Fury greeted him smugly. “Didn’t go so well, did it?” Ryan understood that she was lashing out because she remained unhappy that he left her behind so he chose to ignore the snippy comment and continue their mental conversation in a way conducive to keeping the peace. “Yeah. That sucked. Don’t think the two of us can solo that friendly trash-loving beastie. Unless I can pepper it with arrows from outside its detection range or from outside the range of its quill-spray things could get dicey.”
“You want to call for backup?” his soulbond asked.
“Yeah, I think we should get the combat team involved. Probably safer that way.” Ryan replied. With that said and feeling Fury’s reluctant agreement he called his brother. William responded to the call within seconds.
“William. We’ve got a little pest problem. Or not so little. Anyways, could we get Mike, Alexis, Miguel, Carmen and you ready to come help out over here. We have to deal with a Level 23 porcupine that can shoot its steel quills if we want to move the Guild to the lodge. I’ve had a go at it but don’t think we can kill it within a reasonable time frame.”
William oozed enthusiasm. “Yeah, sure. Just give us about half an hour to get everyone together here and we’ll hop over.”
Looking at his Energy levels Ryan considered that that might be a bit too short to allow him to regen enough energy to spin up a Portal and hold it for more than a few seconds. “Make it an hour. I need to replenish Energy for the Portal.”
William grunted an acknowledgement and with a “Take care.” dropped the call. Left to his own devices Ryan asked Fury to keep an eye on the surroundings and started a poemsae to actively cultivate. When Fury snorted he was reminded of the prior incidents that resulted from deeper cultivation and concentrated on keeping it light. Ryan had no need to provide her with further ammunition for teasing him mercilessly and passing out here wouldn’t be prudent. Ryan remembered the zen-like state he had achieved after departing from the kopje earlier on this expedition and sought to recapture it. Entering into cultivation was by now second nature but resisting the urge to dive beyond the surface level of the fascinating flows of energy was hard. The insights he could gain if he just peeked a bit would further his understanding of himself, of the world, of reality but valiantly he strove to not to lose himself. It was hard, harder than he thought, but Ryan persevered. Ryan understood, intellectually, that he needed to master this aspect of himself. He needed to reign in his curiosity, his need to comprehend, if he ever wanted to use his active cultivation in an environment where a loss of his external senses put him at risk.
After several false starts, either dropping out of cultivation or forcefully pulling himself out if he dove too deep Ryan found an uneasy sense of balance. He was wobbling but remained on the narrow path that kept him aware of both his surroundings and the energy flows through himself and outside himself. Both states where shallow, only tangentially touching on either state. It was an improvement but the zen-like state he had found only days earlier made no reappearance. Still, after he maintained this uneasy balance for a while his senses became clearer, he became more aware of his surroundings. The shallow awareness of his cultivation became static, fixed until a System notification interrupted his concentration and the whole state collapsed.
Skill learned – Skimming. Active. Player can enter a superficial state of cultivation while remaining aware of his surroundings. Restrictions relating to Players path are lessened in this state. Take note that the efficiency of cultivation and player’s awareness of his surroundings are both impacted negatively in this state. The latter can be somewhat mitigated by improving in this Skill.
This was a game-changer, Ryan realised. This Skill could greatly improve the growth of the Guild, in strength, in wealth and in their combat potential. If more members could learn or unlock this Skill their effectiveness would grow in leaps and bounds. Ryan immediately sent John the details of the Skill with a short explanation on how he had gained it. A niggling doubt surfaced however and Ryan didn’t fail to include it in his observation. It was the only Skill the Interface had granted that bore any relation to cultivation at all and Ryan wondered as to why that was. What he had understood from the primer on cultivation was that the Interface and cultivation were two sides of a coin but somewhat in opposition to another. One was natural and the other artificial and he wondered why and how the two systems intersected and if there might be consequences down the line.
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Putting these thoughts in his note and setting them aside Ryan checked on the time. The hour he had asked for was nearly over and with a call he checked on William to ask if his reinforcements were ready.
“Just about.” William answered. “We’re just waiting for Carmen. Pop us a portal in 5 minutes.”
Ryan set himself a reminder and started playing with his new Skill. With a thought he activated it and observed the effects. His senses muted but Ryan noticed that his Energy was regenerating faster, significantly less than what he remembered from cultivating but materially faster than usual. It didn’t feel like cultivating however. A slight sense of unease accompanied that realisation but no matter how hard Ryan focused on the flows of Energy he could only dimly observe he couldn’t find anything obviously concerning. He was still puzzling the matter over when his reminder rang. Without dropping the Skill Ryan decided to test further and started calling up a Portal. It spun up without any complications but Ryan had the feeling the process was infinitesimally slower, clunkier.
Once the team had stepped through Ryan first dropped Skimming and then the Portal. He didn’t notice an appreciable effect and concluded that activating or dropping his new Skill while channeling another seemed to be safe so he turned to Miguel and greeted him with; “Guess what I just learned.” and sending him the Skill description with his notes to John. For good measure he sent it to the rest of the team as well. The various sounds of appreciation after everyone had a moment to go through the description were satisfying. First, because all members present could appreciate the value of the Skill and second because Ryan loved the positive reinforcement. Miguel’s starry eyes where especially great.
“So where’s the beast?” William quickly came to the reason for their presence.
“It’s in the garage or barn we guys stayed in last time. It’s been slowly moving around in there for a while now.” Ryan told them. “You guys have been working together for some time so how do you suggest we deal with it?”
“Correct me if I’m wrong.” William started, “it is armoured, can flick its tail to shoot you with spines and charges backwards at your location.”
“That’s about it, yeah. Basically like a normal porcupine except for the shooting spines part and the fact that they might be made from steel if we judge from the Identification. I haven’t gotten close to those to check them out.” Ryan confirmed.
“Well, in that case I suggest you be bait and we position ourselves to take advantage once it charges. I remember that you can Shift us along with yourself?” William laid out the basic game plan.
“I’m too low on Energy.” Ryan denied.
“Then I suggest the following.” William, pulling a piece of coal from nowhere, started drawing on the flat piece of rock they were all sitting on only to be interrupted by Ryan.
“Wait, why do you have a piece of coal in your Inventory?”
“Comes in handy.” his brother replied. “Anyway, Miguel and Ryan should circle around to the northern side of the lodge and find a good vantage point for Miguel with line of sight to this building.” he continued pointing at the crude drawing that depicted Ryan’s last ambush site.
“Carmen will stay here. Mike, Alexis and I will carefully make our way down to the lodge from here. We should be able to stay behind the main building keeping out of sight of the barn once we’re down in the valley. Once we hit that building we’ll move to the north-eastern corner and stay in position.”
William was clearly enjoying himself drawing out the plan in coal and Ryan had the distinct impression he wouldn’t like what was coming next. As soon as he heard the next part that feeling was vindicated.
“Once everyone is in position it’s your time to shine, Ryan. Shift to the building and do what you have to do to get it to charge you. Once it does we come in. Carmen and Miguel, take out its eyes. Mike, charge it. I’ll follow and Alexis can support if anyone gets hurt. Once Mike hits, the porcupine should be stunned or dazed and easy prey. Simple and effective.”