Chapter 361 - Floor 9
Stepping through the paifang that marked the difference in floors brought no trumpets or musical accompaniment. It only gave him a small mental nudge, a notification from the Tower
Eight Floor Cleared. Entering Ninth Floor of Tower #STET
Nothing else, no useful information or anything. Still, it was good to see it confirmed which was why he had bothered to even read it. Now, he dismissed it moments later to check his surroundings. The ninth floor was much like the eight, giving the very same options in terms of pathways, but it added the annoyance of puzzles, more traps and even more roaming monsters.
The good news was, there was no timed event, no pack of wolves out to tear him apart if he took his time. The bad news was that the type, quantity and quality of the random, wandering monsters would increase as time went on. Not just plain creatures but an ever increasing number and quality, such that he would not just be fighting plain variations of the creatures but Alphas and min-Bosses soon enough.
Those who tried to farm the ninth floor for too long were likely to end up dying on it.
However, there was a reason Climbers wanted to stick around, and that was because of the trio of wandering Tower personnel of the ninth floor. A merchant, a hermit and a tinker were part and parcel of the floor. Of the three, the hermit was the most popular for he gave - if you passed his test - a cultivation manual or technique. The tinker on the other hand was much more variable, having a wide range of goods and services available. What you could get was always up in the air.
The merchant was simpler, but the most problematic since he required payment. Trying to kill him was a good way to die though. He was more a matter of luck to see what he had, though he had a more regular set of goods available unlike the others.
The biggest concern was where one could find each of the three. The hermit - the highest risk, but also the highest reward - was off trail. The peddler was most often found on trail, but that was ot always guaranteed. And the merchant was almost always on trail. Because of the increasing numbers of monsters, the question was where one wanted to take the risk.
And if one wanted to just head straight for the exit. This was where people like Casey, with her need to beat the clock suffered. She would likely head straight along the trail, moving as quickly as possible and using the fastest trail which was - on this level - clearly marked. On the other hand, that wasn’t necessarily the trail that either merchant or peddler would be on.
In the end, it was just a question of luck and persistence. And techniques. Certain cultivators went out of their way, building themselves to best make use of this period - adding extra sensing techniques, even going so far as to add tamed beasts or trackers to help them locate the three wanderers.
It was a short-term strategy as far as Arthur was concerned, though for those who had the time to build up an array of techniques, it was much more viable. Not for him, so he could only trust to his luck.
“And I’ve been decently lucky so far…” Arthur muttered to himself. Even getting tossed off the mountain had ended up with him getting the heart. On that note, what he recalled of the tinker drove him to think they would be the most useful to meet, their ability to work materials together at a reduced rate could get him what he needed faster.
On the other hand, a new cultivation technique - taught by the Tower's hermit - was a long-term benefit. It was the one the real risk takers loved to gamble on, but his recollection of the wiki details and the numbers run showed that maybe only one in fifty found him.
All of which meant, at least for him, that the road was the way to go. If nothing else, he wanted a bit of a break before he had to fight again.
***
Evening, night and morning again. Arthur had a late start, not because he was mentally recovering but because after his evening's rest, he had spent the rest of the time while waiting for daylight practising more vigorously the dual cultivation techniques. He tried, again and again, to force the techniques to combine, learning to guide flows of two full body techniques together. Normally, brute forcing it would not work but in this case, he was able to pull upon the desperate battle and moments of enlightenment, of switching between his techniques swiftly and reforming one Refined Energy Dart or Focused Strike after another, in an almost continuous stream.
Almost.
That was what he was working on, why he was late moving. Not being able to channel multiple full body techniques had nearly gotten him killed. He had though, perhaps, he could have done alright with just partial ones but it was clear it wasn’t viable if he wanted to get through the next few floors.
Or maybe not. Maybe he would be fine. He only had issues with the big wolf pack. The elemental had actually been easy. Relatively speaking.
Either way, he had been so close, he had learnt so much, he had pushed. As hard as he dared, till at last, as dawn ended and the day truly begun, he received the notification he’d been looking for. Moments later, managing and holding both full body cultivation techniques - his Accelerated Healing and Heavenly Sage’s Mischief - in mind, powering them through his meridians and flooding himself with both clicked.
Simultaneous Flow Technique Upgraded (200.1%)
Allows the use of multiple techniques at the same time. Increased understanding will allow the utilization of additional techniques. User may now hold and control two full body techniques at the same time.
That was it, but what it would mean for his fighting ability was significantly greater. Add on his increased understanding of the Heavenly Sage’s Mischief, increasing the boost from just 2 Body points to 3 now, and the desperate fight had helped tip him over on more than one thing. Almost worth losing a part of an ear for, really.
If anything, the loss to it might actually be good, since he needed to work on advancing his healing technique which has stalled. He just had to find the time.
Later.
Right now, he had to keep an eye out for the wandering monsters of the ninth floor. There were the usual, including the troop of monkey's that had chosen to trade fire with him. A Refined Exploding Energy Dart into their midst and then a bunch of slung stones had taught them what happened when they tried to harass him.
It was a bit of an expensive lesson, though he did manage to acquire a half-dozen monster cores after chasing them off, so other than the loss of time, it was a net win.
No leeches, thankfully, but a bunch of grasping leaves of a monstrous plant laid across the ground that enclosed upon his feet when he stepped on them had him jumping away, barely managing to evade them holding him tight and sining their barbs into his feet. Which would have been fine, except the damn road was also lined with a pit trap that he landed in the middle of.
Only quick thinking and the use of his spear to slow his descent before he managed to sink a hand into the earth long enough to climb out kept him from getting impaled on the stakes at the bottom.
The damn kuching hitam on the other hand, he did not manage to dodge. Its leap and claw attack had torn out part of his throat and a deep cut along his jaw and if not for the fact that he was running his healing technique and was able to patch his sliced pulmonary artery and vein together, he might have bled out, fighting the creature and dealing with the loss of blood.
As it stood, he still had to spend time cleaning himself off again.
After that, he kept Cloud Step running on the background, just in case he needed to get into the air again rather than hauling himself off the ground.
The ninth floor sucked, but so far, the monsters weren’t too bad. So long as he hoarded his power - and he needed to, after that fight - he would survive.