The Primal Hunter

Which isn’t to say he had any plans on breaking his deal with Ms. Kim. He just didn’t like the thought of being unable to break it.

“So, where to now?” he asked her.

As said, it was a partnership. And since William didn’t have any particular target or location in mind, he just let her direct them. Because while he didn’t have any family or friends he gave a damn about, she did.

“They lived in the inner city, just through here. Though I must admit it is a bit hard to recognize a lot of the area due to the destruction,” she sighed.

“Want some help? If they’re close, I should be able to locate them,” he asked, offering his karmic expertise.𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“Really? How?”

“An ability of mine. Quite effective at finding people you have a connection with. It was the same skill I used to find you,” he answered, not intending to share any real details.

“It would certainly be useful. What do you need me to do?” Ms. Kim asked.

“Just take my hands, and I am gonna give it a go,” he said, offering up his hands. “It is my first doing it, though, so not sure if it will actually work.”

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” She grabbed his hands without hesitation, and William couldn’t help but notice how soft her hands were. Shaking his head, he closed his eyes and began reading the threads of karma.

In his mind’s eye, he saw thousands upon thousands of threads extend out from Kim. Most of them so ethereal that he wasn’t even a hundred percent sure they were actually there. The threads didn’t actually go anywhere but simply hung in the air.

All except for five. One of them was directly connected to William himself. Its strength and intensity were relatively strong, but it was nothing compared to the thread right beside it. A powerful, almost golden, thread extended to the child playing behind them. The most powerful karmic connection he had seen since he started practicing this whole karma thing.

But neither of those was what he looked for. Instead, it was the three threads extending towards the inner city she pointed to before. One of them was significantly stronger than the two others. Likely only one friend or family member, and two she wasn’t quite as close to.

Opening his eyes, he smiled. “Let’s go.”

“You found them?” she asked, not quite believing him. He had just taken her hands and closed his eyes for ten seconds before letting go again.

“Three people you have some kind of connection with right this way, milady,” he said, making an exaggerated motion towards where she pointed before.

“Do you know who?” she asked quite a bit of expectation in her voice.

“No clue.”

“Let us hurry then!”

“Alright.” He turned towards the girl as he yelled, “Seo, time to go! It’s flying time!”

With an excited scream, she bolted back towards him.

At the same time, he took out a large disc of metal from his armor that he quickly enlarged to make it long enough for all of them to stand on. The disc also had small appendages to hold feet in place, making it safe-ish.

“I still can’t believe you convinced me to fly on that thing. Much less Seo,” Kim said as she stepped on the giant disc.

“Come on, you secretly like it, don’t ya?” he teased, getting only a small smile in return. No denial, though.

Seo, of course, absolutely loved flying on the disc.

The two of them laughed as they took flight and whooshed through the air towards where he had tracked the karmic threads. The speed of the disc was limited more by the child on board than William’s own capacity for speed. However, he had to admit that keeping it afloat was quite expensive mana-wise.

As they got closer, William quickly saw far more people than just the three they were looking for. An entire camp had been built in what was once a park, with several make-shift tents and other structures scattered about.

Turning to Ms. Kim. “I think Seo needs to sleep.”

She nodded as she picked up the oblivious child. Putting her mouth to her ear, she spoke in a weird ethereal voice. “Sleepytime.”

With those words, the small girl fell over in her mother’s arms, already asleep. It was the standard procedure they had agreed upon when meeting other humans. The situation was unpredictable by default, after all.

Their intrusion did cause quite the commotion also. Several people spotted them flying towards the camp, and he could hear several yells as they tried to muster a response to a possible attack.