Amah Si sat silent and sullen for a long moment after the tiny rebellion against her. But both she and Arthur knew that the trio of followers within this room were not necessarily representative of the world outside. He had bled and fought with these three, whereas to many others he was just a lucky novice.
Yet, they were her people too. Her strongest and most trusted. More so, while she might throw a fit, she needed him to grow stronger, to progress himself and the clan consequently. She could not just throw him into a prison cell, allowing him only the task of inducting new clan members every once in a while.
Into the silence, Arthur could not help but extend an olive branch. “I can’t do this without you. I’m not that arrogant. I need you, Amah, if you’ll take me. We just have to learn to work together.”
“With you the boss.”
“And the target.”
That brought a smile to Jan’s face and then Amah’s in turn. He snorted, but it was true enough.
“Fine. But you have to learn to deal with those heroic impulses. You’re no wandering hero,” she waggled a finger at him. “You die, we die.”
Arthur nodded. “So what now?”
“We formalize our alliance with those who will take us.” Amah Si paused, then raised a single finger. “The beggars. They need help. Many of them are weak, but they’re strong in here.” She tapped her chest. “We give them a chance, they can become strong outside too.”
“Huh. I thought you were going to speak of the Double Sixes.”
“Your problem.” Amah Si crossed her arms. “You wanted that alliance. I wouldn’t have worked with thugs like that.”
Jan, who had formed the initial agreement flushed red, ducking her head low at the indirect criticism. Curious, Arthur thought, that the normally self-assured and annoying woman felt like that. Arthur made a mental note of it but moved on.
“Sure.” Arthur stood up, walked over to the door, and opened it, finding Yao Jing leaning against the wall. “Find Mohammad Osman. Let’s organize a more formal meeting. If we’re going to be allies, I need to know what I owe him. And what else he wants.”
Yao Jing frowned, opening his mouth to protest being sent as a messenger, only for Arthur to glare at him. He bobbed his head and left, allowing Arthur to close the door and walk back to his seat.
“Done. So, take as many of the beggars as we can.” Arthur looked at Jan, then grinned evilly. “Jan, you know the fighting groups. Break them up, put them in with our harvesters, once they’re in? We can help them get experience at fighting that way.”
Mind spinning, Arthur considered the ways and methods he needed to grow the group before looking at Uswah. “We need a library. And a schedule.”
“Schedule?” she said.
“Harvesting, training, and cultivating.” Arthur ticked the words off each finger. “The basis of all growth in strength in the Tower, right?”
Mel nodded, humming a little. “The Three Pillars.”
“Right. Cores, Skills, and Cultivation. We need a way for people to grow in strength, and we need to figure out an organization for those who don’t want to progress and are content to play support for the rest who do,” Arthur said.
“We have that,” Amah Si said, cutting in. “Just put them in our system.”
“Maybe,” Arthur said. “You got it written up? You write it, I green-light it.”
The old woman rolled her eyes at Arthur’s rhyming.
“Really. I need it written down. So I can read about it.”
“You’re asking for paperwork?” Amah said, surprised.
“I guess I am.” Arthur shrugged. “Is that a problem?”
“Your head got problem,” Jan interjected.
That got everyone to glare at her and she subsided sulkily.
“No. I’ll have it written up.”
“In the meantime, do you have any cultivation exercises you have written down that can be shared?”
Cultivation exercises given out by the Tower disappeared, but it did not stop cultivators from copying what they remembered down. Of course, there was a difference between Tower-aided learning and work written by mere mortals. But it did mean that you could eventually save on Tower credits.
Which led Arthur to another depressing thought: he had almost no credits at all in his individual account. After all this time, he was still as penniless as when he had started out.
“What’s wrong?” Mel asked, her voice gentle.
“Just thinking about my lack of points.” Arthur sighed.
“We’ll fix that,” Uswah said, speaking up. “A tax should do the trick.”
“I don’t know about that . . .” Arthur trailed off. It was an uncomfortable feeling, taxing people for his own gain, especially when he was offering them so little.
“The stronger you are, the stronger we are.” Amah pointed to his hand on which the clan seal lay branded. “Literally.”
“Right,” Arthur said. “Almost makes me want to lock myself up in the building for a few months, doing nothing but cultivate.” His words were met with an uncomfortable silence, at least to him. Looking from woman to woman, Arthur let out a low groan. “Really?”
“At least a cultivation exercise to strengthen your body,” Mel said. “And you should cross the first threshold.”
“That’s. . . months!” Arthur replied. “I don’t even think we have enough cores for that.”
“Probably not.”
“Anyway, the moment I hit first threshold, I’m on a timer,” he said, gesturing around. “There’s not enough energy on this floor to deal with the drain, so I’m going to have to go up.”
“Ei, not necessarily. You just spend more time cultivating, lah,” Jan said, waggling a hand. “Look at Amah Si. She’s fine.” When Amah glared at Jan, she lifted her chin a little. “Allies, right?”
Amah bobbed her head after a moment, grumpily. Arthur could not help but smile a little, at having acquired a secret of Amah’s. Then he snapped his fingers suddenly. “Library items. You distracted me!”
“I think you distracted yourself,” Mel pointed out.
“Library items.”
“There are not many,” Amah said, interrupting the burgeoning argument. “Of those, you already have two that are similar. Focused Strike and a close derivative, Precision Blow. And then an elemental form, known as Flaming Fist. We have three cultivation exercises we’re still writing down. One close to finished, I think, but the other two aren’t.”
“What are they?”
“Bark Skin. It’s in a line of skin reinforcement cultivation exercises, going up to Copper, Iron, Steel Skin, and so forth.” Suddenly, Amah’s lips twitched. “We’re not sure if Jade Skin is meant to be part of the same line, or if it’s just a cosmetic bonus. Or both. It’s expensive either way.”
“I’ll. . . let someone else experiment on that,” Arthur said.
The girls laughed at his hesitation, before Amah Si continued. “Bark Skin’s the closest we have to being finished. It was nearly done when . . .” She trailed off, shaking her head. “Well, the people who had it died. And the last person we have I ummm…. Not really good providing more info.”
“Still, if it’s not a lot of credits . . .” Arthur hummed to himself, thinking. He could pick up that cultivation exercise and add to it once he learned it well, providing a boost to his clan. Anyway, he needed some form of protection.
“Exactly,” Amah Si said. “The other two exercises we have are a movement method and a weapon technique for slings.”
“Slings?” Arthur said, surprised.
“Yes. It can be used for other things, but it imbues an object with chi before it blows up.”
Arthur’s eyes sparkled, suddenly licking his lips. Now, that was something he could get behind. If he could combine that with his Refined Energy Dart technique...
“I’ll want to see that. And the Bark Skin technique,” Arthur said.
“Then you’ll stay hidden and train?”
Arthur hesitated, then sighed. “I’ll stay in the newbie village and train. I still need to add the beggars and speak with Mohammad Osman, but as you said: The stronger I get, the stronger the clan gets.” He chuckled suddenly. “Anyway, I think I’m done with walking through forests for a bit.”
“Just a bit,” Mel chimed in, holding her fingers slightly apart.