Despite Kai's deep skepticism that something would go horribly wrong or it would all turn out to be a trap, the acid pits community truly was as welcoming as it seemed. They seemed almost pathetically grateful to have someone from the outside who was willing to help. He didn't need to give them any promises about big plans for the future, just easing their pain was enough.

Everyone cooperated with maintaining his secret. So long as he stayed in the central pits area, between several of the acid plateaus, he wouldn't be seen by the soldiers. He was able to do work that most of them couldn't, so they gladly shared their food and set up a place for him to sleep in one of the shallow caverns.

Once again, he was reminded that strength and efficacy weren't exactly the same. If he'd ever studied herbalism or alchemy, he might have been able to do extraordinary things that would revolutionize their way of life. Since he mostly had combat strength, his options were more limited.

He took some time to learn about the crystal refinement process and the craft that went into it. As he'd suspected, they weren't simply "washing off" the crystals or anything so simple, they were actually using small amounts of qi to transform the crystals from raw ore to gems perfectly aligned to store qi. No wonder Krysal was filled with such perfect gemstones.

It seemed like the acid pit workers handled almost every part of the process except the final cutting. That step he'd already learned about in the city: once the raw materials had been created at rock bottom prices, merchants took the crystals and cut them into their final shapes. Some of them required real expertise to craft crystals for specific purposes, but others disgusted him because they were adding an enormous markup to the price for essentially just a little manual labor prettying up the crystals.

While he helped the workers however he could, Kai resumed his training with a new challenge: the acid pits themselves. The acid might not be damaging his Physique, but it was definitely a different test than he'd ever faced before. It started when Kai retrieved a tool that had been dropped into a pit, then he decided to settle into one and meditate under the surface.

At first the workers had been aghast, since the acid was so harmful to them, then they gradually accepted that he was different. After that, he started to have the opposite problem. His skin and hair could resist the acid, but he had to take off his clothes first. Even when he tried to train in a remote part of the acid pits, he often saw women peeking and giggling.

Well, if it made their brutal lives a bit less miserable...

"That's funny." Gundle was sitting beside the pool one day when Kai had to emerge to take a breath. "Your body is weird."

"It's not weird, it's reinforced." Since the pool was waist height, Kai stood up and extended one hand. "Your spiritual sight is getting better... can you see how the qi is embedded in my body?"

"I don't think..." Suddenly the boy's eyes widened. "There's something else too!"

Another surprising jump. Kai hid his surprise and just smiled. "That's another form of energy called mana. You don't have as much of it in Krysal, but it's reinforcing me too."

"Do you need that part? What happens if somebody with enough qi jumps in?"

"I don't know either. Have you ever seen one of the soldiers fall into a pit?"

"Nu-uh." Gundle sat and chewed over the fact.

Kai still wasn't sure just how old Gundle was and the boy himself didn't know. Likely a year or two before becoming a teenager, just stunted by growing up in the acid pits. Gundle was extremely sharp but child-like in other ways. There were fewer children born in the acid pits due to the physical toll, so he didn't have many children close to his own age to play with.

"I think I use qi too," Gundle announced as if it was a great revelation. "I've got some of it in me."

"I think so too, Gundle." Kai walked over to the edge of the pit. "What do you think about that?"

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"It's not the same as what the guards use. I can feel the acid and it responds to me, but I don't think I'd want it in me. That'd be bad."

"Yes, that seems likely."

His Physique training was done for the day, so it was time to get out of the pool. Kai looked around and saw only one person watching him: Gundle's sister. Unlike the others, she was watching to make sure that he didn't harm her brother. So Kai left the pool far from the boy, shook himself off like an animal, and then tied a cloth around his waist.

"You can come out now," he called to her. "I can stay away from the boy if you prefer."

She stared a while longer, then moved closer. Gundle smiled at her but kept experimenting with the acid in front of him. After a quick hug, she stepped closer to Kai.

"It's good that he has someone who will talk to him," the woman said quietly, then bit her lip. "It's just that... well, I was afraid you might be..."

"No." Kai frowned and locked her gaze. "I would never do something like that, I'm not that sort of person."

"And what sort of person are you?"

Kai sighed and ran his hands through his hair. At least the acid left him clean all the time. "Look, why don't we start off with introductions? I'm Kai Clanless, 'Clanless' because my people thought I was worthless and threw me out. I already know your brother, but will you introduce yourself?"

"My name is Yurwa," she said quietly, "and he isn't my brother. Gundle is my son."

He stared between them, suddenly reevaluating the physical resemblances. They both had straight brown hair, green eyes, and round faces. Gundle was simply a bit pudgy, while on Yurwa the extra weight became curves that almost shocked him after his time in the mines. She had ragged acid burns across the side of her neck and over one arm, which weren't enough to distract him from her beauty. But she looked so young... counting backwards from Gundle's assumed age suggested a troublingly early pregnancy.

"What are you trying to accomplish with all this?" Yurwa looked up into his eyes, and he saw determination there behind her sisterly - motherly - concern. "Always asking about crystals and cultivation. I won't lie, if I had the power to burn the soldiers alive, I would do it. But they'd just send more, and you've seen how weak we are. They'd destroy us."

"Were you born here?" Kai asked. "Or were you sent here?"

"I was born in the pits. I only know what the soldiers or other prisoners have said."

"The entire nation of Krysal is built on the back of your suffering. I don't know what I can do about it, but I know that's wrong. I'm still... trying to figure everything out."

Yurwa smiled gently. "I didn't really believe it at first, but I suppose that's who you are. But you want something from us too, don't you?"

In a heartbeat her gentle motherly expression had gained a sharper edge. Kai realized that, just like her son, she was faster than she looked. He still hadn't been pushing on moonmelt, since he wanted to secure his alliance with the pit workers. But now that he was confronted on it, there was no point trying to lie.

"That's true," Kai said. "I was told you develop a substance called moonmelt here. The workers in the crystal mines are tough, but they're being kept down by the lack of it. I hoped that if-"

"You want to help the soldiers?" Yurwa's eyebrows tightened angrily.

"What? Of course not, how did you... why would you think it would go to them?"

"They've always told us that the soldiers mined the raw crystal ore because we were too weak."

The whole story came out rapidly then, and was confirmed by the others: most of the workers believed that the crystal mines were controlled by the cities. Some of those who had been outside suspected otherwise, but others almost refused to believe it. Only Yurwa picked up the truth quickly and turned it over in her mind. She sat with Gundle in her lap, apparently combing his hair in a motherly fashion, and he wondered just what was running through those green eyes.

Another piece to the strange puzzle. Krysal kept the two halves of the crystal refinement process separated, not only by distance but by lies. It wasn't an absolute system, just like most of the citizens in the cities knew about the workers and found some way to justify it. Anyone who learned the truth about the system and tried to do something about it could be crushed by the overwhelming power that system produced.

Since the secret was out, Kai asked about the moonmelt and quickly got an answer. Apparently during the acid-cleaning process, some heavier parts of the ore that sloughed off had value. The byproduct was dense with qi and toxic on its own, but when refined became moonmelt pills, which easily broke the 99 Power barrier.

The problem was that gathering enough to refine into a pill was a slow process, resulting in less than one per week. Because the soldiers knew how much should be produced, there was no chance to steal any of them without retribution. That could be a problem, but not an unexpected one. Kai had never planned to just ram his way through things, he needed to find a real solution.

Only one thing wasn't going well: monsters. Kai had really been hoping that there would be a monster problem within the acid pits, because he could deal with it and help the workers in many ways, just like the mines. But apparently the pits themselves were clear, and the rare monsters in the wastelands around were handled by the soldiers.

Since his usual plan of "find monsters, eat monsters" wouldn't work, Kai was going to need to stretch himself. Or... perhaps it was time to go hunting again.