Depthless Hunger

Chapter 92: The 99 Power Limit

Traveling and training made great companions in Kai's view. Maybe it would have been more efficient if they'd had a self-propelled method of transportation like Zae Zin Nim wanted, but he enjoyed the walking. If they didn't talk, he could always work on mana exercises, test things internally, or try very basic cultivation.

The wasteland environment left a lot to be desired, admittedly, but he didn't mind the company. After several days of focusing on nothing but training, Zae Zin Nim resumed an old conversation out of nowhere.

"You have absolutely no grounds to question me about moral fiber. Ever since we've met, your only long term goal has been to acquire power. Oh, you'll save poor starving orphans if they're in front of you, but can you honestly say that you've had any moral objectives?"

"What," Kai said, "do you expect me to travel across the world to find some poor starving orphans who aren't in front of me?"

"I'm being serious, Kai."

"So am I, actually." He shook his head as he dredged up thoughts that had long been abandoned. "Look, I grew up in a city where everyone's lives were threatened or at least made worse by monsters. Fighting was all I was good at, so of course I was going to do what I could to help. How could I do otherwise?"

"Quite easily, but go on. That's not much better than those starving orphans."

"Well, the thing is, a goal like that will just keep expanding. If I became strong enough to protect the people in front of me, then I'd try to strengthen the whole city. If I was able to do that, then I'd try to protect all Goralia. And if I somehow became extraordinarily powerful, then I could go to the Frontier and try to stop the monster threat for good."

Zae Zin Nim regarded him oddly. "Reasonable, but you haven't been doing a very good job of the monster hunting."

"Right, but the goal expands in different directions too. If there are humans attacking someone, am I going to not act? Of course not. And if there are merchants cheating them... well, I never thought I'd be any good at fixing that, but I did a little to help in Rayakan. Even what you said about everything failing doesn't matter. I don't see what choice I have but to continue that path."

"I suppose I can understand that." She fell silent, but he was getting to know her well enough that he knew when she was thinking. "And it really never stops? If you somehow just... fixed the Frontier, do you go on to Cloudspire and fix everything there?"

"Given how often you tell me cultivators can annihilate everyone here, that sounds a bit overambitious." Kai laughed, but she didn't, so he swallowed it. "I feel like it would be easy to lose track of yourself and keep changing things until the cure becomes worse than the disease. I don't know anything about your homeland and I don't know what might need to change. But monsters killing people? That's pretty unambiguous. I wouldn't mind spending my life changing that."

"Overambitious was right. I think it's time for the soul fruit now."

He was puzzled until he realized that this was a test in her mind. If anything, he felt less certain about his fundamental nature than before, but he had actually enjoyed talking about the issue with her. What he'd said was still true. Goralia needed a lot more than just fighters, but he would do everything he could. And if he reached the Frontier, he'd take on whatever problems existed there.

When they stopped for a break, he decided to accept her challenge. He took out the soul fruit again and examined it for a while before bringing it to his mouth. As soon as his lips touched it, he knew that was wrong. Taking little bites of such a powerful object and slowly chewing his way through it wasn't right.

Instead, he opened his mouth and his spiritual jaws consumed the soul fruit whole.

He might as well have swallowed a lightning bolt. It didn't rush through him, he rushed through it, a tiny bit of flesh caught up in a river of raw power. Yet part of that onslaught seemed to wedge inside him, grinding open a barrier he hadn't been able to feel until that moment.

Stolen novel; please report.

And he had only a short time to grasp hold of that change before it irrevocably twisted him into something else.

At first he tried to envision the dark island with the monster spirits, but the vision washed away in the flood. No, that was wrong. He tried to feel his own body and he couldn't tell where he ended and the world began. There was nothing but white in his vision and he had no idea if he was standing or lying down or running and screaming.

Instead he went back to the clearest version of himself: the symbols that objectively displayed his power. Those stood firm against the white rush, but he realized that they weren't quite deep enough either. No, he needed to grasp hold of the fundamental truths that existed beneath those symbols. Once he concentrated on that, everything began to fall into place.

Maybe his soul was split into two halves, maybe not. He had no answers. What was certain was that both were part of him. As his soul ground open, he took deep breaths and forced it to grow proportionally. There would be space for every monster he'd eaten and more. His Physique could develop smoothly again. For that matter, his Soul and cultivation and everything else.

All of those were growing smoothly, but he felt something else. Like scar tissue, tearing as the body underneath moved. When he looked he saw jagged remnants of his old Class, the Path of Steel, and the power of the Elemental Nations. They were no longer part of him, but scars remained where the power had once been.

Those he ejected... no, he consumed them. Then suddenly it was over and he discovered that he was lying flat on his back.

Had the sun been in the sky like that when he started? It felt like so long that he couldn't remember. His experience might have been years, or eons, or...

"That was fast," Zae Zin Nim said. She leaned over him with a frown. "I'm guessing that you made it. Do you feel any different?"

"Not really." As much as he had felt transformed by the experience while in the throes of it, now that it faded he was left with only sensations. "I suppose it would be better to check myself directly..."

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 088

Cultivation: Qi Condensation 45% (15)

Physique Level: F-9 (48)

Soul Level: 5 (25)

Monstrous Hunger - VII (eta)

Direboar's Strength - IV (delta)

Aquagorgon's Health - IV (delta)

Gomodo's Stamina - III (gamma)

Isulfr's Bite - II (beta)

Rockspider's Claw - IV (delta)

??? (???)

>

The difference in his spiritual sight was subtle, but unambiguous: the limit on his strength had been removed. If that was what had been preventing him from reaching E-rank Physique, then it had been worth it. Now that he felt his newly widened soul, however, he wasn't so sure. There had been something he had been thinking during the experience, something more important than he'd realized...

"Happy?" Zae Zin Nim asked. He could only shrug.

"Still wish I'd been able to advance further. At least all the monstrous traits have been growing. I wonder if there's some kind of limit where I can only improve one side at once."

"I think they're every bit as important for your cultivation, just less quantifiable. How you can balance those two will be... a very difficult aspect of forging your path forward."

"Glad you pushed me to this step. Thanks." He smiled at her but she looked away. Since she seemed awkward, he searched for another topic. "Do you know how the numbers of the scale were developed? It was set so that each order of magnitude has real spiritual meaning, right?"

"That's my understanding." She turned away to continue walking, but her shoulders seemed less tense. "In Cloudspire, they say that the first 99 numbers are a human's soul, whereas 100 is the beginning of a real cultivator's soul. I'm not sure how true that is, not anymore. But I know that there are certain techniques that will instantly kill anyone below that stage."

"Huh, I'm glad we don't have those here. But what about the other end? Is the difference between 9 and 10 just as important?"

"I... had not thought about that. If so, you would be better off asking people in dead zones without energy. Or it may be that it's more practical to measure a hundred steps than ten."

As they continued on, he felt certain that she had been meaning to say something. Flush with success, Kai was more than willing to wait. She'd share in her own time.

.

..

.

Near the center of the Frontier, he saw it. In his dream he could see only a formless emptiness, yet in the way of dreams he thought he knew what it was. Not an object at all, but an absence. A vast hole in what should be that distorted everything.

And he needed to go there. No... his directions were all wrong. He was inside the emptiness crawling upward. A thousand of him, a million. The surface was so close, he could taste it. Then he could burst forward and his hunger would finally be sated.

When Kai woke up, he struggled to remember what he had seen even though there was nothing to remember. He told himself it had been only a dream, but wasn't convinced.