When he was younger, Anton had felt like children grew up too fast. Now that his scale of time was even longer, he almost felt he could watch Izaak growing in real time. Well, perhaps he could if he wanted to tune his senses to such a small scale, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that over a year passed in a blink. Perhaps it would have felt even quicker if he had not been focused on educating Izaak’s family and the people of Mazlerth on various topics.

Now, the young man- more than a boy, given his cultivation- was on the verge of breaking through to the Spirit Building stage. Season after season had bolstered the planet’s natural energy as they began to implement new guidelines, and they were beginning to see fruit. It was nothing astounding yet, but enough for people to begin to feel the changes. That would leave them eager to continue the practice in the future.

“I can’t wait until I’m strong enough to go off on my own,” Izaak commented.

Anton smiled. “Well, you should wait a bit longer still. Your family would miss you.”

In truth, strength wasn’t the issue with the young man, it was a lack of maturity and understanding. Not that he was lacking compared to his peers- he simply hadn’t had the necessary time. Anton wouldn’t want him to be taken advantage of by dubious cultivators. Then again, that was one reason he had recommended Insight as the first of the seven purifications.

“I’d be back to visit, of course,” Izaak commented. “They might not need me every planting season, but our fields have more plentiful natural energy than our neighbors anyway. There might not be many places better for actual cultivation. But I want to go adventuring.”

“Of course,” Anton said. “Who doesn’t? Though I might remind you that there are adventures to be found nearby as well. I could teach you to hunt.” Anton hadn’t given Izaak any weapons training yet- though he had taught him basic martial arts, in case he needed to defend himself. Only once the young man demonstrated proper control of his natural energy, of course.

“You’ll teach me to shoot a bow?” Izaak’s eyes lit up.

“Hunting is more than that. It’s about paying attention to your surroundings, picking a target, and choosing when to attack. You need to learn the signs of dangers, but you also need to learn about the creatures you will be hunting. Some of them are dangerous themselves, but there are other things to consider.”

“Like what?” Izaak asked.

“First, if you catch them… can you bring them back with you? Can your family eat them without the meat spoiling? Certainly, you could dry the meat from a deer and that would last a long time, but it might be better to hunt more rabbits to have fresh meat. But before that, you have to consider the local populations. Especially as a cultivator, you could easily overhunt your local area. And then you would have nothing.”

“I get it,” Izaak said. “Just like we have to make sure the crops get natural energy before we do.”

Anton nodded. “Just like that. At some point, the forests will be bolstered as well, but that will take much longer. Perhaps you could manage them yourself for a while.” This was in part a way to get him to stay near home longer, but Anton never suggested anything without sincerity. He thought it would be good for the lad.

“Okay. When can I learn to hunt?”

“Soon,” Anton said. “Perhaps the beginning of next week.”

-----

Anton found the world quite different when he vastly restricted his energy senses. With merely the power of Spirit Building and an arbitrary distance, he learned just how much his body had improved relatively. Natural energy quickly outpaced the body in Spirit Building, and by Essence Collection the last general increase to the body took place. Anton hadn’t really neglected his body after that, but he hadn’t focused on improving it like Nthanda.

He gained some insight from restricting himself, though he doubted it was anything that would be terribly impactful. Ultimately, on his current path he’d done about the best that could be expected with regards to improving his own effectiveness. For the most part, it just made older memories resurface. Most of them were good.

“See here?” Anton said. “Foxes. Not much use as food, but their pelts are of interest. And like any predators, if they become overpopulated you need to cull their numbers.”

“How do you know if they are overpopulated?” Izaak asked.

‘A good question. Experience, mostly. You need to determine if there are so many that if they eat as usual they would run out of prey. That is actually detrimental to both populations, as the predators end up starving and you end up with fewer than could have otherwise been part of the ecosystem. It’s like if you don’t share food at a meal.”

“... I get really hungry,” Izaak said. “Especially when I was recovering from being sick.”

Anton grinned. “I know you’ve learned from that. Everyone gets a little greedy sometimes. It only becomes a real problem if you keep doing it.”

-----

By the next year, Izaak had learned about each season of hunting. Many animals were born in the spring, but not all of them, and their populations had to be watched year round. Same with the forest as a whole. If there was a blight- hopefully a more natural one that the planet was equipped to handle- that had to be dealt with as soon as possible.

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Izaak reached Spirit Building, and even the twelfth star. He was making progress step by step, turning into a proper young man. Anton hoped for a bright future for him. But he couldn’t stay around forever.

The war… well, it was just beginning to pick up. In addition to a number of skirmishes with their scouts in Trigold territory, there had been some in Shining Cooperative systems- and that included the system containing Mazlerth. Fortunately, they hadn’t gotten close enough to the planet and its moon that Anton had to get involved.

He remained determined to stay out of the war, if possible. Of course, if it started going against them then he would do what he had to- but he didn’t want to minimize the Shining Cooperative’s determination, or be relied on as necessary by any part of the Lower Realms Alliance. Veterans from this war would be necessary for those in the future. He could hope for not too many future wars, but Anton doubted they could ever achieve truly unlimited peace.

But he could at least hope for a long one after the end of the next cycle, where they would hopefully defeat any invaders from the upper realms in a way that would make them hesitant to ever try again.

-----

“I still don’t get why I’m here,” Chidi said to Aconite.

She spoke back in her most comfortable language, full of barks and growls that weren’t as aggressive as they might sound to the uninitiated. “Because these are our allies. And we want to support them.”

“Yeah,” Chidi said. “But that doesn’t explain why I am here. Someone with no eyes who sees everything with energy. Surrounded by void ants, who communicate with humans through sign language. Presumably,” Chidi said. “For all I know we could be alone here.”

“They also use scents and pheromones,” Aconite said. “That’s the better part of their communication with each other.”

“Okay, but I can’t replicate those either,” Chidi pointed out. “Look, I don’t mind if it’s just to keep you company. But I’d like to know that.”

“... I just didn’t think about it that much,” Aconite admitted. “But at least they know how to understand speech.”

“They can learn it,” Chidi replied. “That doesn’t mean they know it automatically. And we’re the first ones here, right? Along with the rest of the crew, obviously.” Chidi frowned. “So is the queen listening right now and I’m making a fool of myself?”

“I don’t think so,” Aconite said. She sniffed. “I don’t smell her. Do you?”

“I don’t know what she’s supposed to smell like,” Chidi said.

-----

Whew. That was close. Crossed Antennae had been about to introduce herself, but then she walked into that whole situation. She had been looking for people to communicate with for a while, but now that they were here she had been nervous. And now it looked like it wouldn’t be as easy as she thought.

What if she could learn to talk? It couldn’t be that hard, making sounds. Sure, she didn’t have lungs or vocal chords but… well, maybe that would be a long term project.

That wolf… seemed nice, but smelled kind of dangerous. A different sort of danger than the man with the sword. Not that dangerous was bad, or her mother and sister and many others would be bad.

Crossed Antennae prepared herself. She should go stand next to the welcome sign. And then she could chomp a bit of energy out of the air. Yes, that would be a good way to draw attention. Ohh, could she write in the air like that? That might be much better than trying to make sound!

But that would have to wait. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself attempting something for the first time in front of guests. Even if they seemed to take forever to arrive.

-----

“It’s a little unsettling,” Chidi admitted after they were properly introduced to the queen. “To me, it looks like part of the world is disappearing when they eat the natural energy. I know it’s not, but… I can barely pick out their presence.”

“You know what void ants smell like now, though,” Aconite pointed out.

“Well, sure,” Chidi said. “But that doesn’t let me know where they are. And they aren’t big enough to hear easily. I guess she did mention I could learn to pick out their location through the lack of… stuff. Though it’s actually more difficult to sense them than a bit of area with the natural energy eaten.”

“Hmm, I suppose that makes sense. One is a clear change, the other is just nothing moving about. More or less,” Aconite conjectured.

“So, aside from you wanting to be here,” Chidi said. “Why are we here? Like, practically.”

“I’m here as a botanical consultant and lupine representative,” Aconite said.

“Ah, makes sense.”

“... Did you not think to ask the entire trip over?”

“I was thinking about swords,” Chidi said.

“Well I can’t really say anything about that,” Aconite admitted. Cultivators would be cultivators, after all. “Anything in particular?”

“A few things. Cutting apart space more efficiently was one thing. Then I thought about ants and swords. I don’t really know if void ants can really make use of cultivator insights? I am aware they can be dangerous beyond the very limited reach of their mandibles, but…” Chidi shrugged. “From what I heard, most of them are good at things because a queen made them that way.”

“With a few glaring exceptions,” Aconite pointed out. “Such as that Sergeant that hangs around Anishka.”

Chidi nodded. “I do remember hearing about that. Maybe Crossed Antennae will know more about these things. Do you think it would be weird to ask her to make some sword inclined ants?”

“Yes,” Aconite said.

“... Oh. I guess it would also be just as weird as ones that poison their mandibles.”

The wolf pawed her face. “Hmm. There are some that would be deadly at a scale they could apply… and ignoring energy defenses… they wouldn’t even risk poisoning themselves because of their chitin.”

“But it would be weird to ask,” Chidi grinned.

“... maybe we should just ask if any of them want to try out things with us. They don’t need to be… special made.”

“Fair enough,” Chidi said. “It does sound kind of weird when you say it like that, anyway.”