Chapter 502

The next Beginner Tower that he chose to visit was in Bangladesh. There was very little reason for it, beyond the fact that there was a direct flight out from one of the budget airlines, it left within hours and they were quite willing to accommodate Climbers with all their gear.

This time around, only a few of his usual team were coming with him. Yao Jing and Jan and Rick were on this trip, with the remainder of the team holding back to deal with the numerous problems he was leaving behind. Casey had no desire to enter a Tower that soon, and had jobs of her own and the same with Mel and Uswah. Rick, on the other hand, just made a few calls and called it a day, being the young master that he was. That was not, however, the only group coming since there were quite a few other prospective and full Clan members who had chosen to make the trip too.

While they were all compressed on the plane, with Rick grumbling about being forced to sit in cheap economy seats, Arthur took the time to review his own status sheet. It had seen no significant changes since his exit from the Burma Tower, but compared to where he had been just a short seven months ago; he knew he had progressed a lot. After breaking through the second threshold, his third transformation of body, mind and soul, minor things like imbalances in the body had faded. He was significantly more balanced than ever before, with the ten point spread that he had emerged from the Kuching Tower being less of an issue.

Still, he had not been happy with only minor deviations, so he had spent his time in the Burmese Tower rebalancing mind and soul ratios. It also had the benefit of increasing his cultivation speed, which was never a bad thing.

 

Cultivation Speed: 5.01 Yin

Energy Pool: 40 (Yin) + (7/7)

Refinement Speed: 0.2791

Refined Energy: 0.163 (54) +(3/3)

 

Attributes and Traits

Mind: 26 (Multi-Tasking, Quick Learner, Perfect Recall, Intuitive Leaps, Pattern Recognition) 

Body: 35 (Enhanced Eyesight, Yin Body, Swiftness, Fast Twitch Faster, Lightning Reflexes, Explosive Strength, Deceptive Build, Enhanced Senses)

Spirit: 25 (Sticky Energy, From the Dregs, Strengthened Aura, Resonant Energy, Drip Refinement)

 

Techniques

Night Emperor Cultivation Technique (94.3% compatibility)

Focused Strike (147.3%)

Accelerated Healing – Refined Energy (Grade IVe) (23.1%)

Heavenly Sage’s Mischief (193.2%)

Refined Exploding Energy Dart (201.3%)

Steel Skin (142.7%)

Seven Cloud Stepping Technique (376.9%)

Poket Simpanan Tua (211.3%) (Refined Exploding Energy Dart 32% Integrity)

Imbued Strike - Yin Poison (156.8%)

Yin Aura (Level 1) (173.2%)

Yin-Yang Energy Exchange (121.7%)

Simultaneous Flow (376.9%)

Book Spirit of Diligent Study (131.8%)

Shadow Sense (167.9%)

Heavenly Sage’s Heaven Beating Stick (138.9%)

Yin Poison Darts (107.3%)

Eleven Pagodas of Thought and Defense (106.6%)

 

 

Partial Techniques

Water Walking (83.1%)

 

The entire sheet was in fact getting quite unwieldly. Some of the techniques he had studied and gotten used to had become much less important to him, while others, like the Yin Poison Darts had become particularly fun. In fact, the new poison darts not only could infect individuals with Yin energy but actual poison, depending on which particular variation he infused the darts with.

There were some basic increases, including growing compatibility with the Night Emperor Cultivation method. That had allowed him to breach the five point cultivation speed and even saw some minor increases to refinement speed too. Problem was, he was fast coming up to the point where the Night Emperor method was no longer of use, or could not further be improved.

He would need to find techniques to bolster his cultivation techniques entirely, or better yet – a whole new cultivation method. While the Night Emperor methodology might work for Beginner Towers, it was insufficient for an Intermediate Tower. If he did not find one in an Intermediate Tower, he would suffer. Good news was, he might be able to purchase one from the Tower itself, depending on which Tower he went to and how he gathered his contribution points.

Which was, for the moment, the plan.

Along with raising his Mind and Soul attributes to be closer in line with his Body attribute, Arthur had also gained new Traits for them. He had debated which ones to purchase, but eventually went with Pattern Recognition for the Mental side. It boosted things like his perfect recall, intuitive leaps and multi-tasking abilities, in particular helping him understand and control the significant amount of information that arose from dealing with cultivation information.

For his Soul traits, he had picked up Resonant Energy. It was a strange upgrade, which allowed certain of his attacks to pass through some forms of energetic barriers and aura. It also had the advantage of allowing his projected energies to last longer or shorter, depending on the resonance he built in them. Combined with his Refined Exploding Energy Darts, he was working on creating a combined, Refined Poisoned Exploding Energy Dart skill, one that basically let him shoot explosive energy darts at his opponents. If the explosion didn’t kill them, the poison might.

On top of that, his other upgrade had been Drip Refinement. That was more of a passive trait, that worked in the background. Unlike normal refinement methods, drip refinement altered his soul and physiology such he gathered a miniscule amount of refined energy each moment. It was, in fact, miniscule and most days Arthur barely even noticed the alteration in his levels; but he knew if he managed to get a better cultivation method or added more traits, it could boost his total refinement levels significantly. It had also the advantage of forcing him to continue refining energy even when he was out of the Tower – which, of course, had its own disadvantages.

Still, he took the good with the bad.

Mostly, he hadn’t acquired any new techniques in the previous Tower, instead focused on improving his existing ones. The only one that he had learnt new, and it was one from their own libraries, had been a mental defense technique. It had been mildly useful in the Burmese Towers – there were a few creatures that could affect the mind and cause confusion, similar to being high or drunk. Part of that was intensified by the poisons the creatures had used, which had also increased his Accelerated Healing ability, giving it the upgrade it had needed.

In fact, Arthur pulled up both pieces of information to review.

 

Eleven Pagodas of Thought and Defense

A memory and mental defense technique, the Eleven Pagodas create a mental fortress within the mind of the cultivator, defending important pieces of information, control and intentions from outside influence and control.

Cost: Passive / Variable

 

He only had one pagoda right now, but like the namesake; each pagoda was made of multiple floors. The first only had seven floors, the next that he was building had eleven. Supposedly, each level of the technique would force his opponents to assault and then progress through the pagodas.

 

Accelerated Healing – Refined Energy (Grade IVe)

Passively increases base Tower healing rates by 117.3%

Active use of technique increases base Tower healing rate by 332.8%

Healing may now be directed

Variant technique increases resistance against toxins and poisons by base healing level % (passive) or 75% of active level

Variant technique increases resistance against elemental effects by 19% (passive)

Variant technique allows regeneration of minor loss to limbs and body parts at 0.3% (active)

May not replace major loss to limbs or body parts, or other major permanent injuries

Active Cost: 0.1 Refined Energy per ten minutes

 

The major upgrade that transferred over some benefits to his Clan was the way that toxins and poisons were fast becoming significantly less dangerous for them. Not entirely, of course; but anything that was lethal at low doses could be ignored entirely.

It wasn’t a full immunity yet, but it was close.

Arthur was quite happy, in truth with how he was growing. However, there were gaps in his fighting techniques, in his ability to manage a fight, and he was looking forward to patching them up in the next tower.