Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 62: Overwhelming

“It’s at least twelve hours of travel to the nearest wall,” Bella said over her shoulder as they walked. “We need to find some form of transportation that isn’t through the Shikari if we want to make it out before nightfall.”

Chance glanced into an alley at the side of the busy street. Considering Yamish had just shown himself to Bella for the second time, he was pretty sure that all bets were finally off. He grabbed Bella’s hand and pulled her into the alley. It came to a dead end just a few feet in, making it little more than a small cubby between buildings.

“What are you doing?” Bella asked, sending a concerned frown Chance’s direction. “This doesn’t lead toward the exit.”

“I know a shortcut,” Chance replied. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure nobody was watching them, then rapped his knuckles on the wall while Bella stared at him as if he’d gone mad.

The stone rippled and clicked apart as a path into the Old City formed. Bella’s mouth dropped open. Chance dragged her into the shadows and kept an eye on the alley until the stone built itself back over the exit, sealing them inside.

“Chance?” Bella asked carefully. “Where are we? What’s going on? This looks a lot like the area that the Soothounds were coming out of back in the Rose district. The really creepy one.”

“The Old City,” Chance replied, leaning against a wall and sighing. “We’re safe here. From the Shikari, that is.”

Bella squinted into the darkness, then looked up at the churning purple mist covering the sky above them. “I don’t think I’ve ever set foot in a place that was any less welcoming. You’re sure it’s safe here?”

“Well, safe might be a relative term,” Chance said. His urumi slithered into his hand. “Watch out for Soothounds. There are a lot of those here.”

“It is the same place!”

“Yeah. It’s the Old City,” Chance said. “Come on. We need to move, right? Old City, could you take us somewhere near the edge of Gleam? We need to get out for obvious reasons. I assume you saw our conversation with Yamish.”

The alley rippled, and a new path formed itself into one of the walls. As the damaged bricks shifted around, a Soothound yelped as it was shoved out into the alley and promptly launched into the darkness by a springboard made of shingling. Its howl slowly faded into the distance, vanishing as the Old City swallowed it.

The stones beneath Chance and Bella’s feet rippled slightly, pushing them forward. Bella stumbled and shot a glance down at the ground.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Deadly,” Chance replied, trying to sound more confident than he felt. “It’s helping us. Come on.”

They set off. Bella’s head remained on a swivel as they walked, and she jumped into a fighting stance at every single faint noise or echo that passed through the dark alleys. Chance couldn’t blame her. He still remembered how it felt when he’d first arrived in the Old City. A shiver ran down his spine.

The ground rippled beneath his feet again, and he caught a glimpse of a small smiley face on a stone in front of him before it faded away again.

Great. It’s developing a sense of humor.

“I think my teacher has basically given me permission to tell you a little more,” Chance said as they walked. “This is the thing I’ve been keeping secret.”

“When you say your teacher…”

“The floating cultivator at the Whiteheart house.”

“The one that terrified Pete and is a Lord rank at the minimum?”

“Yeah. I don’t really know much about how strong cultivators get at those higher ranks, but I’m pretty sure he’s way beyond just Lord rank. That wasn’t his real body, it was just a fragment of his will that he was controlling.”

“What have you gotten yourself into, Chance?” Bella asked, staring at him with wide eyes. “Do you realize how dangerous he is? You aren’t being forced to do anything against your will, are you?”

Chance chuckled. “I know exactly how dangerous he is, and while I haven’t had a lot of choice up until now, I’m not being forced to do anything. Yamish has been helping me in one way or another since I arrived. You remember I didn’t know anything about Gleam when I got here, right?”

“Yeah. You slept through–” Bella trailed off, then slapped herself in the forehead. “You didn’t show up in the normal summoning area, did you?”

“I showed up here,” Chance said, patting one of the crooked building walls as they passed it. “In the Old City. I got stuck in it for weeks.”

“And it’s all like this?”

A Soothound leaped at them from a small crook in the alley, but a pillar of stone jutted up and sealed its path off. The monster thumped against the stone, then scraped piteously at the rock, unable to pass by it.

“Just a bunch of dark alleys.”

“How did you survive?”

Chance nodded to a tiny trickle of stale water running down the edge of one of the buildings lining their path. A tiny puddle had formed in the cracks around it. “I drank that and ate Soothounds. There were a lot of them. Not very filling, though.”

Bella stopped walking. Chance glanced back at her.

“What?”

“You ate Soothounds?”

“Look, I didn’t have much of a choice,” Chance said through a grimace. “It wasn’t like I wanted to. Do you see any other food around here?”

“Chance, that isn’t possible. The Essence inside monsters is almost completely impure. There’s no possible way any human could eat one and not die a very painful death. Especially not one from Earth. Maybe if you went through a very complicated regimen to prepare your body and remove impurities to survive the process, sure. But just… eating a monster? That’s insane.”

Chance cleared his throat. “Right. About that. I don’t have any impurities.”

Bella started to laugh, then stopped when she realized Chance was serious. Her face darkened and she took a small step back.

“You’re not from Earth either, then? Who are you, Chance?”

“What? No. I’m from Earth.”

“Then how do you have no impurities? That’s literally impossible. Everyone has them, and people from Earth have so much that it normally cripples their cultivation.”

“That’s an entirely different secret,” Chance muttered. “I’m starting to realize I’ve got a lot of them, and I don’t think this one is mine to share. Let’s just say I got lucky and someone helped me get rid of my impurities.”

Bella shook her head slowly and they started walking once more. “Okay. So your impurities were gone before you arrived on Gleam. How long were you prepared to enter this place, then?”

“I wasn’t. I died on Earth and got sent here. There was no preparation.”

“You can’t be serious. You arrived on Gleam and had to survive for weeks on end off dead monsters and stale water?”

“Well, the monsters weren’t dead. I had to kill them. But yes.”

“You fought Soothounds? Right after arriving? Chance, I’m so sorry. That must have been horrible. Centurion hasn’t been kind to you at all, has it? New arrivals are supposed to be slowly eased into this world, but it sounds like you were left to drown. That isn’t how things should be.”

“It’s fine,” Chance said with a shrug. “I survived, right? I’m lucky.”

“Unlucky might be more accurate,” Bella muttered. “After all of that, you got thrown on to a team with me. Gods, and I treated you like an outcast right after you escaped this place, didn’t I? How soon did you get to the Whiteheart house after leaving the Old City?”

“Uh… about a day, maybe? I passed out, then Gibson brought me to the Whiteheart house.”

Bella groaned and ran a hand through her hair. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine. There’s nothing to apologize for. We both know why you were acting like that. It wasn’t out of any mean spirit.”

“Yeah, but…”

“It hardly matters now anyway,” Chance said. They turned a corner into yet another nearly identical alleyway and Chance let out a relieved sigh. “It feels good to finally get this off my chest, though. I don’t like keeping secrets.”

“I can see why you did. I assume you ran into your teacher somewhere in this place?”

“Yeah. He said that I couldn’t tell anyone about him, so I couldn’t let you or Yeo know any more than I did. I wasn’t sure how strict he’d be about enforcing that.”

“I almost feel like I should share something in response, but you already know about Vex,” Bella muttered, rubbing her arm. “Is there anything else? Just to get all the surprises out of the way now.”

“I think that’s the most important parts,” Chance said. “The Old City will help us, and I’m pretty sure time flows differently here. Well, it’s that or space is messed up. Either way, we can move faster through it than if we were walking outside. I think we should be able to reach the edge of the city quickly.”

A circle appeared on one of the walls and Chance pointed at it. “See?”

“That’s a circle.”

“Oh, that’s how the Old City says yes,” Chance said. “It can talk.”

“Right,” Bella said. “You’re sure you didn’t miss anything important? The city talks to you?”

“Yeah. It’s aware,” Chance replied. He paused for a moment. “Please keep that to yourself. I think it would be bad news if information about it spread.”

“I don’t think anyone would believe me if I told them half of what you just told me,” Bella grumbled. “But I won’t spill anything, don’t worry. Just lead the way, I guess. And don’t forget we need to stop by a store before we leave to get you some supplies. I’ve got enough food for a few days, but just for one person. It won’t last us long split between the two of us.”

Chance nodded. “You heard that, right?”

Another circle appeared on the wall to their side, and the path shifted slightly before them once more. There was nothing left to do but walk – so that was what they did. After all, there were only so many secrets one could share in a day before things got just a bit too overwhelming.