Depthless Hunger

Chapter 125: New Shrouds and New Directions

Meeting Zae Zin Nim had fired Kai up, and not in the obvious way. Now that he viewed their time in Romastir as a temporary part of his training, he was motivated to try to extract every single iota of power he could from it. Maybe he wasn't making much progress investigating the Krysal City States, but he could definitely become stronger.

Now that he was accustomed to his work guarding the crystals, it barely took any of his attention and he was able to focus on training. His cultivation was advancing swimmingly, since he could just buy crystals any time he needed more qi. The only thing that suffered slightly was Physique work, since it was hard to fit into his schedule and he needed to be presentable for crystallier engagements.

After several more days, Krainuun met him one evening with an anxious expression. The man had set up a portable table with a number of items on it, but wriggled in Kai's path. It looked as though he was equally desperate to slow him down and to avoid bothering him.

"I have acquired a wide number of manuals on shrouding techniques, my lord." Krainuun lowered his head and peered at him nervously. "I hope that they will be to your satisfaction, and in some small way make up for my regrettable error earlier."

"What matters is that you're trying," Kai started to say, but he quickly realized that he didn't need to reassure the servant. All the materials he saw on the low table appeared to be exactly what he needed.

Almost forgetting about the other man, Kai sat down and began looking through them. There were entire books on the theory of shrouding, but also short papers describing practical training methods and scrolls identifying specific techniques. Any one of those would have been enough for him to start putting the pieces together, and the combination should give him his pick.

"This is great." Kai belatedly remembered that Krainuun was watching him and practically glistening with nervous sweat. "Exactly what I needed, thank you."

"It is no trouble at all, my lord. I hope that this has erased some part of my failure."

"Far from it, you've proved that I can rely on you." Kai did his best to give a reassuring smile, then abruptly considered another thought. While he had access to someone who would work for him, he might as well attempt long shots that would take far too much time on his own. "Are you willing to try something more challenging?"

"Anything, my lord!"

"I won't be upset if you can't find anything, but I need you to research materials on monsters based on very limited information. I... once had a monster core from an unknown beast. It most likely appeared during an incursion, and it probably attacked the region of Rayakan - whatever it was, it was powerful enough that its core was stored in a family vault. If you can find a monster expert, tell them it had an exceptionally high level of what they call 'distortion' at the Frontier."

"And is that... all you know?" Krainuun cringed as he spoke, but the request seemed to drive him to anxiety levels Kai hadn't known were possible.

Could he really say anything else? Kai couldn't very well tell him about the feel of the power inside him or what it had tasted like. It was probably useless to say that he'd stolen it from the Corinin clan vault. But it was powerful and mysterious enough that he thought it was worth the attempt. Bulling through the mystery on intuition alone hadn't gotten him anywhere.

"I'm afraid that's all I know," Kai said. "Again, I don't expect you to find an answer, but it would be miraculous if you could. If you can't do that, bring me some basic information about monsters endemic to Krysal, and any particularly powerful ones."

"I shall do my best, my lord." Krainuun bowed his way out of the room and vanished.

Kai forgot about him almost immediately as he looked over the information on shrouds. Forget the money, the ability to have so much information at his fingertips was the real luxury of being a crystallier. Maybe that would be the real limit on their time in Romastir: he'd move on when he'd mastered what they could teach him, then go somewhere else to advance his Physique and other skills.

He rapidly gained an understanding of shrouds based on the books discussing the theory. All shrouds attempted to distort the point where spiritual senses touched a human soul and resolved it into comprehensible symbols. The weakest simply blurred the soul, as if the viewer was still a beginner struggling with their spiritual senses, while the strongest produced a layer of distortion.

There were shrouds designed to mislead and shrouds that hid a person entirely, some that tried to deceive and others that flatly denied access. The only thing he couldn't find was discussion of shrouds that could utterly fool the senses, the way Anaelina had hidden her nature as a Silver Demon. None of the deceptive classes he read about came close to that.

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Best to hope that she'd run off to Rosemount and he'd never see her again.

According to the theory, no shroud was impervious to penetration. However, because observing another person's soul already required exerting oneself, defense was considered stronger than offense and most shrouds were effective except against overwhelming opponents. The details made him wonder if someone with unfathomable power could shroud a person from themselves, but it was just an idle theory he found no evidence for.

In any case, the flatly blocking shrouds seemed to be the easiest to make powerful because they were so direct. Kai thought that was the best choice for him, especially given that he also hoped to hide his soul via cultivation. Then he would have two layers of cover - they might not trick someone who saw him eat a monster whole, but not much could help with that.

After analyzing the pros and cons of various options, Kai went with something called a Hunter's Shroud. Even though it wasn't particularly stealthy, it was commonly used by monster hunters who didn't want to broadcast their soul. It seemed strong and it would attract no particular attention, which was exactly what he needed.

Despite the difficulty of the assignment, Kai was actually looking forward to seeing if Krainuun could return with any information about monsters. Unfortunately, before he could learn the answer, Lord Unklian insisted on a more dangerous assignment. Apparently Kai needed to escort a critical shipment of crystals all the way to another city called New Laeneria.

The trip was going to throw off his plans, but Kai found himself eager to go. Luxury became suffocating after a while and he wanted to get into the wilderness again. Since he wouldn't need to meet with important figures or any other crystalliers, he didn't need to keep himself presentable and could train his Physique harder again.

And, if he was truly honest with himself, he was desperately hungry for monsters.

When the time came to pack, Kai pulled together all his old equipment and had to fight off Krainuun, who tried to give him every imaginable gift even while cringing. He had too much already and wished that he had one of those spatial storage devices that Zae Zin Nim complained about lacking sometimes. The solution in Krysal seemed to be to hire servants, and he didn't want to do that.

There was unfortunately no time to say goodbye to anyone, so he headed out to the caravan alone. Immediately he realized that this trip was going to be more serious. Instead of another ordinary wooden wagon, the first vehicle was self-powered by qi, covered in crystal armor plating, and had several seats for soldiers to ride in guard position. No one had suggested the trip was particularly dangerous on its own, they were just concerned about being attacked.

No other crystalliers or anyone else he knew was going along, so Kai sat on top of the first wagon and cultivated for the first part of the journey. It didn't take him long to get bored - he didn't understand how Zae Zin Nim could stay focused for so long. Since information might be as important as strength, depending on the type of the attack, Kai decided to talk to the others.

Once he paid more attention to the workers, he realized that they were truly anxious. He thought it might have been his presence, except that several of them looked familiar and they should have known him from his previous work guarding the crystals. It was definitely something else.

"So what is everyone worried about?" Kai asked as he slid down the front of the armored wagon to talk to the driver.

"My lord!" The driver very nearly leapt out the other side. "I know you're Goralian, my lord, but we don't do things this way here... I'm sorry, I shouldn't be contradicting you."

"This isn't about customs, it's about security." Kai leaned in and fixed the man with a hard gaze. "You know I'm a foreigner, so you should know that means I'm not up on every detail. If I don't understand why everyone is so anxious, I may not be able to protect you."

"Oh, I'm sure you will be more than capable of protecting us during the journey, my lord. There are monsters about, but now that the incursion is past, a crystallier should be more than enough."

"Then what's the problem?"

"It's that damned city... errr, our destination, my lord. You really haven't heard about New Laeneria?"

"Assume I know nothing."

"Well, the city states change hands from time to time. Different merchants gain control of trade, different crystalliers top the rankings, it doesn't change our lives much. But things took a bad turn when a strange foreign woman took over New Laeneria. They call her Omilaena the Maneater. According to the stories, when she drains men of their seed, she also drains their lives."

The driver had been anxious at first, but unlike Krainuun, he seemed to relax pretty quickly. He didn't even flinch when Kai shot him a wry glance. "That sounds like a good campfire story, but you haven't sold me on the threat here. Unless you're so impressed with yourselves that you think she'll come for you specifically."

"Some say that it's worth it!" The driver chuckled and shook his head. "No, I jumped right to the scandalous part. They say Omilaena decapitated half the nobles in the city and is playing terrible games with the other half. She hasn't preyed on the workers, but the city isn't safe anymore. Bandits and gangs and other terrible problems are sprouting up all over the city."

"And so we're concerned that this crystal trade won't go as planned."

"Right, right. Any other city, we'd welcome the trip as a break from the routine, maybe a chance to see distant relatives. But we don't know what to expect in New Laeneria. Even if the Maneater doesn't come for us herself, we could still lose our lives."

Kai nodded thoughtfully and pressed the man for more information. The driver was willing to share for some time before he seemed to remember himself and clammed up. Workers in Krysal really didn't like to talk to their "betters," apparently.

Instead he stared forward, toward New Laeneria and the unknown threats it contained.

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