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Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

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    • Good Seed and Omake Spreadsheet Rules:

    Firstly, if you have questions about Good Seeds and the like please read here. If that doesn't answer your question please ping me in thread, or on Discord.

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    This is mandatory. If a Good Seed does not record their omake by pinging collabs (or just requesting access and editing things themselves - this is the preferred option), I won't give out awards. If a new Good Seed is not recorded here, they won't advance. By doing this it makes the whole thing manageable for me - it's gotten pretty unwieldy!

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    Omake Writer Instructions:

    There are four fields you need to fill out.

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    • occipitallobe said:
    Achille carved another line, and another, energy cascading out, more and more.

    He frowned.

    "Don't ever do this, I was told."

    He looked over at Tisamenos.

    "If you ever decide to walk the path of array mastery... don't ever do this."

    He smiled wryly, and placed a hand directly over the rift in the stone. The energy boiled into him, his muscles and gut puffing up as though he had been filled with water, glowing red entirely. He huffed, and carved again, containing the light within himself as he carved. Three more lines, and the light ceased.

    Achille bent over, coughed, and a beam of red light the size of Tisamenos's fist carved its way out of his chest, shattering a nearby house-roof.

    His eyes were bloodshot, and he coughed up blood, before pulling out a Spirit Stone and drawing energy from it.

    He shuddered.

    "It'll hold for the day. Boy, go find Ferenike. She went to the north wall - the attack! Find her, and tell her... it'll hold for a day. Not two."
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    I really like how he admits from the start that this is a desperation move. Really shows the desperation involved.
    occipitallobe said:
    Aretaphilia sung. For three hours, she sung, Qi pooling and threading through the air, empowering them beyond their limits.

    They fought, and like heroes they threw the Fifth Sea hunters back time and again, striking beyond their own strength.

    The song slowed, though, and the tired face of Lady Myia looked over the wall.

    "Eirene. Can you buy me some time?"

    The shorter, plumper girl nodded. Tisamenos admittedly he had not thought much of Eirene of Nowhere, but she danced.

    At first it was a mere dance, flesh moving this way and that. As she twirled her scarf, something happened.

    His heart stilled, and was at peace. His desire to fight gone. His fear and anger from the last few days draining away.

    He feared for a moment that she had betrayed them, but as she danced the Fifth Sea army was stilled as well.

    He attempted to speak to Lady Myia at one point, but she just tapped her throat gently and shook her head.

    The dance continued.

    Bruises began appearing on Eirene, then wounds, healing and growing, peace and war contesting over her flesh, trying to make it unable to sustain the dance.

    It was in the seventh hour she faltered, her body a mere mass of bruises and scabs, the scarf long since soaked through with her own blood.
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    Oh my God. Really showing the toll of 7 hours of dancing. The imagery makes me shudder
    occipitallobe said:
    Mograine stepped forward, and stared.

    No grand power, no peculiarities. The man simply stared, glaring at an entire division of troops.

    They stopped, and stared back!

    Senseless.

    How?

    He felt it, then. The pressure. The beliefs, the crashing waves of Dao between the invaders and the Third Sea.

    For nearly half an hour they stared, Mograine giving no ground.

    Shortly after, the entire wave simply broke, and left.

    A second wave, then.

    It was the third that still fought, but they were... demoralized. Weak. Unlike those who had come before.
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    Literal EYEPOWER. And honestly, still as awesome a concept as when it appeared in the summarized version.
    occipitallobe said:
    Aretaphilia sang.

    It was like a scratching noise on brass, a screeching and clanging. Unpleasant, but empowering.

    For another hour, they fought.

    Things were growing desperate, though. Mograine was slumped by the wall, Aretaphilia's voice flickered. Her skin was ashen grey, now, and her eyes were sunken into her skull. She had been drawing on her power too much, for too long. Eirene could barely move, and Achille lay in the city, alive, but with a hole in his chest. None of them were able to fight.
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    Yeah... This really shows the desperation of the fight. The Good Seeds basically becoming walking dead
    occipitallobe said:
    This, thought Tisamenos, was why he had admired her. She darted in and out of combat, striking where the line was weak, strengthening it, seeing opportunities to throw the enemy back by combining forces. Achille kept their walls under them. Mograine brought fear to their enemies, Lady Myia strength to their allies. Eirene could halt an entire battle with her dance, but for Ferenike the battle was the dance.

    She conserved her energy, striking only occasionally, but shouting commands and sending runners with blinding speed, holes in the line patched up, attempts by the enemy to take the wall rebuffed, rotating troops in and out efficiently.
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    @BungieONI I think Ferenike has a IC Fanboy
    occipitallobe said:
    Minervina Barda was not the woman he had expected. Far from the Foundation Building expert of legend, the mistress of poisons and defender of the Night Devil Fortress, an ancient woman stood. Her skin was paper-thin, and a pulsating green sickly glow was beneath her skin. Every breath she took was an effort, and even walking seemed to be almost beyond her.

    "Good. You're all here."

    She wheezed, and cut off protests with a hand.

    Rina Callista spoke.

    "As per the plan, I'll take it. It's ready?"

    Minervina looked over at her.

    "Boiled my own dantian for this, Rina. And no, it's not ready. Not like it should be. If I'd had a few more hours... well. It can be delivered, but you'll need to hold it within your own body to get it to the enemy. Not stable enough to exist outside one."
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    Mamma Mia! Minervina going all out on the Poison Front!
    occipitallobe said:
    Magnus walked over, face twisted unpleasantly. No doubt he knew what was about to happen better than anyone, Tisamenos thought.

    "You worked on this with me. It'll work. You have to touch the enemy you're using it on and infuse it yourself. You have... oh, I'd guess twenty minutes before it reaches your heart with your command of poisons."

    She touched him, and grasped his forearms with her hands, like bony claws. They thrummed with green-and-black energy for a moment, and he saw the colours run up Magnus's arm, slowing and stopping in his forearm, wending its way up the veins and flesh ever-so-slowly.

    She shook her head, hairs falling out of a wizened scalp.

    "Well. I hope this works."

    Tisamenos didn't know what was about to happen. He wrote it all down dutifully, hoping for his sake that it would as well.
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    GG, Magnus going Human Bomb. Him just losing his hands seems to be a great bargain now
     
    Hope Minervina's okay. Brewing that poison looked like it took a nasty toll.

    Huh. So Magnus held in a poison, and needed to reach the enemy Core Formation Elder. So that's probably what the "At the last, most pivotal moment, did what only he could do" bit refers to, then. (Probably got his hands melted off for the trouble -- either as part of some defense on the enemy Cultivator's part, or as part of his own poison being needing to be forced through his body and into his hands in order to flow into the enemy, or because he lost his hands at some point, or because he needed to lose his hands because the poison was hard to move by that point in time and so he needed to transfer it via his own arterial blood spray... Or maybe some of the poison remained in his body even after transferring it to the enemy, and so they needed to chop his hands off in order to save him.) Whatever happened, it looks like Wei Feng shielded him to the last. Whether that be before or after the delivery of the poison.

    Hm.
    Amaranth Castellanos:

    Omake reward - Healed.
    Fate -     Who does not know of the Burning Bronze Demon, the igniter of his own bloodline, the first to stand against impossible odds fist to fist? Who can gainsay what he has done? Who can heal his crippled body?
    Cultivation - Reached the 10th Heavenstage of Qi Condensation. [-4 to 11].
    Health - Crippled    . Consumed his own bloodline with a forbidden art in a crucial moment.
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    Diogenes Aparámillos
    Fate -     Should have died. Foolish in his final strike at Pleuron, fueling his Devil Silver Body in that desperate moment. Saved by the Ninth Prince - of course, we have all read the account of what happened there.
    Cultivation - Still in the 9th Heavenstage (-1 to 10)
    Health -     Full. Should have died. Ninth Prince used a LST to save him.
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    Did Amaranth and Diogenes help break through the guards of the Core Formation healer at the final moment, perhaps? With one burning his Bronze Body, and the other a Silver Body? Or was Amaranth early in the battle, as it aid "the first to stand against impossible odds fist to fist"? Yet, that does not necessarily mean being the first to make an impossible stand; it could merely be referring to the first (dramatic) "fist to fist" confrontation that broke out. Hm. Doesn't necessarily have to be all at one event anyway. Looks like the Ninth Prince bailed Dio out, however it went down.

    The enemy 5th Sea Cultivator army itself would still have been around after all, even after the healer was disabled -- so the Indomitable 13 or 14 would still have had to put them down a final time. Or perhaps they put them all down first, before going after the Core Formation elder. Maybe some of them tried to rush for the city, and that was where Peta and Wajo made a stand; preventing them from flooding into the city, while the strike team took out the healer.
     
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    Shennong - Good Seed background
  • Sidestory
    • Good Seed Sheet


    Name: Shennong

    History:
    Shennong was the only child of a poor farmer in the King's Garden village, one of the subsidy villages of a vassal clan. Shennong's father sold grain at a pitiful price, barely making enough for himself, let alone his child. Seeing Shennong as a burden, the father began to regularly beat him, calling him a burden and a curse. Shennong took these beatings without complaint at first, firmly believing that he could change his father's view, but as time went on, he started to lose hope. However, when he was 14, he discovered a plant, rich in spiritual power that he attempted to cultivate, believing that he could reverse his family's fortunes. Surprisingly, he found himself drawn into growing the plant, instinctively knowing the exact methods to grow and raise it, and how to ensure no beast could find or eat it. 2 years later, when the plant was fully grown, he took it to his father, hoping to finally get a smile.

    Instead, his father flew into a rage and struck out at him, attempting to kill him. The man had been becoming a drunkard for the past few years, his moods swinging progressively negatively. When Shennong came home, he mistakenly believed that Shennong had stolen the plant from him, and was trying to mock him by returning it. Shocked and frightened by his father's behavior, Shennong fled, ignoring his father's cries.

    Shennong's Heart was hardened by this experience, declaring to himself that he would never trust humans like that again. Shennong traveled for 1 month, living off the land, finding rare plants almost through the will of heaven itself. When he came to Iron Devil City, he had arrived just in time to have himself tested for aptitude for the Golden Devil clan. Deciding to himself that he could get nothing by doing nothing, and went to get himself tested. Paying the fee with some rare plants, he got his blood tested...only to be rushed into a side room by a Legionnaire. Confused, Shennong asked why he was put in here.

    The Legionnaire revealed that Shennong was actually a part of the clan already, but hadn't realized it. It turned out that he had descended from what was thought to be a dead minor bloodline of the Clan, the Golden Eye clan. Their bloodline allowed themselves to perceive and sense Qi easier than most other cultivators, which allowed them to become great array engineers and Formation leaders. Shennong's purity of bloodline would have been enough to be considered an Elite clansmen, if not a Young Master of the Bloodline. He was soon admitted, learning the ways of the clan. However, when asked what path he wished to pursue, Shennong surprised many of his fellow Cadets by admitting he preferred to be an Alchemist, instead of an Array Designer. He found the process of creating pills just as rewarding, and lended more towards the skills he had built up before his entrance to the clan.

    Since then, he has entered the 1st Heavenstage of the Qi condensation and is about to start taking missions for the clan. He hopes for power, and will do anything to achieve it.

    Current Stage: 1st Heavenstage
    Current Health: Healthy
    Future Dao: Dao of Creation
    Weapons: None
    Weapon Style: Fist (Martial Arts)

    Bonus: Golden Eye Bloodline: This Bloodline allows Shennong to perceive Qi and its paths much easier than other cultivators, allowing him to use methods that guide gentle Qi to places of growth and force Forceful Qi away. While this would be a Godly bloodline for Array Engineers/Designers, Shennong has dedicated its use towards Alchemy for now, although he might branch out.
    (TL;DR: He can find/grow rare plants easier, Condense pills faster and more efficiently, and can create more accurate and precise Arrays)

    None Yet



    Lighting the Seed Beacon @occipitallobe
     
  • Sidestory
    • I'm getting chills here guys. This is grade A apocalyptic level stuff.

    Poor Minervina, she always was a batty old woman at heart, sounds like she is going to look the part now :(
     
    Tisamenos is starting to get really attached to Ferenike here. Isn't he afraid of being on the receiving end of one of those death flags.
     
    Wow, word just ate like 3k words worth of omake. Kind of want to fucking die right now tbh. Gonna take a bit to get back to where I was.

    Fuck.
     
    Shennong 1 - Heist of the year
  • Sidestory
    • OMAKE: Heist of the Year


    In the ruins of a Fortress in the Verdant South...


    "Huff...Huff..."

    A youth was breathing rather hard, leaning against the ruins wall. Black haired, taut skin, and a somewhat loose black robe adorned his body, and his pitch black pupils were shaking slightly. This youth was Shennong, new cultivator of the Golden Devil Clan... and currently quite in over his head.

    "Why did I choose such a mission? 'Scout out a potential Devil Bee encampment and take any potential treasures'. What foolishness! Why send someone so weak this way?" Shennong was currently wondering what had driven him to accept this mission. Perhaps it was the glory? A 1st Heavenstage infiltrating a potentially major encampment was a nice feather in one's cap. Perhaps it was the treasure? The notice did say he could keep it if he found one. Perhaps it was the Will of Heaven, trying to subtly influence him to die and kill off one more member of a supposedly hated clan.

    Whatever the reason was, he needed to stop worrying and do his job. Shennong took one more deep breath, and started looking around for the camp. These ruins were huge, and if the Devil Bee leader wanted to stay hidden, he only could've taken a small portion. Perhaps the center?

    ...

    About 1 hour later, Shennong had managed to find said encampment. About 1 li in diameter, it was sprawling. Shennong felt a bead of sweat slide down his back. No Foundation Building Expert would be able to lead a force this strong. No, this had to be the encampment of a Core Formation Commander. He would need to be smart about this. Living in the wilderness had a few perks. One was being able to recognize tracks, human or not. Another was learning to hide. Shennong had prowled through the camp, taking less used paths, noting the number of tents and the locations of different looking tents. The few outer and inner guards were 3rd Heavenstage at most, and Shennong had to hide from a Foundation Building Beast once. Cultivators such as these were child's play.

    Soon enough, he had peeked through the flaps of the different looking tents, one by one. So far, he had found the mess hall, Quartermaster's tent, and Storage tents. He had managed to poison some of the supplies, and fudge up a few forms in the Quartermaster tent, but those were somewhat minor. Perhaps this one would prove to be more useful. Shennong peeled the edge of the flap open, and--

    Froze. These Qi levels...this could only be the leader. Cursing to himself, Shennong lamented his lack of foresight in not using his bloodline here. He thought that after he was past the warding arrays he shouldn't use it, due to the danger of potentially alerting someone. However, he didn't realize his sensory capabilities were insufficient to detect this!

    Luckily, it seemed the commander was asleep. If he wasn't Shennong would have already been dead. Just as Shennong was about to close it, he noticed some bundles of Qi somewhat close to him. Treasures! Shennong licked his lips, his mind whirling. Perhaps he wouldn't come home empty handed. Focusing on the Treasures once more, he noticed 3 of them were around: A Saber, a Suit of Armor, and a Talisman. The Blade and Armor were eliminated near immediately, due to being too close to the commander and had some kind of array around them. Meanwhile, the Talisman was unprotected and the closest to him.

    Slowly opening the flap a fraction more, he crept in. Taking step after step with the utmost caution, Shennong reached out-- "Snerk" And froze once more. The Leader was stirring. Should he go for it, or leave while he still can? Was there some kind of array he couldn't detect? ...Was this the end for him? For a moment, Shennong was paralysed. He had escaped the disgusting filth that was his father after he decided that his sake was more important than his son. The villagers didn't help either. It was only him that helped himself. Even if he got caught, he would give it his best shot.

    Shennong reached out once more, and grasped the talisman. Slowly, ever so slowly he pulled the talisman back, stuffing it in a pack that had qi suppressing rocks to eliminate the trails. He slowly crept out of the tent, stepping oh so carefully. 3 steps, 2 steps, 1 step away, the flaps-- And he was out. He managed to get free of the tent. All he had to do now was get out. He slowly crept through the camp, having to double back a few times from new patrols, but he made it.

    At the very edge of the camp, Shennong breathed a sigh of relief-- And was assaulted by a loud roar, coming from the camp. The leader had woken up. Now was not the time for subltety. Shennong bolted. Pushing his meager amount of Qi to the max, he accelerated. He needed to get out now. He ran as far as he could, damn the consequences.

    Five days later...

    An exhausted Shennong beheld the sight of the advance base for the Legion in the area like it was his saviour. Two days of constantly hiding from patrols and a very scary Core Formation Cultivator was not an experience he would recommend for any other 1st Heavenstage cultivators. Thrice he needed to redirect the Core formation expert to a Spirit Beast Herd with a Core Formation Beast, which was not easy at all to do.

    If I wasn't certain about it before, I am now. The Dao of Stealth will be one of my pillars, so help me Ancestor! Shennong thought exhaustedly.

    "At least I'll have a story to tell... Now, let's get back." Shennong chuckled tiredly, thinking of the ways he could befuddle his fellow cultivators back at the clan. Perhaps he could spin on a few bluffs and lies to spice it up? The mortals would probably appreciate it, at the very least.

    "Who knows, maybe they'll call this the heist of the Year!"


    Lighting the Omake signal @occipitallobe
     
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  • Sidestory
    • Uber_Fail_Dinesh said:
    If I wasn't certain about it before, I am now. The Dao of Stealth will be one of my pillars, so help me Ancestor! Shennong thought exhaustedly.

    "At least I'll have a story to tell... Now, let's get back." Shennong chuckled tiredly, thinking of the ways he could befuddle his fellow cultivators back at the clan. Perhaps he could spin on a few bluffs and lies to spice it up? The mortals would probably appreciate it, at the very least.

    "Who knows, maybe they'll cause this the heist of the Year!"
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    I find this personality extremely amusing. I too wish to see what he gets up to!
     
    Hmm. Need to check something.

    occipitallobe said:
    As she was leaving, she encountered an abandoned forge, in which sat a magical Forge Spirit. With some enticing it agreed to live inside the cauldron with Muqin Guo, and could be used to allow the Cauldron to forge things put inside it - trapping an enemy inside the cauldron, even one in early Foundation Building would allow Rina to kill them, though it would be a tremendously risky endeavour to do so. If she caught such an enemy by surprise, though...
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    So the current shape of things seems like this to me:
    -A Core Formation healer that needs to die.
    -Minerva and Magnus having fun making a super deadly poison and Magnus being used as a vessel to carry it to the Core Formation healer.
    -Achille, Ferenike, Eirene, Mograine, Myia held the walls while they were making it.
    -Rina, Wei Feng, Ninth Prince, Peta and Wajo, Magnus, Tasos, Diogenes, Amaranth look like they were the team who went out to deploy Magnus against the Core Formation elder.

    I took a look back at what Rina's Muqin Guo could do and the description of Wei Feng's injuries and I'm kinda wondering if the thing I quoted above got used at all. Probably not since Muqin Guo is intact and stuff?

    Pretty hype for what comes, and then Turn 6.
     
    Tasos Basilakes 8 - Crossroads
  • Sidestory
    • Crossroads
    A Tasos Basilakes Omake

    ​
    Tasos was exhausted already, before even beginning. He had tried his hardest, pushed himself further - he had sacrificed his own progress to visit the Yuan Clan Secret Realm in order to be ready. He had scouted the territories day and night with Eudokia, familiarizing himself with the terrain so much that he could see the topography in his sleep. He had gone over ideas, strategies, escapes, first, second and third plans with Zhang - and had found time to still work with Theodora and his old team from when he'd been part of the Wraiths, to make sure she would be rehabilitated enough to have a fighting chance at the very least.

    The bells found him sleeping, He took the sound in, and breathed - letting all the tension suddenly rise and then escape.

    He closed his eyes again. The plan was set. It was not his time, not yet.

    The enemies would take time to reach him. He had to rest, while he could.


    The first week of battle, before the sound of the second bell, was one of chaos and passion and carnage, as the Clan was faced with an enemy supposed to fight as equal, but whose equal was plainly, simply better - paradoxical as that may be. Compared to the next, it was the first bells that pushed Tasos the furthest - it was the chaos of first contact where he thrived and at the same time stretched himself too thin.

    They had made their first stand at Hieronikia, then Ischeron and then an unnamed village near a crag - bleeding more and more with attrition each time, but nonetheless holding together. Although Tasos had been a leader before, it was here that he found himself a real leader for the first time - the beacon that most, if not all, close to him would look up to for guidance.

    He would not betray that trust - but at the same time it was then that he started to take each drop of blood as personal.


    Umidaquis was the first loss, on the rush to Pleuron to set the plan into motion. He was not yet late - but delayed, and time was ticking. The waters of the oasis should have been their salvation, and in a way they were - the sharp shift of biome, and the almost-quicksand soil proved a trap that not even the invaders in their power could completely avoid. And yet, even with such, they were losing - until a group of brave cultivators, high in stage and further in heart, offered themselves to split and hold so that the rest could escape. Some did it out of duty, some out of resignation - some out of a desire to make a difference.

    Tasos would have stayed - but Zhang convinced him not to. That the small difference Umidaquis would make, if he stayed, would be nothing compared to what he could do if he left. So he did - and the time bought at Umidaquis was enough.

    Two months later, Eudokia returned - bloodied, battered and stronger but missing an arm, a leg and an eye. And in the moments of clarity between the hurricane of blood and battle, Tasos found a second to toast with his two oldest surviving friends to the honor of the first, a young Turtle World cultivator with a heart that carried the bronze that his blood didn't. One whose calcified body now laid under the sands of of the Oasis, unmarked alongside his brothers and sisters, as the hero he had been.

    Years later Tasos would return, with a statue he himself carved. Because it deserved remembering.


    For an archer, Tasos had never been the best at waiting. Even as his body ached, his hands and legs hurt, his breathing strayed - he still felt restless in anticipation, every muscle still coiled with energy ready to explode. He had done his part - holding the line, until the poison was brewed. He had done his part, while the rest had gone out. Every time telling himself that the largest difference he could make was later and resisting the urge that pushed him to act, telling him that every passing second was another drop of blood that could have been prevented.

    He hadn't been born with patience - life had taught it to him. So when Rina, Ferenike, Peta and Wajo went out he stayed in his post and did as he was told. When Xiao Yi allowed his own flesh to be parasitized to earn them time, from above he watched and although he wanted to fire, he held - for it was not yet time. When Achille and Barda bled their own lives into their work in exchange for a second more, a second less, Tasos fought and waited. As the song began to peter, pain and blood and ripped vocal folds audible in its quiver, he waited.

    The well began slushing almost imperceptibly as Tasos felt its influence expand. The mirror hung from his side, arrows at the ready. The Skycarver Basilisk, heraldry of his family long lost, moved - enlarged, strengthened to match what was to come. Lines of inky black stretched themselves down, forming a glyph - a spade, pointing towards the army and the space between Pleuron and their target.

    He would no longer move. He would no longer be moved, until it was done.

    As Magnus and the rest readied for their run, Tasos breathed out and his hand went to his bowstring at the ready. Someone would clear the path. Someone would have to hold the line.

    It was finally time, and he would not be found wanting.

    'So I swear' he proclaimed, deep inside his being. 'on my blood, that of mine, and on this path that I have made for myself'

    Send not to know
    For whom the bell tolls,
    It tolls for thee.
    ​

    I wanted to do a slightly longer study of the time period that the trial would have been happening through, and lay a little of where Tasos is at. Hopefully people enjoy it.
     
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  • Sidestory
    • Nice!

    Zephias said:
    For an archer, Tasos had never been the best at waiting. Even as his body ached, his hands and legs hurt, his breathing strayed - he still felt restless in anticipation, every muscle still coiled with energy ready to explode. He had done his part - holding the line, until the poison was brewed. He had done his part, while the rest had gone out. Every time telling himself that the largest difference he could make was later and resisting the urge that pushed him to act, telling him that every passing second was another drop of blood that could have been prevented.

    He hadn't been born with patience - life had taught it to him.
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    I like this section a lot. Exploring this sort of stuff is a very nice activity.
     
    Zephias said:
    I'm a big fan of delving deep into my characters - and this is an arc that lends itself to it I think. It's been nice to go away from dialogue and combat scenes, and more towards introspective monologues the past two omake for Tasos.
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    Yeah, this past trials arc has been very good setting up character moments and I've quite enjoyed it.
     
    Uber_Fail_Dinesh said:
    Luckily, it seemed the commander was asleep. If he wasn't Shennong would have already been dead. Just as Shennong was about to close it, he noticed some bundles of Qi somewhat close to him. Treasures! Shennong licked his lips, his mind whirling. Perhaps he wouldn't come home empty handed. Focusing on the Treasures once more, he noticed 3 of them were around: A Saber, a Suit of Armor, and a Talisman. The Blade and Armor were eliminated near immediately, due to being too close to the commander and had some kind of array around them. Meanwhile, the Talisman was unprotected and the closest to him.

    Slowly opening the flap a fraction more, he crept in. Taking step after step with the utmost caution, Shennong reached out-- "Snerk" And froze once more. The Leader was stirring. Should he go for it, or leave while he still can? Was there some kind of array he couldn't detect? ...Was this the end for him? For a moment, Shennong was paralysed. He had escaped the disgusting filth that was his father after he decided that his sake was more important than his son. The villagers didn't help either. It was only him that helped himself. Even if he got caught, he would give it his best shot.

    Shennong reached out once more, and grasped the talisman. Slowly, ever so slowly he pulled the talisman back, stuffing it in a pack that had qi suppressing rocks to eliminate the trails. He slowly crept out of the tent, stepping oh so carefully. 3 steps, 2 steps, 1 step away, the flaps-- And he was out. He managed to get free of the tent. All he had to do now was get out. He slowly crept through the camp, having to double back a few times from new patrols, but he made it.
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    I like this scene! It really shows what makes a Good Seed one beyond the unique ability. It's the ability to take risks for their cultivation, to seize every opportunity life grants them.
    Zephias said:
    They had made their first stand at Hieronikia, then Ischeron and then an unnamed village near a crag - bleeding more and more with attrition each time, but nonetheless holding together. Although Tasos had been a leader before, it was here that he found himself a real leader for the first time
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    Very poignant paragraph. Really like how the losses were conveyed within it. The mention of the 3 stands and Tasos having to LEAD is a great way of showing it.
    Zephias said:
    Umidaquis was the first loss, on the rush to Pleuron to set the plan into motion. He was not yet late - but delayed, and time was ticking. The waters of the oasis should have been their salvation, and in a way they were - the sharp shift of biome, and the almost-quicksand soil proved a trap that not even the invaders in their power could completely avoid. And yet, even with such, they were losing - until a group of brave cultivators, high in stage and further in heart, offered themselves to split and hold so that the rest could escape. Some did it out of duty, some out of resignation - some out of a desire to make a difference.

    Tasos would have stayed - but Zhang convinced him not to. That the small difference Umidaquis would make, if he stayed, would be nothing compared to what he could do if he left. So he did - and the time bought at Umidaquis was enough.

    Two months later, Eudokia returned - bloodied, battered and stronger but missing an arm, a leg and an eye. And in the moments of clarity between the hurricane of blood and battle, Tasos found a second to toast with his two oldest surviving friends to the honor of the first, a young Turtle World cultivator with a heart that carried the bronze that his blood didn't. One whose calcified body now laid under the sands of of the Oasis, unmarked alongside his brothers and sisters, as the hero he had been.

    Years later Tasos would return, with a statue he himself carved. Because it deserved remembering.
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    This is nice. Like Bungie's Omake. Showing that every member of the Clan is willing to sacrifice for it. And that sometimes, the sacrifice is sending a friend to die so that your own life can be traded for something greater
    Zephias said:
    For an archer, Tasos had never been the best at waiting. Even as his body ached, his hands and legs hurt, his breathing strayed - he still felt restless in anticipation, every muscle still coiled with energy ready to explode. He had done his part - holding the line, until the poison was brewed. He had done his part, while the rest had gone out. Every time telling himself that the largest difference he could make was later and resisting the urge that pushed him to act, telling him that every passing second was another drop of blood that could have been prevented.

    He hadn't been born with patience - life had taught it to him. So when Rina, Ferenike, Peta and Wajo went out he stayed in his post and did as he was told. When Xiao Yi allowed his own flesh to be parasitized to earn them time, from above he watched and although he wanted to fire, he held - for it was not yet time. When Achille and Barda bled their own lives into their work in exchange for a second more, a second less, Tasos fought and waited. As the song began to peter, pain and blood and ripped vocal folds audible in its quiver, he waited.
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    Oh this is a nice character piece. Really showing that for the sake of the big picture, Tasos is willing to kill his heart so that the Clan can benefit from what is being done. Really liked how despite holding back, he sees and remembers the sacrifices of his peers.
     
    jjffjhjf said:
    So, I've seen the Blood of Gold mentioned a few times, but what actually is that?
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    If the Blood of Bronze is derived from the top soldiers, the Blood of Gold was for the highborn officers who led them to battle. Once in a while you get a throwback to them (Like Rina is) who has enough of the Blood of Gold latent to start manifesting it, at which point it starts superseding and replacing the Blood of Bronze, as it's a generally superior form that maintains the advantages while minimizing the weaknesses (Like the reduced agility)

    OOCly, it's me leaning even harder into the classification memes and alien invaders and having it be that every individual fighter on the Sea Conquering Army getting classified by rank by the defending coalitions (Bronze-class warriors for the soldiers, Gold-class warriors for the elites, ??? for the generals and kings and all that which I haven't really thought about because it could only conceivably begin manifesting in Nascent Soul) and it helped them figure out how much firepower you needed to beat each class for each cultivation realm. (You generally needed three to one to clinch a kill against a Gold-class Warrior for instance, which is what happened to Rina's ancestor in the throw-out)

    Theoretically, the Blood of Bronze is designed to catalyze into the Blood of Gold automatically when you reach a certain level of power (Field promotion on merit and whatnot), but that's largely out of reach since it's not exactly on the table until Late Nascent Soul at the very earliest under ordinary circumstances.
     
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    Alectai said:
    If the Blood of Bronze is derived from the top soldiers, the Blood of Gold was for the highborn officers who led them to battle. Once in a while you get a throwback to them (Like Rina is) who has enough of the Blood of Gold latent to start manifesting it, at which point it starts superseding and replacing the Blood of Bronze, as it's a generally superior form that maintains the advantages while minimizing the weaknesses (Like the reduced agility)

    OOCly, it's me leaning even harder into the classification memes and alien invaders and having it be that every individual fighter on the Sea Conquering Army getting classified by rank by the defending coalitions (Bronze-class warriors for the soldiers, Gold-class warriors for the elites, ??? for the generals and kings and all that which I haven't really thought about because it could only conceivably begin manifesting in Nascent Soul) and it helped them figure out how much firepower you needed to beat each class for each cultivation realm. (You generally needed three to one to clinch a kill against a Gold-class Warrior for instance, which is what happened to Rina's ancestor in the throw-out)

    Theoretically, the Blood of Bronze is designed to catalyze into the Blood of Gold automatically when you reach a certain level of power (Field promotion on merit and whatnot), but that's largely out of reach since it's not exactly on the table until Late Nascent Soul at the very earliest under ordinary circumstances.
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    Alright so its definitely a thing that could be more widespread for the clan then? Like, the elder that Rina got her bloodline upgraded from was born with Blood of Gold right? That's something that wasn't necessarily unique to her, but just a result of our clan being way better back then?

    I'm king thinking of writing up a Good Seed for this quest, and trying to come up with ideas for what their goals would be, and I was wondering about the ability to mitigate the weakness of our bloodline, making us faster, because speed in a fight is often more important than strength or resiliency, it seems as though the Blood of Gold being activated earlier/more often for us would do that, though if its based on some kind of promotion system maybe something else would be better. Not really something I'd expect the Good Seed to have any serious effect on quickly of course, but something to work towards ya know?
     
    jjffjhjf said:
    Alright so its definitely a thing that could be more widespread for the clan then? Like, the elder that Rina got her bloodline upgraded from was born with Blood of Gold right? That's something that wasn't necessarily unique to her, but just a result of our clan being way better back then?

    I'm king thinking of writing up a Good Seed for this quest, and trying to come up with ideas for what their goals would be, and I was wondering about the ability to mitigate the weakness of our bloodline, making us faster, because speed in a fight is often more important than strength or resiliency, it seems as though the Blood of Gold being activated earlier/more often for us would do that, though if its based on some kind of promotion system maybe something else would be better. Not really something I'd expect the Good Seed to have any serious effect on quickly of course, but something to work towards ya know?
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    If you really like the Blood Of Gold idea, you can check with @Alectai of if your seed can be another Callista. It is a Famiiy House after all
     
    Mochinator said:
    If you really like the Blood Of Gold idea, you can check with @Alectai of if your seed can be another Callista. It is a Famiiy House after all
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    I'm not necessarily interested in the Blood of Gold for its own sake or to have my Good Seed necessarily have it. I'm just looking for some big sweeping thing my Good Seed can work towards for the good of the clan, from mitigating/removing the speed loss of the Blood of Bronze, to finding a way to destroy the big fancy thing that lets the 5th sea send cultivators at us every 100 years, to figuring out why the hell their cultivators are apparently all stronger than ours and how to fix that, to traveling to a new sea and founding a branch of the clan there in hopes of bettering the fate of the clan. Like, there's gotta be something big and fancy to work towards, and the first thing I thought of was removing the weakness. Somehow or other.
     
    jjffjhjf said:
    I'm not necessarily interested in the Blood of Gold for its own sake or to have my Good Seed necessarily have it. I'm just looking for some big sweeping thing my Good Seed can work towards for the good of the clan, from mitigating/removing the speed loss of the Blood of Bronze, to finding a way to destroy the big fancy thing that lets the 5th sea send cultivators at us every 100 years, to figuring out why the hell their cultivators are apparently all stronger than ours and how to fix that, to traveling to a new sea and founding a branch of the clan there in hopes of bettering the fate of the clan. Like, there's gotta be something big and fancy to work towards, and the first thing I thought of was removing the weakness. Somehow or other.
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    Ah, ok. Then one way that can be done is basically developing techs for the Clan. Like your Good Seed using his Omake bonus to create a Clan tech for the library.
     
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