Kai sat in the middle of the deadly jungle, no longer fearing its threats. His strength hadn't advanced massively, but his knowledge of the region had improved so much that he was comfortable there now. Only the Banchlain, still harassing the elves, could actually threaten him, and it was nowhere to be found.

After eating so many new monsters, his soul felt painfully full. Still hungry, just also full. He intended to eliminate a lot of that essence by experimenting with feeding monsters to one another, which he combined with his physical training and chakra exercises. Gradually, a bit of consumed essence at a time, he was coming to greater mastery of his monstrous nature.

His conclusion was that it followed a number of logical principles. The strongest abilities in terms of raw power were pure ones, simple attributes like Direboar's Strength. If he fed other monsters to that capacity, their other attributes would be lost and only the strength would join. He could do the opposite, if he forced it, but the result would be muddled and weak.

On the other end of the spectrum, trying to jam together random monster essence created an ability that did almost nothing. Practically as bad as his old Laborer Class, making him just marginally tougher but having little real effect.

However, combined abilities could have far greater efficacy, even if they weren't quite as strong as a focused ability, so the tricky part was finding the sweet spot. He thought that Behemoth's Heart had been about perfect. His strongest abilities would come from powerful monsters merged together around a single coherent theme.

All of the experimentation proved that his instincts were mostly right, in the same way his muscles could feel a harmful position. He wasn't developing his monstrous abilities completely blind, otherwise he probably would have killed himself. Unfortunately, those instincts weren't strong enough to magically lead him to insane abilities, so he needed to keep developing them.

Understanding was great, but it wasn't the raw power he needed, and the monsters he had left weren't enough to form a top tier ability. Nothing that could compete with all the current techniques vying for the limited space in his soul. Kai sighed and headed back to the village.

The atmosphere there had taken a hit and he soon understood why: one of the hunters had been severely injured in the most recent attempt on the Banchlain. It made him feel a bit guilty that he hadn't used his full power to kill it, but then again, his entire life was making cost-benefit analyses about what training would do the most good in the end. When the warriors brushed him aside in their frustration that didn't add much guilt either.

He found Ceryyn at one edge of the village, helping them grind some sort of grain. She didn't seem to be particularly good at it, but they made her work for continued support. When she saw him, she set down the pestle and smiled.

"You look frustrated," she said. "You want to train again?"

"Yeah." Kai dropped off the meat he'd gathered - the elves refused to eat monsters, so it was only the animals he could catch - and they headed into the jungle.

There she made him do simple exercises while trying to manage the chakra flowing through the environment. They were even as simple as push-ups, the problem was finding the exact chakra that matched his body. After he worked for a while, she stepped onto his back and he grunted as he continued doing push-ups. She wasn't that heavy so he didn't really notice.

"Harder," Ceryyn said sharply. "Miserable humans can never compete with elves unless they train harder!"

"Are you - nnh - trying to make me angry?" Kai twisted his head to look at her on his back and she smiled back sheepishly.

"Yes, but I suppose I'm not very good at it. You're still trying to master the power. This isn't mana to be controlled, or qi to be accepted in complete calm. Chakra is hot, you need to meet it with the same force."

That was easy to say, but her lessons hadn't helped so far. Kai's mind was still on his monstrous experiments as he trained and he realized that might be the key. He'd already tried to use chakra with emotions like anger or happiness, to no effect, and Ceryyn said that should normally work. Some of the warriors who watched had thrown out comments he strongly suspected were unkind.

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Maybe things really were different for him due to his monstrous nature. There had been changes in his cultivation, after all, even if Zae Zin Nim's advice mostly applied.

Thinking about it that way, it was almost easy. Chakra didn't require emotion, it could be anything visceral and raw. Instead of searching for any emotion, Kai drew on raw hunger. He didn't draw in the chakra around him, he consumed it. It didn't flow through his body, it pumped along with his heartbeat as if he was in the middle of a fight.

Something shifted and he felt the power explode within him. Ceryyn gave a slight gasp and hopped off his back. "Keep going, keep going!"

Kai did another push-up, but that was too little. He didn't overthink anything, just threw all his new power down his arms against the ground as if to attack it. After a few false starts, everything finally clicked. The next time he threw himself into the air, flipping backward before landing heavily.

There was no one around to watch, not even any of the elves who had mocked him. Ceryyn stood nearby, beaming. But Kai didn't care about that, he was eager to look at his soul.

<

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 359

Cultivation: Body Refinement 23% (105)

Physique Level: D-1 (205)

Soul Level: 7 (49)

Loose Chakra: 25 (0)

Monstrous Hunger - X (kappa)

Behemoth's Heart - VII (eta)

Direboar's Strength - X (kappa)

Isulfr's Bite - VII (eta)

Tyrant's Claw - VIII (theta)

Void Gaze - VI (zeta)

-

Baleful Breath - III (gamma)

Sahagin's Soul - VI (zeta)

Lizarkyl's Tail - IV (delta)

Direurchin's Spikes - IV (delta)

Wallcrawler's Feet - II (beta)

Beastbat's Wing - II (alpha)

Crystal Slime - I (beta)

Dreamleech - I (alpha)

Abominalgum - I (alpha)

Rose Piranha - II (beta)

Bloodtrap - III (gamma)

Garudaling - II (beta)

Diremonkey - I (alpha)

Deathvine - I (alpha)

>

At long last, his Physique had advanced from D-0 to D-1. It seemed each step in the D rank was worth 5 Power, which was valuable on its own, but more importantly he'd broken through a new barrier. All the slight nausea from the chakra was completely gone and he could feel that his body had actually retained some chakra that matched his strength.

This wasn't the same as developing a brand new ability based on chakra, of course, and he would need to train more to master this power. But now, for the first time, his body was reinforced by mana, qi, and chakra together. Rosemount had chewed up and spat out so many warriors from Deadwaste, but he'd broken its teeth.

"Very good!" Ceryyn looked truly pleased for him, without any apparent bitterness. Maybe he was just getting used to her, but he was no longer put off by the aura of her stunted soul. "I've seen cultivators have far more trouble with that. You have an open mind."

"I had a good teacher." Yet though Kai wanted to flex his new strength, he found himself looking at the elven woman instead. "Should you have stayed here this long to help me? You have your family business to deal with."

"Oh, all of that was already derailed. Don't worry, I'm not really sacrificing anything."

He was fairly sure that she wasn't telling him something, and after Krainuun he knew better than to underestimate merchants. Even if Ceryyn had a soul without potential, she understood so much about the region that she was definitely experienced, maybe even a spy. Someone whose soul made them seem so drab could potentially be a great one.

In any case, it wasn't his place to pry. 'Thanks for all your help," Kai said. "What's next?"

"I think we may need to go back. There's trouble brewing." She tilted her head just slightly toward the village as if she could hear something. Kai wasn't sure if the elves' long ears made them hear any better, but he couldn't detect anything wrong.

When they got back, he saw that there was some kind of argument, none of it in languages he could understand. But it seemed like some of the weaker elves were furious with the hunters and he heard the name "Banchlain" several times. Some of the others were preparing chakra potions and sharpening their weapons. Perhaps they'd come to a breaking point with the monster.

"They're going to try to hunt it to the death," Ceryyn said quietly. "But even if they win, it will be at great cost."

"Isn't there anyone they can ask?" Kai looked across the grim faces. "They're always going on about elves helping one another."

"It doesn't seem like help came. So what are you going to do?"

"Good question." Kai turned to her and lowered his voice. "Would I offend them by killing it myself? I don't want to insult them or anything, but I don't know how well I can fight together with them. They'll just insist I'm too clumsy and will get in their way."

"In your place, I would kill it," Ceryyn told him. "But can you?"

"I think so. Now that I have a better grasp on chakra, give me one more lesson about resisting that aura of fear, then I can try."

She started to object, but this time Kai wouldn't listen. He'd seen her paralyzed in fear of the Banchlain and wouldn't risk her life even if she could help. Despite his progress, this was still Rosemount and he needed to take the fight deadly seriously.

Still, his hunger rose as he thought about finally eating the Banchlain.