Chapter 85: Unnatural Places

**Biome Entered: Fleshwarper’s Laboratory**

Kaius winced as he read the alert that appeared in his vision as he crossed into the new biome. While he couldn’t be certain until they started to encounter some of the biomes depths-born, he was almost certain that they would be running into abominations of the fleshy variety.

He had never fought them himself, they were exceedingly rare to find outside of the Depths. Usually the creation of foul rituals and alchemical mishaps. Either intentionally created as some sort of obscene fighting force, or as a side effect from some practitioner pursuing forbidden knowledge.

They were supposed to be horrid, twisted creatures, possessing almost unrivalled regenerative capabilities. Gibbering balls of teeth and eyes, twisted golems of flesh, and more. Kaius had no doubt that even if could deal with them with relative ease thanks to their growing strength, there was no way he was getting out of this biome without new nightmares. Luckily, they were almost universally stupid, so Porkchop might be in luck as he doubted any of them would be using weapons.

“What is it?” Porkchop asked, seeing his expression. His friend walked over the line, joining him in the new biome. “Is it the biome?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure we’re going to run into abominations.” Kaius explained.

Porkchop simply cocked his head at him, confused.

“You’ll see. We’ll be fine, it’s not the worst match up for us. Just be prepared for things to get a little gross.”

Having forewarned his friend, Kaius took the lead as they pushed further into the hall. He quickly reached one of the long side tables that he had spotted. Strange glassware, distillation columns, and more tools that he had no name for covered its surface. It was old. Stained from use, the remnants of alchemical experiments that had been left to evaporate. A book had been left open at its centre.

Leaning over in curiosity, Kaius found that much like the books he had seen in the city it was written in some strange language that differed from Common. He still didn’t get it, how would anyone speak anything other than the language of the system?

Other than the illegible notes, it was covered in diagrams. Most of them were meaningless to him, clearly related in some form or another to alchemy. As he kept turning pages, the content of the diagrams only got more disturbing. Blueprints for some sort of operation to infuse a person with tonics and only gods know what else. The next few pages displayed a slow progression of change from man to a twisted pillar of weeping flesh and exposed muscle.

Kaius sighed, picking up the book to show Porkchop what he had found. “Abominations.” He said, flicking through pages to show Porkchop various sketches of twisted horrors of flesh and bone.

“Matriarch’s spite, that’s disgusting! We’re going to have to fight those?” Porkchop asked, aghast.

“Yep,” Kaius said grimly.

“..Are you sure you don’t want to look for another biome?” Porkchop said as he turned to look back the way they came.

“Not really,” he mumbled. “But like I said, we’re a surprisingly good match up. Mostly unarmored, probably no magic, and no weapons. Just going to have to keep an eye out for anything weird like acidic vomit.”

“Acidic vomit. You want to fight things that will try to throw up on us?” Porkchop said, his voice flat.

“I mean, it’s better than ghosts?” He said, trying to keep upbeat.

“That is a low fucking bar, Kaius,” Porkchop said with a grunt. “But lead the way.”

Kaius groaned. He couldn’t believe they were actually going to do this. Flesh crafted abominations weren’t the most dangerous things in the Depths, not by far, but they certainly were legendary. Almost every delver whispered about encounters with abominations. About how the smell lingered for weeks, and how they saw strangely shifting flesh every time they closed their eyes.

Hells, he’d heard tavern talk on his visit to Deadacre. That there was a well mapped portal to the depths near the city. One that had only been so thoroughly explored so that people could consistently avoid the third layer abomination biome that sat adjacent to the main path down.

Slapping the book down on the table, Kaius squared his shoulders and took the lead.

Hampered vision or no, right now he really wished his helm had a face guard.

…

As they pushed further into the laboratory Kaius was entirely unsurprised when they started to run into traps. They were tricky, sophisticated things. Showers of acid that rained from the ceiling, alchemical explosives set below pressure plates on the floor, and other such nastiness.

Unlike a simple spear trap, Kaius had no confidence in simply safely triggering them from a distance. Who knew what a haze of poisonous gas could do to them if released into the close confines of a stone hall.

Instead he leaned heavily on Explorer’s Toolkit. When they couldn’t simply skirt around a trap, he disarmed it. Much like he was trying to do currently.

A wide pressure plate stretched across the entire floor, wide enough that he wasn’t fully confident that they would be able to jump over it successfully. He’d managed to spot it because of a thin silver wire that was embedded into the grout between the masonry of the walls.

He followed the line of metal, finding that it led to a series of slightly uneven bricks sitting right next to his head. That was nasty. Clearly the trap had been designed to take out groups. The front runner would hit the pressure plate, triggering the payload right in the middle of the group.

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He drew his hunting knife, setting it against the seam of the suspicious stone. Explorer’s toolkit guided his movements, warning him away from the trigger wire. He should, if he was careful, be able to leverage the stone away from the housing of the trap.

He dug his knife in and wiggled it. Powdery mortar fell away, revealing that the ‘brick’ was really just a slab a half a finger thick. He pushed down with his knife, catching the stone with a grunt as it fell free. Setting it to the side, Kaius leaned in to get a better look at what he was working with.

The trap was surprisingly simple. The partially exposed wire he had spotted through the grouting ran into a hollow cavity in the wall, running through the cork of a glass flask of brownish liquid. Staying well clear of the wire, he reached forwards and pulled the cork free, leaving the wire dangling.

**Ding! Explorer’s Toolkit has reached level 16!**

Holding the flask gingerly, Kaius identified it with his True Sight

Explosive Flask:

Depths-wrought Trap

An inert trap component. Requires a spark to ignite.

Kaius sighed in relief as he read the description, before he looked back to see the remnant drips that still lingered on the exposed section of wire.