The salamanders, giant or not, were almost a footnote to the troubles the next monsters on the second platform caused for the team. They found themselves fighting through, slowly, forced to heal and sortie from embedded and fortified positions. Arthur knew that part of the reason for their glacial progress was his fault, for he had focused even more on attempting to improve the toxin and poison resistance in his techniques.
To his greatest surprise, Casey did not complain much. Instead, she and Lam focused on killing monsters as they arrived or on their own cultivation, building up their strength. It only took him a little to realise part of the reason why: for all their need for haste, the truth was that they were behind the curve too, like him. Rushing ahead meant they had less time to cultivate and strengthen their bodies, and while the use of monster cores and efficient cultivation methods might have allayed some of that, it could only affect so much.
In the end, time was what they all struggled with.
It was on the sixth day on the second platform, as the evening drew to an end that Arthur felt the click inside his mind that he had been searching for. With it came the insistent prodding of Tower information, notifications, and knowledge pouring in as he allowed the Tower access. It coursed through his mind, deepening his understanding of concepts he had been struggling towards on his own, altering minor scripts in his mind to refine the process.
It happened in the blink of an eye, and then Arthur's eyelids snapped open even as a grin spread across his lips. No one, however, was around to watch his triumph and he sighed moments later, closing his eyes as he allowed others to continue to cultivate or stand watch.
"About time," Arthur muttered to himself as he stared at the information. He waited, prodding at the Tower, wondering if there was any further update but could find nothing. He growled in frustration, trying desperately not to scream in anger or throw a tantrum as all his hard work failed.
Instead, he pulled at the Sigil information.
"YES!" Arthur shouted, jumping up. He lost control of the pull of energy he had been conducting while working on his Accelerated Healing skill, and the refined energy in the beast stone caused a backlash as he lost control of it. It made him drop the stone even as he felt a shock run through his body. He screamed a little, dropping to his knees and flexed the scorched hand.
"What?" Yao Jing jumped up, the man clenching his fist as he readied himself to fight. Unlike the others who were slow to come out of their cultivation, he had been only wielding Tower energy, making it simpler for him to exit the state of meditation and control he had been in.
"Nothing..." Arthur waved a hand. "Bad feedback."
"Oh...." Yao Jing relaxed, rocking back on his heels as he forced himself to calm.
"Wait!" Arthur said, eyes widening as he remembered. "I also got the refinement on the healing technique. Check your sigil!" He almost wanted to prance around, but the ache in his hands and along his arms stopped him. He could feel his healing technique working, fixing the problems and he gently guided energy over.
"Sigil?" Then Yao Jing realised what he was talking about and scanned within. While the man was reading it over, Arthur could not help but wonder if the sigil had changed for him. Perhaps it had. Hopefully it did... "Wah! Nice, boss!"
Arthur grinned, offered a thumbs up, and then winced as the pain from doing so shot through him. He shifted gingerly back into his seat and leaned against the tree, sprawling his feet out as he waited for his body to finish the healing process. The greatest problem with meridian burns and backlash from a bad cultivation session was that it was impossible—or at least, highly inadvisable—to use his healing technique to fix it. Pulling more energy into already strained meridians just added to the damage.
He needed to wait, and so he sat there, watching as Yao Jing proceeded to tell the rest of the team of the new boon. Arthur almost wished to talk but realised moments later that he was truly exhausted. Pushing, splitting his mind, forcing himself onwards for hours, days, on end suddenly came rushing in and he realised...
No. He was good just sitting here quietly.
Of course, that moment of peace and tranquility lasted just about twenty minutes before Mel came over and sat down beside him. He opened his eyes, noted her glance down to his arms still held before him in clawed fashion and waited for the chastisement. Yet, she didn't say anything. At least, not about his arms.
"You're at what? Version 3?"
"Yeah."
"Why didn't we get version two?" Mel asked.
Arthur grimaced and shrugged in answer.
"You should find out."
"Sure. I'll hit the library when I get back," he drawled.
Mel snorted, then glanced over to where Casey and Lam were watching the excited conversations going around them. The only ones not taking part were Rick, who was laid up and utilising the new technique's benefits to clear the infection in his arm from the latest komodo dragon bite, and Jan who was on watch.
"You want me to ask them," he said.
"Who else?"
No good answer there, but... "Asking means we owe them. If they have an answer."
"Not among friends."
"Are we, though?" Arthur muttered.
Now she shrugged and he had to admit she had a point. He sighed, pushing himself up to his feet with minor difficulty and wandering over to Casey. At her greeting, he smiled and nodded, then squatted beside her.
"That looks like it hurts," she said, before he could say anything.
"A little. Backlash," he explained.
"You shouldn't do two things at once," she rebuked him, but gently.
"So, do you know how sigils work, ah?" Arthur said, switching topics.
"A little. Why, ah?" She added the final intonation with a slight twinkle in her eyes, noting how Arthur had switched to Manglish.
"Tell me?"
"They're sort of a Clan's version of Titles. Wider-aspected but limited, unlike Titles. They're harder to get, but individually more powerful." She cocked her head to the side. "You have the phoenix. There's trickster, warrior, elemental, even animal sigils. Based off what the sigil means, you can tie in specific aspects, make it more powerful and prominent. Like the phoenix, you've got it for healing. But someone else might make it about the fire. Or longevity. Or even flight."
"Huh." Arthur frowned. "Only one aspect?"
Casey glanced over at Lam who stared ahead, stone faced. Arthur blinked, realising her non-answer was answer enough. "So, how do I make it more powerful?" He didn't want to mention it didn't tie in fully, though he wondered if she'd picked that up by now. After all, hard to miss how fast he healed compared to everyone else.
"No idea." Casey answered immediately, making him blink. "Not something I studied." Then she paused and added, "One interesting thing, though, is that it's a joint thing."
"What?" Arthur sad.
"Unlike Titles. Or maybe exactly like. You can get a World First Title, right, but most of them are for things the Guild wins or does, something big and important."
"Like clearing a Tower first, or killing an unkillable boss. Or finding a new, hidden aspect of a floor or Tower," Arthur said, confirming what she said.
"Right! But Sigils are things that, well, link to the entire Clan. So everyone can improve it. Might be that a majority are needed to make it possible."
"But it linked to my skill!"
"To start. You're always going to be the benchmark, but... the rest have to do their work too."
"So, everyone got the poison resistance improvement because… there's enough people poisoned?" he muttered, surprised.
"Close enough, I think." She shrugged. "A large enough majority. Or enough of you got poisoned regularly or... something."
Arthur shook his head. He knew the various floors had mild poisons, anything from the local equivalent of poison ivy to actual, dangerous poisons and toxins. But the entire clan had gotten injured enough that it was sufficient? It boggled the mind. Then again, it might explain why the sigil hadn't improved. If he was the only one with improvements in the technique, then there was no way for the others to push ahead.
Annoying but understandable.
"Oh, here." Seeing him quiet and thinking, Casey had dug into her pouch and come up with a foil-wrapped item. She handed it to Arthur who looked it over, frowning.
"Chocolate. Wait, durian chocolate?" he said, surprised. At the wide grin on Casey's face, he laughed softly and tore it open, careful not to send the chocolate flying and took the slightly melted mess into his mouth. Unlike what most might believe, durian chocolates weren't a horrid combination. The mix of sweetness and bitterness in both the durian and the chocolate complimented one another, though they were subtly different.
After all, Malaysia made a business of selling this to unsuspecting foreigners as tourist gifts. Couldn't scare them off with something that truly reeked.
Mouth full of chocolate, Arthur nodded thanks and wandered back to his seat, feeling the oils spread across his tongue, the warm smoothness fill his mouth. He sat back, closed his eyes, and tried to enjoy the treat.
After all, now they were really going to get moving.