Depthless Hunger

Chapter 135: The Greatest City in Krysal

No one came to greet them at the gates of Yulthens. Their sapphire crystallier badges got them in with no trouble, but they saw no sign of being scouted as they explored. Most likely the greatest city in Krysal thought that it was too good to get worked up over visitors with 100 Power.

Though the cloth wraps, the awnings, and the streets looked similar to Romastir, Kai immediately noticed differences. The most obvious were the floating crystals: they shimmered above store openings and some were even carried by children on strings, like toys. There were differences in colors and hats, of course, but it was the floating crystals that defined the city for him.

"Looks like no one is going to come fight us." Zae Zin Nim stared over the city without expression, so it was hard to tell whether she was pleased or displeased about that. "We need to investigate our best opportunities in the city."

"Not to mention things like lodging, and where we keep the ship," Kai pointed out.

"Bah, eventually. I want to know if they sell proper qi from Cloudspire and how much it will cost."

"Then I guess it might make sense to split up, right after saying we'd stay together." Kai grinned as he stepped up to the side of the diamond star. "I'm going to sell our monster cores and check any Goralian connections, you figure out the Cloudspire situation, and we'll meet up... maybe at that big crystal spire by noon?"

"Good enough." Zae Zin Nim nodded and then directed the crystal craft away.

She was moving at high speed, but that didn't keep him from stepping over the side and dropping to the street. From so far up he hit reasonably hard, but the sturdy paving stones didn't crack. He hadn't really been worried about his legs, of course.

As much as Kai wanted to explore the entire city and see if it was hiding more poverty than Romastir, he had higher priorities. They needed to come to grips with what they faced in Yulthens and what kind of power it could offer. That meant focusing his efforts.

After getting out of what appeared to be a wealthy district of walled gardens, Kai found a mercantile quarter with shops everywhere. He asked around about Goralian resources and monsters, and had little luck at first until he started showing his crystallier badge. As soon as shop owners saw that, they seemed more than happy to direct him toward the right shops, if they didn't try to get his business themselves. Seeing all their trade, Kai was reminded that the tens of thousands of Goralian Eagles burning a hole in his pocket were not normal.

With their help, he found his way to a street that appeared to have more "foreign" shops. There were many places advertising mana from Goralia, and several shops and even a restaurant catering to people from the Elemental Nations. He only spotted a single shop claiming to sell Irunian metal, and he strongly suspected it was just steel with some mana thrown in.

The Goralian shops, however, appeared to be the real thing. Kai ignored the majority of them and instead searched for a place called the Elite Guild, which was the best according to the shopkeepers. When he spotted it, he realized that it actually looked like a miniature Hunters Guild from back home, with its little fortified walls. Here they were just artifice, but he had to admit that they attracted his attention.

Once inside, he didn't see as many Goralians as he expected, but there were monster trophies everywhere. Furs, horns, bones, and claws on every wall, across both the first floor and the half-floor above. Even if the people inside were crystal cultivators, they were dressed more like hunters.

A place this big had multiple counters, so Kai found the one that seemed to manage the monster cores and stood at the back of the line. His plan had been to wait and maybe listen in on the conversations around him. He didn't get to wait for more than a few minutes before someone interrupted him.

"Wait a minute, are you a crystallier?" A Krysali man wearing heavy chain mail moved up beside him. "Why are you waiting in line?"

"Do crystalliers get to go first?" Kai asked. He realized that he hadn't been using his shroud - he really needed to get back into the habit, after so long with just Zae Zin Nim.

"You must be new here! Of course you get better treatment." The man put an arm around Kai's shoulders and pulled him out of the line. "You won't find better prices than at the Elite Guild, but you don't want to wait in this line. Right this way."

Kai let himself be escorted past the front desks to a back area, where more veterans lounged around. He didn't see anything like a bar, but a surly middle-aged woman was arranging drinks. The man wearing chain mail rapidly ordered something for Kai, then snapped his fingers. A servant rushed up, bowing deeply.

"Take these cores and bring back what they're worth. The very best price." The Krysali in chain mail waved at Kai's sack of monster cores as if they were nothing but a minor errand. "Hurry now, get them sold! Now you... sit back and enjoy yourself."

"Thanks." It was rougher hospitality, but Kai was more comfortable with that anyway. He took a sip of his drink and found it to be beer with a bit of an odd aftertaste.

"Now, what brings a Goralian crystallier all the way to Yulthens?" the Krysali asked.

"Just traveling," Kai said. He wanted to be friendly with this man, since he needed new connections, but there were people giving them strange looks. Had he inadvertently made friends with a local pariah? "Made some money in Romastir and they sent me here."

"Really now? How much do you have? If it's enough, I can get you some enhancement potions that will blow you away. You'll shoot up levels overnight, believe me. Yulthens is the greatest-"

"Enough!" The voice rang through the room, overwhelming all other conversations. Kai looked toward the source and saw an enormous man walking toward them.

Kai was tall, but this man had to be a full head taller. Shaggy hair in Goralian brown hung around his head and formed a large beard. His rippling muscles were covered only by armor around his stomach and thighs, then an enormous Direboar hide that wrapped around his shoulders and formed a helm with the beast's tusks and face. Mana and qi burned within him, equally potent, but Kai didn't see any crystals except one on his belt.

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More importantly, the man was dragging the servant and the bag of monster cores.

"I told you what I'd do if you tried this again." The enormous man growled out every word like he was grinding stones.

At that moment the Krysali wearing chain mail leapt from his seat and tried to run out the back door. Before he got two steps, the Goralian man let out a shout that made the air itself ripple. Whatever it did, the man in chain mail crumpled.

"You're trash, and in this case stupid trash." The hulking Goralian tossed the servant onto the ground beside the Krysali and then pointed at Kai. "You plan to steal from crystalliers and you don't even do your research? If he just came from Romastir, he isn't some rich boy with a merchant's money."

"Wait, I didn't..." The Krysali thief was struggling backward, his eyes widening.

"Story is he was sent here after fighting three different crystalliers at once. That poison didn't do shit to him - hell, he probably didn't even notice it."

Now that it was painfully obvious what had happened, Kai felt more than a little embarrassed. To cover for it, he drained the entire beer in one breath and then tossed the empty mug onto the table. It was true that the poison would be immediately digested, but he still felt foolish almost falling for a con. No one seemed to be mocking him, though... most of the glances looked a little worried.

The massive Goralian threw the con artist and his accomplice "servant" to guards, then dropped the sack of monster cores onto the table. He fell into the opposite chair the next second, making the wood groan as it struggled with his weight.

"Bring me the usual!" He waved at the workers, then laughed. "Hell, find his poison and add it in!"

"I appreciate your help," Kai said once the attention turned away from them. "I guess I really am a country rube in some ways."

"Naw, naw, in my experience people who spend their time fighting monsters tend to forget how shitty other humans can be." The man laughed and thrust out a hand. "Name's Tareth Nordulind, by the way! I wasn't going to go meet you, but I guess this is fate."

"I hope not." Kai grinned and clasped Tareth's wrist, Goralian style. He suspected that Tareth was playing up his foreignness with the boar hide and the rest, but it still reminded him of home.

"We have too many con artists like this one here. See, crystalliers come to Yulthens, thinking they have enough crystals to become famous and strike it big. Makes them easy targets, even though it's a dangerous con. I'm sure you would have made it through, but they would have cheated you for these cores."

"Thanks for the help. Where should I take these, by the way?"

"Oh, you were in the right place the first time! Crystalliers do get to cut in lines, though, so don't worry about that. Actually, don't worry about it at all."

Tareth struck his fist against the table twice and somehow summoned one of the other workers. He said a few words and gestured toward the sack of monster cores. Kai spent a while wondering if he was falling for exactly the same trick again and this was some kind of ridiculously convoluted scheme. Soon he dismissed that as silly and instead used his spiritual sight on Tareth.

Name: Tareth Nordulind

Total Power: 395

Spellword Class: 93 (103)

Crystal Cultivation: 21,924 (151)

Physique Level: E-4 (92)

Soul Level: 7 (49)

>

For the first time in months, Kai felt truly intimidated at another person's soul. Tareth was enormously powerful, and worst of all he looked like a stronger version of Kai. Massive Physique, higher Soul Level, and even a powerful Class. At first Kai had read it as "Spellsword" but he realized that it actually said "Spellword," which was even more ominous.

Zae Zin Nim had always said that Kai's full strength was about double his Power... even with that, he didn't think this was a fight he could win.

"Like what you see?" Tareth turned back to him and his smile was all teeth.

"Are you, uh... is this the level of crystalliers in Yulthens?"

Tareth burst out laughing. "Gave you a fright, didn't I? No, no, I'm pretty strong here. I reckon the top crystalliers in Yulthens are some of the strongest warriors outside of the Frontier, anywhere on Deadwaste. Well, maybe some of the Elemental Nations have experts, and there are a few real elites tucked away in Goralia."

"How strong is pretty strong?" Kai asked. "In Romastir they had everyone ranked."

"We're not so picky here, maintaining a ranked list gets too complicated. There are... oh, I don't know, about a hundred crystalliers in the city. Quite a few of them are just playing with mommy's money or daddy's crystals, and you look like you wouldn't have a problem with them."

"And the best?"

"The top twenty five in Yulthens are known as the Ruby Crystalliers, and they're not weak." Tareth leaned forward and gave another one of those grins. "You're looking at one of the top five, the Diamond Crystalliers. And you can decide for yourself whether or not we're worthy of the name."

They drank for a while and Tareth insisted on ordering food. Mostly talk of home and the incursion, since Tareth apparently didn't trust much news from Goralia. During the conversation the workers of the Elite Guild gave him 1200 Goralian Eagles for his cores, which struck him as more than they were worth, as well as documentation to make it easy for him to work with them on future monster hunts.

Once he'd inhaled his food, Tareth pushed himself up. "Good to have more Goralians around!" He clapped Kai on the shoulders with meaty hands. "Most crystalliers don't last here, but I hope you will."

"You have any advice for me?" Kai asked.

"You'll have to figure it out for yourself, but... if you want a safe path, join up with the city institutions, like I did. If you want to make money fast, join up with one of the big merchants. You risk getting drawn into the schemes, but you'll get a pretty penny." Tareth grinned at him one more time as he turned away. "Hope you make something of yourself, young man! The whole city isn't as tricky as this, but you need to step lightly."

Quite a few people stared at Kai as he left and he wondered just what kind of reputation he was building. Possibly as a mark, but Tareth had drawn attention to his previous fight. Just sharing a meal with Tareth might start rumors, because he doubted that he deserved it by his merits alone. Clearly he would need to increase his power substantially if he wanted to compete in Yulthens.

The entire event had taken more time than he expected, so he needed to rush back to meet Zae Zin Nim. He found her sitting on the side of their diamond star, which hovered over the chosen landmark. When he arrived and jumped up beside her, she gave him a brief glance.

"For the record, I did find a place to store this, but it seems only peasants walk around the city."

"And we wouldn't want to be peasants." Kai dropped down into a seated position and stared out over the city. "I have a bit of a story to tell, but what about you? Success?"

"They do have proper qi here, including pills and elixirs. I can get what I need, but you have a more difficult path." Zae Zin Nim regarded him somberly. "We could purchase the minimum viable supplies for your breakthrough for 5000 Goralian Eagles. You could buy the purest qi and have a strong breakthrough for 20,000."

"Why do I feel like you're going to suggest something more? What would a perfect breakthrough cost?"

"100,000. It is a great sum, but this is the foundation of your future strength."

"Then I guess 100,000 it is."

Kai shook his head and stared out over the city. Once that sum would have been unfathomable to him, but his life barely resembled the one he'd once expected. Here he was, sitting beside a cultivator and staring out over the city of Yulthens.

It stretched beneath them, bathed in crimson and gold and possibilities.

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