Chapter Sixteen: Rainbows and Batteries

“We should have done this sooner so that it did not track us here,” Abra said as Gayhn launched himself toward Selts and unleashed a barrage of Sharpness-empowered blows. The wooden mannequin lit up with a construct aura as it hunkered down with its arms locked in front of it, using wood Chi to mold its form into one that could withstand blows better.

“It is not fighting back,” I said to Abra and Niko. “I suspect that Selts as a spirit not only controls many mannequins but is also intelligent enough to know that this singular unit poses no threat to us, so it is buying time in order to observe our capabilities for when it obstructs us again.”

Before I even finished speaking, Gayhn’s axes cut the wooden puppet apart.

“Likely,” said Gayhn as he kicked the puppet pieces away from each other and watched them carefully, probably worrying that they might reassemble like we’d heard some special beasts could do. “Even with a form more suited toward defense it could only hold on for a few seconds. Their numbers combined with Selts’ ability to learn are definitely our largest obstacles.” Then he turned toward Niko. “What next, oh wise leader?”

Niko ignored his tone and pointed down the hall from where we came.

“There were three doors on the way here, though only two of them are close. You guys decide: loot them or go straight for the earth biodome?”

Without waiting for my or Abra’s input, Gayhn shot down the hall.

“Loot it is,” Niko said as we all followed Gayhn at my pace. In the thirty seconds it took us to reach the closest door Niko peered inside for just a moment before turning to us and saying, “You two loot this one. Moz, come with me, we’ll follow Gayhn. He went to the door farther away. When you ladies are done don’t wait for us, just keep heading for the biodome.”

Just like Gayhn, Niko did not seek our responses before he and Moz sped in the other room’s direction.

“Let us not waste any time, then,” Abra said as she boldly walked into the room with her gauntlets charged. Thankfully no dangers made themselves known and we got to rifling through cabinets and drawers, and we even upturned desks.

“Wow, I did not actually think…”

Beneath one of the desks was a spear whose head gleamed with sparkles. When I picked it up I searched its inscribed circuits for any sense of what it might be able to do, but found that I could not understand anything from it other than it was made from interesting materials. Not only did the metal head sparkle, but the haft absorbed all light that met it, making it look like a hole in reality that nothing could escape.

“Allow me,” Abra said, so I offered her the weapon. She manipulated ambient light Chi with her Luster Speck and formed a weak beam that shot at and was completely absorbed by the haft. She sustained the beam for a handful of seconds before ceasing, and placing her hand on the spot she’d tried burning. “It is cold.” Then she tried imbuing it with light Chi directly from her energy stores. “It will not accept. Perhaps this spear was designed for those who practice darkness paths and fear light paths. It is useless to us, but perhaps valuable to others.”

“Not that it matters, because it belongs to Niko by our agreement,” I said carefully.

To that, Abra sighed. “He does not need this either, Nagorn. His path is that of fire and sharpness. Would you oppose me if I slipped this into a storage bag?”

I frowned at my near same-age aunt. “Of course. Regardless of the deception we were tasked with by the Matriarch in order to foster his appreciation of our Clan, I like acting in good faith. Besides, if we secretly hold on to too many items, he will grow suspicious of our lack of finds and we will lose what little of his trust we already have.”

Abra shrugged. “Valid points. To Niko’s hoard it goes, then.” She still placed the spear in a bag, but I knew she would present it to our ally in time.

Not long after our little discussion we came across three separate bundles of spirit herbs in treasure chests. One in the form of grass, another as one large mushroom, and the third as a piece of pitch-black bark.

“All of them are local and can be used for advancing one’s Race,” I mused with a smile, wondering if Niko’s speculations of this whole ordeal not being a coincidence were true.

“And of different affinities, too. Normally not the best option for the average person, but considering the sheer quantity of Race-advancing medicines he will have to drink, slather on his skin, bathe in, and inhale, it is good for them to balance each other out. He will likely gain no benefits except increasing his upper Attribute limit, but for someone in his position, that is all he needs. It is already a pain to gather only medicines that one is compatible with—it would be absurdly odious for the Human to collect as much as he requires of only fire affinities.”

“Indeed,” I agreed with a nod, before adding, “but the variety of Chi types would be to his advantage if he really does have as many high affinities as he believes, yes?”

Abra gave me a flat look as she finished searching through the drawers of a desk.

“Obviously. But he doesn’t. He is already fortunate enough to be in the position he found himself. What are the odds that he is also a Dao genius? Do not entertain the notion.”

I shrugged. “It is not that improbable a possibility if he comprehended his two Specks as quickly as he did.”

Abra sighed in frustration. “He lied. Simple as that. Knowing he would gain benefits from a Clan willing to forge ties with him early, he lied about his accomplishments, likely gaining both Specks from Dao fruits. From histories of other planets we know that although a few cultivators rise far above their peers thanks to the Attribute Points, techniques, and treasures they earned in the Tutorial—like Niko—those elites ultimately do not keep their stations for long. Geniuses inevitably advance their Daos faster than the old elites can, and unless the Tutorial elites are so depraved as to cripple their Races’ potential by killing the geniuses while they are young, they will be overtaken. Perhaps within the next fifty years Niko will remain an elite amongst his people, or perhaps he will soon die trying to reach higher than his competition. Perhaps he is a genius who will comprehend ten separate Dao Specks within this Quest Realm and will advance them fairly quickly, putting himself on the road to greatness, or perhaps he only has mediocre talent with the blade and fire and will never be able to accomplish any of the lofty goals he has mentioned. Some of those possibilities are far likelier than others, Nagorn, and all that matters is how he helped us unseal this Quest Realm so that we could loot it and hopefully acquire Titles.”

Abra returned to looting the room, making clear with her body language that she did not want to discuss the topic further, which I found a bit disappointing. I didn’t have the best impression of Niko, considering his apparent eagerness to fight us over every disagreement, but I felt he had potential to be better. Of course, I too doubted he was as talented as he suspected, but I hoped he was right. What better for our Clan than for our ally to end up being a genius?

This Quest Realm also seemed suspiciously perfect for his needs. An ancient laboratory full of rooms containing Race-advancing medicines where cultivators of times past studied how to create Dao elixirs? He—and by extension our Gilliam Clan—really lucked out.

Finding no more treasures as we finished digging through the room, we began making our way down the halls toward the earth biodome, having remembered enough of the map that before we came across any unfamiliar paths the men of our party caught up with us.

“We just outran a dozen of Selts’ bodies,” Niko said as they slowed down to match my pace. “We didn’t even get to finish looting the room! But considering the speed with which they chased us I don’t think we have much to worry about. Their attacks felt dangerous, but they were slow.”

“Did you…find anything?” I asked between breaths, because while everyone else was lightly jogging, I was sprinting.

“Race herbs, a stack of talismans, and more Race herbs,” Moz replied, nodding toward Niko, who showed them off for a few seconds before putting them back into his bag. “The System seems to favor our new friend here.”

“What friend?” Gayhn scoffed.

“Give it time,” Niko said with a smile. “Anyway, why were the puppets so underpowered? If the people who built this place were really Tier 3, why are their security bots barely Level 35 in power?”

“What needs to be explained first is that a Tier 3 civilization is not solely inhabited by people that powerful,” Abra said. “I already described earlier how that term simply means the majority of their military force was made up of Tier 3 cultivators, and potentially not even that many because even a single Tier 3 is worth more than a dozen Tier 2s. The vast majority of their people were still Tier 1, like us. The possibility remains that the wooden mannequins are weaker than even us because that is how powerful they needed to be to deal with the problems in this laboratory. However, it could also be the case that the System reduced their might so they would be a challenge for us rather than a death sentence.”

Niko nodded. “That makes sense. I hope it’s the latter, because I’d prefer a challenge designed by the System over real security features at their prime.”

We continued running down similar-looking halls for over half an hour, time during which we discovered many open rooms but only entered a few, given that we were being pursued. In them we found yet more spirit herbs and treasures, to include what looked like a uniform worn by the laboratory staff that was full of Chi circuits, making it a defensive treasure of some kind. Niko excitedly shoved everyone out of the room so he could put on the white and gray coat behind a closed door.

“Is it some kind of protective treasure?” he asked while looking himself over. “Does it make my butt look big?”

“I cannot be sure,” I said, ignoring his strange second question. “You did not think to give me time to look over the circuits inscribed within before you pushed us all away. However, it is at the very least a big improvement over your ordinary clothes.”

Ten minutes later we came across another portal—a circular window in the fabric of reality that connected the hallway to a separate space more cleanly than a mirror could show a reflection.

“Please connect us to water, air, or cold, please connect us to water, air, or cold, please connect us to…” he repeated as we closed the distance. “Fuck. What is that? Poison?”

The air smelled foul as we drew closer to the portal and stopped over fifty paces away from it, unsure if we should proceed.

“Will we die if we get too close? Surely not, right? Or how would the scientists have extracted what they needed from the poison biodome?” Niko asked, his face scrunched up, mirroring mine and Gayhn’s faces. Only Abra and Moz schooled their expressions, outwardly looking undisturbed by the scent that felt like diseased electricity to my nose.

“The scientists may not have done so,” Abra pointed out. “Poison-specialized cultivators could have been hired for that purpose.”

“Niko, could you pass me the talismans you found earlier?” I asked, having remembered seeing a familiar Chi circuit repeatedly inscribed on them.

“Sure thing.” He placed the small treasure box in my outstretched hand.

“Just as I thought,” I said after carefully inspecting the tiny Chi circuits painted onto the thin strips of spirit beast hide. “I know little about crafting talismans, but these certainly share features with an air-purifying array I know how to build. We may not have to double back in search of a different passage toward the earth biodome.”

“Assuming the poisonous air is even that bad,” Niko said as he began walking. Gayhn laughed while Abra facepalmed as we watched the Human close in on the portal until he reached it, stuck his head inside the toxic landscape, and turned back to us. Gayhn’s laughing came to a stop as Niko yelled back, “It’s not…deadly.” Though his expression said otherwise, contorting into a savage grimace.

“No way,” Gayhn said as he sprinted toward Niko, covering the fifty paces in seconds before violently coughing and sprinting back. “How high—“ he coughed some more, “is your Vitality?!”

Niko merely grinned.

After taking a moment to cycle the poison Chi out of his body and soul he began muttering under his breath about how stupid Niko’s Attribute spread was, which I had to agree with. If he had all his points in just two Attributes he would be far more powerful than Grandmother.

“Well, let us test this out,” I said, taking out just a single talisman from the stack and leaving the rest in the box before channeling neutral Chi into the one I removed. Immediately the circuits flared with a talisman aura, and the foul stench disappeared. “Seems I was correct. Let’s go.”

My Clanmates, except Abra, followed. After a few seconds Abra joined us and reported, “Twenty paces is the talisman’s purifying limit.”

We soon made it to the portal and continued past it, not bothering to stop and gawk at the multicolored jungle like Niko had.

“Maybe a poison-related Speck would be nice,” he mused aloud, to which Abra shook her head in disappointment.

“We are not going in there,” Gayhn vowed firmly.

“I can go on my own later, I guess.”

“You can do what you wish with your life.”

Several hours, many looted rooms, and a few breaks so that Niko could recharge his Chi stores later we finally arrived at a wall. The ends of every hall until then had just been where more halls connected, but here was an end to that. Or more specifically, a huge gate made of two metal slabs that locked together in the middle.

[https://i.imgur.com/DxqSdtI.png]

Abra, who was holding the “tablet” as Niko called it, said, “This is the entrance to the earth biodome.”

“If that thing is as tough as the normal doors, we are going to have problems,” Gayhn noted.

“Relax, guys. There’s probably an access panel or lever of some kind on the wall somewhere that opens it. Or there’ll be a key in a room nearby that unlocks it.”

We crossed the rest of the distance to the huge door and within seconds found something on the right wall, next to a closed door. Beneath a thin hole was a red button, which Niko pressed.

“There is no security personnel available to receive you at the moment. To verify your qualification to enter the earth biodome, please insert the appropriate identification. If you are an intruder please make your way to the exit, or be terminated,” a familiar dull voice sounded from the wall, pronouncing each syllable in a very annoying fashion.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Niko groaned for a moment before holding down the button instead of pressing it once. In a grating, high-pitch voice he said, “A group of hostile intruders assaulted me and stole my identification! I managed to escape them, but they will catch up to me if you don’t open the door and let me in!”

He released the button and crossed his fingers, muttering, “Please be stupid please be stupid please be stupid…”

Ten seconds later Selts repeated, “If you are an intruder please make your way to the exit, or be terminated.”

“Well that was a bust,” Niko sighed, then yawned. “Don’t tell me we came all this way for nothing when we should have been looking for portals?”

He looked between us for our input while I wondered how he knew to hold down the button for Selts to hear him. Could this laboratory have been constructed similarly to other structures from his home planet? It was certainly not like anything from the descriptions of Brugen I was told growing up.

“This gate might have been built so large because beasts of massive size were transported through it,” Moz said. “On the assumption that a small door was also installed so as to allow people through without the effort of opening that gate every time, I imagine it would be this door here.”

Moz gestured toward the regular-looking door beside the access panel.

“What you are suggesting,” Gayhn grumbled, “is that I hack through this fully sealed door when gaining entry through the last one, which was already partially open, took near ten minutes?”

Moz shrugged. “If you are volunteering, then I can only step aside and leave you to your work.”

Gayhn held the other man’s gaze for a few moments before lumbering over to the door, axes in hands, and saying, “You all better find a Dao elixir or better axes for me while I labor tirelessly.”

When his axes began screeching against what was hopefully the barrier between us and the earth biodome, the rest of us departed to investigate the other doors of this hall. To our surprise, a single door that appeared locked like all the others at first glance opened at just a nudge from Moz.

“Shall we, Abra?” he boldly invited his star to loot the room with him, and she accepted.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Guess we can’t assume that they’re all locked, then,” Niko said before flashing from door to door, wiggling door handles at an enviable pace that surely wasn’t even the most he could physically manage, since his Level 1 soul did not provide him with sufficient reaction time to perform tasks other than running at his fastest speed.

It was a few minutes until we’d checked all the doors of the hall and moved to another, in which I immediately found an unlocked door.

“Niko!” I shouted, and he appeared by my side.

“What luck you have,” he said with a smile. “I checked 85% of the doors and you still found an open one before I did.”

“A pointless place to have good fortune,” I countered, “since we were bound to find one anyway. I’d prefer luck in my Dao comprehension. Is it true you attained the Sharpness Speck in half an hour without the assistance of a fruit?”

Gazing unflinchingly into my eyes, he said, “Not only that, but long after the fire Dao fruit’s effects ended I studied a campfire for ten minutes to begin seeing fire Chi and in the process gained the Kindling Speck. I know it sounds like male cow feces in order to make myself sound more valuable to your Clan than I already am, but it’s the truth. You four will believe me when I comprehend more Specks in this Quest Realm.”

Unable to tell whether the Human was simply gilding his image I broke eye contact and led the way into the small room, which looked distinctly different to the others I’d seen. Instead of being populated by desks with what Niko called “computers”—which to my people was the profession of those who computed numbers for scientific research—most of the desks sat against the room’s walls as well as against a thick beam in the room’s center. Above some desks were kitchen hoods and above others were powerful lights, which I could tell from the circuits lining them. Between some desks were pill cauldrons and liquid vats, and all the desks were covered in chemistry equipment I neither recognized nor understood. Against the walls were various pieces of equipment that were likely kinds of measuring devices, but for what, I had no idea.

[https://i.imgur.com/bRuBpYs.png]

“I think we found one of the places used to synthesize elixirs,” Niko whispered in awe from behind me.

“I have eyes,” I retorted, also in awe.

“Sorry,” he apologized as he stepped past me and began poking things.

“What I said is true, but it is fine. It was a joke.”

We began carefully searching the room, fearful of destroying anything or making a mess. I quickly found a deep drawer packed to the brim with spiritual herbs of all kinds, and I hissed through my teeth in surprise. The drawer’s contents would be worth a tiny fortune in Yayger—a small family could live frugally for some years after selling them.

Before I could call Niko over he asked, “You have an earth Dao, right?”

“Correct.” Specifically, I had the Soil Speck.

“So you can sense earth Chi like I can sense sharpness and fire?”

Understanding the direction he was going, I said, “Yes, and there is a vat beneath one of the work stations containing something full of earth Chi, which I was going to point out only after searching the rest of the room for more accessible treasures.”

He nodded. “Awesome. Well, I can faintly sense fire Chi beneath one of those cauldrons, so does that mean it’s currently active? Is that normal? Do you sense other active—”

Hissing through my teeth again—this time in fear—I rushed over to the cauldron he pointed at before locating the control board of the device that had apparently been active for a long time. Normally one did not have to worry about cauldrons accidentally being heated without anyone present because often there was no device to heat it—they were only used by fire practitioners, who controlled everything through techniques. It turned out that the people who built this laboratory had gone through the trouble of putting down heating systems for the cauldrons so that anyone with the related education could prepare medicines and elixirs…which was suspiciously useful for our needs.

Turning the device off was important because had Niko or I spilled something that would only react to great heat, we might have been in trouble. Or if the cauldron and its heating device were powerful enough, anyone incapable of sensing fire Chi might have brushed past it and had a part of themselves incinerated—a ring of Chi circuits surrounded the equipment to prevent active aura leakage and consequently people without a fire Dao could not sense whether it was active. Normally the ambient Chi within an apothecary’s work space was carefully balanced so as to not cause undue reactions in spirit herbs or medicines.

“By no means are you to drop anything in or near this cauldron, or even touch it yourself,” I warned the Human.

“But you got very close,” he pointed out.

“And did not touch it directly, only its control board. I am sure you understand why, by now.”

He nodded.

“Anyway, you best store all these herbs I found.”

“Oh?”

Niko’s face lit up when I opened the drawer.

“Damn, this looks like a lot.”

“It is a lot, but probably not for you. This looks like roughly what a normal cultivator would go through over a few years, and depending on the quality of the medicines produced by them, this could be between one and two-fifths of what they need to improve their Race.”

Had the Human’s eyebrows not been attached to his face, they would have hit the ceiling.

“One-FIFTH?” he asked incredulously. “For a NORMAL cultivator? How many will I need?!?”

I shrugged. “Your situation is uncommon—we have heard of similar circumstances, but never in person. I’m sure someone else out there knows, but my Clan’s strength does not even come close to those of many other organizations in our nation. Grandmother did well for herself in the Tutorial, but that was only compared to the normal people who were at risk of dying from even the underpowered local spirit beasts. In comparison to those in the ruling class, she is barely an elite cultivator with a few Titles more than regular cultivators. Her Dao accomplishments stand out, but she has not progressed either of them in over a decade because she and the Elders left the military to live out in the wilderness in peace. You will have to seek out assistance with advancing your Race elsewhere for a while to come, even if we continue discovering good hauls like this one.”

Niko sighed. “Fine. I understand. Well, what do you think about the cauldrons? Can we use them to brew some Race-advancing potions or prepare pills?”

I looked between Niko and the heating systems. “Potentially. I only remember one recipe for one specific paste, and even then I do not have much experience refining medicines, so anything I create is likely to be of poor quality or fail entirely. I think it is the same case for the others.”

Niko held up a leather-bound notebook.

“I only read some of the first page but this seems to have belonged to one of the researchers who worked in this room, so…”

I took the book from him and began skimming the pages, using my more advanced soul to go through its contents faster than the Level 1 Human could.

“Wow,” I said, looking up at him. “You…really are favored by the System.”

“I assume you found something good?” he asked expectantly.

“Suspiciously good. Recipes and descriptions of almost everything in this room and much more. Perhaps this book was created and left here by the System for your convenience, but even through the System’s translation I can tell that the handwriting is sloppy, along with the pages being a little worn.”

Niko merely smiled.

“Well, let’s get to it, because it is immensely fortunate for you that the vat I mentioned is full of an already concocted Race-advancing lotion. Take off your clothing, slather it on your skin, and cultivate like you would to increase your Level, but absorb the lotion instead of ambient Chi.”

“It’s that easy?”

I smirked. “If you can sense earth Chi, then yes, it is that easy. I know you cannot do that at this moment, but if you are the super genius you think you are, then before Gayhn gets through the biodome door surely you can figure it out with my help.”

I imagined Niko would either be a bit offended or purse his lips awkwardly at having to demonstrate his supposed talents, but the young man simply laughed.

“Good good good! An opportunity to further prove my worth,” he said. “Well, let’s begin. Time’s a-wasting for every second we’re just standing around.”

A little confused, I nodded and gestured for him to follow me out of the room and into the hallway.

“I do not know if the measures to keep the ambient aura balanced in that room are still active, so it will likely be easier to do this out here.” We sat down facing each other, and I began gathering and stimulating the ambient earth Chi with my Dao energy as much as I could. Had I chosen an Intelligence-focused spread rather than Strength and Endurance this task would have been far easier, but I made do with what I had.

“I will periodically agitate earth Chi for you to sense before releasing it, giving you a moment to capture the feeling and try to touch on it with your soul. How much do you know about earth? The various forms it can take? Such as the soil, stone, sand—”

“I know plenty,” he said, eyes closed. “No need for guiding my meditation. This will probably only take a few minutes.”

I frowned at his dismissive attitude, wondering whether his confidence was baseless and Moz and Abra would find him meditating here fruitlessly.

‘I’m going to be quite cross if he does not manage to sense earth Chi. He will lose me as an ally entirely if he does not apologize after acting like this. Perhaps he is an adult by Human standards, but he has acted more childish than Gayhn. Though, Gayhn is also an adult… Ugghhh, they’re both man children.’

……

I did not mean to sound rude to Nagorn, but I really didn’t need help with my meditation. I already knew from previous meditation attempts that I could have begun sensing various types of Chis with little effort had I just focused hard enough, but I had held back, considering my high affinities as a social tool to use when I met another Race. Now that time had come, and by proving my talents I would further ingratiate myself with the Goblins.

Eyes closed while surrounded by the agitated earth Chi Nagorn had made visible to me, I pictured myself laying flat on the ground in a field, feeling the dirt against my back.

[https://i.imgur.com/55tXFGX.png]

‘No, this isn’t right. Fields are covered in grass, which represent life, while winds blow overhead, which represent air. Then there’s the sun beating light down on me, for light and heat both. This isn’t specialized enough.’

I quickly changed the image in my mind, finding myself meditating deep within some mountains with a sky overhead that was just a distant dream, because all that surrounded me was stone. My home was stone. Everything was stone.

[https://i.imgur.com/ID9l2Vk.png]

Unfortunately when a minute passed and Nagorn ceased agitating the surrounding earth Chi it blinked out of existence according to my senses. I had hoped to surprise her with super rapid improvement, but even acquiring my fire senses and Dao Speck had taken about ten minutes, so I relaxed and continued imagining myself becoming one with the ground. An ethereal form, melded with stone and dirt and whatever I passed through as the above world shifted rapidly and I changed slowly, as the earth often did.

……

Given that we had departed for the Quest Realm an hour past sundown I grew tired while meditating, and a few times Niko and I exchanged yawns, but I did not allow myself even a moment to rest, using the small periods during which I didn’t stimulate the earth Chi to meditate upon my own Soil Speck. The most effective way to advance one’s Dao was to use it in combat, but it certainly did not hurt to ponder on it silently, either.

“Done.”

Niko’s voice caused me to flinch, and I opened my eyes to find him on his feet stretching.

“In just ten minutes?” I asked. I’d tried making the earth Chi visible for one minute at a time before letting it go inert for another minute. I’d only agitated the earth Chi five times so far.

“Just? I’m kinda surprised I didn’t also comprehend an earth Speck in that time. Maybe despite eating that fire-aligned Dao fruit well before gaining my fire Speck it still played a part in my comprehension. Like, is it possible I gained tiny insights while hallucinating and writhing in pain which made it easier to meditate on fire later?”

I stared at the Human in disbelief for a moment before shaking my head. We did not have time for me to be surprised or perplexed.

“Well, come on, then,” I said, also standing and beckoning Niko to follow me back into the room. “Strip.”

The Human visibly gulped before pointing to the hall and asking, “Can’t you be out there?”

I smirked.

“Taking in Race-advancing medicines generally inhibits your motor functions and sometimes your cognitive ones too, Niko. If anything happens you want an ally nearby, so do not think to consume such medicines during your travels after the Quest Realm.”

Niko stared into my eyes for a long moment before sighing and disrobing with haste such that I was disappointed. I had expected him to do it slowly and nervously, providing me opportunities to tease him, but alas, he soon stood before me completely nude with only a smidge of visible discomfort.

“Why are you now suddenly more comfortable?” I could not help but to ask.

He shrugged and walked past me, placing his heap of undergarments, shoes, facility uniform treasure, and protective jewelry treasures in an out-of-the-way corner.

“I may or may not be using this moment as mental training for when I strip in a situation where the other party wants to see me nude.”

I threw my head back to bark a laugh before regaining myself and returning my attention to the journal.

“The book says the lotion’s energy is to be absorbed through the skin. It seems simple. Apply plenty of the stuff to your skin and cultivate its energy.”

The Human nodded and turned his back to me so he could drag the vat of medicinal lotion out from beneath a desk. I took that moment to thoroughly inspect his form, finding his body aesthetically…suboptimal. Though, his being hairier than most Goblins played no part in that evaluation.

‘Does every Human have a bush surrounding their crotch with the faintest coat of hair lining their legs and ass? I do not dislike it, but it is strange. The hair seems pointless, unlike the fur of the Sedokeit. What I really dislike, however, is the neglect of his muscles. What did he do all day on his home world? He said they were incredibly technologically advanced, but surely there were many jobs requiring form-building labor. He almost looks emaciated! His calves look as though they are made of jelly when he isn’t using them, his ribs show prominently, and there is no definition along his belly or arms. Was he laying down most of his life while refusing to eat? At the very least he should have eaten plenty so that he would have fat to protect his organs and add weight to his blows. Or perhaps there were no environmental pressures forcing him to fight, which I suppose makes sense considering how his movements lack the efficiency that comes with training. But then, how did he perform so well in the Tutorial? Is his entire Race like this?’

So many questions, none of which I felt comfortable asking. Especially in the moment as Niko sat down and began applying handfuls of energy-rich lotion to his body. I smiled at how he struggled to thoroughly apply a layer on his back.

“Allow me,” I said, placing the book down.

“Uhhh, b-but,” he stuttered.

“Every second counts, remember?”

As my hand alighted on Niko’s back I felt him tremble slightly, and he drew breathes quicker.

‘This is fun. He is neither attractive nor alluring, but at the very least he is…exotic. Perhaps if he later proves himself better than he has already demonstrated being—’

“Wait a minute…” he mumbled to himself while looking down, prompting me to look over his shoulder.

For a few seconds Niko stared down at the thick bush on his crotch which obstructed him from putting the Race-advancing medicine directly on his skin. Before I could suggest helping him trim it with a blade, he enforced only his flesh and summoned a flame that cleanly incinerated the hair.

“Next time, ask or consider whether the brew on your skin will react negatively to either enforcement or fire before you do something like that.”

“Oops.”

Soon nearly his entire body was slick with an orange coating of lotion—even his scalp, which he took the time to get to without damaging his hair—and I could tease him no more. I left him to cultivate the lotion’s energy in peace while I stood guard beside the door that we dared not close in case it locked. I did not expect any trouble because Selts’ mannequins were far behind us and we had all only encountered a single beast between us, but caution was still preferable to death.

……

Half of the feelings the Race-advancing lotion produced were indescribable, while the others were mostly hot and itchy. The experience was extremely uncomfortable for my body, but when I closed my eyes and delved into my soul, everything became a smidge clearer. The mysterious energies I could not mentally parse through that I absorbed through my skin merged with not only my physical form, but also my spiritual one. Likely due to my lack of cultivation advancement I could not understand the specifics, but something was slowly changing.

‘And I mean SLOWLY.’

On instinct I could feel that while I was technically absorbing a good amount of Race-advancing medicine, it was nowhere near what I required to reach the next Tier. Only upon emptying half the tub of lotion did I truly gain insight into the idiom “a drop in the ocean”.

It was disheartening, really, but such was the cost of power. I much preferred my biggest problem being I had so many Attribute Points that I needed hundreds of times more resources to advance than most other people, than to be too weak to take my fate into my own hands.

I heard Nagorn yawn behind me, since I’d decided to absorb the medicinal lotion with my back facing her in order to preserve what little dignity I had left. I decided to ease our boredom.

“You lied about the medicine inhibiting my senses and stuff,” I said, confident that the room was not large enough for me to require facing her or raising my voice for her to hear me clearly.

I imagined her perking up as she said, “It is possible that your higher medicine requirements play a part in your lack of suffering.”

I gently shook my head with a chuckle. “No, I’m for sure suffering. I’m all hot and itchy, and my soul feels weird.”

“And yet you can easily hold a conversation,” she retorted with what I hoped was a small smile. “Normally with the pace you are consuming the lotion you would find it difficult even to sit upright, let alone form a constant stream of coherent thoughts irrelevant to your Race cultivation.”

I shrugged, figuring she was watching my back and would see the gesture. “Then I’ll trust your judgment about my personal experience being different. Anyway, you asked about rainbows from my world earlier and I never got to explain the joke to you.”

“Joke?” she asked.

“Yeah, you were confused by my Taste the Rainbow Quest, which is understandable, because its name is a reference to popular culture from my country. It doesn’t refer to literal rainbows.”

“That makes more sense. Although the single Quest I have received in my life before you arrived did not contain such a reference, I have heard of others naming culturally relevant people, places, or mythical figures. For example, Medony’s Disciple is the name of a Quest I heard someone back in Yayger had a decade ago. Medony is a fictional character from a theater play who was known to best her enemies no matter how powerful they were—always through trickery and luck.”

“Huh. Sounds pretty cool. So, the person who received that Quest killed something much stronger than them?”

“They died trying,” Nagorn said matter-of-factly. “Apparently there was a corrupt businessman who had a large role in defrauding their family so their Quest required they murder that man. Ironically the businessman was executed after the Quester’s failed assassination attempt because their death brought the defrauding to light. In a way, they completed the Quest postmortem.”

“That’s…” I held in a laugh. “Yeah, umm, my Quest’s name is not much like that. You see, there was a candy company whose product they marketed by making it come in a variety of colors, so their slogan for the candy was ‘taste the rainbow’, thus telling customers to eat their rainbow-colored candy. A brilliant idea, really. In the case of my Quest, it has so far led me to a fire Dao fruit and is telling me right now to find what is likely an earth-aligned Dao fruit in the earth biodome. Since the Quest has five parts, I have at least five techniques of different elements, the first two parts are about finding Dao fruits, and we’re in an ancient laboratory that was used to study Dao elixirs…”

I gave Nagorn the time to connect the very close dots herself.

“I see. With all that taken into consideration… Yes, I understand your hope of leaving this Quest with four more Dao Specks. Still…”

“I really didn’t lie about gaining my Specks that quickly. Maybe the fire Dao fruit helped a little bit, but at this point I’m going to presume I’m a super genius. I don’t know what your aspirations as a cultivator are, but I foresee a far off future in which I can carry around or destroy planets like ours with minimal effort. Call me crazy, but it seems to be possible, so that’s what I’m aiming for.”

Nagorn went silent for a while, no doubt thinking about how while it might be possible for a cultivator to reach those heights, the chances of any one specific person achieving that was so small it wasn’t worth considering.

We sat in silence for a bit before she asked, “Batteries; you inquired about them earlier?”

“Oh, yeah. I was thinking about how my low-Level Chi density is what will hold me back against higher-Level enemies who have the same stats as me. With such low Chi density I need to pack a lot more energy into my techniques to bring them up to my full power, right? Well, since I can’t Level up lest make my goals harder, I’m gonna need batteries or some other way to refuel on Chi during battle. Those exist, right?”

“Correct. Just as there are many methods of storing electrical energy, there are devices crafted from special materials combined with certain naturally formed crystals that can house our Chi for future use. However—“

“However, they’re expensive as all hell?” I finished her sentence.

“That is just one of the issues with your plan, unfortunately. Chi batteries, much like those for electricity, are too inefficient to be carried. While they can transfer energy quickly, a battery large enough to provide us any use in battle is impractical. Even with the right build and enough Attribute Points to carry it around, the device could simply be attacked by your opponents. And if they are within a spatial storage bag you cannot access their energy.”

My attention was snagged by her comparison to electric batteries, reminding me of the kind of world her people came from.

“How big do you think the electrical batteries my people from Earth have?” I asked her curiously.

“Um, you have mentioned being more technologically advanced, so I imagine that is a trap question. Your batteries could be carried?”

“Yep. Most people had a device called a cellphone in their pockets that allowed them to communicate with anyone else on the planet from almost anywhere. The batteries in those devices are so thin and small that they weighed so little that toddlers could carry them, and they stored enough charge to last a quarter to half a day of active use.”

I could feel Nagorn’s eyes linger on my back for a long moment before she said, “Wow. I wonder if that is the direction my planet’s developments would have gone with enough time.”

“Maybe. Anyway, batteries. They probably exist in the form that I need them, but just not that you’re aware of. Maybe there are some in a big City, or maybe I can only get one as a Quest reward for now because it takes better magical technology to develop them than what our planet has.”

I craned my neck so that I was speaking to the ceiling.

“Right, System? Would be pretty cool to give me a Chi battery as a Quest reward.”

Nagorn chuckled through her nose.

“Mayhaps that would be…cool.”