Chapter 107: Unexpected Gains

Kaius slid his feet through the loamy soil, twisting in place to allow the goblin serf’s adze to dig into the meat of his thigh. He took the wound with little more than a stoic grunt, even as the ice cold metal tinked against his femur. The depths-born ripped its weapon free with a sickeningly jubilant cry.

That pissed him off. 

He stepped in, cutting off its foul glee with a knee to the gut, then smashed it down to the ground with a backhand coated in scale. It went down hissing, scrambling drunkenly before its Health could clear its concussion.

The muscle in his thigh writhed, quicker than it had only a few days prior. The sensation still sickened him, the unnatural animation of his flesh only worsened by the speed of his healing. He still preferred it to no healing at all.

*Ding! Lesser Regeneration has reached level 19!*

Kaius grinned as he read the notification. It was more than welcome, after days spent slowly rotating through the farms that surrounded the dwarven city. He hated training like this. It was so much less satisfying, less visceral, than the burn and heat of a true battle.

Sure, it still got the heart pumping, and it was effective, but his blood barely simmered. There was no manic song that coursed through his veins, revitalising his body and mind.

It was boring, plain and simple.

The goblin threw itself to its feet in a howl of fury, lunging forward with a short grip on the haft of its weapon. Spittle flew free of its mouth, sticky slime landing on Kaius’s chest. He growled. Blood was one thing, but that was just fucking gross.

His hand snapped out, grabbing its adze in an open palm. The chipped edge sank into his flesh, cracking the bones in his hand. He ignored the hot flood of blood that pumped from the gash, twisting with his hips to land a jaw-shattering haymaker.

A single stinking and rot-laden tooth flew free of its mouth. It collapsed, squealing.

Then, something unexpected happened.

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

Kaius blinked as the notification came into view, then he moved.

A quick step in brought him towards the goblin, who frantically waved its adze in a wild attempt to gut him. Contemptuously slapping the blow aside, he ripped his hunting knife out of the sheath on his hip, burying it point first into the depths-borns eye.

*Ding! level 13 Goblin Serf slain*

Ripping his knife free, he did his best to wipe it clean on one of the few cleanish sections of his pants, before he returned it to its place on his hip.

“What’s up? I felt you get excited, then you killed it. Did you cap the skill?” Porkchop asked in curiosity as he strode over.

Kaius gave his friend a wide grin. “Honour,” he answered simply.

Porkchop froze, staring at him in shock before a riot of excitement and anticipation flooded over their bond-deepened connection. “WHAT! What is it?!” he asked in a flood of impressions that boarded the line between words and beast-speech.

Kaius understood the sentiment, receiving another Honour so soon was beyond what he had expected. Even getting another one at all was a surprise. He had absolutely no clue what it was for, and he strongly doubted it had anything to do with fighting goblin serfs of all things.

“Not sure yet, I’ll check now. Hopefully it's also one that you can get. Though it seems to be a little different from the rest, only a Moderate feat instead of Significant.” he responded, hurrying to pull up the description.

Persistent Survivor:

Minor Honour

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

Awarded to those who survive in the Great Depths for a consecutive year while unclassed. Allows a vague sense of the direction of the nearest Depths Guardian. +3 all stats.

Bonus: For being the first in your cohort to achieve this honour, navigational sense also provides a direction to the nearest Depths Champion in a moderate radius, and the stat bonus is increased to +5 all stats.

As soon as Kaius accepted the honour, a new awareness entered his mind. It didn't tug at his attention, not like Uncanny Dodge or Explorer’s Toolkit. Instead he simply knew that his target lay in the direction of the peak of the dwarven city.

Frustration flooded him as he chewed on his reward, heightening his every discomfort. The itch of blood drenched fabric on his skin, the lingering crawl of his Health sealing his wounds, the ache of having to wait to assault their final challenge when it lay right there.

He scowled, kicking a clod of dirt to burn some of it off. The clump sailed through the air to hit the nearby hillside with a puff of soil.

Porkchop looked up at him, confusion flowing across their bond. “What could you have possibly gotten to annoy you so much?” he asked.

“It's for surviving down here a year as an unclassed. I got plus five, you would get plus three. The annoying thing is that I can now sense where the Guardian is in the biome. Only a vague sense of direction really. That, and the first bonus lets me feel Champions much the same, in a smaller radius.” Kaius explained, chewing on his words.

“What, that's amazing right?!” 

“I mean yeah, but I can’t help but think about the fact that if we’d gotten this earlier, we might have had the time to push for more Champions and see if we could unlock more Honours.” Kaius said ruefully as he collected his pack and armour. 

“C’mon, I still have another level to go.” he said, taking the lead as he strode through the fields.

He felt Porkchop scamper after him, the strength of their bond letting him know exactly where they were in relation to each other. Rather like a more powerful and specific version of his latest Honour. His frown deepened, the clumping of soil on his soaked boots tugging at his attention where previously it had sailed clean under his notice.

“Who's to say we still can't? We have a year right?” Porkchop asked.

“Because,” Kaius explained, working to keep his tone from growing sharp. It wasn’t Porkchop’s fault the invaluable ability had appeared so late. “The distance between the Champions is long, and we have no idea how large my area of detection is. If it's just a large zone like this, a year still wouldn’t be enough time if we have to still spend so much time wandering in the thin passages between biomes.”

It was a large reason, but it wasn’t the biggest, nor the most important. He sighed, feeling the ache of loss that resonated within him. That had done so for the last year, almost to the second. “I also can’t stay here any longer, Porkchop. Every second we spend is another that lowers my chances of ever seeing Father alive again. Or worse, even finding out what happened to him.”

He sighed. “Pursuing Champions while I was still working on my skills was fine, it would have been stupid to attempt the Guardian without being as strong as we could. But now that my growth is about to be locked, I can’t gamble on a maybe. We have to get out. I have to know.” he finished, clenching his jaw as a dozen potentials for Father’s fate entered his mind, each more horrid than the last.

Warm empathy flowed into him, soothing his painful burden as a fuzzy head nudged him on the hip, the blood that coated him smearing into Porkchop’s fur. “Then we leave. This is still good Kaius, more stats just increases our chances. Besides, it means we’ll be a little less directionless the next time we come to the Depths.”

Kaius dropped his hand to Porkchop’s head, giving him a scratch as they started to hike up the next rise in the fields. “I know you’re right, it's still just a little biting.”

“Well, maybe go punch something about it,” Porkchop suggested. Then he nudged him, gesturing off to their left where a ragged goblin toiled over a row of fungus. "Look, there's a serf. You can wait the extra five minutes it will take us to find another one to blow off some steam.”

Kaius watched the figure, with his True Sight it was easy to see the way it twisted and hunched in on itself as it hacked at a particularly woody mushroom with a crude machete. Maybe Porkchop was right, letting himself get beat on was always frustrating, and stretching his legs always made him feel better.

He dropped his bag and armour to the ground. “Yeah, alright. Mind watching this for me? I’ll be back soon.” he said, striding towards the depths-spawn. He didn’t draw his sword. It wouldn't exactly be the most sporting thing, and he wasn’t exactly going to work up a sweat if he killed it in the opening exchange.

No, for this his fists would do. A rapid heat caressed his spine, stoked by the fires of his anger. His frustration at an uncaring world that cared little for individual circumstance and suffering.

“Have fun!” Porkchop called encouragingly from behind him. 

Kaius breathed in, inhaling the earthy scents of the fields as his heart started to quicken. His blood hummed, barely a single note, but it was just enough to bring a smile to his face.

….

Caving in the skull of a goblin with only his fists did much to alleviate Kaius of his stress and angst. Thanks to its Health, the depths-born ended up being quite the punching bag, returning to its feet as he smashed it flat time and time again.

With every punch he split the skin on his knuckles, every blow resounding with the crack of bone against bone. The slight pain of the impacts were forgotten, quickly washed away in a rising song of heat, fury, and frustration. It couldn’t touch him, openings visible all through its shoddy guard and amateur assaults. Every second Explorer’s Toolkit drew more and more to his awareness. How he could disable it, break its limbs, trip it up, shove it off balance, or simply cave in its throat with a simple straight punch.

He ignored the openings, selective of those only the most basic. Those that would let him feel the satisfying crack of chipped teeth and bruised flesh against his fists.

*Ding! Explorer’s Toolkit has reached level 19!*

By the twelfth punch he was growling, by the eighteenth he was insensate, tension shooting through his jaws as he clenched his teeth, his entire world view narrowing until it was just him and a metallic smelling target painted in red and green.

It was catharsis embodied.

Smashing the goblin flat once more, he kicked its machete free of its grip and mounted it. He rained down blow after blow, the goblins rage-filled cries slowly transitioning to a wet gurgle as he shattered its long nose and caved in its jaw. It didn’t last much longer than that. With a crunch, he had broken through its skull, planting his hand up to his wrist in grey matter.

*Ding! level 13 Goblin Serf slain*

Then he stood once more, his chest heaving as he stared down at the shattered remnants of the abused depths-born, its brain dripping from his fingers in hot globs that left traces of fatty slickness on his skin. The iron stench of its blood mixed with the spore-filled must of the fields, a bouquet that urged him on to greater acts of rage.

He backed up, his heart cooling as the Bloodsong slowly left him.

Turning away from the destruction he had wrought, Kaius let out a long sigh. He still ached with worry and uncertainty at his Father’s fate. He wasn’t sure how much that had helped, and it rankled how easily he had indulged meaningless cruelty.

Porkchop waited for him at the top of the rise, standing over his gear. 

“I’m not sure how I feel after that,” he said.

“I know, but at least you are calmer. Let’s get your last level for your healing skill, and then we can push on to the city.” Porkchop replied.

Kaius looked over to his left, taking in the titanic stacked walls of the dwarven citadel. Even from such a distance, he could make out the sharp engravings that covered the darkened stone. He smiled as he did so, watching the shattered gate that they had originally passed through so many months ago.

Their next trip through the city would be far different from their first one. No more scurrying through the alleys. It would be a hard fight, but a fun one. Besides, he’d been looking forward to practising fighting together with Porkchop since they had gotten their bond skill.