The next morning we headed down to the training room. The wish for  the shadows manipulation skill had been the fifth of the night, and it  had worn me out enough that I slept in, but we didn't have any hard  commitments so we decided to go test things out. When we got downstairs  Callie was practically vibrating in excitement. She was warming up as we  got ready for some tests, shadow boxing with a big grin on her face. I  felt the need to burst her bubble. "Just so you know, past Beginner  Skills need to be personalized. I think you can still wish for them, but  it'll cost A LOT more most likely."

She stopped and shot  me a smile. "It's fine Shane. I wasn't expecting you to carry this one. I  have a ridiculously solid foundation, but a Skill like this concerns my  entire combat style. I'll blaze my own path moving forward. I'll have  to put in some serious work on that though. There's no way I'm not  synergizing that Skill into my ability. At Beginner it'll work fine for  my rank up to F, but getting this one to Intermediate is going to be a  bitch. Enough about that though. What about you, excited to try out your  new trick?"

I looked down at my wrist, rubbing over the  marked skin and reaching into myself to feel the power stored in my arm.  I grinned at her. "I really am. I was a bit worried after I had the  idea, I didn't want to change things up too much and ruin all the work I  already put in, but thinking about it a second time all my combat  experience should be applicable. My DS Mastery in particular will be  useful. My Fatewalker build is mostly formed around status conditions  and augmentations, which means I can apply those subskills to the  attacks as I use them."

That had been the most exciting  thing about Callie's suggestion. I'd have insane versatility, and it  provided an advantage that other people, even other Wish users, wouldn't  have. I was sure I wasn't the first Wishmaster candidate to think of  storing attacks, even if it probably wasn't universal, but I WAS almost  definitely the first with DS Mastery. There were other modifier Skills,  but not many I'd heard of as versatile. Even if I went up against  another candidate using the same strategy, I'd have a marked advantage.

Callie  gave a low whistle. "Well damn, that's going to be scary when you get  enough of them. I take it aside from my shadow blades you're going to  stockpile some of Cark's fire blasts? I saw what your Skill did to that  attack in the Rowdy Badger. Being able to solo cast that trick will be a  scary trump card. Hell, Cark's ability in general is a scary trump  card. Make sure you get at least a few of those if you can."

It  was clear she was as excited about my own gains as hers, and I gave her  a warm smile. "I plan to. So, tell me exactly what this Shadow  Manipulations Skill can do. Or better yet. Show me. We ARE in the  training room. No need to hold back or anything. Let me see what you've  got."

She looked about ready to burst with glee when I  said that. She held up a hand dramatically. "Very well. I'll demonstrate  the power of my new skillset. First up. My shadow blades!" She reached  out and sent a surge of shadowy cutting edges out from the ground at a  nearby training dummy. As it exploded forward, I noted that the blades  really were different. The blades themselves were more compact and  defined. Before they had mostly just been pointy and sharp edged  tentacles. Now there were actual blades and they looked much sturdier  and more dangerous. They struck the dummy and tore it into sections, the  edges so sharp they left smooth cuts behind.

Now it was  my turn to whistle. "Ok, that was pretty cool. I can already tell those  are much more effective. What exactly is different about them. Also can  you do that again? I want to see what I can figure out from your attack.  If I can spot something on my own it'll be a better outcome since  that'll help me in the future. I can't always have you to walk me  through things right?" I gave her a wink to let her know I was only  teasing. I knew how much she loved being a source of information. I was  always happy to ask Callie for answers, but I really would need to learn  to figure this shit out myself.

She flicked a wrist,  sending out another barrage of blades. I made a slight hmmm sound. "Ok, I  think the biggest difference is probably the compression. Aside from  being much more structured and stable, you also condensed much more  shadow than you could have fit before into the blades. They were able to  hold up much better under the reinforcement. Even with a higher Might,  this was an exponentially better method for increasing strength It also  seemed to make the weapons more fluid and easier to move, which made  sense for a manipulation Skill.

Another dummy collapsed  into pieces. I wondered how those got replaced, but that could wait  until later. Callie looked pleased with my observations. "You got it.  There are a dozen other subtler tweaks, but those are the biggest. Of  course I can do more than that. I have all sorts of new tricks." She  gestured and a trip of extremely lifelike black cats climbed from the  shadows to prowl around the training room.

I blinked in  shock at the sleek, delicate construction of the cats, which looked like  actual cats to me for the most part. Aside from the eyes and the inside  of the mouth both being pitch black these things could have passed for  real animals. Which was absurdly impressive, I had to admit. Callie  looked pleased at my awe. "See. I can do this kind of thing now. Or  this" She flicked a finger again and a series of snowflakes made of  shadow drifted into existence. I raised an eyebrow at that, not sure  what good that was, and she flicked her finger, sending the razor sharp  shapes spinning into another dummy like throwing stars.

Being  so thin and delicate was apparently good for sharpness. I walked over  to look at the shredded dummy, which still had at least one snowflake in  it, and turned back to her. "Admittedly, that was awesome. The  snowflakes all look the same general shape, and they're a bit simple  design wise. That seems like a great way to refine your minute control  though. Is this your new training tool?"

She beamed at me.  "I knew you would get it. Yeah. Beginner is, as mentioned, only the  beginning. I'm going to work on the snowflakes as a unique attack  method. They're flashy and interesting, but also made of shadow so not  the kind of flashy and interesting that pulls the gaze. They're pretty  much perfect weapons, and if I can refine the process to a certain point  I can use clouds of them. Plus the more I work on making them delicate  and deadly the less shadow I have to use for each and the more of them I  can conjure."

It was definitely scary. This would be a  big bump to Callie's reputation too. The whole 'beautiful girl in a  snowstorm of darkness' aesthetic was awesome. It would leave a big  impression once she learn to apply it in combat. I stepped up next to  her. "Alright. My turn. Let's see what this attack you gave me can do."  As much as I didn't want to waste it, I was more than aware of the need  to train new abilities, plus I needed to see exactly how my subskills  could effect it. Plus this was an old attack, any new ones she traded  with that new manipulation Skill would be better anyway.

I  focused on the feeling of the shadow in my head, raising the hand with  the mark on my wrist as I targeted one of the remaining dummies. I  triggered my skills one after another. Mercy Kill, Flurry of Blows,  Consecration of Flame, Touch of Tears, I even used Afterburner, since  the five minutes of weakness afterward wouldn't be an issue while I was  home safe here. Then I used the attack.

If the defense  Callie had put up in the labyrinth was the ultimate shield, this was the  ultimate spear. The flash of a dozen blades of darkness was rapid and  deadly. I didn't bother aiming them more than just envisioning them  hitting vital spots. As they came out, I gaped a bit at the sight. The  shield had been facing away, plus I'd been a bit busy, so I hadn't  realized how visually impressive this kind of attack was.

A  rain of blades of darkness filled with green flaming cracks slammed  into the dummy, reducing it to basically chunks as the enhanced power  tore through all the materials. The black became even more obvious when  contrasted against the dull green light of the poison fire, and as I  watched, the pieces of the dummy dissolved. Once the attack finished I  just stood there and gaped.

Callie's  decent amount of Might,multiplied by Afterburner, augmented by Mercy  Kill, and honed by poison fire, not to mention the speed bump from  Flurry of blows, was an attack on a level I had never used before. As I  watched the corroding ashes of the dummy drift to the ground, I couldn't  help but grin victoriously. I was exhausted from Afterburner after it  faded, but that didn't stop me from being excited. This was an  absolutely perfect answer to all my problems so far.

I'd  been worried about how to keep up with my friends, even with my quick  progress I wasn't able to keep pace because I had to spread out my stats  so much. This would let me use the power of concentrated and  specialized abilities without having to damage my ability to use my Wish  power to maximum effect. Not to mention the synergy with my current  skillset. I'd finally found a path to making myself stronger. Hell,  there was a pretty good chance I could actually punch above my rank if I  could fill out a good loadout of attacks.

Turning  to Callie, I grinned at my girlfriend, who was likewise gaping at the  destruction. "Ok. That was crazy. I remember how strong that shield  was...vaguely, but seeing an attack at that level. Those were weaker  shadow blades too. My current attack would be twice as efficient in  terms of penetrating power. That's just ME, could you imagine if you got  some attacks from Cark? Or one of Jessie's heals to keep in reserve?  How many of those things can you hold? Is it unlimited? You could just  stockpile a ton and crush anyone who tried to hurt us."

She  sounded pretty excited. I appreciated the vote of confidence, but I had  to rain on her parade. "Probably not too many. I'll have to check. I  might be able to hold a few of each, but even if I can hold an unlimited  number I still have to keep up my stat gain. I can't use all my wishes  on storing up attacks or I'm going to fall behind. I need to head back  to the crafting hall soon, I can't keep moving around stats in the  party."

I sighed, having been  worried about this for a while. "While you get a commensurate number of  points in another stat, when you pay with stat points you still lose  points from somewhere. In order for me to grow you need to lose out. If I  can get points from other people I can gain and then you all can trade  attacks for your points." I wasn't sure how many of those attacks they  had in them per day, at least not full power ones, but in any case, it  was a solid plan. For now though we had more training to do. Might as  well push myself a bit. At least after I recovered from Afterburner. I  was still exhausted.