Fingers twitching and slightly curious, she watches as the old white-mana mage bends over the battered body, prodding and probing, a white glow around his fingers. She strides toward the group, grabbing a fidgeting Vox by the shoulder.
“Vox, what’s-” The startled redhead turns, slaps her hands from his shoulder, and lowers himself in a combat stance.
“Tower take me, Rhea…”
“She okay?”
Vox distractedly starts touching Angeta, his hands sparkling with white flashes. “Hmmh, yeah. Eh man, don’t spit on patients, now I’ve got it on my hands. That’s just… Oh, bye Re-Haan!”
Re-Haan walks off, unwilling to get mixed up in whatever that was. She catches up to Valerius, who is still enthusiastically rambling about the pros and cons of a braincore when it comes to his ability to farm. Musing to herself, Re-Haan thinks about what changed for herself and how she aims to use this massive boost in thinking ability she has been cultivating.
Rhea has discovered that she loves thinking. And there is a lot of thinking to do. She had touched on this topic briefly while chatting with Drew, but the difference between knowing a fact and truly understanding that fact is huge. She knows a lot of the information now available to her, accessible through Database, but she doesn’t really understand the majority of it.
Electricity, for example. Her powerful mind had already scanned through the information available on that odd force. Some talk about Watt’s, voltages, and resistances. All the theories and formulas fit together like some grand puzzle, simple but infinitely complex in the way this simplicity fits together. It was an interesting topic she had let a process scan through, reading through a summary with her conscious mind.
That lightning comment Drew made, that was the trigger between the desire to know and the desire to understand. Re-Haan has loads of tests planned and is especially eager to test the interactions between electromagnetism and qi for herself.
“...the walk outside was quite refreshing. I understand why Teach has made the moon now too. Use any qi up there and poof, it’s great training for outside. I’ve been trying to get plants to hold on to their qi up there. So far, only some fruits and nuts manage to keep their power.” Valerius keeps talking, his habit of talking to himself still going strong.
“So, the fibres?” asks Re-Haan. The green-clad mage has been standing there, waving his arms about at the edge of the garden, unmoving while talking up a storm.
“Hah! Yes, this way. I tried to grow a few of the seeds Teach provided at first. One was called ‘Sky Spanning Evergrowth Threads’ or something like that. Terrible stuff. It grew like weeds but had the strength of wet paper. I suspect that the qi levels here are too low for many of the plants Teach brought with him. The ‘Fierce Lions Traversing Shallows’ seeds grew into some sort of mushy paste while the ‘Eight Octagonal Pillar Plant’ kept falling over. I’ve had some success with a strain of local flowering weed. I remember having to pull the things out by their roots because they would choke out the onions. The onions we grew behind the barn so the neighbours wouldn't see, of course.”
Waking from his anecdotal daze, Valerius pales as he sees an irritated Re-Haan staring at him while tapping her foot. The fact that her tapping shakes the ground with every inpatient stomp compliments her scowl nicely.
“Here they are. Only Bord managed to break the rope I made from these plants. It’s really strong and any braincore can make a fine yarn when it's dried.” Valerius turns back to the fields he is showing off, sweat dripping down his back. Small blue flowers adorn a field of otherwise dull weeds.
Re-Haan waves a finger and a purple blade of wind cuts a small bundle of plants free. She sends a small wave of purple power through the weed. The thin green bark is stripped from the stem as the leaves detach one by one. Water drips to the ground as she pulls the fibres from the dried stem. Squinting her eyes in concentration, she directs her qi with her entire mind as she weaves the thin strands into a fine cloth.
“Yeah, this will do fine.” She pulls on the small square of fabric, stretching it but unable to break it. “I’ll hand this off on the moon to see if the qi sticks. For now, begin mass production of this crop.”
“Don't worry about that. I’m growing more fields in the back. The demand for clothes has gone way up since the mutant rain incident.”
Re-Haan is not sure how to react to that, so she just nods and jumps upwards. Shortly after, she lands on the moon. A few figures rush over, one pale thin man begins to talk immediately. “Miss Re! Thank you so much! My wife has been busy with the picture machine plans all morning. Finally, some peace and quiet.”
Again, not totally sure how to react, she falls back on a tactic she has seen Teach use a few times. She nods sagely and makes a question of what she just heard. “Any progress on mass producing those imaging machines?”
Here the pale man falters. “She told me that purchasing them from database was not a good option. The uhm… fotosens… things are too small to make easily. She has a few people trying to recreate them, but from all the swearing I heard, I think they’re having very little success.”
“The other items are being worked on. I read the mission description. Wouldn’t some sort of climbing claws be of more use? I’ve only been to a big city once, though.”
Another person speaks up. “If it’s an infiltration mission, we should make some sort of paralyzing darts.”
A neatly dressed beastkin with slick skin pushes crude glasses up his smooth nose as he waves a finger about. “What if we could become invisible? Spreading qi with a stealth intent won’t work, now that Teach has forbidden inactivated qi usage outside, but there are some formations that we could adapt… not everything need be done through intent, you know.”
“I totally disagree. There are multiple datasets clearly indicating that intent is a more effective usage of provided power.”
“Did you take the restriction into account, you buffoon? Activated qi needs an inactivated carrier, or the efficiency goes down the poop chute!”
“You slimy piece of shit, I’ll throw you down the poop chute! Giving the qi momentum inside the body before expelling it totally eliminates that point and you know it. Don’t talk if you can’t bring any good ideas to the table. Your suggestion for the picture machines was equally terrible!”
“‘Camera’ is a great name, and ‘picture machine’ sounds like a toddler named it. And building the photosensitive plate at a large scale before ripping each molecule apart while keeping the structural integrity will work. I’ve simulated it over a dozen times now! Your furballs have more societal merit than your brain-dead ideas.”
“I’ll skin you alive and roast your legs, you-”
A terrible and sharp feeling of dread, doom, and general unpleasantness silences everyone on the moon. The group of cultivators that rushed towards Re-Haan was already dividing into two camps before they froze like deer caught in headlights. Multiple pulsing veins visible on her forehead, the dragoness in question is tapping her foot again, radiating murder and irritation by the bucketload.
“Are you all...” Her voice is silent, making everyone involuntarily lean forwards. “...DONE WITH YOUR ARGUMENT?” Only for them to nearly fall backwards as Re-Haan shouts her frustration into their faces. Teach had caused her plenty of irritation and frustration over the past few weeks, but never in her life was she ignored by mere lowly and near powerless humanoids like this.
“Why make a complicated machine that takes pictures? Teach put those in his drones because he wanted to automate the mapping process, right, Ket? You guys are just going to record a lot of books, so just record the data in pieces of jade.” Tess’s voice breaks the still scene. All eyes snap to the dark-haired girl who is standing hand in hand with Ket. Suddenly getting self-conscious, she lets go and starts scratching a place that wasn’t itching.
“The qi containment field will wrap around flat objects placed on the skin. I did some tests while you guys were arguing.” Ket’s ring
glows grey as small sparkles are visible on his skin. He puts a coin-shaped piece of dark green jade to his arm. Everyone leans in again as they observe the sparkling field cover the stone.
“You got what you needed?” Ket asks Tess, who nods. “Okay, let’s go.” And they walk off. Ket makes a grab for Tess’ hand, but she avoids it. Re-Haan, slightly curious, uses a bit of qi to follow the two around a building. She senses Tess grab Ket’s hand the moment they are out of sight.
Her mood now slightly better, Re-Haan focusses back on the still-frozen crowd. “Now, I want updates on the quests I put out. Single sentence, keep them concise.” She checks Database and finds the smith that is supposed to be working on her grappling launcher in the crowd. She points at the pale-faced man. “You, go.”
He stares and drops a metal object. “Yes, ma'am! Here is the prototype ma’am. I can make five an hour, more if someone else keeps the fire going, ma'am.”
Nodding with satisfaction, Re-Haan starts her first serious round of management, delegation, and coaching.
⁂
I drop the shovel to the ground and sit down against a tree. Burying all those people was not a physically draining task, but mentally I feel totally spent. The rough bark feels nice against my back as I look across the rows of fresh dirt mounds. Rodrick sticks his own shovel into the grassy ground, burying the blade entirely. I look at him as he pulls a cloth from his pants. “You ready to talk yet?”
Rodrick looks at me, a pondering smile on his furry face. “I was wondering if that was the reason why you singled me out.” The big beastkin keeps cleaning his dirt-covered hands with a piece of dirty cloth, but he’s only smearing the grime around at this point. I snap my fingers, letting my skin vibrate in such a way that the dirt just slides off. Rodrick looks at my hands, shakes his head and also snaps his fingers. The bones in his hand glow slightly and I hear a short hum coming from his hands. He tucks away the dirty cloth with his now clean hands and sits down against a tree near me. I shift a bit, partially facing him.
“It’s...” he starts but falls silent as he looks around. I see rows of graves and skeletal remains of houses and barns reflect in his eyes. “Getting sent to the border is...”
I pull a flask of wine from my ring. It’s a pretty good bottle, to be honest. Something-something Thousand Herbs Shaoxing Yellow Wine, pretty famous. The sect I stole it from was loaded. I pull two pieces of ornamental crockery from my ring and crack the wax seal. I pour Rodrick a cup and take in the scent.
“They were everywhere, so the border was not something you talked about. Ever. Fucking stripes on yellow and white. One mention of the border and off you went, reassigned to some village that’s raided once every ten years at the minimum.”
The thick qi inside the wine is kept contained by the scribbles on the cups, preventing the pungent wine qi from escaping with the alcoholic fumes. The warmth spreading through my body at the first sip is welcome as I try to forget what Rodrick and I just spent a few hours doing.
“It’s always a fight, the Tooth against the people. He will bribe some, kill some, and send away even more. The human king took it as a mantle of powerlessness. The current Tooth uses the Flight’s protection as permission to do what he wants. Has been doing it for years now, long enough for us to forget that he got that position for a reason.”
My mind starts to swim as the alcoholic qi starts to permeate my body. I need to keep my qi perfectly still in order to let it affect me, any movement on my part will cause my heartcore qi to start fighting it. Rodrick takes large gulps of the wine and starts to hiccup softly.
“So, my boss - I was part of a rather influential soldier and guard caste - decides that he won’t willingly escort some people, knowing full well that they will either die or live miserable lives once they arrive at their destination. Next thing I know, he’s bleeding out, five slashes across his neck and we are all being handed promotions.”
The world starts gently spinning as I refill my cup. This is some pretty good shit, I must admit. It has the tart dryness of wine combined with a spicy bitterness. It feels both cooling and causes the slow ramping heat that comes with oil-based capsaicin. Rodrick seems content just talking things out, so I take another drink.
“They split us up perfectly. We were an elite force, small, but highly trained, skilled, and well equipped. One for each village, to ‘increase border security,’ as those fucking scaled, long snouts put it. They knew full well that we fought best in groups, shields overlapping. Splitting us up was a guaranteed way to get rid of us.”
He laughs bitterly while looking around. His face flushes more while he empties his cup. He holds it out to me and I oblige by filing it again.
“And I got knocked out by the first horseman I saw, letting the slaving scum do as they please. The worst part is that I can’t even bring myself to hate those soldiers. That mage, yes. I could have wrung his neck without a speck of guilt, and done it with a smile on my face. Those footmen though, I know exactly how it is for them, having to obey men you lack any respect for.”
Okay, that’s enough whining. The bottle is half empty so I put the large cork back in. A bit of qi turned to pure heat melts the wax, sealing the jar. I put it in my ring and turn to the near-crying, burly beastkin. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
“Do about it?”
“Why do the people on this planet show so goddamn little initiative? People sometimes take their fate into their own hands, sure, but it’s like they're afraid to leave their own little bubbles.” I stop, wondering why this frustrates me so much. “Is there something in the air?”
Rodrick wipes away his drunk tears and turns to me. “It’s the hordes.”
“How?”
“Nothing is permanent. Everything you build outside thick walls will be trampled in a year. The humans are beholden to the mages, who keep their walls whole while defending them. We beastkin are dependent on the few lines that have pure enough Flight blood in their veins to allow for mana control.” His animated speech tapers off as he stares into the distance. We just sit there in silence for a few minutes.
The bit about Flight blood was interesting, but not unexpected. I guess I’m not the first person to get freaky with a dragon.
I’ve been channelling qi to a spot a few kilometres away from here, letting it out into the open slowly. One of my drones is flying overhead, and Database just informed me of movement. The large horde that has been bothering me for a while now is moving towards the qi contamination, not towards me, the source of the qi. Good to know.
I pull the power back in but the horde keeps going. I flare some qi on another spot a few kilometres away, but the horde keeps on going straight. Only a minute later do they slowly correct their course to the new location.
I feel the ground starting to rumble slightly, so I stand up. The big guy unsteadily comes to his feet. “Let’s go. I’m sure that little green-skinned thing is worried about you.”
He snorts in laughter and keels over. I raise an eyebrow and look at him, but he just laying there, snoring slightly. Hmm, I should have seen this coming. That wine is strong enough to get me, a foundation realm, buzzed. He drank as much as me, but only has the qi levels of a qi condenser.
I sigh, drag him inside Tree, and toss him towards the only other bone cultivator present. I ignore her complaining about alcohol stink and go towards my little castle. I’m sick of that horde and I need a large fucking sword.
chapter fourteen
Cooling
Lola is miffed. For as long as she has been alive, the big provider of food and scratches has given her loads of attention. That has changed and she is not happy about it. The near hourly petting sessions used to be alternated by periods of her sitting on his shoulder and seeing interesting stuff. Even the blue-haired, small girl and the one with long black hair used to pet her lots. Now the small one is too busy doing stuff to water and the black haired one smells all hot and bothered and is with the metal smelling guy all the time.
Lola used to have loads of worshippers, but people bowing to her while lavishing her with all kinds of foods just isn't the same anymore. The big giver of food took her out for a bit, but then the changing female that’s great for fighting changed into a taller and uglier version of Lola’s glorious self and poof, all of the big guy’s attention was gone again.
Even now, he is totally ignoring her. She is even puffing up her fur using some qi like he taught her to look even more fluffy and cute. Lola ignores the fact that he taught her this technique with only attack or defence in mind, and shifts her red mohawk a bit to the side.
She hops a bit closer, sniffing the items he is playing with. How can those lumps of shiny material be more interesting than herself? He is also holding some warm glowing things that remind her of the nice hot bath at the glowing mountain. Other than that, she sees some blue cold things that he was playing with before. All his attention is focused on these objects, irritating the small bunny to no small end.
That’s when Lola’s instinct kicks in and provides her with an idea. Her mental processes are of similar intelligence to a dog, but her unconscious ability to put together ideas from lots of information is much higher. This instinct now tells her that if the big guy is so interested in orange glowing stuff and blue cold stuff, she should become glowy and blue too.
She has the glowing part done already, the amazing and awesome horn she can form on her forehead has a molten orange core. Now she only needs to also become blue, and she knows just where to do that. Hopping on his shoulder, she begrudgingly brushes her chin against him, marking him as hers. That should warn the changing female to stay away.
She looks at him, wiggling her nose and twitching her left ear just so, to tell him she’ll be back. He looks up from the stupid glowing things he was pressing together and scratches her between the ears.
The Dao of Magic: Book 3: A Western Cultivation Series Page 12