[MA] 82. Ebb and Flow (Patreon)

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Tutorial - 8th Stage

This stage is about reaction time.

You'll have endless stamina. You won't be able to use any other energy. All stats other than agility will be set to F-.

Your HP has been set to 50.

You'll be attacked from all sides. Survive as long as possible.

The last 10% to die in each age group will pass. They will also receive 10,000 AP.

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He had barely stopped reading when an arrow zipped past his head.

Shen started dodging.

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Alicia willed it, and ten tiny fireballs started rotating around the one floating in front of her.

According to the system, willpower, creativity, and knowledge were the pillars of magic and the subject of their tests. The wisp teacher in the class she had paid for had only mentioned creativity to say nanobots limited extra creative magic usage.

Now she was doing her best to be creative for the first time since she had become a mage.

She couldn't even cheat! Her floating island was surrounded by darkness instead of letting her see the people on the surrounding islands! So annoying!

After the rotating fireballs thing, she made a stream of flames swirl in the air, created fireworks—adding color to fire was surprisingly easy—and made a serpent of fire that slithered over her body without burning anything—limiting heat that much was not easy.

Soon, her annoyance became wonder. That was fun. She liked finding different ways to use magic and wished she had tried this before.

Alicia made flaming birds, dogs, giraffes, and all sorts of animals. None could move by themselves; like all magic, she continuously exerted her will to make the spell do anything or even just keep existing. But she was getting the gist of making their movements look natural.

She made multiple pillars of fire, either coming from the ground or descending from above. Those should be useful in a fight.

What challenged her control the most were the three dancing avatars. The flaming creations looked humanoid, and controlling them to move independently was the most challenging thing she had done with magic yet.

The flaming armor she placed around her body was a bit of a waste of focus. She had to keep controlling its form, which was a bit complex, but it looked hella cool. Impressive or not, she would rather use flat barriers or surround herself with a burning bubble in a brawl.

Likewise, the blazing sword she materialized looked cool but was useless. She couldn't swing it with her hands; she had to control it with her mind, and keeping its form was a waste of focus. It was better to use a moving stream of flames.

After that, she did many other things, from small to big. The one that ended up taking the most control, even more than the dancing avatars, was releasing dozens of moving spirals around her, controlling them not to hit each other, and creating tiny fireworks in the middle, all in different colors. It was beautiful but gave her a splitting headache, right on the edge of making her spells get snuffed out by the nanobots protections.

Soon, her island's grass was utterly gone, replaced with soot and ashes.

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Shen was disappointed.

For the past few hours, the eighth stage was trying to kill him with the same attacks he had dodged at the seventh stage's final boss: fireballs, arrows, bolts, ice shards, pieces of rock, throwing knives, water jets, light beams, and wind. However, the attacks were slower and fewer than the final boss, even after so long.

"Shit!" a middle-aged woman in leather armor yelled on the neighboring island.

An arrow had hit her. The pain and her broken concentration snowballed into also getting her struck by a fireball and a light beam. That was her end. She turned into light, expelled from the Pioneer Tutorial.

Her island was next; it crumbled into pieces. Once it was gone, the nearby islands, Shen's included, moved to fill the gap. That caused a chain reaction all over the stage. This long into the stage, all islands were constantly moving to rearrange themselves.

And yet, he had no trouble dodging every last attack.

At long last, he got the message about the middle boss. He had never liked a middle boss more in his life.

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Tutorial - 8th Stage - Middle Boss

This stage's middle boss is optional: a twenty-percent increase in gravity.

If you accept it and pass the stage, you'll get an extra 1,000 AP reward.

Do you accept?

You have 10 seconds to decide.

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"Yes," he said before he finished reading. Anything to make things more interesting.

At that moment, Shen realized even the time perception dilation had a limit when things were too trivial. It only made him wonder how long he would've lasted without the dilation.

He frowned, remembering the multiple times he had lost himself in killing his foes.

Was he bloodthirsty?

He thought no. Instead, he was addicted to challenges. He could fight, dodge, and cultivate forever as long as it wasn't trivial, as long as he had to work hard for it. When that failed, he could also keep going if the end goal was something he wanted enough.

That changed his opinion on the limits of the time perception dilation. He had been a bit bored, yes, but he had still been in this stage for what felt like hours. If it felt like hours for him even with the dilation, who knows how long had it actually been? Despite that, his focus hadn't broken even once.

The time perception dilation was one of the greatest gifts the Alliance had bestowed upon him.

The increase in gravity took him away from his thoughts. A twenty-percent increase was just enough to make things barely interesting. He managed to lose himself then.

Time passed. The number of people decreased. Sometimes, dozens of islands would rise to the skies. Eventually, it was Shen's turn.

As his island floated higher, he received a system message.

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Tutorial - 8th Stage - Final Boss

Only 20% of those in your age group remain.

This stage's final boss will be a constant flow of enemies. They will appear at regular intervals, whether you kill the previous ones first or not. All system attacks will pass harmlessly through them.

You will not be told when you have survived long enough to pass the stage unless you're the last one standing.

If you didn't activate the middle boss previously, you can do so now, but you won't be eligible for the extra 1,000 AP incentive given to those who did so in the middle of the stage.

The last person standing of each age group who has activated the middle boss will receive an extra reward.

The last person standing among all age groups will receive a better prize.

You have 10 seconds to decide if you want to activate the middle boss.

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That was sneaky. Activating the middle boss now might give a chance for a better reward, but adapting to the extra gravity with the attacks as fast as they were and with enemies would spell doom for many.

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Tutorial - 8th Stage - Final Boss

You can pick one weapon by stating its name. You can ask for replacements at any time.

The weapon will be at the F tier.

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"Spear," Shen said, and when it materialized in his hand, it felt like his entire body relaxed. Shen breathed in relief and felt whole again.

His was the Path of the Spear, and treading it without the weapon had bothered him on an intrinsic level.

A few moments later, his island expanded to be a few dozen yards wide. A simple goblin materialized at the edge of his islands.

The wisest thing would be to wait for it to come to him. Eventually, with enough enemies, he would undoubtedly be forced to get to the middle, where he had extra time to avoid the projectiles materializing beyond the edge of the island. He would end up surrounded, and getting used to it now would be for the best.

Instead, Shen stepped ahead, dodged light beams and fireballs, flowed with the wind, jumped, rotated multiple times on the air, and beheaded the Shadow with a swing of his spear.

| Goblin (G) | 102,924 → 102,925 AP

Shen realized it then. He had been trying to change himself to be less arrogant, and it was honorable and worthy. Yet, he had also been confounding his desire for a challenge with arrogance.

Many of his reckless attacks hadn't been arrogance but mere stupidity—and even mistaking his idiocy for haughtiness was both stupid and arrogant in a way.

What he needed wasn't humility in the field of battle. A timid warrior wouldn't strike decisively when they needed to. What he needed was wisdom. He needed to properly understand himself and his enemy to correctly decide when to advance and retreat.

Zephyr had been right; his Gale Footwork had been too aggressive. Yet, he couldn't just change his spear art to be less aggressive. He felt his spear art was just like it needed to be.

Shen needed something else.

Two goblins appeared on the other side of the island. He advanced against one, dodging all manners of projectiles on the way, and thrust his spear at a goblin's eye. War told him he could get the other too, but Shen didn't.

He wanted to find what he was missing.

He returned to the middle of the island. Three new goblins materialized. He rushed at the remaining one from the previous wave, killed two others, and let the last alive while retreating to the center.

Four goblins came, then five. Shen kept going and coming, advancing and retreating, always leaving one or two alive.

Eventually, he felt his movements resonate with something inside him. He kept going.

It was his constant advance and retreat that resonated with him. That's what he needed. The surety to advance at the right time and the confidence to retreat if needed. He didn't find that in the Wind, while the Spear...

Mid-battle, all retreats of the Spear were to advance better a moment later. It was a weapon, and once it entered a fight, it sought to achieve its goal. A resting weapon wasn't helpful at a battle, so the Concept of Restfulness didn't apply. Likewise, a sentinel might wait, watch, and guard, but the Concept of Guardianship would be too defensive and might negatively affect him when he needed to attack instead.

A general looked at a battle and decided when to advance or retreat. War was already part of the very foundations of his Path. However, it saw no problem sacrificing parts of himself for the greater good, just like a general would sacrifice a few soldiers to win a crucial battle.

He was one with his Path, and his Path was one with him. They fed each other, and Shen suddenly realized that if he didn't find a way to curb that, he might turn into a frenzied beast, not caring for his safety at all.

Zephyr had helped with that. After Zephyr, he focused more on dodging than War told him to. However, a single secondary Concept wasn't enough to completely counter the tendencies of a foundational one. He needed another secondary Concept to counter-balance one of the aspects of War.

Combat didn't help with that. It only cared to keep fighting. Retreating was only done very briefly to dodge something; Combat never wanted to stop.

Sharpness wanted to cut, nothing more, nothing less.

And Boundlessness only amplified whatever Concept he was using or told him not to follow the rules.

Shen needed something else, and he wouldn't find it in the Laws of Wind or Spear. Still, he felt his comings and goings resonate stronger with him the more he did so.

Then he understood it was resonating with the Laws of Water of his cultivation method.

The Rainfall Cultivation Method was based on the Concept of Rainfall. Shen didn't need that. Rainfall was continuous, and he needed the ability to decide more easily not to attack when it was the wiser, less sacrificial path.

So he kept killing, trying to understand himself, and searching within the Laws of Water that affected his cultivation for something more.

Slowly, he understood and connected with the Concept of the Tides.

The sea rose and fell under the command of the sun and moon. The Tides came and went and saw nothing wrong with either. They existed because the celestial bodies demanded so, and life could only adapt to them, never extinguish them.

Shen didn't like it. External factors controlled tides. His Path could never accept direct external influence.

The Ebb and Flow were two complementary Concepts that could work, but he didn't want to add two secondary Concepts from the Laws of Water to his Path. It would cause an imbalance.

There had to be something else.

A flurry of thrusts pierced a green orc's eyes and killed him. Shen then cut another's throat in two swings and returned to the middle.

What was a Tide? What was the Ebb and Flow of Water?

Shen flowed through the field of battle, flowed between projectiles, killed orcs, and flowed back.

The Flow.

He constantly found himself flowing, especially between enemies. That had accentuated after Zephyr became part of his Path. Yet nothing Flowed better than Water.

But that also felt wrong.

Shen didn't need a better flow; he needed something to help him retreat even when the fastest path to victory was to advance. Sometimes, a quick win would cost him more than he would like.

He was strolling back and forth in the fight, and it was affecting his enlightenment. He didn't need to alternate between advancement and retreat. He didn't need constant change. He required something to make him retreat if needed but not affect his decisiveness when he should attack.

Shen needed wisdom and better decision-making, nothing more, nothing less.

That's when he finally understood: he didn't need Water; he needed to improve his very self.

Prudence, carefulness, and wisdom; there were no Concepts for that.

Concepts could assist him with that, yes. The Concept of Alertness or Perceptiveness would improve his ability to understand what was going on but not decide in his stead. No Concept made decisions for him.

Even the Concept of War at the very foundations of his path made him aware of the best way to achieve victory but didn't truly force him to take it. It always influenced him, but Shen chose to heed its call or not.

He was his Path, and his Path was him... or was it?

Cultivating was to defy the very heavens. Yes, cultivators took parts of the heavens to assist them, but suddenly, Shen understood a truth he had never thought of before.

It was obvious in hindsight. He strove to be less arrogant, to socialize better. He fought his prejudices against humankind and his ignorance in all parts of his life, including his battle technique. He was always trying to decrease the influence of some parts of himself or even discard them while seeking to emphasize others.

How could Concepts be any different?

It was evident that he wouldn't want everything they gave him. Concepts were part of the Laws of Reality. The Laws affected every aspect of Reality, and thus his life, but they weren't him. His goals wouldn't always align with the Laws' goals.

Cultivators sought to overcome the heavens.

Now, Shen understood that cultivators also needed to overcome their very selves every step of the way.

"Accept what you have, do the best with it, and move forth," his teacher had taught. "Regret your bad decisions but don't dwell on them. Seek the best but don't envy what you don't have or can't achieve. Never compromise your morals for anything. Acceptance, purpose, and honor are the keys to a fulfilling life. A Path without any one of them leads only to ruin."

To seek the best; to have a purpose.

He was his Path, and his Path was him. Yet who decided his Path's purpose? It wasn't the Concepts. It wasn't the Laws. They might, if he let them, but this was his Path.

He decided.

Maybe... maybe he had been a fool to call it the Path of the Spear. He wasn't a Spear, even if the Laws of the Spear were the foundation of the Path.

Feng Shen was Feng Shen.

His was the Path of Feng Shen and none other.

With the realization came a newfound resolution that improved his grasp over his Path. Paradoxically, it allowed him to understand some Concepts even better. Some things could only be understood when you dived into them, but sometimes it was better to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

His teacher had been wise indeed. It wasn't the first time this tiny snippet of her wisdom aided his growth. How many layers of insight could a few sentences have?

That was true wisdom that only cultivators could possess.

Accepting that dispelled some doubts from his heart.

Ever since meeting Alicia and getting in touch with the Alliance, he had constantly faced the harsh reality that cultivators weren't as magnificent as he had been taught. That was undoubtedly true, yet they were not mortals either.

There was more to the cultivators of the Eternal Empire.

Power corrupted, but willpower could prevent that. One couldn't be defined even by their own Path; how could they be defined by the power they wielded? They could be honorable and transcend temptation. It was hard, but what wasn't?

Cultivators touched on grander mysteries of Reality. Their philosophy was ancient and perfected over the eons. Their will was tempered by defying the heavens and overcoming themselves on a daily basis.

His doubts were blown away like seeds of a dandelion blown by a gust of wind, and his heart grew stronger. That enlightenment had been even more important than adding any secondary Concept to his Path. It had cemented his will and changed his perspective on a much more fundamental level than even his fundamental Concepts could.

Shen flowed—not because of Laws Water or his Concepts, but because he chose to—and killed his enemies.

His Path influenced him, but ultimately, his will ruled.

May he never forget ever again that his was the Path of Feng Shen.

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