Depthless Hunger

Chapter 177: Trying to Build on Nothing

A boy named Gundle, a slave barely considered to be worth the expenses of his own life, turned out to be a genius.

Given his history, Kai wasn't generally on good terms with "geniuses" who found that the powers of the world came easily to them. Yet Gundle was so small, and the hacking cough wracked his body so painfully... the fact that he took to acid cultivation like a fish to water didn't feel unfair.

Even with his limited spiritual sight, Gundle had been making progress on his own, basically recreating all kinds of cultivation techniques from base principles. With real spiritual senses and Kai's training, he had been leaping forward on a daily basis. For a while he had been upset that Kai had advanced forms of skills he'd been developing himself, then he'd gotten excited about what he could do with all his new capabilities.

The boy needed a real teacher, someone who understood the theory on a deeper level than Kai. He didn't have the talent or the disposition for that sort of training. One more problem he'd need to figure out.

Whatever acid cultivation truly was, Kai didn't think that it was unknown to the soldiers guarding the acid pits. They wore different armor than the mine guards, dark green silks holding together glass plates. They might protect against the acid pits as a simple precaution, but Kai strongly suspected they were also there to help them put down any uprisings. In this, at least, Krysal was brutally efficient.

After giving Gundle some more exercises for the day, Kai sneaked back out of the acid pits. He'd been traveling the surrounding countryside for days now, hunting down monsters adapted to the local environment. Unfortunately, he hadn't run into even a single one ranked as a gamma threat or above, so he had yet to develop any new abilities.

As he hunted alongside a rocky cliff, he could sense the crawlers moving overhead. Kai pretended not to notice, let them get closer, then braced himself as they launched streams of acid from their mouths.

When he'd started hunting, the orange acid they spat out had burned him painfully. But he'd been doing Physique training in acid pools for a full month, plus fighting the acid spitters, and now the streams splattered off him harmlessly. Kai smiled and threw himself into the air toward the monsters.

The first one he ate whole to satisfy his hunger, consuming it in a single snap of his teeth. He made sure to track down some of the others and kill them with his bare hands so that he would have something to share with the workers. They didn't seem to mind eating monsters or perhaps even notice the foul taste, and he wondered if their taste buds had been ruined by the constant acid fumes.

Once he ate the last of the monsters, Kai focused as hard as he could on the new monstrous essence inside him. He'd been trying his best to preserve the essence instead of digesting it, forcing the little fragments together into something stronger. Now, after another day of hunting, he thought he was finally close...

Acidspitter's Jet - I (alpha)

>

Symbols finally formed a new name in his soul - the ability felt extremely weak, but at least it was there. All his experimentation and hunting had been worth something.

As he'd gained increasing familiarity with his monstrous abilities, Kai had begun to learn the rules. He could use monstrous essence more flexibly or precisely, but there were always material limits. It was impossible to pull power out of thin air or turn a monster into something it wasn't. Forcing minor monsters together into a single ability had been possible, but it would always be weak. He'd come to think of it as similar to cooking: a chef could do a lot with ingredients, but not fundamentally alter them or create meals from nothing.

Still, this was a step forward. Kai reached into his pack and pulled out the glass jar that they'd given him. Using his new acid spitting ability, he sort of drooled orange acid into the jar. Not elegant, and definitely disgusting, but the point was that he could pretend he'd extracted it normally. That was at least one goal accomplished.

Kai didn't let his enthusiasm get the better of him and still sneaked back into the acid pits. There were always guards and prisoners interacting at the edges, so he needed to be cautious. But soon enough he was back at the center with his prizes. After dropping off the monster corpses, he went to show off the acid.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Alright, let's see this." One of the old men accepted the jar and began working with some crystal ore. He plied his acid cultivation for a while before shaking his head. "I'm afraid this won't work, son. Wrong type of acid."

"Damn." Kai rubbed his eyes, trying to console himself with the fact that he'd at least better understood his monstrous abilities. That was a lot of work for no breakthrough.

"If I can ask, what the heck were you trying to do with all this, anyway?"

"Part of the reason the miners are trapped is that they can't use any of the unrefined crystals they mine. I hoped I could bring the acid to them."

"Oh!" The old man's eyes lit up and several workers nearby turned to look. As word about the crystal miners spread, most in the acid pits had embraced them as fellow workers. "It's a good idea, son, but I don't see how it could be managed. Can't exactly carry the acid around, and you dirty it up pretty quickly if you're doing a lot of crystals. That's why we need the new flows."

"Well, it was a thought. I'll start on my next idea." Kai smiled at them as if he had an inexhaustible supply of plans and picked up the jar of acid before heading to the shallow caves.

The fact that the acid hadn't worked was honestly a major blow to his plans. He'd been hoping to return to the mines with moonmelt and acid, enough to transform the workers into a small army. Without that plan, all he was left with was a jumble of potential ideas up against the might of Krysal. To remind himself that it hadn't all been useless, Kai glanced at his soul again.

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 242

Cultivation: Body Refinement 6% (102)

Physique Level: E-8 (104)

Soul Level: 6 (36)

Monstrous Hunger - VIII (theta)

Behemoth's Heart - V (epsilon)

Direboar's Strength - VI (zeta)

Isulfr's Bite - V (epsilon)

Tyrant's Claw - IV (delta)

Acidspitter's Jet - I (alpha)

-

Void Gaze - II (beta)

Infernotoad's Burst - IV (delta)

Wallcrawler's Feet - I (alpha)

Beastbat's Wing - I (alpha)

Crystal Slime - I (alpha)

>

All his acid training had brought his Physique up to E-8, a level that would have been astonishing to him just a year ago. It was definitely slowing down, though, and he didn't know of any other hidden techniques or new training methods. That always led his mind to Kraetius, and how the old man said that it had taken him two decades to break through into D rank. Kai couldn't afford to wait that long, but just being really determined wouldn't get him anywhere.

He didn't come up with any solutions before he got back to the shallow caverns. His primary home was on the upper level, since he could just jump into the entrance easier than the workers could climb, but he first walked into one of the lower ones.

Gundle sat on the floor, having completed all the exercises Kai gave him and started on something new. Kai knelt down beside him and set down the jar of acid.

"I've got something for you, Gundle. What do you think of this?"

"It's acid." Gundle's eyes lit up and he reached out for it.

"I'd be careful," Kai said, gently touching his hand. "This is a different type."

"And what does that mean? How's it different?"

"I don't know, but I was hoping you could tell me."

The boy beamed, then furrowed his brow and began to examine it. "There's no qi in it. But it still feels strong. I can... I can make it move away, but I can't really control it. It's like... a different sort... but hmm... I don't know..."

He began mumbling to himself as he considered the jar, falling into a deep trance of concentration that he wouldn't be budged from for hours. Part of it was just learning the difference between human and monstrous powers, but Kai didn't explain and just watched fondly. Let the boy enjoy figuring it out for himself.

As he started to rise, he saw that Yurwa was watching from the doorway to the back room, also smiling fondly. She gestured silently for him to come closer, not that Gundle could have been disturbed by anything short of an earthquake, so Kai padded back to her.

"Look at you..." Yurwa plucked at his shirt and shook her head. "Just what have you been doing?"

"Hunting more monsters." Kai hadn't realized how ragged this shirt had become until she mentioned it.

"Always working so hard... do you ever take a break? Here, let me take care of this."

Kai pulled off his shirt without thinking about it, but as he handed it over he realized that Yurwa was looking at him. He had always thought she didn't care, unlike the other women who flirted from time to time. Now he saw a slower but deeper desire in her eyes. As she took the shirt, her hands brushed his, then one began to run up the side of his arm.

"Yurwa, I'm sorry." Kai took her hand and kissed it gently, but then let go.

"I thought..." She took a deep breath as she stared at him. "I thought there was something there."

"Maybe there is, but there's someone else... I would feel guilty." His thoughts drifted to Nirka. She had never demanded exclusivity, but he'd feel bad.

Not that he didn't want to. The way Yurwa's tunic hung over her body, he could imagine how soft she would be, how readily she would draw him back into her bedroom. It had been a long time since the mines and he ached, but it wouldn't feel right.

"Well, at least I know it's not me." Yurwa's eyes tracked his gaze and she smiled somewhat sadly. "You're a good man, Kai Clanless. Whoever she is, she's a lucky woman."

"No, she's terribly unlucky. Just like you are." Kai pulled himself together and tried to think like the hero they thought he was. "I really am here to change that, not for my own benefit. So I'm sorry, but..."

"I understand. Let me take care of the shirt for you." She turned away and vanished into the deeper cavern.

Kai took a deep breath and headed out, shaking his head violently as he left. Most likely he was going to be kicking himself for the decision that night, but he hoped it had been the right one. The problem was figuring out how to fight a system that had been working since long before he arrived...

On his way out, he passed Gundle again. The boy stared down at the acid with rapt attention, and Kai realized that perhaps he'd started something after all.