Depthless Hunger

Kai lay back in Juray's bed and just existed for a while. The warmth suffused all his muscles, which decided that they didn't need to do anything in particular. Juray yawned and shifted against him to a more comfortable position, then lowered her head against his chest again. It might have felt nice to just stay there forever, but his other thoughts were starting to return.

"That was satisfying, right?" he asked.

"No, this is how I act when I'm bored." Juray mumbled the words and then nuzzled further against him.

"I was just thinking about before... was I absolutely terrible the first time?"

That got through her haze. Juray laughed softly and propped herself up on his chest so she could look at him. "You were very earnest. I don't want to give you the wrong impression about me, but in my experience... the first time with a new person is always awkward. It takes time to understand one another, so it only gets better."

"Mm. I just feel like I've had so much to learn..."

"Oh, please don't. Hunters can be just awful about that, treating intimacy like it's a technique. As if the secret is to rub a woman's left elbow clockwise three times, then you'll unlock infinite pleasure. You already have the right idea just listening and being present. Don't ruin it by bringing Classes and training into it."

Kai chuckled and rubbed her back. "You say that, but I'm sure there's someone out there who awakened the Humpmaster Class."

"Keep whispering such honeyed words, mister, and you're not going to get out of this bed." Juray flicked his forehead, but it turned into an affectionate stroke through his hair.

He leaned up to kiss her then, and it lasted longer than he expected. But she'd reminded him that he had plenty of things to do that day, so he really couldn't stay in bed. Juray pretended to pout as he slipped out, then stretched languorously under the sheets. Despite what they'd just been doing, the suggestion of the curves of her body through the fabric shot straight to his brain.

Since he was trying to get his pants on, Kai quickly looked away. Only after he'd fully laced them did he turn back to her. "It's going to be a busy day for me. What about you?"

"More enhancement potions. I don't mind the money, but I underestimated just how many the hunters would burn through." She stretched a moment longer, then wriggled to wrap the sheet around herself and get up. "I guess there's nothing to do but get started, since training calls. Don't come back this evening, because I need to talk to some Hunters Guild people, but don't stay away too long, understand?"

"How could I?" After getting his shirt on, Kai stepped beside her and kissed her cheek. "You're beautiful."

"Hey, it's not my ego I want you to stroke." She gave him one more lazy smile, then tottered off in her sheet to get to work.

While Juray always seemed to start off slow, Kai left the afterglow filled with energy. He felt like he could climb a mountain just for the fun of it. Once he'd gotten his boots and bow, he headed out into Monskon City to return to work.

After the tournament had troubled him, he'd thrown himself into training for a while and then returned to Juray. In a strange sense, both had been comforting. Now he still regretted some of what had happened during the Brawl, but he accepted it. What mattered was how he moved on.

That would start with evaluating what he had been given. The suit of Irunian armor was too tight for him and wouldn't offer that much protection anyway since his mana couldn't make good use of its inherent power. Selling it in the market would have lost too much of its value, so he searched out hunters until he found a man with a Knight Class who was willing to buy it for three hundred Eagles.

In a stroke he'd nearby doubled the amount of money he had on hand, yet that barely registered to him. The real reward from the tournament had been the three scrolls of enhancement, which still sat in their case. He had them evaluated for a small fee and discovered that they weren't quite as powerful as those offered after the Hunter Trials, but could still fetch over a thousand Eagles each. That kind of money would completely change the life of most people.

And yet, the merchant who bought the scrolls would be able to turn around and sell them for even more. They were technically useless to him, since they would only strengthen his Laborer Class, yet he couldn't bear to let them go for simple money. He didn't have a plan to use them yet, but he hoped he would find some way to use them as leverage.

There had been more that he planned to do, but Kai realized that it was almost time to meet Inafay. He sprinted across the city to their next destination, which no longer winded him. They'd begun meeting outside the second wall and so far none of the other clan hunters had bothered them.

When he arrived, she sprang up with a grin that immediately faded. "You alright?"

"I've just been through a lot." Kai didn't want to tell her about much of what had happened, but he definitely wanted to get her opinion on one issue. "I fought in a small tournament in the lower city, and it was odd. Killing wasn't allowed, of course, so my bow was useless to me. I have ordinary swords, but I'm thinking I need something better for close quarters combat."

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"And, in all the fighting you've done, nothing has jumped out to you?"

"Not really. I know some warriors say that a certain weapon just speaks to them, but..."

"Well, something is speaking to me!" Inafay bashed her gauntlets together as she sometimes did, but then removed one of them and tossed it at his chest. "There's a reason I picked gauntlets before I even awakened my Class. You can use them for striking, obviously, but even if you end up using another skill or weapon, they can still serve you as armor."

"I don't know." Kai looked over the glove carefully. "I just gave up some Irunian armor because I don't think it would have worked for me."

"But that was ordinary steel, right? You still have two weapon spheres, unless you got up to adventures and never told me about them. Those would be exceptionally well-suited to gauntlets. That liquid metal can make a perfectly articulated gauntlet, and then you'd have an option for melee combat. A non-lethal option, too."

"I'm beginning to come around to the idea, but to use the weapon sphere, I need to be able to picture the result clearly. Gauntlets are probably more complex than I know, so it might end up useless."

"Then follow me!" Inafay turned to go, then immediately pivoted back. "Wait, no, you probably don't have the spheres with you. You grab those, I'll get something from home, and we'll meet back here. Go!"

Their plans for the day were apparently thrown out, faster than Kai would have liked. However, as he ran back across the city, he decided that the logic was sound. The bow would serve him well against monsters while the gauntlets would balance it. He still had the third weapon sphere, so later if he decided on the perfect weapon for him, he could use the gauntlets as armor like she'd suggested.

When he returned with the second weapon sphere, Inafay was already back, looking through several papers. She eagerly showed him diagrams that he recognized as her gauntlets, just laid out in more detail. But, as she cheerfully explained, the fact that he was using Irunian steel meant that he could try for more elaborate features. Apparently it was possible for the gauntlets to have a blade atop the fist that could be retracted, for lethal or nonlethal strikes.

Everything had gone too fast, but Inafay was already impatient, so Kai fixed the gauntlet in his mind and tried to bring it forth. He'd been afraid that the sphere would somehow refuse him after so long, but it quickly expanded into exactly the gauntlets he'd expected.

"These fit perfectly." He turned one hand from side to side, admiring how well the steel matched his hand. In full armor he felt like his hands were trapped inside a plate, but the gauntlets were practically like a second skin.

"Great!" Inafay pumped a fist. "Now flip your wrist! Do it!"

After several tries, Kai figured out the trick of making the blades on the back of the gauntlet expand and retract. Not a gesture that he was likely to do in normal combat, but easy enough. This would expand what he could do significantly.

"Now, how can you get gauntlets and not want to punch something? I volunteer!"

They tried something like their normal training with their remaining time, particularly speed strikes. It took Kai some time to adjust to using the gauntlets, so Inafay had the upper hand for most of the day, but he gradually adjusted. By the end, he was a bit battered but he felt good about his decision.

Once on his own, Kai aggressively threw himself into his personal training routine. He did it entirely in the gauntlets and was surprised how little they chafed or disrupted his movements. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm made him finish earlier than he'd planned, so he ended up recovering and wondering what to do next.

Ordinarily he might have returned to Juray, but she had specifically said she would be busy. Well, there was another loose end still unpulled. Kai carefully remembered what the quarterstaff user had told him, then began traveling to that part of the city. It was a little early, but he could work on mana techniques while he waited.

He soon found himself in a shady part of town, one where the surly woman would have been right at home. No hunters on the street, at least not official ones. The Tonjin brothers had once told him this part of town could be dangerous, especially for outsiders. Kai was beginning to wonder if he was too outsider for the place when he finally found the building that had been described.

There, he asked after the name she'd given him. An old man with a jagged scar running across his bald skull emerged to stare at him. And apparently only to stare, because he said nothing.

"I was told that I could find monster fights here," Kai said. The old man immediately scowled.

"The fights are for trainees who need to shed some blood, or for important people who want to see blood shed. Look at you... F-rank Physique, Soul Level 4... you'd just slaughter the monsters we worked so hard to catch. No amount of money is worth the hassle."

"If I wanted to fight random monsters, I could just go back into the wasteland." Though he was out of his depth, Kai still felt confidence surging through him, so he folded his arms and stared right back at the old man. "I thought you'd have something dangerous for me. A challenge."

The scarred man stroked his stubbled chin several times, a smile forming. "You're crazy, but not so weak that it would be suicide. I might be able to arrange something, on one condition."

"What is it?"

"You fight one of my lost causes. A monster that was captured a while ago, but I've never been able to make a profit from. If it kills you, maims you, ruins your life... you don't get to complain. If you agree to fight and give a good show, I might be able to arrange something for you."

"Same question as before. What would I be fighting?"

"Have you ever heard of an Isulfr?" When Kai shook his head, the old man gave an unpleasant chuckle. "It's somewhere between a wolf and a snake, and it's a nasty customer. One was captured during the last incursion, but it's not just a monster... something is wrong with it. Something foul. You can take your time deciding, because you won't be able to run away later."

"We'll talk later. Give me one month." Kai knew that he should do more research first, so he didn't fully commit, but part of him was already sure that he was going to fight this Isulfr.

The way the old man had spoken about something foul... Kai found himself instantly sure that it was the same taint that had infected the monster on the Frontier. Instead of scaring him, he found himself wanting to face that horror again.

In the wasteland or in an arena, it didn't matter. It was only a matter of time.