Forty-One

"We've about drained this place. Time to move on," Benny said a week later. Diur had just finished her second round of tempering yesterday and was resting in her room as the two of them stood on the edge of the cliff overlooking the sprawling plains of the badlands.

"Already? I don't feel like we've done that much?" Kon said. They'd cleared several rifts as Diur tried to figure out her new limits, but other than that there hadn't been any extremes like on Crucible.

"Crucible was a strange planet, not a norm. There must have been a truly massive amount of life on that planet when the rifts started forming. A small backwoods mostly uninhabited moon like this, we've cleaned out quick."

"Was Earth like Crucible?" Kon asked. There hadn't been many chance to bring it up as they did their training. Benny was focused still on the basics and Kon would have been frustrated if he wasn't seeing noticeable growth. His senses had sharpened, his tactical sense was much better, and his comfort around the weaponry Benny was introducing them too was obvious. He still preferred his melee style that Alice had shown him, but using projectile weapons no longer felt foreign.

"I don't know what Crucible was like before the rifts opened. Earth had a population of nearly ten billion though. Parts of the world were extremely overcrowded and that's where the first rifts really got going. Death on a scale that's hard to comprehend. What do you do when a monster comes rampaging out of a portal, its armored and the only thing that can kill it is an airstrike? But the portal opened up in the middle of a shantytown with half a million people crammed into a few square kilometers?" Benny stopped and stared at him, waiting for an answer.

"Teams of infantry with heavy weapons to deter while evacuations begin?" Kon guessed.

"Maybe that's what should have been done. Some did. Others bombed the area, others did nothing and just watched. It was a crapshoot. Way before my time, mind you. But Earth in my day was having regular D-Grade rifts opening every day. Some parts of the world, the Indian subcontinent or East Asia had C-Grade rifts spawning on a regular basis."

Kon thought back to the pseudo C-Grade that he'd killed. It had taken a laser weapon meant for ship to ship combat to kill the beast.

"How did you kill them?"

"Mages. Lots of mages and airstrikes. That or you let them have the territory. Lost Australia that way. C-Grade gates opened up and the government couldn't hold them back. Just retreated with their surviving mages and VIPs."

"What about the others? The civilians?" Kon asked. Benny sighed and shook his head, not looking away from the vista.

"Dead. By the time we left the planet we only had a few city states left. Usually islands or heavily defensible positions like mountains. Who knows, some of them may still be alive down there," Benny said with a shrug and a short laugh.

"So where are we going?" Kon said after a moment of thinking over the last few minutes of their conversation.

"I'll have to look around for a bit but there's normally some type of meeting place around somewhere. Rogue sect tournaments can fill an entire planet and become year long trading markets. We find the closest one and see what the markets have to offer. The low level supplies you need won't be hard to find there," Benny said.

"What about the goblin decryption?" Kon asked. They had spent weeks on the moon waiting for Benny's computer to finish decrypting the goblin's data.

"It's taking longer than it should. They were illiterate bastards and couldn't figure out how to spell the same word the same way more than once. It'll take a bit longer," Benny said, a hint of frustration in his voice.

"Hit this planet and then what?" Kon asked.

"We need to make a stop at a worldship eventually. Need to get you into some armor that will help you more than anything, but even you need a full rune to power the bastards. They're beastly on their power consumption," Benny said. The two of them started to walk around the cliff, taking in the harsh vista of the moon as they did so.

A thrum of excitement went through Kon at the thought of a full set of armor. He remembered what the Knights had managed to do as they easily crushed the goblin's defenses, simply walking through power armor opponents like they weren't there.

"What's the secret to them?" Kon asked, not bothering to beat around the bush.

"He said I was his apprentice and he would share with me secrets. I want to see it." Being a cadet hadn't allowed him all the secrets of the knightly orders, far from it, he'd been practically kept in the dark about the higher echelons of the knights. Benny didn't hesitate as he stripped away that veil of secrecy.

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"Infused with natural treasures that are shaped by master smiths with their own powerful runes then perfectly slotted into hand crafted and designed power armor suits. Lots of Knights can look alike, but each suit is unique and monstrously expensive. One of the reasons that so few make it through their squireship is that sponsoring a new knight can be ruinously expensive," Benny said. Kon thought of that and then of how full runes were made.

"Making Knights takes a ton of rifts then. Each rune taking a rift treasure and then their armor takes several," Kon muttered.

"And when they get strong enough, their armor needs to be upgraded, taking even more of them. It can be quite costly," Benny agreed. There was a sharp look in his eyes though, an unspoken challenge as Kon thought over the implications of the what Benny had told him.

"Is this why we haven't taken a world for our own? There'd be no way a single planet or even system could support all the Knights," Kon said. Benny smiled grimly and nodded shallowly.

"That's one of the reasons. We can drain a system of rifts within a week and it hardly budges our reserves. Even a planet like Crucible would be stripped bare in a matter of weeks, but it would grant several dozen Knights their armor," Benny said.

"And the entire planets ambient rift energy was consumed by a single B-Grade's ascension," Kon whispered.

"Yes. She absolutely drained that planet and crushed every single rift as she did so. Once she's comfortable with her power and settled her foundations, she'll be a planet killer on her own. But the cost is extreme. That planet could have supported dozens of C-Grades and thousands of D-Grade cultivators for centuries of non-conservative harvesting. All of it consumed for one woman and her bloodline," Benny said.

"I can't tell if you're impressed or disgusted," Kon said as he looked over the old man's face.

"Both. Getting to this height of power requires massive amounts of resources, each ascension taking more and more power. Remember what I told you about rifts equaling life force. The more living creatures there are the more rifts appear, more energy released the thicker the energy becomes in a cycle that will eventually, after possibly centuries, see the growth of A-Grade rifts. A single A-Grade planet could support an entire system of cultivators or a small fleet of Knights. If you can kill the monsters emerging from an A-Grade rift," Benny threw that last part in almost casually but Kon had a feeling that was the larger hurdle to overcome.

"Now, all of that wealth and power will be consumed in a few weeks by a single B-Grade attempting their ascension. Daniur didn't have that luxury of a powerful planet to overcome, she had to slowly drawn in a weaker, thinner, level of energy rather than her own grade. It'll make her weaker than her grade for decades unless she finds a B-Grade world to cultivate in peace on. One that matches her cultivations, which isn't easy at the higher levels," Benny continued as they circled the Puca.

"That's a lot of resources for only a single person," Kon said.

"It is. But, depending if she survives to stabilize herself, it'll be worth it. She'll be a safeguard that the entire Ulmna Confederacy will be able to rely on. That and the other two B-Grades they already have," Benny said. Kon froze for a second as a thought connected, his conversation weeks ago with Diur flashing through his mind.

"They have three B-Grades now?" Kon asked, looking for confirmation as he followed his train of thought.

"Yes. One is active in their homesystem. Spent the last few centuries building a planet that can support his continued cultivation. Second one is the older one and he's inactive, just loafing around contemplating the universe somewhere in the confederacy and then there's Daniur. Don't think they've managed to get a fourth one in there," Benny said rubbing at his whiskery chin.

"I talked to Diur awhile ago and she told me that disaster befalls those cultivator empires that grow too big. Something bad always happens to prevent too large of a single group from growing, is that true?" Kon asked. Benny stopped, realization flashing through his eyes.

"Yes. I've been that disaster a few times. Contracts are always strange too, can never find out who pays it no matter how deep I dig. Cut outs and dead drops that are impossible to pierce but I have my suspicions. A-Grades who have their own games they play, not allowing anyone to rise too far," Benny trailed off.

"No matter how strong one person is, how powerful their cultivation is, it doesn't stop a dreadnought from killing them," Kon said. Benny snorted.

"A fleet of ships would be needed to tangle with a single A-Grade, but I get your point. Keep everyone weak and then nobody can truly challenge the status quo," Benny said nodding along.

"Humans don't settle, we just keep traveling around and fighting and taking contracts. We're tools, dangerous tools, but not a threat to their hegemony of power. But an empire based on cultivation, constantly expanding could be. Eventually," Kon said, excitement in his voice as he and Benny both raced to the same conclusion.

"You're thinking we weren't the target of the attack, it was to stop Daniur's ascension," Benny said, nodding along.

"A chance opportunity. Dragon's Maw had plenty of stuff pirates could steal, we were caught unaware and in a bad spot. Crime of opportunity. Also explains why they didn't go to wipe out the survivors' main camps and instead destroyed Diur's family home. They thought Daniur was there and they could sabotage her attempt at ascending," Kon said.

"That is good reasoning. We need proof though. Regardless of intent, they have shed human blood. But we shall broaden our horizons and I'm going to need to send some messages. Maybe I've been too short sighted," Benny said the last part in a whisper as they both headed back to the Puca, walking faster than they had been before.

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