Wish upon the Stars chapter 469

The two strangers in the room looked as wary of me as I was of them.  Of course, I was made of green magma and the ground was smoking and  bubbling under my feet, so I couldn't really blame them for being a bit  unsettled. "So." I said cheerfully. "I'm guessing we beat each other  with sticks now?" I held up my staff. "Because I feel like if that's  where this is going, I have sort of a home field advantage."

One  of the other two guys, a short dark haired man with incredibly wide  shoulders, a goatee, and huge muscles, laughed at that. "Well you're  certainly direct. I like that in a...whatever you are. No need for  things to escalate, Mr. Poisonous Lava Monster."

"That's  Doctor Poisonous Lava Monster, thank you very much." I said with a grin.  "I didn't spend six years in Poisonous Lava Monster medical school to  be called Mr." Seeing that they weren't attacking, I chuckled and  dropped Belial. I could bring it back up nearly instantly, and it seemed  like these guys might not want to fight. Still, I made sure my overlay  remained active.

He sighed with relief. "I'll be honest. I  feel way more comfortable talking to you when you don't look a modern  art piece someone pulled out of a toxic waste dump. I'm Vinnie, by the  way. Vincent Barder to my enemies."

"Solomon." I said with  a wave. "Wish Curse Palace. Which faction are you with?" I glanced at  the other guy, a tall blonde man with telltale pointed ears. "Either of  you, actually. I'm a candidate, so I'm not really too familiar with the  larger factions outside the six. Don't be offended if I've never heard  of you."

The blonde smiled slightly. "I'm from the  Ostwallen family. We're elven nobility in the Faerieland. My  grandfather, Bartholomew Ostwallen, is part of the Queen's council. My  name is Simon."

Vinnie nodded. "Heard of you. The Barder  family are Imperial. My gramps is a king. The WCP huh? I didn't realize  they sent anyone this time. Lot of Churchies, a few Cultists, and the  usual mix of Empire and Faerieland, but the Palace having people here is  pretty interesting."

"Not to be like...indelicate, or  anything. But does this mean we're not going to fight? Because if so,  I'd love to sit down while we talk." Using Belial didn't strain my soul  too much, but it was still effort to maintain. Some downtime would be  appreciated, and might take the edge of my headache. It was so mild I  barely noticed it, but it was definitely there. Plus I could learn some  more about the other contestants.

Simon laughed and  gestured to the center of the room. "Why not. This isn't a race like the  first trial. And it's not like we can get the gold key fragments. I'm  not sure who got first in the first two trials, but last I heard, Adrian  of the Fist God Temple got the second silver fragment. Personally, I  think that for those of us who don't already have an Azure Soul Body,  it's more beneficial to take our time and get as much as we can out of  the trials."

Despite having claimed the first two key  fragments, I nodded. He was right. I was in no rush. If anyone wanted to  assemble the gold key they'd need to go through me anyway. It seemed  like people couldn't tell who had a key piece, and neither of these guys  felt confident in getting to the end. I left the overlay up to warn me  in case of attacks, but I headed to the center of the room and sat down  in a chair I pulled from my spatial ring.

Weirdly enough,  the chair came out just fine. Apparently everything here was made of the  same of simulated material. It was pretty damned realistic, and I could  barely tell it wasn't a real chair. I hadn't expected our spatial rings  would be mimicked by the temple too.

The others grabbed  their own chairs and sat down. Since we were hanging out, I decided to  provide snacks. I had some jerky in my ring, and a few bottles of craft  soda from back on Callus I'd been holding onto. Sadly my stock of Black  Cherry was gone, but I had a few bottles of melon soda. I passed one to  each of them with some jerky, and they both nodded their appreciation.

My  food and drink were pretty low level, so I wasn't expecting them to  flip out, and they didn't but both seemed at least pleasantly surprised.  "This is pretty good jerky." Said Vinnie as he snacked. "Desert will be  on me." He withdrew a small table and some plates, and then started  cutting slices of cake for us both.

"So." I said as we  ate. "This Adrian guy. He famous? I've never heard of him, but like I  said, I'm a candidate so I'm a bit out of the loop."

Simon  nodded. "He's a Master ranked boxer. Fist god boxing is pretty famous  in terms of unarmed martial arts, and Adrian is considered the most  talented student the temple master has ever had. He already has an Azure  Soul Body. The Temple is part of the Empire, and rumor has it the  temple master is friends with one of the princes. He got his student  access to their heritage."

I whistled. "Lucky bastard.  What's with the Fist god thing? Is the Fist god one of the vanished gods  or something? You'd think the other factions wouldn't approve of that  kind of naming sense."

"Nah." Said Vinnie with a wave.  "There's no actual Fist god. It's some philosophical bullshit. Anyway,  the six don't care who or what you worship. They don't allow new gods to  show up, but it takes a lot to get to that level. It's not something  that's quiet or easy to accomplish. There's even more than a few  Demigods around."

I hadn't know there WERE Demigods, but I  didn't want to sound too ignorant of common sense stuff. I'd ask Zeke  or Killian about Demigods later. "So." I asked the others. "If this  isn't a race, what is it exactly?" I hadn't seen any signs of a test or  task besides beating armors. Which was nice, but if there was some  overarching goal I'd rather know what it is.

"Pretty  straight forward." Said Vinnie. "Just fight and progress. The key is  hidden somewhere among the armors. There's no specific end point. Once  someone finds it the door to the next trial will open behind the throne.  We just have to backtrack once that happens. It might be a while  though." He gestured around. "As you can see, there's not always a fight  in every room. They tend to be randomized numbers, though the deeper  you go the more there are. The first few were one, two, and three for  me."

I  nodded. "Same. So we just keep fighting until it ends. What about rooms  like this?" I glanced uneasily at them. "Are we expected to fight?"

Simon  shook his head. "No expected to. Some people will. I'd be on your  guard. Of course, some people will simply sit and talk, exchange  information and such. The trial isn't just about winning. Like I said,  it's also about growing. Most of us are people without the connections  to access the heritages that let people like Adrian reach Master so  early."

I  felt a bit relieved. They'd told me they wouldn't attack, and the  overlay was bearing that out so far, but paranoia was a healthy thing in  my world. It was nice to be able to make actual friends in here though,  even casual ones. "So, Simon. I have a friend from the Faerieland,  she's an elf too. She can control trees and stuff, I guess she's a wood  elf noble? Are you the same kind of elf?"

He  shook his head. "I'm a high elf. We tend to be born with light based  abilities. Often healing or other types of support roles. We get along  well with the Red Revenant church, actually. Quite a few of my relatives  have entered the clergy. I don't know many wood elves, but I know  several prominent families of them number among the council."

I nodded. "Of course. I met a Naiad  too. Apparently those are rare around where Celine's family hangs their  hat. You ever run into any?" I hadn't known about other variations of  elves until I met Anna-Marie, and I was interested in how many there  might be, but I wanted to feel out Simon's reaction. 'List all the  different kinds of elf' seemed like it might be an annoying conversation  for him.

He seemed surprised though, when I mentioned meeting a Naiad.  "Really? That's a shock. They're incredibly rare. I think aside from  dark elves, sea elves are the least commonly seen among our peoples.  There's actually several variations of them. Naiads tend to be more  comfortable in shallower waters. They're also called river elves and  lake elves."

Before  we could get too deep into the elfy stuff, Vinnie cut us off. "We can  talk about that later. Have you seen anyone here that might be a problem  later on? I haven't run into anyone that stuck around, but it's nice to  be forewarned about running into some nutcase."

"I  don't know anyone involved." I said with a laugh. "I did meet a guy in a  weird black bandana mask and armor. He tried to kick the shit out of me  and my girlfriend, but we ended up throwing him off one of those  islands back in the first trial."

Vinnie  looked amused. "Sounds like Kelix. He's with the Robber Barons. They're  a thief faction, roaming pirate fleet and all that. He's a tricky guy  to deal with. More power to you for the win. I'd watch out for him  though. Robber Barons are notorious for being vindictive assholes. He'll  definitely have it out of you if he made it this far."

I  just shrugged. "Let him try. It's not like I die in real life if I die  here. Not much point staying in the trials if I'm going to back out at  the slightest sign of fake danger."

That  got a barking laugh from Vinnie. "Well said. If you get got, you  weren't meant to be here to begin with. Might as well give it your all  and see how far you make it." Finishing up his cake, he put his chair  away and stood up, stretching. "In the meantime, I think it's time for  me be to hitting the road. It was great meeting you guys, glad it was  under these circumstances."

He  turned and headed in the direction Simon had come from, and the elf  smiled as he saw me cock my head. "The rooms are different for each of  us. Except multiple entry rooms like this where we can meet." He paused.  "I wonder if this is the trial trying to get us to interact more  peacefully? Or hey, maybe it's just trying to confuse us. I'll be going.  See you soon."

He  headed out the door I came in through, which left me with two options.  The one Simon came from or the one on the opposite side of the hall that  was left over. As I walked toward the door, I let Belial take me, my  face splitting into a grin as I drew my staff.

It  felt good. Being the hunter. Being able to stand on my own two feet and  challenge anything that came my way. After the trial of solitude, I was  able to just enjoy the journey more than I had been before. I didn't  feel so conflicted or lost. Of course, I did miss my friends, but I'd  see them when I saw them. Until then, I had training to do, and the more  armor I destroyed the stronger my soul got. I spun up my staff as I  stepped through the door I'd chosen. Time to play can opener.