Wish upon the Stars chapter 14

No one was in the mood to explore more after the news we'd gotten, so  we said our goodbyes and headed home. I asked Jessie if she wanted to  come over but she was a bit shell shocked after everything we'd learned  so she decided to crash at the guild. We made plans to meet up the next  day to spend the day together though. Since I had nothing else to do I  decided to head back to my room and try to finish my new bat. I had  enough in me for the two runes I needed to get done still.

I  went and snagged the tools I needed from the work room and then sat  down to get started carving, engraving one of the last two runes. I  exhaled heavily as I carved, my body shaking with effort. I was carving  the Might rune this time, and I felt my Might stat resonate with my  Minor Enchanting skill and a point of my Impact. This time it was  easier. The form rune has relief entirely on my Impact to take shape,  but the Might rune shared that burden with my Might stat, which was  higher than my Impact in any case.

It took about fifteen  minutes to actually finish carving the small, simple design, and once  again it felt like I was superimposing a hundred instances of carving a  hundred different lines into a single set of actions. Unlike last time  however, I knew better than to jump right into carving the expression rune and I took a break to let myself recover, flopping down on my bed to  read through some of the other job postings I'd been looking into  taking. I needed to boost more of my stats. Now that I had the  enchanting skill my priority should be the Creation stat.

I  flipped through the pages, looking for what small amount of details the  notes actually had. The anonymity of the process was annoying when  trying to pick my next job but I finally narrowed it down. Deciding to  skip the middle step I went ahead and just sent a copy of the contract  to the five people I was interested in working with. Three of them were  desperate enough to accept and I set up a series of appointments with  them over the course of the next day or two.

Once that was  done I had something to eat, took a nap, and then returned to working  on my bat. The expression rune was my last rune, and I'd partially  recovered the point of Impact I'd used on the Might rune so I should be  fine at this point to finish, so I returned to carving. This rune was  much harder. About halfway between the form and Might runes in  difficulty. It made sense given that I didn't have a stat to lean on, but it  was still incredibly tiring to finish it. It took me a full forty  minutes to drag the effort from my body, and when I was done I collapsed  to the ground in exhaustion.

After a few minutes of rest  and a decent sized sandwich I finally got up the energy to climb to my  feet and despite how wobbly my legs were, I stumbled over the the desk  to check on the bat. As I picked it up I felt a wash of satisfaction  pour through me. The bat hadn't changed at all, not really, but it  felt...heavier. Not physically, but in the way that Ascendants felt  heavy. Like it had some semblance of Impact.

Of course I  knew it didn't. It was a normal bat made of normal wood, but temporary  enchantments carried hints of Impact within them. It was part of why it  cost points of the stat to carve runes. I hadn't put my points into the  bat, I'd poured the energy into the construct, and the construct itself  had hints of that power. Similar to how a car might smell like gasoline  after you filled the tank.

I weighed the bat in my hand,  tossing it back and forth from palm to palm. I wasn't worried about  triggering it by accident. I'd made the expression rune carefully, and  I'd made sure I would need to pour some real effort into a blow to set  off the charge. No, what I was doing was feeling out the power to see  exactly how many hits I would have with this thing. The form and  expression and my stats all had an effect on how much power the thing  could hold. Well, and the materials, but at this low level of  enchantment that was less of an issue thankfully.

Based on  what I could feel from the thing I was pretty sure I had gotten a solid  three hits worth of power into it. My larger Might pool probably helped  with that. It wasn't perfect efficiency or anything but it was more  than enough for me to test out what I was capable of with the thing.  According to Zeke's email (which had contained a primer on using the  runes) basic temporary enchantments would destroy the item they were  cast on after they expired. But until then I had a bat that did super  force damage. I wanted to test at least one of those blows, even if I  was going to keep the rest for an emergency.

I balance the  bat on a shoulder, making sure I was still in a condition to go out,  and then made my way out the door. I didn't go in costume because I  didn't want to draw attention, but I did try not to be spotted leaving  just in case. Once I was out I took off for a nearby storm drain,  slinking into the tunnel and out of sight of the rest of the world to  make sure no one would see me testing out my new toy. I retreated  further in than I usually went, making my way to a platform in the  depths of the tunnels where I knew there was a nice big sturdy column.

I  had to admit I was excited to try out my new weapon. Firstly it was my  first real enchantment, which was just fantastic to think about. Granted  they were time consuming and tiring but once I hit G rank it would be  much easier to work on them. Secondly...it was a magic bat! That was  just so cool. I'd used my skills and granted wishes but now I was going  to perform literal magic! I was going to unleash a blast of force on  this column without needing any input from another person to get things  started and it was making me giddy.

I set myself properly,  wound up over my shoulder, and with as much of my body behind the blow  as I could manage I swung for the fucking fences. The bat whistled  through the air with all of my power behind it and the moment it made  contact I felt the enchantment flare as a boom shook the platform. I was  grinning my ass off as I stared down at the inches deep crater in the  stone. Sure, it wasn't really that big of a dent, but still, I had  pulverized a section of a stone pillar with this thing!

I  looked down at the bat, checking it to see if it was holding up, and  surprisingly it was in a pretty good state. While Might wasn't a  defensive ability by any means, it did reinforce the material in use  enough to hold up under it's own power. People with superstrength  abilities weren't tougher for instance, but they also didn't tear  themselves apart when they threw a punch. One of the odd little  inconsistencies that made defining the stats properly so difficult.

I  glanced down at the bat and then up at the pillar again, chewing my  lip. I wanted to do it again. Really badly. I could always make another  one anyway, and as long as I kept one more blow for myself in case of  emergencies it shouldn't matter right? Grinning to myself I got back in  my batting stance. The bat in question was one of the ones Zeke had  bought for me to practice T-ball as a kid, though it hadn't been used in  years. As such, I did know how to swing, even if I wasn't a genius at  it or anything.

The windup this time was smoother. I  pivoted off my back foot as I rotated my body in a short, tight circle  and brought the bat around again, right at the divot in the deepest part  of the crater where the bat made contact the first time. With three  points of Might, two points of focus, and the extra power of the bat, I  had aim, momentum and explosive force on my side as the bat crashed into  the pillar a second time, adding the force of the enchantment to the  already considerable force of my blow as I made contact.

There  was another loud boom and the platform shook again, cement dust sifting  down from the ceiling as I grinned at my handy work. Not only was the  crater deeper, but the impact had been focused into the divot by my  second hit and spiked a deep crack into the stone that bit halfway into  the pillar as a whole. It looked like the thing had a jagged looking  mouth halfway down it, gaping like some kind of creepy horror movie  tree. It was fucking awesome. Sadly I only had one blow left and I  couldn't justify using it, so I had to pack it up for now. But I was so  making a permanent version of this later.

I  did my best not to be seen slipping out of the tunnel, just in case. An  application of Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery allowing me to activate  the stealth overlay, which didn't really do anything but let me see when  I was being watched, but still helped me get by unnoticed. I wasn't  worried about anyone seeing anything on me so much as being linked to  the place if someone found the damage later, but either way I was able  to avoid detection which seemed like it was for the best.

When  I got home I crashed into bed, exhausted. Tomorrow I had my day  arranged spending time with Jessie a bit later on, but early in the day I  had a wish granting set up. Then another after I met up with her. I was  going to be busy over the next few days, but I was almost salivating at  the thought of all the stats I was going to build up. Other than  hopefully at least one point of Creation I didn't even care what I got, I  just wanted to feel myself getting stronger. The only real dark spot on  my otherwise exciting time recently was this damn serial killer.

Knowing  someone in town was offing Ascendants was intimidating. Especially with  me being a new member of the Unity and the killer prioritizing that  very group. I had to wonder, would Zeke step in if the killer tried to  target me? I had to assume not, he had specifically mentioned not  interfering with anyone below E rank. Still, he didn't seem worried  about me getting gutted at all.

I  shook my head, dislodging the thoughts. I needed to sleep. I had too  much to do tomorrow to be sitting around worried about this. I'd take  things one day at a time, stick close to my mentors, and be careful of  where I went. Whoever this asshole was, he had no clue who he was  messing with. To him, I was just some low H rank crafter who had joined  recently. He wouldn't see my fast gains or my skill acquisition coming,  and by the time he realized that he should be worried about me, it would  already be too late.