Chapter 56: Fragments Coming Home to Roost

More out of a desire to go out fighting than any strategy, Kai met one of the monstrous rock spider's pincers with a punch. To his surprise, the carapace broke and the monster staggered back. He had no time to celebrate, because the other one was almost on top of him, all its front limbs stabbing down.

He managed to dodge one pincer, then one of the stabbing claws caught him in the side. Kai wrapped his arms around it on instinct, then pulled, hoping he could tug the monster off balance.

The entire limb tore off at the joint.

Though his conscious mind was stunned, Kai's muscle memory knew a weapon when he held one. He swept the limb to the side, knocking the rock spider above him over. The second monster was coming toward him again, holding its injured limb back and using its remaining pincer defensively.

Kai leapt into the air with the severed spider claw over his head and jammed it down into the center of the rock spider's body. It penetrated deep and all the monster's limbs began spasming, trying to batter him from his position atop it.

Several caught him, but Kai struck back at the others. Even with just his gauntlets, his blows shattered the rocky defenses of the monster. When he saw that first rock spider was still coming toward him, Kai grabbed the last limb, tore it off, and leapt into the air.

The second rock spider had clearly learned its lesson and scuttled back, avoiding a fatal impalement. But now that he was on the offensive, Kai didn't let up. He swung the limb at the rock spider repeatedly, scoring only glancing blows until finally the side connected with its upper carapace.

His weapon and the beast's torso both cracked, and Kai leapt directly into the fragments. One heavy blow between the eyes and the rock spider could only flail in death. This time he was able to leap away before taking too many blows.

For almost a minute Kai simply stood atop a boulder and stared at the dying monsters. He had expected to lose his life fighting them, since even one should have been a difficult match. Yet he felt surprisingly fine, his injuries not even slowing him much. His only explanation was that the rock spiders were a good match-up for him, particularly vulnerable to the kind of blunt damage he could inflict.

His stomach gurgling interrupted his thoughts and brought him low. Damn, he had never been this hungry in his life.

Kai found the firewood he had previously gathered, now scattered between the boulders. As he did so, he carefully kept watch for further monsters, but he found none. Perhaps these two had been a mating pair. Without a flint it was difficult, but he eventually managed to start a fire with friction. Since he didn't have a spit or pot, he took several of the meatiest legs of one of the rock spiders and propped them together over the flame.

While the monster cooked, Kai had more time to think. And he didn't much like his conclusions.

The idea of the rock spiders being particularly vulnerable to him didn't ultimately make sense. Even if their limbs had particularly weak joints, that didn't explain how he had wielded them so effortlessly. They had felt light in combat, but while setting up his cooking fire he realized they were as heavy as stone. It seemed as though he had grown stronger, yet his Physique was unchanged from F-7.

It couldn't have been drive, not that he had even been that driven. Unmotivated fighters might perform worse than their souls indicated, but no one could simply decide to become stronger because they were just too angry. The only explanation was that he was missing a variable.

As he rolled over one of the spider legs to cook the other side, Kai realized that his wounds barely hurt anymore either. When he glanced down at his torso, he began doubting his memory. There had been a growing bruise across his chest and a deep gash down his side, just minutes ago. Both were much less serious than he remembered and he felt as though he'd been resting for hours.

Since the problem must lie with his ruined soul, Kai sat down and tried to derive meaning from the hazy overlapping symbols. His hunger and the smell of the crabs cooking were so intense that he couldn't concentrate.

Most likely he had only cooked away some of the poison, but Kai told himself that he had always been resistant to monster toxicity and tore into one of the legs. With the rocky carapace off, its flesh tasted somewhat like the crabs he'd occasionally tried in the market. The lean body only offered enough meat because of the monster's enormous size.

He was so hungry, even foul monster flesh temporarily tasted good. Once Kai had eaten a significant amount and began roasting more of the monsters, he could finally sit down and think properly.

If the familiar symbols of his soul were only the half he chose to interpret, then logic dictated that the others might also represent something meaningful. Trying to look at both at once made him cross-eyed for a while, then his oddly doubled soul suddenly snapped into focus.

<

Name: Kai Clanless

Total Power: 60

Physique Level: F-7 (44)

Soul Level: 4 (16)

Monstrous Hunger - VI (zeta)

Direboar's Strength - II (beta)

Aquagorgon's Health - II (beta)

Isulfr's Bite - I (alpha)

Rockspider's Claw - I (alpha)

>

What he saw was horrifying, but Kai forced himself to stare at it until his mind could accept the truth. Though he had some normal elements of a human soul, the dominant impression was that of a monster. Not only were the second set of symbols rated like monsters, they corresponded to specific monsters he'd fought.

Even though he knew that it had just saved his life, Kai still felt a wave of revulsion. His entire life, he'd trained to fight on the side of humanity against the monster hordes. The thought that his soul was somehow contaminated left him sick to his stomach.

Still, he had to face facts. The symbols might be unfamiliar, but they were perfectly comprehensible. He'd displayed immense strength and his wounds recovered unnaturally quickly, then he saw "Direboar's Strength" and "Aquagorgon's Health" within his soul. It couldn't be exactly their traits, otherwise he would have regenerated almost as quickly as he was injured, but the sources were undeniable. That was enough to convince him that the more opaque symbols, such as "Isulfr's Bite," must have real meaning as well.

Now that he thought about it, he realized that these fragments of strength must have been the distorted symbols that he'd been carrying along with him. Gunjin had said that they were power he couldn't use, but that had clearly changed. It had to have been due to Anaelina draining his soul, though he had no strong theory about how it worked.

One piece didn't fit his theory at all: "Monstrous Hunger" corresponded to no beast he'd fought. It swam around in his vision, as if it wasn't as fixed as the others, but it felt most appropriate at the top of the list, as if it came before all the others.

That trait was rated higher than all of the others by a wide margin, yet he wasn't sure if it was doing him any good at all. Hunger didn't seem to have any benefit, unlike the others. He considered that maybe that was what was making him so hungry and chuckled.

Now that he had at least a guess at what was happening, Kai settled down to recover. Even if the idea of having monstrous elements in his soul repulsed him, it couldn't stop him from eating his fill. He also broke open the rock spiders' main bodies - remarkably easily - and retrieved their monster cores. They were just as large as the Direboar's, if not larger. His nature really had changed.

Exactly how strong was he? For half a year, he'd gotten used to everyone's strength being reduced to a single number, even if the variables were more complicated. Now he had only monster ratings that seemed to exist separately from everything else. Did anything like this exist, in Deadwaste or anywhere else in the world? It felt like he was stumbling directly into the unknown.

Once the smoke of the fire had died down, Kai tried to get some sleep, hoping that everything would seem clearer in the morning. Yet as he tried to sleep, he found himself distracted by a new sensation.

All the smells of the world around him were more alive than before... no, not all the smells. The bodies of the rock spiders smelled worse than before, but if his sense of smell had really been enhanced, he should have been able to smell the bone pits from the crossroads. When Kai explored the rocky area further, the few small flowers seemed no different to him, yet he found his head turning to follow the subtle presence of a pair of monstrous bats flapping overhead.

Again, he could only theorize the most basic concepts: his sense for monsters must have strengthened. An excellent trait for a monster hunter to have, he desperately tried to tell himself. The sensations were all still dizzying and unclear, just like when he'd first developed his mana or worked on his spiritual sight. Hopefully more understanding would come with practice.

Before Kai tried to go back to sleep, he caught something else: a stronger feeling, one nothing like the others. An entirely different beast, or a human? Somehow it felt familiar, which had never happened since he'd started developing these new abilities.

Whatever it was, it was coming from the caverns to the south. Instead of sleeping, Kai sat and stared out toward it hungrily.