Hector wasn't sure what to make of the development. Theoretically, he'd recruited one of the most powerful forces in the multiverse to assist Stronghold Gamma. The only cost that had to be paid was removing one person from the Reconquest for the length of a single tour of duty with the Coalition Army.

Except Hector wanted to cultivate chaos behind the rune wall of a Stronghold.

It was a big sacrifice for the sake of a woman whose status towards Hector remained ambiguous. He was pretty sure they almost kissed while they were both drunk. And there had been plenty of appreciative glances thrown in each direction. Ultimately, though, it was more confusing than anything. The woman was not only a Lord, but the daughter of the Lord General. Not an estranged daughter, either, but one who desperately loved her murderous asshole of a daddy.

The Lord General laughed at him. "You chose to come here and ask a favor, Hector."

"True enough."

"This is the price you must pay."

"We'll have to hope I don't put my foot in my mouth."

Thrakkar considered that. "Foot in mouth. Is that to mean you will bite your own toes?"

Hector blinked. Every once in a while he'd let an idiom from home slip. Usually the people around him would ignore the turn of phrase or pick up the meaning from context. Every once in a while, though, someone would want an explanation. In those cases, Hector found out that he didn't understand his own language as well as he thought. "It's a saying on my world. It means you say something you shouldn't. I'm not sure why feet are involved."

After a few moments, Thrakkar nodded in acceptance. "I am heartened that the saying is not sexual in nature. There are people who do strange things with feet, you understand."

That almost broke Hector's brain. He couldn't reconcile the character from his dreams of the villainous Lord General with the man before him dropping some wisdom about the fact that such things as fetishes exist. Hector rushed to change the topic. "I was doing a lot of cultivation in my free time on Aes." Hopefully that would segue into Hector receiving permission to train alone.

Instead, the Lord General scrutinized him. "Has Zara spoken to you about slowing your advancement rate?"

"She has not, Lord General."

"You may address me as a casual superior. And you should not speed through the levels no matter how quickly you can gather energy. Prior to every advancement, bring your apertures to the peak of your current level. There is a strengthening of apertures that occurs upon advancement, which we call a blessing. It's different than the regular growth. Not quite as obvious. Instead of an increase in quantity, it is a qualitative improvement. If you don't reach your peak, you are losing a portion of those gains. Your domain appears below the peak of five currently – you lost out on half the qualitative improvement during your last advancement."

Hector's jaw dropped. The exhortations to take care of the apertures before advancement had always been background noise to him. He'd always assumed that he could make up for the deficit later. "I've never heard of this before."

"Do you think the secrets of cultivation are handed out to commoners? Why would those in power hand away their advantages like that? Knowledge is a resource to be hoarded even more tightly than elixirs and high level meat."

He'd known for a long time that Volithur rushed ahead like a fool in his cultivation, chasing the dopamine rush of levels instead of building true strength. Yet learning that the man had actually been sabotaging his future potential was news. In retrospect, it shouldn't be a surprise. The nobles never gave away their secrets for free. It did surprise him, though. Hector trusted the content of his inherited memories implicitly even if they'd come with a fair bit of Volithur ignoring the good advice of the Marshal, the Sergeant, Master Zara, the Lord General, and anyone else who would know better.

Something the Lord General had said just now stuck out to him. He claimed that the secrets of cultivation were not handed out to commoners. Hadn't Thrakkar just done that? A dangerous impulse seized him. The Lord General felt some misplaced kinship towards him based on Hector's stubborn refusal to yield to pressure. That seemed to translate into approving of the presumed relationship between Hector and Zara. Perhaps Hector could take advantage of the future son-in-law status being offered to him?

Almost he attempted to subtly steer the conversation towards his goal. Hector caught himself before he could begin making inane observations about the inconvenience of his ignorance. Neither he nor the Lord General were subtle men. They tended towards the direct approach. And, should Hector attempt to play the simpering games of nobles, he suspected the Lord General would respect him less for it. The direct approach, then.

"Are there any secrets you can share with me?"

The Lord General sat on the nearby table and leaned forward, hands on his knees. "I can open the technique library to you. There are hundreds of techniques in there."

Hector considered the offer. "That seems generous of you. Are your secrets in there?"

Thrakkar's smile grew. "Of course not. Those aren't recorded on paper."

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"So… you won't share any secrets?"

"How shameless. I wonder if this is how my superiors saw me in my youth." The Lord General displayed one hand, three fingers raised. "My family possesses three secret techniques. I will tell you the name and purpose for each of them, then allow you to pick one to learn directly from myself. This generosity should be worth a measure of your loyalty, don't you agree?"

"Absolutely, Master Thrakkar."

The Lord General touched his first finger. "First is the Sandwich Technique. It is a potent means of training the aura. I learned it from my second wife, who was a petty noble."

The second finger. "The second is the Sweaty Fire Technique. It is the best domain exercise you will ever encounter. I learned it from the mentor who trained me as a porter in my youth. In his youth, he trained in a sect known for their domain attacks."

Third finger. "The final one is the Twin Touch Technique. This one greatly benefits the mental sense and even increases the odds of becoming a Lord. It was taught to me by the Lord Mace, who was like a father adopted late in life."

Hector stared at the three fingers, keeping his face an impassive mask. The Twin Touch game that Khana taught Volithur… it had been a secret noble technique? One disguised as a game for a young daughter to learn. He remembered Khana saying that it wasn't a fun game. So true that was. Watching the primordial threaten to overwhelm existence could be terrifying.

It was a truth never acknowledged that Volithur's insight was based more on playing the Twin Touch game than on the Lord General's chaotic emergence into spatial grounding. Witnessing the massive transit sphere may have been the spark, but Khana laid the kindling.

Needless to say, Hector did not need to learn the third technique. Which narrowed his options down to either improving his aura or his domain. The smart choice would be to seek a means of training his aura. He could build up his domain already by cultivating chaos on Aes. But he'd just agreed to spend a year or two away from Aes. His cultivation haven may not even exist by the time his tour with the Coalition Army concluded.

Hector dearly wished to further strengthen his domain. He'd become a warrior and a patriot without hardly even noticing the transition. Lacking an offensive externality, he needed a strong domain. His short fight with Percival proved the benefits to be had.

"I choose the Sweaty Fire Technique."

The Lord General stood abruptly. "We must go elsewhere to ensure we are not overheard. Come along, Hector. I imagine the fact that this technique comes from a sect caught your attention. Zing still has sects, but they are largely extinct within Amarat. Lords see no reason to allow organizations that can oppose their own power. It's a shame, really. I was not born a noble, you know. I always imagined what it might be like to grow up in the age of sects. Join one, rise up through their ranks, learn their secret techniques, become an elder."

Hector listened to the Lord General wax nostalgic about the historical era and the adventures he would have had. It seemed there was an entire genre of literature dedicated to fictional depictions of ancient sects. Apparently the Lord General was a fan. He insisted Hector borrow one to understand what the fuss was about.

Their path took them to a courtyard hidden within the interior of the palace. It had only a single entrance, a door that Thrakkar firmly closed. The Lord took Hector to a stone bench situated beneath a central cherry tree and gestured for him to sit.

"The fundamental goal of the Sweaty Fire Technique is to engorge the domain with extreme densities of cosmic energy. It catalyzes growth in a manner far more potent than simply moving things about with cables. Not only is it potent, it also will not exhaust your domain. The only drawback is that it is expensive in terms of cosmic energy consumption. Ultimately, it is an efficient technique even considering its high cost. Though given your advantage, I don't think the energy requirements will be a burden."

Hector eagerly followed the instructions of the Lord General. First, he compressed his domain, pulling it as close to him as possible. This seemed contrary to his every instinct for training this aspect of himself, but he accepted the Lord General knew better. Maintaining the compression, Hector then had to fill his domain with cosmic energy.

That was the challenge of the technique.

His domain wanted to expand to accommodate the increased energy density. He was told not to let that happen. When he did so, squeezing in more cosmic energy became almost impossible. The Lord General explained that the whole point of the exercise was the strain. If it ever became easy, that meant Hector was doing it wrong.

He struggled mightily over the course of several hours. It got to the point that Hector became desperate for a break and only persevered because the Lord General demanded his continued dedication. It required intense concentration on a simple task. The most apt description was mind-numbing. Hector spent his time being criticized for allowing his domain footprint to expand or failing to adequately increase energy density.

He became increasingly frustrated. Were his teacher not a Lord, he would have long since snapped that the two things demanded of him were mutually exclusive. He couldn't make his domain small and fill it with more energy at the same time. It was one or the other, not both.

Eventually, he encountered a new problem. Leaks sprouted in his domain. Giant tears formed and gushed free the energy he had been compressing. The Lord General made him seal those up and begin packing his domain once more.

"When you succeed with this technique, energy will escape through tiny pinholes. It feels like your domain is sweating. That's why it's called the Sweaty Fire Technique."

"Why the word fire?"

"You'll see."

And he did. Several more restarts after letting tears form, Hector finally achieved his goal after dawn of the following day. His saturated domain grew incredibly hot around him. It wasn't his domain feeling hot. It was an actual increase in physical temperature. The sensation from his domain… well, it was slick from the energy leaking free.

He only held it for half a minute before losing control. Hector groaned at his failure, but the Lord General didn't seem upset. "Good enough, Hector. If you managed it once, you understand the basics. The goal is to hold that final state for as long as possible. Your domain will benefit immensely from training this way. Truth be told, the initial benefits will be greatest. After a while your domain will become accustomed to the technique and it becomes less impressive. Still better than moving things about with cables like a commoner."

Hector stood and bowed low to the Lord General. Despite all the negative memories, he couldn't deny the value of what he'd received. Nor the fact that a Lord had spent over twelve hours personally mentoring him in a secret family technique. This was a huge boon to him and if he intended to practice the virtue of respect, he had to acknowledge the gift.

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