One week into the alleged dragon hunt and Kai was beginning to understand why it wasn't as exciting as he'd been hoping. Closer to civilization, there were endless crowds milling around, planning to go seek dragons but mostly hoping to get lucky. Out in the desert, it was a lot of sand broken by the occasional problem.

So far the work had been difficult without being challenging, at least in the sense he understood. Every day he faced challenges, whether it was hunting down bandits, arguing with merchants, or just preventing idiots from running out into the desert without sufficient water. The job required endless judgment calls, so he understood why Orillia had wanted someone she trusted, but it wasn't the sort of ordeal that would break through any of his blockages.

Yet the money made it worth it, or so he hoped. He'd just recently received his first monthly paycheck from Orillia, a full 12,000 Goralian Eagles. But during that month, he'd earned 2000 from the mine job, 1500 from other work, 2200 from his bet, and just over 3000 from duel winnings.

All told, he'd earned 21,000 Eagles, taking him up to 49,000. Closer, but still far from what he needed to buy perfect qi. That was what made all the sand and sweat worth it.

If he did his job properly, by the end of a month he'd earn a full 15,000 from merchants in addition to his usual from Orillia. It was almost enough for him to hope that the dragon frenzy would continue for even longer, since it would only take a couple more months for him to reach the total he needed.

Of course, he'd be willing to give it all up for the alleged gifts of the dragons.

Whether or not any were nearby was still an open question, since there were always rumors from someone who might have imagined scales when they only saw the sun, or just gotten heatstroke. During his training Kai had been pushing his spiritual senses to their absolute limit and he hadn't felt anything that seemed powerful enough to be a dragon.

As he judged it, the majority of the people there had zero chance of ever encountering one of the golden dragons. What Orillia had said about it being a fool's errand where only merchants made money made sense, yet again. Yet he wasn't certain if his chances were much better, despite the fact that he was growing more accustomed to the desert than most there.

For that matter, he wasn't sure what he would do if he encountered one. He hoped for a blessing... but he also wondered if dragons counted as monsters.

Just when Kai was thinking he might get some training time for the day, he spotted a group of soldiers heading out into the dunes. They'd tried to disguise themselves with different wraps, but he recognized them by their weapons by now. None of them thought to replace the generic crystal spear points that Yulthens granted them, so they were always easy to pick out.

He bounded up the side of one dune and leapt into the air, briefly sailing over the desert. The soldiers saw him when he got near and tried to scramble, but he was already landing and sending sand flying in all directions.

"Shit, it's him!" one of them yell. "Get back, get back!"

"Alright, that's enough." Kai grabbed the most panicky soldier by the back of his armor and lifted him into the air. "I'll stop you all if I have to."

The others hesitated, then slunk back, a bit like guilty students. Kai dropped the soldier he was holding beside the others and frowned at them.

"Come on, you have to understand." One of the soldiers clasped his hands together in a pleading posture. "Receiving a dragon's blessing could be our ticket out of the army. We could actually make something of ourselves in Yulthens, maybe even become crystalliers!"

"I understand, but you won't find one." Kai dropped his shroud as he gestured to himself. "Go on, look at my soul. Do you think that if I had the location of any dragons I wouldn't have already taken advantage?"

That made the soldiers stare at him and shift nervously. Some of them were eyeballing him with rough spiritual senses while he suspected others were just pretending. Kai had been impressed by the average level in Krysal until he'd met the normal soldiers, who generally had 10-20 Power from a mix of mediocre sources. He definitely wouldn't bet on them over Goralian hunters.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"You really just here to help out?" one of the soldiers asked suspiciously.

"Look, I'm not saying that I'd say no to a dragon." Kai flashed them all a smile and got a few in return. "But I haven't seen a single one. So I'm telling you: do your jobs, don't harass anyone, get home safe. I've had to drag a couple corpses out of the desert and I've only been here a week."

"Are there really dragons at all?" someone else asked.

At first Kai had said he'd seen the breath technique himself, but that had only attracted more attention and made people waste his time with questions. Now he just shrugged as if it might all be a rumor. It seemed like he'd gotten through to this bunch of soldiers, because they began trudging back toward the camps.

Before they all left, Kai tapped one of the older men on the shoulder. He was a middle-aged man who was still fit, with 30 Power and what Kai thought was an officer's insignia on his spear. Hopefully he might be more useful than the others Kai had spoken to.

"I understand all of you got taken off the mines?" Kai asked.

"That's about right." The officer shifted back and forth as if he wanted to be anywhere else. "You know how it is."

"No, I really don't. No one wants to talk about it. But unless you want me to start watching you soldiers like a hawk, you should explain things properly." Kai actually didn't intend to abuse his authority, in part because he didn't want to waste the time. The threat still had the intended effect and the officer squirmed for a while before answering.

"Krysal runs on qi crystals, but mining them is brutal work, no one wants to do it. So those workers are the lowest rung of society, and frankly we're not much better. Better not to talk about it. I'm telling you, when I go home, I tell my folks I'm stationed in another city. There's too much shame in being that low in society, you know how it is."

"Yeah, I guess I do know that." Kai examined the officer carefully, trying to figure out if he was lying. But he didn't really have any motivation to, so Kai let the man go and then continued his patrol.

Was that really all it was? Kai understood being looked at like trash, but the lot of the workers didn't seem too bad to him. All the ones he'd seen in the cities had been well-dressed and happy enough. After so long worrying that he was missing something, maybe it all boiled down to the Krysali being absurdly obsessed with status.

Just when Kai began to think the day would end without anything going wrong, he spotted a crystal vessel glinting in the sky. It was one of the few similar to the diamond star Zae Zin Nim had bought, all crystal points. Most of the arrivals were poor and caught rides in wagons, while the crystalliers generally used comfortable carriages. Anyone in a ship like that was probably representing a serious participant in the dragon hunt.

At minimum he should go introduce himself, and at worst he'd have to fight again. If his assignment here accomplished nothing else, he was getting experience fighting opponents stronger than wealthy crystalliers.

Before he could chase it down, he spotted someone move off the side. A man plummeted down straight toward him and Kai had to dodge backwards to avoid his arrival, but the man didn't follow up with an attack. He was heavier than the average Krysali, wider than he was tall with at least a dozen chains of crystals around his neck.

"You're that Kai of Clanless, right?" The man grated out the words like he'd been drinking all the sand around them.

"Close enough," Kai said. "You're here for me?"

"In a way. The name's Graetri." The man gave him an unpleasant smile. "So just why are you here instead of one of the other camps? Do you know something we don't?"

"If you tracked me here, then you know I represent the Crystallier Cooperative. All Dowager Orillia wants to do is help."

"Maybe she does, but you want power. So why here?"

Kai folded his arms and stared back. "I don't see why I should answer that, especially since I don't even know who you represent."

"That's right, you've barely been here. I'm one of Lord Suortril's Ruby Crystalliers." Graetri jabbed a thumb at his own chest. "Officially he sent me to keep order, but we both know we're here for the dragons. Don't think I asked because I'm not confident. I'll go through you if I have to."

So the competition had finally arrived. Kai pretended to shrug while glancing at the man's soul.

<

Name: Graetri of Yulthens

Total Power: 258

Crystal Cultivation: 96,553 (198)

Physique Level: F-7 (44)

Soul Level: 4 (16)

>

With a Power rating over 250, Graetri was no joke, especially if he held the Ruby rank. He had the single largest number of crystals Kai had ever seen, nearly a hundred thousand. There was no way he could have afforded that on his own, which meant that Suortril must have invested serious money into him.

Graetri bared his teeth as he examined Kai right back. Obviously the human side of his soul would look substantially weaker, but Kai knew that even using his monstrous abilities, this wasn't an opponent he could take lightly.

That just meant he had a target in range, so Kai bared his teeth too. Things had just gotten interesting.