They talk about how if you don't make it your first year, you're unlikely to ever make it. That means that they probably get a crop of peak yellow who break into green every year, and they set people who don't make it in their first year against those people at the start of the tournament to knock them out. So no, they probably aren't going to giving anyone a by.
Ji Rong has been noted to have found a lot of 'luck' searching the mountain, so I expect his resources are things like sites and knowledge rather then read stones. I don't think he'll lose much in the way of ability to cultivate, but he will lose time. But every dice he gets is worth more then every dice we get. He'll pull ahead again without too much trouble, but it will probably make him meaner and more aggressive.
Actually making green is not a good idea, no. It simply takes too many successes. But high yellow and high silver are definitely going to be the floor. There are too many people who've already made it into silver/yellow.
And yes, we do need to compare ourselves with those who have years more experience. Those are the people we're in competition with.
As to Ji Rong, whilst good sites are extremely nice they work vastly better in combination with drugs, especially elixir type drugs that move successes around. Ji Rong's going to have to work hard to get the money to afford those, actions which he can't spend cultivating. Not to mention he's lost his archive pass, and will proabably have trouble getting it back after Huang Da has had a month's training. So he'll have to deal with that or strive for sect points to get more arts or decipher riddles he finds. I've also said that this is the time where social should start paying dividends. Indeed we've seen it happening already with Jian's group providing bonuses, Meizhen sharing a site etc. This site has actually proven why the lone wolf apprach can be a big negative as it's impossible to access on your own.
Given all that I'll be calling bullshit if Ji Rong doesn't lag significantly behind for a fairly long period after this. Him becoming meaner and more agressive is only good for us as he pisses off more and more people his options will only shrink.
Late yellow/late silver are fairly well possible (especially late silver).
So does anyone else think the reason that most outer disciples either make it into the first year, or not at all even for those with talent is because they're moved to a less resource rich mountain after the first year?
This would certainly explain why there are no second year outer disciples in our area... I suppose an alternative would be that with the ban on leaving your mountain being lifted after a year all those resources are now vulnerable to second, and third year out disciples from other mountains.
As to Ji Rong, whilst good sites are extremely nice they work vastly better in combination with drugs, especially elixir type drugs that move successes around. Ji Rong's going to have to work hard to get the money to afford those, actions which he can't spend cultivating.
Keep in mind a single sect job can give up to 50 red spirit stones. Ji Rong probably lost much less than that in all. Archive pass will hurt him somewhat, but Ji Rong probably is looking to get level 2/3 arts more than level 1s anyway.
"So sixteen people total," Ling Qi mused. It would almost certainly have to be the tournament for her. Even if she did find formations interesting, she doubted she would get good enough to become a top talisman crafter by the end of the year. "Is it just our year, or…"
"The older outer disciples may join, though typically those more than a year or two older have reached the plateau of their potential in the Sect," Bai Meizhen replied as they reached the top of the path.
In other words, Bai is telling us that outer disciplines who have spend a year or two more in the sect then the incoming year - that is, 2-3 years - have typically plateaued. That makes sense, I think. With our talent, we stand a good chance of making it to Green within a year, but someone with e.g. a talent of 3-4 would cultivate roughly two-to-three times slower than us. In other words, those who haven't broken to Green in 3 years probably have a talent of 3 or less, and they are unlikely to go much further. Breaking through to Green requires 3 successes on a roll against a cap of 10*Talent + Bonuses - 10; assuming a bonus of +10 from AS5 (it is +5 as of AS4, but lets be optimistic), that means that a Talent 3 cultivator would be trying to roll below 30. That means a 30% chance of success, and an average cost of 35xp per failure. 3 successes would require on average 10 attempts, with (10-3)*35xp = 245xp lost on average due to failures. And of course, it gets MUCH worse for Talent 2.
So no. I think you aren't being vary disciplined in how you're looking at what we have, what it takes to get where we want, and what the opportunity costs are.
I think you are confusing what you want with what we want. I also fail to see how discipline works into this equation. I am being very disciplined in how I value what we have and what I am willing to spend to get to where I think Ling Qi should be. You are as well. It's just we have very different valuing system for what Ling Qi has and might get.
A good alliance with people we're going to leave behind? Half the social actions give us long term resources, though I've talked before on how just because a resource give you a bonus, doesn't mean it was worth the action that got the resource. A +1 per roll on air arts would probably not be worth a action to get, because it would take 16 actions before we 'paid off' the action of getting it.
You are severely underselling our alliances. Alliances have protected us to get us where we are now. Alliances have allowed us to past tests and gain amazing resources from them. What is to stop those allainces from giving more to us. If you only want to make alliances with people we won't leave behind cultivation wise then we should talk about an alliance with Ji Hong the wild dog. Alliances have given us information about how the world works and a solid support structure.
His attitude and actions have led him to being frozen. He has a powerful enemies and few resources. He is in a terrible spot socially. Accidents happen all the time on this mountain as Hruang Da has shown us.
And I did give numbers. Assuming 20 successes an action, which we could only make assuming we do take sect quests for resources, it would take 175.5 actions. With four actions a turn, we only have 120 actions. Actually, it gets worse then that in some ways, because we'll have to use more pills because each pill will benefit fewer actions, though working out those numbers is basically impossible.
Where are you getting that assumption? We will have more success per action the more resources we devote to an action. So this number will be in constant flux depending on the amount of resources we have. So all the following math is solid if it follows that assumption but then we just have a weak assumption giving weak math.
Here is the quote I remember (bold added for emphasis)
In other words, Bai is telling us that outer disciplines who have spend a year or two more in the sect then the incoming year - that is, 2-3 years - have typically plateaued. That makes sense, I think. With our talent, we stand a good chance of making it to Green within a year, but someone with e.g. a talent of 3-4 would cultivate roughly two-to-three times slower than us. In other words, those who haven't broken to Green in 3 years probably have a talent of 3 or less, and they are unlikely to go much further. Breaking through to Green requires 3 successes on a roll against a cap of 10*Talent + Bonuses - 10; assuming a bonus of +10 from AS5 (it is +5 as of AS4, but lets be optimistic), that means that a Talent 3 cultivator would be trying to roll below 30. That means a 30% chance of success, and an average cost of 35xp per failure. 3 successes would require on average 10 attempts, with (10-3)*35xp = 245xp lost on average due to failures. And of course, it gets MUCH worse for Talent 2.
It's worse than that. Green is where, I think, we get -10 to our Talent breakthrough roll. So someone with Talent 4 would need to get 3 success at 30%. It's definitely doable, but something that needs a lot of perseverance to get. So I expect that they would consider those with such perseverance "OK". I don't think there is a lot of Talent 3 in the sect. Actually, there are probably none. Regardless, 20% on three success? A fuck ton of time unless you get really lucky.
Also, we were told AS5 didn't help for breakthrough.
He isn't saying that if we devote all four actions we will be unstoppable, he is saying that the minimum for being competitive is to devote all four. Those are different assertions. Likewise, our connections actually aren't going to be any worse if we devote all four to cultivation. They aren't competing for cultivation slots.
So I did misspeak and said thelastone made an assertion he didn't. For that I apologize. However I don't think we need 4 actions to be competitive. I think we need 3 with the other action being spent on resources gathering to support the 3 cultivation actions. Our talent is high and resources will only help that. Therefore I think should start spending significant time getting those resources. That is my argument.
The only thing I'm sure of is that getting lots of events is critical.
Zhou's test got us FVM. FVM meant we won the fight for the vent. The vent helped insure that we won those pills and the archive pass. All of which helped insure that we came away from the Thunderdome rich, instead of crawling away broke, broken and wounded. Which meant that we could explore the serpents treasure now rather than in weeks/months.
It's worse than that. Green is where, I think, we get -10 to our Talent breakthrough roll. So someone with Talent 4 would need to get 3 success at 30%.
AS4 increase breakthrough value by 5. I was being generous and assuming that AS5 would increase the value by 10.
EDIT: We were told AS5 didn't help for our breakthrough to Yellow; it might still help for breakthroughs to Green. Though I admit that makes it less likely.
So I did misspeak and said thelastone made an assertion he didn't. For that I apologize. However I don't think we need 4 actions to be competitive. I think we need 3 with the other action being spent on resources gathering to support the 3 cultivation actions. Our talent is high and resources will only help that. Therefore I think should start spending significant time getting those resources. That is my argument.
There is three major issues with that argument that I can see.
The first is that the numbers of resource available are limited. There is no point in gaining 800 red spirit stone a week, for example, if we can literally only use 50 a week. A plan like I posted in the preceding page would, I think, get us beyond the maximal benefit from resources.
The second is that rare resources, the ones we can get from rare events, scale with numbers of cultivation used in a week. Using a rare resource when we cultivate less than 6 times is very unwise I believe, and I am going to push for them being used for 7+ actions week.
The only thing I'm sure of is that getting lots of events is critical.
Zhou's test got us FVM. FVM meant we won the fight for the vent. The vent helped insure that we won those pills and the archive pass. All of which helped insure that we came away from the Thunderdome rich, instead of crawling away broke, broken and wounded. Which meant that we could explore the serpents treasure now rather than in weeks/months.
The third refer to this, is meta, and is a pacing issue. Events are great. But time must flow. We must try to push events significantly, but we should leave a bit of breathing room to the plot so that the year doesn't take 10 real time years.
"Well, let's head in then. It shouldn't be any trouble for the two of us, right?" Ling Qi said with a confidence she didn't fully feel. Her flute was still in her hand, and she found herself toying with it nervously as she watched the fluttering shapes in the distance. "Do we even know if they'll attack us?"
"It is likely, look at the droppings on the ground," Meizhen replied with some distaste. "This is their lair, and they are territorial beasts." She flicked her wrist and her weapon, that odd collection of metal ribbons attached to a hilt appeared in her hand. She still sounded stiff to Ling Qi, but the other girl was focused on the task ahead now.
"Disgusting things," Cui grumbled. "Leaving stinking mess everywhere. Sister Meizhen had better repay Cui for this." Despite the serpents irritable words, she didn't hesitate to follow Bai Meizhen into the cave alongside Ling Qi
"I'll catch you a rabbit or something myself if we get through this alright," Ling Qi muttered, drawing an approving hiss from the currently large serpent. "Should I start playing? No reason to make it easy for them to target us."
Bai Meizhen paused a moment and then nodded sharply. "You can include me in the effect if I recall, so yes, unless your mist dissipates with time?"
"Not unless I stop playing," Ling Qi replied before raising her flute to her lips. "Do we have a plan?"
"We comb the chamber for exits and potential points of interest," Bai Meizhen replied simply. "I will counter attacks upon us while you conceal our exact location. Grade one beasts are not particularly intelligent. Simply be wary if you spy the approach of a larger bat with lighter markings."
Bai Meizhen wasn't one for complicated plans it seemed. It was interesting Ling Qi supposed, for all her friends high class… Meizhen was a pretty blunt girl. She began to play as they walked, the haunting melody rolling out along with the mist in the cavern, echoing from the distant walls.
23/38 Qi
Beside her, streamers of moisture began to condense out of her mist, shaping the beginnings of Meizhen's mantle of dark water. Above and ahead, Ling Qi heard the beginnings of high angry screeches that made her ears ring uncomfortably. She tensed herself, readying her qi to activate her defensive technique at a moment's notice. Things were going to be dangerous for awhile.
They began with a simple criss crossing search of the cavern, and for the first minute or two they found themselves unmolested as they investigated the closest parts of the cavern. The peace was broken though, as they began to move forward and a shadow dived toward them from the ceiling encased in a faint glow of gray qi.
Ling Qi quickly stepped aside, dancing away from Meizhen's side, even as the other girl did the same without so much as moving her legs, seeming to simply flow to the side on a carpet of shadow. The bat missed her by a wide margin, and Meizhen's coiling weapon rose with a flick of her wrist, carving through the creatures shell of qi and drawing a spray of blood as the ribbons cut into it's fur. The diving bat let out a pained shriek as it beat its wings, trying to regain altitude, but it was cut off a moment later as Cui struck, fangs digging deeply into it's side.
The flying beast spasmed violently and dropped to the ground with a meaty thump, no longer able to stay airborne as the serpent's venom was pumped into its veins. Ling Qi shared a brief look with her companion before turning her eyes skyward, where dark shapes gathered, there were more than the dozen Meizhen had predicted, how many more Ling Qi could not say.
She switched tunes as more of them began to dive, drawing on the darker song of Dissonance and causing the mist to roil with dark shapes. This was going to be a little hectic. She was loath to simply hide and allow Meizhen to suffer all of the attacks, so she would instead have to focus on playing defensively and not letting her song get interrupted.
The next few seconds were chaos, high pitched shrieks that made her ears ring blasted away any other sound, and her mist was full of black furred bodies, and flapping wings. She twisted her body spinning out of the way of one clawing, biting creature after another, the wind opf their passage ruffling her gown. She barely managed to avoid it all, and even felt several strands of her hair yanked violently out when her trailing locks were caught by the claws of one of the beasts.
She didn;t falter though, keeping up her tune as her constructs manifested as misty twins to her attackers, clawing and biting at the bats as they worked their wings to ascend back up for another dive. Some ten meters away, Bai Meizhen made her dodges look clumsy, seeming to barely move to avoid the enraged spirit beasts attacks, punishing the creatures failure to hit her with counterattacks from the coiling metal ribbons of her weapon. Another bat fell, screaming as Cui's caustic venom burned through the webbing of its wing.
Ling Qi felt the vibrations in the air, and in an instant her instincts screamed at her to move. She leaped backward, trailing streamers of mist and shadow as she felt her body vanish between one place and the next. The stone she had been standing on exploded violently, shards of stone blasting outward as the stone spiderwebbed under the force of the attack, she felt pebbles pelt her and a few sharper ones cut short lived rips in the sleeves of her gown, but she had escaped unharmed.
"There is a second Elder, enhancing the others beasts!" Meizhen's words cut through the noise and music like the crack of a whip, and Ling Qi found that there were indeed two much larger shadows circling the ceiling, well above her mist. She looked back down in time to see Meizhen's mantle of water drop away, and for a moment she wondered if the girl had been hit, and her technique disrupted.
That proved wrong of course, as the water simply seemed to merge with her shadow and flow up her legs and gown, turning her lower body inky black. She saw her friends legs flex, bending as if preparing herself for a leap… and then the gathered inky liquid exploded, launching her upward with the force to crack the stone beneath her feet, trailing behind the suddenly ascending girl like the tail of a serpent.
Lesser bats scattered in her wake, Bai Meizhen's glittering silver weapon snapped out, glowing with sickly green qi to rake across the face of one of the Elder Bats, causing it to shriek in pain. Ling Qi had no time to further focus that though, no, she had to focus on the agitated swarm of bats still flying in her mist, their tough hides ignoring the claws of her shadowy constructs. Still, for the moment they seemed slower, and despite the greater numbers striking at her, she managed to avoid their claws and teeth for the most part, suffering only a single bloody scratch along her arm that she was slightly too slow to avoid, and she felt loath to expend the qi to deflect.
[X][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
She was reluctant to expend any further qi at all honestly, targeting the lesser bats with Diapason or Elegy seemed a waste, but she needed to maintain her mist. Her eye caught the second of the larger bats chasing Meizhen down into her mist as the girl fell back to earth though, and she used the opportunity to strike, binding it's senses with confusion and mist, so that it would not be able to fly out of range again.
20/38 Qi
All the while one bat after another fell Cui, whether they grew to close and suffered a fatal bite, or fell with their flesh running like wax from her caustic spit. Ling Qi began to lose track of individual actions after that, falling into a simple instinctive mindset of continuing her song and dodging attacks. She could recall flashes, Meizhen's hair flying out in a fan behind her as the Elder bats screech erupted point blank in her face, and the way blood had erupted from the beast's mouth moments later as Cui's jaws clamped on its throat. She remembered suffering a half dozen close calls with snapping teeth and grasping claws, and she remembered crushing a wounded bat's skull under her heel when it had snapped at her foot in passing.
Eventually though, the scrum ended, the bats which had not entered her mist scattering to the far reaches of the cavern. Around Ling Qi, over a dozen dead spirit bats lay on the ground, bleeding sluggishly from many wounds. She could feel something warm and sticky coating her bare foot, and felt the sweat matting her hair to her neck. They had won though, and it hadn't even been that hard.
Meizhen looked untouched and regal, save for the blood staining her sleeves as she peered into the air for further targets.
"They flee us Sister, shall we feast in victory?" Cui crowed, wound into a tight coil to the girls left, her mental voice smug and arrogant.
Bai Meizhen glanced over at Ling Qi, relaxing from her combat stance, and then back to Cui. "You may snack later Cui. We are not done yet," she replied evenly, even as she gestured with her free hand and a handful of the corpses vanished, seeming to dissolve into mist and drain into a narrow platinum band that adorned the pale girl's finger. "Ling Qi, are you prepared to continue?"
Ling Qi glanced around, reasonably satisfied that the bats would not return, even if she was a bit sad at the other girls cold tone. She allowed her melody to cease and lowered her flute. "I'm fine, nothing but a scratch," she replied. She glanced down at her feet then and grimaced. "Well, I'll need a bath, but that can come later," she added wryly. "Do you have room to store all of these? My ring is full, and I don't think we want to stand here and harvest cores," particularly since she wasn't much good at it. She was lucky the Worms core had been obvious.
"Hmph, the mouse presumes too much, thinking to steal the best bites of Cui's feast," the serpent grumbled at her, giving her reproachful flick of the tongue.
Meizhen on the other hand regarded her with pursed lips for a moment, but then nodded. "Do not be greedy cousin. If I let you eat all of this, you would grow fat and sluggish for months," she responded airily to the serpent, whose head whipped around to stare at her relative with affronted outrage. Bai Meizhen extended her hand, and soon the ground was clear of all but streaks of blood and cracked stone. "Come, we may count our spoils later. I tire of this place," she said as the last bat vanished, turning away to continue through the cavern.
Ling Qi simply sighed and hurried to follow her. Meizhen seemed less tense now, but it still felt like the other girl was being more distant than normal. She kept her thoughts to herself for the moment though, ignoring the slight stinging of the cut on her arm as they resumed searching the cavern. Frustratingly though, they found nothing, despite scouring the cavern from end to end they found nothing but bat dropping and other refuse. No formations, no doors, not even a stray red stone.
Soon they had only one portion of the cave remaining to explore, at the far end it narrowed considerably, the ceiling rapidly sloping down until it was barely fifteen meters high. The path ahead split around a massive outcropping of black stone, blocking sight of whatever lay beyond. Ling Qi glanced from one side to the other, frowning in frustration at the lack of prize. It looked like both sides lead to the same place, but…
"Stop," Bai Meizhen said from beside her, halting herself as she narrowed her eyes at the path ahead. "It seems I was in error. The bats were merely a distraction. Show yourself."
Ling Qi spared only a moment to look at the serious expression on her friend's face before she turned her full attention to the path ahead, clutching her flute tightly, what did she mean? Ling Qi squinted, trying to see what had alerted Meizhen… and then she saw. The great mass of rock in the middle of the cavern was not entirely still, it was almost imperceptible, but it rose and fell slightly as she watched, and it's edges did not line up entirely with the floor.
"The meals will not deliver themselves this year I see." Ling Qi startled as a deep rumbling voice, that reminded her of fires churning deep under the earth sounded in her thoughts, and the entire rock formation, some fifteen meters across shifted, rising upward to scrape the low ceiling. A blunt, reptilian head emerged from the darkness, pushing out of a recess in the stone. Veins of dull red pulsed between black scales, and eyes that were little more than balls of white hot fire stared out from deeply recessed sockets. However, on each of its four trunklike legs, Ling Qi could see gleaming shackles of red hot steel, rooted into the stone below by metal spikes covered from end to end in fiercely glowing formation characters.
It was a massive tortoise, with a shell of volcanic stone, steam puffing steadily from it's beaked mouth with each breath. Ling Qi only grew more worried when saw a flicker of hesitation on Meizhen's features.
As the silence stretched on, the massive beast let out a rumbling snort that sent both of the girls gowns and hair fluttering out behind them. "Tch, too long. This damned binding…" it growled in frustration. "You have a choice fleshlings," it continued irritably. "One may pass, and the other may return to the entrance. Choose."
Bai Meizhen's expression tightened, but it was Ling Qi who spoke up first. "And how do we know this isn't just another test? Or a trick to split us up?"
The massive tortoise exhaled, and Ling Qi's hair billowed backward, her eyes watering as she was engulfed in a cloud of steam. "If I could kill you, you would be dead child," the thing replied flatly. "The child of deep waters understands."
"That is a fifth grade beast," Bai Meizhen said quietly and thoughtfully. "A Volcanic Tyrant Tortoise, I am surprised that such a thing would be left in this place. Yet your Qi feels far too weak. You are the source of energy for the mountains formations, are you not?"
"If you think me weak, you may both try to pass," the thing responded angrily, the veins of fire between its scales flaring brightly. "I have no patience to prattle with insects. Make your choice," it repeated.
Ling Qi eyed the monstrous thing warily. This didn't seem right. "I don't trust it. Why would the elders set up a test that requires two people working together just to turn them against each other at the end?"
"I know not why you apes do what you do," the tortoise replied. "Know that I will eat you both should you both attempt to pass or attack. I am bound to return the remaining disciple safely otherwise."
Ling Qi glared at the gigantic reptile, but didn't say anything else. She glanced at Meizhen, what should she do?
[] Volunteer to return. She had only come here to help Meizhen after all
[] Wait, see what Bai Meizhen decides on her own
[] Try to convince her to try making the dash past the thing. It is bound to this chamber, and chained so tightly it can barely stand up. Surely they could get past it.
[] Convince her to let you be the one to go on?
Okay, I believe I have decided on new turn voting rules.
Each turn you will have five major actions and three minor ones. You may trade in all three minor actions for a single major action. You may also choose to attach a minor action to an appropriate major one, once per turn. For example, a minor han jian action could be chosen to attach to a group training action, or a minor su ling action could be attached to a gathering job.
Keep in mind a single sect job can give up to 50 red spirit stones. Ji Rong probably lost much less than that in all. Archive pass will hurt him somewhat, but Ji Rong probably is looking to get level 2/3 arts more than level 1s anyway.
I think he'll have lost more than that. Given he was apparently abusing his position I expect Lady Cai should have taken all his ill gotten spirt stones + any remaining on him to cover the fines for his abuse (the agreed upon fine was 35+70+140+280=525 spirit stones in fines). Frankly if he managed to hide a substantial portion I'd expect to hear clamouring for him to be confined longer than a month, both out of jealousy for his talent and out of a desire to see him properly punished if they can't get back their items.
If Ji Rong's spending habits are anything like ours 50 spirit stones willll last him a couple of weeks at abslolute best. We're spending around 20 stones per turn and we have a free yellow stone each week from the argent vent. If he doesn't have that then he's going to be spending 30 (I think the stone converson ration is 10 lower stones to a higher?)or so stones a turn at early yellow/silver. So he's going to have to manage to complete a unique mission (many of which carry significant risks) just to stay in items, never mind actually collecting sect points.
The first is that the numbers of resource available are limited. There is no point in gaining 800 red spirit stone a week, for example, if we can literally only use 50 a week.
Once the marginal benefit from resources goes down significantly, then we will want to reduce how much focus we place on obtaining resources. However, given that we aren't at that point now, and given that a lot of the resources we would be looking for aren't red stones or an equivalent but locations or other rare goodies, I don't think this is something that is going to come up for a while yet.
The second is that rare resources, the ones we can get from rare events, scale with numbers of cultivation used in a week. Using a rare resource when we cultivate less than 6 times is very unwise I believe, and I am going to push for them being used for 7+ actions week.
Oh, absolutely. We want to be maximizing the benefit we get from our cultivation consumables when we use them; for the resources you describe, doing anything that isn't highly time-sensitive during the same week would by folly. But we only have so many rare resources - certainly not enough to support a full cultivation load most weeks. We just have to adjust our actions the rest of the time so that we keep the overall balance we want (e.g. doing a social-heavy week before a week with zero social and the like).
I think you are confusing what you want with what we want. I also fail to see how discipline works into this equation. I am being very disciplined in how I value what we have and what I am willing to spend to get to where I think Ling Qi should be. You are as well. It's just we have very different valuing system for what Ling Qi has and might get.
You are severely underselling our alliances. Alliances have protected us to get us where we are now. Alliances have allowed us to past tests and gain amazing resources from them. What is to stop those allainces from giving more to us. If you only want to make alliances with people we won't leave behind cultivation wise then we should talk about an alliance with Ji Hong the wild dog. Alliances have given us information about how the world works and a solid support structure.
His attitude and actions have led him to being frozen. He has a powerful enemies and few resources. He is in a terrible spot socially. Accidents happen all the time on this mountain as Hruang Da has shown us.
Where are you getting that assumption? We will have more success per action the more resources we devote to an action. So this number will be in constant flux depending on the amount of resources we have. So all the following math is solid if it follows that assumption but then we just have a weak assumption giving weak math.
Allies who we've already definitively passed. We joined them when we were weaker then any of them, but we don't exactly own them for that - them taking us on helped them pass the first test. The second test was individual, and we passed the third with a by.
The training we got from them? Again the almost certainly are also benefiting from that, training against techniques they wouldn't otherwise see and getting raise attriutes and skills that they wouldn't challenge agaisnt each other. We also aren't losing that training even if our relationship devloves.
Thunderdome fight? We've invested a bunch of actions into raising our relationship with Xuilan, and what's damaging it at this point is us blowing past her in cultivation. Guess what? that's going to keep happening. She isn't a contender for the inner eight slots, not unless she comes across some major luck. Like, people were arguing it was screwing over Suyin to try and share the vent with Jian and company because they're competitors for the Inner Sect, and I was scraching my head because... no. None of them are making inner sect through combat. Suyin might through production.
The big benifit they bring is that we're all about the debuffs, so any ally is helpful for drawing attention and doing damage as we set that up. But they aren't special for that, and they're becoming less useful there. We'll soon have spirit buddies, we're starting to do missions with Meizhen, and Suyin and Ling are buffing up.
If we could make an alliance with Ji Hong without drawing undue trouble? It's actually something worthwhile to think about. It might be more worthwhile then the actions needed to juggle Suyin's and Jian's teams against each other. The only problem is if it might annoy Meizhen. Not sure what she thinks of him.
And no, he's not getting written off. That's exactly what I'm talking about when I say wishful. "Ji Hong has been crippled by this setback and is about to die. All the Green Cultivators will be given a by so that they don't take all the top spots." These are wishful. Getting into the inner sect is a 1%er thing. Actually, it's more like a .08%er thing. You either have to be a high noble with decent talent and a decade of resources poured into making you a monster, or you need a mix of absurd luck and a ton of talent.
Like, maybe if you made peak Green or beyond you would be given a by via apprenticeship. There might be secret tests on the mountain you can find that give you a by, I'm interested in looking for something like that. But we need to start making ourselves a monster, that or accept being the victim of monsters.
Given all that I'll be calling bullshit if Ji Rong doesn't lag significantly behind for a fairly long period after this. Him becoming meaner and more agressive is only good for us as he pisses off more and more people his options will only shrink.
You're underselling Ji Rong here. Talent is the god stat and he has the king of god stats. Against an above average cultivator (talent 5), assuming both cultivate 24/7, Ji Rong's actions are 50% more effective than them so every 2 actions of his in the new month will make up for 1 from the previous month. So, every week, he makes up for 3 actions during the month of stasis, which means he'll be caught up within 2 months. That leaves... at least half a year to leap ahead.
There's a reason why Ji Rong is such a huge deal. His talent is insane in a world where the average is talent 4. It really doesn't matter if he pisses off more and more people as he advances because more and more of them will be irrelevant in comparison to him. All he needs to do is to stay within the line enough to avoid pissing off the very top until he catches up. I know I said I think he has low impulse control, but ... he's not dumb. He's survived this far and he knows how to keep his head down. He just got into a bit of a power trip and overextended.
Sites isn't going to be a huge deal because he doesn't have to worry about social so he can devote exploration actions. Resources are also limited in what you need because you can only use a certain amount per week. I mean, in reality, neither cultivator will spend 24/7 cultivating, but the number of people with talent 5 and enough resources being mailed to them such that they don't need to accumulate more is ... low. Low enough that I'm pretty sure they're already going to grab a slot.
Not sure what to do here. It's clearly highly bound and Qi drained which should significantly weaken it, but it's still 3 grades above us which gives it a lot of successes on us.
It's seen us so sneaking's going to run into trouble.
I wonder if this might be another test where not trusting the turtle to keep it's word and having both member go back to the entrance together actually gets you a greater reward. Or the reward of not getting eaten as the case may be.
I think he'll have lost more than that. Given he was apparently abusing his position I expect Lady Cai should have taken all his ill gotten spirt stones + any remaining on him to cover the fines for his abuse (the agreed upon fine was 35+70+140+280=525 spirit stones in fines). Frankly if he managed to hide a substantial portion I'd expect to hear clamouring for him to be confined longer than a month, both out of jealousy for his talent and out of a desire to see him properly punished if they can't get back their items.
I'm pretty sure he was either attacking people he disliked, or didn't manage to get that much. I would be very surprised if he had managed to get more than 100 spirit stones.
Regardless, I think we should table that discussion until the vote is locked, just so we can concentrate on stuff.
Honestly we want to evade combat if we can. That's a indigo/steel level beast, it can probably kill us with a thought. So we either need to try to out argument him, or just give up. We already got some cores and a Art. This seems like a optional part, and Bai has far better chance of getting the reward.
There is three major issues with that argument that I can see.
The first is that the numbers of resource available are limited. There is no point in gaining 800 red spirit stone a week, for example, if we can literally only use 50 a week. A plan like I posted in the preceding page would, I think, get us beyond the maximal benefit from resources.
The second is that rare resources, the ones we can get from rare events, scale with numbers of cultivation used in a week. Using a rare resource when we cultivate less than 6 times is very unwise I believe, and I am going to push for them being used for 7+ actions week.
The third refer to this, is meta, and is a pacing issue. Events are great. But time must flow. We must try to push events significantly, but we should leave a bit of breathing room to the plot so that the year doesn't take 10 real time years.
So I agree that there is little point in gaining more resources then we can use in a week. However we need to at least keep up with the resources we are using in or to keep the engine of cultivation going. Right now we literally have not went out of our way to gain resources. I think that is a mistake and we need to devote time and energy to getting resources. Who knows we might find rare resources during our searches. Another thing is that eventually we will be able to use more resources during an single event. It would be much better to capitalize on that the moment it happens then to go and find resources for it then.
The second point: absolutely we should use rare resources sparingly on only on major cultivation turns. I did not intend my statement to convey that we should never do a major cultivation turn. In fact I think we should do so on a regular basis (every 3 to 4 weeks or so). However we need resources to build up to that huge turn. So we are back to getting those resources.
The third point: I think fetch quests will trigger an event rarely if ever. But we won't know until we have been on a few fetch quests!
...Can we get back to the entrance?
Whats the benefit of going forward?
This offer is extremely strange.
If it IS that going forward gives a nice prize and the person that goes back just gives up further rewards then whatever, however they didn't say anything about the one returning to the entrance giving up their already won prizes.
Need to think about this, seems like a dumb trap but not one we're expected to fight our way out of as this is a 5th grade beast.
[X] Volunteer to return. She had only come here to help Meizhen after all
Selflessness for best friend!
Edit: Also, is "child of deep waters" referring to Ling Qi? What does it mean?
Edit 2: I like the stunt Katreus wrote. [X] Volunteer to return. She had only come here to help Meizhen after all
-[X] Ask if we can wait on this side while Meizhen passes so we can hear / see that she makes it to the other side safely
Some ten meters away, Bai Meizhen made her dodges look clumsy, seeming to barely move to avoid the enraged spirit beasts attacks, punishing the creatures failure to hit her with counterattacks from the coiling metal ribbons of her weapon.
