Wish upon the Stars (Original Superhero cultivation sci fi litrpg)

[Biglett]

I knew this shit wasn't about his dad. I also wonder how the luck wish will help end this, like imagine if the acorn did a bank shit into his mouth and grew in his stomach. That'd be absurdly luck but also plausible.

 

[Jordisk]

He is the "local leader" for that particular cult, but the cult is subordinate to another cult and they won't take well to his failure, I am guessing. That, or there is something that will happen upon his death.

Really though, I want to know more about how his mother is the youngest saintess of the church. What is the Saint rank compared to Heroic Cultivation's I through S? I assume either A or S. She is "in a better place now", which probably means serving the church on one of their higher-tier planets.

 

[High Lord Azal]

Well looks like he has his hero moment but I have a feeling that the heart rippers will prove to be problematic down the line. All so all of them are going to get fairly decent stat gains from this whole fiasco.

 

[TRm]

Okay, I managed to catch up now and am glad I did

I'm really enjoying this system, the themes it brings and how it balances and interacts within itself; it's also fun to think about how different builds would go with it.

All of the characters have been a lot of fun to see interact with each other and Shane and Callie are pretty cute together like this.

While they weren't in a contested area, I'm curious if the power being thrown around attracted attendtion to the fight with Aidan

 

[Death-korps-of-kreig]

I'm kinda reminded of sequence from The lord of mysteries only slightly tho

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I'm kinda reminded of sequence from The lord of mysteries only slightly tho

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Ah, is that good? I never read that one. Couldn't get into the victorian vibe.

 

[Death-korps-of-kreig]

However you may try to spin it, it's still very hard to find Annie sympathetic in any way, she is the one who knowingly chose to cheat with a man...
All the rest just looks like a "Boohoo woe is me, I am a piece of shit and feel bad about ittttt!"

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I frankly don't quite get your point, the cheater is always MORE at fault sure but if the partner in the cheating knows He/She is party to an affair He/She is very much at fault too, the way you are trying to say that "she doesn't know her"/"not the one who made wedding vows" and etc is... pretty low frankly, if that's your reasons for why she shouldn't be blamed, it's like saying you have nothing against drug dealers or illegal weapon sellers, fences and etc, the fact that she isn't the one who broke the vows doesn't change the fact that she was a very active party in it.

To the "Midknight" had "nefarious" reasons for seducing her... so what? She still accepted his advances, she still participated in cheating.
I am not saying she should be vilified but Dumbgro isn't the only one who would receive a "happily ever after" for Annie where she makes up with Callie and everyone friends again with a strong degree of dislike.
I frankly can't imagine and wouldn't accept seeing the friendship between Callie and Annie restored.

So in short, Annie isn't the devil incarnate for sure but if you expect sympathy for her or think it's a reasonable development for her and Callie to make up, well... I would be befuddled.

PS: Confused their names in the previous comment

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Fully agree and honestly this entire family drama is highly uninteresting I hope the mc focuses more on his ability and getting stronger.
P.S he just got informed that freaken sleeper agents are after him he should on the grind and even more paranoid now

 

[Death-korps-of-kreig]

In the end, Benny DID hit H rank from the raccoon job. He ended up netting a point in Vitality, a point in Focus, two points in Might, and two in Perception (one of those his first). Combined with his existing stats and his Impact he officially reached H rank, netting him his second point of Impact. He also synergized his Lesser Inventing with his Iron Hide ability, netting himself a new power, and shared his stat screen with us personally, writing it out for us.

Benicio Cortez- H rank. Ability: Lesser Mechanical Embodiment- Allows the integration of existing inventions into the users body for the purposes of strengthening and enhancing them.

3 Might
2 Vitality
2 Impact
2 Focus
2 Perception

Skills: Minor Cooking Mastery, Lesser Inventing Mastery, Minor Haggling Mastery

The embodiment thing was interesting actually, because it was similar to what Callie could do. Her power was Beginner Shadow Embodiment, and let her integrate shadows into her body where they would work, mostly her hair and clothes, though apparently her fingernails were shadow as well, something I didn't know because she rarely used them overtly. Still Benny was ecstatic and we arranged for his induction through Annie, as well as his registry at the Academy without much trouble.

Say what you would about Annie, but having the guild master's wife and an F ranker so high up in the pecking order helping with things was convenient as hell. Which was how we found ourselves back at the Academy, registering Benny for his coin, and getting him set up with his insignia, a half gear in the shape of a C. Once we finished that, we took what remained of the H rank chits from the mission after buying lunch for the whole garage (one hundred and sixty chits) and added in my ninety for w hopping two hundred and fifty, before heading for the crafting hall again.

We decided to get Benny some materials for Inventing, hoping that he would be able to make a few powerful artifacts to integrate into his body. Lesser Mechanical Embodiment was a huge advantage, because it let him use powerful Inventions as part of himself, which would make a huge impression in combat, and help him rank up much more quickly. Granted, it was also a money sink, but the cost would be worth it in the long run. Inventions could do almost anything, which meant Benny could use a ton of unique abilities in battle, even without a ton of skills.

So Benny headed off to do some shopping in the market section of the crafting hall (which I hadn't realized was a thing but really should have) and I headed to the Vitality section to look for someone to make my offer to. I talked to about five people, gauging what they wanted and how viable it would be for me to either make it or just give them the stats, before I found someone who fit the bill. I got the contract signed and managed to get five more points. Two Might, two Perception, and one Creation.

Wishmaster candidate status. G-rank. Ability: Beginner Wish- Five times a day grant a Beginner wish in return for proper compensation. Wish must be feasibly achievable by the candidate's own efforts within a three day period with current statistics.

Might-18
Impact-12
Fantasy-14
Vitality-12
Focus-15
Perception-25
Creation-19

Skills: Lesser Doom Sovereign Mastery,Lesser Enchanting Mastery, Minor Piano Mastery, Minor Cooking Mastery, Minor Gymnastics Mastery, Minor Swimming Mastery, Minor Guitar Mastery, Minor Singing Mastery , Minor Inventing Mastery, Minor Poker Mastery, Minor Archery Mastery, Minor Boxing Mastery

I found, oddly, that people were much more willing to trade points for points than for skills or even regrowing limbs. The ability to grant points to others was absurdly convenient for gathering strength, and the extra daily wish would of course be helpful to me in ranking up long term. I also had the contractor update my ranking seven hundred twenty thousand five hundred and six. The two contracts I'd done were fulfilled and they both netted me contribution points for the Academy rankings.

Once I was finished I met back up with Benny and the girls, who had headed to the side hall I hadn't known about until today to look for supplies. When I entered I was momentarily stunned. The hall was smaller than I'd expected, I had no clue what the rules were for space warping but I'd seen tons of it since coming here, the room that shouldn't fit wasn't the issue, the thing that was shocking me here was that insane amount of random STUFF on the tables.

I could almost feel the stats coming off some of the items, but where I'd expected specific neatly categorized boxes like in Vengiellos I was mostly just seeing scattered piles of assorted junk. I did see gems, but also rocks, branches, scraps of metal, pieces of paper, and any other number of random things that you wouldn't expect to have Impact, much less additional stats.

I looked around for a bit, taking in the randomness and moving from table to table. I could see animal parts at some of them, hearts and teeth and claws and hide. Callie had mentioned the possibility of bringing animal remains here to sell to crafters, and it turned out some people DID do that. I knew from her first explanation of it that sometimes people didn't sell to the guild, and just registered the kills, so it made sense that there would be other places.

When I finally found my friends there were all standing at a large table of metal scrap. Callie and Jessie were standing back while Benny, still in his generic costume since we hadn't gotten him one yet, sifted through the loose metal, trying to find something he could use. His Lesser Inventing Mastery was showing it's use, because he clearly recognized the metals. I knew that the skill required a broad knowledge base I'd barely scratched the surface of, so it wasn't shocking he could tell what materials did what.

It was shocking how many kinds of different Ascendant materials were here. I assumed that they had some kind of supply line to a higher branch, or that they just bought the stuff from all the cities on the planet, because the sheer amount of them was staggering. Granted being a city of a hundred billion probably helped with that, concentrating renown on objects would happen almost naturally in a place this size. It suddenly made more sense why the capital was so unreasonably large.

Benny was rifling through samples of bronze, iron, tin, aluminum, brass, copper, and a dozen other metals I didn't even recognize with glee. Aside from the variety of metals different types of the same metal had different natures. I wasn't sure why one type of copper would have Might and another would have Vitality, but I assumed it was something about origin or the specific type of metal. Maybe local legends or something, it was interesting to see though. I stepped up next to Benny. "So what are you looking for here?"

He barely looked up as he searched. "Basically anything at this point. I just need power. I'm thinking something with Might focus to begin with. Chances of that being offensive are higher. never really know of course but Might is pretty direct in terms of expression so the stuff you make with it will usually either cause damage or make you stronger." He sounded absent minded as he spoke, barely paying attention to anything but his work.

Seeing him so enraptured made me look through the stuff on display too. Not at the scrap table, my inventing wasn't nearly high enough level for that. I had no clue what the stuff there was. Instead I approached a nearby table full of woods. Tree branches from massive trees, driftwood and even neatly chopped logs, the wood was lined up in organized rows with actual labels, highlighting how much more care the green haired girl behind the table put into her display than the bored redheaded man behind the scrap metal pile.

I looked at the green haired girl with a friendly smile. "Hi there, I'm looking for some enchanting materials for a set of tonfas that can output force." I like my tonfas, and I decided that wood was best for them, not only because of my fake power, but because I had absolutely no experience shaping or working with metal, and learning it seemed like a bunch of extra time I didn't really have to spare.

She smiled sedately, and spoke in a very calm, soft voice. "Hi there, I'm Holly. I'd be happy to help with that. We have a few varieties of wood that would work excellently for that. For a reasonable price you could go with something basic, like Arcadian Oak, which has a strong Might attribute, or something a bit more specific like Force Pine. It uses a mix of Might and Creation that's considered excellent for force based enchantments. A bit more expensive, but much better suited to your needs."

I checked the prices and whistled. Fifteen chits for the Arcadian Oak, and fifty five for the Force Pine. I winced but bought a big chunk of the Force Pine, a solid log of it about a foot in diameter and three feet long. Holly smiled broadly at me when I chose. "An excellent selection sir. I hope you'll come back to us for your carpentry needs in the future!" I got the distinct impression I'd just been ripped off based on how happy she was, but then again I always had that impression after shopping.

She slipped the wood into a bag and I made a note to try to get Benny to teach me the Minor Haggling Skill. I became even more certain of the necessity of that when I turned and saw him arguing with the redheaded man over the price of metal. I was pretty sure the haggling and the information from inventing were the perfect storm of trouble for the man trying to argue with my friend, and I enjoyed watching him slowly lose his mind as Benny chipped away at his bottom line.

Once he finished buying what he needed we headed for the workroom. I was going to let Benny use some of my time in there to work on some inventions while I headed back to the golem battledome, I wanted to show the place to Jessie and Callie. Jessie wasn't really interested, but Callie was fascinated by the description, so we dropped off our friends to use the workroom and headed out of the building, back to that huge old shed in the rear of the place.

I let Callie go first, since I'd already done it before but I considered my options as I got ready for battle. With a full twelve Impact and two uses per point, I had a lot more options for battle, and I decided today was going to be the day I boosted my Lesser DS Mastery to beginner. I was close enough to be able to break through with experience, and once it went up I could dip into my second level spells and abilities from the game.

I stepped up to the counter to talk to the golem battledome receptionist and started asking questions about the veteran golems. Ten or more battles would still be potentially dangerous but at least manageable. We went through lists of information, it was no guarantee which golem I would get, but the receptionist was able to at least share some information about the golems in general. I finally decided to give veteran a try and I was put into the queue, hopefully I'd get some points off my fights too. It was my first week at the school and I was about to spend all day brawling with golems. I wasn't leaving until my strength advanced.

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So far Benny seems more interesting than the mc

 

[The Markami]

HI! Nice chapter! Thank you.

I had a thought. You probably are not interested in this kind of loophole, or the whish power would work differently, but... Would wishing for a skill that would be really valuable to the MC work if it was framed as the goal being its use as a payment? Something like:

'I wish for the skill that would be most valuable to use teaching it to you as payment for future wishes'. It probably could be worded better than that, but I'm drawing a blank right now.

So, even if for storytelling purposes you don't want it to work, do you think it would from a purely power-mechanics standpoint?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

HI! Nice chapter! Thank you.

I had a thought. You probably are not interested in this kind of loophole, or the whish power would work differently, but... Would wishing for a skill that would be really valuable to the MC work if it was framed as the goal being its use as a payment? Something like:

'I wish for the skill that would be most valuable to use teaching it to you as payment for future wishes'. It probably could be worded better than that, but I'm drawing a blank right now.

So, even if for storytelling purposes you don't want it to work, do you think it would from a purely power-mechanics standpoint?

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Nah, opposite problem to trading a wished for skill. It has no actual value to the wish maker so there would be no viable compensation possible for the wish.

 

[The Markami]

Nah, opposite problem to trading a wished for skill. It has no actual value to the wish maker so there would be no viable compensation possible for the wish.

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So, since the skill wouldn't have an inherent value to me, it wouldn't work? It would be like for money I don't want or need with the intention of using it exclusively to pay for other wishes?

Edit: I mean, I thought that, since the payment would be teaching the skill the old fashioned way, like Callie did, the amount of time and effort put to teach him would have value. But what I'm understandig from your answer is, so long as I don't benefit directly from the wish, it won't work? Doesn't matter how I would benefit from it later?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

So, since the skill wouldn't have an inherent value to me, it wouldn't work? It would be like for money I don't want or need with the intention of using it exclusively to pay for other wishes?

Edit: I mean, I thought that, since the payment would be teaching the skill the old fashioned way, like Callie did, the amount of time and effort put to teach him would have value. But what I'm understandig from your answer is, so long as I don't benefit directly from the wish, it won't work? Doesn't matter how I would benefit from it later?

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Right, but since there's no optimal skill in mind for the wish maker and they don't have an idea of what they want they have no investment in the skill itself. No value means there's no viable compensation so it's a no go.

 

[The Markami]

Right, but since there's no optimal skill in mind for the wish maker and they don't have an idea of what they want they have no investment in the skill itself. No value means there's no viable compensation so it's a no go.

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Then, the... Balam? skill is not really the best skill, objectively, but the one closest to some, conscious or unconscious, ideal set of parameters Callie had?

Sorry if I am a bother with so many questions, but I find the particular concept of cultivation in this story, and the MC's power in particular, really interesting.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Then, the... Balam? skill is not really the best skill like Callie asked, but the one closest to some, conscious or unconscious, ideal set of parameters she had?

Sorry if I am a bother with so many questions, but I find the particular concept of cultivation in this story, and the MC's power in particular, really interesting.

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Nah it's fine. She asked for the optimal skill for both of them. She puts value on both something they can do together and something that will help her get stronger.

 

[Revanandfriends]

To bad the treasure room didn't have it's phylactery.

Is it bad that if it was me I'd change my entire hero look just to better pull of that artifact cane and be stylish.

 

[Oglymogly]

Woot! Now that's a good place to catch up at! Can't believe I forgot about this story, I meant to let it get ~30 chapters in before starting it. But its been fun to binge, so thank you for writing and sharing.

 

[Oglymogly]

Yeah, that was a satisfying ending to that dungeon run. I wonder if all of the rarer items have that difficulty barrier.

Also, I'm laughing at imagining the (televised) expression of the next group that fights its way down there and finds a looted treasury.

 

[TheArgentOne]

The cane is really gonna clash with his style. Is it even going to be possible to use it without changing perceptions of him?
If he's good enough he could probably learn the enchantments on it and make himself a staff, a new pair of tonfas, or just a version of the cane that doesn't look like it belongs to jack skellington.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The cane is really gonna clash with his style. Is it even going to be possible to use it without changing perceptions of him?
If he's good enough he could probably learn the enchantments on it and make himself a staff, a new pair of tonfas, or just a version of the cane that doesn't look like it belongs to jack skellington.

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I think it kind of works. With the hood and mask and all. Regardless it's an auxilliary thing, and if it affects people's perceptions it should be minimal. Not to mention he's just establishing his rep for the most part in Rajak. So that'll help smooth things over.

 

[High Lord Azal]

Well this has to be my favorite of your works so keep up the amazing work.

 

[Xyshuryn]

I'm really enjoying the character interactions between the teammates. I also rather like how each of them has grown, not just in power or character, but in relatability.

 

[TheArgentOne]

NGL, I completely forgot who carl was and I started reading this less than a month ago. Was he the big guy who tried to bully Shane at the one market and got beat up?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

NGL, I completely forgot who carl was and I started reading this less than a month ago. Was he the big guy who tried to bully Shane at the one market and got beat up?

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No, Carl was the idiot who tried to pelt him with sausage lmao.

 

[TheArgentOne]

No, Carl was the idiot who tried to pelt him with sausage lmao.

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Oh! him I remember, Carl was funny. Would love to see him with some actual power doing something completely and utterly inane to the point they just give up fighting him.

 

[TheArgentOne]

This was quite the thought experiment. What Zeke said here about recursion is a big hint into how bad things can get. For a second, Zeke became much more human. We've only seen the barest hint of recursion in Shane in the form of his 'genius' mentality, sudden brashness, and blood-hungriness. He was afraid of fighting people at I rank. In the time between I-Rank and G-Rank he'd fought less than 10 fights and only after he'd hit G-rank did it hit him like a ton of bricks that he'd suddenly come to like punching his problems out of the way. In fact, I wouldn't doubt that he's slowly losing that 'genius' mentality due to an increase in the 'brute' perception people have had of him, very lightly but still there. He doesn't come across as calculating as he originally did.

Small personal gripe though, the relationship between him and Callie feels a little forced. She's so much more subdued now that she's gotten into a relationship with him and now, because of the change she feels somewhat ooc. She's leader of the team, but she defers to shane so often despite her experience and she's become...clingy? It's one thing to come to love hard and fast but she feels more like a shell of what she used to be; there's a hint of it, you can still see who she is in there but it's very subdued and hidden behind 'perfect girlfriend.' I can't help but wonder what she'd look like outside of Shane's perspective because she certainly doesn't seem to be Callie or Nightstrike as we kn low her. She had feelings for him before, and when he got hurt on her watch she'd react in a manner that came across as if she were trying to say "Shit, I fucked up. I can do better. I'm not a rookie anymore." She simply owned up to her mistake, she cared and she helped him out yeah, but she wasn't about to blow a gasket because she knew long ago that getting hurt was just a part of being an ascendant.

Here she reacts as if it's the end of the world or can't be mad at him for anything longer than 10 seconds before they're ready to start making out again.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

This was quite the thought experiment. What Zeke said here about recursion is a big hint into how bad things can get. For a second, Zeke became much more human. We've only seen the barest hint of recursion in Shane in the form of his 'genius' mentality, sudden brashness, and blood-hungriness. He was afraid of fighting people at I rank. In the time between I-Rank and G-Rank he'd fought less than 10 fights and only after he'd hit G-rank did it hit him like a ton of bricks that he'd suddenly come to like punching his problems out of the way. In fact, I wouldn't doubt that he's slowly losing that 'genius' mentality due to an increase in the 'brute' perception people have had of him, very lightly but still there. He doesn't come across as calculating as he originally did.

Small personal gripe though, the relationship between him and Callie feels a little forced. She's so much more subdued now that she's gotten into a relationship with him and now, because of the change she feels somewhat ooc. She's leader of the team, but she defers to shane so often despite her experience and she's become...clingy? It's one thing to come to love hard and fast but she feels more like a shell of what she used to be; there's a hint of it, you can still see who she is in there but it's very subdued and hidden behind 'perfect girlfriend.' I can't help but wonder what she'd look like outside of Shane's perspective because she certainly doesn't seem to be Callie or Nightstrike as we kn low her. She had feelings for him before, and when he got hurt on her watch she'd react in a manner that came across as if she were trying to say "Shit, I fucked up. I can do better. I'm not a rookie anymore." She simply owned up to her mistake, she cared and she helped him out yeah, but she wasn't about to blow a gasket because she knew long ago that getting hurt was just a part of being an ascendant.

Here she reacts as if it's the end of the world or can't be mad at him for anything longer than 10 seconds before they're ready to start making out again.

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Callie is currently in a position where she feels kind of dependent on all of them, but especially on him. She left Velan and abandoned her comfort zone to come to a place she never wanted to be, which at the time was fine, but being so close to her dad makes her feel the need to fit in with the group and with him more strongly because she already gave up so much. A large portion of their dynamic (can't remember if we've seen his POV on this yet on here) is that they're very in tune with each other.

It's not just her compromising and trying to make things work, they're just really in sync with each other. At the moment though she's mostly just grateful not to be dealing with her own bullshit. All this craziness is one long distraction from the problems with her dad and honestly, she's there for it. Escapism has always been her habit, first running away, then burying herself in work in Velan, now doing the same with Shane. Though she doesn't really see it that way.

 

[TheArgentOne]

See, stuff like what he just did to Cark's staff makes me wonder why his teammates haven't tried wishing for equipment yet. He might be able to learn enchanting from doing it manually but it would save them all time and energy if they had a quick round of equipment updates via his wish power and had him use his enchantment skills for jobs. Even if he doesn't or they can't just wish for enchanted gear they can always use it to wish for materials for their own crafting. To get around his limitation on benefiting from his wishes why don't they try just putting together a list of items they'll need that could be useful for anyone and just have him slowly wish in a stockpile? This way they don't have to buy materials, they can just wish for them using the same money they'd have bought for them, cutting out the middleman entirely.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

See, stuff like what he just did to Cark's staff makes me wonder why his teammates haven't tried wishing for equipment yet. He might be able to learn enchanting from doing it manually but it would save them all time and energy if they had a quick round of equipment updates via his wish power and had him use his enchantment skills for jobs. Even if he doesn't or they can't just wish for enchanted gear they can always use it to wish for materials for their own crafting. To get around his limitation on benefiting from his wishes why don't they try just putting together a list of items they'll need that could be useful for anyone and just have him slowly wish in a stockpile? This way they don't have to buy materials, they can just wish for them using the same money they'd have bought for them, cutting out the middleman entirely.

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Mostly cost. Permanent equipment costs a huge amount. Aside from the actual enchantments the Creation cost is prohibitive. Most of the permanent gear he's granted wishes for is REALLY simple and small time stuff.

 

[TheArgentOne]

Mostly cost. Permanent equipment costs a huge amount. Aside from the actual enchantments the Creation cost is prohibitive. Most of the permanent gear he's granted wishes for is REALLY simple and small time stuff.

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Well of course yeah. Materials on the other hand should cost less in theory, would it not? They don't need them to be crazy high quality, they just need them to be decent so they can make decent gear.

Rather than creating enchanted gear wholesale, he could make materials, which while costly can be combined with other materials to make something greater than the sum of its parts right?

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Well of course yeah. Materials on the other hand should cost less in theory, would it not? They don't need them to be crazy high quality, they just need them to be decent so they can make decent gear.

Rather than creating enchanted gear wholesale, he could make materials, which while costly can be combined with other materials to make something greater than the sum of its parts right?

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You could consider Ascendant materials as physical manifestations of lump sums of stats. They have attributes and inclinations depending on their nature and legend, but they're basically slightly different variations of lumps of raw stats. Conjuring them is pretty expensive, especially past a certain point. Wishing for materials you have to be forged into something is a bit less pricy for sure, but even that takes a lot of energy.