Shimmering reflections reminded Ursel that the ingot of tempered Mountain Steel was still undamaged. It was tempting to continue her efforts with brute force, and maybe if she was successful in that regard it would be good enough. She had to be able to learn a technique that could damage a completely still target, no matter how durable. That could be one way to surpass the training.

But what was the point of having a new, powerful totem if she didn’t use it? And she was quite capable of that, at least when considering anything else. Even if she were attacking Master Renato himself as long as she could break through his energy defenses, she could maneuver roots around his armor. But there were no cracks and flaws in this perfect ingot to exploit. It just was, as if it had always been. Logically she knew that it had been made, but she couldn’t find evidence of that.

She needed a crack or a divot or something. On a smaller level, her roots worked on living enemies because they were permeable by energy. That was technically true of the Mountain Steel. She could pass earth elemental energy through it- she just couldn’t form it into something inside. Living things had all sorts of gaps in their bodies, between organs and bones and muscles. Plenty of space to manifest something and take advantage of the pushing forces of roots. Even the individual bones and organs themselves had pores she could take advantage of, eventually. For the moment, she didn’t consciously choose how the roots grew, they just sought out where they could likely cause the most damage. But perhaps she would have to control the finer details eventually.

Ursel continued banging her head against the wall- sometimes literally- for weeks. Complaining to Master Renato wouldn’t do her any good, and there weren’t really many others she expected to be able to explain things to her. She could ask for an explanation from him, but that felt like giving up.

On the other hand, her father only had a single earth totem… but he did know all sorts of weird things. And if nothing else, he would listen to her complaints. Ursel could also go to her sister, but Melanthina was weird lately along with being busy with clan stuff and Ursel didn’t really think she would get heard properly.

Since she wasn’t making any progress, spending a couple days traveling back and forth was a good use of her time. And maybe she would stay a bit longer… though it was awkward to be around the Tenebach clan. Aydan’s injuries were at least partly her fault.

-----

Though as the current leader of the Tenebach clan John found himself with many duties to attend to, he could always make time for his children. Especially if that time was being used for questions on cultivation- because that was one of the most important things either of them could be doing.

Ursel held out a metal ingot. “I can’t damage it.”

“Okay,” John said, reaching out to take it. “Let me take a look.” He almost dropped it when it turned out heavier than expected, but his quick reactions allowed him to adjust his grip and use some spiritual energy to protect both his toes and the floor. A very dense metal. “Ah, Mountain Steel is it?” John nodded. “Being difficult to damage is its main function, after all.”

Ursel sighed, taking back the ingot. “Obviously. But this is the task given to me by Master Renato.”

“What’s the problem then?” John asked.

“... I can’t damage it,” Ursel repeated.

“Why not?”

Ursel grit her teeth. “Because I’m not strong enough.”

“Is that so?” John raised an eyebrow. “Because I know you are very strong. What, specifically, is the problem?”

Ursel just threw up her arms, seeming to barely notice the heavy ingot in her hand as she did so. “I can’t smash it! It’s tougher than anything I can smash it with or against so it just makes holes in stuff!”

“Alright,” John nodded. “That’s certainly one problem. In that case, you just need to find something tougher to smash it against. And no, that should not be any of our defensive walls,” John clarified.

Ursel hung her head, “Probably wouldn’t even work.”

“And then?” John asked, waiting. “What other ways have you tried?”

“I tried to bend it,” Ursel demonstrated, “But that just makes my fingers hurt. I wanted to use my new totem to take advantage of gaps and pop it apart but there aren’t any!”

“No gaps, huh?” John nodded, “I suppose you could say that. I’d bet it had some crystal defects though. Beyond that, everything has gaps if you look small enough.”

“How small?” Ursel asked.

“Somewhere like… a billionth of a meter?” John was fairly certain that was somewhere close. “So like the gaps between atoms.”

“What are atoms?” Ursel asked.

“Well they’re…” John realized that this world didn’t really need the concept of atoms, and in some ways it caused more headaches to know about them. The things that spiritual energy could do broke a lot of his understanding on every level of matter. “Atoms are the smallest unit of a thing that make something the material it is.” That was only sort of true, because not everything was a pure element. More were molecules. That would take some explaining, if it mattered. “Beyond that, it’s just components that could become anything.” There were probably some ways that that wasn’t true, but this was just a basic explanation.

“Anything?” Ursel asked. “So if you could break something down into less than an atom, you could make it into anything else?”

“Sure. How much energy do you have?” John asked. “How many trillions of trillions of times are you willing to repeat the process to have a usable amount of stuff?” John grinned. “Atoms- and molecules- are very small.”

“How much is a usable amount of stuff? Like a house?”

“Like a teaspoon full of stuff,” John said.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Not everything does,” John shrugged. “Anyway, I don’t think you’d want to break atoms down one at a time even if you could.” Though it could be useful? On the other hand, it might require a cultivation at the Ascending or Exalted Soul Phases, or even beyond what anyone could actually reach. Just because something could theoretically happen didn’t mean humans could do it. “Anyway, I’m not sure if that’s of practical use to you,” John brought the discussion back around. “If you could find a flaw in the crystal lattice, perhaps you could use your totem to take advantage of that. I’m not sure how easy it would be to work at that size, though.”

Ursel looked down at the ingot in her hand. “This is metal though. Not a crystal.”

“Metals still have a crystal lattice. Uh, let’s see…” John scooped up some nearby dirt. “Nothing I show you will be fully correct because things get weird at small scales. But I can show a useful explanation anyway.” He formed the dirt into seven little spheres with connecting segments in the shape of a cube. “This is one way that you can consider the atoms to connect. Each sphere is an atom, though these connecting sticks aren’t necessarily solid. Or anything, really.”

“I don’t get it,” Ursel said.

“It might not be a good explanation,” John admitted. “This is the sort of thing people can study for decades to come up with what seems like a better and maybe more accurate model.”

“Hmm…” Ursel frowned. “I’m gonna need you to explain it more. How is it like a crystal, again?”

John hoped he could remember enough to give a good explanation. Or recreate that knowledge somehow. He could certainly sense small enough to deal with things on the cellular level, but that was still several orders of magnitude larger than dealing with atoms. He doubted Renato had any of this in mind, but if this somehow made Ursel more effective it wouldn’t matter. And if it didn’t, hopefully it was fun and a good family bonding experience.

-----

When he suggested going inside the leviathan, Tirto hadn’t expected it to be quite so alive. Not the leviathan- they knew that was alive, at least in some sense of the word. There were just a lot more things living inside of it than Tirto expected. At least most of them didn’t seem to be aggressive towards humans.

There weren’t any massive divergences in the ecology from standard deep sea fare. Not very many eyes, which Tirto found reasonable since he wasn’t even using his. If necessary they could pull out a glowstone, but navigating by their energy senses was reasonable enough and wouldn’t make them stick out. The few light sources were usually traps of some sort, and at best they would attract curious creatures.

There were all sorts of eels, some particularly weird fish, crustaceans and all sorts of jellies and squid and other things that seemed to be more tentacles than anything else. A vibrant ecosystem that somehow thrived despite lacking most traditional sources of life. Except chunks of food from above, Tirto supposed.

“... Do you think these things eat the leviathan?” Tirto asked his mother next to him.

“These in particular? No. Something must have tried at some point though.”

For the most part, Tirto was allowed to navigate as it pleased him. As long as his mother didn’t sense any particular danger, he chose paths inwards towards what he presumed was the dantian of the creature, though he could not be certain if it even had one. Either way, it was where the flow of its energy was strongest.

He didn’t make it all that close before he couldn’t withstand the pressure, both of the sea and the energy from the leviathan itself. He presumed he had at least another kilometer he could travel into the creature… but being a couple hundred twisting meters into the creature did allow him to sense more of it. The overwhelming oddness of it all.

He wanted to simply bask in that, taking in its feeling. Hopefully that would allow him to match to a similar totem, one of great strength or great potential.

-----

“So what is the point of these fancy dinners again?” Ursel leaned over to her sister.

“To improve relations with other clans and sects, and to search for an appropriate suitor for myself.”

“Why?” Ursel asked.

“Because the Tenebach clan will need an heir at some point. You don’t need me to explain the process to you, right Ursel?” Melanthina grinned slightly.

“I know how it works!” Ursel grumbled. “I just thought you would…” Ursel drifted off, “I don’t know, you don’t seem to like any of these guys.”

“That would be why this is still ongoing,” Melanthina pointed out. “It could easily be years, or even a decade, before a proper match is found.”

“So what’s a proper match then?”

“I have various standards,” Melanthina explained. “One must have sufficient cultivation talent. There is little that can be done to get around that. I would not wish for my husband to be killed off or to have to hide in the manor forever. Along with that, they have to come from an appropriate sect or clan.”

“What’s ‘appropriate’?” Ursel asked.

“A group we have or wish to have good relations with, of sufficient power. At our current status, dipping any lower than the upper-mid tier of sects would hinder the clan.”

“And someone you like.”

“Well… of course…” Melanthina nodded. “But that’s a more nebulous requirement. Difficult to discern unless I interact with people. Thus, they come to me because I am a fine catch… and they would be marrying into the clan.” Melanthina looked to Ursel as well. “No doubt some people would be interested in you in a similar fashion. Those looking to improve ties with the Order of the Amber Heart.”

“Ugh,” Ursel groaned. “Don’t make me think about that.”

“I’m just saying the truth. You’re a woman of great cultivation talent who will have significant status. Many suitors would be interested.”

“I think I’ll pass,” Ursel said.

“You might change your mind later,” Melanthina shrugged, “But I have a duty to the clan.”

“But do you want to be married?” Ursel asked.

“Of course,” Melanthina said.

“... so who’s the best one here?” Ursel looked around.

“In this batch? Probably Kaleo Kauhane.”

“Oh yeah. Him,” Ursel grimaced.

“Oh?” Melanthina raised an eyebrow.

“I just remembered that he and his sister walked around with… the minimum amount of clothes possible.”

“The Shimmering Islands can be quite warm,” Melanthina shrugged.

“So, if he’s the best candidate… what does he have going for him?”

“Decent cultivation, obviously. The Kauhane clan is a bit on the weaker side of acceptable, but it would tie us more strongly to the Shimmering Islands, improving our alliance’s influence. And I personally quite happen to like what he looks like with his shirt off.”

“But you don’t like him.”

Melanthina shrugged, glad it wasn’t weird for her to hide her conversation with her sister. “Not really. He was just born into his position.”

“So were we,” Ursel pointed out.

“Well… yeah,” Melanthina shrugged. “Anyway, his element matches. It wouldn’t be bad.”

“Oh.” Ursel said. “That’s why.”

“That’s why what?”

“I just expected someone else to be here but he’s not the right element.”

“Who?” Melanthina asked. “One of the Milanovics?”

“... Sure,” Ursel said. “Let’s say that was who I was thinking.”