Duskbound

Despite his plans to save the champion seeds to finance the rest of his life, the temptation to imbue his other piece of system gear with more power was almost overwhelming. The only thing that held Velik back was that his boots were the only viable target, and they weren't that great to begin with. He'd only purchased them for the [Mending] enchantment, and only because he'd kept wearing through normal boots so quickly that it was becoming a hassle to keep replacing them.

He'd already hunted down three more champions, which had resulted in another level—with his free points both spent in mystic again—and a rank in both [Apex Hunter] and [Spear Warden]. His other two skills remained frustratingly stuck, though he got the feeling he was close to something happening with [Kinetic Charge]. As challenging as fighting champions that were four or five levels higher than him was, the battles weren't forcing him to adapt in new ways anymore. He needed something else to challenge him if he was going to keep growing.

What that something would be, he wasn't yet sure. His newly empowered spear was making short work of normal monsters in the deep wood now, and elites weren't so common that he ran into them regularly. Even the champions would be almost impossible to stumble across if not for the compass guiding him. It would probably work for elites too, and maybe he'd adjust the settings to hunt for them once he was done with his current project, but he doubted they'd provide the push he was looking for.

He made good progress, but as the first week rolled by, he started to have concerns about his food supply again. Velik had no plans of returning before the matter was dealt with, if only because he was trusting Torwin to handle things back at the towns. The unfortunate truth was that he had no idea how close he was to finding the end of the trail he was following, and that if he'd known the precise locations of every champion he'd slain, he definitely could have planned a more efficient route.

He continued to fiddle with the compass, but no matter how he changed it around, all it ended up doing was producing false positives. Usually those related to non-champion monsters with skills that relied heavily on their mystic stat to power them. Sometimes the compass seemed to just draw him to a random place that was probably magical, but he couldn't tell. He spent some time poking around a pool of luminous green water, but he lacked the knowledge or tools to take samples and analyze them.

At another spot he found a granite post, eight feet tall and a foot wide, that radiated heat so strongly that it would have burned his hand to touch it. Unsurprisingly, nothing grew within twenty feet of the post, and the ground was dried and cracked. It was at least obvious why the compass had pointed to it, but it wasn't immediately helpful.

After that, he gave up again on fiddling with the compass's settings and turned it back to pointing him toward mana-dense monsters. That was why he was confused when, four hours later, he found what appeared to be another weird, mana-rich site. It was a hole in the side of a hill, perfectly round and ten feet across. That would have been unusual enough on its own, but he could have dismissed the compass as merely pointing to a monster that was living underground.

The truly strange part of it was that the walls weren't made of dirt and stone. The whole hill was like some giant scab caked with dirt, with the hole being a puncture into whatever titan was buried there's soft flesh. If not for the fact that the compass pointed directly into that hole, Velik wouldn't have even considered going inside. Images of the walls constricting and crushing him danced through his mind.

The compass didn't waver, and that meant this was his next destination. Until he destroyed whatever had made this fleshy cave its home, he was stuck. Before he went inside, though, he took full stock of himself and his equipment.

[Name: Velik]

[Race: Human (Duskbound)]

[Class: The Black Fang]

[Level: 33]

[Physical: 103(+18)]

[Mental: 56(+2)]

[Mystical: 28(+20)]

[Free Points: 0]

[Decarma: 4885]

[Skills:]

[Apex Hunter (Rank 3)]

[Spear Warden (Rank 7)]

[Kinetic Charge (Rank 3)]

[Phalanx (Rank 2)]

[Gear:]

[Harbinger of dusk (+15Ph, +5My)]

[Hunter's Cowl(+2Me)]

[Stalker's Boots(+3Ph)]

[Survivalist's Shirt]

[Self-Repairing cloak]

[Mystic's Earring (+15My)]

[Amulet of Stable Thoughts]

There were nine more champion seeds filling his inventory, in addition to his remaining seven healing potions and one haste potion. The haste potion was system-purchased, and he knew exactly how it would affect him. The potions, on the other hand, were hand-crafted by alchemists. They worked, but not nearly as well as the ones he was used to buying. For the price, he couldn't really argue, but he was strongly considering keeping one system potion on him for emergencies.

No, it's fine. I killed my counterpart without a system healing potion. I can kill whatever this is, too.

He took a step in and hesitated when a gust of hot, moist air rolled past him. It's not like I'll never buy a system potion again. They don't go bad. Better to have it now, just in case.

One thousand decarmas later, he slotted the system-produced healing potion into this pouch and entered the cave. The ground was softer than dirt, soft enough that he didn't want to try fighting on it. His foot probably wouldn't push through the material, but nobody liked having unstable footing when they were fighting for their life. If not for his high mental stat, he would have thought he was imagining it when the ground shifted under him, an ever so slight trembling that he almost didn't notice.

But no, he could see it. Whatever this cave was, it was alive in some way. Maybe it was just magic, or maybe it really was some massive flesh-and-blood monstrosity buried under the earth. It was tempting to stab his spear into the wall to see if it bled before he went any deeper, but he was worried that doing that would make the cave clench up, blocking him from reaching whatever his compass was pointed at.

No, this is too important. I have to know before I go in here. If it prevents me from getting at whatever this thing is I'm hunting, then so be it. Better to be locked out and have to find a new target than to get crushed to death by the walls during a battle.

Backing all the way out, he reached out with his spear and pressed the point into the fleshy wall. At first, the wall dimpled, despite an impressive amount of pressure. Then, with an almost flatulent sigh, it gave way and the spear slipped inside a full foot before Velik encountered resistance. It felt like stone, hard enough to stop a casual strike, but not so dense that he couldn't cut through if he really tried.

So, this is more of a layer of skin stretched across the tunnel than an actual creature buried underground. That's… disgusting?

Thick black blood seeped out of the wound he'd made, but far less than he'd expected. The moment he removed his spear, the cut clotted over into a scab. A few more tests confirmed the floor and ceiling reacted the exact same way. The fleshy wall was just a mask disguising the natural stone beneath, which meant the odds of it suddenly coming alive and crushing him were low.

Even better, it didn't seem to react to the prodding at all, other than to bleed thick, black monster blood for a second before sealing itself closed. No enemies showed themselves to investigate his prodding, either. There had to be more to the strange hole, but Velik was as assured of his safety as he could get and he wouldn't find answers just standing around.

Taking a deep breath, he walked into the tunnel and descended into the darkness.

* * *

Strange. What is this sensation?

He turned his senses outward, through the vast network of veins and nerves stitched into his domain. It was easy enough to find the interloper; he'd often tracked the progress of his minions as they hauled in fresh material. None of them had ever damaged his body before, though.

He had only vague recollection of the absence of pain, memories that weren't even really his. They were remnants of another life, and it had been years since he'd felt anything but the unending torture of his flesh warping and spreading. Even the thoughts he'd consumed were brief flickers of light in a sea of agony.

He'd long since learned to disassociate from his body, returning to it only when necessary. Today, it appeared, would be one such day. Something approached. His central cluster was in danger, the one node that he couldn't afford to have broken.

All danger was relative though. He'd long since prepared for an intruder. At his mental comment, fleshy embryonic sacs split open, spilling out the guardian monsters he'd held in stasis for years. They took a few minutes to come fully awake and ready to fulfill their purpose, but that wasn't a problem. His cluster was hidden so far away from that entry that it would be hours before the intruder reached him even unimpeded.

It would never come to that, but he did hope his creations could take the intruder alive. After all, there was no point in wasting such a prime specimen. There was no telling what he could reshape it into.