Gleam Karma Cultivator Isekai

The shadows in the room vanished as it fell and Yeo darted in, his eyes flicking about for any more sign of enemies. Chance’s heart thundered in his chest as he rose to his feet, vividly aware of how close he’d come to spilling his guts out across the floor.

Bella held one of the Imp’s hands with one hand, and ice had traveled down it, freezing the two together. Her other hand was encased in a sphere of ice that dripped with the Imp’s black ichor.

“Do whatever you were doing, Chance,” Bella ground out.

He scrambled into motion, squinting at the strings. He started with the ones that he recalled being approximately Abe’s size and was relieved to quickly spot the proper one. It went straight up through the roof, presumably onto the second floor of the house.

“I think he’s above us,” Chance said. “There aren’t any other strands going in that direction, so I don’t think there are enemies there. None associated with this thing, at least.”

“Good. We can kill it, then,” Bella said.

“Wait,” Chance said, squinting at the largest of the karmic strands and bringing the images out. He wasn’t about to miss important information – not again.

Through the golden light, Chance caught flashes of several other Imps – at least, he was fairly sure they were different. They all looked pretty similar. Before the visions ended, they came to a stop on a large, purple skinned Imp that was nearly twice the size of the one on the ground before them.

The Imp lurched, lunging and reaching out for Chance. Bella’s hand swung down, striking it with such force that its head rebounded off the ground. The monster went still. She ripped her hand away, shattering the ice connecting them.

“Thanks,” Chance said, his voice trembling slightly. Even though it wasn’t his first time in a fight with a monster, this one had actually talked. Also, as unsettling as Yamish was, his presence was comforting. At least, if he told himself that, the Old City felt a bit less terrifying. “I wish I got a chance to look at more of those threads. This is bigger than we think it is.”

“I gathered that much considering there was a Greater Imp in someone’s house,” Bella growled. The ice covering her arms melted away. “That wasn’t bad, though – even if you did charge into the darkness like an idiot.”

“I could see it,” Chance protested.

“But we couldn’t,” Yeo said, taking one of the gray marbles from a pouch and flicking it onto the monster’s body. The Greater Imp disappeared into a streamer of light, flooding into the marble, which Yeo picked up. “You were basically fighting on your own. It’s a good thing you managed to get some light for a few seconds, or things might have gone really badly. We didn’t even get a Ward down!”

“Oh shit,” Chance said. “I forgot about Wards.”

He glanced around the living room. His urumi had made several cuts through the wooden walls and carpet. “Oops.”

Bella grimaced. “I forgot about it too, actually. We need to go find the kid and see if he’s okay. That’s priority number one. Chance, did you manage to see if the real Maria was anywhere?”

“No,” Chance said, shaking his head. “I was trying to sift through the karmic threads when the stupid thing attacked again.”

“Hopefully she’s still alive,” Yeo said. “If the boy is still in this house, there’s a good chance that she is too. Maybe you can try to track the Karma between him and his mom?”

Chance frowned. “I’d think that, but I apparently didn’t even notice it the last time I looked. There are some weird karmic rules that I think I might not understand that might stop them from being linked.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Bella said. She extended her hand to help Chance off the ground. “Let’s find the kid and search the house for Maria.”

The movement revealed several gouges in her arm, where the imp’s claws had broken through her ice shield and carved into her skin.

“Holy shit, you’re hurt!” Chance exclaimed.

Bella glanced down at her arm. Ice crept over the wound, sealing it shut. “I’ll be fine. It got me when I blocked its first attack. My ice wasn’t thick enough. If I’d been using water, I would have been fine.”

Chance pressed his lips together and rose to his feet on his own. “I’m sorry. Those are my fault.”

“Yep,” Bella agreed. “But don’t let that bother you. Injuries happen in battle, and you’ll probably end up getting hurt protecting me at some point. This was far from perfect, but we didn’t exactly have the luxury of what we thought would be a much simpler fight. Trust me, compared to how I normally came back from my solo jobs, this is nothing.”

Chance clenched his hands. His actions had directly resulted in a friend getting hurt. That was the exact thing he was trying to avoid. Still, Bella’s words rang true in his head and he gave her a curt nod.

“I won’t let that happen again because of a stupid mistake. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“Good,” Bella replied. “Now let’s go find Abe. He’s probably scared shitless in a closet somewhere. No child should have to live through something like this.”

Her prediction proved correct. After only a few minutes of searching upstairs, Yeo located Abe lying unconscious in his bed. Chance swept the boy with his third eye, checking back over every thread of karmic debt, but the connection to the Imp was gone and none of the rest roused any suspicion.

Yeo gently tapped the boy on the face, but Abe didn’t react.

“Magically induced sleep,” Bella said. “The Imp probably put him out after we left and didn’t get a chance to come up and grab him to use as a bargaining tool when we barged into the house.”

“Is that bad?” Chance asked. “How do we break him out of it?”

“I’m not sure,” Bella admitted as Yeo gently picked Abe up and slung him over a shoulder. “We should bring him to a Shikari base. Someone there should know what to do. I didn’t really deal with jobs like this when I was working on my own.”

They searched the rest of the house, but there were no traces of Maria.

“We should get Abe to safety before we do anything else,” Bella said. Chance nodded his agreement.

“What kid of jobs did you do?” Yeo asked as they left the house, moving at a brisk pace. Chance cringed as they stepped over the destroyed doorway. He was starting to see why Pete couldn’t make any profit on his jobs. That door looked expensive.

“Ones that didn’t involve anyone else,” Bella replied flatly.

Chance expected curious glances at the minimum as they walked through the streets, but he was surprised to find that not a single person even glanced twice in their direction. When he voiced his surprise, Bella just laughed.

“This is far from the strangest thing anyone has seen in Gleam, Chance. You get used to it and start ignoring everything that isn’t involved with you that looks strange. That’s the best way to keep yourself from getting killed.”

“That’s… kind of depressing,” Chance said. “What if someone needs help?”

“Well, I’m sure people occasionally step in,” Bella corrected. “But it’s not safe. That’s what Shikari patrols are for. That’s why they – we – get paid so well. So the people living normally in Gleam don’t have to worry about it.”

Chance scrunched his nose in distaste. “I guess. I still feel like you should help someone if you can. It’s not like the Shikari can be everywhere.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Yeo said, shifting Abe on his shoulder. “They can. Especially for anything major. Situations like this, where only a few people are involved, are a lot slower. But for serious stuff? Believe me. The Shikari will be there. Especially the powerful ones.”

Chance let the matter drop. It wasn’t worth pressing any further, even though he still strongly disagreed with the idea of not stepping in to help when it was possible.

They drew up to a large, stone tower on a street corner a few minutes later. Chance craned his head back, counting off the floors in his head – there were ten. Each one was separated by a jutting balcony that ringed the square building.

Loud conversation came from inside, and the clink of utensils on silverware marked the building as some sort of tavern. Through one of many large windows ringing the building, Chance could see dozens of men and women sitting around wooden tables.

“Shikari base?” Chance guessed.

“Most of them look like this,” Bella said with a nod she pushed the door open and golden light spilled out, washing over them as they walked inside.

A large man wearing nothing but a leather apron and short cloth pants that were far too tight for him smiled as they approached him behind a counter. Muscles rippled over his chest, glistening with oil.

He made most of the greatest bodybuilders on Earth look like they’d been slacking off, but somehow managed to look proportionally large. When they arrived before him, Chance realized why – the man was easily eight feet tall. A single strand of black hair stuck out of the top of his head, curled over lazily.

“New faces. You can call me Joe,” the man said, his voice a low purr and about as far from what Chance had expected to him to sound like as possible. He sniffed the air, then smiled. “Oh, you’re really new. Foundlings for sure. What’s with the child?”

“I think he’s under some sort of magically induced sleep,” Bella said. “We defeated the Greater Imp that was taking the form of his mother, but we weren’t able to find her.”

Joe took Abe from Yeo and laid him down on the counter. He gently pulled one of the boy’s eyelids back with a single finger and peered down at him, then let it close and leaned back.

“Kid should be fine. Greater Imps don’t usually kill their targets. If you didn’t find the woman’s body, she’s still out there somewhere. Greater Imps aren’t all that strong anyway, but from you’re smell, you’re really green. You only just got your Wards. Why are you going after a Greater Imp for your first or second job? You should start smaller.”

They all relaxed at the news.

“It was supposed to be a Lesser Imp,” Yeo said. “And that one is still running around. We realized the kid’s mom was replaced because she was acting strange when we interviewed her.”

“That’s concerning,” Joe said, pursing his large lips. “I don’t like this at all. Multiple Imps working together usually doesn’t bode well for anyone. Damn little nuisances. Janet, take over the counter for me. I’m heading out.”

A woman wearing a frilly maid outfit bounded out from a door behind him, an excited grin on her face. She pulled herself up and swung her legs over the counter, kicking them in excitement. “Okay! I love counter duty.”

Chance did his best not to stare, but he couldn’t help but notice she had a long, wicked looking machete strapped to one of her legs. Joe patted her on the head, his enormous hand nearly completely engulfing her face for a moment before he let go.

“Don’t worry,” Joe said. “She’s small, but she can handle any problems that rise up. Finding our missing mother is the most important thing to do right now, and I’ve got a good sniffer.”

Chance was pretty sure not a single one of them had been worried about Janet’s chances of controlling the Shikari. As far as he could tell, everyone in the room was more than content to just sit around and eat peacefully.

“You’re coming with us?” Yeo asked.

“No. You’re coming with me,” Joe corrected. He extended a hand and a ring on one of his fingers lit with a dull glow. Energy poured out of it, forming into a large metal disk akin to a sewer cover. “You know what the lady looks like, and some visual confirmation will be nice when we find her. Makes the paperwork easier. After that, we’ll be reporting this to a higher-up. You’re in over your heads with this job.”

Joe sat down on the center of the metal disk. “Come on. Sit. And hold on. I don’t drive slow.”