Chapter 14: Chapter Fourteen

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 had relied 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 Impact points into the bat, but 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.

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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.

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