Depthless Hunger

Chapter 173: Into the Acid Pits

Reaching the acid pits required very little time, the problem was getting in. Kai had been expecting something similar to the mines, with some kind of underground complex produced by the acid. Instead the acid sat in great pools between the plateaus, and in some places he even saw waterfalls of it - acidfalls? - eroding down the stone. He speculated that the acid must be under pressure from some underground system, but that wasn't the difficult part.

Unlike the mines, with easily controlled entrances, the region containing the acid was fenced in, with soldiers patrolling one side and stake pits on the others. They wore unusual armor made of glass instead of crystal, presumably to defend against the acid. It looked like at various points there had been vast earthworks to push the acid into a more easily contained area that was locked up tight.

For the prisoners, anyway. Kai could easily have avoided the guards and jumped in, but that was where the trouble started.

Because the sides were open, the soldiers had plenty of opportunity to watch the prisoners. There were definitely areas deeper within the plateaus where they couldn't watch, but the space was limited. To stay inside for any length of time, Kai would either need total cooperation or to blend in with the prisoners, and blending in looked impossible.

From a nearby plateau he could see the prisoners, even in some detail if he focused his qi. They wore simple green or white clothing that would be flattered to be called robes - they were more like lumpy smocks. The base quality wasn't terrible, but most had many holes eaten in them. All the workers he saw looked Krysali enough, which was only the first reason he couldn't blend in.

The bigger problem was that all of them seemed to be sick. They weren't as bone thin as the mine workers, and instead of ropy muscle they had softer bodies. But all of them had ashy skin and he saw many coughing painfully throughout the day. There was a glassiness to their eyes that completed the look, which was visible at a glance. With his height, muscle, and obvious good health, Kai would stick out like a sore thumb.

As Kai watched their daily routine, he discovered that it was more complicated than he thought. At least once a week - he hadn't been there long enough to confirm - the inhabitants shuffled into lines closer to the fences. Those who had been dutifully distributing the processed crystals received some sort of drink from the soldiers. Whatever the dark purple liquid was, it seemed to improve their health for a time.

So it seemed clear that the acid pit workers were destroying their health in their work while being strung along with medicine that also kept them strictly controlled. The question was what he was going to do about it.

It was strange approaching one of these prisons from the opposite side. In the mines, he had come to know the other workers before he had a clue about the tunnels or guards or even where they were. Now the exact location and security were easy to discover, but he stood far outside the culture he saw below.

The work itself was the first thing he'd figured out. Soldiers brought great wagons loaded with crystal ore up to one of the entrances, one that met a slope. They pitched the crystal rocks directly over the side, where they tumbled down into a pile. From there, the workers picked them up by hand and took them to the acid, which ate away the useless part of the ore. There was some trick to that part that he couldn't figure out from a distance.

No sign of moonmelt, whatever that was. He hadn't been able to learn much more while he was in Yulthens.

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And so, despite forcing himself to leave Zae Zin Nim, Kai found himself waiting again. For a day or two he could justify scouting the location and figuring out their routine, but eventually he felt stalled. He was just training out by the acid pits, hoping that some solution would happen by.

Eventually Kai figured out that he could climb to the top of one of the plateaus and get a better view, without being seen by the soldiers. The climb itself would have been near impossible for most. For a moment he thought he was going to get some use out of his poor Wallcrawler's Feet ability, but it actually proved easy enough to jump to the top.

From there he could see more of the acid workers' unpleasant existences. They had far more water than the mine workers, found in streams that weren't filled with acid, but much rougher lives. Within the central area they had some privacy, and he saw every aspect of life continuing, the problem was that the acid was clearly taking a toll on their health. Once he got closer he could smell something like a sharp soap, and he suspected that it was terrible to breathe. Pregnant women stayed in a small higher cave they had apparently carved, trying to keep them away from the acid fumes.

Many of the soldiers seemed to be trained in spiritual sight, so Kai was cautious at first. Once he confirmed they weren't monitoring the area with expert abilities, he opened his spiritual eyes and took a look at the workers' souls.

Name: ???

Total Power: 003

Physique Level: G-0 (2)

Soul Level: 1 (1)

>

Most of them looked as grim as he'd expect from their outward appearances. He didn't see a single worker who had Physique above G rank, and only the newer workers had any higher ranks at all. As far as he could tell, working with the acid actively degraded their Physique as it destroyed their bodies.

That process continued until they had nothing left, just a void, which he hadn't known was possible. The curious thing was that the veteran workers also began to develop something else, something he had never seen before.

Name: ???

Total Power: 016

Acid Cultivation: 117 (12)

Physique Level: Void (0)

Soul Level: 2 (4)

>

For example, one old man had an "Acid Cultivation" rating of 117, which granted him a modest amount of power. He didn't show any signs of using it, or of being aware of it, yet it was plain as day in his soul. Clearly their work was more than physically washing the crystals in acid, which could have been done better with nets or other mechanisms.

Finally, looking at their souls revealed another secret about the mysterious moonmelt byproduct. Everyone in the acid pits, except the very newest arrivals, had their Power rating listed with a leading zero, as if they had already broken the 99 Power barrier. He couldn't imagine that the Krysali overseers wanted that, so it must be inextricable from their work.

Over time, Kai found himself watching one boy in particular. He wasn't sure about his age - probably older than he looked, since everyone in the acid pits seemed stunted. Most of the time he wandered off on his own, sitting beside acid pools and staring into them. If not for a doting woman who could have been a sister or cousin, he probably would have starved.

What was strange was that sometimes he would reach out and touch the acid, with no apparent harm to his fingers. Everyone else stayed far away from it and was injured if they accidentally touched it. The boy's soul was still not fully formed, yet Kai strongly suspected that he had begun to develop acid cultivation at an early age.

It was while pondering these various problems that Kai saw the accident start to happen. The acidfall that poured out of one cliff face had been flowing for a long time, feeding the pool that the boy sat nearby. But that day, something was different. The top of the acidfall spluttered and spat... and then the side of the cliff began to give way.

Weakened by the acid over so much time, a cascade of rocks tumbled down the side. They would have crushed the boy if Kai hadn't leapt into action, throwing himself off the side of the cliff the instant he understood what was about to happen. He scooped up the boy and leapt aside, skidding to a halt before they tumbled into the next acid pool.

The last rocks fell. The acidfall burbled in a new stable position. And Kai realized that every single worker in the acid pits was now staring at him.