Tugging at his neckline, Arthur sighed as he walked beside Casey and Lam, somewhat grumpily complaining. "Exactly why do I have to come again?"
"Because my aunt has the next batch of stones and is refusing to release it until you make good on visiting her," Casey said with careful patience. "And I don't know about you, but it's a little slow even with the Clan building to just cultivate with Tower energy."
Arthur grunted. He wasn't sure why she was complaining. Unlike him, she was spending and wasting less energy than he was training new techniques. Not that she wasn't, of course. Her disappearing off to the private Prime Group training grounds on the regular was more than clear enough that she was doing her own upgrading.
It kind of made him sad, actually, that she and Lam had been less of a presence in the near month since they'd gotten the building. He had gotten used to having them around, but already, he felt the pair were drifting away. It wasn't surprising, their lives and what they were meant for were different. But it was sad.
On the other hand, without having to do as much socialising or dealing with others - outside of a few regular meetings - he had managed to push his cultivation and techniques much further.
After all his work with his aura, extending his techniques and making it wrap around his staff, or learning to more actively infuse his Yin poison energy through it, Arthur had realised exactly how powerful control and management of it could be. Because of that, when he had chosen to increase his Spirit, he had taken the Strengthened Aura trait. Unlike the more specific Flexible Aura or Imbued Aura or Yin Aura, the Strengthened Aura just made it easier for him to imbue the aura or control it. It reduced the amount of effort and concentration he required to make his various techniques work.
As a consequence of taking that trait, and the work he had done on his aura in general, he'd gained that new bottom line on his sheet. Arthur guessed that the 20% line of understanding was where the Tower chose to start displaying such information. At that point, it was not just an ancillary aspect that he had improved, he was fast forming a technique or series of techniques to utilize it.
He wasn't ready to climb the next few floors, of course, and there was an argument that he was - in many ways - done with his agreement with Casey. After all, he couldn't help her through the next floors. Unlike Lam, he didn't have a companion ring to accompany her so whenever she chose to move up, there was nothing else the Durians could do for her.
Which meant, of course, that he could potentially just hang out here even longer.
"Remember, Auntie has a lot of supporters outside," Casey said. "So you can't insult her."
"Or you, no?" Arthur said with a little smirk.
That caused Casey to grimace. He didn't follow up, knowing that her stomping off to curtail their aunts goal of grabbing more funds for herself had likely cost her. At least in face, if nothing else. Though it did raise the question.
"If she's so poor, how come she has so much support?" Arthur asked.
"Her husband was popular. And then she made herself popular." A moue of distaste crossed Casey's face.
"How?"
This time around, Casey didn't reply. He wondered, again, what she might have done, not just to get support but to make Casey annoyed with it. Lam was no help, the bodyguard had the usual studied neutrality on his face. Then again, he might not know. This seemed like a Chin family secret.
"We're here," Casey said, slowing down as they reached the mansion. Mansion it was, or at least the seventh floor Tower equivalent. Big, set back just al ittle, the ground that had been set back with an actual pavement with planters filled with flowers, and three stories worth of space. It looked vaguely colonial, though the biggest flourish to the building was the use of stone for the buidling itself and white paint. Dragging that much stone, or buying it from the Tower, had to be expensive.
"Very nice. I should have taken this."
"As if." Casey hesitated, looked at Arthur and continued. "Be good."
Snorting, Arthur ignored her and walked up to the door. Before he could knock, it swung open, revealing the older gentleman standing behind it. He was dressed, in all things, a butler's uniform. Traditional, old and stuffy and entirely unpractical. Both for Malaysia and the Tower. For all his advanced age, and he was in the sixty or so at the least, there was a hardness to the man, a real deadliness. If he had both his legs, Arthur was certain he would have managed to clear the remaining floors.
And perhaps, even now, he might have finished the climb if he hadn't a job.
"Ms. Chin. Mr. Chua. The mistress is waiting for you sir. Ms. Chin, I have a missive for you here," the old man intoned the words with an upper crust, snooty British accent. Exactly like the kind you'd hear coming out of a British drama, which probably meant it was faker than an KTV girl's protestations of love.
Casey started, then brightened at the mention of a message.
"Thanks," Arthur said, stepping in. He looked sideways at the servant waiting within, their hand extended to him and he frowned. "I don't have a coat."
"Your weapon, sir." The girl that spoke was in a maid's outfit, not the kind that made weebs fall into palpitations but a more practical and longer skirted dress with similar themes though.
"Ah, right." He glanced at Casey who had already walked past him and then shifted to Lam, neither of whom had been asked to give their sideweapons away, though Casey had handed her sword away the moment she stepped in. After a little more thought, he offered the spear to her, glad that if they did take it, it wasn't his black spear. That one was in for enchantment right now, another huge drain on his resources.
"This way, sir," again, that dry accented voice. He started down the corridor, ignoring the main staircase that swept upwards that Casey had already ascended, leaving Arthur behind without a glance. Whatever the message was, it was clear she was happy to abandon him to her Aunt's not so tender ministrations to read it.
The building was a weird mixture of rustic and luxury that hurt Arthur's head to look at. They had vases filled with flowers from the flower beds outside, pieces of hanging art and tapestries that covered walls that were beginning to peel, the paint flaking off after years of lack of touchups. Everything was immaculately clean and tidy, but the number of decorations were low, making the place look sparse rather than minimalistic or rich. Given a choice, Arthur would likely have gone the other way, with even fewer non-useful items.
What did catch his attention, as he was led past the room, was the library. Books - dozens, maybe hundreds, filling the room. He craned his neck as he walked, catching glimpses of titles. A lot of fiction and history, but also written works on various Towers too, a new brand of fiction category that often had its own section in bookstores. Sometimes two - depending if they decided to split it by fiction and non-fiction.
No surprise, since the Towers had come to dominate the social landscape, the escape valve of the colloseum o the army for many countries.
"Mr. Chua, lady Wen," Snooty intoned, gesturing through the open door into what Arthur assumed would have been a drawing room.
Of course, the moment he stepped in, a polite smile on his face, it grew slack-jawed at what he saw within.