So it turned out that if I didn't actively suppress the whole 'bleeding' thing every few minutes it started back up. That was kind of annoying. On the flipside I had a handy roommate lurking around in my head/awareness/mindscape/soul/spiritplane whatever who could fix most of that.

Elijah was still a bit ticked off at me for bleeding over his couch though. Well once he finished freaking out and accepted the fact that no I didn't need to go to the hospital. He didn't seem ready to toss me out or anything, but he certainly expected me to shower firs the next time I came in a bloody mess.

Then again maybe I should have given more then 'Hookwolf' as an explanation for just how I'd ended up like that...

I really needed to get a better handle on my anger. I mean I had a lot to be wrathful about. Effectively abducted from my homeworld, thrown into a mindless blood pit against other abductees. The massacre that followed our escape attempt, being literally rebirthed into a demi-titan of hate and rage. Those tended to be pretty good reasons for generally being easy to piss off.

but reasons were not excuses. I needed to get a hold of this before I ended up killing someone I liked. Or at least someone who didn't deserve it.

Again.

I rubbed at my forehead, as I got off the bleach smelling couch, "What's one more thing to work on?" I questioned.

My stomach rumbled and I set out to make breakfast once more. Eli might have been pissed about his couch but he'd also let me sleep in if the position of the sun was any indication.

"Might as well clean up," I half grumbled on my way to the kitchen. That was the agreement after all. It wouldn't take me long. After that I would... what? Veg out and wait for nightfall?

The idea was attractive. Maybe surf the net for a while-

No, I was wasting enough time on that.

"Training," I grunted. Yeah I needed to do more training. There was a charm I could get that would eliminate my need for sleep if I remembered correctly. That one should be easy to learn, and once I did I'd have more free hours to work on things more combat related.

"Defense is good. Need offense," though if I could work up my passive defense higher that'd be great as well. "Utility will be okay for now," I had enough on that front for what was needed. It'd be nice to be able to be a one man Renaissance, but right now I needed to focus more on being able to knock out other world shakers.

And a lot of them would not drop easy.

"Let'see," I slurred navigating the mysteries of the coffee machine. Why couldn't it just use a simple reloadable filter system like normal? "More green fire?" it might work. The mystical supercancer that I could, theoretically, learn to burn into people was pretty damned outside context for the area. If I could crank my essence up a couple notches I could render it into something not even fixable without supernatural powers.

Then the question came if shards counted as 'supernatural' or not.

Worth exploring. If nothing else the Emerald Arsenal tree was always fun, and gave a lot of options. Though I'd have to see if I could tweak the spear summoning charm into something better suited to my combat style.

I blinked, my combat style which revolved around unarmed combat. "Martial arts charms?"

Not a bad pick. A little underpowered but I remembered Swallowing the Lotus Root so-

Wait no. That wasn't me. That was... the other guy. The last one who had this Exaltation-

~The Glorious Slayer of Foul Darkness~

I blinked, what?

~They were called The Glorious Slayer of Foul Darkness~

Seriously?

For some reason I imaged a Solar Kuno Tatewaki.

~Think more Fabio~

I snorted, then rubbed my face, now unsure if I should be embarrassed or not.

"Well... I guess that's better then my first thought," I murmured.

Then I got the coffee machine to start somehow, which was impressive considering I had no clue how I managed it.

"Okay though, I can work with this... though I guess I'm working for Root of the Brass Lotus rather then the original version," I grimaced hoping the two charms weren't that different in function.

~Can't really offer much advice on that one boss~

Lovely.

Well if I did manage it, then suddenly Martial Arts charms became a lot more useful. Celestial Martial Arts were a bit much for me to recreate at the drop of a hat, but Terrestrial ones came and went like the seasons, and I had plenty of inherited memories over their use. Fabi- The Glorious Slayer of-

Okay no, he was Fabio. Fabio was a general first, and warrior second... I think. Anyway he knew a lot about teaching people how to punch, stab, shoot, or slash people and things into various states of dismemberment and death. Lessons I could turn inward to learn for myself.

Like how to remain aware of the guy trying to shoot a sniper round through the back of my head while making breakfast.

With luck I'd learn that one before it became necessary to put it to use.