Depthless Hunger

Chapter 171: Returning to a Different City

Moving across Krysal, especially on foot, meant that Kai had less time for Physique training. It was a bit of an adjustment, after all his time exercising in the mines, and he thought he could understand Zae Zin Nim's desire for a vehicle a little better. But another part of him welcomed the chance to experiment with everything he'd been suppressing among the workers.

One of his first orders of business had been to reconsider his monstrous abilities. Infernotoad's Burst had served him well enough, but he pushed it outside the circle of his core abilities. Spitting fiery boulders was never going be a defining element of his strength, really only useful because he didn't have other long range abilities. Those he could acquire via other means, even just qi techniques, so he wanted to reserve his limited monster slots for something better.

For now, that was definitely the Void Witness. Its essence had solidified a little when he tried to draw on it and now showed up as "Void Gaze" in his spiritual sight. When he ran into a few monsters he tried to use it on them, and they seemed to shiver and retreat, but it wasn't overwhelming. Most likely this ability would need to strengthen considerably before becoming useful, and he doubted he would be able to simply neutralize attacks the way the Void Witness had.

Still, he preferred it to a simple ranged attack or another passive benefit. In the long term, he was going to need to figure out how to balance those abilities. Monstrous Hunger was essential, and Behemoth's Heart was far too powerful to ever push away. But was Direboar's Strength and then three monstrous techniques a good balance?

Most likely the practical path to greater power would be to develop those abilities, then find something to feed into Direboar's Strength. Though, once he thought about it, he realized that he had been treating the human side of his soul primarily as a defense.

When fate had cursed him with no useful abilities in every system he knew of, he'd primarily focused on making himself tougher. Those powers weren't entirely blocked off, though, and he could eventually develop more offensive abilities. Qi had been useful to him on multiple occasions, so maybe with Zae Zin Nim's training he could learn more dangerous techniques.

There was no clear blueprint for him going forward, since he was forging a new path. Nothing he could do but keep climbing.

He didn't get long to develop his abilities before he oriented himself: he was within a few days' travel of Yulthens, which made sense. The city state controlled a fairly large region, but the further out a resource was from their base of power, the less control they had over it, and the greater likelihood that another city could take it. Presumably each city state had access to at least one crystal mine and one acid pit, to produce a viable source of crystal cultivation. That might even be the reason for most of the cities' locations.

Being so near Yulthens meant that he didn't have time to train or set up his plans, though. There was no excuse for not engaging again immediately.

As he ran toward Yulthens, he thought he figured out the fundamental logic of Krysal in a way that he hadn't before. For most people, the nation was only the cities and the roads that led between them, but those were actually only a small percentage of the total land. Viewed from above, he suspected that the major roads would divide Krysal into large blocks.

Some of those contained farmland or other parts of a city state, but they also contained the mines he'd missed before. Connected to the rest of the nation only by trade roads, conveniently out of the way for everyone who wanted to enjoy the wealth of the nation without thinking about how it had been created.

Before he could come up with anything even close to a solution, he arrived back at Yulthens. Kai didn't want to announce his presence, in case Suortril was monitoring for him. Fortunately it wasn't too difficult to sneak his way inside, since the city was obviously disrupted. Once inside with his soul hidden by a shroud, he blended in with the confused crowds and made his way back to Orillia's estate.

One of the older servants saw him at the gate and drew back in shock. Kai put a finger to his lips and just smiled. At least he could probably trust everyone there to keep his secret, since Suortril had no friends in the Crystallier Cooperative.

He found Dowager Orillia herself in her sitting room, drinking from a mug of wine. She leapt to her feet when she saw him, hesitated a moment, then rushed over and began pulling on his face.

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"Kai? That's really you?"

"As far as I know." He gently took her wrists and pulled them away from his face. "I've had a rough time of it lately, but-"

"I can see that! Look at you, practically in rags." Orillia moved away and snapped her fingers for one of her servants. "I'll have someone draw up a bath and get proper clothes for you right way."

"Thank you, but nothing too fancy. Suortril might be looking for me."

That got her attention. The kindly old woman faded away and Orillia sat down with a shrewd look on her face. "Clearly we need to talk."

"We definitely do." Kai sat opposite her and took a deep breath. She had been a good patron in the entire time he'd known her, which was exactly why this had to happen. "Did you know that the crystal mines are filled with workers who never see the light of day?"

"Well... of course someone has to mine the crystals." Orillia shifted uncomfortably in her seat and lowered her gaze. "It's a difficult life, but surely it isn't unfair, is it? Not just anyone goes there. Only the people who couldn't contribute in other ways, or who committed crimes."

Kai watched her, noting every shift in expression. Was she, in her own way, as naive as he had been? He could imagine that she might have spent her entire life never visiting the mines, but she wasn't a stupid woman, she must have considered that the mines caused great suffering. Maybe it was just easier not to think about, when there were so many other concerns in the city.

"Nobody has ever tried a different system?" Kai asked. "Why not pay the workers more?"

"Of course you could try that. Some have." Orillia turned to stare out the window. "But they were always muscled out by others. If you pay more at the very base of the system, the gold to crystal ratio rises. Every crystal byproduct gets more expensive, everyone raises rates, and even unrelated items increase out of reach of all but the wealthiest. A small change at the bottom is magnified all the way to the top."

"And what happens if the crystals stop coming?"

She stiffened in her seat. "I've seen it, once or twice. It never ends well for anyone."

For a moment Kai considered just how he should judge her. Orillia might be sitting on top of a system that brutally oppressed all the mine workers, but she was ultimately a well-meaning old soul. More importantly, he needed her. He no longer had the patience for training young crystalliers, but the system she had created to lift up some could possibly be changed to lift up the workers beneath them.

"We can talk about this more later." Kai eased back in his seat and closed his eyes. "Where's Z - Hanelay?"

"I'm afraid I sent her off to the Frontier. There's been ever so much going on while you were gone. She's been gone for days, but it wasn't supposed to be dangerous, so she should be on her way back now. Once she returns we'll have a better idea just what we're facing."

"And what does it look like we're facing?"

"War between the great merchants over Yulthens." Orillia sighed and took a long drink. "When things change, merchants go bankrupt, and when they start losing everything, that means they start putting everything on the line. I think the days of Diamond and Ruby Crystalliers dueling each other in friendly matches might be coming to an end."

Kai wanted to ask more about that, but his head was still filled with the fundamental problems. He said farewell to Orillia and went out to explore. The servants had put together a surprisingly sensible outfit for him: mostly Krysali wraps, with a scarf and hat that would help him blend in. Apparently they had some experience with helping people spy.

He wasn't exactly looking for secrets, just considering Yulthens with a new eye. No wonder they could afford so many crystals, if they were paying a minimum in food and water to mine them. The extraordinary wealth of Krysal no longer seemed so impressive.

But what was the solution? He knew he had to do something, he just wasn't sure what was even possible.

The fact that the Krysal City States were fundamentally divided might be the key. After all, Omilaena had taken over a city and, while it had caused disruptions, it hadn't fundamentally destroyed the system. Maybe he could help the workers escape their mine and build a city of their own. Except that it would always be at a disadvantage compared to other cities, unless they were willing to mistreat their base workers just as much.

Could he find some other advantage that would let them hold their own? That thought quickly spiraled nowhere, because there were too many variables. Instead he began thinking about what a city fundamentally needed.

Slaves might be efficient in some senses, but they required maintaining a standing army. The soldiers were considered mundane and unimportant compared to the crystalliers, but there were a lot of them. Arming and paying them had to cost a lot, not least because they had to be well-compensated so they didn't think of stealing crystals for themselves, or banding together with the mine workers. In a sense all of that was an inefficiency limiting their military strength.

But there were so many variables he still didn't know. He needed to understand how the farmers and city workers fitted into the system, how the balance of power between different city states worked. The merchants weren't useless either and someone needed to move goods between regions. So many potential complications.

A long time ago, he had been told that he was worthless, that his lot in life was to be a mediocre hunter. Even then he had been allowed to try, to pursue a decent life for himself. The idea of being born into darkness, relegated to a permanent slave without even the chance to be anything else...

Kai Clanless stared up at the crystalline city towering overhead, still beautiful despite everything. If it really came down to it, he was willing to see it all come crashing down.