By unspoken agreement, the team had stayed in their new clan building for nearly a week. Arthur managed to get quite a decent degree into learning his new technique, the Poket Simpanan Tua. He was able to contain a bundle of energy in his middle dantian, though right now he was practicing keeping it contained and running. The biggest problem was whenever he tried to do anything beyond sitting still and concentrating on the containment.
At the same time, while he would have loved to progress in refining and cultivating at the same time, he had hit a dead end. Even if he had a second open dantian—and he could, with some degree of focus shift energy around—he was still struggling to keep the energies separated enough to allow him to refine and cultivate at the same time. The monster core energy was just too foreign, and the necessary shift from Tower energy to his own refined energy required him to pass it through meridians in his lower dantian. Till he worked out how to shift the refinement process and alter his Night Emperor cultivation practice to use the middle dantian as well, he could not do both at the same time.
Frustrating, but the continual process of pulling refined energy apart, bundling it, and containing it was awarding him progress in other things. Funnily enough, the Tower was giving him additional percentage points on his Simultaneous Flow technique and his Night Emperor—which hinted that he was learning something, even if he wasn't sure how it all fit together just yet.
Sort of like sorting jigsaw puzzle pieces while missing the big picture and doing it wearing welding goggles. Everything was a blur, viewed through tiny slits, but something was coming together.
Kind of like the Benevolent Durians.
Now it was time to get moving, to finishing off this level. So far, things had gone pretty well, and even if he wasn't as strong as he wished to be, Casey had gotten that impatient look in her eyes. So long as they stayed together though, they should be fine. Cultivating on next floor would also be more useful anyway, since there would be a higher density of energy up there. And it's not as though he was totally weak . . .
A twitch of his eye and a thought had his latest stats pull up.
Quite the expansion from when he started. It annoyed him that the Yin-Yang Energy Exchange never seemed to clear itself off his board of partially-learned techniques. If he ever had the time to practise, he would want to get it done. However, it degraded each time he progressed in any of his attributes or cultivation techniques, as his Yin Body altered even further and made it more difficult to make the technique work. He feared that even if he did ever learn it fully, it would eventually degrade anyway.
In the meantime, he had two full points to use. The first attribute point available he'd sunk in the moment they had arrived, upgrading his Body attribute so that he had a week to get used to it while they were in a safe environment. No reason to make it more difficult, especially as they took small jaunts outside to collect monster cores and break up the monotony.
Now, he had only one more point left to sink it into Body before getting another trait. So far, he'd leaned into a fast, nimble build. When he found the time, he'd probably look more into maneuverability options too, something to boost his speed even further—and strength, because speed came from strength too, like the Heavenly Sage's Mischief.
The question, as always, was to shore up weaknesses or to double-down on his strengths.
Swiftness made him generally faster, an overall boost. He had seen its effects, the equivalent of a few points of Body compared to others of his level. Add in his training and he was generally faster than opponents at his level, just because he didn't waste as much time moving what was unnecessary. Economy of movement.
Always an advantage.
Fast-twitch reflexes gave him explosive power. It wasn't like some of the other traits like Cat-like Reflexes that sped up how fast he reacted to things by shortening and speeding up the neutron impulses between muscles and brains. People who had those traits were great at the ruler-snatching, buzzer-smacking competitions. Fast-twitch instead made him more explosive when the signals reached his brain. It meant he could harness more energy, more explosive power. It basically made him hit faster and harder.
So, not just speed.
The obvious answer to all this was add Lightning Reflexes, Cat-like Reflexes, or Smoother Neuron Pathways or any of the other traits that did mostly the same thing. Add one of those traits to his Fast-Twitch Reflexes and he would be reacting and moving well before the majority of people on his level, especially those who didn't focus on speed.
He would even be faster than most of those who had gone through their third transformation, probably. He'd have to test it out himself to be certain, but it was a possibility. Even if he only matched their speed, it would keep him alive and then, it was a matter of skill. And techniques.
On the other hand, he could also make himself tougher, stronger, or more perceptive. Relying on his sight had a net negative, when so many creatures used techniques to blend themselves into the background or warped the very light around themselves. He knew that was a common method of hiding; so the options were, again, to double down on his sensing strategies—either expanding on them to add better hearing, for example—or upgrading Enhanced Eyesight further. Night Vision or Infrared Vision would add a weird halo effect to his sight, he knew, but would become even more useful at night. Night Vision just expanded his ability to discern in low-light conditions, while Cat Eyes was both disturbing and useful. It literally altered the shape of the face and eyes, which allowed the climber to take in more light like a cat’s eyes did. It was a subtle difference, but this trait came with an obvious physical tell.
In the end, Arthur could not help but think he should lean on pushing himself forward on the same pathway: speed. Eventually, he'd focus on upping his Spirit, adding to his cultivation speed and making it easier to manipulate energy. But . . . for now, greater speed was the way to go.
Pouring the refined energy into his Body attribute, feeling it ripple through him and affect his soul and nerves, and then choosing Lightning Reflexes had him shuddering a little, as the Tower rebuilt him. He knew the effects would be most stark now, but it would take a whole few hours to settle down as his Tower-made body completed its integration.
Before he could second-guess himself, he poured another point into Spirit, upping his ability to manipulate energy. He could feel its effects almost immediately as controlling the energy within him was made simpler. It did bring up the question if certain techniques were barred from use based off attribute minimums. Not directly, of course, but practically.
Something to think about for later. For now, he pulled up his stats once more.
Not a lot of Refined Energy left, but he would make do. He was nearly out of stones, so he'd just have to rely on other techniques. Perhaps, with his rather immense Energy Pool, he should consider learning the basic Energy Dart, which relied on Tower energy. It wasn't as damaging as his Refined Energy Dart, of course, but it had the advantage of making use of his large pool of non-refined energy.
Later. He'd worry about that later.
"We good to go?" he asked those around.
The team was looking fit. He could see the subtle changes of refined energy poured into their bodies. Sometimes a smoother flow of energy, sometimes in the spring of a step or a gleam in the eye. In Yao Jing's case, even more brawn. Seriously, he was beginning to look like Bolo Yeung, if he'd been fed on a diet of steroids and Tower energy since young.
Which, you know, don't do that.
"Waiting for you, boss." Jan as usual was the first to answer, grinning cockily. Something was different around her, and it took Arthur a moment to realise what it was. An aura, gathered around her, that made the air spark.
Oh, that'd be interesting.
"Then let's go."