Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1228

Since they were in the neighborhood- just a few hundred lightyears away- Anton took Bear Hug to see the new border colonies being built up for the benefit of their friends just across to the upper realms. The formerly Chaotic Conglomeration group needed more than occasional ships crossing to sustain them. There were a few materials that only formed in the upper realms that they could exchange, but for the most part it was being treated as a strategic exchange.

Their presence was beneficial for the Alliance in both upper and lower realms. It was a shame they had to take on so much of the risk, but as they’d already been on the border between the Chaotic Conglomeration and the Exalted Quadrant that was a constant state for them.

“Oooh, there’s so many buildings here! They must have so many kinds of things to put in them!”

Bear Hug was easily excited. Not that that was news to Anton.

“It’s not just things that go in them, but also people.”

“How do the people get sunlight?”

“They go outside. Generally, shelter from the elements is deemed more important.”

“And yet people still grow big and strong?”

“Most aren’t sunlight cultivators,” Anton pointed out. “And you already know how animals grow.”

“I do. But it’s weird every time.”

Bear Hug had only briefly visited other parts of the Alliance on the way, so they were still very new to it. “Are those weapons?”

“Those are tools,” Anton said. “For cutting rocks.”

“And that makes them… not weapons?”

“Weapons are generally used for anything that is alive, and might fight back,” Anton explained.

“And weapons are used because… they go really far?”

“That’s what bows are for,” Anton agreed. “Other weapons slightly improve reach and are good at concentrating force since humans don’t have appendages that are good weapons.”

“Okay.” Bear Hug constantly looked around, unashamedly extending their energy senses in large bundles in whatever direction they pleased. Personally, Anton found it endearing and useful for his responses. “What’s that ship? It doesn’t feel like anything at all! It’s just… boring.”

He knew exactly which ship Bear Hug referred to as the energy language involved actually ‘touching’ the ship. It was extremely useful and precise and probably many people would think it was rude instead of practical. But there they were making sounds that didn’t even have inherent meaning. “That’s one of the inter-realm ships,” Anton explained.

Theoretically, some level of secrecy was warranted. Practically, Bear Hug’s only way to communicate with anyone outside of Klar was through the Alliance. What were they going to do, share the information with enemies in the upper realms? They might try to befriend them, but Bear Hug had a whole other realm to get through first. Unless they tried to ascend, but Assimilation seemed much more fitting. Maybe Liberty, though.

“The wings look stiff. How do they flap?”

“They don’t,” Anton said. “They’re just there to stabilize it. The engines provide thrust through releasing material.” And more complicated mechanics that he didn’t understand. Using combustion fuel to generate thrust was more of a backup, emergency thing. But since a pure tech ship couldn’t simply store energy, it did have to have specific options available.

“So it just gets pushed? What happens when it gets tired? Doesn’t it stop?”

“Space doesn’t have friction,” Anton said. “It will keep going at a constant rate after getting up to speed. It doesn’t require continued energy.”

Except for subspace travel. That was what made these particular ships so special, as Rutera could have made something else based on pure technology long before they came onto the interstellar stage. They just would have been fairly pointless and inefficient. Tech combined with energy was their forte for a reason- they hadn’t had enough energy to get by on pure cultivation, which had ultimately turned into a long term advantage for the Alliance.

“How many people are there here? I feel like it’s at least one- no, two hundred!”

Anton raised an eyebrow. “I feel like you should be able to count more than that. How many are within range, right now?”

“I don’t get a lot of practice with numbers.”

Anton supposed that was true. Bear Hug didn’t need to pay for things or calculate anything. They just sat in the sun in a lake. A wonderful life. Oh, things tried to eat them occasionally so it wasn’t that peaceful. And that relaxing sort of cultivation still required constant work to achieve their strength. “One hundred,” Bear Hug said, circling one group.

“Two hundred. Three hundred. Four hundred. Five hundred. Wow! The whole planet must be here.”

“I’m sure I explained that the population of people in Klar is… abnormally low. Or high, if you consider how each of you are unique.”

“So there could be ten hundred?”

“Well, this is a relatively new colony so it only has a few million,” Anton commented.

“That’s ten hundred ten hundreds!” Technically, Bear Hug’s method of numbering wasn’t incorrect. The official method of counting had sort of fallen by the wayside for practical groupings and multipliers of them. The energy language tried to avoid prior knowledge, so a hundred was really just a hundred individual points of energy- generally arranged in a ten by ten square. That often devolved into just the border or two sides, which was much less precision intensive.

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“Try a cube,” Anton said. “This would be a thousand. So this many times this many.” It was only slightly different for Bear Hug to hold a ten times multiplier next to a square, but Anton thought it was better if they got used to comprehending larger numbers as one thing. Maybe.

“That’s a lot,” Bear Hug said. “But this way I only need two groups!”

Was it harder to form two tens and two hundreds? Even if the total number of points was more, the mental block might do that. Eventually, the language would figure out what worked by what people were willing to do. Numbers were just less relevant most of the time.

Anton watched as Bear Hug strode along the street, then suddenly jumped back.

“Ack! Something bit me! Are there land fish here?”

An interesting interaction that Anton hadn’t thought about that much. “It was a void ant.” Anton switched to spoken language. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have let my companion drown your path. They don’t have eyes or normal sensory appendages, though, so they can’t see you.”

“Void ant? Where? I want to meet them!”

“Focus your energy here,” Anton gestured. “Look for what you don’t feel.”

“How do I do that?”

“Hmm. How about when you have a rock in the middle of you? That part isn’t you. It will be kind of like that. Also, your energy might disappear. Be gentle, though, as you could crush younger void ants.”

Bear Hug suddenly stopped. “Why didn’t you tell me that? Did I hurt them?”

“I just meant that more energy isn’t better. What you were doing there was fine.”

Bear Hug leaned closer to the ground, keeping their water and mass pressed back towards Anton. “I think I see them! Hello, void ants. Can they talk?”

“Yes, but you’d have to learn their language. Alternatively, they might have to use a negative language where they eat energy in the patterns you might otherwise see. Which would be a lot of work for most of them to learn.”

If Anton recalled correctly, there were a few that had communicated with Chidi that way. It shouldn't be hard to get access to Crossed Antennae and her royal guard’s records on that. It was a bit of an effort for anyone to learn something like that for a tiny population, but the goal would be more people speaking the language. In theory.

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“Can you talk to them?”

“Yes,” Anton said.

“Tell them I said hi and I want to be friends.”

Anton did that. “She says that she is glad to be friends but has to get back to work now that she knows the path won’t be flooded. Also, look for those markers,” Anton gestured. “That is the area void ants should be traveling, if they are above ground. Or in rather obvious little vehicles.”

Anton hadn’t experienced those much, but they were quite popular in this area. Since he could look pretty much anywhere on the planet, he’d spotted a few void ant vehicles. Most still took underground tunnels for convenience, though. Void ants were very good about intentional infrastructure development, and their tunnels were never big enough to have any geological ramifications if they took any effort to reinforce them.

Bear Hug very carefully bridged themself over the area, avoiding the narrow band by several meters on either side. “I want to talk to so many people. How long do you think it will take to teach everyone here to speak like me? Why don’t you already do this?”

“Everyone else we met at least had ears. Most had some sort of vocalization abilities. Since you can’t naturally detect or produce sound, it will be difficult for you.”

“I can detect sound! It goes wobble wobble wobble.”

“Only if it’s loud enough,” Anton said.

There were many curious onlookers as they walked. Most people had probably never seen self-mobile plants. Even if it was different from a human, the energy in Bear Hug should be obvious enough to everyone. Especially since they were effectively reaching out towards everyone. “Hello, you! And you! Hi!”

Some other portion of the onlookers might have been interested in Anton. This wasn’t a system he had a star in, so they wouldn’t instantly recognize him, but it was hard for the strongest cultivator in the lower realms not to be famous. The only thing that provided some anonymity was that many images of Anton were edited to be particularly flattering, as if he cared about people seeing wrinkles. If he did, he would have done something about it long before.

Anton tried to be approachable, but not everyone was willing. That was probably better than getting swarmed by people, though.

“What species are the small ones? They look very similar to the big ones.”

Anton might not have understood without the clear guidance of Bear Hug’s curious energy. “Those are children. They’re just young humans. It’s going to be pretty much entirely humans and void ants here, unless any Akrysians want to join. But there are just many more humans in the Alliance.”

“Are there the same number of humans and void ants?”

“Not even close. I don’t know how many void ants there are, though.” The main thing Anton knew was that void ants intentionally limited their numbers, breeding only to replace numbers or to fulfill necessary roles, with some leeway. The number was doubtless difficult to comprehend, though.

“Okay. Why are people here, again? They had nice planets elsewhere, didn’t they?”

“That’s true,” Anton agreed. “But we’re here to help allies in the upper realms.”

“Can I see those?”

“Maybe someday, but not with me. I can’t go there.”

“Is it very far? Dangerous?”

“It’s not that it is far. I cultivated a technique that makes all of the energy there want to attack me.”

“Why?”

“Well… it feels like I took something I shouldn’t have.”

“Did you?”

Anton thought for a few moments. “I would have had it. It’s a bit complicated.”

Perhaps if the technique had been developed from the start with the concept of borrowing instead of theft, it would have been more tolerant. However, considering that Everheart came up with it, it was not surprising that he didn’t go for anything less than the most draining method possible.

“So these people are here to help your allies. Can I help?”

“I think they have all of the things they need right now,” Anton said. “Certainly in the cities. Perhaps we can stay for a while and help with energy development outside.”

“Will there be friends there?”

“Not many,” Anton admitted. “But there might be a few.”

“I think this planet is nice. Do you think I should keep some of me here? Is that okay?”

Anton would absolutely give Bear Hug permission to stay literally anywhere they wanted. But some people in the alliance might want a more official status than ‘Anton’s friend’ before Bear Hug became a permanent resident. Though he could probably push that designation pretty far.