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Chapter 41: Vascaran Steel
🕑 Added 2024-05-06 23:15:34 +0000 UTCPoppy tossed me two bags. I grabbed them out of the air, opening one to a half dozen tiny metal canteens. Three of them had faded green paint in a stripe around them, and the other three had faded red paint. The other had new clothes. My robes were in tatters.
“Healing and stamina potions.” Poppy said, stretching her arms. Then she stretched out her leg. “They didn’t have robes for you. Hope those aren’t magic or something.”
I popped open one of the green bottles. It smelled like mint. I took a sip and felt healing qi race through my body. Then I downed the rest.
“They’re not instant.” Poppy continued as she stretched. “They’ll take half an hour to fully kick in. And you develop a temporary tolerance to them pretty fast.”
“Thank you.” I said, clasping my fists in salute once more. “I will be sure to pay you back.”
“Oh, you’ll pay us back today.” Anna said with a smile.
“Thank you again for your instruction. But… I’m puzzled. Why did I only now receive a skill for using my sword techniques? I’ve used them several times here.”
I pushed myself up from my knees, standing and poking the dozens of bruises I received. My lip was already healing from my cultivators physique.
“Skills are best learned at the edge of a knife.” Anna said. “Kids who grow up in the street tend to get skills while the coddled ones in the city might not gain any before their fancy schooling.”
“What she means is that learning skills is a combination of factors, but the largest one is an intense external pressure and an action fully uniform in its intent and Willpower.” Poppy said. “I’ll guess that the moment you ran out of that second external energy — the one that isn’t quite mana — that was the moment you gained the skill, yes?”
I nodded.
“Skills are first and foremost when you push yourself just beyond the edge of your limits. And every time you do, your limits grow higher. But there’s more to it than just getting as many skills as you can. Once you reach the first Tier — level 50 — all of your skills will be melded together until only five remain. If you don’t have the proper balance of skills giving different attributes, you’ll be unable to advance your branches, and you must advance one to progress through the first three tiers.
“Almost no one receives the correct blend of skills to advance their branches. What stats do your skills give now?” Poppy asked.
I pulled them up.
[Skills]
[Anti-Light Herald Martial Art X] [STR +10, AGI +10]
[Identify 4] [PER +4]
[One Cut, One Kill 3] [STR +3]
[Meditation 2] [INT +2]
[Pain Resistance 3] [INT +3]
[Death’s Descent 1] [STR +1]
[Danger Sense 1] [PER +1, INT +1]
[Stormbreak Riposte 1] [AGI +1]
I listed them out to her.
“Perception, Strength, Intelligence, and Agility.” I said. “Mostly Intelligence and Strength.”
Poppy frowned.
“That’s… more skills than I would have expected. More than you should have. But… once we met you, we also started leveling faster than we should have. I think your Old Magic interacts oddly with the System.” Poppy stared off with a thoughtful expression, still frowning, before continuing. “I advanced the body branch, which was Strength and Constitution. You’ll need to start building a constitution skill now. You dumped all of your points into Willpower, right?”
“That’s correct.” I said.
“Then you’re lucky. It will balance out will the Intelligence skills you have.” Poppy’s expression turned from thoughtful to pitying. “You said you have Pain Resistance?”
Even Anna winced.
“You taking over?” Anna interrupted. “I’m going to go shower and go back to sleep.”
“Yeah.” Poppy said. “We can take shifts. The stamina potions should be able to keep Sai awake.”
“Ah…?” I said. “These are… like stimulants?”
The concept wasn’t foreign. Lower realm cultivators would often use spiritual stimulants. They could harm a persons foundation if overused, but allowed large groups to march without rest.
I only then noticed that Poppy had changed into training gear.
“Yes. But this won’t be pleasant. I’m sure you’re willing, though.” Poppy said. She cracked her knuckles. “Pain resistance is once of my own skills. I’ll teach you the one I combined it with when I Tiered up. I learned it from one of the Titanfall dungeons, but I should be able to teach it.”
“I learned [Danger Sense] from the dungeon as well.” I said.
“That’s the other major way to gain skills. Much safer to have a dungeon tour guide in a controlled dungeon.” Poppy stepped into the arena.
I set the bags of clothes and potions outside of the ring.
“Not taking the healing potion?” She asked.
“Not yet. We are training [Pain Resistance,] aren’t we?”
“Can you control your Willpower?” Poppy asked.
“Sort of.” I said. “Is that a — I wasn’t just imagining that or visualizing it?”
I reached out and flexed my Willpower. It felt like a ball of wafting smoke inside of my head, but I compressed it into a solid.
Poppy smiled like a shark, showing teeth. She had the excited face of a battle maniac.
“Of course you can.” She said. “Now do the same with your Constitution.”
The Array buzzed to life at the same moment Poppy flew forward.
I met her with my own fists. I had barely used the barehanded style of the Anti-Lightning herald — it was a rough technique, featuring lightning quick jabs and a dozen feints, no where near as complete as the sword technique had been.
Her fists displaced the air when they shot toward me. I met them from the side instead of head on, displacing blows instead of blocking them. One moment, she was sending swings toward my face.
The next her foot was only a few feet away. I activated [Stormbreak Riposte] without trying to; I was simplying try to block. I pushed Poppy backward. She jogged in place. Her face was manic behind her fists.
Poppy was fast. It wasn’t surprising when Anna was fast; she had said she focused on the Mind Branch; Agility made you faster. That made sense.
But Poppy advanced the Body Branch and was still so much faster than me.
“Ready to speed up?” Poppy asked. “You’re going to have to take the hits to get this skill.”
“That was slow for you?” I asked, aghast.
“It’s more surprising it took that long to get you to activate your skill.” Poppy said. “How long have you been training to fight? And without levels, too.”
“Since I could hold a training sword.” I replied.
“It shows.” Poppy said. “You fight like you’re weaker than you are. You need to figure how how fast you actually are now.”
An old, old offense rose to the front of my mind — one I had thought I destroyed completely. I crushed the feeling of offense — of the lack of face — and thought about it. I was fighting completely in line with the level of strength and power of someone using my technique in the First Realm. Because that’s what I thought of myself. Someone without a Dantian, trapped just a stage above a mortal.
But that wasn’t true anymore. Even with my Dantian completely emptied, I had the speed and strength that neared the power of a Core Formation Realm cultivator.
“I’m ready.” I said.
Poppy’s fist flew toward me. I concentrated on my Perception this time. She was a blur, but she wasn’t one so fast I couldn’t process it. I relaxed my Willpower and leaned more heavily on my Strength and Agility.
And I dodged, forcing my body faster than I had before, swinging for Poppy’s stomach with an open palm thrust.
Poppy was an immovable wall. Pain radiated up my arm.
Then I hit the ground.
[Pain Resistance reached level 4!]
Poppy stepped back, shaking out her hands as I pushed myself up. The rugged training mat left debris on my face that I brushed off.
“Better.” Poppy said. “You were much faster that time. Ready for a healing potion now?”
“No.” I said. “We go again.”
I had to adjust using my full stats while fighting. I also practiced cycling my qi while fighting, pulling in more to refresh my nearly depleted dantian. Relying on only my stats was useful. I could feel out where my new limits were even without qi.
[Meditation reached level 3!]
In the third fight, I landed more than one hit before Poppy knocked me out of commission. She didn’t knock me to the ground anymore; she hit in the same spot in the stomach. The pain got worse.
I considered using [Zones] after that, but the skill seemed to only accumulate charges as I leveled. Or whenever the System decided to give me a quest. It wasn’t worth it to feel better about dueling.
On the fourth fight, I was familiar enough with fully using my stats to bring my Constitution to bear. The attack didn’t knock me out of commission. I grunted instead, swinging again.
Poppy knocked me out.
“Better that time. You almost have it. Try to concentrate your attributes to the exact point of impact.” Poppy said.
We tried again. This time, I succeeded.
[New Skill: Vascaran Steel 1(Constitution +1, Strength +1)]
[Vascaran Steel: Once per sixty seconds, concentrate the power of your Branch of Body to reduce the damage of an attack.]
I still fell to my knees, clutching my stomach.
Poppy stepped back, looking down at me.
“You did it! It’s time for that healing potion.” She said. “You look awful.”
“Yes.” I said. Then, with clasped fists, “Thank you for the instruction.”
“You’re welcome.”
I drank the little metal canteen and leaned with my back against the stone brick wall. The entire city was hot, and in a wet, sticky way. It was far worse than Sandgrave.
The healing potion tasted like acid and berries, and then my entire body started to itch. I put a hand my stomach, but ended up staring at my arm where my skin knitted itself back together at a visible rate. I relaxed. The feeling was uncomfortable, but not intolerable.
“Hey Poppy.” I said, staring at her. “Why does this skill have your family’s last name? Did your family… name themselves after it?”
“No.” Poppy said, filling up two metal cups from a running faucet hanging from the wall and surrounded by supplies.
She passed one of the cups to me and sat down on the ground across from me. Her face searched mine.
“What do you think about it?” She asked.
“It’s odd.” I said.
The system’s descriptions flashed through my head. Poppy Vascara, The Void Shattering Fist. Destined to destroy Illyria. Scion of a interplanetary dynasty. Descendant of enemies of the Anti-Light Order.
Here she was, sitting across from me in a dirty warehouse, sweat clinging to her skin. She itched her scalp. Her hair was short cropped and cut unevenly. She wasn’t part of the House Vascara. Not really. Not if they raised her siblings to Titan’s and she was here a continent away, destined to shatter their nation.
And she was here, training me to become more powerful.
“I think my family… might have some Old Magic themselves. The thing with perceiving your attributes? Most people can’t just do that without intense training. I don’t know if people can at a later Tier… Even knowledge of balancing your Branches isn’t something people tend to just give out here.”
I nodded. Then I nodded more fervently.
“Okay. Alright. That makes more sense.” I said. “I was wondering how this world could maintain any sense of social order if every mortal could rise up to the level of their lords — they do it by coveting information.”
The world was making a lot more sense to me. Poppy gave me a concerned look.
“Show me the technique you learned in the precursor legacy.” I said.
My body was still stitching itself together, even after minutes. I drank down the entire cup of water while I waited for Poppy to activate her skill.
On a hunch, I threw my perception toward her, focusing on sensing her qi. I felt it trickle up and into her arms, rough and uncontrolled before igniting in void-qi around her fists. It looked like black gauntlets appeared around her fists.
The meridian in her arms was open. I wonder if the system giving her a skill assisted her with that.
“Alright.” I said. “Can you sense the energy moving up your arms?”
“The mana?” Poppy asked. “I can. But it’s off. Different compared to other skills.”
I shook my head.
“That’s because it’s not mana. That’s qi.” I tapped my fingers on the smooth stone floor. “The route its taking up your arms is a Meridian. You have to open them one at a time. If you have this one… you probably have the rest. Anatomically. Normally, the process of opening them is dangerous and intensive, requiring care and attention so that you don’t damage a fragile body with foreign power. Most cultivators start as children. Completely mortal. But…”
“But my body is reinforced by the System.”
“Yes. With enhanced Constitution and Willpower… I think you could open all of your meridians tonight.”
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! So will Sai tell her about the little small tidbitt he learned about the "Vacara Family" on this visit still or will that be something for later I wonder? The problem is with the way it's going in 2 years who knows how far Poppy and company have come already! (And that's only IF Sai can even get free of this "main family tournament buiseness" in time to get back for the next cycle I guess!)
Raid Boss
He used it on a memory of the gale titan at one point but he was pretty out leveled, it creates a sphere of blades basically like a slaughter formation
no
Good chapter. 👍 Have we learned what the Zone of Slaughter does yet?
