Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 88: Stronger

A swirl of Essence swept out around Chance as he arrived on a large stone circle beside Bella. The ground beneath his feet hummed with energy. A faint haze rose up from it, warping around their bodies. The stone was warm enough that the heat seeped through the bottoms of his shoes and into his feet.

The last of the Essence dissipated. A lush, grassy field stretched out around the stone circle. It was dotted with the ruins of dozens of stone buildings, many of which had been overtaken by nature and were little more than grassy lumps with specks of grey poking through.

Beyond the field rose hills and mountains, the tallest of which rose far into the air and scraped through the clouds. Islands floated amongst them, similar to the floating platforms in Gleam – and yet, at the same time, completely different.

Instead of glowing bridges to connect them, many of the islands had rope bridges between them or the nearby mountains. Others had no apparent way to get onto them at all, and Chance spotted more than a few islands completely upside down, their grassy tops pointed down toward the earth.

Like the field, several of the islands had buildings upon them. One boasted an enormous castle that was taller than the island itself. It hung at a forty-five degree angle, with the only access to it being a twisting bridge that ran to it from a nearby island with what looked to be a guardhouse built into its side.

Several beams of brilliant blue light burned in the distance, rising up from the ground and piercing through the horizon. Essence rose off them in waves, rippling through the sky and making the clouds around them form to their patterns.

Chance turned in a circle, taking the sight in with wide eyes and an askew jaw. A crackle of Essence beside him snapped his attention back to his immediate location, and a woman wearing green robes appeared before him and Bella. She inclined her head ever so slightly and gave them a thin, restrained smile.

“Welcome to the Azure Moon Realm,” she said, brushing a strand of brown hair out of her face. Her gaze swept over both Chance and Bella, and the corner of her lip turned down ever so slightly. “Your tokens identify you as members of the Dancing Cloud sect. Is this correct?”

“Yes,” Chance said, still marveling at the islands. “Why?”

“Safety measures,” the woman replied. “Welcome. I won’t take up much more of your time. Please take note of the stone circle at your feet. This is one of the entry and exit points for the Azure Moon Realm. Ensure that you return to this or one of the other points before the Realm closes in a little less than three weeks. Failure to do this will result in you being trapped.”

Bella opened her mouth, but the woman didn’t give her a chance to ask the question she’d been preparing.

“The beams of light in the sky mark the other locations of exit and entry points.”

Bella’s mouth closed. The woman gave them a terse smile. She glanced over her shoulder, then shook her head and looked back at them.

“Keep in mind that you are responsible for your safety when within the Realm, and that twenty percent of your earnings will be paid to your sect should you escape with your lives. Please take heed of any zones that you suspect house artifacts beyond your ability to claim. We will pay handsomely for their locations.”

“How are we supposed to know if an area has something too strong before we get it?” Chance asked. “I don’t suppose they’re marked off somehow?”

That got him a dry look.

“If you survive, but just barely. There are too many ruins for the Azure Moon Coalition to properly investigate all of them, especially with how chaotic the Essence is here. Anything we marked down one day would be changed the next. Do you have any further questions?”

“Yeah.” Bella pointed at the nearly upside-down castle in the sky. “How do we get up there?”

“That,” the woman replied, “is not my concern. Return to an exit point should you have any information to relay to the Azure Moon Coalition, and please keep in mind that we do not care about any interpersonal conflicts that may occur. Limit your contact with us to exit requests or information about the location of artifacts.”

With that, she vanished. Chance blinked, then waved a hand through the air where she’d been standing. He turned to Bella, who looked just as baffled as he did.

“Some sort of projection?” Chance guessed. “I don’t think she was actually here.”

“I’m with you. We should be extremely careful until we figure out just how dangerous this place is. I haven’t heard much about anything like this before, so I’m just as in the dark as you are.”

“Maybe we should put some distance between ourselves and the arrival point?” Chance suggested. “They’re really laying it on thick that it’s not their problem if we kill each other, so I think I’d rather avoid running into other people anytime soon.”

Bella nodded her agreement. They stepped off the stone circle and, after a few moments of deliberation, set off toward the mountains to the north. They walked past the first few buildings in the area, not stopping until they’d crested the first hill and had at least a little cover from anyone who might arrive after them.

Chance stared up at the islands floating above them. He suddenly realized that, despite the blue sky peeking through the clouds, there was no sun. For that matter, he couldn’t actually place where any of the light was coming from. It was simply there.

“That looks like a good place to take a short break,” Bella suggested, pointing at an overgrown stone house in their path. It had split down the middle, and dense vines had wrapped around most of the stone like a second skin.

They slowed as they approached the building, reading their Essence in preparation for a fight, but the building was empty. If there had been anything of value there, someone had long since taken it. All that remained was a crumbling stone table and a single chair with one of its legs wedged into a crack in the ground.

Chance tested out one of the walls to make sure it wouldn’t pitch back, then leaned against it and ran a hand through his hair. “Well. Can’t say I was expecting to be here this morning. Damn. I was just starting to get settled into our room, too.”

“I guess that’s just how things are sometimes,” Bella said, sitting down on the edge of the table. “That was certainly a faster escape than I was planning on making. We should thank your luck for getting us those tokens right before the Shikari showed up.”

“Or for bringing the Shikari our way and forcing us to need the tokens,” Chance said with a wry smile. “I think it goes both ways. Luck is luck, and I’m not sure who’s the one that determines if its good or bad for me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bella asked.

“Just something I’ve been thinking about. I’ll have to put more thought to it when I cultivate, but look at it like this: tripping is usually a bad thing, right?”

“I suppose so.”

“But tripping and avoiding a sword swing is a good thing.”

“I see what you’re getting at.” Bella leaned forward and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. “You think your Karma powers are bringing bad scenarios to you as well as good ones, since they technically result in good things down the road?”

“Kind of. I don’t know how it works. I barely understand my own power, and I don’t know if there’s something out there in the universe that determines what good and bad Karma is. Still, I’m sorry you’re getting dragged into all of this. Good or bad, but I don’t think anyone traveling with me is ever going to really get to relax for very long.”

Bella rolled her eyes. “The last few months have been some of the best and most successful of my life. I don’t think I can complain about anything. What’s bringing this on? We already knew the Shikari were after us, Chance. It’s not like I’m surprised that they caught up.”

“They only caught up because I gave too much away on that job on the surface. We probably could have gotten away with resting for a while longer if I hadn’t done it.”

Bella slipped off the table and strode up to Chance. She flicked him in the forehead.

“Stop with that. I’m pretty sure I’ve already told you not to blame yourself for stuff like this, didn’t I? And your inability to let people alone is the reason I got out from under Vex’s heel. I’d be a massive hypocrite if I started complaining about you trying to save everyone you can, even when it’s not logically the smartest move.”

Chance chuckled. “Okay, fair point.”

“Did something else happen when you were on the job?” Bella asked. “You seem more… pensive than normal.”

Several moments passed. Chance shifted his stance and reached into his pouch, fiddling with one of the vials of healing pills he’d purchased. Bella waited patiently until he spoke.

“The monster I fought was intelligent. His name was Seleth,” Chance said. “He said he was attacking the town, but he was just waiting around for cultivators to show up.”

“Because cultivators have more Essence,” Bella said with a nod. “That’s pretty normal. Wait. You spoke with it?”

“Him,” Chance corrected. “He was honestly pretty amiable. I don’t think Seleth wanted to kill people. He just didn’t have a choice. It was the only thing he could do to survive.”

“What was Seleth again?”

“A giant crocodile monster.”

“You’re sympathizing with a giant crocodile that has probably killed hundreds of people?”

“Yeah.”

Bella looked like she couldn’t decide between being amused, baffled, or sympathetic. She settled for rubbing the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. “Okay, I guess I should have seen that coming. So what happened?”

“I killed him.”

“You saved a lot of people,” Bella pointed out.

“Yeah, I know. I don’t feel bad for killing him.” Chance chewed his lower lip in thought, then sighed. “I’m not sure what the right words are. I think he wanted me to kill him. If the scenario happened again, I wouldn’t change how I acted. But… why did it have to be like that in the first place? Why can humans cultivate normally, but monsters cant?”

“That’s not a question for me,” Bella admitted. “I have no idea. I honestly never really thought about it. I don’t think most try to reason with the monsters, since they’re too busy trying not to get killed.”

“Yeah, I figured.” Chance stepped away from the wall and walked around the table. He stopped by the remains of an overgrown window and idly tugged at the vines covering it, peeling them back so he could peer through it. “My problem is that I thought the universe had a concept of fairness. I mean, if Karma is a thing, it has to, right? But I’m not seeing it. Monsters are forced to kill to grow stronger, and people like Vex can rise to strength without punishment. Why?”

Bella walked over to peer through the window Chance had made. It wasn’t particularly useful, given that there was a huge crack in the wall right beside it that gave the exact same view.

“Maybe that’s an answer you’ll find somewhere along your path. I certainly can’t answer it myself.”

“Yeah,” Chance said. “I guess all I can do is get strong enough to try and fix things. I’m sure there’s a way that monsters really can get stronger without killing, and the ones that don’t want to do harm should have that opportunity.”

“If there are enough monsters that would actually want to make that transition, it would be incredible. I can’t even begin to imagine what that would change.”

“It doesn’t have to be a lot,” Chance said. “Just one would be worth it. I guess that’s too far in the future to worry about now, though. We’ve only got a few weeks in here, so we should try to make the most of it. The Shikari will be on the hunt again when we get out.”

Bella nodded. “Let’s go. There’s got to be a way to get to those floating islands somewhere up ahead.”

They stepped through the large crack in the wall and set back off in the direction of the mountains. One way or another, they needed to get stronger.