Wish upon the Stars chapter 873

Obviously, before I started us off, my first task was the unfortunate duty of finally letting all of my stats hit me. I was NOT looking forward to this. Sure, It wasn’t even a doubling, as far as I knew, but considering JUST the scrolls were going to net me a whopping NINETY THOUSAND stat points, I was pretty sure the rest of my income was going to be rough.

My twelve hundred scrolls had, of course, been passed around long ago and arrangements had been made for their use. I’d tried to do the best I could balancing out my stats, so I’d had a pretty decent chunk of that put into Creation, but I suspected the income from five months of my spreading legend was going to make a big difference there. Chances were things like Might and Vitality were about to spike pretty hard, so my salad days of perfectly balanced stats were an illusion that was bound to never appear in reality.

So, with the grim surrender normally only seen in men on their way to the gallows and parents whose children have to do a fundraiser for their childcare center, I finally released the tight grip on my soul and allowed my suspended stats to hit me all at once.

Wishmaster candidate status. D-rank. Ability:

 Master Wish- Eight times a day grant a Master 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.

Master Path of the Doom Sovereign- A Solid Path toward a great destiny.

Might-208,619

Impact-105

Fantasy-99,703

Vitality-111,854

Focus-129,766

Perception-128,014

Creation-80,372

Progress to next rank:758,430/1,000,000

Soul strength- Amethyst Soul Body

Chronicle: Ten Demons Tome

wish scrolls stockpiled: 0 (7 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:7 shadow attacks, 10 shadow jump (seven in reserve), 10 Stealth charges, 0 fire attacks, 10 triple strenth tranq blows (ten in reserve), 0 triple strength density shifted attacks. 10 spider leg attacks (ten in reserve), 0 heal bursts (0 reserve), 3 gravity attacks, 1 shadow clone, 18 scan heals (I-rank ability so Shane can hold more)

Financial resources: 3 C-ranked, 42 D-ranked(worth 100 E-ranked, past master rank is a watershed)

Skills: Master Path of the Doom Sovereign, Lesser Valtek Mastery, Mastery of Cooking, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Beginner Balam Mastery, Minor Fire Manipulation Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor First Aid Mastery, Master Angelic Bond, Expert Dust Construction Mastery

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

Rogue: Mercy Kill, Double Trouble, Touch of Tears, Flurry of Blows, Heavy hands, Marked for Death, False Fatality, Blood Curse, Creeping Darkness

Diviner: Overlay, Song of the Soil, Rhythm of the Wild, Eye of Revelation, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind

Goetia Staff Art:  

First form- Belial. Touch of Tears, Stone Limb, Consecration of Flames  

                           Techniques: Abomination Engine- uses Mephistopheles flame to supercharge the magmatic body of Belial, creating a demonic machine of pure destruction

Second Form- Mephistopheles. Consecration of Flame, Afterburner, Mercy Kill, Marked for Death.

                            Techniques: Cosmic Collapse: condensed sphere of black flame that explodes out one side amplifying force. Mephisto's Waltz: Movement technique, Damnatio Memoriae: causes the ground iself to dissolve best used on mountains to cause avalanches

                            Circle of Damnation: defensive technique through destruction

Third form- Mornax. Stone Limb, Triple Strength Density Shifting (x10 F-rank stored attacks), Mountain Stance

Fourth form - Zagan. Heal Burst, Purifying Flame, Consecration of Flame, Afterburner

                               Techniques: Life Nova, purifying and healing version of Cosmic Collapse.Genesis Burst: enhanced version of Life Nova designed to repair soul damage.

 Fifth form- Bael. Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation (inverted), Afterburner (full effectiveness is seven times base Perception due to stacking, can only currently stack a single stat, unlike wish power which stacks them all)

Sixth form- Beelzebub. Piece of Mind, Stone Limb, Dust Construction, Shadow Clone. Create twelve copies (thirteen versions total) of Shane, each copy able to use a single form without straining Shane's soul past the strain of the original technique, which is only slightly more of a strain than a normal form and still allows one additional form to be used without overstraining. Can't remote control the forms, but can communicate with them remotely via telepathy principles from Paired Dueling. Might and Perception stacking, most versatile and well designed form yet.

Seventh form- Agares. Pit of Despair, Dust Construction, Stone Limb, Shadow Manipulation, Afterburner. Ability to mold and shape the earth, into black liquid tar, solid abyssal stone, or burning ash

 Eighth form- Dantalion. Eye of Revelation, Overlay, Song of the Soil, Scent of Truth, Danger Sense, Piece of Mind, Rhthym of the Wild, Afterburner

 Ninth form- Sammael. Baseline of angel trait, energy source: Enshrining Darkness. A more powerful baseline that acts as a foundation for all the other forms, allowing them to reach their true power. Amplified by the angelic bond.

Pseudo Domain: 

First Circle of Hell- Limbo. Belial, Mephistopheles, Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation. A psuedo Domain of confusion and mental manipulation, distorting the senses and controlling the body.

                              Recreated version: Piece of Mind, Overlay, Belial and Mephistopheles, Moonlit Night, Eye of Revelation. Uses Piece of Mind as it was meant to be used, to parse multiple timelines for Mephistopheles to destroy, forcing the victim to conform to a specific future.

Second Circle of Hell: Gluttony. Mephistopeheles, Mornax, Dark Reflection, False Fatality. Reinforces the body and uses the damage redirection skills to shift damage and pain into the pit of destruction in the stomach, consuming attacks to break them down for power. Can be used to fuel Abomination Engine.

Third Circle of Hell: Wrath. Mephistopheles and Agares. Creates an all consuming lake of burning dark ash infused with the fire of destruction.

Thirteenth Circle of Hell: Pride. The infernal library of techniques that serves as the foundation of the infernal realm. Deduce, refine, and perfect techniques. Refine and perfect Skills, albeit more slowly, and still requires a foundation of knowledge.

Fourth circle of Hell: Retribution. Dark Reflection, False Fatality, Gluttony to stockpile, Afterburner, Abomination Engine. Collects all the damage done to fuel Gluttony and inflicts it on the enemy.

 Fifth circle of Hell: Murmur. Bael, Dantalion. Use Dantalion's overwhelming information gathering powers to more deeply eliminate traces of passage through Bael's perfected stealth.

Sixth circle of hell:Leviathan. Zagan, Promethean Fire Soul Body. complete immunity to mental attacks below B-rank, enhancement to purification of internal corruption.

Seventh circle of hell: Behemoth. Agares and Mornax. Creates limbs of constructs of invincible rock.                  

The weight of all those stats was…rough. Not insurmountable, of course, percentage wise I’d had bigger bumps. But three hundred and forty THOUSAND stat points was pretty intense. I felt the pressure as all that strength flooded me, but luckily, Callie was there to help, siphoning off some of the pain so I could stay on my feet through the process.

Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. Five months of renown with my current level of infamy was pretty insane. I’d expected to maybe even hit C-rank on the trip, between the massive income from my scrolls and all the stories. But it seemed like they’d mostly kept my name out of things.

That was probably smarter, if I was being fair. While the dungeon run was fine on its own, and killing a few C-rankers was good press, getting credit for say, slaying a god would have been way too much for me to handle. Unlike Suvaya, who was an ancient god with no real worshippers to speak of, Raxus had been a powerful enemy deity with his own world and force. Not to mention a twin brother who I still didn’t really have a handle on.

Black Sorrow had been the one to finish him anyway, so I didn’t really deserve that credit. Still, the renown from all the C and D-rankers I saved and from the spreading of my personal legend over the course of nearly half a year had put me firmly three quarters of the way through D-rank, and I was thrilled to see it.

Depending on how I played things going into the succession war, I had a chance to hit C-rank myself while we were there.

While I could theoretically become the Wishmaster even as a D-ranker, part of me rebelled at the thought of being quite that far below the top rankers while running the show. If I could break C-rank and possibly start work on my Chronicle in advance, it would be a huge boost to my confidence.

Sure enough, when I finally wrote out all my stats and passed them to my friends, they were all heartily impressed. “Damn,” said Callie appreciatively. “You’re really blowing me out of the water here, love. And becoming the next Wishmaster is only going to make it worse.”

I snorted. “With the passive boosts from your racial trait, you’re probably still a bit stronger. Not to mention you still have to merge it with your Solid Path, which should push you up even higher. I don’t see myself leaving you behind anytime soon. Though I can’t say it doesn’t feel good to have the edge. I AM probably going to hit C-rank first.”

“You’re both monsters,” Benny said flatly. “I hit D-rank and have barely even started chipping away at that, and you’re almost done.”

Jessie giggled. “Yeah, I’m way behind too, though since it’s mostly in VItality, I can still hold my own. But honestly I’m not too worried about it. I’ve just been having the best time hanging out with Alan and Alyssa.” Her face got serious. “You can count on me for the succession war though. Whatever you need.” She grabbed my hand tightly. “Seriously Shane, I owe you so much. I’m going to make sure you win this.”

“Just focus on healing,” I told her with a warm smile. “You’re going to be minding the base, but we need you pumping up anyone who gets injured or starts to run low on energy.”

I didn’t know what we had to DO during this war, but I knew I wanted Jessie and Benny out of the way. I had some vague plans for how to keep my best friend busy, but for Jessie, the plan was pretty simple.

Luckily, Jessie not only didn’t have any real interest in a war, she also knew from experience that this was the best way to help. Her support abilities were far and away the most important asset any of us had aside from possibly my Wish power. We’d seen back during our stint in the army exactly how big of a difference healers could make, and Jessie was the best of the best.

I turned to look at Callie. “Well, since they seem like they want to put it off a bit, I guess that means you’re next. So let’s see it. I want to know how much you’ve grown from your new upgrade.” Because I had a feeling it was a substantial amount, even if she didn’t keep up with my own blistering advancement.

She beamed at me. “Oh I thought you’d never ask. I’m not quite up to the point where you are, but don’t think I’ll be left behind that easily.” Based on her demeanor, I was pretty sure her progress was going to be nearly as impressive as mine, and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. When she got stronger so did I, and I had to admit, I really couldn’t wait to see what her Heretic flame could do at a higher level. I was finally getting to the point where I was feeling comfortable with what was coming. We were really going to do this.