Even though Omilaena had figured out the exact location of the acid pits near Yulthens, she obediently went to the planned meeting point instead. They'd been trying so hard with their spycraft, she might as well play along.

Kai met her himself, and he was a sight for sore eyes after so long working with boring crystalliers. It looked like he'd been steadily training, and she absolutely loved the way his E-9 Physique strained within his body. Breaking through to the D rank was going to be difficult on Deadwaste, but at least he'd been pursuing entirely different paths than the ones she knew. Too bad they couldn't discuss Physique and "physique" more intimately.

"Right on time," he said with that easy grin. "How are things back east?"

"Krainuun definitely knows what he's doing," she told him, "which is good, because I don't like handling those details. The group in New Laeneria is getting stronger, especially now that they're spreading their resources around. They're taking in some of the strongest workers from Romastir and giving them moonmelt pills."

"How is Cragrila?"

"I don't know or care which one that is. Regardless, you can trust that most eyes will be on New Laeneria, so they're doing their job as decoy. Krainuun is keeping everything quietly moving in our favor. But all of this means the other city states are being squeezed, and that means they squeeze their workers. It's only a matter of time until something breaks."

"Then we'll have to hope their suffering is worth it." Kai sighed and waved for her to follow. "Come on, I'll show you what we've been working on."

Their work in the acid pits turned out to be more impressive than their spycraft. Omilaena was amused to find groups of aggressively training workers: not many well-rounded warriors among them, but they were a threat now. If they had wanted to fight their way through the thin line of soldiers around the pits, they could have done it easily.

The "acid cultivation" they were developing reminded her a bit of the essence-based techniques she'd seen back on Rosemount. There was deep theory there, subtle differences between flames generated by energy and those summoned out of reality. She wished she had more people to talk to about them, but the only ones knowledgeable enough to understand were too busy with their own work.

A woman named Yurwa was sharp enough to understand, if not educated enough. She was a remarkably attractive woman and Omilaena was surprised that no one had snapped her up yet. It was almost tempting to try something herself, but there was enough tension already. Kai was fucking one of the mine workers and his cultivator companion was jealous about it, which was obvious to anyone who wasn't as emotionally dense as the two of them.

Omilaena hadn't planned to put in too much work, but she was a little impressed with how hard Yurwa was working and the types of techniques her son was trying. So she showed them a few useful tricks and actually put some thought into a method that would strengthen them.

One night she sat alone atop one of the plateaus, focusing on generating a new substance within her syringe. Before she made progress, Kai leapt up to sit beside her. He waited, as if he didn't want to interrupt, but she just waved him on.

"What is it?"

"I just wanted to check what you're working on," he said. "At this stage, we need to decide how long we stay here and when we aim for other objectives."

"Give me a few days to finish this." Omilaena flicked the syringe with one fingernail. "It should give them all a boost."

"You haven't told anyone about this. What are you working on?"

Was he actually interested? Apparently he was. Omilaena settled back and gestured with the syringe. "There's a saying that goes 'the dose makes the poison' - the same substance can heal or kill depending on the concentration. Right now, this acid cultivation is very hard on the meridians of its users. You don't know much about that, but it's relevant to long term training. I'm developing an injection that should help with that."

"I've heard about those from Hanelay." Kai settled into his seat and examined the syringe. "Is this safe?"

"Oh, if you inject it into someone with no acid cultivation, or who's too weak, it will eat them alive from the inside out." She frowned and flicked at the yellow liquid again, noting the chakra motes within. "Well, right now it will do that to anyone, but that's what I need to fix."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"How does it work? I don't know anything about abilities from Rosemount."

"It would take too long to give you the full lecture about that. But think about it this way: just like you can reinforce your body with mana or qi, it's possible to draw actual substances into yourself. They're doing it with acid, which is obviously harmful. I should be able to develop a trial that, while it will hurt like hell, will leave their meridians just acidic enough to use that acid properly in the future."

He nodded and it wasn't just pretending, like some warriors did whenever theory came up. "How far can that go? Are there masters out there... made of fire or something?"

"I don't know about fire, but take steel as an example. There's a path that produces what we call Steel Titans, who draw metal into themselves. Over time their skin becomes tougher, and the best can even become a sort of living metal. Now, steel isn't the toughest of metals, but even their insides change, so they're very resistant to some techniques like soft style martial arts."

"That's fascinating. And what about you, what does it take to gain a Heart of Poison?"

"Well, that's a bit of a story." Omilaena sighed heavily and lowered her eyes. "My father was a poison master, but he needed subjects. So he... used me to test his poisons. If I wanted to eat something sweet, he'd force me to drink poison first. If I wanted to play with my friends, he made me wear shoes with poison needles in them. No matter how much I cried or begged, he would tell me, 'Omilaena, you must make your heart into poison.' When I was ten, he killed my beloved pet-"

Kai listened to her seriously, face filled with compassion, until she pushed him too far. Then his eyes narrowed sharply. "You're lying through your teeth, aren't you?"

"One hundred percent." She grinned at him until he grinned back. "I never knew my father, and I took up poisons because they're lethal. Fighters are always complaining about how they're not fair, but if they have more power than you, not one of them will hold back to make it a 'fair fight.' "

"But it does involve drawing poisons into yourself?" he asked.

"Yes, it's related to what I described earlier. I have two primary capacities, intentionally in two compatible categories. If you really care about the details, we can talk." She pulled a flask from her pack and handed it to him. "Share a drink?"

"Should I?" Kai eyed it skeptically.

"Oh, come on, do you think I'd poison you now, after all this?"

She waited until he took a swig, then took a drink herself. They passed the alcohol back and forth as they discussed theory and advancement. Exactly as planned.

For the most part, she thought his ideas for using the workers were reasonable. He understood that only some of them would develop enough combat skill to be true combatants, while the rest would have to serve as blocks of soldiers, but he also understood that such strategies would eventually fall apart. Clearly he'd had a difficult life, so he defaulted to building up as many strengths as possible, so he would be ready for whatever fate threw at him next.

They only disagreed on one thing: Kai wanted to reduce the output of the acid pits very slowly, keeping Yulthens from realizing anything was wrong. She favored a much more aggressive approach, but decided that it was best not to talk to him about it. Better to just go around him.

So Omilaena agreed, and kept talking, and only flirted a little bit. Once they were done, she left him and went to the other side of the acid pits. Their security was good enough that she couldn't simply push through or do everything herself, but she might have an ally in this.

She found "Hanelay" cultivating in one of the deeper caverns, coincidentally guarding the moonmelt pills and their other most valuable supplies. The other woman looked up at her with a neutral expression and Omilaena put a finger over her lips.

"I had something I wanted to discuss, just the two of us." She crouched down and found the newest moonmelt pill, then rolled it across her palm. "Kai wants to keep sending these to Yulthens, even though that means they'll be able to make more crystalliers."

"It strengthens our enemy," the other woman said, "but our strength is growing faster. It may be worth it, to keep them in the dark for longer."

"Yes, but I think we could do better." Omilaena reached into her pouch and revealed a pill in her other hand. They looked identical, but the cultivator immediately sat up straighter.

"What is this?"

"Just a little something I was working on back in New Laeneria. These should be virtually indistinguishable from moonmelt pills, and they'll break the 99 Power barrier, but they're tainted. The harm to the Physique and soul won't be obvious at first, but it will add up the more a person cultivates."

The other woman stared at her, expression unreadable. "You want to send these to Yulthens and keep the real ones for our side?"

"I knew you'd catch on." Omilaena smiled at her, then closed her hands over both pills. "But we need someone to keep them straight and make the switch, and I'm not in a position to do that. Now, Kai would object to this plan, because it might harm some young people who just want to be crystalliers, but-"

"We do it." The cultivator seemed slightly annoyed, but her gaze when she picked up the tainted pill was completely serious. "We won't get through this war without collateral damage, and the enemy won't hesitate. Get me the pills and I'll make sure it's done."

Excellent. Omilaena considered pressing further before deciding that a light touch was better in this case. She could soften the other woman little by little, one metaphorical poison at a time.

It took her another week to figure out her methodology. An old woman who had worked in the acid pits her entire life volunteered for the risky first injection, which was slightly charming in a way. But Omilaena had done her work carefully, so there was no harm done. She went on to inject Yurwa and all the other decent acid cultivators except Gundle, since his body couldn't handle it.

With that, they should be able to handle more acid. She had done her part in arming the peasants and was a bit tired of them.

Fortunately, Kai planned to take her directly to the lair of one of the most dangerous monsters in the entire country. That should be fun.