Depthless Hunger

Being a tribal patriarch turned out to be both easier and more tiring than Kai had expected. He wasn't an administrative leader, not by any means, and actually most of the organizational and even strategic decisions were made by others. Instead his job seemed to be composed of two duties: be powerful and dispense more power.

"We've come to pledge fealty." The splinter group of Manticore tribesmen bowed to him, not just at the waist but dropping to their knees and lowering their foreheads to the ground. Kowtowing, Zae Zin Nim had called it.

"Right, we expect you to do the best for the Manticore tribe." Kai waved them upward, then gestured to the servants - basically outer sect members - to bring forth another box. "For your loyalty, we'll give you these qi pills. If you prove yourselves, you'll be given more."

The servants handed them the box, which the cultivators greedily examined. A moment later some snatched up their pills, others stared, and one of the leaders stared at him. "How... you are willing to give us such powerful pills?"

"We have plenty." Kai waved them aside. "Next."

"But how? Such alchemy is-"

"Don't waste the patriarch's time!" Kulha stepped from the side of the tent, roaring at the top of his lungs. "We have wealth and secret methods you can't dream of. Get out and prove yourselves worthy of them!"

Once the group retreated with many more bows, Kai sighed and his shoulders sank. He was getting tired of going around bare-chested all the time to show his tattoo, and even more tired of dealing with the Manticore tribesmen. Maybe the bowing and scraping was gratifying to others, but not him.

"Patriarch, we have some of what you requested." New voices as the next group was allowed inside.

The next group held forth a lacquered box as an offering, like most of the others. Kai couldn't just grab it himself, he had to wait for servants to carry it the several feet between them... but as it got closer, he realized that this one actually had useful resources. He hadn't noticed at first, but one of the group was an Earth Soul.

"These are all the foreign resources we have," the leader explained. "We have an Iron Maiden Pill, qi pills for a late stage Earth Soul, and a Northern Heavens Pill that will freeze the body of whoever takes it. If you need other-"

"This will do." Kai accepted the box, then reached into his spatial ring and pulled out several of the trinkets he kept there. "As thanks, you'll receive these pills, antidotes, and a liquid tattoo. Be careful not to use it until your hour of greatest need, because the power will not last."

Actually, the "liquid tattoo" was just a syringe produced by Omilaena, but the Earth Soul cradled it like a gift from the heavens. Since they didn't really use power like that here, such a boost was immensely valuable. Syringes had been his primary lever for convincing Earth Souls, both to join him and to bring them the resources he actually did need.

As far as Omilaena was concerned, they were exploiting the Manticore tribe for all it was worth, but Kai thought about it as simple comparative advantage. He wasn't being generous by giving out resources too weak for him to use anyway, so he gave away everything that couldn't be used by him, Omilaena, or Zae Zin Nim. Given that the survival of the tribe was at stake, he figured it was pointless to be hoarding cultivation resources instead of strengthening the tribe.

It seemed like there weren't any other groups waiting, which was just as well. Kai pulled up the Beggar King's Robes, which turned back into a comfortable cloak, and started to walk out. Before he could get all the way, Kulha shifted to walk beside him as they ducked through the tent flaps.

"I still can't believe it," the Manticore Tail leader said. "How can Omilaena produce so many powerful items? I know some of these pills are from the vault, but half of the resources you give are brand new."

"She has secret ancestral arts from Rosemount," Kai said vaguely. They went crazy over secret arts here. "But you should thank her for devoting so much of her time to strengthening the Manticore tribe."

"I absolutely do. We set up guards so that her tent would not be disturbed." Kulha stared out toward the tent set apart from the others and shook his head. "Now I understand why you always refused offers of women. Such strength and ability, and she seems like she'd be a wild animal in bed. Does sh-"

"Do you need something?" Kai asked.

The leader flinched back a step and bowed. "You've given out liquid tattoos to many of the smaller factions, but I wanted to ask for one myself. And, if it is possible, a permanent tattoo. I do not ask for one equal to yours, but..."

"We need to focus on unifying the splinter groups first." As he spoke, however, Kai realized that he shouldn't take Kulha for granted. Kai could lead via raw strength, but having a local expert was essential for multiple reasons. So he turned and put a hand on the other man's shoulder. "If you want to earn your own tattoos, help me find a real manticore. Feida said it might be possible."

"Possible, but hardly easy! Manticores are dangerous beasts that can threaten entire cities. Our ancestors named themselves after it to inspire the same ferocity. But that means there are not many alive, and they may be in territory we do not control..."

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Most likely Kai could just have said "I want one" or even just slapped Kulha and ordered him to obey. That would have been the normal patriarch thing to do. But he really wanted to hunt and eat a proper manticore, so he turned fully to the other man and lowered his voice.

"You said the tribe needs to be unified, and they need a symbol," Kai said. "What better symbol than your namesake? The monster itself can be refined into new power, so it will prepare us to face our final enemies."

"She can even do such a thing?" Kulha's eyes widened.

It was mildly annoying for him to assume that Omilaena was doing everything, but truthfully, she might actually be able to use parts of the corpse, so Kai only nodded.

"Incredible. I thank the heavens every day that she blesses us with such bounty."

.

..

.

Another failure. Omilaena cursed under her breath and dumped the trash pills into her bin for Manticore cultivators.

Since Kai had decided to start swinging a big patriarchal dick around, she had access to the resources and specialists she hadn't gotten before, which meant she needed to perfect her technique. She was no expert when it came to qi alchemy, but she could easily use chakra techniques to produce effective pills. For people with small and unimaginative powers, they were apparently impressive.

Omilaena swept her worktable clean, assembled fresh materials, and began again. Mana refined from the local ink, powerful qi pills from the vault, and her own chakra... maybe the mana ink was the flawed component despite its power. She could test the theory, anyway.

Her real goal in all this was to produce a pill that could let Zin Nim break through the 999 Power barrier. That would have been impossible even a few years ago, but now she understood the principle: such pills involved a significant amount of power - any kind - that was Soul aspected. She still understood that aspect of power relatively little, so she was reliant on advancement materials like those she had taken from the vault. But if she could retain that aspect, the power would deepen and strengthen the soul.

The trouble was creating a balance perfect for Zin Nim. She'd rejected the Heavenly Maiden Pill, which was a formula refined over generations, so the only way Omilaena could compete was creating one specifically for her. A perfect mix of all energies and aspects... if she could just get it right.

Technically she had other objectives, such as mastering cultivation tattoos and absorbing new poisons, but Omilaena was fixated on this. Years ago, Zae Zin Nim had sacrificed a perfect opportunity to break the 999 barrier for her sake, valuing their advancement as a group over her own. She had suffered for that, stuck at the barrier for so long, so Omilaena was determined to prove that it had been the right choice.

Her next attempt was a half-success: she didn't ruin any of the materials and the result was actually powerful. Good enough for cultivation... not good enough for Zin Nim. Omilaena sighed, melted the result down into trash pills, and leaned against her worktable for a while.

Eventually she took off her goggles and dropped down into the chair behind her. She wouldn't figure this out by brute force, so she needed new inspiration.

At least Kai's tattoo was working just as intended. So long as he didn't accidentally eat the ink, it should slowly absorb mana over time and be useful for something. She kind of liked the savage effect on his appearance, and she had even more fun imagining how upset Zin Nim was going to be.

She pulled a jar of mana ink from her spatial pouch and tossed it up in one hand, catching and tossing over and over. It was an interesting technique, binding power into a physical form. Definitely a hint of the Essence aspect, actually similar to the strange Krysali cultivation she'd spent so long studying. The principle was the same, using the physical aspect not as the central power, like in Irun, but to keep the power isolated from the rest...

"Aha!" Omilaena sat upright and snatched the jar out of the air so hard she almost shattered it. She leapt to her feet and began working feverishly on a new project.

The cultivator tribes used the Essence principle to contain mana and make it subservient to their qi, which explained so many of the details she hadn't understood about the tattooing arts. They needed a physical material to anchor everything to the body, preventing any conflicts. Just doing that over and over again stretched their Physique to its limits, which was why they could only support so many tattoos, but the same principle...

Omilaena cackled to herself as she worked. All that time she'd thought was wasted in Krysal was going to be useful after all.

What she needed to do was combine the "containing" element of the tattoos with the "manifesting" element of crystal cultivation. Instead of just using her Essence capacity as a vehicle for other power, though, she would tie them directly together. That capacity was already filled by her Lethal Artisan capacity, but she could strengthen it with qi.

And she had the perfect material. Omilaena brought out the ice qi that she'd been liquefying and examined it carefully. The qi was extremely powerful and suited enough to her, but the problem was that she didn't want to just throw a new element into her soul. But if she contained that element, she should be able to combine it with Lethal Artisan...

"Hey." Kai ducked into the tent behind her. "I got them to agree to-"

"Not now!" Omilaena waved over her shoulder as she kept working.

Thankfully, Kai just sat down with a look of mild amusement. She'd never really shown this side of herself to men before, other than those she was going to kill. Yet Kai didn't seem even mildly put off, and he liked her just as much in tunic and goggles as in dresses.

There was no time for those thoughts, though, not when there was work to do.

Eventually her rush of inspiration ran out, a little before the finish line. Omilaena was completely certain that the principle would work, she just needed to figure out the process, such as creating ice ink and determining the exact mechanism. She could work that out later, when she was fresh. After staring over her table for a while, she turned back.

Kai had been cultivating at the side of her tent, but opened one eye to look at her. "Done?"

"For now." She flopped into his lap and went limp. "What did you want to talk about?"

"We absorbed a new breakaway sect that actually knows about the location of a manticore. I'm going to go hunt it, and I wanted to ask whether you wanted to come along."

Omilaena had been planning to lay around but now jerked upright again. "Really? That soon?"

"It's been a week."

"I've been distracted. But no, you're right, I need this." She got back up and rubbed her fingers over the Prana Jewels. They were somewhat stronger than before, thanks to all the new poisons she'd used them on, but not enough to heal Kir Mei Bai.

How long had it been? She lost track of time while doing more interesting things, but she estimated that it had been almost two months since they left the Pureflower sect. So, assuming they used all their desperation pills, that meant Kir Mei Bai had three or four months left to live. A legendarily poisonous monster like a manticore might be just what she needed.

"So you're interested?" Kai asked.

Omilaena grinned back at him. "It's a hunt."

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