Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 68: Moonlit path

It was a room. Chance wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but their room was probably the most stereotypical thing he could think of. There was a single, feather bed on an old frame just beneath a dusty window.

That was it. There wasn’t even a desk or any form of furnishing. Just wooden walls and a place to sleep. Somehow, despite that, it didn’t look uncomfortable.

“Well, this is a room,” Chance said.

“So it is,” Bella said, inspecting the bed for a moment before sitting down on the end.

“Is there a reason we only got one room?” Chance asked. “They aren’t all that expensive.”

“Yeah. It’s not safe to stay in your own room. This isn’t Gleam anymore,” Bella replied. “People prey on travelers more than anyone else. There’s usually a bit of caution taken around newcomers since nobody knows if they’re strong cultivators, but some people are desperate enough to try anything. Nobody will care if a traveler’s corpse ends up in a ditch, so we’re prime targets.”

“Seriously? In a place like this? It seems so nice!”

“And don’t forget it. It looks nice, and I’m sure it’s not all bad, but the world outside the Scholar Cities is deadly. Supplies are limited and people will do anything for an edge up. We have to be a lot more careful out here.”

“Understood. I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Chance said with a small frown. “It’s just sad to hear. Is everywhere outside the cities like that?”

“I’m no expert. Maybe not,” Bella admitted. “But every I’ve been has, and I’ve been here. We’ll rest until the middle of the night and set off. That should throw off anyone who might have been planning to tail us. You can sleep or cultivate first. I’ll keep watch, and we can swap later.”

“Thanks. Wake me up whenever you get tired,” Chance said, sitting down on the bed and scooting back to cross his legs. He leaned against the wall and let his eyes drift shut as he tuned out the outside world and focused on Karma and the vision he’d had of the massive golden man.

Time passed quickly as he contemplated his path. Before he knew it, Bella was gently shaking him awake. Chance blinked, coming back into the real world.

“Wow, that was fast. I barely realized any time passed,” Chance said. The sky through the window was dark. Several hours had just slipped away from him.

“Yeah. You looked so invested that I almost didn’t want to bother you,” Bella said with a quiet laugh.

Chance uncrossed his legs and stood up, stretching to get the blood flowing again. “How long did we want to wait before I get you again?”

“Let’s do about four hours,” Bella replied. “Wake me up if anything happens.”

Chance nodded and she closed her eyes to meditate. After making sure that the door was closed and locked, Chance moved to look out the window at the town. The sun was already starting to set, casting it in hues of orange.

The quaint wood walls looked black in the evening lighting. It could have just been any normal village back on Earth if not for the purple hues saturating the sky. Even though they were on the run, a sense of peace washed over Chance.

There was something about Centurion that just felt right. He sent another silent thank you to Bob. It was hard to imagine what would have happened he’d never met the man, but he would be forever grateful that he did.

I’m going to find my parents if they’re here. Then I’m going to get strong enough to find Bob and thank him myself. There has to be some way to travel between worlds that everyone can do. Maybe Yamish would know. I’ll ask once the Shikari aren’t trying to kill us anymore.

Chance smiled to himself, enjoying the view. Steam curled up from the bathhouse down the street and rose into the air, forming dancing patterns. Chance kept his ears peeled and didn’t let himself get too distracted with the surprisingly beautiful view. The last thing he wanted to do was end up getting stabbed while he was appreciating the color of the sun.

Light continued to fade as the sun dipped further below the horizon. The shadows grew longer, melding together and taking much of the town into darkness. Most of the people that had still been outside slowly headed back to their houses, and silence fell over the city.

Night crept onward and the moon rose into the sky, lighting the world silvery-purple. Chance tracked its path, using it as a rough estimate for the amount of time that had gone by. Once he was fairly certain it had been a few hours, he nudged Bella.

Her eyes fluttered open and she scrunched her nose. “It’s night already? Damn.”

They gathered their belongings – not that it took long, they hadn’t unpacked anything – and headed out of the room. The two slipped out of the inn and into the town streets without meeting a single person.

“It’s so quiet,” Chance whispered as they passed through the open town gates. A single guard manned them, but he paid them no mind as they set off down the road. “It feels wrong. There should be crickets or something. This just feels wrong.”

“Why would they make noise?” Bella whispered back.

“Uh… that’s just what they do, I guess. Why wouldn’t they?”

“Monsters that eat insects would probably kill all of them within a few days if they announced their presence,” Bella replied. “Making too much noise when you’re traveling is a fast way to draw the attention of every bloodthirsty monster in the area.”

“Noted.”

They fell silent, the only noise between them the pad of their feet on the packed dirt road leading away from both the town and Gleam. Several minutes passed before either of them spoke again.

“We’re headed to Brokespire, right?” Chance said, squinting as he dug through his memory. “A six hour trip, I think.”

Bella nodded. “Hopefully we can reach it before morning.”

Chance idly pulled some Essence into his hands, forming it into a small ball and bouncing it from palm to palm. “What about the bandits on the road?”

“Aside from keeping our guard up, there’s nothing to do,” Bella replied. “Bandits aren’t going to want to mess with cultivators, so we should be safe, even if they come after us. We just have to prove that we’re enough of a threat to not be worth their time. Don’t let that make you relax, though.”

“Yeah, I won’t. An arrow will kill me just as well as a magical bolt of lightning,” Chance said with a soft chuckle, making sure to keep his tone low.

Several hours of walking passed by quickly with nothing of interest to show for it. The dirt path led them through sloping green hills, all eerily silent. Chance kept his head on a swivel, his eyes darting to every single shadow and oddly shaped rock along the roadside.

But, as the time wore on, he started to relax. Humans weren’t meant to stay in a permanent state of guard, and the night was peaceful. It didn’t help that sleep was tugging the faint strings at the back of Chance’s head. He was just tired enough to be a little weary, which made it all that much easier to let his mind start to wander.

They crested a tall hill. Chance and Bella both froze as several dozen balls of orange light just a short distance off the road in front of them greeted the two, flickering gently in the wind. They both dropped to the ground and scooted out of sight.

“Those looked like torches,” Chance whispered. “The bandits are just set up along the side of the road? I thought they’d be hiding!”

“So did I,” Bella muttered, crawling back up to the top of the hill and squinting down at the lights. “But that’s a camp all right. Looks like at least twenty people. Maybe more.”

“Can we sneak past them?”

“Probably. We’ll just have to get off the road a little.”

Chance crawled up beside Bella and squinted at the camp. He could just barely make out the forms of people walking around in it. A large log in the center of the camp caught his eye. Several lumps laid around its base, connected to it with what looked to be thick ropes.

“What’s that thing?” Chance asked.

“I’m not sure,” Bella replied. “Maybe a marker?”

One of the lumps twitched. Chance froze, staring as hard as he could to try to make out any details. The lump moved again and a low hiss escaped his mouth.

“Shit. I think those are people tied to the log.”

Bella cursed. They glanced at each other, but no words needed to be said. There was going to be a change of plans. Avoiding the bandit camp was no longer an option.

“I realize I should have asked this earlier, but what exactly can you do with your path?” Chance asked.

“It’s mostly defensive, but I have some basic healing abilities as well. I’m pretty sure I’ll eventually be able to do a lot more offensive stuff, but it’ll be a while. That’s the drawback of getting started following my own path so late.”

“Can you protect other people?”

Bella waggled a hand back and forth. “Not well enough to rely on. My strongest abilities are ones that work on myself right now.”

“Okay. I’ll be the distraction, then. You try to get everyone out, then help me after. I’m sure a fair number of bandits will try to interfere with you freeing the prisoners, so our best chance is to try to split their forces.”

“Are you sure?” Bella asked. “You’ve only been cultivating for a few months, Chance.”

“They aren’t cultivators, right?”

“Some of them might be, but I doubt a large group of cultivators would be sitting around preying on the outskirts of civilization. There are much better ways to use your powers.”

“Then this will be more than fine,” Chance replied with a grin. Essence snaked around his chest, then dispersed into a fine golden mist around him. “After all, I’m lucky.”