by Aaron Oster
It would still take a good couple of hours to fill his Core completely, but that was far faster than the fifteen to eighteen it would have taken before. Additionally, when he ran the Essence through his new cycling technique, the Essence was completely purified in a single pass. When he reversed the flow and the new technique showed, it gleamed a brighter gold, returning to his Core as Qi in just one pass more.
Forging Chakra was a little more complicated, with Roy having to run his Qi through the twisting, looping channels while exerting pressure on the golden power. He had to run this through the new channels four times, and each time, it would travel a bit slower as the energy thickened and grew brighter.
Finally, at the end of the fourth pass, the energy settled, forming into the brilliant gold of Chakra and flowing up to settle at the very center of his Core. Roy was happy he’d gotten up a bit earlier, as Aika awoke just minutes after he’d forged the first bit of new Chakra since his test, and it was only after forging that Chakra that Roy realized the truly monumental task that stood before him in filling his entire Core with the energy to push for the 1st Dan.
Having a massive Core was definitely helpful, but it was going to seriously slow his growth, even with his new and improved cycling technique. This was not to mention that he would need to find an endless source of potent Power Essence to keep growing.
His foundation was as solid as any. That much was easy to see. Even at Base Red, Roy couldn’t feel any definite end to his Path. He would also need to be careful. Now that he was at Red, he could no longer add to the foundations of the previous stage, so he couldn’t become greedy and push for advancement before assuring that he was as stable and solid as he could be.
Which, in turn, meant that reaching the 1st Dan would take even longer. Additionally, reaching 1st Dan Red wasn’t just a requirement of power alone. He would need to look deeper within himself to find a way to push past the barrier between Base Red and the 1st Dan.
“You seem to be doing better,” Aika said, rubbing her eyes as she reached for their shared pack.
“The technique finally settled,” Roy said. “But it seems my growth will probably be slowing significantly from now on.”
He went on to explain what he’d discovered as Aika got ready for the day, running a brush through her long hair before pulling it into its usual long ponytail. After that, he turned his back, continuing to talk as Aika changed into a fresh set of robes, not that Roy knew why she bothered.
Despite the fact that it had been raining nonstop since they’d entered this place, the storm continued on. It wasn’t raining as hard now, but it kept coming and wasn’t showing any signs of giving up today either. Although his robes were a bit dirty from yesterday’s exertions, he wasn’t going to bother changing.
“Today’s going to be a whole lot of fun,” Roy grumbled, staring out at the gray landscape.
“You’d think that the snow would have melted by now, what with all the rain,” Aika commented, her usual good cheer back in full swing, which Roy was grateful for.
Having to be the one who was constantly in a good mood had been exhausting, even if it had only been for a day. Aika was the chipper one. It suited her far better than him and even a gross gray day like this one couldn’t seem to get her down.
“I guess this place is as weird as the Lighted Fields,” Roy said, commenting on the odd luminescent forest they’d come through once they’d left the Crater.
“I guess,” Aika said, moving to sit next to him. “But it’s definitely got its own charm.”
She looked neat as ever, wearing a full set of heavy black and white robes with long sleeves and longer trailing ends to fight off the cold. These pants also bunched up near the bottoms to keep water and the like from traveling up underneath them while running, which they would likely be doing a lot of today.
“You ready to get going?” she asked when he didn’t respond.
“No,” Roy grumbled, pushing himself to his feet.
It was going to be a cold, miserable day and he was not looking forward to it. Aika just smiled, slinging their pack over her shoulder and leading the way out into the freezing rain, Roy following sullenly behind.
14
Water splashed around him as he ran, the freezing rain pelting his face, before trailing down to trickle through the gap in the front of his robes. Roy, for lack of a better term, was miserable, drenched through and not at all having a good time. His hair clung to his face and neck in sodden clumps while he constantly blinked to keep the water from his eyes.
At first, he’d tried repelling the rain with an Armorer technique, but he couldn’t keep an Essence technique up at the same time as a Movement technique. Since weaving Qi took time, he decided that his best course of action was to simply allow himself to be soaked.
The only upside of moving this fast was that they covered a lot of ground. They’d reached the path Aika had found yesterday within an hour, and the going became a bit easier. No more piles of snow or deep puddles to run through, though out on the path, the trees didn’t offer a buffer against the wind or rain, leaving them to take the full force of it.
The path had been fairly straight, only turning and twisting occasionally as it ran through the odd forest of tall conical trees. One of the strangest parts about these trees was discovered around lunchtime, when the two of them stopped for a break and to warm up a bit.
They’d gone off the path in search of some shelter, when Aika had made an interesting discovery. Despite the near-constant rainfall over the past couple of days, the area beneath the trees was completely dry. More than that, the odd, spiny leaves had collected beneath and had become soft, offering a sort of cushion to sit on.
No fires could be lit beneath the tree for obvious reasons, but sitting on the dry, soft ground, Roy found that that didn’t bother him all that much. In addition to the previously mentioned perks, the strange tree offered an abnormal amount of insulation, the area beneath having to be a good fifteen degrees warmer than the outside.
It was so comfortable, in fact, that when it came time to leave and head back into the miserable downpour, Roy was more than a little reluctant. However, the knowledge of what they had to do eventually forced him back out into the rain, running down the path as quickly as he could manage without leaving Aika behind.
It was a strange experience to have to slow himself down for someone else, especially when it was for someone like Aika, who’d been stronger than him by a mile for as long as he’d known her.
After just an hour after they set out once again, they were forced to slow their pace as the rain turned into a downpour and visibility was shot. At one point, they considered stopping, but in the end, they decided to keep moving. They were already soaked through as it was, so there wasn’t really much chance of them getting wetter.
The end of the first day’s traveling ended when it became too dark to see and the rainfall had intensified to the point where it felt like they were running through a waterfall. Roy cycled and cultivated that night, filling his Core to the brim with Essence provided by the thunderstorm raging outside the tree they were under.
They were unable to light a fire due to their current shelter, so the two of them went to sleep without eating. The next day, the rain was even worse, and after talking about it, the two of them decided to skip travel for the day. They spent most of their time cycling and refining, Roy managing to fill more than half his Core with Qi and a full twentieth with Chakra before they went to sleep, again, without eating.
“Will this ever end?” Roy groaned when they awoke the morning after to find that the sheeting rain had only slightly abated.
“It might not,” Aika said, peering out from between the branches and searching along the path. “Maybe this part of the continent is always rainy like this.”
“It wasn’t raining when we came in,” Roy grumbled.
“But it did look like it was going to start at any moment,” Aika reminded him. “And it started just an
hour after we made it inside.”
“I guess we wait then,” Roy said, feeling his stomach rumble in protest.
“Just a few more hours,” Aika agreed. “But if it doesn’t slow down by then, we’ll have no choice but to keep going.”
Roy wanted to do nothing less than go out into the rain, but by midafternoon, they had a choice to make, and so, steeling himself, Roy stepped back out into the downpour and they continued their run down the seemingly endless road.
However, contrary to his expectations, the rain slowed to a mere drizzle just a few minutes after they left the tree’s shelter. Of course, by then, it was too late, and they were already soaked through, which made Roy’s mood darken even further.
“Someone is deliberately messing with us,” Roy growled as he glared up at the sky.
Weak sunlight was beginning to shine through, though even as the rain stopped, the clouds never completely dissipated.
They got their second surprise of the day when the endless trees finally came to a stop, the path opening up to show a massive clearing where a village stood. With their improved vision, both he and Aika spotted the thinning trees a couple of minutes before they exited the forest, but upon leaving the swaying trunks, the two of them came up short.
“What in the hell do you think happened here?” Aika asked.
It looked like where there had once been a thriving village, now lay only destruction. Houses and shops all along the main street had been utterly destroyed, splintered wood and stones littering the area. The air smelled of smoke, and the charred and soaked remains of several houses showed that there had been a fire here recently.
This hadn’t been something that had happened a while ago, the two of them likely having missed the destruction of this village by mere days.
Roy and Aika both extended their senses, but neither of them got so much as a hint of whatever had done this, nor any other living people.
“We should probably take a look around,” Roy finally said, noting that the light was starting to go from behind the clouds.
Aika nodded in agreement, and together, they headed into the village. They picked their way between the destroyed buildings, Roy taking note of several corpses. Some were horribly burned, while others looked to have been savagely torn apart. Whatever had done this had very obviously not been human, as no food or valuables had been taken.
The two of them wandered about the village for well over an hour, Roy scavenging whatever he could find as they went. Although Aika initially looked at him disapprovingly, her growling stomach soon had her helping. They pulled another pack from beneath a jagged piece of stone, filling it with whatever food was non-perishable.
They even managed to find a house that was mostly intact, only having part of one wall and the roof caved in. That night, they slept in real beds for the first time, the shelter of the walls having kept out the downpour of the previous days. They even got to eat fresh food — some fruit that Roy had never seen before and meat that had been cured and prepared by some unfortunate soul that was either dead or homeless right now.
“Why do you think none of them came back?” Aika asked once the two of them settled into the beds.
Judging by how this room was set up, it must have belonged to the adult couple living here. There were some signs that children had been present as well, but there was thankfully no sign of any bodies.
“They might have been staying back due to the rain,” Roy said, enjoying the feeling of a full belly for the first time in days.
“Would rain have kept you away from your home if it had been ravaged by a Beast?” Aika asked.
“Probably not,” Roy admitted, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling. “Since that’s the case, we have to assume that there’s only one reason no one has returned.”
“The creature is still on the move and driving them further away,” Aika said, her voice grim.
Roy nodded, staring up at the ceiling, his expression equally as grim. They were in unfamiliar lands and were going to have to go after a Beast of unknown strength. It was the only real way forward, which meant that the chances of running into it were fairly high.
“How many more do you think we’ll find?” Aika asked.
“There’s no real way of knowing,” Roy replied. “I guess it would depend on how fast this creature is.”
Aika let out a long sigh, pulling the blankets up to her chin. Thunder rumbled outside, announcing the arrival of yet another storm. Neither of them felt much like talking at that point, so they curled up and went to sleep.
Over the next few days, the two of them ran across several more villages, all destroyed with vicious savagery. It was easy to see that whatever this Beast was, it was intelligent enough to wreck the entire village, not just the main street on its way through. This creature was meticulous, going through each and every house and attacking it.
The Essence lingering in the area spoke strongly of a creature with either an Earth or Wind-based Path, though the heavy storms of rain and ice kept diluting any true pictures of what level this creature might be on.
Likewise, the heavy downpours kept Roy and Aika from really being able to sense out ahead of them as they traveled, and so, the Beast continued to elude them. When asked, Geon had no idea or guesses as to what type of creature this could be, merely starting that he was a Dungeon Core, not an all-knowing omniscient being, though he had made sure to let Roy know that he was still much smarter than him.
Finally, after nearly two weeks of making their way deeper and deeper into the forest, they finally found something different. They were picking their way through yet another destroyed village, this one a bit smaller than the average and made up of only two streets. The villages, they’d noticed, were extremely varied in their construction and layout, and this one was no exception.
The houses were all low, wooden huts, built with thatched roofs made of the strange trees that were common in this area. They were good at keeping off the rain, so that was hardly a surprise, but when the two of them peered into one of the houses, they discovered that it immediately stepped down several feet, leaving more than half the house underground.
As Roy was shifting some shattered planks aside, planning on checking for any more food or perhaps some clothing, he received quite the surprise. A man, dressed in filthy, muddied robes, came lunging up at him with a rusty knife clutched in his hand while screaming at the top of his lungs.
15
Roy reacted almost without thinking, his hand snapping out and seizing the smaller man by the collar, hauling him aside. The man was nimble, though, striking out with the dagger and slamming it into Roy’s chest. He’d had the element of surprise on his side. That, however, seemed to be all he had, as the rusty dagger didn’t puncture Roy’s skin and inflict the devastating injury it should have. Instead, it shattered against his Perfect-Body and caused the man to cry out in pain at the recoil.
Roy stared down at himself, shocked for a moment that the knife had done absolutely no damage. Then, as he struck out at his face with the hilt, doing no damage either, Roy finally turned his attention back to the man thrashing in his grip.
Hauling the man even higher, Roy dragged him free of the house, holding him, kicking and squirming a full foot off the ground.
“Do your worst, vile demon!” the man cried. “I’ll die before I give you my soul!”
The way he spoke was strange, his words stilted and his dialect foreign. Still, he spoke the same language common of Buryoku, so Roy had no trouble understanding him.
He looked down at the man’s waist, noting the 3rd Dan Orange-Belt there. That was quite low as far as the rest of the world was concerned but quite strong by the standards of the Waterwood.
“I’m not here for your soul,” Roy said flatly. “All I want is information.”
“Well, you can’t have it!” the man yelled, balling up his fists and beginning to strike at him.
The blows were as ineffective as the knife had been, a
nd Roy wondered if this man was delusional, stupid, or a combination of both.
“I just want to know what happened here,” Roy said. “Then I’ll be on my way.”
“Never!” the man cried, his fists beginning to glow green as he reached for the Wind Essence in his Core.
In response, Roy removed the veil he’d been keeping over his Core, a habit he’d learned from his earlier days as a Martial Artist. If you wanted to keep others from following or detecting you, it was wise to keep your Core suppressed at all times.
The man’s technique died as soon as the weight of Roy’s presence bore down on him. Roy released the man, who immediately dropped to his knees, his legs unable to hold him up under the force of Roy’s power.
“Now,” Roy said, staring down at the quivering man. “I’ve been extremely patient with you, even when you tried to kill me. Twice. Now, you’re either going to answer my questions or I’m going to stop being…”
“Roy!”
Roy looked up to see Aika running over, a look of disapproval on her face.
“What?” he asked, ignoring the cowering man at his feet.
“Leave that poor man alone.”
“This poor man tried to kill me,” Roy said unapologetically. “I think I’m being quite fair, considering.”
“Are you okay?” Aika asked, crouching next to the quivering man while shooting Roy a look that demanded he suppress his Core.
With a sigh, Roy did as she wished, reigning in his power and finally allowing the man to breathe.
“Thank you, miss,” the man said, looking up to Aika with something approaching adoration. “You are truly a divine being sent by the heavens.”
“So she’s a divine being and I’m a demon?” Roy asked with a quirked eyebrow.
“Fiend!” the man screamed, scooting closer to Aika. “Protect me from this vile monster!”
