Chapter 158: Chapter One Hundred Fifty Nine

The tent Ronnie the Beef slipped into was not an empty one. The place  was one of the show tents, and the man in the middle was breathing  prismatic fire while riding a unicycle across what looked like a literal  hair. I didn't know what power would do that, or if he was even using  one instead of some magic gear, but it was impressive to watch, so there  was that. Ronnie the Beef made his way over to a crowd of other Jerks,  who were all sitting crowded around a black cloaked figure.

We  sat within listening distance, though only barely with all the noise,  and tried to hear what they were saying. It didn't work out too well. I  could tell even from a distance that the other Jerks were mostly H  rankers, though I didn't see Punchin' Carl or his shoeless friend.  Thankfully. They all sat around the hooded figure who wasn't really  visible under the cloak. I assumed that was some kind of magic effect,  because the cloak itself wasn't very big, and my Perception should have  seen through a bit of shadow.

I  leaned over to whisper to Callie, not worried about being overheard by  the Jerks from so far with all the people talking in here. Callie was  listening in on them, but even she didn't seem to be getting all of it,  just the odd word here or there. My voice seemed to jerk her attention  to me. "Hey, can you see the face of whoever is in the cloak? I can't  which is weird, but their face is in shadow so I figured you would have  an easier time."

She  scowled. "No. I was trying but there's just...nothing. Probably some  kind of identity protection item. Those aren't too rare, but having one  that can block me even in the shadows means whoever the person under  there is, they aren't a nobody. That's probably an F ranked artifact.  What the hell someone like that is doing meeting with the Jerks I have  no idea, much less why they would be meeting them HERE."

That  was a good question. "Why are they even allowed here. When I heard  'siege' in the mission, I imagined a running battle through the tents or  something. They're just walking around here like their normal idiotic  selves. How is this a siege of anything? Except possibly the good taste  of everyone who has to watch them walk around with those awful haircuts  and ridiculous outfits...if you can even call them that."

That  got a snicker from my girlfriend. "Agreed, but no. I think sieges down  here are different. Given how stable things are, picking an actual fight  in a place this central to their power would be stupid. Even for the  Jerks. If I had to guess I'd say its something like trying to make them  look bad by ruining games and stuff. That seems more like the Jerk style  of doing things anyway. You know what they're like."

I  did know that, and she was right, but I still didn't know who the  cloaked figure was. It wasn't their style to make shady deals with weird  people...well, with SUBTLE weird people. A fact I felt the need to  point out. "Isn't this out of character for them? Shadowy meetings with  hooded figures in dark tents? Well, as shadowy as people like them can  manage. Granted there's a huge crowd of multicolored idiots over there,  but this may be the one place where they don't draw undue attention for  their very existence. Clowns are colorful too."

I  could see on her face that she was worried about that too, and could  see just as easily that she was trying to play it off as nothing. She  gave me a strained smile. "I'm sure it's nothing. This isn't exactly  their own territory. It makes sense for them to change things up a bit.  Whoever that is probably reached out to Mr. Jack-tastic when he got to  town to curry favor with the new power player, and then arranged for  them to meet in hiding because they were embarrassed to be seen in  public with lunatics like that."

Despite  her comforting tone I could tell she didn't believe that. It wasn't  that it was crazy, hell it made as much sense as anything, but it didn't  FEEL true. When you'd been an Ascendant for a while you started to get a  feel for trouble. It might have been some kind of learned subconscious  tell we picked up, or it might have been something more ephemeral like  some effect of Fantasy letting us read some of the ethereal changes in  the fame in an area, I'd heard lots of theories when I looked into it.

Whatever  it was though, it was a notable fact that lots of the most powerful  Ascendants had something of a sixth sense for trouble, even if they  often used that sense to run AT the trouble instead of away from it like  a sane person. I hadn't really noticed myself having it before, but to  be fair, I'd been gaining lots of renown. It was possibly a consequence  of me actually becoming someone of note, or starting to at least. In any  case, Callie had it too clearly, and she and I both felt like this was a  big deal, even if we didn't know why.

Of  course, articulating that wasn't really an option, it would sound  crazy, but I trusted her instincts and she trusted mind, even if we  didn't bring them up our loud. So when the Jerks and their hooded guest  stood up to leave, the two of us dipped back into stealth to follow  behind them, determined to make sure that we knew exactly where they  were going and what they decided to do. I wasn't sure this was something  I'd be dragged into, but considering Carl's vendetta it wasn't exactly  impossible, so it was more than worth the effort. Plus we still had our  recon to do, though this bit of info might have fulfilled the mission on  its own.

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Still,  we stood up and slipped out after them, moving amongst the crowds  silently, leaning into our stealth Skills to avoid being spotted. Callie  held back as we went, keeping her stealth to closer to my level so she  didn't leave me behind. She knew this was tough for me and that she had  to give me time to make sure I was able to keep pace. Her stealth Skill  was much higher than mine at Beginner, after all.

The  biggest issue was that while in some ways getting lost in a crowd was  easier, it was also much harder because of how stealth worked. With the  stealth Skill, you used Perception to find and erase traces of you  passing, detecting and isolating sound and visual cues through the  filter of the Skill. It was incredibly complex even at the best of times  because you had to constantly keep track of and eliminate multiple  variables to make sure you couldn't be detected.

In  a crowd like this there were hundreds more people to see and hear me,  to see me, more angles to cover and revise and keep track of. At these  levels stealth actually relied heavily on Focus as well, though only the  aftereffects like how much processing power we had. Of course, we  weren't eliminating all traces, just the ones we picked up, so people  with higher levels of Perception would be able to see right through us,  but given the number of people here and the fact that our Perception was  pretty high, we would most likely be fine as long as we weren't too  obvious about tailing them.

Still,  stealth in a crowd this big was taxing the hell out of me, and Callie  had her hand in mine, resonating her stealth Skill to help take some of  the burden off my by channeling it through my body, her massively higher  Perception helped take some of the pressure off me as we trailed them.  The Jerks weren't exactly watching for us though, and busy as they were  shoving each other and shouting insults back and forth if I made any  slips they didn't catch them. I was worried about the hooded figured but  it was hard to tell if the person in the cloak had noticed anything  given their obscured face.

The  Jerks bulled their way down the thoroughfare in the middle of the  circus, bumping into people who avoided making a scene when they noticed  Ronnie's hulking fuschia haired form looming behind them. As we  followed them, the crowds became thinner and thinner until we finally  took a turn down a side path and had to slow down because we didn't have  as much cover anymore. Callie called the shadows to us, cloaking us  even more deeply as she supplemented her stealth and mine with her  ability. We stuck to the sides of the tents where shadows were more  plentiful as we trailed them.

They  came to a stop in a dark and secluded area behind a towering roller  coaster. When they came to a halt the forms of the Jerks surrounded the  cloaked figure, but also retreated, forming a wider circle that showed  they wanted to put pressure on the cloaked person without risking  themselves. Ronnie seemed much less worried, and stalked up to the  hooded form, making the slight figure look positively miniscule in  comparison to the massive hulk of a man. I could see the figure was  probably only about five foot at the tallest, but they seemed  unconcerned by the difference if body language was anything to go off  of.

Ronnie  glared down into the blank faced figure. "We've been here for days! Why  are you just now showing up again? The deal was one a day, not one  whenever you felt like gracing us with your presence. We've held up our  end, putting pressure on the cavalcade. Are you going back on your part  of the bargain? Mr. Jack-tastic isn't some punk kid you can push around,  no matter where you came from! An E ranker isn't someone for you to  disrespect!" His voice was deep and rumbling, but surprisingly  articulate for a Jerk. I supposed at G rank you had to pick up some  Focus even if only by accident.

The  hooded figure somehow managed to show how bored it was without a face, a  kind of knack for body language that most Ascendants picked up after  wearing a mask for a while. Even if I hadn't already known this person  was G ranked I'd have guessed they were Ascendant from that. The voice  that come out of the hood was surprisingly lyrical and feminine however.  "I said one a day, not one daily. I can do more than a single payment  at one time, so shut your pie hole. You get three today, and my respect  or lack thereof for your boss is none of your damn business."

Ronnie  growled at the smaller girl, clearly angry but just as clearly much  less willing to start trouble than he was to talk shit. I didn't blame  him. The hooded figure sounded way too calm about his anger. People that  confident usually had a few nasty tricks up their sleeves. He glared  down at her for a minute. "Fine. Let's get this over with. I'll be  collecting payment for the day. Hands out." His tone was nasty, but he  refrained from any actual insults, showing his fear of the figure.

The  hooded form reached out a hand from under the cloak, revealing a slim  and relatively well muscled form in efficient looking black armor and  two thin and delicate hands. Ronnie took hold of them tightly, glaring  down into the hood. "I wish for three more points of Might. Payment is  services rendered for the ongoing task we've been hired for." I felt the  bottom drop out of my stomach as I saw a series of purple sparks play  over the hands clasping Ronnie's. I stared in horror as I watched the  figure grant Ronnie's wish. That was the Beginner Wish ability. The  cloaked figure was a candidate like me. This...was not good. There was  another possible Wishmaster on Callus.

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