Chapter 95: Bossrush pt. 2

Kaius looked on in awe as his friend crushed the skull of the bear abomination. Watching Porkchop’s battle from within the glass airlock had been rough, not the least because this fight had been far more brutal than the last one. More than once he had had to hold himself back from ripping open the thick steel door and leaping to Porkchop’s defence.

All that tension left the instant Porkchop had plunged his claws into the Champions chest and secured the victory, joy and excitement rushing in its wake to fill him with a decidedly more pleasant vigour. Letting lose a laugh, Kaius ripped open the door and sprinted into the arena.

“You did it!” He yelled, thrusting both of his hands in the air. It had not been an easy battle, Porkchop’s armour had great rents torn through it, and he was still bloody from the many crushing wounds he had weathered in his frenetic assault. “Got the absolute piss beat out of you, but you did it!”

Porkchop matched his energy, bouncing around in excitement. “I got it! The same one as you!”

Kaius laughed in joy, throwing his arm around his friend and mussing up the fur on his head. “Never doubted it for a second.” He said, inwardly deciding against letting his friend know how close he had come to rushing to his assistance. That blow he had taken to his ribs from the Champion’s second skill had been nasty.

“So, what does it do? Any bonus for being the second?” Kaius asked.

“Unfortunately not.” Porkchop shook his head. “Though the plus five to all and the bonus to skill levelling is still more than worth it.”

“It’s nice right?” Kaius smiled. All of your stats being raised by a quarter was a good feeling. Though in Porkchop’s case it might not be that much, he still wasn’t entirely sure how a greater beast’s bonuses to stats worked.

Porkchop chittered in agreement, before he suddenly started looking around the room with a sharp look in his eye.

“Wondering where our loot is.” Porkchop answered, clearly noticing the curious look he had been giving him.

“Ah,” he said, before promptly joining the search.

Unfortunately, the room was completely bare. Other than the corpse of the Champion, that is, and Kaius doubted that their items were hiding in its chest like the last one. Porkchop would have already found them when he was scooping out the things innards. Whoever had designed this facility had taken the harsh cells to a clinical extreme. He couldn’t even make out a slight divot in the stone to act as a resting spot for the specimens.

A clank drew his attention upwards. A small iron hatch set into the ceiling had swung open a small dark tunnel, something he’d missed. A moment later and something rattled its way down the chute, clattering to the ground.

“Please tell me that is not a pan.” Porkchop groaned.

Kaius winced. “It’s not a pan?” he tried unconvincingly. It was definitely a pan. There was another rattle. Porkchop’s head snapped up, expectantly tracking the rapidly approaching noise, only for his face to fall when a coin pouch hit the ground next to their first piece of equipment.

“This is bullshit.” Porkchop growled, staring at their loot.

“It might be a Pan of Slaying?” Kaius said halfheartedly.

Porkchop snorted, padding over to the drops. “Fat chance.” He said. “Go on then, tell us what we got.”

Kaius sighed, but focused on the pan anyway. At the very least it looked like a lovely pan, made of shiny copper with a long handle sheathed with a carved lacquered wood handle. He identified it.

Travellers Pan:

Common – Tier I

Basic luxuries become so much sweeter in the wild. Don’t look down on the simple comfort of a hot meal when the night is long, the rain harsh, and the fire won’t start.

Delicately wrought, this pan is capable of cooking food while the exterior stays cool to the touch, while imparting food with a greater ability to satiate hunger.

Depths-wrought Artefact

Auxiliary Equipment (Pan)

Self Repair 1, Camping Cookout 1,

“Yep,” Kaius sighed. “Just a pan.”

He groaned, walking away from the pan with a huff. The second time in a row that they had received loot that was decidedly more useless than the usual fair.

“What’s changed?” He grumbled. “I just don’t understand why we stopped getting the good stuff now, of all times?”

“Who knows, maybe we annoyed the Depths?” Porkchop asked.

“But how?” Kaius said, pacing. “We haven’t done anything different.”

“Maybe we got too strong? The Depths is trying to push as lower? Everything else in the system rewards challenge, and the last few haven’t exactly brought us as close to the brink as the Champions did when we first faced them. Or maybe it just doesn’t like greater beasts.” Porkchop finished with a mutter.

“Surely not.” Kaius said aghast. The system was supposed to be uniformly unbiased and meritocratic, the idea that it would favour people over beasts was almost heretical. Treat them differently, sure, but not favour one over the other.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Guess we’ll find out soon anyway, not like we need to wait long for our next fight.” Porkchop said. “Either way, we should drop this junk off by our bags,” he finished, nudging the pan with his paw.

Kaius sighed, but walked over to fetch the artefact and coin anyways. They made their way out, Kaius taking a second to count their new wealth, finding the pouch held six gold pieces. Not a bad find, though he still would have preferred something a little more helpful in their current predicament.

…