Calculating Cultivation

I looked out of the hovercraft at thousands of crystalline spiders. Their webs were impossibly black, drawing in light and my guess, providing the creatures sustenance. Also trapping unwary idiots who passed through their habitat.

The area they inhabited was immense. They clearly had no natural predators but were only constrained by the number of resources available to them. It was hard to make out their pitch-black bodies. It was like I was looking at shadows and not actual creatures. Most of the background light was fairly dim in this area as well, which made me wonder if they were somehow influencing the terrain around their massive nest.

Each of these black crystal spiders had to be at least the size of a large house, possibly larger. Where a cloud of gas was touching their nest in the distance there was a lot of activity there, allowing me to get a better view of the creatures.

They were far too alien and dangerous for me to interact with in any meaningful way. It wasn’t even clear if they had a language or were able to communicate to begin with. I was exceptionally glad that I had taken my time approaching the energy source I had detected from an open direction where I had visibility.

I spent an hour watching the black crystal spiders move about. They were unsettling and amazing at the same time. While the risk of this trip was immense, I was glad to be able to see such a scene. It didn’t grant me any major insights, knowledge, or useful materials, but it was something new, that wasn’t the horror of the Forever City. It was a brand-new horror instead.

Calling the creatures spiders probably wasn’t accurate either, but I had no better description for the hard to see multi-limbed creatures. Once I was done observing them, I set a course away from their nest. Well, the first location had been a complete bust, but hopefully I would find some others.

Twenty seven days after I had reached the next, I detected another energy source and changed directions. The second thing I ran into out here, was a giant twist in space. Gas and other matter was being pulled in and disappearing. Only when there was a large amount of emptiness, that I was on the outer edge of, I saw the gas and other material disappear.

There were some sharp lines as the direction of light was changed. But those lines were quite thin and were changing directions quite rapidly. A natural portal to a lower layer was my best guess at what I was observing. The energy content in the area was slightly higher as well.

I could only stay in the area for a few minutes, since the terrain was rapidly changing and I didn’t want to go through any gas cloud if I could help it. I turned around and began to leave. Seven days out from the twist in space, I picked up another energy source and began making my way in that direction.

A third point of interest, how exciting. Perhaps this was a more active part of the Mechanical Layer. It wasn’t like there was a map, but it did make sense that points of interest would congregate togeather for resource opportunities. Or it could all be a coincidence. The third possibility was that the Forever City cleared out anyone and anything nearby its outposts.

If there was a way to engage in long range detection and mapping, then I could easily see other super organizations marking the outposts of the Forever City as locations to avoid. While cultivators might be hindered by the lack of energy in the environment and from their soul, I didn’t doubt for a moment that the Forever City had a way to respond to any attack.

The fact they had this hover craft and other stuff treated mostly as junk clearly indicated they had much greater resources available to use if needed. Being able to transverse layers and defending those points was a key aspect for being a super organization was my suspicion.

The third energy source was moving about, since the reading fluctuated in strength and direction I had to go in. Since I had a reference point from that spatial twist, it was very easy to tell that it was changing directions and it wasn’t just space being twisty. Since I couldn’t head in a straight line to the spiders or the spatial twist working out what the readings actually was more than just picking a heading.

I turned a large orange gas cloud and then began to slow down. There was a large object in the center and lots of smaller objects moving around it. As I got closer, I saw they were giant metal ships. There was a beep and a blinking light on the control panel for the hover craft, which was labeled communications.

The hover craft couldn’t reach out, but it could be contacted if the other party was using similar equipment. I hit the button. “Klazglar umeti,” a nasally voice said.

“Hello. I am Yuan Zhou and this is my hovercraft,” I replied back. There was a stretch of silence that went on for over a minute. The fact that the communication light was still lit up, showed that we were in communication with each other. I kept watch and didn’t see anything approaching me.

“Do you understand?” a different sounding voice asked. This voice had a deeper tone to it.

“Yes, I understand,” I replied.

“Yuan Zhou of the hover craft, you are in the presence of Holy World Ship. You are to maintain your distance.” Not friendly, that was unfortunate.

“Would you be willing to trade?” I asked.

“At this time, the Holy World Ship will not be engaging with any cultivators. We will defend ourselves if necessary,” the voice replied. Cultivators of the past clearly did not make any friends or a good impression with these beings. That was a shame.

I had been hoping for some kind of trade to get more information at the very least. Since we could communicate, it would have been nice to try and accomplish something like that. “Understood, I will be departing. Watch out for the spatial twist nearby,” I said and turned the hover craft around. I watched the communication light.

“The Holy World Ship is interested in the spatial twist. We are willing to trade for its direction and distance,” they replied. I felt my heart begin to beat slightly faster at this. Clearly their technology was lacking compared to what I had. I had leverage, now the question was, what could I get.

“Is someone speaking, or are you using a translator device?” I asked.

“Translator device,” was the reply. I definitely wanted one of those. The biggest problem was that I had no knowledge of how valuable my information was, what they had available, and the relative value of everything. I was trading completely in the dark with no information.

“I want a translator device and communication device and instructions to how they work and operate in exchange for my information,” I replied. There was also the matter of trust, which would be a bit tricky.

“The translator device is small enough to be traded, with instructions in the language of cultivators. A communication device is much larger and tied in with other functions. Instead we offer, knowledge of the various powers nearby, as well as a waypoint beacon finder.”

“What is a waypoint beacon finder?” I asked.

“Various powers use them to indicate their claim for a region and to act as navigation points. The range is immense, since they operate on a unique spectrum of enemy, that is easily located, but consumed only a small amount of power,” the voice replied. Now that was a really interesting trade. I was probably being scammed, but I needed information so I wasn’t just flying around aimlessly.

The next group I ran into might not be willing to communicate and might be hostile instead. Also, without knowing about these waypoint beacons, then there was no way to know if I was trespassing. “Agreed, how is this trade going to work?” I asked.

“We will send a small vessel to your location. It will release the promised cargo. The main portion of the database will be locked by a code. Once you have provided your information, we will provide you with the code to unlock the database,” the voice replied. That was actually very reasonable. I half expected them to demand I give them the information first.

“I can accept that, agreed.”

“Agreed,” the voice replied.

“While I wait for your vessel to arrive, I am curious. How should I refer to you or your people?” I asked.

“You may refer to us as the Seekers of the Holy World Ship,” came the reply.

“If I may ask, what are you seeking?” I asked out of curiosity and to pass the time.

“Everything. Knowledge, resources, and all other facets that are needed to maintain our existence. Are you from the cultivator faction known as the Heavenly Alliance?” they asked.

“Yes, that was my departure point. Is that a problem?” I asked.

“Very rare to come across a cultivator traveling through the Sea of Collapse,” they replied.

“You mean the Mechanical Layer?” I asked.

“The meanings are similar, but the translation device interprets specific terms differently. It is a minor issue to be aware of. Out understanding of reality, is different than the one you cultivators follow. Do you know if the Heavenly Alliance is moving into an expansionist phase?”

“I don’t know anything about that,” I replied, not wanting to indicate how far down the power and decision making totem pole I was in relation to the Heavenly Alliance and the Forever City. These Seekers probably thought I was a scout or something and that I had the backing of the Heavenly Alliance.

I didn’t want to do anything to convince them otherwise. I wouldn’t lie, but if they made the wrong assumptions, I wouldn’t correct them. I guess that explained the long time of absolutely nothing after leaving the outpost. The Heavenly Alliance had swept through the surrounding areas, taking anything of interest or value.

It would create a large amount of boring buffer space. And for all I knew the outposts had super advanced technology that was hidden away. I could easily see energy being transferred to the outpost for some kind of weapon or scanning system as well. The one thing I absolutely knew for sure about the cultivators running the Heavenly Alliance was that they would exploit any situation to the fullest, with the only exception being personal effort.

Having a super scanning system and then only showing up in that area of the Mechanical Layer once things showed up was exactly what they would do. Those spiders, that spatial twist, and whatever else happened to roll on through would all be harvested. I had gotten clues about that already, but I just hadn’t put it all togeather.

Repeat the process enough times and your neighbors would figure out the borders to that area, or at least know that there was danger there. The person on the other side of the communicator didn’t say anything more as time passed by.

At least my eyesight was still quite sharp. All the changes my cultivation had wrought to my body hadn’t disappeared. Compared to a base human, I would be considered super human by a wide margin. That allowed me to look out the front window and keep an eye on things and spot movement even at great distances. It helped that there was a bright cloud of gas behind the seekers.

If the Astral Plane was a monotonous visual assault, the Mechanical Layer felt like caravans I was exploring. While some people might think space, the empty spaces between the clouds of gas created a cavern like effect. There were no stars or areas of complete darkness. That was why the black crystalline spiders had stood out so much before.

I watched as the Seeker’s metal box moved near me, put out a small crate out of an airlock and then returned to their fleet. There were no windows, lights, or other markings on the outside of their square metal box. The only discernable feature was the airlock, which was it. There weren’t even engines or a forward-facing shape, like the hover craft I was in, which had a clear front, back, bottom, and top.

It only took a little bit of time to move the hovercraft near the box, go outside and get it. I could survive a short period of time without any protective suit. I had one, but didn’t need it. I grabbed the box, closed, back up the hover craft, and was then able to breathe again normally. I had no doubt that these Seekers were watching me and showing weakness would not be a good idea.

The box was about the size of my torso, with a mechanical latch. I opened the box up. There was a pad and a bulky headset with a mask that didn’t fit properly. The headset and mask were the translator system. They ran on some kind of battery power and the Seekers had included replacement batteries as well as a connection device that the recharger could hook into my hovercrafts power supply. That last bit was very surprising.

The last device was a glass sphere with an astrolabe inside. That had to be their waypoint beacon finder. There was a button to turn it on and then colors formed inside the glass sphere. The colors probably tied in with the pad. I turned the waypoint beacon finder off.

Looking more closely the system had been reworked along with the connections. Apparently, they didn’t want to give me any reason to complain. The pad turned on but required a password to access its contents. I returned to the cockpit.

“I am satisfied with the trade. Using our positions as an axis, the spatial twist is about seven days of travel for me in the following direction.” I then listed off the angles using our positions as a reference point. They reoriented their ships, asked for clarification again, and I provided some minor corrections. Once they were happy with my explanations, they gave me the code to the pad.

“Goodbye Cultivator Yuan Zhou. May the Eternal Seeker shine light on your path of knowledge,” they said clearly completing the conversation.

“Thank you for the useful trade, Seekers of the Holy World Ship,” I said. The communication light blinked off. I picked a direction away from them and the spatial twist and left. That was surprisingly civil. But I suppose any long-term group out here that wasn’t power hungry would learn to be respectful and take things slow and carefully while trading. Or it could be my supposed backing and they had given me face by trading with me.

It was a weird interaction. A cultivator would have either been more demanding or more subservient. But the Seekers had been surprisingly passive and agreeable. They probably thought the same about me as well. I didn’t harvest them for resources, enslave them, or make outrageous demands. It was a nice first meeting with any group outside the Heavenly Alliance super organization.

I checked the pad and pulled up the waypoint finder location colors and compared it to the readings from the energy detection astrolabe. The first could be called a super long range sensor, but it was very poor in terms of long range detection. Only the surface of the glass was colored, so it didn’t provide a full three dimensional map.

The brighter the color the closer I was to that faction’s territory. There were patches of dull color, which meant an area that was unclaimed. Regions were more like shifting blobs with how much the terrain was changing out here.

While it wasn’t the most useful of devices, it was far better than nothing. The Seekers had notes about each group as well. If they were open for trade, traveling through their region, and general threat level. I found the Heavenly Alliance. Not open for trade, travel is dangerous, extreme threat level, which matched up with what I had worked out already, but it was good to see my guesses confirmed.

There were also notes about other things they had run across. Nothing on the black crystalline spiders I had seen. I was honestly surprised by how much knowledge they handed over. I looked up the Seekers on the pad. They had included themselves. Isolationist race that believed in their holy mission to spread and preserve knowledge. Willing to conduct low level trades. Extreme threat level when confronted. No set region but had multiple groups traveling about.

I wasn’t so sure about the last one. Just because they liked to seek and spread knowledge didn’t mean they would be above lying. They were a completely alien culture, even more so than the cultivators to my sensibilities. There were no notes on their society or culture either.

My personal guess was that they didn’t mind handing out some minor equipment like they did for me, for information on where to go. Also, they might have known where to go already, but they took sympathy on me and gave me the equivalent of a starter packet in order to create a favorable impression.

Friendly and knowledge seeking, but also very isolationist. For all I knew it could have been some kind of machine intelligence or hive mind. There was no way to tell. Sure, they traveled in metal boxes, but there were no markings on viewports I could see on the one that got close or the large ship in the distance.

I began looking at the other groups near me. The biggest problem was that the waypoint beacons gave out a specific type of energy and there were only so many options like a wavelength. There were only so many colors to display and there was overlap between different groups and their beacons. Some groups changed their beacon settings occasionally, so boarders didn’t overlap if they ran into a neighbor.

Reading between the lines, I realized that regions could be smashed togeather, since many groups were listed as missing. If a small region got sandwiched between two larger regions who wanted to crush them, that was just bad luck.

Only super organizations could hold massive amounts of territory, but even then the boarders were fuzzy or undefined. It also didn’t take me long to realize that almost every group was listed as extreme danger. Clearly the Seekers were telling me to be careful. I didn’t know if I should be touched or annoyed. Couldn’t they have used a numbering or lettering system instead for comparative purposes?

I wanted to find a group willing to trade. I had energy bars I wanted to sell and I had a list of useful items I was attempting to find out here. Unlike the rigid structure of the Forever City, the Mechanical Layer was wild. But the Forever City was a bubble that existed in the Firmament and outside a protected bubble it was much crazier.

Still, that meant there were opportunities to find and trade things. Looking at the colors on the waypoint finder and very carefully comparing them to the pad I had been given, I believed I found a super organization that was open to trade. The Ek, were creatures that hosted a trading and mining platform. They would move about, taking in raw materials, processing them into trade goods, and reselling them. Their main export was large sources of processed metal, and they would consider taking other goods in trade. They also allowed groups to trade between each other as well.

I reoriented the hover craft and began heading in the direction the waypoint finder indicated. Three days of travel and then I came into view of the structure listed on the pad. There was no reading from my energy detector either, which was incredibly surprising.

The station itself was a giant cylinder, with one end sticking into a cloud of gas, sucking it up. The other end had a few super large metal and organic ships. They would dock with the end of the station and then depart. I stayed at a distance, but no one contacted me, and I couldn’t reach out, which was frustrating.

That was why I took the time to observe how operations were being conducted. A smaller craft showed up after a couple of days and went to a side area that opened up and then closed back up. I did the same thing, approaching slowly.

The communicator beeped. I had the clunky head set and mask on. There were a series of clicks coming from the communicator. “Vessel. State. Identity. Purpose.” The translator was monotone and clearly lacked stronger translation functions. Or it could just be how these things spoke.

I came to a stop and then checked the headset to make sure it was in reply mode. It would translate back into the last language that was picked up. “I am Cultivator Yuan Zhou from the Heavenly Alliance, looking to trade.”

After a couple of seconds my headset began to emit a series of clicking sounds. “Agree to rules. No fighting. Trade with no lies. No stealing.”

“I agree with those rules and will abide by them,” I replied.

“You may enter. Opening. Now.” A section of the cylinder ship opened. Geometric shapes were popular for some reason. Perhaps a convergent design philosophy. I carefully brought my hover ship inside and had to turn it to reorient. The wall behind me closed up and I set the hover ship down on a blinking square.

Once that was done, I made sure to suit up, since I had no clue about the environment. The translator headset could fit over my breathing mask. I guess that was why the Seekers gave me a larger version, or did they just guess? I then left the hover ship and the gravity present was twice that of what I was used to.

Looking around there was no one here. There were signs I couldn’t read and other markings. I was wondering if anyone would show up to greet me or talk to me, but no one came. It was a weird situation. There would normally be a customs agent, or someone from the government to ask questions. Like a gate guard.

These Ek just didn’t care, which was incredibly unnerving. This behavior far more than the seekers was completely unnerving. It showed that I was dealing with things that didn’t have human thought processes.

There was circular airlock, I went over to. There was a slowly blinking panel to the side. I tapped the panel and the airlock opened. I then entered and had to hit more panels to close the door behind me and open up the next one.

I was greeted by a large multi-level open area inside the station. There were some creatures moving about in protective suits, but no dark cloaks. There were a lot of very weird body shapes. I noticed a small rat like creature accompanying each of them. A small rat creature that was half my height came over to me. It wasn’t wearing any mask, but had a protective suit on.

It began uttering a series of clicks at me. “Welcome. Ek greets you. Cultivator. I am Ek.”

“Greetings, I am Cultivator Yuan Zhou. Are you Ek or is that your group’s name?” I asked, which was translated back into a series of clicks.

“Knowledge costs. Everything costs. Trade?” Very mercenary, got it.

“I need to know the value of various goods. I have things to trade, but I need to know what they are worth and what you have,” I said.

“Ek can build. Tell us good. We tell you worth. Currency is refined super steel ingots.”

“I need a better translator device. Communications device. I also want to know the price and abilities of any ships you might sell. I have energy bars,” I said. If I was going to trade, I needed more room.

“Cultivator energy bars?” The rodent Ek seemed a bit more animated at the mention of such a trade good. Clearly they were valuable.

“Yes,” I replied. I could sense the greed rolling off the creature. I had one small spatial ring that worked to store goods in and had put in all the valuable items from the hovercraft into it before I left. While I could lock the vehicle up, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Size of bars?” the Rodent asked. I pulled one out of my spatial ring and it stumbled back in surprise. It looked at the bar and then at me. Its body was shaking a bit. How much had cultivators traumatized all their neighbors to get that kind of reaction to a spatial ring?

“This size,” I answered. After half a minute I put the bar away. “Your goods, how much are they?” I saw the greed slowly replace the fear in the creature’s gaze. It was close enough to human that I felt like I could approximate some the tells its body gave off.

“Cultivator energy bars. Five hundred super steel ingots,” Ek said. That felt low. I narrowed my gazed and focused on releasing a small bit of energy into the air around me. “Thousand super steel ingots.”

“A better starting point. But your goods. How much are they? Do you have a list?” I asked and my translator got to work. The Ek began to recite them from memory and I paid attention to what he was saying. Cultivator energy bars were the best source of condensed wealth out here and in high demand. Time to see how much value I could get out of them.