“Sergeant, could I ask you a question about cultivation?”

  The Sergeant gnced at Volithur and gave a curt nod. “I think you have earned the right to impose on my time. Your improvements have not gone unnoticed, Ward Harridan.”

  When they were in the Sergeant’s office, Volithur csped his hands together respectfully. “I have been doing a lot of sensory training.”

  The Sergeant interrupted immediately. “Ward Harridan, I can offer you no useful advice on the topic of mental enhancement. That is not a topic I have much experience with.”

  “I understand, Sergeant. My intention was not to ask about mental enhancement. I only mentioned my sensory training to expin how I came to know certain things.”

  “I am busy, Ward Harridan. Ask your question directly without the fluff.”

  “Yes, Sergeant. I have seen you drawing on primordial chaos.”

  The Sergeant’s harried expression faded. “Well. You must have some talent if you are able to spy such details in public.” He sighed. “This is not the path for you, Ward Harridan.”

  Volithur pressed ahead with the all-important question. “Are you going to die of soul poisoning?”

  The Sergeant drummed his fingers on his desk. “The Marshal would be quite disappointed with both of us if you did something foolish, Ward Harridan. I hesitate to tell you too much.”

  “It doesn’t sound like you think you will die soon, Sergeant.”

  “Do you know anything on the topic of realms, Ward Harridan?”

  “Not really, Sergeant.”

  “A soul has six surfaces, each with an aperture leading to an aspect of your existence. The first wall is the mind, the second the body, the third the aura, and the fourth the domain. The floor rests upon primordial chaos, through which cosmic energy can be directed to form an externality – an item or technique that is bound to you but isn’t required to be in physical proximity to you. The ceiling opens up into a pseudo-space that Xian can only use for a few purposes.

  “The most common purpose is as an overflow container that increases your soul’s cosmic energy capacity. It requires no technique or great effort to make use of a realm like this. If you do nothing, then eventually it will form of its own accord whenever you are strong enough. I have gone in a very different direction, forming what is known as a filter realm.

  “My filter realm exists for the sole purpose of separating the cosmic energy from chaos. I bring in small amounts of primordial chaos through my externality aperture and then cycle it through my filter realm. With each round, the energy in my soul becomes purified. This has allowed me to increase my power quite a bit more than anyone expected of me.

  “However, it is not without its drawbacks. Chaos is a soul poison. My filter realm reduces the damage my soul takes, but it cannot eliminate it. A soul colpse may be in my future. It is not a definite outcome, but there may come a point many years in the future where my risky choices catch up to me. Another problem is that filter realms are limited in their usage. Just like a water filter, it will eventually become clogged and unable to fulfill its purpose.

  “You cannot swap out a filter realm for a new one, so once the clog becomes complete you have to stop drawing on chaos. You will never catch a noble taking such risk for so little reward. This is a foolish gambit for commoners desperate to get ahead. If you decide to follow in my footsteps, Ward Harridan, you should at least wait until you are certain there are no better options for you.”

  Volithur’s thoughts raced. There was a shortcut to power avaible to him. It came with problems, certainly, but so did everything else in his life. He had promised Khana not to go down this path, but… he needed cosmic energy. If he could figure out how to make a filter realm, so many opportunities would open up for him.

  The Sergeant wrapped a cable of cosmic energy around Volithur’s neck and dragged him forward until he smmed into the desk between them. “You are thinking stupid thoughts, Ward Harridan. When I was a child, my father caught me smoking his pipe. In pce of a normal punishment, he decided to give me a powerful negative association. He made me smoke until I threw up. The rest of the day, my head felt like it was ready to explode. I have never touched tobacco in all the years since then.

  “So here is what we will do. You will extend a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of cosmic energy into your externality aperture, hold it there for a second, and then slowly pull it back in. Do you understand those instructions, Ward Harridan? Particurly the repeated emphasis on ‘tiny’?”

  “Yes, Sergeant.”

  “Then take a sip of chaos.”

  “Shouldn’t I make a filter realm first?”

  “You’re not strong enough to build a realm yet. A tiny amount won’t cause permanent harm.”

  Volithur did as instructed, finding the ‘floor’ of his soul and pressing a sliver of cosmic energy into it. The effort required was considerable. His body, mind, and aura apertures obeyed his will and opened with no problem, but using the externality aperture was like trying to lift a car off the ground.

  He barely managed to move a piece of cosmic energy the size of a bde of hair through the aperture. Then Volithur drew it back. Hardly anything came back, but even so he shuddered in disgust. Based on the Sergeant’s obvious satisfaction, Volithur had made a strong reaction. It was like taking the bst of a skunk straight to the face. It was intense and wrong.

  “I think I might throw up,” Volithur said.

  “Like drinking straight from a sewage pipe,” the Sergeant observed.

  The analogy did not do great things for Volithur’s tender stomach. “How can you do this?”

  “You can get used to anything,” the Sergeant expined. “But it never stops being unpleasant. I hate every moment that poison is in my soul. You, Ward Harridan, are not desperate enough to sink to this level. I believe the Marshal has made a deal with you for an elixir.”

  Volithur nodded. “If I impress him enough.”

  “It’s not my pce to say, Ward Harridan. But I will anyway. You have impressed him enough. So long as you don’t completely sck off, you will get your blood boiling elixir.”

  “Good.” Volithur had to restrain the instinct to heave his guts. His brain didn’t understand that the poison in him could not be purged that way. “I don’t think drawing on chaos is the path for me.”

  “I’m gd to hear it, Ward Harridan. Please don’t be spreading your new knowledge around. I do not ever want to expin to my superiors why a soldier under my command died of stupidity.”

  After that conversation, Volithur put primordial chaos out of his mind. It had taken half a day for the nausea induced by the ill-fated experiment to recede. For much of that time, he had watched his soul with his senses, paranoid the essence of chaos would do sting damage. Some of the poison did cause some minor corrosion on the inner surface of his soul, but it was minor and barely noticeable, just a slight roughness that hadn’t been there before.

  The rest of the chaos vanished on its own. Much like what he had observed with the ‘twin touch game’, the dilute chaos within him had attempted time and again to rise up in destructive surges but been held in check by its own self-interference. Then, gradually, the chaos had begun to denature, taking on the quiescent nature of cosmic energy.

  Volithur almost celebrated when he could no longer find any traces of chaos remaining in his soul, but he settled for quietly promising himself not to do anything so foolish ever again. With his concerns about soul damage relieved, Volithur refocused on his progression.

  The knowledge that he had impressed the Marshal already had the unusual effect of making him work even harder. Believing that the blood boiling elixir was his inspired a deep fear that it would be taken away from him before he had the chance to use it. He had become inured to the games pyed with resources, assuming that someone would screw him over for any or no reason. Yet the Sergeant’s assurance cut to the heart. He had a powerful elixir coming his way. It was assured, so long as he didn’t screw himself over.

  The body enhancement process, already moving quickly, accelerated further. He saturated the bones of his left wrist, then the carpals and phanges. Then he did the same procedure on the right hand. His sparring performance, gging due to his unwillingness to use his aura barrier, jumped forward as his knuckles became hard as steel.

  Volithur then moved on to his feet. He did both ankles, then moved onto the heel, the tarsus, metatarsals, and toe phanges. And then he was done transforming his bones. Volithur frantically went back through every bone in his body, double checking his previous work, before allowing himself to move on to the next step.

  Tendons. A term in body enhancement that referred not just to biological tendons, but also ligaments and other soft tissue directly in contact with bone. There were thousands of individual tissues for him to target in this phase. Fortunately, the tendons were less dense and would absorb cosmic energy faster than the bones had.

  Per one of the manuals on tendon enhancement, Volithur began with the rge one connecting his calf muscle to his heel. The idea was to focus initially on the tissues most likely to be sprained or otherwise injured. Improving the heel tendon also had the benefit of increasing running speed and jump height since esticity would increase alongside durability.

  He next worked on the meniscus and various ligaments of the knee, all of which were especially prone to injury. Their enhancement would not result in any noticeable performance improvements, but would go a long way towards reducing weak points.

  His efforts continued as the end of the month neared.