Chapter 462

Arthur groaned, staring at the numerous reams of books and techniques before him. He had been copying one down for the last few minutes, trying to comprehend the Heavenly Sage’s Beating Stick technique better so that he could increase his ability, all the while ‘sacrificing’ his time to the book spirit.

That was the sacrifice portion - it just required him to be focused and studying. It was also, semi-strangely enough, the way one attuned and studied the technique. Not to say there wasn't a specific flow of energy that he had to study and enact through his body, but that flow was not particularly difficult - not for someone who had picked up as many techniques as he had and the traits he had acquired.

If anything, the basics of the technique flow was rather too simplistic, though he understood the reason why. In many ways, the 'spirit' techniques of the Kuching Tower utilized a secondary source of power, the 'spirits' themselves to enact the techniques. So perfecting the techniques were more about the individual's dedication to the idea of the spirit, which could come in a variety of forms. 

The better the Climber was at embodying or sacrificing to the spirit, the more attuned one grew and the higher the levels of efficiency and power that would be passed on to the Climber. Worthwhile in some ways, especially for those who did not enjoy study at all. But a major negative, if one changed and altered their behavior or were not, for some reason, able to sacrifice to the spirits.

So, here he was, studying another technique so that he could acquire a new technique which was all kinds of amusing to him; but he figured he might as well make the most of it. The Heavenly Sage Beating Stick technique had been something he'd wanted for a while, after all, and the additional distance and empowerment would be useful on this floor. If nothing else, it meant that he did not need to utilize Imbue Strike each time he attacked, since the empowered staff - or spear in his case - would be sufficient to do damage.

It wasn't as powerful, or deadly, as some of the other techniques that were sold here; but it was enough. 

Arthur also had vague plans on actually studying the dimensional-shifting attacks, being that their penetrating abilities might actually be useful to add to his own Energy Darts and Imbued Strikes. In truth, adding a lot more techniques to his skillset seemed less important to him than amplifying on the ones he had. He figured a generally more narrow build, with variations on a single attack, would work better than spreading himself too thin.

Still, all that was vague ideas, floating around the edges of his focus while he worked hard at the pulling the technique together. Having committed – as best he could – to memory the flow of energy required and felt how the energy poured through his spear, similar but different to the way Imbue Strike worked; Arthur finally stood up.

There was only so much one could do whilst sitting down, and he could sense the spirit and his beginning connection fraying. He grumbled, trying to keep running through the thoughts as he headed for the rooftop, the only flat area in the building.

Once there, he began to go through his forms. Some fighters thought forms were silly, a foolish waste of time when you could be training ‘hard’. There was, to some extent, truth in that – pressure testing your techniques, pushing yourself through a variety of increasingly difficult circuits till you dropped – as there was a minimum standard of competency that was required.

However, the thing that most of those fighters forgot was that once you all achieved a certain level of physical fitness, of experience handling the rush of adrenaline and the rigors of combat, the winner of such contests – all else being equal, which it never was – was found in technique.

Technique that you could practice with others; but for the times when you were alone, when you needed to work on ensuring your hand did not drift out too far, that your head moved a fraction of an inch so that you took yourself off-line while striking; for foot placement and grinding the proper location of the body; there was nothing better than forms.

Done right, done slowly, done with intention, you could teach your body the right sequence, the right places to end up. You needed to be able to do it without thinking, to fall into the right location, the right place without picking the placement. Paired forms were even better, because you could learn to shift into the right placement to protect or attack; to angle the body or attempt tiny variations that might win you that half-inch of dominance that would punch a spear through a defense or slip a kick pass a dropped elbow into ribs.

In this case, it also helped to give him a way to go through his attacks, to utilize the new technique without thinking about what he was doing, to vary the attacks and positions to challenge himself and the use of the Heavenly Sage’s Beating Stick without consciously considering what his next action would be. Instead, he could focus on when it made sense to make the spear longer, when to shorten it; when to increase the size of the spear head or sharpen the attack and when to draw it back.

The imbued properties of the technique was powerful; but it was in the variations that Arthur felt it was going to be most important.

At the same time, another portion of his mind continued to run the second technique through, an ongoing invitation to the book spirit. It was a test, of course. Would a spirit of studious study be willing to accept physical study? The process of learning how to make the art sing; to take what was in a book work in the real world – did it count?

Through the testing, he was getting the feeling the spirit was grudgingly coming along for a part of it, the connection between us firming a little. However, there was this nagging sense in the connection, a tentativeness to it all that said that it was unlikely to last super long; that he suspected that he would only get a little leeway because he was training something that had come from a book. At a certain point, it would stop gaining any improvement in the connection from the spirit.

Then the question was, how long more could Arthur train before it stopped trying to firm up our connection, and the connection – his technique score if you would – faded away, breaking down because he was not sitting in a dusty old room, learning.

Not that any of the rooms in the Tower residence was dusty. It was, in fact, magically quite clean. Not the big garbage – they still had to care for that ourselves, but the small details, the dirt and dust that accumulated through existence did get cleaned by the Tower.

Next question, now that he was thinking of it – would it be a difference if he studied on the roof or would he make more of an improvement in his room? If they had a library, would he jump ahead then? Would that be the way to game the system? Something to be looked into, to ask others about. There was no point trying to rework a system that was already created and likely researched.

Lots of questions, but the good news was that Arthur had days, if not weeks to work them out.