He managed to escape after twenty minutes, leaving Mel and Jan to answer questions from the newly added Clan members. Not that he didn't value them, but his mind was still on his previous training and they were better at dealing with people than he was. If nothing else, they weren't going to snap at the speaker for asking the same question again he'd just answered five minutes ago to another.
Maybe they could write up a FAQ on a brochure or something and hand it out when people joined, so they could avoid all this.
What kind of Aspect do we have? What does it do?
Why are we called Benevolent Durians?
How do we get Clan contribution points? How's it recorded?
Can I really stay in the Clan hall for free?
What kind of techniques do you offer?
And more. Amusingly, he was not the only one to escape and he stopped before opening the door to his own room, staring at the woman who had followed him up.
"What do you want?" Arthur asked Li Sun. He could have made a joke about not being interested, but it just wasn't in him to do it. Especially if it started rumors about his taste. It was bad enough that rumors of him being a eunuch because he had a Yin body kept being floated around by Jan.
"To talk," Li Sun said. "You're working on your technique, right? I want to know more." She saw his eyes narrowing and she held a hand up. "I was hoping I could help."
Now he had to ask. "Why?"
"I'm not stupid," Li Sun said, gesturing at Arthur. "You're weak right now. New to this floor. And based off how fast you've climbed, you can't be that strong either." Eyes narrowed, gesturing down the hallway. "The Chin's might have given you a deal, but there's nothing like time." He idly noted she was entirely wrong of where Casey's apartment was, the woman having chosen to take one higher up because water pressure was better than down here, where it was more convenient to get to. "Or training. You don't have the first, so..."
"Doesn't explain why you want to help though."
"Because you're the boss. Stronger you are, stronger we are," Li Sun said. "The others might not realise it, or maybe they're nice enough not to mention, but if you die, we lose the Clan. And all that good things are gone."
"Only until we get big enough to start acquiring more Clan bonuses," Arthur said.
"And when's that?" she asked. When he didn't have an answer, she nodded as though she had confirmed something she had been thinking of. "Right. So you're our best bet for now."
Still, he didn't move. After the silence dragged on for a bit, Li Sun eventually broke first. "What?"
"You've got another reason."
"How...?" she frowned, shook her head. "Fine. I'm also bored. I like studying techniques, have a few myself. But the rest of them..." she gestured downwards, shrugged. "They don't care. They have what they need, most of them. They don't need more so they don't push for more. The ones who do, they often aren't interested in what I have to teach because the Tower's easier."
"You're lonely," Arthur said, surprised.
Now the older woman raised her chin, almost glaring at his blunt assessment. She didn't acknowledge his words, which was more than fair. He probably wouldn't have admitted it himself either. Still, it didn't make it wrong.
"How'd you know? That I had a second reason."
"I didn't," Arthur admitted, just because it amused him a little. She glared at the back of his head, but he ignored that too as he threw the door open. "Come on in then, let's talk." He hesitated, then added. "But you show me yours, first."
That got a laugh from the older woman, though like him, she didn't take the words in a sexual direction. A good thing too, because Arthur hadn't really meant it that way and only realised what he'd said when it came out of his mouth.
It didn't take long for the show and tell and overview on both sides to end. Not that Arthur had told her all his various skills - he didn't trust her enough - but neither Focused Strike, his Refined Energy Dart or the new kris-originated Yin-energy were things he expected to keep hidden for long. And almost definitely needed help on.
"So, I'm thinking, I can bundle the Yin-energy and basically use the container from the Refined Energy Dart and combine it with Focused Strike. Either expanding Focused Strike to give it a poison element, or better, make it a new system that lets me layer the energy to work as a poison," he said.
"You use a spear, right?" Li Sun looked at the rather obvious weapon propped to the side.
"Yeah...?"
"Focused Strike is decent then," she said. "Lets you throw your energy upwards. Better than some of the others, though not as good as one of the imbued attacks."
Arthur grunted. "Imbued attacks?"
"Fire, water, ice, all those," she said, making a stabbing motion. "Put the element into the attack."
"Those are hard," Arthur said, knowing how difficult it was from discussing to create the necessary element. Easier - much easier - to just imbue the attack with Tower energy. Shaping or refining or concentrating it, rather than transforming it.
"But more effective. And it lets you do what you want," she said, making a gesture with her hands. "Puts it in a container, that lets you deposit into the other."
"Isn't that the Refined Energy Dart does?"
"No, no..."
After a few minutes of technical discussion with a few examples - and a few drawn examples on scrap paper - Arthur had a better understanding of what she meant. He was fast realising that her knowledge of the various forms of the chi and tower energy exercises was greater than his by far. It probably helped that for all the disdain of the Tower techniques, she actually had quite a few to her name.
"So, you think I shouldn't bother learning a new technique?" Arthur said, clarifying.
"Not all of one. I'll sketch out the one I use, for the Energy Dart and Imbued Weapon. Once you figure that one out, you can adapt it to your container and just use that," Li Sun was saying, waving her hands around excitedly. "Then you should have a container for strikes with your spear that hits harder, drives the poison in. And Imbue Weapon is a persistent skill, not like Focused Strike. So if you use that, you can just keep it running and recharge the weapon."
"I like it." Arthur tapped the little drawing she had made of what the Energy Dart looked like to her and the mana flows she had to use to build it. The shorthand she had used for the various median points was a well known one, what with many of the same points studied and utilized in acupuncture and qigong, so it was simple enough for him to grasp.
The container and the way you manipulated Tower Energy darts was, surprisingly, somewhat more complicated. Unlike his expectation the two Energy Darts actually utilized entirely different containers. If he had to describe it, the Refined Energy Dart was more an actual container, like a dart it was named, where the Tower Energy system was more a contained sphere of energy.
He wasn't entirely certain why and Li Sun - who never had studied the more costly Refined Energy Dart herself - was intrigued to start experimenting herself.
It did, however, lead him to a rather obvious question to Arthur after they'd finished their initial discussion.
"Why are you not out of the Tower?" he asked.
"Hmmm?" Staring down at the jotted notes Arthur had offered on the Refined Energy Dart, Li Sun looked up puzzled.
"Why aren't you out of the Tower?" he repeated.
"I'm waiting for someone," she said.
Something in her voice, something in her tone had him clamp his mouth shut. At her strength, she could easily leave the Tower. At her age, anyone she was waiting for... well. But well honed instinct had Arthur keep his mouth shut.
Sometimes, hope was all you had.