Chapter 519: Training Away From Darkmist Island

In the end, they didn't spend much time at all on Darkmist Island. Kai spent two days training the Deadwaste volunteers, or rather evaluating each and then helping them gather the materials they would need in the future. Combined with all their treasures from Cloudspire, the group's fears of not being able to advance on Deadwaste seemed assuaged.

Several days out from the island, Kai was still mostly thinking about those volunteers. He didn't know them all well, since some seemed to avoid him, others were private, and there was only so much time in the day around his own training. While he was enjoying working with them, part of his mind kept telling him that he should be focusing on his own strength, either because he would be a greater part of their war assets or because he couldn't afford to stop, ever.

Kai wasn't sure exactly where that voice was coming from. That was more Zae Zin Nim's philosophy, but she was content with her personal cultivation and had no scowls for him. Omilaena might have pushed him to optimize his time - in theory, because she actually hadn't.

Maybe it was really a selfish part of him. But there was also another voice reminding him that he wasn't likely to be personally threatened by the incursion, so these people were the ones putting their lives on the line. It would be wrong to make himself even more invincible against average monsters when the others were going into the fight of their lives.

Yet reflecting on their various strengths and obstacles had also made him consider his own training again. The time to keep his nose to the grindstone was when he desperately needed a breakthrough, but that alone wouldn't have gotten him to this point since it led to dead ends. They all had time, so they needed to seek new solutions, and he had to do the same.

Once he was finished with his cultivation and Physique training, Kai headed out to find the other trainees and see if he couldn't solve a few problems at once. Ankrastor already had a clear plan trying to break through to D-rank Physique, while Bonto and Kyridnyiam were cultivating with Zae Zin Nim. He wanted to talk to Untariin and Tori, but either they had been unlucky or they were avoiding him. That left Mariyay, who he just hadn't had a chance to talk to yet, and Kifaela, who had the greatest potential for them both.

He found Kifaela first: the naiad was seated on the back deck of the Clanless, her hands cupped around a container of lethal-smelling chakra. Her dark blue hair fell in locks like waterfalls, obscuring her pale blue skin and one milky-white eye. When she saw him she shifted nervously, almost as if suspicious of his intentions.

"I thought my path was clear," she said. "Didn't we agree I need to keep developing plague chakra?"

"And convert a weakness into a strength," Kai agreed. "But you can't win on that alone, so I want to talk about Physique."

"What, exactly?" The eye he could see was guarded, even more suspicious than before.

"I know the jump to D-rank is huge, but each level is another 5 Power, so you shouldn't neglect further training. I have some suggestions that might help you... and honestly, I was hoping that we could trade tips."

"Trade? You're C-rank, what could I possibly offer you?"

"It's not that simple." Kai sat down cross-legged opposite her, doing his best to ignore the plague chakra in her hands. "I've only advanced this far by incorporating new Physique training routines, so I'm always looking for more, and I haven't ever tried naiad techniques. I have no idea how that works for you, actually."

"It doesn't." Kifaela's lips twisted in irritation, but this time it didn't seem focused on him. "In theory, we train ourselves in water charged with mana and it soaks into our bodies and souls. For me..."

"So I heard. But you still managed to reach D-rank, which hardly anyone does."

"On Deadwaste, you mean."

"No, that's impressive anywhere. On Cloudspire you'd be amazed how many cultivators never bother to go past E-rank. But if you can't rely on easy powers, you have to hunt for whatever you can get, right?"

At last Kifaela seemed to relax a little and nodded in response. "You're right, but I'm afraid I'll disappoint you. I don't know exactly what I did... because of my disease, I had to reject naiad techniques and train with humans. Somehow... this happened."

Kai questioned her about her history, partially searching for useful clues and partially just to get to know her better. If anything, Kifaela had been set on a harder path than his: Goralians might focus on Class, but they knew plenty of humans followed other paths. Naiads only had water. It was everything to them, and without the ability to connect with it, Kifaela was considered not really a naiad at all. So she'd eventually abandoned her community and ventured into human lands to find her own path.

While she spoke Kai tried to use deeper spiritual sight to examine the details of her soul, but it wouldn't come together properly. The way some species had personal essence but no Physique had always thrown him off, even back to getting confused about the first dryad he'd seen. Well, he'd known that he would probably need support anyway.

"Are you okay with being examined by Omilaena?" Kai eventually asked. "If she can untangle the different pieces of your soul, we might be able to gain some insight."

"You think it can actually help?" Kifaela asked. "The disease is in my blood, so I'm sure it's incurable, even for you."

"Oh, I didn't mean that. But if you've gotten this far with Physique using relatively few exercises, then you actually probably have a lot more growth to unlock. The question is how it all works together, and for that we need an expert."

"Very well, then. I will be examined by her."

When he'd asked the question, Kai had meant it as a formality, but Kifaela seemed to have taken it with great seriousness. He supposed that Omilaena could seem pretty sinister to outsiders, so what he was asking didn't seem as simple to them. Only Goralian politeness had saved him from what could have been a faux pas.

In any case, it got them moving off the deck to the back cabin, where Omilaena and Juray were usually engaged in their experiments. That day when they entered, Juray was nowhere to be seen and the main table had been cleared. Instead Orotaisin lay across it, shirtless with a blue coil resting over his heart.

Omilaena stood beside him, a hand on his chest. When she saw Kai, she immediately pretended to be flustered.

"Wait, it's not what it looks like! I'm actually cheating on you specifically to violate your trust!"

"How is the Brightwind Meridian Perfection coming?" Kai asked Orotaisin, ignoring Omilaena entirely.

"Reasonably well," he said mildly, sitting up and removing the coil as if this was all perfectly ordinary. "I can absorb the meridians, but the problem is making sure that achieving this 'perfect' state does not interfere with any of my other abilities, particularly my new cultivation."

"Calling it a 'problem' is underselling it," Omilaena said with a grin. "Those elites of yours already had him on what seems like a very balanced plan for his soul, but I think with this we can increase the synergy even more. The problem is that the Brightwind Meridian Perfection treasure was developed for elite cultivators, not Windborn who are still growing."

"Can I get your opinion on something else meanwhile?"

Orotaisin nodded and headed out with a few more words. That left three of them, Omilaena slinking over to bump her hip against his while Kifaela stood back, her one visible eye darting between them. Hopefully Omilaena would be able to figure out a solution to this as well, so he started to explain the issues with naiad Physique.

"Say no more," Omilaena interrupted, pulling on her blue goggles. "Why some species have essence instead of Physique, right? That's actually a bit of a puzzle I'd wanted to solve myself, so I'm happy to look into it."

"Do I need to do anything?" Kifaela asked, shifting nervously.

"Strip naked for me."

"You don't need to strip." Kai rolled his eyes and swatted Omilaena's backside - he'd intended to discourage her, though he realized that might have the opposite effect. "Just hold still and she'll examine your soul on a deeper level, figuring out connections aside from abilities and raw power."

In any case, Omilaena didn't throw out any more jokes as she peered over the naiad. After that she drew some blood and examined it with her goggles, then whipped out several more vials for comparison. Some of them actually glowed with a little power, one that felt like Nymidria and another that Kai puzzled over until he put it together.

"Is that lamia essence?" he asked.

"Exactly. I was serious when I said I'd been wanting to solve this myself." After examining things for a while, Omilaena grinned triumphantly and stuck her goggles on her forehead. "Wasn't so hard, in the end. Seems like some species have an expanded Physique, invading into the essence category."

"So it's like Physique and an essence ability in one?"

"Right, but the combination reads as essence in spiritual sight because humans are used to seeing Physique in its 'pure' form. If there was a whole continent of another species, they might actually get confused about human Physique and see it as partially their ability. In any case, naiad girl here split her nature into two, allowing her to build her Physique separately from her stunted essence."

"Kifaela," Kai put a hand on the younger woman's shoulder to remind Omilaena to be more polite, "has come unusually far with her Physique. Could this be related?"

"Yeah, it's a result of working against a severe restriction. Imagine, say... a man without legs who gets around on his arms all day. He'll have built up those arms in a way others haven't."

Kifaela let out a breath. "But they'll never be as good as legs, will they?"

"Aww, don't be that way." Omilaena smiled over at her, less predatory than usual. "If you keep training that chakra, you can - metaphorically - grow new legs. Nasty plague-causing legs, hopefully."

"So you... really intend to help. You really think I can overcome this."

"Of course we do," Kai said, letting a little hurt leak into his voice. "Didn't you believe me?"

"Honestly..." Kifaela glanced over at Omilaena and narrowed her eyes. "I wasn't sure whether she intended to kill me to use for an experiment, or invite me into bed."

"I would never!" Omilaena swept a hand to her chest in mock-horror. "I am a chaste, married woman and I object to such an accusation!"

Sighing, Kai took Kifaela aside to discuss their potential training options. It seemed that, despite her suspicions, she did believe them and was hopeful that she could find a way forward. In turn, he was increasingly hopeful that her restricted training exercises might be useful for him as well. More importantly, though, he wanted to reassure Kifaela about Omilaena and make clear that her suggestions were always jokes.

Once that was settled, he moved over to his wife where she was setting up a new experiment for the naiad. When he moved behind her, she bumped back against him and rolled her eyes.

"You better not be here to give me a lecture," she said. "They can take a little teasing."

"It's not that at all." Kai reached down to put his hands on her hips and hold her against him. "Just try to figure out the new exercises as soon as you can. I think it would be best to hit the very peak of C-rank before I use the seed, and I'm worried about wasting time."

"You're feeling guilty about helping the trainees, aren't you?" Omilaena leaned back against his chest, looking up at him with a piercing gaze.

"Well... yes. I'm surprised you haven't gotten upset about spending so much time helping others."

"Kai, you're too altruistic for your own good, but it's possible to be too selfish for your own good too. I think you miss out on some opportunities due to your methods, but truthfully, Zin Nim and I miss out on things too. For example, without Orotaisin experimenting with the Brightwind Meridian Perfection, we wouldn't be able to purify them for Zin Nim."

"Then..."

"Go ahead and help them while I figure out the synergies. I've got your back." Omilaena's expression dissolved into a smirk as she bumped her ass back against his crotch. "You actually have mine, but we can negotiate repayment later."

Ignoring that, Kai bent down to kiss her, and Omilaena responded smoothly. It didn't last long, but the kiss meant more than he expected. Even in this, she really was ready to support him. That made it a lot easier to put aside his concerns and get to work, both in his own training and preparing the others.

On his way out the door, Kai cracked his knuckles and considered his next steps.