Chapter 91

Accepting the notification and agreeing to it was just a matter of relaxing his mind. Arthur let the Tower display the information he had been waiting for. The Aspect might have given them an overall boost, but he had ideas for the Sigil—and this one he intended to use for himself. Even if it would benefit everyone too.

“What the ever loving, stinky tofu is this?” Arthur cursed.

“Problem, boss?” 

Arthur shook his head, choosing not to answer. Mostly because he wasn’t sure what the point was. Of course, a swift poking at the Sigil options gave him no additional information. No surprise there. Which meant he had to do all the guessing purely from the Sigil names presented.

What the Dauntless Shield did was at least clear enough. Protection. Probably another bonus to protective cultivation techniques. Very useful if he had something that boosted the toughness of his skin, or made his bones harder to break, or anything like that.

But he had no protective techniques and no idea when he could acquire something like that. The Shield did, however, have the advantage of working in close conjunction with his Aspect, so both of them boosted together could make for a very powerful combination. Something to think about.

For later. Not the most useful now.

Moving on, the idea of foxes having more than one tail was a very Japanese thing. He wasn’t sure that it was something present in Chinese culture. Then again, Malaysia had been a melting point of cultures for long enough—and a certain highly popular anime with nine-tailed foxes had influenced large swathes of kids—so that was not too surprising to see. The question was this: Was this Two-Tailed Fox a creature of strength or one of wily cunning? Because traditionally, that was what foxes were. Tricksters.

Arthur found himself drawn to the idea of a trickster Sigil. It could provide many benefits and aid him in ways that didn’t require direct confrontation. Sure, his life might have become one of constant violence, what with the hunting of spirit beasts in the Tower, but he certainly hoped that it wouldn’t remain just that.

Otherwise, the kind of person he might become was not worth thinking about.

Still, there was another option in there and it was intriguing. Again, there was a slight problem of cultural bleed. Was the Flame Phoenix spoken of here the western phoenix, a creature that died and was reborn? Or a Chinese phoenix, which was immortal but kept itself hidden? Did he gain strength in healing and resurrection perhaps, or could he hide and influence luck or fate itself?

“Never going to make it easy, are you?” Arthur muttered under his breath.

No answer from the Tower, of course. That was the way it went, he guessed. Either way, the phoenix was a powerful mythical creature in either culture, ranked as strong as a dragon in Chinese culture. Perhaps not as much in the West, though he had heard some people compare phoenixes to thunderbirds in Native American mythologies. And those were strong too.

More importantly, at least to Arthur, he had a powerful cultivation technique that focused on healing. An aspect that he could see the phoenix being part of. If it boosted his Accelerated Healing technique, he could maybe upgrade his healing skill further. 

How cool would it be to wander around, getting stabbed, head chopped off, and limbs broken, all the while cracking jokes? He’d have to work on his witty repartee of course, but a man had dreams. And not just about Ryan Reynolds’ ass in spandex.

Moving on.

Arthur flicked his gaze over the three options once more. He wished he had more time to decide, but perhaps it was for the best. If he had more time, he might get stuck with analysis paralysis, trying to discern greater meaning from insufficient information. Outguessing the turning of luck and fate to no avail.

It was the thought of second chances that drove him on to his decision. Second chances, advantages to being regal and righteous, and the healing technique he already had. “Maybe I’ll get another chance if I guess wrong,” he murmured.

Decision made, the Tower’s workings pulsed through him. Tearing his body apart, connecting his clan crest to the other members. This time around, the pain was less than before. For him, at least. To his surprise, now that he was not the one screaming his head off, he managed to watch as Yao Jing slumped, pounding both hands against the door as the pain coursed through him.

Long before Yao Jing recovered, Arthur found new notifications appearing before him.

“That’s it?” Arthur muttered, surprised. He had hoped for more, though he had expected this much. Even hoped for this much, though he had desired a greater change. Still, an improvement in his healing technique was amazing, and a mental prod brought up further information on that.

“I wonder what it would take to get there? From here?” Arthur muttered.

“Get where, boss?” Yao Jing asked.

“Oh, umm, regeneration of limbs,” Arthur said.

Yao Jing grinned, rubbing at his left shoulder. When Arthur raised an eyebrow, he shrugged sheepishly. “Clan crest still hurts.”

“It’s on your shoulder?” Arthur said, surprised. He had wanted his crest on his shoulder. Now that his attention had been brought to it, he found himself flexing the fingers of his left hand, the burning sensation still subsiding. Hopefully nothing else would require the Tower to burn more imprints on him. His nerves, his soul, still felt a little raw.

“Better than my back, right?”

“You get to choose?!” Arthur froze, noting how his voice had kept rising as he spoke. He forced himself to cycle his breath a few times, pushing down the irritation. While he did that, Yao Jing’s own gaze had flickered away, tracking information he received.

“You sure you not a dream, boss?” Yao Jing said.

“What? No. Why?”

“Just, this is the kind of thing I wanted to learn,” Yao Jing said. When Arthur stared at him inquiringly, Yao Jing shrugged. “I got reasons to learn healing magic. And to answer your next question: To grow back limbs, you need Grade Five healing techniques.”

“Five?” Arthur shook his head. That was a long way away.

“If you want to regrow limbs on other people, then you need a different technique,” Yao Jing added. “This one won’t let you heal others, only yourself.”

“I know,” Arthur said.

Yao Jing nodded, shrugging. “Still good to learn. Complimentary, right?”

Arthur nodded in agreement. Seeing that Yao Jing was recovered and done reading his own notifications, Arthur gestured at the door. His companion raised an eyebrow, prompting him to explain.

“It’s time for us to get going. Got things to be doing. Allies to gather and threats to shatter,” Arthur said. 

“Going to smash the Suey Ying?”

“If I have to. Or make them back off.” A hand reached down to brush the kris by his side, a part of him wondering how likely that was going to be. 

Probably not likely at all. But he had to try. Or kill them, trying.