The beast bounding through the woods was not what you'd normally consider an existential threat. The sang kancil were tiny deer normally, folklore leaning on their cleverness rather than their strength to win out against their various opponents. As such, the fact that the ones coming after him were coming in a pack and wielded Tower energy smoothly was a little bit of a surprise. Not a huge one, since they were a semi-common problem, but still a surprise.
No elemental energy, no wind or fire, but pure blue coursing power shot outwards from the creatures, forcing Arthur to block and move. He swung the spear hard, watching the tip slow a little when it struck the pulsing blue light that defended the deer but shattering it moments later as its own enchantment worked.
A long slice, fur and flesh opening, blood leaking on the ground. A small plaintive cry, similar to a bleat but still quieter and more endearing in a way.
If not for the fact that Arthur was also bleeding from a half-dozen other strikes that had punched through his armour by virtue of bypassing it on an energetic level. So he was bleeding into his armour from the inside, with no holes outwards. Even if he had bought new armor, it would have done nothing to protect him in this case, which made him feel a little better about the entire thing.
Not that he was the only one bleeding - most of the sang kancil had at least one, if not a few wounds littering their body. The small creatures were so fast, that even when he managed to break through the defensive Tower energy, they were still able to jerk their body out of fatal strike.
On the other hand, that also meant that he had a chance to see how the Wounding bleed effect work. initial observations said very well. Wounds - especially in the heat of battle - weren't closing, the constant movements widening the attacks, blood flowing and pooling all around. More, even minor effects that would have clotted or slowed the bleeding down had not stopped, meaning that the ground all around was soaking.
A minute into the fight, one of the sang kancil stumbled as it tried to attack Arthur, sinking to its four knees. The tiny deer creature was ignored, as it fell over sideways, unable to stand any further. Not long after, another dropped. A too slow reaction saw Arthur putting his weapon into a body and then crush a head with the haft, as both opponents grew too slow to react.
After that, killing the few survivors was simple. Even better, the harvesting knife yanked and deposited the stones with a simple cut - one that he found worked very well even if he used, for example, the eye. Or an open wound. Which meant he didn't even have to work too hard at sharpening the weapon.
"Nice..." Arthur muttered to himself. The only real difficulty had been keeping his new aura out, because the vague impressions he got in battle was actually quite distracting. Till he got used to it, he would not be utilizing the aura for fighting. More than once, he'd dodged or twisted his body in anticipation of an attack he thought might come, only to be fooled by a dipping branch or a feint that entered his sphere of perception.
No, the Shadow Sense ability would be useful - but unlike what others might think or show in movies, such things took time to study and integrate. Which was partly why he'd wanted to acquire that now.
"Well, I guess I'm DOT man," Arthur said, turning away from the bodies. Between his Yin Poison knife, his Yin Aura - Poison and Imbued Strike - Yin Poison and now, the bleed effect from his spear, he was definitely a long-term, Damage over Time kind of fighter. Sure, he could end the battle if he got lucky; but it was more likely he'd just end up bleeding and poisoning his opponents to death.
Not a bad thing, but for the fact that he either needed to increase his evasiveness or tanking ability. Shadow Sense gave him better chances to dodge, but Bark Skin increased survivability of attacks. Of course, he always envisioned himself more like Sun Wukong – fast and powerful and deadly.
He still had those skills, just that he didn’t have the penetrating power of the monkey king just yet. One day…
“For now, got to move, and see if we will lose; to the monsters who wander, all over yonder.” Putting his spear on his shoulder, he started walking again, cutting through the land. As he did so, he kept an eye out for signs, for anything that would give hint to the hermit.
Unlike the stories that spoke of hermits in the mountains, cultivating away to gain immortality on air and cloud and nectar of the bees, the Hermit in the Tower needed a little more than Tower energy. They needed cores to keep them going, because they could not exist just on the paltry amounts of power that suffused a Beginner Tower, they needed clothing and sharpened knives and wood to make fires. They needed water, to take the occasional bath in.
In other words, they left their caves, to hunt or forage or to travel. Which meant that were signs, if one knew what to look for. And while Arthur wasn’t a tracker, in the time in the Tower, he had picked up some little skill too at tracking, what with the need to find monsters, work out where his friends were going or had gone, look for potential ambushes and most importantly, make his way back.
Familiarity helped as well. Over time, understanding what was unusual or different became part and parcel of one another. Like seeing a gweiloh wandering near a squatter encampment, or a datok's daughter going to a sketchy KTV for a thrill. People in the wrong place, things misplaced.
Though, Arthur had to admit, all his examples were people. He always paid attention more to that than things, because people moved and hit and spoke out of turn. Wrong types of shoes, sporty cars, flashy mobile phones - interesting to note, not directly dangerous. Sometimes, they were just camouflage too.
Like the salamander on the tree that he pinned with his staff, punching through its body and then, yanking it close to cut its throat with his harvesting knife. Holding it all together for a few more steps, waiting for the slight shiver in the blade to tell him that the creature had died enough for the stone to be ripped apart and then he tossed it away.
Funny enough, how mortal camouflage mostly went one way. Dressing up to look rich. Few tried to dress down, to look poor. Said something about their world, really, where everyone tried to get into the right places, where the few jobs that weren't automated still existed.
Idle musings, as he scanned the world around, hiking through the woods. Sweating and drinking of his water regularly. Never too deeply, never too much. Keeping an eye for the occasional fruit tree that he could utilize, bananas and berries and maybe, if he was lucky, even durians.
Not that they were that common, all in, but it was better than nothing. He didn't need the salts, the potassium and all the other minerals he sweated out, not when the Tower imbued his body with the necessary items. But just like with food, adding food itself or water helped reduce the draw.
Idle thoughts and an overall focus on the world around him. That was going to be his next few days, while he searched for the Hermit or signs of him, while hopefully avoiding any major encounters with a group of monsters.
At least, so far, those annoying fire moose weren't around. The most illogical of animals created by the Tower, he had never met.