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    “I expected it to be more…on fire,” I said lamely as we all studied Abel’s new form. “Or maybe steaming? It looks the same.” His Ragam Blood Body had been adapted by the both of us working together. As a former Master Candidate who had broken his shackles on pseudo D-rank planet and condensed an illusory Path long before I met him, Abel was obviously pretty talented in techniques too.


    With our combined effort, some help from Callie, and the foundation of the two extremely powerful techniques we were using, we’d managed to integrate them smoothly, though I’d had to use the Wisdom of Solomon again to complete it.


    Since it was just the last little bit, and the staff was just mostly exhausted not completely tapped out, I’d been able to push through, though teaching it to him after had been tough.


    Now he stood before us, shimmering blood replacing flesh, and he looked…the same. Bella, who had been watching the proceedings with rapt attention, leaned in to squint at the form. “I think the blood is like…bubbling?”


    Abel shoved her away, then waved his hands around him to drive us all back. “Alright you vultures, it’s an INFINITE blood sea, a little fire isn’t going to set it to a full boil. It worked, we’re done, can we just go? We’ve already delayed way too long. I appreciate the upgrade help, kid, and I have no doubt it’ll be useful, but we need to find your friends.”


    My expression became solemn. “You’re right,” I confirmed. “We’ve taken too long here. Everyone good on the technique?”


    They all nodded. All around me, eyes began to burst into open flame. Some dark fire, some light, Chelsea had one of each, but it looked like they’d adapted their new soul bodies to their respective paths.


    “Then let’s go,” nodding, I gestured for them to follow me, and we took off down the nearest walkway at a dead run. I wanted to fly, but without one of those candles it wasn’t worth the risk, so I just sprinted at top speed. Even suppressed by the local Impact, we were still more than up to the task of crossing a large amount of space in a short time, and before we knew it, we were approaching the city.


    We slowed down, obviously, to avoid being too attention grabbing, and approached at a normal walking pace as we crossed onto the much larger island that housed the city of Highhaven.


    Highhaven was…gloomy. I’d assumed being a city it would be nicer than the village, but honestly it wasn’t that much better, just bigger and more imposing. The whole place was made of dark ragged stone and had sharp pieces of broken iron sticking out of it in odd directions. I couldn’t tell if the walls were supposed to have defensive blades or if there used to be a lot of decorations that just broke off in really unfortunate ways.


    The whole city had a pall of grimness and unpleasant decay smothering it like a blanket, like we were looking at it through a depression colored lens filter. We approached the oversized, poorly forger iron gate, and were stopped by a pair of D-rankers wearing strange dark metal helmets with light flickering out of them. Mistwardens.


    “Halt!” barked the taller of the two. “Who goes there?”


    I raised my hand in greeting, calling back cheerfully. “I’m Solomon, this is my wife Nightstrike and our crew of friends. We were hoping to prevail on your lovely city for some fine dining and perhaps a place to rest on our journey.”


    The guard just…froze. I was pretty sure he wasn’t used to people complimenting this depressing scrap heap without sounding obviously sarcastic. “I…yes, obviously,” he said, regaining his momentum. “Highhaven is the jewel of the eastern islands, all of the weeping domain knows of our luxurious accommodations.”


    We all turned, looking up at the city and then back at the guard, and even the other guard tilted his head in confusion. But since I was the one who started the flattery, I just shrugged it off. “What will it cost us to enter?”


    “Ten fish,” he said bluntly. “No negotiating. One for each of you.”


    “But there are-” Bella started from next to me, but I covered her mouth quickly.


    I continued smoothly. “There are so many of us and you’ve set the price so low, we can only thank you for your mercy.” I glared at her, not wanting to pay the extra when she pointed out this guard apparently couldn’t count past ten.


    At D-rank, I had legitimately no idea how his Focus wasn’t too high for that sort of thing to happen, but then again, maybe he was so mean and stupid that he’d developed some kind of idiot based recursion. I’d seen similar phenomena back on Callus, and this guy seemed even less clever than the Jerks.


    We paid the fish, depleting the minimal stock that we’d gathered at the village, trading for other food, and then entered the city smoothly. In the background, I could hear the guard bragging about how stupid we were, and how he’d charged us an extra fish. I didn’t even try to do the math on that one, and just assumed we got the better deal since we snuck three people in for free.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    “Alright, now that we’re here, we need to be careful,” I told the group. “Wesley said that the inside of the city is nominally a safe zone. In reality, it’s only safe from outsiders, friendly factions to Malzareth get a slap on the wrist if they’re caught fighting, and they will absolutely ignore it.”


    Abel snorted. “If those idiots up front are their rank and file, we might not need to worry about it.”


    “Malzareth is probably C-rank,” I reminded him sternly. “And that means we have almost no chance of beating him head on. Do NOT give him a reason to come down on us. We can’t afford it.”


    Even if we could escape, it would waste too much time. Abel had been right earlier, I’d dragged my heels helping him and the danger the others were in had increased. We needed to find some kind of lead on them and soon, with the god world D-rankers running around, who knew what kind of trouble they might run into.


    “Wesley said there’s a force around here that specializes in information gathering right?” I asked Callie. She’d chatted with the mayor and his family for a while while I was working with Abel, she liked to get a handle on local politics whenever we went somewhere.


    She nodded. “The Ghost Bone Tranquility Tower. It’s not just a local force either, they exist all over the Screeching Shoals. Apparently they’re run by the a mysterious advisor to Skartaris the Weeper. Don’t think that just because Malzareth is considered ‘a general’ he’s particularly strong. Skartaris has one hundred generals, and Malzareth is one of the weakest.”


    “A hundred?” I frowned at that news. A hundred C-rankers. At least. And that didn’t even count the ones in the oceans or any high ranked Pale Men. Granted, the Shoals were huge, so a hundred was actually a pretty small number spread over that kind of area, but it meant locally there were at least a few more, and there were probably a BUNCH where Skartaris held court.


    The central city in this twisted snowflake shaped hellworld was in the main continent, and was called Mournehold, because of course it was. Skartaris ruled the city, and was, based on all accounts, a PEAK C-ranker, most likely with a Chronicle.


    In other words, he was way too much for us to handle and should be avoided at all costs if we didn’t want to die instantly. I did have a few tricks up my sleeve, like the defensive token from the Lady, but I didn’t want to waste a divine ranked lifesaving treasure on someone below B-rank.


    “Well, where is this Ghost Bone Tranquility Tower?” I asked her with a sigh. “That’s clearly the place to be, though I don’t know if we can afford anything there.”


    Fish were the local currency, and we’d spent ours. Did they take chits? If not maybe we could barter. I’d stockpiled my eight wish scrolls for the day. In an isolated place like this, they might not have even heard of the Wishmaster, so trading them might be safer here. That was a last resort though, and if we did it I would go in on my own and leave in stealth, just to be safe.


    But it was a bit early to decide that, instead, we should go and check out the tower, and make sure they even had the information we wanted.


    Callie led the way, referring to a small map that she’d drawn based on Wesley’s descriptions, and we quickly arrived at a strange looking building. The place was layered white stone, with eaves at about every ten feet to create a sort of pagoda effect. The eaves were made of what looked like obsidian, except it had barnacles all over it and eerie blue veins shot through the stone.


    On the front of the tower was a white sight, showing a black bone snapped in two, from which emerged a dark ghost outline with a fierce expression. “I think we found it,” said Bethy helpfully.


    I snorted in amusement, but didn’t respond. I stepped forward, rapping on the large black doors, and after a minute, they swung open and a small man with a ratlike face and bags under his eyes poked his head out. “What?” he snapped, rotten teeth exposed by his sneer. His Vitality must be extremely low.


    “We’re here to buy information,” I told him bluntly. No reason to beat around the bush.


    He squinted at me. His eyes took in my expensive armor, then the weapons of all my friends nearby, and he eventually nodded sourly. “Fine, come in. Don’t dally.”


    Throwing the door open, he hurried us inside. He slammed it shut as soon as we were through, barring the entrance quickly. I wondered what exactly he was on guard against, given his boss was supposed to be a huge bigshot. But maybe the individual towers weren’t a priority. He handed me a ticket with a number on it. “Wait til you’re called,” he said shortly, then turned and vanished behind a counter.


    “Friendly place,” I said dryly. “Nice to see the customer is always king.”


    Rather than laugh though, my friends froze, all of them tensing as the looked over my shoulder. I didn’t feel any Danger Sense, but I knew that this place was protected, so that didn’t mean much. I turned to see a small group of belligerent looking men and women, all smiling at us unpleasantly.


    “Well, isn’t our luck fantastic tonight,” said the leader, a long haired dandy in a foppish blue velvet waistcoat. “Our target has shown himself.”


    One of the taller young men, a bald guy with a handlebar mustache and very little shirt covering his frankly absurd muscles, surged forward, but the dandy held up a hand, stopping him in place with just a gesture. “Not yet, Declan. This is neutral territory, and even we don’t want to pick a fight with the tower master.”


    One of the women, a pale girl wearing a blue ballgown, sneered. “When Damien breaks through, it won’t matter who’s protecting them. Count your days, thieves, our eldest initiate is at the edge of C-rank, and once he forms his Solid Path you’ll all be fish food.”


    I tensed. That…that was the worst case scenario. God world initiates were geniuses, so they didn’t have reason to remain at the peak of a rank. But a few of them having bad timing meant we might be dealing with a much bigger series of threats.


    “Friends,” came a smooth voice from beside us, and we all jumped, turning to see what appeared to be a floating cloak full of congealed darkness hovering in front of us. “The tower is a tranquil place, there’s no need for harsh words.” The figure waved an empty sleeve and another identical cloak manifested beside it. “Now, why don’t you tell old Whisper what you seek?” And without another word, one of the figures led each of the groups away.