Samantha awoke with a pounding headache and aching muscles. Though her eyes were still closed, a system notification shone in her mind’s eye. The message had apparently been waiting patiently until she could consciously address it.
Your efforts to improve yourself have borne fruit! Training to master your body movements in combination with pushing your body beyond its current limits has granted +1 to Agility.
She quickly pulled up the relevant section of her profile to check the changes.
Name: Samantha Cray
Age: 17
Attributes:
Aptitude (Approximate Max Value):
Strength: 6
Low (9)
Agility: 8 => 9
High (16)
Endurance: 8
Average (13)
Resilience: 6
Low (9)
Despite her current predicament of feeling like a horse had kicked her in the head, the news of her advancement managed to lift her spirits somewhat. The next thing she wanted to do was contact Silas, but no matter how she tried, the mental communication seemed garbled and unclear. She could tell that he was alive and in pain like herself, but nothing more. She’d reach out again later after her head hurt less.
Reluctant to move and cause herself further pain, she first cracked open her eyes to get a feel for her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that she was no longer within the arena circle. Instead, light from a qi-powered lantern that hung from a canvas tent roof greeted her. Muted conversations were coming from somewhere nearby, but she was finding it difficult to concentrate on the voices long enough to parse the words, not to mention the dull ringing in her ears that threatened to drown out all other sounds. It took a minute for her to reason out that she must have been taken to the medical tent after her bout.
Resigning herself to the impending discomfort, she slowly attempted to sit up. That is, until the resulting nausea and dizziness promptly kicked her back down into the prone position. She shut her eyes and took some deep breaths to suppress the bile she felt rising in the back of her throat.
“You… this the best... can do? She... sick... from... sit up!” someone accused, their voice drowned out in places by the ringing.
“...injury… extensive! ...frankly astonishing... dead.” another replied, sounding tired and irritated.
More heated words were exchanged, but Samantha tuned them out as she concerned herself with the dangerous rumbling in her stomach. Luckily, before she was forced to throw up on herself, strong arms eased her up into the sitting position and placed a foul-smelling bucket in front of her. The unexpected scent was too much for her already struggling self-control and pushed her over the edge, her stomach emptying itself into the container.
A cold sweat broke out over her entire body as she tried to halt a relentless rhythm of dry heaving. After a few minutes she was finally able to get her body back under control, and the bucket was blessedly taken away from her and replaced with a cup of medicinal smelling tea. The unique purple color was something she had never seen before, but her addled mind couldn’t be bothered to question it. She quickly downed the liquid in an attempt to wash out the lingering taste on her tongue. Whatever flavor the tea was, she believed it couldn’t possibly be worse than what she was currently experiencing.
She was mistaken.
The indescribable bitterness didn’t register until she had already drank the entire cup, much too late to spit it out and spare herself. Shockingly though, instead of causing her to be sick again as she would have expected, whatever herbs the tea was brewed with completely settled her stomach. It didn’t make her other ailments disappear, but she would take any help she could get.
“How are you feeling, Lunara?” a feminine voice inquired. A hand that nearly engulfed her shoulder gripped her lightly, and she looked towards the source. It was her acquaintance, Tiny.
She tried to form a response, but found it hard to concentrate through the hammering in her skull. Frustrated, she activated [Flawless Regeneration], focusing on her head. The healing energies flowed through her like cool, cleansing spring water, and her thoughts sharpened as the hammering wound down to light knocking.
“Like utter garbage.... but did I win?” she replied, a sardonic grin spreading across her face.
Tiny let out a hoot of laughter and slapped her knee at Samantha’s joke, “You’ll be just fine, if that’s the first thing out of your mouth.”
“If you ask the proprietors, I won the fight. But I don’t think it’s as clear cut as that.” a male voice said from next to her.
Glancing over towards the voice, an unfamiliar man was seated in a cot and looking her way. Judging by the context of his words and the generous wrappings around his bare torso, she was speaking to none other than the Champion, Samson.
He looked to be around Thomas’s age, perhaps in his mid twenties. Unlike Thomas, who’s popularity with the opposite sex came from his rugged, strong features, Samson’s face--though still handsome--was more on the boyish side. In contrast with his towering height, broad shoulders, and scarred skin that was indicative of a warrior’s life, his face did not match up with what she would have expected. Without the intimidating mask and his oppressive aura weighing down on her, he almost seemed approachable.
Seeing his unmasked appearance, Samantha suddenly realized that she was also without any sort of face covering. It made sense, since she had a head wound that needed treatment, but she fought back a brief surge of panic at the thought of her identity being revealed. After a moment of consideration the worry subsided. As long as she didn’t make a fuss about being unmasked, no one would probably think anything of it.
Samson spoke again, interrupting her thoughts, “When you pierced me with your spear, you were moving so quickly I could hardly react. Were this a life or death match and not a tournament fight, you could have easily aimed for a vital point and killed me. Granted, I probably would have approached the opening of the battle differently if I were aiming to kill as well, but still...”
His eyes met hers for a moment, before he looked down and away as if he felt ashamed, “...I’m glad you woke up before the market closed and I had to leave. I wanted to apologize for my final strike against you. I was... shocked by your blow, and counterattacked on reflex without fully considering the consequences. Were you not so surprisingly sturdy... let’s just say I’m happy to see that I’ve not actually done you any irreparable harm.” He concluded, the words halting as if he was having difficulty finding the right phrasing.
Samantha’s eyes widened slightly at this seemingly sincere apology. Based on her limited personal experience and speaking with Thomas over the years, how cultivators approached peer relationships generally fell into two camps. On the one hand, there were those who viewed other cultivators as bitter rivals to be utterly conquered, and only respected cultivators of equal or greater power. On the other hand, there were those who viewed even ‘weaker’ cultivators as potential allies since there was always the possibility of them rising to great power. In this case, it was strategic to be respectful or in their good graces early. It surprised her to see that Samson, the feared Champion, apparently belonged to the latter ideology. It seemed she wasn’t the only one, either.
Tiny uttered a small gasp, “A strong man who can properly admit wrongdoing? Sign me up! Are you taken by any of the local ladies, Felix? If not, I may have a proposal for you. ” she teased, giving a playful wink and waggling her eyebrows at him.
“Felix?” Samantha asked, confused.
Tactfully ignoring Tiny’s flirtations, Samson answered, “I think I’ve had enough of these tournaments, so I’m calling it quits. No need for the stage name anymore, so you can call me Felix.”
“I see, Felix it is then. May I ask why you’re leaving the tournaments? From what I’ve heard you’ve been a staple here for quite some time.” Samantha inquired tentatively.
Felix nodded, unbothered by her question. “There’s no major reason, it just seemed the loss of my Champion title is as good a reason to leave as any other. I originally joined to get more fighting experience to hasten my ascent to Bronze, but the fights stopped being truly helpful months ago. The winnings were a nice bonus, but I don’t really need the money. Speaking of which…”
He reached into a small pouch next to him and drew out 6 silver pieces, tossing them underhand to Samantha. She caught the money, a bit confused as to why he was paying her.
“These are my portion of the winnings from our fight. Let there be no ill will between us going forward.” he said simply at her bewildered expression.
“Agreed, let the slate be wiped clean.” she responded formally, bowing to Felix in thanks--as much as she could in the cot, anyway. Felix grunted in acknowledgement, before slowly standing up and making his way to the door. She decided to push her luck a bit further before the chance to speak with a Peak Copper completely passed her by, “If it’s not too presumptuous, do you have any tips for reaching the higher cultivation levels?”
He paused his stride, looked up towards the ceiling, and tapped his chin thoughtfully, “Fight. A lot. Many people stagnate because they become complacent and do not exercise their dantian enough to break through to the next stage. Practicing combat arts within the safety of training grounds or spars isn’t bad, but depleting and refilling your qi reserves in the heat of battle is the best for quick advancement.”
“I second that!” Tiny chimed in, without elaborating further.
And before Samantha had a chance to squeeze in another question Felix left the tent and was gone.
“Oh! Before I forget.” Tiny said, reaching into a purse hanging from her belt, “A deal’s a deal! Pay well earned, if you ask me.”
1 Gold and 3 silver pieces were placed into Samantha’s hand, and she wondered if there was some mistake.
“You’re looking at the new Champion of the tournament!” Tiny exclaimed, beaming from ear to ear, “I also feel bad that we nearly caused you to get your head knocked clean off your body, so the gold is from me. The three silver is your payout from your fight with Felix, which I’ve been holding for you. You would not believe the ferocity of the fights after you knocked Felix completely out of the running and there was actually a chance for someone else to win…”
Tiny spent the better part of a half hour filling her in on the highlights from some of the other duels while a nurse gave her final checks to make sure that she was mostly healthy. When the market was about an hour from closing for the night, she was finally well enough to get her planned shopping done.
Tiny had fetched Samantha’s belongings from the changing tent while she was unconscious, so she donned her original shopping mask and clothes in a private corner nearby. When she was ready to go, she and Tiny parted ways and Samantha promised to come visit her at the tournament again sometime soon. Then, Samantha rushed off to buy from the remaining vendors.
She reached out to Silas again as she walked, “Hey buddy, you doing alright?”
“Owww… you better… bring back something good! That really hurt.” Was the only response she received.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Noted!” Samantha replied, inwardly grimacing. She’d definitely buy him something special as an apology.
Her gains from the tournament combined with the money she got from Suthan brought her total wealth to 1 gold piece, 12 silver pieces, and 85 copper, or just over two gold pieces. In other words, she was essentially carrying two months worth of an average mortal’s wages on her person. Since carrying this much money around made her nervous and was practically asking for trouble in the slums, she saw no point in hoarding it. She decided to spend as much as she could while reserving enough to return to the black market another night.
Her first stop was the cultivation aids shop where she had originally planned to buy from. Upon nearing the stall, she noticed that the shopkeep was packing things up for the night. This did not deter her from approaching, however. If working alongside her own family was anything to go by, merchants rarely turned down a last-minute sale.
The sounds of the market faded away as she entered the range of the silencing artifact, and she called out her intentions immediately so as not to waste time, “If you have any product left, I’m interested in buying!”
The woman immediately turned towards Samantha with a broad smile, “Oh! And here I thought I wouldn’t be seeing you again tonight. Lucky for you, I have a few things left. You want the same items as you were looking at before?”
“Yes, but I’ll take all the items you showed me. If my memory serves, all three would originally be worth 2 silver and 70 coppers, however I’m wondering if you’ll sell them for 2 silver and 35 copper? A small discount for a first time customer and buying multiple items.”
The merchant thought it over briefly, before replying, “I’ve had a good night, so I’ll go as low as two and a half silver. Essentially you’ll be getting the lowest priced item on the house, but I won’t haggle further. Do we have a deal?”
Samantha gladly placed the agreed upon amount on the table, taking the two qi compression pills and the meridian cleansing elixir with her as she headed to the next shop. She had 1 gold, 10 silver, and 35 copper remaining.
Her next stop was a stall that sold cultivation manuals. There were several potential buyers browsing the layout of books and discussing between themselves when she arrived. At a glance, the lowest prices of the wares were 1 gold piece, while the highest end tomes sold for eye-watering prices of up to 10 gold. Deciding to start at the cheapest wares, she looked over some of the options.
The first art that caught her eye was the [Reaping Blade] technique. It allowed a user to coat their armaments with a sharpened layer of qi, both extending the range and lethality of their chosen weapon. Unfortunately, it required at least one hand meridian to be cleared in order to work so she was currently unable to use it.
The next art she looked at, [Fortified Body], was generic enough that it didn’t require any specific meridians, but was something she wasn’t immediately interested in. For five qi it would raise the Resilience of the user by two points, but would only last for a minute or until the user was struck and the energy was dispersed. Investing more qi could extend the time it remained active, but wouldn’t increase the Resilience gained. It certainly wasn’t a bad art, but it wouldn’t be her first choice either because of the qi cost.
The third art she looked at was called [Blood Manipulation]. She was initially excited by the name and the fact that it needed a cleared heart meridian to be used, however when looking into what it actually did she was unimpressed. It basically allowed the user to plug their open wounds with qi, preventing them from bleeding out. She would rather just work to heal any injuries with [Flawless Regeneration].
The rest of the one gold offerings weren’t very impressive either. There was a pattern she started noticing that the generic arts cost too much qi, and the ones that could possibly be useful required meridians she didn’t have open yet. Beginning to get frustrated by the options, an argument between the shopkeep and a patron caught her attention.
“You can’t possibly be serious with this price, can you? Three gold for a manual with no actual techniques in it? Outrageous.” the shopper asserted.
“This is none other than a culmination of the renowned Master Xiao Qian’s teachings on technique creation! Rather than purchase a single art which can be outgrown, you could learn how to invent or design your own! To see this masterpiece going for the affordable price of only three gold is frankly an insult as it is.” the merchant declared adamantly.
“Is that so?” the shopper said in a mocking tone, “If it were so easy to manipulate qi and transform it into a functioning art without blowing yourself up, then everyone would do it! Have you even read the first page? It’s incomprehensible, theoretical jargon.” the shopper shot back.
The shopkeep opened his mouth to retort, but the shopper shook his head in disbelief and moved on to a different shopping stall before he had the chance.
The name Xiao Qian was one that every aspiring cultivator knew. She was one of the most prolific qi art creators in the last millenia, known best for the flawless efficiency of her techniques rather than their destructive potential. Her underlying methodologies were the foundation for some of the most powerful techniques in use today, though all but a few of her original arts have fallen out of favor with the masses due to their difficulty.
“Incomprehensible, huh?” Samantha asked aloud, picking up the manual and flipping to a random page.
...like intermingling flows of the river, circulating in discordant confluences, the qi in your meridians must resonate harmoniously while you simultaneously aggregate surges of potency into your dantian...
Samantha’s head spun as she read the passage and struggled to envision Xiao Qian’s description. The meaning currently eluded her, but she strongly felt if she spent time studying the text that it was not impossible to understand. Even now, there was a sort of undeniable truth that rang out through the words, the explanation inviting her to read deeper and discover its secrets. She wanted it, but she needed to play it cool to get a good deal.
“Wow. That guy wasn’t kidding. Seriously, have you tried to read this?” Samantha asked, letting a bit of shock leak into her voice.
She saw the corner of the merchant’s mouth turn down a bit further than it already was, his shoulders sagging slightly. As father had taught her, she had landed the first mental blow. And so, a fierce bout of cold-blooded haggling ensued.
10 minutes later and 1 gold and 5 silver poorer, Samantha was the proud owner of “Xiao Qian’s Compendium of Efficient Art Formation” and was on her way to the medicinal herb shop she saw nearby.
With 5 silver and 35 copper remaining, she had a decent amount of money to buy good quality herbs with. Focusing mostly on healing herbs but also buying a mid-grade healing pill for experimentation purposes, she eventually left the market with 95 copper remaining and her stealthing reactivated. It had been an unexpectedly productive night.
The return trip to her base was uneventful, but she was surprised to find Silas covered in dried blood. As she helped clean off the harder-to-reach sections of his fur, she was overcome with guilt that she had gotten them both so badly hurt. Seeing as how they were both still battered and sore–even after the black market provided healing–she pulled out the healing pill from her pack and offered it to Silas.
“I wanted to test something. [As One] lets us share healing, and you have the uncanny ability to eat… well… pretty much anything without negative effects. Eat this really quick for me?”
When herbs were processed into medicines by alchemists there were usually still some impurities left behind. The better the refinement process was, the less impurities would remain. While safe to consume in moderation, these toxins–commonly referred to as ‘draff’--would build up in the body if medicinals are taken in too-quick succession. Once there was enough draff built up in the body, the consumer would suffer from draff poisoning and become ill or possibly even die depending on the severity. This is why fighters couldn’t just eat handfuls of healing pills to keep themselves going in a fight. Since Silas could consume raw herbs without ill effects…
Silas wordlessly munched the orb down and soothing healing energies flowed between their bond as the pains of still-sore muscles and a headache slowly faded. He sighed in contentment at the sensation, “This is tasty...I want another! Do you have another?”. His fluffy tail wiggled as he looked up at her hopefully.
“No, not right now. But how many do you think you could eat before you had to stop?” Samantha asked.
“Stop? Why would I stop?” he replied, confused.
“There are no bad effects?” Samantha confirmed.
“No! It was delicious. I could eat these all day. But, you don’t have more? That’s sad.” Silas said, pouting a bit.
There was an inkling of an idea forming in Samantha’s mind, but she couldn’t act on it yet so she vowed to come back to it later. “Don’t be too sad, I got you these!” she comforted, pulling out a bundle of healing herbs and setting them down in front of Silas. A screech of delight filled her mind as Silas heartily devoured the leafy greens, all sadness instantly forgotten.
While Silas happily munched away, Samantha pulled out the two cultivation pills that she had purchased. Taking into account her poison resistance ability and the healing energies she could call forth with herbs or arts, she felt confident she could handle draff poisoning if the alchemicals were poorly refined. As badly as she wanted to test them immediately to see how effective they were, she couldn’t cultivate to advance her rank until her dantian was completely refilled.
Quickly checking her qi pool, she had already regenerated 7/18 qi since being knocked unconscious by Felix. Deciding she didn’t want to wait another seven hours for her dantian to fill naturally, she used the remaining energy inside the spirit pearl she’d been given to help speed up the process. After topping off her pool she downed the cheaper of the two pills and waited for some sort of reaction.
After a moment, she felt a minor increase in how efficiently her dantian consumed the ambient qi. Though the density was still abysmal, she could make a small amount of progress with cultivation advancement now. Almost immediately following this discovery, she felt an uncomfortable rumble in her stomach and started to feel a bit nauseous.
Draff poisoning has activated [Poison Connoisseur]. Current draff toxicity resistance at Rank 0 - 0%.
Wow. No wonder it was so cheap.
After the initial surprise of immediately suffering from draff poisoning wore off, her attention snapped back to the notification she received.
Wait… I can gain resistance to this?
She’d never heard of anyone having resistance to draff poisoning before. Maybe if she raised her resistance high enough she could eat healing pills by the handful if she wanted to! Although, thinking of how expensive that would be made her cringe.
Wanting to see what the other pill would do, she consumed that one as well. Again, her dantian’s qi absorption efficiency improved, and she gave it a quick spiritual flex to test how potent the compression would now be. Turning her gaze inward, she watched as the space behind her navel condensed and the vapor incrementally drew closer together. It wasn’t quite the same effect as being in a low ranked nexus, but it was slightly more noticeable than just using ambient qi out in the wilderness.
Draff poisoning has activated [Poison Connoisseur]. Current draff toxicity resistance at Rank 0 - 2%.
Her concentration faltered as chills radiated through her body and a sickly cold sweat started to form on her skin. She was surprised that [As One] was not activating, but after some consideration came up with a theory. Since she only felt sick and damage wasn’t being done to her, the skill wasn’t being triggered. She shrugged. At least this was a great chance for some free poison resistances!
The next several days passed in a blur, the exception being when she consoled Tiny for losing her Champion’s title to the freshly hired ringer after only two nights. During the morning she now fully assisted Aiden with his routes and trained her Agility, and at night she would fight in the tournaments for coin to buy more elixirs and exercise her dantian.
Through experimentation, Samantha found that the ideal number of elixirs to cultivate was three of the higher grade potions each night. The fourth elixir gave very limited benefits while a fifth made her feel so sick that she needed to have Silas consume healing herbs to stay functional. All the while, her draff poisoning tolerance steadily increased until she reached the second rank.
You have reached Rank 2 of draff toxicity resistance! Future draff poisoning will have its effects and duration decreased by 2/3rds. Changes have been made to your status page.
As for the limited free time she had, she spent most of it reading through Xiao Qian’s Compendium to try and figure out how to start crafting her own arts. To put it simply, her findings were a mixed bag. She didn’t make much progress on actually forging her own arts, but that was because she learned from the book that she needed more meridians open to test different options.
On the bright side, the book went into great depth on what meridians were, how they functioned, and how to streamline the process for opening them. While her cultivation class had given her the basic information about meridians, she found the more detailed description fascinating.
According to Xiao Qian, meridians could be thought of as dammed up rivers with many smaller branching tributaries. A small amount of water could still flow through while blocked, but once cleared, the freely traveling water would cause the lands it touched to flourish. This was why unclogged meridians could increase attributes or enhance natural capabilities. This tributary system also explained how larger parts of the body could be affected at once by a single meridian.
The trouble was that every time a meridian was cleared it made future meridians more difficult to open. This was because the internal qi pressure needed to punch through the detritus in one meridian served to compress and harden the detritus in all the others. However, as cultivators increased in rank, their progressively denser qi allowed them to clear out tougher and tougher detritus. Knowledge of these two opposing forces—hardening detritus and ever-increasing qi pressure—culminated in the formation of the ‘Golden Ratio’.
When exploring further exactly how meridians affected advancement rate, Xiao Qian gave many different analogies, examples, and complex formulations that were difficult to parse. Samantha didn’t fully understand all of it, but she thought she understood the gist. Basically, opening meridians expanded a person’s cultivation base, and larger cultivation bases took longer to compress. To make it easier to comprehend, she envisioned qi compression as being similar to weightlifting. Having more open meridians was akin to being required to lift heavier weights or complete more repetitions before advancing in rank.
The book went on to describe what kind of arts could typically be used by different meridians. Using this information, she began planning which ones to prioritize clearing.
The one that interested her most was the mind meridian, which would enhance her perceptive and reactive abilities and give her access to advanced sensory combat arts. Since speed and perception were already her strong suits, she felt that specializing further would be the best way to advance rather than trying to be well rounded at everything. However, a problem she had run into more than once was lack of damage dealing capabilities. So, it would also be important to choose a meridian that could help her immediately survive in fights.
After browsing many manuals in the black market, she found that one of the most versatile attack meridians were in the hands. Not only could you strike with them, but you could also affect your wielded armaments in various ways. So, following the instructions listed in the Compendium, she began prepping to open her right hand meridian once she was able to leave the slums.
As her first week in The Gutter came to a close, Aiden finally called on her debt to him for his ‘big delivery’. She had also heard back from Thomas after sending him a short note, and planned to meet up at a small cafe at noon. She would work with Aiden tomorrow morning, and then meet with Thomas to hopefully hear some encouraging news.