Chapter 92: Unexpected Find

It took them six hours of pushing through isolated rooms of flayed horrors and twisted teratomas before they found another rest stop. Hours of bloody work, hacking apart the twisted flesh of depths-born, getting coated in more gore as they progressively grew more and more exhausted. When they finally stumbled into the room of bunks Kaius slumped as he sheathed his sword.

With leaden arms, he and Porkchop pushed one of the bunks against the door, before making enough space to set up their new dimensional tent. Kaius looked away as he activated the mechanism, seeing no reason to ever tempt fate by staring into an abyss that stared back.

They crawled to the end of the room, finding a nook with a grated drain. This was no hot rain room like they had had in the dwarven manors. Instead a simple enchanted water source was set into the wall, attached to a spigot that released a steady stream of freezing water. Decidedly uncomfortable, but it was pure, clean, and a decent enough way to wash. Unfortunately, it took him the better part of an hour to work out all the little scraps of flesh and gristle that had gotten worked into the scales of his armour.

By that time Porkchop had already dozed off on one of the bunks, waiting for his fur to dry before they retreated to their tent. Feeling hungry, Kaius decided against doing the same. Instead he investigated the galley kitchen with its enchanted cupboards, and its simple stovetop. Despite the sheer luxury and expense of having a bloody stasis enchantment for food preservation, the Depths seemed oddly fond of them.

Much like the last bunk room they had found in this biome, the food was an austere affair. Mostly non-perishable rations. Grains, breads and the like, though there were a few preserves as well. Not quite food worth ransacking, but it served well to stretch the quality stock they had looted from the dwarven estates before they had left the city.

He decided on a simple dish of pickled vegetables, salted meats, and a large helping of rice that he had found in a bin under the bench.

Porkchop woke up towards the end of his cooking, ambling over when he served him a portion. They ate in silence, far too exhausted to make casual conversation. As soon as they were done they retreated to their new tent.

Kaius collapsed onto the large mattress that took up a good quarter of the room of their new abode, groaning as the feather soft bedding cradled him. He was out like a light in seconds.

Waking the next day feeling well rested and refreshed, Kaius looked around only to find that he was alone in the tent. Porkchop had already left. Rubbing at his bleary eyes, he pulled himself to his feet and pushed his way past the flap of heavy canvas that acted as the tent’s entrance.

Porkchop lounged on one of the bunks nearby, craning his head to look at him.

“Morning.” He said.

“Morning,” Kaius replied. “I’ll make us some breakfast before we suit up and leave?” He asked, tilting his head towards the kitchen.

“Please.” Porkchop responded, clearly still tired as he slumped back down to doze on the bunk. Kaius grinned. His friend was many things, but an ardent enjoyer of mornings he was not.

He walked over to pull open the cupboards in the kitchen, quickly finding a dozen eggs and some cheese that he had spotted the night before. After a few minutes of prep, he had a full dozen egg omelette sizzling in a frying pan on the stove.

He got dressed as he waited, though he only put on his travelling clothes and his sword. The armour could wait until they left. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable attire, even if it was well fitted. By the time he was done, so was the omelette. Slicing it in half and sliding it onto two plates, Kaius left one on a table for himself and walked the other over to Porkchop, setting it down next to his face on the mattress.

The smell got his friend moving, though he didn’t even bother to sit up before he craned his neck and started gnawing on the eggs and cheese.

Smiling at Porkchops antics, Kaius returned to his own breakfast and attacked it with gusto. After they finished, he picked through the cupboards one final time. Deciding to take some cheese and fresh bread with them, he wrapped the food in some cloth and stowed it safely in his pack. Thankfully its water repellent enchantments were effective against bloodshed, otherwise most of their stocks would have long since been ruined.

He suited up, buckling on his scalemail and vambraces, and then they left. Returning to the grinding drudgery of pushing through alchemical workshops and putting down shifting abominations of flesh. As nice as it had been to get clean, it took all of one encounter with a pack of twisted teratomas for them to be inundated in gore once more, souring the mood.

Yet despite their recent expedition from the bunk room, it only took them a handful of hours to encounter something new. Something different.

They’d just cleared out a laboratory, gleaming snakes of copper pipes winding themselves into a dense knot of conduits that ran over the ceiling and down the walls to connect into a series of boilers. It was fascinating, and something that Kaius could not make heads or tails of. There’d been a single flayed horror, but with how much practice they had had against those particular foes, it hadn’t lasted long. An explosive needle to the knee, and a few minutes of hacking slaughter and it had been done.

There was only one exit to the room, excluding where they had entered from of course – marked on its interior face with a scratched cross like all the others they had explored through.

It was different from the other doors. They came in many styles, some rounded, some squared. Others were reinforced in brass, or with portholes cut at head height. Yet one and all they had been of equivalent size. A standard door, like you might see in an inn or a veritable manor. This one wasn’t.

No, it was larger, grander, and stouter. A good three strides taller than he was, and twice as broad as any other he had seen, the door was braced by a grid of iron bars. Thick too, like the kind of door you expected to see in a fort. One that could be barred, to keep things out. Or in, he supposed.

“That’s different.” He said, nodding towards the object of his attention.

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“It is.” Porkchop replied. “Champion?”

“Probably.” He nodded. It was the most likely thing. Though, it could be some sort of larger complex, similar to the cavern the city was held in or the original glowing grove where they had first made their home. Probably just a Champion, this biome seemed different. Less spread out, and more condensed. The depths-born were tougher too, and far more common than they had seen elsewhere. Not tough enough to represent a real danger, not when they worked together and had spent nearly a full year locked in back to back mortal confrontations.

He hoped it was just a Champion. It meant that Porkchop would get his first Honour, and he wouldn’t have to sit out any more fights. Common depths-born didn’t quite cut it anymore, and he missed the rush of pitting himself against a superior foe. Of being the ultimate arbiter of his own survival. Plus, nothing was quite as good for skill levelling as a pitched battle.

“You should reinscribe. Just in case.” Porkchop reminded him.

He grunted in acknowledgement, taking a seat and removing his vambrace. It was quick work now, after all his practice. Thankfully he had enough free mana that he wouldn’t need to wait for anything to regenerate. A convenience of leaving a little buffer, it meant far less downtime after their fights.