Depthless Hunger

Chapter 191: One Month of Hunting

As much as Kai enjoyed spending time with the others, he was glad to go out and fight monsters on his own again. Krainuun had more than come through, providing him a list of the most dangerous beasts anywhere in Krysal. Even if some had proved to be rumors or underwhelming, in two weeks he had made more progress with monstrous powers than he had in the past months.

His first hunt had been perhaps the most interesting: a monster called a Direurchin that preyed along the western coast. It was covered in massive spikes that resisted qi and threatened any physical attack, so he understood why it would cause so much trouble. Those spikes hadn't been enough to stop him from chewing his way through, and aside from the unpleasant taste he'd been unharmed. The ability couldn't make him grow spikes, but he remained convinced that it could be used for defensive purposes.

Next he had tracked down a roaming monster called a Lizarkyl, which had actually been a great fight. He was disappointed that the best essence he could derive from it was an ability called Lizarkyl's Tail. It dealt a heavy impacting blow, but the problem was that using it required swinging his hips. There seemed to be no way to perform the technique without looking really stupid, and he certainly wasn't going to replace a current technique with it.

The third best find was another aquatic monster, though surprisingly in a central lake instead of the coast. It had been a fast beast called a Sahagin that hadn't been too difficult to kill, but its essence had resolved into a skill called Sahagin's Lungs. Learning to use it had been harder than the fight, and afterward it seemed to allow him to breathe underwater.

All these were reasonably strong abilities that he hoped to fuse into others eventually, just not game changers. But he had been working his way up the list, feeding the weaker essences to stronger monsters within him, so the remaining two were his best bets.

In the southern reaches of Krysal he found a crystal mine that had been entirely abandoned by the local city states due to the threat of the monster within. Allegedly it was called a Shadow of Death and little else was known about it. When Kai stood beside the mine entrance and saw the entire place cloaked in darkness, with shadows rising into the air like mist, he knew that was one hunt to leave for later. Not even Diamond Crystalliers had made an attempt, they'd just written off the entire mine. This one even the Frontier elite had warned him about.

By contrast, the final monster had the highest kill count of any on the list. Some creature called a Myogenecon had apparently infested a region of bluffs in central Krysal after the previous incursion. It had killed a band of hunters sent after it, so crystalliers had been dispatched... and they had fallen as well. All told, more than two dozen crystalliers had died trying to kill it over the past eight years, more lured by the idea of winning glory by ending the legendary monster.

They hadn't bothered to keep track of the number of others killed by it.

He'd stopped by the nearest city state to gather information, but it wasn't very productive. All anyone could tell him was that the Myogenecon was tough, fast, and unbelievably strong. That didn't suggest that much could be done to prepare.

As he headed out to the bluffs, Kai looked over his soul, feeling that he was as prepared as he could be.

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 243

Cultivation: Body Refinement 9% (103)

Physique Level: E-8 (104)

Soul Level: 6 (36)

Monstrous Hunger - VIII (theta)

Behemoth's Heart - V (epsilon)

Direboar's Strength - VI (zeta)

Isulfr's Bite - V (epsilon)

Tyrant's Claw - V (epsilon)

Acidic Lance - III (gamma)

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Infernotoad's Burst - IV (delta)

Void Gaze - II (beta)

Lizarkyl's Tail - II (beta)

Direurchin's Spikes - II (beta)

Sahagin's Lungs - II (beta)

Wallcrawler's Feet - I (alpha)

Beastbat's Wing - I (alpha)

Crystal Slime - I (alpha)

Acidspitter's Jet - I (alpha)

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He was confident in his core monstrous power, which had increased while he feasted after his hunts. For now he decided to use Acidic Lance over his other abilities, since a long range skill might be useful against a monster that was merely tough. Aside from Infernotoad's Burst, it was his most powerful secondary ability and he wanted to see how far it could grow.

The region of bluffs was larger than he expected, so he expected to have to hunt the monster down. But he'd barely been walking for an hour when it came howling down from the trees of a nearby bluff, rushing directly toward him.

Monster: Myogenecon

Threat: VII (Eta)

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It looked like the skeleton of some sort of ape, the bones thick and stained with red. They were held together by bands of dark muscle that crossed the body in a mad patchwork. He didn't see how they could work, but it was rushing him on all fours at great speed and it was rated as an Eta-rank threat, so he planned to take it seriously.

Before it could arrive, Kai unleashed an Acidic Lance and struck the monster in the shoulder. To his surprise, it only stumbled briefly and kept coming, as if it didn't care about the burning muscle tissue. In a flash it was on top of him, roaring and swinging.

He saw the blow coming a mile away and blocked it with his forearm... and was thrown backward. Kai barely landed on his feet, his arm burning with pain. If there had been more time he would have wrung it out, but the Myogenecon was already coming after him again.

This time he met it with a Tyrant's Claw. That definitely stopped it for a moment, tearing deep gashes through the muscle. But they didn't bleed, and the bones didn't fall apart, and the monster just kept coming. For a second Kai thought he saw something shifting, but there was no time, it was on top of him again, pummeling with both fists.

More prepared for its ferocity, Kai managed to slip around one blow and grab the monster's arm. He'd planned to try to throw it to the ground, but the Myogenecon was faster: the other arm reached out to grab one of his. For a moment they strained, Direboar's Strength giving everything it had, then Kai let out a cry of pain as his arm snapped.

With his good arm he drove a Tyrant's Claw directly into the heart of the monster. He followed up with Isulfr's Bite, getting a mouthful of flesh and bone.

And then his own teeth, as the Myogenecon punched him with bone-crunching force.

As Kai tumbled back over the side of the bluff, he realized that this wasn't going to be like the previous fights.

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In the end, he retreated.

That was the more respectable way of saying that he ran. Kai had hunted many monsters, always finding a way to pull out a victory, but he realized that he couldn't this time. Even getting away from the Myogenecon had been a challenge, since it pursued him aggressively and seemed to have a keen sense of smell despite having no nostrils on its face.

Once he got to a safe place, he took a while to catch his breath and assess the situation. His arm was definitely broken and hurt to move, there were bruises from the blows, and he'd lost a lot of teeth. He couldn't taste anything but blood, his own and the monster's merging together.

Behemoth's Heart was pounding in his chest, struggling to regenerate the serious injuries. Kai let it continue working while his mind fought off fear to find a solution. How was he going to kill this thing?

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Since acid had been so ineffective, Kai switched to Infernotoad's Burst, hoping that it would burn away the bones. He tried to keep his distance this time, hammering the Myogenecon with flaming stones when he could, then knocking it back with Tyrant's Claw when it closed in.

The strategy almost seemed to work, since its muscles were growing more blackened and he avoided injury. But the flaming stones came out slower and slower as his stamina wore out, while the Myogenecon seemed tireless. At first he thought that he was making progress, since he didn't see any regeneration. Then he realized that it was growing new muscles, right over the top of the ones he'd burned.

A single moment of distraction was enough for it to reach him, and once again he was under assault by the endless blows. Even when he stretched himself to his limits, drawing on his full strength, the monster hit harder. He cracked his head going over the side of a cliff, and when his vision wouldn't stop swimming, he retreated into the forest.

He told himself it was a calculated retreat, but it hunted him even more viciously than the first time and he barely made it out alive.

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For several days Kai kept his distance, partially to make sure his skull injury had recovered and partially to train. He'd pushed himself so hard going toe-to-toe with the Myogenecon that he was sure he was close. Soon enough he managed to reach Physique Level E-9 and felt his power grow.

But it wouldn't be enough. And D rank was apparently decades away.

That evening Kai sat in his hiding spot, eating the last of the rations he'd brought and wondering if he was truly in over his depth. He definitely could have beaten it working together with Zae Zin Nim or others, and there was no shame in that. It was his plan for the Shadow of Death, after all. But it was rare that he could fight a monster this brutally and he didn't want to just leave.

Abruptly he realized that he was chewing on the wrong side of his mouth, yet it didn't hurt. He reached in and realized that he had regrown the teeth he lost in the first battle. The ones that grew in were a little sharper than they should have been.

No, he wouldn't give up. Not yet.