The tip of Jin's lance shot forward before quickly retracting again along with the wooden shaft. The jiangshi that he had just decapitated with the move fell to the ground, just as another one of the eastern zombies managed to latch itself onto his back and drag him down to the panelled floor of the mansion he was fighting in. It was in that position that he lost the battle and the zombies swarmed him and tore him to pieces.
The first time it had happened several weeks ago, it had been a very traumatic experience. However, now he was getting used to it and very much realised the importance of the fact that the scenario did not simply end when he fell to the ground.
In honour of his first copyright transgression, Jin had in the past weeks been training in his use of a lance. Not that he owned one, of course, it was just that in the bountiful scenarios he now had access to in the sect library he could simply generate his own weapon. The lance was simply what he had chosen.
There definitely was something to the Illusion Room Sect's philosophy of throwing enemies at warriors to improve them. Jin had died numerous times and every time he went back in he felt like his skill in battle had improved significantly. It was in those last deadly moments of a fight that one gained the most insight into how one could have avoided death. Going in again immediately after and correcting one's behaviour in another attempt was where the biggest improvements came from.
The basic scenario that Jin was undergoing right now consisted of several waves of what he recognized as the Chinese folklore version of zombies coming at him until he dropped. Usually dressed in rags or official robes which had for some reason not decayed, these stiff corpses, often with a talisman covering their face, hopped in his direction and if they got their grip on him would tear him apart with their sharp fingernails and teeth. One of the least threatening enemies that he had found so far, however, the numbers that they came in could be quite staggering.
The first time he'd played the specific scenario he'd managed to defend himself against the first wave, which consisted of five of the monsters. The second one consisted of 13, the third of 47 and so on. Jin was now currently on his 5th wave and had just died for the sixth time that day.
It was actually kind of fun, but his improvement had been plateauing to the point that he decided to stop, while he was still ahead. The thing about having such a variety of scenarios available was that he didn't have to continue grinding at one particular piece and could therefore avoid diminishing returns. He'd already beaten countless scenarios containing a variety of Eastern mythological creatures and there were still countless more to go through.
He looked around the white space that he found himself in from which he could enter the scenario again. A simple visual representation of a placard with the word zombie inscribed on it would allow him to jump right back in. Instead, he picked the second option and exited the Room.
He came to himself in the gigantic library of the Illusion Room Sect, with its high walls and meticulous record keeping. He stood up from where he'd been sitting on the floor and picked up the illusion Room that had recently been preoccupying him.
He put it back on its shelf. All around him thousands upon thousands of Rooms buzzed. He was all alone in this part of the library. and that was for one very interesting reason. He was in the section designated for the scenarios that had not stood the test of time.
In other words, he was in the section with outdated products. After all, if someone made a newer version of the zombie swarm scenario in which the zombies were somehow more adapted to the needs of the warriors trying to learn from the experience, then what was the point of keeping an inferior version of the same product in the main part of the library?
This was one of the issues of using illusion Room submissions as the way to earn sect points. One was always at risk of having someone else develop a superior product, and thus having one's own being pushed into this relegation zone. Once here, naturally, one's Room did not earn any more sect points since no one was in fact using it. Unless one's name was Jin of course. He was probably making some people mildly happy.
However, because having one's Room relegated, and considering that new scenarios were usually better due to the discovery of new techniques or memory slips, most of the people who had produced the games that he had been playing in the last weeks were probably already dead.
He stretched with his hands up in the air and looked around. As always the area was completely empty. One of the reasons why he was here. The main area was actually quite busy. Visiting cultivators, and inner disciples trying to learn the newest tricks, everyone was there and there were comparably fewer Rooms in there as well. After all, there were so many zombie swarm scenarios, but only a few of them could be shown. Sure the inner disciples who had made the successful Rooms in the showroom could make copies, but considering that the production of the artefacts that contain the illusion also cost money and production time there needed to be a very strict balance of determining how much of what was actually needed. Worst case of course, Jin had learned from the librarians that people could still be sent back into these relegated archives if they were fine with learning with the second best, but after thousands of years, the librarians had also figured out a pretty good system for avoiding this.
He scratched his chin and hoped that his practice was enough to satisfy whatever expectations Elder Flower would have for the improvement he could reasonably make in three weeks. She seemed to put a lot of value on combat systems and Jin had learned a lot about those in the past few weeks. Especially about the way that they improved over time, scenario by scenario.
This was why he had been going through older obsolete models. To find out exactly what breakthroughs made one version superior to another. Eventually, he hoped that this would allow him to have such an oversight of the creation market, that he could predict and leapfrog the next future development and stay in the relevant zone for longer when he actually sat down to make another scenario. Which would probably be after his trip with Elder Flower.
He walked out of the relegation part of the library, absolutely stuffed to the brim with the creations of the sect's inner disciples over the ages, and exited into a large open space.
It was in this hexagonal room with its many attendants and cultivators from all the different parts of the world. that one generally chose which part of the library to enter. This usually coincided also with the question of which part of the library one was qualified to enter.
After all, the visiting cultivators who paid a daily fee for access to the scenario storage did not also have access to all the memory slips, and to all the publicly available techniques of the Illusion Room Sect or its shelves stocked full with cultivation strategies, techniques and journals of those who had come before.
And as always in a room as large as this, through the bustle and hustle one could identify a group of young masters with seemingly nothing to do with their lives other than to simply stand there sipping tea, or alcohol, or whatever was in those little gourds they were carrying around.
"Still strolling through the relegation library in search of inspiration to one day join its ranks?" One of those inner disciples jeered at Jin as he walked past. He had long black hair tied together in a bun. Instead of wearing the basic beige robes, he was wearing an elaborate red and gold outfit overdrawn with motifs of phoenixes and Imperial mountain landscapes.
"I mean, I agree. Trash has to stay with the trash, but aren't you at least smart enough to know that you can only learn from what's good today?"
A small sigh escaped Jin's lips as he glanced at the idiot and at his giggling clique of school girls who were actually several decades-old men. This of course made the whole thing even more pathetic.
"Alas," Jin started. "I still have many centuries of knowledge to catch up on before I can truly call myself qualified to make a scenario worthy of this glorious library," he said diplomatically, earning himself a sneer from Lung junior, which was in fact the boy's name.
"Perhaps by the time you're a desiccated corpse, you'll have managed to make the basic stickman, to join the other failures," Lung junior said and demonstratively looked away from Jin as the latter continued strolling out of the premises, getting some pitying looks from the other illusion Room cultivators.
The others, those visiting from other sects and paying exorbitant fees to even be present here, were too busy to care about anything and were simply hurrying around, trying to use what little time they had to get in as much training as possible.
"I'm checking out," Jin said when he arrived at the front desk where a bored grey-haired Elder was sitting, leaning back in her chair and staring at the ceiling. The woman imperceptibly nodded and Jin left the building.
It might have seemed odd to have an Elder be the receptionist in a library for inner disciples, but the fact was that since Jin's sect was one of the few sects that allowed the entry of outsiders, there needed to be a strong presence in the rooms to prevent the sects with feuds from starting a fight and wrecking something.
He'd heard that the Elders simply switched the responsibility around between them and that each and every one of them had to do only a year of the service per millennia.
Exiting the library into the fresh air Jin breathed a sigh of relief.
Every time he was forced to interact with Lung Junior he felt slightly afraid that it was going to go horribly wrong. It was very obvious that the boy, or rather, 79-year-old man from what Jin had found out, didn't like him. It was even more obvious that this dislike had been inherited from the boy's father, Elder Lung.
Jin had been confused for the longest time after his passing into the inner ring about why exactly the man had been so triggered by him. However, despite no one being willing to give him any answers he had soon come to deduction on the reason for the man's dislike.
There was another part of the library that he hadn't mentioned previously, mostly because he never truly wanted to go there. It was the part of the library filled with templates for illusionary attributes. For example, if an inner disciple wanted to only create an enemy, he could just use template A for the surroundings in which the fight would occur. That way they had less work, but also the person who had created the template and made it available earned a small amount of the fee charged for the use of the Room. A win-win so to say.
Well, as it turned out the entire template section of the library was mostly taken up by members of the Lung family. They seemed to be one of the oldest noble families of the sect and had specialised over the years in creating templates for others to use.
Jin suspected that due to the rather high level of architecture he had exhibited in his illusion Room, they thought that he was going to try to become a competitor.
This of course wasn't the case, as he found the usage of templates to be completely devoid of any sort of creativity and that was coming from him as a professional plagiarizer. Nevertheless, this didn't prevent Lung Junior from trying to stick a foot between Jin's legs every chance he got.
Considering the boy from what he heard had been an inner disciple for several decades now Jin was honestly quite surprised that he wasn't trying harder to rise up, or was there perhaps a system of seniority when it came to being promoted to core disciple?
Anyway, it didn't really matter. The Illusion Room Sect wasn't as inherently violent as warrior sects were, so the most that Jin would have to be afraid of would be some sabotage, maybe some petty theft of ideas.
He heard that several gangs of inner disciples simply waited by the library for a new concept to be dropped into the room full of worthwhile scenarios.
They would then quickly collaborate with their friends and create a slightly superior version of the scenario to knock it into the relegation zone. That way they didn't have to be creative, come up with a concept themselves and with a minimal amount of effort invested could reap a somewhat middling salary.
It really took all kinds of people, he thought with a shake of his head as he made his way back to his apartment. All of this didn't really matter that much at the moment. Tomorrow he would be meeting Elder Flower, and soon after he would be leaving with her for the Mad Monks Sect.
-/-
Jin found Elder Flower after having walked around what he felt was half the mountain. On one side of the inner ring, the inner disciples had their space to work, study and live. On the other side of that ring was still relatively untouched wilderness. It was there that cultivators could stride through nature, and meet up without the hustle and bustle of the disciple village.
It was also somewhere where Jin could meet an Elder without having to be bothered by people coming in to interrupt their interaction or maybe even spying on it.
He'd walked through mostly forests and meadows, some rock outcroppings which got more common the more up the mountain one travelled and the occasional cloud, which from his position engulfed him like a particularly thick fog.
Elder Flower was waiting for him in a meadow full of bright green grass that swayed in the wind, sitting under a blossoming Sakura tree with the same outfit she had last time. Wide green pants, sandals, and a tight shirt, her sword scabbard hung at her waist. She was sitting on a large grey boulder which looked out of place in the grassy clearing. As if she'd brought it there with her.
"Junior greets Elder," Jin said with a bow, fist clasped in his palm.
"Elder greets junior," Flower answered and motioned for him to sit down in front of her.
Jin did so, committing to a seiza, uncaring of the grass stains he would likely find on his robes later. It wasn't like he was the one who would have to wash them. He didn't have a servant, but facilities were available.
Elder Flower looked him up and down and it was the first time that Jin had the opportunity to truly look her in the eyes. They were a clear white. Hadn't they been a different colour last time?
Did it matter? This was cultivation land. These things could change.
"I'm glad to see that you followed my advice and directed some of your nodes to more physical attributes," she eventually said.
Jin nodded. "It is foolish of the inexperienced to ignore the advice of the wise," he said politely. Without posing the burning question he had of why exactly she'd wanted him to do so.
A smile hushed across her features. He felt like she was reading his mind and laughing at his unwillingness to ask.
"What do you think of the martial capacity of our sect?" she asked. She elaborated at his confused look. "How strong are we in a fight?"
It sounded like a trick question, if he said that they were weak, as expected from a craftsman sect, then he could be accused of not being loyal enough. If he said they were strong, it could be considered a stupid answer considering that warrior sects should obviously be stronger.
Always fun to try and unravel these complex social situations in a world where powerful people took offence very easily. Jin sighed inwardly.
"It's a complicated question because the product that we are focused on making would technically make us into better warriors." He started. "Over the last weeks, I have been improving my martial abilities against the Rooms in the library. I think that with the unfettered access that I have as a member of the sect, someone could advance very quickly, very far. However, on the other side, there's the fact that we assign so much of our cultivation to the mental while only learning spells unsuited for combat."
"I guess I'm trying to say that I don't think that we're particularly weak or strong for a sect that does not focus on producing warriors. Martial sects are definitely stronger, while other craftsman sects likely lag slightly behind."
Elder Flower hummed and seemed to consider his answer. "A very incomplete picture," she eventually decided. "It likely makes more sense for me to simply tell you things instead of asking you questions which require knowledge you do not have."
Jin wasn't mad at that, she was right after all. He was a newbie in this world, in more ways than just one. What was the point of asking him anything really?
"The Illusion Room Sect suffers the same issues as all non-combat sects do. The higher up the cultivation ladder you go, the more the difference in martial prowess shows. Other cultivators were focusing on becoming stronger while we were focusing on getting better at our craft. I'm sure that if you put the same amount of training into your skills with any given weapon you would end up being able to hold your own against the inner disciple of a martial sect. However, the second they start learning techniques and advancing beyond the core formation stage the whole equation becomes very very skewed."
"That makes sense," Jin said, occasionally making sounds of agreement and nodding.
"However, it is a mistake to think that the Illusion Rooms Sect is completely helpless. It is just that most of our members focus their cultivation in a direction that doesn't necessarily use our greatest strength to its fullest."
"What is our greatest strength, if I may ask?"
"There is no single reason why things are done a certain way. The enemies we create in scenarios do not need to have completely logical combat processes simply because we want to create as realistic an experience as possible. After all, making something unrealistic, and defying the logic of our world would also offer a very interesting combat experience. That is why I'm so impressed by Ornstein and his abilities to follow the logic while creating something new."
"Thank you, Elder."
"There are spells that we learn later on in the sect that will likely make you a combat threat considering your apparent proclivity for meaningful innovation. That is why I have instructed you to dedicate at least some of your cultivation to physical attributes. Eventually, depending on your talent you will learn Templating," she explained before leaning black and looking at him closely.
Jin knew that she would continue with her explanation when she saw fit and didn't see the need to interject by asking what templating was. They sat there in silence for several minutes which slowly turned into half an hour which turned into one hour.
Jin didn't mind, as he could spend the time looking at a beautiful woman, as much as he didn't try to let that part be noticed, but he did nevertheless find it curious.
It was after an hour and a half that Elder Flower spoke again, the sun having moved a significant distance over the sky. "If an illusion creator can create a combat style for a human-like entity and stick it into a Room, is there any particular reason why he can't externalise that combat knowledge, consisting generally of a series of specific movements onto his own body? In simpler words, templating is taking on the attributes of one's creation that one so intimately knows and using it as a guide using one's own body as a conduit to bring that combat effectiveness into reality."
Jin's entire world shook as Elder Flower spoke. He finally understood why she had told him to focus on physical attributes. From what she was saying, he could take Ornstein's combat ability which was already several times higher than his own after weeks of practice and simply take it for himself? The dash wouldn't work, of course, he didn't know how to do that. But all the other ways of wielding a lance, after being adjusted for height? He could have all that, really?
Elder Flower closed her eyes at his obvious excitement. "I see that you understand what I mean. If you had a lance like your character does, you could wield it the exact same way assuming that the way it is being wielded now is logically consistent with the reality of the world we live in instead of just with your scenario."
"That's why it's so important to perfect it," Jin realised out loud. "Not only will it provide a more worthwhile experience for warriors challenging the illusion, but it will also make me stronger in return."
Elder Flower nodded. "There is always more than one reason why something happens. If the only good thing coming out of me taking you with me to the Mad Monks Sect would be the improvement of one product, I would not. However, it also raises the general combat potential of our sect, while also showing face to the monks whose use of quarterstaff resembles your creation. You will show them Dragonslayer Ornstein and they will appreciate the intricacies of his combat style."
Jin nodded earnestly. "Understood Elder."
"Good, templating is the skill that is probably next on your chopping block. However, you are nowhere near close enough yet. It's not even worth discussing anima yet, solid projections constructed in the shape of those monsters you are intimately familiar with. I simply wanted to inform you what you will be working towards," she said and Jin's world shook again.
Anima? He could one day create the monsters from his games? Wouldn't that make him invincible? No, of course not, there had to be a weakness.
"What will we be doing until then?" Jin asked.
"You will continue honing your weapon skills against the Rooms and perfecting the design of Ornstein. However, you will be doing so with a sword," she said and pulled out a bamboo sword from somewhere. She threw it at him and it flew through the air to land with its handle first in Jin's hand.
He looked at it curiously and guessed that it made more sense to become proficient with a sword rather than a lance considering the latter didn't really exist in this world for a reason. He sighed. He would still have to learn the lance, however, to perfect his Ornstein.
"Most cultivators use a sword, so any disciple of the sect benefits from knowing how it is used and getting as good with it as possible. After all, you have to know what the general audience has as an option when they face your scenarios," Flower said.
Jin nodded, understanding the logic.
Elder Flower stood up and pulled out her own wooden sword.
"We start now," she said calmly and swung at him.
-/-
AN: Some important world-building will be done in the next three chapters before we start cough "making;" cough, our next game. Today we learned more about the intricacies of our sect, about its status and about its combat potential. In the next chapters we will learn important things about the world and about our main character.