A loud noise rang out as Durff’s hammer struck the rock wall… but while it was certainly a greater volume than the other miners, he only released a few fist sized chunks. He tried again, managing to break off a larger chunk.

“Hmm,” Durff said, turning to a man who was working nearby. “Are those picks expensive? Can I borrow yours for a minute?”

The man looked to Runa. “Vice head?”

“They’re basically compressed steel,” Runa shrugged. “It doesn’t cost us much to replace them. Go ahead.”

The man handed over his pick, and Durff hefted it. “It’s a bit heavier than it looks,” he commented mostly to himself. He moved back to his position and took another swing- his comments on weight not seeming to limit his swing at all. The pick stuck deep into the rock face. He yanked it free, but didn’t really do much in the way of dropping rock.

“If you aim for some weaker seams, you can chip off bits at a time,” the miner explained. “And if it goes a bit deeper you can sometimes lever it to pull out more.”

“Oh, I see,” Durff nodded. He swung once more, the pick sinking up to its full length again. His muscles flexed, and he tore out a chunk of rock the size of his torso as he levered the pick.

“... Usually it’s not quite that deep,” the other man commented.

Durff looked at the pickaxe, which was undamaged. “It’s very solid. That’s good.” He then repeated the process several times, pulling down more and more chunks until he couldn’t reach the wall because of the rubble. After that, he stacked up the big chunks of mixed rock and ore, walking over towards the nearest minecart. “Now this is heavy,” he said.

The miner frowned. “... Is it even possible to carry that much without energy?”

“Obviously,” Durff said. He dumped it into the minecart. “You just need special training! I’m nowhere near as good as the best, but my body is pretty strong. It’s a lot more useful than you might think.”

“Oh, I see,” the man said, sounding slightly disappointed at the answer.

Durff didn’t seem to notice. “It’s trickier in an area like this that doesn’t have any energy at all. It’s not just exercise, you know? You have to tell your body, ‘hey, I know you’re not supposed to do this but just work with me’. Though Nthanda explains it better.” Durff stroked his chin. “Want to watch it with me?”

“Watch… what?”

“The explanation on advanced body tempering. I might be able to explain it to you but it would take a lot longer.”

“So you have an image recording of a master? I would gladly see it.”

“Great!” Durff reached down to his waist. “Oh, my storage bag won’t work here. And I bet the video wouldn’t either.” He looked over at Runa. “I’m gonna take this guy out of the mine, okay?”

She narrowed her eyes. “As long as the work remains on schedule.”

“Yeah, I was planning to fight people but I think this seems like a really interesting place,” Durff commented. “So I think I’ll help out here for a while.”

Velvet was thinking about whether Nthanda’s existence should be a secret here. But it might help her friend and get her void ore faster- or at all.

“Can I watch?” Misi asked Durff.

“You’re interesting in trying out advanced body tempering?” Durff asked.

“Well… I guess so. I was thinking of watching what happened to him as his body developed.” Misi shrugged. “I guess there’s no reason I shouldn’t try it out myself though. What’s your name, anyway?” he asked the miner.

“Mundi,” the man replied.

“Do you mind if I inspect your muscles with my energy, once we’re out of here? I’d like to compare everything to the baseline.”

“In exchange for access to techniques? That seems fair.”

“Well, not really. I think Durff would just show you anyway.” Misi wasn’t going to force Durff to negotiate for payment. Though he might do so on his behalf at a later time.

“It’s pretty much the same to me,” Mundi shrugged. “I accept.”

-----

“First they drag off my miners… then they drag off my foremen…” Runa shook her head. “I hope at least one of them actually goes somewhere.”

Velvet grinned. “I’d expect both to help. Unless there’s something about the tech that causes problems with the ore. But the body tempering is well tested.”

“We do prefer workers who have advanced through Spirit Building and doubly refined their bodies, but I hadn’t really expected anyone to go beyond that. That fellow Durff… his body is strong, I suppose, but it should be nothing compared to his energy.”

Velvet shrugged. “It is more though. And it makes sense to him, so that might make him more efficient somehow. Besides, the potential improvements go a lot further than you might think.”

“Right. So about these techniques that Juli is mentioning. Do they actually work without energy?”

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“Absolutely. Also, tech is short for technology. It’s… more or less advanced methods of construction that don’t always rely on energy to provide high level functionality.” It wasn’t that other cultivators had nothing that would fall into the general category of technology- the word could broadly refer even to basic tools- but it was always more practical to make things that functioned with upper energy. Or cultivators could actually use techniques to achieve their results.

It was only useful when there was a certain level of synergy with upper energy, like Rutera had managed, or when you couldn’t use energy for some reason or other. Like when hiding something from cultivators, or when there were energy disturbances. Void ore definitely fell in that latter category.

The Chaotic Conglomeration wasn’t primitive about their extraction operation. The compressed steel in their picks was extra durable. But for various reasons they couldn’t use minecarts all the way in and out. Though that might actually be something they could change.

The extraction operations worked, and though they took time cultivators were willing to accept long projects. No doubt they considered the problem solved and didn’t plan to look any further. What else could they do, without energy?

But a method that was ‘good enough’ wouldn’t get Velvet void ore in the time she was here… and it would reduce the speed at which the Spirit Slicing Sect and their allies were able to actually make use of the voidsteel. She didn’t know if the potential improvements would actually manage to triple the production rates somehow, but her companions were interested in these various projects. If they were doing it for her, she was grateful, and if they were doing it for themselves all the better. Either way, she had no reason to stop them.

-----

Two blades cut through the air- one a curved sword held in two hands, and the other a small dagger. Neither weapon ever touched the other. Instead, the sword traced trails through the surrounding area, and the dagger did its best to stop it.

Runa wasn’t entirely certain what Chidi was doing, but she knew she didn’t want him to accomplish it. She couldn’t clash with his sword with her own weapon, her own weapon was brittle. But she could sever his connection to energy he left lingering. In her other hand, she held a larger blade with which she could menace and parry like a ‘normal’ cultivator. Unlike Velvet, the Spirit Slicing Sect wasn’t focused on using the voidsteel for piercing through defenses in most cases. Instead, disrupting techniques was their forte.

For the first two matches, Runa had actually managed to win. That said, the fact that she had to ‘manage’ to win against the strength of a Life Transformation cultivator while she herself was an Augmentation cultivator was a bit concerning. She took him seriously, and was glad she had or his sword technique might have cut her down regardless of that gap.

But he wasn’t just trying to cut her down. His sword sometimes slashed through empty air and she was certain he had not missed. The fact that it came with a flicker of energy told her all she needed to know, and she was relentless about cutting apart his connection.

That was what she was doing now. But as she cut one final connection… suddenly she felt like she was down in the mines. She could barely comprehend the blade swinging towards her, used to the reaction boost from her energy. The sword rested against her throat, making only the slightest cut- though she would have to repair the collar of her robes.

Then, energy returned.

“What did you do?” Runa asked.

“What makes you think I did anything?” Chidi grinned. He always looked relaxed, with his eyes closed… though she knew that it was for the benefit of others- and because he gained nothing from open eyelids. She wasn’t upset about losing to someone with such a weakness as much as she was not understanding the technique.

“I know you did that.”

“Really? But you’re the one who cut apart my energy,” Chidi pointed out.

“I… well…” she frowned. “That’s technically true. But that doesn’t suddenly wipe out all of the energy in an area.”

“It can,” Chidi said.

“Not accidentally.”

“Technically, that could happen,” Chidi said. “It’s just quite a low probability.”

“How low?” Runa asked.

“Low enough it might not ever have happened to any cultivators,” Chidi shrugged.

She shook her head. “I think they call that sort of thing ‘impossible’.”

“Perhaps,” the man shrugged. She hadn’t really noticed him clean and sheathe his blade, as all of his movements felt so natural.

“Isn’t something like that more difficult on the battlefield?” Runa asked. “With the chaotic energies of many cultivators?”

“Why do you think I want to train there?” Chidi countered. “I’m not going to get better without effort. Though I would prefer to face off against sword cultivators if possible, at least at first.”

“We can definitely arrange that, even with all of you going to the same planet. Well, except those staying here on Renov I suppose.”

-----

Velvet was already off-planet. She intended to start making an impact on Exalted Quadrant cultivators as soon as possible. So here she was, sneaking into a bathing house. The man she was after very much preferred privacy, which was just perfect. Every meter of distance she could get would lower her chances of being discovered.

While she had some intention to assassinate Augmentation cultivators eventually, she would prefer to have a voidsteel blade. Besides, it wasn’t as if she could just run off and kill cultivators in her own stage whenever she wanted. Even if she was confident in winning a fight with one, that didn’t include the rest of the army that would be around them. And she would prefer not to fight.

Walking across water without creating a ripple on its surface was a trivial task, unless one was also trying to hide their use of energy. Then it became much more difficult. Even so, avoiding a disturbance in the water was better than letting it ripple and covering it up with an illusion. Every separate thing she had to compensate was another area she would potentially slip up, leading to early discovery. And she would prefer not to have a fight.

Her target was not the strongest cultivator on the planet, nor the most prominent politically. However, the man was the leader of the local forces of a certain sect, a sect that had two factions on the verge of infighting. A mysterious death, even if it couldn’t be traced back to either of them, would result in jockeying for position. And Velvet did intend to leave behind some ‘traces’.

The man was actually surprisingly alert, even as he bathed. He was smart enough not to simply trust in his guards. Unfortunately, he was too weak. As he fell, Velvet created an illusion of his energy that would last a few minutes. Just in case anyone chose to invade his privacy, she also replicated his body relaxing in place, so that she would not need more than the repetitive movement of breaths.

Then she left a sliver of actual energy, stolen from another cultivator and carefully contained. It wasn’t enough to be obvious, but they should be poring over the area closely. And even if they didn’t find it or believe its authenticity, at least the main goal would still come into play, limiting the effectiveness of the sect members on planet for a while. It wasn’t Velvet’s job to have the maximum body count. Others would be better for that. But she could cause the best disruptions, either by finding information that was kept secret… or removing a key figure or two.

All of that was in the name of making the Exalted Quadrant’s life more difficult shortly after they experienced significant losses in the lower realms. It was unlikely to cause them to collapse or even significantly decline, but keeping them off balance for a while longer was good enough.