The weeks flew past. Hector settled into an ambitious schedule of his own design. He would do a four hour block of cultivation immediately after breakfast. Then he would sleep between lunch and dinner. Then he would cultivate throughout the night as he stood watch on the wall.

Even lacking the System and the numerical analysis of its survey results, Hector could tell he was making rapid progress. His body statistic had been at five point five after consuming the Mother Elixir and taking the resources bought at the Zing auction. Hector estimated his mind statistic had risen to about that level as well in a short amount of time.

As miraculous as those gains were, the mental aperture was the least useful to a Xian. Hector couldn't really tell any difference, other than the fact that it became increasingly easy to transform chaos on the mental band into cosmic energy. All the while, the chaos levels within the Stronghold never dropped. He knew from being perched on the wall at nights that the chaos replenished from outside the perimeter, passing unobstructed through the barrier that stopped miasma dead. Aes truly was a dream environment for him.

In some ways, at least. In other ways….

"Hey Hector, I heard Ringo the Dingo put you on toilet duty again."

Hector looked up from the bowl he was scrubbing. "He thinks it is some great punishment for me. I'm actually bored enough that I don't mind."

The Titan frowned. "Oh. You're not mad at him?"

"What good would that do? He's an idiot and a cretin."

"Would your opinion change if we had a way to get some revenge on him?"

Hector snorted a laugh. "The lieutenant isn't an actual enemy. He's just an asshole."

The Titan, whose name was Raven, flashed the biggest smile Hector had ever seen. Raven was large even for a Titan, so his wide features meant that his smile was literally larger than any Hector had seen on a human face. "Just listen to our plan before you decide you're too mature for revenge."

"Sure." Hector moved away from the toilet bowl. "What's this revenge plan?"

Raven rubbed his hands together like a cartoon villain. "What is Ringo the Dingo obsessed with more than anything else?"

"Punishing people?"

"Well, sure. But other than that. What's his big rule?"

"No food or drink in the bunker?"

"The other thing."

Hector frowned. "The no pornography thing?"

"Hell yeah. You know he's got to be a freak the way he obsesses over nudes." Raven looked around to make sure they were still the only ones in the bathroom. "There is a surprise inspection of our bunker happening in two days."

"Doesn't sound like much of a surprise," Hector said.

"I know people in the right places. One of them doesn't like the Dingo any more than we do."

Hector stared at the Titan with a heavy degree of skepticism. Messing up an inspection of the bunker seemed like it would only backfire on them. Lieutenant Ringo was the type to hold a grudge. He had the power to make their lives hell, too – more than he already did.

Raven continued after a moment. "Have you been in Ringo's private room yet?"

"No," Hector said. The lieutenant dragged subordinates into his room when adding counseling to personnel records due to a requirement that the paperwork not be done in public.

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"We need you to get in some trouble, then."

"I'm going to interrupt you there, Raven. I don't intend to earn a counseling."

"Hector, just listen to the plan first. Please? A Jinn verified that there is no camera coverage within the bathrooms or the Dingo's room. So our plan is to get you to appear inside his private room after he emerges for the surprise inspection. I'm going to have so much porn ready for you. Really raunchy stuff, too. Stick it to every wall so that the inspector gets upset. Video footage from the hallway will show no one has been in the room since he was last there. It's the perfect crime."

"Really? Because it sounds a little immature to me. And I don't think it will do anything other than rile up Lieutenant Ringo."

"Oh, this is the best part. Major Emily is doing the inspections. She's an uptight level nine Arahant from the nation of Yamato. Has a huge complex about women being disrespected in the military. She has demoted at least five soldiers for it."

Hector paused. He didn't know why he was even considering this proposition. The likelihood of a stupid porn prank backfiring was too high for this to be rational. But he really did dislike Lieutenant Ringo. "I'm not sure how this would be enough to stop Ringo."

"We got this planned out, Hector. There are women from bay one ready to confide in Major Emily that the Dingo makes them feel uncomfortable with how often he gives speeches about porn. This will be a minor scandal. Us men are going to refuse to speak about the matter by claiming that the lieutenant is vindictive and we're afraid he'll retaliate. Then when they guarantee we're safe, we'll play up how often he talks about the stuff – even though it's almost never been found in the bunker."

Hector nodded. "But none of that works if I don't do my part."

Raven pointed at Hector. "You got it. We get Major Emily to feel disgust and we win."

"What outcome are you going for?"

"We want him removed as bunker leader. That probably won't happen. But with extra attention on the Dingo, he won't be able to act like a power hungry lunatic anymore."

Hector looked up at the ceiling, wondering if he was foolish for entertaining this idea. It seemed like the type of heist that fraternity students would pull on the dean in a college movie. For that reason alone, he should reject it.

"What am I supposed to do to get a counseling?"

Raven pumped his fist in the air. "You don't have to do anything. In fact, you can quit cleaning now. Some of us are going to make a mess in here. Go cultivate until Ringo notices. If that doesn't get you a counseling on the spot, just refuse to clean the bathroom a second time. From experience, I can tell you that will be enough."

So, against his better judgment, Hector joined the conspiracy to destroy Ringo the Dingo.

It was only an hour later that he was called into the bathroom by Lieutenant Ringo to see the mess. There were used paper towels on the floor, use stains inside the toilets, and even some suspicious puddles along the floor. Hector was ready to refuse to re-clean, but that didn't prove necessary.

"You didn't do a very good job, you damn savage, now did you?" Ringo sneered at him. "It doesn't even look like you tried to clean. Do you know what gross insubordination like this means? A counseling. You're getting a write-up in your permanent record."

Ringo marched Hector to his room, shut the door, and began filling out paperwork while Hector was made to stand at attention. Ringo lectured the whole time, but Hector was focused on scoping out the scene of his future crime. It was a mostly bare concrete cube, other than the exit door and a private bathroom nook. There was a bed, a desk, a rug, and a personal trunk. Otherwise the only things of note were a framed commendation and a picture of Ringo in his dress uniform.

Hector signed the counseling form and returned to his bed. Several Titans nodded to him in a way that indicated who was in on the conspiracy. Hector pretended not to notice and settled in to cultivate some more. With a great effort, he managed to hold back his smile at the silly plot he'd joined. This was the most entertaining thing that had happened in the Stronghold since he arrived.

But there were still a few days to go before he had to take action again. He didn't intend to slack off during that time. Especially since he felt like he was finally making some good progress with his domain. As it turned out, he didn't lack the dexterity he needed to tame chaos.

He lacked the experience to translate his insight from the primordial to a three-dimensional reality. It wasn't an unrelated process by any means. It was more like trying to understand someone speaking your own language with a thick accent. And then speaking back using the exact same intonations, stress patterns, tempo, and pronunciations. Failing to correctly translate resulted in inefficient conversion rates.

Hector doubled the amount of time he dedicated to his domain. Now every session he'd start with an hour of domain, move on to mind, then aura, then go back to domain. He didn't see any reason to spend time on his externality. That aperture had been exercised for years at this point. It didn't need the work nearly as much as the elements of his soul that hadn't been able to touch chaos prior to coming here.

Hour by hour, he improved his efficiency. Until, suddenly, he crossed a threshold.

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