58. Learning Ability (Patreon)

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Combat Qi filled Shen's body and spear while War Qi filled his mind. He rushed at his armored enemy.

Both Combat and War let him know his spear wouldn't be enough to cut  through his foe's black armor—F-tier equipment, he guessed. His qi made  his spear proportionally stronger, but the weapon's base power was too  small at the G tier.

Both Combat and War also told him to find a weak spot in his enemy's  defenses and capitalize on it. Combat was perfect for that. Know  yourself, know your enemy, and abuse their weaknesses. His Combat Qi  would potentialize his spear enough if the flaw he found was terrible  enough.

Combat let him find individual weaknesses more easily than War. The  latter would be better to find flaws in battle formations and enemy  strategies.

Indeed, the Concept of War gave him a broader view of things. It let  him create plans in advance in case his current one either succeeded or  failed. It also gave him a much better awareness of his surroundings.  Just because the system said fights were one-on-one, Shen wouldn't bet  his life on it.

He let just a little Combat Qi enter his brain, enough to improve his  analytical abilities toward his enemy. It worked. There was an almost  unnoticeable fold where two metal places had been melded together at the  helmet.

Shen thrust his spear with all his strength at it. It shattered metal and pierced his foe's skull.

| Duel won. Reward: 200 AP

| Total AP: 85,224

He could've capitalized on a lesser flaw if he had used Sharpness Qi  in his spear. Sharpness was better for straight attack than Combat.

If he had used War Qi instead, he would have needed to find a bigger  flaw. Using the best tool for the job was part of War's domain, but it  wasn't the same as crushing opposition by abusing their openings. In  that, Combat was superior.

And Boundlessness would have been the worse alternative. That Concept hated being limited and would improve his attack, but not even as much as War, not against someone's armor.

Shen had been tempted to add Sharpness Qi on his spearhead  for a faster victory, but he had learned better, and this fight was the  final evidence he needed.

When he used two Concepts, especially the ones that made up the  foundation of his Path, they perfectly complemented each other. If he  added another, however, he became stretched too thin. He couldn't  properly use them and even reached the wrong conclusions about what to  do.

That was one of the reasons he had quickly won against Evelyn after  he started using War and Boundlessness only. There had been no wasted  moves, no wrong decisions; he had used both Concepts to the utmost. Of  course, that was a simple situation with a straightforward solution—just  rush at her—but he had been unable to do even that much while using  War, Combat, and Sharpness at the same time.

Being limited to two Concepts at once gave him a lot to think about.

One's Path was the most critical thing every cultivator had. In  practical terms, it determined a lot of their present power and all  their potential growth. One couldn't break through to the following  realms without a proper Path.

Using two Concepts might work for now, but Shen worried that it might  cause an imbalance. The very foundations of his Path used three  Concepts, not two. If he focused on one more or less than the others for  long enough... he had no idea what that would do to him, but it  couldn't be something good. A house built on unstable foundations would  fall sooner or later, and a Path shouldn't be too different.

So, if something had to change. Shen had previously corrected his  Path by changing it: he had taken the Concept of Boundlessness from its  foundation. Now, he would rather not do that. Instead, he planned on  fixing himself

"How much for a class teaching me to use three or more Concepts at once?"

| Classes beyond your learning ability are not available.

The answer was surprisingly informative. It let Shen know his current  self couldn't achieve what he wanted. It also revealed that he could learn if he improved his learning ability.

That immediately made him recall the learning ability upgrade, but he  was cautious. The upgrade might not be enough. The system hadn't said  he needed the E-tier upgrade. What if he needed more?

"How much for a class that would teach me the possible ways to  improve my learning ability enough that I could learn how to use three  or more Concepts at once?"

| Learning Ability Overview: 10,000 AP | 10 minutes

That was relatively cheap in both AP and time—though he wondered if  the system wasn't overcharging for something so easy to explain. Shen  had the AP, but he didn't want to use more than he needed. There were  tens of thousands of people in the spectators' seats, and he doubted he  couldn't get nine of them interested in what he now saw as a precious  class. He wanted that knowledge regardless of his current issues.

The one minute of grace after fights was definitely not enough to get  to the distant seats, and every second he wasted was the same as losing  AP, so teleport it was.

"Teleport to spectators' seat," he said.

He was surrounded by light, then materialized on the seats. He  immediately opened his mouth to yell, but sheer surprise interrupted  him.

People started materializing around him. They were a few first, but more kept coming. Soon, hundreds surrounded him.

They all started talking at the same time.

"Nice to meet you, I'm—"

"—cool, dude, and—"

"—beat you in a blink—"

"—awesome, can you teach—"

"—please! Take me—

It was impossible to understand what they were saying, so he didn't  try. However, it was evident they wanted to make connections with him.  That was expected in a stage where networking was the professed main  goal.

But Shen had his own goals.

He infused his throat with qi to use his Lion's Roar ability.

"Everyone!" he said, his voice much louder than everyone around. They  stopped to listen. "I appreciate your interest in talking to me; I  really do." That was true. It did feel good to be valued.  "However, this AP Arena is a rare opportunity, and I would rather not be  outside of it more than I must. We might or not be able to network in  later stages of the tutorial, but we were informed for sure that we can  only bet AP between each other here."

Shen knew he had to find allies. Not only had he been told  so, but focusing too much on his personal power had cost him before.  Yet, he couldn't stop himself from using such a terrific opportunity to  the utmost.

As much as this stage made it easier to network, his pacing wouldn't  be decided by the Alliance. He had to find allies, but no one said it had to be in this stage. More importantly, his Path said no such thing.

His Path was his alone. No one could decide things for him unless he  allowed them to have authority over him, like the Immortal Emperor. And  even their orders had to be reasonable, or he might refuse them too.

The tutorial told him now was the time to network. Shen's heart told him now was the time to focus on AP instead.

"I came to the seats to find people willing to split the cost of the  Learning Ability Overview class with me. It costs ten thousand AP. I  believe it can help anyone, and I will take the class in ten seconds  with whoever is interested." That much should be enough for them to  decide on whether to come or not.

It only took a few instants for people to resume talking after he  stopped. Most screamed their names and swore they would join the class.  Some asked him to sit beside them. Shen ignored everyone as he counted  to ten.

"Take Learning Ability Overview class with anyone interested," he said, still using the Lion's Roar technique.

| Waiting 3 seconds for interested participants

After a few seconds, he got a new notification.

| Learning Ability Overview: 10,000 AP | 10 minutes

| 127 people want to join

| Final cost for each participant:  1,000 AP

| 1,000 AP deducted

| Remaining AP: 84,224

Shen and the others were teleported to a large classroom. During his  magic lesson, Alicia had said it had a "college format," which someone  had corrected to "auditorium lecture hall." The floor, walls, and  ceiling were made of black crystal. The seats and bench were dark wood  with golden details.

He was already sitting in the front row, and the rules appeared in  front of him like last time. That was unexpected; the AP Arena had only  displayed its rules once.

=

Class Rules

1. You cannot stand up, move your seat, or touch anyone in any way

2. The instructor will arrive in one minute

3. Until the instructor arrives:

- You're free to swap seats with anyone by pointing at them and being pointed back

- You can talk to anyone

4. After the instructor arrives:

- You cannot change seats any longer

- You can only hear those whom you state you're willing to hear and whoever the instructor has allowed asking questions

5. Any questions toward the instructor will be ignored unless you raise your hands and is given permission to talk first

6. You'll be returned to your previous location when the class is over

=

Once again, everyone tried to talk to him. Shen didn't want to be  rude, so he tried to listen to what they said, but it was impossible to  discern anything. He couldn't even read their lips, as their language  was nothing like the cultivator common tongue.

He ended up making gestures toward his ears to show he couldn't hear until the minute was over.

When the time was up, the teacher finally materialized in front of  the class in a flash of light. Shen forgot everything about his  classmates then.

Like last time he had taken a class, the instructor was a wisp of  light, a point of solid light surrounded by a ball-like aura. She had a  silky female voice. "Welcome to the Learning Ability Overview class. It  will take around ten minutes."

The wall behind her turned into what Alicia had called a "slide  presentation, only 3D." An endless starry sky with floating text  replaced the dark crystal wall. New text kept appearing as the wisp  talked, usually organizing her speech in topics.

The text was in an alien language with strange characters that Shen  could still understand thanks to the system's translation function.

"In this class, you'll learn what learning ability is, how ranking up  affects it, how the learning ability upgrades affect you, and other  ways to improve your learning ability.

"The simplest definition of learning ability is that it represents  the ease with which you absorb new knowledge and make connections  between your existing knowledge."

That definition appeared on top of the presentation.

"Consider mathematics," she continued. "With higher learning ability,  you'll understand why one plus one equals two faster than those with  lower learning ability. Likewise, as more complex subjects are  introduced, you'll be able to draw from what you've already learned much  more quickly than others.

"A good example of knowledge connections is what you see when you  look at something. Let's say a house." A house appeared behind her. It  was so real it looked as if it was really there. "Someone with terrible  learning ability would only see a structure. On the other hand, those  with higher learning ability would also consider everything the house  is: its foundations, its layout, its exits, its hazards, the materials  it's made of, why it has that form, and more."

As she talked, the house was divided into parts, and many things  about each piece were pointed out in topics. Color, material, size,  weight, and origin were just a few among many that scrolled endlessly  for each component.

"Now, you might be able to train such an outlook on life, but those  thoughts would still take some time and effort. Higher learning ability  lets you think of it much faster and without conscious exertion. The  connections are instantaneous and as natural as breathing is for your  kind."

Shen had gone through something similar when he got his F Learning  Ability Upgrade. He had considered things about the have he had been in  that he hadn't thought of before. There had been no new knowledge, only  better and quicker usage of what he already knew.

"To give you an example closer to the tutorial: higher learning  ability turns you into better fighters faster. When one of your attacks  works where another failed, you understand the reason behind it more  easily. You also subconsciously remember how your body was moving and  replicate it more easily, almost like muscle memory. More complex  movements are easily divided into parts for better understanding too."

While she talked about that, the house was replaced with two girls  fighting one orc each. Both wore leather armor and wielded a long sword.

A G letter floated above a girl and a D letter above the other. As  they fought, it became apparent they were complete amateurs. The image  paused multiple times to highlight what they were doing right or wrong.  The G girl kept repeating the wrong moves while the D girl almost  exclusively repeated only the correct ones.

The D girl killed her goblin in twenty moves. The G girl died in less than five.

"Now, some of you might think ranking up makes up for not improving your learning ability. It doesn't.

"Every time you rank up, you'll find your mind expanded. You'll  multitask better and comprehend things that used to elude you. It is,  however, what we call expansive understanding rather than base understanding.

"Think of challenging math problems." One such problem—much beyond  Shen's means—appeared written on the presentation, then it revealed a  floating white crystal writing on nothingness, solving the problem.  "With enough rank-ups, you can try to solve many of them simultaneously.  However, you won't have an easier time solving each of them." Now  multiple crystals were solving different problems. The first crystal  wasn't moving any faster or doing any better.

"Think of a 4D object." Space in the presentation actually twisted  and showed a structure that hurt Shen's brain when he saw it.  Fortunately, it only stayed there for a moment. "You probably can't.  With enough rank-ups, doing so would take but a minor effort. However,  you'll be no better at low-level trigonometry.

"Ranking up expands your horizons but doesn't make what you already  know trivial. That triviality is the exclusive domain of learning  ability.

"That said, higher learning ability would allow you to  expand your mind beyond your rank too. It would, however, take a long  time and study, unlike ranking up, which makes said expansion happen at  once."

The wisp made a pause as the presentation was cleared. Maybe she was waiting for questions. No one had any, so she continued.

"We consider the average G-rank in the Alliance to have a learning  ability score of 1. The average G-rank human has a score of 1.02.  Slightly above average.

"At each rank, you can purchase a Learning Ability Upgrade from the  Guardian Store. Each upgrade tier requires the previous one, the base  one being the G-tier. For instance, you must first have bought the  C-tier upgrade to buy the B-tier one. You also can only buy the corresponding tier or lower to your current rank. For instance, at the C-rank, you cannot purchase the B-tier upgrade, but you can purchase the D-tier one.

"The upgrades improve your learning ability by a fixed value."

The presentation showed a table with tiers and values.

"The G-tier upgrade improves your learning ability by 1.

"The F-tier improves it by 2.

"The E-tier, by 4.

"D-tier, 8.

"C-tier, 16.

"B-tier, 32.

"A-tier, 64

"It might not seem like much to you, but when you joined this  tutorial, you were given the G-rank Learning Ability Upgrade for free.  It doubled your learning ability. Thanks to that, about ten percent of  trainees reached the second stage. We calculate less than five percent  would've passed without it.

"Humanity was not ready to fight without forewarning or modern weaponry.

"An E-rank human who purchased the E-tier upgrade, and thus also the  previous one, has a learning ability score of 8. Those of you who still  have only the G-tier upgrade would score 2. The upgraded E-rank would  understand new things and make connections four times as fast as you."

In Shen's case, the difference was smaller but still considerable.  His current score was 4. In other words, the E-tier upgrade would double  his learning ability.

"That is especially useful to advance through the ranks," the wisp  continued. "Buying skills, improving stats, paying for lessons on magic  or combat, getting tickets to exploration opportunities, all of that is  relatively straightforward. However, to rank up, you'll require special  knowledge. That knowledge is hard to grasp and can take a very, very  long time.

"That time can decrease significantly with the learning ability  upgrades. Ever since the upgrades became available, those who purchase  them rank up on average ten times as fast as before.

"A higher learning ability will also help you more quickly reach the  point where you need that special knowledge. There's no disadvantage to  going more rapidly through the ranks, even if you get stuck at the end.

"To sum it up: a higher learning ability will enhance the speed with which you get better at anything.

"It's common sense that you should always purchase a learning ability  upgrade when you have the chance. No one has ever presented valid  arguments against it, except one: cost. They cost ten times as before on  each tier. Sometimes, it might be better to purchase something else.  That's up to you to determine.

"There are five widely known ways of improving your learning ability:

"Purchasing an upgrade on the Guardian Store; training; replacing  your brain, or soul, or parts of either with equivalent parts from a  superior species; consuming or injecting suitable consumables or injectables; or using unique abilities or rituals.

"The Guardian Store is available to you all; how to do, achieve,  manufacture, or even purchase the others are secrets heavily guarded by  those in the know, with rare exceptions. You shall only have access to  the store in this tutorial.

"That makes it for this class. Any questions?" Shen raised his arm. "Yes, Feng Shen?"

"Could an E-rank with the E-tier upgrade learn to use three Concepts  at the same time during battle as well as they can use only one?" He  thought of something. "In less than a week, with no external aid."

There was a pause after his question. The wisp had no facial features  or released light any different, so he couldn't tell what it was  thinking.

At last, it answered, "Yes."

"Thank you," he said.

Some other people asked other questions after that, none noteworthy.

The lesson ended much too soon for his tastes, but it had taught him a lot. It also let him know he could fix his Path—or rather, himself—with the learning ability upgrade.

He had a clear goal now.

When he returned to the Arena, he rushed to the fighting area, then started crushing opponents with renewed vigor.

[A/N: Learning ability was more or less explained on chapter 30, but now we get a more comprehensive look at it. I hope it explains all questions you might have about it ^^]

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