Ren moved through the gore around him. The bodies of dozens of men, women, and children littered the stone beneath him. Amongst them, was the dead of the goblinoid gray men who dwelled within these depths. Those he had killed, and those who died in their attempt to slay the humans.

Mounting his dreadful presence, he basked in the consequences of his own being. The death of countless innocents, all he had to have done was to flee with her. Instead, both curiosity and apprehension had won out. They had won out, and thus these lives were needlessly lost. It was on him.

“I’m sorry… I should have come sooner. I should have torn the head off the shaman when we first met, because I didn’t, you’re dead…” He stared down at the corpses of children who died huddling away and surrounded by a dozen adults who piled atop them, dying as a shield.

Alignment Change:

Neutral/Neutral to

Neutral/Chaotic

A quiet coldness came through him as he shaped the mana he drew upon. A blaze erupted in his hands as he gave those who died a pyre.

Silence won out as he turned away from the sounds of the fire burning away the dead. Neither his steps, nor his breath gave a single echo within the great expanses of the Underdark.

Neutral, huh? Have my choices not directly led to evil? What, I have not done enough to damn myself, or maybe just my presence kindles disorder. Perhaps I never chose for this to happen, but the chaos I caused sparked the vile things into action, so they slaughtered humans in a false name with me as their excuse. I would be best off, no, the world would be best off if I never had come, if I never had wished to live anew.

He stared into the faint darkness around him, the evidence of his mistakes around him. Dwelling on his mistakes did nothing for the chances of finding survivors, and so his task began.

Blood and viscera had trailed its way further into the cavern where the humans had hidden. Activating his tracking ability, he looked for any signs of humans that fled or hid away from the cannibalistic goblins.

A faint trail alighted as he looked at a wall, at its top was a structure that appeared at first glance to be a supporting mechanism to ward against the potential of a cave-in. Instead, it was masking a large entrance into a secondary cavern above the one below. Either to mask the entrance, or exit into a far more dangerous area, or to block it off from invaders.

Seeing as they had not attempted to flee into the cavern above, there must've been something, or things far worse than the goblins lurking above.

Ren’s immense level of dexterity made scaling it easy, quickly making his way into the cavern above. Quickly he saw the problem. Many insectoid corpses littered the area, the bodies partially harvested. Ant-like in appearance, they were far too large for ants. Mandibles large enough to sever a goblin in half, and legs spiked and hard, they could tear through any group of innocents trying to flee.

The tracks continued onwards further into the depths of the cavern. The Underdark grew stranger, holes lined that the walls everywhere as Ren was prepared to be ambushed at any moment. Blue fungi hung all around. Waste from the insects proved a vital fertilizer for the ecosystem as piles of it led to great treelike blue mushrooms.

Finding a small patch of the blue mushrooms, he decided to harvest some quickly.

(12) Blue Cap Mushroom (Uncommon)

He had begun to expect himself to grow hungry down within the abyss. After his second ascension he had begun to notice a lack of his ordinary needs. Food and water, though still needed, didn’t seem as important as powerful energies fused within his body.

The memory of the atrocities against the humans had bled from his mind slowly but the sight before him brought it back.

A small pool of blood sat semi fresh between two branching caverns, one continued the pockmarked walls and floor that seemed to be made from the ants. The other floor was coated in a thick mucus substance in odd cracks and crevices around its walls.

Activating his tracking ability, he saw the tracks double back from mucus cavern into the pockmarked one. Whoever’s tracks they seemed to quickly flee after inspecting the slime residue.

In turn he too left behind the odd cavern and continued into the one marked with countless ant holes.

Quickly he found the source of the blood. A few drops continued until they stopped. The blood stopped shortly after the corpse of one of the ant-like insects that had its body pierced by thorns and vines. Seeds were scattered across the earth and looked harvested.

Something was made out of the plants that stopped her bleeding. Unless someone else has the same magic, which is entirely possible, it may have been her regardless. If she’s left any traps behind her this will be a damn pain.

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He continued until he had to activate his stealth and lean behind a stone formation in the cavern. With two sets of twitching antennae, a pair of the insects traveled in his direction from out of one of the holes.

Cavern Digger Lvl 8

Cavern Soldier Lvl 13

It appeared the soldier ant was escorting a worker that was carving out the tunnels inside the walls. A memory of a forgotten life tried to come into Ren’s mind. Alas, he could only remember ants moving in special paths created by scents. The rest of the memory was too far away and hazy to understand.

Building up a sneak attack he watches the movement of the soldier, its legs and mandibles ready to tear apart a man given a chance. The worker was much smaller with an oddly shaped head like that of a spade. Its legs were much thicker and chisel-like ends. Regardless, he definitely didn’t want to be struck by those legs.

The first ant, the size of a dog, was struck by his sneak attack. The revolver tore its body in two halves. The center of its mass that interconnected two body cavities was severed. Falling apart on the ground the soldier’s lower half struck the worker ant that jostled around struggling to find the source of the attack. With a double tap from the revolver Ren had slain the worker within moments of the first kill.

Looking over the two corpses he tried to use his “loot” button on them and not a grand total of zero drops from them. I never looted the arachnid monarchs, shit…

The pathway through the giant tunnel system continued for what must have been hours. The light tracks revealed by his tracking ability slowly led him further into the great darkness. It was many hours until he finally came upon new signs of passage.

A small pile of broken ant-bits lay scattered across the ground where further back several soldiers moved about. Entering stealth, Ren approached.

Cavern Soldier Lvl 11

Cavern Soldier Lvl 12

Cavern Soldier Lvl 9

Cavern Soldier Lvl 13

Cavern Guardian Lvl 15

An evolved variant lurked further in the cave. From his eldritch sight, he saw the ethereal traces of blood, within it he could nearly read the signature of the human it likely belonged to. It was difficult but he felt his tracking ability register in combination with his eyes that were as lightless as the endless void.

The presence within the blood reminded him of the encounter with the woman, it relieved him to know that at least she had survived the attack. Even if she was being hunted down by these creatures, there was a chance.

Ren struggled to find a clear vital shot on the ascendant guardian ant. Instead, he attempted to let his shot slam through the level nine, into the level eleven ant. The sneak attack fired off and blew apart the first ant by tearing through the weak point between its body cavities. The bullet continued to take out a leg of the level eleven but did not quite finish it off.

The ants began to look around until the guardian ant seemed to release a pulse of mana out. The act surprised Ren, as an ant shouldn’t have the intelligence nor willpower to release such a radar. The mana had detected Ren, his stealth did nothing against the pulse without him utilizing eldritch touch in combination with it, even then it would likely notice its mana being corrupted from a certain area within the pulse.

Ren released a second shot into the level eleven that slowly took its life.

In front of the guardian, the remaining two soldiers were nearly taken down by a series of two shots hitting both of them. Black veins of eldritch touch slowly corrupted them as they moved forwards charging towards him. Ren quickly backstepped as he summoned a firebolt to clash into one first, then the other.

The fire’s damage helped slow them down as eldritch touch slowly drank away at their body’s energies. The creatures lacked almost any mana, only the level fifteen having enough to perform a basic task such as the pulse. So, when eldritch touch began devouring their energies the first to be fully depleted was mana, this left the ants heavily confused and disoriented as the mental effect from being out of mana took hold.

It was moments before the guardian's speed allowed it to throw the two dying ants to the side, and dash towards Ren with large mandibles ready to render him to pieces. With a gathering of flame in his hand, Ren let off a series of four crackling streams of piercing flame. Like a series of firebolts, yet faster but less accurate.

The four piercing bolts of flame burned the guardian ant in rapid succession. The flames did not completely stop it as it threw itself towards Ren as it came nearer.

The Gate-Walker’s blade of bone, his long disused blade came in handy as he channeled a large accursed thrust of eldritch touch into the creature. It was faster, stronger, and farmore hearty than Ren. Yet, he had an advantage. The insect’s mouth tore open the side of his chest and cracked his ribs that barely withstood the tearing.

His blade seeped out a horrific dose that began to infest the head of the ant. As he felt his ribs began to pop and crack between the slamming mandibles, he released the built up energy from using eldritch horror so heavily.

The energy that coursed through his body as a backlash from his corruption coursed into the blade as the ant’s head began to rot and fall loose from the rest of its body.

Ren fell backwards as the great jaws left blood pooling under him. The two ants had continued coming forwards not yet dead, with a great effort he conjured forth a blaze into his hand that separated into four rapidly striking bolts that finished off the limping ants.

Breathing heavily, he felt at his ribcage. Blood seeped out slowly now, the flow already beginning to subside. The advantage of his new ascendancy was no mere skill gain, or even strengthening to the value of his resources. The ascendancy, his second now, changed his very being.

The feeling of his own body was enhanced. Though he had bled heavily while his flesh was being rendered to slices of meat in the jaws of the ant, he felt no mortal danger as long as it had not torn through his ribcage entirely. The places where it had partly begun to break his ribs and pierce the more vital points were where he still bled.

His ability to feel the vital energy within him move to his injuries and repair them was on a new level. Now, not only aware of his vitality healing him, but he could slightly influence the energy revitalizing him. He had not grown hungry or thirst since the ascendancy, more of a slight hunger and thirst that could have been subsided with a mere snack and single gulp of water. Now, while being massively healed he began to feel a terrible need for both food and water.

Grabbing the weakest of the ants, he used his mana to generate a small fire that sizzled the meat of the ant before guzzling it down. This did nothing for his thirst, but these guys had to find water somewhere, right?