There were easily a dozen G-rankers tapped to come with us down to G-district, and the first thing I did when I saw them was ask Melinda why there weren't more. "Ok, I appreciate the help for sure, but isn't it just asking for trouble sending so few of them down help us? There are hundreds of G-rankers in the major factions right? Won't they drown us in bodies this way?" The last thing I wanted was to see all my new allies killed off. I was pretty firmly convinced that Abel was invincible in G-rank but that wouldn't save these people.

"Normally yes." Melinda said with that ever present doting smile. "But not in this case. While a full on war in G-district might be viable, it's also attention grabbing. Normally it wouldn't matter if it grabbed attention, the Peace Lord is paying people off as we talked about, so no one would get involved even if a full scale army battle broke out. In this case it's different though. With your revelation about your origins and the origins of his backer, too much attention would bring in competitors for your resources."

My eyes widened in understanding. "Ah, so he's going to send his best, and you'll do the same. Smaller groups of elite Ascendants to battle it out without draining resources that would obviously be missed in the dark districts and bring in new players." She gave me a startled look and I glared at her. "I'm not an idiot you know. Just because I let Nightstrike call the shots and recognize she's better at planning than I am doesn't make me stupid. I notice plenty, I just mostly keep it to myself."

Which was true. Despite the constant tinge of violence over my thoughts these days I did think things through, my thoughts were just so scattered and wandering that I didn't bother to say most of it out loud. I needed to prioritize Focus. I kept meaning to try to even it out with my Perception. I was hoping it would fix the whole wandering thoughts thing. Too much input and not enough processing power to deal with it was leading to lag in my thoughts that I couldn't afford. I'd gotten some more points into it recently and that seemed to be helping though.

Melinda gave me that warm smile again before turning to her people. "Well then, I suppose I should introduce your companions. I don't have time to give you a thorough run down on all of them, but these three are the leaders of our younger generation." She pointed to a trio of Ascendants, two men and a woman. One of the men was huge and pale with long hair and intense amber eyes, the second was shorter with darker skin and high cheekbones framing bright blue eyes. The last was the girl, an olive skinned woman of middling height who looked incredibly athletic.

Melinda pointed to the two men. "This is Baric and Croll." Then she pointed to the girl. "This is Sloane, my apprentice. She's the strongest G-ranked member of our organization. Her ability is Beginner Beast Embodiment, and she can use it to assume aspects and body parts of her tamed beasts." Her voice was proud as she pointed out her obvious favorite. "Sloane, this is Solomon, a new guest elder of the Beast Lord Garden. Despite his rank being similar to yours, he's a greatly capable person, and I expect you to show him nothing but respect. Is that understood?"

The green eyed girl nodded solemnly, intense gaze fixed on my mask as she tried to give me a once over to see what made me so special. Her gaze was intense and a little wild. I wondered how she stacked up to someone like Abel. That was a hell of a power. My eyes flicked to the animals at her side. A massive black fox and a small silver bird that perched on one shoulder. They both gave me the familiar pressure that told me they were G-ranked. Then I looked to the other two, Baric and Croll. "What about those two? I'd love to hear about their abilities, if they're open to sharing."

"Of course." Melinda said proudly. "Baric shifts into a tiger-man hybrid, and Croll into a lizard-man. Their alternate forms have other abilities they got through synergizing, but those are the base forms. They're extremely potent. and are some of our most powerful front line combatants. Full form shifting is rare. It provides a bit of an advantage to taming beasts of a similar species as well, though both of their animal partners are still H-ranked and are being left at home to prevent them from being harmed in the upcoming battles."

I paused, thinking back to Fang. "What's the difference between someone with a form shifting ability and a racial trait. I met a werewolf recently I think, but that was just an assumption. His power might have been some form of shifting. Unless being a werewolf is a form of shifting?" The line between some powers was tough to spot sometimes, and since these people were experts in the whole beast thing I might as well ask them while I had the chance.

Apparently it was a good question, because Mel nodded like I'd pointed out something important. "Well spotted. The major difference between a natural shifter and someone with a racial trait like werewolf is that a werewolf is always a werewolf. Baric and Croll are human when they're human, and beast form when they shift. A werewolf possesses their werewolf abilities in human form as well, though they're not as potent. It's rare to find them out and about, but not unheard of. Still, I'm surprised you met one here. I'd be interested in speaking to him."

That didn't seem like a big deal, but it wasn't really my call, so I just shrugged. "I'll extend the offer. I don't really have any say in what he does, but I don't see a reason he wouldn't want to. That's the best I can do though." Seeing that she was happy enough with that sentiment, I moved on. "So, I take it these three will be the ones I'm going to be working with most. In terms of...resource allocation?"

It was hard to think of a way to obliquely hint at wishes and be understood, but after thinking about it I realized I didn't have to. The whole point of the guest elder position was to be able to act semi-overtly without being questioned. From the explanation she gave during the contract negotiation, guest elders were a mostly ceremonial position given to people who had something to contribute but wanted independence and secrecy outside the organization. Saying 'I'm doing this don't ask about it' was fine. Plus the whole resource claim could easily be explained away by an ability to acquire wishes made by others.

Melinda nodded. She glanced over at the other nine G-rankers, having them remove themselves from the area, and then activated the formation again, this time with the three elites inside. "As our most promising seeds, these three can be trusted. I won't tell them anything, I'll leave that to you, but know they're all bound by fairly strict contracts as well as being people I personally consider absolutely loyal."

I weighted my options for a minute, before figuring that I'd have to tell them something eventually, and inside the stealth formation was probably the best spot anyway. I fixed my gaze on the three of them. "I have access to a steady supply of wishes from the WCP main branch due to a favor I did for an executive." I fed them the story Callie and I had come up with to explain my access to wishes if push ever came to shove. "I can, most interestingly to you I suspect, grant Skills and reallocate points between stats to align your build more closely with your preferences."

That got an approving smile from Melinda, clearly happy I'd chosen to share. "Their main stats are Vitality, Might, and Perception. Shifters tend to be mainly physically focused, and Sloane needs plenty of Vitality to fuel her embodiment. I trust you can work with that?" I grinned internally, though I only gave a solemn nod to acknowledge the comment. That was perfect actually. My Fantasy and Focus were both falling behind, with Creation being a distant third. My Fantasy stat in particular was only twenty one, easily the lowest stat I had.

The three Ascendants, for their part, were wide eyed, and starting to look a bit excited. The idea of respeccing was such a novelty that they hadn't even considered it. They were smart enough to grasp the value of that gift, especially for someone still early enough in their path that it would make a marked difference on their still developing reputations, compounding the gains over time. It had taken me a bit of time to notice that. I wondered if that meant they had high Focus stats?

Apparently hearing I could give them pretty much anything they wanted had made me worthy of the treatment, because that appraising look I'd seen from Sloane earlier had faded completely from her gaze. I'd figure out more about their details later though, when we had actual time to grant some wishes. For now having their respect (even if it was by proxy) was plenty. I addressed my one final concern to Melinda. "So, how do we do this? We need to make sure they don't send too many don't we? Do we like...challenge them directly? Do we send them some kind of declaration of war?"

"Gods no." Melinda laughed. Covering it with a cough when she realized it might have come across as rude. "Ahem, sorry. No. There's no need. This is E-district. Every faction keeps an eye on what happens here. You coming to meet us and possibly joining wasn't enough to make waves. But the seeds moving out is bound to stir up some attention. We usually keep them down here for personal training. It won't be enough to raise any real red flags, but once Sanctuary Hall notices them heading for G-district our position will be clear. They'll dispatch their own elites soon after, as well as mobilizing any forces they have down there already in reserve."

Which meant the Jerks were finally going to come into play for real. Way Crazy Wyatt wasn't the only G-ranker left in that crowd, and we'd be facing the others. It was just lucky for us we had the Pavilion members. I hadn't gotten a read on the total number of G-rankers down there, but I knew we had at least three or four, depending on how combat capable Cicero was. With the twelve represented here that was a solid force. With a basic gameplan we officially decided to move out. Melinda took down the formation and bid Sloane and the others goodbye and good luck, and we all made our way to the elevators.

As we mounted the lift, I sat down and considered exactly how things might go from here. I didn't know how wars functioned in the WCP, not really. I had the impression that anything I had learned should be taken with a grain of salt though. There was a difference between stories and the real thing, even in a world like ours. But the war itself wasn't my biggest worry. This action had effectively declared my ability to stand as a real threat to the other candidate, as well as made it clear I was aware of her presence.

Something told me with that challenge on the table she wasn't likely to stick to the shadows. There was a good chance the coming war would be managed by her directly. I didn't know what another candidate would be capable of, but one thing was for sure. I needed to be as strong as possible before that fight finally occurred. I couldn't afford to face a member of the family with anything less than my best. It was a good thing I had all these new clients to make wishes, because I needed to pad my stats quite a bit, more than that though, I needed to train. It was time to see if Abel would be willing to teach me directly.