Depthless Hunger

Chapter 160: Rockbat Soup

As soon as Kai heard about the monsters in the lower levels, mining crystals started to feel like a chore. His goal wasn't to join the workers, it was to help them, and he could help them far more by dealing with their monster problem. The only thing that kept him from going straight down at the first opportunity was that he wanted to do it right.

When he delivered all the crystals from his work, the young woman frowned at him again. "Good work, crystallier."

"I'm not a crys-"

"You look like one to me." She turned away and continued her work.

With a new goal in mind, Kai didn't really care about why she was so prickly. He could even understand: with his power and training, life in the mines wasn't as miserable for him as it was for everyone else. Given the lives they'd led, they had no reason to believe that someone from above would go out of his way to help them for nothing in return.

It was time to begin changing that.

Killing monsters might help him personally, but it was only a minor solution. So he first went and found Nanny Troggup, in the cavern that served as a kitchen, trying to stretch out the stew for that night. She nodded amiably enough when he approached.

"Can you get down that box for me?" she asked.

"Sure, but I wanted to ask something else." Kai barely had to stretch to reach the box atop a pile of old crates, then set it down beside her. "I'm going to go kill some of the monsters below. Do you know how to cook monster to make it edible?"

"Aye, we've had to do it in bad times. I won't deny, it will help, but they won't like it."

"I have a few ideas. But let me get them first."

He'd been afraid that the Krysali would be afraid of eating monsters, but he should have known better given their desperation. With that settled, he headed down the lower levels of the mine. Sometimes they had cut open what seemed like stable mineshafts, but other times he found himself squeezing through a crack or nervously testing a creaky ladder.

It took him longer to reach the bottom than he had expected, and he kept encountering new clusters of workers. They seemed to organize in smaller groups while sometimes cooperating with others. As he traveled, he revised his estimate of their total numbers from thousands to tens of thousands, maybe more. No wonder they had so many crystals on the surface.

There were no exact floors, since every path twisted and rose, but he roughly estimated them. Three floors down, he saw only hard men and women with at least some training. Five floors down, he rarely saw anyone else, just a few desperate fighters taking a risk to find more crystals. He went down to the seventh and took a deep breath.

Finally he could smell the monsters through the general musty scent of the mine. Kai began walking through the corridors, ready to be attacked at any moment. He couldn't help but note that the walls seemed dimmer here, or perhaps it was just that there were more intact crystals remaining. If he could actually clear a floor, they'd have an easier task pursuing these than breaking open new passages.

When the first monster dropped out of a crack in the ceiling, Kai wasn't still looking forward. It would have latched onto his head, but it seemed to be moving slowly, as if through deep water. He'd changed so much, he had plenty of time to examine the monster: all dark ropey flesh, claws, and fangs. He was almost amused when he examined its spirit.

Monster: Rockbat

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Threat: II (Beta)

>

Just a beta ranked threat. Kai caught the creature with one hand and snapped its neck. It was a bit thin, but he was sure the workers could extract everything useful from it. For that matter, it was covered in thin fur, and if they could put aside their bias against monsters, that be better than their current rags.

Could monsters like this really be a problem for them? Kai realized that it was a bit odd... with so many workers having higher Physiques, a creature like this was a risk, but it should have been manageable. In his experience the workers weren't weaker than expected even when they lacked combat experience.

Another monster leapt from a nearby crevice, this one aiming for his leg. Kai kicked it against the wall but didn't crush it, intending to examine the creature for a threat. It opened his mouth as if crying out and he thought he could hear something keening just at the edge of his hearing...

And then he heard the flapping.

It was coming closer and closer, growing like an avalanche. In the distance he saw the lights of the crystal walls flicker and then go out as they were entirely obscured by flapping wings.

Kai took a deep breath and released Infernotoad's Blast down the corridor. When it cleared, he was left with a floor covered in the already cooking bodies of the monsters.

"I've missed this." Kai smiled to himself, then grinned into the darkness. "You want to hunt me, monsters? Then hunt me!"

.

..

.

A couple of hours later, Kai dragged an enormous number of monsters back to the main levels. He'd encountered several other types in the caverns, but few had been a true threat to him. Once he'd even waded directly into a storm of the Rockbats, letting them try to claw at him while he snapped his teeth together and consumed them one at a time.

His stomach was full for the first time since he'd been sent into the mines. That was satisfying, but he'd be happier when it was true for everyone else.

At first he got stares from everyone, then some workers began to edge forward to look at the monsters. A few started to grab one before pulling back as if afraid of what he might do. When Kai turned toward them they flinched, and he understood why they might be afraid, given that he'd just displayed how dangerous he was.

"Well, look at that!" Maggle walked in and whistled at the monster bodies. "I knew I let out a real ripe one on the lower levels, but I didn't realize my farts could kill monsters!"

"Maggle, good to see you." Kai clapped him on the shoulder. "Tell people they can take one if they want, but they're not safe to eat. I'm planning to take them all to Nanny Troggup to cook them properly."

"You got a mouth, don't it work?"

"Not as well as yours."

Maggle laughed and went to talk to the onlookers, who already appeared a little encouraged. Kai took several of the monsters past them to the old woman. She already knew her work, but he showed her how the meat could be cooked without charring it entirely. The trouble was the fire, since resources were scarce, but Kai used the slightest whisper of the Infernotoad essence to build a more intense one.

Soon enough the workers began converging to prepare the monsters. He'd expected more complaining, but they all seemed grateful. Maybe Nanny Troggup had managed to hide the nasty smell - Kai had no idea personally, because monsters still smelled and tasted great to him. In the end it seemed like they were only willing to convert a small percentage of their diet to monster flesh, fearing illness, but it was a source of food that hadn't existed that morning.

For the most part Kai refused food, claiming he'd already eaten, but he accepted a few earnestly offered bites. He realized that his strength had recovered more than in an entire week of work... he needed to take more trips down below and eat as many monsters as possible.

"What do you want for all this?" Nanny Troggup asked him from over her pot. "Everybody should give their fair share, but this is a lot more than fair."

"I just want some decent tools," Kai said. "It was a pain dragging them all here."

The surrounding workers laughed even though he hadn't intended to be funny. It was the mood of the place, an infectious energy spreading through the tunnels. Even other groups were drawn in, and to his surprise the workers shared more with them.

Most likely if he kept this up, he'd attract attention from the workers who weren't so friendly. He'd heard occasional stories about the criminals thrown into the mines, and though they hadn't shown themselves, he figured it was only a matter of time. Before he could decide exactly how to prepare for that, he heard a quiet voice behind him.

"Not bad, crystallier." It was the woman who managed the crystal collection, but she was smiling as she spoke.

"I'm not..." Kai took a deep breath and met her gaze. "I guess I was a crystallier. Life seemed pretty easy on the surface, before I knew about all this. But I'm not anymore, am I?"

"Maybe not." She examined him oddly and her smile broadened. "My name is Nirka."

"Kai, but you already knew that."

"Well, Kai, if you're really here to help, then maybe we'll be working more together. Are you willing to try something more ambitious?"

Kai grinned. "I've been waiting for someone to ask."

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