was for naught.

Arthur cleaned up soon afterward, pocketing the monster cores and heading for the crossroads. He stretched as he did so, rubbing his hands on his thighs to get rid of the last of the gumminess and eyed both pathways. As expected, there was a small sign right in the middle, similar to hiking signs.

"Mountain peak - 34km. Scenic Route to Peak - 53k," he read out loud, rolling his eyes. What did surprise him was the extra note, at the bottom of the scenic route. - Kampung Baru - 24km.

"A new village, might have some... dirtage?" Arthur scratched his head. How did you rhyme village? PIllage? "Oooh, a new village, to pillage!"

Well, with that kind of rhyme and thinking, it was obvious which way he had to go. And it wasn't that much longer, right?

Who was he kidding. This was going to take him a few extra days at a minimum. He would need to speed up, but that was for tomorrow. Today, he was going to take it easy, until he was certain he had a good grasp of the kind of random monsters, traps and nastiness that was waiting to mess up his day. Then, and only then, was he going to speed up.

Better safe than dead.

 

***

 

Half an hour later, Arthur was sprinting all out. Not because he was trying to catch up on lost time, or was running away from a monster. In fact, if he turned his head to the side, he would spot a half-dozen other creatures running beside him - from the kuching hitam to a small sounder of babi ngepit to a weird, warbling thing that was missing half its body but threw itself forward on its rotund other-half and pushed off with its sole leg and arm every time it finished its bounce and roll.

Every single creature was sprinting as fast as they could, all because of a ridiculous trap. Or just geographic hazard. Hard to say what triggered the event, since Arthur was almost certain he had not tripped or stepped on anything that would have caused it.

Even so, the landslide kept pouring heavy rocks and earth down on the group. Rocks that varied in size from tiny pebbles to rocks the size of his torso careened down around them, the initial edges of the rumbling mass striking with impunity.

A hard crunch, a pained squeal as a babi ngepit was taken down. The rock, twice the size of Arthur’s own fist had smashed into the monster’s leg, leaving it crippled. Not even its own sounder slowed down, the animal panic of their impending demise gripping the group tight as they sprinted to get away from the rocky cliff.

In the distance, Arthur could see the line of safety. An unnatural cessation of the rockslide, a magical barrier that bounced rocks and other hazards away. That was causing its own problem, as the area just ahead of the safe zone bean to fill with obstacles, boulders and uneven ground that would need to be traversed at speed.

Something to concern himself with later, when he reached it.

If.

Ahead, the bouncing monster - something from Chinese folklore Arthur was certain though he knew not its name - was half in the air, ready to come down when it was struck in quick succession by one, two and then a third rock as it was diverted.

Suddenly, it was no longer headed for the narrow but firm trail, but directed into open space to their left. As the dust from the stirred air choked him, Arthur could swear the creature met his gaze, despair writ large before it plunged off the end of the curving trail.

Foot hit the ground, hard, rock nearly turning over under Arthurs own feet. He shoved and stumbled, righting himself a moment later, ignoring the constant beat and ping of rocks striking him. Something sharp cut across his face, drawing a stinging line across his nose and nearly taking out an eye, and all he could do was run.

A hundred meters never felt so far.

Another strike, across the head from a rock threw him off a little. He kept moving, arms pumping, his backpack swinging behind him as he tried to keep his spear tucked in close. Once again, he wished he had a magical storage ring, something to keep his weapons and gear magically put away.

None of that for him, of course, so he had to risk his spear getting yanked out of the way, the backpack struck, his own body thrown around.

A particularly large boulder bounced ahead of him, slamming into the earth. Without thought, Arthur triggered his Cloud Step as he leapt, bouncing off the formed cloud just moments before impacting the rock so that he was in the air again.

He knew it was a bad idea in a way, but with enough clearance above the ground, he was, he believed, safe enough from falling hazards. They were still coming down, all around him, driving into the earth. In mid-air, with nothing but his techniques to pay attention to, he risked a look upwards.

Saw the massive amount of rock still coming down, the knowledge that if he got caught in it, he’d probably be so much squished Climber.

Then, finally his feet struck the earth again. Ankle turned under the uneven ground, but adrenaline and fear kept him moving, even as a lightning bolt of agony raced up his shin. Around him, more of the creatures had fallen by the wayside even as a sharp s-turn came up before the end of this race.

A turn that was already half-filled with bouncing rocks, a choking cloud of dust that took out even his eyesight and only a few seconds left before the entire mountain came down.

 

Arthur raced into the cloud of dust and debris, fallen stone and broken branches pelting off his body. Head bent low, eyes squinted tight, sucking in breath through his teeth in the hope of not choking. Heavenly Sage's Mischief was burning through him, forced to pour ever faster through his body, to soak muscles and tendons in energy to give him additional strength. Cloud Step was at the ready, for the inevitable moment when he needed to take to the air.

Didn't matter.

He saw the squat boulder, still rocking as it came to a stop, a moment too late. His front foot struck it, toe first sending a jolt of pain as he crushed his tiny appendage. Moments later, his forward momentum had him bowled over as he went over the rock. An attempt to turn the fall into a roll managed to have him slam his forearm into the ground, such was his momentum. Instead, he fell to the with a crash that he transformed into a bloody slide through sheer dint of velocity.

One of the disadvantages of greater than human speed and velocity - momentum and physics still played their part.

He pushed himself upwards, was slammed into from the side and forced to roll as a sharpened tusk and maddened boar struck him. It luckily didn't pierce his armour, but it did cost him time once more.

Too much time, as he staggered to his feet and was struck by another rock on the shoulder, strong enough to almost crack his collarbone. Over twenty feet to his destination and clouds and rocks all around him, time slowed down as death approached.

No choice.

He ran, pushing forwards and sideways, edging as far away from the rock face as possible. Bouncing rocks coming down all around struck at him, battered his footing, nearly took him out as he leapt into open air. A head turned sideways, his REED blasting apart a boulder before it struck him, pelting him with shards of stone.

Falling, falling, falling, the world coming by him.

Five, six, seven feet closer.

Then, he triggered his Cloud Step, vaulting upwards with all the strength that he could pour into his jump. Muscles burning with Tower energy as it empowered his movement, the second cloud already forming as he neared the edge of the rock, open air beneath his feet as the second turn in the S of the trail came up and freedom from the trap.

Another leap, throwing him upwards only for an unseen boulder to strike him in the side and slam him off course, back into open air.

At least it pushed him forward.

***

The last of the rumbling ended, only a few last rocks falling down around the trail. Dust continued to rise, but visibility increased, such that one might, if you looked close enough, spot a much put-upon Climber. His spear was sunk deep into the clay earth of the trail, a bare twelve feet from the top of it, but with nothing to grip.

Right hand hung limp by his side, shoulder dislocated, blood running from minor cuts across his body. A foot juddered, trembling back and forth as adrenaline ran its course. Beneath the figure, a hundred foot drop.

Arthur groaned, switching over to his healing technique once again. Within moments of the technique working, his shoulder audibly and noticeably wrenched itself back into position, eliciting a loud cry of surprise and pain from him. If you never had a body part slip back into place, outside of the pain, it was more surprise. The feel of bone moving against bone was disconcerting to say the least, like watching your mother kiss your adult brother on the lips.

Icky and weird and not to be repeated if at all possible.

Just as importantly, the healing technique helped refresh his muscles, allowing him to hold on easier. The lactic acid buildup that had been on-going had faded, the agony of holding over two hundred plus pounds of weight, all of which was getting battered constantly by stone and branches and other debris, from one hand disappeared.

Now, all he had to do was figure out how to yank his spear out and get to the top of the ledge.

A real problem, if he didn’t have Cloud Step.

With it, the issue was significantly simpler. A yank on the spear as he got his leg against the cliff, then twisting around and reforming a Cloud Step beneath his feet to leap upwards directly. Once he reached the apex of his jump, he formed a second cloud and jumped ahead.

Somewhere in all that rushing around, fighting and surviving, the last little iota of knowledge had formed and the next step in his Cloud Step technique had triggered. Now, it was easier than ever to create two clouds. A third would take time, and he’d have to start practising, but he had a few more that he needed to finish - including a whole new cultivation method to improve his mental defences he hadn’t even poked at yet.

Later.

 

Cultivation Speed: 2.773 Yin

Energy Pool: 14/30 (Yin) + (5/7)

Refinement Speed: 0.1421

Refined Energy: 0.14 (40) +(0/3)

 

Attributes and Traits

Mind: 15 (Multi-Tasking, Quick Learner, Perfect Recall)

Body: 25 (Enhanced Eyesight, Yin Body, Swiftness, Fast Twitch Faster, Lightning Reflexes, Explosive Strength)

Spirit: 15 (Sticky Energy, From the Dregs, Strengthened Aura)

 

Techniques

Night Emperor Cultivation Technique

Focused Strike

Accelerated Healing – Refined Energy (Grade III)

Heavenly Sage’s Mischief

Refined Energy Dart

Bark Skin

Seven Cloud Stepping Technique (200.7%)

Pocket Simpanan Tua (139%) (Empty)

Imbued Strike - Yin Poison

Yin Aura (Level 1) (114.8%)

 

Partial Techniques

Simultaneous Flow (200.1%)

Yin-Yang Energy Exchange (95.3%)

Yin Poison Darts (50.4%)

 

No improvement on the Simultaneous Flow but that wasn’t surprising since he hadn’t even tried to work on that. The Yin-Yang Energy Exchange continued to creep up. Eventually, he’d learn it and then shifting from his Yin energy to Yang or the vice versa would be much simpler. On a day-to-day basis, it made little difference, other than speeding up his cultivation technique a tiny amount.

Or, and he was not going to use it, using his very body to empower Yin based attacks.

Considering he had few enough of those right now, there was no point in worrying about that. Even the poison-lulling effects were not that good he was going to sacrifice portions of his very being for it.

It was interesting to him that Simultaneous Flow was still categorised as a partial technique. One wondered why, and if there was something else that he was missing by utilizing it in the manner he did. Was there an improvement, perhaps, that he was missing? In the end, he had no answer.

At least for now. It'd be a research project for when he exited the Tower, but to do that...

"I got to get moving. Or I'll be losing," Arthur muttered, levering himself to his feet.

One last look at the destroyed trail. There was an entire section that looked like a newly built slope. Potentially walkable, with the right kind of movement method but his Cloud Step was not it. And considering exactly how unstable the entire thing looked, running for it was the way to go.

On the other hand...

"I got to get faster," Arthur muttered. Nearly being bowled off the side of a mountain was as precarious as driving on the fourth unofficial lane on the two lane Sungai Besi highway. The one that was on grass next to the emergency lane and a half foot from the concrete river.