(I) Strangers

The Yellowstone Republic7 (I)

Strangers

The last of the lesser vampires broke all of its teeth trying to take a bite out of Shiv’s forearm. The Deathless coughed as he picked the monster up by its hip and slammed it against the wall. The stone shattered, and fragments bounced off Shiv’s flesh. The lesser vampire struggled for a few moments longer, but after a few more whacks, it stopped moving.

Shiv dropped the broken creature, and rather than going for his knife again, he drove his fist through the monster’s ribcage and grasped its heart. It whimpered weakly as its black blood caressed Shiv’s hands. The Deathless felt the monster’s core shiver once before he , ending it for good.

Toughness > 35

Physicality > 33

Reflexes > 26

Grappling Proficiency > 18

Striking Proficiency > 10

Skill Gained: Disease Resistance 1 (Initiate)

Vitality Drain > 4

Revenant > 3

It took Shiv three deaths before his body was so tough the vampires couldn’t claw or bite through him. They resorted to pinning him down and slamming his head against the walls by that point. It took another two deaths before his head started functioning like a pickaxe and broke through the stone rather than the other way around.

After that, he started tearing through the vampires with blade and brute force. This initially ended up killing him as much as it killed them, as their blood got in his eyes and mouth. The vampirism caused him to sicken quickly, and he killed himself via the kitchen knife + artery combo before he could turn.

Shiv suspected that he might just be ejected from his body if the vampirism took hold. The Biomancers claimed that the host didn’t technically survive the virus, that they effectively went brain-dead as a bloodsucking horror usurped their flesh and mutated into the ugly bat-like creature Shiv was so fond of killing. Aside from the potential discomfort of needing to kill vampire versions of himself over and over, Shiv didn’t want to fight a vampire that had his skills while dealing with the others.

His Toughness was already growing at an absurd pace, and if things kept going like this, the kitchen knife was the only thing he could reliably use to end himself. His Physicality wasn’t keeping up, and the rocks didn’t do anything to hurt him anymore.

In the end, standing amidst a carpet of bodies, Shiv extracted his arm from the last vampire as he once again felt a burning discomfort build inside himself. His body was likely trying to fight off the vampirism again. By now, most would start exhibiting symptoms. Vampirism worked pretty fast, and so if Shiv didn’t turn in the next two minutes, he might as well consider himself immune in most cases.

Now that was a useful skill to have. It would have been very helpful over the past three years when he was clearing lesser vampire nests in the ruins, trying to earn a Path, but he wouldn’t complain about it arriving now.

What he enjoyed more than that was his Physicality and Reflexes. Georges wasn’t lying—when your Reflexes got past twenty, and you focused, the world actually started slowing for you. It took a bit of effort, but Shiv could feel himself moving much faster than before. And he couldn’t get enough of physically bullying the vampires with his newfound strength. Previously, they were faster than him, stronger than him, and tougher than him. Fire and intelligence were his only allies. Now, it was like he was wrestling with someone that was slightly weaker and a lot more fragile than he was.

Stomping over the vampires, Shiv walked over to claim the torch he wanted all along. The eye stalk was lying there on the ground, still glowing with its brilliant node that shone like a beacon in the darkness. Shiv picked it up warily, remembering that this node could project a beam that was capable of splitting him in half. As he grasped it, he felt something there—an almost-warmth that was slowly fading away.

It was like his vitality, but not quite. Maybe mana was what he was feeling. He tried to learn about magic from Tran’s Jump Mage, Heather, but she simply snorted and muttered something about how he didn’t have the wits for it. Shiv thought of Tran and his team. He wondered if they were still alive. Despite everything, Shiv hoped Tran was fine. The others… Well, he wouldn’t be too bothered if something happened to them.

Focusing on the energy he felt within the node, and though he felt it shift a bit as it grew slightly brighter, that was all he managed. Shiv frowned at the stalk. “So, you’ll fire a beam when that fish wants you to, but you’re just a torch when I hold you?” The node didn’t reply. “Fine. You probably wouldn’t have a good personality anyway. But I’m still going to use you.”

He looked around and considered his next move. One thing he knew for sure was that he had to keep moving. The fact that he got attacked by twenty lesser vampires meant that there were many more slinking around in this place. It wouldn’t be long until all the blood and death drew them in. As much as he would enjoy using them to level himself, it probably wasn’t wise to linger in place if something much worse came.

The Necrotechs supposedly ruled down here, after all. If Shiv ran into someone like the vicar—or even the raven-helmed stranger—they probably could knock him out instead of killing him. And who knew what might happen then? He didn’t want to discover what a Necrotech Necromancer could do to his spirit. Not without some major assurances, anyway.

So, he got to work. The first thing he did was peel the usable scraps of clothes from his corpses. The chef’s outfit wasn’t very tough, but it functioned well enough as a makeshift bundle. After that, he swallowed his discomfort and used his knife to disfigure the faces of his corpses. This was probably purely paranoia, but if a Necrotech came upon this place and found a bunch of bodies that looked the same and had the same face…

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There was a war going on. He wanted to keep them in the dark about him as long as possible.

This led to the next thing he did: smearing lesser vampire blood all over his current outfit and body. Previously, he used pheromones to mask his scent during his hunts. Now, he could just make himself smell like a lesser vampire. Since he hadn’t turned, he probably didn’t need to worry that much about diseases anymore, either. At least until he ran into something else that could kill him.

Finally, he went back over to the dead angler beast and surveyed his great kill. Yeah, its main eye was pretty ruined, but the meat should still be usable. The teeth too. He didn’t know that much about monster harvesting, but some organs sold for crazy amounts of mithril. Crazy prices for a chef, anyhow.

He worked fast and carefully, keeping an eye out as he sliced pieces of flesh from inside the beast's mouth after pulling out most of the teeth. If he found a stick and some rope, he could make some spears too. For now, they served as reserve daggers.

One could never have too many knives.

As he filled his makeshift sack with as much angler meat as he could, he looked at the rest of the monster and frowned. He wrapped his arms around it briefly, and to his surprise, managed to slightly lift it off the ground. He was stronger than before. Much stronger. But he dropped it with a grunt. The damn thing was still too heavy. If he had more Physicality, he could maybe use it as some kind of punt-boulder—hide behind it and launch it into his enemies.

The very idea tickled him.

Tragically, the more practical option was to leave it behind.

“I’ll come for the rest of your kind,” Shiv said, offering the opposite of a fond farewell. “I won’t forget how you killed me. How you rammed me against the wall, and then ate me. Or the stupid beam. Or the suffocation—really hated that one. If you have children, pray something else eats them first, because I’ll probably find them and eat them. Like I’ll eat you later. Over a slow roast.”

And that was a promise. He might not have been strong enough to do anything about these monsters as a Pathless, but now? Well, now if he died enough, he could probably face anyone. And wasn’t that an inspiring thought? To think that he was practically sick with envy and loathing for Adam Arrow and all the others just a while ago.

Shiv’s glee dimmed slightly. He wasn’t fully sure what happened to Adam Arrow. The Young Lord was taken by the raven-helmed stranger as Shiv fell, so… Well, Roland Arrow wasn’t going to take this well. He definitely wasn’t going to take Shiv’s Path well, either. The Deathless frowned as he considered his calculus.

There were several things he needed to consider when he got out of the Abyss. He probably didn’t want to just show up back in town with his Path and his word. He knew most people there well enough that they just might think he turned traitor and was actively aiding the Necrotechs. All the corpses he left around Roland’s rear lawn likely didn’t help either.

System knew what kind of slander his name was going through. But that didn’t matter anymore. Because he was a Pathbearer. He got to decide the course his life took now—him, and no one else.

Never again.

Shiv chuckled, mocking Roland from afar.

***

As Shiv ventured forth, he utilized his Stealth as much as he could. He listened to make up for his lacking sight, and he managed to scavenge a cloth cover for his makeshift torch in case he needed to hide.

From what he could tell of his surroundings, he was in a strange, sprawling cavern of some kind. He wondered how far down the Abyss he was. No way to tell. There were some small Slayer expeditions in the past. Treasure hunters, monster killers, and general thrill seekers hoping to advance their skills ventured down into the dark. This resulted in the term “the fatal fifty.” No one who ventured below fifty kilometers ever made it back. Apparently, forty was a slaughterhouse itself, with most monsters there well past Adept-Tier and above.

Thing was, the lesser vampires were definitely not Adept-Tier. The angler beast wasn’t either. Shiv didn’t know the exact numbers for each of the Tiers—mainly because no one would bloody tell him—but he could judge by someone’s performance in combat. With enough advantages, surprise, and the right equipment, a Pathless could defeat a low to low-mid Initiate-Tier. It wasn’t likely, but Shiv managed to do it over and over again with the lesser vampires.

Right now, if he were to guess, he was probably on the lower end of Initiate-Tier. Maybe not for Toughness and Physicality, though. He was probably sturdier than a lot of the Arrow Family Guards—maybe even if they were wearing armor.

Ironically, Toughness was one of the harder skills for most people to level because it demanded that they suffer harm and recover. Shiv just fought and died brutally. And then he came back better.

Along his journey through the tunnels, he found some strange and glowing mushrooms. They shone with the most appealing blue, and Shiv harvested them. He knew a little about mushrooms from Georges. Some of them were good ingredients, while others killed you pretty quick. He didn’t know which ones these were, and part of him was raring to try, but since he wasn’t sure that there were monsters nearby to draw vitality from, he decided to wait.

What felt like a day passed as he groped blindly through the dark. He caught sight of strange bugs with colorful shells and some manner of naked rodent that had no eyes—but didn’t manage to catch any before they sank back into the dirt. After a few more hours, he threw a cloth over his torch as he encountered a nest of lesser vampires feasting on something.

He approached them with his Stealth skill and felt a rush as it advanced a level.

Stealth > 17

As he got close, following the sounds of their frenzied feasting, Shiv readied his angler teeth and his kitchen knife as he planned his assault. A second later, he chucked his torch in the middle of the vampires, blinding them suddenly with the bright light. While they were in disarray, he rushed forward with blades in his hands and a smile on his face.

The resulting fight felt more like dicing vegetables than hunting monsters.

They weren’t ready for him to attack, they weren’t strong enough to hurt him directly, and they weren’t intelligent enough to know when to run.

Once again, Shiv found himself standing over fifteen lesser vampires, reveling in his success. He didn’t even die once this time. A point of pride, but maybe not that optimal for him. The only skill that grew during this engagement was his Disease Resistance.

Disease Resistance > 2

Shiv studied the vampires. They weren’t good for his conventional growth by this point either. He needed to fight a lot more of them to develop his martial skills. Toughness and Physicality were out of the question. In a very odd sense, he’d outgrown the lesser vampires he spent the last three years hunting for pleasure and purpose.

It was weirdly sad.

Shiv thought, comforting himself. The thought of seeing his skills spike again cheered him up. There were plenty of monsters in the Abyss. He just needed to find and die fighting them. Until he exceeded them as well.

Finished with the vampires, he walked over to find out what they were eating. To his surprise—and disgust—the victim looked like a tall teenage girl. She was dressed in purple leathers and covered in bite marks. In her hand was a curved shortsword drenched with blood. Shiv noticed how her carotid was slit, and he understood.

He nodded. She probably knew her fate and decided to handle matters herself before the vampires did it for her. Shiv could respect that. From how pointed her ears were, he thought she was an elf, but he didn’t recall ever seeing an elf with a complexion this pale before. Or eyes quite as dark. They looked like dark pearls in the torch’s shine.

Shiv frowned as he studied her. The aesthetic of her armor was also foreign to him. She had a symbol of a spider-woman hybrid playing a lyre on her shoulder. Shiv was pretty far from religious, considering how much the war priests in town hated him, but he didn’t remember hearing of any spider-woman goddess.