B3 Chapter 305: Further Reaches, Finale.

**Ding! Moderate Feat of Strength performed under Observation. You have been awarded a Minor Honour: Persistent Survivor IV**

Kaius slammed his heel into the cave floor, stopping himself fast.

“Huh.”

Kenva, frozen equally as solid, slowly turned to face him with her brows furrowed and her eyes unfocused in the distinctive way of someone reading a notification.

“Did you…?”

He nodded, rereading the notification again.

“Yeah.”

“Wanna share what just happened? The bond’s a mess.” Porkchop huffed, his shoulders tensing.

Kaius turned back to Ianmus and his brother, taking a step to the side to open up space. “Just, uh, walk over here. You’ll see.”

Porkchop rolled his eyes, while Ianmus gave him a suspicious look. They listened all the same, stepping over the biome boundary before they too stopped suddenly to focus on their notifications.

“Huh, didn’t expect that.”

“Right? Should we check it together?” he replied.

“Sounds good to me,” Ianmus agreed with unfocused eyes.

Not needing any more encouragement, Kaius ripped open the description for the Honour.

Persistent Survivor IV:

Minor Honour

Whether through wit and cunning, or strength and domination, even the most deadly environments can be thrived within.

Awarded to those who successfully traverse a Great Depths’ biome with a layer level average 100+ higher than their level upon entry. Get notified if you come within 100 longstrides of a Zone of Respite . +3 all stats, +1% all stats.

Bonus: For achieving this honour in the first tier, the notification radius increases to 200 longstrides, and the stat bonus is increased to +5 all stats, +2% all stats.

Kaius stared at the minor Honour in confusion. It was a reasonable reward, and an understandable challenge — but Persistent Survivor IV? How in all of the forsaken hells and celestial heavens had they managed to miss two of them? And why was it so utterly different from the first?

There were other oddities too. No level limitations for when they could obtain the honour, a bonus for achieving it in the first tier, and no bonus for being first? It broke the mold of what he had come to expect from Honours’ challenges.

Obviously he knew just how little he had scratched the surface of the System’s rewards for overachievers, but this one had caught him by surprise.

How the hells had they missed two? He could only hope that they were similar, and they hadn’t grown too much to earn them.

The passive reward, sensing Zones of Respite — which he could only assume were safe rooms — would be a grand boon indeed. The bastions of safety would only get rarer with every layer they descended, and even with its small radius it would greatly aid their ability in finding the blasted things. If the other minor Honours in the chain came with similar rewards to that and his and Porkchop’s Champion sense, they would be invaluable.

As his shock subsided, a buoyant energy filled him — made his feet feel light and his body feel swift. This proved they were on the right path, what better omen could he ask for?

He shot Kenva a grin, “Still think running in here was a stupid idea?

Roused from her stupor, Kenva blinked as her eyes refocused on him. She rolled them a second later.

“Fine. You were right.” her voice was deadpan, but she didn’t manage to suppress the happy grin on her face, “Now let’s get going, there will be time for us to theorise about the missing Honours later.”

….

Crouching at the mouth of the cave, Kaius stared at the Godmaw Jungle with silent intensity.

A cavern that dwarfed even the immensity of the dwarven citadel of his first delve, it spread out before him like a sphere that had been squashed halfway flat. They’d entered right where the floor and ceiling diverged — stone curving ever upwards to eventually end in a yawning opening that revealed a clear blue sky.

It made him feel small. Like he was an ant, being scrutinised by the eye of a creature he could not comprehend. Or, he supposed, like he was trapped in the mouth of a god.

The simple size of it was almost difficult to comprehend — the opening in the centre of the roof had to be a half a league above its lowest point, and as wide to boot! Yet it still managed to be diminutive compared to the cavern as a whole — it would take them a week’s journey to reach the far side, easily. Probably more, considering the difficulty of judging such distances, and the tough terrain.

The biome only got more imposing from there. Dozens of smaller openings littered the ceiling, lances of sunlight punching through to drench the cavern floor below. Inconsistent in their coverage, they created a mottled spread of dusk and dawn.

Just like the central maw, these too dripped with water, creating an ever present mist that mixed with a tropical heat to cling itself to every hair’s breadth of his body.

That was just the roof! The jungle itself was…something else.

From their point mid-way up the cavern wall, the ground sloped gently inwards to form a wide bowl — creating a vantage point that gave them a clear view of an endless stretch of tightly packed green, split into segments by six rivers that howled towards the basin’s centre.

It was utterly alien compared to the large temperate and alpine forests he was used to in the Sea and the wider frontier. Ferns the size of oaks grew tall under the watchful eye of unfamiliar trees bigger than any he had seen before, leaves the size of wagons bobbing under the weight of bucketfuls of dew. Vines grew like a wizard’s beard from every available surface, creating an almost impenetrable curtain.

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And the undergrowth! It looked almost solid — an unending stream of tangled shrubs and creepers. A verdant snare, woven denser than a duke’s carpet.

Coursing out of the immense caves that were level with their own, the rivers sliced through it all, defying their nature to spiral around the covered basin in a gentle curve. They met in the middle and became roaring falls that spilled endlessly into a hole that mirrored the opening in the ceiling. A blackness where the jungle simply…stopped — impenetrable, despite the ample light that flooded it from its twin above. Not even his Truesight could pierce the black. At least, not at its current level, and not from this far.

It chilled his very soul looking at it — a sensation he had no explanation for.

Kenva swallowed beside him.

“Ten platinum the Guardian’s in the doom-hole.”