Ashinaro sat on the floor back in the sparse confines of his rented room above Jarnik’s smithy. At least it was quiet this late at night, though the smell lingered long after closing.
Just as the sewer’s stench lingered on him.
Getting rid of the stench on his body had been easy; he’d simply reverted to his humanform. His clothes and even his staff were another matter.
The clothes he’d stripped out of and tossed into the sewer, and there he’d left the lantern and rope. His pack and staff were currently airing out on his balcony, and he suspected he’d need to give them a thorough washing.
That could wait.
Arrayed before him were his collection of cores, arranged in neat rows within a small box made just for this purpose.
He was exhausted, but his mind raced with possibilities too much to allow him to sleep.
Finally, he could begin enhancing his battleform.
In addition to his white Beast cores, he had both red and blue monster cores, leaving only black absent to round out the trio of uncommon cores.
Lacking any of the rare core types did narrow down his options, but he still wasn’t sure how he wanted to progress.
He’d made plenty of plans, but they’d never included a relic like this.
[Flesh’s Frenzy (Flawless)]
For a breath, separate your flesh from your body and animate it with your will.
Your battleform has enhanced this effect. While breath is held, flesh regenerates at the cost of your blood.
The first choice he had to make was whether to wait till he got a rare core type before instilling his first.
He shook his head. Given how rare the other types were, it wouldn’t make sense to wait.
So his next choice was blue, or red.
[Blue Monster Core]
Increases one aspect when purified through a relic.
A blue core would increase some aspect of the relic, likely either his golem’s regeneration or strength. There was always the chance it did something unexpected, but that was unlikely.
[Red Monster Core]
Reduces one aspect when purified through a relic.
A red core would most likely reduce the blood loss he suffered from his golem’s regeneration.
Without a black core, there was no way to guarantee any result, but either would be useful.
Or he could choose to use a white core alone, which would enhance his traits and battleform and bring him closer to Greater Defender without making any changes to the relic’s effects.
The only reason to do that would be to find out how many apertures the relic possessed. If it was only one, it might be wiser to wait for a crystal core to be able to increase that number.
But, in all his years, he’d never gotten a crystal core. And they went for more than he’d earned in his entire lifetime, when they were available at all.
He flipped through his notes on relic enhancement and amalgams. None applied perfectly as he’d never planned for a relic of this sort. He’d mainly been going off the ones Kakoris had for sale, or Maris’s relics—at least the ones she’d shared the details of.
She had once demonstrated her relic network during a teaching session at the temple. Seventeen relics, all interconnected, each enhancing the others in carefully optimized amalgams.
He was far from that level of complexity, but even Maris had once been a whelp with no relics.
Ultimately, he decided to go with a red core, as in this case it was the most likely to increase the amount of time he could use the relic for.
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He withdrew a white and red core, holding one in each hand.
He’d been taught the theory of how to instill cores as a whelp, but never actually done so.
Closing his eyes, he shifted to his battleform, grimacing at the stench that immediately filled the room, then focused on the relic. It floated before his closed eyes, spinning in a void. The only other objects present were dots of white and red of the monster cores.
He guided the red core into the relic, using the essence contained within the white core.
Pain blazed through him as relic and core made contact.
The red core snapped into place on the relic, three further apertures flashing once. The white core dissolved to essence which flowed into the relic and was purified. Some of the energy remained within the relic, the rest going to his battleform.
Keeping his eyes closed, he opened his beyondsight and focused it on the newly empowered relic within him.
[Flesh’s Frenzy (Flawless)]
For a breath, separate your flesh from your body and animate it with your will.
Your battleform has enhanced this effect. While breath is held, flesh regenerates at the cost of your blood.
[Red Core] has reduced rate of blood loss.
This relic has 3 remaining apertures.
He sat back with a sigh, opening his eyes and smiling. The boost was fine; not great, but good, and of the type he’d been hoping for: he’d be able to use the relic for longer now, limited more by his breath than the rate of blood loss. But what really made him happy was the relic’s capacity: four apertures, three remaining.
Now, he could properly plan.
But, while he wanted to continue, he needed to let his battleform rest a bit. He apparently wasn’t one of the prodigies who could instill cores with ease.
Exhausted, he leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes, mind going through the paths available to him, and how other relics might amalgamate with this one, and what combination of rare cores would optimize its effect.
In but two breaths, he was fast asleep.
The next morning, Ashinaro stood before Unar’s Tower in his newly enhanced battleform.
He still reeked of sewage. His new Persistent Renewal trait did not clear stench.
On the off chance the shade had returned to the tower, he’d taken a dose of blightbone philter, which he had left over from when Akaris had used his room as overflow storage for her alchemy business when she was still selling from a cart.
Blightbone was common, at least on Fayteraus, and was easy to preemptively counteract. But because of that, no one used it here, and so no one took the philter. Which made it cheap enough for Akaris to leave behind after their falling out. The only reason she’d had any at all was that it was complicated to brew, and thus made for good practice.
The single dose he’d consumed would make him immune to blightbone for several days.
And that wasn’t the only precaution he’d taken.
Another of Akaris’s abandoned stock was a skittering spirit potion, which he had ready to drink. It would greatly enhance how fast he could move.
If the shade was waiting for him again, he was prepared to run. From everything he knew of shades, as a drakken and with the potion, he’d be able to outrun him easily.
It wouldn’t last for more than a hundred breaths, but it would be enough to get away. Though he’d be useless for days afterward.
But if the shade was here, he wasn’t attacking. The tower door stood open, its interior as empty as it had been yesterday.
He stared up at its massive edifice.
That was a lot of floors.
Find the hidden chamber. Right. Easy.
He paused at the threshold. The air inside smelled somehow cleaner than that outside, and even the sewer stench on his battleform seemed to lessen.
The Excavator remained inert, sitting silently in the center of the large circular chamber, a complex mass of gem and metal.
No one knew how it worked—it had been here as long as the tower had been, perhaps longer. It was assumed to be the source of the monsters that usually roamed its floors, though now it was inactive for the first time in recorded history.
Would the tower no longer birth monsters?
Once all the monsters in the Boneyard were slain, would no more wander into it? The Boneyard itself birthed them, but scholars speculated that had to do with the tower and Excavator.
How would that change things? If nothing else, it would make training whelps much more difficult.
He stepped inside onto the smooth, seamless floor. The architecture was unlike anything in Argalis. No sharp corners, walls flowing in gentle curves to an arched ceiling high overhead. He’d been to Arkalis once when he was young, and this construction seemed similar to what he remembered of that old fay city.
The quest said to ascend the tower, so he wouldn’t find the hidden chamber on this floor.
Passageways led off in several directions, and the urge to explore was strong—a rare opportunity with all the monsters dispatched—but he remained focused. The shade might not be here now, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be returning.
At the back left of the chamber, a wide staircase curved upward.
After climbing for several breaths, he reached the first landing. It opened onto another large, circular chamber, similar to the entrance hall but without the Excavator. The room wasn’t empty, however. Pedestals stood scattered across the floor, some vacant, others harboring crystalline orbs.
Did the quest mean ascend all the way to the top, or was it possible that Unar’s chamber was on a different floor above the first?
“Could have been more specific,” he muttered.
He examined one of the pedestals more closely, revealing patterns flowing from it and into in the floor and walls, connecting to other pedestals.
He’d heard of this. It was some kind of puzzle that frequently shifted, normally locking the way to the next floor. You had to move them just right to unlock it.
He could only imagine how difficult that would be with monsters about.
But, for whatever reason, whether the deactivated Excavator, lack of monsters, or something else entirely, the way up was open, so he continued ascending.
He’d check the top first, then work his way down if he didn’t find anything.
Hornblade woke to a Beast gnawing on his face.
He sat up with a start, batting the monster away, which exploded from the impact and covered his hand and arm in ichor.
His head was pounding.
Why was the sun so bright and hot? And where was he?
He looked around, realizing he couldn’t focus his vision, and shifted to his battleform.
Clarity returned at once, not just of sight, but of mind.
He’d had far too much to drink the night before. The last thing he remembered was lamenting his lost staff to… someone. The cursed thing had just up and disappeared.
He had no idea how.
He was sure he hadn’t been drunk at that point.
Pretty sure.
He got to his feet and looked around.
He was in the wilds, that much he recognized. Beyond that, he had no idea.
He cursed himself for drinking so much, especially the drakken’s rotgut.
He pulled out his divine scroll, but it hadn’t updated.
He sighed. He had a tower to return to.
Perhaps today he’d find the false god’s record.
