A good period of solitude and rest was quite pleasing to Anton, but he didn't want to be alone all the time. However, he did want to continue with his experimental long distance planting business. It was an entertaining way to train, while also building up skills he might want to use in the future. Or not. The fact that he didn't actually have to care was comforting.

His growth was slow but steady. It was difficult to ascend to a new tier of archery skills with so few peers. Most people who tried to follow his path quit, not because there was no guidance for them but because it was his path. Nthanda had grown under his tutorship, but she was nothing like his style. Alva wasn't either. Of all of his students, only Three Squeaks really practiced Horizon Shot. At a certain level of power, it was a completely unnecessary technique for distance, as planetary distances became 'close range'. So far, nobody had achieved Realm Shot in any practical capacity. Not that they would need to- anyone else could simply take a ship closer. Practical solutions were best.

As for resolving potential loneliness, there was an easy solution. Bear Hug was always happy to join up with Anton, though it did take Bear Hug a while to arrive. It was approximately as fast for Bear Hug to travel under their own power as it was for Anton to pick them up and return, so he just had to wait a few months.

At one point in his life, a journey of a few months would have covered a country or two, depending on the particulars of the arrangement. Anton couldn't say he felt any further from home. His perspective had grown with his power and speed. The only difference was fewer neighbors, like being out in the wilderness.

"What are we doing?" Bear Hug asked.

"That information was in the message, you know," Anton commented.

"I didn't read it all! Oh no, was I supposed to bring something? Do we need cake?"

Anton raised an eyebrow. "Would you have brought cake?"

"If you needed it. I don't think you need cake, though. It's not your birthday. Probably."

"I have not celebrated my birthday since… long before you existed." The Alliance kept track of it, though. He wasn't going to stop other people from caring about it, but he felt it was fine to check in approximately every century. Once you hit a hundred, what was another?

"Is cake good?"

"It's full of fat and sugar. They are quite tasty." Anton didn't have a good way to explain what it was like without giving a false impression. The only things Bear Hug consumed were sunlight and more or less pure nutrients. Unless there was impure water, but that didn't fit the right idea.

"Cake is good, then. That's probably why humans still make it!"

Anton grinned. "Well, everyone has different tastes. But yes, every food we make is liked by someone. Ultimately, I intend to get back to farming."

"Hmm." Bear Hug's energy spread around. "Here? It's gonna be tough. I don't have any gas giant compatible seeds. I might have some with space roots, though?"

In short, the current system had no terrestrial planets to work with. Space roots worked more or less like air roots, but the plants had to deal with far less of… anything, really. Sometimes they appeared in orbits around planets or directly around a star. The latter sort were quite stable once they were in place, as they had a constant output. However, the lack of rest cycles limited the variety they could achieve. Often, they were large sheets or even algae like structures, trying to catch anything moving through to help build up their physical makeup- over a long period of time.

"We might add some of those," Anton said. "But I am planning to send seeds into the upper realms, across the border." As for Anton's backup seeds, they were grown in a nearby system- at least for those varieties that could grow under the influence of both upper and lower energy.

"Oh. I can do that!" Bear Hug said. "Won't they burn up on reentry, though? I think even space seeds will shrivel up after decades without natural energy."

Anton nodded. "Indeed, I've had to hold some native seeds. But I can get them there much quicker."

"So what's my job?"

"To provide moral support, I suppose."

"I can plant some!" Bear Hug said. "It'll take a while though. The Swirling Swarm isn't in the way anymore but I'm not sure if I could get past all the other stuff easily. I'll tell people it's for you."

"Well, it's just a hobby right now," Anton said. "Not a critical mission, or I would have requested aid myself. If you want to, though, you can bring some seeds."

"I have tons on Second Gift! And… they're all the wrong kind." Bear Hug deflated. "But I can get more!"

"We can talk about what kind you're picking out as you get them," Anton said. "I'm looking to begin a reseeding process on a number of planets. I can show you the basic parameters."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Okay. I'll do what you say. I'm sure once I get there I can figure it all out, though."

Indeed. Just because Bear Hug was plant adjacent didn't mean they were a genius farmer. Ultimately, all of their understanding had to be worked for. The main benefit Bear Hug had was an accurate sense of ambient conditions, so they could make good choices once on the scene. Anton still had more experience, though, so as long as he could sense the planets through a yearly cycle he could make a solid plan.

Anton took a few shots.

"Wow! Look at those go!" Bear Hug was very enthusiastic. "You're gonna make a lot of tall trees, huh?"

"Most of them likely won't germinate, due to various reasons," Anton said. "And these will only cover a small area."

Bear Hug made waving motions as Anton continued to fire seed-laden arrows into the upper realms. It was actually quite motivating.

-----

"I probably should have read that first message," Bear Hug said. "I would have already arrived a while ago with cool seeds! But I'm there now."

"Indeed," Anton said. Bear Hug's presence across the border made Anton almost redundant, but many hands made light work. Even if Bear Hug would be more efficient, until they started multiplying into new bodies Anton would still make up a significant percentage of the work. And he could poke and prod at a number of different systems at once more easily.

"This building is in the way!" Bear Hug commented- speaking from next to Anton, of course. Anton could vaguely make out Bear Hug's actions at a distance, though it would have been far too much effort to detect energy sign properly. "I can knock it down, right?"

"Let me see… that one you're pressing against up there? Yes, that should be fine. It's already unsteady, so they'd have to tear it down anyway."

"Okay! I'm turning it back into dirt now!"

Bear Hug did indeed turn it into dirt… or at least very small pieces of rubble. It might not be good soil, but that was what happened when you took humans' stone or wood construction and broke it down. They could eventually convert it, and some plants liked that sort of roughness.

Bear Hug's participation had been going on for a few months after their upper realms arrival when Anton noticed some curious onlookers. Specifically, it was a group from the Shrieking Spirit Sect hovering around the closest system to them. He had been throwing some stuff into that area occasionally, so it wasn't strange that they would have noticed.

He did it again so that they could watch, his arrow's path being unnecessarily circuitous to come around past them from the 'east' instead of moving straight in from the 'south'. They were all rightfully startled as his energy passed them by, but it wasn't that close. Not even close enough to harm them if he detonated it.

They eventually followed the trail of his seeds after a few more shots, curious. They had also experienced his more aggressive actions against the Swirling Swarm- every member of the sect witnessed it. It was likely difficult for them to forget, but that also meant they should feel how different his current actions were.

At some point they stopped and tried to communicate with him- he felt some of their auras reaching out for his energy. However, it was a lot of effort to talk, so Anton just sent Bear Hug over. It took a few days, but it was worth it for their reactions.

"They jumped like this!" Bear Hug said with exaggerated motions. Anton had been observing the group, so he did feel it was mostly accurate. "I don't think they expected me to talk. I said I was your friend and that we're planting stuff." Bear Hug paused. "They want to know if they can help."

"We'll ask them what they want. Most likely, they'll be taking over that system and maybe some neighbors."

"One of them said spiritual herbs. Then the rest of them backpedaled. They seem afraid."

"Remind them that we aren't angry," Anton suggested. "Also, we'll have to explain to them how much a vibrant ecosystem can do for cultivation growth. They say that many of our grains are better than spiritual herbs."

"Are they?" Bear Hug asked. How clever.

"Not better than the spiritual herbs we produce, no. Because those will always be more concentrated in terms of energy. But certainly better than the standards we have observed previously. Even with the general idea spreading, most of our neighbors aren't taking it far enough to get proper results."

Bear Hug 'nodded' vigorously. "I know what you mean. You have to spend a whoooole lot of energy making things grow big and strong before you can start taking energy away. Otherwise, you're making things harder for yourself."

It was a matter of decades with free flowing energy to build up proper systems. Even if what could be harvested filled cultivators, for a number of iterations they got less out than they put in, until it passed the tipping point. It never went truly limitless- there were restrictions on size and soil quality, after all. Plus the maximum energy saturation of air itself. However, the Alliance had invested into their growth early- first in the Lower Realms, and that led to sending strong Ascension cultivators into the upper realms to supplement their normal development.

The overall philosophy of maximum effort along every step of the way resulted in faster growth of cultivators and better equipment overall. Every area of life was better, from necessities to war to entertainment and education. Alternatively… cultivators could try to boost their personal growth as early as possible, committing to a cycle of violence required to maintain ever-growing needs. That worked, for individual cultivators. Sometimes. Others were devastated. Ultimately, it slowed down the whole system.

It wasn't an Alliance secret, though the precise details weren't simply distributed to their enemies. They didn't need to build up their foes any more than necessary. Besides, some of the details required technology they also weren't willing to share. Not that they were hoarding things for themselves. It was fairly easy to meet their requirements as trade partners or allies… Or at least Anton thought it should have been.

Currently, in the upper realms, he only knew of simple trade with a small part of the great powers- nothing on the level of full friendliness. There had been the people of the Chaotic Conglomeration, but the Little Alliance broke off of the Chaotic Conglomeration quite some time back and fully became part of the Scarlet Alliance. There were intermediate positions they could be in. Not all of them required being watched over by void ant spies. None of them involved people widely aware of void ant spies.

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