Chương 29: R&R Ch. 29 — The Path We Walk

Nicholas and Jasmine, still in their clothes from the party, went over everything they had learned together, both of them coming to the same conclusion.

"We are completely and totally fucked," Nicholas said, crossing his arms as he slumped into his chair with a sigh. Jasmine sighed in agreement.

"Even at a breakneck pace, unless we do some terrible things, we aren't going to get the karma required," she agreed.

"How about we do some terrible things to Rend? If that Constellation kid knew what was going on then he had to right?" Nicholas suggested.

"Constellation is our age." Jasmine was going to defend her friends even if they seemed a little odd to her.

"And you are going to let him fight on the front lines right next to us instead of trying to protect him and all of his classmates?" Nicholas asked, raising his head just enough that she could see his raised eyebrow.

"Well, when you put it like that, you make it sound like I'm ridiculous," Jasmine huffed, crossing her arms. There was nothing wrong with wanting to coddle her friends, and honestly, all of that group seemed not weak per se but soft in her eyes.

"Do you think we could handle a wave of rank three monsters just the two of us?" Nicholas asked, his gaze drifting back up to the ceiling as his head slumped back.

"Probably not," Jasmine admitted.

"Yeah, and my ascension word would destroy me if I used it, even if I did temporarily rank up," Nicholas mused. That had been a shock that he had a method to temporarily rank up; she even had some ideas on how to fix that problem for him since it was mostly a matter of soul strain. The problem was it would require an item with both of their souls in it. She didn't even want to make an item with just his soul in it; to do it with both? Well, there was a reason she hadn't even brought up such a possibility.

There were issues with that even if in some ways it was easier on her own personal morals to make such an item.

"I haven't even started building the device that will let me punch up like that with a fake rank up," Jasmine said with a sigh.

"You have one?" Nicholas asked, sitting up with curiosity.

"One my own design," Jasmine said quietly. It was one she hadn't even shown her grandma. She didn't want it in the hands of her either.

"It can burn soul to create a lot of power, and because of how it works, it would boost all of my items beyond their limits with little risk."

"Burn soul?"

"Yeah, but I could make soul storage containers so I could start making a stockpile. There's just one problem." Jasmine admitted.

"You have to use the soul of the corresponding item?" Nicholas guessed.

"How did you know?" Jasmine asked, shocked.

"It was easy. You are a noble person, so you only use your own soul for your items, which means you're pretty much always running on empty, but to get everything super charged you need your own soul, right?" Nicholas guessed.

"Exactly." Nicholas sighed before clicking his wrists together to view his stats.

"Can I see?" Jasmine asked curious.

"Yeah, sure," Nicholas said with a wave his own window appeared before her, so she took the opportunity to look at the information. Nicholas Level: 2 Belief: 3, 597 Karma: 2, 358 Power: Domain: Words All other information restricted. She had to check to make sure, but… Jasmine Level: 2 Belief: 3, 672 Karma: 2, 400 Power: Soul Forge Reforged Body: Soul Isolated (Suppressed) All other information restricted. Jasmine let out a whoop in celebration.

The small head start from her family was practically gone; they were on an even playing field.

"Something exciting?" Nicholas asked curiously.

"Nothing you would be impressed by. We're basically even across the board, which I just think is neat," Jasmine said with a deliberate shrug.

"Just you wait, I'm going to be passing you soon enough," Nicholas said before letting out another sigh.

"You couldn't see me wink, could you?"

"No, you're staring up at the ceiling."

"Dang." Jasmine waited for more. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. There was no more.

"Not even going to try again?"

"No."

"Fair, I am tired too."

"We have to figure out how to consistently fight up at least one tier and then make sure we can do it separately and together," Nicholas said with a sigh. Jasmine took a shuddering breath as once again the easiest option stood out to her. But she couldn't do that, could she?

"We don't need to ask your family for help. I would never make you do that," Nicholas said, sitting up to look her in the eyes.

"You know?"

"Nope, you don't want to talk about it, so I've forced myself to not think about it." Jasmine was touched.

"But like I said, it doesn't matter. We're Retort and Retribution; we don't need their help."

"I think we should be Retribution and Retort."

"That doesn't sound nearly as good," Nicholas pointed out, and Jasmine hated that he was right because if he hadn't been right, it would have been so much easier.

"But I wasn't thinking about that," Jasmine admitted.

"It's more of a cautionary tale given to people with soul powers than anything else. But, you know how it goes."

"There are times that it works, and it's very potent?" Nicholas asked.

"Yeah, if it was done right, there's a chance it would let both of us punch up easier, maybe not a full tier, but each would have an easier time." Jasmine mumbled.

"Let me guess, it has something to do with using my soul?"

"Both, an item with only your soul would just have your power, but combined with mine it would potentially evolve. Give one of those to both of us and yeah." Jasmine admitted.

"And because of the connection it would have with both of us being alive it would connect us?"

"Of the last ten soul smiths that have attempted such an operation, all ten of them and the people they did it with ended up going mad because of the connection. They couldn't separate who they were and couldn't, yeah. It was bad," Jasmine admitted.

"That sounds less than ideal and as much as I like you don't think I want to become one with you," Nicholas said with a smile.

"I thought you were going to demand we do it because it's a path to power?"

"My goal isn't to reach the peak fast. Just to reach as high as I can. The only time I would choose immediate and risky power was if I didn't have a choice."

"So you're okay with us putting that plan on ice for now?" Jasmine asked to make sure.

"Unless things are truly desperate and we still have time for a night of forging, we won't do it." Nicholas promised. Jasmine had a bad feeling about that promise, but she would take it for what it was: a promise. She would also rather not go crazy, but doing a dual soul item was actually more acceptable to her. She was bearing the consequences of it just as much as Nicholas would be in this example.

"Okay, so we need to figure out what we can do besides that. I'm not going to be able to solve the problem for Ascension yet and you won't be able to create the soul fire engine either. So we need something else," Nicholas said, drumming his fingers on the table.

"Branching out our skills could work. More tools for every situation so that we can just punch through?" Jasmine asked.

"Or we could try to go deep on an aspect of our powers and give us something on par with our own level?" Nicholas suggested a moment later.

"We should try both," they nearly said at the same time.

"We're going to expand our toolbox so that we have more options for what's to come." Nicholas said with a nod.

"While creating something as strong as possible to use alongside it." Jasmine confirmed.

"So how are you going to do that? You can't just will things out of your storage yet?" Nicholas asked curious.

"I'm going to make a weapon, a spear, a really fucking strong spear, and I'll just use it by itself and keep it out." Jasmine said with a shrug. There were tons of cool stories about the world before powers, and some of the legendary spears she had heard of were super cool, so she wanted to give her hand at trying to make one.

"Any other plans?"

"I need to build my healer and defender sets. I don't know if I can fit it all in one, but if I can, I'll make that. And then another set of gear. Maybe an information support setup." Jasmine said with a bit of excitement creeping in. She loved her current builds, but the chance to build more was incredible, so she wanted to do that.

"Two sets of gear and weapons, plus your own spear that can pierce the heavens. Anything I can do to help?" Nicholas asked.

"I'm going to be cutting up my soul a lot, so would you mind if we hung out every day?" Jasmine asked as Nicholas winced at the request. She almost took it away.

"We can do that, I promise," Nicholas said finally.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I want a longer-lasting area debuff besides hesitate. It's great in a one on one but really not much beyond that. I might copy you as well and do a healing word. I have a decent defensive one in barrier. As for an ace? I don't know." Nicholas admitted.

"We can figure something out, so what can I do to help?" Jasmine asked, wanting to do just as much for her friend.

"Want to help me look up and research various domain supers? We aren't common, but I know some have had success, and all had to find a method to do that. I can't copy them, probably, but I can learn." Jasmine had no desire to research a ton of supers, but she promised she would help so she would help.

"Of course. And we can both help each other with the healing stuff."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, obviously we need people to experiment on to heal, and who else besides each other are we going to be sparring with?" Jasmine asked, laughing.

"I really wish you didn't have a point, but you do, so I will be in your care, Jasmine," Nicholas said with a sigh. The door to the kitchen and dining area was kicked open, and Rend walked through missing half of his shirt and one flip-flop. It also looked like one of the lenses of his sunglasses had been broken.

"What happened to you?" Nicholas asked.

"I got into a fight. So how was the party?"

"Dreadful."

"I had fun."

"So I'm sure you two want to know what was actually happening during that and why we need to prepare." Rend said, drumming his hands on the counter.

"We know." Nicholas said.

"Talked to a Rank Two spatial manipulator who had started feeling it yesterday." Jasmine confirmed.

"Got told by LongShot." Nicholas added.

"Well, you want to know what tier the wave is, don't you?" Rend asked, seeming nonplussed by his students already knowing.

"All the older supers felt bad so above our rank," Nicholas said.

"Constellation wasn't catatonic from it, just scared, so I'm guessing in the rank three to four range," Jasmine explained.

"Huh, I figured a couple of meatheads like you two would not be able to figure it out," Rend said, grabbing himself a bottle of water. Nicholas and Jasmine exchanged a look. They didn't particularly consider themselves meatheads, but they weren't sure just what their mentor was trying to tell them.

"I am calling you meatheads so that you try to finally hit me," Rend confirmed." Barrage" The tiny bolt of energy hit with as much force as a flick.

"It's not fair if I can't dodge it."

"You could have stopped it," Nicholas said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I could have being C-rank is great." Rend agreed.

"You two have some good plans, but you're also at risk, so I'll ask: do you want me to help your path for growth how I would do it or support your own plans?"

"Support our plans. We will ask for help when we're ready, but I believe it's best to learn about my power as myself." Jasmine said firmly.

"Then go sleep you two, tomorrow we're training hard, and then going out on patrol. The information will begin leaking soon and all sorts will decide they should take advantage." Neither Nicholas nor Jasmine rested well.