Trevor didn't know anything about the intricacies of cave maturation, and only had a smattering of knowledge of the ins and outs of bodybuilding. Lofty ambitions and strict routines weren't his style. His workouts were limited to lazy cardio sessions, and most of his stones came from half-hearted jobs in the underground. He wasn't a bodybuilder, so a windfall of mass wouldn't go toward sculpting his physique.
He had other ideas for how to use it.
Trevor only wanted one thing: a life of leisure. A world where every need was met without him lifting a finger. With enough mass, that dream could become a reality. The thought of death was scary, sure, but life in the underground was already a gamble, uncertain at best. When the risk of death came with the promise of great fortune, there was only one question he needed to ask.
"How rich are we talking here?" Trevor's eyes lit up, sparkling with hope.
"Rich enough to make it worth your effort to help me claim this cave as our own," Ged said bluntly. "If you're willing to assist me and keep this a secret between us, I'll bump your share up by 10%."
"Thirty percent for me?" Trevor couldn't believe Ged's generosity. In cave discovery and spelunking, the usual split was 20-80%.
"Absolutely, I wouldn't dare tell a soul." Trevor swore over his heart. "But be specific... tell me just how much we are looking to bag? I need to know."
"1,000 kilos on the low end, maybe 1,500 if we are lucky," Ged said, holding his chin in thought as he gazed into the mouth of the cave.
Trevor's excitement dimmed, his shoulders slumping in disappointment. A thousand kilos was far from the wealth he'd dreamed of. Still, it was enough to keep him afloat for months. He shouldn't be ungrateful, but the promise of unimaginable riches was hard to let go of.
"Only so much?" Trevor muttered, his voice barely audible.
Ged snapped a sharp, cold gaze at Trevor, freezing him in place.
"No, it's good! I'm not backing out!" Trevor stammered, his words tumbling over each other as if trying to outrun Ged's unspoken warning to rein in his greed.
Turning his attention back to the cave, Ged crouched and picked up a stone. He began making a list of items he would need to accelerate the cave's maturation. Placing his finger on the top of the stone, a thin, shimmering string extended from his joint, moving fluidly under Ged's control as it traced a precise line between the top and bottom of the cave.
This invisible line was known as a Soul Sprout.
To control larger amounts of mass, a bodybuilder requires an equally sized soul. However, the soul is confined to the body's shape and cannot grow beyond it through normal means. Growing the body first and then the soul is a slow and dangerous process. Prolonged misalignment can lead to a painful and potentially fatal condition called Body Rot.
This challenge gave rise to the ingenuity of Soul Sprouting. By exploiting the growth plates in an adolescent body and following a precise stretching routine, an up-and-coming bodybuilder can push their soul out through one or more joints. The soul then sprouts outside the body in strand-like forms, resembling insect antennae. This method allows the soul to outpace the body's growth, removing the risk of Body Rot.
At this moment, Ged was using his Soul Sprout as a ruler to measure the length of the cave.
Walking deeper into the cave, he picked up a few of the Eagle Spawn and began to study their features.
The Eagle Spawn clung to his legs, their twisted bodies like broken toys. Missing limbs, malformed mouths, and useless appendages made them both grotesque and pitiable.
Like humans, the hundred years of Blue Rain had left them unable to form functional bodies, cursing them with their broken forms. To properly mature this cave, Ged needed to rear them carefully, ensuring they could grow and survive.
One day he would need them to become a threat large enough that the planet is forced to retract its poison in fear of it causing more damage to it.
After measuring more of the cave's interior, Ged stepped outside, kicking away the clinging Eagle Spawn as he went.
Having finished his list, he turned to Trevor and asked curtly, "Do you have any Eagle Paint by chance?"
"No," Trevor said, shaking his head. "But my home's Paint should hold out for another week before I need to replace it."
"I don't mean for home maintenance," Ged replied, glancing thoughtfully at the cave entrance. "Your room's a little stuffy. I think we should expand it."
Trevor stared at the Eagle Spawn with a solemn look. "You can't expect me to live with those creepy things."
"Don't worry," Ged said with a grin. "You won't be living alone. I'll stay here too. I'll make sure you don't lose too much sleep."
Trevor opened his mouth to protest but Ged cut him off before he could speak.
"It can't be helped. This cave is too important. When it comes to riches, sacrifices must be made," Ged said, his tone firm. He pulled 25 kg from his abs and handed it to Trevor. "Go pick up a thumb of Paint from the Elpida Strip," Ged commanded. "I'll see what I can find to speed up the cave's maturation."
Trevor groaned as he accepted the 25 kg, his hidden tears threatening to surface. He wasn't sure what kind of sacrifices Ged had in mind, but he already regretted agreeing to this. Sharing a roof with his boss? Living alongside those creepy things? The thought made him shiver at the unpaid labor he was certain lay ahead.
Praying for mercy, Trevor trailed behind Ged as they approached the home's entrance.
They paused briefly to authenticate Ged's tattoo, granting him access to the house, before parting ways. Trevor headed toward the Elpida Strip, while Ged focused on the stone map, scanning the cave leads he'd received from the depot.
The map contained a list of resonant coordinates and the last known directions they had shifted.
By syncing the resonance of their own cores with the rhythmic pulse of the planet's core, bodybuilders could pinpoint specific underground locations. This system allowed them to navigate the ever-changing natural cave networks, where tunnels constantly formed and collapsed in unpredictable ways. Mapping them precisely was nearly impossible, and the list Ged carried represented only a fraction of the caves scattered across Elpida. Even so, not all of them would yield results.
But Ged didn't need groundbreaking discoveries. A single cave that hadn't been completely cleared would make the trip worthwhile.
Activating his muscle ability, "Goat Walk," Ged launched into motion. His legs moved with precision and power, propelling him toward the nearest coordinate, 50 kilometers away. Periodically, he sent pulses of resonance into the ground, fine-tuning his path as he pushed forward with blistering speed.
Using his muscle ability, "Digging Hands," Ged made his first attempt to locate where the cave system had shifted. He dug a hole spanning the size of a football field, only to come up empty-handed.
Frowning, he dug his way back to the surface. Trying again in other potential spots and still finding nothing he could only sigh.
It seemed the cave he was searching for had either been cleared and reabsorbed by the planet or lost entirely.
Crossing it off his list, Ged moved on to the next lead. This one, only 25 kilometers away, yielded better results. After drilling down twenty or so meters, he arrived in a dark, cramped space.
Channeling body heat into the flashlight Trevor had given him, Ged lit up the cavern. Mossy walls glistened in the dim light, damp Eagle Spawn clinging to the surfaces and feeding hungrily on the growth.
Examining the moss, Ged muttered to himself, "This might work…"
For cave maturation, one factor outweighed all others: fiercely reared Eagle Spawn. The hungrier and more agitated they were, the faster the planet would detect the cave as a threat—and the quicker it would retract its poison.
Ged needed the Eagle Spawn at Trevor's home to raise hell against the planet while ensuring they didn't die off prematurely. It was a delicate balance, requiring adjustments to the Eagle Spawn themselves or the environment they inhabited.
The moss in this cave was itchy to the touch, irritating the skin on contact. Many rows had already been stripped from the walls, making the cave seem like a dud to most. But for those rearing Eagle Spawn, it was a decent find.
Ged stored the moss in his abs, recorded the cave's location in the leads, and moved on to check the next few caves. After encountering a couple of duds, he finally arrived at another promising site.
As soon as he drilled down, he fell into a large cavern. A heavy hand slammed into his body, catching Ged off guard and knocking him backward.
"Damn," he muttered, scrambling to grab his flashlight. He channeled heat into it, illuminating the creature that had struck him.
A towering, faceless mushroom loomed in front of him, its body shredded where spelunkers had carved out chunks of unpoisoned mass. Its four legs and long arms moved purposefully, tracing Ged's movements through resonance, sensing where he stood from vibrations in the ground.
Bang!
The mushroom swung again, missing by inches as its massive hand displaced stones in its wake.
Ged dodged with Goat Walk, his movements sharp and precise. He massaged his numb arm with heated fingers, surveying the creature. How had something this violent not already been cleared? Creatures like this were usually among the first to be harvested as the planet purged its poison.
But considering the state of its body and the cave's size, Ged was quick to piece things together.
"It seems that you're a useless dud. Unlucky me," he sneered, brandishing the sharp nub of rock from his "stalactite sword" muscle ability. This creature had been reared years ago, but it had never become a true threat to the planet. Instead, it harbored a deep hatred for bodybuilders, its body saturated with planetary poison.
Ged moved closer, taking the offensive. His sword slashed in sharp, clawing motions, severing one of the mushroom's legs. The creature roared, swinging wildly, but Ged hopped back, letting the blow hit nothing but air.
"Bastard," he muttered, his tone dripping with derision.
Silver core energy leaked from its wound, and the mushroom grew more furious. It leveraged its long arms and nimble legs to keep its distance, landing heavy blows when Ged approached. His short blade made striking difficult, forcing him to miss several swings. Ged frowned.
No choice, he thought. Gritting his teeth, he closed the distance, taking the mushroom's blows head-on. With each strike he endured, he swung back with precision, chopping off both its arms.
The mushroom backpedaled, dread seeming to shadow its massive body. But it couldn't move far enough.
With a final sweep of his stalactite sword, Ged severed the creature's remaining three legs. They fell to the cavern floor with a heavy thud.
"It didn't have to be this way," Ged muttered, massaging the bruises covering his body.
"If you had focused your aggression on the planet, you might have served a purpose. How pitiable." Ged picked up a pair of mushroom legs and stored them in his abs.
Sighing, he added, "Die suffering." The mushroom's body writhed on the ground, its movements jerky and pained, as Ged collected and stored the rest of its limbs.
He stood over the creature for a moment, his expression solemn. With a final slice, he ended its suffering, granting it a semblance of peace.
Kneeling by the corpse, Ged examined its remains, searching for unpoisoned flesh. After careful cuts, he retrieved 1.5 kilograms of usable material. Though a far cry from its hulking 40-kilogram mass, it was better than nothing.
Ged continued spelunking until the last light disappeared beyond the horizon.
In four hours, he had visited 15 locations, but only four yielded anything worthwhile. As night fell, Ged decided to head back after digging up his final dud cave.
His abs packed with goods, he began the 80-kilometer journey home under the stars.
When he finally arrived at his doorstep, the flashing red glow of a handprint spotlight greeted him, casting an eerie hue across the rocky surface.
"Equalizers..." Ged frowned. "What could they possibly want now?"
Approaching cautiously, he retrieved the Equalizers' messaging rock and activated it.
The image of his estranged brother, Wattkinz, materialized in his mind, his massive frame and menacing, gravelly voice filling Ged's thoughts.
"Hello, brother," Wattkinz sneered. "It was nice talking to you yesterday. I had hoped to catch you in person, but it seems you had other plans."
His voice turned colder. "As I'm sure you're aware, your birthday is just around the corner. I thought it fitting to celebrate this occasion by seeing just how much you've grown over these eighteen years."
Wattkinz chuckled as his image faded, replaced by bold red text that seemed to sear itself onto Ged's body like a tattoo: Mandatory physique inspection and on-sight arrest for suspected underground bodybuilder Ged, ordered directly by the Equalizers' head office.
Ged's veins bulged as he crushed the handprint rock in his grip, his jaw tight with frustration.
"Another problem to deal with," he muttered, his mind racing. With his physique far exceeding the kilogram limit for regular civilians, he would need a plan to avoid the Equalizers' watchful eyes.