Chapter 89: Chapter Eighty Nine

It was amazing seeing Jessie work on the eggs. She would pick one up,  flood it with Vitality, and the thing would hatch, letting a gorgeous  raven free from the crumbling shell. The ravens had glowing green eyes,  and immediately took to Jessie, who was able to use the life force in  them to manipulate the non sapient life form. Seeing her lost her mind  giggling as the birds flew around her in circles was kind of hilarious.  Still, the Vitality needed wasn't an insignificant amount, and she ended  up being pretty limited in how many eggs she could hatch and how  quickly.

I chuckled at the happy expression on her face,  at least what I could see of it under her domino mask. "Seems like  you're having fun. Can you use them as scouts like Clockwork thought?  How far can they go? How does it work? Do you have to bring them back  and communicate with them? Can you see through their eyes?" I had a  million questions. This was amazing, I'd never seen anything like this  before. A building that could increase the usability of someone's power.  It was fantastic, and I was in awe of how lucky we'd gotten.

She  giggled at my enthusiasm. "Whoa there, calm down. Give me a minute to  get used to this. It's a weird feeling, controlling another creature. I  doubt I can do them all at once or even close. Probably more like three  or four birds at a time tops." She giggled as one of them came in close.  "They're really cute though. I can sense them, like it isn't like  controlling a puppet. More like steering a horse with a rider sitting  shotgun in the back of their brains. I can feel them. Their thoughts are  simple but I can push them a bit."

I realized I'd been  pushing a bit and walked it back. "Right, sorry. You have a cool new  power, you should definitely enjoy it and see how it works. We aren't in  a rush...I don't think anyway. How long is this thing?" We were in a  great position here, but we needed time to take advantage of it. Rushing  would be the exact opposite of our best play here, given all the things  we could accomplish with this building and Jessie's new ability in  conjunction. Hell given how cool this place was it might be worth  keeping a presence out her and just saving for an air shuttle.

Celine  answered. "A month is the limit. But most people manage within two  weeks. The last two are just for stragglers. We'll want to aim for the  latter window if we want a chance at placing, much less winning. One  week would be optimal if we can manage it, though even historically not  many have managed to achieve such a thing. It isn't the record but it's  pretty close." She was as matter of fact as always, but I could see how  badly she wanted to place, and I didn't blame her. I was still planning  to win this.

A week wasn't bad at all. We could easily get  started on our list with that kind of time, and weed out any  Heartrippers we found along the way. With us at G rank the Society would  need to group up to take us down. Enough H rankers could soften us up,  but they needed the G rankers to deal the finishing blows. Which meant  knowing Skanda was a Heartripper was of critical importance. He would  have to meet up with the rest of his crew, and when he did we would have  a location of all of them.

I turned to Jessie. "You  remember who we're supposed to be watching right? I didn't expect  finding him to be this easy, but with your birdies we, can cut down on  the time and we won't need to split up. Does however you control them  have enough detail to make tracking him easier?" We'd been planning to  disperse around the woods in a search pattern to find Skanda, but this  opened up way more options. I was pretty positive we could have him  under surveillance by the end of the day with these things at our  disposal.

She closed her eyes, and the green pupils of the  birds pulsed. She held out a hand and the bid landed on it, then she  brought it up to her face and crooned a few sweet words to it before  tossing it out. It caught itself on the wing and then swept out of the  opening in the building, swooping out over the forest. Jessie's brow  furrowed. "I can tune my eyes in to it's eyes, and give it commands.  It'll let me know if it spots any humans and then I can check it out.  Once I get a few of them ready and send them out I should be able to  find him pretty quick. As for distance...I don't feel a limit but I'll  have to see."

I nodded to her gratefully, and she got to  work trying to hatch a third bird. I was hopeful she would learn to  control them well enough that she could send out more eventually, but  three was amazing with the capability she said they had. Chances were  good that she did have a limit she would hit eventually, both in  distance and numbers, but until then we had a great lead. I left her to  her business and turned to Cark. "Once we track him down we follow to  the group, you ready for a full power throw down? You have the most  combat potential among us."

Cark grinned viciously. "Oh  yeah, I'm more than ready. Fun fact, flames are almost exclusively a  Might based ability. People see fire and think of power, motion,  overwhelming strength. It's one of the most pigeonholed powers you can  get, but it suits me just fine. I have more than enough power to take  down anyone we run into, either with fire or fists." His eyes sparked  with resolve, and I would have felt bad for the sleepers if they weren't  being controlled by an asshole who wanted me dead.

Speaking  of, I called over to Jessie for one more thing. "Keep an eye out for  anyone who doesn't belong here. I know that's a long shot since we don't  know everyone who goes to the Academy, but try to make sure you note  anyone extra suspicious. The chances of the spymaster actually going to  school with is are insanely low, so anyone who is notable for not being a  student has a good chance of being our guy." Unfortunately that wasn't  so easy to notice. With mortals age would be an indicator, but since  this guy was probably G rank like is I doubted he looked much older than  we did.

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I  was still hesitant about engaging the boss. I knew it was a risk, but  given that he was the one who triggered the sleepers taking him out was  my only chance to crush this operation. Cut the head off the snake so to  speak. I was fairly confident he wasn't F ranked or higher though. He  would have just taken me out already, and spymaster isn't a job that  lends itself to public notoriety. He would need to be someone that  blended in. Being G ranked would mean he was famous on a small scale or  in a small area but no one would really be watching. That was far more  likely.

She  gave me a distracted nod and then I headed over to stand at the edge or  the opening in the cliff and look down on the surrounding area. It was a  breathtaking view. I could see for miles from up here, and I had to  admit the wilderness, while dangerous, was absolutely beautiful. Callie  stepped up next to me. "It's beautiful. Even more so than before, the  view from up here is gorgeous." She grabbed my hand, squeezing it, and I  smiled under my mask. Then she pulled out a piece of paper.

My  eyes lit up. "The list? I still haven't seen it. What's on there  anyway? Sound like they gave everyone some pretty tough stuff to find.  Any ore veins? I can track those down especially easily. Them or  anything else that's unusually large or in large amounts. Especially  with a view like this to go off of." If we had any large things to track  I should be able to spot them easier from this high. I'd be able to see  them anyway of course, but this would give me an overhead view and let  us skip some of the obstacles in the way.

She  snickered. "I didn't show you because you're impulsive and easily  bored. I was worried you would take off before everyone got here. As for  big stuff, mostly not, sadly. The majority of the list is plants, plus  the occasional animal hide or bones. There are a few gems on here, and  one specific instance of rare metal you might be able to help us track  down." She checked the paper. "It's called Skadium apparently. Some kind  of Fantasy based metal. From what I can tell it's G ranked so that's  neat. We can probably use it."

I  blinked at that. "Wait. Are you saying we get to keep the stuff we  find? I assumed we would be turning it all in for points or whatever.  This whole thing just got way more interesting. We can always use some  new materials to work with." My enthusiasm surged. I'd been interested  in this for the points and to take out enemies, but knowing we got to  keep any of the cool stuff we found made it much more interesting.

Callie  burst out laughing. "Are you telling me you agreed to do this without  finding out what we did with the actual stuff we found?" I cleared my  throat, looking away in embarrassment as she cackled. "You can be such  an idiot sometimes. Yes, we keep the materials. Why would the academy  need materials they could send us to get. It would all end up going back  to the students anyway, so it makes more sense to just let them keep  it. It's extra incentive in any case. Why, are you feeling motivated  now?"

I  scoffed loudly. "I was always motivated. You nerds were the ones who  needed complicated reasons to do this. I just came out here to have some  fun and kick some cultist teeth in." Her unimpressed look made me  rethink that last comment. "I mean...the other nerds. Not you. You're  the boss and of course your main goal should be keeping us all safe. You  have very important things to think about."

She  arched an eyebrow. "Uh huh. Nice save. But yes, we all know you're an  adrenaline junkie. It's even endearing. Most of the time. I doubt you'd  have gotten as strong as you have so quickly without your insane  fascination with doing whatever seems like fun." Which was true. Wishes  had pushed me up a ton, but I'd gotten plenty of points from notoriety  too, and that snowballed with my wish granting power to make me even  stronger. It was nice to know my friends recognized my efforts at least.  She gave me a smile. "I know that there's no one I'd rather have at my  back out here."

I  let go of her hand, putting an arm around her shoulder. "Trust me. That  goes double for me." Aside from the power and the new places I got to  visit, my favorite thing about my life now was the people in it.  Traveling with my friends, hanging out with Benny, Callie, and Jessie,  was easily one of my favorite things about being an Ascendant. Looking  down at the amazing I noted how lucky I was to have the life I did now,  and how big a mistake it was for the Heartrippers to think they could  take it from me. I was going to be very thorough when I showed them the  error of their ways.

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