus-1,446,357
Perception-1,521,640
Creation-1,572,112
Progress to next rank:9,455,794/10,000,000
Soul strength- Tanzanite Soul Body
Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 10/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 1/9
Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome (pages bound:2- 1 Zagan, 1 Leviathan)
wish scrolls stockpiled: 288 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)
Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)
Weapon: Ten Demons Tree (reincarnation tree staff that lets him simulate alternate lives to perfect his forms, and when combined with the library lets him simulate and deduce techniques in a process called the "Wisdom of Solomon")
Stored: 0 Adherent Fire, 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges,10 triple strength tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)
Financial resources: 0 B-ranked, 0 C-ranked, 0 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)
Court of Gehenna:
1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 7
2.Valtek- Tier 2
3.Cooking- Tier 7
4.Inventing- Tier 2
5.Balam- Tier 3
6.Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- Tier 4
7.Piano- Tier 1
8.Guitar- Tier 1
9.First Aid- Tier 1
10.Angelic Bond- Tier 6
11.Dust Construction- Tier 5
12. Stone Limb- Tier 6
13.Moonlit Night- Tier 4
14.Consecration of Flame- Tier 6
15.Ripple Running- Tier 3
16.State of Grace- Tier 4
17.Steam Arrow- Tier 4
18.Afterburner- Tier 6
19.Pit of Despair- Tier 6
20.Mountain Stance- Tier 6
21.Heart over Body- Tier 6
22.Mercy Kill- Tier 5
23.Double Trouble- Tier 6
24.Touch of Tears- Tier 5
25.Flurry of Blows- Tier 3
26.Heavy Hands- Tier 2
27.Marked for Death- Tier 4
28.False Fatality- Tier 3
29.Blood Curse- Tier 4
30.Creeping Darkness- Tier 2
31.Final Strike- Tier 6
32.Overlay- Tier 4
33.Song of the Soil- Tier 3
34.Rhythm of the Wild- Tier 2
35.Eye of Revelation- Tier 6
36.Danger Sense- Tier 6
37.Piece of Mind- Tier 6
38.Empty Spirit- Tier 6
39.Belial- Tier 7
40.Abomination Engine- Tier 6
41.Mephistopheles- Tier 7
42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 6
43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 6
44.Mephisto's Waltz- Tier 6
45.Mornax- Tier 7
46.Zagan- Tier 7
47.Life Nova- Tier 7
48.Genesis Burst- Tier 6
49.Bael- Tier 7
50.Beelzebub- Tier 7
51.Agares- Tier 7
52.Dantalion- Tier 7
53.Sammael- Tier 7
54.Limbo- Tier 7
55.Gluttony- Tier 7
56.Wrath- Tier 6
57.Pride- Tier 7
58.Retribution- Tier 7
59.Murmur- Tier 7
60.Leviathan- Tier 7
61.Behemoth- Tier 7
62.Glory- Tier 7
63.Abaddon -Tier 7
64.Wisdom of Solomon- Tier 7
65.Promethean Fire Soul Body- Tier 6
66.Fate Sense- Tier 7
67.Scent of Truth- Tier 6
68.Damnatio Memoriae- Tier 6
69.Dark Reflection- Tier 6
70. Asmodeus- Tier 7
71. Astaroth- Tier 7
72. Azazel- Tier 8
I was within spitting distance of B-rank now, and it wouldn't be long before I crossed the threshold, but that wasn't even what I found most exciting. No, what made me most excited was the final line of Gehenna. Azazel had reached tier eight. That meant I HAD a B-rank demon inside my soul already.
The purification and ascension of my body with the ember had also pushed the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation art up two ranks to tier four, which would cover me through my next two templates even if I didn't rank it up again anytime soon, which I sincerely doubted would be the case.
Outside the vortex, adapting to so much stat growth was exponentially more difficult, sadly. I ended up sitting perfectly still for an hour as my body finished letting me push adjust. Once that was finished, I moved on to my NEXT order of business. Contacting my wife. I'd used up all my Adherent Fire charges on the way back, and they had turned out to be extremely useful. "Hey, you have time to talk?" I asked through the bond.
Didn't take her long to respond. "Not too busy at the moment. The battles are currently at a standstill. I don't imagine that'll last. Even if the major forces cool off, there's too many scavengers loitering around here for it to stay quiet long term."
"Did your sister get there safe?" I asked with concern. She'd mentioned having a map, but that was before I knew that the Void was shattered near that area. I assumed Adam would have known though, so her map probably involved crossing into realspace before she hit the problem area.
"She did," Callie said wryly. "She was very excited to meet me. It was sweet. I'm having fun getting to know her, though I can tell she's chomping at the bit to start spreading my reputation. She MIGHT be a bit competitive."
I laughed through the bond. "Gosh, I can't imagine what that would be like. I don't know anyone competitive."
"Please," she scoffed sarcastically. "I'm so not competitive. I'm the least competitive person you've ever met. I bet you a hundred B-rank chits you can't find a person less competitive than I am. And if you can, I'll fight them. Then we'll see who's competitive."
I rolled my eyes at her bad joke. "Speaking of betting, I was hoping you could help me test something." I didn't need to explain anything, she'd been at dinner with me when Adam explained the whole body tempering connection. She knew what I was getting at immediately, and was more than happy to help me test it.
She had some scrolls on her, so she popped one open, and started making wishes. She started absurdly high, at like ten thousand points, which obviously failed, then continued downward until she found the current limit.
Nine hundred forty five points. Apparently my current physique was durable enough to convert pretty directly between millions and singles. I was only at first template completion, so that boded pretty well. My stats would continue to rise, and my ceiling for stat wishes would grow even faster. Callie got almost ten thousand points out of ten wishes and I got my ten saved Adherent Fire charges back. We could have done more but she wanted to wait and get them out of the way all at once after she started pulling in more renown from the battlefield with her sister. She had a lot of catching up to do, but she insisted she'd already closed the gap more than I might have thought possible. I couldn't wait to see how far she'd come during our time apart.
I said goodnight to my wife and settled in to sleep, knowing tomorrow was going to be busy. I had to meet all the B-rankers we'd be bringing back with us to the WCP, then we'd be setting off for home. It wouldn't be long before I'd be back with all my friends, then only a few months til I was back with my wife and we were all together again. After that, it was on to the next adventure, and I had a feeling this one was going to be a doozie.
With that out of the way, I headed upstairs, ready to embark on the next step in my own journey. Entering the legacy ruins at C-rank would be stupid. Anyone without a complete Chronicle qualified, which meant B-rankers would be abundant. I was going to need every edge I could get in there, and so I needed to be at the top of my game.
I took out the elixirs I'd gotten from Alara. With the treaty signed, not to mention that big show in the throne room, my reputation among the locals would be soaring. It wouldn't be enough to reach B-rank, but it should get me to the nine million that I had expected, and maybe a little higher. From there, I had however long the trip was to the Legacy ruins to make that final step into B-grade in preparation for our entry.
Based on what Callie told me, the breakthrough of the clocktower had DEMOLISHED the Void on the other side of the barrier on the warfront. It was so fragmented trying to move through it was like trying to climb through a meat grinder. We'd need to take the slow way to get there, and that was going to take MONTHS. The only upside was that the fragmented space would apparently delay the descent of the higher dimensional forces.
Interestingly, the delay didn't seem to matter. The legacy trial was set up for challengers, and it required a specific number of them to be initiated. And not just ANYONE below B-rank would do. There was a test to even enter, and based on preliminary assessments, the space inside the tower was locked in some sort of stasis. Until all nine hundred and ninety nine participants had passed the challenge, anyone who entered would be held frozen in time.
It was…suspiciously convenient, really. All of it. And not something I suspected Deveskane was capable of. It made me wonder if the Overgod who owned the trial was partly responsible for any of the things we'd been through. And if so, how many? How much of my life had been steered towards this point to prepare me for entering this trial?
But worrying about that kind of thing in this universe was a good way to go insane. Whatever the reason, it gave me and my friends a chance. I had Callie get in touch with my parents and pass messages to Benny and Jessie. I didn't know if they could prepare in time, but I also didn't know what the test entailed. Maybe it wasn't pure combat. For now, I'd done all I could. All I could do now was make my own preparations.
I counted the elixirs. Ten of them, one hundred thousand points each. The potions were strange and ethereal, shadowy smoke suspended in brilliant shimmering liquid. I was PRETTY sure Alara had sourced the base from the moonlight river that was suppressing Drexel's tower. Interesting.
There were a few variants. One Might, two Vitality, three Creation, two Perception, two Fantasy. I'd tried to focus on shoring up my weak spots, leaving the beefier stats behind a bit, only getting enough points to make it to one point five mil. I was reasonably sure I'd see an influx in those naturally anyway, given the renown income. Slowly, one by one, I tossed back each elixir, preparing myself for the surge of stats that was incoming.
Staggering them helped, and then I let the excess hit afterward, and I was pleasantly surprised by the results in more ways than one.
Wishmaster status. C-rank. Ability: Grandmaster Wish- Nine times a day grant a Grandmaster 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.
Grandmaster Path of the Demonbinder- The Domain of a Great King.
Wishmaster candidate points-1000
Might-1,832,421
Impact-155
Fantasy-1,461,238
Vitality-1,621,871 (x 3)
Focus-1,446,357
Perception-1,521,640
Creation-1,572,112
Progress to next rank:9,455,794/10,000,000
Soul strength- Tanzanite Soul Body
Body Forging: Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- 10/81 drops- First Layer (Life Nova) 9/9, Second Layer ( Cosmic Phoenix) 1/9
Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome (pages bound:2- 1 Zagan, 1 Leviathan)
wish scrolls stockpiled: 288 (5 in the possession of friends to be used over time)
Bonded companion: Archimedes (Life Nova Phoenix)
Weapon: Ten Demons Tree (reincarnation tree staff that lets him simulate alternate lives to perfect his forms, and when combined with the library lets him simulate and deduce techniques in a process called the "Wisdom of Solomon")
Stored: 0 Adherent Fire, 7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges,10 triple strength tranq blows (ten in reserve), 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)
Financial resources: 0 B-ranked, 0 C-ranked, 0 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)
Court of Gehenna:
1.Doom Sovereign- Tier 7
2.Valtek- Tier 2
3.Cooking- Tier 7
4.Inventing- Tier 2
5.Balam- Tier 3
6.Nine Phoenix Reincarnation Art- Tier 4
7.Piano- Tier 1
8.Guitar- Tier 1
9.First Aid- Tier 1
10.Angelic Bond- Tier 6
11.Dust Construction- Tier 5
12. Stone Limb- Tier 6
13.Moonlit Night- Tier 4
14.Consecration of Flame- Tier 6
15.Ripple Running- Tier 3
16.State of Grace- Tier 4
17.Steam Arrow- Tier 4
18.Afterburner- Tier 6
19.Pit of Despair- Tier 6
20.Mountain Stance- Tier 6
21.Heart over Body- Tier 6
22.Mercy Kill- Tier 5
23.Double Trouble- Tier 6
24.Touch of Tears- Tier 5
25.Flurry of Blows- Tier 3
26.Heavy Hands- Tier 2
27.Marked for Death- Tier 4
28.False Fatality- Tier 3
29.Blood Curse- Tier 4
30.Creeping Darkness- Tier 2
31.Final Strike- Tier 6
32.Overlay- Tier 4
33.Song of the Soil- Tier 3
34.Rhythm of the Wild- Tier 2
35.Eye of Revelation- Tier 6
36.Danger Sense- Tier 6
37.Piece of Mind- Tier 6
38.Empty Spirit- Tier 6
39.Belial- Tier 7
40.Abomination Engine- Tier 6
41.Mephistopheles- Tier 7
42.Cosmic Collapse- Tier 6
43.Circle of Damnation- Tier 6
44.Mephisto's Waltz- Tier 6
45.Mornax- Tier 7
46.Zagan- Tier 7
47.Life Nova- Tier 7
48.Genesis Burst- Tier 6
49.Bael- Tier 7
50.Beelzebub- Tier 7
51.Agares- Tier 7
52.Dantalion- Tier 7
53.Sammael- Tier 7
54.Limbo- Tier 7
55.Gluttony- Tier 7
56.Wrath- Tier 6
57.Pride- Tier 7
58.Retribution- Tier 7
59.Murmur- Tier 7
60.Leviathan- Tier 7
61.Behemoth- Tier 7
62.Glory- Tier 7
63.Abaddon -Tier 7
64.Wisdom of Solomon- Tier 7
65.Promethean Fire Soul Body- Tier 6
66.Fate Sense- Tier 7
67.Scent of Truth- Tier 6
68.Damnatio Memoriae- Tier 6
69.Dark Reflection- Tier 6
70. Asmodeus- Tier 7
71. Astaroth- Tier 7
72. Azazel- Tier 8
I was within spitting distance of B-rank now, and it wouldn't be long before I crossed the threshold, but that wasn't even what I found most exciting. No, what made me most excited was the final line of Gehenna. Azazel had reached tier eight. That meant I HAD a B-rank demon inside my soul already.
The purification and ascension of my body with the ember had also pushed the Nine Phoenix Reincarnation art up two ranks to tier four, which would cover me through my next two templates even if I didn't rank it up again anytime soon, which I sincerely doubted would be the case.
Outside the vortex, adapting to so much stat growth was exponentially more difficult, sadly. I ended up sitting perfectly still for an hour as my body finished letting me push adjust. Once that was finished, I moved on to my NEXT order of business. Contacting my wife. I'd used up all my Adherent Fire charges on the way back, and they had turned out to be extremely useful. "Hey, you have time to talk?" I asked through the bond.
Didn't take her long to respond. "Not too busy at the moment. The battles are currently at a standstill. I don't imagine that'll last. Even if the major forces cool off, there's too many scavengers loitering around here for it to stay quiet long term."
"Did your sister get there safe?" I asked with concern. She'd mentioned having a map, but that was before I knew that the Void was shattered near that area. I assumed Adam would have known though, so her map probably involved crossing into realspace before she hit the problem area.
"She did," Callie said wryly. "She was very excited to meet me. It was sweet. I'm having fun getting to know her, though I can tell she's chomping at the bit to start spreading my reputation. She MIGHT be a bit competitive."
I laughed through the bond. "Gosh, I can't imagine what that would be like. I don't know anyone competitive."
"Please," she scoffed sarcastically. "I'm so not competitive. I'm the least competitive person you've ever met. I bet you a hundred B-rank chits you can't find a person less competitive than I am. And if you can, I'll fight them. Then we'll see who's competitive."
I rolled my eyes at her bad joke. "Speaking of betting, I was hoping you could help me test something." I didn't need to explain anything, she'd been at dinner with me when Adam explained the whole body tempering connection. She knew what I was getting at immediately, and was more than happy to help me test it.
She had some scrolls on her, so she popped one open, and started making wishes. She started absurdly high, at like ten thousand points, which obviously failed, then continued downward until she found the current limit.
Nine hundred forty five points. Apparently my current physique was durable enough to convert pretty directly between millions and singles. I was only at first template completion, so that boded pretty well. My stats would continue to rise, and my ceiling for stat wishes would grow even faster. Callie got almost ten thousand points out of ten wishes and I got my ten saved Adherent Fire charges back. We could have done more but she wanted to wait and get them out of the way all at once after she started pulling in more renown from the battlefield with her sister. She had a lot of catching up to do, but she insisted she'd already closed the gap more than I might have thought possible. I couldn't wait to see how far she'd come during our time apart.
I said goodnight to my wife and settled in to sleep, knowing tomorrow was going to be busy. I had to meet all the B-rankers we'd be bringing back with us to the WCP, then we'd be setting off for home. It wouldn't be long before I'd be back with all my friends, then only a few months til I was back with my wife and we were all together again. After that, it was on to the next adventure, and I had a feeling this one was going to be a doozie.
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