Book 3: Chapter 8 - Bread & Water (RAW)

To be a good man is to live with virtue and integrity on the hardest of roads.

- A Quassian aphorism.

The path ahead curved upwards, becoming also more natural in its formation. Here and there, stalactites and stalagmites grew from the floor and ceiling, occasional meeting to form pillars. Glowing purple lines threaded through the rock here, making the formations look like living blood vessels. It was a sign, as good as any, that this place was most ancient in its origin. More importantly, it spelled the presence of water.

Zala was ahead of me, scampering this way and that, chirping the occasional comment about our local environs and sniffing the air. After a few moments, she helped to confirm my suspicion that we were close to a source of water.

“Water close. The water here as we get closer to the Bright more filled with the blood taste,” she informed me, eyes down and subservient.

“Good. Find it, and we will drink,” I returned simply, glad that we could refill our skins. I pointed at her to go ahead, and she scampered on ahead.

With no way to gauge how much longer it would take to reach the surface, this news was a godsend to me. The ‘blood taste’ description might be these primitives’ allusion to the heavy metal content in the water. The thought of drinking water with actual blood in it, was on some level, a little repulsive.

Ever since the encounter with the fearsome Zlesh Viper, I felt that she saw me as something of a protector. Indeed, she was valuable, as she would lead me to the surface. Those who were weak would always take shelter behind the strong, it was the way of the world. She was used to taking orders.

Zala returned to my side, with a worried look on her face. “Water, a small watering place. Clean, I think. But there is one problem…”

“Spit it out,” I barked. I kept my responses short, as despite my magical ability to learn languages quickly, I still only had a very basic grasp of their underground language. With that in mind, I surreptitously cast an Identify.

“Yes, yes,” she continued surprisingly unfazed, as if she was expecting this response, “there are other things at the water. No big ones, like the Zlesh. We were lucky with the Zlesh, you were wise for not moving. No doubt you saw that it was sated and slowed. The Zlesh are known to move faster than a thrown spear. I have seen some Ghostwalker Crabs. They are of course no threat to one as mighty as yourself but…” There was always a but, “They have begun their courtship dances and they will be most territorial.”

I waited for a few moments, to really absorb her words. Every word was being added to my lexicon as my mind digested them. Having learned one language already, the acquisition process had become much easier for me. It turned out that my teachers had been right, up until now, I had just been lazy all along. When your survival depended on it, one picked things up quickly.

Finally, I formulated a response, “The Crabs, they can be eaten?”

“Yes!” she piped, perking up almost immediately. “They are most delicious. We used to…”

She grew silent as I ended my Holy Aura, the darkness returning as the golden light withdrew. The golden song that had been playing, faded, and with it my righteous sense of purpose. For some reason, I felt less sure, the reality of the task of returning to the surface becoming an impossibility.

I rolled my shoulders, cutting off such nihilistic thoughts as my eyes grew accustomed to the dull gloom. My light extinguished, I noticed now that the area we had entered was brighter than where we had come from, with more of the luminous rocks casting their glow. Here the darkness was, by an order of magnitude, far less stifling. Perhaps, it was the promise of water? Water, that I knew to be of vital important.

Looking in Zala’s direction with an appraising eye, I could see that her choice of attire was actually less primitive than I had thought. Here in this poor visibility, it did a good job of breaking up her outline, its texture and lines rendering her as just part of the background rock. Of note was this area was brighter than the tunnels we had come from, with more of the veiny threads casting their glow within the rock.

She had at one point had come to believe that the light of my aura, that had once caused her discomfort, was a sort of shield that protected her from the creatures of the dark. In a way, it did, healing from the minor hurts she had acquired along the way. It was not so long ago, that she could not look directly at me without squinting her eyes. Proof, that even here of all places, that humans were at their very essence adaptable survivors. Though the jury was still out on whether I actually counted her as a person.

“Then I will kill them. All of them. Then we will drink from this water. If you are lying or preparing treachery, you know what will come to you,” I growled in my most threatening voice, causing her to just fearfully nod. Why did going down to the local watering hole have to be so difficult? Why did everything in this world have to be difficult?

“Well? What are you waiting for? Show me the way and be quick about it,” I commanded, and I swore she almost jumped to attention before heading off to heed my command.

Scuttling in front of me, she led the way, surefooted in her stride. I on the other hand was a textbook example of clumsiness, almost tripping over a rock. This drew a worried look from my long-suffering guide, so I decided to be a little more careful in my step. Soon enough, the path or tunnel, opened up into a cavernous area, the ceiling’s purple glow half a hundred meters high. After the claustrophobic space of the tunnels, coming here was almost a welcome relief.

After an indeterminate amount of time she gestured for quiet and pointed. Creeping as best as I could, I squinted in that direction, straining my eyes. My ears informed me before my eyes. I heard was a roiling crush of heavy bodies colliding, followed by the crash of displaced water as the creatures of this subterranean realm did battle with one another. Finally, my eyes beheld a large pond, or small lake, of liquid twilight filled with creatures that looked like they had come from the darkest part of the ocean. In the center of the lake was a pillar formed from centuries of redeposited minerals. Alien chittering and clicking noises accompanied the sight, the sound akin to that of a deranged maracas. I had found them.

They, as far as my eyes could tell, fit their name of Ghostwalker Crab almost perfectly. In the half-light, their carapaces were a ghastly pale grey and their many-limbed shadows stretched across the cold stone. They had no eyes, but were instead crowned with four long antennae. The bony sensory organs flicked and waved agressively, as if tasting the air itself.

The giant crustaceans fought against each other in a grotesque dance of dominance and desire, a slow waltz as they circled one another, grasping for purchase or already locked in a deadly embrace. They danced upon the ancient weathered rock of the shore, and in the dark water of the lake. Where a loser’s chitinous carapace was pierced, sludge and viscera oozed from the wounds caused by the victors claws. Would the water be potable after such a violent competition?

The monsters' attention focused solely on their duels, we were able to get a little closer, hiding behind an outcropping of rocks, we continued to observe them. Holding my breath, I tried to judge the distance between us and the battling Ghostwalkers. My earlier bravado had disappeared like smoke before a stiff breeze, and I scrambled to think of some sort of plan to deal with these monsters.

Going over my options, I remembered the Karilla, that fearsome beast of the Sainba forest. If I could stay hidden, at this range, I could begin to pick them off slowly. I would just have to pray that they did not have a means of detecting the magic I cast on them.

“We remain here, I will deal with them,” I whispered to my local guide.

Zala looked at me perplexed as I started to prepare a spell. Identify came first, and I cast it like a net over one of the largest males, giving me a rough overview of the danger before me.

Ghostwalker Crab- [Crustacean lvl.16]

Health: 276/332

Stamina: 23/51

Mana: 1/1

Seeing a specimen broken down into numbers was a relief, for in terms of raw statistics it was a far cry from the Zlesh, though still worryingly a little above my level. More importantly, from their extremely low Mana, they were like normal crustaceans, stupid. Mentally relieved, I prepared to cast my only real direct damaging spell. It had been a while, or at least I believed it to be quite a while, for time here under the earth was most fluid, since I had last cast Drain.

Here in the shadowed cavern beneath earth, a darker shadow formed within and was let loose. Like eager hounds, the lines of power sought their prey, attaching themselves to the nearest source of life energy. I prepared to run, only to put aside such thoughts, as the vibrant song of life filled me its energy. The voices, my true friends, rejoiced for me. Running was for the cowards and weak men.

I could see that the spell had been substantially improved. The rate at which the creature sped towards its untimely death hastened, even as I was empowered. With this magic, I had become invincible.

With a shake of my head, I quickly stifled such further thought. At times like this, I was glad to have heavy steel about my head. It settled me in some sort of strange way. It also covered what I assumed to be a face consumed by my baser pleasures. I knew that that way lead to my death, for I had learned, all too well, that I was not in fact as invulnerable as my feelings sometimes led me to believe. And this was no time to gamble upon the fact, I decided, as cold logic finally found its firm footing within my mind. This was no time for a blaze of savage passion along the knife-edge of combat, no matter how satisfying that would be. Perhaps if they were human… No, no, I would stay here where it was safe, and kill all of them. One by bloody one.