Chương 69: R&R2 Ch. 8 — Preparation

Jasmine thought it wasn't fair that Nicholas was copying her theme of just doing cool stuff that sounded funny to use her powers on. She had the martial artist flying sword build because it was absolutely awesome and there was no way she wasn't going to use such a thing. And she was going to make a dragon power build eventually, too; she was just waiting for a good theme.

And all he had done was make power word Dragon without telling her, and it gave him dragon powers, which was super cool, but now if she got dragon armor it would look like she was copying him.

"Why didn't you have it transform you fully?" Jasmine asked, riding the flying sword as her sword took out enemies. It was a bit of a slow day today and was projected to get easier since they would be in range of another city pretty soon and they would be clearing enemies too.

"Full body transformations are difficult, even what I have is a lot of power, easier to just use the flames to fly." Nicholas explained, flaring his black and red flame wings as he shot into the air to take down a flying Beyonder. It was like playroom, a word that took a constant drain of sustained power, but instead of letting him telekinetically control everything in the area around him, it gave him the powers of a dragon.

Stronger, faster, tougher, can see in the dark, and the ability to generate and manipulate magical flames. She wasn't jealous. Okay, she was super jealous, but she wasn't going to complain that much.

"So if you're going to be the fire dragon, what should I be for my future dragon armor?"

"You could also do fire?"

"No, I need to be cooler than fire now since you took it," Jasmine said with a sniff. She was going to be a copycat, but she wouldn't be a direct rip-off.

"Ice dragon?"

"No lightning dragon, I said cooler than fire, not colder than fire, duh," Jasmine said, her swords deflecting several projectiles as the other half searched for the ranged enemies.

"Lightning is pretty awesome. Are you going to make dragon-scale armor, or are you thinking something like a giant dragon mecha?" Nicholas asked curious as he blasted flame out of both palms, incinerating attacks aimed for the train. Jasmine had just been planning on dragon scale armor; it was what made sense, and sort of fit with the theme she had going on with magical armors. But who was she kidding? She was a sucker for mechas, and the idea of a dragon mech was so awesome.

There were a few problems with such a build, but she could deal with them probably; it wasn't like it was impossible. Though she didn't have a clue where she would put it. And to run a full mecha, she would be burning power like nobody's business. She would make Nicholas look downright economical in comparison, and he specialized in massive shows of power. But she wanted it so bad.

"It's going to be the massive dragon mech, it has to be. Can you imagine how cool it's going to be?" Jasmine gushed once she was certain she had thought through it enough.

"I'll do what I can to help; we'll see what the two of us can figure out together for it." Nicholas said. Jasmine was heroically cackling through the rest of the day as she cut through their enemies. Nicholas claimed it was evil, but when reminded that they were both heroes that stopped all of his arguments. She couldn't be evilly cackling; she was a superhero. Though that had turned into a competition of who could cackle more heroically. That had gotten them several odd looks as they worked. But who cared?

They were just out destroying monsters and having a fun time. Would it get clipped and distorted later for views, yeah, but she didn't mind; at least it was stuff she thought was worth it. By and large, people couldn't travel; there were just too many Beyonders, and not even the Pinnacles could stop everything. But Jasmine was certain that she could change that eventually; every problem had a solution. It was easy to think you couldn't do something and give up.

She would have to understand that she couldn't do it yet and that eventually she would be able to figure it out. The train was a good first step. They had been so good that most people didn't bother taking more steps; it got food places, and if you wanted to move, you could get a ride on one even if it was a bit much for just mundane traveling for normal people.

"You think we should try and establish one of those frontier towns?" Jasmine asked out of the blue. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"We're not a high enough rank for that yet; it's suicidal for anyone below B," Nicholas said, brushing the question off.

"Yeah, but we'll get there eventually, right? It could be good to plan something?" Jasmine asked, pressing. Nicholas paused from his push-ups to look at her curiously.

"I don't have anything against it, but that's going to take decades to establish the city even if you and I handled everything we could." Jasmine hadn't thought about it like that. Her grandma talked about city setup as a fun way to blow off some time between the big events. But Nicholas was right too, even when her Grandma decided to set up a city, it still took around twenty years.

"We're going to go to the end. Pinnacles don't die of old age, or if they do, it hasn't happened yet, so why not plan out activities that take a few years?" Jasmine asked voice small. She didn't think it was likely that Nicholas would disagree, but if he had a different perspective, that could be hard to deal with.

"How long would you and I live now?" Nicholas asked.

"Live now while still in our prime for powers, or live now and die of old age?" Jasmine asked.

"If it's the first one, probably another sixtyish years till we slow down; if it's just to old age, about one hundred fifty years."

"And that will only get longer, right?" Jasmine nodded. It wasn't like one tier just made you immortal unending; it was an increase over time, unfortunately the higher you went, the more lethal everything got and there weren't that many B, A, or S ranks running around who retired from old age. And there had never once been a Pinnacle who retired.

"Then why not? It could be cool to raise a city, and we could make sure it has everything we would want from all the cities we've gone around saving." Nicholas said, nodding. Jasmine also thought it was a great excuse to get out from under her family's thumb. It wasn't like they needed to know where her city was, and if she could get the city to be in Star Strikes or Equilibrium territory, then all the better. Her grandma couldn't even be that mad, since she had her descendants fail her all the time.

This was just Jasmine failing her in a different way by defying her. Jasmine paused that train of thought wondering if that was part of what Darlene was looking for, even if they would cheat Jasmine to the end if she followed her family it wasn't like you could be a weak-willed pinnacle who followed what someone else said. Right? Jasmine decided that was too complicated to figure out; she would not be the next Brynhild, so there was no point in thinking about it.

All Jasmine was going to be was the best Retribution she could.

"I, for one, have no problems with the idea of raising a city; it can get you a lot of belief if you do it properly." Rend said, walking from behind a corner. Nicholas and Jasmine both stared at their mentor, not believing he had just been veiling his power. While that was possible, it wasn't likely.

"You would want to do it with us?"

"Well, my team needs a base, and if you're going to establish a city, that seems like a good place. And the PR would be great. Renegades establish a new utopia. We'd make a killing." Rend said, pulling into his own chair.

"So you would help us?"

"Oh no, of course not, my power isn't suited for city building at all. I would be delegating it to you two, the people best suited for it." Rend said with a sniff. Nicholas rolled his eyes.

"Why am I not surprised?" Jasmine asked with a sigh.

"Because, my disciple, you are brilliant. Now I figured it was time to talk about what it was going to be like for you two once we arrive in the actual city." Rend said, turning serious. The two young supers gave their ostensible mentor their full attention.

"You will have the day we arrive to yourselves to rest. After that, you will work nonstop until we leave. I'm going to push you to work harder than you had to during the wave." Rend said, his voice leaving no room for debate.

"And why would you do that?" Nicholas asked. Jasmine remained silent; she already knew the answer.

"Because you're going to steal from underneath the noses of everyone. Save and inspire. Be the heroes you were meant to be," Rend said, as if it was some grand calling. Jasmine knew otherwise. It was just the plan every traveling superhero had if they were doing it to get stronger. More lives saved meant more karma, and arriving before the city's established heroes was going to help your belief go up. It was about the optics of the whole thing. Because of how powers worked, the formula had been solved.

She had heard her grandmother explain it to her mother more than once. Though her mom hadn't lacked the numbers to level up, she had lacked the personal understanding of herself and her powers.

"And what will you be doing the whole time?" Nicholas asked curious.

"Drinking super-grade mai tais until I can't see straight anymore. I can do my next level up whenever I want, so there's no reason for me to rush," Rend shrugged.

"Says the man who was rushing us," Jasmine pointed out.

"You have leveled up twice three times if you count the gaining powers one. It actually isn't that hard to stabilize afterwards. But as the amount of power you gain grows, the worse post level up stabilization gets. It wasn't important for you two, it is relevant to me," Rend explained. Jasmine and Nicholas exchanged a look. It wasn't like that was an unreasonable explanation.

And in a lot of ways, it made sense, but that didn't change the fact that it was the kind of logic they couldn't prove, and let Rend do exactly what he wanted. In the end, they couldn't disagree; they had no evidence either way, and it wasn't like it wasn't believable. They had some peers who said they had been struggling to adapt to their new abilities with hitting E. So the idea that it was worse as you moved up was sound. Though that made Jasmine wonder.

If you were at your potentially weakest right off the level up, why weren't there safer areas to do so. There were plenty of places you could do the first few. But once you were C rank, there wasn't anywhere that could hold you in case you had a rough ascension.

"Are there secret places only C and higher ranks know about where to go when leveling up?" Jasmine asked, curious. Rend gave her a smile that chilled Jasmine's heart.

"And why, my dear student, do you think I was so desperate to start traveling? It kills three birds with one stone." Jasmine could acknowledge that was an efficient way to do things, but she would have liked to know it wasn't just for her and Nicholas to get stronger.

"Wait three? What's the third?"