The words flickered past Arthur’s gaze, too fast for him to truly read them. Instead, his body arched as he felt pain pour through him, his teeth gritting harder than ever as the Tower reached within him and altered . . .
Something.
He could not, now or in the future, put a finger on it. It went deeper than the physical and was more intense than even the alteration of his body to that of a cultivator. That first alteration, when he had entered the Tower, had just been physical and preparation for ongoing evolution as he drew in power from the world of the Tower.
This time it was not just physical but within the mind and soul itself, a pouring of power that altered not just who he was but how he interacted with the world. It was closer to the Yin Body alteration. The pain swept through him, encompassing all that he was, and then left, leaving him panting.
When he managed to recover enough to look over at Yao Jing, he found the big man slumped against the door, his eyes a little glassy. However, the man looked a little better off than he did. Arthur wondered if that was because he handled the pain better or if he had received a smaller dose of the change, what with being only a clan member and not the Clan Head.
That thought brought with it a new notification, details about the Aspect’s recent addition.
- Minor increase in effectiveness of protective, healing, and shielding cultivation techniques.
- Trivial increase in effectiveness of precision, speed, and bonding cultivation techniques.
- Variable increase in cultivation and refinement speed dependent upon the number of Clan Members within close proximity.
- Tower Quest types have been expanded.
“That’s . . . a thing,” Arthur said, with surprise. He was not entirely sure how he felt about the bonuses, couldn’t even say if it was good or bad. However, the benefits for protective, healing, or shielding techniques were nice. He didn’t have protective or shielding techniques, but his Accelerated Healing technique would certainly benefit.
And more speed was never a bad thing. As for bonding techniques, they could be useful. Certainly more than one cultivator had bonded with spirit animals, using them to gain significant power. There were disadvantages, though, what with having to feed and share beast cores, slowing down the cultivator’s progress. On top of that, the bonded pair often took characteristics from one another.
Still, the trivial increase in effectiveness probably meant it didn’t matter much. Of course, the entire thing about their Clan being ranked so low, and having such a bad rating might mean that they could, eventually strengthen that Aspect.
Certainly, the growth and synergy of additional Aspects and Sigils were a known factor even to him. Of course, it was more a discussion of the strengthened perks of being in a Clan, along with the varying degrees of strength an individual could get depending on their rank within the Clan.
“No ranks, or designation of ranks,” Arthur muttered as he acceded to the sharing of the aspect bonuses clan-wide and dismissed the latest notification. At least, not yet. Somehow, he had the sense that there were none to offer.
Not yet at least.
Which kind of made sense, what with there being only five people in the entire clan. He had thought there might be a rank for the person in charge of this floor’s clan building, but perhaps there were other requirements they had not met.
“Is this real, boss?” Yao Jing said, drawing Arthur’s attention back to the present.
“The Aspect bonuses?” Arthur said. “Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I mean, I offered to be your bodyguard and then—boom! I get all this bonus.”
“It’s for everyone.” Arthur gestured with his open hand, even as he extended his own senses to that weird connection he had to the Tower. It felt more prominent now, as though getting a clan seal and activating it had made the invisible connection more visible. Perhaps that feeling of connection would fade, now that the Tower was done altering him so violently. “We’re kind of focusing on being the good guys,” Arthur said. “Protecting people, that kind of thing.”
“Like, ah, white knights?” Yao Jing rubbed his nose. “Okay. Better than being a bastard, I guess. Though less profit.”
Arthur snorted. “If we get good at protecting people, maybe we can work that out too. Lots of merchant clans out there, you know.”
Yao Jing grinned at that. “Oooh, I like it.”
Arthur smiled in grim amusement. That grin disappeared the next moment when Yao Jing continued.
“But what do you mean ‘us’? I thought it was just you and me, boss.” Yao Jing tapped his chest. “Also, this connection thing feels sooo weird.”
“We have other members. People in my party.” He hesitated for a second before continuing to explain. “All members of the Thorned Lotuses. In fact, they’re going to be our main allies and clan members.”
“Nice! Real ladies’ man, ah?” Then Yao Jing frowned. “Unless they’re the ones that don’t like men. The angry type.”
Arthur could not help but snort. He had heard of them: they were said to be lesbians, as well as men-haters. Mel and Jan had both brought up that faction within the Lotuses as a potential problem, since Arthur wanted to integrate men into the Durians.
Not to say all lesbians hated men; Arthur wasn’t that ignorant to think so. But that faction banded together and . . .
“Not right now,” he said, more to himself than Yao Jing. “We got to go save them. My party, that is. Boss Choi threatened to torture and kill them. I figured if I could create this clan, we could get more help to stop him.”
“And boost your friends, right?” Yao Jing said, grinning. “Smart.”
“Yeah, that too.” Arthur shook his head. “I don’t know how much it’ll help, but it has to be worth something. Now, one last thing.” He breathed in and out, then allowed the last notification that had been waiting for him to flow through.