Death Cultivator by eden Hudson (knowledgeable books to read .txt) 📗

is dangerous,” she said, going back to her HUD. “There has to be something about it somewhere.”

“I just have to keep it under control and not draw too much Spirit at one time,” I said. “That’s the dangerous part.”

She shook her head without looking up. “That can’t be the only danger. It’s too simple.”

Actually, it was perfect. I would have Spirit ready for training tomorrow, so I wouldn’t need to borrow any more Spirit stones from the Bailiff. When training was over, I’d make sure to put just enough in the tank for the quota, the fifteen percent commission, and to pay back the Spirit stones he’d spotted me. Then after the transfer, I would refill my Spirit sea. The Bailiff’s commission would be at its bare minimum when it was taken out, and I would still get to eat.

But right then I was full of more Spirit than I’d ever had before. It seemed like a shame to just use it on regulating my internal alchemy.

I turned to the twins. “Are you guys tired?”

Rali looked at Kest. “You scavenged all day.”

“Metal never tires,” she said, still searching her HUD. “It’s the unrelenting element.”

“That’s not true, but I accept your determined nature.” He grinned at me. “We’re good to go a few more miles before we close our eyes. What did you have in mind?”

“I need to know more about kishotenketsu. How much can you teach me before morning?”

Mr. Champion and the Martial Devil

WE SPENT THE NIGHT working on the basic Ki-level abilities like enhancing sight, speed, and strength. When I started to get that, Rali announced that we needed some hot food if we didn’t want to waste away like the mummies. Nothing sounded better to me in the world than eating, but I didn’t want them to know I still hadn’t had anything, so while Rali went back to town, I stuck around and trained with Kest.

“If you’re going to be fighting the OSS’s hooligans, then you really need to work on reinforcing your skin and bones,” Kest said. She took something out of her pocket and slipped it onto her hand. It was like a glove made of chains, each chain connecting wide rings on her fingers to a thick metal cuff around her wrist. “Send a portion of your Spirit to harden your skin.”

A little at a time, I sent Spirit to my skin. My body turned cold and heavy, so I amped up the internal alchemy.

“Don’t try to counteract it too much,” she said. “Try to find a point just before the balance tips where you can maintain your internal structures without killing yourself but where your skin won’t let me pierce it.”

“Wait, what? Pierce it?”

She turned her body sideways and threw her braceleted hand out, fingers pointed at me. A pointy weight at the end of a chain shot at my chest.

I sidestepped and knocked it away with a forearm.

Kest swung the pointy weight back into the palm of her hand and caught it.

“You do realize we’re trying to toughen your skin, not work on your speed? It’s going to have to hit you.”

I frowned. “I spent all night blocking and dodging stuff. It gets to be a habit.”

She rolled her lacy eyes, then grabbed my arm and stabbed my palm with the pointy end of the weight.

I hissed and jerked my hand away. Blood dripped onto the floor of the tunnel.

“Now, try it again, reinforcing your skin with Spirit,” she said.

I sent Spirit cycling through the top layer of my skin like an electrical current. With Ki-sight on, it looked like I was glowing a little. My complexion was slightly less tan and a slightly more blue-green, anyway.

After a second, Kest nodded, then picked my arm back up.

My brain picked that second to realize that I was standing so close to her that hairs sticking out of her left messy bun kept tickling my face. Shirtless, alone with a cute girl, and no shower for like three days. I clamped my arms down to my sides and hoped she hadn’t noticed the smell yet.

She stuck me again.

“Ouch.” Blood welled up in a new spot.

Kest looked up at me. “Your reinforcement didn’t work at all. Focus.”

Cool, so she didn’t even notice that we were standing super close to each other’s faces. That was fine. I edged back a little and concentrated on reinforcing my skin.

This time when she stabbed me, I said “ow,” but as I said it, I also realized that I’d mostly said it because I expected the puncture to hurt. Except the truth was it hadn’t hurt as much as the first two.

She studied the most recent stab wound.

“It’s not as deep as before.” She held it up for me to look at. “Just the tip got through.”

“Awesome.” It wasn’t even bleeding as much as my other wounds.

“Keep going, let’s try it again.”

We worked on reinforcement until I could keep the tip of her pointy weight from poking a hole in my skin while standing still, then we stepped back and tried it on the move again. That was a lot harder.

By the time Rali got back, I had a bunch of new holes in my chest and arms.

Kest frowned. “Well, even the smallest amount of progress is still progress. I guess.”

“You had a bad teacher, Hake.” Rali tossed us both a couple big pieces of heavy flat bread. “She started you out at the hardest thing to protect against. It’s a lot easier to toughen your body against blunt-force attacks.”

“Blunt force is a waste of energy,” Kest said. “If you have to go through something, a single reinforced point is much faster and more efficient than a blow distributed over a wider area.”

I wasn’t really listening. I was too busy wolfing down that bread. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted, and the second it hit my stomach, energy poured into my muscles, sharpened my blurring vision, and even cleared some of the sleepiness out of my