Gleam Karma Cultivator Isekai

They rose and headed up to the door. Before Yeo could even to go knock, it swung open to reveal a woman wearing a stained apron. Her hair was pulled back behind her head in a bun and her hands were covered in flower.

A small boy peeked out from behind her. The woman gently peeled him off, staining his shirt with flower, and gestured for him to leave.

“Go play with your toys, Abe. I have visitors.”

The boy darted off to the left and she brushed her hands off on her apron as best as she could. “My apologies. You’re the Shikari team, yes? I wasn’t expecting you so early. We only put in the request a day ago.”

“We are. Are you Mrs. Smit, then?” Bella asked.

The woman nodded absentmindedly. “Just Maria, please. I’ve got something a little time sensitive going – please, come in and excuse the mess. I’ll answer any questions you may have.”

They followed her in and passed through the living room on their way into he kitchen. A wooden table had been set with five plates, and two of the chairs at the table were raised. The walls of the house were plain, but there were several wooden swords and other weapons lying around on the ground.

Once they got to the kitchen – which was fairly spacious – Maria set about to kneading a ball of dough on the counter. “What can I answer for you?”

“We were wondering if you could tell us anything about the incident with the Lesser Imp,” Bella said. “We’ve already spoken to Nathaniel, but the job says you co-requested this.”

“I did,” Maria replied, not stopping her work. “My son claimed to be attacked by an Imp a few days ago. I must admit, I didn’t believe him at first. He has a bit of an active imagination, so when he first told me he was attacked, I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t believe him. He was unwounded, you see. But, when Nathaniel reported that his Scorchhound was also attacked…”

“He wasn’t hurt?” Bella asked, surprised. “Lesser Imps aren’t that weak. Does your son have any training?”

“None, unless you count playing with his brother,” Maria said with a laugh.

“Would we be able to speak with your son?” Yeo asked. “And where did this happen?”

“In the park,” Maria said. “And yes – you just saw him a few moments ago. I’ll be present for any communication, though. He’s still young, and I won’t allow you to scare him.”

“We won’t do anything of the sort,” Chance promised.

“Abe, come to the kitchen for a moment! There are some Shikari here that want to talk to you!” Maria called.

A few moments passed before the excited patter of feet announced Abe’s presence. The boy skidded into the kitchen, clutching a wooden sword in his hands as he stared at them with wide eyes.

“I knew you were Shikari!”

“Calm down, Abe,” Maria said. “They’ve got some questions about the monster you saw.”

“The Imp,” Abe said, nodding and giving them a gap-toothed grin. “I know what it is!”

“How did it attack you?” Bella asked. “Where was it? An average imp is considerably faster than a human, which means it’s very unlikely that someone your age would be able to escape, unless you managed to lose it somehow.”

Abe stared at her, and it was pretty clear that her words had gone right over the boy’s head. Chance squatted so that he was closer to the boy’s eye level.

“You saw it in the park, right?” Chance asked.

“Yeah.” Abe nodded. “At night.”

“Could you tell me how it attacked? Do you remember?”

Abe nodded again and slashed his sword through the air, as if slaying an invisible Imp. “It tried to kill me.”

“If you were a Shikari, what would you have done to defeat it?”

Abe considered the question with a very serious expression. “Well, I woulda had to catch it.”

“Oh? Why? Wasn’t it chasing you?” Yeo asked.

“No, it was trying to kill me with its eyes,” Abe said. “I know Imps are real dan – dang – dange-bus. His teeth were super sharp and he had big claws. I ran away ‘fore he could kill me and eat me. Or eat me ‘an kill me.”

Chance nodded as he formed his third eye on his forehead. It snapped open with a burst of golden light only visible to him, and he studied the boy while they spoke.

“So you were faster than it?”

“Yeah. I’m a really fast runner,” Abe said proudly. karmic bonds shifted into vision around him, with the biggest one was connected to his mother. The rest were so thin that he could barely see them. He ignored the strand to the Abe’s mom and focused on the smaller ones, which were more likely to connect to a random Imp attacking the kid. Chance scanned over them, squinting to see the tiny scenes flickering by in the strands.

They grew slightly the more he focused his attention on them, but it was still nearly impossible to see. Nothing looked particularly out of place. Chance was about to give up, convinced that the boy had no bonds to the imp, when a thin strand caught his attention.

It was so small that he almost missed it. The strand only contained a single image – a small, red humanoid creature hanging from a tree. It had long, jagged teeth and hooked claws that dug into the bark.

“Did it try to do anything when you ran away?” Chance asked.

“It threw a rock at me,” Abe said, jutting his lower lip out. “But I jumped outa the way! It missed. Then I got away.”

“That helps a lot, Abe. Thank you,” Chance said. “Bella, did you have anything else we should ask him?”

She shook her head. “No, you actually hit just about everything I wanted to. Good job.”

“Do you think you can take care of this?” Maria asked, pushing her dough away and washing her hands in the sink. “You all look so young.”

“We’re more than capable enough do deal with a Lesser Imp, ma’am. Don’t you worry.” Yeo gave her a wide smile. “We’ll have it out of your neighborhood before the sun rises tomorrow.”

“Or we’ll do our best to,” Bella said, shooting a glance at Yeo. “If the situation seems to be more than we can handle, we’ll bring in a stronger team.”

“That’s a relief. I’d hate if any of you were hurt,” Maria said. “I wish you good luck and health.”

“Thank you,” Chance said. “The same to you and your family. Have a great meal. We’ll get out of your hair now.”

She laughed and joined Abe in waving as the trio headed back out of the house and returned to the streets of the Graywall district.

“Sorry,” Bella said. “I’m not very good with kids.”

“We could tell,” Yeo said. “You were questioning the poor little guy like he’d just killed a man. But who cares about that – Chance, did you find anything?”

“Kind of,” Chance replied. “I don’t know how useful it’ll really be, though. There’s some connection between the Lesser Imp and Abe, but it’s really weak.”

“Can you track it or something?”

“I have no idea,” Chance said, rubbing the back of his head and reddening. “Sorry. I only just figured out how to use this part of my power. If I messed with it, I might have hurt Abe on accident, and that wasn’t something I was okay with risking.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Bella said. “We’ll have more than enough time for you to cultivate and get stronger later. We know the Imp was somewhere in the park, and it was sighted near nighttime. So that’s when we should go as well.”

Chance nodded, but he couldn’t help but feel like they were missing something. “How much do you know about Lesser Imps?”

“They’re a common monster,” Bella said. “I’m no expert in them, though.”

“Are they typically aggressive?”

“Almost all monsters are,” Yeo said. He kicked a rock across the ground, and it skittered into a gutter. “Even though the monsters inside Gleam are generally weaker than the ones outside of it, unless they’ve been trained by someone, I’d expect them to be aggressive.”

“Then this doesn’t make much sense,” Chance said. “The Imp was just sitting in a tree. Sure, it threw a rock, but that doesn’t really feel… evil, you know? Or like the behavior of a predator.”

“I feel like we’re missing something," Bella mused, "but we’re out of people to talk to. We could always try to press for more information from Nathanial or Maria.”

“Doubt that’ll do much,” Yeo said. “Nathaniel clearly didn’t want us there, and I think Maria and her son already told us everything they know.”

“Only thing we can do is go over to the park and poke around ourselves,” Chance concluded. He looked up at the sky. “It looks like there still a few hours until sunset, though.”

“Dunch?” Yeo suggested. They both gave him a confused glance and he rolled his eyes. “Dinner-lunch. Dunch.”

“That works for me,” Chance said. “It’ll kill some time at least. Maybe something inspirational will strike us while we’re eating.”

The group left the Graywall district. Just a few streets down, the faint sound of live music greeted them. A deep, thrumming bass echoed out from a warmly lit road that ended in a cul-de-sac. Strings crisscrossed above it, glowing paper lanterns suspended from them bobbing gently in the wind.

Wooden shop stalls lined the walls, inviting scents rising up from them and mixing in the air into a mishmash of warm cinnamon, honey, and freshly baked bread. The center of the alley was chock full of tables, with chairs distributed amongst them. Dozens of people sat around, eating and talking loudly.

“Now this is more like it,” Yeo said. “It reminds me a lot of Ruddbrook, actually. Like the festivals we had. Oh, look at that!”

Yeo darted over to a shopfront and they followed after him, stepping carefully around people sitting at tables to avoid disturbing them. In the few seconds it took them to catch up with him, Yeo had already bought a large loaf of glistening flatbread, stuffed full of meats and cheese. He took a huge bite out of it and juice dribbled down his chin.

“Get a napkin,” Bella said with a grimace.

Yeo procured one from within his other hand and wiped his face off. “I notice a lack of food in your hands.”

The sign on the cart was written, unsurprisingly, in a language that Chance couldn’t understand. He sighed.

I really need to spend some time figuring out how to read the stuff here. I’m starting to feel like I’m an illiterate moron.

“Could I get the same thing he got? And how much was it?” Chance asked, nodding to Yeo. The street vendor quickly assembled everything, packing the warm bread full of stuffing before handing it to Chance, holding up two fingers. He paid the man, then walked over to Yeo, who had claimed a table for them.

Bella joined them a few moments later, also carrying the exact same meal. Yeo cocked an eyebrow at them and finished chewing before he spoke. “Really? You both copied me?”

“I didn’t want to choose something random,” Chance replied before taking a large bite. He let out a content sigh and slid back in his chair. “Oh, that’s good.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Bella admonished – through a mouthful of her own food.

None of them pointed out the hypocrisy of that statement. They ate for several minutes, and Chance was more than happy to sit in silence and soak in the ambiance. This area of Gleam was so vibrant and energetic – it was hard to believe it was only a short walk from the drab streets of Graywall.

“You know, something just doesn’t sit quite right with me,” Bella said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. Somehow, she’d managed to finish before both of the boys, despite starting well after them.

“With the Lesser Imp? It does seem a bit strange,” Yeo agreed. “But I don’t know what. I don’t know much about them.”

“I wouldn’t call myself an expert in them either,” Bella said. “But… it just doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t the Imp attack a boy when it went after a monster?”

“Maybe because the kid wasn’t a threat?” Chance asked. “Are monsters smart enough to care about that?”

“Some are,” Bella said pensively. “But I don’t think Imps were all that clever. Not Lesser ones, anyway. Also, don’t you think Maria seemed a little off?”

“What do you mean?”

“She said she was doing something time sensitive, but she was waiting for us at the door,” Bella said. “Not to mention her time sensitive thing was kneading dough. I don’t think it matters if you wait a little longer before kneading something.”

“Huh. That’s a good point. I didn’t think about that,” Yeo said. “I think we just don’t have enough information to work with. We need to know more about our target.”

“Is there a library or something we could visit?” Chance asked, setting the remains of his meal down. “Or maybe someone who knows a lot about monsters?”

“There are Hunter Archives,” Bella mused. “We could go to one of those, but they usually only have basic information about most monsters. That’s still better than nothing, though. Good idea, Chance.”

“Do you know where the nearest one is?” Yeo asked. “I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never been to one myself.”

“I’m not sure if it’s the nearest, but I know where one is,” Bella, rising from the table. “Don’t get your hopes too high, though. They’re a lot less impressive than what you’re probably picturing.”

Chance took one last bite of his meal, stuffing the rest of it into his mouth and doing his best chipmunk impression as he balled up the napkin that had been holding it and threw it into a trash bin.

“Lead on,” Yeo said with a grandiose gesture. “Our castle awaits.”