As badly as Samantha wanted to escape the rift there were many loose ends remaining for her to address. The first she decided to tie up was the matter of upgrading her cultivation pattern. It was well past time to retire the Rare, Low Bronze ‘Peerless Tempest’ she’d been using. Fortunately, the hefty tome for the new Mythic pattern was scripted to make this process relatively smooth.
Much like learning a new art from a scripted manual, this book imparted deep understanding and knowledge on how to weave the qi flowing through her dantian into a complex figure. Incorporating the two droplets housed side by side within her spiritual center, the pattern would pass through each multiple times in graceful, sweeping arcs. The criss-crossing lines of power depicted within the tome’s pages were beautiful to behold–or would be, once fully engaged–but much of it would be dark and dormant to start. At first glance the web of active and inactive qi flows was incomprehensible, and it was only due to knowledge gained from the book that she glimpsed the promised future.
Unlike previous patterns she’d learned, the full implementation of Wisteria Beneath Silver Moonlight would be within her from the start. There was no need to add to it, or learn something new, upon advancing. As she increased in rank and she was able to utilize her internal qi with greater efficiency, she would engage with more of the dormant pattern until its entirety was alight with energy at Peak Silver. She was currently at the ‘Dormant’ stage, but would eventually pass through ‘Germinating’ at Mid Silver, then ‘Budding’ at High Silver, before finally reaching ‘Blooming’ at Peak Silver.
Though the fine control required to manipulate her qi into this intricate shape seemed otherworldly at times, the book guided her through the process at every step. In a trance-like state, it was as if she was viewing her spirit and the ideal pattern portrayed in the book overlapping one another. She could easily tell when she’d strayed from the masterful design, and what alterations she needed to make in order to remedy her mistakes. Due to this, she managed to integrate the pattern with near-perfect stability in a single day. Once it had fully stabilized within her, she checked her profile and was blown away by the impact it had on her qi pool and regeneration. She’d known the tier and rarity increase would be significant, but she couldn’t believe she’d already gained this much from just the Dormant Wisteria stage.
Cultivation Rank: Low Silver
Pattern: Dormant Wisteria Beneath Silver Moonlight (Low Silver - Mythic)
Qi Pool: 297.6 / 297.6 => 297.6/ 657.6
Base: 50 => 200
Meridian(s): +24 [ Heart +3, Mind +6, Skin +3, Left Foot +2, Right Foot +2, Left Leg +3, Right Leg +3, Synergies +2 ]
Abundant Spring: +50
Qi Saturation (x2), Jackalope of All Trades (x1.2)
Qi Regeneration: +105.6/ hour (+1.7/ minute) => 201.6/hour (3.3/ minute)
Base: +10 => +30
Abundant Spring: +12
Sage’s Rumination: (x2), Qi Saturation (x2), Jackalope of All Trades (x1.2)
With this one change, she’d more than doubled her qi pool and almost doubled her qi regeneration. She couldn’t wait to see what the future stages would offer her!
After placing the tome back in her personal storage for safe keeping, she moved on to the next order of business: checking what was available with her third eye insights. She’d used her Low Bronze insight to acquire [Telekinesis] and her Mid Bronze insight for knowledge on how to improve her custom formed arts, but still had High Bronze, Peak Bronze, and Low Silver to spend. Normally, she’d need to die or reach Low Gold in order to visit her inner library freely, but she’d been toying with the idea of using [Spectral Projection]. In the past she’d used the art to exit her dantian while dead and interact with the outside world, but was unable to re-enter the space as she pleased. After gaining the ability to directly project to ‘any location’ she could clearly visualize with Rank 2 of [Spectral Projection], she wondered if her dantian counted. She certainly could envision the room filled with shelves of countless books easily enough. She just hadn’t had a good occasion to test it out until now.
Deciding to try this method first before resorting to requesting for Silas or Tobias to kill her, she pictured herself in her dantian. She imagined the two qi droplets thrumming with power floating in the center of the room, casting a blue glow on everything around them. Lastly, she envisioned the simple, plain door that acted as the metaphorical gateway to her soul space opening to admit her. Then, she funneled qi into the bond ability and felt a familiar pull as her spirit seemed to slide through space to appear elsewhere.
Opening her eyes, she was greeted with the welcome sight of stacks upon stacks of books. Behind her, the door to her dantian hung suspended in mid-air, slightly ajar. Directly above her–in the center of the spherical space–floated her qi droplets like two shining suns. Though stationary, the two beads of power seemed to resonate with each other, trembling slightly where their edges were closest together. The light they cast upon her was comforting, like the warm embrace of an old friend. Samantha felt oddly… at home. It was peaceful here when she didn’t need to die in order to visit.
She grinned and let out a small cheer. A burden that she hadn’t even realized she’d been carrying melted away, and she felt her heart lighten. Though death wasn’t a permanent ordeal for her, it was still an unpleasant and stressful thing to prepare for. This place had thus far been associated with dying, which gave the time spent here an underlying tension. There had always been a limit on how long she could stay, and if she didn’t find what she needed in time she’d need to suffer another death in order to keep looking. Now, she could take her time and explore freely.
So, she did.
Samantha pored through many shelves while summoning specific volumes to her hand. She was searching for anything that could serve as an answer–or partial solution–to her multitude of problems, and quickly started forming a tall stack which followed behind her. Low Silver had unlocked a vast amount of options to choose from, with much wider variety in offerings than she’d been expecting. Her past self, or several past selves, had accumulated a significant amount of knowledge. It was only a matter of which would give her the greatest edge.
When she was satisfied with her selection pool, she set to the task of making a final decision. There were arts of every category, mindsets, and bits of knowledge… though she couldn’t remember the specifics as soon as she’d closed them to open the next. She was only left with the vague sense of what they did and if they were what she was looking for or not. It was difficult to narrow her choices down when she couldn’t directly compare any of them, but after several rounds of cuts she was happy with the three books that remained.
With her High Bronze insight she received a handy communication art called [Liaison] which would utilize her mind meridian. It essentially allowed her to send mental messages or imagery–similarly to how she spoke with Silas–by reserving a small amount of qi to maintain a connection with the target. If she had a connection with someone, she could also create a communication thread from them to another target and link everyone together in a sort of group. This was immediately useful for coordination with Tobias and Silas, but also in the future. By linking herself, Tobias, and Silas together they could speak at range even in the heat of battle. Silas would also gain the ability to communicate with others directly so long as she linked them together. Lastly, if she ever traveled with a larger group, she could see this skill being incredibly versatile.
With her Peak Bronze insight she purchased an interesting utility art called [Fade]. It would utilize her mind meridian and currently clogged eye meridians–of which she could choose to open one or both to increase the art’s effectiveness. This art would allow her to cast a mental attack against anyone she could perceive with her eyes. If the attack overcame that person’s qi defenses, it would cause them to ‘overlook’ her presence. Similarly to how someone could be searching fruitlessly for an object they were clearly holding in their hand, or were unable to find something in plain sight, she would become completely unremarkable to those affected. If they had noticed her before the art had taken hold, they would perceive her as belonging there, or inconsequential. Despite being labeled as a utility art, she imagined this would have great synergy with Tobias’s [Taunt] during a fight. With Tobias drawing enemy attention to him, it would be all the easier to [Fade] into the background and strike from stealth. Not to mention the obvious synergy this art had with [Translucence].
While this was useful enough on its own, what truly appealed to her was the secondary effect of [Fade]. While active, it completely masked her spiritual presence, making her functionally invisible to someone’s spiritual perception. She had replayed her most recent encounter with the Ancient Cliff Drake over and over again in her mind during her time in the rift, and one thing stood out to her as odd. The instant she returned to life after the drake killed her, it neglected everything else to come back to its den where she’d been revived. At first she wondered if this was just bad, coincidental timing, but the more she thought about it the more she doubted it. It had somehow sensed her presence and returned to finish her off. Becoming spiritually invisible to the drake would hopefully help with attacking it, or fleeing from it, if necessary.
For her Low Silver insight the choice was obvious. There were some arts that had piqued her interest and left her with the impression they would slightly help with her immediate needs, but didn’t feel like they’d have nearly as much influence as what she eventually picked: knowledge regarding the Second Stage of Spiritual Transfiguration. This not only promised to increase her fighting effectiveness, but would shape how she’d continue to develop as a cultivator. She’d been looking for this information since attaining a Qi Saturated body at Peak Copper, so was ecstatic to finally find this elusive knowledge.
The Second Stage of Spiritual Transfiguration involved the evolution of one’s attunement. At a baseline humans were neutrally attuned, meaning their dantian maintained an even distribution of the five elemental energies. When humans cultivated they naturally balanced the qi they absorbed to match the lowest density element available, and when they consumed energy directly from spirit pearls their cultivation base took small amounts of damage from the unbalanced energy. Neutral attunement wasn’t bad by any means… but those who kept this attunement would never be truly great since they’d be unable to wield the most powerful arts. The most potent techniques almost always required attunement to a specific element–at least according to what she’d learned from her insight.
There were multiple paths to changing one’s attunement–from elixirs, to repeated spirit pearl consumption of a specific type–but the most accessible method to her would be to cultivate unbalanced qi while preventing her subconscious filtering process. Normally this was one of the more difficult ways to reattune due to needing a highly controlled environment, but the cultivation chamber was perfect for this. Though she dreaded spending even more time in the chamber, its ability to fine-tune the qi’s elemental ratio would streamline the process and see her attunement converted in a matter of a few weeks. After so many years spent here already, she could force herself to endure that much more.
As far as the benefits to re-attuning went, there were many. In addition to gaining access to the most impressive arts within an elemental specialty, she could alter some arts to take advantage of her attunement and boost their power and efficiency. She only gained insight on how to alter single-element arts that matched her chosen attunement, but she may be able to modify more complicated arts later. She’d also be able to cultivate more effectively in most circumstances. The exception was cultivating in areas where her chosen element was a minority, in which case it would be slightly less than what neutral attunement would have given her. Lastly, a re-attunement would affect her on a physical level. Based on what element she picked, she could ‘infuse’ her body with a specific characteristic from that element, which usually resulted in an aptitude increase of some kind.
All elements could influence each attribute with at least one of their characteristics. For example, Agility could be improved by Wood’s Movement, Fire’s Dynamism, Earth’s Balance, Metal’s Control, or Water’s Adaptability. However, each element also had certain things they were best suited for. Wood’s Movement was the best for improving Agility, Metal’s Rigidity the best for Resilience, and so on. Since each element also excelled with certain types of arts–such as Water generally being the best for stealth arts–it was important to pick an Elemental and Characteristic combination that aligned well with her fighting style.
Considering her current arts and natural talents, gaining a Wood attunement would likely be the best choice for her. She briefly debated a Metal attunement to give herself access to better defensive arts in the future, but her preference for enhancing her existing strength rather than try and build up potential weak areas won out in the end.
Of Wood’s characteristics, Movement or Wind were the strongest contenders for which she wanted to embody. She could theoretically imbue herself with both, but there was a risk that it would have a diluting effect on the end result. It was safer to stick with one characteristic if she wanted to gain the biggest improvement for her Agility aptitude–especially as it was already Extraordinary and would need a pretty significant bump to be upgraded to Heroic. After giving it some thought, she determined ‘Movement’ was the better choice.
When all of her insights were spent, Samantha exited her dantian. She began the process of gaining a Wood Attunement in the cultivation chamber as well as opening the meridians for both eyes so she could use [Fade]. Holding back on opening more meridians after regaining the Golden Ratio at High Bronze had made her advancement to Low Silver faster, but the detritus in the meridians would now be more difficult to clear. Fortunately, she’d planned for this long ago and had purchased elixirs to help speed things along.
First, she tasked her fragment to continually drain and refill her qi pool with unbalanced qi so the attunement could begin to take hold. Her cultivation base would sustain minor damage until the attunement was fully converted, so she made sure to specify to stop if the damage reached a certain point so it wouldn’t be permanent. While her fragment handled that, she consumed a detritus-softening elixir and focused on chipping away at the debris clogging the meridian to her right eye.
Making steady progress on those fronts, she checked over her available bond abilities one last time before merging some of them with [Mongrel’s Regurgitation]. Since this may be the only time she’d ever be able to make an ability like this, she’d decided to maximize everything that went into it if she could–even if she needed to feed other abilities to [Mongrel’s Feast] for the points to do so.
Offered Bond Abilities:
Bond Ability Points (BP) Remaining: 9
Swift (Rank 2)
[2 BP]
For every 0.5 qi points spent per second, gain +2 Agility. After ability ends, effects will linger for a short time before returning to original levels. While active, your steps gain perfect traction.
Herb Hunter
[1 BP]
Like the Lunar Hare, you have the uncanny ability for finding the best quality herbs around.
Translucence (Rank 2)
[2 BP]
For every 1 qi point spent, you will become mostly transparent for 60 seconds. All other signs of your presence will be partially muted (sound, smell, aura, etc). Remaining motionless while translucent will make you exceedingly difficult to spot.
Antler Genesis
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
[1 BP]
You can spend at least 1 qi point to grow an antler from any bone. Size and shape of the antler can be affected by increasing qi investment during creation. Once disconnected from the body, the antler will continue to exist for 1 minute or until consciously dismissed.
Jackalope of all Trades (Rank 5)
*Mongrel Bloodline
(0/5 Bond Ability Points Invested):
Abundant Spring (Rank 2) [2 BP] - You and your bond’s qi pool and regeneration combine into one. Your bond’s cooldowns will be significantly reduced in exchange for a small consumption of qi per ability use, and can be eliminated entirely by expending additional qi. For one minute each day your bond can call upon their Empyrean Stag heritage to increase in size, Strength, and Resilience relative to your shared maximum qi pool.
Spectral Projection (Rank 3) [3 BP] - You gain the ability to temporarily project your consciousness to any location you can clearly visualize for 1 qi per minute. You maintain a sliver of awareness in your physical body which can perform simple tasks and self-preservation actions using base instinct. You can freely choose to manifest a semi-transparent physical form. You can use a wider variety of arts while projecting. Arts used while projecting will no longer incur a qi cost penalty. Upon canceling the ability or running out of qi your consciousness will be returned to your body.
Mongrel’s Feast (Rank 2) [3 BP] - You can permanently sacrifice bond abilities in exchange for an amount of BP’s equal to their cost. Sacrificing an ability with the potential for multiple ranks will yield BP’s equal to the total cost of all ranks. Sacrificing a purchased ability will yield a full refund of invested BP and BP for any remaining rank potential. Sacrificing the unpurchased rank of an ability you already possess will yield BP for the remaining ranks and halt that ability’s potential progression. You gain the ability to feast upon beast cores without ill effect to your cultivation base. Elemental imbalances will be equalized and consumed by your bond, strengthening you both in the process.
Mongrel’s Regurgitation [5 BP] - You can permanently sacrifice up to five purchased bond abilities in exchange for a new ability that combines and enhances their effects. Unpurchased ranks of any combined skills will factor into the new skill’s effects, though will be less impactful than if they’d been purchased beforehand. The more synergistic the original sacrificed abilities’ effects, the more potent and cost efficient the combined ability will be. [Mongrel’s Regurgitation] must be used upon purchase and will be sacrificed during the combination process.
Ghost Walk (Rank 1)
[1 BP]
*Mongrel Bloodline
For every 1 qi point spent your footsteps will be completely silenced for 60 seconds. Secondary sounds from your movement will be unaffected.
High Speed Strike (Rank 2)
[2 BP]
*Mongrel Bloodline
Spend 4 qi points to greatly increase the speed of the next attack made within 1 second. For a short time upon and after impact your base Resilience is greatly increased.
Dynamic Movement (Rank 1)
[1 BP]
*Mongrel Bloodline
Decrease fluid resistance when moving through gasses or liquids.
[High Speed Strike] and [Swift] were definite additions to the final skill, so she started by upgrading both to Rank 2 which brought her available BP’s down to 5. Both ended up having a third rank as well, so she needed to use [Mongrel’s Feast] to consume [Herb Hunter] in order to purchase both upgrades again. This was the easiest ability to sacrifice because Silas was already very good at finding herbs, and doubted she’d need this ability independently of him. Luckily, both abilities appeared to max out at Rank 3.
She looked over the final effects of both with an appreciative nod.
Swift (Rank 3)
For every 0.5 qi points spent per second, gain +4 Agility. After ability ends, effects will linger for a short time before returning to original levels. While active, your steps gain perfect traction. You can now surpass your natural Agility limits to a small degree without injury.
High Speed Strike (Rank 3)
*Mongrel Bloodline
Spend 3 qi points to drastically increase the speed of the next attack made within 1 second. For a short time upon and after impact your base Resilience is drastically increased.
Deciding to gamble on [Dynamic Movement], she fed [Ghost Walk] to [Mongrel’s Feast] to gain 6 more BP. Purchasing the first rank of the skill and hoping the second would be more clear, she grinned when she saw the updated description. It had gained an interesting active effect as well as an improved passive effect.
Dynamic Movement (Rank 2)
[2 BP]
*Mongrel Bloodline
Passive Effect: Moderately decrease fluid resistance when moving through gasses or liquids.
Active Effect: Nullify fluid resistance when moving through gasses or liquids for 1 qi/ 30 seconds.
Pausing her other advancement efforts, she briefly stood and tested if she could feel any difference with the ability. She activated combinations of [Swift], [Flurry], and [High Speed Strike] to test how things felt, and was pleasantly surprised with how much easier her attacks seemed to move through the air. Happy with the first rank’s effect, and emboldened by the fact she could use [Mongrel’s Feast] to refund the spent points if she regretted the purchase, she bought the second rank for testing as well.
The passive effect’s change was subtle, but it was definitely more noticeable than the first rank had been. The active effect, however, was where the ability truly shone. She was struck by the sensation of being strangely light. Though she’d trained mastery over her body and its movements to a high degree, she realized it was only now that she was truly able to move as she wanted. Her kicks and punches were even faster than before, and moved near-silently as they cut a path through the air. The familiar, high-pitched whistling sound her limbs made when moving at speed was completely absent, and only the rustle of clothing could be heard. The only downside to this art so far–if she could truly call it that–was that it made her hyper-aware of a freedom she was previously oblivious to. She hadn’t known how much wind resistance had been slowing her down until the barrier was removed, and when she deactivated the art she felt uncomfortably weighed down. Executing the same kicks as before felt sluggish and unresponsive by comparison.
Liking how the ability was progressing even more, she purchased the third rank in preparation for adding it to [Mongrel’s Regurgitation]. Like the others, [Dynamic Movement] maxed out at Rank 3 and she couldn’t upgrade it further. She looked at the final description while she tested it out.
Dynamic Movement (Rank 3)
*Mongrel Bloodline
Passive Effect: Greatly decrease fluid resistance when moving through gasses or liquids.
Active Effect: For 1 qi/ 30 seconds, when moving through gasses or liquids your movements are slightly assisted.
Like running with a strong wind at her back, the active effect of [Dynamic Movement] felt absolutely amazing. No matter how she moved or attacked, everything felt easier. More than just increasing the strength of her blows, she felt like her endurance in a fight would be noticeably improved as well. There was no doubt in her mind that this was going to be mixed into her newest combat ability… but that left her with a dilemma. She needed 5 more BP’s to actually purchase [Mongrel’s Regurgitation], but she was torn on what to feed to [Mongrel’s Feast].
She could sacrifice the remaining, unpurchased ranks of [Translucence], which–if these most recent purchases were anything to go by–would have 3 Ranks total and net her 5 BP’s. This would let her keep Rank 1 of the stealth ability she’d come to depend on, but would prevent her from ever advancing it further. She could also sacrifice the remaining ranks of [Mongrel’s Feast] and possibly get even more than 5 BP’s, but she’d miss out on the ability to use beast cores indiscriminately while advancing both herself and Silas. This was an even better boon than the Wood Attunement would give her, provided she had a healthy supply of beast cores. Consuming [Abundant Spring] or [Spectral Projection]’s unpurchased ranks were also an option, though she’d already been getting so much use out of both abilities it pained her to even consider it.
After much internal back and forth, she quickly sacrificed the unpurchased ranks of [Translucence] before she could talk herself out of it and was rewarded with 5 BP’s. She’d been looking forward to the future effects since they would suppress other signs of her presence, but she hoped that [Fade] in conjunction with Rank 1 of [Translucence] would be sufficient to close the gap. There was also hope that someday she could get a better stealth art on her own, and she wouldn’t need to rely on this ability forever. For now, it was time to get herself a decent attack ability.
Taking a deep breath, she invested 5 BP’s into [Mongrel’s Regurgitation].
Select the abilities you’d like to combine:
* Prey’s Awareness (Rank 1/1)
* Poison Connoisseur (Rank 1/1)
* Transfer Vitality (Rank 1/1)
* Swift (Rank 3/3)
* Flurry (Rank 1/1)
* Translucence (Rank 1/3)
* Piercing Strike (Rank 1/1)
* High Speed Strike (Rank 3/3)
* Spectral Projection (Rank 2/3)
* Dynamic Movement (Rank 3/3)
* Mongrel’s Feast (Rank 2/3)
0/5 Selected
Efficiency: 0%
She started by selecting [Swift], [Piercing Strike], [High Speed Strike], and [Dynamic Movement]. With each additional selection she made the displayed efficiency increased by 18-19%. Adding in [Flurry], curiously, only resulted in an efficiency increase of 7%. Seeing that the skill didn’t immediately start combining her selection or prompt her to finalize her choices, she decided to switch out [Flurry] with the remaining abilities just to see if there was a better match. Unexpectedly, the ability that increased efficiency by a full 20% was none other than [Prey’s Awareness]. She had never even considered adding the perception ability into the combination attack, though in hindsight overlooking it all this time was silly of her. The sphere of dominion had saved her from close calls many-a-time by speeding up her perception. For an attack ability that would presumably make her very fast, having an equally fast perception made complete sense.
As soon as she settled the decision in her mind, the prompt updated.
Would you like to combine the following abilities? Y/N
* Prey’s Awareness (Rank 1/1)
* Swift (Rank 3/3)
* Piercing Strike (Rank 1/1)
* High Speed Strike (Rank 3/3)
* Dynamic Movement (Rank 3/3)
5/5 Selected [Total BP’s Invested: 20 + 5]
Efficiency: 94%
She selected ‘Y’ and immediately blacked out.
----------------------------------------
She awoke laying on the ground with her cheek firmly pressed to the floor and a small puddle of drool forming at the corner of her mouth. She was uncertain of how much time had passed because the chamber’s qi flow had stopped and her qi pool was full, but–
Wait… No! Silas was–!
Peeling herself up off the ground in a rush of panic, she tore open her personal storage and retrieved Silas’s limp body from the void. He flopped lifelessly in her arms, and she immediately started tearing up and trying to shake him awake. She was overcome with immense guilt. She knew how much he disliked storage to begin with, and she had let him suffocate in the dark! She couldn’t imagine his panic in his last moments as he waited for her to fetch him, but she never did. She couldn’t–
Silas’s back leg twitched and he snorted as the odd angle she held him at caused him to lightly snore. She fell to her knees and hugged the unconscious Wolpertinger close to her chest as relief overcame her, thankful that she’d miraculously avoided the worst. Now that she knew he was still alive, she recognized how many other signs she’d overlooked in her panic. He was still warm, and she could feel his heartbeat and his slow, steady breaths as she held him. His spirit also had never appeared in her dantian. By the looks of things, Silas just had also been knocked out when she used [Mongrel’s Regurgitation] but hadn’t woken up yet due to the time dilation in storage. From his perspective, he’d probably only been out a minute or two at the most. She sat cross-legged on the ground and gently stroked his side while she waited for him to recover and for her nerves to settle.
She’d been too hasty in her eagerness to get out of this rift. Her fragment had luckily kept working towards re-attunement while Samantha was indisposed–at least until the chamber turned off and ambient qi became scarce again–but she’d missed out on some of the meridian elixir’s duration. She had bought several extra vials in case she needed them, so it was no huge loss, but things could’ve turned out much worse. In the future, she would need to ensure Silas was not in storage if she was going to do anything that might cause her to pass out.
Silas began to stir in her lap, and she absentmindedly stroked the fur on his head with her thumb as she pulled up a notification that had been awaiting her attention.
Congratulations, you’ve gained a new Bond Ability!
Whirlwind
Passive Effect: Gain heightened awareness of your surroundings (affects all senses). Your steps have improved traction. Vastly decrease fluid resistance when moving through gasses or liquids.
Active Effect: For every 1 qi spent per second, you gain +5 to Agility and +5 Resilience.
While this ability is active:
* Your steps gain perfect traction
* Your movements are assisted when moving through gasses or liquids.
* You enter a hyper-focused state which greatly enhances your spatial awareness within 30 feet of yourself.
* You can coat a small area with a layer of piercing energy that increases the damage of your attacks, which can be moved at will.
* You can surpass your natural Agility limits to a moderate degree without injury.
Looking through the various effects, she could clearly see how the disparate abilities had influenced [Whirlwind]. [Swift] contributed a new passive effect which improved the traction of her steps, and made the active effect scalable. She was also able to increase her Agility higher without ill effects now. [High Speed Strike] had converted its ‘increase Resilience on attack’ effect to a stacking +5 Resilience bonus alongside her Agility gains. Furthermore, both the passive and active effects for [Dynamic Movement] and [Prey’s Awareness] were present and slightly improved. [Piercing Strike]’s damage coating would no longer dissipate upon a successful attack, and could be moved at will for the duration of [Whirlwind]. For a mere 1 qi point per second, all of these effects were a bargain! Activating the various abilities separately would’ve previously cost her 5-6 qi/ second, and she wouldn’t have even received a general Resilience boost.
How this ability actually fared in battle was yet to be seen, but from the description alone she already suspected that this was the right choice. It wasn’t a traditional ‘attack’ art that would deal a lot of damage at its lowest qi investment, but it would make her significantly more deadly in a fight for just a few qi every second. Or, with over 650 qi in her pool now, she could theoretically make a series of attacks with a ridiculous amount of Agility–though she wasn’t sure how her body would hold up even with Resilience being raised alongside it.
Glancing at what the next rank of [Jackalope of All Trades] offered her, it seemed to simply have the same options and 5 BP spending limit as before, but without [Mongrel’s Regurgitation] as an option. This meant she’d need to buy Rank 2 of [Abundant Spring] and either Rank 3 of [Spectral Projection] or Rank 2 of [Mongrel’s Feast]... whenever she managed to get that many points again. With most of her bond abilities consumed to fuel the skill combination, it might be some time before she could purchase anything else.
A few minutes later, Silas awoke and Samantha filled him in on what had happened. After confirming that he was alright and choosing to keep him out of storage for the time being, she started back up the cultivation chamber. Instead of having her fragment handle both the emptying and refilling of her qi pool, she would empty it herself during the next few rounds of spars. She called forth Tobias and gave him a wicked grin. Now that she had advanced, she no longer needed to avoid using arts… and, she’d just gotten a pretty good one. It was time to earn a new win record.
Tobias mirrored her savage smile and beckoned for her to attack him. After so many years, nothing more needed to be said between them. Samantha put 1 qi/second into [Whirlwind] to start, then obliged.