Moving on and to a new topic, I like all of these! They're all quite nice. That said I'm not making a plan to train them next turn because I want to bum rush EPC, SCS, AG(if we can train it) and our base cultivation. EPC giving a virtual Green stone at level seven is important for Ling Qi's future development and we need to get that quickly.
Unfortunately we won't be in a position to train EPC next month, as we won't be Green Two until the
end of the month. Alas, it'll have to wait until turn Three.
Kinda pissed because I was hoping to get a perception art to replace AM with, but we ended up with not!perception arts, and we'll need another art research actions for perception now. Or just admit archive don't have any.
Uh, it's not like AM is a pure perception Art either? It's an Art designed to counter a specific sort of opponent: the Illusionists of the Cloud Tribes. It's primary focus is actually on
dispelling debuffs effecting the user and their allies, while the secondary focus on Perception biases
heavily towards Illusions.
I was thinking we'd end up learning two new Perception Arts to properly 'replace' AM anyway; one for Combat and one for Social. If we don't get two Arts that line up that neatly, well, we've got a nice spread listed here. Perhaps one for Stealth and one for Assault? Or we wait for the Archive Dive to continue.
Not really my problem with it. My problem is that its perception tech doesn't do a lot of the stuff we want perception for - which is tied to it yangness.
If we got this we'd really need another perception art for stealth situations.
Ah. Yeah, that makes sense, it is definitely noisy. Still, there might be a way to utilize it for stealth insertions, allowing us to report back even as we delve deeper... or maybe vise-versa? Given the way it says 'so long as the echoes last' means we
probably don't need to actively play it while it runs its course... but it would still be a calling card of sorts. /ponders.
Still, that only supports what I'm proposing (in my opinion it supports it, at any rate):
I'm
thinking we spend an extra Month - two
at most - in Green Two. Okay,
maybe three.
Maybe, I said!
One to Three months in which we
don't do Spiritual or Physical cultivation.
This is for multiple reasons.
First, we can afford to. With EPC 7 providing virtual GSS
confirmed, our expected expenditures have dropped by about two thirds. This extends the amount of time the RSS from selling the Mirror will last, from roughly four months to approximately ten, maybe eleven, counting non-GSS expenses such as 'basic' medicines - but only counting Green Two GSS expenditure rates.
Second, we'll be capable of utilizing the Second Floor archive, which holds Arts that start in Green Two. We'll want to check
that out ASAP, in between earning money for pills and talismans, and
then we'll almost certainly want to train... probably three-four new Arts. Maybe even five... or
more, depending upon how the arguments go. And this is
not counting any 'successor' Arts - something to 'replace' and/or 'upgrade' SCS, FVM, FSS, and TRF. And that's not counting anything interesting we find in any further dives into the First Floor archive.
So we can easily be looking at 10+ new and 'new' Arts, between the genuinely new Arts we pick up and the successor/replacement Arts we're want.
Third, we'll need to make room in our Meridians for all those new Arts. We'll do this in two distinct ways: First, condensing the Arts we aim to 'keep' and/or find successors for - proper
successors as opposed to replacements. Second, by opening up new Meridians. That comes out to one AP for each Meridian condensed or each new Meridian opened - it looks like we're going to be condensing roughly
eleven Meridians, between SCS, FVM, FSS, and TRF, opening up a few slots each in our Leg, Spine, Heart, and Lung; not counting room for new Head meridians to hold any new Perception Arts, or any
other Arts we may find - such as successors to AFL and/or CDE.
Doing this shouldn't cost much more than AP, as mainlining GSS allows for 160+ dice at once, and we don't need more than 65 successes to condense the most difficult Meridians - and that should be
higher than the difficulty of any Meridian before we reach the first Soft Cap; we won't even need Li Suyin's fancy new medicine/talisman combination!
Fourth, in order to know what Meridians we need to open, we need to spend AP
in advance to delve into the Archive - and that means AP on the Sect Points to get in, and/or defeating a higher-ranked opponent to gain access to the second floor more cheaply/freely (meaning we might need some of the Meridians condensed and/or opened in advance of
that, too!
) All of which requires
time. Time the extra few months would buy us.
Fifth, we can afford to from the standpoint of reaching Green Four in time for the Junior's Tournament, and Green Five in time for the end of the second year, provided we manage to
continue to find a way to max out GSS and optimize our Tutoring + Pills appropriately.
Sixth, this should buy some more time for the Cai Archives to 'kick in' a few Arts for our perusal, too, even though those will be Green Two as opposed to Green Three... take what you can get, eh?
Seventh, the extra time should buy us the opportunity to further study our build and Arts. This could also be done at Green Three, granted, but I'm not making projections out that far. Not without seeing EPC 8, knowing what it'll take for a virtual GSS providing Argent Vent, and knowing what the Challenge system is like, at any rate.
Eighth, the Arts we obtain here, and their successors, will be the 'base' upon which our future lies. The Foundation. A firmer, stronger, and -
yes -
broader foundation will serve us most effectively in the future. The sooner we put further work in on that Foundation, the better, and Green Two feels like a good time to do it.
Oof, that's a lot of text, probably not all as useful as it could be. Bah, I'm going to bed; been awake too many hours (I blame this quest updating XD).
Comparing anything to him isn't fair to the thing in question.
