Chapter 412

Featureless white room, his own Stratus screen on either side of him. In front, finally, the rewards and details of his Clan Aspect upgrade.

 

Guardianship Aspect Upgrade Options:

-       Upgrade Healing Characteristic

-       Upgrade Protection Characteristics

-       Upgrade Community Characteristics

-       Upgrade Quest Options

 

Arthur blinked, reading the four options. That was not what he had expected, but it sort of made sense. It was not a direct upgrade to the Aspect itself, but an ability to alter how the Aspect worked and what he could improve within it.

Which meant that even another Clan or Guild with a Guardian Aspect would not be the same, not after the first Tower and certainly would differ further and further along.

“Couldn’t make it a little easier, could you?” Arthur grumbled, a little. In truth, he didn’t mind having a variety of choices, since he assumed that this would allow him to increase that specific aspect more significantly than if it was just a general upgrade.

As it stood, right now, the minor increase in protection and healing abilities was not something he truly noticed. Of course, he’d only learnt the Steel Skin ability after he received his Clan Aspect, so it wasn’t as though he ever had experience without it. And while he might be healing faster, it wasn’t as though there were numbers that ticked up that allowed him to read his health.

Wounds just closed, bleeding stopped, all of that.

“Focus on strengths or shore up weaknesses?” Arthur wondered.

Healing would, of course, be focusing on their strengths. Assuming his Seal allowed him to upgrade his healing aspect, he could make a minor increase into a moderate or major increase perhaps. If that was the case, then his jokes about being Deadpool started coming true.

“Huh… You know, DC really doesn’t really do characters with healing abilities,” Arthur muttered to himself. Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, the Flash… none of them were characterized by massive healing abilities. Was it then that DC creators were just a lot more healthy than Marvel creators? Or was there another reason for that disparity?

Not his problem.

Healing was definitely high on the list. Upgrading protection would mean something along the lines of his own Steel Skin, which was pretty good. Almost ever Climber, eventually, studied a protective technique. You couldn’t dodge everything, so having some upgrade – whether in the body or as a technique – was a necessity. While not as directly powerful as healing, it did increase their strength.

Then, of course, was the community aspect which was the most questionable bonus. He knew that they received a minor increase in cultivation speed in groups. It might also give some minor bonuses to shielding, perhaps. Maybe there were other bonuses that were possible, if one picked that up. But it was also most reliant on others, being, quite literally – a bonus for having others around.

As for increasing the type of quests available, Arthur discarded that thought almost immediately. For one thing, it was the least useful on an individual basis. Across perhaps a very large Clan, with multiple Towers, it might make sense. Especially if they had a large population of Clan members who were not interested in progressing.

But that wasn’t the Durians. It wasn’t what he wanted for the Durians.

So.

Protection or Healing?

“I wish there was someone to ask…” Arthur muttered. He knew it was still his own decision to make, but it would have been nice to bounce the decision off others and get additional input.

 "Can I wait?" A gentle push had the Aspect upgrade notification fade backwards. With another mental nudge, Arthur had the details of the Seal upgrade arrive.

 

Flaming Phoenix Seal Upgrade Available:

- Increase in Flame Trait

- Increase in Regeneration Trait

- Increase in Fowl Traits

 

"Fowl traits? That's just... foul!" Arthur pronounced the last word proudly, then looked around in the silence and sighed. Of course no one was around to admire his pun. Still, the intent was there too - no way was he going to increase his relations to the birdlike aspects. What was the point? 

"Wait... could we fly?" 

No answer, of course. That was a kind of expected, but still... that was not a gamble worth taking. Not with the other options available. And not with the potential downsides - like feathers!

Well, probably not. After all, there were no cases of any humans physically changing, at least from joining Guilds or Clans. There were cases of cultivation techniques and some rather esoteric enchantments and performance enhancers that did the same, but all of them required a conscious choice and a lot of training.

Improving the human form, sure.

Substituting it? Much harder.

Which, now that he was no longer joking, made him wonder exactly what else fowl traits could have. Lighter bones, claws, flying... those ere the things he remembered. You also had ostriches who could run really fast and penguins who could swim, but that wasn't as common. Great eyesight for the raptors, of course, beaks that could tear but... none of that seemed particularly useful for humans.

Perhaps he was missing something, but he wasn't exactly an ornithologist, was he? He was lucky enough to pick out damn crows and pigeons on the regular. Oh, and sparrows. Living in Malaysian cities, one did not see a wide variety of birds.

"Alright, flame or regeneration?" Arthur mused. It might seem obvious, especially considering he had the option to increase his healing characteristic from his Guardianship aspect; basically pushing healing even further for the Clan. That would make the group particularly tough, or at least pull more of his people out of the brink.

However, he could not help but wonder about the flame trait. 

He didn't have much working in that aspect. It was, if anything, the least directly impactful for him - but fire had always been a powerful element. Cleanser, destroyer, favored element of all too many Isekai heroes. There was a reason Fireball was an iconic spell and dragons breathed flame in most depictions.

Fire was just useful - even if they didn't need it to cook food anymore. It would give the Clan an offensive aspect, and while healing was all well and good, a good offense - or the ability to kill their opponents faster - was always going to be a benefit. 

However, the thing that worried Arthur the most was whether it would try to take an aspect from his own cultivation techniques and pass it on to the rest of the Clan. The Tower had done that with his healing technique, so would it need to do that here? If not, would it just give him a low grade cultivation technique that would then be added to everyone else?

Like Flame Fist or something like that? If so, then a low grade addition was only going to be helpful to Beginner Adventurers. A short-term gain.

Then again, his entire Clan was made up of Beginner Adventurers. 

Healing on the other hand... healing was going to be a significant boost, possibly. He still remembered how his most recent upgrade to his own Accelerated Healing ability hadn't transferred over. No reason was given, as yet; though he wondered if this was the way the Tower was hinting that he needed to upgrade his Seal in general.

That would make sense, in fact, to Arthur. That there was only so much he could pass on, even if he upgraded his own skills further. It made some sense to him, that the Clan Seal and Aspect's were limited by the grade of the Clan itself. Otherwise, he could possibly just push ahead really far, ignoring the Clan Quests and have a small, but elite group.

"Then again, there are groups like that, no?" Arthur muttered. 

Truthfully, he had no idea. He just knew he had a decision to make, and he'd been stalling long enough.