Chapter 3: Cloudy with a Chance of Swarms

Kaius stood in the cavern, holding his longsword out in front of him in a ready grip. His eyes coasted over its length, taking in the flawless steel decorated with a strip of sigils down the centre.

The sword had been a gift from Father. It had taken months of brutal sparring to merge Warforged, the second legacy skill in his dynasty’s collection. There were times when he almost thought his father hated him, with how mercilessly he had beat him on the training field. He came to understand that it had been necessary. A reality of the looming date of his class selection.

Allegedly made from an alloy of deep essence, meteoric iron, and a miniscule amount of orichalcum, it had been forged by a master smith. Much like the rest of his fathers gifts, it had been personally inscribed with enhancing runes by Father while he worked with a commissioned master craftsman. Their sole trip to Deadacre was a fond memory of an overwhelming riot of people, sounds, and smells. His burning desire to get out and see the world had only grown after that.

He’d watched Father use runes to make an arrow that had shot clean through a boulder once, shattering the stone like an egg shell. Yet the enchantments on his blade were comparatively minor. Thanks to its superior make and materials he could comfortably cut through leather and bone with ease. Durable, scalpel sharp, and perfectly balanced.

Its enchantments only served to reinforce those points. Magics of an unbreaking and self repairing nature. A honed edge that would never dull. Resistance to the elements, and the passing of time.

Father almost certainly could have enchanted the blade so the barest of nicks would have rent the life from his foes. At least, the sort of foes that he had any business facing in the first place.

That would have defeated the entire purpose of the gift. It was a tool. Reliable and dependable, certainly. But not something that would remove all challenges he would face. Father had sat him down on the very first day he gained the ability to learn skills, explaining it to him. They grew through struggle and strife. The strength of your class offering influenced in much the same manner. There were no shortcuts.

Even before he unlocked his access to skills and stats at fifteen, the entirety of Kaius’s life had been that of preparation. How to identify food and clean water, how to hunt and kill, two hours of running every morning, how to staunch an artery and more. All with practical examples – though in the case of an arterial bleed, it had been his father who had suppressed his healing and opened his brachial artery. Too dangerous for a boy without Health, his father had said.

Not that that had made it any less traumatising. He still remembered the way Father’s face had gone slowly white, while he was coated up to the elbows in his father’s blood.

It had been, and still was, the only way he would ever complete his skill evolutions and cap them at twenty in the measly five years between matriculation and class selection. With a good class he would have had a ticket out of the forest, one that his father had wholeheartedly supported him on. Promising that he had something lined up in Three Fields when that happened. That they wouldn’t need to hide when there was no chance of somebody spying on his training.

He’d wanted to be a Delver. Now he had to be one before he was ready.

There was no way he was going to let being trapped in the Depths come between him and that goal. Hell, given the way skill levelling responded to danger, it would probably even be a boon.

He’d had a level up for Warforged in the works for weeks now, and a single level might just be the difference that would keep him alive. A little training wouldn’t hurt. Besides, there was no way he was going to explore the depths without his Health topped off.

He raised his blade into a high guard, flowing smoothly through his stances. Weaving between imaginary enemies as his sword flashed out with blurring speed. A swift parry and riposte, twirling into an overhead strike that cleaved through an ‘enemy’ attempting to sneak up behind him.

On and on he moved, working out his feelings of frustration and uncertainty. Feeling the rhythms of his movements, and the slow burn of his muscles. Between his stamina and his Physical Conditioning he continued for a while, a familiar thrilling heat welling up within him.

**Ding! Warforged has reached level 17!**

Warforged:

Level 17

Unique

The pedigree of slaughter stretches far. From fist and rock, to bow and spear. The history of violence reaches to time primordial. You have steeped yourself in its arts.

Skill that enhances technical mastery with all weapons and improves the lethality of strikes. Novel and exotic weapons require a period of familiarisation that reduces with level.

Each level moderately increases proficiency with all weapons.

Each level slightly increases speed, control, and power of strikes

Merged from: Unarmed mastery, Improvised Weapon Mastery, Throwing Mastery, Dagger Mastery, Axe Mastery, Pole Weapon Mastery, Mace Mastery, Sword Mastery, Archery Mastery

Kaius stopped halfway through his swing, his chest heaving.

“Finally,” he thought.

Despite the fact that levels slowed as skills reached closer to their cap, Kaius was certain that the danger he was bound to face would only push Warforged to new heights.

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Walking over to a pool of displaced river water that was far away from any rotting fish, Kaius rinsed the sweat off his face.

A quick look at his resources told him he was nearly topped off. He was ready to scout. Looking into the dim exit out of the entrance chamber, Kaius felt a mixture of dread and excitement flow through him.

It would be the first time he would be entering danger without his fathers watchful eye over his shoulder.

Kaius felt his breathing steady – shadows that previously loomed to hide imagined foes now wrapping around him to hide him in their embrace. Using Sneak made him feel at ease, especially in unfamiliar places. Common or not, the way it eased his movements, guided him on how to reduce his presence, was a rare comfort.

Poking his head around the cave’s edge he surveyed the area. Much like the entrance room, the tunnel was mostly bare rock illuminated by the odd patch of softly glowing moss. More tree roots that pushed their way free of cracks in the stone. Clawing their way across the walls like creepers.

If it had been anywhere else, the effect would have been pleasant. Almost comely. Growing up in a forest had made Kaius rather fond of natural spaces after all.

Unfortunately, this was the Depths, and the writhing shadows that the roots threw off in the slowly pulsing light grated at his nerves.