Depthless Hunger

Chapter 161: The Physique of the Underclass

After months in the Krysali cities, Kai had felt as though he was still a foreigner. Accepted for his strength, but always on the outside, always just a guest in their society. It was something that had slowly grown in his awareness the longer he stayed.

After less than a single month in the mines, Kai felt like he was their hero.

That wasn't exactly the same as being accepted as one of them, but he'd take it. The workers no longer treated him with suspicion and actually provided useful information when he asked about the lower levels. Even though he'd tried to help with the mining on occasion, everyone seemed happy with his contribution taking care of the monsters and insisted that he keep at it.

Both the extra time and the extra trust meant that he could take a personal step forward. One day while eating with Maggle and Nirka, he decided to bring up the issue of Physique.

"I won't make any excuses," Kai said, "I really want to know what training you're doing to increase Physique so much. I'm used to being the one focused on it, but there are a lot of workers in here tougher than me."

"Get it from our parents!" Maggle rubbed his jaw with exaggerated pride. "Along with my dashing good looks, of course."

"We can show you." Nirka smiled just slightly at him. "You're risking your life to help us, so it's the least we can do."

"Assuming you can keep up, city boy!"

When they took him to one of the back caverns and began teaching him the exercises, Kai could more than keep up. Yet their Physique training techniques were the first new ones he'd encountered in a long time and he found them fascinating. Instead of extended strength or endurance training, they involved short bursts of effort. Some of the more advanced techniques involved striking the body directly against the cavern walls, which he suspected absorbed some of the qi indirectly.

So that it wouldn't seem one-sided, Kai taught them some of the training routines he'd learned over the years. To his surprise, they didn't work well. Maggle thought they were too exhausting, and though Nirka was interested, he realized that she was too undernourished. Goralian training presumed that someone was getting a healthy diet and absorbing mana on a regular basis.

"This is great," Kai said after their first day of training. He could have kept going, but he judged that would look too suspicious. "And all of you are doing this?"

"Gotta keep up in the mines." Maggle shrugged broadly. "Some other places have different tricks and we share, when we get a chance."

"Not that it matters." Nirka lowered her head. "Everyone is stuck at 99 anyway."

"She's talking about crazy numbers she sees in her head, ya gotta understand. Some people can-"

"I'm familiar," Kai cut him off. "I've noticed that no one ever gets above a Power rating of 99, but I assumed that was because of the limit barrier."

"This is all we're worth," Nirka said bitterly. "It doesn't matter if you train up to E-8, even E-9, this is our limit. I didn't want to believe it, but the only people I've ever seen get past it are those from outside, like you, or the criminals."

"Wait, do you mean they're telling you that the limit is your fault?"

Nirka looked up at him sharply. She was mostly friendly these days, but occasionally he saw glimpses of the curt woman he'd known when she didn't trust him.

"Not our fault, 'xactly." Maggle shrugged. "But they say different folks have different worths. Some get to be crystalliers really easily, others hit their limits early. Just our lot in life... or so they say."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"They're lying." Kai ran his hands through his hair as he considered how to explain it. "Everyone hits a limit at 99 Power, that's just how souls start out. I wasn't even in E rank when I ran into it. I didn't get through because I'm better than anybody else, I had to go find a specific pill."

"Really?" Nirka leaned closer, eyes widening. "It's the same for the crystalliers, too? They aren't better than us, they just bought something to let them break through?"

The unfortunate truth was that he wasn't sure: after he had broken through to 100 himself, Kai hadn't thought about the barrier much. So for all the time he'd spent in Krysal, he hadn't actually learned how crystalliers broke the barrier. Given their general attitudes and the wealth available to them, he felt confident assuming that they had the resources for it.

"I don't know the details in Krysal," Kai was forced to say. "But I remember being stuck... when I finally broke through, I had a lot more strength available to me. Many of your strongest are running up against the size of their soul, so if I could get the resources..."

He trailed off as he realized they were both looking at him. "You got some tunnel out you haven't told us about?" Maggle asked. "Because that'd be real mean of ya."

"No, it's not like that. But if I do manage to get out, I'm not going to forget about you."

"Was your story really true?" Nirka watched him with a neutral expression. "Did you get thrown in here, or did some enemy send you?"

"I swear, I'm here solely for myself." Kai wasn't sure what he could do to convince them other than look them in the eye. "I got into trouble with a merchant and he tried to cripple me before sending me here to live out my life in misery."

"So you're out for revenge?"

"Maybe, but I got into this trouble not understanding everything first. And like I said, even if I managed to get out, I can't forget what I've seen here."

The topic lapsed, too large for them to consider. Kai realized that while the workers were happy to curse the soldiers who tormented them and the crystalliers they imagined living off their work, their suffering limited them. They had never seen anyone get out and life only got worse for them. He imagined they must feel as cursed by fate as he did, except they had no hope of a path forward.

If he tried to lead a rebellion against the soldiers, would they follow him? They treated him like a hero, but Kai wasn't sure they would go that far. More importantly, they'd probably be right not to do it. The soldiers who blocked them in the mine were just one part of a much larger system. Wildly attacking one small part of the system while ignoring the rest was a recipe for disaster.

After months of struggling for the slightest gain in Physique, Kai was surprised when his level increased in just three days. It didn't feel like he was hitting a wall, either: the training they offered was completely different than anything he'd tried before and he had room to keep growing. After another day of work, Kai checked his soul and was pleased by what he saw.

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 231 (147)

Cultivation: Body Refinement 2% (100)

Physique Level: E-5 (95)

Soul Level: 6 (36)

Monstrous Hunger - VIII (theta)

Behemoth's Heart - IV (delta)

Direboar's Strength - VI (zeta)

Isulfr's Bite - V (epsilon)

Tyrant's Claw - IV (delta)

Infernotoad's Burst - IV (delta)

-

Wallcrawler's Feet - I (alpha)

Beastbat's Wing - I (alpha)

>

Not only was his full strength rapidly returning, with his gains in Physique, he would be stronger than when he started. Unfortunately he hadn't found much in the way of useful monsters, just a stronger version of the Rockbats that had offered a weak ability. Growing wings didn't seem like something his powers could manage, but maybe he could feed it to another flying ability in the future.

Pleased by his progress, Kai threw himself into training and monster hunting. He didn't make progress quite as quickly, but he had never expected the path to E-9 to be a walk in the park. Just the fact that he was moving toward it slowly and steadily made him happy.

After a week of training, he was surprised to see Nirka slip into the room. He always trained longer than the other workers, so he was usually alone at this time. At first he wondered if something was wrong or she was skeptical of him, but she came to sit down nearby.

"I know one exception to the rule," she said.

"What rule?" Kai had been balancing in a handstand and now flipped back to his feet.

"Everybody says that you can't go past E-9, and it's pointless because you can't pass 99 Power anyway. But there's an old man who did it." She regarded him somberly. "He doesn't live in our community, he's several blocks over. And those are dangerous, so I didn't want to mention it. But if you gain this power, you really will help us, won't you?"

"I'll try." Kai took her hand and smiled. "If you can introduce me to him, I'd be grateful. This could be more than just strengthening me, there should be a way to help everyone advance."

Nirka squirmed uncomfortably, perhaps still not fully trusting him, but when he let go of her hand she smiled. "Tell me when you're ready to go."

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