By the time Rick, Yao Jing and his seniors managed to make their way back late at night; Arthur was in a significantly less than charitable mood. Having to deal with irate climbers who had just been tossed out of their home did that to you, especially when he had to tell some of them that he just wasn't going to rent a place to someone who just threatened to gut him and dance on his entrails.
After the third person who had been, firmly, told that threatening him was not going to get them a place and said people then removed by the slowly drifting over Tower Guard, the rest of the discussions had grown a lot less strident. Then again, they should never have let him start the conversations inside the lobby of the building, even if it was more comfortable.
A strategic error on their part, though Arthur assumed he was going to have to watch his back a little when he did go out. Not that being careful about potential threats to his life and limb had not been something he'd had to consider before. As it was though, random climbers had not been on his list of dangers.
"Had fun, all of you?" Arthur said, angrily to the quartet as they stumbled in. His eyes narrowed a little, noting fresh bruises and cuts on their faces. "Do I want to know?"
It was Leia who moved first, pushing Eric towards the stairs. Uswah who had slinked down, waved them upwards while muttering about the rooms that had been set aside for them. The building itself were a set of similar apartments, all of them nothing more than a large room with places to store armor and goods and a washroom. No kitchen needed, though there was a larger one on the ground floor for the few times people needed – or wanted – to cook.
The boys dealt with, she wandered over to Arthur. “We got into a fight. Some idiot has a cultivator technique, makes everyone in the bar drunk.”
“Seriously?” Arthur said.
“Yeah. Add in the actual alcohol and it makes for a good time. Till someone heard we were Durians.”
“How?” Arthur was suddenly envisioning a lot of signing songs with durians in it.
“Someone spotted Yao Jing’s crest on his shoulder.” Leia sighed. "He took his jacket off, getting relaxed. Someone wanted to know more, we started talking, then another person wanted to talk with us and then we had a few people. Someone got into it, angry about what they'd heard about us before."
"Heard about us?"
"We're a bit of a talk of the town. Rumors, you know."
"Anything useful?"
"We're owned by others. Branch family of the Chin's. Or a subset for the 66s. Or the Suey Ying. We killed all the Suey Ying on the first floor or third. Or fifth."
"Fifth?" Arthur said, surprised.
"Rumors. They don't have to be real, right." Leia waved a hand away as she flopped into a chair beside him. "Lots of questions, people who want to join us, or are angry with us. A few people wanting to tell us things."
"Sounds about right, really." Arthur sighed. "How did that become a fight?"
"Someone got into it with Yao Jing, about the Suey Ying. They wouldn't believe we didn't kill more of them, blamed us for the fact his little brother who was in there hasn't made it up. He was..."
"Drunk." Arthur sighed.
"Yes. He kept pushing, Yao Jing said something rather stupid - don't ask -" she cut him off before he could, "and well, he threw a punch. Then Yao Jing threw him. And then..."
"It became a brawl. And everyone got involved."
"Exactly." He frowned. "So what took so long?"
"Well, I mean, after the fight, and the cleanup, we had to find a place to relax."
"And not here?"
"Well, we didn't really-"
"You were avoiding this place!" Arthur said, seeing the tells, seeing the way she had spoken. "You heard about the trouble and you guys were avoiding work!"
"It sounded like you had everything under control. The rest was just..."
"Paperwork. Bureaucracy."
Leia smiled guiltily. "You know I hate that."
"And of course, all of you decided it was best to stay away."
He snorted. "Well, I'll figure out a way to make you all pay."
"Wouldn't expect otherwise." He grinned, and then she narrowed her eyes at the empty lounge. "What are you doing here, alone?"
"Work." Arthur muttered. "Just work. Go to bed, I just need to look at some things." He waved her off, waited till she was gone before he turned back to his status screen. A pull in that weird mental direction brought forth the information he needed.
A lot to upgrade. He had done well with the Seven Cloud Stepping Technique, though the new percentage numbers he had willed into it gave him an understanding - of the Tower's understanding of his understanding - of how much further he had to go before he could form a second step on the regular. That last ten percent though, that was going to be a pain and a half.
He did like the variety of techniques he had now, the way he had both a defense, a buff, a movement and a couple of attack techniques. He still needed, as he'd considered briefly, a debuff against others and an area control technique, though a more powerful attack technique or buff was important too. Both if he could do it.
On the other hand, his black spear had done well for him so far, and if he took the time to get it enchanted he might be able to skip getting a powerful attack technique since he could have it imbued in the weapon itself. A rather important consideration, since learning new techniques and sustaining them was the biggest issue.
He still couldn't really run more than two techniques at a time, and they had to be two different techniques that were active and passive - no two full body techniques like the Seven Clouds and his healing for example. He needed a lot more practise to get there, and while he thought he had an idea; he was sure there were other ways around it that he was not seeing. His methodology was likely the most convoluted method, but it worked for him.
And gave him access to the middle dantian, to store more energy. In fact, with the Pocket Simpanan Tua, he might even be able to store a cultivation technique within. So long as he kept it mildly powered up, he could give himself a quick boost or release an attack via his Refined Energy Dart within moments.
A huge advantage, especially as a surprise attack.
Talking of his Refined Energy Dart, it was rather surprising to him how much it had become his mainstay weapon. He couldn't afford to use it too much, because of how expensive it was to utilize - every time he released a Dart it was hours of meditation dribbling away. However, he'd managed to refine and alter the flow so much that he had a variety of attacks now, and hopefully, even more in the future.
If anything, he felt that continuing to utilize it and expand upon the Refined Energy Dart would give him a major advantage. It helped him learn about the Tower energy, his own techniques and how it worked together. Nevermind the advantage of having a ranged attack that did so much damage too, of course.
"So, do I finish the Pocket Simpanan first or work on the other options?" He really did need that area effect or area control method. He could, probably buy something from the Tower house here.
But the cheapsake part of him, the portion that had never had a lot, was wondering if he could do something else. He could not help but let his eyes drift upwards, to spot the attributes and their traits. Specifically, the one that had changed him the most, the one he had yet to explore as much.
A recent conversation with Uswah came to mind and he reached sideways, took the kris out of his side. His first enchanted weapon, his trusty knife and stabbing tool. It's Yin-poison was powerful and had saved his life more than once.
And he'd been thinking, he needed to expand his ranged attacks after all, get a debuff running.
So what if he combined the two? A Yin-based ranged attack, that could sink into his opponents? And more, if he could make it stick to his spear, add it to an enchantment that helped him damage the opponent more, what would happen?
He had to admit, for the first time in a while, Arthur was looking forward to finding out.