Three weeks seemed to take forever. Hector had done more cultivation lately than he cared for. He wanted to break free of his routine. There was his trading business he wanted to push forward. He hadn't conducted his civic duty to fight in the dungeon for a while. And Aes needed boots on the ground – well, bare feet on the ground in his case. There were things to do and he spent all his time in yet another marathon of cultivation.

Even in the midst of his frustration, Hector couldn't help but admire the benefits of advancing. His rate of converting chaos into cosmic energy with his externality slowly improved as the aperture rose to meet its increased limits. Theoretically, other Xian also became better at cultivation with their aura as they grew stronger. Practically, however, all other Xian were rate limited by the energy density of their environment.

On unempowered worlds it was almost impossible to get above level five without consuming resources no matter how hard a Xian worked. It came down to the energy density of the environment versus the energy density of the soul. Packing the soul reserves required not just collecting massive amounts from the world, but then concentrating it enough that it could enter through an aperture without letting any of the current reserves escape.

The same thing happened on Tian itself, though far later on in the process. Reaching level eight marked a person as a real entity on the home world of the Xian. It meant they either had extraordinary talent or extraordinary connections to get their hands on true elixirs. Rising to higher levels than that simply could not happen without consuming cores to steal the cultivation of other creatures.

Unless you could draw from primordial chaos. It was the ultimate cheat for a Xian. So far as Hector could tell, the limitations on the rate he drew in energy from his externality were entirely due to the time it took him to perform the transformation. There was immense energy pressure outside of human universes. Indeed, externalities seemed primarily adapted to resisting that pressure.

In the end, every time Hector advanced a level in his soul, the rate at which he could draw upon primordial chaos doubled. That doubling was far from immediate. His externality, like every other soul aperture, required time to grow to the peak of its potential. Yet Hector already could tell he cultivated faster than ever before. After three weeks, he had enough to travel to another world. That was even with the increasingly hungry walls of his soul drawing away a good portion of what he cultivated to saturate themselves.

Hector offered to take Darius along on his trip to collect firewood, but the eunuch responded to the offer with actual laughter. According to Darius, the entire idea was ridiculous. He believed Hector should show up to the farm and take the stone he wanted. In his opinion, the farmers weren't good long term trading partners anyway.

Fortunately, Riley volunteered herself as a helper. It took a little bit of negotiation with Esther to arrange for a leave of absence from the cafe, but the influx of resources had rekindled her love of sales. Esther was often in the lobby watching over the cafe these days, huge smile on her face. The woman certainly loved making money.

"I'm so excited to ride in a transit sphere!" Riley poked the mirrored surface as it rose into existence. "It's very smooth. Nice and warm, too."

Hector didn't think his sphere actually had a temperature. The makeup of his externality included no mundane substance and its structure was adapted to an environment far different than normal reality. By his best guess, it just reflected back exactly what the environment gave it. In this case, Riley felt her own body heat instead of the cold metal one might expect from its appearance.

"You know, I can teach you to make one once you get a few levels higher."

Riley smiled. "Maybe. Darius thinks I should get a chaos bolt."

"He does love his chaos bolt," Hector agreed. "What do you want from your externality?"

She shrugged. "I'm not a fighter. I don't know if I want to travel around either."

"That's fair," he agreed as he created the cavity for them to enter.

Riley climbed inside and struggled to balance on the curved floor. Hector granted her the center space and braced himself along the curve. "Be aware that it will be dark for a bit while we go between worlds."

As he squeezed his weld shut, a tiny light popped into existence. A ring on Riley's finger had a small LED bulb that provided a small amount of light. "Why don't you get a ring light for travel? They're really convenient. I use mine to find stuff in the back of the store room all the time."

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"You know, Riley, sometimes common technologies slip my mind. Maybe I think too much like a Xian these days." Hector meant his words. In his memories, Volithur relied upon his incredible mental sense. Hector never thought to do anything different, even though his sense was a crude thing. He simply tolerated being temporarily blind. In his defense, Hector's focus in transit was on navigation, which didn't in any way require the use of his eyes.

He took them through the primordial, seeking the unique signature of a world he'd only been to for a short time. Meanwhile, Riley played with her ring light, studying her distorted reflection in the curved surface of his sphere. The combination of not having a strong sense of his destination and Riley's distraction made the process take longer than usual. Fortunately, the trip drained him far less than it used to. He'd reached the level six threshold told to him by Matthias that made travel drastically more efficient.

"Hector?"

"Yes, Riley?"

"Back when we first met, why wouldn't you have sex with me?"

He glanced over to find her studying her own distorted image. "Power dynamics."

"What does that mean?"

"I had power and you didn't. I have a lot of rough edges, Riley, but I've never been predatory."

She made a face. "That's stupid. Sex was my job, Hector. It hurt my feelings when the first Xian to ever show up at the house didn't want me."

Hector grunted. "Is this about Mick?"

Riley's shoulders drooped. "No, it's not about Mick. I just want to know why I wasn't good enough. You like Esther. Darius says there was another woman in the tournament. There has to be something about me you didn't like."

A sudden spike of alarm hit him. "Riley, you're not… uh, I mean…."

She caught on instantly. "No, I don't want us to be together. I just want to know why you never even considered it."

"Have you ever heard about me paying for sex, Riley?" They were blissfully close to their destination, which would also hopefully be the end of this conversation.

"Do you feel you are too good to pay?"

Hector wasn't sure if the truth would be helpful or harmful. Lacking any reason to lie, he chose the path of honesty. "Yes."

"Did you look down on the girls? Or just the men who paid?"

After a moment's consideration, he shrugged. "It's the entire industry. Fake affection to simulate what should be one of the most meaningful parts of being human. The men are either desperate fools or callous misanthropes. The girls are taken advantage of more often than not. The perfect example is the financial exploitation used on you."

"The only people who know what I used to be at Tian Tower are you and Darius."

Despite her claim that none of this was about Mick, those words drove home that it was. Maybe not in general, but in specific. Being rejected left a wound. "Riley, there is some man out there who is going to fall for you completely. Don't give up hope."

They had arrived a few minutes past, so Hector reached out to steady Riley by looping his arm through hers. It was the same way she used to escort him to a bedroom back when they first knew each other. He gave her a tight smile and opened the weld of his sphere to a new universe.

And the flashing of a camera. "Hector?"

He stepped out with Riley at his side and let his sphere shrink out of existence. "Hey, Greg. It took me a while, but I'm finally able to pay you back for that car ride."

The man's wife snapped another picture with her old school camera. "Hi, Hector!"

"Mate? You fought monsters on Bay Beach for my whole world. Ain't no pay required."

Hector lifted the gold bar. "In that case, I will give you this in exchange for firewood."

"A bar of gold?" Greg glanced at his wife. "You want firewood, I can get you some, no payment required. I know my place ain't no palace, but I stand on my own."

Maggie finally put down the camera when the next click caused the roll of film to rewind loudly. She eyed Riley in the way of a woman who'd caught the scent of some juicy gossip. "Are you still seeing Vivian?"

"Sadly, I'm not." It suddenly occurred to Hector that he had willingly returned to the world where he once was a reality television star. Maybe there was something wrong with his brain.

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