Two whole days went by while Kal made his way through the winding tunnels of flesh. He had barely fought anything during that time, for the most part, he was throwing rocks and watching the tunnel ahead explode while he walked on nice solid stone, not a piece of flesh anywhere near him if he didn’t want it to be.

He had been attacked by a few stray-shaped ones but they were never a problem. By now he had to be getting close to the center of the butcher’s territory but who knows he might have made a mistake in stubbornly wandering the tunnels. At this rate, he didn’t think he was going to kill the other elites before the wave ended. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any kind of punishment for not completing the optional quest but with how things had been progressing he had no way to tell now. The quest didn’t mention any kind of punishment but it hadn’t mentioned a lot of things.

Kal sighed as he came to yet another intersection. He had been taking every tunnel that led down for a while now but he had no way to tell if he was getting close yet, the flesh hadn’t gotten thicker or changed in any way over the last two days so he was practically blind. His mana sight wasn’t a lot of help. Whenever he touched the flesh the sickly red-green mana surged and began to converge on that spot but it didn’t come from a discernable point, it instead seemed to come from the flesh in all directions at once. He had hoped he could trace it back to its source but it was clear it wasn’t that simple.

The flesh was disgusting but at the same time, it was very interesting. Kal had studied it a bit as walked and had figured it had to be some kind of large-scale conjuration skill, or maybe an array. The flesh had a mind of its own but it wasn’t really alive or he would be able to mark it with Slayer’s Intent. But even so, it was clearly able to react to his presence and the fact that he hadn’t been swarmed with shaped ones or other demons told Kal that it could communicate with anything. So Kal figured it was some kind of security system and he was leaning towards it being an array,

He figured that if it was an active skill somebody would know that he was walking around blowing up large portions of it.

Kal had three paths before him, all still filled with the pulsating flesh. Holding his crimson flame out, careful not to let it touch the walls he looked down each of them for clues.

The first went downwards and looked like it had a sudden left turn about sixty feet down. The second was the same but instead went left. The third- “Huh that's new,” The third was like the others, heading downaway and turning off but it was at that turn-off that Kal saw that the bones growing out of the wall were much more tightly spaced. Some of them even looked more like shoulder blades rather than rib bones.

Kal burned the other two passages but seeing that the third was different he wanted to see if the flesh’s reaction would be different so he simply stepped into the passage, ready to leap back if he needed to.

Nothing happened. Well, nothing tried to kill him. There was a small pulse of the same sickly mana but this time it simply gathered along the floor of the tunnel. Even wierder as he took his next step the flatter shoulder blade-like bones shifted down from the wall to the floor almost like stepping stones if a little uneven.

Kal didn’t like the sudden change in reaction so he activated Edge of Malice and summoned a crimson flame to his offhand before continuing. He just hoped there would be something to use Slayer’s Intent or else fighting would be a pain. Wrath Incarnate just made everything easier.

Half an hour passed as Kal walked along the stepping bones. Kal cringed at his own thoughts but continued on ready for anything to change. Rounding a corner Kal spotted the first light that wasn’t shed from the Flames of Wrath he had seen in the tunnels. Taking it as a sign that he had finally gotten somewhere he approached carefully. Then suddenly he received a notification.

Do you wish to challenge [Gorefiend Butcher]: Yes/No

No outside forces may intervene for the duration of your battle.

“Yes! Finally,” Kal had lucked out and finally reached the conduit of the butcher. He was as ready as he would ever be so he rolled his shoulders and accepted the challenge.

Nothing immediately attacked him so Kal continued down the tunnel towards the lights. Once they were in view Kal was surprised to see that they were metallic. They appeared to be brass skulls protruding from the bone plate on the wall. The top of the skulls were cut off allowing the flames to lick the air above them through the hole and their eye sockets. There was dried blood in the lines beneath the eyes like they were crying blood.

Just beyond the brass skulls stood a huge door that looked like it had been carved from blood-stained bone. It was covered in a strange text he had never seen before, full of harsh jagged lines and filled in with what Kal suspected was dried blood, “Well the butcher is certainly staying on theme…”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Kal wished he had a skill that could allow him to read the text but he had no idea if he would ever be able to make that without system guidance. He figured to create a skill like that he would need to know the language to make a guide for it which obviously defeated the purpose.

Intrigued by the door Kal used Identify,

Boneforged Door [Uncommon]

These doors are often found in the domain of a gorefiend shaper or those who are beginning their studies in the art of corpse manipulation. These doors are often inscribed with potent arrays devised by the creator to warn them of intrusion or otherwise deter the living.

Kal was surprised that he had gotten such a comprehensive description out of it, Most of the things he had tried to identify either returned nothing or just gave him very basic information. Now knowing the door could easily be trapped Kal approached carefully and drew one of his last rocks from his pocket, If he threw the rock hard enough it would probably trigger the trap if there was one and if not maybe blowing up this section of the tunnels wasn’t a bad idea anyway.

Kal leaned back slightly as he prepared to throw the rock but as he swung his arm forward a loud crack made him pause, The door began to open inwards with the sound of bone on stone. The room behind it was very well-lit, throwing light out into the passage where Kal stood. Then a foul stench entered the passage making Kal gag for a moment as the smell of rotting meating and stale blood assaulted his nose.

He recovered quickly but was just in time to hear a deep weezy laugh from the next room.

“Come little mortal! let us speak. My domain will not tear you apart just yet!”

The voice was ridiculously deep and the pattern of its speech was all over the place, almost like it wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

“Great… Another talker. How long before this one tries to kill me too,” Kal muttered as walked into the room. At least he should have something to use Slayer’s Intent on when he needed it.

Kal stepped into the room carefully and saw that this one was almost entirely made of the same bone as the door and stepping stones. There was text engraved into the walls over nearly every inch of it, even the floor. What filled the room was a lot more refined than he had expected, there were several cabinets and workbenches of various designs either made of brass, bone, or a combination of the two.

It actually reminded Kal of the alchemy labs Dalen had told him about when he told Kal about his dream class. This was far more grotesque though. For every well-carved bench or cabinet, there was double the amount of dissected corpses or bloody refuse strewn over it all. Worse yet was what he found in the center of the room. It was a large circular bone slab with a groove cut out of its top, in it was at least ten sets of dismembered limbs and enough blood to have come from even more than ten men.

Standing over the slab was a huge vaguely humanoid-shaped figure but it was bloated beyond sane limits. Its skin was pale and covered with the same harsh text he saw everywhere else in this room. It stunk like decayed flesh and disease, just being in the same room as it was only just bearable and Kal had to hold back his bile as the creature turned him. Its face made Kal step back as the images from his nightmares began to flash in his mind’s eye. Its face, or faces were like someone had picked several humans and demons at random and cut random bits of their faces and stuck them all together into a mockery of a human face.

It was eyeless, instead they held two red-green flames that seemed to brighten as they came down on Kal. The butcher was huge, standing at least ten feet tall but Kal noticed its limbs didn’t all match, one leg was clearly thicker and stronger than the other and its two arms were significantly different lengths.

[Gorefiend Butcher | Abyssal Spawn 68]

The butcher smiled, spurts of puss and blood seeping from creases in its skin and around its eyes, “ Oh my, I feel it now, yes quite exquisite. I see why the shadow was slain so easily,” The butcher turned away from Kal and walked over to a nearby workbench covered in various vials of cloud liquids, surrounded by various organs, “I will not succumb to the temptation however mortal. You will not be harmed by me this day, I believe we have things we can teach each other, HA! Ha!”

Kal struggled to follow along with what the butcher was saying at first, like before its tone was all over the place. There was a definite edge that Kal figured was interest but it still sounded like it was trying to hold back both a life and scream at the same time. Kal doubted he really wanted to know much of what the butcher could teach him but he didn’t mind holding off the fight for a few minutes.

“What is it you believe I could teach you? Assuming I wouldn’t rather just kill you and get on with this bloody trial.”

A deep guttural noise came from the butcher’s face but its expression never changed, “Oh it is true. A mortal with a backbone worth extracting HA! HA!” The butcher snatched a vial off the bench, Kal jumped back a step expecting the butcher to toss it at him or something but instead, it popped the cork and drank the vial.

Its body practically vibrated for a moment but Kal could see that its skin had become less pale and the puss that was seeping from the gaps was now nowhere to be seen, “Aghh, much better,” the butcher turned back to Kal, “I wish to inspect this unique resource you have bound yourself to.”

The butcher’s tone smoothed out dramatically as whatever it drank took effect. It sounded almost perfectly human now but with a slight accent.

Kal was suspicious but this was honestly the least hostile conversation he’d had since getting to the abyss beside Mira, so he nodded and asked his next question, “What would I be learning from you then?”

“Gorefiend acolytes like myself are specialized in many forms of mana manipulation. I am more than willing to share some of my knowledge with you in return. I do not require much mind you, just a quick test that will tell me of the affinities your new resource possesses,” its twisted face twisted further into a grin, “and if we can come to an agreement I will let you slay me in three days.”