Street Cultivation 3: Chapters 13-14 (Patreon)

The world tour is beginning, everybody!

-

Chapter 13: Plasma Ants

Despite the dream, which Rick did his best to push aside, he woke up rested. He had so many memories of the specific techniques used in the defensive events that he actually struggled to find his normal aura. Fortunately, by the time H appeared to spar with him, Rick had mostly mastered himself.

"Are they all like that?" he asked before H could start fighting him. His mentor glanced at him briefly, then shook his head.

"Not at all. Here or in the USA, it's a commercial sporting event, an agreement with local authorities that's intended to earn money. But in Siberia, all but a few days are pure combat events. There, the biggest draws are the double elimination tournaments. In the Nokan Empire, there's more ceremony and a focus on traditional events."

"I see what you mean about me needing more than one event."

"Right now, what you need is to become competent enough to compete at anything." H scowled and cracked his knuckles. "Are we going to fight or not?"

After another afternoon of being battered, Rick ate some more nutrient packs and supplements before settling into his usual routine. Now that he'd gone outside once, however, he found himself thinking about it again. He could easily do some of his exercises and walk, so it might be nice to see the city. Eating something local, or anything other than the nutrient packs, would also be nice. For a moment he considered it, thinking it would likely be extremely inexpensive, but then remembered they were in a rich part of the city. Even street food might not be cheap here.

Still, since the bug had gotten into his system, Rick decided to head out to the roof for his meditation. He'd only heard a helicopter land outside once or twice in the time they were there, so he assumed it would be relatively peaceful. Sure enough, he found the roof empty. After enjoying the view and the setting sun, Rick sat down to begin his usual routine.

It went well enough at first, the sunlight and breeze providing a refreshing change of setting. He found his mind wandering, reprimanded himself, then realized that his internal lucrim movements hadn't been even slightly disrupted. That meant it was easier to think while training, which was a good thing, but it left him with a lot of time to fill.

"Hey! Yo, Rick! This way!"

The voice didn't disrupt his training, but it certainly surprised him. Rick glanced around the empty rooftop first and saw no one. Only when he looked further did he spot a figure crouching just over the edge, apparently having climbed up the wall.

Raggest grinned and waved with one arm. "Hey! I wanted to talk to you so I figured I'd just come up. I'll just h-"

He easily pulled himself over the edge... and promptly struck a wall of aura that burst up so quickly it sent him flipping backward. Rick leapt to his feet and rushed to the side, staring down multiple stories to where Raggest had barely grabbed onto a balcony on the opposite building. Though he looked dazed, he managed a vague wave.

"Didn't... see the defenses..."

"There's no need to climb up," Rick called down. "I'll just meet you out front."

Nodding weakly, Raggest began struggling his way down. Rick shook his head, then headed back into his rooms. There was nothing he really needed to do to prepare, so he just used his room key to lock up everything and then headed into the hallway. Though still unfamiliar, it was easy to find the elevator he'd used before, which took him directly down to the hotel lobby.

It was rather nice, but he barely bothered to look at it, more curious about what this was about. Aside from trying to sneak in, Raggest had seemed relaxed, so it was likely nothing urgent. Still, his curiosity was on high alert.

Raggest loitered on the street outside, little worse for the wear despite running straight into the barrier. He saw Rick and smiled broadly. "Hey! It looked like you were doing your usual training, just like me. What do you say we cut out and do something fun instead?"

"Something fun?" Rick glanced around, as if H or Alger were going to swoop down to forbid them. But they were adults and there was nothing stopping them from using their time how they wanted. "I guess you might have been here before, so you know the city?"

"Nah, they all blur together for me. I just remember which Godweight we're officially under, which right now is everybody or the World Sculptor." Raggest hit him on the shoulder and gestured down the street. "Come on, let's go! I heard an amazing rumor I want to check out, and everybody else is too boring to go with me."

After a pause, Rick decided to go and they began walking down the street at a brisk pace. "Who is the 'everybody else' who wouldn't come?"

"All the junior competitors who are participating in this Showdown, of course. Looks like your mentor is putting in some extra money to get you up to speed, but they don't spend that much every time. Usually the host city puts us all up in the same hotel. It's pretty cool, just most of them want to hang around and do boring things."

"Yeah, I can imagine. I didn't realize there were so many sports-like events, and no offense to them, but that's not as interesting to me."

"Oh, full offense to them! Play fighting like that is just pointless."

"Your event was cool, though," Rick said. He'd intended to get closer to Raggest to learn more about Alger, but it was actually proving easy to talk to the guy. "I don't think I'm up for it yet, but I could see myself participating later."

"You saw? Yeah, that was awesome! I thought he had me at the end there, but..." Raggest eagerly began talking about the exact details of the event, occasionally pumping a fist in the air.

That proved much easier conversation, because whatever else was different between them, they could easily talk about lucrim. It was interesting to get Raggest's view on the matches from the previous night. His view of fighting was extremely straightforward, but that didn't mean it was inaccurate. There were actually a few nuances to the fight that Rick had completely missed while watching.

As they continued talking, Rick enjoyed finally getting a street-level view of the city. He'd read that most of South Africa's cities had been built in several steps during different eras, with major economic divides between them. Their current neighborhood was extremely upscale and could have been almost any city except for slightly different clothing and appearances.

But when he looked closer, he noticed signs of the nation's past. When they began passing residences, he saw that the gates around them were not merely for privacy: they were reinforced by lucrim and designed to endure a heavy assault. Some of them even had active aura barriers, which must have been incredibly expensive to maintain at all times.

Realizing that he was getting lost in his own thoughts, Rick decided to bring Raggest into them. "I've only been doing a little research on South Africa, so I'm still figuring things out. I've read that some people think the old government is still essentially unchanged, despite the changes to the legislature... what do they call it? Well, the law-making group."

"What?" Raggest stared at him as if he was speaking a different language.

"You know, the South African civil war?" Rick felt as though he was making some sort of massive political blunder and hastened on. "I mean, I don't know very much about it. But there was a big conflict between natives, colonists, and Nokans..."

He trailed off as he saw that Raggest was giving him an utterly blank look. Suddenly the other man shook his head sharply. "Look, I really don't get into politics. It bores the hell out of me."

"Ah. That's fair." In the awkward lull that followed, Rick sought for something else. "I've actually been wanting to go out myself, but I read that I'd get cheated if I tried to pay in lucrim. But if I want to turn dollars into... they're called rand, right? Do you know how to get a good exchange rate?"

"Exchange what?"

As he received another blank look, Rick felt an uneasy realization beginning to dawn on him. He played it off with a smile, but instead of simply enjoying the conversation, he began to feel out the younger man. Like it was a verbal battle, though he told himself that Raggest wasn't his opponent.

Not only did Raggest not care about the exchange rate, he claimed to be unaware of the concept of currencies aside from lucrim or dollars. Rick started to think that he was being mocked, yet the blank looks from the other man seemed so sincere. As Rick turned the conversation in different directions, he began to believe it.

When the subject was training or fighting, Raggest could speak at great length. Other entire disciplines seemed to be entirely empty for him, boring and irrelevant. It turned out that Raggest didn't listen to music and had never read a book that wasn't a training manual. He did watch movies, but only martial arts flicks with a heavy focus on lucrim. Rick thought that surely he must have other hobbies or interests, yet came up empty time and time again.

He knew that some people like that were mocked as lucrim-heads, but he found his attention turning inward. That word had been thrown at him back in school, and it was true to a degree. Before a few months ago, he'd had no idea that the five Peerless were still a relevant part of global politics. Though it was slightly disconcerting to talk to someone like Raggest, he wondered how many people felt that way about him.

Abruptly Raggest's face lit up with anticipation and he swiveled to the side. Rick had been paying less attention to their surroundings, but now saw that there was a park within the city. It was filled with squat trees he thought were called baobabs, but it was still obviously a park, with a few benches and trails near the street and denser areas within. Raggest marched straight into it.

"We're almost here, Rick! I heard that every day at dusk there's an old woman who offers a lucrim challenge to anyone tough enough to endure it!"

"Wait a minute." Rick jogged to catch up with him as they plunged into the mostly empty park. "So when you said we should take a break from normal training, you meant to do other training?"

"I mean, obviously. What else would be worth our time?" Before there was any chance to answer, Raggest hit him on the shoulder and thrust a hand forward. "There she is! Don't screw this up!"

Ahead of them, seated under a particularly thick baobab, was an old woman. For a horrible split second Rick thought it was Granny Whitney, then realized that it was patently obviously not. The woman was dark-skinned and wearing a colorful robe and sash, so clearly it was just past traumas flashing back. In front of her sat a table with a covered dark pot in the center, and little else.

"You two young men look like you're here for the challenge." She had a low voice with an accent Rick could only assume was local. Though she didn't rise when they approached, she smiled up at both of them. "But I will warn you, most fail immediately. Some even risk death."

"We're not afraid!" Raggest reached down to jab at the pot. "What's this challenge?"

"A rite of passage from a certain tribe that shall remain nameless. Through this challenge, young fighters prove themselves to be true warriors... if they can endure the wrath of nature." The old woman uncovered the pot and Rick immediately looked in, only to recoil: the interior was swarming with blue-colored ants. Raggest bent down to peer at them, much closer than Rick wanted to get.

"What are these?"

"Plasma ants, one of the few insects that can use lucrim. Instead of generating aura, they naturally create an ether venom within them. Humans are too large for it to kill... but their venom produces a pain that has reduced many a grown warrior to sobbing."

With deft fingers, the woman slid a stick into the edge, somehow retrieving only a single one of the ants. It ran along the length of her stick, snapping its mandibles as if enraged, but she calmly shifted the stick so that it never reached her fingers.

"For a fee of a mere 100 lucrim, you can test yourself against them. But it would be irresponsible of me to let you try without understanding the pain of their poison. First try a single bite... I must warn you that 90% of all who try give up after one bite. So I insist on receiving payment first."

"Sure, whatever. I've gotta try this!" Raggest pulled a marble from his pocket and dropped it on the table. It looked large enough to hold more than 100 lucrim and the woman snatched it up quickly. But before Raggest could reach out to the branch, Rick stepped in.

"You're really going to just do this?"

"Why not?" Raggest grinned at him. "Don't tell me you're scared of a few ants, are you? This might be our only chance to experience something like this!"

"But you know nothing about her. Just where did you hear this rumor? If someone wanted to assassinate you, do you know how easy it would be for them to set up something like this?"

"They'd be an idiot to assassinate me like this. I'll fight anyone who wants it!" Raggest again tried to reach for the stick, but Rick grabbed his arm. The old woman simply watched them in amusement, happy now that she had received her payment. Rick didn't think it was really an assassination, just that the whole thing might be some sort of scam.

Still, it was obvious that Raggest was going to do it no matter what. Rick decided that it would be safer for him to try first, since his defensive core had adapted to a few venomous snakes in the Refuge. He reached out to take the branch and braced his arm as the ant ran toward his fingers.

As soon as it reached his hand, the ant bit down hard. To his surprise, its tiny mandibles managed to poke through his defensive core, then he felt a stinging flame rush through his entire hand. His arm convulsed on instinct, sending the branch tumbling to the ground. For a moment, Rick's entire world was consumed with the white hot flame of pain coursing up his arm.

When he became aware again, his teeth were grinding against each other painfully. His hand still burned, but less so. He noticed that the old woman had caught the branch before it fell, and that Raggest was looking at him with a smile.

"So you wanted it for yourself, huh? That's the spirit the others are missing! I knew I liked you. Do the ants have enough poison for both of us?"

"Venom," the old woman said. When Raggest stared at her blankly, she sighed and flicked the ant back into the pot. "Plasma ants can bite a great many times. The challenge, of course, is not to be bitten a single time, but to stick your hand into the pot. Once you do, you can shake off the ants. But anyone who cries out from the pain or kills any of the ants is known to be weak."

"That's so badass." Raggest looked like he wanted to plunge his hand into the pot right then, but restrained himself. "You going to do this, Rick?"

Stupid as it seemed, Rick thought that he was. Now that he had experienced the pain, he was fairly confident that it couldn't be fatal. An untrained person might die from the shock of the pain, but though it was a worse sort of burning than he'd felt before, he knew pain. And this might be his only chance to receive the attack of a rare creature like the plasma ants.

So in the end, Rick plunged his hand into the pot. Instantly it was swarmed by ants, viciously biting him from all sides. The pain was nearly as bad as before, but this time he could concentrate through the pain. He let the Dark Blood Kettle rise along with his defensive core, trying to absorb the ether being injected into him. Though it wasn't easy, the ants obligingly helped by injecting yet more.

Rick grimaced, barely avoiding a cry of pain. His defenses had blunted it at first, but now the burning was beginning to penetrate. Dimly he realized that he was supposed to withdraw his hand, but he was so focused on trying to overcome the countless tiny attacks that he kept his hand inside. It was getting worse, and he didn't know how long he could last...

Suddenly his hand was wrenched from the pot, aura sliding down his arm. Rick was nearly blind from the pain, but he realized that there had been a tickling sensation running up his arm as the ants climbed higher. Not wanting to lose her precious insects, the old woman had removed his hand and swept the ants back into the pot.

Staggering away, Rick looked over his now clean hand. It was actually bleeding from some of the bites and his skin was flushed an unhealthy blue. The ache following the burning pain was growing, and he had a feeling that he'd be paying for that decision for a while... but it might have been worth it. His defensive core had very successfully absorbed the venom, so given enough time, he'd be able to defend against any similar attacks.

The woman was giving him a disapproving look, while Raggest whooped. Rick was too delirious to focus much, but he saw that Raggest tried next, practically punching his fist into the jar. He grimaced and growled as if he could intimidate the ants, finally pulling out his arm and shaking them back into the jar.

"The two of you..." She had been calm up to that moment, but now the old woman stared at them with something strange in her eyes. Like shock, but there was something else there. "You're strange foreigners, I can see that. I haven't seen something like that in years... you deserve something special."

"What's that?" Raggest asked. Rick was still busy massaging his hand and didn't really register.

"Just a little gift, something that was once given to the most promising warriors." The woman unrolled part of her sash and unveiled a pair of thin clay vials. "I don't suggest you take these now, not after enduring the plasma ants. But I think the two of you just might be able to make better use of them than this old woman."

With that, she gave them both an odd bow. Then she covered her pot, lifted her table, and began to hobble away, disappearing further into the park. Rick stared after her in disbelief, then realized that Raggest was already unstoppering his vial to drink.

"Raggest! She said not to do that!"

"Yeah, but the ants weren't so bad," he said, though he reluctantly closed the vial. "I suppose it's good to follow the procedures when it comes to training. This is yours, by the way."

Rick automatically took the vial he was handed but didn't let it distract him. "You were really going to just drink something you were given by a complete stranger?"

"Come on, Rick, live a little! Things will work out in the end. If those ants were any indication, I think this will definitely make us stronger."

Though Rick was skeptical, he had to admit that his defensive core had benefited from enduring the plasma ants. Raggest turned around and left the park, the entire trip having been for that sole purpose. Rick followed, marshaling his thoughts before he spoke again.

"At least talk to someone about this," Rick advised. "The potion she gave us could be addictive, or it could cause some illness only she can cure, or a lot of other things. At least figure out what a mysterious liquid is before drinking it."

"You really think a nice old lady like that was evil? Come on, Rick, don't be dumb."

"If you knew... no, that doesn't matter. Do you really make decisions like this all the time? How has that not backfired yet?"

Raggest looked back at him and shook his head. "You might not be a coward, Rick, but you need to be bolder about these things. If you're open to them, good things in life will come to you. If we'd listened to you, we'd never had experienced a great challenge! And even if she had been trying something against us, we'd have found some way to win. If you stay focused on your goal, you'll definitely make it."

Everything Rick had experienced suggested that the exact opposite was true. The world was cruel and unfair, without the slightest sense of justice in how it treated anyone. Yet Raggest was almost his age and somehow had never gotten a bitter lesson in that. Maybe he actually led a blessed life.

Or maybe Rick was just cursed.

"Since we're walking all the way back..." Rick had been planning to wait, but based on that experience, decided to go for it now. "How long have you been working with Alger?"

"Oh, like ten years. He scouted me when I was a teenager, but he didn't accept me right away. No, he made me prove myself first, because he cares whether or not people have the spark. But I beat every challenge he put in my way and exceeded his expectations, so now he's become my mentor."

"Your mentor? You didn't live anywhere near Branton, did you?"

"Admittedly, he wasn't there all that often, but he's given me some great gifts. And he always has the best ideas for training. My main offensive Lucore was designed by him: he said that he'd been waiting for the right person to give it to."

"Huh." Rick stared at the other man, searching for some hint to something he couldn't even name. "Does Alger ever... seem weird to you? Like he has some other motive?"

Raggest looked like the idea had never occurred to him. "What do you mean? He just wants to raise a generation of warriors with more fighting spirit! I mean, if you listened to him, he's clear about that. Do you have something against him? Alger told me that you weren't very cooperative, but he said you had a warrior's spirit. Actually, that's part of why I wanted to become friends."

Alger had practically sent Raggest to become friends? For a moment Rick was the one to stare blankly, trying to figure out what any of this could mean. Logically, Alger might be trying to lure him back under his control indirectly, since his direct requests had been rebuffed. Yet Rick couldn't help but think that he was missing something.

All too soon, they were in front of his hotel again. Raggest flipped his clay vial into the air and cheerfully caught it with one hand. "This was a cool evening, Rick! Man, I want to fight you, but I guess it wouldn't be a good fight yet."

"Yeah, I... have a lot of training to do." And thinking.

"Don't let me interrupt your training! But if you keep competing in the Junior Showdown, we should definitely hang out more often." With that, Raggest turned to go, his jog becoming a sprint that sent him blurring away down the street. There were no high-speed lanes here, cars and pedestrians simply zipping around one another chaotically.

They couldn't match the chaos of Rick trying to sort through his thoughts. It had grown dark and the night was cool, but his body still burned with residual pain. Worse than that, with unanswered questions.

-

Chapter 14: Hasty Preparations

Part of Rick was certain that something would go horribly wrong or he would get into trouble and lose his position. Yet H gave no sign of noticing the absence, and in the morning the swelling on his hand had entirely subsided. Rick was used to recovering quickly, but that surprised him.

Still, he decided that it would be best to be direct with his mentor. H might not want to be personal, but Rick thought he would appreciate being bluntly informed. So when he arrived for their afternoon sparring, Rick explained what had happened and showed him the clay vial.

"This... will need to be examined." H took it to his case of tools and sat down, spilling a drop onto a small plate. As he examined it, Rick shifted his weight nearby.

"So you agree it seems suspicious? It would be a hell of a coincidence, but I wasn't sure..."

"Suspicion is reasonable, but in this case inaccurate." After a strange pause, H set down the vial and shook his head. "I would need more time to analyze it fully, but I can tell that it isn't harmful. It's actually an exceptionally good elixir for improving growth."

"That she just handed out because she was impressed?"

"I don't know the old woman's motives. It may be that Raggest was simply lucky."

Rick thought it was more likely that Alger had discovered the opportunity and sent his protege to acquire it, but held his tongue. There was something a bit unusual about the way H was acting. After a pause, H pulled out a cigarette, started to light it with a finger, then thought better of it.

"This way." H headed out to the roof at a rapid pace, so Rick had no choice but to follow.

Once they arrived, however, there seemed to be no cause for haste. His mentor simply lit his cigarette and took several long drags on it, eyes unfocused on the horizon. Rick remained quiet for a while, then began repeating his exercises. Almost as soon as he'd started, H waved a hand back at him.

"This isn't some nonsense test, boy. I'm just thinking." H took a long drag on his cigarette, and when he spoke, the slow words came along with the smoke. "This vial, the encounter... meaningless coincidence. What matters is that Alger is moving more aggressively again. The timing is... not the best. Things are looking ugly in China for several reasons."

"Looking ugly?" Rick asked quietly. He hadn't heard H talk this way before and he didn't like it.

"If it was up to me, this would all be about the events. Just people at the peak of human achievement showing their skills. But there have always been those who like to play games with the competitions. Alger plays to amuse himself and it would be better to ignore him, but sometimes he gets others involved. This time, he's dragged in some of his rivals."

"That's a lot to deduce from one encounter."

"It wasn't just that." H finally turned just slightly to look at him, exhaling a long stream of smoke. "You need to understand, the immortals are a bit of a clique. They pay more attention to one another than to anyone else. The problem is, the money for your training is ultimately coming from one of them, and he's gotten disgruntled. If Alger is being active, maybe there's a good reason for it."

Rick blinked in surprise. "An immortal? I'm sponsored by an immortal?"

"Only indirectly. Authority is delegated to me, and I chose to take a risk on you. But now... he thinks his honor has been besmirched and he demanded that we throw everything we have toward winning."

"Win what?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'm going to need to leave you in order to talk to him." H abruptly took a deep breath and converted his cigarette to ash, which he inhaled. "Here's what I suspect: when the Showdown heads to China, several immortals including your patron will make a bet. That bet will involve you, and much sooner than I'd intended to put you into a serious conflict."

"I understand." Rick didn't feel like he grasped the deeper conflicts, but the end result was comprehensible. "I can keep working on my instincts and footwork alone. Can you leave me some techniques to practice while you're gone?"

"That's one of the things I've been thinking about. It's too early, but I suppose it's time to give you something special. Come on, this is enough sight-seeing."

They headed back in, this time directly to H's room. He waved a hand and some sort of illusory barrier Rick had never noticed before disappeared, revealing a security safe. Bending down beside it, H inserted both a key and a complex weave of aura too quickly for Rick to catch. It opened briefly enough for H to remove something, then he dismissed all of it just as quickly.

"I thought I was jumping the gun getting these yesterday, but now I'm glad I did." H turned back to him, revealing that he held three crystalline spheres. Though they shimmered strangely and seemed to be made of some sort of ethereal material, all Rick could think was that they were exactly the size of the balls he'd been using to juggle. "These are a weapon. A physical focus for the Lucore you'll be developing. It's too early to give them to you, but I'll have to trust you to be responsible, because I might not be around when you need them."

"I can try to make that decision, but I'll need to understand their actual purpose first." Rick started to reach out for the spheres, but H shook his head.

"Not yet. These are the opposite of the training spheres I gave you: instead of disrupting your lucrima soul and distracting you, they'll reinforce your body and hold technique flows for you. It's a similar principle to the sorts of Lucores that are implanted in people, but these start out empty. It will be up to you to fill them."

That explained why Rick didn't feel any lucrim from them, just ether. Except it wasn't quite ether, either, something that was beyond his pay grade. In any case, that was irrelevant to what he needed now. "So I'm not supposed to use these until I can use aura to juggle the training spheres?"

"And not until you can do it well, while fighting. This isn't a joke. These things are powerful, but they're more fragile than they look. If they resonate the wrong way, on accident or not, they'll shatter. And believe me, I do not want to pay for another set of these."

"But you're giving them to me now... because of what you said about filling them?"

"Exactly." H picked up one of the spheres and raised it to eye level, looking through it. "Right now, these are hollow. The next phase of your training was going to be slowly building Lucores to be hosted inside them, but you're going to have to start now."

"Each one of those will hold a technique?" Rick began to get over the strangeness of it and thought back to their original conversation about training. "Let me guess... is one of them going to be a sensory technique? And another one something for ranged attacks?"

H grunted. "You're not stupid when you try. I have an exact technique in mind to improve your sensory abilities, but there's no time to teach it now. The ranged attacks... I haven't figured that out yet. It would have been easier to do the Midas Foundation, but that ship has sailed. Especially with our time limit."

"What about the third sphere?"

"That one is going to reinforce your greatest strength: your defensive core. Like a secondary Lucore, but instead of interfering, the two will support one another. Eventually this one could replace your original defensive core, but there's no time for that either. Anyway, this is the real reason I'm giving you these. If you want to have one ready, you need to start now."

They sat down and H explained how the process was supposed to work. For the first time he handed Rick one of the crystal spheres: it was slightly cool but generally unremarkable, like it was just a knickknack. Yet the process to use it as a Lucore proved to be surprisingly complex, building on the standard exercises with an entirely new layer of training. Manageable for him, yet it wouldn't have been imaginable several years ago.

"I think I understand the basics." Rick held the sphere carefully, trying to imagine it filling. "Instead of building a Lucore like it's a building, it's like starting with a grain of sand and adding layers of paint until it becomes a sphere."

"That's lazy anthropomorphism, but close enough." H took the sphere back from him and glowered at it, as if he could intimidate the inanimate object. "When the process is finally done, instead of being clear, the sphere will be pure gold. That's one of the reasons this technique is called the Triune Golden Spheres."

"Triune... so the fact that there are three of them isn't just because we need three techniques?"

"No, it's essential to making them work together. When you finally get it, they'll rotate around one another and your aura will just keep them spinning, similar to juggling. Except unlike juggling, you have three and only three. Once you have all three techniques adequately developed, to advance you'll need something more drastic. Perhaps then we'll talk about dissolving some other cores or remaking your foundation."

Rick didn't want to reopen those conversations, but fortunately H was too busy to argue much. Instead he decided to focus on a more immediate question. "I'm not going to be actually juggling these, right? Will I have to be holding them in my pockets or something?"

"If you don't wreck the technique, they'll be inside your soul." H jabbed him in the chest with one finger, then dropped the spheres into his hands. "Think you can handle all this?"

"I understand the technique, but the amount of lucrim that will be required to build a new defensive core layer by layer..."

"I had plans for that too. It may be too early, but you'll just have to tough it out." H walked to the fridge in his room and opened it... to reveal nothing but glass bottles filled with a glowing golden liquid. "This is something you can't talk about, because it's not available to the public. It's a special formulation of elixir and serum called Formula T, and what matters to you is that it's perfectly suited to developing the Triune Golden Spheres."

If it worked similar to philosopher's elixir, Rick was staring at a fortune in lucrim, more than he needed. Yet he had barely begun to formulate questions before H spoke again.

"The problem with this is that it's rough on the body and on the soul. Those supplements I've had you taking? Most of them were just to toughen you enough to take the Formula T. Unfortunately, you're not quite ready. So when you first take it, you'll feel a strange buzz, and there may be a few other side effects. Now, what's absolutely essential is that you always take the exact amount prescribed. Take too much or skip one drink and your progress will suffer for it."

"I... see. Perhaps we'd better go over all the details, then."

H found a sheet and scribbled down a little information, promising to send him a clearer schedule later. It seemed simple enough, just one cup every eight hours, but the fact that this "Formula T" had so many potential risks left Rick nervous. But there was no time to think about that, H was turning to him with a serious expression.

"I need to make arrangements. I won't be available if there's an emergency, so keep to yourself. In two weeks someone - me or somebody else - will come back to get you when the Showdown moves to China. Understand?"

Though Rick wanted to ask about all the other details, H was obviously done talking. "I understand. I'll try to exceed your expectations when we next meet."

"Hmph. You'll have exceeded them if you don't kill yourself somehow." With that, H turned away and began a whirlwind of activity. He didn't seem to need to pack anything, just grabbed a few of his supplies and then dragged the entire invisible safe along with him. Rick stayed out of the way, intending to say farewell, but H stormed out too quickly.

Suddenly he was alone with three crystal spheres, a supply of dangerous elixir, and nothing to do for two weeks but train. Rick found himself smiling.