It didn't take too long to get back up to where the others waited. I noticed Master Saiten had stuck around up at the shore rather than come down. Knowing what E-rankers could do I wasn't sure that actually mattered, but I made a note anyway. Once we got back to shoreline we all split off to head back to our relative hotels. That gave me a chance to get the wishes for the Beast Lord Garden out of the way, giving them all five wishes again, and putting another fifteen into my Fantasy stat.

Once we got back to the hotel, Abel pulled Mel, Callie, and I aside to talk. He led us back to one of the rooms, closing the door. "So." I said once it had been shut. "We got the Skill for Paired Dueling. Does this mean we don't need to finish the training down here?" I wasn't sure if that was an intriguing or disappointing prospect. Doomtown was a dangerous mess, but it had been interesting so far.

Abel just shook his head. "The Skill is still at Minor I assume?" We both nodded. "Then we can still get plenty out of this. Minor Skills are the easiest to rank up, and a Lesser version of that Skill will serve you much better. Plus you're getting a better idea of the kinds of things you'll be dealing with in the tournament. Hell, I'M getting a better idea. Despite being experienced Mel and I are still locals. Our view of things is ultimately still too shallow."

Seeing Lament fight seemed to have excited and scared him in equal measure. I knew for his own sake he was more than enthused for a fight between them, but it had put the potential danger the rest of us might see into perspective. He wasn't the only one either. I was planning to focus on getting my DS Mastery Skill to Intermediate. Seeing what Abel and Lament could do with theirs I was interested to see if I'd notice any changes. Even if I didn't though, it would be worth it. I'd be getting another finishing move next rank.

I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wasn't sure why or from what. I didn't think it was about the tournament or Lament or anyone from the rafting trip. My Fantasy stat was higher now, and I was getting a better feel for that ineffable sense it brought. My best guess was something to do with the auction, and I didn't intend to keep that to myself. "So..." I said, trying to figure out how to put it into words. "This auction. I get a not so great feeling about it. Does anyone else feel that or am I just letting my imagination run wild?"

To my surprise, Abel's eyes snapped up to mine. "Really? How long has this been happening?" At my shrug he bit his lip. "I don't sense anything. But there's more than a few possible reasons for that. For one my Fantasy probably isn't as high as yours at this point. For another fate sense isn't really one size fits all. It tends to point you toward things that will be interesting or dramatic for YOU. Just because you'll be running into something that will get you attention doesn't mean I will."

I'd never heard it called fate sense before, but that was a pretty spot on description, and I decided I liked it. Still, it left the obvious question. "Does that mean we shouldn't go? We can always give it a miss if it'll be too dangerous. I'm sure they have some way to sell our items and pick up the money later."

I wasn't one to run away, but I also wasn't one to risk my friends pointlessly. If the others decided we shouldn't go I was fine with that. Callie was the one who would ultimately make the decision, but I knew she'd be just as interested to hear their take on it as I was. A quick glance told me I'd been right, as she nodded her interest in hearing the answer when I looked over at her.

Mel fielded this. "No. We can't afford that. Not just because of the auction itself, though there are bound to be expensive materials we can't get elsewhere, but also because if we back down the others will smell blood in the water. They'll swarm us and we won't survive. Ascendant confrontations are a matter of reputation as much as combat, as you probably know. If we get a rep for being weak, we'll be buried in half assed challengers until we get taken down by numbers alone."

That didn't sound pleasant. I could kind of see her point too. An impressive team would scare off a lot of low level challengers. I doubted we'd get many teams just giving up when we faced them in the prelims, but we'd probably see SOME. We were pretty scary, and we could continue making an impression. A bit of danger now would save us work in the future.

Plus we needed some Skill Crystals. Balam was a dangerous and useful martial art, and Callie's foundation would bring our fighters right to the edge of making their own strides in it for Intermediate. Prior to that Skills were a bit more standardized, so learning Callie's version of it wouldn't hurt anyone's potential advancement.

"Alright." Callie said with a nod. "Then we go. We have the spider armor and some of the F-rank gems to sell off, and that should give us some money to play with, even on top of what we have. I'm sure there'll be plenty of interesting items to pick up. That just means we have a few more days to kill before it's time to attend. Once that's done we can reassess. Do you have any ideas by the way? On how to get out Paired Dueling to Lesser?"

I was curious about that too. The mild situational empathy and predictive ability was useful, but I didn't know where it would go from there. We basically fought like two halves of the same whole. There was room to improve that of course, but I wasn't sure how. Then again, Minor Skills were usually pretty weak, being only mortal level. It was highly possible the main benefit of Lesser was just a more complete version of what we had. Though that made me wonder what Beginner Paired Dueling might entail.

Sadly, there didn't seem to be some special method. Abel's shrug made that clear. "Not really." He said apologetically. "Just more of the same. Minor to Lesser is just a matter of polishing. You usually see extra utility in Beginner, which somewhat prepares you for finding your own path to intermediate. Not always though, really just depends on the Skill."

That did make me a bit confused about something. "If Intermediate is where people usually start to do their own thing, how come you and Lament have such similar manifestations?" I'd been wondering why it seemed like Intermediate, which was so personalized, seemed to manifest the same for them. He'd mentioned that manifestation was a common thing with Intermediate martial arts too, so it wasn't just them.

"Utility." He said calmly. "While it's true Intermediate is mostly self determined, one of the main weaknesses of close combat and weapons Skills is range and scope. Addressing this is one of the most common steps down the path to Mastery. It's not universal, but it's compatible with a shockingly large number of combat styles. Expert level martial arts start to branch more, though there are still some themes that a majority of them follow."

Mel broke in. "What he's not saying is the similarities are only superficial. Intermediate isn't just adding a new aspect, it's about personalizing a Skill to be something more attuned to you. Perfectly adapting your martial art to your combat style and your other Skills and ability. It's why he's so far ahead. He spent years doing that anyway. Soul strength plays a big part as well of course, since as you know a strong soul is needed to modify Skills, which is an integral part of stepping into Intermediate and beyond."

I knew what she meant. "Is that why Mastery is such a stumbling block? Because people don't work their souls enough and get stuck relying on the native soul strength from rank ups?" I asked. I knew that rank ups would increase your soul strength naturally as you Ascended, but it never occurred to me when they mentioned Mastery being difficult that the two things could be related. It made sense though. It also reminded me of something else. "And is soul strength what lets you resist recursion?"

Abel shook his head. "No to the second, yes to the first. Lack of soul strength is one of several reasons Mastery poses a challenge to most people, but no, soul strength isn't the same quality that allows someone to resist recursion. It's...related? But not the same. There are people who manage to reach the higher ranks warped by their recursion. They aren't common but they exist. We're getting off topic anyway. We were talking about training. We'll be doing more generalized combat going forward. Some sparring, maybe some days at the Bone Arena for the last day or two."

Mel cut in. "That will be later though. For the moment our biggest windfall down here is interacting with and learning about the external factions before the tournament. The Wave Warren and the Spear Legion are mostly on good terms with us, but we have one other faction we don't know too well yet. We have an in with the Darkling Institute but haven't exploited that. Our best move here would be to learn more about them before the auction."

I was torn on that actually. I got a bad feeling about the Darkling Institute. On the one hand that meant I should be looking into them deeper to head off any backstabbing, but it also meant I didn't want to be near them. I wasn't sure what was tipping me off about it really, fate sense didn't work like that, so it wasn't Fantasy. The only other thing I could think of was some kind of bleed over from my diviner class. Still, that felt nebulous and ridiculous. As much as I trusted my instincts on some things, I couldn't justify depriving my team of powerful allies because of a bad feeling I couldn't even put into words.

I decided to keep quiet about my concerns for now. If we hung out with the Darkling Institute's fighters I'd have a chance to observe them up close. Maybe then I would be able to put my finger on what bothered me about them. Or maybe it was just necromancy that I had a problem with. Gods know I didn't have a nice first experience with them.

"Well." I said cautiously. "Where should we meet them then? Assuming we can get in touch. Maybe we could avoid any activities that involve water. I don't really think there's anything more to gain from Riot Bay after all the time we already spent there. Unless there's a secret water park that you forgot to mention? Because that actually kind of sounds like fun."

Abel shook his head, but his mouth was stretched into a grin. "No water park I'm afraid. But I do have a slight inkling of something fun to do. There are plenty of interesting games to play down here that don't involve water." He looked to Mel. "What about the Shatter Lanes?" Her eyes widened and she started to chuckle, before bursting into a full on laugh. Abel looked back over at us. "Yeah, I have an idea. Just our of curiosity how do you feel about giant birds? Specifically how do feel about the idea of racing on them?"