Depthless Hunger: A Progression LitRPG, page 53
He turned to look and saw Yangil Granfian, who he hadn't thought about in a long time. "This isn't the time for old squabbles," Kai said before the other man could get started. "Gunjin is putting together a group to stop the incursion from getting worse."
"And you think you're coming along? We lost a good hunter to the Aquagorgon because of you!"
"You know what really..." Old anger had been building within Kai, but then it began to drain. Why was he arguing about something so long ago? Instead of letting the adrenaline take him, he looked at Yangil with his spiritual sight.
<
Name: Yangil Granfian
Total Power: 50
Knight Class: 11 (21)
Physique Level: G-9 (18)
Soul Level: 3 (9)
>
In the nearly a year since they had last met, Yangil's Knight Class had increased from 9 to 11. That raised his total power by 2, barely reaching 50. The realization didn't make Kai feel superior, just tired. Arguing with someone so weak was absolutely meaningless.
That didn't mean he could calm the situation. Before he could decide what to say, Gunjin sped past them barking orders. "Yangil, you're with the advance group. No petty feuds. Give Kai anything he wants."
"But sir..." It was too late, as Gunjin had already moved past him. Yangil turned back to Kai with a grimace. "You'd better not fail us like last time. And if you think I'll let you use this to humiliate me..."
"I don't care. Could I get a message to Inafay Corinin?"
"Not possible. She and most of the strongest new hunters headed into Irun for some kind of tournament. That's part of the reason we're rushing the defenses. No one thought the incursion could come so soon."
Since Kai didn't think Yangil would lie about something like that, he nodded and turned away. Maybe it didn't matter, especially if their mission went smoothly. But the ominous feeling that had been growing inside him for days made him fear that he would need every ally he could get. When it came to their survival in the face of a disaster, he already knew he couldn't trust Yangil.
That only left Juray, but Kai didn't know how to bring that up. He couldn't just say that he wanted to visit an old lover because he missed her. Presumably she would be working hard in her shop, trying to convert the piles of resources being shoveled at her into emergency potions. She wouldn't flee, which meant that if the incursion reached Monskon City...
"No more chatter!" Gunjin appeared from another portal that remained open behind him. "Everyone in this group is headed to the Frontier. Our goal is not to engage with any monsters, solely to prevent a group of southern fools from drawing the incursion into the wrong channels. We negotiate with them if possible, but use force if necessary. If they make it into the Frontier, I'll need to find my contacts there. Understood?"
Everyone nodded their understanding. Kai wanted to examine the group more carefully, but they were immediately urged through the portal. He felt the same disorientation that he had before, then he found himself standing on the Frontier wall.
Only wasteland as far as he could see. Judging from the sun, he was facing south, outside the Frontier, yet the southern group was nowhere in sight. For a moment he was actually naive enough to hope that they had arrived early, then he heard someone curse behind him.
When Kai turned around, he saw the expedition immediately. They were already inside, traveling toward the heart of the Frontier.
Chapter 95: The Last Moments for Mortals
Gunjin Granfian rarely cursed, even when he was truly angry, but he cursed then. He turned back to the ground and spat out a few words.
"Stay put. I need to contact someone. Fight to stop them, if it comes to that."
Then he stepped into the portal and was gone, leaving Kai and everyone else atop the Frontier wall. The others started to realize that they were leagues from the city, holding a doomed position just before a monster incursion. Kai was more concerned about where Gunjin had gone; clearly he had allies among the elites, but he hadn't wanted to speak to them directly until he had no choice.
"Come on, we can handle this ourselves!" Yangil shouted over the group's muttering, then thrust his sword out toward the southerners. "They're not that far. We can drag them back before Gunjin returns, if they won't listen!"
Was he trying to make up for his cowardice before? Or did he simply not understand how much more dangerous the Frontier was? It probably didn't matter, because he seemed to be convincing the others. Perhaps it was just easier to chase after a visible goal instead of waiting for a horde of monsters to come toward them.
The others had pulled out ropes and begun climbing down the side of the wall. After a glance at Zae Zin Nim, Kai just hopped off the side. This time he was able to land smoothly, his legs absorbing the impact. Zae Zin Nim landed beside him almost without a sound.
As far as he could tell, there were no monsters within sight. If there had been, they likely would have been chasing the southern group. What bothered him more was the lack of the world distortion that he'd felt before. He didn't think that it had anything to do with the fact that he'd gotten stronger... the absence was more like an in-held breath. Soon, it would reverse...
"Be careful if we encounter anything," he told Zae Zin Nim. "Even if it looks weak. I can't explain what exactly is wrong with the monsters here, but it's similar to that core you found."
"Hmm." She didn't say anything else, but he thought he saw her posture shift. He could be reasonably confident that she, at least, would be appropriately cautious.
The others worried him more, especially as they grouped together at the bottom of the wall with great bravado. Without the strange aura or any monsters, they didn't understand what they were facing. Going along with them might have been foolish, but the alternative... no, he couldn't stand back and simply wait while there was a chance he could make a difference.
"Now we run them down!" Yangil gestured for the whole group to follow him and charged.
Though they might have been conserving a little strength for the fight, the pace struck him as surprisingly slow. Now that they weren't jerking from one emergency to another, Kai took the time to look over the group more analytically.
He and Zae Zin Nim were the strongest in the group by a wide margin. Two older veterans had power in the 60s, based mostly on strong Classes. Yangil was fifth after them, then there were four younger hunters in the 30s. At such levels, experience and determination might make more of a difference than raw power.
If they ran into a horde of ordinary monsters, the group would perform fine so long as they stuck together. Most of them had Classes that could easily cause great destruction. But if they encountered twisted monsters that could shrug aside normal blows, he could see them falling apart swiftly. Many still had G-rank Physiques, so if their offense failed they were one small mistake away from death.
Given the ominous lack of monsters, they made good time. The group of southerners appeared to be about half a dozen officials along with several guards. Their average strength was over 40, which was good by the standards of southern cities and woefully inadequate for their current location.
"Stop, in the name of Goralia!" Yangil drew his sword as they arrived... and one of the officials turned sharply.
Kai realized that the man was attacking before he understood how. Globs of ice swirled from the air around the apparent official, then flew toward the group. They all targeted feet, binding many to the ground. From the corner of his eye he saw Zae Zin Nim gracefully step aside, but the best he could do was kick the glob as it struck him.
The ice fused to his leg, but Kai thought that he'd be able to break it with a good stomp. Since his opponents were using non-lethal attacks, he was more interested in examining them. Now he could tell that the official had a "Snowcaster" Class at 60, but somehow he had been able to not just hide his essence, but appear completely untrained. He'd never seen a shroud like that before.
"If this is for the sake of Goralia," one of the other officials - hopefully - said, "then you should stand down. Stop defending elites who don't care about you."
"Don't spew nonsense!" Yangil started to hack at the ice binding his legs.
"You always assume you have a monopoly on power. It's your brutish tactics that have locked us in this endless war."
Before the two could get into a shouting match, Kai stepped in. At first literally: he forcefully stepped forward, shattering the ice around his leg. Then he raised a hand in front of Yangil's face to keep him from spouting more angry rhetoric.
"If you know something, please tell us," Kai said. "From our perspective, it looks like you're endangering everyone just before a monster incursion."
"Don't listen to their lies!" Yangil started to take a swing at him, but Zae Zin Nim shifted behind him, driving the man onto one knee and pinning his arm. He grimaced, apparently in enough pain that he could no longer talk.
For a moment the guards looked like they might fight, but Kai simply stood ready. Even though they couldn't see his monstrous strength, he looked strong by their standards, so they weren't eager to fight him. If he was willing to talk and the zealous hunters were all iced in place, maybe they could get to the bottom of the problem without a pointless brawl.
"That's better." An older woman among the officials took a step forward. "We truly are doing this for the sake of Goralia. We don't hate hunters or the north, we just want to get the truth."
"And what is that truth?" When Kai looked over the southerners, he didn't see a group of zealots.
"They've been lying about the true extent of the monster incursions, and we have proof. Yes, monsters are a real problem. But they don't merit wasting so much of our nation's military on our northern defenses."
"But every other nation bordering the Frontier spends just as much! Are you really suggesting an international conspiracy?"
"No, just a group of powerful hunters who want even more power and so exaggerate their importance." The official gestured to one of her companions, who was carrying an odd crystalline ring. "But using new technology purchased from the kingdom beyond Irun, we've been monitoring the rise and fall of monstrous energy for several years. There's no correlation with the battles of the elites."
Kai folded his arms and tried not to scowl as he listened. There was no way he could refute evidence from a contraption that he'd never seen before, but he wanted to understand their position. "Even if that's true, why send this expedition now? Why not handle things through diplomacy?"
"Because there's a concentration of energy in the center of the Frontier." It was the man with the crystalline ring speaking this time, using it to gesture onward. "Because it never changed, we assumed it was some device they used to create more monsters and justify their existence."
"That's absurd. A device that creates monsters?"
"There are strange things in this world that no one can explain." The older woman cast a sour glance north. "But there's another reason. Go on, tell them."
"This year," the man said, "there's been a build-up like never before, yet the energy from the monsters has gone down. This is our chance to prove... the deception.." His voice trailed off as he stared down at the crystal ring. Flecks of light glowing within were beginning to expand around the ring. Kai had no idea what that meant, but the entire group of southerners looked shocked.
Some of them began to argue with one another and, even though Kai shouted at them, they wouldn't answer his questions. He found himself wondering just who had sold them the ring and what it actually measured. Gunjin had been analyzing the monster incursions for years and Kai refused to believe he was a part of some conspiracy. Maybe something strange was going on, but most likely none of them had it right.
Meanwhile the hunters on his side were beginning to help one another break free of the ice. Zae Zin Nim reluctantly let Yangil free and it seemed like his anger had cooled enough that he wouldn't attack anyone. Neither side was exactly happy, however, and a conflict could break out at any moment.
"Would you like to know the truth?" a man asked. It took several seconds for Kai to realize that the man hadn't been standing between the two groups before and he struggled to focus his attention on the new arrival.
The man had clear but heavily wrinkled skin and a bald head with wisps of graying hair. He appeared to be wearing a white robe covered with splotches of paint, one sandal, and one sock on his other foot. When Kai opened his spiritual sight, he was immediately overwhelmed by a white hot mass of symbols so intense that he winced like he'd just looked into the sun.
"Come on, let's all go to the center together!" The strange man stuck out one foot, pivoted in almost a complete circle, and began walking north.
Everyone began following him even though it didn't make any sense. Kai only realized he was walking when he felt the muscles in his legs cramping up. It didn't feel like any force was controlling him, he had just decided to walk and couldn't change his mind. Many of the others around him looked dazed.
Ahead, Kai heard an inhumanly deep roar that shook the earth. A cloud of dust began to rise in the distance, and from it swarmed monsters. They were still nothing but specks, but they moved in a great twisting mass that grew closer by the second.
"It's starting," one of the older hunters whispered. "It's a real incursion..."
"Oh, this isn't the start." The strange man appeared beside them with a broad smile. "This is just the bait. Everyone else will be along shortly, then it will be started."
Chapter 96: Beyond the Highest Peaks
No matter how Kai strained, he couldn't stop his legs from moving forward. On some level, he didn't want to. Some of the others didn't seem to even notice, just strolling alongside the strange man as if this was perfectly ordinary.
When he exchanged glances with Zae Zin Nim, she looked downright miserable. He felt her try to use her qi to escape, then surround herself with her corona, but neither had any effect. There wasn't going to be any easy way out of this. If his brief glimpse had been right, the old man was more powerful than anything he'd ever faced before. Likely far more, even stronger than the Frontier elites.
"Now, I don't want to hurt you fine young fishies." The strange man stepped ahead of the group, then turned around, putting his back toward the charging horde of monsters and walking backwards. "Hello there! My name is Koleiman the Magnificent, but you can just call me The Magnificent. It's wonderful that you're going to investigate the center, because so am I."
"Are you with the Frontier elites?" the leader of the southern group asked. Koleiman blinked at her, turned his head to the side, then kept turning until it was fully horizontal.
"Is that a type of fish? I've already forgotten what you said, to be honest. But come along now!"
Strength wouldn't work and Kai didn't want to pit his willpower against this Koleiman either. His only chance of not being marched into the monster horde was to change something within himself. He reached for the island of monsters in his soul and for the first time his essence gained a little leverage. The vision was inside him, he just needed to coax it out...
"Did you know that your world is flat?" Koleiman was standing just beside him, but all he did was stare around with wide-eyed wonder. "I feel like worlds should be curved. Just a big ole ball. But I flew pretty high and it looks flat all the way to the edge."
Having said that, he skipped off. Kai wasn't capable of breathing a sigh of relief, but he focused internally again. If that hunger deep within himself could just become active again...
Suddenly his feet swung freely. Kai nearly stumbled as his momentum became his again abruptly. He looked around to see if the old man had noticed, but Koleiman was currently walking in front of the group and babbling nonsense. So he was free... and it might not matter.
As the horde of monsters drew near, it began to turn toward them. Whole packs of twisted dogs, all of them shivering unnaturally, with worse monsters behind them. It was far too many for any of them to fight and some in the group began to cry out even though they kept walking.
Rainbow light flowed from Koleiman and wrapped around the entire group. Outside it, the monsters seemed to slow to a crawl, their legs moving as if through molasses. Even stranger, they seemed to forget about the group they had been attacking the moment before.
"Don't worry, fishies!" Koleiman danced in front of them and clapped his hands. "I'll get you all to the hole safely. Everything will be clear then. Or maybe it won't be, but that isn't my problem."
Kai grimaced and kept pace with the others. He was free of the strange control, but it didn't do him any good since leaving the rainbow aura would mean his death. If only he had any idea how, he'd free Zae Zin Nim. The most he could do was meet her gaze again and put a finger to his lips. She stared, then frowned, which was honestly a relief compared to her previous agonized expression.
All of the monsters around them continued moving slowly, yet Kai didn't think they were the ones being affected. It was their group that was moving unnaturally quickly. When he looked to the back, he saw the dust the last hunters kicked up suddenly slow to a crawl when it left the rainbow aura behind them. That was enough for a basic theory of what was happening and he had no time for anything else.
Then the sky cracked open and soldiers began falling through. Each one of them wore armor that covered their bodies, but the blood red material and sweeping plates were completely unfamiliar to him. There was something else odd that he only realized as they landed in formation: they fell just as swiftly as their group was walking, not as slowly as the monsters.
The new army began to march, and though they were far ahead of his group, Kai realized that they must be traveling toward the same central point. Worse, they didn't fight the monsters so much as cleared them. The front line of soldiers cut down everything in their path with swords, qi attacks, or bursts of elements. Not because they were threatened, just to move the obstacles out of their path.
Just what were they? At first he hoped they could be some group of elites that he'd never known about, but their armor and skills seemed too undeniably foreign. When he tracked just one soldier, he noted that the man seemed to use different abilities indiscriminately. Was that what real power looked like? Taking hold of every ability in the world at once?
