Elder Cultivator-Chapter 1260

Targeting a vital point on a distortion beast was a tricky proposition. Fortunately, Avram was trained for that particular eventuality. It would have been rather odd to go on a mission brought about by odd distortion beasts and not have the combat specialist be prepared to fight some.

The key was actually quite simple- whatever they were defending was probably important. That meant things they were trying to keep on other layers of reality, or anything with a large concentration of energy that wasn’t trying to obliterate people.

Avram aimed down his scope, focusing on his right eye. He’d lost it when he was young, which was quite a setback for his dreams of being a sniper. Energy senses couldn’t always make up for bodily ones. Of course, losing an eye wasn’t the end of things. It was possible to regrow them in the right conditions… or to replace them with something else. That was what Avram had opted for, an artificial eye that could now ‘see’ into other layers of reality.

That wasn’t truly possible, but it could provide a vague mesh for different layers, scanning through them rapidly to provide a useful enough picture for Avram. Distortion beasts weren’t known for being particularly fast- against cultivators it might have far less utility.

He shot either a heart or a liver. It was difficult to say, because he wouldn’t have called what came out blood. Fortunately, it was far enough away that he wouldn’t have to experience whatever foul miasma the creature survived upon.

Avram picked out shapes that might become threats, even at a distance. Distortion beasts didn’t merely swallow things- they could launch spines or lakefuls of acid or occasionally just balls of untamed energy out of things that might best be called biological cannons. No two were exactly the same, but there were commonalities to be had.

Those most likely to be a danger were taken out first, even as the rest of them continued towards the Starless Sailor. “Mark their locations,” Ivan suggested to Valentin. “We might need to double back and salvage a few of them.”

“Got it,” the system operator confirmed.

Yeter didn’t have anything to say- she was just prepared to defend the ship if they got too close. Her job was to keep the Starless Sailor in the best condition it could be. It never being damaged in the first place was optimal.

Meanwhile, Departs Home sat nearly weightlessly on Avram’s arm as his beam weapon channeled his energy repeatedly towards the oncoming threats. Perhaps she wouldn’t be needed. Though there was no guarantee this would be the only such encounter on their journey.

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When the last foe fell, Avram lowered his weapon, letting out a long breath. For the most part, the lower realms were peaceful. He’d experienced real combat a few times, but always with the knowledge that help was nearby. Here, they were on their own. If someone got hurt, they had to heal themselves. If the ship was damaged, they had to make use of their limited materials or improvise a repair somehow.

A few minutes later, they were moving among the remains of the distortion beasts- they were spread out over a vast distance, and their ship had to change heading and drop out of subspace to reach some of it. A significant expenditure of energy, but they intended to come out ahead.

There had been some recent strides in converting ascension energy- like that within these particular distortion beasts- into natural energy usable by those in the lower realms. They would make use of that to some extent, but they also had systems that could convert matter into energy with a reasonable measure of efficiency. If nothing else, distortion beasts had mass.

Avram began to replenish his personal energy as well as he could.

Ivan was responsible for collecting viable bits of distortion beast to supplement their food and energy production systems. Fortunately Departs Home was with him to help pick out the most energy dense bits. She could also draw energy out to the surface, where it was buried deep within.

The void ants feasted on the energy- they were not concerned that it was ascension energy, as they did not cultivate a single type. Indeed, it was seen as a delicacy for those who were used to natural energy. Void ants seemed to prosper in the upper realms- though at the moment they currently lived in the Little Alliance and nowhere else.

Technically, that was the closest friendly territory now, but they weren’t even particularly close to the upper realms. By certain perspectives, they were ‘above’ the area. Thus the theory that individuals from the upper realms were involved with this plot, whatever the intention was.

Hopefully they could confirm some of those details on this mission. Learning new information about distortion beasts would be good, but heading off future trouble was most important. If anyone was making more distortion beasts with cultivator insights… it could turn into a significant problem.

Ivan was quite glad that the grinder he had turned the nonspecific organic mass he was harvesting into something resembling dirt. It looked and smelled like dirt, contained relevant nutrients, and wouldn’t melt the walls of the ship. He did his best to select for materials that didn’t have any of that, and the rest was filtered out. They were going to need some energy repairs on some of this stuff, however.

At least Yeter would have work. And energy to replenish what she spent. They should ultimately come out near to maximum storage. They could even go slightly over starting capacity, if they were willing to give up a bit of head room. Things were already pretty cramped.

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The crew of the Starless Sailor had started gambling truly irresponsible amounts of their future pay. It was unlikely anyone would actually collect on the debts at the end of the mission, but theoretical stakes helped stave off some of the boredom. They had anywhere between six and twelve more months of travel before they reached their end destination, then they would be turning back around.

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In games that were two parts luck and one part skill, one would have thought that the void ant wouldn’t be winning as consistently as she was. But Departs Home was raking in cash hand over fist, which was embarrassing given she didn’t have either of those things. She could barely even lift the cards.

Accusing her of cheating would be absurd. Conversely, if any of them were to attempt to cheat with energy there was no way it would go unnoticed by her. Sleight of hand might work, if people’s passive senses weren’t far above such things.

Ultimately, however, nobody was going to cheat. They only had four other companions for the foreseeable portions of their lives, and they’d all been selected for compatibility. At least if they were going to cheat it would be in more interesting ways.

There was a loud whir, a clunk, and some banging.

“Sounds like you,” Valentin gestured to Yeter.

She sighed. “I hope that wasn’t important.”

Their parts were built to the highest standards of the Alliance. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t suffer wear and tear after over a year of continuous usage. Furthermore, they couldn’t be enchanted for durability as that required at least a low level ambient energy to function. But they were in a zone that could be considered dead and empty. As long as you didn’t listen to Valentin about the sensors and how there were technically energy levels the ship could sense and technically small bits of matter in the areas they were passing through.

A screw had bounced loose into a fan, and now both were mangled. Yeter had to commandeer the others to help take over the functions of a segment of the ship as she replaced them, placing the broken pieces into a relatively small cabinet of junk that she hadn’t repaired yet. It wasn’t that she was lazy- but to maximize energy efficiency she worked slowly. If they came across another source of energy, she would get them all done at once.

So far, the estimations hadn’t been too far off. They had sufficient spare parts as long as nothing was maliciously damaged, and they rarely came across anything at all. If distortion beasts did appear, they would be sensed from far enough away that Avram could deal with them again. But despite the Alliance’s attempts to be generous with the available parts, they might have underestimated the issues. Certain parts wore down faster than others, beyond what was expected.

Perhaps it was the enclosed system, or some side effect of moving through an energy negative area. The engine was surprisingly robust- without that they’d be trapped, so it kind of had to be- but maintaining a constant spatial distortion for months at a time caused strain in ways that Yeter had never seen before. No doubt a million studies would be done on their mission once they made it back.

If they made it back. The crew was still positive about things, but they knew that there was a significant chance that they would die. There were just too many unknowns- ending with their destination, both in distance and danger level. The chances that there was actually nothing were much smaller than them running into something they weren’t equipped to handle, and the closer they drew to it the more aware they were of the possibility.

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As each day passed by, they wondered if they’d missed something. Perhaps they’d flown right over a cloaked facility a month back. Perhaps their calculations were off by a tenth of a percent, and they just went through entirely the wrong region of space. Maybe their assumptions were wrong and the path of the nest had followed a strange curve by chance.

Then everyone jumped up as their ship suddenly dropped out of subspace and began decelerating, nearly knocking them into the walls. The initial dampeners on the vessel were… less than robust. That took more energy than they could spare.

“Did someone net us?” Avram grabbed his nearest weapon, extending his energy senses.

Valentin scrambled for the computer as at least half a dozen alarms beeped. “Emergency subspace departure… rapid approach of unknown energy signatures. Dammit, shouldn’t we keep moving to avoid them?” His eyes quickly took in the readouts, making use of one of many different information absorption techniques. It took some energy, but it was worth it. “Oh. We were about to run into them. No signs that we’ve been noticed, yet.”

Avram quickly restrained his energy. He shouldn’t have drawn more attention than their ship in motion, but he couldn’t be certain.

Soon enough the Starless Sailor had locked into a matching velocity with what they could only assume was their target. Now the crew was discussing how to approach things. Whether to literally approach or try to scan from where they were. Passive readings were being logged at the moment, all of which filled Valentin with worry. And yet, this was what they were here for.

“There are three nests in the region,” he commented. “It appears they are constrained somehow. There’s just some unusual energy interference that I can’t quite place coming from the facility itself.”

Rather than a ship, it was more like a free floating space station. Probably only a few kilometers across, though their sensors weren’t able to determine exactly at their current distance without using active energy.

Departs Home got everyone’s attention by wrangling some of the local energy. “There is something there that should not be.”

“Aside from a facility that can’t be getting power from anywhere but definitely has it?” Ivan asked. “Sorry. Say what you noticed.” frёewebnoѵēl.com

“I haven’t tasted it personally. Just recordings,” Departs Home explained. “And I don’t know this particular one. However, there is a hidden point of powerful energy within the facility. Domination energy.”

“... Is there a Domination cultivator there?” Yeter asked worriedly.

“Is this an anchor?” Avram asked, having gathered several more weapons and looking suspiciously in the direction of the station.

“I cannot say,” Departs Home admitted. “But I believe an anchor would have a stronger signature. It does not appear to be hiding much… except out to the threshold where our systems suddenly reacted.”

Valentin sighed. “Well, the good news is we were perfectly on target. We’ll have to congratulate everyone who worked to make that happen when we get back. Now what do we do about this?”