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Chapter 164: Searching for the Old Man

That confidence led her to train more, which they did whenever they took a break or built a fire to attract their target. Nirka absolutely hated monster meat, but since they didn\'t have much else available she was willing to eat it, and he thought it was doing her some good. When she tried his exercises again, they worked a little better, despite her limitations.

At the moment she balanced on one leg, wobbling a little while trying to hold all her power taut. He\'d been trying to teach her some mana exercises, since he thought that the workers were absorbing qi the same way hunters absorbed mana. Limited success so far, though not due to lack of effort on her part.

"That\'s good, but tighten your core." Kai reached around to touch her waist, then showed her the proper part of her stomach to clench. "For mana we focus higher, but the dantian that stores qi is supposed to be around here, so go lower."

"I... I\'ll t-try." Nirka wobbled again and he realized that she was flushing because of his hand. He drew back to make clear that he wasn\'t trying anything and let her get back to training.

It was bizarre to feel like he was the more experienced one, since he still felt young. His first real relationship had been with Juray, who had definitely taken the lead. He wasn\'t sure whether Nirka was actually interested in him or whether she was just uncomfortable. The food and training made her look less skeletal, and he had to admit that it looked good on her.

Wrenching his mind back to respectable thoughts, Kai examined only her soul.

Name: Nirka of N District

Total Power: 99

Physique Level: E-3 (89)

Soul Level: 4 (16)

>

She had grown significantly, even if she was blocked by the 99 Power limit. He thought it would stop her from making any major breakthroughs, but meanwhile the potential seemed to build up behind the barrier. Would it be possible to break it with raw strength, or could she injure herself? Finding a way to break through needed to be high priority, which was just more motivation to find the old man.

After their break they headed into a deeper part of the mines. This section sprawled in too many directions for them to simply go further and further down, so they were trying different branches while still returning to the hubs from time to time.

He didn\'t like the look of this section: instead of solid stone everywhere, the floor dropped away at many points into smaller crevices. Some looked as though they had been mined, others were natural cracks. A few still had crystals studding the sides, which could shred someone\'s leg if they weren\'t careful. As they traveled he saw even bigger holes, none of them with any ladders or ropes. Perhaps the porous structure was why this section of the mine had been abandoned.

When they entered a larger chamber, Kai slowed to a halt. In front of them gaped an enormous pit, larger than any opening he\'d seen elsewhere in the mine. What was worse was that the walls didn\'t glow softly like the rest. Either it was a different sort of stone or something had sucked away the qi, but either way, it resulted in a shadowy pit with no visible bottom.

"Kai!" Nirka leapt back, raising the crystal knives she\'d made for herself. "What is that?"

He looked up and saw that there was a strange gray blob rolling down one of the tunnels toward them. Unlike many of the monsters, it had no presence at all... at least until he saw it and felt the hunger stir within him. His spiritual sight immediately gathered a little information from it.

Monster: Crystal Slime

Threat: IV (Delta)

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

>

This one was a delta-ranked threat, the first that was actually interesting to him in a while. It kept rolling slowly forward, as if it hadn\'t noticed them, but he doubted that was true. Kai gestured for Nirka to back away and spoke softly.

"Now that you\'ve gotten a look at this one, what do you think?"

"I should avoid it." She gripped her knives tighter and pulled them back beside her chest. "It\'s too strong."

"That\'s right, but what if you had to fight it?" Kai asked.

"Projectiles, or try to block it off. Don\'t get close."

"Good. I\'m not sure about it myself, so let me experiment."

During their conversation it had gotten much closer and now he could see that its surface bubbled slightly and there were sharp crystals floating within. Letting that thing get close would definitely be a bad idea.

Before it could go further, Kai swept one finger in the weakest Tyrant\'s Claw he could manage. The energy still split the slime in half... as its body gave way around the attack, as if no harm had been done. It surged forward, both halves lashing out. Kai dodged back, sparing a glance at Nirka and grateful that she had moved to a safer distance while keeping her back to the wall.

His distraction made him miss the flecks of goo that the slime hurled in its sharp movement. One of them hit his shoulder and Kai saw it eat through his tunic before burning against his chest. Not enough to get through his Physique, but he wouldn\'t want to be engulfed by the thing.

Now he had a strategic problem: how was he going to defeat the slime without looking like a monster? The way Infernotoad\'s Burst altered his chest looked too inhuman, and he doubted that other forms of simple force would be effective. In that case...

When it leapt at him again, Kai drew on his ordinary cultivation. He wasn\'t skilled with qi techniques like Zae Zin Nim, but he had learned all the basics during the Qi Condensation stage. Just drawing up qi around him made the slime flinch back, then he launched a bolt at it. To his surprise, the slime\'s body shrank away, opening up a hole in the center for the qi to pass through.

Using several more of the weak qi technique, Kai pushed it back with threats on all sides. The monster was boiling now, shifting in different directions as if furious. It was going to do something... abruptly the solution came to him. He needed to lean into his monstrous abilities and mask them.

Kai raised his hands in front of him with the palms facing, his fingers curled like teeth. Then he lunged closer and clapped them together like jaws, and in that moment drew on Isulfr\'s Bite. The power snapped out and consumed the slime, leaving him with a mouth of goo and crystal shards. Fortunately, consuming the monster\'s essence and the majority of its body seemed to kill it, so the rest slumped limp to the floor.

Had Nirka noticed anything amiss? He glanced back at her and saw she was watching in amazement.

"Wow... was that a crystallier technique?" she asked.

"The opposite," Kai told her with a smile. "You can\'t do that with qi, or at least I don\'t think you can. That was a technique from my homeland."

"What would you have done without that?"

"It might have been tougher, but we\'d have options. It seemed to ignore force, but I suspect it wouldn\'t ignore fire. We could also have tried throwing water at it to dilute its body, though obviously that would waste a lot of water."

"You were experimenting with it, weren\'t you?" Nirka crouched closer and poked at the flattening ooze with her knife. "First with force, then qi. I doubt I could think that clearly in the middle of a fight."

"It takes time to learn, but you\'ll get there." Kai crouched down beside her and decided that this was a chance to explain a little without acting like a teacher. "This monster is a good example of how strength isn\'t just a single number. A physical warrior would probably have trouble and a cultivator could only drive it away, but someone with a different set of skills might have beaten it with far less than my power. There are always strengths and weaknesses."

"And we have a lot of weaknesses." Nirka glanced up at him with a quick smile. "That\'s what you\'re teaching, right? Everyone in the mines has only one kind of Physique, so we have vulnerabilities, but it\'d be possible to leverage our strengths."

"Exactly. With enough work, y-"

"Wrong." The voice echoed down the corridor, interrupting their conversation, and they both leapt to their feet.

A figure emerged from one of the other tunnels, made into a silhouette by the brighter crystalline walls behind him. Whoever he was, he was marching toward them. As he got closer, Kai made out an old Krysali man, completely bald with dark spots across his scalp. The wrinkles on his face suggested he was extremely old, but his body was tightly muscular. He wore nothing but silk pants that were shredded along the bottoms, once ornate and now ragged.

"Everyone likes to tell themselves that," the old man said with a sneer. "But it\'s a lie, a comforting lie. Some types of power are just worth more than others, and sometimes the world is just against you. I\'ve been here for years and it\'s all useless."

"We\'ve been looking for you," Kai said. He remained alert, but extended his hands in a friendly gesture. "Maybe we can argue about the finer details of power over a meal?"

"Somebody else who thinks I\'ll lead a revolution, huh? No. You\'re naive fools who can\'t back up those ideals of yours."

While they spoke, Kai examined the old man carefully.

Name: ???

Total Power: 281

Crystal Cultivation: Void (0)

Physique Level: D-0 (200)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

>

A Power rating of 281 was nothing to sneeze at, but the distribution was odd. His crystal cultivation was void, as if the potential had been completely destroyed. On the other hand, he was only the second person Kai had ever seen with a D-rank Physique, and his Soul Level was intimidating.

"Felt that." The old man scowled at Kai. "I got a good look at you too, because that shroud can\'t stop me. You\'re tough, kid, but if you got sent down here, you\'ve failed. Might as well accept that this is your life now."

"I refuse to accept that. If I prove you\'re wrong, will you listen to us?"

"You won\'t prove a thing." The man dropped into a fighting crouch and raised his fists.

Kai got into position opposite him, hastily considering his own options and looking at his own soul. His recovery had advanced to 171 Power... if Zae Zin Nim\'s doubling theory about his monstrous strength was correct, he should have the edge, but Behemoth\'s Heart was still busy restoring his full power. He had never tested himself like this.

Time to find out, then.