Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 75: Stories

“Jeez,” Yeo flicked the blood from his kusarigama onto the grass at his feet. “How many of you are they going to send?”

“As many as it takes,” the wounded Shikari across from him growled, leaning heavily on his broadsword. Dozens of weeping, crisscrossing wounds covered the man’s body. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths as he struggled to gain the energy to attack again.

“Maybe they’re just using me to dispose of the trash,” Yeo offered, spinning his kusarigama at his side. “Did you piss someone off recently?”

“You bastard!” the man let out a bellowing roar and charged Yeo. A black line carved through the air. Blood splattered across Yeo as the man fell apart, carved into half a dozen neat pieces.

“Seriously?” Yeo cursed, wiping his face off. “What are you doing? Do you have any idea how long it takes to make my hair look right in the morning?”

A thin man stepped out from thin air, a slender black blade held loosely in his left hand. Long hair hung over his shoulder in a ponytail. A deep, ragged scar ran along one side of his temple to the other, right across his closed eyes.

“You were playing with your food.”

“I was training,” Yeo snapped.

“Training against a weak opponent is not training. You must seek challenges.”

“Bah. He’s only weak if I use your stupid sword,” Yeo said, pulling the black hilt out and staring at it in disgust. “Boring – not to mention completely useless in the long run. I’m trying to train my Essence here, not just win.”

The thin man didn’t respond. He set off down the cobbled road and Yeo fell in behind him.

“That marks the fifth Shikari that has come after you, but he too was a third rank. Even with your refusal to use the tools at your disposal, you are still performing admirably. If you would just toss aside these foolish plans, you might actually improve at a respectable rate.”

“Nope. That wasn’t the deal,” Yeo said with a cheerful grin. “I’m not looking for a shortcut. I want to be a real cultivator, not a beggar licking the scraps of someone else’s path. Unlike you.”

The man’s scarred brow creased in anger. “Watch your words, impudent child. I am your teacher, not your friend.”

“And I’m also the only person you talk to.” Yeo rolled his eyes. “It’s not like you’ve got much choice, big man. I’m fulfilling my part of the deal. No part of it included sucking up to you. Besides, you can’t possibly want me to just walk around praising you. That would get boring so quickly.”

“I couldn’t imagine,” the scarred man said dryly. “Do you even remember my name?”

“Uh… let’s move on. Names are such a trivial thing, you know? There has to be something more important coming up soon. Don’t we have something to kill?”

“Reas. Is that so difficult to remember? My name is Reas.”

“Sure, sure.” Yeo waved a hand dismissively. “Look, can we get to the fun part? You promised me that there was a really good way to train somewhere over here, but I’m not seeing it.”

“That’s because we haven’t even gotten to the forest yet,” Reas said. “It’s two more days of travel. We could have just gone directly there if you hadn’t insisted on going the ‘scenic route’. I do believe I warned you this would happen.”

“Bah. Going directly there is stupid.” Yeo crossed his arms. “A real story would have a long, arduous journey leading up to things.”

Reas raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, I didn’t think it would be quite this boring,” Yeo admitted, his shoulders slumping. “I was hoping there would be… more. Bandits, or something. You know? Not just a bunch of Shikari.”

“It is beyond me how you find the threat from Shikari lesser than that posed by a mere bandit.”

“You’ve got it all wrong.” Yeo raised his hands, making a square with his fingers. He peered through it at the dead Shikari. “It’s about the way you frame things. Bandits are fresh and new. I’ve already gone through enough Shikari. A story needs some variety. How am I supposed to retell this if everything is just crushing the same opponents?”

Reas let out a heavy sigh. “Not a day goes by where I don’t regret forming a contract with you.”

“Maybe you would have preferred my brother.”

Reas didn’t open his eyes, but Yeo could tell the man would have glared at him if he could have.

“We both know that isn’t true. He lacked the drive to become truly powerful.”

“Then you should be thankful that I’m the one you’re working with. There are a lot worse things in this world than a smart mouth and a pretty face.”

“If you think you have either of those two things, you are sorely mistaken.”

“As if I’d take your opinion. You can’t even see what I look like.”

“I don’t need to,” Reas said flatly. “I know far more about you than I would wish to. Enough of this, or you’ll have even more Shikari muddling up your boring story. The forest is only a little bit farther, and then we can actually get started on some real training.”

“Fine, fine. You think Chance and Bella are doing okay? I hope they haven’t gotten too many Shikari going after them.”

“Considering who they’re tied up with, I don’t think it’s even our place to worry,” Reas said grimly. “If he wished them dead, then they would already be gone. We were lucky that his gaze passed over us. I have no doubt that you would have managed to offend him if you spoke for any amount of time. Once you grow in strength, then you can worry about others.”

Yeo grunted. “Fair enough. Which direction was that forest in again?”

***

Dancing Cloud’s floating city was a lot better stocked than Chance and Bella had been expecting. Merchants lined the streets, watching the passersby with hawklike eyes. None of them called out to get their attention, but their goods shimmered with enough Essence to draw even the most uninterested eye.

“They’re more polite than I expected,” Chance observed as they stopped by one of the stalls to inspect the man’s collection of medicinal pills. “I always pictured market squares to be really loud and energetic, with people yelling to get your attention.”

“I bet the sect has rules for the merchants to avoid bothering cultivators,” Bella said, examining a vial before setting it back down on its velvet pillow. “They’ve got some pretty high quality things here. What do these go for? I’m not seeing any prices.”

“That particular cultivation aid would be fifty contribution points,” the elderly shop owner said, rubbing his wrinkled hands together and giving them a wide smile. “A deal, far better than you would find in most cities below.”

“What’s the conversion rate between contribution points and gold?” Chance asked.

“Ah, you must both be new,” the merchant said, acting as if he hadn’t known from the very start that Chance and Bella had never set foot on the floating island before today. “There is no conversion rate. You have to do jobs for the sect.”

Chance wrinkled his nose. “I see. Is there somewhere we could check the list of things we could do in order to get contribution points?”

“Of course. There’s a large board on nearly every large intersection with the lower level requests. There are also boards in the inns,” the merchant said. “Higher level sect members can also issue contribution points at their discretion, but I wouldn’t count on anything like that if you’ve only just joined.”

“Thank you,” Chance said. “Do you happen to sell anything for gold?”

“Basic supplies and healing pills. That’s about it. It’s a lot more effective for me to sell things through the sect, I’m afraid. There are quite a few ways to earn contribution points, though. I’m certain you’ll have no trouble.”

They bid him farewell and set back off along the path. Just like the merchant had said, after only a minute or two of walking, they reached an intersection between two major roads. It wasn’t anywhere near as busy as Gleam’s streets, and Chance was able to easily make out a long stone board at the edge of the street.

It was covered with papers that had been slotted into it, and half a dozen people stood along the board, studying the offerings on it. Chance and Bella joined their ranks.

The merchant had been right – there were certainly a lot of offers. The jobs on the papers ranged from tasks as simple as helping to clear debris from fights around the city to more traditional jobs like hunting monsters on the world below to collect specific parts. The pay on them ranged fairly widely, but the majority of the jobs paid between one and five contribution points.

“That’s a pretty decent conversion rate,” Bella said, rubbing her chin. “But I do think this would technically be faster than trying to earn the supplies in Gl – a scholar city, assuming you progressed at a normal pace without winning any tournaments or the like.”

“So…” Chance waggled a hand back and forth and made a face. Bella nodded.

“Yeah. It might not be a bad idea at all. It’s better than wandering around on the ground aimlessly, but I get the feeling that housing is going to cost contribution points as well.”

“It does,” a man beside them said. “Five a week.”

“So basically one slightly more difficult job,” Chance said. “That’s not too bad. If we did eleven jobs a week, we could probably afford some fairly useful gear.”

The cultivator chuckled. “I remember thinking the same thing. Don’t get me wrong, the Dancing Cloud sect have some great offers, but it’s not so easy to go around hunting monsters all day. You’ll be lucky to do one or two quests before having to pay for healing and losing most of your money. You two new cultivators?”

“Newish,” Chance said.

A few months is pretty new, after all.

“I’d suggest sticking to some easier ones, then. Less risk, and it’ll give you some time to get to rank two. You don’t want to get into debt from getting injured too quickly,” the cultivator advised. He pulled a paper from the board and rolled it up, stuffing it into a pocket. “Once you decide on something, just find one of the guardhouses and show it to them so they can put it in your name.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Bella said. “Do you know if the quests on the other boards are the same as the ones on this one?”

“Just about.”

“Good to know. Oh, do you happen to know how much it costs for a teleportation to a specific location?”

“Around one hundred contribution points, if I recall correctly,” the cultivator replied. “I haven’t had much reason to use it since it’s much safer to just hang around here. Good luck, though.”

He headed off, merging with the thin crowd. Chance and Bella returned their gazes to the board.

“What do you think?” Bella asked.

“Can’t hurt to stick around for a bit,” Chance said. He pulled one of the papers from the board. “What about doing this? It pays five contribution points and just involves killing something called Windchuckers. Have you heard of those?”

“I’ve never fought any, but I think I’ve heard some Shikari mention them before,” Bella replied. “I don’t recall them saying they were very strong.”

“We could ask the guards before we accept the job.”

“As good as an idea as any,” Bella said with a nod.

Chance rolled the paper up and stuffed it into a pocket. They left the board, crossing the street and heading in search of a guard post.