With one wish remaining for the day, I was still feeling pretty secure as we headed back down to Doomtown. "So." Said Benny as we walked. "Tell me about this place? What did you all do for the last week? I hope this wasn't some excuse for a second vacation, because if I was training my ass off while you were lounging on a beach somewhere I'm going to be pretty pissed."

I cracked up at the beach remark, because we'd gone to the beach twice, and could have died both times. "Yes to the beach no to the lounging. We spent most of the time down here either fighting or doing crazy training exercises that would have probably killed anyone else. Still, we've gotten a lot stronger. You'll see when we take part in the tournament. Speaking of stronger, Agria, how you doing over there?" I shouted over to Jessie, who was seated on Randall's back, swaying slightly as he walked.

She shook her head hard, noticing us seemingly for the first time. "Huh? Oh, sorry...this is...intense. I felt some level of connection with my ravens during the scavenger hunt, but this feels like...more. I feel stronger now, or at least able to draw on more strength. I think my Might will increase over time. Plus my life energy is pouring through the link. It feels like Randall is constantly being infused and growing too, though VERY slowly."

I'd considered that possibility, but she made it sound a bit more impressive than I expected. Having a way to get stronger like that was amazing. "You think he'll get to E-rank eventually?" That would be way more impressive than I had expected from that kind of Skill. It was only at the Beginner level, and being able to make her companion rank up like that would be HUGE.

Jessie just giggled. "Gods no. At least not anytime soon. There's a huge gap between ranks. Randall's Vitality will slowly rise over time, but unless I break through to F-rank and rank up the Bond there's no way it'll get that far. Still, the effects will get more impressive as I get stronger. This is amazing, it'll definitely cover for my specializing in healing."

"How is it so strong? Gradual growth without training is crazy." I couldn't hide the shock and slight envy in my voice. She'd gotten insanely lucky. "I mean, I'm glad you're getting so much out of it, but still, I can't believe a beginner Skill gives so much benefit."

She just laughed again. "It's resonance between the Bond and my ability. They're extremely compatible. I could probably synergize them at my next rank up if I wanted, but I'm staying focused on healing personally. Randall will handle the attack and defense stuff. Plus it's less impressive than it sounds. Randall will grow VERY slowly, probably slower than he would with just regular exposure to people, and my Might won't ever get higher than his, and probably won't even catch up."

Knowing there were limits helped a bit, but still, Jessie was going to benefit from this a ton. Her lifeweaver ability really gave her a ton of utility. It was shockingly powerful for our rank. I know if her Vitality hadn't been so overwhelmingly high for her rank she never would have gotten such an overpowered ability, but it was still staggering. I was sure someone had studied what combinations of Skills and stats unlocked what, but I doubted anyone had managed to synergize Jessie's exact Skills with such a high percentage of Vitality.

It made some sense that it would be so strong though. The combined effects of her having frightening amounts of Vitality to fuel it and the fact that the ability was almost exclusively based on that one stat harmonized to create a limited but monstrous power. With Randall to cover for her one weakness in the form of low battle potential, there was no telling how far Jessie could go, especially with me here to keep funneling Vitality points to her. If she wanted to resurrect her brother, I suspected she was definitely headed in the right direction.

Benny, meanwhile, looked exasperated. "I should have waited before I wished for my ability. Oh well, doesn't matter. With my Inventing at Intermediate I can begin to slowly steer the basic direction I want my created objects to have. Not by much, but I can at least decide on a general vibe. I might not have Agria's overpowered ability, but my own is only limited by the fantastic items I can make. I won't let the rest of you leave me in the dust."

Personally I was pretty sure that strengthening his soul was going to be far more important than the raw stats Jessie might be accruing, but he'd figure that out on his own eventually. I'd seen huge dividends from my soul strengthening over time, and definitely planned to get a belt like that if I could find one. It would be insanely useful for me, even if not quite as useful as it was for Benny.

I didn't know how not integrating it like he did would alter the effects, but I suspected it would definitely do so. We kept talking like that as we walked, discussing how they might improve, how we had already improved, and where we might go as a group in the future. The Moonsong Glade was going to be a huge opportunity for all of us, especially Jessie, considering some of the animals we were bound to come across there.

Randall being her bonded companion didn't mean she couldn't still tame beasts. Lily was still trailing behind her mistress, and Rolf was playing with Rellia and Jin as we walked. The wolves had been incredibly happy to see each other, though not as happy as they'd been to see Jessie, with her magical life force infusing ear scritches. It was sweet to see all the puppies playing together.

In general I was just happy to have the team back together. I loved spending time alone with Callie, but being in combat and going on adventures without the whole gang just felt kind of wrong. Being down here with everyone was much more fun. Sadly we had to stop talking about the Bond pretty quickly, since Sloane came over to chat with Jessie. Honestly my Stealth Skill got a ton of work when I discussed almost anything, given how many secrets I had. I had to constantly be sure not to be overheard.

Still, Sloane was just excited to see Jessie. The two of them trained together pretty often in the Beast Lord Garden, especially while Callie and I had been doing our months of training with Abel and Mel. They were pretty close, and Sloane was almost as excited to see our blonde teammate as we were.

We headed back to the Blue Robin when we reached Doomtown. We hadn't actually checked out, just missed a night sleeping there, so we were able to keep our rooms easily enough, and Sydney, Megan, Wren, and Vector were all there when we arrived to say hello. Wren was the firs to notice us as we came into the main room. "Hey, there you are! Didn't see you all yesterday. Looks like you picked up some strays."

I shrugged. "They followed us home. We were going to tell them to beat it but she has a giant bear, which is pretty cool so we figured we'd be nice." Benny rolled his eyes and smacked me upside the back of the head, not that I even felt it through my hood. I plopped down at the table with them, gesturing for the others to pull up some chairs. "So, where's Lament? She and Master Saiten getting ready for the big auction?"

Wren snorted. "They're meeting with Falken, he finally showed up. We've been waiting for that lazy moron for months now. He's almost as strong as Lament though, so he does what he wants, which admittedly is usually sleep. As for Master Saiten, sadly he can't come. The local forces made an exception for him to come down here and guard Lament out of respect for her status as a Master Candidate, but even that won't convince them to let an E-ranker attend an auction."

I grimaced, but nodded. I could see it. It would be impossible for that to go fairly. Granted, there would be external factors in any auction, but since everyone in the auction house would be max of low F-rank, Master Saiten could literally do whatever he wanted. Even if he was too honorable to actually do that (which I had no way of confirming) the other people at the auction would take a step back to avoid pissing him off just in case.

Wren seemed to know what I was thinking. "Yeah, he would compromise the proceedings. Still, he's pretty pissed about having to miss it, and he would probably have forbidden the two of them to go if the others attending wouldn't be incapable of harming them. Plus neither of them listens particularly well, even to him." He snickered at the older Ascendant's misfortune. "You know how Lament is."

I'd met Lament for like a total of three hours and yes, I knew how Lament was. I didn't even need to question if she would ignore someone because she felt like it. Jessie, who had been forced to leave Randall outside, held out a hand to Wren. "Hi there, I'm Agria, since Solomon forgot to introduce me. That's Clockwork over there. We're members of his team, though not for the tournament itself."

That startled a laugh out of the big spearman, who took her hand and shook it firmly. "You're the one with the bear? Or was that a joke? Because I would love to see a giant bear. I'm Wren by the way, that's Vector." He nodded to his traveling companion.

"I do have a giant bear!" Jessie chirped excitedly. "His name is Randall! Do you want to meet him?" She turned her head to Vector. "Nice to meet you by the way. You two as well." The last was aimed at Megan and Sydney, and the two rabbit eared girls smiled back at her warmly.

They'd been staying out of our banter, but after being addressed directly, Megan spoke up. "You too. And I'm with big and stabby over there, I'd love to meet a giant bear." She tapped her sister in the ribs with her elbow. "How about you Syd? You've always been a big fan of animals. Want to meet a giant teddy?"

Sydney blushed at the obvious dig at her being childish, but she didn't say no, which got a laugh from all of us. Callie rolled her eyes at me. "See what you do? We're back ten minutes and you're introducing our secret weapons to the competition." Despite the criticism, her teasing tone made it clear she didn't really care. Jessie wasn't in the tournament anyway, so it hardly mattered.

Chatting happily, we all got up to head outside to let the others see Randall. The Blue Robin had a stable for mounts. They weren't incredibly common, but beast tamers DID show up in the WCP from time to time and some of them rode on their beasts. Plus, they could repurpose the place for other uses when there was no one in it, so it wasn't really a waste. It turned out that the stable was actually underground, which explained why I hadn't seen it when we arrived.

Everyone fussed over Randall, who seemed much more docile after bonding, though he still had that same imperious air to him. As we all talked about the upcoming auction, I considered again what might be coming. I still had a bad feeling about Mordaunt, who had invited us, but Callie had taken my worries seriously and we had four F-rankers who could probably fight twice their number, not to mention Abel, and probably Lament. Whatever would happen tomorrow, I was confident we could handle it. All I could do now was enjoy a day of peace with my friends.