Chapter 64: Chapter Sixty Five

The next morning found me sitting in my room with Callie. She was here to talk about possible wishes to get her Might up. We'd decided to wait until later today to head back to the academy, and when I told Callie that wishes required payment she had asked for this conversation.

She seemed excited to get started, and as we settled in to talk she opened with a question that kind of caught me flat footed. "What exactly can I use to pay for a wish? Like does it have to be something as concrete as a stat or Skill? Can I pay with my good luck for the day? Or a happy memory? Or some of my courage? Wish does some crazy stuff, so it wouldn't shock me if it could effect some esoteric aspects of a person in terms of payment."

I blinked. That...was a really good question. "I don't know. It just always seemed like a valid trade. Points for wishes. Skills or stats. I squinted at her. "I'm not sure exactly what you can use for payment, but I can give you five points of Might today. What are your stats at anyway? We've never really discussed it, I just know that yours are much higher than mine because you've been a G ranker for way longer and put some serious time and elixirs in. Ten percent of G rank would be a hundred points of elixirs right? How close are you to F?"

She laughed at that. "Close to F? I'm just past five hundred points total, I'm barely halfway there. F is a long grind." She raised an eyebrow at me. "For most people. My stats are fairly focused into my areas of expertise.A hundred forty four Perception for dodging and reflexes, a hundred and fifty Vitality to animate my shadows and the objects I imbue them into, and a hundred and twelve Creation, which while lower than the others increases my ability to quickly make shadows and to make large amounts of them."

I whistled at the numbers. She was literally ten times my values in those stats, or close enough. Still, I noted the obvious. "That doesn't leave much room for the rest of your five hundred plus, what are your number in your other stats. I'm guessing Might is pretty low. Mine is eighteen, and even offsetting the difference with subterfuge and speed boosting tricks like Flurry of Blows I doubt you're more than two and a half times that tops. If you were no way I'd have managed to hold you as long as I did."

She looked impressed. "Forty five Might exactly. Thirty Focus and fifty Fantasy. Something about manipulating large shadow constructs makes people question reality I guess. Impact is the same as yours. Puts me at five hundred forty three total. You can see how lopsided that build is though. The big issue is that Might making people stronger is a side effect. Might is the physicality of abilities, their ability to generate force and interact with the world. Vitality lets me animate shadows, Creation lets me make constructs, but Might is what gives both of those form and substance."

I nodded. I already knew about her problems here. "It's why you can make utility items like a key, but cant wield raw shadow constructs in combat. You're stuck using them to reinforce your gear and hair and stuff. You don't need to convince me here. I understand why you would wish for Might, and I'm all for it. The question isn't whether I'll give it to you, it's whether you can pay for it. I take it you have some ideas, or you wouldn't have come here. You mentioned luck, that one seems dangerous, and courage you might need. What other ideas did you have."

She shrugged. "How about height." I blinked at her and she just shrugged again. "What? I'm a bit taller than I originally would have liked. It's not exactly a viable long term solution but an extra inch on your height won't hurt and an inch off mine won't either. Might take a bit of sparring to get used to depending on how we word the wish, but still, it's a damn good test to see exactly what you can accept as payment." I didn't hate the idea. I'd always wanted to be six four, being taller than Benny would be hilarious, and I relied on my size in combat pretty heavily, this would be an advantage if it worked.

She grinned at me. "Alright, I wish for a point of Might, and I offer an inch of height." She giggled. "Hey, I'm a poet and I didn't know it." I snickered that the terrible joke because I was as nervous being in here alone with her as she was being here in the first place, and adding in all the crazy wish stuff just made it more nerve wracking. As usual, the purple flames I saw so often rolled across my vision. Wish detected. Grant wish? I confirmed mentally. Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 30 Might, 5 Impact, 25 Creation.

It didn't say compensation required. I grinned at her feeling my powers build, my normal static charge climbing high as it always did when I made bigger wishes. I put my hands out and she took them, I figured it would make the most sense to have contact given the physical nature of the payment. The wish built, the power filling me, and then an electric shock lanced up her arms, locking her body up, and doing the exact same to me. I wasn't used to my power effecting my physically and I felt myself lock up hard at the electric current running through us both.

My teeth snapped shut, my muscles contracted, my bones fucking MOVED, which was not pleasant or positive to experience at all, and I just sat there, unable to move, or twitch, or even scream. Callie's eyes were wide and unblinking as she stared into mine, clearly experiencing the same exactly thing, and as I felt myself....expand. I saw her contract. The electricity covered her from head to toe, but once it obscured her on and off it started to condense and she went with it. She literally lost an inch of her height.

Finally the process ended and we both slumped onto the floor, twitching and groaning in horrible pain. Her voice was hoarse as she spoke up. "Sweet Revenant that was awful. I felt like I was in a trash compactor." She stood up on shaky legs, staggering over to a mirror on one side of the room. "I feel like I got shorter at least. Lucky my costume is so absurdly tight or I might need it fitted. I guess I'm five foot six now. That's going to take some getting used to. How about you? How did it feel to get taller?"

I groaned in agony. "Growing pains. Like a year of them all at once. Gods that was unpleasant. Still, that was amazing. I'm...taller. Like I get we do stuff like that all the time, but still, that was amazing. Fantasy making illusions and Creation making objects are both nuts, but I'm TALLER now. My body has been physically and permanently altered. You got your point of Might right? I mean I assume, I granted the wish and took the payment, so you should have gotten what you wished for."

She grinned over at me excitedly. "Forty six Might now. Just as promised. And I can get to fifty today if we can find other things to use as compensation. What should we try next? There has to be something temporary. You were right that luck is probably a bad idea, but what about a memory? Something that could help with your cooking maybe? I can give you memories of delicious high ranked dishes I've eaten! I have a ton of them!" That...that was brilliant actually. I might even be able to observe the preparation and use that to get myself a rank up in cooking finally.

I confirmed that I was in and she grinned excitedly. "I wish for a point of Might, and I want to pay with my memory of eating an F ranked Dragon steak.." I blinked in shock at her and she grinned. "Stella got one as a gift last year from somewhere, she never would say where. She let the chefs prepare it and shared it with the executives, because Dragons are BIG. It was delicious, but I don't mind losing it. Just means I get to try it again for the first time someday." I laughed at that and noted the words come up as usual. Wish detected. Grant wish? After confirming I got the same price for this one. Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 30 Might, 5 Impact, 25 Creation.

This particular surge of power wasn't as dramatic or physically taxing. I didn't lock up or feel like I was dying. Rather, I felt like my head was being rifled through. Not in an invasive way, but like someone was blowing gently across the top of the filing cabinet of my thoughts. Suddenly, there was a new thought slotted into my head, and I jerked as I felt...something new. I was reliving the memory. Experiencing it.

I felt the sensation of the meat on my tongue, the burn of the spices, this was hands down one of the best things I'd ever tasted, and even as I dissected the preparation method I felt a click as my cooking skill FINALLY hit Lesser. I felt myself pass the hurdle just from the knowledge I'd gained from that meal. From the understanding of how the meat had been perfectly seared for flavor, from the way the seasonings had been selected to flawlessly enhance the flavor profile present in the steak. The person who cooked it had been a cooking genius, and even experiencing their food was a revelation. At the feeling of advancement I grinned and pulled up my stat sheet.