Cognosticon

Chapter 595: The Horde's Treasures

Zae Zin Nim fought against the incursion with a scowl, considering her failings as a wife. Ordinarily, that was an unpleasant accusation cast on her from the outside, but this concern came from within. Her marital relationship was far more wonderful than she had anticipated, which meant that she needed to be correspondingly wonderful, and she had fallen short.

How could she have failed to consider gifts? Omilaena had obtained an extremely powerful monster core for their husband, an extr...

Official Audible Release Day

The launch was actually yesterday, but I was posting chapters and didn't want to spam people. This one is going out to everyone following the Patreon: if you like Depthless Hunger and want to see more of it, please support the release by grabbing a copy or leaving a review (especially on the audiobook):

https://www.audible.com/pd/Depthless-Hunger-Audiobook/B0FX64WVSR

2025-11-05 18:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 594: Students Scattered Through the Hordes

(I promised I'd give chapters as normal, but this is release day, so let me remind you with links:

https://www.audible.com/pd/Depthless-Hunger-Audiobook/B0FX64WVSR

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXVCN78K

I'll be doing a public post tomorrow as well.)

Kyridnyiam knew he wasn't sup...

Chapter 593: Recovering Amid the Apocalypse

After defeating the Deepclaw, Kai was operating in a reduced condition. He could still kill the average monsters easily, but was it actually a good use of his time to go off fighting them? Yet just sitting around felt wrong - Behemoth's Heart had a lot of work to do fully recovering him, but the incursion was still ongoing and he couldn't leave it alone.

That was why he had asked the elites to drop him off in front of a city facing a normal horde.

They left him in southeastern Kry...

Audiobook Release Links

Time for the big audiobook announcement - you can preorder it here:

https://www.audible.com/pd/Depthless-Hunger-Audiobook/B0FX64WVSR

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXVCN78K

If you like Depthless Hunger and want to see it continue, please support the release. Grab a copy, leave reviews, and/or...

Chapter 592: Facing the Abyss Again

With the battle against the Deepclaw over, Kai found himself strangely off balance. It was the next morning, somehow, and the incursion had been officially started for over a day. His mind was constantly seeing the Deepclaw under the ground or trying to come up with more strategies even though the fight was over.

And it was over: he could feel the new essence within him. Simple but immensely powerful. He'd have to do something with it... once he had the presence of mind to use it proper...

Chapter 591: Brute Tactics

Another clash, another smashing blow, another tumble over the wastelands.

Fighting against the Deepclaw for so long had put Kai into a strange fugue state where he was more thoughtful than he would have expected. As if all the blood and brute force faded away into consideration. This battle, with all its blows and injuries, was ultimately an equation.

The damage had taken its toll, leaving him with aches and pains that Behemoth's Heart couldn't keep up with. He was definitely exha...

Chapter 590: Neverending Battle

How many hours had it been? How many blows had they traded? Kai had been fighting the Deepclaw all across the Frontier, crushing many lesser monsters in the battle, and he wasn't sure whether or not they were at a stalemate.

Their strength was about equally matched, but he was a lot more mobile and could always take to the air for a new angle. Now that he'd grown used to its thrashing movements, he could avoid any devastating hits and get the upper hand. But the Deepclaw was better at m...

Chapter 589: The Nation Destroyers

(In theory, there will be audiobook preorders available this week, but as I schedule these chapters it isn't ready. Hopefully that will change and it can occupy the Wednesday slot.)

After that initial impact of meeting, Kai had come to know his enemy. He and the nation-destroying monster clashed over the Frontier again, their blows making the ground tremble.

The monster was heavily tainted, so it resisted his spiritual sight, but he'd come to think of it as a Deepclaw. Its ...

Chapter 588: Hordes of Exhaustion

Kai won, over and over again, and he had no idea whether or not they were losing.

Any given location he arrived at, he could easily annihilate the monsters in his path. Now that they had spread out somewhat, by distance as well as the work of the elites, he could decisively win a battle. The problem was, there were hundreds of potential fronts, eventually becoming thousands, and he couldn't see the overall picture.

The danger had actually increased, somewhat: some of the more powe...

Chapter 587: Venom Against the Hordes

Though Omilaena had fought during the main waves, that had been the most boring part of the battle for her, because the calculations were so simple. By far her most efficient method of killing monsters was exhaling clouds of poison, so that was what she had done, over and over, filling the eastern side of the Frontier with endless poison.

When monsters started to appear that could survive or resist her poison, it simply wasn't energy-efficient to come up with unique methods of killing t...

Chapter 586: Hordes Upon Hordes

Technically, Kai should have been much less nervous going into his second incursion.

He was overwhelmingly more powerful than he had been the first time, stronger than all the normal monsters and potentially even the worst destroyers. Instead of precious few friends, he had strong alliances across the continent. In the intervening years he had fought against demons, patriarchs, and countless other foes.

And yet, as he felt the world itself trembling before the incursion, uncertain...

Chapter 585: Multitudinous Jaws

(Cognosticon here, back from hiatus. The Audible release is still November 4, but prep and announcements may come sooner than I expected. Things may be hectic, but I promise not to take another hiatus here since I just took one. May need a break at the end of the year, though.)

Of course Kai didn't sprint off from the dinner the instant he had an objective. Throwing ideas at one another was actually commonplace for them, from Zae Zin Nim giving suggestions about everyone's cultiv...

Chapter 584: An Electrifying Dinner

"When do we stop?" Kai asked.

The question hung over the wasteland, and to their credit, the elites seemed to consider it seriously. They were all a bit worn down from training, nursing injuries and headaches. Kai was now extremely confident fighting with phases, but the elites were getting better at ganging up on him, so the sparring was still rough.

"We don't," Sheiri answered first. "We can rest a little between incursions, but there's always another one. Even if we were gainin...

Chapter 583: Graduating the Students

As Kai kept sparring with the elites, more of them came to take their shot and build experience. Because he didn't want to accidentally kill anyone, Kai wasn't sure how he would do if he fought with his full ferocity... but he wasn't completely confident that he could win, not when outnumbered. The elites definitely punched above their weight.

Fighting at such a high level for sustained periods solidified everything he'd learned about phases. He couldn't call it effortless, but it becam...

Chapter 582: Imminent Incursion Impending

Six months.

Six months... come and gone.

On the seventh anniversary of the previous incursion, everyone made a grim final celebration, accepting that preparations were ending. Many spent time with their loved ones, knowing that the exact beginning was uncertain, but expecting to wake up soon with monster hordes pouring out of the Frontier.

The day after the planned date was an oddity, an unexpected gift that might be unwanted. A few commented about having extra time to train...

Chapter 581: A Whirlwind Through Monskon

(Cognosticon here. Normal chapters this week, but hiatus the next.)

Kai didn't trust the general members of the Hunters Guild not to be Lantrian toadies, but he sent a message to Gunjin to ask about his other trainees, and the others spoke to Rallia for suggestions. She didn't know anyone with nearly as much potential as her, but she recruited a couple of friends who Omilaena was able to boost from 60 to 90 Power. Good enough for backup.

While waiting on Gunjin's response, they he...

Chapter 580: Planning Bloodless Revolution in Monskon

"You didn't recognize him?" Zae Zin Nim's voice in a soft void. "Then why were you all over Kai? Supporting your husband on principle?"

"Nonsense." Omilaena responding. "He just looked like an asshole and I wanted to make him feel bad."

For a moment Kai was disoriented, relaxing in a pleasant haze. He wasn't sure whether he was awake or asleep - the drifting warmth felt like a dream, but the voices sounded oddly real. The world was still black and he dimly realized that he should ...

Chapter 579: Return to Monskon City

No more wasting time. With the incursion potentially imminent, Kai needed to visit Monskon City to end his tour, then he could wrap up training with the elites and his students to begin final preparations. He'd gone above and beyond what anyone had expected of him, done everything he could in defense of the continent.

Everything except going home.

He expected to have more time to watch and anticipate, but at the speed the Clanless flew, they came up on the city with troubling spee...

Chapter 578: Chakra and Qi in a Sea of Mana

Boosting people up to D-rank was well and good, but Omilaena was starting to view it as routine by now. She came up with a formula that she was absolutely sure could take her from D-9 to C-0, but she did it as a mere intellectual exercise. No, the real goal was to unlock the secrets of Physique and build something new for herself.

Zin Nim had advanced from E-10 to E-11, thanks to some "effective" dual cultivation, and showed no signs of stopping. Omilaena privately guessed that she woul...

Chapter 577: Touring Across the South

(Cognosticon here. I've had a pretty good run of chapters without any hiatuses or days off, but I will need a break eventually as we get closer to the audiobook launch. Not this week, not next week, but likely in October.)

Being a symbol in Goralia wasn't actually so bad.

Kai had hated it in Krysal, with so many hopes and expectations placed onto him. But here, everyone just seemed enthusiastic that a Goralian boy had done good, so they were happy to see him. They convenien...

Chapter 576: Return to Goralia

Training was perfectly in Kai's wheelhouse. Whether his own, his wives', or even his students', he enjoyed making meaningful progress without any of the complications of politics. The problem was, he was committed to going to Goralia, which likely wouldn't involve any of that, and he didn't want to.

For a time he thought that there would be nothing driving him except his own sense of obligation. Zae Zin Nim did not particularly want to return and was inwardly-focused in any case, and wh...

Chapter 575: Three Physique Breakthroughs

Being granted free license by the Frontier elites had a benefit Kai hadn't expected: he could wait for people to come to him. Gunjin and some of the others in charge of teleportation apparently decided that it was easier for Kai to remain stationary and others to be brought to them. That mean that, after so long rushing around the continent, he could remain still and focus.

For Kai's own work and training, it didn't actually make that much difference. But after they picked a Frontier ou...

Chapter 574: A Fell Omen Near Cloudspire

Most of the men were giddy with their new power, speculating about their new good fortune and what they might find next. They had run into several other groups of monsters on their ocean voyage, and if anything, the later groups were even weaker. To celebrate their new power, they broke out their limited stores of booze and had a night to remember.

Kojajix drank along with everyone, but he wasn't happy.

For one, as the men fought with one another, he became more and more certain t...

Chapter 573: Negotiations with the Elites

They met beside the abyss.

Kai wasn't sure whether or not he should have been surprised. It could have been a message, but if so, maybe a message to all of them. Maybe the location was just fitting in a way they didn't articulate. Or, given how practical the elites were, it might simply have been the central location that was best for so many of them gathering at once.

Before the meeting started, he stood at the edge and stared into the darkness. The pit was at once more and less ...

Chapter 572: Final Priorities in Krysal

Compared to the climactic end to their time in Irun, their trial period in Krysal practically drifted to its conclusion. For a few days Kai had been tense, expecting some additional fallout from their scheme, but for once everything went according to plan: both reactionary and nativist factions were massively weakened and the treasures ended up with the Crystalliers Cooperative.

They were distributed across various cities according to a political calculus that Kai was very happy to let ...

Chapter 571: An Unexpected Meeting with Irunians

"I still think that was too fast," Zae Zin Nim said. "The merchant has been arrested and within hours has collapsed his deal?"

"I'd be more worried about the Irunian side." Omilaena sat back as if relaxed, but she was puffing smoke regularly. "That's a quick and aggressive response for anyone, much less them."

"You just remade Irun, shouldn't they be indebted to you?"

"Their leadership, maybe, but we have no idea who these merchants are."

While his wives discussed the ...

Chapter 570: Watching the Operation

Three of them in a row, all nervous, all cultivating, all waiting. Kai took a deep breath and tried to focus.

There was nothing else they could do while they waited for the operation to begin. Early on Omilaena had suggested that their triple cultivation become "triple cultivation" but Kai was too anxious to be aroused, Zae Zin Nim had locked in mentally, and Omilaena had given up.

They hadn't been involved in the early stages, but at least those had been relatively secure and sim...

Chapter 569: The Showdown with Yuinafal

(Cognosticon here with news. Some of you may recall that I've signed a big six-figure deal for Depthless Hunger audio rights. This has been progressing in the background, but the relevant thing is that one of the terms requires me to take down and relaunch the current ebook. I've tried to ask questions and negotiate the following:

1) Anyone who purchased th...

Chapter 568: Sufficiently Shiny Bait

Later, with all kinds of stress melted away, Kai was able to truly relax in the baths. He still felt a bit sad about Orillia's memory, but knew the indefatigable old woman would be glad that her name was being used to build a better Krysal. Newly refreshed, Kai settled back against the marble to confront his problems, this time with backup.

"The problem is the factions that will undermine Krysal," he began. "Even though I think Krysal would be better off without them, if we eliminate an...