Karni packed the blueprints of his new research project and leaned back on the chair. He was exhausted—mentally exhausted—due to absorbing all of this new knowledge in single day. That was enough for today. He would start designing the blueprint tomorrow.
He already knew a few things he'd have to watch out for. Originally, the plan was to carve the inscriptions on that pitch black Greatsword he looted off of that mecha. Those guys had quite the military. Who were they again? Green Skeleton Rebellion? What a stupid name. You might as well advertise you're the bad guys with a name like that.
The Greatsword he looted from them was perfect to create this special Soul Tool that could fuse and use both Martial Souls at once. However, he found two problems with that idea. First, the Greatsword turned out to be Soul Refined, not Spirit Refined, as he thought. Soul Refined! A Rank 7 Blacksmith created this—with three alloys no less! Meteoric Iron, a heavy rare metal which was infamously known to only be able to reach Thousand Refinements. Then it had Energy Palladium as the second metal, the same one Siduo used in her Battle Armour to accept different energies. Finally, it had mercury, a great metal to fuse other metals into alloys. The blacksmith he gave it to for examination admired the recipe of the alloy, as it was designed around making the Meteoric Iron reach Soul Refinement and higher. No wonder it was all so heavy.
He needed to perfect the blueprint before putting it on this Greatsword. Really perfect it. It would be a waste if he made it faulty somehow. He also had to grow stronger to use it. This weapon could still grow, and when Karni perfected the design, he planned to Blood Bind this humongous weapon.
At least there was no rush. Karni would have time to adapt the design, and he knew it would take a lot of time. He might be able to get the project decently far in one year, but with all the ideas, he likely would not perfect the design until a few years after. He was not fully sure what level he would need to reach as a designer to complete all his plans, which brought him to his second problem.
The blueprints he bought. The last of them was at the 6-Star Rank, but that alone wasn't that much of a problem. He understood a lot of the principles there already and had already started understanding the Icosahedron Array Theorem somewhat—it was a natural progression from the Hexagonal Array Theorem. The real problem was the fact that all the designs used up multiple layers. The tools had a bottom, middle and top array. The Soul Ring Fusion blueprint even had three middle layers. He would somehow need to figure out different solution—he couldn't just carve a hole in the middle of the Soul Refined Greatsword to make space for Soul Arrays. Place for Soul Arrays was usually shaped beforehand.
Another thing he noticed was the core inscription all of them shared. It was the same as that of Battle Armour. It made sense, since one was fusing the Martial Soul. Yet here also came the complications. Battle Armour itself had eleven pieces to it—at Two-Word level it had twelve pieces if one counted the wings—yet these were single Soul Tools. In the cases he saw, they were just plates, on which they tested the Soul Array theories. He couldn't help but feel that things were somewhat inefficient.
He stood up, having decided what he'd do tomorrow. He would borrow Tang Wulin to forge him a sword that he could experiment on, on a smaller scale, with appropriate space. Then he'd start with testing how his Bo Staff might be able to fuse with that.
… … …
He returned to the hotel late at night. He made sure to buy cocoa on the way home—he hadn't had it for three months now. He was getting antsy. He entered his room and stepped out on the balcony. He had a cozy little chair and coffee table outside with some plants. An above average balcony. This group wasn't treated as nicely as the Wu Family was when they visited. They were here on a formal exchange mostly.
He sipped his cocoa, letting him relax for a while. But this also meant memories of Siduo and their time drinking together. He felt somewhat thankful to Hu Jie for making him train. The past three months went by fast.
He let himself be taken by their memories, drinking cocoa, cuddling. It was almost like she was here with him. He almost wanted to lean into her, though he knew there was no one to lean onto.
He turned to looking at the city landscape. It had this ancient vitality, and the modernity was still somewhat hidden on the outside. It reminded him of Shrek, though Shrek City was even more in tune with nature than this; yet also more modern.
He stayed here long, relaxing, just laying, enjoying the warm night. The shifting stars. They were under the same stars and the moon, weren't they? He and Siduo. Then he shook his head. That was almost too romantic of a perspective. His logical side argued with him. "Everyone's under the same sky, you idiot." Wait no, that was the crow chipping in with his opinion. But Karni's rational side agreed with him.
He brought out the crow, then the snake. Hop and Hope. The snake slithered next to him, cuddling next to his face. He wasn't really alone. He never was… though that was a different kind of scary thought.
The crow flew on his head and softly packed it. "Don't forget me."
"Do you actually like me though?" Karni couldn't help but ask in a joking manner.
"Of course I do." The crow cackled. "You're fun. And you have keen mind. And you're stupid at the same time. Why wouldn't I like you? You've also shown me the wide world. I am quite thankful."
Karni chuckled a bit. "Say, Hop. Do you think we could focus my next ability into something attack focused?"
"Hmmm. You'll probably get a suitable attack focused skill from the panda, no?"
Karni shook his head. "I'm thinking of specialising it in defence, everything seems suitable for it. And I remember you having sharp feathers."
"Hmm. Hmm." The crow thought. "I have an idea on how to combine that with your sound. But it will not be a direct attack, more indirect."
"Like how I use Sonic Rhythm?"
The crow nodded, then shook his head. While thinking on how to explain it, he grabbed a flower from the balcony and gave it to Hope who took it with happy slithers.
"It is control, but more focused. Hmm. You will see. It is hard to explain." It shook its feathers and made a point for Karni to look at them.
Between the feathers, the space bent.
"Remind me, why did I never use you during my fights?"
The crow didn't answer and was focused on his feathers. "Like so, but you'll be doing it through Sound. Something like that."
Karni nodded. "I understand, I'll focus on that during the next breakthrough."
The crow smiled, well, tried to. It was hard to smile with a beak. Hop was an intelligence Spirit Soul, though a tad naïve. He also valued intelligence but was otherwise detached from his emotions. "What did you say before?" Hop asked.
"Battle. I should call you out for battle. You're back to your original strength, right? I remember you have fun being cunning on the battlefield."
The crow looked at him, then flapped his wings with both a nod and a shake. "Maybe. While I have control over my abilities, if I don't reside in your Spiritual Sea, your abilities lessen."
Karni nodded in agreement. "Then we'll keep it a trump card, you'll be more effective that way, as will I. We'll have to be sneaky and smart."
He scratched the bird's feathers. Hop leaned into the scratching, clearly enjoying the sensation. Hop tried to make his voice evil, but he failed, as sighs of satisfaction escaped him due to the scratching. "Of course… it… it wouldn't be worth it otherwise."
The three—human, crow and snake—stayed like this, talking. He even gave Hope and Hop a taste of cocoa. Neither of them seemed to like it much. Too sweet for their taste apparently.
Then he saw the sunrise. Sunrise?
Damn. Already? He hadn't stayed awake throughout the whole night for years now. Especially not like this, just relaxing.
They stayed, enjoying he sunrise. The first sunrise away from her. Well, not the first, just the first one he watched. Usually, Karni and Siduo would drink cocoa together around this time. He thought the relaxing time he just spent would have made his mind better, but he only found himself more self-aware. It filled him with a sense of frustration instead of satisfaction. However, he knew that his mind needed a rest, even if it was screaming at him to be productive. Karni went inside and made another cup of cocoa, then made a cup of coffee as well.
He gave the coffee to Hope and Hopper to try. They didn't like sweet, maybe they liked bitter?
The two tried it. Absolute satisfaction. Karni saw it on their faces. "Fans of coffee, eh?"
The two Spirit Souls nodded in joy. Hope moved her whole body up and down in approval.
Indeed, this was more of a bitter morning than a sweet one. Karni sat back down on the chair and sighed, letting out a bit of that stuffiness he'd been feeling just now.
Yet their morning breakfast was disturbed by two people on the side. Muffled voice came from the next room over. Karni couldn't help but groan silently. Someone was disturbing his peace. He tried to not focus on it, but then the voices came close to the window on the opposite balcony. He could hear it all. He always could hear most things in his surroundings, he just learned to filter it out. Right now, after a whole night awake, it was hard to do so.
"Y-You've reached the Spirit Abyss Realm already?" Karni's ears focused. He turned to look. That was Tang Wulin.
Out of the balcony stepped Gu Yue. "You believe it just because I said so?"
"Of course I'd believe you! When did I ever not believe your words?" Wulin came running to the balcony.
"Then what if I said that I'd intended to kill you last night? Would you believe that?" Gu Yue's tone changed. Karni sensed it in her voice. Sincerity. He felt chills. Hope wrapped tightly around his arm. He shouldn't be listening to this.
Tang Wulin took a while to answer. "Why would you want to kill me?"
"Do you believe it?" There was no playfulness in her voice.
"I don't… I don't think you'd do it. Come on, drop the act. Try something else. Something with more believability."
Karni felt like he was intruding, but he decided to help Gu Yue out this time. He wasn't sure why he was doing it, probably because of the hidden pain in her voice. Knowing the future and their fate, he felt a kinship to them at the moment. "I don't know about the killing part, but the part about the Spirit Abyss Realm is true."
The two jumped and looked at Karni over their balcony.
"Sorry. I've been here for a while now." He looked odd. The snake spun around his arm while the crow was on his head. He would look evil if it were dark outside, but not right now. It was more comical. The morning sun was shining off his feathers. He was almost a mirror.
Tang Wulin sobered up. "How do you know about her Spiritual Power?"
"Well, I'm at the Bottleneck to reach Spirit Abyss myself, and she," Karni pointed at her, "is quite scary to me. I feel a tad suppressed."
Gu Yue crossed her arms. She wasn't too happy about that. "You should be at Spirit Abyss Realm as well by now, actually."
Karni raised his hands up. "It wasn't meant to offend. And you're right. If my training had been as normal, I would've been at Bottleneck before the trip and would've likely broken through during the trip. But I had to fight to get my vacation by the end of the semester. And that meant focusing on designing mine and Siduo's Battle Armour in full."
Gu Yue released her intense stare. "Sorry. You still didn't have to reveal it to him though. I was having fun."
"Yue!" Wulin felt aggrieved. So she really was at Spirit Abyss level.
"Well, Wulin, don't feel too bad. Our kind—the elemental and spiritual kind—have to raise our Spiritual Power fast. It's kind of the basis of everything. The princess has also reached the realm. Her Martial Soul is purely Spiritual. She should actually be above both of us…" Karni did not say that Gu Yue, as she was, was actually more domineering with her Spiritual Power than Yun'er. That would give away too much. Wouldn't want to upset the Silver Dragon Queen.
Gu Yue stared at him; she sensed the lie. Karni almost cursed. He was too playful. She knew he knew about her Spiritual Power. At the edge Karni was at, he could easily feel the differences in the next realm, even if he couldn't tell the exact level. He had one foot in it already.
"Speaking of Yun'er." Karni decided to bail. "I'm pretty sure we decided to meet for coffee to catch up." It was a lie. They already caught up during the trip. And she told him that they won't be able to interact much when they arrive.
But he called her anyway, hoping she would pick up. And she did. "Karni? What is it?"
"Want cocoa?"
The other side was silent. "Mind if I bring my brother with me? He'd been nagging about me having too much freedom lately."
"You? Too much freedom?"
"Oh, don't start. Come to the back entrance of the palace. Do you still remember where it is?"
"Yeah. I'll be right there."
… … …
Karni arrived at the back palace, and the guards let him in. The word got around quick. He subconsciously navigated to the picnic area. There awaited the princess in her regal gown, as well as a few more people. Two of them Karni recognised. Dai Yueyan and Su Mu.
The three of them waved at him.
Karni joined the group, and they introduced Karni.
"This is Karni." Dai Yun'er started. "He is stronger than me at the moment, at least in pure battle prowess, and honestly, he might be able to beat some of you."
Karni raised his eyebrows. What kind of an introduction was that?
But it worked. The curiosity in the group's eyes increased tenfold after she said it. Dai Yueyan and Su Mu looked sideways at Yun'er. They weren't in complete agreement.
Dai Yueyan coughed. "Never mind that. Val Karni, meet the Eight Heavenly Kings of Monster Academy. Su Mu and I are known as the Fox King and Tiger King respectively. Su Mu is ranked as second strongest and I as third."
He pointed at a skinny youth. "This is Lin San. He is the most hardworking out of all of us and a battle junkie."
Lin San huffed.
"He is known as the Wind King."
Su Mu pointed at another guy. "This moody guy here is the Shadow King."
The "moody guy" snickered. "You wanna fight again?"
"Sure Teng Teng, I'm up for it." Su Mu met Teng Teng's gaze.
Dai Yueyan just rolled his eyes. "He is ranked fifth. After that is the Wolf King, Hua Lantang." He pointed at the next guy.
He was the first to shake Karni's hand. Karni took it, feeling slightly embarrassed at this weirdly grand thing.
"Watch out for his little sister." Yun'er said. "She has a tendency to fall for guys like you."
Hua Lantang started shaking strongly. Karni turned to look. Oh no, did he just make a…
A friend? Why was he looking so excited.
"He's got a girlfriend, Lantang." Yun'er added.
"Oh." The man stepped away somewhat disappointed.
Karni looked at Yun'er questioningly. She sighed. "His sister has a great taste of men, talented and kind is her type, ones like her big brother. But she is full of pride and reckless. She's of my generation and is part of the Tang Sect, hence why I'm warning you. She'll likely be in the next generation of Eight Heavenly Kings."
Karni had to hold back to not laugh. "Huh. Reminds me of someone."
Yun'er rolled her eyes. "Shut it. I'm not into humble types like you. I like someone who's more dominant."
Everyone looked at her.
She huffed. "What're you all looking at? Stop looking at me."
Dai Yueyan broke the awkwardness. "Next is Ye Zhi."
She also offered her hand. "I'm this guy's girlfriend." She nudged Hua Lantang. "It's a shame you have a girlfriend. That girl Hua Jingxiao needs someone to keep her grounded. It's what happened to me." She winked to her boyfriend. Karni felt slightly jealous looking at them.
"She's known as the Pagoda Queen." Dai Yueyan moved on.
"And I am the last for now." Yun'er stood proud, her previous embarrassment forgotten. "I am the Spirit Queen."
"Then who's number one? The guy I saw that one time?" Karni guessed.
Dai Yueyan nodded. "If your visit hadn't been so sudden, you would've been able to meet him. He's preparing for the tournament… he's the likely winner." He said that with slight jealousy. "He's known as the Dragon King and is our Captain."
Karni stood up awkwardly. "Thanks for introducing everyone. I guess if I were in your academy and got to your positions, I'd be known as the Sound King?" He wondered out loud. He wasn't about to reveal his abilities, but since he got hints of their specialty, he decided to give some hints back. He did not remember this people well. His meta knowledge was faulty in this particular department.
Yun'er chuckled. "Karni, you could tell us a bit about your companions. They're all from Shrek. They've been quite curious. I don't remember all the details you told me about them. I just remember they're strong."
Karni smiled. He grabbed the cocoa that was on the table and sipped it. It was okay. "I won't reveal all the details, but… If they had nicknames like you do, our Captain would be the Dragon King, like yours. He'd be number one." He immediately got their attention with that. What an odd similarity.
"Second would be the Elemental Queen, she is kind-of-but-not-exactly the Captain's girlfriend." Karni thought about how he wanted to introduce them. He didn't really want to reveal their names.
"Following that is the Ape Queen, or alternatively…" He wanted to say Fallen Angel Queen, but it would give away too much. "Strength King. Though despite the name I gave her, she doesn't have our Captain's Strength. Her not-boyfriend who is one-sidedly in love with her would be last, the Dagger King."
Dai Yueyan couldn't help but sigh. Karni was telling them about the love relationships of their group, not the powers. It camouflaged the fact he was being secretive by pointing out the odd relationships.
And Karni knew it. He was doing it intentionally. If anything, he wanted to lower their guards, not heighten them. "Following that would be the Angel King or the Sword Queen if we look at power. The Sword Queen is close to our Food King. The Angel King is kind of a womanizer though, but I'm sensing some chemistry growing between him and our last member, the Star Queen." He wasn't lying with that last part. During the trip, the few times he'd seen Xu Xiaoyan and Yue Zhengyu, they've been together a lot. It started at the dance floor.
The Eight Heavenly Kings were quiet. Though Yun'er was chuckling. "Oh yeah, that Star Queen and Angel King you talked about have been odd. Hot and cold kinda vibe."
Karni smiled. "It is kind of like that, yes."
With his redirection successful, he grabbed a drink.
"Say, would Siduo be the Tiger Queen?" Yun'er asked.
Dai Yueyan and Su Mu nodded. "She would, wouldn't she."
Karni couldn't help but chuckle. "Honestly, if she had the choice, she'd choose Cat Queen. Or Big Cat Queen. She acts more like a cat anyway."
"Is that the girl who you talked about a year ago?" The Wind King, Lin San, asked Yun'er.
She nodded. "Mm. Unfortunately, she couldn't join."
"She was too weak then." Lin San answered, feeling disappointed. He had heard of her prowess.
"If we had a ranking," Karni started. "She'd be number one." Inwardly he knew she was the only one right now who could truly go toe to toe against Gu Yue. Short term, her explosive power was the strongest. As Karni was now, he could one shot everyone but Gu Yue. She would find a way to escape him. They would be at a stalemate.
Karni could beat Siduo with the opportune moment. But one mistake and she would take him as well. Same with Tang Wulin. The protagonist had gotten much stronger now. Karni wasn't sure of his chance to beat him. Others though? He was fully confident.
That placed Siduo above him. Her explosive power had an overwhelming reach, with little to no weaknesses. Especially so now when she got a new Spirit Soul and her new techniques.
Lin San was silent after Karni's statement. There was a bit of an edge to Karni's voice when he said it, though Karni didn't seem to notice it. "I'm sorry for jumping the gun then."
"No worries. There were private reasons for this happening, and we were ordered to part by the Academy for a year." Karni stretched and continued drinking. It didn't taste well anymore. He was actually a bit annoyed that the Wind dude assumed Siduo wasn't strong enough to be here.
The following few conversations weren't really about their powers, but comparing the continents in general, as well as the best coffee shop close by. Karni managed to relax by the end.
When Karni left, he immediately made a b-line toward the coffee shop. He ordered a bunch of cocoa to try out, as well as a few coffee bags for Hope and Hop.
His mood had been all over the place today. Right now, he felt oddly excited. He was going to get a new Spirit Soul, and that would give him a much-needed new boost to cover his current weaknesses. Then there was the new project he was working on. And finally, tomorrow, there was the welcoming ceremony at the Royal Palace… that one actually gave him some anxiety. Yun'er was taking his advice so far—not causing trouble to Tang Wulin. But in the original story the two were meant to randomly meet outside today. He didn't know if that would happen upon one another anyway or if this tea party they had changed things already. Either way, he had already changed a few things regarding this trip.
… … …
"Mm. Yeah, Steam Buns, yeah. Is that all? … Alright then, bye." Karni went off the call. That was weird. The princess called him to ask about his companions. She only asked about details that were non-specific. Like the last question he just answered: what food would best represent the "Food King". It was odd.
There was no reason to think about it too much. He returned to the Tang Sect, a bunch of cocoa and coffee bags safely stored in his Storage Ring.
He entered his private room and went to work. Time to design some things further… or not. He yawned. He'd been up since yesterday. He should go to sleep. He left the Tang Sect and went back to his room. It was evening anyway. He should be fresh tomorrow.
It was the best sleep he'd had since he left Douluo Continent.