Finding the Vitality section of the crafting hall wasn't much trouble. The lines were separated out with helpful signs at the end. The hall really was huge, I hadn't even been able to see this section from the door, especially with the crowds. In the Vitality section I went to the back of the line. Lapis had made it clear that the best way for a new solo crafter to build a rep was to scout out some clients back here where they were stuck waiting for a while. With no better options it was more likely they would take a chance to work with me.

Despite keeping my eyes and senses peeled for possible assassins I hadn't noticed anything, which wasn't a shock considering they were sleepers, but it certainly didn't help my paranoia. I focused on the line. Impact made people more real, and if you knew how to look it was easy to tell the difference between someone like me with two points and someone with a full six times that amount.

I looked for anyone with the right amount of Impact and approached the first person I saw. A tall man with olive skin and wavy brown hair in a purple costume was looming over the person in from of him. He was even bigger than me, probably six five or six and broad as hell. I stepped up and tapped him on the arm. "Hi there, I'm a solo crafter and I was wondering what kind of job you were looking for. I specialize in Vitality." I didn't specialize in Vitality, but I figured there was a better chance a Vitality based wish would be to cure some kind of illness which would require less Creation than making something, though I didn't hold out much hope given where we were.

He turned to me slowly. He had one of those full face masks that was part of his suit with the eyes and mouth cut out, and it was enough for me to see him raise an eyebrow at the oddness of the approach. He held out a hand. "I'm Skanda, nice to meet you. Yeah I was here looking for a belt that can boost Vitality so I regenerate a bit faster when I'm training. I'm pretty Might focused and it has me a bit unbalanced." I blinked, I could make that even without a wish, given the right materials.

I still had to test to see if I could make a permanent enchanted item with a wish if it was low quality like that, and if not I could do it the long way and he would never know. I offered my hand. "Solomon. I have a crafting room set up, and I can help with that. I require a pretty strict NDA. Trade secrets and all. You good with that?" It was pretty standard, though the amendment to the contract that he couldn't talk even if I failed was a bit unusual. Still it wouldn't be an issue this time anyway.

He shrugged. "Sure. Sounds good to me. I'd be here for another few hours at this rate, so might as well see what you can do." I took out the key, moving it around until the glow intensified and then headed off into the crowd, gesturing for him to follow. Skanda trailed behind me, moving through the crowded hall and around other people as we followed the glowing key to a large solid looking metal door. Once we found the door I looked around for the contract maker, who would definitely be near where people did their crafting.

I spotted a tall bored looking man in a long robe sitting behind a large wooden desk. We had to wait in line for a few minutes but when we finally made it up I gestured to Skanda. "Hey we wanted to set up a contract, do you certify premade documents?" I had a perfectly good contract that I'd used back in Velan that Zeke had helped me with, so there was no need to amend or draw up a new one.

He nodded lazily. "Yeah, I'll need to read over to make sure any loopholes are pointed out to both parties, but I can do premade's. My skill lets me create a binding link using the signing of any contract I write, so I'll just need to copy it out, but honestly that'll take me five minutes at the most." With F rank Might and Focus I was sure it would, writing fast would be simple enough for someone like that, and managing the force so the paper wouldn't tear would be easy enough with enhanced Perception.

I bumped my scan ring against his, and he spent about thirty seconds reading it over. He looked at me dryly. "Paranoid little bastard aren't you?" I just chuckled and shrugged, a gesture he mirrored. "Fair enough." He turned to Skanda. "This contract seems fairly balanced. Compensation decided after you enter the closed session though, so you'll have to make your own decisions on that. Once you know what the payment is though you're free to terminate the arrangement on the premise that you keep your silence about what happens during the meeting. Are these terms acceptable as written?"

Skanda looked a bit suspicious, but in the end being able to cancel as long as he didn't like the terms was fine. He nodded and the contractor pulled out a sheet of crisp yellowish paper that looked a bit like parchment but less stiff and an old fashioned metal tip pen, and started to write. His hand blurred through the motions as he wrote, scrawling the words across the page. It looked like someone was printing them out he was moving so fast. It was impressive as hell, and I was shocked he managed to not light the page on fire with friction, but I assumed that was either the paper itself or some function of the skill.

Finally he finished and passed it to us. He indicated a pair of lines he'd drawn at the bottom of the densely packed page. "Each of you sign here, and once that's complete I'll use my contract skill to bind you to the terms. As lower ranked Ascendants you'll be incapable of violating them, and even if you'd reached F rank you would need a heavy Focus lean to manage it." He gestured to Skanda. "You can of course peruse the full contract before signing if you wish. I would recommend it."

Skanda let out a relieved breath. "Yeah, I will thanks." He looked to me apologetically. "No offense or anything but it just seems smart to read over a contract I'm going to be literally physically unable to resist following to the letter." He seemed a bit sheepish after hearing it all laid out already.

I waved him off casually. "Not at all man, I get it. I'd want to read it too, I probably would have seconded his recommendation if you'd turned it down. I don't have anything to hide." Of course I was also pretty sure he didn't really want to read the whole thing either, but we both knew it would be stupid to sign something like that without going over it, so we settled in as he scanned the contract details. It took about four times as long as the contractor spent writing it for him to finish but when he was done he nodded and we signed, then we unlocked the crafting room and went in.

I gestured for him to close the door and sit down at a table in the middle. The walls were lined with work benches with all sorts of tools but the table in the middle was a simple metal rectangle with chairs on either side. "Ok, now that we're in here I can tell you the details of how this will go. I'm in a small way related to the Wish Curse Palace. I've been entrusted by them with a certain number of wishes that I can grant." He was bound to keep this quiet and couldn't betray that contract but it still seemed reckless to just trust some stranger with my identity. The old sub-contractor bit seemed like it would work fine for this.

He blinked at me but I cut him off. "Since you can't talk about what happens in here, I'm free to offer you some...other services. Rather than a belt that gives you Vitality, I can actually GIVE you a point of Vitality I believe. I'd need equal compensation, so a point of something else or a skill or two. If that's not your thing or you can't spare them you can wish for the belt and I'll try to grant that wish, which I may or may not be able to do, but if I can't I should be able to enchant it for you manually anyway. So, what do you think?"

He just kind of...sat there...stunned. Which was fair, I'd have been stunned in his shoes. No reason to softball this though, not when he physically couldn't blab. If he decided to turn me down no harm no foul, but I was pretty sure no one would be that stupid. He swallowed hard. "So...you can give me Vitality? In exchange for skills?" I got his freakout, it was a big deal, but feasibly it wasn't much different than an Alchemist could do, just more direct, and MUCH slower.

Still I didn't want to give him false hope. I shrugged. "I don't know. I SHOULD be able to. That particular thing isn't something someone has wished for yet, but other wishes I've granted make me think it's feasible. Won't know until we try." I was ninety percent positive I could do it. If I could give Impact I could sure as hell give other stats, and I was pretty sure it would be WAY less expensive. Granted Impact got exponentially harder per point, so chances are I wouldn't be able to do a second one any time soon, but still.

The fact remained that I'd been serious when I mentioned Alchemy. If I could make pills that gave stats why not making stats themselves. And while I hadn't made pills with wishes yet I was pretty positive I could, otherwise this ability would be way less overpowered than most people seemed to think. He looked torn. I knew he was probably thinking about how to best get stats. I decided to clarify something I suspected for him. "I can only do one point of anything per wish. Though I can grant more than one wish per day."

I wasn't positive I could only do one per wish, but since I couldn't CHARGE more than one stat for my current level of wish I expected that was around what I could give too. My power tended to be symmetrical like that. Or I just had a subconscious feel for what it could do, I wasn't really sure. He nodded. "I wish for a point of Vitality." He sounded cautious, like he didn't really believe me, but figured why not give it a shot.

Wish detected. Grant wish?

I confirmed

Stat points sufficient. Requirements: 30 Vitality, 5 Impact, 25 Creation. Compensation required.

I grinned. I could do it. Five Impact was rough, and I imagined if he was any higher ranked I would be shit out of luck, but I'd be ranking up soon myself so that shouldn't be an issue, and this meant I could help power up Benny to H as long as he could pay for the wishes, which we could worry about later. With this new tool in me arsenal I was A LOT more confident of making my way here at the Academy. I grinned over at Skanda from behind my mask. "Looks like we're in business, now, we just need to figure out what you're going to pay. Were you thinking stat or skill?"