Depthless Hunger

Chapter 52: The Crossroad of Frontier Travelers

As Kai traveled, he realized just how right Aglahai had been. Away from the major cities with strong Hunters Guilds, there simply weren't many communities so close to the central wastes. In another week of traveling he only saw a single town, a small fortified community alongside a major road, and he decided to stay away from it in case his banishment applied there as well.

With the lessons that Aglahai had taught him, Kai was more prepared to survive than he had expected. Cooking the poison out of monsters was a revelation... a disgusting, jaw-wearying revelation. Kai began conserving the food Juray had given him just so he could get rid of the taste in his mouth when he got really desperate.

Unfortunately, even fighting monsters and braving the elements had failed to raise his Physique or Soul Level. He really was feeling like he was pushing up against limits, not of spiritual laws but of his environment. The sooner he reached the crossroads, the better.

In the absence of direct strengthening, he focused mostly on his technique, particularly his spiritual sight. He worked on the subtlety exercises he remembered, then on the rare occasions he passed someone in the wasteland he tried to observe without them realizing. No luck so far, but he was fairly sure he was getting closer.

The real breakthrough had come with monsters. Now, whenever he spotted one, his spiritual sight resolved into something meaningful. Usually a name, if he had read about the monster or was familiar with it, but most importantly a rating. For most of his life, ranks like "alpha" and "beta" had just been ideas thrown around by hunters. Now he understood that monster souls were too radically different from humans, so they needed a different approach to be ranked.

Weak alpha monsters ranged from monkeys and bats to the ruined dogs, which were substantially different to a young hunter but all trivial for him now. When he'd spotted a boar, the symbol looked like a beta, but it wriggled toward alpha at times. He guessed that the tiers weren't as objectively differentiated as with human souls, or perhaps his sight couldn't pin them down.

While gathering water near a river, he'd fought one of the oblong mouth creatures he'd only seen in the monster pit, and it was unambiguously ranked beta. So far Kai had yet to encounter a single monster ranked gamma, even though that had to be the logical next step. Given how rapidly their rankings increased, that boded ill for how high the scale could go.

If only he'd been able to deepen his spiritual sight sooner. He was deeply curious about what some of the rarer monsters he'd faced would have been rated, especially those infected by the Frontier.

Butchering and overcooking the monsters became second-nature, but they led to another problem: the monster cores. Kai had been collecting them all, unable to leave resources behind. Problem was, they were made of meat and even their intrinsic mana couldn't sustain them forever. He was afraid that they would begin to go bad soon, especially in the heat. Aglahai hadn't been able to share any tricks for that, and in fact had implied that most monster cores far out in the wastelands were wasted with no one to crystallize them.

Just when Kai was beginning to think that his life would be nothing but monsters and wasteland forever, he spotted another column of black smoke.

No, two... except even that estimate was too low. As Kai ran closer, the column divided into no less than four channels of thick smoke. It seemed like they formed the corners of a community that was clearly larger than the previous ones he'd seen. It had to be the waypoint.

"Hail, stranger." The voice came from a man only about five years older than him, riding on some sort of... cloud? Kai hadn't seen anything like it before and tried not to stare.

"Just passing through," Kai said, restraining his senses. "I have gold, cores, and some potions. You offer anything to strangers?"

"We're not a bunch of paranoiacs here." The cloud-riding man grinned at him and then drew a lance out of some spatial magic device to point toward the area. "Don't fuck with the pits, and don't take more than you're due from the pool. A little eyeballing is okay, just don't be unreasonable. You do that, you'll fit right in here."

"Got it."

As the man floated away, Kai tried his new technique. Instead of focusing his sight through mana, he just barely brushed his senses over the other man's soul. The result was a vague impression instead of a detailed set of symbols. There was no sign that the guard noticed, though that didn't prove anything.

Anyway, the guard had a Power rating of over 60, and most of the other people who Kai examined were around 50. Instead of suspicious clusters, most seemed to be traveling alone. Near the center, furthest away from all four smoke pits, he could see a number of stone buildings that looked like they were actually staffed, maybe even a bar. This place suited him a lot more than the previous community.

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Just as he'd hoped, the waypoint wasn't clusters of Goralians hating one another. There were multiple Irunians, generally the only ones moving in groups, some with entire suits of liquid metal armor. Warriors from the Krysal City States bearing crystal weapons. Even occasional hair flowing like the Elemental Nations.

He was hoping to run into someone from another continent, to get entirely outside the world he knew, but no one looked so obviously foreign. Then again, there were so many different people that he couldn't be sure. Monskon City had always seemed cosmopolitan to him and compared to this place it was as familiar as a provincial village.

When he spotted a dark-skinned man with an intensely powerful crystal around his neck and a large sapphire sword across his back, Kai decided that he absolutely had to use his spiritual sight, just briefly.

Name: ???

Total Power: 62

Crystal Cultivation: 850 (35)

Physique Level: G-8 (18)

Soul Level: 3 (9)

>

Some parts of the man's soul were familiar, but his central aspect was entirely new to Kai. Instead of anything like a Class, he had something called Crystal Cultivation. Kai was shocked by how high the first number was - what could it be, literally the number of crystals the man had condensed into his necklace? However it worked, it formed the core of his strength, just like a Class usually did for Goralians.

That aside, Kai really wanted to spar with the man, just to see what his crystal could do. He heard stories about the strength of their weapons and their ability to manifest armor. Allegedly some could even fly atop their crystals, though he was skeptical about that. Too bad there was no way to ask for a simple sparring match without getting into trouble.

He made his way to the center and was distracted by a pool of mana. It wasn't anywhere near as intense as the one that had awakened his Class, but more valuable than simple water. Since the guard had implied that everyone could take a little from the common source, Kai drank his fill and then filled his empty bottles. Better to have it than nothing.

While he was trying to decide if it was worth going to the bar, someone else caught his attention. A woman of about thirty had flowing blue hair from the Elemental Nations and dressed in swathes of fabric that seemed to flow with living colors. His first impression was that her strength was above 100, so he fully opened his spiritual sight, only to see:

Shroud of Water

>

Immediately her gaze flicked to him and he felt her strength pass over him. He'd shut down his senses automatically, so she just turned away without expression. As much as he wanted to push further, he suspected he was already at the bounds of politeness.

All the strongest hunters he'd met had their strength obscured to him, but he'd never gotten such clear symbols when he tried to examine them. He could only wonder if they used a different shrouding technique or if there were two different phenomena at play. That actually might be a useful skill, if it could stop people from seeing his Laborer Class and judging him accordingly.

As much as Kai enjoyed observing so many other travelers, he soon began to realize how isolated the community was. He might have become friends with any of the people he passed, but he would never find out. Talking to anyone or pushing for information would only make him seem suspicious, and he couldn't afford to ruin the one community that had accepted him so far.

Once he reached the center, he was at least able to conduct business. He sold off all of his monster cores for less than he would have gotten at Monskon City, though he thought the price was reasonable given their isolation. The food sold at the tavern was expensive for the simple fare, but not as exorbitant as earlier and it tasted wonderful to eat something other than monster. Now, if only he could find someone who sold supplies, maybe he wouldn't have to sleep on the rocks any longer. Surely eight hundred Goralian Eagles would go reasonably far even in a place like this.

"Excuse me?" A soft voice interrupted the last of his meal and he looked up, then stared.

The woman standing beside his table was absolutely gorgeous. Long silvery blond hair cascaded around her shoulders, not quite hiding pointed ears. A crimson dress wrapped around her like a second skin, dropping sharply off her shoulders to bare impressive breasts. Yet it was cinched at the waist by an entirely practical belt holding both potions and strange silver rods he didn't recognize. Her dress fell almost to the floor with slits up the side that flashed hints of long legs.

Before Juray, Kai might have been entirely tongue-tied. The sight of the woman made him miss Juray but also awakened hungers he'd been forcing down. He forcibly swallowed his desire and tried to speak in an even voice. "What do you need?"

"I think we might be able to help one another. You see, my strength has hit a barrier I can't break through without some help. If I could just take a better look at you... well, I think we might be compatible."

"Go ahead." Since looking at her physically was distracting, Kai was glad to switch to his spiritual eyes.

Name: ???

Total Power: 89

Silver Courtesan: 9 (50)

Physique Level: F-0 (30)

Soul Level: 3 (9)

>

Not only was her fundamental nature something called a "Silver Courtesan," her power felt different from anything he'd felt before. Not mana or qi like Zae Zin Nim had talked about, something more raw. Whatever it was, she clearly had considerable experience with it.

Meanwhile, her spiritual senses swept over him like a heavy rain. She reached down with an elegant arm and touched his chin, turning his head left and then right. Whatever she saw, it made her smile just enough to show a flash of teeth.

"Yes, I think this could work nicely. I have a proposal for you, then. If you help me break through my current barrier, I'll be able to increase your strength significantly. The two are more intertwined than you might think."

"How can that be?" When her hand pulled back, he could still feel her touch on his cheek. "You should know I don't have anything special."

"No, I specifically want this... 'Laborer' is it?"

"My Class? But it's a worthless one. It's already hit its peak."

"Oh, no no no." The woman slid down into the chair opposite him, her smile broadening. "Your problem is that you're thinking of your soul as a Class from this little continent, when in fact it's something quite different. We really need to talk."

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