Both of the drinks had appeared in the hand of the construct called Ren in the form of a small green and worn-out patched backpack which dangled his fingers. Cris had taken it and pulled open the light buckled strap to find two bottles inside, one was a transparent glass bottle with a thick yellow liquid and the other was a sealed leather water bottle with a cap.

There was another sealed box which smelt of meat and other ingredients which clearly meant food but he'd eat them later.

Cracking open the glass bottle he sniffed the contents which had a hint of exotic fruits which were usually more than a little expensive in the kingdom before he took a small taste and then proceeded to swallow the rest.

If the odd pair wanted to hurt him or knock him unconscious one more time where he woke up in a room with another stranger then it was likely they would have done so already.

As the thick liquid ran down his throat and settled in his stomach his hunger began to rapidly fade and he felt sated as though he had eaten a good, solid meal. Not quite like soup but comparable to a sweet fruity stew.

His energy levels began to grow back faster than he had thought and his heart began to beat a little faster as he finished the last dregs of the glass bottle.

‘Good. I mixed in a little extra to give you a boost, nothing dangerous or addictive. I doubt you have the same ingredients easily available here. Or if you do and they made the long journey by sea or land caravan they’ll lose their potency. Trust me, I’m Disease Master….it translates better in my own tongue. I’d suggest you drink the water and then you can keep both or give them back to Ren, I prefer to minimise resource wastage myself.’ said Maxton Ge as he leaned against the stationary construct with both of his arms folded.

His face looked better already and his golden eyes shined brighter than before but Cris was certain that he now saw flecks of green in them.

After draining the contents of the water bottle, Cris realised that he needed to relieve himself once more. He had obviously been thirstier than he had originally thought. Given that his last drink had been in the tavern the night before. Surely, now would have been around early morning at the very least.

‘Ren. The young man needs his privacy for...you know. I can manage without for a good long time myself but the waste is far more dangerous. Ever seen a man drain himself and melt a hole in a wall? Only a small hole mind, but just one of the costs of my own profession. And no, I don’t need to eat just yet. The disease ridden toxin earlier had boosted my energy levels and given me sufficient power for now. Just don’t be close to me if I grab bare flesh with the intent to maim young master Cris. Ren! Let both of us wait outside and you can point out to me how many you killed and left fairly intact for my investigations.’ said Maxton Ge.

Cris watched as the construct guarding the doorway with the shield held out the same hand and the previous sword reappeared with a blue glow. With a single nod he assumed a combat pose with sword and shield and stepped out into the hallway outside of the stone cell.

Maxton Ge gave a final wink as he pointed to the back of the room and mimed holding a part of his lower anatomy with one hand while grinning and letting out a mock sigh. Then he followed the construct Ren out of the broken doorway and into the same hallway.

Cris wasn’t sure if the man calling himself Disease Master had been joking about having the power to urinate a liquid that could melt through walls but given how his experiences so far were holding out he wasn’t going to assume he couldn’t.

Regardless, both of them were dangerous individuals who either had strong magic powers and could fight. He’d seen priests pull similar tricks to the one that Ren had pulled but it was usually through light magic and sufficiently draining to produce a single item to drive them onto their knees.

The construct Ren had done exactly the same seemingly without effort as though producing items and making them disappear into thin air was nothing special. With his own sigh Cris stepped over the broken remains of the wooden doorway and remnants of stone on the floor and pushed both the chairs to the side.

Being reminded that he needed to relieve himself had been the finals straw and his bladder did need emptying. Trusting that his two new comrades would watch his back or at least stop any corrupted cultists left outside the cell he went to the far back wall and placed one hand while steadying his feet and pulling his fancy trousers down.

The smell of strong urine wafted to his senses and somehow made him thankful that the stone cell that they had been tied up was at least a clean one aside from the dark stains across the wall.

Avoiding getting any on his shoes or his trousers Cris finished his business and with a shake he finished and pulled his trousers up. He took a quick sniff of his armpits and reached into his leather backpack and use the last of the remnants of water in the bottle to wash over his hands.

He’d been educated as a noble even one considered as a half-breed that cleanliness was one of the ways to differentiate with the unwashed and common types. Despite the quality of his clothing, he’d rather throw them away given the state they were in and the smell lingering to them.

As soon as he was able to escape from this likely corruption cultist den he’d need to cleanse himself both physically and spiritually in the eyes of the Goddess of Light and Purity.

A familiar voice called form outside the room. There was the sound of a heavy object being dropped to the floor which Cris assumed was a human body. Another sound echoed out as several more heavy thuds were heard.

[Young Master Cris, the threats are eliminated from this place. We are free to make our way to the exit. I recall the route. Please finish and you will accompany Disease Master and myself. I have spare trousers and shoes in storage.] said Ren.

Was that meant to be a joke?

Cris quickly adjusted his clothing, avoiding stepping in the pool of urine that was now running in a stream across the far wall and made his way out of the doorway as he pulled one of his daggers from the brace strapped to his arm.

His own magical energies restored somewhat from the liquid food and the fresh flask of water he allowed a minor trickle to run into the blade letting a white glowing line run down.

He allowed his senses to outstretch a few metres away from his position as he stepped out of the stone cell and almost tripped over as waves of corruption hit his attuned sensitivity.

The degree of magically created disease was far stronger than usual but it was rapidly waning. It was the positions of corruption that hit him as his physical eyes saw grey robed figures who had once been human with smashed apart heads revealing hints of brain, blood and bone.

The hallway was filled with a dozen dead corruption cultists who from the look of things had been first smashed through their chest cavity strong enough to cause a hole before their heads and skulls had been pounded in.

Cris kept his stomach tight and pulled back the sensation of throwing up which was beginning to rise from the pit of his stomach. He’d seen dead bodies before when he’d been training to become a priest of the Goddess at the main temple, humans who had been corrupted with the magical virus and simply died before it had transformed them into monstrous forms but not to this degree of violence.

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The hallway was a straight stone path straight down with Alchemically treated torches running in a neat row on each side, high enough not to be knocked down but low enough to light the entire space brightly. There was no sign of any other cells along the metres long hallway or a door at the end.

All he could see from the torchlight was a plain looking grey stone with uneven stone flagstones leading to a blank wall at the end. There was a deep hole in one of the walls which was clearly enough for a normal man to fit through but without his companions Cris would rather not take that choice.

No door? How can there be no exit door? Were we carried here through that hole in the wall?

Splashes of blood and flesh marked the floor and walls behind each body. Cris saw the construct Ren pick up one of the dead robed corpses in one hand with a delicate movement as the body was held aloft in the air from the top of the robe where the head would have been

Maxton Ge was plunging a hand inside the smashed open chest cavity and withdrew it licking the blood off his fingers while shaking any pieces of flesh and internal organs off letting them either splat on the walls or his own clothing or the armour of the construct.

‘They’re corrupted. Touching them before the mercy of the Goddess blesses their diseased flesh isn’t a good idea even if you are a Master of Disease. The construct might be immune but once the magic gets into you it’ll change you until you become like them, a being less than human in mind and body. I have some of my powers back, not enough to cleanse all these poor sinners but I could purify you at least.’ said Cris as he pushed another tiny portion of his slowly recovering light and purity magic into the length of the plain looking knife held in his hand.

Another streak of light burst from his hand and wound down the blade creating twin lines in unison. A small creaking noise came out as a small piece of metal chipped off the tip of the knife and fell down onto the cold stone floor of the hallway.

The man with golden eyes called Disease Master took a single look at Cris before giving him another deep wink and a wide grin before he shook his head and said a word in the same foreign language which he had spoken to Ren earlier inside the stone cell as the construct dropped the body onto the floor and moved onto another one.

In a state of mild confusion Cris watched as Maxton Ge repeated the same process several more times before he held both hands out in front of Ren and the construct placed his hands on top and a brighter blue glow emitted despite the wall mounted torches lining the stone hallway.

‘Cleaner than dropping them into lava. Not that even I’d do that, they’d burn off and growing them back would be a...handful? Eh? Does the joke work? I mean, I’m a foreigner and all but surely my joke makes sense. What do you think young Master Cris? Besides, none of these are strong enough to have any effect on me. Did I not mention it? I am Disease Master. This can’t touch me, my own body churns and rejects them. I learnt to become a pig to catch a tiger. Save your own magical powers for later. We’re only in one section of this underground base. Our mutual friend Ren here dug underground and smashed his way through a few walls to find us. The trial supply goods work after all. Ren? Take note of that, the boost is sufficient enough in a single dose.’ said Maxton Ge.

As he stepped closer to the dead bodies lining the walls of the hallway, ignoring the flaring up of his magical senses in response to the slowly fading corruption which waned when his dagger emitted and began to draw from his own magical reserves and reduce the virus inside the bodies.

To his surprise the disease had been lessened somehow and heavily reduced in nature as the corruption which had taken root in each physical body began to wither into pure nothingness. Cris knew that had had some talent gifted by the Goddess but he had still only been a novitiate before he had been removed and asked to leave from the main temple in the capital city.

‘You have the gift?’ asked Cris as he half-planted the dagger in his hand into each of the bodies checking the degree of corruption magic stuck into the flesh. Each corpse was diminished somehow underneath the robes, thinner and the skin was drawn tighter across the flesh that had remained.

The thought stuck Cris that he might have been rescued by a blood drinking demon in human form and his magical creation, an undead which drained the energies of the victim. Those who had been infected by the corruption were bad enough but the Goddess herself had warned them of other creatures of the armies of the Dark Lord. Those which had fought in the last war before it had been defeated.

Regardless, he had been rescued, given kindness and even material support. He’d only report both of them to the Church of Light and Purity as possible heretics and contaminations against the living Goddess with vague descriptions once they had left this place. Maybe. It depended on how much they were truly infected. His senses registered absolutely zero traces on the odd pair but it didn't make any sense when he had been told that every single humanoid within the kingdom held even a tiny amount of corruption after the final war against the Dark Lord.

Most would not turn or become any worse as long as they weren't further exposed either by their own choice as these cultists had or by accident as they ventured out further from the city walls in the name of the divine Goddess.

His training warred with his instincts as Maxton Ge approached him as he was about to plunge the metal knife with to white glowing stripes into another corpse to try and purge the remnants of corruption that lingered.

‘I am Disease Master. Eyes that have yet to see Mount Tai do not see my true abilities. Forgive my rudeness young Master Cris. I am glad that your...magical abilities are working once again. A valuable asset to our group of three certainly. These are scared and backward lands we find ourselves in. Ren, can you lead us out of this place? I have no interest in exploring this structure if these ones who call themselves cultists have this small amount of corruption. Did you fight your way through a thousand to reach us or are these the only ones you killed? Answer me you terracotta reinforced idiot.’ said Maxton Ge.

The quietness of the hallway and lack of any armed response from any further armed cultists or their false priests made Cris question exactly how many the construct Ren had needed to kill in order to acquire their freedom from the cell.

'How deep are we exactly? There doesn't seem to be a doorway leading out of this hallway. I don't understand it.' asked Cris as he pulled his metal dagger out and after imbuing a little more light and purity magic into the blade as drops of blood and flesh were burnt off and crumbled into ash on the floor.

He didn't have any immediate plans to search the dead cultist corpses for any items given that all they seemed to possess was robes. As the construct Ren likely had a spatial magical storage ability than anything useful would have been looted and stored away. Not that it was going to be an issue but the robes themselves could be used to disguise the three of them as long as the corruption levels were minimal.

[We take the self-created entry point until exit is complete. I detect other threats in the vicinity are being dealt with by a third party. There is no need to waste either resources or time fighting our way out of this site. Disease Master, do you concur with my judgement? We have an appointment to keep, as does young Master Cris.] said Ren.

Swiping the air between them with a hand chopping motion Maxton Ge grabbed the construct by the arm and began to rapidly talk in the same foreign language which he had heard spoken aloud several times.

There was a frantic note in Maxton's tone as he made hand gestures before forming a tight fist and punching the construct directly in the face. Neither of them showed any signs of discomfort.

Turning towards Cris, Maxton Ge smiled broadly and held his arms out wide.

'Young Master Cris, the one with no name is clearly an idiot and obviously far too young to understand when he needs to keep his mouth shut. Tools exist to work not to think. Tell me, are you able to make the glow brighter in your blades? Could you apply it to both blades for example? The torches above us could be traps and the lack of door gives me the sense that there is a hidden doorway. A waste of time in finding it. The hole in the wall at the end of the hallway is our faster exit route, Ren here told me that we can take his makeshift path near to the entrance and avoid further fighting. You have no armour and I am growing tired of the lack of sunlight and fresh air. This is a dangerous place and while Ren would be fine, you and me are made of flesh, bone and meat. We need light to see by. He does not.' said Maxton Ge.

Nodding his head, Cris pulled out both blades and began to slowly imbue his own magical light energies into them as a makeshift light source.

So much for conserving my energy.

The three entered the hole in the wall with Cris in the lead and Ren in the middle while Maxton Ge followed them.

As soon as his two companions moved forward he paused for a moment before spitting a small green glowing ball into his hand and threw it at one of the bodies as he watched it crumble into dust. The effect soon spread and the rest of the corpses turned a light green along with their clothing as they crumbled into grey large piles of mould on the floor.

The man with golden eyes smiled as he followed his two companions into the darkness of the hole.

Not a bad night’s effort. Needs more flavour.

He thought to himself as his eyes shifted colour.