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DC/RH BK I, CH 19: Blitzwing Tablet
🕑 Added 2018-03-05 06:00:00 +0000 UTCChapter Nineteen: Blitzwing Tablet
Skill books. That was the solution. They were the only thing he could rely on to train up the sprites for the upcoming battle. From the description Thorn had given, they appeared to be this world's version of certain crystals and talismans cultivators in his world had used. They had an internal matrix that held information and was capable of transferring it directly into the minds of those who used them.
Brandr was uncomfortable with the idea of using them to transfer techniques. Such things took information directly from one person's mind and fixed it into another's. At the higher levels, it was all too easy to get contaminated by the creator’s dao that way. There was nothing wrong with learning another's techniques. However, when what you got was a person's direct thoughts, experiences, views and bias, there was no way your daoheart wouldn't be affected.
Despite his misgivings, Brandr realised that he was getting ahead of himself. With how weak the sprites were, that wouldn't matter. As a matter of fact, should one of them successfully comprehend a trace of his dao, it would actually further his or her development. Their future path would be affected without question but a man starving today need not think about what he’d eat next year.
Hence why he was staring at the crystals hovering before him. All ten of them contained the essence of a sprite. That combined with his analyses of their bodies would be more than enough to create a cultivation method suited to them. The only problem with that was that cultivation would do nothing to increase their strength in the short term.
So he settled for something else. He thought back to Thorn's battle with the troll. The sprite was much weaker than his adversary but he had not only succeeded in keeping out of harm's way, he even had the time to cause the troll a lot of pain while he did so, all thanks to his speed and agility. That was what the others needed right now; speed and agility.
Using their wings as the basis, Brandr devised a flying technique.
'Essense that can take a thousand natures is essence of a thousand forms. Use that to reinforce the wings. Simulate the great hawk wasp. Assign four movements. Deepen and simplify the technique by splitting its profundities over three levels', Brandr said to himself.
Creating the technique was an interesting albeit short process but then again, he was creating something that would be used by qi and foundation establishment juniors. He actually needed to restrain himself at certain points to keep from overcomplicating the entire thing. His new subordinates had no experience with cultivation. This would both serve to introduce them to the system and judge its compatibility with this world's laws.
Finishing everything by implanting it in a tablet, Brandr called Thorn over. Watching the sprite fly toward him, he nodded his head as he affirmed the fundamentals he used for his technique. Going by their builds and wings, sprites should be incapable of flight. Their wings should not be able to hold them up and their bodies were neither aerodynamic nor capable of achieving flight in the any of the myriad ways he knew. Thankfully, they didn't need to. Their wings were deeply rooted in their essence network. They pulled on this essence to keep the sprite aloft.
A sprite's flight wasn't the same kind a bird or even the insects they shared the organs with had. It was essentially, an innate levitation technique that allowed for directional adjustment. So, treating them as the inherent magical treasures he assessed them to be, he had crafted his technique to give his sprites a template for their essence to work of off, allowing them to boost their flight abilities and skills.
Handing his new technique to his assistant, he said, "Have your best flyer learn this. Should it prove effective, we'll have the others do same."
Thorn stared at the ten by ten-centimetre marble plaque. Strange symbols lined its surface flashing briefly as the light caught them. Looking past it to the fifteen centimetre tall crystal core that had handed it to him, Thorn shook his head in disbelief. Had the dungeon truly created a technique for his people? Unable to take his eyes off it, he nodded slowly. He could scarcely believe it.
By this point, he wasn't thinking about the troll searching the woods for his people. He was struggling to comprehend the fact that he was now a guide to a dungeon that came with a humanoid core, could craft powerful features, produce magical plants and materials and now, make skill books. Granted, this wasn't actually a book but it was basically the same thing. It was a skill book! Many of the adventurers he had known, would kill for something like this.
Brandr gave another look at the shellshocked sprite before barking at him. "Hurry up! There's still a lot to do. Give that thing up and get back here, there's something strange happening in one of the gu vats!"
The sprite quickly flew off, leaving his master to drift over towards the gu vats while he named his new technique.
[Blitzwing Flight Technique | Rank: E]
[A technique originating from the dungeon; Brandr Goldfire. This set of aggressive flight techniques is modelled for lesser fae and can only be used by them. It consists of four major movements and three levels and invokes feelings of a giant wasp flying in an attack pattern. This technique can be used by all lesser fae of the fourth rank or lower though any accomplishments in the technique would be limited by their rank.]
Brandr gave a small nod to the world will. Its descriptions were accurate, for the most part. Turning his eyes to the gu vats, he examined them closely.
Each was a giant, glyph-covered, crystal quartz chamber filled to the brim with all sorts of nasty creatures. Scorpions, snakes, wasps, hornets, some sort of stinging thorn vine, several frogs, spiders; all were represented in their numbers. The sprites had outdone themselves and Brandr had taken it from there by mass producing his new creatures and shoving them into his gu vats.
The vats were surrounded by his primordial lightstones. The first had sunstones, the second; both and the last; moonstones. he hoped this will help with the varieties of gu he would obtain.
Gu creation was a strange art. It was a poison. It was a curse. It was a creature. It was a spirit. It was whatever its creator needed and sometimes, something they didn't expect. The techniques asked for poisonous beasts only to pit them in deadly combat just to ensure that they killed, grew and concentrated all their poison, ill will and characteristics in a single individual.
Brandr had obtained this particular technique from a poison master he had killed back in the immortal stage. Technically, it was capable of producing gu of a similar stage only that would require years of refinement and several precious materials. Brandr had neither the time nor the resources for that. He didn't even need that. All he wanted was something to combat the troll.
He had long since devised a method to kill the fell creature. Poison and fire. That was all he needed. Thorn's memories had made that clear. Fire inhibited troll regeneration and poison slowed and exhausted it. Only, he had planned to supply the fire himself and create the poisonous beasts the mundane, dungeon way. Thankfully, Thorn's words had provided much-needed perspective and self-realisation. The method had remained the same but the execution would be very different.
"Brandr! Brandr!" Thorn yelled excitedly, flying over like a spooked hornet.
"What is it?" he asked coolly.
"The skill tablet. It's not disappearing. I had Bluecap learn it and it remained. Proudsprout was even able to activate it and learn the skill again. The skill tablet is still not disappearing!"
"It's supposed to?" Brandr questioned incredulously, trying to wrap his mind around the idea of skill transfers being one use only.
