Bab 9: Tactical Retreat
Dusk Bringer and the nine swords he just bought flew in a straight line towards the burly man. Flustered, he quickly swung his sword, knocking several of them back. In the end, only one of William's swords got through his defenses, and it only left a thin cut on his skin before it got deflected off.
"How is your skin so strong!?" William was shocked. Even an ordinary sword would do a lot of damage against a spirit condensation realm cultivator. Even if it would be easily destroyed in a battle like this, it would still do damage against the opponent.
The man grinned.
"I happen to temper my body in my spare time."
Then, he ran at William, swinging his sword at him.
William controlled Dusk Bringer to come back into his hand, having the other swords get in the way of his opponent's sword to slow it down a bit more. The man's sword collided into the nine swords he placed in front of it, knocking them out of the way. William swung his sword to meet the greatsword, finding that he only got knocked a step back.
"It works!"
William felt he should be able to survive under the burly man's attacks, but he knew Ryan and Fletcher couldn't last much longer.
He quickly opened his status panel.
______________________________________
[William Reynolds]
[SP: 250]
[Cultivation Technique: Nine Revolution Absorption]
[Cultivation Level: Spirit Foundation Realm- Stage 3] [+]
[Spiritual Force: 30/30]
[Strength: 15] [+]
[Speed: 13] [+]
[Agility: 13] [+]
[Spirit 12:] [+]
[Will: 12] [+]
[Techniques Learned:]
[Farming (Novice)] [Cooking (Novice)] [Beast Taming (Initiation)] [Illusory Sword (Initiation)] [Sword Control Scripture (Novice)]
_______________________________________
"Only 250 SP left?"
William frowned. He couldn't buy anything helpful enough to let Fletcher and Ryan win.
"Guess I should use it on myself. System, raise my strength, speed, and agility to twenty!"
"Affirmative."
William felt his newfound strength and smiled. He waved his hand, controlling the swords to gather around him. The burly man also prepared, finally getting serious about the fight.
"Finally ready to fight, brat?"
William smiled.
"I just hope you won't start begging when you lose."
The two raised their weapons, and the two stared at each other closely.
Then, William turned tail and ran.
"Bye!"
William headed towards the battle between Fletcher and Ryan and the other two people under the gaze of a dumbfounded opponent He had no interest whatsoever in fighting with that man.
Right now, the goal was to escape and recuperate, buying himself enough time to upgrade his strength some more. His bragging was only a cover.
The burly man froze for a moment before quickly chasing after William.
"Come back and fight!"
William turned around to respond.
"Why should I?"
"Cause you're not a man if you don't!"
"What?"
"I said, you're not a-"
"Ever."
The burly man froze, struck speechless.
Using the opportunity, William ran to the other battle and grabbed Ryan and Fletchers' hands, pulling them away.
Their angered opponents tried to chase after them, but William sent his swords behind him to harass them, slowing them down.
"C'mon, let's go!"
William let go of their hands to let Ryan and Fletcher run with him.
"We need to find a safe place to hide as soon as possible."
Several minutes later, William heard the sounds of the burly man and his companions getting further away. Deciding that was enough, William retrieved all his swords and sent into the spacial ring.
After a while, they couldn't hear their opponents anymore, so they started trying to hide their tracks since they had more time.
So, while William and Ryan continued walking while looking for a hiding place, Fletcher was behind them covering their tracks, hiding any evidence of them being there.
"So, see anything?" asked Ryan.
William scanned the area.
"Nothing. It's not easy to find a large area to rest that's secretive as well. This might take a long time, and we might not find at all."
"Would that work?"
Ryan pointed towards a spot a few meters away.
"Nonsense, how could it be that easy to find a good hiding pla-"
William turned and saw a cave entrance that was almost completely covered in vines, which he hadn't noticed before.
"...where did that come from?"
"Come on!"
Ryan led William into the cave.
"This... seems to be a decent hiding place," said William, his face turning a little red. At this point, he was starting to doubt if he was still the main character. Wasn't he supposed to be the one face slapping others?
Still, he had to admit, this place would be very hard to find, making it a very good place to hide. Plus, the inside of the cave was very spacious, enough to fit the three of them comfortably. They could easily hide in here for several days without their opponents noticing them.
"William? Ryan? Where did you go?"
William heard Fletcher's voice from outside.
He parted the vines covering the entrance and poked his head outside.
"Over here!"
Fletcher came inside the cave.
"So this is where we're going to hide? Didn't even notice it when I passed by."
Fletcher and Ryan deposited the supplies they had brought with them into the cave and Fletcher took stock of what they had.
"We only have about four days worth of food, which should be enough for us to lay low for a while, at least until they leave this area. However, water is just too heavy, and we only brought enough for one or two days. That might be a problem."
Just then, William remembered something.
"Oh, right. I also put some things into my spacial ring."
A bunch of food and water appeared over the pile, covering up what Fletcher and Ryan had brought.
A small silence ensued before Fletcher finally sighed.
"Having a storage ring is such a luxury. You can take so much stuff with you without having to care about space or weight."
Fletcher looked over the supplies once more.
"I think we should have enough to last almost a week now, maybe more if we try to portion it right. We might have to starve a little though"
"Surely, we wont need to go so far?" said Ryan.
Fletcher rolled his eyes.
"You just can't stand the idea of eating less than you normally do. If it weren't for your insatiable appetite, we would last much longer than just a week."
"Hey! These muscles need energy to maintain, alright?"
"Muscles?"
"You-!"
Ryan rolled up his sleeves and looked like he was going to pounce on Fletcher.
"Keep it down. We're in hiding right now, remember?"
"...yeah."
"...I know."
Ryan sulkily walked over to the pile of food and took out an apple to eat. Meanwhile, Fletcher stood in the back of the cave, practicing with his sword.
"Wanna join me?" asked Fletcher.
"Maybe later. I need to do some cultivating."
"Okay."
William sat down near the entrance to the cave.
'System, how long is the cooldown for the spirit stone?'
"About 25 hours. The current time left until you can collect the next one is 23 hours and 52 minutes."
William sighed. Seemed like it might take a while before he could get more SP.
'I only have 60 SP left now. I need to find a good use for it.'
William collected another silver coin from the inventory and put it in the storage ring.
'Oh, right. I can automate this, right?'
"You'll need to pay 1 SP every time an item is collected."
William thought about this.
'A silver coin is worth 100 SP, right?'
"Affirmative."
'So... it's only worth 10 SP since it can't be cloned, and I only get 10% of that when I sell it... I won't make any money at all!!!'
"You will have to use it on higher valued items then."
'...I guess I'll have to get a gold coin.'
William turned around.
"Ryan?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you still have a gold coin left from the auction?"
"Yeah, I do. Why?"
"Can I see it for a moment?"
"Sure."
Ryan searched the pile of food and pulled out a leather pouch. He reached his hand inside and took out a shiny gold coin.
"Here you go."
William grabbed the coin.
'System, put this in my inventory.'
"[Gold Coin] has been placed in slot 3."
'Okay, system, automatically collect this when it's done.'
"Would you like to sell it when it is collected or leave it in your spacial ring?"
'Sell half of them. I still need some money.'
William looked in the inventory.
'Oh, I forgot about this! When I place an item in the inventory, it's cooldown is already over!'
William collected the gold coin. Suddenly, he got an idea. He placed the gold coin from Ryan into his storage ring and brought out the one he got from the inventory.
"Here's the coin back."
"Thanks."
Ryan took the coin and put it back into the bag.
Meanwhile, William was selling the coin to the system.
"Gold Coin sold! You have received 1,000 SP!"
William grinned. This gold coin had given him the same amount of SP the spirit stone had given him.
'System, raise my cultivation!'
"Not possible. Your stats are currently too low for that."
'What?'
"Your stats have to reach a certain level before you can forcefully advance your cultivation."
'What level?'
"The peak of the next rank. To become a cultivator at the 4th stage of the spirit foundation realm, you need to have at least 14 of every stat."
'So I need 15 of every stat to become a 5th stage cultivator?'
"Affirmative."
William remembered that Fletcher and Ryan were sitting next to him. How would he explain his sudden increase in strength?
William thought about this but couldn't come up with an answer.
'Oh well. I can think about that later. System, raise all of my stats to twenty!'
"Affirmative."
'Now, raise my cultivation to the peak of the spirit foundation realm!'
"Affirmative."
William could feel the spiritual energy in the air coursing into his body, rotating in strange patterns. Suddenly, it stopped.
"ERROR!"
'...what happened?'
"You don't have the cultivation manual for the rest of the stages."
'...oh. I forgot about that.'
William looked at his status panel.
'Eh? It changed?'
______________________________________
[William Reynolds]
[SP: 900]
[Cultivation Technique: Nine Revolution Absorption]
[Cultivation Level: Spirit Foundation Realm- Stage 3] [+]
[Spiritual Force: 30/30]
[Strength: 20 (17+3)] [+]
[Speed: 20 (17+3)] [+]
[Agility: 20 (17+3)] [+]
[Spirit 20 (17+3)] [+]
[Will: 20 (17+3)] [+]
[Techniques Learned:]
[Farming (Novice)] [Cooking (Novice)] [Beast Taming (Initiation)] [Illusory Sword (Initiation)] [Sword Control Scripture (Novice)]
_______________________________________
"It has been updated to reflect your stats better after they all reached 20. I thought you might confused otherwise."
William looked at the panel closely.
'...I think I'm more confused than before.'
"A spirit foundation realm cultivator could have at most 20 in every stat, but this doesn't include the benefit from the technique you practice, or any special constitutions or bonuses from other places. Therefore, the 17 is your base stat while the +3 is from your cultivation alone."
'So I can have a total of twenty three of any stat right now, including my cultivation?'
"That's right."
'Then add three more points to all my stats.'
"Affirmative."
______________________________________
[William Reynolds]
[SP: 750]
[Cultivation Technique: Nine Revolution Absorption]
[Cultivation Level: Spirit Foundation Realm- Stage 3] [+]
[Spiritual Force: 30/30]
[Strength: 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Speed: 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Agility: 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Spirit 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Will: 23 (20+3)] [+]
[Techniques Learned:]
[Farming (Novice)] [Cooking (Novice)] [Beast Taming (Initiation)] [Illusory Sword (Initiation)] [Sword Control Scripture (Novice)]
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'I still have 750 SP left. How should I spend it?'
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone