I'm not sure about our total funds, but I do know that we won at least 4 diamonds with our heaven-defying skill at gambling. So this seems... reasonable? It is certainly a hefty sum, but having a secure home with the best unaspected vents will be very helpful for us.
We do have really good defence, so we might be able to get away with duelling Shao Cuifen.
However, I think it would be better to offer Spirit Diamond to Meng Chao, and also offer some sort of additional trade. That way Luo Lifen can't attempt to outbid. Meng is a trading family, so we could include buying something for ourselves or something for Xiao Lien. I can't think of whether we have anything non-monetary to trade with though.
Another option would be to try talking Meng Chao into ruining the Elder's game. We could simply take turns with who has the larger house. Not sure if there is enough trust for such a trick to work though.
Another option: We could try gambling. But the others might know full well not to gamble with Quan Jia.
4 Esoteric Attack dice is something, but likely just not enough. Probably. Maybe. Who knows. Maybe Shao isn't that insane, Quan seems to think she's within reach...
I'm fairly certain that to use this we need an actual offensive technique, as in a damage dealing one, not a buff or debuff one. (Unless I misunderstood the mechanics.)
I'm fairly certain that to use this we need an actual offensive technique, as in a damage dealing one, not a buff or debuff one. (Unless I misunderstood the mechanics.)
You can use either strength or potency for attack even without an appropriate technique. Strength is more straightforward in how that works, but you can think of potency as something like splash damage from uncontrolled bursts of qi. On the other hand, negating this type of technique free attack is something a number of defensive techniques eventually accomplish.
There's also a definite qualitative benefit to attacking or defending with a technique vs. not using one.
In terms of overall cultivation stats (cultivation level, total attributes, etc.) Quan Jia does not think four nobles are not that far apart. They each Awakened 3-4 months ago and they all have access to equivalent amounts of wealth that she does. She does think that Shao Cuifen probably focused more on direct combat ability when cultivating and selecting techniques, and she knows that Shao Cuifen has been training with a sword since she first started walking.
"Why would you let her do something like that?" Quan Jia pouts at her friend as a cool breeze blows through still damp hair.
"You might not know this, but Liu Mei's kinda scary." Xiao Lien glances over her shoulder, back toward their estate where Mei Mei had been grounded for her mean trick, and shrugs, "Besides, you slept through the first three alarms, and we'd have never even had a chance of making it on time if we didn't get moving."
Quan Jia's pout slowly shifts into a thoughtful frown as she studies the other girl.
That's the same dress she was wearing yesterday, and the day before that… I think we'll have to go shopping. She's too tall and… hmm full figured to fit in my clothes.
"I guess it's for the best that I tag along," she sighs and lets the matter pass, "After all, I could hardly let you wander off on your own, someone might try and steal you away."
"I don't think…" Quan Jia doesn't have to be a genius, a fortunate thing, because she definitely isn't, to notice the flash of doubt that crosses her friend's face before she changes the subject, "do you know where we're going?"
One day I'll prove that you're even cooler than I think you are… The resolution echoes in her thoughts, but that particular problem wasn't something she could fix now.
There was something she could do now though...
"Hmm, I thought you knew..." Quan Jia tilts her head to the side, hiding amusement behind a thoughtful frown. "Maybe I shouldn't have grounded Mei Mei after all."
"So after all that we're still going to be late?" Xiao Lien's face is such a perfect mixture of panic and resignation that it's almost a shame to spoil things.
And since she hated to spoil things, Quan Jia lets the silence and panic within her friend build up until it seems that the other girl is on the verge of exploding before commenting idly, "did I ever tell you about my cultivation art? Dreamer's Endless Journey?"
"What's that got to do with-," Xiao Lien cuts herself off, visibly calming herself with a deep breath. "No you haven't, but is now really the time?"
"Is there ever a better time than right now," Quan Jia puts on a sage look, strokes at an invisible beard, and adopts the supercilious tones of her least favorite tutor. "Perhaps if you had completed your homework young mistress, you would find understanding within you."
"Quan Jia, please."
The note of genuine pleading spoils her fun somewhat and with a no longer amused sigh, Quan Jia takes a metaphorical step sideways, through a kaleidoscopic mirror, and onto the farthest edge of Dream "The Dream is a fractured mirror of reality, at least the parts close to the waking world are."
Colors smear together, but somehow don't combine, leaving swirls of rainbow colored blobs in her eyes as Quan Jia scans through a landscape enveloped in a light purple haze, "things connected by purpose or metaphor can be connected by paths in the Dream… like say two new disciples and the class they're supposed to attend."
"So why did you…" Xiao Lien trails off as realization hits, "this was for the water wasn't it?"
A path of shimmering white stone coalesces out of Dream, and Quan Jia steps back through that fractal mirror, "rude Mei Meis who toss buckets of water at sleeping people get grounded, but laughing accomplices should be punished too, right?"
The Dream Path, really more of a memory of white stone overlaid onto reality than anything else, ends at the edge of a pond.
Lilypads, ranging from a few feet to dozens of feet in diameter rise up out of crystal blue water. Branching out from the largest of those pads are petals of pure white that fold out and cover the space below from the mid-morning rays of sunlight.
Most are already occupied. Fortunately, one of the shaded ones is still open. Unfortunately it's near the front.
"Might as well, I guess," Quan Jia sighs, ignoring the curious look from Xiao Lien, and skips along the dozen or so foot wide stepping stones over to the open lilypad. A quick, studying glance identifies the best spot, and with a flicker of displaced air, her pillow and blanket appear propped up against the stem of the flower.
Said possessions are soon joined by their owner as she flops down on her blanket and leans back against her pillow, and in a turn of events that leaves Quan Jia smiling internally, Xiao Lien settles down beside her without even the slightest hesitation. For a long moment, the two girls enjoy the slow passing of time in a silence accented by the soft murmuring of distant conversations.
As she always did whenever there was a quiet moment, Quan Jia considers drifting off into a nap. The memory of cold water and laughter keeps her awake though. Mostly, and just as she's deciding to dip a toe into the edge daydream, glass shatters.
Shards of reality rain down on a large lilypad rising up from the center of the pond and Elder Yi Qiu steps through a crack in the world. "Welcome children, I am Shattered Flow, Elder Yi Qiu and I will be instructing those of you that attend this class, and continue to meet my expectations, on the fundamentals of cultivation."
"For your first lesson," Elder Yi Qiu frowns at a pair of disciples lazily walking toward the pond and stomps one foot. Reality ripples underneath that motion, spreading out until it engulfs the entire pond. When that wave reaches the sandy shore, it extends upward, a tiny bubble of iridescence separating the pond from the rest of the world. "Lateness will not be tolerated, either arrive on time or do not arrive at all."
"With that particular bit of unpleasantness out of the way," the Elder calmly ignores the pair of disciples as they stand awkwardly at the shoreline, "while this class will be structured for those without any background knowledge of cultivation, I believe there are incentives enough to keep even those with a solid foundation interested. First," She gestures, and ninety-nine tears in space appear in front of ninety-nine separate disciples.
As a single spirit diamond falls through the space and into each disciple's hands, Elder Yi Qiu continues, "attendance carries with it its own rewards. Excellence much more so. Second, while small deviations in your cultivation will prove no hindrance at this early a stage, and will indeed be unnoticeable to you and most of your peers, those tiny imperfections will render you unable to advance beyond the Lesser Souls. Third, those who desire to carve a path separate from the ones offered to them by chance of birth, would do well to cultivate a reputation of diligence and attentiveness."
"Today, we will focus on base cultivation," Elder Yi Qiu, raises her legs and folds them, floating several feet off the ground, "close your eyes, and focus on the sound of my voice."
Quan Jia's eyes drift closed. While not as enjoyable as cultivating the Dreamer's Endless Journey, base cultivation was fine. At least it didn't hurt like opening up new meridians did.
"Inhale and draw in the qi of the world, through the spirit diamond, and into your lungs."
Air, tasting of the glorious warmth of waking after a long nap flows into her lungs.
"Hold that breath and sift through the impure qi of the world for the qi of heaven."
Sparks of liquid relaxation float free within her chest as the dross of exhaustion flake and fall away.
"Channel that energy into your first meridian, the link between your lungs and core."
Golden sand sifts along a twisted, gnarled meridian scraping against edges worn and calloused by time and repeated effort.
"Let it pour into your Diamond Core and settle there."
Qi, touched irrevocably by Slumber flows into her core and out through dozens of tiny cracks. Disappointment is a distant thing, this far into the process, but still, Quan Jia can feel the emotion settling, smothering, in her chest.
Cultivation relies on two particular factors, the first is affinity and the second is talent.
Affinity is a measure of how much qi a cultivator can draw in during cultivation reflected as a pool of d10. Affinity is the sum of all meridians, all bound cultivation site bonuses, any minor affinities, and any cultivation resources.
In Quan Jia's case, she has a base affinity of 6. She has a minor affinity for Slumber which provides a +2 bonus to cultivating arts and techniques with the Slumber keyword (this does not apply to base cultivation). She also has an artifact that provides a multiplier of 1.2 to most cultivation attempts (since this is the tutorial, it also does not apply here). As a final bonus, she has access to a vent at her estate that provides a +3 bonus to affinity (this also does not apply for this tutorial). Finally, since she is cultivating with an appropriate level of spirit-gem, she can negate the 50% penalty to cultivation that applies when cultivating without it.
Thus, Quan Jia's final affinity results in a pool of 6d10
Talent is a measure of how much of the qi drawn in by a cultivators affinity score is retained. Talent is represented as the purity of a cultivator's diamond core (though npcs do not necessarily have their talent reflected as whole numbers). Talent interacts with affinity via the following rule: each dice of affinity is rolled, and any result equal to or less than a cultivator's talent equates to an increase of 1 to the thing being cultivated.
Unlike affinity, talent can only be increased by certain, incredibly rare, events.
In Quan Jia's case, she has a base talent of 4. She does not have any major affinities which would provide a +1 bonus to talent when cultivating arts or techniques with that keyword.
Thus Quan Jia's final cultivation attributes for this particular cultivation attempt are 6d10 and 4
Any future choices to attend Yi Qiu's class will have all available cultivation bonuses applied to that attempt.
"Good. With that, class is over. Feel free to return to awareness in your own time."
Quan Jia blinks out of her aimless, drifting meditation and breathes in deeply. A slight smile crosses her face, as she feels the drip of progress she'd made. This hadn't been nearly the failure she'd expected. Stretching stiff limbs, she looks over at her friend, unsurprised to see that she is still deep in trance. The pale golden glow that radiates out from the edges of the other girl's form causes her smile to twist a bit, but Quan Jia refuses to let her mood sour entirely.
Someone else decides to do that for her.
"I had expected you to be here failure," a pig's squealing interrupts the otherwise peaceful silence "after all you'll need as much help as possible to keep up enough so that your groveling would even still be visible."
"but I had thought surely there were depths to which you wouldn't sink," beady eyes turn to glare at the spectral outline of tail and ears on Xiao Lien's form, "that taking up with a mongrel was below even one as hopeless as you. Clearly I was mistaken."
"I had heard that sows became cranky when hungry and now I see that to be true," Quan Jia shifts slightly, readying herself act if necessary, "perhaps the kitchen staff would procure a bucket for you to eat from if you squeal politely."
"Tired insults from a failure, I suppose I shouldn't expect more," says the pot to the kettle. "But there are things more important than your useless spite."
The air of familiar insults and petty loathing shifts into something sharp, hateful, and Quan Jia's normally scattered focus coalesces entirely on the girl standing in front of her. There's something she's never seen before in Luo Lifen's face, a conflicted and uncontrolled twist of emotion that she can't even begin to identify, but understands instinctively.
She's serious... I don't think I've ever seen this side of her before...
"Know this Quan Jia, for you will only receive this one warning," dark eyes burn with an undisguised hatred as Luo Lifen stares at Xiao Lien, "I will not allow this thing to continue to contaminate the sect with its tainted presence for long. Extricate yourself from your relationship with it or you may end up sharing its fate."
Confusion, thick and roiling, engulfs her thoughts. Her relationship with Luo Lifen had been built off of a mutual, and at times amusing, loathing, but this, this was something different. This was a real and palpable hatred, a hatred intense enough that a small part of Quan Jia pales at confronting it. That hesitance was a fading ember though compared to an unfamiliar, burning anger that welling in her chest and darkening the edges of her vision.
How dare this… this…
Words fail, thoughts fail, everything fails, all of it consumed by an entirely unfamiliar, white-hot, anger clawing at her mind, demanding her to attack. For an instant, Quan Jia watches on, feeling far removed from herself, as she teeters on the edge of violence, on the edge of expulsion. Hands curl into fists, and bloodlust floods her, but something stills her, keeps her motionless. Willpower, tempered in the unlikely forge of staying awake in the face of sleep, grapples with this blackened rage and by inches and degrees drags it back down burying it in the depths of her soul.
By the time she's able to formulate words for a response, Luo Lifen has long since gone, and all that's left for Quan Jia is to sit and stew in the anger and hatred bubbling within her.
Eventually, fortunately, Xiao Lien's quiet exclamation draws her from the useless spiral of her thoughts and back to the present.
"Wow, it's so much easier with a spirit-gem." The pale luminescence that radiated out from her friend fades and her eyes open. "Is it really afternoon already... how long was I out?"
When Quan Jia doesn't, can't, respond, Xiao lien looks over and flinches nearly imperceptibly at what she sees. Still, she manages a question, "are you ok? You seem kinda…"
Quan Jia smiles, an expression that through sheer force of will appears almost entirely genuine and then lies, "It's just some stuff… nothing important. Come on, we should go meet our neighbors. I bet that one cottage with all the music has someone cool inside."
"What about that one with the plants," Xiao Lien accepts the obvious change of subject with a smile of her own and seems to let her earlier concern go, "or the one with the pottery wheel. We had a neighbor growing up who made pots, it always looked like fun."
"Pots are boring," is Quan Jia's pronouncement in response to the second option and as the bands wrapping around her chest relax, her smile begins to feel that much more genuine , "but that one vine plant did look like it moved when we walked by it didn't it?"
[] Visit the music neighbor.
[] Visit the gardener neighbor.
[] Visit the pottery neighbor.
[AN]
Gonna go ahead and cut it off here. I think we'll call the previous chapter, this one, and the next one or two the first week. It'll give folks a high level look at the different types of voting options that'll be available for turn votes.
It would have interrupted the flow of this chapter, I think, but that's a fair point. I'll revisit that scene and see if there's anything interesting in it (there probably is). If so, I'll put it in today or tomorrow, if not...
Reading through this chapter, two things really stuck out to me. The first is that we got no resolution to the house issue from the previous update, apperantly we got the house but we don't know if there was any haggling involved or anyone's reaction. We also don't know whether Cuifei or Lifen won the duel and got the house either. Overall it just feels weird because the plot did slow down to put focus on it.
The other thing is that Jia's anger on behalf of Lien here came on really strongly, much moreso than I'd expect for how short a time they know eachother. This might just be me having gotten Jia's character wrong though.
My vague expectations was if Chao was happy or begrudging at the amount we paid, if Lifen tried to counter offer,and if they tried to challenge Cuifen for the 2nd house.
Side question. since improving talent is so rare would it be more or less rare to get someway to reroll failed some/all cultivation dice?
That's only true if it would reroll all fails. If it had a limit on how many it can reroll or if it only rerolls certain numbers the math can change dramatically.
[AN]
Since folks have rightly pointed out that this should have been included in the update. Here it is, perhaps a touch late.
[] Pay Meng Chao.
-[] 6 Diamonds
"In that case," Quan Jia looks over at Meng Chao and fishes out six spirit-diamonds from her allowance pouch. "I'll take your claim to the estate. Six good enough?"
Meng Chao smiles that annoyingly unreadable smile of his and nods, "Indeed it would be, Lady Quan."
"Six? To let that failure sleep in a bed that would otherwise be yours?" a snuffling voice answers the ancient riddle of if a pig squealed in the forest would anyone hear it. "In that case, here's ten, just to keep her where she belongs."
"My apologies, Lady Luo," Meng Chao's voice is scrupulously neutral as he dips his head in a slight bow, "but my offer was intended to go to the first reasonable bid, which Lady Quan has provided."
"See," Quan Jia comments to the air above a certain pig, "even Meng Chao knows that pigs should be kept in a pigsty."
"Though watching a sow get carved up into bacon by Shao Cuifen would be an entertaining diversion." she continues with a grin that could probably only be described as infuriating.
Shao Cuifen raises her attention from the hilt of her sword, "duel?"
"No, Lady Shao, I believe I will accept the beneficence offered by Lord Meng to a pathetic failure," the squealing response is accompanied by a curious twisting of head and body.
Hmm... I didn't know pigs could move their necks like that
"In that case," Quan Jia responds with a, perhaps poorly hidden mockery, "Shao Cuifen and I will take the nice estates, Meng Chao will take one of the cottages, and I suppose we can find a sty appropriate for an untrained pig."
"Hmph," a pig snorts and continues, "talent will win out in the end. If not now then certainly by the end of the year... indeed, if I were a complete failure to my family, I would prefer to bow out now rather than humiliate everyone I love publicly during an assessment tournament... If I were a complete failure that is."
Business settled, a shared desire to not be in each other's company for a moment longer than necessary seems to flicker between the four teens, and with snorting noises, polite bows, bored looks, and general indifference they depart for more favorable company.
We may run the risk of sounding a bit of a boar, but we can't let a little grunt like Luo hog the good houses, even if others bristle at our shoat-tempered ways.
Well, looks like we nailed the exact right amount of money we needed to get this. Yay!
Anyway!
That being said, while +Talent is always going to be hard... It's probably easier to bring up a deficient level of Talent than to further polish a gem. I think if we're diligent and hit that Gacha frequently enough, we'll find something to help make up for our poor girl's deficiency at cultivation.
