Elder Cultivator

Intentional cultivation and directing complex energy flow required a higher level of intelligence than a standard beast, but that didn’t mean the intelligence was always recognizable.Some things Anton assumed the natives of Klar would all want- mainly centered around communication- didn’t seem to be of interest to them.

Specifically, Spike didn’t respond to Anton in any way except to occasionally throw a fruit near him. Enemies were attacked, and those who seemed likely to eat a fruit while traveling received a fruit with less puncture wounds involved. That was all. Anton had quickly been placed in the latter category, and as long as he didn’t attack the tree he would likely remain there.

A better name for the spike fruit tree might have been developed if there was more in depth interaction, but sadly Anton didn’t manage anything after weeks. Perhaps the immobile nature of the tree changed social needs, or the way it formed intelligence. It was potentially just less developed, though it was difficult to tell.

The out of place pitcher plant likewise ignored anything that didn’t seem to be a threat, including Anton- until he practiced cultivation around it. It showed some interest when he formed a small bit of fire, but it grew far more interested when he created ice. Anton was by no means a specialist in the field of ice, but it was well within his power to manipulate heat with the amount of power he had. He could replicate a large number of lesser abilities, if inefficiently.

The yet unnamed pitcher plant endeavored to communicate for the sake of asking about Anton’s abilities, but seemed frustrated by the simpler words Anton and his team started with.

After interacting with a variety of individuals, it soon became clear that even if Anton was willing to devote decades of his life it wouldn’t be enough to develop individual patterns of communication for each individual. Aside from the form-shifting Bear Hug, few individuals shared a common form with which they could replicate gestures.

Introducing more people would likely be necessary to cover the wide variety, but that had to be done carefully so as to not disrupt the locals too much. Leaving the system untouched wasn’t necessarily morally superior, but it was better to not unintentionally make any changes before they knew how the world actually worked.

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Abioye had been wracking his brains for a while on the communication problem. Creating a language they thought any individual could understand, at least a simple one, was a problem their team was fully capable of solving. Scaled to enough time, that was true of any number of individuals- but as much as the team loved the challenge, it wasn’t really a solution. None of the locals would be able to communicate with each other if they continued as they were.

So they had to pull on the common threads they knew of. It took a while to think of what was in some ways a very simple thing, simply because they were coming from a human perspective. But finally, they got it.

“Good news, Anton. We’ll be adjusting our approach in a way that should hopefully require less individual manipulation… though it will require a stricter adherence to the forms.”

“Sounds interesting,” Anton replied. “Let’s hear it.”

“What’s the one thing we know all of our prospects have in common?”

“They’re plants?” Anton offered.

“Even you know that’s not true. There were those fungi, and even what they have in common isn’t that useful. Unless you want to grow your own chlorophyll, it’s not a good basis for a widespread language.”

“Alright, fine,” Anton said. “You’re right, I wasn’t confident on that one. Let’s see… they’re sapient? Which is the reason we’re trying this and they can learn a language, so that’s not quite it. Aha.”

Abioye grinned. “I’m sure you’ve got it now.”

“It has to be cultivation, right? At least, that works for all of those we’ve identified.”

“Exactly. And given their general lack of humanoid senses or appendages, a more direct approach is best. The best part is you already did this before. That is to say, direct energy communication. Not any sort of emotional transferrence, but simply form-shaping your energy in simple ways that should be easily replicated.”

It was so simple, yet Abioye knew it wasn’t at the same time. At the current point, humans in the Lower Realms Alliance all cultivated… but they didn’t need to communicate with their energy because speech just worked. At best, they used their energy to emphasize their words or allow them to be heard at a longer distance, or to communicate simple emotions. Using it as the main form of communication sounded more difficult, but even a simple sign language required Bear Hug to use just as much energy- or more- as their body had to be controlled by energy.

The current plan was for Anton to work with Bear Hug for a while to make sure that their most willing participant could get it. It might be difficult to re-learn, but it should be a more adaptable language. For example, cultivators could reference an object by directly pointing to it with their energy, or even surrounding a particular area- though some of that required proximity or sufficient power control. But forming simple motions should be easy enough, and all should have the senses to pick out invisible energy, especially if it was consciously amplified.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

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Abioye at least hoped that was the case. They’d been working on it for some time now, and it was hoped that it would be intuitive- though most likely some things made more sense to humans than to plants.

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Bear Hug liked cultivation and they liked games- so learning a new language based entirely around energy manipulation turned out to not be a bother at all for Anton’s algae friend. Having reached a certain level of understanding, Anton wasn’t at all surprised that it was picked up more quickly than actual gestures.

Soon enough Bear Hug was expressing while in a pile on the ground by waving around tendrils of energy. Not like arms, exactly, but usually in pairs. While cultivators could theoretically make use of unlimited separate energy streams, there were practical limitations and they didn’t want to exclude weaker individuals from participation.

Determining exactly what the cultivation equivalent of the algae was took more than a bit of effort, but Anton thought something around early Essence Collection, though perhaps they wouldn’t be able to leverage it properly outside of their natural habitat. Fairly strong, though not even close to the strongest on the planet- and there were also stronger things elsewhere in the system on other planets and in the space between.

Bear Hug did still prefer some physical motions. Despite most likely lacking any tactile sensation, the algae preferred to greet Anton with a sopping wet hug rather than anything else, including an energy handshake. Anton preferred it that way too.

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Observing different forms of cultivation was good for Anton. It helped that he had one directly connected to him in the form of Maheg. Anton would call it something like distributed non-dantian based cultivation. The important thing wasn’t the name, but that it still worked.

In truth, most of Anton’s cultivation was also outside of himself, in his bound stars. Outside, yet also ready to be called through him at the same time. It was different than being distributed throughout a whole physical body, but it still worked.

Having a dantian helped, though. Anton had observed more than a few residents that he thought were attempting to begin proper cultivation journeys, and they were more like grain packed with natural energy than cultivators. They would be a tempting target for beasts to consume. Anton wondered how many had failed to make it past the early stages. Even if the planet itself was safer than his initial impressions of space, it wasn’t exactly peaceful.

But on the right days at the right time, it sure felt like it. Anton would have been quite glad to bind to the local star, with its significant power. It wasn’t exactly in the place he would have picked… but he had enough of those to go through with his plans.

The whole shape thing wasn’t the most important part of his planned advancement anyway. It had begun on a whim, and now Anton was continuing with it because cultivators did well with resonance of that sort. As long as it made sense to him, it was a good idea. It fit in well with his ideas for the next stage.

Though Anton was perhaps the most famous Assimilation cultivator, and one of a very few Enrichment cultivators, he had to remember that he was not the first. Even if he set aside Worldbinding cultivators from the Sylanis cluster- which he really shouldn’t- just from Ceretos Anton was actually second. Lev had actually managed to very slightly outpace him in that regard. It had come at a cost at the time, though Lev had long since worked past the harm he caused himself. Technically, the other man’s limbs hardly worked at all, but with so much natural energy available it didn’t really matter.

Anton didn’t have to be first, but Lev had been slower to expand his sphere of influence. Lev would likely expand beyond Enrichment at some point, but Anton was closer. He only needed a few more stars bound and the right opportunity. Said opportunity could be something he arranged for himself, if he did so properly. That was probably better than some sort of emergency or disaster that forced him through, or some sort of massive cosmic event that would affect the lower realms.

A couple more decades. That was the plan. He had some insights from Domination cultivators to sift through, and they were still learning quickly, so he had no need to rush. But waiting too long would likewise hold him back.

Day by day, Anton pictured what he wanted. He wasn’t ready to start making connections just yet, and he needed to make sure he did things precisely right. Otherwise he might cause an imbalance- or worse, unintentional balance in areas that shouldn’t be balanced. That could be worse than accidentally blowing up a star or two.

Not that Anton would allow any stars to come to harm if he could help it. Even if they weren’t part of him, they were far too important to treat casually. And it was precisely because they were part of him now that they might be at risk. It was a sobering thought, but he’d reached a certain level of power where the consequences of his failures could reach extremely massive scales.

It was difficult to think about. And in some ways, it was less real than other dangers he had faced. It was simply too big for him to comprehend. Anton had begun his life worrying about whether the next batch of crops would be plentiful or tracking down animals that managed to break their pens. He worried about family getting sick and what to eat for meals. In some ways, what he would have for breakfast still felt more important than whether or not he accidentally destabilized a star- or many of them.

The good news was that Anton wouldn’t be alone. He would have help from the Lower Realms Alliance, and from other starbinding cultivators like Three Squeaks and Varghese. Then there was Maheg, who surely wouldn’t allow destabilizations to take hold within it. That consciousness was something Anton was integrating into his plans as a balancing factor. Maheg didn’t have any influence over Anton’s other stars, but having one solid anchor he didn’t have to worry about would help.

Plus, there were old reliable stars. Ceretos’s sun was the first, Azun was one of great personal import, and Akrys was also meaningful. Not that Anton didn’t know all of his stars, but he had some favorites. Fortunately, unlike children, they didn’t care. Not even Maheg, though it would have been fine because Maheg was one of the favorites.