Gleam Karma Cultivator Isekai

As beautiful as the city was, it was marred by Chance’s knowledge of what was hidden in the shadows, waiting for anyone foolish or unlucky enough to stumble into it.

The streets grew busier as they went further down it. People strode down the streets. Some stopped to chat, while others walked quickly without a word. However, a fair number of the people passing by them barely resembled humans at all.

Some just had minor variations. A barbed tail here, a set of large, floppy ears there. Many sported slight changes to their physique, ranging from strangely colored eyes to faint scales on their skin. Yeo noticed Chance’s darting eyes and elbowed him lightly in the side.

“Don’t stare too much. It’s rude.”

Chance reddened. “Sorry. I’ve just never seen anything like this. It’s amazing.”

“I can imagine. Dad said there were just humans on earth. Seems kind of boring, to be honest. Were there really no changes between people?”

“I mean, not unless you count things like physical appearance or skin color. Nobody had horns. Or wings. Or anything else.”

“That’s weird. Don’t people blend together?”

“I don’t imagine it would make that much of a difference. It’s not like everyone here has a special change either. A lot of people we’re passing are the same as us.”

Yeo grunted. “Yeah, that’s true. We just got unlucky. I would have loved to have a useful modification, but those can’t be earned. Either you’re born with it or you aren’t.”

“We’ve still got magic,” Chance reminded him. “I feel like that’s a lot more interesting than anything else we could have gotten.”

“True enough. I guess I’m just taking Essence for granted,” Yeo said. They reached the end of the street, where it merged with a main one. Shops lined the street, signs above them written in a language Chance didn’t understand. Judging by the variation in the symbols, it might have been multiple different languages.

The main road was slightly larger than the ones Chance was used to, but there were no cars. In fact, there didn’t seem to be any vehicles of any sort aside from the birds in the air. Everyone was either walking, flying, or otherwise traveling on their own – and there were a lot of them. The center of the road had been sectioned off for through traffic, while the sides looked like they were reserved for people browsing the stores.

“Whoa,” Chance said, trying to take everything in at once. It reminded him of the images he’d seen of Times Square, but the neon signs had been replaced with magical energy and loud salesmen trying to draw in anyone who happened to be unfortunate enough to catch their eye. The ambient noise in the main road was easily two or three times louder than the previous street, just from the sheer number of people in the area.

“Come on,” Yeo said, nodding toward a cluster of small buildings on the other side of the road. “You can stare at everything later. Trust me, we’ll never make it if we stop to really take Gleam in.”

Chance had to agree with him. He followed after Yeo, weaving through the tight traffic and doing his best to keep up with the other boy. “Where are the restaurants?”

“The buildings I just indicated,” Yeo yelled over the crowd. “Don’t you see their names?”

“I can’t read that language! Actually, for that matter, how come I can understand you? Why does everyone on this planet speak English?”

“We’re not speaking English,” Yeo replied, rolling his eyes. “Come on, Chance. I know you said you didn’t really pay attention when you arrived, but did you listen to anything they said? When you arrived on Centurion, in addition to your Essence being awakened by the Giver, your brain was rewired so that the spoken language feels natural to you. We all speak common. And don’t ask my why they didn’t do that for writing – I don’t know.”

Rewired? The Giver? What the hell is Yeo on about? Shit, I wish I could press farther, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. I guess Bob’s Cheeto took care of the brain-rewiring as well. What a lovely thought.

“Right. My bad,” Chance said, rubbing the back of his head. “I was really tired.”

“Fair enough. Sometimes my mom starts lecturing me and I pass out for the next week. Can’t help with your reading problem, though. You’ll just have to trust me until you buy a book and learn how to read again.” They pushed past the crowd and emerged on the other side of the street. Yeo led Chance up to one of the buildings. A faded sign of orange light glimmered above the door. As Yeo pushed it open and a bell rang, announcing their arrival.

A thin hallway led into the building, dropping the two off in a room with half a dozen wooden tables lined along the walls. Faint traces of a smokey scent hung in the air, and dull orange motes of light floated within lanterns along the walls, illuminating the restaurant but keeping a darker ambiance.

A woman with bright pink hair stood behind a small podium with several menus stacked on it. She glanced up at them, smoothing her apron out, then grinned.

“Welcome to Hound’s. Two of you?”

Chance shuddered at the name, but he didn’t say anything.

“Yes please,” Yeo said.

“Right this way,” the woman said, grabbing two of the menus and leading them over to the table at the back corner of the room. They sat down and she put the menus in front of them, adding bundles of napkin-wrapped silverware to the table in front of them. “Could I get either of you something to drink to start?”

“Milk, please,” Chance said.

“Water for me,” Yeo added.

The waitress nodded and headed off through a small door in the opposite corner of the room. Chance flipped the menu open, but he wasn’t surprised to find that he couldn’t read a single word in it.

“Why is it that we can speak the same language, but the written ones are completely different?”

“We’re speaking common,” Yeo replied, opening his own menu. “The gods banned all other spoken languages, so everyone speaks this. Makes things easier when people show up from worlds other than Centurion.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Chance allowed. “But why just spoken?”

“From what I hear, they wanted to standardize written language as well,” Yeo said. “No clue what happened, though. It’s pretty difficult to get a straight answer from a god.”

Chance put his menu down. “You mean people just… regularly talk to them?”

“Well, not regularly. But when you get strong enough, it’s possible,” Yeo said. “Just don’t expect their answers to be particularly meaningful. Now, enough of this. Do you like meat? I’ll choose a dish for you.”

“Yeah. Thank you.” Chance set the menu back down on the table. It wasn’t going to do him much good, after all. A moment later, Yeo did the same.

“No problem,” Yeo replied. The waitress emerged from the door in the back, carrying two wooden mugs. She set them down in front of the boys and glanced at their menus. “Are you ready to order?”

“Two Hound Kebabs, please,” Yeo said. Chance shot him a sharp look, then remembered that the name of the restaurant and suppressed a sigh.

“Anything else?”

“That’s it. Thanks,” Yeo said, digging through his pockets and handing the waitress two copper coins.

She slipped them into a pocket in her apron and smiled. “Thank you. Your food will be out shortly.”

The waitress was true to her word. No more than a minute after returning to the kitchen, she came back out with two trays laden with sticks of greasy, shimmering meat. Chance’s mouth watered and he swallowed as she set the plates down on the table.

He’d never seen such an appetizing plate of food on Earth, even when he’d been living with his parents. Granted, nobody in his family had been a particularly talented cook. Yeo chuckled and popped a chunk of meat into his mouth. “It’s good. Now, eat. I’ve got a lot of questions.”

Chance ate – and Yeo hadn’t lied. He had a lot of questions. They spent almost an hour at the table, talking long after the meal had finished and most of the other patrons that had been sitting when they had arrived had left.

“Well?” Yeo asked, letting off his endless stream of inquiries and giving Chance a moment to breathe. “What did you think of the food?”

“Incredible,” Chance replied honestly. His stomach hurt from eating so much, but he hadn’t been able to make himself stop. “But please don’t get anything else – I wont be able to stop myself from eating it, and I’ll probably end up exploding.”

Yeo laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. Once we start training, you’re going to need a lot to keep up your energy. You said you’ve never really learned how to fight, so I bet your metabolism is about to erupt. Kiss cheap food bills goodbye.”

Chance grimaced. “Well, at least we get paid well, right?”

“Yeah. Now, I want some desert. I won’t make you get any, don’t worry. We can get to that tomo–”

A loud crash from the street outside cut Yeo off, and a deep thrum followed it. Every single one of Chance’s hairs stood on end as what felt like an electric current surged through his body.

“Holy shit! What was that?” Chance hissed, but Yeo was already leaping out of his seat. He grabbed Chance’s arm and dragged him out of the booth, rushing toward the door. All of the other patrons had vanished as if they’d never been there.

“There’s a monster in the street! A Shikari just Warded the area. This is amazing! We might get to see a really cool fight,” Yeo said, throwing the door open and pulling Chance outside.

No trace of the previous crowd remained outside. Instead, the street was empty. A large glittering blue energy dome hung above the street, cutting off a large section of the street and vanishing behind them, somewhere amongst the houses.

“Where’d everybody go? Where’s the monster? Where is everyone? What’s going on?”

“Relax,” Yeo said, drawing his sickle and chain and giving the weapon a lazy spin as his eyes scanned the area. “We’re in an extradimensional space with the monster. All Shikari in the area get pulled in when the space is formed.”

“How the heck do they know we’re Shikari?”

“Gibson must have already registered us,” Yeo replied, walking out onto the street and looking around. “Damn. Where’s the monster?”

“Don’t you think we should be a little more careful?” Chance asked, his hands twitching at his sides. He hadn’t forgotten the endless Soothounds in the alleyways, and was in no rush to run into any of them again. He kept his back pressed to the building to limit the number of places he could be attacked from. “I was hoping for some real training before my n– uh, fighting.”

“You’ll be fine. If a Shikari set up a Ward, then they’re probably more than capable of handling the monster,” Yeo said dismissively. “Just wait there. We’re gonna see something great really soon. This street is the biggest open area in the dome, so the Shikari should be pushing the monster toward us.”

“Then it seems like we’re in a terrible place!”

“Nonsense. Think of this as a learning opportunity.” A series of loud crashes echoed from the alleys behind them, each one growing louder. Yeo’s face lit up. “Oh, listen! It’s coming!”

Chance didn’t get a chance to respond. A blur of black flesh bounded out of the alley. It flew through the air and crashed into the street, carving deep furrows through the road as it spun back toward the way it had come.

The monster was roughly canine. A long, purple tongue lolled from its mouth and two sharp horns sprouted from its head. Green blood dripped from a multitude of scars along the monster’s body, sizzling as it splashed against the street.

It resembled the dogs Chance had seen in the alleys, but was a dozen times larger and more menacing. A keening howl escaped the creature’s mouth, revealing dozens of rows of sharklike teeth. It turned two molten red eyes toward Yeo and Chance, and a low growl built in its throat.

“Oh, shit,” Chance whispered. “Good dog. Easy there.”

Yeo spun his sickle. “You want some, mutt? Bring it here!”

“Yeo!” Chance hissed, bringing his magic forth. “What are you doing?”

A bolt of blue light leapt across the street, slamming into the dog’s side and sending it tumbling across the ground with a pitiful yelp. Chance and Yeo jerked their heads to look in the attack’s direction.

“Trying to steal my prey? That’s low,” a lean man said, stepping out from the alley, keeping the large bow in his left hand at the ready. His hair was gray, but he only looked a few years older than Chance. He drew an arrow from a quiver on his back and knocked it, taking aim. “This is mine, kid. Back off.”

“Hey, nobody was here,” Yeo said, but he lowered his sickle. “Can’t blame me.”

The arrow launched from the bow, turning into a streak of blue light. It slammed into the dog’s side as it tried to rise, throwing tossing it across the ground and slamming it against the wall of a building.

“No, I can’t. That won’t stop me from putting an arrow through you if you go after my coin, though,” the man said with a chuckle. He drew another arrow and sent it flying. It caught the monster in the eye, snapping its head back and breaking several bones in its neck with a sharp crack.