Chapter 236: Chapter Two Hundred Thirty Seven

The trip to the information hall was a short one, just getting our  missions out of the way. We managed to find a second one that we had  accomplished by accident, which was nice, and between the points my own  ranking jumped up to two hundred forty five thousand eight hundred and  six. Ir probably would have been a bigger jump, but a week or two with  no progress had caused a serious ranking drop for us, and honestly I was  lucky I managed to get higher than I had originally been at all.

Once  we got through that we headed for the pavilion as we'd talked about,  and once we arrived, Callie, Benny, and Jessie took Grimmengap to be  introduced to the others while I got the wishes for Sloane and co. out  of the way. I actually managed to get some Fantasy this time, fifteen  points bringing me up to a grand total of thirty six. Apparently Croll  had a surplus of the stat, which crossed off one thing on my list.

Finally,  I joined back up with the others, who were being introduced to Abel,  Mel, and Alden. Everyone noticed me when I appeared and I gave a short  wave. "Hey all, sorry had to check in with our people from Beast Lord  Garden. How goes the introductions? Did you show them the obstacle  course yet? Because seriously, that place is pretty fantastic." I had  been floored my first time seeing it, and it was amazing for training,  even if it made me a bit uncomfortable while it was actually in use.

Sarah  was looking around in awe, clearly the most excited of the group. "No,  but that sounds interesting. This whole place is amazing. I saw funnel  cake on the way in. I love funnel cake. I'm definitely going to get some  as we're leaving. I can't believe I missed it when I was here before."  She was practically bouncing in excitement, and I had to fight down a  smile at the enthusiasm.

"Actually." I said with  amusement. "I had wanted to check in with Mel and Abel about a few  things." I glanced at the red bearded man whose leg I still had to offer  to regrow. "Alden, can you show our friends around?You're the only one  Cicero probably isn't too annoyed at right now. I wanted to talk to you  as well, but it can wait until later. " I really didn't want to regrow  his leg in the middle of the Pavilion while everyone was around. I'd  offer him the wish later when we had a chance to talk in private.

He  just chuckled. "Aye. The boy may have irritated his brother a bit with  his earlier bullying. I can show them around." He turned a welcoming  smile on Sarah. "You mentioned funnel cake, little miss? I know the best  stall for it, and perhaps a few other delicious treats you might  enjoy." He gestured for her to follow, and Sarah trailed after, already  excitedly listing some of the things she hadn't gotten to try last time  we were down here.

Celine and Martin trailed behind, the  elf girl dragging Benny along by the hand stoically enough that if I  couldn't see her gripping him I wouldn't have thought she cared one way  or the other. Jessie decided to tag along with them, leaving Callie and I  alone with Mel and Abel, which had been what I was aiming at. I turned  to the rabbit masked man. "Ok, first thing. Did you hear back about the  ransom yet? Is the Pavilion allowed to keep that? We did capture them in  the first place, and the negotiation is through the Beast Lord Garden."

Abel  laughed. "Hello to you too Solomon. But yes to both. We made the  exchange. We forced them to cough up a hundred F-ranked chits per  person. Sanctuary Hall are stupidly wealthy so I figured I'd really put  the screws to them. We have the funds earmarked for faction development,  but we didn't want to actually spend them before consulting you." He  grimaced. "Damn, I hate being a person who says things like that now. I  can't believe I have a...BOSS." He shuddered theatrically.

"You  always had a boss." Mel snorted. "I just wasn't paying you for your  services." Ignoring her boyfriend's mortified look that she had said  that in front of us, she continued. "As for the funds...I can go over  options with you if you want, or I can invest it in growth for you. I've  been running this place for years. I don't have a problem with you kids  taking over if it means I'm finally free of Cicero's nonsense, but that  doesn't make me any less experienced at the day to day."

I  glanced over to Callie, giving her a nod, and she shot Mel a warm  smile. "Hey, we aren't stupid. We don't know anything about this place.  We put you both in charge because you knew what to do better than us.  Invest the money how you want. Maybe talk to Sloane though. Beast Lord  Garden are allies of ours, they might be able to set you up with some  tamed beasts or something." She paused. "Actually we might be able to do  that. Agria is a hell of a tamer." She waited a bit then shook her  head. "Nah, stick with the experts. I think Agria needs to be around  consistently to make that arrangement."

Mel looked  intrigued. "I'll ask them about it. Even if we don't go that route, I'm  sure they're in touch with some useful people. In either case, thank you  for trusting us. This whole thing kind of came out of left field, but I  appreciate you trying to work with us on this more than you can know."  Her voice softened as her eyes turned to Abel. "It's one of the many  amazing things that I can hardly believe are happening right now. My  life has gone through quite a few changes, and all for the good."

Returning  the smile I could hear in her tone, Abel reached out and took her hand.  Knowing how long they had been apart neither Callie nor I could bear to  cut things off when there wasn't some urgent crisis coming so we gave  them their moment, which admittedly dragged on for longer than was  really comfortable for us (though taking my own girlfriends hand and  squeezing tightly certainly helped, as we stared at what might be future  versions of us, hopefully without the long time apart in between).

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Finally  he let her hand fall. Neither of them cleared their throat  uncomfortably or tried to redirect attention, they just moved on from  the moment, no indecision or embarrassment like a less stable couple  might have had. As they refocused I turned to Abel. "So, with that out  of the way, we had something we were hoping to talk to you both about.  Something we think will help with the Pavilion's reputation as well as  all of our personal power. What do you know about the Moonsong Glade?"

The  rabbit masked man shrugged. "Never heard of it. Doesn't exactly sound  local, but to be fair, Callus is big, so there's a non zero chance that  it could be some small faction or location no one has ever mentioned to  me. Still, if it was somewhere important I'd think I would know about  it. Am I to take it this is some newly discovered spot that could be a  benefit to us?"

"Not exactly." I said uncertainly. "Or  maybe? I'm honestly not clear on that. I know it's a dungeon, a very  important one. I know that there's a tournament that involves everyone  in the system that's coming up. If we win we get ten slots to enter. I  doubt we'll be the only ones, but I'm not sure who else might be there?  Maybe people from something bigger than the star system? Whatever that  is. Point is I don't know if Moonsong Glade is NEW but I know it's new  to us."

He waved a hand casually. "Same thing. Dungeons  are all old as dirt, but recently rediscovered is the same thing as new  for our purposes. It's a star cluster by the way. Star systems are  smaller portions of star clusters. There are usually ten of them in  each." He paused. "I've never been sure why they divide them like that.  Someone out there really is really obsessed with the number ten. Anyway,  that means a hundred people will be entering, if it's a cluster event. I  take it you want to enter this tournament?"

I nodded.  "Exactly. The place is apparently able to spawn resources that let  people increase Impact, which is huge. It would give us a massive boost  against anyone our own rank, and help bridge the gap fighting up ranks.  The only issue is that while the tournament is aimed at G-rankers, the  dungeon itself is F-rank exclusive. If you wanted to participate you  would need to rank up. I know how long you've been at G-rank, I wasn't  sure you would be willing."

"What?"  Abel asked, tone confounded as he blinked in confusion. "Why would I not  want to rank up?" I blinked back. I'd been expecting to have to  convince him, and had about a dozen arguments lined up for reasons that  this would be a good thing for the Pavilion and him in particular.

Cocking  my head, I cautiously said. "Because you spent years at G-rank, and  went out of your way not to gather any extra attention or break through,  presumably so you could reinforce your foundation and become stronger  at your current level? Asking you to throw all that away for my own plan  just seemed kind of shitty, but I'm not sure we can win without you so I  decided to give it a shot."

The  gale of laughter that came out as a response to that was NOT the reply I  had expected. Abel doubled over cackling at something I didn't think  was that funny, but I patiently waited for him to get the laugh out of  his system. "Oh wow." He said, wiping away a tear of laughter. "I needed  that. Thanks. But no, I'm not some kind of eternal G-ranker who wants  to become skilled enough to take on the whole universe without ever  Ascending. There are limits to even my hubris. I had reasons to stick to  this rank, but they're pretty much all gone at this point."

Mel  shrugged. "I mostly stuck around at this level because I wanted to take  care of the Pavilion while he was gone. If I ranked up I would have  been leaving them under Cicero's control when I inevitably ended up  heading to F-district. Now that we aren't a member of his faction  anymore, and our new one has ties to E-district, we have a lot more  leeway to control how things go down here without stepping on toes even  if we rank up. I'd be down to fight in a tournament if you guys need me.  It would be a nice way to break back onto the scene."

"Hell  yes." Abel said excitedly. "So many people have forgotten me. Now that  I'm not living in self imposed exile I'm itching for a fight. Plus, if  we're talking foundation, early Impact advancement is the best  foundation build up you can do. No way I'd miss something like that." He  looked us over. "You do realize that in order to do this you're going  to need to be at the edge of a breakthrough when we go into the  tournament? You're also nowhere near tough enough to manage against most  of the Titan Twenty."

Chuckling,  I just said. "Yeah, that's kind of the other reason we came here. We'd  been training with Alden, but I'd be pretty interested in getting some  lessons from you two. Especially on cooperative combat. The two of us  work well together, but you guys are like magic. It'll be tough to  squeeze in, since the tournament is only two months out, but we have  confidence we can manage. So, what do you say, you two up to do some  team training?" Somewhere deep down, a part of me that had mostly died  out after all the craziness of my life whispered to me that the vicious  grin Abel gave at the question probably boded ill for us. That was just  paranoia though, right?

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