Chapter 524: The Worst Builder

They could have immediately gotten enmeshed in Krysali politics, but Kai agreed to hold back. For one, his wives were correct that he had a bad track record of getting heavily involved there, and his presence alone would be a disruption. Perhaps more importantly, they'd made contact with the Frontier elites and a delegation was coming to meet with them.

It went unsaid, but Kai knew this meeting would be important. They weren't sending adults to mind them or judges to evaluate them: the elites knew their strength and wanted to treat with them seriously. This was his ultimate chance to prove that he'd done everything for the sake of Deadwaste, so he needed to make a positive impression when they negotiated. Yes, he was likely stronger than the Frontier elites now, but he needed them as allies.

In order to pull that off, he sent Cragrila and Nirka into the city to make contacts and catch up on everything they had missed. For his part, he stayed outside and worked with the trainees. A few more days wouldn't make a huge difference for however the elites judged them, but there was only so much time left before the incursion.

He'd arrived with roughly two dozen and they'd begun to split up - some of them felt they had enough power, or wanted to return home, or simply disappeared into Krysal. He was left with a group of seven who he'd made the strongest connection with. Fortunately, they hadn't let the praise go to their heads and they were all eager to train, give or take a few hangovers. Kai got the group together along the rocky shore and noted that they seemed even more unified than before, even outsiders like Bonto and Kyridnyiam.

"You did a good job," Kai addressed the group, "but everyone else already told you that. I'm here to tell you not to get overconfident. There are many more cultivators just as strong and you won't always have backup."

"With all due respect..." Kifaela hesitated and glanced across the others, but they nodded to her. "We're not puffed up by that battle, it was humbling. We know those were just the rank and file of a cultivator sect and we barely held our own against them."

"Almost got my head taken off," Untariin muttered.

"We've all doubled our power, and we needed that just to survive. And those weren't even the strongest at that tier, from what Kyridnyiam was telling us. So no, we feel like we have a long way to go."

"Oh. Good." Kai was a little surprised, but he supposed that this group wouldn't be as overconfident or decadent as the cultivators they were facing. "Let me encourage you, then: you won't be facing monsters like that in the incursion, not regularly. Currently, most of you are tough enough to take on a city-destroyer, so even with your current strength, you can help turn the tide. But we're all going to be spread thin, so we need to work on your stamina."

Once they had agreed, Kai used Famished World to drain away their power - he'd planned it as a humbling exercise, but now he just efficiently exhausted them. Once they were low on energy, he had them run laps within his aura to drain them physically as well. Soon enough they were all worn down and gasping for breath.

That was when the training really began. These trainees all knew about pushing themselves when the going got tough, but they needed to master their new power at minimum levels.

As they got started, Kai roamed among the group, offering suggestions or setting them on different paths. Some focused on trying to absorb their chosen chakra type, others engaged in their own exercises, and a few sparred with one another. Later on, when they were truly tapped, he'd have to give them a lecture about how to keep up progress on Deadwaste.

"You're close to D-rank," Kai told Ankrastor as he struggled to rise on his fingertips. "But you need to reach the absolute peak or the transition could kill you."

"I..." Ankrastor proved too engaged to speak and kept it up until he collapsed.

"Good work," Kai said in a lower voice. "After you reach the next rank in Physique, we'll see about getting the elites to teleport you somewhere else. With four months left, you might be able to unlock something new and give yourself the last boost you need."

"Can you?" Ankrastor had to catch his breath, then responded in the same low voice. "I mean... will the Frontier elites actually listen? Teleportation resources are scarce."

"Truthfully, that's something I'm going to have to negotiate soon. But I'm confident they'll be impressed by your progress, so even if they have issues with me, they'll keep investing in you."

Kai left Ankrastor to his next round of training and went to monitor Kifaela - he could suggest a little about how she absorbed plague chakra, but mostly she had to figure that out on her own. He used one of Omilaena's syringes to draw blood from her while she was exhausted, since that might be useful to learn more about her subconscious methods.

Everything seemed to be going well... except Kai saw that Mariyay was off to the side, training but not engaging with the others. Despite avoiding him up to this point, she'd remained. It looked like she was so exhausted that she didn't see him coming, so he crept closer.

Mariyay Hafkrir - the name meant almost nothing to him. He knew very little about the Hafkrirs except that he thought they were a clan in the far eastern parts of Goralia. It didn't seem very likely that she could have a personal grudge against him. Indeed, when he crouched down beside her, she looked a little startled, then a little irritated, but not at him personally.

"We still haven't talked," Kai said. "Is there a reason why you stayed?"

"I know... what you're... going to say..." Her arms wobbled and she fell onto her stomach, laying there unable to do another exercise.

"Well, you aren't obligated to take my advice. I think it's worth something, but you could be right that you've found your own solution. That combination of the Builder Class and Earthborn powers seemed strong enough."

He didn't honestly believe she thought that, but he also wasn't sure what exactly her problem was. Kai remained sitting beside her while she recovered, pretending to look over the group. He could give a suggestion or two, but Mariyay was the last one he hadn't spent time with and he hoped that she'd be willing to open up.

Whatever she was dealing with, she worked through it as she sat up. When she spoke, it was in a grim tone. "You saw my barrier in the fight?"

"And it was a good one," Kai said, "but you don't sound happy about that?"

"That's what everyone wants me to do. They said the Builder Class is only good for playing support, that I should have gone to the Frontier and helped them reinforce construction. But that's not what I trained for, not what my life is supposed to be for. I want to fight."

"And it seems like you've done a good job figuring that out. Why are you angry about it?"

"Because none of it is good enough." Mariyay clenched her fists and earth began to rise in front of her, slowly forming a brick. "This is as fast as I can go. It's gotten a little faster as I gained Class levels, but not enough. I need to rely on my Earthborn powers to raise anything quickly, then even reinforcing it goes slowly."

"Those are potential weaknesses." Kai nodded mildly, trying not to dismiss her concerns while remaining neutral. "So you have a defensive power and you want to fight on the offensive team... that's an obstacle, but everyone here overcame obstacles."

"You didn't!"

Her sudden half-shout made Kai blink in surprise, since it seemed to contain real rage. Yet the motion drained away and Mariyay looked mortified the next second. She looked away, focusing on creating more bricks in a little tower instead of focusing on him.

"I shouldn't have... that's not what I meant." Mariyay took a deep breath. "I heard about you, you know. You started with a Laborer Class, and everyone told you that you'd never amount to anything."

"And?" Kai thought he was beginning to understand, but he didn't want to put words into her mouth while she was emotional.

"You got rid of your useless Class and found an actually powerful ability. Mine... I've spent years training as a Builder, I can't change now. But I just don't think it will ever be strong or fast enough to be worth anything."

In the short time they'd been talking, Mariyay had built a column of bricks several feet high, which didn't seem useless to Kai. Then again, he could understand her frustration after his dreams of being a hunter had seemed ruined. He could ignore her unintentional insult, because in a sense it was true that she had taken the harder path.

"Battlefield defense wouldn't satisfy you?" he asked eventually.

"I'm a liability like this." Mariyay waved a hand and her bricks tumbled down into a pile, which then melted into the earth. "Even during the battle, the others needed to cover for me."

"You covered for them when no one else could."

"Yes, but if I can't attack, I'm not really a hunter, I'm just support staff on the front lines."

Kai nodded slowly, considering the melting bricks. Time to take a different approach: "What ability did you use to take your tower apart?" he asked.

"What, this?" Mariyay waved at the melting bricks with a sigh. "After leveling up my Class, I discovered that I can deconstruct things as well. But no, before you ask, I can't do it so fast to be used as an offensive technique. It's useless against living creatures, and at best I could serve as a siege engine. Big deal, everyone with offensive power can take down a wall."

"How fast could you take down a stack of your own bricks?"

"I don't know, about as fast as you want."

"What if I wanted it to be very fast?"

Mariyay stared at him, surprise breaking through her discouragement. He could see the near-hope in her eyes: she didn't want to believe that she had a chance, not after being denied so many times. If this worked, he might be able to offer her something no one had ever done for him.

"Make another stack," Kai ordered. "Or try a short wall."

Without a word, Mariyay bent to begin forming bricks out of mana. As she had said, it wasn't particularly fast, but he was confident that she could get faster. The real question was the reverse, which he had examined earlier but not tested. Surely one of her abilities would be compatible...

"I've never used elemental powers," Kai said, "but Earthborn stone is obviously much more explosive than your Class. You can use the two materials you construct interchangeably?"

"I can make the Earthborn stone fast," Mariyay explained as she continued building the wall, "but it's not durable. That's why I throw it up first, then try to reinforce it with my Builder skills. Even that is too slow if I don't have support."

"Well, finish your work and then we'll try the opposite."

Soon enough she had a short wall of bricks, which were unusually durable and fused together due to her Class. Each was brimming with mana, having just been formed, making them an excellent defensive material. Kai's plan was to use them in the exact opposite way.

"Now," he told her, "use your Class skills to unbuild the wall. But before it falls apart, use your Earthborn power on it."

As it turned out, he didn't need to walk her through the details: Mariyay might be less experienced, but she had endured a great many struggles of her own. She pulled back one hand in a fist at her waist while she extended her other in a palm, weakening the mana binding her bricks together.

When she reversed her arms, her fist hit the wall and it exploded: bricks exploded outward at a fearsome velocity, some punching into the rocky ground and others sailing on. The spread went wider than intended and some nearly hit the other trainees, who cursed and danced out of the way.

None of that mattered... Mariyay's eyes wandered over the destruction back to her fist.

"It's still too slow," she murmured.

"But you can work on that," Kai told her. "With a few months, do you think you could turn that into a technique?"

"Yes! Thank... I don't know what to say, thank you, I have to try this!" She rushed off to talk to the others and Kai smiled as he watched her go.

Was that viable on its own? It was certainly more elaborate than a Class that simply produced an attack: some hunters had been throwing fireballs within hours of awakening, after all. But the heavily concentrated mana of her Builder Class had advantages, forming much more deadly projectiles than a faster skill. If she could refine the whole process, it might produce a unique skill.

Could he have done the same, if he'd kept his Laborer Class? Kai didn't think about it for very long: he'd taken a different path and he wouldn't second-guess himself now.

Before he could think any further, a portal suddenly opened beside the training grounds. He leapt to his feet, just in time to see the Frontier elites pass through. It seemed they'd wasted no time: they'd brought a full group and they looked deadly serious.