Forty-Four

It didn't rain soon. The water refused to fall until deep in the night and it left Kon a shivering mess as he scrubbed with sharp leaves to clean himself of the gunk on himself. He used the leaves to scrape at the edge of his skin, making it raw and red as he cleaned himself. It was painful and only partially effective. The girls wouldn't let him back into the shelter till he tried to finish cleaning himself off.

Alice ran off to go and hunt them dinner while Diur yelled at him semi-helpful suggestions to clean himself. He was a ragged mess of small cuts and lacerations as he walked back into the shelter with the ragged remnants of his leathers protecting his modesty.

The two of them nestled in the cold shelter as they waited for Alice to return. Kon was exhausted, eyes drooping as his entire body ached with every beat of his heart. It felt like he had been overstretched to the point of tearing and then crammed back into a shape that was slightly too small. He was uncomfortable in his own skin as he sat there, resting, struggling to stay awake.

"We could have done this properly with a bit more time. Found a good rock quarry and filled it with purified water. There are some herbs on this planet that could have been used to slowly let you absorb this treasure. It would have taken longer, but it would have been much more efficient," Diur said. She sounded upset that they had mismanaged the treasure.

"How would you have done it? At home?" Kon asked. His eyes were nearly closed, but he couldn't fall asleep. Not before he ate. The pangs of hunger that were carving through him weren't going to let him fall asleep that easily.

"Rifts on the homeworld are carefully cultured. Those that have manageable monsters are carefully culled but we don't destroy them. It allows the proper amount of energy to fill the area so we can cultivate. Nothing is allowed above peak D-Grade. If the monsters are something that are possibly overly dangerous to the world, it is cleansed, the treasures secured." Diur paused as she looked at him and Kon couldn't help but look over at her. She was tired, her eyes drooping as she clutched her sword to her chest. There was a look on her face, something that Kon would have guessed was homesickness if she was human. A sadness and loneliness that crushed one if they festered.

"The sects and most clans have a contribution system for the most part for internal economies and they then disperse cultivation resources. They control external currency to keep their cultivators reliant upon the sect or clan. One can be wealthy with contribution points and the sect will shower you with wealth. But step outside of the sect? You are nothing." Diur trailed off and then shook her head.

"Tangent. Sorry. You'd earn contribution points doing things for the sect or clan. Could be anything as simple as sweeping the halls or working on basic machinery around the area. Then there are other ways to earn it. Rift suppression, hunting for natural treasures or medicinal herbs. Contracts for serving the local governments or nobility. Whatever the Elders decide they are willing to do for hard currency."

"Still haven't said how you'd do it," Kon said.

"There are alchemists and physicians. They'd study you for days. Find out every hidden secret to your body and then design a program to fully enhance you. Exercise and pharmaceuticals along with a perfectly balanced diet for years. Then they allow you to begin with enhanced medicinal baths and slowly work your way up to using a treasure."

"So they don't make you go and harvest a treasure by yourself and then eat it with your bare hands in a forest?"

"No. There are several clan Elders I know who would spit blood at the desecration to resources we have shown. This world is amazing. The amount of resources here is mind boggling to say the least. Our ancestor was fortuitous to find this and claim it for our line. Well…it was at first. I doubt that many would claim it was fortuitous now." Diur's eyes were wet for a second as she blinked. The moisture disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

"After that, you'd have a series of treatments as you are slowly worked through the first phase of purification and strengthening. What you've done the last two times would have been the work of months."

"Oh that's nice to hear. It's not like these last two attempts have been traumatizing at all," Kon said with a deadpan tone.

"You should be dead. I don't know how you've been able to process that much power. Maybe it's the nodes you and Alice talk about?" Diur speculated. Kon quietly agreed with her. All three of his nodes felt wrung out, exhausted from consuming so much power and translating it to him.

"How many more do I have to do?"

"Probably one more. There's not much more for you to do before your baseline is established. After that you'd need much more detailed work that's impossible on this planet. Though, this should be impossible as well," Diur admitted.

"Seems to be something that's happening often on this planet," Kon said. Diur just chuckled darkly as she edged over closer to him. The jungle could grow cold at night and they didn't have a fire burning yet, not till Alice was back to watch out for them.

"Calcification. We have grown so rigid in our thought process. In our rituals and paths that we have explored that we have begun to stagnate. Grandpa talked about it sometimes. The momentum was just too much to shift to open up new pathways. Being here, with no recourse, no resources, and no guidance. Just desperation," Diur said.

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"We have an old saying from the mother planet. Necessity is the mother of invention," Kon told her. Even the hunger pangs were struggling to keep awake.

"This could be revolutionary for cultivators. This blending of powers. Humans…do you understand what your people's arrival did to our world? To cultivators?"

"Probably a few fights?" Kon offered. Diur gave a belly laugh, throwing her head back and letting hours of stress boil out in a peal of amusement.

"It's a legend now. A cautionary tale to warn those away who would be presumptuous. Your people arrived in the largest ships ever seen."

"The world ships," Kon cut in.

"Hush. Let me tell the tale. Anyways, you all arrived in a flash of light and thunder and drifted into some small system. But there was a sect there. It was old and known to the wider galaxy but not well regarded. They were known though."

"I'm noticing that all of it is in past tense."

"Yes. Your mages. They hadn't become true cultivators yet, but rather projected the runes. They wiped out that sect, conquered the entire system and stole everything there was. It was shocking. The runes were known, but to see them used that way? It defied everything we knew. This was before my ancestor was born but she grew up in the ripples of these events."

"Humans have a habit of screwing things up," Kon said.

"What you are doing could be just as revolutionary. It can change how we do everything. A new pinnacle to reach."

"If I don't blow up."

"If you don't blow up," Diur agreed.

"Is that a real thing? Alice says it is, but I can never tell when she's being serious."

"Blowing up? It's rare but it does happen. Your body needs to be malleable when you're absorbing this much energy into yourself. This is why sects and clans have their own methodology and paths. It's to prevent their investments from blowing themselves up."

"That makes sense. Is it weird I wouldn't change it though? That I wouldn't want to not do this? It hurts, it really, really hurts. And it's scary. Nearly paralyzing. But I wouldn't change anything."

"The heart of a true cultivator. To challenge the heavens and all they have to offer, regardless of how terrifying the unknown is."

"You know, I don't think that's as reassuring as you think it is," Kon said.

"Why's that?"

"There's a galaxy of giant idiots who risk blowing themselves up so they don't feel small, weak, and powerless. That's terrifying," Kon said, a smile on his face as he turned to look at Diur. She laughed again as the two of them trailed off and enjoyed the silence as they waited.

Alice arrived moments later with a slab of fresh meat. She had shown up within a minute of them growing silent.

"How long were you eavesdropping?" Kon asked as the older woman started getting a fire ready to start cooking.

"There's no eaves to drop on. I was just letting you two have your little heart to heart and regale yourself to some only kinda true history lessons. It's an important part in bonding with your fellows. These little talks," Alice explained. Her fire rune blazed over her finger and shot a spark into the small thing of kindling. Within minutes they had a small blaze and the smell of roasting meat filled the air.

"Thank you for your considerations, Senior sister," Diur said. Kon glanced over at her and she said with as much sincerity as she could muster, but it only made the words seem more sardonic.

"Knock it off. It's good for you two to bond. And even better for you to remember that I hear all. So no trade secrets." She said the last part seriously.

"Could she do it? Could she kill Diur after all we've been through together?" Kon didn't like the answer he came up with when he thought hard on it.

"What do you hope to get out of our experimentation Alice? Honestly?" Kon asked suddenly. The tempestuous mix of emotions urged him to act, to see what the Knight really thought she was doing. Alice slowed down, her movements coming to a crawl as she cooked a spear of meat over the flame.

She looked ominous, crouched down before the fire. The dancing light made her look sinister, the hard lines of her face unyielding in the night. There was no trademark smile, or joy on her face. Kon had always known that she was dangerous. She was a powerful warrior and had earned her rank through her skill and deeds. But she had always been his guardian and playful tormentor.

Looking at her he realized that this was the stripped down, bare, honest, killer. A woman who had likely bathed worlds in blood, who took joy in crushing people beneath her fists. A merciless, unyielding, titan of power. Then she blinked and smiled crookedly at him and it all disappeared, balled back up and shoved away like a mirage.

"If it works out well I can patent the method and use it to petition getting my next rune for service rendered. If you blow up, well, nobody will blink twice about a cadet dying on a planet like this. Hard for me to lose with those odds," Alice said. She was so cheerful and upbeat that Kon struggled to believe what he had seen just seconds ago.

He looked over to Diur and she had grown still, her fingers wrapped tightly around the pommel of her sword, eyes wide as sweat beaded down her forehead irregardless of the cold night.

"Definitely didn't imagine it."

"Speaking of runes, when do I get my next one?" Kon asked. He fought the shudder that rolled down his spine as Alice met his eyes and held them there.

"I think we finish Diur's stuff first. Get you all cleaned out and reinforced. I'm debating about what to give you next. It was going to be another reinforcement rune, but I need to see how well this body cultivation does for you."

"Diur, how long till I can do the next round?" Kon asked.

"It should be weeks. But, we can start hunting for the next treasure soon. I'll be able to tell when your body has stabilized and then we can finish off the first round of your cultivation."

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