Enthused shouts and the rhythmic thwack of fists hitting wooden training dolls could be heard clearly even before Dario entered the courtyard of the Brothers of Yoke. The guards were all buzzing around like bees. Some of them lay with their backs on benches while rapidly pushing weights up and down, others holding the same weights as they grunted, snapping out repeated punches.

  His eyebrows lifted as he walked past a roaring guard who was madly slamming bloody knuckles into a wooden post, moving as fast as he could. “Raaah! Flicker Barrage!”

  The guard he’d fought came up to him as he approached the gate, his face all puffed up as if he’d shoved it right into a nest of hornets. “Aniki! Please accept my apologies for barring and challenging you,” the man cried out as he moved into a deep bow. “I had no idea you held such powerful techniques!”

  As Dario stared mutely at the bowing guard, some of the others noticed and ran up to him.

  “Barrage-aniki has returned!”

  “Teach us your ways, Barrage-aniki!”

  “Aniki! How should we train? It’s ultra-high repetitions, right?”

  His head moved from one guard to another, the burly men looking at him with faces full of hope. His laughter echoed through the courtyard as more Brothers of Yoke huddled around.

  “You want to know my secret, huh? Heh. Fine, I’ll tell you, not that it’ll help much. My blindingly fast moves come from this,” he said, lifting both fists and making them glow a warm gold. “The power of the pillar itself: light!”

  Shocked gasps sounded around him as he demonstrated, throwing a dozen bright golden punches in the span of a second.

  “But only the chosen few can wield this power,” he said, turning around to move through to the inner courtyard. “Train hard, my friends, and perhaps some day you too will be chosen!”

  “Light-aniki! I’ll train until my arms fall off!”

  “Me too!”

  Dario was still chuckling at their blind enthusiasm as he tossed the bag of herbs to the guards of the inner courtyard, before moving past them and into the temple. He walked the halls like he knew where he was going, nodding at the guards, scanning paper doors for cultivators with large amounts of Ki as he went.

  Finally, a powerful source of Ki glowed behind an important-looking door. He tried to knock, but it barely made a sound, so with a shrug, he just strode in.

  “Pardon me, coming through…” he trailed off and gaped at the statue of a man who stood before him. Every single muscle was well defined, as if chiseled from marble, at least twice the size of even on the burliest of the guards before.

  “Hmm? Another candidate disciple?” the huge man asked in a deep, rumbling voice.

  “Ah, not exactly, mister… Yoke,” Dario said, recovering quickly. “I’m in desperate need of your wisdom. A helpless young lady needs my help on a higher floor, so I must reach Coral as soon as possible. I was hoping you might know of any shortcuts.”

  “Wisdom? Shortcuts?” the man rumbled as he stepped closer and looked Dario over. “I know about the human body, yes…” he squinted at Dario’s belly, then poked at it, grimacing. “And I have guided many to Coral. I suppose I could offer my advice as a boon, if you have passed our three trials?”

  “...Three? I mean, yes, I sure did, mister Yoke. Passed with flying colors, they said, sir.”

  “Very well. Many will say that you must run before you lift, or do a thousand bodyweight exercises before you ever even touch a weight. Others may tell you to follow a standardized program. There are those that swear by expensive individualized testing, even before embarking on the arduous journey to Coral.”

  He walked around the room, sighing as he looked wistfully at a painting. It was one of the man himself, wearing only thin shorts as he flexed all his muscles.

  “A hundred different methods, a thousand different paths toward the same goal. Madness, isn’t it? But after all my years of not only honing my own body, but overseeing the training of others, I have learned something.”

  He looked back at Dario. “You want the shortest path to Coral? Then there is only one question to ask oneself. Only one that truly matters. And it is this: should one first cut, or bulk?”

  Dario’s jaw dropped. “W-what are you…”

  “Everything else is a distraction! And to that question, there can be only one answer. For, tell me, is it possible to reach Coral without any muscles? Of course not! It would be madness to even try. You must bulk, my boy, bulk until your biceps burst your sleeves and your shorts no longer fit. Bulk, train, and then bulk some more! Bulk until…”

  “Of all the trogcrap… I should have known it was going to be a waste of time,” Dario grumbled as he marched out of there. “Tenjin burn this whole damn sect to the ground.”

  There was one more place on his list, though he didn’t have high hopes for it. It was with a sour expression that he marched through the gates of The Swole Sisters, who had an eerily similar compound to the Brothers of Yoke, though it was filled mostly with female guards this time. The one at the gate did not seem any more keen to let him in than the last one.

  “How much can you bench, aniki?”

  “I don’t… Look, I’m not trying to join your dumb sect, I just want a chat with your boss.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t let you in. And if you want to look down on our beautiful sect, I may have to teach you a lesson or two,” she said, giving him an angry look as she cracked her knuckles.

  “You’re only saying that because you haven’t seen my Flicker Barrage.”

  “Your what?”

  “Never mind. Screw this.”

  He walked out the gate, made himself invisible, then strode right back in again, climbing over the first wall, then sneaking past the inner guards. Once in the temple proper, he moved through the halls with a confident stride, until he came to a similar office as the one the boss had been in before.

  “Good day to you Ma’am Swole, sorry to bother you-”

  The massive woman in front of him snorted as she looked him over. “You don’t actually think that’s my name, do you?”

  “...I suppose not, Ma’am.”

  “Mm. What are you doing here? Passed our trials, did you?”

  “All three of them, Ma’am. Flying colors. But I’m not looking to join.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “That so?” She moved to sit on a low bench, picking up a huge weight and starting a set of bicep curls. “Then why are you here?”

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  “I’m looking for shortcuts to get to Coral. Already tried my luck over with the Brothers, but that didn’t quite pan out.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? Spoke to that old idiot, did you?”

  Dario nodded. “Mister Yoke himself. But his advice wasn’t quite, ah, what I was looking for.”

  “That’s not his… Never mind. So you went there, looking for the shortest path to Coral. And I bet the old man told you to bulk up, didn’t he?” she asked with a grin. “Heh. Hasn’t changed one bit, the old idiot.”

  “Right! But what I really need is a shortcut. Will you share your secrets with me, Ma’am?” He was smiling again now. This one looked like a shrewd old lady, she might actually have a worthwhile method to teach him.

  “Fine, just this one time, I’ll let you in on a little secret. You’ll hear a thousand secret methods on this floor, each one of them a load of hot air! Bulking, especially. It’s like putting on a blindfold as you walk through a maze and simply hoping for the best! How could you know where to go, if you can’t see a damn thing?”

  He was nodding along, even though he wasn’t sure about the meaning of the metaphor.

  “No, what we need to accomplish first, is to lift that veil from our eyes. We have to be able to see what’s going on, so that we know when to adjust our course! What you must do, young man, first of all, is this: cut! Cut that fat from your body! Starve yourself until your skin clings tightly to your muscles! Diet until your stomach growls…”

  ***

  “Another please,” Dario said, sliding an empty mug and another white pearl over the counter. The pearl slotted into a shallow groove in the worn wooden countertop and his eyes tracked it as it rolled down the path, disappearing behind the counter to clink into a crystal jar that was out of sight and out of reach.

  When another full mug arrived, he took a big swallow of the ale and let out a sigh.

  “You look like you might not be having the best day.”

  The woman sitting to his left was giving him a friendly smile, hand on a mug of her own.

  “Mm,” he grunted. “Just fed up with this floor. Or part of it, at least. Feels like it’s just filled with knuckleheads who are obsessed with training their bodies.”

  She chuckled. “That it is. At least most of them are friendly. You a cultivator?” He nodded. “Well then at least you can get out of town and enjoy some of nature. For us normal folk it’s far too dangerous and too costly to hire protection.”

  “I guess. Hadn’t really thought of that. What do you all do for fun around here then?”

  “This,” she said, tapping her mug with a grin. “Or watching a tournament.”

  “What kind of tournament? Lifting weights?” He snorted, easily imagining a bunch of the muscular idiots cheering each other on as they picked up heavy weights. It’s basically what they did on a daily basis anyway, tournament or no.

  “There are those, too, but the exciting ones are where they fight each other. I’m surprised you haven’t seen any. Should be at least a dozen arenas in the city proper, with several fights taking place every day. I think it’s part of a recruiting thing? You know, where important clans and sects watch the fights to scout out talents. Anyway, most of them are free to watch.”

  “They fight each other just in hopes of getting spotted by a talent scout?”

  “There are prizes for the winners too, of course. Some of them are pretty nice from what I hear. Pills, pearls, artefacts, you name it.”

  “Treasure?” Dario’s eyes lit up for a moment, but then he sighed, leaning heavily on the countertop as he took a drink of his ale. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t have time to be messing around with tournaments anyway. If I don’t find any workable shortcuts soon, I’ll have to start actually training. Tenjin save me. Is this how normal people turn into knuckleheads?”

  She chuckled. “I wouldn’t know about anything cultivation related. Pills won’t do the trick? Some fancy ones out there these days.”

  “None that I’ve come across. They’re full of crap, anyway.”

  “Have you tried The Alchemist? Best pillmonger in the entire city, apparently. Friendly type, too. He used to live around here, but I haven’t seen him in the last months, come to think of it. He’s been holed up in some workshop, I think. Anyway, he had a clever way of thinking about things, from what I heard. Came up with a bunch of new inventions.”

  He pursed his lips, tapping his mug as he thought about that. There was some stuff around getting to Coral which smelled of a possible shortcut, but he was having trouble connecting the dots. Just getting the body fit enough wouldn’t do the trick, but did that mean it didn’t matter at all? Then there was the part about training with Ki being a critical aspect. It was good to know, and it sounded promising, but what did that actually achieve? As long as he didn’t know the destination, it was impossible to come up with ideas for a shortcut.

  He was doubtful that this Alchemist would have any pills that would just pop him into Coral, but if he was smart and knowledgeable… He might be worth a visit.

  He took another big swallow of ale, then smacked his cup down on the counter. “Alright, where can I find this guy?”

  ***

  When he stumbled back into his room with a belly full of ale, he found it hard to sleep. The bed was too soft and his head was spinning, feeling like the walls were closing in on him. He ended up unpacking his hammock and setting it up in a small courtyard where he could look up to the crystal ceiling like he used to. It seemed much higher here, further away than it had ever been in the Basement.

  The next day, he was still in his hammock when Nika walked in through the one door that led into it. Her lips thinned as she took in the scene; two elegant thin trees that stood in planters, breaking up the textured light brown walls in a way that was beautiful in its simplicity. But under his weight, those trees were bent, their green tops curving towards each other.

  “There you are! Have you been hiding from me?”

  Dario snorted. “If I were actually hiding, you wouldn’t find me just by walking into a random courtyard.”

  He was bouncing two little balls against the wall, one with each hand, while increasing the amount of light Ki he was putting into his arms. He could already handle quite a bit more energy than just a week ago without slapping himself. Nika was watching him through narrowed eyes.

  “Is this some new form of training you’ve devised?”

  “Yep. The best kind! It can be done from the hammock, see?”

  “I can see that, yes. But this won’t bring you a step closer to reaching Coral.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not giving up on the shortcuts yet. There’s one more trail to follow. Actually, I should probably get started on that,” he said, pushing himself out of the hammock with a groan.

  She sighed. “Dario, are you really going to waste more time on this? We’ve come a long way and… well, it would be regrettable to have to leave you behind.”

  His eyebrows lifted and he grinned at her. “Veronika of the Houjo clan, are you going soft on me?” Her expression darkened, so he decided to throw her a bone, speaking more confidently than he felt. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll find something. My path will be different - shorter - than the usual one, but with the same results!”

  “You expect me to believe that you can do better than the accumulated experience of thousands of cultivators through the ages? What, precisely, is your plan?”

  “Well, I don’t exactly have one yet. I’m still in the, uh, information gathering phase.”

  She frowned. “Can we agree on some time limit, at least, so you don’t squander an entire month? If, say, after a week you still have no inkling of a plan, you’ll start training?

  He grunted noncommittally. “So what are you up to these days, anyway? Just training?”

  “Actually, if you must know, I have been invited to a gala at the Hashira fortress later this evening, along with the other nobles. It will be an excellent opportunity to strengthen existing bonds and forge new alliances.”

  “Making friends with the other nobles? That’s a change from beating up old monsters, huh? Maybe try to, uh… loosen up a bit?”

  “Thank you for your concern, but I know how to handle my fellow nobles. A certain measure of formality is required. I would not presume to tell you how to speak with… the denizens of the Belt.”

  He chuckled. “There’s a lot more cursing, I can tell you that much.”

  “I assumed. Oh, by the way, this may go without saying, but you should be careful to keep a low profile.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The Ashikaga likely still have it out for you, but some others may be watching more closely, too. Every time some new type of element or rare ability shows up, we’re forced to adapt. At the Ascension, you showed off your light abilities for all to see, and the cautious ones will already be considering the threat involved. If it were me in their stead… Well, I’d be reviewing which artefacts and techniques would counter a cultivator who can bend light to their will. Nobles are quite protective of their secrets.”

  “Huh.” Dario shrugged. “Well, I’m not dealing with any Great Clans, just some smaller sects.”

  As she left for training, he watched her back, hesitating before going off to find the Alchemist. No matter what she thought, talking to people was not her strong suit, and neither was making friends. She was going to need help.

  Not that she would ever admit it. She’d almost definitely say no if he asked her. But after she’d been so kind to let him crash in this fancy place and even went so far as to give him a fat bag of pearls, how could he let her down in her time of need?