Chapter 84: Towards New Horizons

Backtracking their way through the city took days. Though thankfully their pace was faster than their ascent, as they no longer had to worry about clearing out goblin depths-born.

As they walked through the city, Kaius took the time to burn the sights into his mind. Despite the dusty and aged stonework, the weathering of time was not fully able to fade the bones of grandiosity and skill that perfused the city. Even the clusters of slain and armoured dwarves had a sense of wonder to them, taking a secret history of war and strife with them into the grave.

Even if the whole thing was a construction of the depths, it was a sight that Kaius would never forget. He vowed then, that one day he would see a deephold in person. If a shattered facsimile of the real thing held this much beauty, what would one of the fortress cities be like in person?

After they left the city through the same front gates they had entered, they pushed on through the fungal fields that lined the outside of the city. It was one thing Kaius was curious about, another failing of the Depths illusion. The city, at least if it was real, would have had supply lines to stock all of those houses with such varied food. Yet he had seen little of the dizzying varieties of fungus that they were growing in the kitchens of the city.

Itcouldhave been intended as emergency supplies in a raid, but if it was the Depths had clearly not bothered to reflect that in its recreation of a successful goblin invasion.

Either way, they left the edible fungus alone. Before they had left the manor district they had stocked up on as many non-perishables as they could fit in his pack and Porkchop’s saddlebags. That, and salt and spices. There was no way he was going back to unseasoned meat if he didn’t have to.

Reaching the end of the fungal fields, Kaius looked up at the yawning impossibly smooth wall of the cavern. There, about half way up, he could spy the thin ledge that they had entered in from. He spun around, leaning on hisTrue Sightto let him pierce the veil of distance. More ledges dotted the cavern wall at random intervals. Most were about the same height, but a few were higher or lower.

Despite that, he made no move to correct their course to one of the other exits, favouring instead the massive tunnel at the base of the cavern towards their front. They drew closer.

It almost looked like a borehole. A perfect hemisphere cut directly into the bedrock. Shattered defences littered the passage. Broken fortifications and roadblocks were scattered with the remains of slain dwarves in heavy armour.

As they entered, stepping over the fallen bodies, Kaius looked around the tunnel. Lit up by ward lights, its edges were covered in the now familiar engravings of dwarven art. The main tunnel, he supposed. It must have been the sight of where the ‘invasion’ had first entered from.

It stretched dead ahead, well lit and without breaks, for what must have been leagues. Though Kaius could see that there was the odd intersection, with side passages breaking away. Somewhere, far off in the distance, the tunnel seemed to change. It was too great of a distance for him to see with any clarity, even with the enhanced acuity ofTrue Sight. Maybe the end of the biome?

He hoped it was. They might have been lucky to find a direct highway to their next hunting ground. Half of what made it take so long to cross the depths was the warren-like nature of the tunnels.

“I wonder how delvers find Champions and Guardians so quickly?” He mused aloud.

“What do you mean?”Porkchop asked. His friend might have been knowledgeable, but apart from some understanding of elven culture he was relatively ignorant to the specifics of the culture of people.

“Well, delves usually only take a month or so, at least for low layers like this one. I assume they try to clear out as many Champions as they can, as from what i’ve heard almost everyone leaves with loot. I just don’t get how they do it so fast, they must have a way to track them.”

“Maybe that is just for delves where the biome is already explored?”

“No,” Kaius said with a shake of his head. “Those are evenshorter. They must have something that can track them.”

“Does it matter if we can’t replicate it? If they do we’ll just have to make sure we get a hold of whatever they use before we come back.”

Kaius sighed. “I know, it’s just frustrating. We’re going to spend so much time justlookingfor the last handful of Champions. Even if they are clustered up like we’ve been seeing, it’s always taken us a couple of weeks at the least to find a sizable cavern.”

“It is what it is. One of the Patriarchs always said that a patient hunter gets the goose.”

“Goose?” Kaius asked with disbelief, raising an eyebrow at his friend. “How the hell were you hunting geese?”

“With a lot of time and effort.”Porkchop said seriously. Kaius couldn’t help but laugh.

“What? They are tasty!”Porkchop said, looking at him with mock offence.“Look, what I was trying to say was that we have plenty of time, even if it is frustrating that it might take us a couple of months to track down the last handful, we’ll still be ready to take on a Guardian with plenty of time to spare.”

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Kaius threw his head back and groaned. “I know, but it’s still annoying. Let’s just hope that we can find them all in one biome, and that we don’t run into anything that’s a bad match up.”

If they ended up running into a poison bog, or somewhere with ephemeral enemies, Kaius would scream. Searching for Champions was bad enough without having to backtrack and avoid entire biomes.

“Hey, at least you’re getting close to finishing off your legacy skills. Have you thought about your last skill anymore?”Porkchop asked.

Kaius gave his friend a suspicious look. This had to have been the fifth time he had asked that question. If that wasn’t reason enough to suspect his friend had something on his mind, Porkchop had also been dodging his own questions about what his friend had picked for his final skill.

“Not really, nothing beyond a hope I get something related to my spellcasting that is at leastUnusual. Why? It’s only been a few days since the last time you asked.” Kaius asked, watching his friend's face closely.

Porkchop flinched, quickly shifting his gaze back to the tunnel.

“I had something I wanted to ask.”He said, his voice hesitant.“A skill that I know of, I think it would be good for you. But it has conditions. Implications.”

Now Kaius was really interested. Porkchopknewhow important getting a spellcasting skill was to him. It wasn’tcompletelyvital to his plans for his class, but it would turn an overwhelming possibility into a certainty. For Porkchop to offer an alternative it had to begood. The Matriarchs of the greater meles seemed to be a veritable treasure trove of skill knowledge, perhaps the skill his friend wanted to share would require some sort of oath? If it fit him well enough he was more than happy to offer one, that sort of knowledge wasvaluable.

“You have my attention.” He said, his words measured.

“Not now.”Porkchop said with a shake of his head.“I want to wait until you have merged your last skill. It is powerful, but a burden. Something of a birth-right for every greater meles. Tied to our history. Just promise me you will hear me out?”His friend asked.

Porkchop wasnervous. He could see it plain as day. Whatever he wanted to offer was a big deal, that much was clear. Kaius frowned, he hadn’t expected his friend to be so grave. Maybe it was something more serious than an oath? But what?

“Of course.” He said without hesitation. “Porkchop, we’re basically brothers now. By right of blood and fire we are closer than I haveeverbeen to someone other than Father. I’ll hear you out, and even if the price for whatever you offer is more than I am willing to pay, nothing will change. I’ll still want to keep you around even after we leave.”

Porkchop let out a forceful sigh of relief. Clearly this had been on his mind for a while.

“Good. That’s … good.”His friend said, relieved.

Kaius slapped him on the shoulder. “Chin up, you won’t scare me off with a question asked in good faith. I promise. Now!” He said, clapping his hands. “What about your own last skill? Surely you’ve picked one by now.”

Porkchop stayed silent for a few moments, the dim light of the wardlights above lighting up his black and red fur in a golden glow.

“I have not.”He finally answered. Kaius's eyes widened in surprise. That wasreallyunexpected. He knew that Porkchop had multiple options he was deciding between, courtesy of tutoring from his Matriarchs, but to have still not picked? After all this time?

Porkchop looked over to him, seeing his expression.“It’s related to what I want to ask you. Just be patient. Please.”

Kaius saw his friend's tension, and nodded. “Okay, I won’t pry. You can consider my curiosity thoroughly piqued though, I hope you have plenty of explanations hidden away under all that fur.” He said, shoving down his burning curiosity to give his friend a reassuring grin.

He only managed because Porkchop wasclearlystruggling with whatever he wanted to share. Kaius could wait, even if the mystery loomed large in his mind. What on earth could his friend want to share that could affect both of their final skills? That was linked to a birthright of the greater meles? Stories of Porkchop’s people were common amongst those who lived in and around the Arboreal Sea, yet he had heard of nothing that fit.

He supposed the elves might know, but they were notoriously insular. Besides, it’s not like he had one on hand, and he wouldn’t want to hear it from anyone other than Porkchop anyways. Not if it was so clearly important.

Porkchop chuffed in amusement.“There will be plenty of explanations, I promise. It’ll make sense. Just finish up your final merge.”

With that they fell into companionable silence, making their way further and further into the large dwarven tunnel. As they drew closer to the abrupt seam between biomes, Kaius began to see more of the details.

The large hemisphere of the tunnel abruptly cut off in a solid wall of blank stone, a smaller rectangular opening serving as the entrance to the next region of the Depths. It was some sort of hallway. Artificial much like the dwarven tunnel, though its construction was far less refined. Hewn stone blocks fit together to create a passage similar to what one might expect in a castle, while ensconced orbs of glowing fluid provided a soft yellowish illumination.

It was barren and austere, the new halls expanse only broken by the odd table that was covered in strange alchemical implements that Kaius had no name for. Very different to the shattered fortifications and strewn armoured bodies that decorated the dwarven passage.

Reaching the end of the tunnel they came to a stop, staring at the stark demarcation between biomes. Kaius was alert, ready forExplorer’s Toolkitto warn him of traps or anything else. His skill remained blessedly silent. Luckily, the hall was more than wide enough for them to walk side by side, so they would have enough room to properly fight if something did ambush them.

“Do you want me to do the honours?” Kaius asked.

“Makes no difference to me.”Porkchop replied.

Kaius gave his friend a shrug and approached the line that separated the biomes. It was stark. Like some god had cut the two tunnels and transposed them through space, only to crudely shove them together with no attempt at smoothing the boundary.

Taking a deep breath Kaius stepped forwards over the line and into the hall made of stone bricks.

**Biome Entered: Fleshwarper’s Laboratory**