Depthless Hunger

Chapter 74: Turning a New Page

As the mana attempted to drown her, Zae Zin Nim desperately choked down panic and focused on facts. She had only seconds to avoid a permanent deviation. Escape was impossible. The only path was through the mana flooding her.

Instead of trying to manage it like qi, she screamed directly into the mana. The roots that had been invading her dantian evaporated into raw power. It threatened to escape her entirely, then responded to her will and formed a ring around her dantian.

Just like that, it was over. Zae Zin Nim realized that her body had crawled back out of the pool despite not having consciously decided to do so. She lay on the side for a while, marveling that she had somehow reached a stable state never discussed in Cloudspire. Her dantian remained where it should be in her lower stomach, a bit drained but unharmed. A ring of mana burned around it, a halo from one angle and an eclipse from another.

Her cultivation was unharmed, but had she acquired what she needed? She slowly sat up and searched within herself. All her polished cycling techniques didn't work, as she'd predicted. Instead she reached for the mana exercises that Kai had taught her.

Blue flames flickered to life around one of her hands, slowly spreading to outline each finger. It began to spread up her arm, not only not burning her but strangely cool. When she reached for the power, all the flames snuffed themselves out.

There would be time to discover the truth of that later. All that remained was to see the truth of her essence.

Name: Zae Zin Nim

Total Power: 152

Cultivation: Body Refinement 91% (100)

Novice Coldfire Corona: 1 (1)

Blackblood Physique Level: F-6 (42)

Soul Level: 3 (9)

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The new power settled in just beneath her cultivation, declaring itself to be "Novice Coldfire Corona." That was not what Kai had said should appear, but she was unconcerned. Her years of cultivation had adapted the mana into a form more appropriate for her. Once that would have been intimidating, but she knew they could find the appropriate path together.

On that note, she had what she wanted, so it was time to stop being selfish. Zae Zin Nim swiftly began to inventory the vault, evaluating everything not compared to the treasures of her expectations, but by how useful they could be to him.

Even though it seemed the most petty, she forced herself to examine the papers first. Razzagah Lantrian had been a trustworthy ally and helped her reach this opportunity, after all. She was surprised how many papers had been stored, in compendiums instead of proper scrolls. At least they were very easy to search, even if all the mercantile details eroded her will to persist.

When she reached the specific records that Razzagah had wanted her to search for, she simply took the entire book. It would take too long to find the exact evidence he needed, plus this would make the goal of the theft less obvious.

That complete, she could look for anything that might be useful. She left all the gold, since it usually meant nothing compared to cultivation. When she happened across a large number of Krysali crystals, however, she swept all the most potent ones into her sleeve. Even if she couldn't use them to create a proper flying vessel, she had a theory about their potential use.

Aside from the completely useless items such as the paintings, there were a large number of marginally powerful items. Magical swords, armor, and the like... all of it pathetic. Only the Irunians who had made Kai's weapon spheres could create anything that wasn't an insult to the very concept of a magic item. He was better off fighting with his internal monstrous power than using these crutches.

Only a single item displayed any kind of spatial manipulation whatsoever, but she couldn't define its proper usage. The outer appearance was a dense wedge and it could clearly expand into something larger. Since she didn't know how large it might become, she simply took it without further experimentation.

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Careful examination revealed that two of the most valuable items were left to gather dust in a corner. Two stones with dense elemental mana, buried so deep that perhaps their purposes had been forgotten. She suspected that they would generate fire and water, not at a combat level but in large enough quantities to make their journey less unpleasant.

Just when she thought there was nothing left worth taking, Zae Zin Nim noticed a safe in a corner. It wasn't locked to keep anyone out, but warded to keep something in. When she forced open the door, she was surprised to see a monster core throbbing inside. This one was a sphere of bluish flesh that was larger than her hand, far beyond any of the other monster cores she had encountered in Deadwaste. She'd seen more potent and refined cores before, but never any that had this strange twisted nature.

Whatever it was, it might potentially be useful to Kai. Instead of dirtying her robes, she tore a painting from its frame and used it to wrap up the core. The constipated-looking man on the painting couldn't object, after all.

Loaded down with everything she had stolen, Zae Zin Nim was even more cautious leaving the estate. There was no way she could hide everything from the vault and no way to explain what she was carrying to anyone who looked for more than a moment, so she needed to leave as soon as possible. Her only stop on the way out was the balcony, where she dropped Kai's invitation emblem in the exact position he'd left it.

Then, a single jump over the estate's outer wall and the theft was complete. If the entire city came down on them the next day, she didn't really care.

.

..

.

"The mistress has no more need of you."

Kai woke up to someone dragging him upright. He very nearly attacked before he remembered what was going on. The guard was just a man with a total strength of 10; one solid punch might have accidentally decapitated him. Having come so close to murder put Kai off balance, long enough for him to be pulled out of the room. The sheets entangling his legs nearly tripped him up, then he was pushed out.

His pants hit his chest, then the door slammed a second later.

Memories flooding back, Kai ashamedly tugged his pants back on. What he'd experienced might have been a fantasy for some men, but he felt like a toy. Maybe some of the women had felt physical lust for him, but he'd seen plenty of scorn as well. Kalliay Corinin certainly had viewed him as someone to be used and discarded. Now that he stood outside the well-guarded inner estate, he just felt tired.

Currently he was wearing only pants, and he doubted he was getting his tunic back unless he fought the guards for it. It wouldn't be difficult, just pointless. A few of them snickered, as if he should be ashamed of himself. Kai wasn't sure what he felt, but he decided that he didn't care what they thought. He squared his shoulders and resolved to walk out shirtless.

Was his musculature changing? He'd always sought a leanly muscular body, wanting to balance strength and agility. Somehow he'd become significantly more top-heavy even though he had been wandering through the wastelands and cultivating instead of doing any focused upper body training.

What surprised him, now that he had time to think about it, was that the night hadn't even been very physically gratifying. He'd take a lazy afternoon with Juray a thousand times over an impersonal orgy. Even though he tried to tell himself otherwise, he did feel a little slimy for making the decision. If Zae Zin Nim hadn't been able to awaken her Class, he would feel even worse.

On his way out, he saw that the party was essentially over. There were a few drunks collapsed across seats and a number of broken chairs as if a brawl had broken out. Several serving women were gathering all the remaining mana-charged wine on a cart, and when they saw him walking through shirtless, they tittered behind their hands.

Kai grabbed one of the wine bottles, tore off the top with his teeth, and drank it while he walked past.

So many of his thoughts had been focused on making everything work for Zae Zin Nim and Razz, he hadn't really thought about what it would do to his reputation. Back in Monskon City, he hadn't paid attention to that sort of gossip because he'd always been training. Here, he had a bad feeling that people cared more about that sort of thing. If people started throwing this in his face... it might be easier just to leave Rayakan. They had what they needed, hopefully.

Kai sped up as he got into the city, hoping for answers. They couldn't meet Razz at all that night or even the next day, since they needed to avoid drawing any more connections between them. Maybe longer, depending on if the theft was discovered and investigated. But he should be able to meet Zae Zin Nim at their inn unless something had gone terribly wrong.

By the time he got back, there had been no shouts of alarm or pursuit by hunters. The innkeeper shook her head when she saw him, but didn't say anything.

When he finally got back to their room, Kai saw Zae Zin Nim sitting almost motionlessly on her bed. Definitely unharmed, though her shroud was up and so he couldn't see if her awakening had been successful. Had this step been meant to cure her physical condition or not? If she'd collected anything, she had sensibly hidden it away.

"Kai. You are well?" She blinked when she opened her eyes, but said nothing about his condition.

"More or less." He moved past her to go look for another tunic in his pack. "I really hope you awakened a good Class, otherwise all this trouble was for nothing."

For the first time he had ever seen, Zae Zin Nim blushed. The expression was strange across her scarred face, but it was unmistakable. To make things even weirder, she rose to her feet and gave him a deep bow.

"You gave up your chastity for my sake, Kai Clanless. I will not forget this."

"Wait, that's not-" She pushed past him and was gone before he could figure out what the hell he was supposed to say to that.

He hadn't even gotten his question answered. Kai sat down on the side of the bed and just stared for a while, then collapsed backward.