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New technique tree available!
You are nearly at the end of the steps toward a second star, and it is time to select a favored path. Of course, any cultivator can learn any path from a teacher, tome, or scroll, but they will always be at a disadvantage when advancing in a path that is not their specialty. Most initiates of the first star choose to follow a path that corresponds to their elemental affinity, as those paths will be easier for them to learn. However, they are not forced to do so, and there are paths that exist outside of the elemental spectrum which carry no penalty to learn because they have no elemental correspondence.
The paths currently available to you are as follows:
The Path of the Annealing Method
The Path of the Honing Edge
The Path of the Kingdom of Wild Hearts
The Path of the Hunting Spider
Be advised, once a path specialty is selected, it can only be changed through special circumstances.
You may now increase your statistics to the next star rating class.
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Of course, now that he had spent all his available ranks, the Cultivation System was allowing him to advance to a new level. It hadn’t said anything about learning Xanthous Ascendancy for himself, though, so his Rating wasn’t high enough for that yet. It also looked like the stat ranks wouldn’t be coming as often if he wanted to push into two-star territory. So far he’d gotten a new rank to spend for every one hundred points his Rating went up, but the two-star ranks required more than twice that increase.
One of Sunwhisper’s ribs was cracked. He had barely noticed it before, but the physical pain was starting to take precedence over the riot in his heart. Everywhere Makoto had touched him was screaming for attention. The damage to his outer shell was superficial, it could be fixed with a moment’s effort, but skeletal damage was another matter entirely. It was going to need both time and channeling to heal properly.
He sat down.
When he had raised his EQ to a two, there had been no instant sense of evolution. Perhaps it was because he had not been in a crisis at that moment. If he had been under stress when he made the change he might have realized how serious the shift really was. When he adjusted the score to a nine, the alteration was accompanied by a dizzying sense of dislocation. He actually felt nauseated, which was very strange, because it was his first time being nauseated by anything.
The system had altered his brain at his request, and it took several minutes for him to adjust.
His emotions did not return to being his neighbors. They were still in the metaphorical house with him, but they were no longer trying to burn the place down. His breathing calmed, and his heart stilled. The pain of his grief receded, and when he thought about the death of his fathers, there was regret, but the loss was no longer a knife slowly pressing into his core.
He found that he could once again separate himself from his emotions, but not because they were gone. They washed over him, but did not carry him away. A brave man is not one who feels no fear, but one who masters it. Sunwhisper found that he was not less angry, that his grief was not gone, but that he was able to face those things without losing himself to them.
His notifications called for serious consideration, but before he attended to them any further he decided he wanted to bury Makoto. Janna was amenable, and the earth technique she had displayed during the battle ensured the task proceeded quickly and efficiently. She softened the soil to the point where Sunwhisper could scoop it up with his hands with barely any effort, only mildly aggravating his injuries. They buried him on the far side of the tree beside the road, working together in silence.
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Starscream felt the exercise was a waste of time, and refused to help, while Karasu kept a sullen watch. They both would have preferred to be on their way.
Sunwhisper’s ribs were screaming at him, but the pain helped him focus, and he had much to think about. He already had four techniques from the Honing Edge selection tree, as those were the first that had become available to him, and he was progressing in three of them. Grandfather’s Cutting Elbow hadn’t proved useful yet.
The Annealing Method was merely the path of his alternative metal meditation, and he had already decided not to pursue it. The Path of the Hunting Spider was Starscream’s path, associated with the element of flesh, and he had no real interests there. It was only available because of their symbiotic condition, and having them both practice the same method would have been a wasted opportunity to broaden their respective horizons.
The Path of the Kingdom of Wild Hearts had been added to the list as a result of the dramatic change to his statistics. It was a hidden path, in the sense that he doubted he would be able to find any scrolls recommending its method in any library in Hollow. As far as he knew, the System had created it explicitly for him as a reaction to his sudden evolution.
Could the System intuit knowledge regarding a world to which it had never previously been exposed? Sunwhisper was not sure what the limits of the program that governed his development were, but he suspected that it had created the Path of the Kingdom of Wild Hearts out of whole cloth, whereas the Honing Edge techniques had been based on what he had read in the relevant scrolls.
It was a risk, as he had no way of knowing how effective a path generated in this manner would be, but it was possible he would have access to a set of techniques that no other cultivator held. It stood to reason that there would be little in the way of common defenses against such a path.
They covered Makoto, and Janna smoothed over the gravesite. She appeared unaffected by Makoto’s passing, nor was she disturbed by the fact that Sunwhisper had been so recently been involved in a duel to the death. That sort of event was unremarkable in the lives of cultivators. Their world was violent, and strength spoke above all other attributes. A lifestyle like that was sure to leave its mark on those who suffered under it.
Sunwhisper could continue developing the skills that the Honing Meditation had opened for him. They had certainly proven useful so far. Selecting a favored path meant it would take him longer to improve the techniques in his original path, and it would be more difficult to learn new ones. What had he gained in return?
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Hand of the Gentle Sage
Your touch can eliminate pain, both physical and emotional, at the cost of absorbing a portion of it yourself. This effect can be resisted, and the greater the pain, the more effort and mana will be required to quell it.
Aura of the Bleeding Heart
Your emotions are felt by those around you as if they were their own. Not all minds are subject to this influence, or to the same degree. The effect can be suppressed only by a concentrated effort of will.
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The foundational abilities of the Path of the Kingdom of Wild Hearts were very different from those of the Honing Edge, and practicing them would open further techniques in time. They were not, on the face of them, the sort of skills that would immediately make him the strongest cultivator in the Blessed Lands, someone capable of seizing the Quintessence for himself and his home without fear of challengers.
They did, however, speak to an aspect of existence that most cultivators seemed to ignore to their own detriment. There were a thousand geniuses competing for the crown of the deadliest fist, but who would compete with him in this?
Realistically, Sunwhipser knew that other paths dealt with perceptions, illusions, and the mind. This sort of thing was not entirely unheard of, but it was certainly unexpected.
His mind again returned to the fall of his fathers. It was a fact of life for cultivators that there would always be someone stronger, someone who made their own advancement seem paltry in comparison. A part of Sunwhisper doubted he would ever be able to compete on the highest levels, even with help, and certainly not in time to be of use to Earth.
The Path of the Kingdom of Wild Hearts, on the other hand, provided him with an opportunity to play the game on a different plane entirely. He had made his selection, and he didn’t regret it.
“Look,” Janna proffered a small band of iron. It was twisted over itself like a mobius strip, one continuous surface.
“What is it?”
“A treasure,” she said. “Makoto was wearing it. I think it is a damping ring. It makes channeling more difficult, but also more rewarding.”
Sunwhisper picked it up to examine it more closely. The metal was smooth, but there were script worked seamlessly into the band. Starscream climbed back onto Sunwhisper and plugged himself in.
(Sweet loot. I want to study those scripts.)
“We can share this,” he told Janna, ”thank you.” There was something she wasn’t telling him. He read it in the guardedness of her expression, but chose not to pursue it.