Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 37: What awaits in the shadows

Chapter 37: What awaits in the shadows

They stopped by a Shikari Base on the way back to the Whiteheart house. Even though it was in a completely different part of the city as the previous one, the towering, ten-story stone tower loomed over the surrounding houses. As Chance drew up to the door, he glanced through a window and paused.

“Uh… is that Janet?”

“She was in a different base, Chance,” Yeo said, pushing the door open with a chuckle. “Sounds like someone has a crush.”

He froze as Joe ambled past the door bearing a plate piled high with food. The large man deposited the plate at a table and turned to them, waggling his fingers in a small wave.

“Good to see you kids again. How’s life treating you?”

“Okay, I’m hallucinating,” Yeo said. He closed the door, then opened it again. Joe raised a bemused eyebrow.

“Not to be rude,” Chance said slowly. “But how are you here? The last Shikari Base we went into was way down in the Graywall district.”

Joe chuckled. “There’s only one Shikari Base. There are just a lot of entrances. Powerful piece of Dimensional Essence that one of the city founders put in when Gleam was being established.”

“Does that mean we could technically traverse the city by walking into a Shikari base in one area and leaving it in another?” Bella asked as they walked inside.

“Only once you’re Knight ranked,” Joe replied. “Think of it as a reward for surviving that long. It’s quite convenient. But what brings you here today? Business or pleasure?”

“We’re here to drop off some Soothounds for a job,” Chance said, stepping past a waitress and over a man passed out on the ground. “There was an open ended request to take care of them.”

“Ah, that one. We’ve had a fair number of new Shikari swing by to complete that. You manage to find one or two of the buggers?”

Chance cleared his throat. “No. More like… what, fifteen or so, if we count the big one?”

Joe’s eyes widened. “You found fifteen Soothounds?”

“Yeah,” Yeo said. “They were everywhere. We were practically tripping over them in the Rose district. Why do you look so surprised about that? You’d have to be blind to miss them.”

“Most other Shikari have had a lot of difficulty spotting the Soothounds. We’ll have to point more people toward the Rose district I suppose,” Jose said, leading them over to a small counter built into the wall. Burget, the man that taken the Imp from the last time they’d been in the Shikari base, sat behind it, leaning his chin on his palm.

“G’day, Joe. Can I have a beer?” Burget asked.

“No,” Joe replied. “You’re still on the job. Look lively, lad.”

Burget let out a weary sigh. “Fine. The kids this time? What you have to turn in?”

“A bunch of Soothounds,” Chance replied, digging the orbs out of his bag. Yeo and Bella did the same and deposited the small pile of captured Soothounds on the table. There were sixteen orbs total, with one of them being the larger monster.

Letting out an annoyed grunt, Burget pulled out a silver box the size of a toddler and set it on the table. It was plain, with a small latch that Burget popped open. He dumped all the orbs into the box and closed it again, giving them a nod.

“Your payment will arrive shortly, once processing is complete,” Burget said, sliding the box off the table.

Joe cleared his throat. Burget sighed again.

“Would you like to peruse any of our offers at this moment? You can exchange gold for goods and services. As you are currently all Foundlings, the stores available to you are limited. You can expand them by ranking up.”

“The gold for goods and services part is not meant to be in the pitch,” Joe said. He clapped Burget on the shoulder, making the smaller man flinch. “But it was a good attempt. Well done.”

Burget grunted and slumped back down over his desk, not even waiting to see if any of them wanted to use his store before closing his eyes in a clear dismissal.

“Did you have any difficulty with the Soothounds?” Joe asked.

“We had a bit of trouble with a larger one, but the small ones are easy to deal with,” Chance said.

“Sounds like you lot should probably be taking the next exam to get ranked up to Squire rank Shikari. It’s pretty clear that you’re already there as cultivators, anyway.”

“How can you tell?” Chance asked.

“Your observational abilities will grow as you get stronger,” Joe replied, snagging a drink from a counter as they passed it. He drained the entire thing with one swig, then tossed it in a high arc through the air and into a sink at the far side of the room, behind the bartender’s counter. “It won’t be long now.”

They all came to a stop at the door.

“We only just became Foundlings a few weeks ago,” Bella said, her hand on the handle. “Isn’t it too fast to try to test again?”

“Bah. Everyone moves at their own pace.” Joe shrugged. “And there always tests for rankups. Individual ranking is different – you’ve got to wait for a tournament to get that moving anywhere.”

“We could get some more interesting jobs if we ranked up,” Yeo mused. “It would be nice to fight something other than a Soothound.”

“We fought imps pretty recently,” Bella pointed out.

Yeo grimaced. “That job doesn’t count. Something was messed up with it.”

“Like something wasn’t messed up with this one,” Chance grumbled.

“Fair enough. We did get a bunch of corpses lobbed at us.” Yeo laughed. “But hey, free money. I’m not complaining. Thanks for the help, Joe.”

“Anytime, kids,” Joe replied. He leaned against the counter and rooted around behind it for another drink. “Take care of yourselves. Ranking up will get you better jobs, but make sure you’re ready for it. I’ve seen too many Shikari get overconfident.”

He ended the sentence as if he was still going to speak, causing them all to send a confused glance his way.

“Get overconfident and then what?” Yeo asked.

“That’s it,” Joe replied. “Get overconfident and you’ll die. This isn’t a safe career. You need to know exactly what you can handle, and be aware of what you’re capable of doing. Be confident in that. But don’t overestimate your abilities, or you might not ever get a chance to correct that. Especially not once you get past the baby jobs.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Chance said.

“And don’t worry,” Yeo added. “We’re good at this.”

I’m pretty sure that you were the one he was warning the most out of all of us.

Bella looked like she was thinking the exact same thing. Joe just chuckled and bid them farewell as they headed out of the building and started back toward the Whiteheart house.

“Should we go kill more Soothounds?” Yeo asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly. “I mean, that was practically free money. We could buy so many things if we just sat around in the Rose district for a day.”

“And probably get killed in the process,” Bella said. “Come on, Yeo. There was something going on there, and it wasn’t safe.”

“And?” Yeo asked.

“I forgot you’re fairly new to Gleam. If there’s ever something that feels off, you should trust your gut – especially when you’re alone. A lot of people think Gleam is alive. I’m not sure if I’d go that far, but the city is more than just brick and stone, that’s for sure. When you’re around for long enough, you’ll see it. And you’ll also stop seeing the people that stuck their noses where they didn’t belong.”

“What, you think the city is killing people?”

“I don’t know,” Bella replied with a shrug. “But I know that I’m not dumb enough to stick my neck somewhere where a knife can conveniently find it. There’s so much Essence in Gleam that I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it had some form of awareness.”

Yeah, if only you knew.

Yeo let out a sigh and ran his hands through his hair. “I guess you might have a point. Generally, when someone throws a corpse in my direction, I don’t take it as a welcoming sign.”

Chance missed a step. “Does that happen often?”

They all laughed. The trio reached the Whiteheart house a short while later. Pete was nowhere to be found when they headed inside, but there were several new jobs on the table already. Bella scanned through them while Yeo rooted through the icebox for food.

“The Soothound quest again, plus some missing item requests,” Bella said, tossing them back onto the table. “Nothing too interesting. Maybe we really should look at trying to rank up. I was getting better jobs than this when I was working alone. Much better ones.”

“Probably because you had special privileges,” Yeo pointed out. He pulled a sausage out of the fridge and stuck it in his mouth like a cigarette. “Weren’t you way stronger when you used the water, anyway?”

Bella pressed her lips together. “I was. But it wasn’t the right way for me, and it’s becoming clear the more I use my Essence in the way I do now. I was just strong because of what Vex gave me. In the long run, this is much better. And you might be right about the special treatment. Gibson really was getting me jobs for higher ranked people. I thought we had an understanding, but he hasn’t spoken to me once since you two joined the team.”

“Maybe he really hates us?” Yeo said through a mouthful of food. “Doesn’t matter in the end. I’m going to go check the library out and see if I can learn a cool technique. You guys want to come?”

“I’m going to cultivate,” Chance said, shaking his head. “Thanks for the invite, though. I’ve just got too much to catch up on. I also can’t read the books here yet.”

“Fair ‘nuf.” Yeo shrugged. “What about you, Bella?”

“That might not be a bad idea, actually. I’ll join you. Good luck, Chance. We’ll be back in time for dinner.”

“Sounds good,” Chance said, waving to them as he headed up the stairs to his room. He heard the door shut behind them as he sat down on his bed, his smile slipping from his face as soon as they left.

He waited for a minute, then darted back downstairs. Chance cracked the front door open, peering out of it to check if anyone was there. The street was empty, so he slid out and closed it behind him.

Bella dropped from the roof above him, landing lightly in front of Chance. He yelped, leaping a foot into the air. By the time he landed, his urumi was in his hands. Bella raised an eyebrow.

“You look a little antsy, Chance.”

“I…uh–”

“Don’t,” Bella said, raising a hand. “I know this is presumptuous of me, but I know that look you had in your eyes. You’re about to do something dangerous, and you plan to keep Yeo and I out of it.”

“What? That’s not–”

“Chance, don’t waste our time. You’re a terrible liar. Your cheeks turn red.”

“What? They do?” Chance touched his face.

“No, but that did basically just confirm it,” Bella said, suppressing a laugh. The smile quickly fell away. “Look, I know what it feels like to do something alone because you don’t think you can trust anyone else with it. I’ve been there, and I’ll daresay probably more than you have.”

Chance cleared his throat, then let his shoulders slump as he let out a sigh. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Are you sure you need to do this alone?” Bella asked. “Because if there’s any way I can help, I want to. You tossed me a line when I was in the same situation. Let me repay the favor.”

Chance chewed his lower lip. Then he shook his head. Yamish might have tolerated Bella once because of Vex’s interference, but he highly doubted the strange cultivator would let any more information pass.

“I can’t bring you into this,” Chance said. “You remember the guy that stopped Vex, right? He’s involved. If you come with me, I’m almost certain you’ll die.”

Bella pressed her lips together. “Okay. I won’t push. If you’re sure, then nobody is going to change your mind. Just be careful. Don’t forget what Joe said – he was right. You’ve got Essence now, but you aren’t immortal. Not yet.”

“I will,” Chance promised. “Thanks for worrying, though. I’ll be back soon.”

Bella nodded reluctantly. She turned and headed off down Shikari Lane at a light jog. Chance set off in the other direction. He had some words to share with the Old City.