Chapter 144: Chapter One Hundred Forty Five

We were all pretty exhausted after the fight. The Wavestriders had  been pretty tough, and this had been one of our first run ins with an  elite Ascendant force from the Academy. If anything we'd gotten lucky  because they weren't taking us seriously, but it had really shown us the  difference between our group and some of the tougher teams out here.  With all our advantages it was easy to consider ourselves the best of  the freshman class, but this fight had shown us how wrong we were about  that.

I'd known the higher years would be more powerful,  but it was pretty absurd how much stronger than us even the other first  years could get at the higher end of things. If this fight hadn't gone  exactly the right way for us we would have been screwed. Raleigh was  MUCH stronger than I was, than any of us besides Cark really, and if  he'd been more prepared to deal with our coordination we never would  have won the fight.

I sidled up next to Callie, putting my  arm around her shoulder. "Credit for your thoughts?" She hadn't said  much since she announced our break. She didn't seem upset or anything,  just...distracted. I was pretty sure she was going over the fight in her  head and coming to the same conclusion I had. We needed to get  stronger. Which meant we needed to win this hunt and get the promotion  we were entitled to as well as the points to move us up the rankings.

She  shook off the trance she was in pretty quickly. "Sorry, I was just  thinking about how much further we still have to go. It's easy to get  caught up in how fast we've been advancing and lose track of how weak we  still are on the grand scheme of things." I'd figured that was it. I  understood what she meant. While I could get more points from others by  granting wishes, my teammates had to trade their own points or valuable  memories to get them. Which meant that while we could move points around  for them to optimize their abilities, they still needed to advance the  old fashioned way.

Granted being able to change around  points to maximize their strength would help a lot with that, but it was  by no means a done deal. We had a lot of hard work ahead of us to get  stronger. Not to mention once we finally got strong enough to get off  this planet we still had to deal with the larger forces, which included  the other Wishmaster Candidates that would be just as broken at the very  least. We had to make the best possible us of our time here and get as  strong as possible because at that point our advantage would be gone.

Hell,  it was worse than that. The other Candidates may have come from larger  and more developed planets, giving them a headstart on resources and a  larger value pool to draw from for wish payments. My only real advantage  was the fact that my parents had been strong enough to ensure I started  with every single stat unlocked, which had given me an incredibly solid  foundation to build my strength on. I'd been doing my best to lean into  that and keep my stats fairly even, but I needed to pick up the pace.

Callie  reached up and pulled my mask away, leaning in to kiss me soundly. When  I blinked and looked down at her dumbly she smiled. "No getting lost in  your own head. I'm already freaking out about the future, somebody in  this relationship has to stay grounded and not let what's coming get  them down. Whatever is on the way, we'll face it together. All of us. In  the mean time you just need to keep your head on straight. We aren't  out of this hunt yet, even if we're getting close. We need to keep our  heads in the game."

I let out a loud breath. "Yeah. You're  right. I'm really bad at this living in the now thing, but there's  still a ton to do to finish up this event." I gave her a boyish grin.  "Plus I can't get too distracted. I have to finish this and make sure we  all get out ok, I don't want anything spoiling our big date or our  visit back to meet your mom." That got a blush from my girlfriend and it  was my turn to lay a kiss on her. Once I pulled away I got to my feet  and offered her my hand, pulling her up to a standing position.

I  slid my mask back into place after shooting her a wink and she turned  to look at the others. "Ok guys. This is it. The big one. The last thing  on the list. If we get through this we're the winners of this years  freshman scavenger hunt. We get a ton of points to bump us up the  rankings, not to mention we'll be promoted throughout the city by the  Academy and we'll get priority in the stream of this competition when  it's released, all of which will result in a huge windfall of points for  everyone here."

I hadn't actually considered how huge the  windfall would be come to think of it, but it absolutely would be  enough to kick Grimmengap all up to H rank I was betting, hell I had no  clue where my own strength would end up, but I was pretty sure it would  be a very nice cushion for all of us, and plenty more points to  redistribute for the others to keep them in peak shape. Direct points  trading was the fairest and most even method of wish making I knew, hell  I could even suggest those because the inherent nature of the one for  one trade made it a fair exchange even if it was my idea so I didn't  need to worry about invalidating the wish with my interference.

Jessie  was the one who brought up the obvious. "I'm a little worried about  fighting this Fisher guy. The chains sound nasty, but those hooks are  what really scares me. We don't really have anyone who specializes in  durability. G ranked hooks on chains could do some serious damage to any  of us. The puppies especially will have a lot of problems avoiding that  kind of thing, and I'd really hate to see them get hurt like that." She  cast a worried glance at our wolves, and I couldn't help but agree with  the sentiment.

You are reading story Wish upon the Stars at novel35.com

Callie bit her lip, obviously just as  unwilling to see her wolf injured. Our pups hadn't been with us long,  but they were big warm fuzzballs we'd all bonded with once Jessie had  helped us communicate with them. I didn't want to see Jin strung up on a  meat hook, that sounded horrible. We all had armor (H rank though it  may be) on us that could help prevent the hooks from getting in, but the  wolves just had their fur. They could avoid the hooks just as well as  we could, if not better, but there was something else to take into  account too.

I turned to Callie. "We should send the H  rankers back to the base. Bringing them along with the wolves was a way  to mitigate the risk, but given the level The Wavestriders were at and  how likely it is that everyone we run into will be at that level I don't  think it's a good idea to bring them along." I gave them a helpless  shrug. "Sorry guys, I know you wanted to stick it out with us, and you  were here for that last bit and hopefully were able to get some time on  the stream, but I don't think you'll be able to keep up going forward."

I  expected them to be upset, but Celine nodded with a sigh. "You're  right. As much as I wish we could be part of the finale, that last  battle made it painfully obvious this isn't a stage where we belong yet.  We can take the wolves back to the base with us if you like. Having the  five extra guards with us will make it much easier to get back safely. I  assume it'll be the five of you going ahead at least?" We all looked to  Callie, who nodded. "Then I wish you all luck." She looked at Benny,  almost shyly. "Stay safe, we'll see you all soon."

Callie  looked relieved to have avoided a fight. "That sounds like a good plan. I  suspect the Heart will be in an even hotter chamber in any case. The  wolves aren't really designed for these temperatures, not to mention  their paws aren't optimal for this kind of ground. We saw that on the  way up the mountain. You all can head back down and we'll meet up with  you back at the base once we've finished retrieving the last item on the  list."

We said our goodbyes, Benny  taking Celine aside to have a whispered conversation we all pretended  not to hear because our Perception was way too good for it to matter. I  said goodbye to Jin, nuzzling the wolf for a bit and scratching behind  his ears. He seemed to like it, which was good. There's something life  affirming about hugging big furry animals, though I suspected we were  getting too attached. Still, we all said goodbye and then the wolves  took off back to the base with Grimmengap, leaving just the four of us  and Cark behind.

I  shot Callie a questioning glance, and she took a deep breath and  nodded, prompting me to activate Seek Hidden on the heart of the greater  mountain. I wasn't actually sure what it looked like, so I was  wondering if this would even work or if I'd wasted a charge on something  too small to be visible from a distance. Luckily that didn't turn out  to be the case, because the heart was both not that far away and NOT  small. I oriented us in the general direction and we started walking  towards it as I filled the others in on our target.

It  was kind of hard to describe, and it took me a second to find the  words. "It's a heart." Everyone just kind of looked at me blankly. "No,  like...a literal heart. The actual organ. It looks like it's pumping  too, though I can't see exactly what. It's about the size of a door?  Height wise at least, and maybe half that wide." It was actually pumping  too, albeit slowly. We were pretty close to it too. It looked like it  was maybe a few chambers away. I wondered if they set these two chambers  up next to each other on purpose.

I  led the others in the right direction, though we had to detour a few  times to find the entrance, because it wasn't a straight shot to the  chamber where it was waiting. Still, we got to it eventually, and all of  us were preparing to head into the room when a form came sailing by us  and crashed into the wall next to where we were standing. An incredibly  tall woman with skin like rock, though not the dark lava rock around us.  More of a grey stone like you'd find in a quarry.

Before  we could react the chain we hadn't noticed attached to her leg  tightened, digging in the hook at the end as she was slowly dragged back  into the room, groaning in pain. We all looked at each other, but Benny  was the one who finally said something. "So...I'm guessing we found  Fisher." I nodded. Seemed like we had. Though from the looks of it, we  weren't the first ones to find him. My friend grinned nervously. "But  hey, if the fight is still going on at least we still have a chance at  winning." I could always count on Benny for a silver lining at least.

You can find story with these keywords: Wish upon the Stars, Read Wish upon the Stars, Wish upon the Stars novel, Wish upon the Stars book, Wish upon the Stars story, Wish upon the Stars full, Wish upon the Stars Latest Chapter