Chapter 325: The Highest Level of Strategy

Throughout his life, Kai had faced many obstacles and been rejected by fate many times. He'd managed to keep up with his peers only by dogged persistence, working harder and longer, always attempting more. Even through the struggles, that drive had always taken him higher and he'd pushed past his limits time and time again.

Now, for the first time, he faced failure.

Talndim and the other elites were impressed by his progress and told him that attaining every single phase had never been realistic. He didn't want to give up, because he knew from Rosemount that it was possible for people to start at a higher level of power. Most likely the god-like beings he'd seen were born at higher phases and then grew from there. He'd never catch up to them if he didn't push past all limits and achieve the impossible.

Except he couldn't. Not this time.

Kai lay on his back after another failure, gasping for breath. Compressing his power was as difficult as the earliest mana exercises had been, except he had been able to learn those quickly enough. To attain a higher phase he needed total mastery of his own power, reflexive compression, and absolute focus. What he needed now wasn't willpower, it was just more training time than he had available.

All the elites supported him in his training, but he could tell that they were becoming frustrated as he kept throwing himself against the obstacles. No one had come to show him another path yet. While lying on his back, Kai suddenly saw Gunjin overhead, lean and gray and stretching into the sky from that angle.

"Come along, Kai. You're not my boy anymore, but I need you to see something."

There was no reason to refuse. Kai pulled to his feet and joined Gunjin as he stepped into a portal. On the other side, Kai discovered that they stood atop the great wall, which he hadn't visited directly since the incursion. This wasn't a random section: to the east he saw two points where the wall had been broken and vast amounts of construction activity.

One of the broken points had been filled by a wall that was wider at the base in order to reach equally high, and the second was under construction. The new wall looked sturdy but clearly didn't have the spiritual strength of the original, so it would be a weak point. That made him curious about the pit being dug on the inner side of the completed wall.

"What's that?" Kai asked. "Killing point?"

"Exactly." Gunjin stared down at the wall sourly. "We can't equal the ancient builders, so we're assuming that the monsters will break through. When they do, the pit will be waiting for them. It will be a riskier strategy than our usual, but it's the only alternative we have."

"That's what you wanted to show me?"

"I just wanted it to be clear how much we need help. Obviously the next incursion could be harmless or apocalyptic at either end of the curve, but my best guess is that it will be somewhere in the middle. And given our current limitations, that could be enough to kill everyone. I'd go so far as to say if we continue on the default path, we won't contain the next one."

"I'm doing the best I can." Kai rubbed his eyes and was taken aback at how good it felt to close them... he was just so exhausted. "If I get strong enough, I might be able to hold one of these points on my own. The question is how powerful the monsters will be."

"Individual strength is important, but that's not enough. Don't underestimate just how long the Frontier wall is, and the battles only get more scattered after the initial wave. One person, no matter how powerful, will have a limited impact."

They stood in silence for a while, watching the construction. It seemed to be on track to complete well before the incursion, but now Kai understood how that couldn't possibly be enough. He wished that he could run to the center of the Frontier and enter the abyss even though he knew it was still far beyond him.

"What are you pushing for?" Gunjin asked.

Kai stared at his mentor. "To become strong enough to stop the incursion, obviously."

"I don't believe that. You've seen how one phase can be dominant, even on other continents, yet you want them all. You're seeking something more." Gunjin watched him with dark eyes. "No one seeks power for its own sake unless they're mad. They might train for the love of training, or try to attain power so they can't be harmed, or seek immortality as part of a perfect life. But power is fundamentally a means to an end, otherwise it wouldn't be power."

"What am I supposed to say, if you already rejected my answer?" Kai floundered for a while, staring out at the Frontier, and Gunjin simply waited. Eventually he figured out what he wanted to say next. "I guess I've realized there are different arcs to growth. You remember after the Hunter Trials? I was able to keep up with others by hard work, but now I realize..."

"They were on a path to become moderately strong, veterans with perhaps 50 Power. Of course I remember. We need them, but we also need those advancing fast enough to join the elites. I would have said you were stuck in between, yet here you are."

"Only because the arcs are so much steeper on Rosemount. There's this organization, the Crestguard, with an average of 500 Power. And they're just good, not exceptional. The further I climb, the higher the mountains seem to grow."

"And how does this answer my question?"

"Well..." Kai closed his eyes and immediately saw the god-like beings over the abyss. "I just witnessed people who were beyond even that, and I realized how strong they were. The incursions are more complex than we understood, and there's something in the abyss, and everyone I care about could die so easily. I have to keep pushing myself or I'll never be able to get even close."

"Madness." Gunjin frowned sternly enough that Kai felt it even before he opened his eyes. "Trying to attain 'the ultimate power' in the abstract is childish. If you keep your eyes on the horizon, you'll never actually get there."

"But you'll get further than if you kept your eyes on the ground."

"I'm saying that you need a goal in between." Gunjin reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "I can't guide you anymore, Kai. You've gone further than I ever did. But listen to me: abstract striving can be weak, in the same sense that goals that can't be measured are ineffective. Even you can't take on everything at once, you need to set your next destination."

"I..." Kai's instinct was to argue, but he realized that his mentor was right. "Alright, I understand."

He wasn't being told to scale back his ambitions, only to focus. Mastering every phase might be a challenge he couldn't overcome, but there was a long road between his current goals and his final ideals. Leaving the middle too ambiguous would only hurt him in the end.

So... first one phase, then all the rest.