Samantha swung her thick wooden staff at her precariously balanced opponent’s ankles, trying to cause him to lose his footing on the water-slick log they shared. The large log, which floated in the middle of the lake beneath the cliffside waterfall, shifted, twisted, and bobbed each time one of them executed even the slightest of movements.

Thanks to Hyperfocus, she was able to process each of his moves with lightning quick efficiency even without Inspect active. She could tell as soon as she began her strike that it wouldn’t connect as she wanted, so she changed tactics. As he braced his body and moved his own wooden staff to intercept her attack, Samantha purposefully rocked and twisted the log beneath them as she stopped her swing right before it struck him. The lack of impacting force, combined with how the man had braced his body and the shifting platform, caused him to stumble. He did his best to grip the slippery bark with one foot as his other limbs briefly flailed for balance, but Samantha ruthlessly restarted her attack and swept his supporting leg out from under him.

The cylinder of wood spun and rotated at the sudden motion of his stumble, and Samantha frantically synchronized her movements so that she would not follow after him into the cold lake. Just as she stabilized herself on the log, she got the notification she had been hoping for.

*Ding* Your efforts to improve yourself have borne fruit! Training to master your body movements in combination with pushing your body beyond its current limits has granted +1 to Agility.

“Samantha is Queen of the Log again!” the sadist announced in an exaggeratedly grandiose voice, “Does anyone wish for a rematch? No? You’re going to just let her have the prize for this game? Bah–you all are no fun. Where’s that youthful ambition I always hear so much about?”. The wide smile plastered across the trainer’s face showed that he was having the time of his life, despite every one of his students being outwardly miserable. Samantha wished she could smack the infuriating expression right off of him, but she couldn’t deny that her gains from the last week had been nothing short of extraordinary.

As the sadist continued to heckle his trainees, Samantha looked over her newly strengthened attributes with pride.

Attributes:

Strength: 10 => 11

Agility: 14 => 16

Endurance: 8 => 11

Resilience: 6 => 7

Every day she trained she had gained an attribute point in one category, though she could tell that this period of easy advancement was already slowing down. She hoped to gain another point in each stat before she was finished training with the sadist, but if not she would remain pleased with her progress. She could already feel the incredible difference the increased attributes made to her general performance. She possessed twice the strength and stamina that even the most talented mortals could hope for, and was three times as fast in both movement and perception. Her Resilience was the only stat that Samantha felt was slightly lagging behind, but she was still harder to injure and healed faster than the healthiest of mortals.

Samantha could hardly believe how effective the pre-training powders had been for her progress. Such quick advancement would be almost unheard of, but she doubted that most people could tolerate taking so many alchemicals at once like she could. Something the saleswoman at “Grandmaster Nutrition and Cultivation” failed to mention was that each powder dose inflicted moderate blood toxicity on the consumer. It was only thanks to her bond ability Poison Connoisseur that she could stomach the medicines without falling terribly ill. On the bright side, mildly poisoning herself everyday was great for her resistance training. She didn’t stop with just the powders either. Every night when she went home she utilized the leftover vials of poisons from her ill-fated mission for Ol’ Man Whisper to increase her other resistances as well.

She quickly scanned her profile and took a look at the resistances listed under Poison Connoisseur.

Blood Toxicity Tolerance - Rank 2 -> 3

Future blood poisoning will have its effects and duration decreased by 3/4ths.

Corrosive Poison Resistance – Rank 1 -> 2

Future encounters with corrosive poisons will have their effects and duration decreased by 2/3rds.

Sleep Poison Resistance - Rank 0 -> 1

Future encounters with sleep poisons will have their effects and duration decreased by half.

Paralyzation Poison Resistance – Rank 0 -> 1

Future encounters with paralyzing poisons will have their effects and duration decreased by half.

Hemotoxin Resistance – Rank 0 -> 1

Future encounters with hemotoxins will have their effects and duration decreased by half.

Samantha was broken out of her reflections when she heard the sadist finally relent and call out “Agh. Fine! You cowardly lot. Come on Sam, take your prize.”

Samantha took a running jump from the log and made the leap towards the nearby shoreline, activating Cloud Step once her foot was about to dip into the water before leaping again and landing on solid ground. It was quickly becoming her favorite skill.

She took the vial containing a bright green liquid and drank it without hesitation. She knew what to expect by this point.

*Ding* You have consumed a potion of restoration. Natural healing rate and qi regeneration rate will be increased by 50% for 2 hours.

Samantha wouldn’t get too much out of this potion since she had been careful to save her strength for the Lattice game after lunch, but it would still be helpful. It would guarantee that her recently expanded qi pool would be full by the time she needed to compete.

She hadn’t felt the need to conserve her resources as much since her qi pool capacity increased to 82 points, but today was special. For the first time since she started attending these training sessions she was the most advanced trainee present. The Low Bronze, Alex, was not here to compete against her today.

She had been winning the free training days more often than not the last week, and Alex had seemed more and more irritated each time he lost. Perhaps the free sessions were one of the only ways he could afford the training? Or maybe he just didn’t like losing to someone of lower rank? Whatever the reason for his disappearance today, this presented her with the unique opportunity to put her full effort into attaining the grand prize of the Lattice: the high grade Meridian cleansing elixir. And she was planning on putting it to good use.

As all the trainees sat for lunch and began eating the nourishing spirit beast meat and herbs, Samantha went through the new combat arts she had learned to figure out how to best use them during the Lattice.

Hyperfocus

Meridian Requirements: Mind

While this passive mental technique is practiced, reaction and mental processing speeds will be doubled.

Cloud Step

Meridian Requirements: Left Foot, Right Foot

Spend 1 qi point to create a solid surface of condensed qi directly beneath a chosen foot. This platform will remain a steady and usable platform until one second has passed or the user chooses to move their foot to another place.

Hyperfocus just made everything easier, from combat to understanding new concepts to training new skills. When she had it active, it wasn’t as if time seemed to slow down (such as when she used the active effect of Prey’s Perception), it was more like she wasn’t surprised by anything anymore. Now, every time she noticed something–be it an incoming punch or a social interaction–her brain immediately processed it and she was able to quickly formulate the best response. It also allowed her to use her sphere of dominion more frequently and for longer periods of time, though she still wasn’t able to maintain the mentally taxing ability for more than a few seconds without suffering damage.

In short, Hyperfocus was not a flashy ability, but she decided to keep it active most of the time unless she needed Sage’s Rumination to replenish her qi pool. She found that it currently took 10 to 20 minutes to switch between the two passive mindsets, but she was hoping that with practice she could improve that speed.

Cloud Step, on the other hand, was both a flashy ability and a complete joy to use. She hadn’t yet mastered the skill by any stretch of the imagination, but she was getting better every time she practiced.

When she first learned Cloud Step it took her some time to fully trust the ephemeral platform to support her, but she got the hang of walking–and then running–on water or in air soon enough. It was when Samantha made platforms non-parallel to the ground that she ran into problems. Gravity pulled on her with the same amount of force regardless of her orientation, so if she was sideways on a platform she tended to lean towards the ground and it was difficult to attack or move effectively. She didn’t think this was an insurmountable obstacle though. Just the other day she discovered a trick that she was looking forward to experimenting with more. So long as she was moving forward in a curved or circular pattern, the centrifugal force helped to keep her body aloft. She could see how this would become a deadly part of her combat style once she mastered it.

As for Indomitable Body, she had decided to hold off on learning it right away.

After leveraging her mind meridian to do some research in the Athenaeum, mull over the contents of the manual, and analyze how Eileen’s body reacted when using the art during their duel, Samantha was almost positive that the only meridian required for the art was the skin meridian.

The skin meridian was the largest meridian that a cultivator possessed (due to the area that it covered) and would significantly enhance her Resilience if she cleared it. The network of tributaries that came off of it was extensive and reached nearly every external part of the body–save for places like a cultivator’s eyes. There was a small possibility that Indomitable Body also required the opening of the bone meridian, which also increased Resilience, but she doubted it. Samantha recalled Eileen’s skin being incredibly tough when she tried to cut it, but nothing else stood out to her as unusually resilient.

Normally, she would have no chance to open another meridian since she had already broken the golden ratio, but she believed that with the high grade Meridian cleansing elixir she could manage it. If she was right, she could learn Indomitable Body without using the elixir and give it to Thomas instead. This would grant him a better ability to protect the family once she was gone. If she was wrong or couldn’t win the prize, she could still take the elixir herself before ascending.

As Samantha continued strategizing how she would win the grand prize, the sadist got her attention and called her over to a more private spot away from the dining area to talk.

“Hey, kid. You’ve been putting in great work and have made a lot of progress these last few days.” he praised her, giving her a firm thump on the shoulder.

Samantha smiled a bit nervously at these words. The trainer didn’t usually commend you just for the sake of it.

“I am especially impressed at your fancy new skill– Cloud Step, is it?” he continued, “I’ve not seen too many people below Bronze using it, given the dual meridian requirements. But, it is a good choice that suits your strengths, and it will serve you well once you really get used to it. I just wanted to give you a fair warning…”

Oh no…

“I’m planning on participating whenever you run your routes on the Lattice today.” the sadist nonchalantly stated, tossing a heavier weighted bean bag up and down through the air. “Otherwise you will simply obliterate the competition, understand? You are, of course, more than welcome to use Cloud Step to try and avoid my projectiles. In fact I would be delighted if you did! I have been watching you practice with it and becoming more confident in your steps these last several days, and am excited to see your progress. I mean, you were already giving Alex a hard time by using it to occasionally keep your balance or prevent a fall. Now that he isn’t here to give you fair competition, I need to give the other students at least a fighting chance to beat you. Oh– and don’t forget! You aren’t allowed to skip out on following the route just because you can technically get through it now without touching any branches at all. You need to generally follow a path marked with red paint and make physical contact with some branches, or else I’ll disqualify you.”

Samantha nodded gravely, remembering how the violently thrown bags from the sadist could easily bruise even a Low Bronze. There was no doubt that with only 7 Resilience he could break her bones with a well placed hit.

“Don’t look so glum! It’s just a game, after all.” he said, giving her a sly wink. “And I know your Resilience isn’t the best, so I won’t be throwing with my full strength. I don’t want to accidentally kill you.”

“How often would you say I need to touch a branch to avoid disqualification?” Samantha asked, her mood not improved at all.

“Hmm… there is some wiggle room with how you approach things, but don’t push your luck too far. I’d recommend touching branches that you would normally be forced to climb, but I’m not looking for a reason to disqualify you either. I just don’t want you skipping large portions of the route. Good luck!” he called to her with a chuckle, before summoning all the trainees under the oak to explain the rules of the game.

Samantha braced herself behind the sun-bleached rope and prepared for an explosive burst of speed towards the trunk. She was beaten, bruised, and bloodied, but not at all discouraged from her goal of winning the grand prize of the Red Route.

Her first two runs had been… difficult.

Samantha had tried to take it easy on the White Route, not caring overly much about winning the prize of spirit rich food but needing to avoid ranking last so she could compete in the Yellow route. That was her plan, anyway, but the sadist was relentless. Despite catching almost all of the bean bags thrown by her peers, the trainer pummeled her limbs and torso with what felt like bricks. The jarring pain of it threw off her rhythm, and she almost didn’t make it to the goal despite using Cloud Step and her Sphere of Dominion. She ended up finishing in second to last place.

Samantha took more care to be conscious of the sadist’s attacks during the Yellow Route, but it didn’t seem to matter in the slightest. She successfully managed to avoid some of the trainer’s throws, but got hit by many more of her peer’s bean bags. Samantha had actually been hoping to win the free day of training, but that dream was expertly dashed as she ended up finishing in the middle of the pack.

She ended up using significantly more qi than she wanted to just to keep herself from being eliminated each round. With needing to keep Swift active for the extra traction and the occasional Cloud Step to get her out of tough spots each Route, she only had 47 qi points left. However, she was confident she could make it work. She didn’t even really need to concern herself with being the fastest on this Route, she just needed to finish.

The Red Route was a special challenge that the trainer made exceedingly difficult to complete. Not only was the Red Route located towards the top of the oak, meaning the branches were thinner and any falls would be much more significant, but to win the prize the participant actually had to reach the finish line. This was unlike the other two routes, where someone could win the prize by simply progressing the farthest out of their peers if no one reached the goal.

Samantha had usually seen only the newest trainees (who didn’t know what they were getting into) attempt the Red Route. Alex sometimes braved it, but would give up after reaching the point where the trainer would start playing especially dirty to prevent someone from winning. Aiming for branches to break them before they could be used by the climber, aiming for the head or spots that had been previously injured, and even throwing the bean bags so that they exploded into dust and blinded participants. She was sure he had even more tricks up his sleeve she hadn’t seen yet in the short time she’d been training with him.

“...2…1…start!” the trainer finished counting down, and her frantic run began.

Samantha trickled qi into Swift for a little extra speed and began Cloud Stepping up to the closest red-painted tree limb to reach the top of the Oak as quickly as she could. The qi expenditure so early on was frustrating, but necessary to avoid being hit too much by any bean bags in the start of the run.

The initial climb for the Red Route was brutal in how exposed it left the participant. The only branches marked with red paint and permitted to be climbed were far apart, and normally required participants to jump up to catch the branches and pull themselves up repeatedly. Not only that, but the ample amount of movement platforms provided to saboteurs meant that climbers would have nowhere to hide from the incoming barrage of projectiles. Literally anywhere on the route someone ran, there would be platforms with a clear shot at them nicely lined up against the trunk of the tree. This was where Samantha had frequently seen others fail the route early, as their torso or arms became too battered by bean bags to reliably continue to pull themselves up.

Samantha managed to avoid the worst of the onslaught from her fellow trainees and was only nicked by a scant few lucky shots, but the sadist’s attacks were a different story entirely. Despite moving upward so quickly that she left most of her fellow trainees struggling to catch up, the sadist leisurely kept pace alongside her the entire climb and pelted her mercilessly with bean bags that crashed into her like sledge hammers. Samantha stopped counting after the 10th blow, finding that keeping track was only hurting her morale and distracting her from her task.

He was strategically aiming for her legs and trying to take out her greatest advantage early, sometimes throwing multiple bags at once to make it more difficult for her to dodge. Unfortunately, despite Cloud Step giving her the mobility to go practically anywhere in the tree she wanted, she needed to stay close to the path and at least touch a red branch every few seconds. The damage she was taking was unsustainable, and she wouldn’t even be able to walk–let alone use Cloud Step–at this rate.

Samantha had to find a way to make herself a more difficult target despite being out in the open.

She thought back to how Silas approached dodging and movement during their duel with Eileen. When Silas sought to evade he juked left and right, darting around erratically instead of traveling to his destination in a straight line. Although Samantha was traveling in a somewhat switchback pattern up the oak, she was predictably using the shortest, straight path to reach the next branch. She was having to dodge so much partly because it was easy to predict where she was going to be.

Another thought occurred to her as she was struck in the arm by the sadist’s latest throw–what if she wasn’t considering all of her new abilities?

Samantha activated Translucence.

As Samantha landed on the next expected branch, the unexpected happened. Her form blurred and warped before his eyes, until she disappeared entirely from view.

That’s new. Interesting!

He scanned the place where he had last seen her, and spotted a minor distortion in the air. Had he not known to look for her in that exact spot, he likely wouldn’t have seen her at all. The branches behind her crouched form did an unexpectedly good job of camouflaging her position amongst the countless tree limbs. It was a neat trick… but still just a trick. She’d need to do more than that if she wanted to escape his notice.

When she moved, the illusion was broken further and he was mildly disappointed. The distortion increased and he could see the scenery, when viewed through her form, shifting and bending even more than before. He would’ve almost been insulted that she thought so little of his abilities, but did notice a distinct decrease in attempted hits from Samantha’s peers. Maybe Samantha had made a smart play, after all.

Unfortunately, at this rate with the bags he’d been hitting her with, she wouldn’t make it much further. It was a shame, since he had been rooting for her to win the prize given the great strides she’d been making as of late. But he couldn’t go easy on her, or that would defeat the purpose of the training. He hurled his next projectile, seeing clearly the path she would take to the next branch and aiming for the spot where her ribs would be and fully expecting it to make brutal contact. This might be the hit that ended her run today.

As the bag soared towards her, just before it struck, something else unexpected happened. Samantha’s trajectory completely changed course mid-air and the bean bag flew harmlessly past her. He raised his eyebrows, but prepared for another throw. Moments before he could lock in on her position and release the bean bag, her trajectory shifted yet again.

It would be almost impossible to predict her movements now that she had finally caught on to one of the weaknesses he was exploiting and was applying Cloud Step creatively. He could, of course, throw the bags harder and faster so they would be more likely to hit, but he didn’t feel comfortable doing so with her relatively low Resilience. His best chance to hit her now was to throw multiple bags in a wide cluster and let her move into the line of fire on her own.

His eyes lit up with childlike glee. Now things were finally getting fun.

Let’s see how you handle the full weight of my aura.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to figure it out! Well done!” the trainer cackled excitedly, exerting his killing intent in a targeted strike towards her.

The pressure from the Mid Bronze was intense, but Samantha endured it much better than she expected. He was probably going easy on her since she was only Peak Copper. She pushed back against his aura with her own, and she felt the nausea and queasiness fade into the background as she continued climbing. Her fellow trainees did not fare so well, and most immediately gave up on pursuing her in favor of getting out of the tree and away from the sadist. Those that did remain were too sluggish to pose a threat to her any longer with their throws, so it was essentially just her against the trainer now.

She was happy that she finally found a viable strategy to finish the route, but she was burning too much qi too quickly. It had only been a handful of seconds since the start of her run and she had already used 14 qi. She needed to ration the remaining 33 in her pool or else she’d run out of energy before she finished.

Samantha tried to minimize her use of Cloud Step in areas where the red route’s branches were closer together or there was more cover for her to hide behind. Instead of zig zagging between footholds she would use normal methods to progress towards the ever-nearing goal. The problem was that as soon as she stopped moving erratically she was just too easy a target. Even her Sphere of Dominion couldn’t help her dodge if she was physically too slow to avoid an attack or there was nowhere to go.

One particularly nasty hit to her thigh during one of these stretches required her to use Flawless Regeneration to repair the damage so she could continue without a serious limp. She knew that one more hit like that would be the end of her run, so she decided to go all out and hope that she could last until the end.

Samantha desperately pushed towards the finish line, the sadist harrying her every step of the way. She jumped, dodged, and weaved like her life depended on it, and she avoided the trainer’s painful clouds of projectiles by a hair’s breadth time and time again. His delighted laughter echoed through the branches like tolling bells, and Samantha’s sense of urgency grew as her resources dwindled lower and lower with each passing second.

She was starting to lose hope when at last, the goal appeared before her. She only needed to survive a few more seconds of this hell and she would emerge victorious… but she only had 3 qi left. It wouldn’t be enough.

But she was so, so close. Would she really fail after coming so far?

Samantha felt her hair stand on end as she sensed a bean bag sailing towards her head. She activated her Sphere of Dominion in order to give her a second to think and calculate her dodge. As the ability took effect, time seemed to slow to a crawl and she became viscerally aware of everything within a 15 foot radius of herself.

She calculated the path of the bean bag and began moving her head out of the way, but didn’t deactivate the skill immediately because she needed a moment of peace.

Think! There has to be a way. I can’t slow down and stop using qi, or else the trainer will beat me down until I can’t even crawl to the finish line. I can’t keep using qi like I have been or else I’ll bottom out and will be especially vulnerable and in the same situation. If only I had just a little more qi… I wouldn’t even need that much to make it the rest of the way!

Wait…

Samantha remembered the new Bond Ability she had gotten after consuming the stolen elixir: Energizer. If she bought the ability, she could take some qi from Silas and use that to give her the boost she needed to complete the course. But was that too short sighted? The elixir was difficult to acquire and would be extremely helpful in realizing her plans, but bond ability points were also precious and shouldn’t be spent lightly.

But then, she realized something. Yes, this particular situation was arguably not that important in the grand scheme of things, but it was representative of the problems she could easily face in the future. Just because she had a large qi pool, didn’t mean she would never run out. And, if she was in a situation where she was pushed to the point where she was running out of qi, a little extra boost might be all she needed to turn the tides in her favor instead of being killed by an opponent. Conversely, this ability wasn’t something that would only help her. Silas would also be able to pull from her reserves if he was in trouble.

Samantha made her decision.

*Ding* Bond ability Energizer purchased! Changes have been made to your status page.

*Ding* Expanded binding thread detected between you and your bond! Rank 1 of Energizer has automatically been upgraded to Rank 2 to reflect the increased transfer efficiency of your binding thread. Rank 3 of Energizer is now available for purchase.

She could feel her mind straining more and more to keep the active effect of Prey’s Awareness up, but she quickly scanned the description of Energizer to see what the new rank entailed.

Energizer [Special - Rank 2]

You and your bond can share vital energies at an improved transfer ratio of 1:1. You can pull up to half of the qi available in your bond’s beast core in exchange for increasing the cooldowns for their abilities (Bond current pool: 30/30). Your bond can pull up to half of the qi available in your pool to reduce their ability cooldowns (Current pool: 2/82).

Seeing the limits of her ability, Samantha was glad that she had received Rank 2 instead of Rank 1. 15 qi points should be just enough to carry her through. She was tempted to look and see what Rank 3’s description was, but discarded the thought. She could look after she won the meridian cleansing elixir.

Samantha canceled Sphere of Dominion and rushed onwards to claim her prize, but despite the fresh infusion of energy she received the short distance still seemed miles away. The sadist kicked his onslaught up a notch–something Samantha didn’t think was possible at this stage–and assaulted her with a constant stream of bean bags.

As she inched closer and closer to the finish line, spending every morsel of energy and concentration she could on leveraging Cloud Step and Sphere of Dominion to avoid being struck down, she was dumbfounded at where he was getting so many of the accursed things. There were literally dozens of rainbow colored bags streaming past her every second, and Samantha noted that most of them were no longer the heavier weighted projectiles the sadist used at the beginning of the route. Rather, it was a mix of the heavier bean bags and the standard ones that he passed out to trainees to use against each other.

As suddenly as the ceaseless rain of bean bags began, it stopped. With the high pitched whizzing of projectiles finally silenced, nothing else could be heard except her heavy breathing, the beat of her heart, and the breeze through the nearby branches.

She was only a few feet from the finish line now, but dread settled in her stomach–had she been disqualified? Had she forgotten to touch a red branch in this final stretch, after everything? Why else would the trainer have stopped trying to slow her progress?

Samantha looked back and saw the sadist bent over with half of his body inside a large wooden barrel strapped to the tree trunk. After a short pause he emerged triumphantly holding one, small tattered bag in his right hand. As he locked onto her position and drew his arm back to throw it, beans began leaking out of a hole at the bottom of the bag and falling through the branches of the tree down to the floor below.

The trainer looked at the sad, scraggly bag with mild frustration, and a hint of pink colored his cheeks as he looked back up to Samantha sheepishly, “This is a great time for one of my more practical pieces of advice! Always make sure you have enough resources to finish the fight.”

She could hardly believe it. Had she really outlasted his store of projectiles? The sudden shift in circumstances, combined with the immense relief she instantly felt forced her to suppress a laugh. Her mirth did not go unnoticed by the trainer, however. Seeing her smile at the good fortune, he laughed and smiled back at her with a shrug.

“Well… what are you waiting for, girl? Go and claim your prize, I can’t stop you now. Let no one say you didn’t earn it.” The trainer playfully waved her off and dropped the emptied projectile back into the barrel from which he grabbed it.

Samantha didn’t wait any longer. She crossed the finish line and was given the meridian cleansing elixir by the sadist as soon as everyone descended from the Oak and returned to solid ground. She received a small round of applause from those present in congratulations of her efforts, but also noticed expressions of envy.

“1 year, 4 months, and 26 days.” the sadist announced once the applause subsided. “That is how long ago I placed this elixir as the top prize for the route. No one until now has succeeded in evading my strikes so efficiently–and I hope all of you took some mental notes on how Samantha leveraged her strengths to carve out a path to success. It is something all of you can accomplish, given the right motivation, creativity, and experience.”

Several trainees nodded along as he spoke.

He continued, “As for the new top prize, I have something very special ready for the next winner. I assure you, it is just as desirable as what Samantha has won today. As for you, Sam, since you’ve already won a great boon I’ll have to forbid you from running the red route again for at least a month. I need to give other trainees a chance to win it big, but you may still run the White and Yellow routes if you wish.”

This restriction meant that there was no chance for her to win another red route prize before she ascended, but she was too happy with what she had already gained today to be overly disappointed at this news. All she needed to do was finish up the last few training exercises, and then she would postpone studying the High Copper version of the Vital Wellspring Cultivation Technique in favor of opening another meridian and learning Indomitable Body tonight.