Elder Cultivator

Chapter 1046

Once they had settled in somewhat, Velvet returned to the subject of the most immediate concern for her. “How long is the delay for more voidsteel?” A weapon that could cut through energy defenses could not be underestimated, especially since it could also disrupt techniques by severing the connection cultivators had to their energy. They were not perfect weapons, but complemented Velvet’s style.

“Right now?” Runa shook her head. “You’re looking at something like three decades to fulfill obligations to other sects. If you had sent word ahead we might have managed something but…”

“I wouldn’t really want to advertise my arrival,” Velvet shook her head. “Do you need more guards? Are the veins running low?”

“We have enough guards, and the mines aren’t close to depletion. But it’s extremely difficult to mine voidsteel ore, as you know. Since all uses of energy are disrupted, it requires manual extraction. There’s only so much each person can accomplish.”

Velvet sat in contemplation. A single decade was not a terribly long time to wait- considering the duration of the trip, it would be a waste to stay for less than a few years. But thirty years was rather far outside of her plans, as the situation back home could change swiftly. The ultimate goal was to actually reduce potential risk for the Scarlet Alliance, but whether or not they would properly accomplish that goal was unknown.

“That’s certainly a bit longer than I can afford,” Velvet shook her head. “I don’t suppose we could speed that up by helping take back a planet or something?”

“... Do you think your group could actually accomplish that?” Runa frowned. “I suppose there are some that would be greatly influenced by the arrival of an Augmentation cultivator.”

“Don’t forget Chidi. The chances of me defeating him in combat- even knowing his weaknesses- are not terribly high. And Durff…” Velvet shrugged. “He knocked the Citadel of Exalted Light off its home planet by hitting it. The planet, I mean. Too bad Zaur negated its momentum, though.”

“He was there?” Runa asked. “All of the information we have is spotty on that event. Unsurprisingly, the Exalted Quadrant doesn’t want word to get out.”

Velvet nodded. “We had a good team. Durff was held back by his cultivation and equipment, but was still extremely valuable. It’s a shame about Chikere, but at least she cut the planet in half as she went out.”

“Sorry, what?”

“Ah, I suppose that detail wasn’t part of what I shared with you. The Citadel’s core planet is now severed in two, physically and metaphysically. I believe it has made moving around very inconvenient.”

“You mentioned Chikere before. She was one of the best candidates for reaching Domination, right?”

Velvet nodded. “Her skill with the sword was nearly unparalleled. She was also responsible for some of the damage to the Citadel- and thus Zaur. Chidi was her best apprentice.”

“I still don’t understand his cultivation. He sure feels like a Life Transformation.”

“Perhaps you can experience it yourself. Or see him on the battlefield. So about those mines…”

“We don’t currently know of any voidsteel where we could easily ramp up our production, even if you helped secure other planets. Not where the Spirit Slicing Sect would have any say over the production, at least. Though you might be able to influence the Conglomeration if you had major success.”

“We’ll take that into consideration when planning our contributions, then.” Velvet would make some assumptions that the others would help her with her personal goal… but since it shouldn’t conflict with their goals, it wasn’t that unreasonable.

-----

The twins already had some complaints. “Nobody will tell us anything!” Misi grumbled.

“Information is locked down,” Juli confirmed. “Perhaps we should have stayed among the Scarlet Alliance. Vast quantities of information were available.”

Velvet nodded. “I’m sure people will change their minds if you make some contributions. And… you could also exchange some information. You know the secrecy levels of your knowledge, correct?”

“Of course,” Misi said. “That’s the best way to determine if something is worth learning.”

“You can share any formation techniques from the Exalted Quadrant that you’d please,” Velvet said. “Just make sure to get something of equivalent value. In fact, you can share anything except the exclusive methods of the Scarlet Alliance. Like details on our ships or the rerouting formations.”

“What about Everheart related things?” Misi asked. “Like the um… Nighstar sect stuff.”

“Well, possibly,” Velvet said. “Consult me on specific details first. The Exalted Quadrant learning what we know of their own weaknesses wouldn’t be too bad- especially if they don’t know said information came from the Scarlet Alliance- but we don’t know how well they can handle any of Everheart’s most recent wave of formations. It would be better if they struggled as long as possible with them.”

Juli was nodding along. “Okay, what about technology? How much of that can I share?”

“I’m not sure how much they would be interested,” Velvet admitted. “But ships and computers are out. That includes comms. That doesn’t really leave much of interest. Precision machining maybe, but cultivator smiths can replicate that sort of work by hand.”

Juli furrowed her brow. “Chemical production, maybe? For poisons?”

“That can also be done by cultivators. Everything can really.”

“Are we counting weapons on the forbidden list? Like lasers.”

“The facilities require to produce such things would already be a problem,” Velvet shook her head. “The Exalted Quadrant is no doubt dissecting our technology, but it would be better to not give them any insights.”

“So nothing then,” Juli shrugged. “Unless they want gas cars.”

“You know how to make those?” Velvet asked.

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“I read the technical specifications. It should be easy enough.”

“I doubt they want cars,” Velvet admitted. “So, sorry. I don’t think there’s much information along that line that you can pay people with.”

-----

“Do miners use hammers?” Durff asked Velvet pretty much from nowhere. Then again, he wasn’t the sort who tended to do polite greetings and if he changed his style now it would be even weirder.

“I… suppose they might. For some things?” Velvet shook her head. “Though mostly they use picks. Those dig into the stone and pull out chunks.”

“So do they just need people to smash rocks?” Durff asked.

“Well, people need to carry out the ore and uh… the other bits that get in the way. I don’t remember all of the problems they had before but there were a lot of things to manage that you don’t think about normally. You’re talking about voidsteel mining, right?”

“Yeah,” Durff said. “Isn’t it just the same, but without using energy?”

“That makes it not the same at all,” Velvet pointed out. “After all, normally one good Integration cultivator could scoop out an entire vein of ore, skipping the need for tools or building stable tunnels or pretty much everything else. There are tougher materials to mine, but where energy is still functional people have learned to work around those restrictions.”

“Can I see?” Durff asked.

“Sure. I doubt Runa would have trouble getting us permission. As long as we don’t try to walk out with a pile of ore.”

“How big of a pile?”

“Any size of pile,” Velvet said.

“How much do we need, though?” Durff asked. “Daggers are like, this big,” he gestured with his hands. And then just pointed towards one of Velvet’s.

“Somewhere around two tonnes?”

“How much is that?”

“About… a cubic meter of ore.”

“That’s not that much,” Durff said.

“The ore isn’t that dense, though. And that’s all approximate.”

“Okay,” Durff said. “So can we go see it?”

-----

Upon hearing about a trip to the void ore mines, Chidi wanted to come along. “Studying how it negates energy in its natural environment should be highly beneficial,” he explained. “Though I recognize that I will be severely limited in my senses, it shouldn’t be an issue, especially in an enclosed space.”

“I don’t see any reason we couldn’t have one more,” Velvet agreed. But of course, just like everything else there wouldn’t be only one more.

Misi and Juli wanted to see and study the mines. And with them coming, it seemed rude not to invite Yuval and Jyotsana as well. So the entire expedition force was now heading down into the mines.

“This is quite deep,” Misi commented. “A proper elevator would be extremely valuable.”

“What’s wrong with the ones we have?” Runa asked.

“First, they don’t carry people. Second, they’re… basically just dumbwaiters.”

“It’s not like we can do much about it,” Runa said. “Given the requirements.”

“How do purity birds work?” Chidi asked, continuing down the ladder at the same pace as everyone else. “I have a friend who would be quite interested.”

“You don’t have any where you’re from?” Runa asked.

“We tend to have access to energy,” Chidi replied. “So if they exist, they weren’t seen as relevant. I wonder how they can process toxins without energy.”

“I don’t know,” Runa admitted. “But I can get you some to study. They’re not the limiting factor in our operations.”

When they reached the depths of the mines, everyone was sweating. That included Durff, though his wasn’t so much from exertion as from his armor.

“You should take that stuff off,” Velvet pointed out. “It’s unlikely we’ll get attacked here.”

“I can’t,” Durff replied.

“Sure you can. You just- oh, yeah.”

His armor was, essentially, a fluid that had solidified around him. The good news was that it stayed solid without energy- and the joints functional- the bad news was that it was difficult for him to drink water. But he wasn’t sweating particularly more than the rest of them, despite his circumstances.

“All the mining is done by hand?” Juli asked.

“How else would it be done?” Runa countered.

“... Explosives?” Juli commented.

“No energy,” Runa pointed out.

“There are plenty that don’t use energy,” Juli pointed out.

Velvet had a proper answer for that. “Thermal shock can destabilize the ore. So they might have tried it. That’s also the reason that there’s so much ladder and elevator swapping, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Runa nodded. “I hadn’t thought about the explosives, but the mine operators clearly did.”

“You could at least get some proper air conditioning down here,” Juli grumbled. Then she looked over at Velvet. “... Electronics are fine, right?”

Velvet pondered for a few moments. “I suppose. But there are a lot of steps in between-”

“Yeah, I read all of that,” Juli said. “Also, whoever came up with that Ten Thousand Scrolls is a genius.”

Velvet refrained from mentioning that it was Everheart.

“What are you even talking about?” Runa asked.

“We can create steady temperatures down here,” Juli explained. “And better air quality. You just need some spinning fans, among other things.”

“And how many people does it take to spin those fans all day? Would they block the position of the other workers?”

“None? It could be powered from the surface where you could make an energy conversion generator. Ah, are those off limits?” Juli asked.

“... Probably should be,” Velvet said. “Though it’s not that useful for those who don’t use tech.”

“You can have someone just spin a big turbine at the top to power the rest,” Juli said.

“What sort of materials would we need?”

“... Copper, iron, that sort of stuff,” Juli said. “Nothing you’d consider expensive. Oh, and if you have an airlock you could potentially transport the ore all in a single vertical shaft. Even if you had to sit and wait for temperature changes, it should be more efficient. And-”

Runa shook her head. “I’m going to have to cut you off there. These ideas might be valuable… but I’m not the one who would implement them. You would have to talk to the mine manager, and he could explain the difficulties.”

“If you have any literature on the mines I’d love to read it,” Juli commented. Then her thoughts clearly drifted. “I suppose we might have to worry about the effects of electromagnetism on the ore, but some limited testing should be sufficient to determine the viability of various options.”

“I will get you a meeting as soon as possible,” Runa confirmed. “Here’s the actual miners. We can sit and watch, but best stay over to the side and out of the way.”

“... Can I hit the wall?” Durff asked.

“Don’t cause a cave-in,” Velvet replied.

“It’s unlikely he could,” Runa said. “But… if his insights work without energy, I would be careful regardless.”