Runeblade

Chapter 7 : Basecamp

Kaius slumped onto the wall of the ruined church, sliding down until he sat somewhat comfortably. His heart still pounded from the excitement of going toe to toe with a full party of undead.

Beside him lay a pile of poor quality armour. Scavenged from the body of his slain foes, it had been gruelling and disgusting work. He did, however, have a need for them when he started working on his defensive legacy skill. So he had grit his teeth and done his best to ignore his slowly healing wounds as he had stripped the bodies.

To his great relief, the small stonework building had been empty when he had peered in through a shattered window. Its only contents some tattered tapestries, a few splintering pews, a large empty hearth and an unadorned stone altar at the head of the church.

With four thick stone walls, windows too narrow for most things to climb through, and a thick wooden door that seemed in relatively good shape, it was just about as good of a spot as he could hope for in the Depths. Plus, while individual rooms and regions did reset in a biome, it often took weeks or even months of no human presence at this shallow of a layer to happen.

"Which means I will need to return here even if I go on extended explorations, since finding the exit from this layer, and being strong enough to handle its defender, will take far longer than that."

Kaius sighed, ignoring the slight burn of his now simply bruised ribs. His health had unfortunately burned itself out before they were fully healed, and now he had to wait for the slow trickle of his regeneration to fix the rest.

He closed his eyes, lightly thumping his head into the wall behind him.

To call the enormity of the problem in front of him 'tough' would be a grievous understatement. His dance with a single small group of undead militiamen had brought him close to the brink, and it was a near certainty that encounters of that nature would be common, if not more difficult.

He had to come to terms with the fact that he was going to be stuck down here for a long, long time. That if he rushed, was careless, or simply unlucky, he might not make it out alive. He didn't want to. But he had to.

"Back to basics Kaius. You're deep in some of the most hostile territory available. You need to make a plan." he thought to himself.

If he was going to do this, he needed to be strict. Strict and smart. First step, securing a reliable source of food and water. He might have a few weeks worth of rations, but they were non-perishable and it would be far better if he could save them for emergencies and longer expeditions. They also weren't exactly the most pleasant things, tooth-splitting hardtack and some hyper-nutritious pemmican that coated the mouth with cloying fat.

He also needed to merge his next legacy skill, Explorer's Toolkit, as soon as possible.

There should, if his hearing was right, be beasts in the glade. Hunting them, truly hunting them, should both ensure his own safety and give him an opportunity to train Sense Weakness. The danger of stalking true beasts instead of mundane animals would more than likely super charge his growth. Plus the hearth that sat across the room from him seemed perfect to use as a smoker to start stockpiling jerky for longer term storage.

From there, in his down time, he would work on Physical Conditioning the old fashioned way. Gruelling effort, sweat, and tears.

If he devoted himself to the task, he might be able to finish them off in the next week.

Then it would be time to start collecting more skills all over again. He eyed the loose pile of armour next to him. The skills they represented would give him some measure of security, and once he had Adamant Body he would finally feel a little more confident in truly delving the Depths.

Kaius crouched on a sturdy tree branch, steadying himself on the trunk behind him with one hand. He was nestled in amongst the canopy, the long shadows cast by the soft lighting of the cave ceiling above cloaking his figure in darkness.

He had left his pack behind at the church, preferring to travel light for a simple scouting expedition.

With sharp eyes his gaze all but tunnelled a hole into the boar-like creature that rooted in the dirt not more than a few long strides below him. It was a strange creature, strikingly dissimilar to the common boars he had seen in the forest he had grown up in. Yet in many ways it was still a boar. Roughly the right shape, tusks, a snout. It just had a row of spines, no hair, and almost no fat on its freakishly muscled body.

It looked fucking frightening if he was entirely honest with himself.

Kaius frowned, suppressing a shudder.

"At least it doesn't seem to have the same sense of smell as a real boar. One of those would have picked me up long before it saw me"

His eyes roamed over the creature, its rippling musculature and thin skin hiding little from him.

There, just above and slightly behind its shoulder. In between a gap in its ribs. With each of the beast's heart beats he watched as the spot slightly distended and pulsed. An artery, most likely a major one with its proximity to the heart. At least if the thing was built anything like a normal boar on the inside. Sense Weakness twinged.

Kaius smiled. "Perfect."

Reaching over his back Kaius drew his sword with painful slowness. He'd already dulled the shine of his blade with ash from the church's hearth, so the only thing that could give him away now was if he made too much of a racket.

The beast below dug its tusks into the ground surrounding the roots of the tree, flinging a soft shower of dirt into the air. Evidently it had found something worth eating, as it lowered its head and began to snuffle. All the while unaware of the predator that stalked it from above.

Sword in hand he let go of the tree trunk behind him. Tension in his core and powerful legs kept him steady. His vision narrowed to a point. He could almost hear the thump of the creature's heart. The soft background sounds of the glade faded from his perception, the point of his sword levelling at the spot that pulsed.

He leapt.

As the ground rushed up to meet him his stomach dropped away. What if he missed? Sprained his ankle and found himself sprawling in front of some hell-pig that would no doubt gore him at the first opportunity?

His sword pierced the thumping gap in the boar's ribs, passing cleanly through its chest before lodging itself deeply into a tree root below the beast. A sharp jolt shot through his legs as he landed.

Kaius dropped into a backwards roll to disperse his momentum, coming up in a crouch with his hunting knife drawn in a smooth flowing motion. Tense, ready to act at the slightest movement.

The boar surged.

At the sudden pain of being run through like a copper-piece skewer the boar launched into a frenzy. It found itself stuck fast. Mouth opening to let out an enraged squeal, yet all that escaped was a wet gurgle as a torrent of red flowed from its mouth. A steady stream of blood trickled down his sword. The disturbed earth quickly turned into a rusty coloured mire as the beast tried and failed to free itself with rapidly weakening legs.

Even as its Health burned, the mindless creature only continued to widen its wounds with its struggling. Soon even that preternatural vitality gave out and it collapsed to the floor, limp.

Kaius watched the creature, tension leaving him as he recognised his success. A sense of solemn duty fell over him. He had been hunting with his father as long as he could remember, and he knew that no good hunter left a creature in pain longer than was necessary. Even if his quarry was a Depths spawned beast.

He approached swiftly, a firm grip on his knife. Taking one of its spines on its neck in his hand, he drew his blade across the boar-thing's neck, severing the carotids and its remnants of life.

**Ding! level 14 Dire Boar slain**

He took a moment to appreciate the creature's sacrifice, its life spent to fuel his growth and its body to satiate him.

The moment passed and a wide jubilant grin split his face.

With this he had secured enough food to well and truly start stockpiling. Though, glancing at the lean musculature of the creature, he might need to find something with a bit more fat if he wanted to stave off protein starvation. Pemmican might have been mediocre, but it fuelled the body well.

Pulling his sword free with a heave, he cleaned his blade before hauling the boar's body up by its hind legs to help the meat bleed. After a few limb burning minutes Kaius gutted the carcass before hauling it onto his shoulders and setting off for home.

After all, he didn't want to stick around to wait for something else to come and investigate all the blood.

Kaius tended to a small, but very smoky flame at the base of the hearth. Luckily for him, whatever real world place the church had been modelled after had had a massive grill spanning the upper third of the open hearth.

He had already butchered the boar on the altar, it being the most convenient place to do so. The meat was as lean as he suspected it would have been, but in some ways that made for easier preservation.

His fire started nicely, he quickly moved over to the altar and began hanging slices of meat off the rails in the grill, securing them in place with whittled wooden skewers.

In time he would have himself some jerky. It wouldn't last anywhere near as long as it would have if he had enough salt available to properly preserve it, but it should still last several weeks before going bad. As long as he kept it dry that is.

Neither of his remaining skills really required him to actively hunt down opponents to progress, so unless he was ambushed or ran into undead he would need to be careful to avoid scouring this glade of its denizens.

Large the glade may have been, it was still a creation of the Depths, and as such only a facsimile of an ecosystem. Once he had hunted the creatures it contained to the last, that was it. No more food.

Kaius nodded to himself in satisfaction as he secured the last strip. In a few hours this batch would be preserved enough for him to switch it out for the next one. Moving over to his bag, he quickly untied his lightweight camping pan from where it was secured its front. The creature might have been lean, but it still had some fat. Most of it layered in its belly meat.

He'd saved that for himself. After one of the most eventful days of his life, he was due for a hot meal.

Besides, if he cooked it right, he should be able to render out some of the fat and save it in one of his spare containers. If he pounded out some of his jerky he might be able to make some pemican after all.

Nestling his pan at the edge of the hearth's lightly smouldering coals, Kaius waited for the pan to preheat before throwing on the slab of belly. A soft sizzle entered the room, and Kaius couldn't help but close his eyes and salivate as the scent of cooking pork wafted over him.

He needed to refuel. After that it was time for some hard training. He was determined to finish off Physical Conditioning as fast as he could.