Chapters 295-297

(Cognosticon here. I wanted to split the voyage chapters into short ones, both to give a sense of more time passing and to emphasize that the characters are split up, but I didn't want to stiff readers. So you're getting three chapters at once today.

Back to Deadwaste for a short arc that I hope everyone will find interesting. The characters have powered up a lot and they won't be in the same positions they were before, but I know some readers hate going backward. All I can say is that I don't want to write a story where characters and settings regularly get thrown away, never to be seen again. Old characters won't be magically boosted to catch up to Kai, but they'll still be relevant. All the systems in the story have more secrets to reveal as the characters grow.

Also, here is a Patreon-only preview of the third cover. Anaelina is not the "main boss" of the third arc, but she's thematically relevant and makes for a dynamic cover.)

Chapter 295: A Voyage of Cultivation

This was the third time in her life that Zae Zin Nim had crossed over the great ocean. First to Deadwaste, then with the others to Rosemount, and now back to Deadwaste. The second voyage, braving the Blood Current, had been by far the most dangerous and yet she found herself nostalgic for it.

She journeyed on a sleek elven ship that cut through the waves, yet it would still take two months to cross the ocean. That would have been reasonable enough in the company of the others, but there had been no way to avoid Brightwind attention except to separate. As she was the most hunted, she went on the ship of elves sworn to secrecy, which was surprisingly lonely. All of the elven sailors were polite but distant, viewing her as a secret of state more than a person.

In theory that was no trouble at all. This was merely a gift of two entire months where she could focus on cultivation, without even sacrificing time that she could have spent with the others. And yet when she looked at her own soul, she felt the gulf yawning above her.

<

Name: Zae Zin Nim

Total Power: 770

Cultivation: Earth Soul 1% (500)

Coldfire Corona: 57 (67)

Blackblood Physique Level: E-8 (104)

Blackblood Shadow (+50)

Soul Level: 7 (49)

Yin Chakra: 125 (0)

>

Even cultivating in the richest qi fields in all Cloudspire, it took years to reach the Sky Soul stage, and that was for the few who could attain it at all. There was simply no chance that she would reach it in the near future, and perhaps it would be completely impossible to reach Sky Soul before dealing with her father.

As if to add insult to injury, their ship was hit by a massive storm and blown off course midway through the journey. The sailors worked hard to get them back on track, but said that they would be arriving at least a week later, and likely at a different port. Reaching their designated meeting point would be more difficult now.

Once all that would have filled her with despair, but now she had allies and other sources of power. The task was challenging, not impossible. Her plan was to switch from qi to mana when she returned to Deadwaste, since she had let her Coldfire Corona slip behind again. Aside from a touch of guilt, that actually encouraged her, because she was sure that she could attain substantial growth.

And of course, all her work cultivating chakra would pay off if she and Kai... it was easier not to think about that.

Instead she focused on the sphere of qi she'd been given, which really was a remarkable gift. It contained so much qi that she could cultivate off it alone for many months. Compared to the immense challenge of the Sky Soul stage, that would not be enough, but it was more than she expected. And, now that she was thinking less as a cultivator, it occurred to her that the sphere itself might be a more useful gift than what it contained.

But for now, she could only move forward. The waves lapped, the winds blew, and Zae Zin Nim cultivated.

Chapter 296: A Voyage of Hunger

According to the original plan, Kai had been supposed to spend the voyage working on the mana and chakra plant that he had been given by the elves. He'd eaten a few pieces of it and tried to digest the strange merged power, but after a few days it spent all its time sitting in his spatial ring.

Because it was finally time to shape the Thunderbird essence. He had all the knowledge he needed, all the other monstrous powers, and no excuses. There were no urgent priorities or lethal threats. If he couldn't develop a perfect ability from it now, he never would.

All of his theoretical work had made him sure that he could create an ability that could fulfill several roles at once without sacrificing potential. He needed speed, of course, but he needed agility and mobility along with it. Ideally he also wanted something that would be compatible with his new Savage Heart abilities, even though he hadn't fully mastered them, so he didn't need to sacrifice the wings themselves. For that reason he decided to feed his aerial abilities into the new ability as well.

During the voyage they occasionally encountered monsters, none of them a true challenge for him. Honestly, the lamia sailors he journeyed with could probably have handled things themselves. Kai told them not to raise a finger and ate everything himself, because he needed all the monstrous essence he could get.

First he fixed the Thunderbird in his soul as Thunderbird's Essence, an ability that was too broad to be powerful but didn't sacrifice any future potential. He would refine it when he fed other monsters into it, which was his next task. Kai trained the abilities he'd been gathering over so many months until he was confident with all of them. Potential essence that had been unformed, especially from sacred beasts, became concrete abilities that he refined over the weeks.

Finally he had what he considered a complete set:

<

Thunderbird's Essence - IV (delta)

Unicorn's Speed - VIII (theta)

Garuda's Wing - VIII (theta)

Pegasus's Grace - VIII (theta)

Bloodprong's Charge - VIII (theta)

>

Based on his experience with Behemoth's Heart it was probably overkill to increase all of the monstrous abilities to the same Theta tier, but he didn't want anything to distract him. Unlike Behemoth's Heart, which merged defensive skills in a natural way to defend his life, this time he needed to develop a more precisely tuned ability.

When it was finally time, he told the sailors not to interrupt him for any reason and then focused on the monstrous essence. Everything had to be balanced. He fused Unicorn's Speed with Garuda's Wing, creating a blend that was part speed and part agility. Then he fused Bloodprong's Charge with Pegasus's Grace, another balance of speed and mobility. And then, both of those abilities trembling with potential, he fed them all to the Thunderbird.

This time the change was quiet. When it was done he didn't feel any different and for a moment he feared that he had somehow made all of the monstrous essence evaporate into nothing. But when he looked into his soul, he saw a single unified ability.

<

Thunderbird's Wings - I (alpha)

>

There was no way to know its true potential until he used it, so Kai returned to the deck to test himself. Immediately he could tell that his reflexes had changed: the sailors around him seemed so much slower and clumsier than before. When someone dropped a cloth from atop the sails, Kai saw it twisting downward through the wind in glorious detail, reveling in every turn of the fabric.

He leapt out to catch it, as light as the air. Kai dropped back to the deck, smiling, and after he handed the cloth back, he launched himself off the side of the ship.

His first leap took him so far he left the ship behind and Kai laughed as he tore through the air. He could feel his back twisting, phantom wings trying to form as the power strained for its full potential. Once he developed the Savage Heart enough he might be able to attain true flight, but even this was a joyous breakthrough.

As Kai began to arc down toward the ocean, he focused solely on reversing direction. For an instant he felt wings snap out behind him, a thunderclap sounded, and he was shooting in the opposite direction.

The first time he hit the water he fell under, but Kai pushed up and tried again. In less than an hour he was able to skim over the surface of the water, almost as easy as running. He sprinted back to the ship, where the sailors were beginning to fear that they'd lost their most important passenger.

During the remainder of the trip, Kai pushed his new ability to its limits. It only increased to Beta rank, yet he felt far more confident in his use of it. He was eager to see what it could become once he brought out its full potential. When he looked at his soul, he was satisfied with his progress.

<

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 446

Cultivation: Body Refinement 48% (109)

Savage Heart: 5 (53)

Physique Level: D-4 (220)

Soul Level: 8 (64)

Monstrous Hunger - XI (lambda)

Behemoth's Heart - VIII (theta)

Direboar's Strength - XI (lambda)

Isulfr's Bite - VIII (theta)

Sahagin's Soul - VII (theta)

Thunderbird's Wings - II (beta)

-

Tyrant's Claw - IX (iota)

Void Gaze - VI (zeta)

Baleful Breath - IV (delta)

Mutefang's Stealth - IX (iota)

Lizarkyl's Tail - V (epsilon)

Direurchin's Spikes - V (epsilon)

Wallcrawler's Feet - III (gamma)

Crystal Slime - I (beta)

Dreamleech - I (alpha)

Abominalgum - I (alpha)

Rose Piranha - II (beta)

Bloodtrap - III (gamma)

Deathvine - I (alpha)

Banchlain - V (epsilon)

>

Maybe he should have been dissatisfied with the limits of his soul, because he now had a large number of powerful abilities competing for limited slots. Yet what he wanted most of all was the chance to use all of this against a real opponent.

In theory, returning to Deadwaste should be an opportunity for reunions and advancement. But a part of him hungered for something more brutal.

Chapter 297: A Voyage of Revelations

The elves had placed Omilaena on a heavy whaling vessel launched from the eastern end of the Elven Wilds. She could blend into the mixed crew without attracting any notice, hopefully completely disrupting the distinctive combination of their trio. Since she agreed with the strategy, she had no room to complain that the voyage would be stinky and unbelievably dull.

At first everything had seemed to follow her predictions. The whalers were all hard-working types without much imagination, and if she was judging them prematurely, well, they didn't give her much reason to look deeper. She had her books and the new sword, but she was honestly not optimistic about the potential of either.

The chakra-imbued sword was the worst of the three boons, in her considered opinion. She could slowly melt it down with her Lethal Artisan abilities, which would strengthen them, but that was slow incremental progress. When she glanced at her own soul, her greatest recent gains had actually been from Kai's Physique training.

<

Name: Omilaena

Total Power: 740

Heart of Poison: Level 64 (256)

Lethal Artisan: Spinel Rank (210)

Physique: D-3 (215)

Soul Level: 7 (49)

>

As for the books... she had worked long and hard at the Great Library of Traebor, but didn't truly believe that she'd been successful. If she and so many others had failed to discover the secrets of true power, why should she succeed now? When she retired to her chamber to read through all the books she'd stolen, it was less out of hope than because everything else was fatally boring.

Seven systems, including three energies and endless mysteries. Sources both ancient and obscure discussed them in contradictory ways, offering only tantalizing hints.

Then, while turning an ordinary page, it all snapped together in Omilaena's mind. She had been thinking of chakra, qi, and mana as three of the primary sources of power and trying to fuse them, but that was backwards thinking. It was possible to fuse them because they were never fundamentally different, just different sources of energy. The fact that similar systems appeared on different continents wasn't an ugly complication, it was actually the solution.

If she reversed her thinking and considered the capacities separately... yes, it might work.

Omilaena didn't leave her cabin for the next day, forgetting to eat or sleep. As she reread ancient sources, for the first time she could understand them as part of a unified system instead of contradictory. She felt as though she was finally grasping a real truth of their reality.

Occasionally she found herself laughing in isolation. If this was true, oh, Zae Zin Nim was going to be pissed. And it all actually connected to Kai's monstrous soul in a way she hadn't expected. As much of an abomination as he was, he followed the true laws of reality in a new way.

In fact, her revelations were more likely to benefit the other two more than her. But as she studied fiercely, Omilaena didn't really care.