Samantha and her family made their way upstairs to the living room and spoke late into the night about what she had been through the past two months. She recounted everything she could remember from when she had left home up until this point... with one notable omission.
She was reluctant to tell them anything about the hidden quest. She couldn’t imagine that she was the first person to stumble across it, and feared that information about its existence was being actively suppressed to keep it out of the public knowledge pool. Without knowing exactly why and how this was being done, she didn’t want to risk her family’s safety by being the person to reveal it to them.
Instead, she openly confessed to the deaths she caused but explained that her desire to leave the floor was to depart on her own terms. She feared that it was only a matter of time until what she had done came to light. She had taken Thomas’s advice and stopped hiding her identity–even going so far as to announce herself to start building a reputation–but this would likely be her downfall. Several people had faced her and fled, and she had chosen to spare them. It wouldn’t be hard for authorities to find her if someone gathered the courage to report her, if it hadn’t happened already.
Rather than be forcibly taken by Enforcers at a time she was unprepared to leave, she wanted to request to be sent up on her own. At least then she could leave with the items she wanted, and with her dignity intact. Submitting herself to the law willingly might even spare her family from potential repercussions. As much as she hated to admit it, system mandated or not, it felt unreasonable to try and stay on the first floor.
“You expect either of us to accept that?” her father demanded, anger and grief warring in his tone. “We just got you back, and you’re going to be leaving us again? This is why we told you it was foolish to accept the cultivation quest in the first place! It would have been better for you to be happy as a mortal.”
Martha placed a calming hand on Aldon’s shoulder and shook her head, “You know she wouldn’t have been happy dear. That’s unfair of you.”
He looked to his wife in bewilderment, then scowled as his eyes glistened with unshed tears, “And she’s happier now, as a murderer and a fugitive? You want me to believe that this is better? A merchant’s life is a good life, Martha! We provide jobs for our peers, we never go hungry, we live comfortably enough.” His gaze shifted back to Samantha, and his expression contorted in anguish. “Why couldn’t you have just listened to us?” he pleaded, “Why--?”.
His voice faltered and he shut his eyes tight, the tears finally falling in slow rivers down his cheeks. He stood without another word and turned on his heels, stomping back to the master bedroom and slamming the door shut behind him. Martha gave Samantha and Thomas an apologetic look as she stood to follow him, promising to try and smooth things over.
Samantha’s enhanced hearing allowed her to clearly hear every word of her parent’s hushed argument through the closed door. Just before she shut down [Prey’s Perception] to give them some privacy to process and discuss everything, she heard that word again: ‘murderer’. She was glad when her muted senses left her unable to hear more of their conversation. She didn’t know if she could handle their raw reactions to this new version of her.
After several uncomfortably long moments of silence, Thomas coughed into his hand politely, “So… you need to get your stats caught up with your cultivation as quickly as possible then, right?”
Appreciating his attempt to break the tension that had formed after her father’s outburst, she quickly responded, “Yes. Do you know a way to get the most out of my time here?”
“I know a guy. I’ll warn you that he doesn’t offer normal stat training, though. It’s incredibly expensive, hellishly difficult, and I wouldn’t even wish some of the ‘services’ he offers on my enemies, but…” he trailed off, looking at her with a conflicted expression on his face.
“But this isn’t a normal situation, and I don’t have time to waste. How much money will it take?” She finished for him and reached for the coin pouch on her belt.
She still hadn’t sorted through her money yet, and figured now was as good a time as any. She overturned the bag onto the dining table and started sorting out the coins in stacks of 10 by type. All in all she had 7 gold, 17 silvers, and 42 coppers. Taking into account the gold piece and 3 silvers she had pocketed from the Mid-Copper cultivator, the funds left over from her week fighting in the arena, the extra money Thomas estimated she’d get back from selling the excess Steel Boar materials, and her life’s savings stashed away under a floorboard in her bedroom, she predicted she’d be able to scrape together about 15 gold. She was more than willing to spend every last copper she owned if it meant it gave her a better chance of surviving whatever horrors the 2nd floor would throw at her.
“Will 15 gold be enough?” she asked, worrying that the amount would still fall short.
Thomas shook his head slowly, “His fee is about five gold a day, so you wouldn’t even make it through the week.”
“F-Five gold a day?! That’s nearly half a year's worth of wages!” Samantha gasped, her mouth falling open.
“For a mortal yes. For a cultivator? You could earn that much in a single day if you took the right job, or by challenging other cultivators for money. But yes... still quite pricey. On the bright side, this fee goes towards all aspects of your training, including getting you helpful elixirs and high quality spirit beast meat for meals.” he elaborated.
“Well, that’s something at least.” she grumbled. “I’ll hire the trainer. I have enough money for three days, and I’ll make as much progress as I can in that time. As for the rest of the month, I’ll try and figure something out. Also, I was wondering if you could set up a fitting for a vest for Silas with one of our crafters? I’d normally do it myself but given the time constraints I’m under…”
“I’ll take care of it for you.” he said understandingly.
After fetching a measuring tape from downstairs, Thomas recorded Silas’s general measurements to pass on to a leatherworker. When she explained the special details she wanted added to the equipment, he raised an eyebrow but continued writing down everything, “Interesting choices, but you know your bond best. I’ll deliver this for you in the morning. Would you like to stay at my place for now, or…?”
Samantha momentarily maximized [Prey’s Perception], but turned it back down as soon as she heard that her parent’s arguing hadn’t lessened in the slightest. “I’ll grab some things from my room and meet you out front.”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
She packed a few sets of clothes and fetched her stash of money from her room, then traveled with Silas and Thomas back to his home. It was now devoid of his previous female companion.
As she got settled in his spare room, she asked, “By the way, have you made any progress with the Granvich manual?”
“Have I ever! I couldn’t put it down.” he beamed, “Come here, I’ll show you.”
She felt her mood improve as she paused her unpacking and excitedly followed Thomas to his room. Going over to a small bookshelf, he pulled out an inconspicuous book titled ‘Genealogy of the Three Houses, Vol III’. He opened the cover and removed the manual from inside of it, then placed the empty cover sleeve back on the shelf.
Thomas explained that there were multiple ways to read and view the pages contained within the manual, each configuration becoming more complex to account for the increase in cultivation rank. He discovered that some of the pages were marked with a unique qi signature that resembled a puzzle. Through much trial and error, he found that while cycling the appropriate cultivation pattern to solve the puzzle, the pages could be removed from the book or put back in. These special pages could then be overlaid onto the other pages, revealing diagrams and instructions on how to obtain the next ‘rank’ of the cultivation technique.
Samantha was impressed by the ingenious method to store and hide information. It required a well-developed sense for qi in order to both detect the presence of the signatures and solve them, essentially testing if the reader was ready for more knowledge or not. She couldn’t believe that Thomas had managed to figure it out in just a week, and asked how many puzzles he’d been able to solve so far.
Rather than simply tell her, he demonstrated the different puzzle solutions and page configurations for the Mid and High Copper ranked versions of the Vital Wellspring Cultivation Technique. Both patterns appeared to take advantage of the ‘Golden Ratio’ of one new meridian per cultivation rank. This meant two open meridians were required to use the Mid Copper version, and three were required for High. While she had already been working towards opening a meridian, the urgency of the task just jumped significantly.
Over the past week she had been working to loosen the detritus in the meridian leading to her right hand before fully committing to the clearing process. Now though, with the addition of the new bond ability [Flurry], she wondered if it would be worth it to open a foot meridian instead. Her goal with the hand meridian was to gain an art that could empower her spear to wound a tougher enemy, or her fists to give her an edge in an unarmed duel, but that was with the mindset that she would be remaining on the first floor.
On this floor she had easy access to weapon repairs and replacements, but who knew if there was anything like that on the second? If her weapon broke, all she could rely on was her own body. The addition of [Flurry] to her arsenal would make kicking a lot more appealing to her than punching in a fight. The question was, would a foot meridian be the better choice to make her body more deadly, though she would miss out on the ability to channel arts through her spear for now? If she decided to go that route, then she would also need to forgo the next rank of [Swift] until she got her next bond ability point.
Frustrated by the difficulty of the decision, she asked for Thomas’s opinion. Surprisingly, his answer was near instantaneous.
“Go for the kicking ability and foot meridian. You might have a bit of a tough time with armored enemies without a combat art in your hand to boost your spear, but the combination of [Swift], [Flurry], and a foot-based technique could have devastating results. Like you said, there’s no guarantee you’ll have a weapon on hand, so it’s best to enhance what you can do without one until you know more.”
Samantha mulled over his words, but eventually agreed with his reasoning. She opened her profile and purchased [Flurry] for one bond ability point, leaving one unspent for later use.
She gave Thomas a mischievous grin, “Shall we go out back and test my new skill?”
Once both of them were in the backyard, Thomas brought over a wooden log wrapped in a coil of rough rope and placed it on a stand in the center of the training circle . It stood vertically at around Samantha’s new height of 5’ 6”, and she did a few practice kicks to get a feel both for the toughness of the material and her changed body. Once she felt comfortable, she signaled to Thomas and he took up a position behind the log to hold it in place.
First, she tested a full powered kick without any abilities activated. She decided on a classic roundhouse kick, and swung her back leg around in an arc towards the target. She used her core and hips to try and drive the ball of her foot ‘through’ the wooden dummy and was rewarded with a dull thud as she connected with the rope covering. The dummy rocked back and Thomas let out a grunt as he absorbed the force.
“Well, your kick has definitely improved in both speed and power since last we sparred. I’d say you’d easily crack ribs if you landed a clean hit on someone in the Low and Mid Ranks of Copper, maybe High if they weren’t focused on training their Resilience. How many kicks can you land in a second?” Thomas asked, gesturing for her to kick again.
Samantha obliged, this time sacrificing a bit of her power to increase her speed. Partway through her fourth full kick he signaled that her time was up and told her to stop.
“About three in a second? Not bad. I can only do about four, though I kick a bit harder than you just did. You probably wouldn’t break any bones unless your opponent were Low Copper or a low-Resilience Mid, but you would definitely cause some serious pain. Now do it with your new skill. Go for a single powerful strike first, then speed.” he instructed.
She activated [Flurry], then watched in surprise as her first kick whipped forward in a blur of motion. The strike connected and Thomas struggled to keep his footing as the wooden dummy slammed backwards with a sharp crack. She landed four more blindingly fast blows before the time on her ability ran out.
Thomas groaned slightly and shook out his hands as he stabilized the dummy. He looked over the noticeably dented wood and whistled appreciatively, “I’d say that the first kick would lay out even a High Copper with decent Resilience, and those rapid kicks were both faster and stronger than my usual ones. So long as your opponent wasn’t strongly armored, you’d almost certainly break their ribs. Now,” he paused, a playful smile spreading across his face, “show me what [Flurry] and [Swift] together feels like.”
“How high should I boost my Agility? I don’t want to accidentally kick you over the fence or anything.” she teased, returning his smile.
“I can handle whatever you throw at me and this dummy is replaceable. Might as well test your limits in the safety of my backyard instead of in a life or death fight.” he shrugged, turning the dummy so the non-dented side would be facing her.
“I’ll raise it to 24 then, since that’s my approximate max value. You ready?” she confirmed, making sure that Thomas was appropriately braced. He nodded the affirmative and she took her position.
Samantha activated [Flurry] and [Swift] simultaneously, a rush of energy filling her body. With her full power she brought her leg forward with such speed that she could hear the wind whistle as her kick cut through the air. Too quickly for her eyes to accurately follow, her foot darted forward and connected with the dummy. She watched in fascination and amazement as the dummy appeared to crumple inwards and a spray of dust and wood shards burst out from the impact site in a cloud. Thomas was flung five feet backwards through the air and needed to catch himself with an agile roll as the dummy bounced several times across the ground.
Bludgeoning has activated [As One]. Minor damage to right foot (Samantha) has been transformed into negligible damage for Silas and Samantha.
She flexed her sore toes a few times with a frown. It looked like she had gained a new way to accidentally injure herself with her own abilities if she wasn’t careful. She could easily break something if she landed a kick like this with imperfect form, or pumped up her Agility too far without gaining more Resilience first.
She looked over to her fallen cousin to see him struggling to recover from getting the wind knocked out of him. She couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride in how effective the attack had been. Grinning, she offered him a hand up and he pulled himself upright with a wide smile that mirrored hers. In between wheezes he said, “Oh yeah… this was… the right… choice!”