Depthless Hunger: A Progression LitRPG, page 42
"To start." Zae Zin Nim raised a hand in front of her face and blue flames began to flow over it. Her shroud rose enough for him to get a strong sense for the symbols representing it, but even his base instincts told him that she had awakened something useful. "Initially, it was going to destroy my cultivation base, but all of your training allowed me to adapt it. However, I am unsure of its new form."
"Hmm... 'Novice Coldfire Corona' sounds nice, at least." Kai stroked his chin as he wracked his memory of Hunters Guild records. "The Coldfire part sounds like the sort of rare Class that occasionally appears, though I haven't met anyone with it. I'm not sure why it's called a Corona, but if you're already able to manifest a visible ability, it can't be too broken."
"But why is it 'Novice?' Have I acquired an inferior version of a stronger ability?"
In all their training, had he never explained that aspect to her? No doubt she had been worrying about it ever since. Kai quickly leaned forward to clarify. "No, think of it like a preparatory cultivation stage. It will improve as you discover the basic extent of your abilities, then it will advance to its true state."
"This is good. I do not yet fully understand, but I am pleased." She clenched her fist and the flames vanished, then her eyes fixed on him. "This is what I need to break through, Kai. You have saved my life, and all I have given you in return are the rudest arts of cultivation, barely usable in this barren land."
"Hey, you almost killed yourself fighting the elites. I couldn't have expected more fro-"
"No. What I have given you is not a fair exchange."
"Uh, we don't need to-"
"I will not rest until I have helped you through the barriers you face." Though Zae Zin Nim stared at him intensely, her back slowly sagged. "I fear that may be difficult. As I told you, I am not well-suited to discovering new paths. However, I do have a number of observations about your progress so far that I hope will be helpful."
"Then I'd be grateful for whatever you can suggest." He tried to bring down her intensity a notch with a smile. "Can you tell me about what else you saw in the vault first? I'm honestly curious what kinds of things they keep there."
"It seems that their wealth is largely financial, because I found very little. I am keeping everything except the records and one other item on my person in case we are searched, which is another reason to hand off the record book soon. Anyway, some of these are known to me while one is less clear."
As she started removing items from her robe, Kai's eyebrows rose. He suddenly got the feeling that Zae Zin Nim would have been happy to clean out the entire vault, and potentially the pockets of everyone in her path. She might not even view it as theft.
"Uh..." He hesitated as he recognized some of the items. "Maybe we should test some of this outside the city? We've already done enough damage to this room."
"For some we could, but there is one remaining thing." She left the items behind on the bed and slowly walked around to the other side. After bending down, she rose with something roughly spherical, so large that it required both hands to carry it.
Once she set it down, the odd canvas wrapped around it unrolled, revealing an enormous throbbing monster core. He had no idea what it was from... except that the world immediately began shivering in a way he'd only felt twice before. Kai automatically wrapped the core back up in the canvas, but it vibrated straight through. Only after Zae Zin Nim wrapped a thin layer of qi around it did the sensation fade.
"This thing..." Kai took a moment to catch his breath, because his heart was racing as if ready for a fight. "I don't suppose these things are sold on every street corner in Cloudspire?"
"No, I have not seen its like before and don't know what it is." She looked down at the package soberly. "However, I think you should eat it."
"What?"
"I suggest you consume it immediately. Not only could it potentially draw undue attention or identify us as the thieves, I believe its condition has been slowly deteriorating ever since I removed it. It would likely be most potent if you ate it soon."
His first instinct had been disbelief, but he had to admit it wasn't so crazy. Eating monsters had done him no harm so far, despite the increasing levels of toxicity he'd ingested. If he was really using their strength in some way, then the very source of their power might work for him as well. It was an experiment worth trying.
Maybe the giant world-distorting core wasn't the best place to start, though.
"You might be on to something," Kai said, "but I feel like it would be a bad idea to try it here. Let's get out of the city so we can test everything. We need space, even for your Class training, and I don't trust any of the training grounds here."
"That is acceptable." Zae Zin Nim glanced over the huge collection of random items and tilted her head to the side. "I think it was already a risk taking them here in the dead of night. How do we remove them now?"
Ten minutes later, they left Rayakan pushing their ill-gotten gains in a cart of vegetables. The innkeeper had been willing to help without asking questions and the guards didn't care about anyone heading out. It wasn't exactly an elaborate heist, but Kai was done with those for a long while.
It was more difficult to find empty space, as the region around Rayakan was filled with farmland and small settlements. Eventually they found an area too rocky for farming, with a few boulders littered about as if a giant had dropped pebbles. Once they were fully out of sight, they could finally look over everything they had discovered.
First, Zae Zin Nim demonstrated two small stones that were apparently familiar to her. One could generate a large fire at a single strike, like a perfect flint. The second stone was a little smaller, but produced a steady stream of water if either mana or qi was forced into it. Not items of power, yet far more useful than half the potions he'd ever carried around.
Next she showed him a wedge in the shape of a half-circle, which apparently puzzled her. Here, Kai could help. He took the wedge, oriented it properly, and sent mana flowing into the appropriate notch on the bottom. It immediately leapt from his hands, expanding into a fully sized tent.
"And it can return to its other form?" Zae Zin Nim stood with her hands on her hips, observing it curiously.
"Of course it can. What good would it be otherwise?"
"I thought I should ask. It would be just like Deadwaste to create an item that only half-worked."
She might not have been impressed, but Kai was still trying to come to grips with how much they had stolen. The elemental stones were useful, likely worth several hundred Eagles each. But this tent was much larger and nicer than the ones he had seen in the market, even before he considered the fact that it could be compressed. It was probably worth thousands, more than everything else he'd owned combined.
Just as he was reeling from that, Zae Zin Nim opened one of her bags and poured hundreds of Krysali crystals onto the ground.
"You even took those?" Kai bent down to examine them, since this was the first time he'd seen such crystals that weren't being used to attack him. They immediately reminded him of the overdrive pill he'd once taken, even if these had a different sheen. Every time he moved his head, they seemed to shift color.
"They are an essential part of my plan going forward." She picked up one herself and held it before an eye. "It's qi-like, but not qi. Ordinarily, I would not suggest using it for anything other than their specific brand of cultivation. However, you have shown an extraordinary ability to... digest any energy you encounter. I believe you may be able to cultivate with these, far faster than you could with the thin qi here."
"I'd have to trust you to check if it's causing one of those deviation problems, but sure."
"You seem somewhat uncertain."
"It's just..." Kai stared over everything they'd taken and shook his head. "Maybe we stole too much? I mean, all of this was taken from someone, and we..." But a moment later he thought about the Corinin clan pissing away hundreds of potions that could have saved the lives of so many hunters in the north. "No, never mind, I'm being stupid. Let's take everything we can get away with."
"This is reasonable." Zae Zin Nim watched him, her face utterly inscrutable until she spoke again. "Don't think that I would steal from you, even if our alliance ceased to be beneficial. I may not have your moral hangups, but it is reasonable to treat fairly with those who are fair with you."
"Then there's something we can agree on. What I don't want us to do is steal from people who are just weaker than us, especially if they're struggling to get by with what they have. But if we take from people who are wasting their resources anyway, I'm not going to weep for them."
"Hmph, if you insist."
Honestly, Kai wasn't really thinking about the moral aspect of things anymore. Despite the fact that Zae Zin Nim said that she owed him, he felt the opposite way. He thought she was telling the truth when she said she wouldn't turn on him, but it was hard to read anything in her dark eyes. In any case, it was time to show her something he'd been holding on to for a long time.
"I have something else for you." He reached into one of the least-opened pouches on his belt and pulled out his third and final scroll of enhancement. "These are given to hunters with newly awakened Classes, to strengthen them. It was completely useless to me, given my Class, but maybe you can make better use of it."
"Thank you. I will use it wisely." She shifted backward, possibly uncomfortable with another gift when she was trying to even the scales. "Can we experiment with this monster core? I cannot be certain, but I truly believe that it would be beneficial for you."
"I like your idea, but I think it would be good to start small."
He began with a monster core they'd had crystallized but hadn't yet sold. After cracking the simple preservation crystal, he popped it into his mouth... and it was fine. Unpleasantly chewy, but it didn't drip any hideous juices into his mouth or anything. No harm done as far as he could tell.
Still not ready for the ominous core, Kai decided that they should test a fresh core. It took them almost an hour to find a single rabbit-like monster, given how close they were to the city. Once it was dead, he carved out the monster's bloody core and forced it into his mouth.
His teeth tore through the flesh surprisingly easily, he tasted the flavors of the monster... and the terrifying thing was that he didn't hate it. He'd been telling himself that monsters no longer tasted so horrible because he was hungry, or some other excuse, but now he couldn't hide behind any of those. He was chewing on a raw monster core and it actually tasted good. A bit like beef except the juices were acidic, yet somehow he liked the kick.
"That is repulsive, but encouraging." Zae Zin Nim pored over him yet again with her spiritual sight. "I had hoped they would work like qi pills for you. No such luck. However, it does seem like you are absorbing something from them with no ill effects. Do you feel any stronger?"
"I doubt a core this small would even be noticeable." And thinking about how it might work just left him with endless questions. Would monster cores from Aquagorgons increase his equivalent attribute? Would only new monsters make any difference? He had absolutely no way of getting answers to any of those questions aside from experimenting.
"The large one now, unless you have a concrete reason against it."
"No, I think... I'd better try it."
He wasn't going to just bite into the thing, though, since that would cover his face in monster goo. Kai decided to compromise by using a knife to cut off pieces. The cut oozed blue bile and the world stopped vibrating so nauseatingly.
When the first shred of the core touched his tongue, Kai gasped. It tasted amazing. He swallowed the entire piece almost without chewing, then regretted it. Now the vibrations were inside his skull, shaking the world from within.
Yet the flavor... he rushed to cut another piece and swallowed it as well. Just as good as the first. By the third bite, reality was twisting even worse inside his head. He started to take a break, then realized that the sensation was getting worse even if he waited. Instead Kai threw himself at the monster core and devoured it as rapidly as possible.
His vision was getting so blurry that Zae Zin Nim became nothing but a fuzzy line. Soon he barely even thought about her, consumed by the hunger. He dropped his knife and picked up the rest, tearing into the delicious core and eating as if his life depended on it.
When he swallowed the last bite, the world stopped threatening to shake itself apart. Yet he was somehow on his feet, everything reeling around him. The hunger hadn't gone away, and as it intensified he felt a deep hatred surging within him. Anything was a target... anything was food... he sensed prey nearby and turned toward it with a snarl.
As he took his first step, his vision dissolved into a haze of red.
Chapter 76: Long Term Cultivation Plans
At first he had no idea where he was. It was worse than waking up from sleep, rougher than being hungover, far more disorienting than dizziness. His life had been continuous memories up until that point and then were was a visceral gulf he couldn't ignore in the middle of it.
Coming out the other side, Kai had no idea where he was or what he was doing. There was blood all over his hands. His entire mouth felt wet and sticky. Only as his tongue ran against his teeth and he savored the taste did he remember what had been happening before he blacked out and turned to look.
Zae Zin Nim stood at a distance, palms raised defensively. Several cuts had been torn in her tunic and she was oozing black bile in multiple places. Yet her eyes... they stared at him with caution, but not hatred.
"Did..." Kai's voice was too deep and raspy, even after he finished swallowing. "Did I attack you?"
"Yes, with considerable ferocity," she said, as if discussing the weather. "Considering that you don't usually roar like that, I didn't take it personally."
"Oh fuck, I'm sorry... I never intended, I just... I don't want to say I was overcome with rage, it was more like the 'me' that I feel in my head just disappeared..."
"You don't feel another such incident coming on?"
"No, I don't think so." Kai shook himself viciously to refocus. The terrible thing was that, even though he felt guilty, his body felt great.
Rather than think about how he'd torn into the monster core like a savage, Kai went to wash his mouth out with their new water stone. The liquid was surprisingly cool and he felt refreshed almost immediately. That faded when he looked behind him and he saw Zae Zin Nim sit down with her limbs trembling. Despite how calm she acted, the experience had not been easy for her.
Considering that she might need more time, Kai examined his soul again.
<
Name: Kai Clanless
Total Power: 74
Cultivation: Qi Condensation 20% (12)
Physique Level: F-8 (46)
Soul Level: 4 (16)
Monstrous Hunger - VII (eta)
Direboar's Strength - III (gamma)
Aquagorgon's Health - III (gamma)
Isulfr's Bite - I (alpha)
Rockspider's Claw - II (beta)
??? (???)
>
For the first time in months, his spiritual sight did him almost no good. Something new with ambiguous symbols had appeared near the bottom of his soul, undecipherable. He almost didn't notice the other difference, then realized that "Monstrous Hunger" had increased by one rank.
"We can confirm one thing," Zae Zin Nim said, again able to appear perfectly calm. "Whatever your soul is, your power is not accurately represented by your human characteristics. You hit much harder than anyone below 100 should be able to."
"Again, I'm sorry about that." He sat down opposite her, not too close. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
She chuckled and it actually sounded authentic. "You tried to bite me."
"What, I... like ran up and tried to chomp your arm?"
"It was strange, but you looked very serious about it. I dodged on instinct, so I don't know what would have happened. Maybe it was foolish, but..."
"Maybe not." He immediately thought back to his fight with Barroguk and tried to think about how to explain it to her. "When I was fighting that Knight, I... projected a force somehow. I don't know how to describe it - because mana or qi, I've never had a skill like that."
"Oh, you started doing that too." She inclined her head to the side and for the first time he saw the massive claw mark, three lines torn into the stone. "Seeing it for myself gave me some thoughts, but I need more time to consider them first."
Which might also mean that she needed more time after the experience. As lightly as she played it off, he had the feeling that he had attacked her with full intent to kill, leaving her with no choice but to defend, wondering if she would need to kill him. He wouldn't have wished that experience on anyone, much less one of the only people who had been consistently kind to him since his banishment.
Maybe it would be best to shift to something completely unrelated. "Can you explain to me what's going on with your Blackblood Physique? I wasn't sure if awakening a Class would cure you or not."
"No, it's just going to unblock my cultivation. But it did improve my condition." Zae Zin Nim ran a hand over her arm and then rubbed the bile from her wound between her fingers with a frown. "If I had fought you before, I'd have been in just as bad a condition as after those elite mercenaries. It's still disgusting, but it isn't harming my health in the same way."
"So how do things look for you moving forward? Your Class development, or cultivation, or... however your path will look now."
"There's no question about that: I need to advance past this preliminary Class stage. That will refine my mana to the point where it can work with my qi, and in that time I should move closer to the peak of the Body Refinement stage. It should work just as I hoped: I'll be able to push through the blockade caused by every aspect of my essence and begin acquiring benefits from them."
"Then your condition will stop acting like an illness and start strengthening you? Do you know how?"
"Actually..." She folded her arms the way she usually did when cultivating and closed her eyes. "I am somewhat uncertain. In my path of cultivation, the body is continually reborn at each stage, so it is unclear how it develops. Advancing from the Body Refinement stage to Nascent Foundation will definitely restore me to good health. I am uncertain about... other variables."
