Re-life: Life as a demon patriarch

Chapter 16: Plan A (4/4)

Warning: there would be quite a lot of info dump on this chapter, I apologize.

[9:48 pm]

Gu Lin Fang appeared within the Garden with a frown.

'There are no changes with the quest...' Confused, he walked to the mansion with the unconscious Gong Shuren on his shoulder.

"Eek!!...!! Greetings Lord Gu" A startled voice came from behind the door he just used to get in but Gu Lin Fang responded offhandedly, "Err...So it's Wei Fan".

"Yes Lord Gu!" His surprised voice went up a notch, this made Gu Lin Fang frown in irritation.

"Will you calm down?!!"

"Yes...yes Lord Gu!!" Gu Wei Fan replies after taking deep breaths. His eyes remained on the body that was on his master's shoulder.

"Let me help you..."

Gu Lin Fang glanced at the shaking fellow and ordered, "No need, Prepare some water for me.

I'll be taking a bath shortly". 

Gu Wei Fan then bows as he watched Gu Lin Fang pass him before heading towards the kitchen.

________________

Arriving at his somewhat empty study, Gu Lin Fang tossed Gong Shuren aside and noticed, he had stopped bleeding...

"Hmm, now that I think about it...there are many ways to get this healing effect, skills or body constitution or..." His sentence was cut short as he suddenly thought about the battle and went to his reading table.

He spread a wide sheet of paper on the table and picked up a brush with ink.

Then he went to the tutorial page to select [Basic Combat]. For some reason, he had only read through before to only understand some words in the skill descriptions.

But now, because of his earlier combat...he needs more in-depth knowledge on the games combat to at least make up for his martial arts inexperience.

[Combat basics]

Combat in 'Eternal glory' is based in an almost strict logic of real-world martial arts, and can be compared to the classic game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors." 

Skills in a martial technique, are divided into Overt Attacks (Rock), Feints (Scissors), and Parries (Paper).

Overt Moves or "Rock" are straight forward attacks. These are stronger than other attacks because they have one purpose, damage. Whether a "basic attack" with your weapon/fists, or a special skill, Overt Moves are the foundation of combat.

- The majority of damage skills are overt moves.

- They are the main skills which you use to deal damage to your opponents.

- They will break the armor of feint skills and overpower them.

- If your opponent is using a parry stance, the damage will be reduced by a certain percentage starting at 50%, but can be increased or reduced through gear and skills.

Parry Moves

The "Paper" that covers the rock are  Parry moves. You can block an opponents attack normally, which only minimizes the damage done to you. 

But a more practiced martial artist will be able to deal more damage than a simple block can handle.

This is where Parry Skills come in. 

Each Parry skill behaves differently when you successfully block an attack with said skill. 

Some examples of Parry effects are, damage reflection to the aggressor or their equipment, or debuffs to the aggressor (slower movement, longer skill cool downs, etc). 

Choosing a Parry from your techniques that fits the rest of your play style is just as important as the attacks you choose to use. 

While you can keep Parrying, an Overt Move can lower your block endurance over time and eventually breakthrough.

Opponents can also perform a simple feint and cut through your Parry.

- Parry stance reduces the damage received from any overt move. The percentage damage reduction is governed by two of your stats, depending on the type of attacking move: external attacks or internal attacks

- You can maintain your Parry stance as long as you have enough Qi but beware of true damage overt skills.

- Parrying will reduce movement speed by 70%, but you can still move around with you movement techniques.

- A Parry can be easily broken with any Feint Move. If that happens, you cannot Parry again for a certain amount of time even if you have Qi, as your meridian would face an initial backlash.

- Your Parry Endurance will be depleted gradually as you take blows from an opponent, the strength and recovery speed of your Parry is dependent on your stats and meridian strength to absorb damage.

- Parrying is a good way to fill your Rage, which is required to cast Ultimate skills.

Feints

Feints skills in martial techniques can cut through parries, leaving your opponent with a 0.6 sec stun, possibly weakened effect due to damage to meridians, and leaves them ready for devastating follow-up attacks. 

Feints are lighter attacks that are intended to breakopen enemy defenses with a sudden move and are not advised to be used against the more direct Overt Moves.

- Feint skills are Parry breaking moves which are used to break and cancel an enemy's parry stance

- An enemy will receive 100% damage after their block has been broken, and are unable to parry for a certain amount of time.

- Feint Moves are easily broken by any Overt Move]

Reading up to this point, Gu Lin Fang remained motionless on his seat while lost in thought.

Honestly, he had indeed been using his skills wrongly and he believes that it's one of the reasons this Gong Shuren could suppress him earlier.

"Once again, I got lucky... but why was he glowing red at the beginning of the fight? Killing intent?"

Unable to find the answer, he went back to reading...

'there's still so much I don't know.' Gu Lin Fang sighs bitterly.

[Eternal Glory's attributes]

Cultivation method(Inner) and martial techniques are set in their own core attributes including: Yin, Yang, Hard, Soft, and Tai Chi.

These attributes dictate where the skill can excel, in cultivation or combat scenarios. 

Try matching skills of the same attribute together and activate a similar Internal cultivation Qi to gain the full effect of the attacks.

"Hmm...I see, <Blood Demon Tao> Is of a Yin attribute.

so skills with some Yin in it would have a much better effect, because my inner Qi is Yin?.

<Blood thirsty Bull's finger> is Yang though...guess I have to say bye bye to that one" The more he read, the more intrigued he became.

[Harnessing your rage]

When fighting you build up Rage which can be used to activate your ultimate attacks on your foes. A player's Rage Meter is located below the Internal Force and Health bars. When you collect a pool of Rage, a fireball will appear. These fireballs can be obtained faster depending on multiple scenarios:

- Each attack builds a little bit of fire

- Attacking multiple enemies at once

- Taking damage

- Absorbing damage by Parrying.

When you have sufficient Rage built up, your Ultimate skills will become available and alert you with a glow that it is ready to be unleashed.

Beware though, your opponent can still parry these attacks and their extreme damage. watch out for the capacity your meridians can handle when using your rage. Excessive use of rage in quick succession can damage them, although bloodline users have a better chance with this as their meridians are much thicker and spacious.

Gu Lin Fang paused and tried to recollect the battle, "So that's what those were... the green bar was my health and the blood colored bar was my Qi, the burning bar below was my rage..."

"Master Gu, your bathing water is ready...w... would you be needing as...sistance?" A young female voice came from the other side of the door.

Gu Lin Fang quickly remembered who she was, One of the four servants he had granted the 'Gu' surname, "No need, I'll do it myself..."

"Y-yes!" She quickly retreated.

"What is that Gu Wei Fan even thinking.

Hmm, She should be around my daughter's age... I'll have her work under Ju'er". Unaware of his changed, quickly tied up the unconscious Gong Shuren.

"I'll be back shortly... don't go anywhere" He suddenly says with a chuckle before exiting the study.

_____________

"Uncle!!" Gu Li Cheng rushed over but was shocked to see so much blood on his uncle.

Seeing this, Gu Lin Fang quickly says, "It's not mine, hold your report till I'm done with my bath"

As he moved further away, He grumbled with each step..."why won't this D*mn quest update? I'd ju..."

His voice trailed away the further he walked away, Gu Li Cheng stared at him with awe in his eyes.

'Awesome!...'.